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Catching Up On The Cardinals

Posted on May 11, 2011 at 1:00 AM
Filed Under: Chicago Cubs | Florida Marlins | Heroes and Goats | Milwaukee Brewers | St. Louis Cardinals
Last night, at my son's t-ball game, one of the opposing coaches mentioned that he reads the blog regularly (hey, Matt!).  Being that there are at least three regulars out there, I figured I best try to get something up.  Work has been keeping me from writing recently, but I'm going to try to piece this together throughout the day to have a little something new up here.

Lots of stuff going on, what with Tony La Russa's absence and Ryan Theriot's mouth, but let's do the Hero/Goat recap of the last week or so and discuss those game before getting into anything else.

Hero: Matt Holliday.  Two hits, a run and an RBI on a night that, even with seven runs, the offense was pretty scattered throughout the lineup.  He did hit into the game-ending double play, though.

Goat: Eduardo Sanchez.  The young gun was going to hit some bumps and he did in this one, with Mike Stanton--who is going to be a good hitter for a long time in this league--taking him yard for the game-winning scores.

Notes: Terrible defensive night, with two errors by Chris Carpenter and Yadier Molina both.  I didn't get to watch much of this game, between family obligations and preparing for the UCB Radio Hour, but it sounds like Carpenter got a little too focused on Emilio Bonifacio.  We love Carpenter's competitive spirit and appreciate how he stands up for his teammates, but it looks like this was one of those times where he let it get away from him.

The defense this year has been rough, as we've noted before, so much so that when I saw Molina throw the ball away, it never occurred to me that there could have been some reason for it.  In years past, I think I'd have immediately wondered what happened, but Molina's defensive numbers are really down, as we discussed in the show last week.

Oh, and Miguel Batista with three strikeouts in a scoreless inning and a third?  He really wanted to impress Christine while she was on the show, I guess!

More after the jump....
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Thursday (6-3 win vs. Florida)
Hero: Lance Berkman.  His three-run blast broke open the tie and won the game for the Cards and he drove in another run earlier in the game as well.

Goat: Ryan Theriot.  It was between him and Daniel Descalso, but Theriot broke the tie by having an 0-fer day in the leadoff slot, especially with the kind of days the 2-3-4-5 hitters had.

Notes: If there was any doubts about how real this offensive surge was, I think this game put them to rest.  The Cardinals were able to put five runs up on Josh Johnson, who came into the game with an ERA under 1.00.  Granted, two of those runs were charged to him but allowed by Mike Dunn (not to be confused with Mike Dunne, old-time Cardinal fans) on Berkman's blast but Johnson put them on.

Nice to see a 3-3 day for Albert Pujols.  Would have been nicer to see him follow that game up with an extended run.

Also, this game proved that, at least for now, Sanchez is the closer for this team.  When Mitchell Boggs blew his save, he got moved to the back of the bullpen.  Sanchez loses the Wednesday game, but is put back into the save situation on Thursday and locks it down.  For whatever reason, the braintrust has a lot more confidence and faith in Sanchez even with his limited experience.

The Cards were able to split the series against Florida, but they had chances to win every game.  With the Marlins having a comparable record to the Redbirds and being (as of right now) only two games out in a tougher division, I think St. Louis has to feel that they showed that they can still be a team to reckon with before it is all said and done. 

Then the Brewers came to town and, apparently, the hitters took some time off. 

Friday (6-0 win vs. Milwaukee)Hero: Jaime Garcia.  Talk about an easy choice.  When you take a perfect game into the eighth inning, that's pretty good Hero stuff.  Eight strikeouts and his second shutout of the season?  Wow.  I think Garcia is overlooked sometimes when it comes to the Cardinal rotation, but if this is any indication he's going to pair with Adam Wainwright to give the Cards another Ace 1 and Ace 1A situation in the next couple of years.
Goat: Allen Craig.  Not many 0-fers in this game, so it narrowed down the decision.
Notes: First off, I want to commend Theriot.  Already realizing that Garcia had something special and knowing his range was limited due to being hit, he took himself out of the game so as not to be the reason Garcia blew it.  With Theriot's numerous errors even when he's healthy, that could have been key.
Secondly, nice that Molina gave some cushion with a three-run home run, but that was about the last offensive highlight of the series.
Saturday (4-0 loss vs. Milwaukee)
Already covered the Hero, Goat and everything else as part of the UCB Progressive Game Blog.  It was the first shutout of the year thrown against the Cardinals, so that's something.  Also, that was the first Frustration Game since April 17, and that was only because Yovani Gallardo walked four batters along with that solo hit.
Sunday (3-1 win vs. Milwaukee)Hero: Kyle McClellan.  I've made no bones about how I've had some questions about McClellan.  I wasn't sure how this transition from the bullpen was going to work, how batters were going to react to seeing him more than once in a game and if he'd have the stamina to really go long into ballgames.
So far, though, all of those questions have been answered in a positive manner.  It looked like maybe he was regressing somewhat in his last couple of starts, but Sunday's outing was a masterpiece.  The bullpen allowed the runner he put on in the ninth to score, but other than that it was a great outing.  The next question is how he'll rebound from throwing 106 pitches for the first time in a long while (if ever--don't know if they'd let him reach that level when he was a starter in the minors or not).
Goat: Ryan Theriot again had an 0-4 in the leadoff slot.  In a game as close as this one was, having a guy on in front of the big guns could have made a lot of difference.
Notes: Nice late double by Colby Rasmus to score two runs and pad the lead out, something that came in handy in the ninth.  Tyler Greene made an error, but did have three hits as well so it's good to see him have a productive day at the plate.
As for the bullpen, we saw Sanchez have a bit of trouble in the ninth, but I thought watching the game that he really got squeezed on that second walk he issued, as I thought he'd thrown at least two strikes in that at-bat that were called balls.  Then he had that epic battle with Craig Counsell that resulted in an infield single that scored a run.  After he had thrown that many pitches (29), I had no problem with TLR going to a fresh Fernando Salas to get Rickie Weeks.  Weeks could have put the Brewers ahead, which would have been a shame for McClellan especially, and you'd hate to have all of that decided on a pitch that might not have enough on it.  Salas slammed the door and the Cards won yet another series.
Tuesday (6-4 win at Chicago)Hero: Daniel Descalso.  Anyone remember Skip Schumaker?  I realize that Descalso played third last night, but with the way Descalso is playing, you think he'd have to be ahead of Skip at second as well.  Descalso had the key hit last night, a two-out knock that plated two runs, plus had another hit and should have had another RBI, as Nick Punto left early (at least, according to the umpire) on his fly ball.
Goat: I feel like I'm picking on him and perhaps I need to loosen that whole leadoff bit, but Ryan Theriot was the only 0-4 last night and, with the pitching staff doing its job, there wasn't a whole lot of other options.  I know the lovely ladies at Aaron Miles' Fastball started up a temporary fan club for him, but I don't think that's a bandwagon I can really jump on.
Notes: Four hit game for Pujols.  In his past five games, he's hitting .500 with two doubles, two walks and two strikeouts.  Granted, small sample size and seven of the nine hits in that span have come in two games, but when it's been this rough of a season for the big guy, you'll grasp at whatever straws are available to bring a little hope to the proceedings.  He's raised his season average 35 points in that span, so maybe at least the average is starting to come around and, if that's the case, the power will likely follow.
Another great outing by Batista.  I could get used to this, though I probably better not.  It helped that there was some good defense behind him, especially by Jon Jay.
Sanchez with an effective save.  His command seems to be his only issue, which means things can sometimes get a little interesting, but so far he seems to be getting the job done.
If Chris Carpenter had stopped after six innings, I think we'd have a better impression of last night's outing.  However, that's the kind of line we should probably expect from him going forward.  Three or four runs in around seven innings.  He'll occasionally be dominant, but not as often as before.  The good thing is this team seems to be able to score enough runs to usually make that kind of line good enough to win.  Hopefully he won't give up 13 hits again, though.  That's a frustrating game for the Cubs, you have to figure.
OK, now that the recaps are done, let's look at some of the other issues.  The biggest one, of course, is the health of Tony La Russa, who is taking off this road trip to try to battle the shingles that have affected his eye.
I know that there are some people out there that don't care for TLR and his style of managing, but I don't think anyone can question his dedication to the game.  You read the stories coming out, how TLR wouldn't do much of anything except manage the game, how he wouldn't take his pain medicine around games because they'd make him drowsy, how he rested before games to be able to get through them.
It sounds like it could be a long-term thing, that we may not see him back next week when the team returns to Busch either.  So I don't know if there is anything to it, but I found it interesting that John Mozeliak went with Joe Pettini as the interim manager rather than Jose Oquendo.  Oquendo's had that "manager in waiting" aura around him for a while, especially with the fanbase.  It could be that they didn't want to disrupt roles much, and since Pettini is more of a floating coach, it didn't affect as many people.  It could be, however, that if La Russa's time does come to a close in the next year or so, Oquendo isn't necessarily as high on the front office's replacement list as some of us may have assumed.
Also going on around the field is the fact that Theriot tried to return to the Cubs' good graces by ribbing the Cardinal faithful.  I'm assuming, from reading the article, that it was supposed to be a good-natured crack, but when you are booting balls left and right, it doesn't take much to get the fans to turn on you somewhat.  You can get away with that if you are hitting .340 and playing flawless defense.  Theriot isn't.  Besides, it's redundant.  We already have Matt Sebek if we want to have the sartorial selections of St. Louis residents questioned and perhaps not-so-gently mocked.
The second game of this series kicks off tonight with your choice of Fox Sports Midwest or ESPN coverage.  Jake Westbrook tries to lock down the series against the Cubs, and this is what he's done against these batters in the past:
PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS IBB HBP GDP
Carlos Pena 36 32 10 5 0 4 8 3 10 .313 .361 .844 1.205 0 0 0
Alfonso Soriano 22 21 3 0 0 0 1 1 2 .143 .182 .143 .325 0 0 2
Reed Johnson 7 7 2 0 0 0 2 0 1 .286 .286 .286 .571 0 0 0
Marlon Byrd 6 6 1 0 0 0 2 0 1 .167 .167 .167 .333 0 0 0
Starlin Castro 6 6 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 .167 .167 .167 .333 0 0 0
Blake DeWitt 6 6 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 .333 .333 .500 .833 0 0 0
Kosuke Fukudome 6 5 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 .200 .333 .400 .733 0 0 0
Darwin Barney 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Koyie Hill 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .500 .500 .500 1.000 0 0 0
Aramis Ramirez 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 1
Jeff Samardzija 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1.000 0 0 0
Total 97 90 21 7 0 4 14 6 16 .233 .278 .444 .723 0 0 3
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/11/2011.


Looks like Carlos Pena has been pretty tough on Westbrook in the past, but most of the others have very small sample sizes and it is tough to tell.  Interesting that Westbrook has been able to handle Alfonso Soriano, though.
Matt Garza goes for the Cubs. Here's his line: 
PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS IBB HBP GDP
Lance Berkman 16 13 2 0 0 0 1 2 3 .154 .250 .154 .404 0 0 0
Gerald Laird 13 10 2 1 0 0 2 2 3 .200 .385 .300 .685 0 1 0
Matt Holliday 10 9 2 0 0 0 0 1 1 .222 .300 .222 .522 0 0 0
Yadier Molina 3 3 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 .333 .333 .333 .667 0 0 0
Albert Pujols 3 3 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 .333 .333 .333 .667 0 0 0
Total 45 38 8 1 0 0 5 5 7 .211 .311 .237 .548 0 1 0
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/11/2011.

I guess Berkman got to face him last year when he was with the Yankees, so I don't know how much stock you put in those being how much different Berkman is this year than the end of last.  Other than that, pretty close to a blank slate for the Cards.
Thanks to my readers for sticking around and waiting for a new post.  I sure hope it won't be another week before I get back to you!  Bill is hosting the UCB Radio Hour tonight and I'll likely be in the chat room, so come and talk some Cardinal baseball with us!
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1 Comments

1 Comment | Leave a comment

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WilliaminMaine | May 11, 2011 6:45 PM | Reply

Yay! A new post! I was suffering withdrawals. Nicely done as always.

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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%


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