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Mid-Season Review, UCB Style

Stick around after the jump for thoughts on last night's Home Run Derby, but right now, it's the next installment of the United Cardinal Bloggers franchise!

Last week, the UCB members started a roundtable discussion on how things had gone so far and what was coming next.  Each person tossed out a question for comment.  Today, each blog--CardinalsGM, The Cardinal Virtue, Fungoes, Redbird Ramblings and Mike on the Cards--will be posting the transcript of answers to their questions.  (Links will change from the general blog to the specific entry when they go up.)

My question was "Which player or players is/are the most likely not to be a Cardinal come August?"  It probably won't surprise you that one name dominated the discussion.

C70: I still have to think Anthony Reyes is at the top of Mozeliak's move list.  There's really not a spot for him in St. Louis going forward, at least under the current management, so why not give him a shot somewhere else?

Mike on the Cards: The trade market sure seems to be the hot topic right now, especially after the moves made by the Cubs and Brewers.  Tony wants help.  Mo wants to sit idle.  Fans want the world for nothing.  I think there might be a small move made at the deadline, involving Anthony Reyes and one or two middle tier prospects.

Redbird Ramblings: I think Reyes is the guy most likely to be traded.  He needs to go to get a change of scenery and he should be dealt for a guy that also needs a change of scenery; that's only fair.  I mean, no one is gonna take Reyes as a centerpiece to any kind of big trade; only probably as a throw in.  I also would like Mo to unload Duncan and, if they are out of the playoff picture, Lohse too because he is having a career year and will probably cost way too much come free agency.

The Cardinal Virtue: Duncan and Reyes are both out of option years.  If they are going to stay on the 40 man roster next year they'll have to be on the active roster as well or clear waivers--and neither of those are probably happening.  Don't be surprised if they are packaged for a reliever of some kind.

Fungoes: Iron Cap Reyes.  If the team was more willing to let Mike Parisi, Mitchell Boggs and Mark Mulder start games than Reyes, they'll never have a need for him again.

There was a report that Pedro Gomez said that A.J. Burnett could be moved for a package including Reyes and Chris Duncan.  I don't know if that's valid or a joke (probably the latter), though I could imagine that being reasonable since Burnett is going to opt out of his deal at the end of the year.  Whatever the deal winds up being, most of us would be very surprised to see Reyes still wearing the birds on the bat after the deadline.

Now, for the HR derby..............
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It Came From The Backyard

In the old days, before the draft, Ryan Howard probably would have wound up in the Cardinal organization.  Local guy, good talent, the bird dog would have gotten the scout and he'd have signed a deal with the Redbirds.

Nowadays, of course, it doesn't work that way, but Howard apparently thinks it should have.  He holds some sort of grudge against the Cardinals, at least.  With two more home runs yesterday, he has 11 against his old hometown team.  With his low batting average and propensity for striking out, pitchers are tempted to pitch to him.  From now on, though, it may be wise to consider walking him.

As noted in the PD game story, July has been a terrible month for the Cardinals.  They are averaging 2.7 runs a game and sporting a 3-6 record that could have easily been worse.  (It's sad that the Cardinals have scored 25 runs in nine games when the Phillies earlier in the year just needed one game to get to 20 against the Redbird staff.)

The UCB roundtable is going on via e-mail and one of the questions is what is the biggest need, the bullpen or the offense.  I said the bullpen when I made my answers, but with these kind of numbers, I very well may have been wrong.  You have to figure that things will turn around somewhat--Glaus will get hot again, Ludwick will make some adjustments--so maybe that offense is there hidden.  But it may need a boost from an outside source.

Anyway, let's lay out the labels.  Hero would probably go to Albert Pujols, who was 2 for 4.  If anyone had been on in front of him, maybe he could have done some damage.  Which leads us to our Goat, Adam Kennedy.  0-4 in the leadoff spot is not what the team needed.

So the Cards fall into third, a half-game behind Milwaukee and 4.5 behind the Cubs.  It'll take a good series against the Pirates to get second back, I believe.

The series starts with Kyle Lohse going against Zach Duke.  Lohse has done pretty well against the Pirate hitters, which may be a very good thing if the offense doesn't start clicking.  Keeping the score down would be a very good thing.  Duke has quietly started to pitch pretty well.  The Cardinals hung a loss on him May 30, but after that he had a 3.13 ERA in June and continued to drop his ERA until his last outing against the Brewers.  St. Louis has had success against him, especially Pujols.

In other news, the Cardinals put Rasmus on the DL.  It doesn't seem to be a torn groin, but they are going to do an MRI on it.  That doesn't really sound good.  Hopefully it's something that a couple of weeks of rest will take care of, because I want Mozeliak to have that option of Rasmus coming up when he's talking trade for the rest of the month.  Putting Rasmus in the lineup could be the spark the offense needs.

Brian Burwell writes a good column on the end of Mark Mulder's career.   It really is a sad thing when someone can't do what they love anymore.

That's probably it for the weekend for me.  I'll be back on Monday to catch up.

End of the Line

That's the last time we'll see Mark Mulder in a Cardinals uniform.  It's probably the last time we'll see him on a baseball field at all.

I don't say that with any malice or glee.  I really was hoping that Mulder's new arm slot would be the key to getting him, not to his Oakland level, but at least to a serviceable starter.  Instead, he faces three batters, walking two and leaving the mound again in pain.

If that was the end of the line for Mulder, it's too bad St. Louis never got to see the really good version.  (If Billy Beane knew about Mulder's health issues--and I wouldn't put it past him--I'm not sure how he sleeps at night.)  The only really positive memory I have of Mulder is that epic 10-inning shutout against Roger Clemens.  Other than that, there's not much.

Of course, there will be more revisiting of the most rehashed trade in Cardinal history.  I'm still firmly convinced that if Dan Haren had been a lefty, the trade never would have been made.  It was all about getting an lefthander into the rotation.  And, at the time, the trade was reviled because of the inclusion of catcher Daric Barton.  That's not the problem.  Barton had to move to first (which means he couldn't play in St. Louis anyway) and isn't just lighting it up yet, three and a half seasons after the deal.  It's the fact that Haren developed into so much more than the Cardinals (and the fans) ever thought he would that has made the deal so lopsided.

The hero from last night's game probably has to be Brad Thompson.  I really liked Troy Glaus's AB that tied the game, but Thompson coming in with two on and one out in the first and getting out of it, then pitching effectively from there really stands out.  I've got trouble giving out the Goat, though.  I can't give it to Mulder--just can't tag a guy like that after possibly his career ended.  Kyle McClellan gave up the go-ahead home run to Howard, but he pitched well the inning before that and it was Ryan Howard.  I guess I'd probably give it to Chris Perez, because the Feliz home run made it just that much less likely the Cards were going to rally off of Brad Lidge.

One last comment on the game.  Does anyone else think it was cheap that they gave Skip Schumaker just a double on that ball that "stuck" under the wall?  Victorino looked like he was going to get it, then realized he could just keep it there and get an advantage.  I think there should have had to be an attempt at the ball before he could throw up his hands.  That was pretty lame in my book, though must be part of the ground rules at Citizens Bank.

The team is already moving on the Mulder front, likely disabling him and bringing up Jamie Garcia, which will please Erik at Future Redbirds immensely. Garcia will work out of the pen at least until the break.  If nothing else changes, I'd expect him to move into Mulder's slot after the All-Star Game.

Changes, though, are what Tony LaRussa wants to see.  This will be the first real test of the Mozeliak/LaRussa dynamic.  Up until now, it's pretty much been "hey, this is great, more than we thought, but let's wait and see."  Now, Mo's still there but LaRussa's competitive nature has taken hold and he wants to see something.  This is where Jocketty would go out and make some move that, in recent years, was little more than combing the waiver wire.  Will Mozeliak do that?  Will he start looking for a bigger trade?  Will he take Tony's dogs hostage until he quiets down?

Couple of vets going this afternoon.  Braden Looper looks to keep the bullpen off the field when he takes the mound, but the Phillies may have other ideas.  Pat Burrell has two homers off of him and probably will be excited to take his cuts today.  On the other side, Jamie Moyer is one of those you'd expect the Cardinals to struggle with, a soft-tossing lefty.  Really, though, for a guy that's been around as long as he has, the Cards (save Glaus and Kennedy, guys that saw him in the AL) haven't gotten a lot of ABs against him.  Glaus does have five home runs off of Moyer, so maybe he'll break out the big bat today.

The UCB is working on their next project.  If you weren't e-mailed and want to join it, let me know.  It should be a good discussion.

UCB Game Blog: Post-Game

The pre-game post with all the links is below.  Thanks to all the bloggers that participated--it was a lot of fun to read through the different innings!

I didn't actually watch the game, being busy with various other duties (I could totally relate, to some degree, to the first inning being split between the game and family at Stan Musial's Stance!) but it sounds like a couple of blowups that, against lesser teams, the Cardinals might have been to escape from relatively unscathed snowballed against a potent Cubs offense.

I really was struck with what Bryan said in his sixth inning at Rockin' the Red about Lohse's low K rate.  I can definitely see that catching up with him as the competition level continues to rise.

Nice to see Yadi and Pujols go deep.  Glad that I swapped with Tom and didn't actually have to do the fourth inning as well!

All in all, I'd like to have seen a better game for us to blog, but it was fun nonetheless.  And now, time to start planning the next UCB event..........

UCB Game Blog: Pre-Game

The United Cardinal Bloggers proudly present history in the making.  The first ever progressive game blog (that we know of).  Consider me a less attractive Jeanne Zelasko or a fairly strong representation of Pat Parris from FSN as we get started with today's game.  For navigation purposes, here are the blogs participating.  (Direct links will be added when the posts go up.)

First inning: Stan Musial's Stance (posted)
Second inning: The Cardinal Virtue (posted)
Third inning: Mike on the Cards (posted)
Fourth inning: CardinalsGM (posted)
Fifth inning: CardinalNationGlobe (posted)
Sixth inning: Rockin' the Red (posted)
Seventh inning: Fungoes (up, but Friday's game)
Eighth inning: The Redbird Blog (posted)
Ninth inning: Redbird Ramblings (posted)

Extra-innings and a post-game wrap will be here on this blog after the game has concluded.

And now, to today's game.

The Cardinals and Cubs have a fairly unique rivalry.  It's not one born out of knocking each other out of the playoffs or meeting up in October, like the Yankees and Red Sox or even the Giants and Dodgers from their New York days.  There's not a lot of flat-out hatred of the other side, though some people of course do feel that way.  The Cardinal fans do rejoice in the inevitable collapse of the Cubs, whether it be Durham's glove, Bartman's "catch" or Gonzalez's boot, but it doesn't come across as as much of a life and death struggle as some other matchups due, especially the well-covered rivalry in the Northeast.

I've admitted that, while I have friends that are Cub fans, I'm not much on the team.  There won't be any disappointment in this quarter if and when the 100th anniversary of their last World Series win (and hopefully 105, 110, 125....) rolls around.

However, it's likely that the Cubs are going to be in the NL Central race all year long.  Which would make 2008 an even sweeter year if the Cardinals are able to keep this up.

The Cardinals come into the game riding a three-game winning streak, taking the series from Cincinnati after dropping the first game and weathering another Izzy meltdown to win in extra innings.  The Cubs are coming off a wild series in Milwaukee, losing the first, torching the Brewers in the second, then losing the third when Kerry Wood gave up three runs in the ninth before losing to a Skip Schumaker home run on Friday.

Your pitchers today are Ted Lilly and Kyle Lohse.  Lilly was chased after by the Cardinals in the 2006 offseason and numerous fans thought that the team should have signed him.  He had a decent year with the Cubs in 2007, but is having a rough year this year, posting a 6.46 ERA in April.  He's had his problems with the Cardinals as well.  Albert Pujols has hit him well, which isn't surprising, but seeing that Adam Kennedy is the only other one with a home run off of Lilly is.

Lohse has dealt with some of these Cub batters before, with little success.  Mark DeRosa wears him out, posting a .545 average against him.  Small sample size on all of the Cubs, though, as DeRosa is the only one with more than 7 ABs against him.  Lohse won't have to worry about one of the Cubs that has a home run off of him, since it's unlikely Carlos Zambrano will do much pinch-hitting. 

It's the Cardinals and the Cubs, and it's Stan Musial's Stance bringing you the action.  A win today assures the Cards a series win and that they'll be in first place come Monday.  Enjoy the game and the bloggers bringing it to you!

Record-Breaking

The Cardinals posted their highest-ever April win total by beating up on the Reds yesterday.  After Harang took a 2-0 lead, I was afraid that the game was starting to get out of hand, especially the way Harang can pitch.  But the Cardinals immediately stole a run back (almost literally, with Duncan scoring on a wild pitch) and were off and running.

Heroically, Rick Ankiel was 3-3, driving in two of the Cardinals' five runs.  Right behind him was Aaron Miles, with his 2-4, 2 runs, 2 RBI game.  And it's possible that Jason LaRue should get a little mention as well, depending on what he told his teammates about Harang.

On the flip side, Troy Glaus was 0-4 with a double play, which gets him another Goat award.  Days like that are going to happen, though, and at least it happened in a win.

If there's anything LaRussa can do, it's juggle lineups.  So far, the results are looking good.

Along with the game yesterday, there were a lot of eyes on the Memphis game, with Mark Mulder pitching.  Those eyes are now permanently scarred after witnessing a horrific outing.  3.2 innings, 7 earned runs?  At least we won't have to worry about the braintrust rushing him up to the bigs.

Mulder can have two more rehab starts and I expect, even if the first one is very good, they'll leave him down there for both.  There's not a pressing need for a starter right now anyway, plus you still can't quite tell what you have with him.

While the strong start puts the Cards in good company with prior Redbird teams, don't start printing the playoff tickets yet.  Larry at VEB did some great work showing the pitching splits, home and away, leading to the projection that May, with an even split of 14 home games and 14 road games, and June (18 away, 9 home) could be tough ones for the Cardinals.

That's for another day, however.  Today, the Cards are virtually tied for first place and are off getting ready for the series with the Cubs.  A day to reflect on April and appreciate what they've done and a day to root like crazy for the Brewers this afternoon.  Looks like a good matchup in Wrigley, with Zambrano and Gallardo going at each other.

Won't be around tomorrow, as real life has a heck of a day in store for me.  But I'll be back Saturday with the pre-game and post-game postings for the UCB game blogging project.  I'm quite excited to see how this is going to turn out!

And for those of you coming over from VEB or other places talking about the project, here's the link to the description.  Note that CardinalsGM is taking over for my inning, while I'm doing the pre and post game.

Bad Blood Weekend

I figured that both the Cardinals and the Astros hadn't forgotten about the Pujols/Towles-Backe issue but I wasn't expected a couple of bench clearings this weekend.  Playing Houston another 12 times or so could enliven the summer, especially if the team slides out of contention.

That's not the case right now, though, as the Cardinals take the series from Houston.  And, with regular results, would have swept their way into first place.

Friday night, the loss all comes down to Jason Isringhausen, the Goat of the Day.  Giving up three runs in the ninth, with only one coming on a home run, is unacceptable for a closer that's getting paid as much as Izzy is.  Of course, these things happen, but lately they've been happening with much more regularity with Izzy, bringing back memories of his disastrous 2006 campaign.  He doesn't seem to be hurt now, but that 6.55 ERA is going to have the phone in Memphis ringing for Chris Perez pretty soon if he doesn't straighten it out.

The Hero of Friday night had to be Braden Looper, who saw possibly his best ever start go up in smoke in the ninth.  But seven innings of two-hit ball is pretty impressive, even if you don't have the W beside your name afterwards.

After getting quite excited about the Oswalt/Wainwright matchup, my Saturday got eaten up and I wasn't able to see any of the game.  While it wasn't quite as great as the 1-0 Mulder/Clemens matchup of three years ago, it didn't disappoint by much, with the Cardinals pulling it out in the bottom of the ninth.

The big number that jumps out at that game is 126.  That's how many pitches Adam Wainwright threw.  I understand that, especially on the heels of Isringhausen's Friday, LaRussa may not trust the bullpen as much, but that's pushing it, I think.  The last thing this team needs is for the Wagonmaker to blow out his arm.  I'd hope that next game TLR thinks about removing Wainwright around the 90 pitch mark.  It probably also helps that there is a day off in this run through the rotation, which means that he'll get an extra day of rest before taking the mound again.  Still, for his effectiveness and durability, you've got to give him the Hero award, though Pujols with his two RBI would come close.

Saturday's Goat would probably be LaRussa for leaving Wainwright in so long, but I'm trying to limit it to the players.  Most everyone had a similar batting line, with nobody having more than one hit.  Even Troy Glaus, who went 0-3, drove in a run.  So, just because his season has been so bad and he didn't do anything to redeem in, the award goes to Jason LaRue for his 0-1, plus forcing TLR to pinch hit for him in the ninth.

Oh, and there's no doubt that Wainwright was trying to send a message to Ausmus without causing any damage.  After a couple of your players get thrown at, you want to make sure you stand up for them.  There wasn't any chance Ausmus would get hurt, at least it didn't look like it from the replays.  I've got no problem with that at all, as long as you aren't throwing at the head.  At least to some, that was the play of the game.

Sunday, you just knew something was going to happen with Brandon Backe on the mound.  He stymied the Cardinals for a while, but after Ludwick's double to break the scoring seal for the Cards and then Hero Troy Glaus going yard for the first time this year, he seemed to come a little unglued, as we saw in his confrontation with Molina.

And, boy, was Yadi steamed about the whole thing.  He was still talking after Backe was out of the game.  If you see a fastball in your face, I'm sure it does tend to rile you up.  Like I said early, I doubt this is completely over. Mark your calendars for May 27-29!

I gave Glaus the Hero because he finally got the home run, which put the game out of reach, but there were a number of players you could have chosen.  Kyle Lohse pitched a great game.  Kyle McClellan got his first save by going three strong innings.  Pujols hit a home run.

The Goat is a little harder because most everyone did play a solid game.  For one of the rare times he's not had a good game in the leadoff role, though, the Goat goes to Skip Schumaker for his 0-4 day.  You don't often see 0 in the hit column for Skip lately.

The Cards start this series with Cincinnati just a 1/2 game behind the Cubs, making that loss on Friday (after the Cubs had already lost as well) very costly.  Tonight, Brandon Arroyo and Todd Wellemeyer meet up as the other two contenders in the NL Central, the Cubs and Brewers, clash.  A win tonight could move the Cards back into the penthouse.

Some mixed results for the Cardinals against Arroyo.  For instance, Pujols has a .233 average against him, but does have two home runs.  Chris Duncan should be in the lineup tonight, since he's hitting .316 with a long ball against Arroyo.  Izturis and Ludwick both have good numbers in limited action against the pitcher, so expect Izturis to return from his injury tonight.

The Reds haven't done well against Wellemeyer, though only Adam Dunn has more than 10 plate appearances against him.  Scott Hatteburg and Edwin Encarnacion combine for five of the nine hits the Reds have managed against the Cardinal hurler.

Programming note: There's been a change in the lineup of the UCB Game Blogging Project.  CardinalsGM is going to take the fourth instead of this blog.  Instead, I'm going to have the pre-game and post-game post.  Tom's done a lot of the UCB activities in the past and it's great to have him on board for this one as well.

The CardsClubhouse preview will be up later today, and there's still time to get into the Reds YNOT.

UCB: Game Blogging Project Lineup

Here's the backstory, if you are new to the blog.  Last fall, after the season was over and blogging topics were a little harder to come by, I contacted some of my fellow Cardinal bloggers to see if they were interested in some group blogging projects.  Various ideas were tossed around and we've done a few good ones in the intervening span.

For example, in November, we handed out the Cardinal Blogger Awards.  In December, we selected our Top 5 Stories of 2007.  January had us list out our personal Cardinal All-Star teams.  Then March turned into UCB month, what with our predictions, the roundtable, and the Answering the YNOT entry.  So, as you can read, we've been fairly busy.

One of the first ideas I had for these group, though, had to wait until the season started.  Now we are able to bring the Game Blog idea to life.  On Saturday, May 2nd, the Cardinals host the Cubs and the UCB will be recording it.

Each inning will be covered by a different blogger.  They'll bring their own take, biases, digressions, and style to the inning, giving you the feeling of seeing the same game through many different eyes.  As far as I know, this is the first time anything like this has been attempted!

So, with that in mind, let's see who is doing what in this project.  Note that assigned innings may change.

First Inning: Stan Musial's Stance
Prior UCB Experience: Top 5, All-Star, Roundtable
The Angry Rant isn't always talking Cardinals, but he's always interesting.

Second Inning: The Cardinal Virtue
Prior UCB Experience: None
John is our foreign correspondent, participating all the way from Ireland.

Third Inning: Mike on the Cards
Prior UCB Experience: Roundtable
Mike's a regular poster, full of good links and videos, all Cardinal related.

Fourth Inning: C70 At The Bat

Fifth Inning: CardinalNationGlobe
Prior UCB Experience: Awards, Top 5, All-Star, 08 Predictions
Deaner was one of the first to sign on to the UCB and one of the most active.

Sixth Inning: Rockin' the Red
Prior UCB Experience: Awards, Top 5, All-Star, Roundtable, YNOT
It wouldn't be a UCB project without Bryan chipping in.

Seventh Inning: Fungoes
Prior UCB Experience: None
Pip and possibly the most sabermetrically-focused Cardinal blog jumps into the fray.

Eighth Inning: The Redbird Blog
Prior UCB Experience: 08 Predictions, Roundtable
Don stays up to date with the Cardinals and the blogging from the Mountain Time Zone.

Ninth Inning: Redbird Ramblings
Prior UCB Experience: Awards, All-Star, 08 Predictions, Roundtable
Haedar will wrap it up for his fifth UCB appearance.

Everyone should have their entry up by Saturday evening or Sunday.  Don't worry, I'll post a reminder next week.  Plan to visit all of these great blogs regularly, but definitely next weekend!

The Wildest Times of the World

Lohse blowing a 2-0 lead.  Cards trailing 8-3.  Rallying for four, then scoring the tying run off a missed double play in the ninth.  12 innings.  Albert Pujols playing second.  And then the Brewer who scored the game winning run is traded to Tampa Bay.  (They couldn't do that just a little earlier?)  What's next, cats and dogs, living together?

It was a crazy game, made a little more so because it was a day game and I was following along at the CardsClubhouse game thread.  One of the great things about the internet and the rise of game threads (almost every forum has them now!) is that you can "watch" the game together.  As close as sitting with a bunch of people in the stands as you can get without spending money.

Anyway, it was a very unorthodox game.  Lots of what ifs.  Most people will dwell on the missed call by the umpire on Pujols's slide home.  I didn't see it, but it sure sounded like he was safe.  Obviously, that run plus the fact that it made first and third two outs instead of one out could have made a difference in the game.

The one I want to talk about, however, is one of LaRussa's questionable moves, at least in my mind.  As soon as a right hander came into the game, LaRussa pinch hit Rick Ankiel for Brian Barton.  This seemed a little bit of a knee-jerk reaction.  At the time, the Cards were down by 5, which seemed like a perfect opportunity to see what Barton could do.  I realize that TLR always goes all out for a win and the team did rally, but it didn't have much to do with Mr. Ankiel, who is really slumping right now.  Besides, if he'd kept Ankiel on the bench, he could have used him at a more strategic time.

Many people say that TLR doesn't like the youngsters, that he'll do anything not to play them.  A theory I've come up with in the last week or so is not that he doesn't like the young players.  I mean, look at his use of Kyle McClellan, the way he used the bullpen in 2006, his four ROYs under his watch, stuff like that.  No, I think what TLR's bias relates to is first impressions.

Rick Ankiel made a heck of a first impression as a pitcher and Tony immediately liked him.  Now, he'll go almost out of his way to give Ankiel shots.  Brian Barton started off the spring slow and didn't make the best of first impressions on the field.  That seems to be what LaRussa remembers and possibly part of why he starts on the bench.

It's not really a personality thing--I mean, he probably likes Barton as a person, just like he likes Brendan Ryan--but being that his first impression of Barton as a baseball player was negative, that keeps factoring into his decisions.

It's just a theory, but it seems to fit some of the decisions he's made over the last few years.

Anyway, back to the game.  It's a rare decision, but I think the Hero of the game has to be Aaron Miles, who went 4 for 5 with a run and an RBI while playing two different positions without an error.

The Goat is Jason Isringhausen, who quickly ruined the afternoon by allowing a walk, a stolen base and a hit.  You can't be walking people in the 12th if at all possible, especially when your first baseman is playing second and would have to cover on the steal.  (Though, to be fair, it sounded like Molina's throw was on the wrong side of the bag.)

While Izzy gets his third Goat of the year, it was one of the first and few times where you could actually consider Albert Pujols for the role.  Sure, AP had a nice game (2-6, 2 RBI, a run--should have been 2--scored) but look at his last two at-bats, when the game was on the line.  In the ninth, he impatiently swung at pitches with the game on the line and would have ended the game on a double play if not for Rickie Weeks' bad throw.  Then, in extras, he strikes out.  The Goat is not always about who had the worst game.

Still, I love his attitude about playing second.  (And also like the fact that he lobbied to play shortstop.  Like that was going to happen with his bad elbow, but the man wants to do anything he can to help the team.)  When he was given instructions about not turning a double play and to be careful, he said he would.  But later.....

"What do you think, that I wasn't going to turn a double play?" scoffed Pujols. "I was. I was going to turn a double play. I'd be careful. First of all, I'd make sure I catch the ball and not try to get too fancy and drop it. But I was going to try to turn it."

There's a reason he's the best.

So on to Pittsburgh, a land that has been favorable to the Cardinals in the past.  Last year, they went 12-6 against the Pirates and are 88-41 (.682) against them this century.  The last time the Cardinals had a losing record against the Bucs was 1999, when they went 5-7.

Tonight, Ian Snell tries to shut down the St. Louis machine.  El Hombre is really looking forward to this one.  He has four homers (and a .563 average) in 16 ABs against Snell.  There's a strong likelihood that Pujols will get his third three walk game of the season tonight.  The rest of the lineup looks pretty good against him as well.

Todd Wellemeyer is on the hill for the Cardinals.  Most of the Pirates haven't seen him much, but what they have seen, they've not liked.  Ronny Paulino does have two hits against him, however.

Finally, a couple of small notes.  If you've not heard, Brendan Ryan will be joining the team in Pittsburgh.  Brad Thompson is going down to Memphis for a bit, which is probably good because he's had some struggles in the bullpen in two of his three outings.

We've gotten one more blog to join our May 3rd game blogging project.  The Cardinal Virtue will be taking the second inning.  We still need one more volunteer and then the game will be set. (EDIT: We got it!  Fungoes is going to take an inning as well!)

Also, if for some reason you want these headlines on your site, check out the widget I created at WidgetBox.

A Giant Fall

You know, if someone had told me that the Cardinals were going to beat up on Matt Cain, I'd have felt pretty good about the rest of the series.  Saturday was not unexpected, because Lincecum can dominate with the best of them, but I didn't expect the shellacking the Cards had on Sunday.  Let's go through the games one at a time so we can establish the Heroes and the Goats, then we'll take a look at tonight's Brewers game.

I didn't get to hear much of the game Friday night, only a little portion as I was traveling between parts of my personal doubleheader (softball and a poker game).  The part I did here, though, was a lot of fun, as it was just after Albert Pujols's three-run home run and in the midst of that 12-batter fourth.  Looking through the box score, it's tough to pick out just one Hero since everyone had their hitting shoes on and both pitchers did very well, but I think I'll give it to Chris Duncan.  A tie-breaking two-run home run plus a double is a pretty good night.  As for the Goat, tough to say, but we'll do a bit of a make-up call and give it to Troy Glaus.  He did get one hit in three trips, but he left three on the bases.  Again, just the worst of a very good night for the Cardinals.

Saturday, again I didn't see much, but what I did was pretty expected.  Tim Lincecum is a tough pitcher to crack.  To some degree you'd want to stay close, hope his pitch count starts climbing and get into that bullpen.  There were some opportunities, though--he walked three and gave up six hits in his seven innings--but was able to negotiate out of them.  The key at-bat may have been in the fourth against Pujols, with two on and none out.  Pujols got up 3-0, but Linecum was able to work it back to 3-2 and then got Pujols's anxiousness working against him by getting him to chase ball 4.  That really took some life out of the team.

I'd still say, though, that the Goat for that game has to be Rick Ankiel, who went 0-3 and left four on base, including striking out after the Pujols at-bat described above. Rick's been in a little slump lately, hitting only .222 in his last seven games.  With him still learning the strike zone, he probably will go through good streaks and bad streaks.

Hero for Saturday would probably have to be Skip Schumaker, who continued to do his leadoff job well, going 2 for 4.  Joel Pineiro pitched much better in this one than he did in his first outing, though was still a little shaky allowing eight hits in just over six innings.

Sunday, well, there's no much good to say about Sunday.  I think it's fairly obvious the Goat should be Braden Looper, who had nothing, allowing 10 hits and 7 runs in three innings.  Anthony Reyes had some trouble in the first inning he came in, allowing runs to score, but settled down after that.  Hero-wise, I think we can give it to Troy Glaus, who went two for three, scored one of the runs and drove in the other.  Some kudos to Ron Villone as well, who pitched three scoreless innings.  I'm sure he wasn't expecting to get that kind of work when he signed on.

The Cardinals are the midst of their first slump of the season, losing three of their last four.  They need to get back on the winning track and tonight they get a chance to do that against the Brewers in a rematch of last Wednesday's game.

Adam Wainwright goes against Carlos Villaneuva tonight up in Milwaukee.  Last time these two got together, Villaneuva didn't make it through the fifth while Wainwright went 7.2 innings and hit a home run to boot.  The Cardinals have to be favored tonight, but it'd be great if some of the bats made it a less-than-stressful evening.  The preview for this series is up at CardsClubhouse, as well as the YNOT.

On the United Cardinal Blogger front, we are just two blogs short of our goal for our new project, so I'm going to detail it here and hope that it will intrigue a couple more blogs to contact me with their willingness to participate.

What we are going to do is a "progressive-dinner" type of game discussion for the Cards/Cub game on May 2nd.  Each blog will take an inning and discuss the game and any tangents that may come out of that inning.  For example, one blog may take a sabermetric approach to TLR's pitching change, one may have their opinions on Duncan playing for Brian Barton if he strikes out with runners on, various things like that.  It should be a way for you to see the whole game, but through nine different prisms, as it were.  The posts will not be live blogs, but will likely be posted on Saturday evening or Sunday.

Signed up so far (with innings requested if they have done so) are Stan Musial's Stance (first), CardinalNationGlobe (fifth), The Redbird Blog (eighth), Redbird Ramblings (ninth), Rockin' the Red and Mike on the Cards, along with myself, of course.  If you want in, e-mail me or drop me a note in the comments.

Also on the Network: √ Yanks Beat A Lefty? [Depressed Fan] √ Yanks Start Second Half With "W" [Green Pinstripes] √ All-Star Breather: The Giants Catchers [El Lefty Malo] √ Rock Is Dead; Shea Stadium July 18, 2008 [Loge 13] √ Citi Field Revealed (FYI: No Loge Here) [Loge 13] √ My Rifle, My Pony and Me [Beantown West] √ Quick Chicago roundup [Tremendous Upside Potential] √ Giants Reveal New Stadium Ticket Plans [Loge 13]