Recently in Washington Nationals Category

Another Downer

Really, was anyone surprised?

I missed both games yesterday, the afternoon win due to work and most of the evening one due to softball.  I did see them get down 5-0 and was pleasantly surprised to hear on the radio on my way home that the game was going into the bottom of the ninth.  I turned on the game at home to see the Cards up in the bottom of the 10th, but the Nats had a runner on and Ryan Franklin was pitching.

This is going to turn out badly, I thought.  And sure enough it did.

Since Izzy gave up the closer role, Franklin has pitched 9.1 innings.  Counting last night, he's given up four earned runs, for an ERA of 3.86.  Six of the nine outings, though, he's not been charged with any runs.  However, his WHIP in that span is 1.61, which is ridiculously high for a closer.  To put it in perspective, Izzy's WHIP for the year is 1.78.

I'd like to see Tony be a little more open to one of the rookies getting a shot in the ninth, but I think the more likely hope is that Izzy is mentally and physically ready soon to take the job.  And will Tony have to swallow a little pride and bring Anthony Reyes back to the majors after another disaster by Mike Parisi?

Hero of the second game has to be Mark Worrell.  Two scoreless innings with the team way down, then blasts a three-run homer in his first AB.  The Cards have had a number of people, including pitchers, do that in the last decade.  If I had more time, I'd look them up.  (About to leave the office, sorry!)

At least they won the first game, behind another blast by Troy Glaus.  He really does like the warmer weather!  The goat is a toss up between two players that went 0-3, but Aaron Miles left more men on than Brian Barton.  Awesome to see a pinch-hit HR by Pujols as well.

More draft today.  I'm sure everyone's seen that the Cards took a 3B with their first pick.  Sounds like a pretty solid hitter.  With David Freese, Allen Craig and now Brett Wallace, the hot corner is a popular place.

Cards and Houston tonight.  Looper vs. Moehler.  Could be a lot of fireworks at the bandbox.  Out of time, or I'd do the normal breakdown.  Enjoy the day!

Rain, Rain

Sometimes you can beat the rain, sometimes the rain beats you.

That gives the Cardinals the unenviable task of playing two games today right before an important series in Houston.  With Parisi going in game two, the Cards really need Wellemeyer to go seven or so to save the bullpen.

We've seen the stats on Wellemeyer and Lannon.  The second game has Parisi (who, of course, has never faced the Nationals) against Tim Redding.  Redding, a former Astros prospect, has been around a while.  Not many of the Cardinals have faced him, however, and of course the one that has had the most success won't be playing today.

Before the season started, I argued that the Cardinals would be an improved team, mainly because the pitching couldn't be that bad again.  We all have seen how improved the mound work has been, but it was recently brought home to me when I went to update the information I did last year.  What I found was a pleasant surprise.

The basic premise was games that the Cardinals had allowed double-digits in runs and then had been blown out by eight runs or more in those games.  Saturday's game against the Pirates was the first double-digit game allowed by the Cardinals this year.  To put this in perspective, by the end of May last year there had been four such games.  You'd have to go to 2003 to find another team that hadn't had more than one blowout by the end of May, and those are the only two teams in TLR's tenure in St. Louis.

You've got to admit it's getting better, getting better all the time..............

Today's the draft.  I'm out of the office, but many places will be keeping tabs.  Be sure to check out CCH and Future Redbirds for up to the minute information.

Cards Beat Nationals, Mother Nature

That was a heck of a game, huh?

Not that it was anything dramatic.  After Yadier Molina's home run, it was unlikely that the weakest hitting team in the National League was going to make much of a run.  But two rain delays really ruined whatever rhythm you could get in the game (not to mention my watching, which had to give up during the first one).

I don't do it very often, but I think you've got to give Cesar Izturis Hero of the Game honors.  A steal of home (on the front end of a double steal, but still)?  Plus three hits?  And no errors on a sloppy field?  Sounds like a pretty good all around game to me.

I hate to give Albert Pujols the Goat tag, because there's really no telling how much that calf was bothering him while he was in there, but he definitely tried to do too much in his first at-bat.  After all the stats about him crushing Odalis Perez, he reached for ball 4 and hit a weak grounder that would have been two if Felipe Lopez hadn't bobbled it.  A walk would have been fine there instead of going after that pitch.

All that aside, hopefully the calf won't be a problem and he can be back out there today.  The lineup loses so much without him and, since the Cubs apparently will never lose again, the Cards need to keep winning if they are going to stay close.  Though if he had to miss a game, the ones against Washington probably would be the least damaging.

It's almost mind-boggling that Kyle Lohse came back out after both rain delays.  After throwing four innings and having an almost two hour stoppage, you rarely see the starter continue.  But to add another one on top of that was just asking for trouble, I'd think.  I know TLR wanted to get him a win if at all possible, but was it worth risking him hurting himself?  It panned out, though, so I guess we'll defer to the skipper on this one.

Matt Clement had a strong rehab outing yesterday.  It's tough to get worked up about these--even Mark Mulder had some good starts--but it definitely is better than the alternative.  And Derrick Goold gives reasons why even though the numbers are similar, Clement had a better outing than Mulder.

Pitch time:  I occasionally get a message from XM's marketing agency asking for a plug in the blog.  Since I'm a big XM fan, I try to oblige.  This time, it has to do with the First-Year Player Draft coming up tomorrow.  You'll be able to hear the whole thing on XM 188.  That's the official feed, with no comments or anything.  If you want a little analysis with your draft, try XM 186.  And there's a special XM/ESPN special on XM 141 today starting at 6 pm.

I know Future Redbirds is all over the draft and they've gotten me interested to see what direction the Cardinals take.  It'd be nice to get a high-ceiling guy for once and have him pan out!

Today's game features the NL Pitcher of the Month against John Lannan.  Lannan's first start this year was against the Cardinals and he allowed two runs in 6.2 innings.  Unfortunately for him, that was enough to get the loss tacked on to his record as Loshe shut out the Nationals.  That was his only career outing against the Cards, so he's still somewhat of a blank slate.

Wellemeyer hasn't faced the Nationals this year.  He's going to be even fresher to the Washington hitters, as they have only a combined 16 plate appearances against him.  Hopefully his May success will carry over and give the Cardinals a series win with a game to play.

Playing It On The Field

My father used to tell me, "That's why they play the game."  You don't play it on paper (unless it's fantasy baseball, but that's a totally different topic), you have to actually go out there and try to win a game that everything says should be yours.

The Cardinals would have liked to have it stay in the realm of the theoretical last night, though until the seventh everything was panning out just like you'd expect.  I didn't get to see much of the game, having a meeting to go to last night, but when I turned off the radio the Cards had just scored their third run and were looking for more.  I figured it was their night, since Pujols smashed a 3-0 pitch right to the third baseman and everyone was safe.

I turn the game back on after my meeting and Pittsburgh is up 5-4.  It wasn't until later when I read about the pinch-hit grand slam, which turned the game completely around.

I think Adam Wainwright said it the best:

"You just can't give up a grand slam right there. It's the worst I've ever felt after a game."

Again, the Cards showed that they have trouble finishing off a struggling pitcher early and adding on to early leads.  There is no way that Gorzelanny should have gone six innings with the way he started off the game.  This offense tends to sputter sometimes, catching early then dying off.

Heroically, Albert Pujols was at it again, with a 2-4, 2 RBI night.  Pujols said that not having the postseason to worry about would probably help him be rested and ready for the season.  I think we've seen that theory has some merit.  Joe Mather also had a very nice game as the rookie gets adjusted to major league life.

That wasn't the best way to send the team off on a long road trip, but you deal with what you have.  Tonight the Cardinals will be playing in our nation's capital, with Kyle Lohse taking on Odalis Perez.  Lohse has been OK against the current National hitters, giving up a home run only to Dmitri Young.  Lohse also has faced the Nationals this year and threw seven scoreless innings against them in April.

And, though he doesn't have the greatest numbers against Lohse at least, the Cards will probably dodge a bit of a bullet this series as Ryan Zimmerman continues to sit out nursing an injury and could be placed on the DL soon.

Perez has always been Pujols's favorite whipping boy. The rest of the Cardinals aren't anything special against him, but AP has 5 HR and 14 hits in 21 ABs.  That's dominance and it'll probably get him four wide ones in any situation with runners on tonight.  Perez gave up five runs in four innings against the Redbirds in the earlier meeting between the two teams.

The Washington YNOT is up and the series preview will be up later this morning.

Oh, there's been a Matt Clement sighting!  Apparently today will start his 30-day rehab stint in the minors.  Hopefully it has a better ending that Mark Mulder's did.  It's not obvious who he'd replace in the rotation, really, but a fresh arm around the All-Star Break could be a nice addition to the team.

And congratulations to Todd Wellemeyer for being NL Pitcher of the Month, an award that puts him in good company.  (Hat tip: VEB)

Riding the Wave

Hey, look who has the best record in baseball!

OK, so the Cardinals are tied with the Brewers at 5-1, but still, for a team that was supposed to go nowhere and get there very rapidly, the Cardinals have come out of the gate looking strong.  Of course, I was feeling a little better about the quick start until I read VEB this morning.  Hot starts are nice and definitely preferable to the alternative, but it doesn't have much predictive value.

Then again, none of those teams had Rick Ankiel on them.

I really wanted to give the Hero award to someone else for a change.  Kyle Lohse's pitching I thought was going to be able to get the award away from our latest phenom.  But when you factor in the fact that he drove in two of the three runs with two extra base hits plus had a spectacular catch, how do you go anywhere else?

Lohse, though, has definitely been a shot in the arm for the Cards.  I wasn't big on his signing, but so far it's definitely paid dividends.  12 scoreless innings now isn't anything to laugh at, even if the Rockies have started in a slump and Washington isn't necessarily a powerhouse.

Very tough to single out a Goat in this game.  The only error was Molina on a stolen base, but that didn't hurt the Cards and Yadi also went 1-3.  In fact, almost everyone had a hit or reached base save Adam Kennedy, so by default, he'll get the Goat.   Just proves that all Goats are not created equal.

The Cards have a nice record, but they have been playing on some thin margins.  When you go 1 for 13 with runners in scoring position, you aren't going to win a lot of the time.  The starters have an ERA under 1.00--that's not going to hold.  After six games, their run differential is +12--nice, but it could be stronger.

We'll see how this team looks when they are on the road.  They still aren't facing the cream of the NL--Houston's pitching is weak and the Cards miss Oswalt, then they go play the train wreck that is San Francisco--but it should give a little better indication of how they are going to look in a month or so.

What is positive is the way the Cardinals have been dealing with left-handers.  In the past, about all a team had to do was throw someone that threw from the port side on the mound and St. Louis would struggle.  I think my three-year-old would baffle them, if he threw southpaw.  You'd expect that to get worse with all the lefthanded batters that are in the lineup this year.  But the Cardinals haven't really had problems of that sort so far.  Tonight will be the fourth consecutive lefty that they'll face, and they've beaten the other three.

Todd Wellemeyer makes his second start of the year against Houston.  They've not seen a lot of him, with Carlos Lee doing the most damage off of him.  He's not allowed any extra-base hits to the Houston batters, though.

Wandy Rodriguez takes the mound for the Astros.  The Cardinals have seen him a little more than the Astros have seen Wellemeyer, but not much.  Here's something you won't see often: Albert Pujols is 0-9 against Rodriguez.  In fact, the Cards have had trouble with him in the past.  You know, that whole lefty thing.

Should be a good, low-scoring game.  And there's still time to get in on the Houston YNOT, if you want!

A Couple With The Nats

They haven't been easy, but the Cards have another series win after taking the first two from the Nationals.  Ironically, it's been the aspect that people thought was a strength before the season--the bullpen--that's been causing all the heartburn.

Let's look at Friday night first.  I've never been shy in noting that I'm not a big fan of Braden Looper in the rotation.  I think his season last year was overrated somewhat, with his numbers skewed by a strong April.  While he could be serviceable, he'd be someone I'd look at first to move either to the bullpen or to another team when the injured pitchers return.

That said, he did a pretty darn good job on Friday, limiting the damage against the Nationals to one run and five hits in his six innings.  He left with a 5-1 lead (this is about where I turned it on) and most fans, I expect, thought that another one was in the books.

You had to know there was trouble when Cristian Guzman, who hardly ever gets hits, much less muscles up, sent one over the wall against Russ Springer.  The next two batters reach via hit and that's Springer's night.  For that performance, he received not only a DL stint but Friday night's Goat award.

Other potential goats were Ron Villone, for walking the bases loaded, and Troy Glaus, whose error on a ball that hit him in the glove plated the fourth Nationals run.  Kyle McClellan did a heck of a job with what he was given.  It's obvious that he's going to be in bigger and bigger situations as the season goes on.  LaRussa really trusts the kid--which would surprise some--and he's so far producing.

If he'd come in and had a one-two-three inning, Jason Isringhausen would probably have gotten the Hero award.  But even striking out the side doesn't seem so great when you put the tying and winning runs on.  Still, he was in consideration.  Cesar Izturis got a couple of hits (side note: unlike errors, the Goat award is never reviewed after the fact).  You have to like McClellan's work.  But I think, due to the home run giving the Cards an early lead, the Hero again goes to Rick Ankiel.

On to Saturday.  The Hero is pretty obvious on this one.  Adam Wainwright was, well, what'd you expect out of a staff ace.  Eight innings, two earned runs, four strikeouts, and even chipped in an RBI single. You also could consider Izturis (again!) for reaching base three times.  Yadier Molina probably would have gotten the nod if Wainwright didn't after a 2-4 day with 2 RBI.

He didn't blow the game, but for getting it as close as he did, the Goat has to go to Anthony Reyes.  About as opposite from his last outing as you can get.   I was watching the game while playing with the kids and, from what I could tell, the first hit that Reyes gave up was on a pretty decent pitch.  However, giving up a home run after that, putting the game in jeopardy, wasn't what you'd want to see.  And then he had to watch Randy Flores get the easiest save ever--throw one pitch, get a fly ball, game over.

Both games were similar--good starting pitching, fairly solid offense, and heart attacks induced by the bullpen.  Even when they were successful, they were scary.  The box score shows Ryan Franklin with a hold on Friday, with one unblemished inning.  However, two of those batters hit long fly balls, the last had Ankiel up against the wall to catch it.

I've been reading the Baseball Prospectus annual and I just got to the Cardinal section today.  One of the points that continually popped up in the player writeups was just how much went right for the Cardinal bullpen last year, such as low BABIP numbers, things that would be expected to revert to form--or worse--this year.  Hopefully having players like McClellan, maybe Perez later on, whatever happens with the rotation when players start returning, things like that will negate those like Springer and Franklin that may slide from last year's results.

Speaking of returning, it looks like Joel Pineiro will be in St. Louis pretty soon.  We may see him before Tax Day, which means that decision time will be coming for the Cardinals.  I'd guess one of Thompson or Wellemeyer would move to the rotation and Kelvim Jimenez, who came up with Springer's injury, going back to the minors.  What will happen when Springer gets healthy could be interesting.  Also, Mark Mulder threw in extended spring training, so we may see him in the middle of May.

Something tells me John Mozeliak is keeping the trade lines open, in case this surplus holds.

Did I Miss Anything?

You know, I start a Cardinal blog, and it's been occasionally tough to find something interesting to write on. I want to keep this site fresh, but sometimes it's tough to know what to put down on cyber-paper, if you will.

Then I go on vacation, and all the news spills out:

• LaRussa returns to the 1998 experiment and starts hitting the pitcher in the 8th slot.


• The Nationals sweep the Cardinals.


• The Cards tie a MLB record with ten consecutive hits in a game.


• Scott Spiezio goes on the restricted list so as to enter drug and alcohol rehab.


• The prodigal outfielder Rick Ankiel finally makes his second-life major league debut, smacking a homer to boot.


• Ankiel then has a two-home-run day.


• LaRussa and Juan Encarnacion battle it out in the press.


• The pitching staff actually comes around, with quality start after quality start.


• Adam Kennedy is sidelined with knee problems, perhaps for the rest of the season.


• The Cards win 4 of 6 against good teams from San Diego and Los Angeles.

And, in the midst of all of this, even after the slide in Pittsburgh and Washington, the Cards sit 5.5 games out of the NL Central and about 4 games behind the Cubs. After being written off by a lot of people, including me, the Cardinals are still in the thick of things come mid-August.

Let's hit a few of the points above before moving on to a look-forward of this week:

  Continue Reading

More on the Move

As Lando said, "This deal is getting worse all the time!"

All it takes was a simple sentence from Cardinal beat reporter Bernie Miklasz. "Pineiro will start a game this weekend." So a reliever who hasn't started in a couple of years (stop me if you've heard THAT one before) is going to move straight into our rotation at a time when we are trying to get some momentum going. That just doesn't seem logical. Sure, he might get a little boost because he's never pitched in the NL before and players won't have seen him, but that doesn't seem like the reason you'd throw him right into the mix, especially since he's not shown in his performance, well, ever, that he deserves to be there.

But then I took a look at the rotation for this weekend in Washington. Anthony Reyes, Kip Wells and Adam Wainwright. Assuming that the weekend rotation is right and people won't be moved up or back, who do you think will miss the start? Wainwright is the closest thing we have to an ace right now--he's pitching every time out like clockwork. Wells has struggled most of the year, but is improving lately as we've documented here. Plus, even when he was struggling it took a long time before LaRussa and Duncan gave up.

Which leaves us with the 2007 Whipping Boy of the Year, Anthony Reyes. Even though he got his first win this last time out against the Brewers, the same team that leads the division. Even though he looked extremely sharp and conserved pitches. Even though we have to have players like him (read young, cheap and talented) to compete in this division going forward. Even though even in his rough year he's had more success than, say, Mike Maroth. All of this apparently will be going out the window and he's being told that a crappy reliever can come in and do his job better than he can.

I don't know that Reyes is going to be the savior of the staff. I don't know that he'll ever be more than a #3 starter. But until he gets a chance to get out there and pitch the way he knows how and the way he's proved he can in the majors, we are never going to know. And being that he is out of options and must be on the major league roster in 2008, this would be a good time to find out what he's got.

I seriously can't believe they didn't trade him off today, if this is true. They've obviously got no use for him. Hopefully it's just a situation where he gets moved up or back a day, something like that. Otherwise, I really question the management of this team.

EDIT: Thankfully, there are a few sane heads around there. According to the official site, Reyes has been moved to Thursday, with Pineiro scheduled for Saturday.

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]