Blogs By FansC70 At The Bat
Sponsor


Cardinals_WideSkyscraper.jpg

Baseball Schedule is your best source for the latest St Louis Cardinals Schedule information as well as keeping up with division rivals including Cubs Schedule, Reds Schedule, Brewers Schedule and Astros Schedule.

Bet on the Cardinals with Sports Interaction's MLB betting lines


Slots Galore Casino Tournaments

Get your tickets from Bubba! Cheap St. Louis Cardinals Tickets and more, including tickets for the next MLB All-Star Game. Bubba's got Boston Red Sox Tickets and New York Yankees Tickets

Authentic, large selection of Cardinals memorabilia, guaranteed and certified.

Subscribe
RSS Feed

Archives

Players

Categories


Alliance tickets has an extensive inventory of St. Louis Cardinals Tickets , Colorado Rockies Tickets, San Francisco Giants Tickets and Seattle MarinersTickets.

With all of the St Louis tickets out there, Cardinals tickets and Rams tickets make for great presents. GoTickets.com can fill all of your sports tickets needs, just check out our testimonials!

Cards Lose A Close One

Posted on March 11, 2011 at 12:00 PM
Filed Under: Approval Ratings | Atlanta Braves | Detroit Tigers | St. Louis Cardinals
Maybe it's a sign that spring training is hitting its serious stage, but yesterday's game could have easily been mistaken for a regular season affair.  Sure, the pitchers didn't last as long and there were still substitutions, but there aren't too many 2-1 affairs in Florida (and, looking at the scores, seems like that's impossible in Arizona!).

Kyle McClellan did nothing to challenge the assumption that he is the fifth starter, going four innings and allowing only three hits and a run.  What was even more encouraging is that he did that on a day when a couple of his pitches weren't working.  He made do with what he had and was still able to get major league hitters out, which is a strong data point in his favor.

My main hangup with McClellan moving into the rotation is that I don't know what he's going to be able to do the second and third times around the lineup.  My next hangup is if he's going to be able to go 6-7 innings on a regular basis.  Coming in after that, though, would be how he does with just one pitch. There are days like that, and McClellan proved that, as long as he has the sinker, he'll do pretty well.  Hopefully there won't be too many days like that.

There was a discussion at the Post-Dispatch about what McClellan has to do to be successful.  I tend to agree that, if we see him get 20-25 starts and around 175 innings, he's obviously had a good season.  I'd just like to see him keep the team in the game and be able to bounce back after rough outings.  Again, I'm not completely sold to the idea, but I'm definitely warming to it.

Just when we thought the injury bug had eased up a bit, Francisco Samuel left yesterday's game with a shoulder strain.  I don't know where Samuel ranked on the depth chart and they won't know how severe it is until he is examined today, but that's a tough break for him.  With McClellan moving to the rotation, there was a spot that Samuel might have been able to take with a strong spring, but if he's out of any length of time, he can write that off.

Also, Allen Craig scratched with a tight hamstring, though that sounds like it was more a precaution, especially with the wet field yesterday.  Reportedly he'll be ready to go for the game against the Tigers today.  Like to think that's the case, because the last thing the Cardinals need are more injury issues, and he is in the lineup for today's game.

Matt Carpenter is having a big spring and is definitely making an impression on the coaching staff.  We've talked about Carpenter before, but what I found the most interesting in this article is that Tony La Russa is trying to get him to lighten up a little bit. When the most infamous stern guy in baseball is trying to get you to crack a smile, you are intense!

Lance Lynn starts today against Detroit.  He'll need a pretty solid outing to stay in the #5 race, if there is still a race.  Looking forward to listening to that one, as KMOX has the broadcast today.

We are getting to where there's a little less news, a little less excitement on a daily basis.  But while the camp may be calming down, there are still some questions to answer, which will make for an interesting last three weeks.

I don't think I mentioned part one of this, but the second part of my interview over at Popblerd is up.  There's a link to the first part as well, so you can see how I did and how much of a fool I made of myself.

While I'm linking, go on over and check out MLB Hall of Fame March Madness over at 85% Sports.  Who will be the last HOFer standing?  I'm interested to see how this pans out.

Let's quickly hit the approval ratings for today.

Yadier Molina has always been one of the more popular Cardinals.  If nothing else, he should be able to live off of that Game 7 NLCS home run for a long, long time.  His approval rating has reflected that, as he's been in the 92-93 range the past few years.

Last year's offensive struggles, especially in the first half, must have gotten into his approval though.  This year, Molina only manages a 83.7% mark.  One commenter docked him for "being lazy on the basepaths," which is fairly interesting given Molina's steal numbers the last couple of years.  I'm fairly sure that is more about going up the line on a grounder, but it was still interesting.  I note that I gave Yadi an 86, which is surprising because I'm a big fan.  Don't know why I didn't go a little higher.

Jeff Luhnow has kinda been the face of the new guard in the Cardinal organization.  He has been in charge of scouting and development, pushing the organization from a sabermetric point of view.  All that to say that, for a front office type, he's been able to do enough to get the general fanbase to have an impression of him.

For whatever reason, that impression was fairly neutral, as Luhnow racked up a 66.4% mark. However, save the person that noted I had spelled his name wrong on the form (thanks, Nick!), no one had a strong enough opinion to leave a comment.  I marked him at 92, because I think the minor league system has begun a major turnaround under his watch and he should get at least some of the credit for it.

That brings us to today's media member, Matthew Leach.  Matthew writes for the official MLB site as well as keeping his own blog.  I'll say up front that I think the world of him.  He's been spectacularly great with the UCB, being the most common guest on the UCB Radio Hour and always seeming to enjoy his time there.  He's even done a UCB project or two.  Couple that with his interactions on Twitter and email and he rated 100 with me.

For the most part, my opinion of Leach was reflected in his mark, as he garnered a 85.5% tally.  Someone felt he had to "dumb down his commentary for the MLB.com audience" while another said that he and Derrick Goold are "some of the most knowledgeable and fair reporters out there."

Note: A couple of modifications to prior marks as I caught a mistake.  Kyle Lohse drops from 56.1% to 55.1%, Dan Lozano drops from 59.8% to 58.7%, Ricky Horton from 72.2% to 69.1%, and Al Hrabrosky from 65.8% to 63.2%.

Playing Peppers for the Mets and Athletics are scheduled for today, but it'll likely be this evening before they go up.  Give you something to look forward to for the weekend!


Leave a comment




Leave a comment




Cardinals_MediumRectangle.jpg

UCB_11_trans_dark_sm.png

Search



BallHyped Best Sports Blogs Book
This blog was featured in the Best Sports Blogs of 2010 Book!
• Pick up the limited print edition
• Free Best Sports Blogs ebook 


United Cardinal Bloggers

FRIENDS OF THE UCB


Download the iPhone or Android UCB app by clicking on the nice orange picture.
Open in Mobile App 

And check out the UCB Network over at LockerDome!
lockerdome-share_63x63.png
  



Other Cardinal Blogs

Recommended Cardinal Forum

Other Cardinal Sites

General Baseball Blogs/Sites



Heroes
Matt Holliday (5)
Matt Carpenter (4)
Rafael Furcal (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
Jon Jay (3)
Kyle Lohse (3)
Lance Lynn (3)
Yadier Molina (3)
David Freese (2)
Jaime Garcia (2)
Adam Wainwright (2)
Lance Berkman (1)
Allen Craig (1)
Shane Robinson (1)
Fernando Salas (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Hero: Lance Berkman (24)
2010 Top Heroes: Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols (24)
2009 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (28)
2008 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (25)

Goats
Matt Holliday (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
David Freese (3)
Jaime Garcia (3)
Marc Rzepczynski (3)
Adam Wainwright (3)
Rafael Furcal (2)
Tyler Greene (2)
Jason Motte (2)
J.C. Romero (2)
Fernando Salas (2)
Mitchell Boggs (1)
Matt Carpenter (1)
Tony Cruz (1)
Daniel Descalso (1)
Jon Jay (1)
Erik Komatsu (1)
Kyle Lohse (1)
Victor Marte (1)
Eduardo Sanchez (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Goat: Ryan Theriot (12)
2010 Top Goat: Brendan Ryan (14)
2009 Top Goats: Rick Ankiel and Todd Wellemeyer (13)
2008 Top Goat: Troy Glaus (13)

2012 Happy Flights
Happy Flights: 7
Happy Flight Opportunities: 12
Happy Flight %: 58%

Through 5/20

    Cardinal Nation Approval Ratings (March 2012)
    Adam Wainwright 91.9% (down 2.8%)
    Chris Carpenter 90.1% (up 3.2%)
    Lance Berkman 88.6%
    Tony La Russa 88.2% (up 17.4%)
    Yadier Molina 87.4% (up 3.7%)
    Matt Holliday 87.3% (down 3.8%)
    David Freese 85.5%
    John Mozeliak 85.4% (up 13.3%)
    Mike Shannon 85.3% (up 0.4%)
    Jose Oquendo 84.7%
    Derrick Goold 82.8% (down 5.0%)
    Mark McGwire 82.6% (up 20.1%)
    John Rooney 81.5% (down 2.8%)
    Mike Matheny 81.1%
    Bill DeWitt 79.8% (up 8.8%)
    United Cardinal Bloggers 78.9%
    Skip Schumaker 73.3% (up 9.2%)
    Jim Hayes 71.9% (down 4.2%)
    Jon Jay 71.1%
    B.J. Rains 69.5% (down 0.9%)
    Kyle Lohse 68.9% (up 13.8%)
    Dan McLaughlin 68.0%
    Joe Strauss 67.7% (up 10.2%)
    Ricky Horton 67.5% (down 1.6%)
    Al Hrabosky 66.4% (up 3.2%)
    Albert Pujols 54.9% (down 45.5%)
    Colby Rasmus 46.5% (down 35.3%)

    2011
    Dave Duncan 87.9% (up 0.9%)
    Matthew Leach 85.5%
    Pop Warner 76.7%
    Ryan Franklin 72.8% (up 3.1%)
    John Vuch 68.9%
    Jeff Luhnow 66.4%
    Dan Lozano 58.7%

    2009
    Rick Ankiel 83.9%
    Chris Duncan 69.1%


    Looking for St. Louis Cardinals Tickets?  TicketCity is your source for New York Yankees Tickets and World Series Tickets.

    Looking for Cardinals tickets? Stop by OnlineSeats. We’ve got Blues seats and even Rams games. Go to the coasts as well and catch a Celtics game or get Dodgers tickets.

    Referrals