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!

Carpenter Falls. No, Not That One

Posted on March 21, 2011 at 5:23 PM
Filed Under: St. Louis Cardinals
So the late word today is that the Cardinals have made one of their last round of cuts, and Matt Carpenter felt the ax.  While that was not completely a shock, it was a bit surprising.  I had been one (in fact, just last night on Gateway to Baseball Heaven) who thought that Carpenter had a strong shot to go north with the team.

However, with the news that David Freese may pretty much play every day, Carpenter's value diminished when compared with Daniel Descalso's versatility.  I thought the main thrust of the "keep Carpenter" campaign was that he likely played third better than any of the other options.  If Freese was going to be benched two-three times a week in the early going as a precaution, having a dedicated third base option might have been the best bet.  If Freese isn't going to need that much rest, though, having a guy like Descalso that can play all over the yard is a big deal, especially with a short bench.

After the cuts, there are four guys left for two slots.  Bryan Augenstein, Miguel Batista, Eduardo Sanchez and Fernando Salas.  Now, being that I was the guy that thought Carpenter might go north, I'm guessing my prognostication skills are pretty weak.  That being said, my guess is that Batista and Salas get the last roles.

The club has been wanting Batista for years, according to some reports.  If they don't keep him in the bigs, the odds are he'll go try to find work somewhere else.  So I think he stays, at least for a while.  Not saying he'll survive the season in St. Louis, but I do think he'll start there.

On the last slot, I go with Salas.  I believe Augenstein would have to be added to the 40-man roster, which could be done fairly easily (moving Adam Wainwright to the 60-day DL would do it) but also is just one more hurdle for him to go through.  The club knows what Salas can do and saw him do it often in St. Louis last year.  That familiarity may be enough of an edge to get him into a red convertible on March 31.

Cards and Nats went at it today.  No, I mean they went at it, after Batista hit Ian Desmond with a pitch.  Sounds like a lot of batters were getting plunked today and finally both sides expressed their displeasure.

Bill asked last night on GTBH what I looked for in the last week of spring.  While a brawl never came to mind, if nothing else they are looking like the midseason chippy form that sometimes comes from being a Tony La Russa team.  BTW, Cards lost 7-2 after a rough, but pain-free, outing by Chris Carpenter.

The team is taking shape.  Opening Day is coming!



Leave a comment




1 Comments

1 Comment | Leave a comment

user-pic
WilliaminMaine | March 21, 2011 9:00 PM | Reply

Sad about Lil Carp.

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