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!

The Last Of The Non-Essential

Posted on March 30, 2011 at 10:30 AM
Filed Under: Miami Marlins | St. Louis Cardinals
We can draw the curtain on the spring, as the Cardinals have left the nest, as it were, and headed home for tomorrow's Opening Day game against the Padres.  Starting tomorrow, "it's only spring" gets replaced with "it's still early".  Can't remember how long that lasts--I'll have to check my calendar.

Anyway, while the Cardinals lost their last game and finished under .500 for the spring, there were a lot of positives out of it.  The biggest, of course, was the fact that Jaime Garcia had such a strong last start.  Were the Marlins perhaps ready to wrap up their spring as well?  Could be, though that didn't stop them from rallying late (more on that in a bit).  No matter what the reason, it was very good to see Garcia getting out there and going six innings while allowing only one run.  Things seemed to be clicking for him, so that seems like a good way for the team's X-factor to go into the season.

So things looked good for Garcia and even Jason Motte, who had been struggling this spring, had a successful outing.  Everything was going well for the Redbirds, who even benefited from a Colby Rasmus home run, until Mitchell Boggs got into the game.  Boggs had a terrible end to a checkered spring, giving up the lead on a bases-loaded walk.  

I'm not exactly certain of what Boggs's spring has been like, save for the back problems he had early on, and I'm not at a place where I can look them up.  (Good thing this is a blog and is held to absolutely no standards, right?)  However, Dave Duncan said that Boggs was the only pitcher that wasn't where he wanted them to be going into the season.  Sounds like Boggs might be used sporadically or when games aren't in doubt for a while to help him get back into his best baseball shape.  I'm sure the downtime with the back has hampered him somewhat.

Allen Craig led the team with a .359 average in the spring.  You think this guy's ready to show what he can do in the bigs?  If Lance Berkman doesn't get a handle on his old self, Craig may find himself with a lot more playing time than he expected.

Which leads us to the last part of this post.  The Post-Dispatch had some questions about the upcoming team and, in a play on Tony La Russa's slogan, they called them a hard 9.  Let's take a look at them. Most of them are very subjective and we won't find out until we watch the season, but that won't stop me from offering opinions.

1. What does Lance Berkman have left?

The offseason regimen and the weight loss made me optimistic that Berkman could return to something approaching his Houston form.  So far, though, he's not shown that in the spring.  It may be that he will be a slow starter and finally kick it in and there's obviously not been enough to judge him yet.  That said, even a middling spring might have been more encouraging.

2. Is this David Freese's year?

Talking about Freese is like stepping on a crack--you don't want to risk injury to someone you care about, whether it's your mother's back or David's ankles.  So far, though, Freese is looking durable and, more than that, like the expectations fans have had of him while he was recovering were justified.  With the experience of last year, I think we'll see a very nice year out of Freese.  He won't hit for the average he was hitting at, but he should have more power. A .275 season with 25 home runs wouldn't be out of the question, I don't think.

3. Will Kyle Lohse contribute?

For the first time since 2009, Lohse is being talked about without epithets or qualifications.  Heck, even his fan club is back open for business.  Lohse has been amazing this spring and it really looks like the surgery has done great things for him.  I don't think he'll be as strong as his Jupiter outings show, but he can be a slightly better than league average pitcher, and when you have that as your fourth starter, you are doing pretty well.

4. Can Skip Schumaker rebound?

I don't know about rebounding.  Even at his heights, Skip's not the strongest second baseman.  Obviously he has more value when he's hitting .300, but since it's not a powerful .300, he's got no room for slipping up.  I think he hit better down the stretch last year, but I don't think we'll see another .300 season out of him.  Couple that with his lack of range and issues on the defensive side and, if he stumbles, Daniel Descalso may get a lot more playing time.

5. Is team chemistry better?

That's something that can only be answered by being around the players, though the best way to have good chemistry is to win more than vice versa.  Berkman seems to bring a responsible levity, as it were, to the group and if Brendan Ryan really was that much of an issue (sorry, Diamond Dolls), then it's probably best he's gone.  So I'd say it's likely that it has, but a .500 season and nobody's going to be happy.

6. Can Ryan Theriot slow the shortstop carousel?

This is about the time you wish Pete Kozma had lived up to being a first round draft pick.  A young, upcoming shortstop would be really good right about now.  Theriot will do fine at the bat and likely get back to his Chicago numbers, but again, with a groundball pitching staff, having the middle of the diamond manned by him and Schumaker puts a lot of runners on or double plays not turned.

7. Could a long shot end up sticking with the team?

I think we've already seen that in Bryan Augenstein.  He's at least stuck enough to go north with the team, which of course is no guarantee that he'll still be a St. Louis Cardinal at the end of April.  Augenstein has been impressive, though, and obviously the organization saw something in him when they got him off the waiver wire, so I think he'll be around for most of the season.

8. Who's the number six starter?

I think it has to be between the two guys that lost out to Kyle McClellan this spring, Lance Lynn and Brandon Dickson.  Each outing in Memphis for both of those guys is going to be like an audition.  Whomever is doing better whenever a starter is needed will likely get the call.

9. What's the bullpen alignment?

Obviously Ryan Franklin has the ninth.  Jason Motte still probably has the eighth, at least for a while, but may be on a short leash.  Once they are comfortable with Boggs, he'll have the seventh.  Trever Miller will be the go-to lefty, with Brian Tallet perhaps coming out of the pen first to face a lefty depending on the situation.  Augenstein and Miguel Batista will absorb innings when a starter goes out early.

Agree? Disagree?  That's what the comments and Twitter are for!


Leave a comment




1 Comments

1 Comment | Leave a comment

user-pic
WilliaminMaine | March 30, 2011 11:21 AM | Reply

Nice! I still think you are too optimistic for Theriot, even at the plate. He will be out by June.

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

FRIENDS OF THE UCB


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

And check out the UCB Network over at LockerDome!
lockerdome-share_63x63.png
  



Other Cardinal Blogs

Recommended Cardinal Forum

Other Cardinal Sites

General Baseball Blogs/Sites



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%


    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