Cards Fan in Cubs Land

New Blog

2006-03-05T13:43:00.000-06:00

I finally got a new blog. I am writing on the Cards at the NL central blog at www.michaeljansen.net

Over-Pitching

2005-08-28T08:28:00.000-05:00

It is great to see Jason Marquis get his first career shutout. It is great to see Chris Carpenter get a complete game almost every start to improve is Cy Young resume. BUT, maybe La Russa should consider giving these guys a rest. Considering last year when Carpenter got hurt (they call it a fluke nerve thing, but less pitching could not have hurt) and Mulder sucked down the stretch for the A's, I think a little rest would be nice for the rotation.

I read today that La Russa has Carpenter mapped out for four days rest until the end of the season so that he will be lined up for the first playoff game. Basically, what Tony wants is Carpenter pitching on Sept. 28th, five days before the first playoff games could be. I think that him and Duncan can work something out where the Ace gets either a couple extra rest days along the way, or skips one start entirely. It may slightly hurt his Cy Young numbers, but it is worth it.

On Sept. 1st the rosters expand and Anthony Reyes should come back up. Even though he has struggled in AAA since his great MLB debut, he should get a start or two to help give the rotation rest.

In my book, Marquis has to pitch one more great game and not have any more ugly starts (more than 5 ER) in order to bump Suppan from the playoff rotations. There are two other key advantages to having Marquis as the odd man out.

Pinch Hitting and Running. There would be a question whether he sits in the dugout or bullpen. Essentially he would expand the roster to 26 players since he is a relief pitcher and a pinch hitter.
Shorter innings. Before his last two starts, Marquis had a regular pattern of pitching 5 or six good innings before collapsing in the last part of the game when he gets up in the pitch count. He gets tired, he elevates the ball, people smack it. Out of the bullpen that is not an issue.

Oh No, only 17 games

2005-08-13T09:20:00.000-05:00

Well the Cubs took the first two of the four game set in Wrigley. While the fans in blue shout SCOREBOARD, the fans in red can one up them with STANDINGS. Thanks to the Cards sweeping the Brewers and everyone sweeping the Cubs before the series the Cubs Cards rivarly race is officially dead with most of the season series still to come. However, it would still be nice to take the last two games of this series and to even it up. The game starting in three hours should be nice to watch as the NL Cy Young so far is up against Jerome Williams, an official nobody.

Looking ahead

2005-08-07T12:37:00.000-05:00

Days: The Cards have one more against the Braves and Carpenter is pitching so they should take the rubber match of the three game series. Jorge Sosa, who was a reliever last time I checked, is starting against him. I just looked at his stats and he has been pitching really well as a starter for the last month. Then the Cards go to Miller Park for three games. Hopefully they can grab two games there before a series with the Cubs. It'll be the first trip to Wrigley Field this year and the Cubs will be looking to send a message. I am not sure what the message will be, probably something like, "We are going to get back to 500 and we are going to do it against you." The Cubs are making the playoffs seem less likely every day, so by the time the Cards get there they will be shooting for moral victories like that one.

Weeks: The Cards have been playing 500 ball since the injuries started piling up. That's fine considering the division lead is still ten games. Houston made a charge a week ago but they have leveled out and will probably play around 500 too. They should win two out of three when ever Oswalt, Clemens and Pettitte pitch and lose most of the Wandy Rodriguez (Wan-Rod?) and Eziquiel Astacio (Eazy-A?) games. Hopefully Molina will be back soon, since the Mahoney/Diaz situation has been awful. It seems like the order for returning will be Molina, Walker, Sanders, Rolen. Of course Walker coming back will probably mean four games per week. Fortunately, unlike the Mahoney/Diaz situation, the J-Rod/Taguchi/Mabry/Nunez (Seabol/Gall) situations have been wonderful. So when the outfielders and Rolen come back they can ease back and take plenty of rest in September.

Playoffs: Which injured players will be back is still a big question. But once Molina gets back the lineup will look a lot better. The rotation, which has been injury free since mid April, is looking good for the playoffs. Carpenter is clearly the game one starter. Morris and Mulder are the obvious number two and three, in either order. Marquis and Suppan will compete for the fourth and final spot in the playoff rotation. Right now neither one of them is making much of a push. My vote would go to Suppan, who is the more consistent of the pitchers. A big reason is that Marquis would be a better pitcher out of the bullpen. He has more powerful stuff and could come in the game in a jam let it rip for an inning or two better than Suppan. Also, it would make Marquis available as a pinch hitter or pinch runner effectively increasing the playoff roster size by one.

2006: The number one need is a corner outfielder. Walker is going to retire and Sanders is a free agent. There are four options:

Jocketty Trades for someone either now (waivers) or in the offseason.
We resign Sanders for probable about 4 million a year, since he hitting as well as he did when we gave him his current deal.
We sign a different free agent. Corner outfield is the only place that the free agent pool is not terribly weak. There is Hideki Matsui, Brian Giles, and Jacque Jones available. Giles would be a wonderful choice. He walks a ton of times. His power is down this year so his price tag might not be unreasonable.
Give someone we already have a chance. J-Rod, or Raul Gonzalez, Taguchi, and Mabry are all possibilities, but I don't like the sound of it.

Matt Morris is the number two question. He is due to a big pay raise. He went from 12.5 million in 2004 to 2.5 in 2005 and is having his best season in a couple years. Losing Walker's contract will free up money to make a good offer. However, Morris may be the best pitcher on the market and there is a team in New York that needs starters and likes to overpay for veterans that are on the decline. The other four starters either have contracts or option through next year. The fifth spot could go to Anthony (not Al) Reyes who is ready for a big league shot.

Besides that the Cards need to resign Grudzielanek and the major questions are answered.

This Just In

2005-07-25T16:42:00.000-05:00

As i finished my last post I saw this news on MLB.com

Here is the new possible line up:

SS: Nunez
CF: Taguchi
LF: J-Rod
1B: Mabry
RF: Gall
3B: Seabol
2B: Luna
C: Mahoney
P: Marquis

Anybody else wish that this was a Memphis Redbirds line-up. Tony might have to consider batting Marquis 8th (or seventh, or sixth, or first.)

They may have won the battle but...

2005-07-25T16:23:00.000-05:00

I made a trip to St. Louis this Saturday to catch the Cards/Cubs game. Going in it was a dream come true.

Cards vs. Cubs in Busch Stadium
Cards have a 14 game lead over the Cubs
Matt Morris (11-2) vs. Jerome Williams (Recently in AAA)
I am carrying a two year long (about 15 game) Cardinals winning streak in games I attend.
I have seen about ten Cubs game and one seen them win once ever.

So, its' in the bag right? Morris went into his usual day game form and gave up three dingers. Pujols had a chance to win it in the bottom of the ninth and hit the ball as hard as he could right into Todd Walker's glove for a double play. So I ended up sitting four hours in the 100 degree weather to see a Cubs win.

Then last night the Cubs win another close one. There will be a lot of second guessing La Russa for walking Lee and Ramirez but I have no problem with it at all. If I could put the game in Neifi Perez's hands every day I will do it and when he comes through I will tip my hat.

The good news:

The Cards won on Friday night on a heart stopping walk-off suicide squeeze.
Despite dropping the series the Cards are still 12 up over the Cubs and 11 back over the Astros.
The weather is always nice in San Diego, where the Cardinals play this week. Game one is Woody Williams against his replacement Mulder.

On the ESPN broadcast La Russa said he was hoping for both Rolen and Sanders to be ready to go September 1st. He likes to play that trick since it allows him to set his playoff rosters after the deadline since players come off the DL in September. That would give Rolen an entire month to rest and rehab. The Cards NEED both of these guys for the playoffs, especially if Jocketty does not make a move for outfield help.

Comeback & Midseason

2005-07-19T18:34:00.000-05:00

The last three weeks have been a little crazy for me and my blog has suffered because of it. But I am back again and there will be a lot of Cardinal love being passed around. Also, Cards Fan in Cubs Land is due for a format change since this Cards fan is not in Cubs land anymore. But I don't have the time to mess around with that yet. I do have time to do a Midseason recap.

I will start off with my
MIDSEASON AWARDS for the Cardinals and MLB

Cardinals MVP: Albert F'in Pujols. He is having another stellar season. This season he has been a lot more consistent than in his other years. Which is amazing because he has been Mr. Consistency since 2001. He finished the first half top five in the triple crown stats. But triple crown stats are bullshit. Instead of Average, RBI, HRs, I prefer OBP, Runs Created, and Slugging Percentage. It just happens that Pujols is top five in all of those as well. He leads the Cards in a lot of categories. He plays almost everyday. He is great with his glove now. He has stolen nine bases. I could keep going but I need to move on.

MLB MVP: Albert Pujols. There is no more valuable player on a division leading team in the first half. I did not want to do this and be a huge homer. But in terms of Most valuable it's got to go to Albert.

MLB Ted Williams Award: Derrek Lee. I am making up an award that needs to exist. It is the best player award. Not the "Most Valuable" the best player can play for any team. Awards are cooler when they have names like in hockey. Ted Williams never won a World Series, so he is a good person to name it for. I am not going to give one to a Cardinal since they are good. Obviously the MLB award goes to Derrek Lee and his close call on the first half triple crown. Honorable mentions go to A-Rod, Brian Roberts, and Roger Clemens.

Cardinals Cy Young: Chris Carpenter. Duh, he is domination station. He is getting better with every start. In the first half he won 13 games with an ERA plummeting down to about two and a half. Of course people don't like wins is a stupid stat and the Saber guys don't like ERA, so how is 8.9 k/9 and 16 quality starts. He got the start of the All-Star game because La Russa managed, but unlike some of the other big names, he did not give up any runs. Morris has been good, Izzy has been good, Carp has been spectacular.

MLB Cy Young: Roger Clemens. Like I said wins is a stupid stat. Clemens only has seven. The Twins have a middle reliever named Crain who has 8 wins in 42 innings. Does that mean Crain is better than Clemens? Anybody that can keep an ERA below on and a half for three months deserves an award. He also has a WHIP below one and a good number of Ks. Honorable mentions D-Train, Halladay, Carp, Pedro, Buehrle.

Cardinals Walt Jocketty Award: Grud the Stud. Last year I made up this award to go to the best Cardinals newcomer because the Cardinals did not have any rookies. This year the only rookies are pitching limited innings out of the bullpen. Grudzielanek and Eckstein were the two clear choices for this award. They both have pretty good numbers and have played a lot. I gave it to Mark because he was a better acquisition with only a 1 million dollar deal.

MLB Rookie of the Year: Chris Young. Due to a wise fantasy pick-up I had a small man-crush on Clint Barmes. If he had not gone grocery shopping he would surely be here. Instead it falls to the Chris Young. It took about a month for me to figure out who this guy was after being confused by seeing "Texas 5, A's 2 W: C. Young L: D. Haren" on the ESPN bottom line and being very confused that Cy Young was back from the dead.

Cardinals LVP: Roger Cedeno. A few years ago he signed a big deal with the Mets to be a five tool outfielder. The problem now is that he can't hit anymore, can't run anymore, can't field anymore, and doesn't have any power. I never really noticed if his arm is strong.

MLB LVP: Corey Patterson. He spent the first half of the season in the big leagues, he might spend the entire second half down in the minors. He had a .270 OBP. As my buddy Mike Ryan at Old Style Cubs says he is a slick fielding center fielder with power and speed, and he's never seen a pitch he didn't like. Honorable mention: Mike Lowell, Nomo.

MLB Manager: Ozzie Guillen. The best record in the first half with a mediocre lineup, a questionable bullpen and two Cuban pitchers that other teams didn't want. I'm hoping for an I-55 World Series.

They're not saying "Boo" they're saying "Soup"

2005-06-25T17:17:00.000-05:00

I was at the game last night, which was nice. It is the only time I will ever see two Taguchi dingers and a Molina dinger in the same game. Throw in two from Edmonds and 8 strong innings from Suppan, you got yourself a winner. It runs the Cardinals winning streak in games I attend up around a baker's dozen. I think the Cards should just go ahead and give me season tickets, so they can win every game.

Besides the long balls, it was really nice to see such a good long outing from Suppan. He has had several starts since he has been a Redbird where he confusses hitters and has shutouts go into the fifth or sixth inning. Usually he gets tired at that point, or hitters figure him out and he gives up a few runs and leaves the game. Last night that inning did not come until the ninth. At that point all the Cards needed was Ray King to come in and get one ground ball.

A few roster moves have the Cards bloggers buzzing, so I figured I would give my take:

Luna moves up for Seabol. Bad call, Tony says we need another shortstop to give Eckstein rest. But we have Nunez, a natural shortstop and a switch hitter, so he should be able to give David rest any day of the week. Seabol clearly is a better hitter that Luna. He even hits better in the bigs than Luna does at AAA. It will not be devastating, but hopefully, Seabol will be back on the bench heading into September.
Cedeno is done for. When Roger got "hurt" all Cards fans were glad to see him off the active roster. But we were all a little worried that he would come back when his time on the DL was up. Fortunatley, the Cards optioned him to AAA. Another team could go after him and make the Cards happy and the Mets thrilled.
The Cards traded for an infielder named Tim Hummel. With Seabol going back down, things are going to be crowded at Memphis, I hope a player to be named later is more like Crash Davis than a prospect.
Randy Flores goes to the DL, Carmen Cali comes up. Bill Pulsipher anybody? I am not sure which one is hotter right now, but I keep seeing headlines about Pulsipher having good outings.

Derrek Lee and Mark McGwire

2005-06-24T17:57:00.000-05:00

This might just be me, and tell me if I am crazy, but the Cards/Cubs rivalry in 2005 is starting to look a lot like it did in 1998 with a change of roles.

In 1998 Mark McGwire broke the home run record, duh, for the first time since the 60s. In 2005 Derrek Lee is going after the triple crown for the first time since the 60s.

In 1998 Sosa was McGwire's main competition and if it were not for Big Mac, Sosa would have had the all time record. This year Mr. Pujols is Lee's biggest competition, since he is in the top five in all the NL triple crown stats. If it were not for Lee, people would be having the usual discussion about Pujols chasing the triple crown.

In 1998 even though McGwire took won the home run battle, the Cubs won the playoff war. In 2005 it looks like Cubs fans will have to settle for individual accomplishment or a wildcard birth.

Lee and McGwire are American, Pujols and Sosa are Dominican.

Also remember that in 1998 Sosa, not Big Mac won the NL MVP since his team made the playoffs. If the Cubs do not make the playoffs this year, will they give the MVP to Pujols even if Lee wins the triple crown and Pujols is second or third in each category? I doubt it.

Meltdowns

2005-06-23T17:21:00.000-05:00

Chernobyl. Marquis. Mulder.

On May 9th, Mulder and Marquis were both 5-1 and pitching well. Since then most of the wins either one of them has picked up has been due purely to run support (Although Marquis usually provides his own). Each one hit rock bottom in Cinci giving up early runs and being chased out of the game by the fourth inning. I am officially calling out Mulder, Marquis, and Dave Duncan to stop the decline. Gentlemen, it's go time.

Good news:
1) We play Pittsburgh for four games.
2) I am in St. Louis and going to the game Friday and the Cards have a winning streak of near a dozen in games that I attend home or away.
3) The Cubs lost to the Brew Crew despite D-Lee's 3 for 4 two home run day.
4) Matty-Mo goes for 9 and 0.

Pulling away, top five pitchers

2005-06-21T19:09:00.000-05:00

Last post I made was one day before the Cards lost the third game of the series against the Blue Jays. It was the first series the Cards had lost in over a month. How do they respond? A sweep of the lowly D Rays. Conveniently, the Cubs got swept by the Yankees at the same time expanding the Cards NL Central lead to 9.5. I am not saying that the race is over, but nine and a half is a big lead anytime of the year.

Bring on the Reds, the Cards number one whipping boy since the dominant Cardinals showed up last May. We took game one in style behind Chris Carpenter. I said it after his last start and I will say it again: Carpenter is one of the five best pitchers in the National League. Clearly that list starts with Roger Clemens. The other four spots are debatable but Chris Carpenter over the last two years is up there.

Canadia

2005-06-15T10:55:00.000-05:00

Anything Halladay can do Carpenter can do better. Carpenter's start (and finish) last night is challenging Mulder's 10 inning gem for the best Cards start this season. By the end of the season Carpenter should once again prove himself to be the club's best starter. If he is healthy this year the smart money is on Chris starting game one of the playoffs. Carpenter is quietly turning in to one of the best pitchers in the league. He has a great mix of power pitching and finesse. Unless Morris regains his old power, Carpenter is going to have twice as many strikeouts as any other Cardinal. At the same time he can get groundballs like the rest of the rotation. Last night was a perfect example as he had 10 ks, 12 groundballs and only four flyballs. He started off with pure power striking out five of six. Then, as power pitchers do, he walked a man. Immediately, he took a little off and got a ground ball for the double play. After that he had a mix of groundballs and strikeouts that ended in him only throwing 95 pitches for the CG and about two feet away from a no hitter.

As much as the out of town media like to talk about the power of the Cards lineup, it is the pitching staff that makes them the best team in the league. Along with Morris and Mulder the Cards top three will take the Pepsi challenge with any other rotation in baseball. Marquis is posed to a have a better year than his breakout season last year and Suppan is good enough to be the third starter on 20 teams. Combine that with the NL's best healthy closer and at least four solid middle relievers (Tavarez, King, Reyes, Thompson, Eldred?, Flores?) and the Cardinals pitching is at least as dominant as the lineup.

But the lineup still is great. A couple days ago Larry Walker told us that his tank is just about empty and that he won't be wearing red in 2006. Apparently, the low gas indicator light came on a little early as Walker hit two monster dingers, which lifted his OPS up over 800. Pujols hit another dinger and went 3 for 4 to keep chasing Derrick Lee in the triple crown stats, but Lee went 4 for 5 with a dinger of his own.

The batter I enjoyed the most last night may have been Yadier Molina. He was only one for four, but could have easily been four for four. He worked the count in every at bat, fouled off several pitches and hit line drives. The first three were shallow line drives that could have fallen for hits, but two of them were right at charging outfielders. The last line drive was a rocket that Vernon wells caught on a jog at the track in the deepest part of the park.

If Molina and Larry Walker start hitting well things should get even better. Then in a week when Rolen gets back the Cards can forget about only taking two out of three games each series and start sweeping everybody.

The Draft

2005-06-07T13:05:00.000-05:00

Throughout my college career, I have found many ways to procrastinate. Usually video games (Smash Brothers, Halo, MVP Baseball) do the trick. Now, it is my last week of college ever. I have a big report due and two finals coming up. In order to put off this work I needed something special. I needed something so mindless that my brain can actually turn off for ten minutes at a time. Only one thing could fulfill my need, the MLB draft.

MLB.com has provided live video coverage of this event. Unlike the NFL or NBA draft, the players in the MLB draft are people that no one has ever heard of. The good news is that the entire first round took about 20 minutes, which is about 8 hours faster than the NFL' s marathon style. I am sure that by the end of the week TheSTLCardinal.com will have a well informed full post on the draft, but for now I will pretend that I have some idea what is going on.

The Cardinals had two first round picks, a high school center fielder named Colby Rasmus, and a college shortstop named Tyler Greene.

This Colby fellow seems to be a huge power hitter center fielder, for a high schooler. Apparently, he is also a left handed power pitcher. He is just out of high school, so it is anybodies guess where he will end up in a few years. Woody Williams was drafted as a shortstop that could pitch a little. Of course, the Cards have a need for an outfielder next year, but I am sure this guy is several years away.

Tyler Greene has always been a big prospect and apparently is a huge prospect now, the problem is that he is a Boras client. Like all Boras clients he dropped significantly in the draft, so if the Cards can sign him he will be a steal at pick number 30. I was a little confused about whether his name was Tyler or James, so I looked it up and it is James Tyler Greene.

The Georgia Tech website has his 2005 stats as follows:

Player           AVG  GP-GS    AB   R   H  2B  3B  HR RBI   TB  SLG%  BB HBP  SO GDP   OB%  SF  SH  SB-ATT   PO   A   E  FLD

5 Tyler Greene  .373  59-59   260  75  97  15   3  12  72  154  .592  38   6  68   4  .464   0   4  30-31   101 193  19  .939

and his full scouting report here. His fielding, according to the scouting report, is solid so he should stay at shortstop. Hopefully, he will be a solid option when Eckstein's option is up after 2007. Of course that all depends on him signing. This year, the little brothers Drew and Weaver held out all year but eventually gave up and signed contracts that were very close to their original offers. So, Boras clients are signable for reasonable deals.
_____________________________________________________

In the supplemental first round the Cards picked tow right handed pitchers. Power guy Mark McCormick from Baylor and high schooler Tyler Herron. So that makes two position players, two pitchers, two college guys, two high schoolers, and two Tylers.

This McCormick guy looks like the new hotness. His stats for last year are like this:

Player               ERA   W-L   APP  GS  CG SHO/CBO SV    IP   H   R  ER  BB  SO  2B  3B  HR   AB B/Avg   WP HBP  BK  SFA SHA
26 McCormick, Mark.  3.12   7-3    17  17   0   0/0    0  92.1  60  41  32  55  97   8   1   2  325  .185   10   9   1    2   6

His scouting report says that he came out of high school throwing 99 mph.

Here is some stuff about Tyler Herron.

Scrub Weeks Recap

2005-06-06T08:23:00.000-05:00

The Cards just finished up five series against five of the worst teams in the league: KC, Pitt, Washington (I know they are in first, but that is a fluke), Colorado, and Houston.

The Cards won four series, lost none, and tied against the Rockies. Overall they went 10-5. They could have easily taken another game in Colorado to make it 5-0 and 11-4, but those are pretty good numbers anyway. While the winning percentage grew a few points the division lead shrunk a little bit. The injured Cubs are winning the way you would expect the healthy Cubs to win. Clearly, this whole time it has been Wood and Prior holding them back. So now the Cubs are only 5.5 games back in the division. The division is shaping up the way it is supposed to be Cardinals, Cubs, everyone else.

Now we head into interleague play which should be exciting. The best three teams of the last year were clearly the Cards, Yankees and Red Sox. We should see some good baseball. Luckily, the Cards do not have to play the super hot Orioles. As far as Cards/Cubs goes the interleague scheduling is a big help for the Cardinals. This year both teams play the Yankees, Red Sox and Blue Jays, but while the Cubs play the White Sox twice, the Cards play the Royals and the Devil Rays.

Other good news is that Rolen is on the road to recovery. The announcers today said that he was doing baseball activities and could possibly be back sometime in the next road trip. That would put him about 5 weeks into the original 4-6 weeks estimate. Mabry, Seabol and Nunez have done a good job filling in for him, but getting an All-Star back will really help. Hopefully, we can kill two birds with one stone and the roster moves when he comes back will result in Cedeno either going to Memphis or being released. Seabol has played at second a little so I suppose he could be a good pinch hitter and utility infielder after Rolen gets back.

It only gets better from here

2005-06-04T10:34:00.000-05:00

Everyday I think about how wonderful the Cardinals are. They are coming off a NL Championship season and already have the best record in the National League this year. I, like most Cards fans, would take a championship this year even if it means five years of being the worst team in the league. The good news is that the Cards do not have to sacrifice the future to be good now.

Reasons the Cards should be good for another five years:

Albert Pujols is 25, the best hitter in baseball and signed long term. Any team with this guy on it is going to have a chance. Also, his contract is not too large to prevent signing other big talent.
Scott Rolen is 30, the best thirdbaseman in baseball and signed long term. He is just hitting his prime and has at least five more years of top tier baseball in him.
Yadier Molina is 22 and turning in to a great catcher already. All of you doubters who were out there in April are finding out what your shoe tastes like. He hit over 300 in May and every year I expect him to add a little more power. Not to mention he already has to be considered one of the best arms behind the plate in the game. The rate at which he picks off and throws out base runners is crazy. He also learned a thing or two about blocking balls last year from the master .
The starting rotation is all 30 years old or younger. Mulder is 27, Marquis is 26, everyone else is only 30. None of them are signed for more than 2006, but that will be the focus of Jocketty over the next two years. Even if he fails to sign one or two of them:
There are a handful of starters in the minors, lead by Anthony Reyes waiting for a chance. Adam Wainwright is also looking better this year after his injury. Last year's pick Chris Lambert is on the right track for 2008 maybe. Also, the Chris Gissell guy that managed to pitch well for the Rockies system in Colorado Springs is tearing it up so far in Memphis.
Walt Jocketty is the man.
To make it totally unfair, the Cards have seven picks in the first three rounds of the draft this week, including four in the first/supplemental first round. I am anxiously awaiting the draft so that I can become overly optimistic about some kids that may or may not ever make it to the Cardinals. But with so many early round picks the Cards are bound to make one or two good ones. The Jocketty system is to develop the talent and then trade it away for established stars. In a dream scenario, the Cards would have a good hitting college outfielder fall into their laps for the 28th pick and he would be ready to play in a couple years when Edmonds contract is done and Reggie and Larry are long gone.

Trade Rumors

2005-06-01T09:38:00.000-05:00

Let's start some trade rumors.

As time goes on I become more and more impressed with Walt Jocketty's deals. Everyone seems to be paying off better than I could have hoped for. Now he says he wants to get a young outfielder for the bench this year and possibly to start in 2006 when Reggie and Walker run out of time on their contracts. The sooner the better, since an extra outfielder would give the old guys a chance to rest and let Mabry play more third base with Rolen out. It may be a stretch but the Reds have a lot of extra outfielders and I wouldn't mind to see Wily-Mo as the Cards fourth outfielder. They are in desperate need of relief pitchers and we could get away with giving one or two up since Eldred and Lincoln are coming back. Bernie Miklasz thinks that it is possible too.

Here is the plan as I see it. Trade a couple out of the bunch of Flores, Cali, Brad Thompson, Rhett Parrot (Hopefully not Flores) to Cincinatti for Wily-Mo Pena. Bring Eldred off the DL, send Cedeno down to AAA, and recall which ever one of those guys is left or Bill Pulsipher until Mike Lincoln gets back.

A good year

2005-05-31T21:06:00.000-05:00

This time last year the Cards were just starting their run to NL supremacy. They were in a three way tie for second place with everybody chasing the Reds. Since then they have gone 111-51, not including the playoff run. Watching tonight's game there was another big difference from this time last year. As Dan McLaughlin put it "Coming up in the third inning, Mulder, Eckstein, Walker." Compared to Williams, Womack and Renteria from last year I am a happy camper. This year Woody is hurt. Womack is hitting poorly playing left field in New York. Renteria, although heating up lately, has been struggling in Boston. Meanwhile, Mulder can not lose, Eckstein refuses to get out and Walker despite a slow start is over 800 OPS.

(Excuse this pause, Pujols is up right now with runners on first and second. This the third time he has had a runner in scoring position and he has hit a weak ground and a lazy flyball. He could not possibly get out a third time with RISP in one game, could he? The count is 3-1, two outs. OK, he walked. This aside must continue while Edmonds clears the bases. Right Jimmy? He could not have hit it harder, too bad it was right at Desi Relaford. Mulder gave up back to back jacks and the Cards are coming from behind again)

Anyway, it has been a good year for the Cardinals since last year. Hopefully this time next year I will be posting about what we can do to get back to back championships.

NL Central = Loserville

2005-05-27T15:15:00.000-05:00

Just when it seemed that the Cardinals march to the NL Central crown could not be any easier. Mark Prior gets hit by a line drive and all of Cubs Nations screams a profanity in unison. As glad as I am that the Cards chances are getting better everyday, I am a little upset to see this. I do not want to win because of an injury or seven. Blame things on injuries is an excuse but for Cubs fans the last couple of years it is a damn good excuse. Wood is already out. Although he pitched well yesterday Zambrano will be questionable for a while with his "Non-baseball-related Tennis Elbow." Now, Prior looks to be out for a while since the ball hit the same elbow that always gives him problems.

Combine that with the Astros not scoring and the Reds finding ways to lose, all of a sudden the NL Central is clearly the worst division in baseball despite having possibly the best team.

5/18ths update

2005-05-25T00:23:00.000-05:00

Finally, the regular season is exactly five eighteenths over. So I thought I would take a look at the status of some of my preseason predictions about the league Pujols and such. Also look at some of the surprising trends.

The Cards are on pace to win 104~105 games.
The Cubs are on pace to go 79-83.
The Diamondbacks are on pace to take the Wild Card with 95 wins.
It is looking like an I-55 series in the playoffs, but instead of the NLCS it's the World Series as the White Sox are on pace for 118 wins.

Houston is on pace to score 583 runs compared to 803 last year. Of the 583 about 40 will be in support of Clemens. Clemens will only allow 31 runs the whole season yet finish with a 10-7 record.

As for Pujols and my ridiculously high demands: He is on pace for 40 dingers, 50 doubles, 140 RBIs, 75 Ks, 7 SBs. He is not on pace for the MVP since Derrick Lee is dominating. He is not going to have more dingers than strikeouts. He does not have a 420 OBP or a 2/3 slugging. He IS on pace to hit on into the New Busch. They just have to build it a little more first. Come on Albert, step it up. You are only being great, be spectacularly amazing.

As for my early OVER/Unders:
Sammy Sosa 660 hrs? Not looking good, he only has 4 this year and now is on the DL from a ridiculous injury. He got a staph infection from a sore on his foot. It must be from all the showers he took after Moises Alou and his "hand hardening treatments."
Sosa 240 average? He is over right now by a little at 269.
Cards 94 wins? Looking like over.
Cubs 92 wins? Not Likely, but they just have to play .600 ball the rest of the way.
Mulder 17 wins? OVER! He is getting all the run support he can ask for and is even winning his bad starts. He could win 20 if he pitches like he has in his good starts.
K-Wood 15 Wins? WAY UNDER. He has one win and is on the DL, yikes.
Rick Ankiel 10 starts? Hahahahahaha
Rick Ankiel 20 wild pitches? Maybe he will have 20 thrown at him by AA pitchers with no control. He can see what it is like from the other side.
Nomar 115 games? Way under again. He is out until at least September.
Cubs 20 blown saves? Over, they already have 8 and Ryan Dempster has a few more in him.
Rolen 120 RBI? Under, Stupid Hee Seop Choi, why didn't he get hurt.
Molina 1 SB? Under, none yet and as long as he is hitting 8th Mr. Molasses won't get any freebies either.
A. Ramirez 100 LOB? Under, he is not getting on base enough this year. I thought he would be more like Lee and Lee would be more like Ramirez.
Morris 10 wins? Way over, he came back early from his injury and has pitched real well and has 4 wins to show for it.
Glendon Rusch 10 wins? Over, barely. He is finally in the rotation with Dempster closing, and he should stay there even when Wood gets back. He has 3 wins already is pitching well enough to get 10 or 11 wins.
Pujols Triple 1 Crown Category? Under. He has none now, but he is only two back in RBI, two back in HR and .020 back in batting. So he could easily take one or all of them.
Prior Third in Cy Young Race? Over. He is pitching well but not like Willis, Clemens, and a handful of other guy. Also, look at Bill James thingy.
Patterson/Edmonds 150 strikeouts? Under/Over respectively. Edmonds is leading the race 43 to 38.
Baker/La Russa pitching changes? Baker has taken his guys out a little earlier this year, except for Prior CG the other day. Of course Tony is using everyone he can.
Baker/La Russa tantrum? I am still waiting for a real good one where at least 3 things are thrown (Hat, Scorecard, Bats)

I'm still here

2005-05-24T10:30:00.000-05:00

It been a while since I put up a post. I know there are a lot of you out there that spend hours every day refreshing my site just to see if there is something new up. To all of those people I am sorry.

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Since I posted last the Cards have won series against the Mets and Royals and lost a series to the Phillies. The Phillies, so far, have the Cards number. The worst three starts the Cards rotation has had this year have all come against the Phillies. The Phillies have a solid lineup, even with Thome out, and they seem to step it up a notch against the Redbirds.

Unfortunately for Phillies fans, Scott Rolen was injured and in St. Louis and JD Drew is long gone leaving them no one to boo during the series except their own team. Amazingly, the fans did a lot of booing considering they took two of three games. If you lay out the fanbases for all the teams on a spectrum the Cardinals fans would be at one end and the Phillies at the other. While the Busch Stadium crowd has been known to applaud an opposing player for a great play, fans at the old Vet were known to applaud paralization (Dallas Cowboys). They also are famous for BOOING SANTA CLAUS because he stopped giving out presents. Baseball fans know them better for throwing batteries and other trash at players. Clearly, the horrible fans in Philly have had some part in the pro sports teams not winning a championship since the year I was born.

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The good news for the Cardinals. Including the Royals series, the Cards have four series in a row against possibly the four worst teams in baseball. Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Washington and Colorado do not strike fear in to opponents. Right now the Cards are already 7 games up in the central and after the next eight games they could easily push that to 9 or 10 games in early June. If they can manage a win tonight they should get another game on the Cubs. I am going to Wrigley tonight to see the stellar match-up of Roger Clemens vs. Sergio Mitre.

Edgar Who? Which Scott

2005-05-12T16:02:00.000-05:00

David Eckstein has been everything I could ever ask for in a shortstop. He is remarkable. Over this home stand I have enjoyed watching his at-bats more than anyone else on the team including Pujols. He has a great strategy at the plate and a remarkable ability to see the ball well enough to know whether he wants to:

A) Foul it off
B) Take it
C) Slap it the other way or
D) Pull it.

So far this year he has done all four of the above options perfectly. He does not have the option to drive it and he does not try to. His OBP is up to .411, which is fourth among lead-off men in baseball. Even when he does not get on base he usually stays in the box for 5, 6, 7, 10 pitches. That is great at the beginning of the game so the other players can see what the pitchers has. It is also great later in the game if the pitcher makes the second out and Eckstein gives him two minutes of an at-bat to relax and get ready to pitch the next inning. He has not been bad in the field. He has lived up to his billing as someone who makes all the routine plays and none of the spectacular plays. Don't get me wrong, he has made some good to even great plays, but no Web Gems.

Rolen going down is bad news. Hopefully he will be back in 15 day. The only good aspect is that we finally get to see some big league action from Scott Seabol. 30 year old Seabol (and his one major league AB) have been doing real well in Memphis. He could fill in well for Rolen seeing as they are both :
30 years old
6'4"
200 lb
Right handed
Country white boys
Named Scott

Westies in St. Louis

2005-05-09T15:13:00.000-05:00

Let's all hope the San Diego series was a bump in the road and that the Cards will take down the Dodgers like they did last October.

Dropping three of four at home is never nice, even though the Cards outscored the Padres in the series. But worse than the series loss may be the loss of Yadier Molina. Molina has really been turning it on lately. More of his hits have been falling and you can see his confidence coming back. Also he has shown some great fielding nailing a ridiculous 7 out of 9 base stealers. I have not heard if Molina is going on the DL yet or who the Cards are recalling to be the back-up catcher. (McKay? Yikes!) Either way we are going to see what Einer Diaz can do and that does not excite me.

However, I am excited about the Cards bats heating up. Of course there was the 11 run first. But that is largely due to Redding's lack of control. What really excites me is that over the last seven games (since Smoltz beat us up) the Cards have averaged 7 runs per game and have scored at least three runs in each game. The bats took a while to get going this year but I think now they are ready to go. Luckily, even without great hitting the Cards are at 19-11 and four games in front of the NL Central due to the great pitching so far.

The matchups against the Dodgers mostly favor the Cards this weekend. Tonight matches up Mulder against Odalis Perez (the lesser of the two O. Perez). Tomorrow features Morris vs. Scott Erickson, whose career of above-averageness is winding down into a finale of below-averageness. Jeff Suppan will do his best against Brad Penny on Wednesday on ESPN. Penny had the weird nerve injury last year like Carpenter. He has only had three starts since coming back and has gotten better in each one. In his last he start went seven scoreless innings. So Wednesday should be the hardest for the Cards. Thursday it's Chris Carpenter against Derek Lowe, a matchup we all wanted last October.

In other news: I am going to Wrigley tonight for the Cubs/Mets if it is not rained out. If it is rained out I am going for beer. The Cubs have never won when I have been at that old pile of bricks so the Cards should have a chance to move seven games ahead of the Cubs, who I still consider the biggest threat in the Central.

Morris and Woody

2005-05-06T11:32:00.000-05:00

Matt Morris pitched his worst outing of the year last night and that is wonderful. If Morris's bad starts this year are like that instead of his explosions last year he should have a wonderful season. He made a lot of really good pitches including some great off speed stuff and fast stuff with good movement. The problem was he made too many mistakes. He only paid for his mistakes once, obviously on Nevin's dinger. But it could have been much worse for him if not for the triple play and Yadier Molina's cannon arm. (The sneeky bunt pick-off where Grudzielanek snuck behind the runner on first as Pujols charged was awesome.) Morris has built a lot of confidence in me with his starts so far and even though he was much less sharp last night, I am glad to see that when he is not on his game he can go seven inning and three runs instead of three innings and seven runs.

Matt's old partner in crime and a St. Louis favorite Woody Williams was supposed to start the game tonight but he has a nagging rib cage injury. It's too bad, he would have received a standing O when he was annouced. It could have been a touching moment showing the Cards fans appreciation for our players past and present. It is San Diego's only trip to Busch this year, although I would not rule out a playoff match-up. Woody is 38 and only signed a one year deal with the Padres. He has the stuff to pitch another year or two but if his injuries bother him all year I would not be surprised to see him retire. So Woody, who made a lot of friends in only 3 1/2 years in St. Louis, may never pitch in any Busch Stadium again. Here is my salute to Woody for helping lead the Cards to three playoffs and one World Series. (Also mentioning his St. Louis success means nothing without a shout-out for Dave Duncan "The Rejuvinator")

Greatest Comeback Ever and Braves recap

2005-05-03T14:34:00.000-05:00

Do you believe in miracles? YES!

Sorry, Mr. Cool J. but I am going to call it a comeback and one hell of a comeback at that. Down six runs in the ninth and winning is just unbelievable. Mabry tried to do the same thing to the Cubs a couple weeks ago and fell five feet short. This time he had plenty of power to cap off the seven run ninth. I was already cursing the bullpen injuries and mourning the first three game losing streak of the season. When that ball flew out I started jumping, yelping, and banging on shit because I could not control myself.

The huge emotional win could not have come at a better time. The Cards had been on an 10 for 11 streak and in cruise control going into Atlanta when the Braves knocked them down a few pegs.

Game one against the Braves was anything but what was expected. The former A's facing each other was supposed to be a 0-0 tie into the 11th. The Cards were lucky to win that one. The big first inning was due to a lot of ground balls that found holes in the infield. Mulder was not sharp. One thing that disturbed me was La Russa's managing of Molina. A game before hand La Russa let Molina bat in a critical two out situation to help "build his confidence" for later in the season. Then in this game La Russa repeated called for Molina to bunt. Tony took the bat out of his hands, essentially saying that he has more faith in the pitcher to get a hit. He is never going to break out of his early funk if he has to lay down a bunt every time there is a runner on ahead of him (especially with how well Grud the Stud has been playing.)

Game two the Cards played poorly but still well enough to win. However Kevin Gryboski, the home plate ump, made lots of bad calls for both teams and ultimately tilted the balance enough for the Braves to comeback and win. I do not know if I have ever scene a worse officiated game. The call he made against Orr was stunning. He called a strike for the Cardinals that was at least 5 inches inside. The three strikes that he called balls in the seventh forced the Cards to get six outs that inning and allowed the Braves to tie the game. Because of that, Jimmy "AA" Journell was in against Mondesi instead of Tavarez for the save. Tavarez has given up three home runs since the start of the 2003 season. Usually, I do not like to bitch and moan about officiating and the Braves got screwed too when the pitch hit Chipper in the foot. Still, I let out one big moan when game two ended. Morris pitched well, I would have liked to see him get another inning, but I suppose La Russa knows more about the health of his arm than I do.

Game three got another big moan out of me. Occasionally a team is going to get all the opportunities in the world and never capitalize. That what happen to the Cards on Sunday. There was a guy on in every inning and he never came around. Edmonds runs scoring double bounced of the top of the wall, just missing a home run. It is a little depressing, but it happens. Suppan pitched really well and the Cards did hit well. They put up 10 hits and a few walks.

Meanwhile Pujols is putting together a nice hit streak as he has found his line drive stroke. I may be wrong but I think he has a streak of reaching base in every game this season too.

Thank You Mr. Hendry and BATTLE OF THE CRAZY

2005-04-27T14:48:00.000-05:00

Grud the Stud hits for the cycle and Cards fans everywhere are loving the Ex-Cub factor. There was no way to know ahead of time, but when Cubs GM Jim Hendry decided to go after Todd Walker and not Grudzielanek he screwed the pooch. Now Walker is injured for an extended time and Grudzielanek is playing a key role in the Cards 14-5 start with solid defense and versatile hitting. He has hit fairly well leading off, in the two spot, or in the six or seventh slot. Through seventeen games he has a 828 OPS, which aint bad.

Changing topics, me and Mike from OldStyleCubs have an ongoing debate about who is more crazy, Julian Tavarez or Carlos Zambrano. Zambrano has gone all out for the title so far this year. He has been ejected twice in five starts, once for showing up a ref as he was being taken out of the game and yesteday for beaning Austin Kearns. Just when I was thinking there was no way Tavarez would be able to top him, the opportunity has come. With Izzy hurt for a little bit, Tavarez has moved into the closer role. Added pressure and attention can only lead to more antics from the Dominican headcase. If Tavarez blows a save (please no) he will probably fight something in the dugout, meanwhile Carlos shows no sign of slowing down. So be ready for an all out BATTLE OF THE CRAZY.

Thank you Mr. Beane

2005-04-23T19:31:00.000-05:00

Mark Alan Mulder is awesome. Ten, yes that is TEN innings in 101 pitches. That is like a left handed Greg Maddux, which I suppose is Tom Glavine. He only gave up four hits and no walks. The only man to reach scoring position in the ten innings did so because of an error. Nearly every batter got a first pitch strike on the outside corner followed by a lot of low stuff, causing 17 ground balls. If you combine Mulders last two starts you get two complete game shutout three hitters. It is the second complete game shutout in three days for the Cards, which is pretty sweet.

The bats were pretty poor today against freak of nature Clemens. I can't stand Roger but still sort of feel sorry for him. He has a 23 inning scoreless streak, but his run support has a 22 inning scoreless streak. So far he has allowed one run and the Astros have scored three for him. Of those three, Clemens himself drove in two. He has a .32 ERA and a 1-0 record after four starts. Too bad for Roger, too good for the rest of the NL Central.

In Cub news, they let another game slip away today to move back below .500 to 8-9. I only watched parts of the last couple innings. One thing that became clear is that Corey Patterson is not going to accept a role as a contact hitter. With the game tied in the 8th Patterson led off the inning with a home run to break the tie. However the Latroy Hawkins blew the save and Glendon Rusch gave up the go ahead run in the top of the ninth. Luckily for the Cubs, Patterson had chance to be Mr. Hero twice in one game. He came up in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and runners on first and third. If Corey was the gritty contact hitter Cub Nation wants him to be he would have choked up against Jose Mesa and tried to smack the ball somewhere and use his phenomenal speed to get on base and tie the game. Instead, he did his best Sosa impression and took two big home run swings to fall behind 0-2 and then struck out on a high Mesa fastball.

Split

2005-04-22T11:12:00.000-05:00

Chris Carpenter, 13 million dollars well spent. The Cards first complete game of the year and it could not have come at a better time. In danger of being swept at home by the Cubs for the first time since 1988, Carpenter made a one run lead last until the eighth when the Big Boys added some superfluous insurance runs. For that he gets the series MVP. Scott Rolen had a nice day, driving in three runs, which could have had four if Oquendo keeps Edmonds running on Rolen's double that bounced off the crazy section in fowl ground.

The bats were pretty quite for the two games, but not as disappointing as the gloves in game one. The Cubs did play better in game one than the Cards, but the Cards did a damn good job of giving the game away. La Russa decided to go with the B-Squad for game one. I understand that it was a day game after a night game, so you have to use two catchers. Also, if old guys like Grud and Reggie need a day off that is fine, but why put all the bench guys in on Wednesday and none in on Thursday. The bench players fielding was horrendous. Mabry dropped a flyball in the first, he did not need to dive for it, but he did and ended up letting it bounce out of his glove. Nunez botched a double play in the same inning. Whenever I see some one actually tag a base with the ball, I think Gold Glove. Suppan had to get five outs in the first and ended up surrendering a run. Edmonds also let two balls skip past him on the wet grass, the first one gave Zambrano a triple and let Michael Barrett score from first.

I have to send some good vibes to David Eckstein who has been playing sensationally so far. He has made every play in the field, including the tough ones. His OBP is a huge .429 with eight walks and only four Ks. The funny thing is he only has 3 runs scored. Considering he has been on base about 25 times in front of the Big Boys, I would guess he'd score more. If he keeps getting on he will come around a lot more and the Cards will score like they did last year with Womack.

Oh Baby!

2005-04-20T10:00:00.000-05:00

MMMM came out strong last night. He only gave up one run over six innings and used only 71 pitches to get there. However, the issue with Morris is not one game, it is his consistency. Last year he had outings much better than last night, the problem was they were mixed in with his explosions. If he can pitch this well, give or take a couple hits, all season the Cards are going to be a lot tougher. Also, how about Abraham Nunez reaching base in every at-bat, four for four with a walk. Grud the Stud sowed some good patience leading off. He took two walks and poked a hit the other way. Of course with Walker, Pujols, Rolen, Edmonds, behind him he scored every time he reached base.

But this post is not called OH BABY! because of last night or the five game winning streak. OH BABY! as Ken Wilson would say, means that it is time for some Cards/Cubs action. The time of the year where I have to defend myself against my entire surrounding. Usually that is easy because the Cards win, especially in Busch. Suppan is coming of one of his best starts ever, against crazy man Carlos Zambrano who has gone Bad Game, Good Game, Bad Game, to start the season. After that we have Chris Carpenter who has done the opposite of Zambrano, with good starts in his first and third games. The Cubs counter with Ryan "Why am I starting" Dempster, who has been mediocre so far this year. The Cards obviously have the edge in game two. I would usually say the Cubs have the odds in game one since Zambrano can be lights out, but because of the previous starts, and the fact that the Cards are on a 5 game tear, and it is in Busch, I will call it a toss-up.

Mulder Joins the Party, Carpenter deal

2005-04-19T12:10:00.000-05:00

Well that was nice. Mulder showed up finally and gave eight great innings. A lot of ground balls. He seemed to struggle at times with pitches soaring away from lefties and leading to a couple walks. But his mistakes did not come back to hurt him as there was only one unearned run.

I was upset when Molina dropped the ball from Reggie, but I was real happy with his batting. This will be the only time in his career he scores twice from first and has an infield single all in the same inning, guarenteed. It was about time he got some hits, he had been hitting solid line drives but the outfielders were making all the tough plays. In the game I went to against the Brewers on Saturday he deserved two hits and got none. Last night Reggie Sanders got the same treatment, he hit the ball real hard but got unlucky, otherwise the Cards could have been up by more than one before the ninth.

Tonight is the big night for Mountain Man Matt Morris. If he comes out strong that will be five great outings in a row, one from each of the starters. That would make me smile. Since Suppan's last start, the starters have given up only four earned runs. However, three of them crossed the plate after Al Reyes came in with two outs and the bases loaded. If Reyes gets that out, the Cards starters are the best thing this side of the Marlins (who are just plain ridicky-donk.)

Not getting much hype is Carpenter's new contract. The deal is for two years with a club option for a third. The rumor going around is that it is 6 or 7 million a year. That is well below market price, considering Carp won 15 last year with a solid ERA. If he had been a free agent this winter he would have gone for about as much as Clement, Ortiz, Milton and Wright who averaged around 8 million a year. Carp is a lot better than Milton, Ortiz or Wright, and much more consistent than Clement. If anyone out there knows of an official dollar amount on the deal, please leave a post.

That deal gives the Cards Carpenter through 2007 or 08; Mulder and Suppan each through 05 with a club options for 06; Morris only for 05; Marquis is only for 05, but he is arbitration eligable, so the Cards should be able to lock him up. The Cards will obviously pick up the Mulder option and the Suppan option barring injury or a huge collapse. So this year they should work on a multi-year deal for Marquis. Of course, Morris will decide his own fate with his pitching, regardless he will be a free agent again this year and anything could happen.

Everything you need to know

2005-04-18T12:06:00.000-05:00

So I was just checking my fantasy players in the Red Sox Toronto game (Man-Ram dinger, WOO) and I came across this little gem. Read the Toronto pitchers names and it will tell you everything you need to know about the Blue Jays team compared to the other AL East teams.

Wrong again

2005-04-18T11:03:00.000-05:00

Another series gone, another bad prediction from me. I said the Cards would be fortunate to take either game one or game two, instead they took them both and carried game three for the sweep.

I made the trip up to Miller Town for game two, which was marvelous. Pujols and Rolen hit monster shots. Also, Eckstein looked real good in the field he converted three tough plays making them look easy, along with several routine ground balls. Carpenter got out of first inning trouble and then went into cruise control into the seventh. Isringhausen probably had his best performance in two years.

The starting pitching this series was great, Suppan, Carpenter and Marquis all went deep and held the Brewers to almost nothing. Marquis only had one EARNED run, and Carpenter's three runs all came in after he left the game. If Reyes had gotten the first guy out Carp would have had a goose egg for seven and two thirds. The long innings was especially important with King away for two games, Eldred, Pulsipher, and Lincoln out.

Despite the great starting pitching the series MVP is obviously Rolen. Six hits in the last two games including two dingers and a triple. All three RBIs in game three. Also, I can not go without mentioning Izzy again. He closed out all three games on consecutive nights. Game two he got ahead of each batter 0-2 before K, K, easy ground ball. His cutter is really working, so if his sinker gets to the level of his cutter, he will really baffle hitters.

The Cards go to Pittsburgh for just two games. Mulder will try to get his first quality start under his belt against Dave Williams. Then we get to see the debut of Mountain Man Matt Morris or as the Crash Test Dummies would say, MMMM against Josh Fogg.

I will be happy to see MMMM out there. Watching the game yesterday, he charged the field when the Cards one so that he could be the first to touch Izzy's butt. If he can pitch effectively he will really give the team a lift.

Brewers

2005-04-15T09:50:00.000-05:00

Look out Brewers the Cardinals are coming to town.

I wish I really meant that. The Cards have not one a series yet, and they will have to either get their shit together or get real lucky to win this one. Game one is Ben Sheets vs Jeff Suppan, one of whom is an strikeout machine. So the Cards have their work cut out tonight. Game two is Doug Davis, who is 2-0 with two very good starts against Chris Carpenter who is 1-1 with a very good start and a very very bad start. If season opener Carpenter does not show up things could be ugly. Game three is Victor Santos, who has only pitched once this year and contained the Cubs for five innings against Jason Marquis who is pitching real well. So the Cards definitely have the edge in game three. Of course if the Big Boys decide to show up (Pujols and Rolen) a sweep is never unlikely.

In other news, Eldred is on the DL, Nunez is not, and Jimmy Journell is with the Big League team. Journell is not a surprising choice, but not who I would have picked. I would have taken a starter from AAA for two reasons. The major league pen had no long relief pitchers left. Eldred is hurt, Calero and Haren are gone. Journell is a one or two innings guy, not a three or four innings guy. If something happens and the Cards need seven innings out of the bullpen they are going to be screwed. Also, this person may only be up for a few days until Morris gets back. The Cards will need to clear a space for him and unless Nunez gets worse, they will probably send Journell right back down. So if the Cards called up a starter he would only miss one start and may gain a couple valuable big league innings.

So who saw Sheffield take a swing at the fan last night? I am not saying that he is Ron Artest, but I think he is a bigger ass than the fan. The fan did not touch him or the ball, he was just trying to distract him as any fan would. It is not much different than yelling at him. At hockey games you bang on the boards, in basketball you wave those sticks behind the backboard on free throws.

Oops

2005-04-10T12:23:00.000-05:00

Boy was I wrong. I thought the Cards lineup would take care of Gavin Floyd like the inexperienced rookie that he is. Instead Gavin took down 19 straight batters, and the Cards folded away game two to the Phillies. Meanwhile Suppan struggled in almost every inning, and Randy Flores looked like an inexperienced rookie instead.

The Cards do not seem to have their Mojo working through four games. If the big four batters get things going soon the Cards could put together an early season run, that gets them the swagger back that they had last year.

Well game three is starting now, and amazingly, it is working on MLB.TV. So I am a happy camper. Up to now MLB.TV has been blacking me out since my billing address is still in St. Louis. Apparently, they can figure out how to broadcast every MLB game streaming online, but they can't use an IP address to figure out where you are. Also they have a customer service line that makes you hold for an hour before talking to you for thirty seconds, putting you back on hold for ten minutes and then hanging up on you. Do not get MLB.TV.

Split

2005-04-07T15:47:00.000-05:00

So the Cards dropped the second game. The only dissapointing part, like in game one was the bullpen. Tavarez, the one guy who looked good in game one, gave up the runs in game two. I would like to have seen the bats put up another seven, but I am not too worried about the lineup. Pettitte pitched well. The good news is Marquis looked pretty good, only giving up one run and working well with men on base.

I am happy with a two game split in Houston when we are facing Oswalt and Pettitte. If the Cards can be a consistent .500 on the road against All-Star caliber pitchers, I think they will be in good shape. At the very least they are better off than the Cubs who dropped two of three to the D-Backs.

Who is ready for Mark Mulder action tomorrow? The Cards get to face Lidle, Gavin Floyd, and Lieber so the batts should come out in full force this weekend. I really like the matchups since the Cards weakest starter, Suppan is up against Floyd, who I have never heard of and Carpenter, who looked real good opening night, is against the Phillies 'ace' Lieber. The Phillies also just dropped two of three to the lowly Nationals. So things are looking good.

Carpenter Earns Opening Day Start

2005-04-06T14:30:00.000-05:00

What a way to win game one.

Edmonds Sanders and Walker went yard. Pujols got a couple ground ball hits. But Chris Carpenter was by far the most impressive. Seven innings only four hits, and only three fly balls the whole time. There is no question he is back in the form that made him the Cards best pitcher last year.

The only bad news was the bullpen. With a six run lead and only two innings left, all they had to do was throw strikes. Instead they walked batter after batter. The strike zone was a little small. But I expected more. With two out and none on in the eighth Reyes let Palmero get a double, which is fine, Palmero is a good hitter, and Reyes did what he should have done and through one over the plate. The problem was he got afraid of Adam Everett and his 16 career home runs and 315 OBP and walked him. He should have just thrown strikes and force Everett to beat him, so that he would not have to face Biggio and Bagwell with guys on. For the Astros a walk was almost as good as a double or even homer since they were down six.

Then Ray King did the same thing in the ninth, none on and two out with a four run lead and he walks Brad Ausmus who is not a good hitter.

Well I have certainly complaned enough about a 7-3 win. The Cubs lost a close won last night, I enjoyed watching Old Man Maddux struggle over some beers and wings. As you can read over at OldStyleCubs Dusty Baker made a questionable (read dumb) decision in a key pinch hitting spot. He chose to use Neifi "Why am I not on the Iowa Cubs" Perez instead of one of the two good Cubs bench hitters. Another example of what seperates La Russa (one of the best game callers) and Baker (one of the worst) and probably causes the Cubs about five games a year.

Final Predictions

2005-04-06T11:55:00.000-05:00

I figure I should get some final predicitons out there, so I can say that I did. I had a lot of long drawn out predictions over the last two months, but here is the basics. I had to change the NL West due to Baby Bonds and his moping.

NL Central Redbirds 99-63
NL East Marlins
NL West Padres
NL Wildcard Cubbies

AL Central Twinkies
AL East Yankees
AL West Angels
AL Wildcard Red Sox

I am sorry I made the AL just like last year, but that is the way I see it going, maybe something strange will happen in the Central, or a West team will take the Wildcard, but I doubt it. The playoffs are a crap shoot. But it is fun to guess now, when I have no clue whatsoever.

Divisional Round
Cardinals beat Padres; SWEEP BITCHES!
Marlins Beat Cubs; The Return of BARTMAN
Yankees Beat Twins; Sorry, Minnesotans it's gonna happen every year
Angels Beat Sox; Why not? Vlad goes crazy Schillings ankle breaks for real

Championship Round
Marlins beat Cardinals; And a lone tear drips down the Arch and flows down the Mississippi
Yankees beat Angles; Jeter + A-Rod = Good

World Series
Yankees beat Marlins; Yankees get revenge from '03 and they break the "CURSE of the Giambino"

Opening Day

2005-04-05T12:35:00.000-05:00

Finally, opening day, how sweet it is.

The Cubs line-up was scary good yesterday. They lit up Javier Vazquez and some D-Backs relievers for 16 runs. The first nine were NOT on home runs, which is the only way the Cubs could score last year. Patterson was good, Walker was good, Ramirez was good, Lee was good... All of that is bad for the Cards. Of course one game is no indication of how the season will go. The good news, Zambrano was pretty bad and really crazy. He could not even qualify for the win because after an 4 and 2/3 inning he could not throw a strike and walked in a run. As he was leaving he did his normal freak-out and technically got tossed from the game, although he was leaving anyway. The bullpen was not rock solid either against an average D-Back lineup.

Also in Cubs news they gave Aramis Ramirez a reasonable contract 4 years 42 million. The weird thing is that Ramirez can opt out of the last two years. That's a no win situation for the Cubs. If Ramirez does well (which he probably will) and could get more than 11/year on the market he will leave or demand more money. If Ramirez struggles or gets hurt he will stay on for the last two years and let the Cubs over pay him. The dollar and year figures make sense, but Hendry gave up quite a lot when he agreed to the option after 2006.

335 minutes till the first pitch!!!!

Pujols the Incredible

2005-04-02T13:57:00.000-06:00

The count is on. How many day's will Pujols go with out striking out? He is yet to register a K in spring training, meanwhile hitting the cover off the ball. He should have another monster year. I don't want to put too much pressure on the guy, but I am expecting all of these things:

1) MVP
2) More homers that strikeouts
3) Twice as many Walks as strikeouts
4) 430 OBP
5) 667, or as I say 2/3, Slugging
6) Hit one into the New Busch Stadium

In other news, I just got Tony La Russa's new book and as soon as I have some time I'll let you all know what I think.

GO CARDINALS

2005-03-31T12:22:00.000-06:00

I am finally at the end of my NL Central predictions, which brings me to the top of the division and my beloved Cardinals. The Cards were the best team in the regular season last year, and the second best team in the playoffs. Not too shabby. A seven game series is almost a crap shoot, so if the Cards play exactly like they did last year, maybe they will win the series, maybe they won't. They don't have to worry about being better than the other teams in the league, they just have to worry about being as good as they were last year. I figure the best way to look at the Cards is with the improvement/decline at each aspect of the game to see if they can compete with the 2004 club.

Starting Pitching:
Woody is gone, Mulder is in. Mulder has a couple question marks around him since his collapse last August/September, and early struggles in spring training. I, for one, have no concerns. This guy should be an All-Star caliber pitcher. He started the All-Star game last year and I expect to see more of that guy than the guy who fell apart in the playoff run. Woody was a small loss. He was a consistently good pitcher. But he was getting older and losing some endurance he rarely went past the seventh last year, and I expect him to pitch less innings this year. Carpenter broke out last year, and should have been Comeback Pitcher of the year, but Randy Johnson was hurt for half of 2003 so his "comeback" was better. He has looked good in spring, and should pitch just as well this year, hopefully well into October. Morris is still a question mark. He should be ready on April 19. The question is will he be able to consistently pitch the way we want him too where his curveball mystifies all batters. Or will he serve up BP like he did 4 or 5 times last year. I am not going to predict him going back to 95 mph and 22 wins, but I can't see him being worse than last year when he still managed 15 wins. The huge beard should help if he keeps it. Marquis and Suppan each had career years, winning 15 and 16 respectively. I hope they can each be as effective this year, but that is a foolish hope. I think one of them will drop off somewhat and only win 9 or 10 this year.
Overall Starting Pitching: Significant Improvement.

Relief Pitching:
Kline is gone, he was the best pitcher out of our bullpen last year. Calero is gone, he was a great long reliever and good short reliever. Haren is gone, most of his innings were form starts last year, but his best innings were the few he had out of the pen. Ankiel is gone, he didn't pitch much last year, but I was counting on him for solid lefty work this year. All of that is bad news for what was one of the best bullpens in baseball last year. But what I am most afraid of is Jason Isringhausen. He was lucky to lead the league in saves last year. He always seemed to get the save with the tieing run in scoring position. He has struggled in spring. He is supposed to be better that last year due to his offseason surgery, but has not shown it so far. We gave him a contract extension, so we better hope I am wrong and that he gets to the real games and dominates like he should. Kline and Calero (or Cordero) gave the Cards 107 1/3 innings last year, which will have to be made up by Reyes, Lincoln, and either Pulsipher or Flores.
Overall Bullpen: Significant Decline

Lineup:
The Cards lineup was domination station last year. Add a full season of Larry Walker and look out. People make a big deal about the loss of Edgar Renteria, but in 2004 he did not have that great of a year at the plate. Grudzielanek in 2004 had a much better year. Womack was a surprise success last year, that David Eckstien has to try to replace at leadoff. There should be a dropoff there. Eckstien gets on base almost as much as Womack, but he gets less extra base hits, and fewer steals. But, what the Cards lose in Womack/Eckstien, they could gain in Matheny/Molina. Matheny was always a descent hitter for a catcher, but last year his numbers dropped big time. Molina has shown that he can handle well enough a bat well enough to be at least an average hitting catcher, probably better as he gets more big league ABs. Pujols is going to dominate as always. There is no reason to believe Rolen can not keep up his great numbers, he turns 30 opening day, so he should be in his prime now. Edmonds will have trouble duplicating his ridiculous numbers from last year (643 slugging, that's awesome) but should still be the best hitting CF in the NL.
Overall Lineup: Slight improvement

Defense:
This is bad news, luckily for us Moneyball proved defense does not matter. Even though Edgar struggled at the plate last year, he was great in the field. Eckstien is not in the same league. Matheny is the best defensive catcher in the game, maybe ever. Molina is good but not that good. Shortstop and Catcher are the two most important positions in the game. Rolen is still head and shoulders above all other thirdbasemen defensively. Pujols is getting real good at first, but first is the least important defensive position, except pitcher. Speaking of pitcher, once Maddux retires, Marquis should win a gold glove. Grud the Stud, is just as good as Womack. Walker and Edmonds each have a cabinet of Gold Gloves, but they are both old and on the decline defensively. Luckily, the young, fresh, 35 year old Taguchi is the outfield closer and can come in for Sanders and improve the outfield defense like he did last year.
Overall Defense: Major Decline

Bench:
Last year the bench was only mediocre. Mabry hit well, Taguchi and Cedeno were not bad, Anderson was pinch hitting machine for the first half. But Luna struggled at the big league level, and there was not enough power. This year, Anderson is gone, Einer Diaz will be wasting space on the bench for 4 out 5 games and in the lineup the rest of the time. Mostly because the back-up catcher is worse I have to call a decline here.
Overall Bench: Slight Decline

There are three decline and two improvements, so if I were a former baseball player analyst I would say the Cards will be worse. But the two improvements are in the two most important areas, Lineup and Starting Pitching. Defense and the bench are much less significant over a season. The bullpen will hurt the Cards compared to last year. However, consider that Mulder should pitch about 200 innings which is more that Kline, Calero, Haren combined plus 50 innings. So the improvement in the starters, will overwhelm the decline in the relievers. If everything goes to plan, the Cards should be even better that last year. But things will not go to plan. There will be injuries, Morris will struggle with control, Reggie Sanders will have a slump...

2005 Cardinals Prediction: 99-63 First in NL Central

Cubs

2005-03-30T10:23:00.000-06:00

Ahhh the Cubs...
Looking at the roster it is hard, even for a Cards fan, to deny that the Cubs have a hell of a team. They still probably have the best rotation in the NL. They have good young bats in Ramirez and Lee. Garciaparra is still capable of being an All-Star. Patterson has a lot of potential and is going to break out one of theses years. Walker and Barrett are very solid in the field and at the the plate. So why aren't they going to beat the Cards out? I have four reasons which are not all indepedent.

1) Bullpen
Last year the Cubs biggest problem was closing out games. The position they needed to fill the most, more than corner outfielder, was closer. But they did nothing. All the closers got overpaid and overvalued (Benitez, Kolb) and the Cubs stayed clear. I'm not saying there is anything they could have done, but it is still a huge hole. They lost Mercker, traded away the Farns, and Remlinger is now 39, so the middle relief which has been decent the last two years may be weaker. Borowski is missing the first month with a broken hand (see reason number two) taking away their most experienced closer. Hawkins pitched well in a set-up role last year, but blew 9 out of 34 saves when the pressure was on. Ryan Dempster KING OF THE WALKS could help out either trying to close, or as a long reliever, but if the starters are hurt, he will have to fill in there. Regardless, he is not a dominant pitcher, his two good seasons in Florida were only mediocre. The end result will be a shaky closer being set-up by the likes of Wellmeyer, Weurtz, and Leicester.

2) Injured Pitchers
Every year that I can remember the Cubs have had injured pitchers. The big two, Prior and Wood have already been hurt this spring. I would bet on a total of 40 starts combined for Prior and Wood. Maddux has never been hurt so he won't start now. Zambrano who was easily the Cubs best pitcher last year, might be next in line for the DL. He will probably do something crazy like Tavarez, Farnsworth or Kevin Brown and fight a dugout item. Borowski is out for a while, as I mentioned above. I don't think anyone would be surprised to see Maddux and Rusch get the most starts for the Cubs this year.

3) Team Spite
For some reason the Cubs seam to all hate each other. Perhaps that reason was purely Sosa, but I do not think so. Losing the "Captain" and his boom box should help, but last year it was obvious that the team had a lot of bickering last year. A team needs clubhouse leaders and the Cubs have not had one for a while. Nomar was run out of Boston because no one liked him, so I doubt he will step up. Maddux is too mild mannered to actually lead the pitching staff like a veteran should. The other big name veteran, Alou, is gone. The Cubs need someone to be their Jake Taylor but that someone does not exist.

4) Dusty Baker
Last but certainly not least. He is a "player's manager" which from my understanding means he does not make the rules and is not good at calling a game. He does things wrong like the failure to report a double switch last year against the Cards. But more importantly he causes the other problems. Because of problem 1 he leaves guys in too long causing problem 2. He does nothing in the clubhouse to help problem 3 as a manager should. He does not force management to solve problem 1 by signing someone, or resigning Mercker. He plays favorites with his players to increase problem 3. He lies about problem 2 to the media, which makes the fans angry when Prior doesn't pitch. Dusty Baker is a BAD MANAGER.

Still the Cubs have a great roster due to a good farm system and a healthy payroll. They should be good enough to put up a fight against the Cards and win the wildcard.

Prediction: 93-69 2nd in the NL Central, Wildcard

Coulda Woulda Shoulda Placido

2005-03-29T08:40:00.000-06:00

I saw an interesting little blurb yesterday. Apparently this offseason before the Cards signed Grud the Stud and Eckstein, they offered Placido Polanco 3 years 12 million. The funny thing is, his agent, Andy Katz turned it down and never even told Polanco about it. Apparently, Katz knew that Polanco would get more in arbitration (1 year 4.6 million) and believed that the Phillies could not let that much money sit on the bench. Turns out that he was wrong and the Phillies plan on having the most expensive non-New York bench man around. Polanco claims he would have taken the Cards offer for slightly less money to come back the St. Louis and play everyday.

I find this quite upsetting. I want to blame Mr. Katz and move on with my life with Eckstein, but I have to call out both Polanco and Jocketty for not making sure that the agent was doing his job. Polanco is a better hitter than Eckstein and comparable to Grud. Plus his fielding is the best of the three at either shortstop or second base. In addition, he could fill in for Rolen at third when Rolen needs rest or gets hurt better than anyone the Cards have. Polanco is also younger than the other two. So compared to Eckstein, he is worth the extra 1.5 million difference over three years.

Polanco is asking for a trade now, but the Cards have their starters now. Perhaps next year when he is a free agent again, if Grudzielanek does not work out we can give him another shot.

BBWAA

2005-03-26T19:44:00.000-06:00

The BBWAA is the group that decides who gets into the hall-of-fame, and when they were polled this week, the results showed that Barry Bonds would get in while Mark McGwire would not. I don't understand that. I admit that Bonds is a better player than Big Mac, but the question then is, how good does a cheater have to be in order to get into the hall? For a juicer to get in does he need 600 dingers instead of 500, or at least 2 MVPs? It is crazy to set an arbitrary line where some would-be-hall-of-famers get in and some do not. It should either be all or none. With that out of the way here are the top five things BBWAA should stand for:

5: Big Berthas Win At Augusta
4: Bobby Bonillia Withers as Albert Ascends
3: Billy Beane Wins All Acclaim
2: Big Bootied Women At Arby's
1: Barry Bonds Whines All Afternoon

Almost There

2005-03-26T19:20:00.000-06:00

Nine more days of painfully waiting for the regular season. The post-dispatch today says that Carpenter is ready to go in Houston on opening day. I figure Suppan will pitch game two of the series to set up Mulder for opening night in Busch. Marquis should pitch the second game of that series, and if Morris is not ready, Carpenter will be forced to throw again for the third game. That start would be on normal rest, since there is an off day before the home opener.

I am still hoping that Morris will be able to start that game, even if he only pitches 5 or 6 innings. Since there is another off day before the third series, Carpenter will have two extra days rest if Morris can go. Based on the end of last season I want to limit Carpenter's wear as much as possible early this season. The same goes for Mulder who had a historic collapse at the end of 2004. There is an off day between every series for the first four series, which will either allow Morris to take a slower recovery or allow the rest of the starters to save their arms a little bit for the rest of the season.

****This Just In: Albert Pujols is a BAD ASS!****
He is hot in spring training looking to dominate as the season starts. He has got to be the favorite for NL MVP now with Bonds whining.

Vegas Baby Vegas

2005-03-20T11:55:00.000-06:00

I'm off to Vegas for a few days, with the Mikes from Old Style Cubs. I will be putting down ten bucks on the Cards to win it all and hopefully betting on some spring training games. When I come back I will finish up my predicitions/analysis for 2005 and get ready for the best seven months of the year.

The Brew Crew

2005-03-19T16:58:00.000-06:00

My upset special for the year: The Brewers in third in the NL Central.

At least it was a couple days ago, now I am backing off the Brew Crew. I wanted to write this post about all the reasons the Brewers were going to come around this year and finish ahead of the Astro's. But I thought about it some more and realized that they are not. I decided to list the pros and cons of the Brewers in '05.

PROS:
1) Carlos Lee! Easily the best trade of the offseason. They bring in a young guy with some power that really hammered the ball last year in exchange for Podsednick, leadoff man that never gets on base.
2) Duh, Ben Sheets. He still needs to become more consistent, and I believe he will be this year if the Cubs boys are hurt and The Big Unit is in pinstripe Sheets should lead the NL in Ks. Brady Clark leading off. He gets on base and has some speed, he should really help generate some offense.
3) Lee, Overbay, Jenkins is not (Walker) Pujols, Rolen, Edmonds. Still, it is the best heart of the lineup the Brewers have had in years. Lee and Overbay hit for moderate power and average and Jenkins should hit 30 dingers this year.
4) Brooks Kieschnick. Definitely one of the coolest guys in baseball. He is their best pinch hitter and best long relief pitcher. He had a .270 average batting lefty and a 3.77 ERA pitching righty.
5) A year older, a year wiser. The whole team is young, every year they should get better there was not a whole lot of change on the team, so they should grow as a unit and as individuals.

Cons
1) Every Starter not named Ben Sheets. Davis is ok, nothing special and everybody else was just plain bad in 2004 and probably will be in 2005.
2) Bullpen! Kolb is overrated, but gone none the less. I think they have a guy name Vizquano and good ol' Dave Burba. Other than that, I don't know.
3) Shortstop. They got some rookie coming up since Counsell went to the desert. Maybe he will be good, I doubt it.
4) Damian Miller, he is like Matheny but not so good behind the plate. He sucked for the Cubs 3 years ago when he was 32, now he is 35, and I don't think he is getting better.

So I came up with 5 pros and only 4 cons, but cons # 1 and 2 alone are bigger than all the pros. So I am changing my predictions: 80-82 good enough only for fourth in the Central.

Zambrano, Maddux, Rusch, Mitre, ???

2005-03-14T17:57:00.000-06:00

I don't like to cheer for injuries but when I learned of Prior's elbow inflammation I could not help a small chuckle. That means Prior and Wood have already had set backs this year and the chances of at least one of them missing significant time this year is good.

Maybe it is just a coincidence that this happens to Cubs pitchers, or maybe it is because Dusty Baker works them too hard. It is not entirely Dusty's fault, if he had a bullpen that he could trust with a lead in the seventh or eighth inning he could save his pitchers some work, but the last couple years have not been good for arms in the Wrigley pen. People get mad at La Russa for changing pitchers too often, but I think the Cards have less pitching injuries that most teams. Especially, when you consider that Carpenter's injury last year was a freak nerve injury that was not due to chronic arm fatigue.

Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised to see the top two Cubs starters limited to a total of 40-45 starts this year, probably meaning 25ish wins. While it's too bad that injury is holding the Cubs back I will be happy if the Cards have a three game set against Glendon Rusch, Sergio Mitre, and some prospect that should still be developing in AAA.

Roid Rage

2005-03-12T19:39:00.000-06:00

All of this congress steroid subpoena shit is starting to give me roid rage. I am not against what Congress is doing, I just don't think it will help. So far in the steroid scandals only two big name players have admitted to using steroids, Canseco and Giambi. Not surprisingly, they are the two people getting the worst of the public opinion. What ever happened to going easy on a person as a reward to confessing? If admitting guilt causes people to call out for your records to be removed from the record books (Canseco's MVP), why will anyone else ever admit to using steroids? Think about it: Say Canseco is telling the truth and McGwire used "real" roids, why would he confess whether he is under oath or not? He won't be convicted of perjury when the only evidence is he said/she said and it is impossible to test a person for seven year old steroids. If he is smart, Mark will just keep denying it and we will never know if his use was limited to 1998-legal Andro.

It is unfortunate that Giambi and Canseco used steroids and worse that Canseco is bending the truth to make money in his new book. However, the worst thing for us fans to do is to be angry with them for admitting it, and be easier on the guys that have obviously used them like Sosa and Bonds yet continue to deny any knowledge. Perhaps the subpoenas will help to turn up some new stories, but I doubt it. Somehow it needs to be worthwhile for players to admit it. I believe that is impossible, aside from writing a best-seller, players will not profit from confessing their cheating ways. Instead they will lose their contracts with Burger King, or Dave's Used Auto-Mart, or whatever.

I guess that means we should give up worrying about the past and focus on the future. No changing the record books, no congressional inquiries. Instead, more testing and better testing. Another point I need to get out there is that the steroid panic is not for the shorties. Finding out whether McGwire, Sosa, and Bonds used juice will not save any children. The point is to level the playing field for the actual players. You probably don't consider Craig Biggio a top tier hitter of his time, but if there were no steroids in that time maybe you would. A player like Biggio, would have a much harder time making it into the league now if he has to fight for a job against guys on the juice. Unless you get on as much as Ichiro you can't make it as a corner outfielder or corner infielder without power. Rod Carew wouldn't make it at first now unless he juiced up, because he never hit dingers.

Miklasz vs Gammons

2005-03-10T17:01:00.000-06:00

Every baseball writer, myself included, is trying get in their two cents about my boy Rick Ankiel. NO two opinions could be more different than those of STL's Bernie Miklasz and ESPN's Peter Gammons. Gammons (from a blue state) give the bleeding heart idea that Ankiel should do whatever makes him happy, because that is what matters most. Miklasz, gives the hard ass perspective that Ankiel needs to be let go to maximize the profits of the corporation, I mean success of the team. Both make excellent points, although I think they are both a little off. I don't want Ankiel to give up pitching if it makes him happy or not, I want him to get his head straight and through fastballs and curveballs that make me go OOH. Meanwhile, Ankiel should not be let go outright. As I said in my last post, I don't think he is Big League material at the plate, but he has hit well enough in the pros and minors to warrant giving him the opportunity to prove himself.

Meanwhile the Cards are playing like it's July 2004 in Florida. They've won 5 in a row to go to 6-1 overall. Pujols is raking the ball and the pitchers are looking good. Walker is healthy and Morris is ahead of schedule for his return, making the Ankiel decision less vital.

The Cubs are playing nearly as well at 6-3. Yesterday K-Wood came up gimpy after a rough couple of innings. Officially it is just tightness, but with a Cubs pitcher you never know. Prior was supposed to be ready for opening day last year and he was out until June.
I read something that really bugged me about this situation on ESPN.com:
"Baker said Wood made the right decision to come out of Wednesday's game.
'You don't want to take a chance,' Baker said. 'I'm glad he is mature enough to stop when he felt that tightness. In the past, he might have kept trying to pitch. You just got to be safe at this point.'"
Is it just me or should Baker be TELLING Wood that he has to stop, not letting him make his own decisions. This is another example of Baker being too much of a "player's coach" and not enough of a Manager.

In personal news, this blog may be changing names to "Cards Fan in Reds Land" in a couple months when I move to Northern Kentucky. Or maybe "Cardinal Spy." Post any other suggestions you may have.

RIP Left Arm of God

2005-03-09T16:32:00.000-06:00

NO!!! Why, Rick WHY?!?!?!?
Everybody's favorite headcase essentially retired today. My boy claims he is switching to outfield, but I doubt we will ever see him in the big leagues again. He can swing a bat well enough that he would have been considered one of the "best hitting pitchers" in the game. He hit well when he was a DH in A ball, but that is A ball. He has a career 258 OBP in the bigs, although that's only over 87 ABs. Not to mention that he will probably field ground balls and throw the ball to the back stop. I hope that he keeps pitching on the side, and someday finds his sanity enough to not be afraid of the big leagues.

Coming into this season I thought that Ankiel was going to be a Disney movie. Bad childhood, dad busted for drug dealing, finds relief on the baseball diamond. He goes pro and he looks good until tragedy strikes, he battles adversity, and finally rises above. Instead its more like an Aronofsky movie. If you haven't seen Requiem or Pi, let me tell you they do NOT have happy endings.

In other news, Anthony Reyes is going to be the bomb diggity. He's got to be in the lead for the fifth spot until Morris gets back. The bad news is going to be if two starters get hurt. I do not believe Adam Wainwright is ready for the bigs after the numbers he put up before his injury last year. Mark Prior thinks he's the bomb diggity, plus he wears his hat like he is the bomb diggity. Conclusion, Anthony Reyes is the Bomb Diggity.

WHO-ston?

2005-03-06T15:04:00.000-06:00

The Astros led the Cardinals 2-1 in the sixth inning of the seventh game of the NLCS last year. Then Roger Cedeno got a hit, Renteria and Walker sacrificed him to third (for no reason), Pujols hit a double and Rolen hit a dinger. The moment before Cedeno's ground ball found its way through the infield, will be known as the highpoint in Astro's history for a while. That or Jeff Kent's walk-off in game five.

This week the Chicago Sun-Times predicted that the Astros will win the NL Central. The same newspaper that had a front page headline, "Justin and Britney go Splitsville" and the same newspaper who's biggest story of the last ten years is that R-Kelly has sex with children. Jay Mariotti and his cohorts only make me more convinced that "The 'Stro's are going to Loserville."

Beltran is gone, Kent is gone, Berkman is out for a long time. Those three had the best OPSs on the team last year. Biggio and Bagwell can't carry a team like they used to. They are both slipping, Bagwell faster than Biggio. They still haven't determined is Biggio will play left field or second base. If he plays second, that means they will Mike Lamb and two nobodies in the outfield for the first couple months.

Andy Pettitte will be back, but for how long, and how effective will he be. Clemens and Oswalt were the best one-two combo in the league last year, and they could be again this year, but they will probably switch roles. Wade Miller is gone because apparently the Astros couldn't afford to give him 2 million. Now they have Backe and Munro, and even though Backe dominated the Cards in the playoffs, I don't expect more than a combined 18 wins out of those two. Lidge is easily a top five closer but his middle relief is HORRIBLE.

What it boils down to is this simple: no team with a hill and a flagpole on its field has ever gone to a world series. I think The Astros will struggle around 500 until Berkman get back and then battle for third in the division.

PREDICTION: 84-78

Stupid Rainout

2005-03-04T10:13:00.000-06:00

I've been counting down for months until I could see my boys play a game but it was all ruined by a little falling water. What makes it worse is that yesterday's game was the only Cards game on MLB.TV until the 12th so I can't actually watch Mulder in his new jersey when he does play. I was also looking forward to seeing Anthony Reyes throw a couple innings against real batters.

Apparently Izzy is working on a sinker to try to earn his money. That would be pretty sweet. It would take him up to five pitches by my count, which is a lot for a closer. Some outings he might only throw the ball five times.

Random Stuff

2005-03-03T09:04:00.000-06:00

I've been focused on my predictions lately so I need to put up a post to comment on some things.

IZZY SIGNING: At first when I saw that the deal was three year 25.75 million, I was very angry. No relief pitcher is worth that much, especially one on the decline like Izzy. He has lost velocity. He did lead the league in saves last year, but he had a lot of lucky saves and was helped by being on a 105 win team. Last year it seemed like he could not get a save without letting the tieing man on base first. The redeeming factor is that the contract wiped out the last year of his current deal which would have been 9.5 million. He still gets the money he has deferred so far, which I think is a couple million. So the Cards save two million this year, and then lock up Izzy for two years at 16.75. The option/buyout is practically the same for 08 as it would have been for 06, so that does not matter. So considering the Cards could take the 2 million they save and use it on Izzy the next two years, the deal boils down to a two year extension at 7.37 per year. That is a lot, but reasonable.

I think that the demand for Isringhausen went down slightly when the Cards signed Grudzielanek, a brother in the twelve letter club. As a member of that twelve letter club (my real name isn't Hilario), I just ask for one Cardinal who can stretch the back of his jersey with letters, but if I can get two I'll take it.

Ankiel Freak out:Derrick Gould had been giving the post daily updates from spring training. Last week he talked about how Ankiel had a wonderful outing: "Ankiel, now 25, threw 40 pitches to four hitters. Five were hit but only two left the cage. Only Gonzalez's opposite-field swing on a too-high offering would have fallen for a hit." A couple days later apparently Ankiel faced some big boys and collapsed. He threw 26 pitches and couldn't get very many over the plate. He's got under a month to figure this stuff out otherwise Anthony Reyes could be the guy for Morris's fifth spot. The only thing the Cards can do now is give him the ball as much as possible in spring training and hope that he fixes himself.

I am a well documented Rick "left arm of god" Ankiel lover and I would be very disappointed if he is not a successful pitcher this year. I had visions of an April that goes 3-0 with a 2.30 ERA and him winning a rotation spot away from Suppan or Marquis followed by a "Comeback Player of the Year" season. Everytime he freaks out that image fades a little. Come on Rick, do it for the shorties.

Sosa: For the first time since the Evil Detroit Red Wings stopped existing (YEA!!) me and the Cubs fans around me are able to agree on something. Sammy Sosa is a selfish, immature, wash-up crybaby. With his new team he is talking about how the Cubs need him and he is irreplaceable. I hope this does not give the Cubs something to rally around. It is too bad they do not play the Orioles this year. Although the NL Central plays the AL East, the Orioles avoid the Cards and Cubs.

CinCinnati

2005-03-01T11:50:00.000-06:00

I spent three hours in Cincinnati yesterday, at Airport Terminal B3, and the snow delay gave me extra time to ponder. Mostly I thought about how horribly the Cardinals beat up on the Reds last year and dreamed about more matchups this year.

The offense has five solid batters, unfortunately only four of them can play, Wily Mo Pena (what a great name) has to ride the pine until Griffey gets hurt. Funny story: in my MVP Baseball 2005 season it took ONE DAY before Griffey got hurt. Those games keep getting more realistic. Joe Randa will upgrade third base over Castro. The Larkin Era has ended, but Felipe Lopez won't be any better or worse, so that doesn't really matter. Adam Dunn will attempt to never put the ball in play this year. All ABs will end in Ks, BBs, or HRs. Sean Casey will put every ball in play. Austin Kearns is back from his injury, he is a big question mark. If Griffey stays healthy, and Kearns plays well, and they find a way to work in Wily Mo, the offense could be pretty damn good.

The rotation also took a step forward this year. Paul Wilson (my 2004 first half fantasy hero) is still at the top. They added Ramon Ortiz, who is bad, and Eric Milton, who is overpaid. They sill have that Harang guy who had the game of his life against the Cards last year. The have a rookie phenom Luke Hudson, who I don't think is Tim's brother.

The biggest problem for the Reds is that they have the worst bullpen in baseball. The Danny Graves experiment failed, but they are sticking with it. They got him Kent Mercker to be the set up man, whoopdy-doo.

The 2005 Reds are going to be a good team, but they are not better than the Cards, Cubs, or Astros, and the Brewers are my upset special. So, sorry, Cinci, gotta put you in fourth.

Where do you keep your Buccaneers?

2005-02-23T16:07:00.000-06:00

Pittsburgh.
"Wow this guy is really developing well, we better trade him before he wants money." I have a feeling this is said more in Pittsburgh than any other baseball town in the US.

The Pirates haven't been good since Bonds left, and Lloyd McClendon played on the team. They won't be good this year either. The Wilsons, Jason Bay and Mackowiak are good young players, but Jason Kendall was the key to that offense. He was their best player and now he's gone. Benito Santiago could be Jose Castillo's dad, so I wouldn't count on him to produce liek Kendall. Matt Lawton is not the answer either. But I would still say that they have a mediocre offense, which is a complement. If Oliver Perez can pitch 1000 innings this year, the Cardinals will need to look out for the Pirates, otherwise they should be fine. The rest of their pitchers struggled last year, and they lost Kris Benson at the deadline. Jose Mesa had a good 2004 after a horrible 2003, but I don't know any of their middle relievers, so I will assume that they aren't good.

If there were a division made up of only my last place teams, the Pirates might win it (actually Seattle would, but Pittsburgh would be a solid second.) But in the NL Central they have little to no chance. Prediction: 70-92

NL Central

2005-02-21T20:14:00.000-06:00

Here it is, what you've all been waiting for, the NL Central predications. Obviously the Cardinals are number one, since our boys were the best regular season team in the league last year. You could argue that the Cards are worse than last year, and I would tell you that you are wrong. Since the NL Central is the basis of my blog, I am going to have a separate post for each team over the next few weeks, probably working from the bottom up to build the suspense. But here is the order.

1. St. Louis Cardinals
2. Chicago Cubs
3. Milwaukee Brewers (Yes, really)
4. Houston Astros
5. Cincinnati Reds
6. Pittsburgh Pirates

Also the answer to my last trivia question: Which St. Louis manager has the best name EVER?
Answer: When the current St. Louis Cardinals were the St. Louis Browns in 1892 (not the franchise that went to Baltimore, the franchise that is now the Cardinals) they had a manager named Cub Striker, how awesome is that. He also played second base.

AL Central

2005-02-21T09:28:00.000-06:00

If baseball were basketball the AL Central would be the Atlantic Division. Clearly it is the worst division in baseball. If you call the AL East or NL Central "Top Heavy" then you could only call the AL Central over the last few years ba-dunka-a-dunk. While the Twins have won the division for the last three years, the most impressive number in the standings is usually the losses by the fifth place team. This year the Tigers and Indians have made moves to distance themselves from the cellar and the Royals should run away with it. My Picks:

1: Twinkies
2: Native Americans
3: The South Siders
4: La Tigre
5: The Royales with Cheese

The Twins are roughly the same good team they have been for a while. The kept Santana, which is huge. Joe Mauer will be back and healthy, ready to show that he deserved to be taken ahead of Prior (yeah, right). That Morneau guy is back, he played well last year after Mentkievaoiwetrack left. They lost Coskie and Guzman, which hurts, but the rumors about the guys coming up to replace them sound good. They still have the fast, powerful outfield and a solid top three starters. So they may have lost half a step, but they are still the class of the division.

The Indians came on half way through last year and nearly finished 500. They have a solid young team. They lost Omar Vizquel who was their worst batter last year and have some rookie replacing him. They still have a strong infield. They got Kevin Millwood who was disappointing as an ace, but will work well behind Sabathia. With Jake Westbrook as the number three guy, they have a descent rotation. Plus Coco Crisp and CC Sabathia have cool names, and they wear their hats all cock-eyed, so that should get them at least 2 or 3 wins.

The White Sox made a lot of changes this year, and most of them were bad. Carlos Lee for Scott Podsednick????? Seriously, what were they thinking. They have a rotation full of question marks, but that is better that a rotation full of nobodies. We will see if stockpiling Cuban defectors leads to wins, or a communist revolution. If Big Frank starts on the bench, they have no heart of the order. Aaron Rowand will not carry the team on his shoulders.

The Tigers are no longer pathetic, this may be the year that they go over five hundred. If Mags can play that would be a huge lift to the offense and defense. With Mags, Pudge, and Carlos Guillen in the middle of the order they should put up some runs. They still don't have a starter with a sub-four ERA, so I can't put them higher that fourth.

Is there anyone on the Royals? Sweeney, Berroa, Lima, that's about all I got. Oh, our old buddy Eli Marrero, I would if he is starting? ESPN.com gave them worst team in the league honors. I think the Nationals will edge them out, but it should be ugly.

A pretty picture

2005-02-20T17:30:00.000-06:00

Mark Mulder doing his thing with the birds on bat across his chest. That's what we call an Ace, boys and girls. I just wanted to post it since it made me happy inside.

AL East

2005-02-19T16:04:00.000-06:00

Boston v. New York, if you watch enough ESPN you can start to believe that major league baseball is only Boston v. New York (and steroids). This year the Yankees are spending about 200 million and the Red Sox are spending about 140. While both of those numbers are huge, the Red Sox are still 60 million short, which is about a Texas Rangers worth of difference (or two Devil Rays). I know Red Sox fans will tell you that Theo Epstein gets better value than Brian Cashman/Steinbrenner, and that the Yankees are giving over 15 million to Giambi. And over a seven game series it does not matter what a teams payroll is. But, I believe that over a 162 game season the 60 million dollar difference is going to matter, so I will predict the Yankees to take the division again. Of course, that didn't stop the Red Sox form winning the championship last year.

AL East
1: Yankees
2: Red Sox
3: Baltimore
4: Tampa
5: Toronto
---- Just Like Last Year-------

I will not rant too mush like I have on previous prediction posts, because there are a few other people out there covering the AL East. I will make a small list of Jim-Rome-like statements. A-Rod will be his MVP self again, Giambi will ride the pine. Randy Johnson is better than Curt Schilling, Wade Miller could be better than Jaret Wright. Matt Clement is better than Carl Pavano. Man-Ram is ridicky-donk. The Orioles don't have a chance even with Tejada Mora Sosa Lopez Palmeiro and that is sort of upsetting. Tampa and Toronto deserve pity.

Skeletor

2005-02-17T14:32:00.000-06:00

My buddy Mike over at OldStyleCubs likes to compare Julian Tavarez to Skeletor, and talk about how he is much crazier than Carlos Zambrano. So, I collected some air tight evidence. Who looks more like Skeletor, Tavarez or Zambrano?

I rest my case.

Don't mess with me Mike, I used to think that I was He-Man.

Steroid Stuff

2005-02-16T13:03:00.000-06:00

I have been trying to avoid posting about this Canseco steroid stuff. I thought I could hold out until spring training really got going. But with all the McGwire and La Russa action I figured I should get in my two cents.

As far as McGwire goes, maybe he did steroids, maybe just Andro. Why does it matter? He is still going to the Hall-of-Fame. He doesn't have the home run record anymore. There is never going to be an asterisks after his or Bonds name, because they can't test them for what they took 4 or 7 years ago and they won't base an asterisks or what a teammate or mistress said. He is done playing so there is no reason to go after him. A lot of people like Joe Mcewing have come out in his defense praising his work effort and saying that he did not take the juice. So I am going to continue to not care.

For La Russa, I think it was an interesting move for him to come out and admit that he knew Canseco was juicing it up. It's a stand up move for him to tell the truth, and it's doubtful there will be any punishment. However, at the time why didn't he do anything? He didn't report it, try to stop it, instead he stuck Canseco's name in the lineup everyday.

Cardinals Trivia:
Which St. Louis manager had the greatest name EVER for a St. Louis manager. (Hint, you've never heard of him, and there is a reason I said St. Louis instead of Cardinals)

AL West

2005-02-16T12:00:00.000-06:00

Here is a test, name ten starting pitchers in the AL west. That's just half of them, but it's not easy. The west is all about the hitting, especially since the pitcher exodus in Oakland this year. Last year the Angels beat out Oakland for the division down the stretch. It is hard for anyone to say that Oakland got any better. So, the real choice is between Texas and Anaheim and I am going to have to pick Anaheim to win it again this year. I am choosing the Angels again.

1. Anaheim
2. Texas
3. Oakland
4. Seattle

With that line-up healthy Anaheim is a tough team to beat on any day, regardless of who is the starting pitcher. I wouldn't be surprised in Bartolo Colon bounces back to have a decent year. The number 2, 3, and 4 guys are respectable and Paul Byrd who spent last year injured with the Braves will give them a number five guy better than Aaron Sele. They lost Troy Percival, but with Rodriguez they can cope. Orlando Cabrera is a slight upgrade over the Cards new guy Eckstein.

Texas came out of nowhere last year to lead the division for the first half of the season. They have a great infield, probably the best in the game now that Edgar left us. Richard Hidalgo is replacing Gary Mathews Jr. which is a small upgrade. If Chan Ho Park can stay healthy all year he could play like he did 5 years ago before he started Griffey Jr syndrome. The weakest spot in Texas is still the bullpen where they have Frank "I taught Artest everything he knows" Fransisco and some other no names. The hitting is good enough to win a division, but the number 3-5 starters and the bullpen should keep the Rangers from beating out the Angels this year.

If baseball bloggers have one thing in common it is that they believe that someone out there for some reason cares what they think. If there is a second thing it is that Billy Beane is a genius that can win a division with 25 dollars and an Excel spreadsheet. While I would agree that Beane is easily the best Gm of the last five years, I would also point out that the A's have had three of the best 15 pitchers in the league for the last five years. Now we will see if the yearly success is due more to Beane's brilliance or his triple aces. They picked up Jason Kendall which should be a huge upgrade over Damien Miller. But as a whole they are too young to be consistent over an entire season. Zito and Harden are the only pitchers who have spent a whole year at the big league level. Everyone reading this knows about Danny Haren and that he is ready for his chance. But he would be better off in the fifth spot where is he struggles he can someone else can take his spot. In Oakland he is the number three guy and there is a lot more pressure on him.

Seattle is a big question. They spent a truckload of money this winter on Sexson and Beltre. Ichiro, Winn, Beltre, Sexson, Ibanez is a good top half of a lineup but, like the rest of the division, the pitching in Seattle is weak. Bret Boone sucked last year as did Scott Spiezio. I may be wrong, Seattle may compete for the division, but I think they will finish a little below 500 which will be the worst in the AL West.

NL West

2005-02-07T17:39:00.000-06:00

The NL west was the only exciting division in the NL last year with the Dodgers and Giants battling it out the last couple games and the Padres staying in the race until the last week.

So this year the choice is obviously between those three teams. As much as I would love to see the Padres take the division, I don't think they improved themselves at all this winter. And I believe that the Dodgers have also made themselves worse since last years trade deadline. So by default, in 2005, the Giants will continue their domination of the 21st century AL West. Here is how I have it:

1: Giants
2: Padres
3: Dodgers
4: D-Backs
5: Rockies

The Giants got a lot older and a lot more expensive with Alou, Matheny, and Benitez all joining on big contracts. Now their youngest everyday player is 31 year old Edgardo Alfonzo. Alou is the best batter they have had hitting behind Bonds since Jeff Kent. And while he is getting older, having someone on base every time he comes up will be a big boost to his numbers. Also, looking at the playoff teams from last year they are all very old, except the Twins. So, maybe it is a good thing for the Giants that they are getting older.

The Giants did not make many changes to the starting rotation, which last year struggled outside of Jason Schmidt. But all of us St. Louis fans can tell you that adding Matheny helps your pitchers remarkably. So the guys after Schmidt should step it up. I have always consider Rueter to be the real deal ever since he shut down the Cards in the 2001 NLCS. Our old Buddy Bret Tomko is the number three guy now after having a decent year out there. They have those two young guys starting again, Lowry and Williams, and if they pitch well the Giants can almost be assured to win the division. Felipe Alou remains the only Alou that has never won a World Series, now little Moises is going to try to help him out.

The Padres lost Wells but got the Cards boy Woody Williams, that was about their only deal this offseason. A small aside here, first the Cards trade Ray Lankford for Woody. Woody gets good and starts an All-Star game. Lankford meanwhile gets real bad and is cut. Eventually Ray-Ray comes backs to the Cards to play a couple months of decent baseball and fade away. Then Woody goes back to the Padres where I can only assume he will play decent baseball and fade away. Good deal for the Cards, five brownie points for Jocketty. Anyway... after Woody and Peavy the Padres have no real scary guys in their rotation. They have some great hitters, but most of them are power guys, and in Petco the guys who hit for average have more success as long as they have more Kleskos than Loretta's they are going to have issues at home. Loretta (GO NORTHWESTERN) had a great year last year and no one noticed. He should do well for them again this year. Nevin, Khalil Greene, Burroughs, and Brian Giles make a nice lineup with Ramon good-for-a-catcher Hernandez. The relief pitchers pitched well last year, but, like for the Cards, that doesn't mean they will again this year. Most of the team is young, so another year should help them gain needed experience.

The 2004 NL west winners may have lost a step. They have major issues at third base and catcher. I can not predict good things for a team that is planning on starting Paul Bako. They got that Navarro guy from the Yankees system, but he apparently isn't ready, so Mr. Bako is the guy. The Dodgers, lead by Moneyball hero Paul DePodesta, are hoping Drew and Kent can make up for the loss of Beltre and Green. That will be important because Hee Seop Choi and Jose Valentin are not going to cut it. Milton Bradley should stick to board games. If Brad Penny can throw a baseball and Derek Lowe is the guy that made me very angry five months ago instead if the guy who made Boston angry 10 months ago the Dodger should put up a good fight, but ultimately lose the division.

The D-Backs made me look foolish last year, I predicted them to come in second in the division, and they sucked hard. This year I will not make the same mistake. They spent all the money they had on all the wrong people. Vazquez might be good, but Ortiz will suck. They got no catcher, no fifth starter, and no rightfielder/firstbaseman, whatever Green doesn't play.

The Rockies are really BAD. Read this paragraph from MLB.com:
"Right-hander Jason Jennings has survived ups and downs over three-plus years in Colorado and is the recognized leader -- with the two-year, $6.9 million contract to prove it. Lefty Joe Kennedy faced down Coors Field like no one before. Right-hander Shawn Chacon is back in the rotation, righty Jamey Wright and lefty Darren Oliver are back in Rockies uniforms, and all are better for their struggles." I play fantasy baseball and if any of my guys were going into Coor's against any of those guys, I would say "Ooo, ooo, ooo, goody goody"

Early Predictions

2005-02-02T20:45:00.000-06:00

I am going to start some early predictions, one division at a time. I will probably revise these before the season starts.

Starting with the NL East:
Every year for the last three or four years the Braves have been picked to lose the division, and every year they keep the streak going. So this year I think that people, in general, are going to give in to Bobby Cox's wizardry and pick the Braves to win it. Once again, he will prove them wrong. As much as I want to pick the Braves to take the division, I have to go with the Marlins.

The Marlins have a hell of a line up. Pierre, Castillo, Lowell, Delgado, Cabrera, Lo Duca, and to a lesser extent Encarnacion and Alex Gonzalez. The pitching staff took a hit, but still looks good with Beckett, Burnett, Willis, Leiter, up front and new guy Ismael Valdez. The bullpen took a hit with Florida throwing a pile of money at Benitez. But the leagues best set-up man Guillermo Mota is ready for a chance to close. I think the Marlins got hot at the right time in 2003, but that does not mean they were a fluke, they just had a bad year last in 2003. The New England Patriots got hot at the right time in 2001 and people said it was a fluke, and then they had a bad year in 2002 before they became a dynasty. So, it is possible for the Marlins to rebound in 2005.

Rounding out the division:
1: Marlins
2: Braves
3: Mets
4: Phillies
5: Nationals

The Braves, of course, changed all their pitching around. The lost the most overrated starter in the NL and gained the most overrated closer. Now Smoltz has to remember how to last 7 innings again. One reason I am doubting them again this year is the new corner outfielders. Brian Jordan and Raul Mondesi, are you serious? It's no J.D. Drew and it's certainly not Gary Sheffield.

While there is no NHL, the strategies of two hockey teams seem to have crossed the city to their respective baseball teams. Here I am talking about the Tigers and the Mets. I will talk about my disdain for Mike Ilitch when I do the AL Central, for right now I will focus on the Mets. They have taken the New York Rangers approach of trying to spend the most on big name washed up players and inevitably will fail to make the playoffs. More than Beltran, I mean Pedro. Pedro can hardly pitch over 6 innings anymore, and although he beat up the Cards pretty well in the Series, he is not the Cy Young caliber pitcher of old. We will call Pedro the Eric Lindros deal for now. They also spent a couple of dollars on Carlos Beltran, which will be called the Alexei Kovalez deal. After only a brief period of greatness, and a 270 season average the Mets decided Beltran was worth one of the biggest contracts EVER. And we won't even talk about Kris Benson who started this whole mess of an offseason.

The Phillies were a huge dissapointment last year, Jon Lieber is not the answer, more dissapointment on the way. Losing Larry Bowa may help them out, but not too much. I should probably put them ahead of the Mets, maybe in my final predicitons.

I for one, will be treating the Nationals like an expansion team. New city, new name, new infielders, if they win 70 games its a moral victory.

Over Under

2005-01-31T18:35:00.000-06:00

So I was going to write another post about Sammy Sosa, and what I think will happen to him this year and for the rest of his career in the AL. But instead it inspired me to do a PTI-style (or Vegas style if you prefer) over under. What do you all think about the following over/unders for Cards/Cubs:

Sammy Sosa career home runs: 660
Sammy Sosa 2005 batting average: 240
Cardinals Wins: 94
Cubs Wins: 92
Mark Mulder Wins: 17
Kerry Wood Wins, of course: 15
Rick Ankiel games started: 10
Rick Ankiel Wild Pitches: 20
Nomar games played: 125
Cubs blown saves: 20
Scott Rolen RBIs: 120
Yadier Molina stolen bases: 1
Aramis Ramirez times left on base: 100
Matt Morris Wins: 10
Glendon Rusch Wins: 10
Pujols Triple Crown Catagories: 1
Mark Prior Cy Young ranking: 3
Corey Patterson strikeouts: 150
Edmonds strikeouts: 150 (<-^--- the race is on, who can get there first?)
Dusty Baker pitching changes: 300 (divided by 162 is...)
Tony La Russa pitching changes: 5000 (at least it seems that way)
Dusty Baker tantrums: 7
Tony La Russa tantrums: 4

No more Sosa

2005-01-29T15:25:00.000-06:00

The Sosa rumors are flying again.

As first reported by one of the Mikes over at OldStyleCubs, there is a deal in the works between the Cubbies and the Orioles. On ESPN.com they only report that Sosa will be moving and the Cubs will pick up 10 out of the 18 million in his salary, with out mentioning who will move to the Cubs. Other sources say the main guy going to the Cubs is Jerry Hairston, Jr, a local boy from Naperville, IL. A lot of us Cards bloggers thought he would be the guy to fill one of the middle infield holes. The Cubs however, would be using him as a corner outfielder and leadoff man. That would give them a starting outfield of Hairston, Patterson, and Hollandsworth/Dubois. Not exactly as big names as Sosa and Alou. Hairston has played a grand total of 52 games in the outfield, so I wouldn't be ready to give him an everyday spot. As a leadoff man he is a promising prospect. His batting average and OBP have crept up each of the last few years, and he has put up good numbers with limited at bats the last two years. But since he backed up Brian Roberts in Baltimore, he is unproven in the field and at bat. The Cubs might also get a couple of prospects in the deal, which they could turn around and try to trade for a more proven outfielder. Or they could use the nearly 6 million that they saved (18 - 10 - Hairston's 1.65 - minor league deals) to add to the Magglio fund.

Overall I think that this is a good deal for the Cubs. Although, I think trading Sosa for 5 million dollars and a bucket of balls would be a good deal. Baltimore is feeling pressure since they missed out on all the other free agents this winter, and since they have to compete with the two big spenders out east. Baltimore seems like it will do anything to bring in a big name, whoever it is. The Cubs are going to take advantage of that by pawning off the steroid-cork-selfish-washed up Sosa. The key to the Cubs really making this a good deal, like I said, is to turn around and use their new resources to get someone else like Maggs, or Aubrey Huff. If they don't it won't make their team much better on a day to day basis, but it will help in the long run.

269 + 32 + 99 = 52,000,000

2005-01-25T20:15:00.000-06:00

Carlos Delgado, coming off his worst season ever, got a truckload of money from the Marlins. They signed him for four years, so he should still be with them after the move to Las Vegas, or wherever. Every deal being signed this year seams insanely large.

The Marlins needed a first baseman almost as bad as the Astros needed Clemens. And they payed dearly to get one of the best hitters of 2003. This allows the Marlins to move dinosaur Jeff Conine to the outfield or bench behind Encarnacion. Delgado has the potential to hit like a mad man and anchor the lineup which should be pretty good. They still have speedsters Pierre and Castillo, Mike "I am almost as good as Scott Rolen" Lowell, and "all grown up phenom" Miguel Cabrera. With Delgado at first, and Lo Duca behind the plate instead of Redmond, the offense should be there. The rotation of Beckett, Burnett, Willis, Leiter and Valdez is not what it has been the last couple years, but it should be pretty good. They lost Benitez the same way the Cards lost Matheny, to a big pile of money out by the bay. That leaves either set-up man for the stars Guillermo Mota, or washed up closer Billy Koch to close. All together I think the Marlins have moved a little away from the great pitching and defense that won it all in 2003 and a little more towards batting.

I will come out with some wild predictions a little closer to the season, but for now, I will just say that the NL east should be interesting, and by interesting I mean disappointing.

Tim Kurkjian

2005-01-24T09:53:00.000-06:00

Tim Kurkjian just wrote an article on ESPN, in which he and Andy Van Slyke both discuss thier heterosexual man-love for Scott Rolen. Being a Rolen lover myself, I found it to be a good read. Here it is. That bring the things that Rolen does as well or better than anyone in the league up one more level. So we have:

Best fielding third baseman, maybe the best at any one position in the league
Top three hitting third baseman (Beltre and A-Rod)
Top five baserunner, according to Kurkjian
Best at taking the guy out at second, according to Kurkjian

Not a bad list for a ballplayer to have. In addition, he is the major league baseball player that looks most like Julia Stiles. So, Scott my man-crush from southern Indiana, keep on trucking.

Marquis and Ankiel

2005-01-19T17:19:00.000-06:00

My buddy Walt wrapped up all the loose ends over the last couple days signing deals with Marquis and Ankiel before arbitration. Marquis came at a reasonable 3 million and Ankiel came as a steal at 400,000 dollars. Obviously Scott Boras is to busy covering up the Magglio injury to worry about extruding as much as possible out of Ankiel's short comeback last season. Both contracts have significant incentives in them that can boost them up about a quarter million each.

I like the Ankiel deal a lot, the Cards are giving him his last chance to comeback this year and use the left arm of god for good instead of evil. Even though the deals is only for one year, if Rick performs well, the Cards should be able to resign him next year when some of the larger Cards contracts end (Izzy, Sanders, Walker.) And if he freaks out, or gets hurt again it is easy to cut him loose. One of the bonuses he can earn is for winning comeback player of the year. Barring a Raul Mondesi resurgence, Ankiel has everything in place to do that. With Morris gone for the first month or so, Ankiel will be in the rotation making a case to stay there. If he pitches a few great games in April, there is no way La Russa will move him to the pen. So he could end up being a quality starter for less money than either Eldred or Mike Myers. Even in the pen he should be a better lefty than Myers.

The Marquis deal is fine, I wouldn't have minded seeing a second year and maybe a club option for three. As it is the entire pitching staff is going to be free agents next year. Morris signed for one year 2.5. If I remember correctly Suppan signed for two years last year and makes 4 million this year, he might have an option year in 2006. Carpenter just excepted a one year extension for 2 million. Marquis is now on a one year deal for 3 million. Only the new hotness (thanks Mike) Mark Mulder is signed through 2006. In addition, Izzy's crazy big contract is finally ending.

So the good news is that the Redbirds now have a 6 man rotation (Ankiel included in case there are more injuries) playing for under 18 million dollars, and that includes five 15 game winners and the left arm of god. WOW! Compared to the Cubs, who are spending over 18 million for just Wood and Maddux and are stuck in arbitration with Zambrano, that is pretty damn good. Compared to the 22 million that Clemens is asking for, I am very happy.

The bad news is that Walt has a lot of work to do for 2006 and beyond. Then again, Wainwright and Reyes will be waiting to fight for a spot.

30 days until pitchers and catchers report.

No news is good news

2005-01-17T19:14:00.000-06:00

The less that happens the better for the Cardinals. The Cardinals roster is good enough to bet set. Certainty it is a lot better than it was at this point last year. The Cubs and Astros still have work to do, and the longer they wait, the happier I get.

The only thing left to be desired for the Cardinals right now is some power off the bench. From what I can tell the bench right now should be Taguchi, Luna, Mabry, Diaz, and Cedeno. Of those, Mabry had some power last year, but really hasn't over his career and nobody else is much of a home run threat. (Of course Taguchi hit one onto Waveland this year, but with the wind out at Wrigley, I think Jim Abbott could hit a dinger.) None of the spring training invites that could sneak onto the roster have any power either. I was hoping Wilton Guerrero was a swing for the fences and either strikeout or homerun type of guy. However, based on his stats he does not have Vladimir's power or even Pedro Guerrero's power. Considering the power guy last year was Marlon Anderson, with his career high of 11 homers, I am fine if the Cards bench focuses on getting on base in front of the big guys.

Moving on to the other teams, it does not look like the Astros are going to get Soriano. While a lot of the sabermetric people out there hate Soriano for his free swinging and so-so fielding, I am still glad he is staying in the AL and the Stros will be using Vizcaino. As for the Cubs, the takers for Sosa look to be slim. According to my buddy Mike at OldStyleCubs.blogspot.com the Expos, I mean Nationals, offered them Termell Sledge for Sosa, as long as the Cubs pick up both salaries. Of course that is a laughable offer, but it is a good indication of the interest in Sosa throughout the league. It is fairly similar to the trade rumors around Randy Moss, if Randy Moss were older and less talented.

The Cubs, and everyone else also seem to want to wait on Magglio Ordonez until they know something new about his injury. I do not understand how that is a good strategy. There are only two possibilities. First, he has no knee or as the rumors say, can only run in straight lines. In that case, the Cubs would not want him to be their everyday outfielder. Second, he is healthy enough to play like he has his whole career. In which case they will have waited to long. Good Scott Boras outfielders are about as cheap right now as Chicago is warm and if you are reading this from somewhere else, be happy you can feel your toes. So there is little chance the Cubs will be able to sign a healthy Ordonez (besides Rey) at less than 8 million or so a year, which is a huge risk. If I were the Cubs, after crying a lot, I would offer him a real low salary, incentive rich deal, similar to Nomar, now but with maybe a third the value of Nomar. That way if he can run they are geniuses and if he can't they have a very solid, very expensive pinch hitter. The other option would be to offer him a reasonable contract depending on a rigorous physical, so Boras can not cast a shadow over his health.

Fitz and "The Pujols Game"

2005-01-13T10:44:00.000-06:00

One of my readers, who call's him self only "Fitz," has a pretty good blog of his own, when he's talking about baseball. He put up this post about the best regular season Cards game of the season, and maybe of my life. He put it into words better than I can, so just read it and think about what can happen when the wind is blowing out on a nice summer day at Wrigley this year.

With 36 days till pitchers and catchers report the Cards added a few people to the spring training team/AAA squad/bench if they are lucky. Abraham Nunez and Milton Guerrero (Vlad's brother) are on the list. Also some 25 year old Rockies minor league starter named Chris Gissell who had a good year in the minors. With another early injury while Morris is out, he may end up getting a look in the big leagues, if he is deemed more ready than Wainwright or Reyes. There are also some relief pitchers in the mix, but since the Cards bullpen is already over capacity, that should just give Memphis a boost.

Roids

2005-01-12T21:10:00.000-06:00

Well, it's only January and the Cards seem to be complete. The Cubs and Astros are not improving themselves in anyway. There is not a whole lot to talk about, but one interesting thing is that the MLB and the players association have a new steroid policy. They are going to explain it sometime tomorrow. Looking at the Cards there are very few people I would question about steroids. Larry Walker may have used them at some point, but he has always been big, so I wouldn't bet on it.

Time to Surrender

2005-01-10T21:15:00.000-06:00

So, just when Cards fans think they are in the clear with Beltran going to the Mets, the Cubs signed Stephen Randolph and clinched the division. When I was watching the bottom line on ESPN, I saw "The Chicago Cubs have signed..." and I thought Oh No it's all over, then I saw "...Stephen Randolph." I thought, "Who the hell is Stephen Randolph." apparently he is a lefty reliever, the Cubs couldn't just sit on their hands while the Cards got Mike Myers.

According to ESPN the Astros are trying to trade for Soriano. Apparently the Rangers need to free up some money to sign Carlos Delgado. Sounds dumb to me, I would take Soriano over Delgado any day of the week. Plus they got an underrated Teixeira at first, why do they need an overrated Delgado. For Houston it's a good deal if they don't give up too much. Obviously, the Stros need bats with Kent and Beltran gone, Biggio and Bagwell getting old, and Berkman out for a while. Soriano would help both on offense and defense. If they don't pull off a deal of this magnitude and if Clemens retires, I will be ranking the Astros down with the bottom three of the division instead of the top three. Looking at the list of people they have signed, let's just say I am not afraid.

The Beltran Clock

2005-01-08T19:05:00.000-06:00

So Carlos has about four hours left to consider the Astro's offer. Since the Cubs are the low bidder so far, it seems that the Cards may be four hours away from escaping an entire year of Beltran in the NL Central. That would be nice. I am somewhat torn about which team I would like to get Beltran. If the Yankees get him, he will be far away in the AL. However, I really would not like a team to exist that is that good. Considering the Cards got to the series last year, I consider them top contenders to get there again and the Yankees may be the team from the AL. Plus, the Cards do play the Yankees this year in the regular season as they line up with the AL East for interleague. So what do you think who should I root for: the Pond Scum, or the Evil Empire?

By the way, yippee for signing La Russa for three more years. It's to bad the Cards did not win the series and get La Russa to coach for free, since that was his promise.

P.S. the answer to the last trivia about the last Cardinal with dingers from both sides of the plate in the same game was Geronimo Pena. (Thanks 365 day pull off calendar)

The Fury of the Cubs Fan

2005-01-07T09:27:00.000-06:00

Well, although I have written more than a couple Cubs bashing posts on this blog, that last one about Sandberg and the Hall-of-Fame really seemed to irk the little bear lovers. Read the comments on the Hall of Fame post to see what angry Mr. Parker thinks of me. And while I could be the bigger man and just let it slide, maybe talk about the wonders of Larry Walker hitting second, where is the fun in that? And keep in mind, that I have nothing against the people in Chicago, I live with them, and the Cubs fans I know are good people. But, I am not going to let this guy bad mouth me on my own website with out a response.

First off, you should rethink bashing McGee for his lower fielding percentage. A lot of time that just means he hustles for balls and goes all out, instead of letting a toughy get by to avoid the error. Sure, this might make his numbers look worse than non-divers Sandberg and Grace, and hold McGee to only three Gold Gloves. But, it could also be part of the reason he got three pennants and a ring. Sure his slugging percentage was much lower than Ryno's but he didn't hit the long ball, no one on those teams did. In fact, in 1982 the whole team only hit something like 65 home runs. (You can check that number, I would rather not waste the time.) And much to the sabermatrician's chagrin, Whitey Ball won the World Series. Willie did lead the league in batting a couple times, and won the MVP when the Cards went to the series in 85. And as much as Cubs fans want to deny it, leading your team to success is helpful for your legacy and hall-of-fame consideration.

Second, as for my displaced-anger-at-the-Cardinals-for-the-World-Series-performance-theory I would be more upset if I were a Cubs fan for their world series performance. Did you know that the Cubs didn't have a single hit in the world series, actually they haven't for over 50 years.

As for Sandberg, I am not denying that he is a great player and a Cardinal killer. He is a borderline Hall-of-Famer. Considering the people that are in the Hall-of-Fame already, he should be in too, he is better than a lot of them. What I was saying is that the Hall-of-Fame is to easy to get into. If I ran it people like Sandberg would not be in. Or there would be a tiered system where he would be in the Hall, but not on the same level as Hank Aaron, for example. And comparing your list of four Cubs greats to four Cards greats I would take my chances with the Redbirds in every matchup Musial/Banks, Ozzie/Ryno, Brock/Williams, and especially Gibson/Jenkins.

So Mr. Parker, you may look up more stats then me everyday, have fun with that. I will take that time, go back to "those good ol' folks down in Missouri" and celebrate all the good times we've had from Stan the Man, to Grud the Stud.

Mark Grudzielanek

2005-01-06T16:21:00.000-06:00

The Cardinals are complete. I got my wish and the Cards signed the best remaining free agent second baseman, Mark Grudzielanek. While some Cards fans I know will be angry due to the ex-Cub factor this is still a great move. He is only around for one year at 1 million bucks, which is a steal considering it is less that Vizcaino or Jose Hernandez. He is a better hitter than the other unemployed guys, Alex Cora, Roberto Alomar, and Miguel Cairo. So to me it was the best the Cards could do with out giving up some guys in a trade. All that is left to debate is how the team now will compare to last year.

In the field, Womack has a slightly higher range, but Mark's arm is a lot stronger so he should be good at turning two. As far as hitting, Grud the Stud hit .307 last year with a .347 OBP, about the same as Womack. What the Cards lose in speed they gain in power as Mark's slugging was fifty points higher.

However, it is probably more appropriate to compare Grudzielanek to Renteria and Womack to Eckstein, since that will be the corresponding spots in the batting order. Surprisingly, Grudzielanek actually had a higher OBP and slugging than Edgar last year. So, the sabermatrician would take Mark's bat. However, over their careers Renteria has had a slight lead in both categories. If Grudzielanek had played as many games as Edgar, he would have hit at least as many dingers, but since Todd Walker played half the games in Chicago that didn't happen. Grudzielanek only had 23 RBI in 81 games, but he lead off most of the time, so that's not a fair comparison. Edgar is magic on the basepaths, while Grudzielanek has a surgically repaired Achilles. Still, for the 9 million dollars a year less, I will take Grudzielanek and his 300 average in the 7 spot.

As far as Eckstein and Womack it is the opposite story. Womack had a better year last year in OBP and slugging, but over their careers Eckstein is better. Obviously, Womack is better on the basepaths. If you could promise me that Womack would hit like he did last year, I would definitely prefer him to Eckstein, but I have a hunch that he will not hit .300 in the nine spot for the Yankees. So, while the lineup should be a little weaker at leadoff it may be the best option available. Eckstein and his no strikeouts contact hitting method should work well with La Russa and his love to hit and run. If he can learn some more patience (3.8 pitches/appearance), he should see good pitches with the big four right behind him.

Cardinals Trivia courtesy of my little calendar: Who is the last Cardinal player to hit home runs form both sides of the plate in a single game? Winner gets 4 bonus points

Hall of Fame

2005-01-04T14:20:00.000-06:00

For Cubs Fans, one down, a bunch to bitch about. The Cubs upped their post-WWII hall of famers to four today with Ryne Sandberg barely getting in. Looking at the list of players that did not get in there are a lot of Cubs up there. Since a lot of the voters consider championships a positive when judging a career, several Cubs just miss the cut. You hear a lot of "That guy should be in" talk from Cubs Fans, usually starting with Ron Santo. Now if Ron Santo was as good at baseball as he is bad at annoucing he would have gone first ballot. Andre Dawson, Lee Smith (who played alot more in blue than red) are two of the guys that are still eligible for voting that people complain about.

At the bottom of the list is Willie McGee. While he may be my favorite baseball player ever, I still have to admit he is not a hall of famer. He won an MVP a handful of Batting titles and Gold Gloves, and had fairly similar numbers to Ryne Sandberg, minus the home runs. Sandberg got in because he was a second baseman, as an outfielder or first baseman he probably would not have. Willie does have a championship and two pennants, but that is not enough to make up for the fact that he did not hit home runs, and finished with 2254 hits, not the 3000 that gets an auto ticket to Cooperstown.

I am a guy that almost always is against letting people into the Halls-of-Fame. So I definitly would go against a borderline guy like Sandberg. When you have a thousand people in a Hall-0f-Fame, it seems less special. Funny note, the last guy who got in with a closer vote than Sandberg was Cubby Fergie Jenkins, the man who invented giving up the long ball. I guess even the "Great" Cubs aren't that good.

New Name; Moves; Beltran

2005-01-03T18:59:00.000-06:00

I was inspired by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and decided to spruce up my website's name. From now on Cards Fan in Cubs Land will be: "Bobo Hilario Presents: The Cardinals Fan of Cubs Land." If you do not pick up my sarcasm you should please leave my website, try being a Cubs fan.

How dumb is the name changing thing? Disney sure loves their marketing don't they? There are now two pro sports teams that are "of Anaheim" which is two more than any other city.

Anyway, back to Cardinals, there is still no news on the Alomar front, hopefully that decreases the chance that there is a deal in place. There have not been many moves at all since Christmas. Apparently the three team deal with Randy Johnson is going to happen, but with less players and broken up into pieces. Instead of actually making a three team deal the D-Backs will do the trade with the Yankees and then move the prospect(s) to LA for Shawn Green. It seems like the Dodgers and D-Backs are changing their minds a lot, so I will believe the deals when the I see players in new jerseys.

The Beltran drama keeps chugging along. The Mets seem to be a major player, which is cool by me, anywhere out of the division is good and I don't want the Yankees/Red Sox juggernauts to get any bigger.

Still, I can't help but think that Beltran has become very overrated. Sure, he was great in the playoffs and as a Blues fan I can tell you that good playoff players are hard to come by. But in the regular season Beltran was not great. The Scott Boras built hype seems to have covered up the fact that Beltran only hit .268 last year and struck out 101 times. He is a terrific fielder, wonderful on the basepaths, and hits with power. However, he is so inconsistant that 12 million dollars seems like a more reasonable amount per year than the 17 Houston offered, or the 20 Boras wants.

I wouldn't be surprised if Beltran turns out to be a Bernie Williams caliber player. Bernie was a Boras-client-high-payed-switch-hitting-gold-glove-all-star for 5 or 6 years. And as much as I would like to see the Cubs empty out their savings, I would prefer to see Beltran take his talent out east and leave the Cubs and Astros with major holes in their outfields.

Ankiel problems?

2005-01-02T17:35:00.000-06:00

Apparently Rick Ankiel felt a little tweak in his left elbow a couple days ago. So his winter ball is over. A doctor back here in the US checked it out and said he was fine. I hope this is nothing, because the Cards will most likely need the "Left Arm of God" at the start of the season with Morris still recovering. If this escalates to a major problem it could just be another pain in the neck for Ankiel's long road back to the majors. I'm sure all the Cards fans are with me thinking that we have waited long enough to find out if he can still do it like he did his rookie year. So, Rick "Left Arm of God" Ankiel, you have 47 days to report to Florida in shape and ready to impress. I, for one, believe he's going to compete for the fifth spot once Morris gets back. If he keeps a spot all year, he should have a better year than Haren, and if he moves to the 'pen, he should have a better year than Calero.

What are they thinking

2004-12-30T17:06:00.000-06:00

I know spelling Polanco is tough and Grudzielanek is even tougher, but I wouldn't spell either of them A-L-O-M-A-R. The rumor according to the Post-Dispatch, the most reputable new source source since The Inquirer, is that the Cards agreed to a deal with Roberto Alomar for one year 500,000. That would be a reasonable salary to give Alomar, as a coach. I don't know about you, but when I think of washed up, the first name that I think of, after Mo Vaughn of course, is Roberto Alomar.

Yes Alomar far and away the best second baseman in the league for nearly a decade, but this is not your father's Roberto Alomar. He only played in 56 games last year, and didn't play well. There is no reason to think that he can cut it anymore. I am hoping that someone is playing tricks on the Post, sort of like the Morris-for-Millwood deal. They would be better off spending the half a million on this fantastic piece of work, and letting Marlon Anderson and Bo Hart play (or Eckstein at second and Luna at short.) Ok, I have vented my anger, I will relax and think about Mark Mulder.

Run in with Greatness

2004-12-28T15:52:00.000-06:00

Well maybe the title of this post is a little over the top, but Sunday night I did see Ray Lankford out at Growler's Pub. It took me a while to even notice him, but once I did I couldn't stop peaking over at him and feeling like a 14 year old girl with a crush. I can tell that he is my kind of guy, because he stayed until the bar closed (I know because they had to kick me out too.)

There are a lot of good Lankford memories from the last 14 years. A lot of strikeouts too. I think this year may have seen Ray Ray's final big league strikeout. Even though he will never be in a hall of fame or have his number retired, he will always be pseudoworshipped in the STL. Anyone who spends that long on the Cards and has a good smile should have plenty of commercial deals with Bommerito, Imo's, Dirt Cheap, or whatever local business is targeting sports fans. So here's to you Mr. Lankford, thanks for always being just good enough.

Christmas time

2004-12-25T08:04:00.000-06:00

Ho Ho Ho, Merry Everyone! I hear that there is a basketball game between Shaq and Kobe today, did anyone else hear about that?

Well I have that holiday spirit, I figured I would come up with gifts for some of our favorite baseball players.

To Albert Pujols: A birth certificate proving he was born January 16, 1980.
To Jim Edmonds: Permission to swing at every fastball higher than his nipples
To Scott Rolen: A long line of Phillies fans with no media around, so he can tell them off (or kick them) one by one and not come off as the bad guy.
To Matt Morris: consistency
To Rick Ankiel: A one year continuation of the title "Left Arm of God"
To Mark Mulder: Run support, well that's not really from me
To Jason Isringhausen: 6 mph on the fastball
To Ray King: Food and lots of it
To Edgar Renteria: Boos and lots of them if you ever slump, once again not from me
To Mike Matheny: Happy Trails, Tony Kornheiser style
To Yadier Molina: Starting, Duh
To David Eckstein: Walker, Pujols, Rolen, Edmonds (who needs Vlad)
To Larry Walker: A ring, I hope
To Reggie Sanders: Resign that lease buddy, I know that feels good
To Jeff Suppan: I forgive you for the worst baserunning EVER!!!!!

To Sammy Sosa: Cork soaked in Steroids, a big bowl full
Also to Sammy Sosa: A bowl full of pepper, sneeze inducing pepper
To Dusty Baker: Another year with out a closer
To Jason Dubois: A lot of playing time
To Roger Clemens: Membership to golf club of your choice
Also to Roger Clemens: A video camera so someone can tape your kid little league games for you
To Barry Bonds: Coal, you have been naughty, Bad Barry, BAD!
To George Steinbrenner and John Henry: Nothing, you already have everything
To all the readers of "Cards Fan in Cubs Land": 10 bonus points in life!

Eckstein

2004-12-24T02:12:00.000-06:00

As White Sox Announcer "Hawk " would say: David Eckstein, YES!!!!

If you gave me the choice of Edgar Renteria at 4 years 40 million, Orlando Cabrera at 4 years 32 million and David Eckstein at 3 years 10.25 million, I would choose the Eck-meister. First off, he is a better hitter than Cabrera and can hit at the top of the order, which the Cards desperately need. He is the worst fielder of the three, but he is not a liability and will only get better with Scott Rolen gobbling up every ball hit to his right. All three guys are within a year in age, and they each have a championship ring. Eckstein won't hit quite as well as Edgar but since he is leading off maybe we should compare his bat to Womack. He had almost as good an OBP, meaning he should score a lot of runs with the big 4 behind him. He never strikes out, ever. He is a threat to swipe some bags, not Womack speed, but he took 16 each of the last two years. From what the Angels blogs indicate, Eckstein is a fan-favorite-good-person-type-of-guy, so he should fit in well in the clubhouse and be a positive addition. As an added bonus Eckstein can move to second base if we need him too, either temporarily or permanently. It is still a possibility that the Cards could trade for another shortstop and Eckstein could be the secondbaseman. I don't trust any stat about fielding, but it seems like if range and arm strength are lacking, second base would be a good fit.

So, even though the Cars will suffer a drop off at short, they did pretty well considering the shortstop market (40 for Edgar, 32 for Cabrera, 16 for Guzman, 12.5 for Vizquel)
Bobo Hilario gives the David Eckstein deal two thumbs up

Wait a second, those guys aren't infielders

2004-12-23T11:22:00.000-06:00

The Cards ended up saving 410,000 on Taguchi by non-tendering him and them signing him, pretty good move. That money alone nearly pays for Mike Myers. As a Cardinals blogger I now have a very very difficult decision to make. Should talk about Mike Myers the serial killer way, or the Wayne's World/Austin Powers way. It is a toughy, I will keep you all posted. Mike Myers, I suppose, is Steve Kline's replacement, and although he doesn't get as many outs, he is just as fun to watch. He has that big submarine delivery from the left, and if real life is anything like MVP Baseball that is tough for players to see the ball.

Now Tony has to decide who is going to be on the opening day roster. Myers ahould round it out right now. There are 26 players there will probably be fourteen hitters, with the 8 starters, Taguchi, Anderson, Luna, Mabry, Diaz, and Cedeno. (Although Diaz or Luna or Mabry could get beaten out of a job in spring training.) That leaves 12 pitchers. There is the rotation, Mulder, Carpenter, Morris, Suppan, Marquis. Then you got Izzy, King, Tavarez, Ankiel, Myers with safe spots. That means Cal Eldred, Al Reyes, and Mike Lincoln have to battle for the final spot.

If the Cardinals do not sign both a SS and 2b, and start Luna or Anderson, that opens a spot for Scoot Seabol, Bo Hart, John Gall, or Colin Porter. If Morris starts the season on the DL, and Ankiel moves up to the rotation, there is a group of youngens, waiting to get into the pen. Jimmy Journell and lefties Carmen Cali and Randy Flores would be the first to get a look. Then again when Walt Jocketty is the GM, I really should not be talking about this in December.

Im gonna try ending my posts this way some times now:
Cards Trivia what country comes third in Cardinal population after the US and Dominican Republic? First person to post the right answer gets 5 points.

Random Stuff

2004-12-22T14:06:00.000-06:00

Well, only 57 days until pitchers and catchers report to Jupiter. Here are some things to ponder while you wait:

How great is the J.D. Drew deal looking now? Sure he had a great season, but there is no way the Cards could have come up with 5 years , 55 million like the Dodgers. Also, Marrero is now in KC, as the Braves traded him for Jorge Vasquez a 26 year old minor league pitcher.
Where will the Cubs play next year? The city says the safety nets aren't enough, maybe they will just have to forfeit all the home games, or play without fans.
Since Mulder and Marquis are big time ground ball pitchers, maybe the Cards can sacrifice batting for fielding on the needed middle infielders.
Does anyone else have very little faith in Isringhausen? I need to see a couple of dominant saves out of him in April before I jump back on the bandwagon.
Do the Cubs really think that anyone is interested in Sammy Sosa? Perhaps someone will take him and pay 5 million of the 17 million this year, but 5 million is not enough for them to compete with the Yankees for Beltran. They should start looking at cheaper, older, more crippled people like Mags, or Juan Gone.
Are the Cubs ever going to realize that their top priority this offseason should have been a closer? They focused on Nomar, and now they are only focusing on Sosa, meanwhile Kolb, Percival and Benitez have moved, and there are no real closers out there. Sort of like how the Cards focused on Renteria and missed out on starting pitching. Oh wait, we got Mulder, BITCHES!
How old is Albert Pujols? I don't care if he is 28, he is still the best 28 year old in the game.

Well, hopefully tommorrow I will have plenty to write about the Cards new middle infield. Until then, be thankful you are not this guy.

St. Louis Fan adds Renteria Jersey to Closet of lost dreams

2004-12-21T18:01:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, December 20th, Eric Malhoney placed his Edgar Renteria Jersey into his closet of lost dreams. Renteria signing with the Boston Red Sox for four years forced Mr. Malhoney to do what he never wanted to do.

The story of this jersey is as long as it is boring. Eric bought the Russell Athletic jersey in June of 1999, Edgar's first year on the Cards. Since then he has worn it to 38 Cardinals games, each time chearing on Renteria more than any of the other players. Eric explains, "Edgar wasn't as flashy as Pujols or Rolen, but he was the heart of the team, and my favorite (freaking) player." Then in the fifth inning of a game on August 8th, 2001 Eric's friend Jeff Peterson spilled nacho cheese on the jersey. "You can still see the stain now, cheese just doesn't come out like beer, it really bummed me out, so I punched Jeff in the leg." But that minor incident does not even compare to the dissapointment Eric felt a week ago when he found out that Renteria had signed a 40 million dollar deal with the Cardinals newest enemy. "I felt devestated, I wore the old guy out one last night on a farewell tour of some sports bars, then I had to hang it up."

The jersey is now sitting between a Kurt Warner Rams jersey and a Brett Hull Blues jersey in a downstairs closet that is out of the way and rarely used. When asked why he will not keep wearing the $70 shirt to support the team he explained, "No way, people at Blues games wearing Shanny jerseys are just tools," he continued, "I will probably get a Yadier Molina one next, that kid can play, and noone else has one so everyone will be like 'dude thats sweet' just like when I first got the Edgar one." Jeff, of nacho cheese fame, has offered Eric five dollars for the jersey. When asked for comment Jeff said, "I saw one sell on eBay for like 20 bucks, people in Boston like them because they are sorta retro already, It's like insta-retro"

Orland-NO Cabrera

2004-12-21T09:16:00.000-06:00

Well Anaheim gave Cabrera the contract that I was afraid the Cards would give him. 8 million a year is too much for that guy, he can hardly hit. It is unfortunate that teams are so spend crazy this winter. Now the talent level at both middle infield positions is dwindling, and the idea of a Hector Luna and Marlon Anderson starting opening day is closer to a reality. Now that Cabrera is out, here is the list of free agent shortstops. That list is not pretty, a couple of names were added to the list yesterday for non-tendered players. David Eckstien was added, but he'd make a better second baseman that shortstop. Devi Cruz is not a terrible option, he hits for a descent average, and if he learned the patience that most of the Cardinals hitters have, he could be a lot better. His fielding is a drop off from Renteria or Cabrera, but he would come a lot cheaper. The rest of the free agent shortstops are crap. There is washed up crap (Barry Larkin, Rich Aurilia), Cub-reject Crap (Alex S. Gonzalez, Ramon Martinez), never heard of crap (Cody Ransom) and human glove crap (Pokey Reese).

Since the Dodgers signed Jeff Kent the let Alex Cora go non-tendered. Cora doesn't hit for a great average, but his OBP is a very solid .364. He is good in the field. Also, he is one of those bat left, throw right guys and that is pretty cool.

In other news Steve Kline got a good 2 year $ 5.5 million deal with Baltimore. It's ok he's a cubs fan, we don't want him around anyway. That clears the way for Ankiel to be the second left arm out of the pen. But I am wondering if that will ever happen. If Morris does not heal in time for the season and Ankiel starts 5 or 6 games better than, say, Jason Marquis then Ankiel could end up in the rotation all year and Carmen Kali or Randy Flores could be called up for a second left arm in the pen. Second news the Cards let Taguchi go non-tendered. They must figure that 1.2 million is a hefty salary for a bench player. The Cards will need someone to back up Edmonds now. He plays a "somewhat aggressive" style and hurts himself occasionally. Hopefully Cedeno can be that guy. Otherwise cub rejects Tom Goodwin and Doug Glanville are out there, and they can be pinch runner/centerfield backups.

Placido Polanc-NO

2004-12-20T10:47:00.000-06:00

Ok, so I did another crappy title.

Polanco accepted the Phillies arbitration, meaning he will stay there for another year.

So with Polanco out of the pitcure, the Cards have three options:

1) Go find a free agent

2) Make another trade, like they did for Womack last year

3) Let Anderson and Luna and maybe, Bo Hart compete/split time

Here is the list of free agent second basemen. Most of these guys are not everyday-worthy. Roberto Alomar is pretty much an antique, Ricky Guiterrez and Enrique Wilson are bench players, and not very good ones. Desi Relaford is one of the best utility infielders around, but once again he is a bench player, and the Cards have Mabry, Luna, Anderson, to back up in the infield. Ray Sanchez sucks and is old. That leaves our old buddy Miguel Cairo and former Cub/Dodger Mark Grudzielanek (who will know me referred to as Mark G. since I had to copy and paste his name.) Of these two I like Mark G. more, He hit over 300 last year with and OBP of 347. So, he could fit into the lead off spot. He played in half the cubs game last year, splitting with Todd Walker, and he lead off most of the time. Unlike most of the Cubs he was a good contact hitter, wich held him to 32 strike outs in 257 ABs. In other words, he is a slow Tony Womack. He is above average in the field. Miguel Cairo on the other hand would be a cheaper option, and someone that already knows his way around Busch. We could probably sign him for 1 to 1.5 million a year, instead of the 2 to 2.5 that Mark G. would demand. Cairo is also younger, and faster. The disadvantages of Cairo are a few points on the batting average and slugging, and a lack of reliability in the field.

If the Cards sign Cabrera, he is not a good hitter, he will probably bat in the 7th spot ahead of Molina, so it would be nice to have someone with a good bat in the 6th spot. Signing Mark G. add putting him at the top could give the Cards a pretty good line-up. Something like this:

1) Mark G. 2b
2) Larry Walker rf
3) Albert Pujols 1b
4) Scott Rolen 3b
5) Jim Edmonds cf
6) Reggie Sanders lf
7) Orlando Cabrera ss
8) Yadier Molina c
9) Mark Mulder P <----- (I really like seeing that written there)

That gives right, left, right, right, left, right, right, right, left/right. Mabry can be subbed in for Sanders when a pitcher is much better against righties.

My Wish is Walt's command

2004-12-19T13:20:00.000-06:00

So yesterday I was ragging on Jocketty for not doing anything, I wake up this morning and Mark Mulder is a Cardinal. Way to go Walt. Some may say that we gave up too much but I really like this deal. Dan Haren is a good young pitching prospect. But he is 24 and Mulder is only 27. So I would rather have a proven ace than a guy with potential. Calero is tough to give up, but there are a lot of guys waiting to get up into our bullpen, like Al Reyes and someone had to go anyway and many people don't realize Calero is already 29. Daric Barton is also just potential. He put up huge numbers in A ball but that is A ball. Also from what I read he is lousy behind the plate, so he may be well served to play in the the AL where he can end up as a DH.

Comparing Mulder to Hudson, who was big A on the trading block, I like the Cardinals deal better than the A's. For one, Mulder is signed for the next two years instead of just one. Second, Mulder is a lefty, and it will be nice to have a lefty at the top of the rotation. Houston and Chicago both have some solid left handed bats and Mulder has a sharp slider that should give him the edge against them. If Morris takes longer than expected to heal and Ankiel gets in the rotation for a while, the Cards will have a very balanced rotation with two righties and a lefty. When Morris does get in the mix, the Cards will now have five 15 game winners in the rotation. Not quite the big names that the Cubs have, but more effective.

Mulder is somewhat of a question mark, just like Morris, Carpenter, Ankiel. In 2004, he pitched two different season. He was the first half Cy Young and started the All Star game. Then, he fell apart in the second half and really struggled. He pitched 4 million innings (225 2/3) which surely played a role in his collapse. Compared with the A's the Cardinals middle relief is an unstoppable force. That should cut down Mulder's innings and help him last longer into the season. Mulder also has had hip injuries two years ago, but last year that didn't bother him, so I am hoping he's all good now.

Thank you Mr. Jocketty you are the man. Please sign infielders.

Paging Walt Jocketty

2004-12-18T09:48:00.000-06:00

Has anyone seen Walt Jocketty, anywhere? Just to let you know this posting will be all bitching.

I have been away from the internet for the last week, the hottest stove week of the year. In that time things have fallen apart big time. Renteria Gone, Matheny Gone, Hudson Gone, Big Unit nearly Gone, Clement Gone. Lets go through these and complain.

1) I was informed by every media source that the Cradinals were putting all of their efforts into Renteria. There was a rumor that they offered four years 36 million at one point, but they cannot go to 40 million to get him? I agree that Boston overpayed, but some times you have to over pay. Now we are planning on over paying for Orlando Cabrera instead. 2) The Matheny deal I am cool with. I did not want around for three more years and certaintly not at the value the Giants gave him. We offered him two years 4 or 5 million he got 3 years 10.5 million, good for him. 3) Tim Hudson is now a brave, that sucks. They got him for not a whole lot Charles Thomas, a promising outfielder, Juan Cruz a horrible starter/long reliever that the Cubs got rid of a year ago, and Dan Meyers a triple A pitcher. The Cards don't have a young outfielder like Thomas that they could have offered, but a package with Haren and Calero, would have been a lot stronger than Cruz and Meyers. Considering Renteria is gone and Morris took a 10 million dollar pay cut, the Cards would have had a good chance at resigning Hudson beyond 2005. 5) Now it sounds like Randy Johnson is going to the Yankees in a deal that screws the Dodgers. There was about a two week period where noone was talking about Johnson before this deal came up, so why didn't the Cards step in and become the leading contender? 6) Like I posted earlier, I think Clement would have been a perfect fit in St. Louis. Now he is also a Red Sock. They got him for 3 years at 25.5 million, which is exactly the Cards price range. Apparently, Jocketty never even thought about going for Clement. We could have stuck it to our biggest rival, but instead the Red Sox stuck it to us again, as they have been for the last few months.

Now take a look at the list of folk the Cards have signed. Not exactly people that scream world series. This is the year that the Cards should get players more than any other year. Players want to win, they like playing for a contender. We have that bargaining chips that a player like Randy Johnson, or Matt Clement can come here and win. There have been rumors about the cards with lots of people but none of them have come true. "They" say we are going to get Cabrera but anything more than 5 or 6 million a year is too much. He is a lousy hitter, and good, but not great in the field. "They" say we are going to get Polanco. That's fine, but is he going to lead off. He had about the same OBP as Womack last year at .345, but he doesn't have the speed. Also, when are we gonna resign Ankiel? I want to see a compatition for the last starter spot with Haren. Also, Morris is no guarantee to be able to pitch. Nor is Carpenter with his funky injury thing.

Please Mr. Jocketty, DO something.

One More(is) Year

2004-12-08T16:50:00.000-06:00

Don't you hate annoying titles like that one. When I am up here in Chicago and I pick up the Sun-Times, I know that I am it's coming and then, BAM! I see it and am filled with dissapointment. Not that the St. Louis Post Dispatch is a wonderful paper, but I am glad I don't come home to things like, "Albert Has Hits Coming Out His Pujols."

Anyway, the Cards signed Morris to a one year deal. There still isn't a set value for the arbitration deal. But, once I find out how much they gave him I can begin to complain about it. It is a shame I am saying that, because I was one of the Morris's biggest supports. I can identify the moment I lost faith in Morris. It was the first Shawn Green homer in game three of the NLDS this year. I stuck with him after his numerous collapses this season. Going into the playoffs I thought he was goinging to bring the A game and be the win machine he was 3 or 4 years ago. Instead he gave up more dingers, and ended up 0-2 in the playoffs. He is saying that surgery will fix everything, but I don't buy it. I think the Cards still need to get an Ace like Johnson, Hudson, or at least Clement to round out the order.

The Cards agreed to arbitration deals with Eldred and Mabry too. Thats a relief since we won't have to try to get anyone as ridiculous looking as Antonio Alfonseca.
Also, Mabry surprised me with some very good left handed pinch hitting and spot starts in left. He will certainly get some time if Sanders struggles.

Apparently Walt Jocketty is one of my 5 readers, since the Cards offered Matheny the exact deal I suggested 2 years at 4 million. Let's hope he takes it.

In Cubs news, they gave Nomar 8 million for one year and signed the Twins catcher Henry Blanco for 2 years at 2.7 million. Neither of these are particularly good deals. Nomar could be worth every penny if he plays 150 games and bats like it's 1997. He could also miss half the season and force Neifi Perez to play. Blanco is a good catcher, probably to good to be a backup, like he will be behind Michael Barret. Therefore the Cubs will be giving their once a week guy over a million bucks.

Womack got away, oh well

2004-12-07T23:44:00.000-06:00

Well, the Cards focused let Womack slip away to the Yanks. It's unfortuante, but not terrible. I doubt that Womack will play as well next year as he did this year. If he hits over 300 for the Yankees, I will be surprised.

But that does leave a question of what the Cards do now. There are a number of subpar place fillers on the club already. Marlon Anderson started in Philly a couple years ago, Hector Luna showed he can paly second well enough, and of course there is everbodies favorite Bo Hart. And then there is the free agent market, which for the most part if full of past-their-prime, high salary guys like Jeff Kent and Roberto Alomar. Also, there are former Cards Miguel Cairo and Placido Polonco, who could both come in and play alright. The main concern is not with replacing Womack's glove as much as his legs. I, for one, am not thrilled about any of the names I just listed appearing at the top of the lineup card. The Cards seem to be waiting for the Renteria situation to play out before they spend any money on a second baseman. It seems like the Cards may have to try several people at leadoff. It could end up being like the Cubs lineup the last couple years, where they had no leadoff man and hit a lot of solo home runs. The Cards might as well get Grudzielanek and make it official.

In other free agent news, the starting pitchers seem to be signing pretty slowly. That could be good for the Cards as it will let them take care of Renteria before they need to go all out for an Ace. That being said, I wouldn't mind hearing that they signed someone tomorrow afternoon.

Clement?

2004-12-03T13:26:00.000-06:00

I know this is a sports blog and I am supposed to bitch about everything that the cardinals management does, but I have to say from what I am hearing they are doing good things. First, the Renteria offer was heavily backloaded, which means they are willing to sacrifice some money down the road to try to win this year. Second, they are going to arbitration with Womack meaning he will probably stay on with a one yeat deal around 3 million. THat leaves the starting pitcher question wide open.

It seems like the second choice, next to the Big Unit is Tim Hudson. He has one year left on his contract with the A's and will demand big bucks once that runs out. So, if we traded for him it would probably only be for a year and the Cards might have to give up a young pitcher and hitter, such as, Dan Haren and Collin Porter. Still, I think this would be a good deal. Hudson makes 6 million next year, if the Cards pick up the whole thing, that is still a Renteria and a Womack cheaper than Randy Johnson. In addition, I think Hudson could be lights out candidate here. He has that nasty splitter that gets a lot of ground balls. So if Marquis can be a 15 game winner here, then Hudson should be a Ace, or even Cy Young candidate. Plus if he does come here, there is some chance that he will resign. It happened with McGwire, Rolen, Edmonds, Woody. They come with one year, or a few months left on the deal and they love St. Louis so much they stay.

There are also a lot of free agent pitchers out there that the Cards would need to trade youth to get. Hopefully, Walt is talking to most of them. But there is one name that I have not heard connected to the Cards. He's someone we know well, he's a free agent that is not considering resigning, he's young, he's talented, he's Matt Clement. Why not Clement? We are considering resigning Morris to a one year deal instead of going after Clement, why? Compared to Morris, he is cheaper, better, younger, and less risky. Sure he didn't have as many wins last year, but ask the fellows at Oldstylecubs.com about that. Or read any of Clement's box scores (especially July) from last year they all read like this 7 1/3 innings, 2 runs 2 earned, 8 strikeouts, 1 walk, LOSS. (Check out the Game I went to) With the run support that Morris got last year, Clement would have been a Cy Young candidate. He was their most consistent starter and the Cubs ace for the first half of the year. He made 6 million last year, and can probably expect a bump to 7 or 8 for his next year. I am sure he would except something around 3 years 22 million, which the Cardinals could handle. But instead there are rumors around Mr. Overrated Russ Ortiz. Of course, Jockety isn't one for leaking his deals (Larry Walker) so maybe he's working on this right now.

Offseason Crap

2004-12-03T13:20:00.000-06:00

Ok so the Cards just missed the big trophy, offseason time, what will they do now? Of course the big name everyone wants to talk about is Randy Johnson. If the Cardinals had the Big Unit in the World Series they probably still would have lost but maybe not. They would have taken game one and from there on things may have changed. ESPN.com suggests that the D-Backs asked for the threesome of Ankiel Haren and Calero, which is ridiculous. If Jockety made deals like that the Cardinals might as well change their name to the Reds or Pirates. Giving up any one of those guys, maybe Wainright, and then taking on Johnson's salary would be a reasonable deal. I would love to see that big ugly man with the birds on bat across his chest, however, the St. Louis Cardinals can not win a bidding war with the Red Sox and Yankees. So they should look elsewhere.

Here is the list of priorties as I see them:
1) Let Mike Shannon make the move to TV
2) Sign or trade for a pitcher with "Ace" type potential
3) Sign Edgar
4) Offer Matheny a two year deal
5) Sign Womack or another solid second baseman, preferably a leadoff man

I'm sort of torn on the first one. I am not a big Shannon fan. However, if Shannon was on TV you would still be able to watch and know what is happening, as opposed to his radio work where you usually don't know who's up from the 5th to 8th inning. I could always mute and have a good time on TV. Then again, Shannon's crazy rambling may actually be fun during TV. Plus radio broadcasts would improve.

Point number two I have my list of who I want, that is the next point.

Point three, apparently the deal being discussed is 4 years 32 million which seems perfect to me. That wouldn't brake the bank for a starter, it would lock Edgar up for a long time, but not too long. And it would make Edgar one of the better paid shortstops in the league. Not as much as the big three shortstops signed a few years ago, but it's more than Tejada is making. That would lock up Pujols, Rolen Renteria long term, and we have Edmonds two more years, so the core of the line-up would stay in tact.

The Matheny question is a tough one, he is the best defensive catcher in baseball. He helps our pitching staff emmensly, but Molina is waiting to come into his own. Ideally we would sign Matheny to a one year deal to stay aroung, mentor Molina and split time. But, if I were Matheny and was offered that deal I would say HELL MOTHER FUCKING NO!!! He's 34, so he won't get a better deal next year than he will now. He has won three out of the last five gold gloves. He should be able to get a deal for 3 or 4 years at 3 million a year or so and that he should jump on it. His batting is not good and never will be. At times this year he looked helpless at plate. Catchers usually don't age too well, so I think if Matheny is getting 4 million dollars in 3 years, someone will be overpaying. But I think offering him a two year deal in the neighborhood of 5 million would be wise. With Haren, Ankiel, Calero, Marquis, Reyes, and possibly Wainright all developing in the Big Leagues over the next two years, it would be nice to have Matheny calling the pitches. In two years Molina won't be a question mark, he will be itching to be the starter.

The rumors seem to say that Womack will not be coming back, he may even go to the Cubs, where he rode the bench for part of 2003. I am fine with that, I don't think the 35 year old Womack will play like he did last year again at bat, or in the field. There are a bunch of free agent second basemen out there, mos tof them are old guys, and few of them have lead-off skills, but there are interested names. Cardinal Killer Jeff Kent is a possibility if Renterai gets away, that money could be spent on Kent, and Luna could get a chance at short or a cheap free agent (everybodies, favorite, Ozzie replacement Royce Clayton) could be found. Otherwise a list includes Placido Polanco, possibly the best name the Cardinals have ever had except Stubby Clapp. Ex Cub and Red Sock Todd Walker is also out there.

In another not, how bout this steroid drama thats coming out now? I don't know about you guys, but I love rubbing cream all over myself when I have no idea what it is. What did you think Barry, it was horse semen?

Time to stop mourning

2004-11-29T15:44:00.000-06:00

Well it took me a month, but I think I finally have overcome my sweep depression. Think about this, inthe four major sports in the US, the last time each St. Louis Team has gone to the championship, they have been beat by the Boston team. Fucking Beaneaters. Sox v. Cards, Pats v. Rams, Bruins v. Blues (the Bobby Orr diving horizontally thing) and Celtics v. Hawks. I could write five pages about why we lost and what went wrong, but I think everybody watched the series so I will let you judge that for yourself. I will however have an end of the season wrap-up.

This season was AWESOME!!!! Even though we lost the series, it was the most fun baseball season in St. Louis since I've been old enough to know what a slider was. The Cardinals were predicted to be the third team in the NL Central by everybody including Post-Dispatch writers. Instead they were far and away the class of the national league and the second best team in baseball. Pretty much everyone on the team had a very good year. The next few posts will be a Bob-Style-Report-Card and an offseason plan from my view.

We Must Protect This House

2004-10-25T13:37:00.000-05:00

All I was hoping for was to split the two games in Boston. The Cards didn't give me that wish. They managed to lose both games dispite 8 errors by Boston. Game two was clearly decided with two outs as the Bo Sox came up with three huge two out hits to give them their runs and the Cards decided to continue stranding runners. Two out hits had been the strength of the Cards int he first two playoff series. Luckily for the Redbirds, MLB likes the ridiculous 2-3-2 playoff format, meening there are three games in a row in Busch. It is entirely possible to do what Houston did to the Cards and take all three home games.
Here is the gameplan focusing on starting pitching:
Game three is Pedro vs Suppan, and if Suppan can win against Clemens he can win against Pedro. I don't think two teams will come back from down 3-0 in one year, so I am calling game three a must win. Game four is gonna be the toughest if Derek Lowe pitches like he did in game 7 of the ALCS and Marquis pitches like he has in the playoffs. If we can win one or both of those, I have supreme confidence in Woody Williams to bounce back from his short game one outing and be dominant in game five. If the Cards can win two or three of the home games and take it back to Boston, rumor is that Schilling might not be able to go again. His ankle has already been cut open and tied up twice and the doctors say a third time might not be possible. That could lead to a Bronson Arroyo appearance and possible meltdown in game six.
As you can see this series is far from over. Of course, all my talk about game five and six and back in Boston is gettign way ahead. The Key for now: beat up Pedro Martinez

God Damn Beltran

2004-10-18T13:41:00.000-05:00

Man, I cannot wait until this guy is back in the American League where he belongs. Mr. Beltran almost single handedly tied the series up. I thought that the Cards would take one of the two against Oswalt and Clemens, and both were within reach. But shaky relief pitching and Carlos hitting everything prevented that. That last homerun he hit could not have been more than 4 inches off the ground. That is unreal, you shouldn't be able to hit that out. The new plan is to win tonight against Backe, and take the lead back home. Clemens will be on three days rest, so hopefully the Cards can knock him out of game six after four or five innings and take the series. My suggestion is to pitch around Beltran, and not with low fastballs.

Who to root for? The Braves

2004-10-11T13:06:00.000-05:00

The NLDS is done, the Dodgers rolled over pretty easy, except of course for crazy Lima. Now its time for a couple days rest before the NLCS. As our president would say "Bring em on." The only question is, who are they? I am sure all the Cards fans out there will be with me rooting for Braves tonight.

I think if the Braves do somehow win game five, the Cardinals will put them in the hurt box next week. They don't have an ace, Jared Wright is good, but not Walker-Pujols-Rolen-Edmonds good. I think we can handle our old buddy JD and Mr. Overrated Chipper Jones. Their biggest weapon, John Smoltz has been struggling and anyone who can beat Gagne's Dodger's can handle Smoltz. The Braves that I would look out for are Marcus Giles and Ray Furcal. Furcal has been huge for them since he came back in this series, he gets on base and causes pandemonium. The Cards probably won't see game five starter Wright until game three or so, setting up Mike Hampton, famous for his impressions of a batting practice machine, for game one. Russ Ortiz could pitch game two on three days rest. So if Woody gives another good performance and Marquis can conquer his nerves against his old team, we could leave town with two wins.

Of course that will all be worthless when the Astros win 5-0 tonight on Oswalt's back. The good news will be that the Stros will probably have to throw rag-arm Brandon Backe in game one. Clemens could only make it five innings on three days rest, they won't want to do that again. If there is not a rest day after game one, that we could see someone like means Monro and his ERA over 5 in game two. So if the Cards can contain the out of control Astros line-up they should take the first two at home what ever team they play. But, if the Astros win we have to go face Clemens and Oswalt in Houston, which is not easy. Also the Astros the only team to have a winning record against the Cards this year where as we beat the Braves 2-1 both in STL and ATL.

Finally, the story lines are better between the Cards and Braves than Cards and Stros. The Cards and Braves made the big trade in the offseason. And the two winningest managers in the game are La Russa and Cox.

In the minor leagues, big surprise, the Yankees and Red Sox made the ALCS again. Although I'm sure some Cards fans would like to have the powerless Twins or pitcherless Angels in the series, I will be happy to have the bitter rivals beat each other up (literally, most likely) in what should be a long series. It worked out for the Marlins last year when the Yankees seemed worn out.

2-0 (and Sammy Sosa)

2004-10-08T13:35:00.000-05:00

Eight to three, I'm beginning to like the sound of that. Although Marquis looked more nervous than a legless mouse in a snake pit, La Russa got him out of there and the bullpen and bottom of the lineup bailed him out. Danny Haren made a strong statement last night, he was very cool in his first playoff appearance. Hopefully Matty-Mo can learn a thing from the kid and bring the A game out for game three.

Since I can't just focus on the Cards success without bashing the Small Bears, I gotta talk about Sammy Sosa. So basically he has burned his bridge with the Cubs by coming late and leaving early to the last game and also bitching about Dusty Baker putting to much blame on him. In a perfect world he would apologize to everyone and get ready for next season, but I don't think that is gonna happen.

"Also I am beginning to wonder if Sammy didn't plan this move. Consider this contract summary I found on ESPN: Sosa is to make $17 million next season and the club has an $18 million option for 2006 with a $4.5 million buyout. If Sosa is traded, his 2006 contract becomes guaranteed and a 2007 club option is added at $19 million with a $4.5 million buyout."

I doubt Sosa will be better next year than this year, and I know that no team wants to spend 18 million on an aging .250 batter. So Sammy pulls this move, the club has two choices. First, keep him next year pay him 21.5 mill and have a horrible clubhouse where everyone hates him and it ruins the legacy of possibly the best Cub ever. Second they can trade him, but know one wants to pick up that deal, plus that means he would get an extra year on his contract so the cubs would have to pay the large part of 39.5 mill just to get rid of him and maybe get a 2nd rate closer in the deal. Now that the Cubs fans are expecting a champion in the next couple years, have Sosa stick around and be a distraction could definitely prevent that, so Sosa is trying to force the cubs into the second option which gets him an extra 18 million and possibly the status of team superstar somewhere else. Losing that money would hurt the cubs chances of landing someone like Beltran or Mags (or Renteria) to replace him.

Round One

2004-10-06T13:23:00.000-05:00

The Dingerfest that was game one is under the belt. Jeff Weaver is the new target. Weaver is a lot like Matt Morris in that he can throw a complete game shutout one day and not make it three innings a week later. The latter is what got him ran out of New York, and what we should hope for Thursday. Of course when I say he can throw a shutout I don't mean against the Cards lineup, we may have to play some smallball and win 2-1 or something. My buddy and future sports media guru Matt Pauley predicts that Jason Marquis will be the Cards best pitcher in the playoffs, and that sounds good to me. If we can win both home games I will be a very happy camper. If we take game two, that set the stage for a sweep and lets the banged up players (Morris, Womack, Kline) get some rest before the NLCS against the Cubs. Oh wait, that's right the Cubs aren't in the playoffs, even though Prior told us a month ago that he would play the Cards in the NLCS.

Lost in the offensive numbers was a great bullpen performance that seemed like the bullpen that kicked ass for the three months this season. Until Izzy gave up a meaningless homer, they shut everyone down for three frames. I really didn't like seeing Izzy's walk after the homer, that made me more upset than the homer, but since when does Izzy not make it interesting?

Another Midwest Swing in Stores this Tuesday

2004-10-04T13:32:00.000-05:00

I just got back from the hardware store where I bought 20 tubes of crazy glue. My Cardinals hat will not be leaving my head this October.

Hey folks back in St. Louis, is there a playoff pump up song yet? Usually once the playoffs start the media gives the team some song like "Celebrate" or "Who let the Dogs Out?". I've been pondering what the song should be this year. My dad, who is your typical St. Louis-stuck-in-the-seventies-Classic-Rock-fan thinks it should be Sammy Hagar's "Red," but thats sort of lame. Ford will make its push for the song from its commercial "I bleed red and blue, for my Cardinals Baseball, my Ford and you," which maybe the dumbest jingle ever. We could always rekindle the Rams 1999 magic with "Bang on my drum all day," maybe we could get Pujols to bob an weave on a home run trot. Being here in the Cubs land has on occasion opened my mind, and I think the best option for the Cardinals is to create their own song and video like the 1985 chart topper "Super Bowl shuffle." The could call it the "Cardinal Jam" or "October Rap" or something. For you critics out there just listen to Jim McMahan try to rap, you know Ray King could do better than that. In fact I think they could make a whole album. Have Nelly produce it and call it "Another Midwest Swing." Rolen and Kline could do a country duet. Ankiel, Edmonds and Morris could do a Dead Head style stoner jam. Pujols, Renteria, Tavarez and Luna could do some Latin Music. Finally, So Taguchi could do kareoki covers to all his favorite American Classics. All procedes will benefit the SIGN EDGAR FOUNDATION