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Struggling For Silver Linings

Posted on June 26, 2011 at 3:46 PM
Filed Under: Heroes and Goats | Philadelphia Phillies | St. Louis Cardinals | Toronto Blue Jays
It's Sunday afternoon and, as I write this, the Cardinals are still playing the Blue Jays, though it just got a bit out of hand and odds are we now know how it is going to end.  I want to recap the last few days before talking about the state of the team.

Hero: Lance Berkman.  Two of the team's six hits.

Goat: Matt Holliday.  0-4 on a night when they really needed his bat.

Notes:  I actually had written this game up on Thursday, but got the weirdest error ever when I went to use the Baseball Reference linker, replacing my post with one from Tomahawk Take.  (It was easily the best post I've ever written, full of insight, deep thinking, and....no, not really.  You didn't miss much.)  Kyle Lohse pitched pretty well, but made a couple of mistakes and that was all the Phillies needed with Cliff Lee on the mound.  I'm fairly sure Lee remembered his last time, when he walked six, and was determined not to do that again.

Hero: Chris Carpenter.  Carp's had his rough times this year, but he was on this night.  Seven strikeouts in seven innings with just one run allowed.  The more you look at Carp's numbers outside of win/loss, the more picking up his option might be the best thing for the club.  Even if you get outings like this just 60% of the time instead of 90%, it still is worth it.

Goat: Daniel Descalso.  Everyone's getting hits, most people are getting two, but Descalso can't break through with a knock.  Did get a walk, though, so his evening wasn't a complete waste.

Notes: Berkman goes yard, Holliday gets two hits, everyone is just hunky-dory.  Even when you factor in that Roy Oswalt went on the DL after this game, you still had to be pretty positive about the game, since the Cards hit just about every pitcher Philadelphia threw at them.

Hero: Matt Holliday.  His two-run homer late in the game looked like it could be the thing the Cards needed to come back in this game.

Goat: Fernando Salas.  Salas has really struggled this month with the long ball.  Sure, it was Jose Bautista, who is crushing everyone, but it's a tough thing to live with after the team had rallied to tie it up.

Notes: Nice to see Colby Rasmus go yard, even if it was his only hit.  Some great work by Mitchell Boggs (who only went 2/3rds of an inning, but the two strikeouts he got were key) and Lance Lynn, who in a just world would have had the Cards pull out a win for him.

Hero: Jon Jay.  Two for three with a run scored on a night where the offense didn't do a lot.

Goat: Jaime Garcia.  Descalso's throwing error didn't help matters at all, but Garcia did walk the pitcher--an American League pitcher at that, though Carlos Villanueva has been in the NL before--and allowed the long ball that put the Jays well in command.  Garcia in the past has talked about letting his focus slip and it seemed to in that inning.

Notes: 0-fers for Holliday and Berkman, so when your 3-4 guys can't get anything done, it's going to be a long night.  (Holliday did drive in the first run, but it was on a double play after the first two batters had reached.)

Hero: Mitchell Boggs.  1.2 innings of scoreless relief.  He's definitely looked good in his return from Memphis, though he didn't look bad before he went down.

Goat: Kyle McClellan.  After giving up a second-inning homer, it looked like McClellan would settle down.  After a while, though, he either ran out of gas or the Jays figured him out, as he 

Notes: It's always going to be a tough assignment to go up against Ricky Romero, but it'd been nice if some of the bats had shown up.  Berkman's error was an issue as well, but McClellan just couldn't get out of the inning.

So now the Cards have lost five of six since Albert Pujols went down.  They've done it in a mix of ways, by being dominated by good pitching, by losing due to the bullpen, and by just not being good enough to get over the hump.  They are still in the pennant race, of course, but this weekend didn't help them out much.  Milwaukee is working on finishing off the sweep of the Twins, so the Cards would be three back going into their off-day tomorrow.

(Also, I must confess my hubris as, before the series, I poked some fun at our resident Blue Jays fan in these parts.  Don't ask me how he got this far South, something about forgetting to return home for the winter.  Anyway, I believe he enjoyed this weekend way more than he should have.  Would have appreciated the Cards bailing me out!)

The Cards haven't been completely complacent, though, shuffling the bullpen around.  Miguel Batista was released since last we talked (part of that post that got erased) and Raul Valdes has been called up as well as Lynn, with Makeil Cleto being sent down.  Save for Salas's issue in the ninth on Friday, the bullpen has been pretty solid.  Ryan Franklin gave up a run in his now-infrequent appearance on the mound and there have been runs allowed here and there, but they haven't factored into the decision, for the most part.

Speaking of Franklin, why exactly is the team carrying 13 pitchers if Franklin's only going to pitch once in a blue moon?  If you can't ever use him, why is he on the roster?  I think I saw where Jake Westbrook had more appearances this month than Franklin does.  He's well and truly buried, so does that really help the club?

While we are on the topic of player usage, what is up with Mark Hamilton?  When Pujols went down, they brought Hamilton up with the idea that, while he probably wouldn't play every day and there was the idea that first would keep Berkman healthier (though Berkman said that he though the outfield was easier, without having to run back and forth to the bag all the time), Hamilton still would see some time in the field.  Since he came up, the Cards have played six straight games and, in all six (save today, where as of this moment he still hasn't appeared), he's only gotten one pinch-hit at-bat.

I don't know if Hamilton can hit in the bigs.  He's had great success in the minors, though, and remember that Allen Craig didn't really start hitting the ball until he got some regular playing time.  I get that Hamilton wasn't in there today because Romero is a lefty.  But why not have him in there last night against Villanueva?  Either rest Berkman a bit or put him back in the outfield.

I'm sure there is some reasoning to all of this, but it seems right now that Hamilton should have stayed in Memphis and someone else (don't know who, of course) promoted.  I'm guessing that, with the DH in play when the club goes to Baltimore and Tampa Bay, Hamilton will get some time at first while Berkman DHs (or vice versa).  Then again, with David Freese coming off the DL on Tuesday, it's possible that Freese will DH to get him up to speed and we'd have the same situation.  (Also possible Hamilton goes down when Freese comes up, though it'd make more sense for it to be Andrew Brown.)

Bill Ivie and I will be on Gateway To Baseball Heaven tonight at 9:30 Central and I'm sure we'll talk some about all of this.  The Cardinals are coming to the end of June at a crossroads.  They can't afford to get too far back, but what can they do about it?  What should they do about it?  Join us in the chat room, if you want, to give your opinions.

Cardinals get to take on the old Browns on Tuesday.  We'll look at the starting pitchers Monday night or Tuesday and talk about whatever roster gyrations are done to get Freese and Nick Punto into Cardinal red then 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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