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Starting the Final Practice Lap

Posted on March 28, 2011 at 9:55 AM
Filed Under: St. Louis Cardinals
It's time to get down to it.  The lasts of spring training are happening this week: Chris Carpenter and Kyle McClellan have had their last starts that don't count.  Today is the last full game in Jupiter, with tomorrow being the biggest of splits for the squad, with a team in Jupiter and a team in Springfield that evening.  The end is near; the beginning is on the horizon.

Which means that things are getting serious, or at least they should be.  Outings take on a little more import.  Which is why when Ryan Franklin blew a save Saturday against the Mets, allowing three runs in the ninth, Cardinal Nation sat up and took notice.  Being that Franklin came back yesterday and threw a scoreless ninth to lock down another save, there doesn't seem to be a major cause for concern, but it still was a discordant note to have leading up to the season.  The Cardinals can't afford to lose games like that very often this season.

Of course, if you want to talk about ugly, you have to talk about Jaime Garcia's spring.  Garcia hasn't looked right at all in Florida, seeming to turn a bit of a corner in his last outing with three scoreless innings, only to allow ten runs (three earned) in the fourth.  Garcia claims there is no physical problem, he's just having problems focusing and bouncing back.  It's completely possible that the focus will be there when the season starts, but it's still a disturbing element.  With the defense that is behind him, odds are there are going to be nights where a ball is going to be booted or a hit fall in that shouldn't have.  How he reacts to that could be one of the major keys of this season.

Carpenter looked fairly strong in his last outing, giving up three runs in six innings but leaving with a 5-3 lead.  That lead was in large part due to Albert Pujols, who had two home runs in that one.  Both Carpenter and Pujols are stating how good they feel and how ready they are for the season to start.  I wonder if we'll see another amazing April out of Albert as he goes into a season really healthy for the first time in a while.  A strong start by these two could give the Cardinals a little bit of breathing room while some of the other teams in the Central deal with early season injuries.

This weekend, Miguel Batista officially earned a spot on the 2011 Cardinals, though many that follow the team expected that from the day he was signed.  A Tony La Russa favorite (at least now, probably not so much when he was throwing at Tino Martinez a decade ago), he'd have had to really fall on his face to not get to go north, especially since he could be let out of his contract if he didn't make the squad.

Assuming a 12-man pitching staff (which, as Bill mentioned last night on Gateway to Baseball Heaven, is not assured; TLR is looking at taking 13 north, which would be extremely frustrating to this fan), it appears Fernando Salas and Bryan Augenstein are battling for the last role.  I was under the mistaken assumption that only Salas was on the 40-man, giving him just the slightest of edges, but Bob of the wonderful On The Outside Corner (which I had been lax in reading lately, as he said he'd written about this already) noted that both of them were on the 40-man.  I still think the experience factor might give Salas the edge, but I wouldn't be surprised if either of them go.  (Or both of them go, bumping Daniel Desclaso back to Memphis.)

Allen Craig is doing his best to not ride the Memphis shuttle again this year, putting up some strong numbers this spring.  With Lance Berkman struggling at the bat right now, it'll be interesting to see how early Berkman is pulled in some games and whether Craig gets to get some extra at-bats that way.  If nothing else, he should be a strong option of the bench and on off days, after getting those "new to the bigs" jitters out of the way last year.

Of course, when you talk about strong springs, you immediately jump to Kyle McClellan.  McClellan finished up a spring that may have even topped Garcia's of last year, putting up four wins and a 0.78 ERA after yesterday's win against the Mets.  While obviously McClellan isn't going to be able to be that dominant during the regular season, he's already done more than I expected out of him.  I want to see how often he can get into the seventh inning, but other than that this move may wind up panning out.

During the NL Central preview show on Saturday, I commented how the Pujols contract situation has been fairly quiet since AP showed up in camp and had his press conference.  Of course, that means that we get a new article about the situation this weekend.  That said, it's a very good read.  Pujols seems to be perfectly fine with whatever comes about, which being that the worst case scenario would be tens of millions of dollars per year, it's a bit understandable.  I continue to think that Pujols will resign with St. Louis and that there are still a couple of surprises for folks in this whole situation.

Speaking of confidence, Jon from Redbird Dugout is taking the Cardinal Approval Ratings that I ran last month and adapting them for a more regular sampling during the season.  Head over to his blog and record your preferences, then be sure to follow it through the year to see how impressions change.

Mark at RetroSimba had an amazing opportunity recently, getting to interview Cardinal legend Bill White who has a new autobiography coming out.  The first part of the interview is up over here, and I encourage you to read it and go back for the next two parts as well!


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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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