Blogs By FansC70 At The Bat
Sponsor


Cardinals_WideSkyscraper.jpg

Baseball Schedule is your best source for the latest St Louis Cardinals Schedule information as well as keeping up with division rivals including Cubs Schedule, Reds Schedule, Brewers Schedule and Astros Schedule.

Bet on the Cardinals with Sports Interaction's MLB betting lines


Slots Galore Casino Tournaments

Get your tickets from Bubba! Cheap St. Louis Cardinals Tickets and more, including tickets for the next MLB All-Star Game. Bubba's got Boston Red Sox Tickets and New York Yankees Tickets

Authentic, large selection of Cardinals memorabilia, guaranteed and certified.

Subscribe
RSS Feed

Archives

Players

Categories


Alliance tickets has an extensive inventory of St. Louis Cardinals Tickets , Colorado Rockies Tickets, San Francisco Giants Tickets and Seattle MarinersTickets.

With all of the St Louis tickets out there, Cardinals tickets and Rams tickets make for great presents. GoTickets.com can fill all of your sports tickets needs, just check out our testimonials!

News In A Newsless Void

Posted on October 23, 2009 at 9:20 AM
Filed Under: St. Louis Cardinals
As you know, there aren't many things going on right now that are Cardinal related.  So you have to pick out the small nuggets that are around and blow them up into talkable topics.  Thankfully, I'm a blogger.  That's my job, that's what I do.

For example, there's a story up at the Post-Dispatch site that the bullpen next year will be pretty similar to what it was this year.  Being that Ryan Franklin and Trever Miller signed extensions at the end of last year and Dennys Reyes had a two-year deal to begin with, this isn't exactly the biggest of shockers.

I don't think anyone expects that Franklin will lose his closer job over the offseason, even with the terrible run he went on to close 2009.  The general official opinion on that is that he got worn down with all the innings he had thrown, so you have to figure a few months' rest and he's good to go.  I'm not necessarily sold on that--Franklin worried me while he was going well, though not as much as he had in the past--but I do think you have to give him a shot and see, especially after the extension.

Miller and Reyes will be the left-handed specialists again this year.  That's what they do.  I will say I'm still surprised Miller turned out to be the better deal than Reyes did.  We'll see if that continues in 2010 or not.

The rest of the bullpen are young guys with enough experience and success not to have to worry about the Memphis shuttle, at least not for a while.  Blake Hawksworth, Kyle McClellan and Mitchell Boggs might have a shot at the back of the starting rotation (though I expect Jaime Garcia will be written in there), but if not they'll be back in the 'pen.  Jason Motte, who best be learning something offspeed this winter, will be back in the seventh-eighth inning mix.

The only thing that will be different is that, after so many years, the young face of Brad Thompson is not likely to be in Cardinal red.  Thompson's done a lot for the team and I wish him well, but he's declined every year he's been in the majors.  Maybe someone can use him regularly and get more production out of him, but the Cardinals won't be that team.

Tony LaRussa still hasn't said officially whether he is coming back or not, but very few people expect him to actually walk.  I am surprised that it has taken this long, though.  I wouldn't be surprised if the pull of staying home isn't starting to get to him, and that next year, if he comes back for another of his one-year deals, a more pleasing ending doesn't have him sailing off into the sunset.

Bernie Miklasz talks about Albert Pujols' recovery from elbow surgery and the thought that the Cards should try to give him more rest next season.  Like he points out, though, the problem is AP wants to play.  He has a similar motto as Cal Ripken--you have plenty of time for rest in the offseason.  Still, another day off here and there might not be a bad thing, especially if he starts showing symptoms of more elbow problems in the pennant race next year.

Old friend Mark McGwire surfaced recently to talk about Mr. Pujols.  Most notably, that he thinks AP could get $30 million per if he hits free agency.  Well, at least that he's worth that.  I don't think any of us will argue that Pujols is worth more than anyone in baseball.  The issue is, whether the Cardinals will have to prove it.  If they do, they probably won't, due to payroll restrictions.  I think you'll see the team come to a below-market-value agreement with AP, but it may not be until the end of next season.

While Chris Carpenter wasn't able to pull down the Baseball Blogger Alliance's Cy Young award, he did get another cool honor, winning the Bullet Rogan Award from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum as the top NL pitcher.  Not sure if it is significant that both the AL and NL winners played in Missouri, where the museum is located.

Part of being in the BBA is to help out other bloggers in the organization.  With that in mind, and because the prize is pretty darn cool, I want to suggest you check out SoDo Mojo.  The Seattle blog is giving away a $100 certificate to sportsmemorabilia.com, so you'll want to get in on that!

Blogging will probably be somewhat sporadic for a while as news trickles out.  Keep checking back!


Leave a comment




Leave a comment




Cardinals_MediumRectangle.jpg

UCB_11_trans_dark_sm.png

Search



BallHyped Best Sports Blogs Book
This blog was featured in the Best Sports Blogs of 2010 Book!
• Pick up the limited print edition
• Free Best Sports Blogs ebook 


United Cardinal Bloggers

Download the iPhone or Android UCB app by clicking on the nice orange picture.
Open in Mobile App
Other Cardinal Blogs

Recommended Cardinal Forum

Other Cardinal Sites

General Baseball Blogs/Sites



Heroes
Lance Berkman (24)
Albert Pujols (19)
Matt Holliday (15)
Chris Carpenter (10)
Kyle Lohse (9)
Yadier Molina (9)
Ryan Theriot (8)
David Freese (7)
Jaime Garcia (7)
Jon Jay (7)
Jake Westbrook (6)
Allen Craig (5)
Kyle McClellan (5)
Colby Rasmus (5)
Edwin Jackson (4)
Skip Schumaker (4)
Daniel Descalso (3)
Rafael Furcal (2)
Gerald Laird (2)
Nick Punto (2)
Marc Rzepczynski (2)
Fernando Salas (2)
Mitchell Boggs (1)
Daniel Descalso (1)
Lance Lynn (1)

2010 Top Heroes: Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols (24)
2009 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (28)
2008 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (25)

Goats
Ryan Theriot (12)
Albert Pujols (11)
Jake Westbrook (10)
David Freese (8)
Ryan Franklin (7)
Jaime Garcia (7)
Fernando Salas (7)
Kyle Lohse (6)
Kyle McClellan (6)
Colby Rasmus (6)
Skip Schumaker (6)
Miguel Batista (5)
Chris Carpenter (5)
Daniel Descalso (5)
Matt Holliday (5)
Jon Jay (5)
Jason Motte (5)
Allen Craig (4)
Rafael Furcal (4)
Tyler Greene (4)
Yadier Molina (4)
Lance Berkman (3)
Mitchell Boggs (3)
Gerald Laird (3)
Edwin Jackson (2)
Trever Miller (2)
Corey Patterson (2)
Marc Rzepczynski (2)
Matt Carpenter (1)
Maikel Cleto (1)
Tony Cruz (1)
Octavio Dotel (1)
Mark Hamilton (1)
Lance Lynn (1)
Nick Punto (1)
Arthur Rhodes (1)
Eduardo Sanchez (1)
Raul Valdes (1)
PJ Walters (1)

2010 Top Goat: Brendan Ryan (14)
2009 Top Goats: Rick Ankiel and Todd Wellemeyer (13)
2008 Top Goat: Troy Glaus (13)

    Cardinal Nation Approval Ratings (March 2011)
    Adam Wainwright 94.7% (down 0.9%)
    Matt Holliday 91.1% (up 6.6%)
    Albert Pujols 90.4% (down 8.3%)
    Dave Duncan 87.9% (up 0.9%)
    Derrick Goold 87.8%
    Chris Carpenter 86.9% (down 6.7%)
    Matthew Leach 85.5%
    Mike Shannon 84.9% (down 4.6%)
    John Rooney 84.3% (up 8.1%)
    Yadier Molina 83.7% (down 8.3%)
    Colby Rasmus 81.8% (up 5.0%)
    Pop Warner 76.7%
    Jim Hayes 76.1%
    John Mozeliak 74.1% (down 12.0%)
    Ryan Franklin 72.8% (up 3.1%)
    Bill Dewitt 71.0% (down 12.0%)
    Tony La Russa 70.8% (down 10.2%)
    BJ Rains 70.4%
    Ricky Horton 69.1%
    John Vuch 68.9%
    Jeff Luhnow 66.4%
    Skip Schumaker 64.1% (down 17.0%)
    Al Hrabosky 63.2% (up 19.0%)
    Mark McGwire 62.5% (down 10.7%)
    Dan Lozano 58.7%
    Joe Strauss 57.5%
    Kyle Lohse 55.1% (down 11.7%)

    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