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Let's Go: It's Opening Day!Can you feel it? That shift in the air. You woke up this morning feeling a little different, didn't you? Today had that extra bounce, that extra excitement. Call it Baseball Easter, call it the real New Year, call it whatever you like but call it great. Opening Day is here, folks! It's time for some Cardinal baseball! May I say to those of you that are in St. Louis today, I'm envious. To be a part of an opener in St. Louis, with the pep rally, all the red-clad fans milling about, the buzz and energy, to see the Hall of Famers and the Clydesdales, that's something devoutly to be wished. One of these days, I want to make that happen! There have been a lot of changes this offseason and there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. Can Kyle McClellan fill that fifth role? Can Kyle Lohse (who finally was touched up yesterday in a Triple-A game) keep his spring results as the games begin to count? What can we get out of Lance Berkman? He's not concerned about his spring and he does have a point that he has reason to be confident the numbers will be there in the end, but last year did a lot to throw some doubt on that A stronger spring would have made people a bit more confident, but lousy springs sometimes presage great years. There's not a lot of correlation. (At least we hope!) It's interesting to hear that Matt Holliday is feeling more relaxed and ready to go this year. With a year under his belt and less pressure to live up to expectations, it could be a strong April for him instead of the frustrating start last season had. It's always refreshing to hear an athlete actually acknowledge that the contract played a role and that he was trying to hard to come through. We saw what happened the rest of the year when he relaxed and played, so hopefully we'll see that from the get-go this year. After about a week of speculation, Brian Tallet says he's ready to go today. That doesn't mean that Tony La Russa will use him, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Tallet come in around the seventh to get a lefty out. Give him a chance on Opening Day in front of the home crowd. As the spring concludes, that means you have to find places to put the minor league prospects. Zack Cox and Shelby Miller will be teaming together at Palm Beach, while Carlos Martinez will technically be on the Quad Cities roster, but he'll actually stay in the extended spring training facilities down in Florida for a while to continue to get acclimated to the US (and to avoid pitching in the cold, I imagine). When I purchased MLB.tv yesterday, I had to take advantage of adding MiLB.tv for an extra $10 just to be able to watch these guys and the rest of the heralded prospects the Cardinals have. (Plus there are so many other names out there on other teams, especially the Royals, that it seemed like a solid move.) So, finally, we have real games to talk about. You can see some of the statistics about today's game in the preview that's up at Baseball Reference. Chris Carpenter ties a legend today, as his fifth Cardinals opener puts him in the same sentence as that good old Arkansas boy, Dizzy Dean. You know Carp's going to be one of the Redbird legends when you can compare him to Dean and Bob Gibson in the team record books. Here's what Carpenter has done against the Padres:
Not a lot there for those guys. Hawpe's done a little damage and he is the one that's faced Carp the most, but all in all there aren't many of those guys looking forward to opening the season with Chris Carpenter on the mound. Carpenter will be opposed by Tim Stauffer. What's he done against this current Redbird crop?
Nobody's gone yard off of him, but there have been a lot of hits against him. Look at that top number for Albert Pujols. Two triples off of Stauffer? That's gotta be AP's all-time high against someone. Pretty sure he's not going to get another today, but I wouldn't be surprised if he removed that 0 in the HR column. Ryan Theriot, SS Colby Rasmus, CF Albert Pujols, 1B Matt Holliday, LF Lance Berkman, RF David Freese, 3B Skip Schumaker, 2B Chris Carpenter, P Nothing to argue with there. Earlier in the spring I made the case for Berkman in the two slot and Rasmus down around five, but until Berkman gets going, I think it's best the way it is. Theriot may lead off a lot of games with an out and I like Colby's chances of getting on base right now better than Berkman's. Hopefully Big Puma proves me wrong quickly--I really want him to have a big year. If you want to get a real in-depth look at the Cards, check out Kevin's post over at Cards 'N Stuff looking at every player that's on the roster. I dare you to find a better way to spend the morning! Before the first pitch, you still have time to play a few games. T-56 will take your pick for a batter in MLB that will get a hit until the first game of the day kicks off, while the two YNOTs (season long and San Diego) are open until the Cardinals' first pitch. Enjoy the holiday, folks! Go Cardinals! EDIT: Bob from On The Outside Corner posted this on Twitter earlier this morning. Play this and see if you aren't tapping your toes and expecting some baseball! Leave a comment 2 Comments2 Comments | Leave a commentLeave a comment |
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 HeroesMatt Holliday (5) Matt Carpenter (4) Rafael Furcal (4) Carlos Beltran (3) Jaime Garcia (3) Jon Jay (3) Kyle Lohse (3) Lance Lynn (3) Yadier Molina (3) David Freese (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) GoatsMatt Holliday (4) Carlos Beltran (3) David Freese (3) Jaime Garcia (3) Jason Motte (3) Marc Rzepczynski (3) Adam Wainwright (3) Rafael Furcal (2) Tyler Greene (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 FlightsHappy 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 |
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Oh man! I love baseball organ music. Enjoy opening day, Daniel. And good luck on the season.
Who doesn't love Opening Day, right? Best day of the year. Check out this preview of Opening Day and the 2011 Season, which features plenty of coverage of the Pujols contract situation, including how the Cards should handle it all:
http://sportstatistics.blogspot.com/2011/03/best-day-of-year.html