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Lilliquist Leaps, Mather Moves

Posted on November 4, 2010 at 8:51 AM
Filed Under: St. Louis Cardinals
A few items in Cardinal nation today.  Most of them were hashed out professionally on the UCB Radio Hour last night, but we'll talk about them here as well.

First off, there were a few staff moves made yesterday, the biggest of which was Derek Lilliquist, the former Braves pitcher who has been in the Cardinal organization for a while, taking over Marty Mason's role as bullpen coach.  I expect that Lilliquist is who they had their eye on when they let Mason go, though they weren't completely sure he'd take the job.  Lilliquist has a history with a lot of these pitchers that have come up the ranks and is well regarded in the organization.  Seems like a positive thing on the whole.

Also, the head trainer (Barry Weinberg) and the assistant trainer (Greg Hauck) swapped spots.  Sounds to me like Barry might be thinking of getting out of the game sometime soon and is starting to gradually ease his way out the door, turning over the reins to someone new.  Weinberg was head trainer in Oakland under Tony LaRussa, so he's been around a while and done a good job of getting his assistants ready for the big time.  Brad Henderson, the Pirates head trainer, and Mark O'Neal, the Cubs top guy, both came out of the Cardinal organization.  (Full disclosure: Mark O'Neal's grandmother goes to my church and his mother was my kindergarten teacher.)

The other major news of yesterday was that Joe Mather was claimed off of waivers by the Atlanta Braves.  While that caused some angst in some quarters of the fanbase, unfortunately there really wasn't a good spot for him in St. Louis.  He's not really a third baseman, and I still think that the team will get a veteran guy to back up David Freese, who should have the starting nod.  He's not going to get much time in an outfield of Matt Holliday, Colby Rasmus, Jon Jay, and Allen Craig, with Skip Schumaker possibly available as well depending on what happens with the middle infield.  There just wasn't a spot for him.

Atlanta has a long tradition of picking up Cardinal outfielders, whether it was directly (JD Drew), indirectly (Rick Ankiel) or via waivers (Brian Barton).  Hopefully Mather will thrive in Atlanta, except when he's playing the Cardinals.  We wish him the best.

Of course, the above goes under the assumption that Colby Rasmus will be a Cardinal next year.  Things got all stirred up when it was noted that his St. Louis house was for sale, but apparently he just wants to get a new place.  The Post-Dispatch crew takes a look at how reasonable it is to trade Rasmus.  Answer: it's not.  Which is what anyone with a lick of baseball sense would understand and agree with.

Derrick Goold puts a lot of interesting things in this column.  First off, it's crazy to see how dominant Albert Pujols has been on the Bill James Hall of Fame Monitor.  When you put him up against his contemporaries--and, more accurately, the people that are the same age as him--he laps the field.  Just more ammo for the contract discussions that, hopefully, at least are in the preliminary stages.

Then there's the whole "Edgar Renteria decides World Series" bit.  I hadn't thought about the fact that he ended the '04 Series, deciding it for the Red Sox, as well as getting the game-winning hit in '07 and this year.  Still, I think putting a groundout for the losing team in a sweep along side a Game 7, ninth-inning RBI single and a Game 5 three-run home run in the seventh is a bit of a stretch.

Finally, the note that St. Louis had the sixth-highest TV ratings, and the highest in a non-California or Texas city, really points to the fervor of Cardinal fans.  They love good baseball, no matter who is playing.

Zach Cox has been named a "rising star" out in the Arizona Fall League.  Cox started off really slow, but has come around somewhat lately.  You can read all about how he and the rest of the Cardinal contingent are doing here.  I know that Cox won't get a true shot at third base in spring training next year, but if Freese goes down mid-season, could be that Cox at least is in the conversation for a call-up.

Hope to have the transcript from the final UCB roundtable question up sometime later today!


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Heroes
Matt 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)

Goats
Matt 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 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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