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Miserable Present, Intriguing Future

Posted on June 8, 2010 at 7:06 AM
Filed Under: Heroes and Goats | Los Angeles Dodgers | St. Louis Cardinals
Exactly what do you say about last night's debacle of a game?  The Hero is obvious, with Ryan Ludwick hitting two home runs and being the largest part of an offense that never really got on track.  Facing a pitcher they've never seen before, the Cardinals again struggled.

That said, the offense wasn't anywhere close to the story.  With Brad Penny and Kyle Lohse out, the start turned into one of those Tony La Russa specials, the bullpen game.  Why they decided to start Blake Hawksworth instead of PJ Walters, I'm not sure.  Don't get me wrong, I'm giving the Goat tag to Walters, so I don't know that he'd have done any better in that starting slot than Hawksworth, but at least Walters has been conditioned to start and has done so recently.  Hawksworth hasn't even pitched a lot lately.  I'm guessing they wanted to see if Hawk could move into the rotation, but I'm not sure this was a fair test.

Then again, after he got out of the first inning trouble that he made, Hawksworth did settle down before likely tiring in the fourth.  While the game was likely out of reach when Walters came in, he made sure it was by giving up four runs in the first, pushing the Dodger lead to 10-1 and making the rest of the game pretty much academic.  The Cardinal offense might be hitting better, but that's pushing it, especially when David Freese, Colby Rasmus and Yadier Molina were out of the lineup.

For a lot of fans, there was more focus off the field than on last night.  The first year player draft kicked off in prime time yesterday evening and, from all indications, the Cardinals had one of the best first and sandwich rounds.

As an University of Arkansas alumni, I was very excited to see Razorback third baseman Zack Cox get taken by the Cardinals.  As a Cardinal fan, you have to like the pick as well.  Cox was projected to be a top 10 talent, so for him to still be around when the Cardinals picked at 25 had to be a major surprise to them, but credit them for adapting to the situation and taking the best player available.  You can read more about Cox, with scouting reports from Keith Law and Baseball America, over here.

With their two supplemental picks, the Cardinals went with two righthanded pitchers.  Seth Blair comes out of Arizona State, while Tyrell Jenkins is supposed to be a very athletic pitcher coming out of high school.  Jenkins was also recruited by Baylor to play quarterback, so it could be a tough sign to get him into the St. Louis organization.  More on both of those guys can be found here.

The draft will be a major focus of today as well, and as always, Future Redbirds is your place to keep up (if you aren't doing so on Twitter, which you really should do as well).  There will be a live chat going on at FR today around 11 Central, so if you are in front of a computer, hop on there to see who the Cardinals take and whether or not it is a wise selection.

Tonight, the Cards look to erase the taste of the opener by sending out Chris Carpenter.  Carp's done pretty well against the Dodgers in the past:

PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS SH SF IBB HBP GDP
Manny Ramirez 35 30 8 2 0 2 5 5 6 .267 .371 .533 .905 0 0 1 0 3
Garret Anderson 29 26 7 2 0 1 5 3 1 .269 .345 .462 .806 0 0 0 0 4
Jamey Carroll 18 16 6 1 0 0 1 2 2 .375 .444 .438 .882 0 0 0 0 1
Rafael Furcal 16 15 4 0 0 0 1 0 5 .267 .250 .267 .517 0 1 0 0 0
Andre Ethier 11 11 2 1 0 0 0 0 1 .182 .182 .273 .455 0 0 0 0 1
Russell Martin 9 7 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .143 .250 .143 .393 1 0 0 1 1
Casey Blake 8 7 1 0 0 0 1 0 2 .143 .125 .143 .268 0 1 0 0 0
Matt Kemp 8 7 2 1 0 0 0 1 4 .286 .375 .429 .804 0 0 0 0 0
James Loney 8 8 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 .250 .250 .250 .500 0 0 0 0 1
Reed Johnson 7 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0 0 0
Ronnie Belliard 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0 0 0
Charlie Haeger 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0 0 0
Chad Billingsley 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.000 1.000 1.000 2.000 0 0 0 0 0
Total 155 140 34 7 0 3 14 11 26 .243 .299 .357 .656 1 2 1 1 11
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/8/2010.

If he can keep Manny Ramirez in the park, something easier to do these days than it was a few years back, he should be OK.

For the Dodgers, Hiroki Kuroda will take the mound.  The Cards haven't faced him all that often, but they've been able to do a little bit against him:

PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS SH SF IBB HBP GDP
Matt Holliday 15 14 7 2 0 1 6 1 1 .500 .533 .857 1.390 0 0 0 0 0
Randy Winn 13 13 4 0 0 0 1 0 1 .308 .308 .308 .615 0 0 0 0 0
Felipe Lopez 7 7 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 .143 .143 .143 .286 0 0 0 0 0
Albert Pujols 3 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 .333 .333 .667 1.000 0 0 0 0 0
Colby Rasmus 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0 0 0
Skip Schumaker 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0 0 0
Yadier Molina 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0 0 0
Brendan Ryan 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0 0 0
Total 47 46 13 3 0 1 7 1 8 .283 .298 .413 .711 0 0 0 0 0
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/8/2010.

Interesting that Randy Winn has done so well in the past against him. Will Colby rest that calf one more night?  I think I'd rather see him out there, no matter the small sample size results.

Busy day for Cardinal Nation.  Going to be a good one!


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Clifford L. Glasberg | June 8, 2010 7:36 PM | Reply

Hope the Cards do better. I'm rooting for them to close the gap between them and the Dodgers.

Yes, while I do generally root for New York teams (one of those rare birds), I also get more out of the baseball season by rooting for pennant races. I also think this would help baseball's post-season ratings (while the wild card does the opposite). If there actually was season long races.

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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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