Weekend Ups and Downs

A mixed bag this weekend.  Good stuff Saturday, but it sounds like Sunday was a doozy.

Let's hit up Saturday's game against the Astros first.  Remember that I said that a good start from Joel Pineiro might get me dreaming about this team?  Well, he did his part, throwing one-hit ball through four innings and striking out three.  Brad Thompson continued the good pitching with three scoreless while Blake Hawksworth gave up a run in two innings.

Where does that leave us?  It's easy to get excited about the team when the pitching looks like it's going to be improved.  That said, I still remember 2007, when the starters posted something like a 2.00 ERA and everyone was getting pumped about the season, only to see the wheels fall off quickly and things spiral out of control.

That said, seeing a good outing from Pineiro, even if it's against an Astros team that may be offensively challenged even with Carlos Lee, who was playing in the World Baseball Classic instead of this game, is a good omen.  A few more like that will ease a lot of heartburn about Pineiro being in the fifth slot.

I think Hawksworth is still pitching to be the first man up from Memphis.  Interesting to see that the run-scoring double he gave up was against long-time Cardinal farmhand John Gall.  I'm not sure if they ever played on the same team, but if so, that might have helped out Gall a little bit.  Still, Hawksworth's spring has been, for the most part, pretty good.  I don't know that he's back to "prospect" status, but he's improved his standing within the organization.

Offensively, Colby Rasmus had a triple in four at-bats, driving in two. Slowly but surely it looks like he's coming around.  No one had more than one hit, though Allen Craig drew two walks.  If Alex Rodriguez was going to be out longer, sending Craig and an outfielder for Phillip Hughes or something like that might have more legs.

Sunday's game sounds like it was a comedy of errors, without the comedy.  Six errors, even in a spring training game, is unacceptable, especially for a franchise that prides itself on defense.  Skip Schumaker drew two, again raising questions on whether or not his offense is worth the tradeoff, especially to a ground-ball pitching staff.  Skip's got a few more weeks to work on it, but don't be surprised if someone like Tyler Greene goes north just to be his defensive replacement in the late innings.



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All of this defense didn't help Adam Wainwright out any.  He allowed three runs, though only one was unearned, in 2 and 2/3.  That's Wainwright's second outing that's been less than stellar, though if it was the regular season he likely would have settled in, kept them at three, and hopefully the Cards could have rallied.  In other words, it's not like there's a need to hit the panic button yet.

If there's a chance they'll take three lefties north, Royce Ring didn't help himself out, giving up two runs in less than an inning.  Even with Tony La Russa's proclivites for mixing and matching, I don't see them taking three lefties anyway.  Much more likely to stash one or two in Memphis in case they are needed.

In that vein, Charlie Manning may have helped himself be one of those Memphis Redbirds with a scoreless inning, but he did walk two.  Being that command and control was one of the reasons the Cardinals felt they had to go get Dennys Reyes, that's probably not a good thing.

You do have to like that Josh Kinney, Chris Perez and Jason Motte all threw a scoreless inning, though.  Put those guys with Kyle McClellan and the back of the bullpen could be a real strength.

Of course, the most dangerous and disturbing part of Sunday's game was Albert Pujols getting a kick in the head.  Thankfully Pujols is fine, which means Wes Helms doesn't have to join players like Alex Cintron and Hee Seop Choi in the pantheon of players Cardinal fans hold a grudge against.

The first cuts of the spring were made, as fifteen players, including Brett Wallace, were sent over to the minor league camp to get their work in.  The most surprising name was David Freese, who of course was the favorite to get the third base vacancy before spring training started.  La Russa didn't rule out him returning to play with the big boys after he got healthy, but you have to figure that he's running out of time, especially since Joe Mather has been doing so well over there.

Along with those cuts, La Russa stoked the discussion flames by tossing Ryan Franklin's name back into the closer competition.  Dave Duncan mentions that "he's proven he can finish games."  Yeah, he's finished them.  Not always to the Cardinals' benefit, however.

Franklin has made a big deal about how uncomfortable he felt in the role last year with Jason Isringhausen still on the team and nominally the closer.  Whether that led to some of the results or not, I don't know.  I don't think it was entirely due to that.

That said, Franklin has had a strong spring.  I wouldn't really want to see him in that closer role, though. I cringed a lot when he came in the eighth, feeling like he was getting lucky at times.  Right now, though, I guess he's earned the right to be in the discussion.

Speaking of, it was interesting to see La Russa talking about Franklin having more "checks in the boxes" after talking with Matthew Leach earlier this year on the UCB Radio Hour.  Leach noted then that Tony has a list of characteristics for a closer and would typically check them off.  Nice to see that pop up again.

It's time for a new round of approval ratings.  Mike Shannon is more loved than I thought, honestly.  I thought there might be some naysayers (and there were a few) but on the whole, the Moonman is well loved, racking up a 91.5% rating from 89 votes.  That includes my 90.  I do like listening to Shannon, but when I can get in my car, drive across town, and get out of my car at home and still not know the score or even if the Cards are winning, it can get under my skin.

Today, we get started on the players.  Rick Ankiel is a fairly well-known guy in Cardinal Nation.  We know the story from pitching phenom to fallen star to recovered pitcher to coverted outfielder.  Rick's given us lots of good memories.

That said, I was surprised, when reading the Maple Street Annual, the degree that Ankiel failed in the clutch last year.  Larry Borowsky made the case that Ankiel was just about useless in any close and late situation, for whatever reason.

So where do you rank Rick on the scale from 0-100?  Leave your answer here or at the other two sites and we'll see tomorrow what the results are.

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