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One Day, Two Results

Posted on March 4, 2011 at 7:49 AM
Filed Under: New York Mets | St. Louis Cardinals | Washington Nationals
One of those interesting quirks of spring is the split squad games.  With so many players in camp, it's a great tool to be able to get more at bats for hitters and innings for pitchers.  Of course, that also means that, like yesterday, you can win and lose in the same day.

The game that got the most attention, at least from me because it was on KMOX and I was listening through the MLB At Bat app, was the home game against Washington.  With Lance Berkman being held out for precautionary measures, Zack Cox got the chance to play a little, and he took advantage.

Cox had a double and a single, plus was heady enough to advance on a wild pitch that, from what it sounds like, didn't get that far from the catcher and made a nice slide at home to score the tying run on a groundout.  I'm personally rooting for Zack because he's a Razorback alumni like myself and I want to see him succeed.  Days like this will get the team's attention.  He's not coming up this year, but since he's on a major league contract already, a good 2011 would put him in the mix for 2012.  Even if David Freese is perfectly acceptable at first, they may consider moving him to second base to get him in the lineup.

Berkman said he was "perfectly fine to play," but the training staff decided to be cautious with him and hold him out not only of yesterday's game, but of today's trip to his old Astros stomping grounds.  The longer he doesn't play, the more concern there is in Cardinal Nation about how this guy will hold up during the season.  I can understand not pushing at all during the spring, but he's going to have to get into that regular playing rhythm sometime before the season starts.  Hopefully after he gets back into the lineup (tomorrow?  Monday?) he'll stay there.

Brandon Dickson impressed Dave Duncan with his outing against the Nats yesterday.  That's not terribly surprising since Dickson would fit the Duncan mold, getting ground balls and working quickly.  His line might not have been as dominant as Lance Lynn's was a few days ago, but he didn't do anything to take him out of the competition for the fifth slot either.  You have to figure Duncan's word is going to carry a lot of weight in this battle, so if you can stay on his good side, as it were, it's going to help.

Yadier Molina caught nine innings in an early spring training game.  For a team that is continually saying that they are going to rest Yadi more and limit his playing time, they definitely have a strange way of going about it.  I know that Yadi wanted to stay in and catch everyone so he could be familiar with each pitcher in camp, and I can't argue with that rationale too much, but you'd think there'd be better times and ways.  Only good thing is that it's early in the spring, so he should be fully rested.  It wasn't even Tony La Russa managing that team yesterday (he went up with the road team to the Mets), so it's doubly surprising.  Maybe Yadi knows how to talk the coaches into things!

Ian Snell's line: two innings, four hits, two earned runs.  If anyone really thought he was a serious contender for the last slot (looking at the national media here, mainly), it's pretty clear that he's the longest of longshots, especially with all the other options in camp.  I guess he could turn it around and have a strong spring, but this first outing reaffirmed what a lot of us expected when he was signed.

There wasn't much going on in the other game, as the Mets took that one 3-0.  Jaime Garcia admitted that he was a little extra excited with it being his first outing and it showed, as he wasn't sharp and was more erratic than usual.  Still he only allowed one unearned run in his two innings.  

PJ Walters bore the brunt of the Mets offense, allowing two runs in 2.2 innings.  He walked four and allowed three hits while he was out there, which isn't what the club wants to see. Of course, he's on the fringe of the starter race as well as having a shot at the bullpen, but he may find himself in Memphis if he has many more of those outings.
 
Tyler Greene needs to relax and "let his talent out," according to today's story in the Post-Dispatch.  Greene went 0-2 yesterday, but has started off the spring pretty well.  He's fairly assured of a bench role, in my mind, and I think it's completely possible (even though, with TLR, perhaps not likely) that he could take over for Skip Schumaker on a regular basis by the end of the year.  It's hard to believe that he was going to be taken in the slot the Cards took Colby Rasmus, since Rasmus is starting his third year in the bigs.  It'll be fun to see if Greene can really tap into what the club thinks he can do.

Another nice day for Allen Craig, getting two of the six hits the team had.  Starting to get excited about seeing him on a more regular basis this year.

The Cards head up to Houston today, but most of the stars aren't going.  Colby doesn't have the seniority yet to get out of those trips and the starting middle infield is going as well.  Craig hits cleanup in this bare bones lineup, which gives him yet another chance to shine.  Houston is covering this on the radio, so if you have the MLB app you can hear the game that way.

Last reminder, going to keep the Cardinal Approval Ratings voting going through the weekend, then start announcing results next week.  If you've not voted, do so!


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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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