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New Bird In Camp

Posted on February 23, 2012 at 7:01 AM
Filed Under: St. Louis Cardinals
While he didn't make it to the actual workout yesterday, Carlos Beltran is now in Cardinals camp.  I'm not sure we ever thought we'd say those words!  It's like inviting the fox to hang out in the henhouse.  The Cardinal killer has now flipped sides and hopefully he can do damage against everyone else.  Hey, maybe he knows the secret to Bud Norris as well!

As far as I can tell, the only prominent name not in camp yet is Lance Berkman.  (I've not heard much about Daniel Descalso, but I couldn't swear he wasn't there.)  You have to figure at Berkman's (baseball) age, he knows that he'll need that energy later on, that he doesn't want to burn himself out in spring training.  I also say baseball age because, inconceivably, Berkman is six months younger than I am.  I will now go and meditate on exactly when I got so old.

There's been a lot of discussion this offseason and this spring about Tyler Greene.  He's not quite a polarizing figure, but you can definitely find those that don't think he'll amount to anything and those that want to give him a chance to find out.  If Jenifer Langosch's story is any indication, Greene may have finally had things click for him.

The biggest knock on Greene from the fan base has been that he needs to relax, that he apparently gets too worked up on the big stage.  Greene acknowledged that has been a problem in the past, but he says after his last minor league stint, he was able to figure that out.  He also said that Tony La Russa's style of riding the hot hand created some pressure as well, pressure that won't be there this year.

I've stated often that, if pressure was the biggest problem for Greene, he's in line to have a pretty good year this year.  La Russa's gone, and no matter your opinions of him, it's not disputed that he was intense.  We've seen that personality clash in more explosive ways in the past few years, particularly with J.D. Drew and Colby Rasmus, so I can imagine that would weigh on an inexperienced player.  Mike Matheny by himself would probably ease the tension for Greene, but factor in that his Memphis manager, Chris Maloney, is now on staff as well, and you have to figure the situation is as good as it gets for Greene.

Of course, that also means that Greene is out of excuses.  If he gets playing time and he doesn't contribute, we'll know that perhaps the clubhouse was a bit exaggerated in why he wasn't producing on the major league level.  Jon Doble has pointed out that Greene really didn't start hitting in the minors until the last couple of years, when he was old for AAA.  That's definitely something to keep in mind.

Greene could be important because Matheny is going to emphasize the running game more this season.  That starts in spring training, with special instructors Lou Brock, Ozzie Smith and Willie McGee.  Those guys knew a little about swiping a bag.  I don't think we'll see a return to the Running Redbirds, but at least with more movement on the basepaths, the Cards aren't likely to break their record for double plays.  Now, whether they'll be more productive as an offense, time will tell.

Mitchell Boggs is bringing back the changeup.  The bullpen is pretty full and Boggs is one of those that could be returning to Memphis to start the season, but adding another weapon to his arsenal gives him a better-than-fighting chance to stay in St. Louis.  He's not been using it since he moved to the 'pen and he's been pretty effective, so having this at his disposal should make a strong bulllpen even stronger.  The Cardinals could really shorten some games this year if all the relievers pitch like we think they will.

Looks like former Cardinal shortstop Edgar Renteria is likely to retire.  I remember Renteria's time with the Cardinals fondly and kept an eye on him as he bounced around the league.  Pretty solid career, winning World Series MVP twice and playing in three of them.  It'll be interesting to see what, if any, team he associates with in his retirement.  His six years in St. Louis was the longest he stayed in any one place, doubling Florida (his second-longest).

Finally, I don't expect to talk about Albert Pujols much in this space anymore, but being that the latest flap has something to do with St. Louis, I thought a brief comment was in order.  I'm glad that Pujols is staying consistent with his "Don't Call Me El Hombre" stance that he had while here, intending to honor Stan Musial.  I admit, originally I had a similar idea to this, thinking it was a nice riff off "The Man", but I appreciate where Pujols is coming from.

However, I just wanted to point out something.  The Angels apparently didn't know about this (which, really? A quick Google search would have likely brought up when that was a topic surrounding him) and, more to the point, don't care.  The club is saying that it's not a major portion of their advertising campaign, but they aren't showing any indication of taking down the billboards.

Which, why should they?  Albert's locked into 20 years out there.  What's he going to do about it?  In St. Louis, all he'd had to do was offhandedly mention something and it'd been taken care of, either by the team or the fan base.  The difference between being an icon and a hired gun, I guess.  Maybe in a few years it'll be different, but right now, he's just another player to them.

Boston Red Sox are the Playing Pepper team today, so come back and check that out later this morning!

EDIT: Forgot to drop the link for the approval ratings again.  I'm hoping to start publishing them next week, so if you haven't voted, please do so!  A little over 40 have so far--we had 65 last year. The more, the better!

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Heroes
Matt Holliday (5)
Matt Carpenter (4)
Rafael Furcal (4)
Yadier Molina (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
David Freese (3)
Jaime Garcia (3)
Jon Jay (3)
Kyle Lohse (3)
Lance Lynn (3)
Adam Wainwright (3)
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)
Rafael Furcal (3)
Jaime Garcia (3)
Tyler Greene (3)
Jason Motte (3)
Marc Rzepczynski (3)
Fernando Salas (3)
Adam Wainwright (3)
J.C. Romero (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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