Blogs By FansC70 At The Bat
Sponsor


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


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!

Subtle Shifts

Posted on March 19, 2010 at 8:03 AM
Filed Under: Approval Ratings | Cincinnati Reds | Florida Marlins | St. Louis Cardinals | Washington Nationals
While no major news came out of Jupiter yesterday, there were a couple of things that could have an impact on the season to come.

First, the Cards returned Ben Jukich to the Reds.  For a Rule V guy, he didn't get a lot of looks in camp, only getting two innings in one game.  I'm slightly surprised that the Reds didn't work a trade for him, since to take him back they have to spend $25,000, and right now the Reds are pinching every penny they can.  Still, while it would have been nice to have him in Memphis as a potential backup, the Cards didn't look at him as a LOOGY type anyway, so there are probably other options.  Be interesting to see how Jukich does this year, though, especially if he makes it to Cincinnati.

Secondly and more importantly, there seemed to be an organizational shift in regards to Jaime Garcia.  Going into the spring, some of us wanted to see him as the fifth starter in St. Louis, but the injury issue seemed to be influencing those that make the decisions, inspiring the signing of Rich Hill.  Garcia was seen as an afterthought to Hill and Kyle McClellan going at it for that last slot.

As your bracket will likely attest to this morning, afterthoughts have their way of making their way to the foreground.  On Twitter yesterday, Derrick Goold reported that Tony La Russa had declared that Garcia would be a starter somewhere, or at least that the organization wasn't looking at him as a reliever.  As I said earlier this week, I expected him to take that long relief role that Adam Wainwright had a few years back.  That's not the case anymore.

Then, Rich Hill pitched yesterday and it was another ineffective outing.  Hill walked five in three innings and, for a guy that needed to work on his command to be successful, that's a step back.  So we wake up this morning to see in the paper a story that Garcia will be given a start Monday against the Astros.  As Darth Vader said, "The circle is now complete."  (Well, almost, but when you get a chance to toss Vader into a blog post, you have to take it.)

Tom from CardinalsGM mentioned on Twitter yesterday that it was the point where he started to take results seriously.  There is just over two weeks left.  A lot of the guys that never were going to make it have been weeded out and sent to minor league camp.  Starters are starting to go five, six, seven innings.  The regulars will be playing.  Things that happen from now on are going to have a huge impact on the decisions that are left to be made.

So if Garcia goes out and throws on Monday like he's been throwing the rest of the spring, that very well may put him in the lead in the fifth starter derby after being on the outside looking in for so long.  That's what spring is all about, right?  The unexpected making a run.  A young third baseman making it so that you can't leave him off the roster.  The hometown pitcher fighting his way onto the roster.  There is a reason spring training lasts this long!

Approval rating time!  Even though I didn't plan it this way, so far every day has been one new person and one person we rated last year, and today is no different.

If we'd have rated Mark McGwire last year, it would have been as the disgraced and retired icon.  You'd have to have factored in the uncertainty (well, at least proven uncertainty) of his steroid usage and how you felt about all of that.  It's a new year, however, and we aren't rating just the icon, but the hitting coach who has made his confession.  It was possibly the most interesting name on the approval ballot.

McGwire wound up higher than I thought, with 64 people giving him an average score of 73.2%.  There was an outlier of 5, but the next-lowest was 20, while his high was one 100.  A lot in the 70-80 range, it looks like.

On the other hand, we have Yadier Molina.  A lot of Molina love last year, as he piled up the second-highest rating at 93.4%.  Not a lot has changed with Yadi, and this year he drops just a bit to 92.0%.  That'll put him behind Carp this year as well (likely) behind Albert.

Cards play a split-squad schedule today.  The noon game features St. Louis playing against their complex partners, the Marlins.  Not sure who is going in that game, though it should be Chris Carpenter, I'd expect.  The game is also supposed to be on FSN, so if you are in the viewing area, you get a lunchtime treat.

Most of us would have probably rather they televised the other game, however.  This evening, 5 PM start, the Cards go over to Washington and face Stephen Strasburg again.  Not only that, but McClellan tries to hold off Garcia for that fifth slot with a strong start.  Should be a lot of interesting things out of that one!


Leave a comment
Also on the Network:

√ Doing It The Hard Way [C70 At The Bat]
√ Bobby Jenks Saves Sox's Win Over Seattle [Tremendous Upside Potential]
√ Deadline moves [Feeling Dodger Blue]
√ Manny's impact [Feeling Dodger Blue]
√ Frustration Revisted [C70 At The Bat]
√ Not So Fast, T-Mac [Tremendous Upside Potential]
√ Payroll breakdown [Feeling Dodger Blue]




Leave a comment

Spring Training 08

Search



C70 At The Bat on Facebook

United Cardinal Bloggers

Other Cardinal Blogs

Recommended Cardinal Forum

Other Cardinal Sites

General Baseball Blogs/Sites
St. Louis Cardinals Ticket - Sports News & Rumors

Heroes
Matt Holliday (13)
Albert Pujols (11)
Adam Wainwright (11)
Jaime Garcia (9)
Ryan Ludwick (9)
Chris Carpenter (6)
Colby Rasmus (6)
Skip Schumaker (6)
Yadier Molina (6)
Brendan Ryan (4)
David Freese (3)
Brad Penny (3)
Blake Hawksworth (2)
Jon Jay (2)
Jason LaRue (2)
Felipe Lopez (2)
Nick Stavinoha (2)
Allen Craig (1)
Kyle McClellan (1)
Jason Motte (1)
Fernando Salas (1)

2009 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (28)
2008 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (25)

Goats
Yadier Molina (10)
Matt Holliday (8)
Brendan Ryan (8)
Albert Pujols (7)
Dennys Reyes (7)
Skip Schumaker (7)
Colby Rasmus (6)
Ryan Franklin (5)
Chris Carpenter (4)
David Freese (4)
Blake Hawksworth (4)
Kyle Lohse (4)
Ryan Ludwick (4)
Felipe Lopez (3)
Adam Wainwright (3)
Mitchell Boggs (2)
Trever Miller (2)
Jason Motte (2)
Allen Craig (1)
Jaime Garcia (1)
Tyler Greene (1)
Joe Mather (1)
Kyle McClellan (1)
Adam Ottavino (1)
Brad Penny (1)
Nick Stavinoha (1)
Jeff Suppan (1)
PJ Walters (1)
Randy Winn (1)

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

    Cardinal Nation Approval Ratings (March 2010)
    Albert Pujols 98.7% (up 0.8%)
    Adam Wainwright 95.6%
    Chris Carpenter 93.6%
    Yadier Molina 92.0% (down 1.4%)
    Dave Duncan 87.0% (up 2.8%)
    John Mozeliak 86.1%
    Matt Holliday 84.5%
    Bill DeWitt 83.0% (up 2.8%)
    Skip Schumaker 81.1%
    Tony La Russa 80.6% (up 1.5%)
    Mike Shannon 80.3% (down 11.3%)
    Colby Rasmus 76.8% (up 10.8%)
    John Rooney 76.2% (down 4.7%)
    Mark McGwire 73.2%
    Ryan Franklin 69.7%
    Kyle Lohse 66.8% (down 10.5%)
    Al Hrbrosky 46.2% (down 7.7%)

    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