PURE CARDINAL OBSESSION

Back from the dead, sort of

2007-03-01T21:08:00.000-06:00

Well, hmm. PCO here got kind of abandoned about two years back in favor of The Birdwatch. Sad, but necessary, since I basically ran out of time to handle two blogs at once, much less one. And then I forgot this even existed... 'til now. So check over there if you really liked my writing that much. Perhaps I'll be back in this space someday if it doesn't work out over there, so you never know. Until then, happy blogging and go Cards.

Of almosts and sweeps

2005-06-15T21:27:00.000-05:00

Carp's 1-hitter in Toronto the other night was absolutely filthy. 10 K's, 1 BB. Nice. But the one thing it proved to me is that it is really freaking difficult to throw a no-hitter. For proof, I tender you this: a Bill James piece from Rob Neyer's site last November about how likely no-hitters actually are.

Elsewhere in the AL East, the Orioles finished off a sweep of the Astros tonight. And after a 6-7 roadtrip where they failed in a golden opportunity to gain some ground on the Red Sox and Yankees, it couldn't have come at a better time. With the Rockies and their 4-24 road record coming to town this weekend to finish the homestand, the O's have absolutely no excuse not to make it six in a row.

The world turned upside down

2005-06-11T18:54:00.000-05:00

As you can see in the title bar, PCO is coming to you now from Kent County, Maryland. There are five MLB teams that play within a radius of 200 miles, so it's nice to be a baseball fan here. And of those five, the one with the worst record on June 11 is, you guessed it, the New York Yankees. Here's the standings in that "division":

Baltimore	36-25
Washington	36-26
Philadelphia	35-28
New York Mets	32-30
New York Yankees	30-31

Wow. It's amazing to see that, but I'll give you a million-to-one odds that it won't look that way in September. At least, not the bottom part.

Never fear...

2005-06-11T17:48:00.000-05:00

...PCO is back online! The internet fairy showed up this morning, so I now have regained my license to rant about the thing I love the most: the St. Louis Cardinals.

As I write this, the Cardinals just fell to the Yankees this afternoon, 5-0. There are some obvious flaws to the team -- mainly the bench, defensive problems of David Eckstein, and the lack of consistent middle relief -- and Scott Rolen has missed several weeks with a shoulder injury. But, at this very moment they are the best team in the National League by 4 games over the Washington Nationals (!) and the Padres, have a 5½ game lead on the Cubs in the Central, and are 9 up on the rest of the division, with several games remaining this evening. And it still seems that they're not even on that typical mid-summer "roll" yet, despite playing at a .639 clip.

Anyway, I thought I'd spread the good cheer. Be sure to check back frequently for more updates.

Hiatus

2005-02-17T14:48:00.000-06:00

I'm moving out East to start a new job over the next few days, so it could get hectic, and thus I may not reappear for a couple of weeks (that goes for at The Birdwatch as well). But I'll be back sometime before baseball season, once I get settled in. Never fear!

I'll take the credit

2005-02-17T14:16:00.000-06:00

Since my last two posts, neither of my teams has lost. Mizzou (12-13) beat Oklahoma (in overtime) and then Baylor in Columbia, and Purdue (7-15) beat Iowa in West Lafayette, thanks to 29 points from Carl Landry, after a weekend off. Both have big games this weekend, when Mizzou travels to Nebraska and Purdue hosts Michigan State -- Mizzou has to win some games to get in the NIT, and even has an outside chance at an NCAA bid (if they win out before the Big 12 Tournament), while Purdue needs some confidence before the Big Ten Tournament, which is the only way they can advance to the postseason.

Purdue's key for the Big Ten Tournament, actually, is avoiding Illinois as long as possible (and hoping someone else beats them). Illinois has the 1 seed all but locked up, and thus Purdue wants to do everything possible to avoid being seeded 8th or 9th, thereby being forced to play Illinois in the second round. Currently, they sit in 9th, but at 3-8 are only a game behind the Iowa/Northwestern tie for 7th (I'm excluding the possibility of finishing 10th, since Penn State and Michigan are both really bad). Unfortunately, they'd probably have to win 7th outright to get the seed, since Iowa and Northwestern have both beaten Purdue this year. At best, Purdue can probably hope for 6-10, which could be good enough for just that; however, if they're 5-11 or 4-12, then 8th or 9th is pretty likely.

TBW news

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

Yeah, I just made a really long post there and I don't feel like duplicating it, so here's a link. Also, be sure to check out the discussions on steriods, plus Iron Throne's two-part series on the fantasy value of the 2005 Cardinal players (here and here).

News flash

2005-02-10T14:09:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, the Cubs traded away a once-beloved veteran whose very effective seasons helped lead them to 88 wins in 2001 and the Central Division crown in 2003. However, a subpar season in 2004 filled with controversy led the Cubs to trade him away to the American League for a fringe major-leaguer and two prospects. Cubs fans were excited about the deal, claiming addition by subtraction of his personality from the team.

Yes, Kyle Farnsworth, appliance-kicker extraordinaire, was sent to the Tigers for reliever Roberto Novoa and two minor-leaguers.

I'm actually a little more disappointed about Farnsworth leaving the division than I am about Sosa, since he was such a goofy and flaky dude. You never knew if he was going to pitch solid relief in a comeback win, give up a So Taguchi game-tying blast, or cross up the catcher to allow the winning run on a passed ball on any given day. Kyle, you will be missed.

Columbian wake-up call?

2005-02-10T09:19:00.000-06:00

Purdue may be winning a few games now and then, but Mizzou is certainly not. They've lost 8 of their last 9 games, with the only win coming over Nebraska at home. During that stretch, they've been beaten by Texas Tech and Kansas State at home, been blown out at Texas A&M and Kansas State, and also lost to bad teams Colorado and UNLV -- the latter of which happened last night.

Ugly.

Mizzou's team this season reminds me a lot of Indiana's, since they both share several characteristics:

1) both coaches (Mizzou's Quin Snyder, IU's Mike Davis) inherited programs from legends (Mizzou's Norm Stewart, IU's Bob Knight) and achieved success in the NCAA tournament early on, but after disappointing '03-'04 seasons, both are on the hot seat this year
2) both teams have a "premier" player (Mizzou's Linas Kleiza, IU's Bracey Wright) who hasn't quite produced like he should, due to various reasons
3) both teams have few, if any contributing seniors (Mizzou's Jason Conley is the only one averaging significant minutes)
4) both teams have several freshmen who play a lot (Mizzou's Jason Horton, Marshall Brown, Kalen Grimes, and Glenn Dandridge, IU's D.J. White, A.J. Ratliff, and Robert Vaden)

I see promise next year for both teams -- however, both coaches may or may not return to their respective teams. IU sits currently at 10-10 (5-4 Big Ten), while Mizzou has dropped to 10-13 (2-8 Big 12). While Davis' team appears to be playing better of late, and still has a reasonable shot at an NCAA bid, he does not have a vote of confidence from his AD -- something Snyder has. I am of the opinion that regardless of the outcome of this season, Snyder (like Gary Pinkel) should be allowed to return next year with his young core of players mostly returning -- but if he doesn't produce a 20+ win season and more than a first-round NCAA exit, he should be fired.

Win*

2005-02-10T01:03:00.000-06:00

Beating Penn State at home is a little like kissing one's sister, but when one is 1-8 in the Big Ten going in to the game, one should take any win one can get. Especially when Chris Hartley has successfully made the transition from last player on the bench to starter.

So, how'd it happen? Well, David Teague learned to shoot, Carl Landry continued to dominate, and Purdue actually was able to keep a team from making a high percentage of their shots.

Teague, one of the least efficient shooters in the Big Ten, put together a 10-16 (5-10 3-point) effort for 25 points, a career high. Landry continued his solid play with 24 points. And Purdue actually held Penn State to 28.3% from the field, and 25.0% from 3-point range -- if those weren't season lows, I can't remember what was.

So, a win's nice. And the next two games for the Boilermakers are also at home, after a weekend off, in the forms of Iowa next Wednesday and Michigan State next Saturday. Why not start a streak?

Going north, but heading further south

2005-02-09T15:05:00.000-06:00

Okay, so I lied. No more about the Michigan game, since Purdue proceeded to get beat up in the second half in Columbus last Wednesday, then lose at Northwestern on Saturday afternoon.

I was at the debacle in Evanston; it was a beautiful February day on the North Shore, and I comfortably walked to the game from my car in a T-shirt and jeans (the same outfit I sat outside in at Mustard's Last Stand after the game). For most of the game, however, I wondered why I even bothered to make the trip. The Boilers fell behind 11-0, and were not much closer than 4 or 5 in the first half, which ended 32-18. Northwestern went nuts again to start the half, opening up a 20-point lead at 44-24 (and being helped by the officials, who called the first seven fouls in the second half on Purdue -- enough so, that when they called the first foul on Northwestern, a huge Bronx cheer erupted from the Purdue half of the stands). At that point, as I was vocally expressing my indignation at having driven all the way up there, the weirdest thing happened -- Purdue went on a huge run, cutting the deficit to 4 points once more with about 4 minutes left. Unfortunately, there was a point soon after that with Purdue down either 4 or 5 (forgive me for not being able to remember the exact time or situation), when two Purdue players both went for the same rebound on the defensive end, collided, and the ball squirted into the backcourt where it was grabbed by a Northwestern player -- and of course, Purdue committed a foul, the Northwestern shooter made both free throws, and that pretty much was the turning point down the stretch.

Tonight, the Boilers look to get out of last place in the Big Ten against Penn State. There's still enough games left to salvage a little dignity out of this season (even though they're mathematically eliminated from any postseason play, save winning the Big Ten tournament), so tonight would be a great time to start.

Sweet victory

2005-01-30T17:15:00.000-06:00

After the past month or so, a win -- especially a 29-point one -- is just so nice. It's a burden lifted off this Purdue fan's shoulders. I'll probably write more on the game later, but I just wanted to share in the awesomeness of this moment. Hopefully there'll be many more like it soon.

Greatness

2005-01-30T01:22:00.000-06:00

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch contains an article on Sunday profiling 94-year-old former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, who was a three-time All-American as a player for Purdue from 1930-1932 (the only one in the school's history) -- and led Purdue to its only national title in his last season. It's an excellent read, talking about Wooden's philosophies of basketball and life. He truly is an extraordinary man.

Unlucky seven

2005-01-29T23:27:00.000-06:00

Another game, another frustrating and disappointing loss. This time, it's the longest losing streak in the Gene Keady era.

This time, it was Wednesday night to Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Attendance was light; the announced crowd was 11,278, but fans sitting in the upper arena were encouraged to move down to any empty seats in the lower arena -- the first time I've heard that announced in all the games I've seen at Mackey Arena. My best guess is that there were about 9,000 in attendance. And, since I knew I wouldn't be able to attend Sunday's game against Michigan, I tried to sell my ticket on the street before Wednesday's game. For a center-court, upper arena ticket (face value $21), I basically had to beg and plead to get $2. Needless to say, the atmosphere at Mackey is not what it has been in years past -- and Coach Keady's pleas in the Exponent after the Iowa loss last weekend didn't seem to hit their mark.

UWM used an intermittent full court press to pester Purdue inbounding the ball, and forced several turnovers as a result -- Purdue committed 19 on the game, and I'd be willing to wager that at least 10 of those were directly a result of the press. Unfortunately, that wasn't the main problem, as UWM shot 55 percent from the field in the second half, and 47 percent for the game. Purdue's defensive struggles -- ironic, considering Coach Keady has stressed defense his whole career -- did the team in once more.

Wednesday's game was the first of a slightly easier nine-game stretch in Purdue's schedule -- ranked second toughest in the nation according to Sportsline's RPI -- during which they can potentially regain some dignity after a 4-12 start. In my opinion, each of these games is winnable; however, the team seems to need to play a perfect game to win. Perhaps relying more on Carl Landry is the answer, I don't know. But we will find out soon -- even though neither will get the team anywhere in postseason contention, 11-14 or so looks a lot better than 4-21. Sunday afternoon against Michigan -- on national television (CBS) no less -- is when the Boilermakers will have to dig deep and finally get a win.

B-dubbin', dog

2005-01-24T23:13:00.000-06:00

Don't miss an excellent post at TBW by Sean about the history of Cardinal baserunning.

Also, is anyone else headed over to this tomorrow afternoon? Feel free to drop me an email if you are.

0-6

2005-01-23T01:17:00.000-06:00

Listless is a good word to describe it. It's only Purdue's second blowout loss this year, but still -- six in a row is not good. And players are going down left and right. Chris Hartley may have to see significant playing time -- yikes.

The only option, though, is to get right back on the horse. That'll be Wednesday night against Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

More birdwatching

2005-01-21T01:44:00.000-06:00

Yes, I'm going to do this every time there's a good post over at TBW. We just launched the site, so I'll do whatever it takes to get visitors. Although I think that site gets way more hits than this one, so maybe it isn't necessary.

Iron Throne does an excellent piece on Cardinal dynasties, and yours truly followed up with a post about baseball in this past half-decade (whatever it's called).

And don't miss the picture of Ozzie Smith Jr. from American Idol. I'm not kidding.

School's out

2005-01-21T01:01:00.000-06:00

The Rams' report cards are in, according to the Post-Dispatch. The special teams and secondary did horrible (F and a rather generous C-, respectively), but thankfully both of their coaches will be gone. Martz himself rated a C-, which I thought was a little low, but hey -- that must be why I'm not a reporter, because I'd probably give him around a B-. I mean, after all, he made the playoffs.

Here's the letter grades:
Quarterbacks - B (mostly thanks to the backups, otherwise A-)
Running backs - B-
Receivers - B
Offensive line - C- (rather generous, in my opinion -- too many sacks)
Defensive line - C+
Linebackers - D
Secondary - C- (also generous, as stated before -- not enough INTs!)
Special Teams - F (Wilkins gets a B in my book, it's not his fault the coverage stunk)
Coaching - C-

Disappointment doubled

2005-01-19T23:54:00.000-06:00

Saturday, January 15 was a rough day.

Part I: Purdue vs. Indiana, NCAA men's basketball, Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, IN, 12:00 p.m.

A boring game became nuts at the end of regulation when Brandon McKnight missed a jump shot from the top of the key, and time expired during the scrum for the rebound (where no foul was called -- remember that, folks), sending the game to overtime. Then it got crazy.

At the end of the first overtime, and the score tied 61-61, Bracey Wright missed a jump shot. In the fight for the loose ball, Andrew Ford was called for a foul. Replays showed that the call was very questionable. Either way, Marshall Strickland was given two free throw attempts with 0.9 seconds remaining. He made them both. Purdue called timeout to try and draw up some kind of miracle play. Ford, who must've been a quarterback in high school, threw a perfect court-length strike to Carl Landry under the basket. Landry quickly drew a foul while putting up a layup, which somehow went in. The referee behind the play immediately ruled the basket good -- still, they went to the monitor to review the play. When they came out, they ruled the basket good still, and Landry had one shot to win the game.

Supposedly, when the referees huddled around the monitor, they ruled that even though Landry released the ball after time expired, he should get continuation -- and therefore the basket was good. Mike Davis was irate when the ruling was explained, and (apparently) rightfully so, because the Big Ten admitted that it was the wrong call a couple of days later.

It all was a moot point, however, because Landry missed his free throw. And Purdue lost in overtime -- McKnight's leaning 3 for the win banked off the front rim. The Boilers dropped to 0-4 in the Big Ten, and quickly fell to 0-5 (4-11 overall) after another close loss in East Lansing on Tuesday night.

Part II: St. Louis Rams vs. Atlanta Falcons, NFL divisional playoffs, seen at Jake's in West Lafayette, IN, 8:15 p.m.

After a rough afternoon at Mackey, I headed over to Jake's Roadhouse, a popular bar with lots of TVs, to watch the Rams' playoff game. The game started rather quickly, as both teams traded touchdowns within the first five minutes. But the Rams' defensive shortcomings shone through, and by halftime, they were trailing 28-17. The Fox network commentators reported on several Falcons postseason rushing and punt return single-game records being set during the first half, so it certainly didn't look good. Still, the Rams weren't out of the game by any stretch, down only 11 with the ball to start the second half.

Unfortunately, fter halftime, it got ugly. The Rams went three-and-out, punted, and the Falcons scored a touchdown thanks to a big punt return (again) and the resulting short field. The Rams failed to score during the second half. 47-17 was the final score. The Rams allowed 327 yards rushing, which was one of the aforementioned records.

The worst part about the Rams' effort was the little things. I can come up with a whole bunch of instances, mostly during the first half, where a tiny break going the Rams' way could've changed a lot. There was the punt that Kevin Garrett could've easily downed on the 1; instead, he misjudged where he was, and stepped on the endline, forcing a touchback. There were the two dropped interceptions (by Antuan Edwards and Tommy Polley) by the Rams defense during the Falcons' second drive of the game, which resulted in a touchdown. There were missed tackles on Allen Rossum's punt return TD. There were several drops by the receivers -- most notably one in the first half by Steven Jackson on third down. The defense failed time and again on third and long And last, but not least, while the game was still in reach at 28-17 on the first drive after halftime, when Steven Jackson danced his way to being stuffed on third and 1, forcing a punt. Little mistakes add up over the course of a football game. I'm not saying the Rams would've won if they'd played the second half the same way, but if a few of these aforementioned little breaks had gone their way, they might've been the ones up 28-17 at the half -- and thus dictated the tempo for the rest of the game. Who's to know?

It was an ugly day. To add to the frustration (although I didn't even think to look at this until the next day), Mizzou got killed at Kansas State that afternoon 74-54. Merely icing on the cake to one of my worst sports days in memory.

But hey... I have to remind myself that the Cards did win 105 games and a pennant, so maybe the law of averages has to kick in a little bit.

Birdwatching

2005-01-16T01:49:00.000-06:00

A little late, but here's another recent post of mine at The Birdwatch -- be sure to check out everything on that site! If we members of that site had enough money, we'd buy ourselves a ballclub and win a pennant every year -- we're that good.

A sad state of affairs

2005-01-11T23:03:00.000-06:00

There are so many distractions, with the Rams in the playoffs, and hot stove baseball, but for a die-hard like myself, it's hard to forget that it's college basketball season.

As a Purdue alumnus and season ticket holder, it's hard not to cringe at what's been happening to the Boilermakers this season. A 1-5 start to the season against a tough schedule was bad, but three home losses since to the likes of Illinois last Saturday (not bad), Wisconsin last Wednesday (tough, but you've gotta win those), and Baylor before that (yikes!) have taken the life out of the Purdue fan base with the team's record at 4-8.

Against Illinois, the game was sold out. The student section was nearly half-empty, since the game was the weekend before school started up again, and the tickets were part of their package. So, that's sort of understandable -- although, being a former student season ticket holder before who'd been denied tickets to a pre-spring semester weekend game, I feel a little shafted. Anyway, I can't complain because those 1,000 or so tickets didn't fall into the hands of even more orange-clad Illinois fans (since, of course, there's no way that that many Purdue students would've shown up to a game that they didn't already have on their package -- even if it was the #1 team in the country). Still, there were several thousand of those Illinois fans, and seeing them made me see red (well, orange).

Here's a couple pictures, courtesy of purduesports.com, that I edited to show the amount of orange in the crowd:

The left is Matt Kiefer, the right is Charles Davis. Those pictures don't quite show the magnitude of the infestation, but they do give the basic idea. Either way, it's sad to see the fans give up on a team like the Purdue fans have this year; while Gene Keady has struggled in past years, it'd be nice to send him out with a proper farewell.

For better or for worse, the season continues Wednesday night in Minneapolis. As that article says, the last time the Boilers were 0-3 in the Big Ten was 1963. Let's hope it stays that way.

On cloud (win) nine

2005-01-09T21:23:00.000-06:00

Playoff victories are sweet. Especially when they come against a division rival. But Saturday's 27-20 win over the Seattle Seahawks was even more of a thing of beauty. Why?

It shut these guys up.

I'd love to see the Rams make a run to the Super Bowl. Martz will be hailed as a god, and no newspaper columnist will ever be able to run him out of town.

It's definitely a whole new season.

I'll take Scenario 2, thank you

2005-01-04T08:35:00.000-06:00

How 'bout them 'Skins? How 'bout them Rams?

Yes, I'm glad the Rams pulled through, obviously, but for another reason in addition to the fact that they are once again in the playoffs. I'm probably one of the small percentage of people (none of whom, apparently, are members of the local media) who still thinks Mike Martz is the best man to coach the Rams. Why? He wins games. Lots of them. Enough to make the playoffs four times in five seasons. Yet sportswriters and their followers complain about his 2-3 playoff record, among other things. Let's take a look at those playoff games, shall we?

2000: Loss at New Orleans, 28-31
2001: Win vs. Green Bay, 45-17; Win vs. Philadelphia, 29-24; Loss vs. New England, 14-17
2003: Loss vs. Carolina, 23-29 (2OT)

A double-overtime loss on a fluke play, a non-officiated Super Bowl loss (Pass interference? Heard of it? That game began the process that led to increased illegal contact penalties this season), and a three-point road loss by a 2000 Rams team that had absolutely zero defense. The first two of those could've easily gone the other way with a lucky break or call or two.

So what does that mean for the 2004 version? This year's team certainly has its flaws (turnover ratio, special teams, etc.), but you mean to tell me that they can't beat the Woodland Park Zoo for a third time this season? I don't see why not.

We'll see on Saturday. Go get 'em, guys.

(Actually, I won't personally see, since the NFL picked the only time for the Rams of the four possible slots during which my Boilermakers will be playing the #1 team in the nation -- on CBS, 3:00 St. Louis time, mind you, you can flip back and forth with it and the football -- and I already have my ticket to that. So I'll just have to sport the Rams jersey to the basketball game and silently hope that they will be winning when I'll be able to watch eventually.)

Shameless promotion

2005-01-01T20:37:00.000-06:00

The Birdwatch is a new blog, just launched today. It's a collective, with fourteen different contributors from all around the Cardinals blogger world. There's a little piece by yours truly about the process leading up to new Cardinal shortstop David Eckstein's acquisition.

Be sure to check it out.

Scoreboard watching

2005-01-01T10:31:00.000-06:00

The Rams are playing for their playoff lives tomorrow. Unfortunately, those lives are not in their hands. If they can beat the Jets (I cannot stress that enough), they've gotta have one of a couple of different results from other games around the NFL:

1) Seattle loses, at home, to Atlanta

This is the best scenario, since it would give the Rams the NFC West title over the Seahawks, who'd possibly end up heading to St. Louis for a first-round game (depending on other factors). While this scenario is not the most likely of the three, it still is very possible, since Atlanta will be "playing to win", unlike last weekend's Matt Schaub-led debacle against the Saints. Michael Vick is slated to play. This game is being played at 3:00 St. Louis time, so they'll know the result of the Rams game (which is at noon) beforehand. If the Rams lose, the Seahawks will probably rest some players. If not, this could be an interesting one -- and closely watched in St. Louis.

2) Minnesota loses at Washington

This scenario would put the Rams in a three-way tie for two wild-card spots with the Vikings and the winner of the Carolina-New Orleans game. The Rams would make the playoffs either way, but their seed (i.e., whether they'd play the Packers or Seahawks in the first round if they were the wild card) would change depending of the winner of the other game. Anyway, the Vikings are doing their best impersonation of last season, when they fell apart down the stretch and missed the playoffs after a hot start -- losing on a last-second touchdown to the Arizona Cardinals in the last game of the year to give their spot to the Packers. The Redskins, unfortunately minus Clinton Portis and LaVar Arrington, would love to play the spoiler this year. This game, as well as both the Panthers-Saints and Rams-Jets, will be played at noon St. Louis time, so there may be some scoreboard watching from all three locations -- since the scenarios for each NFC team (minus, of course, the eliminated Redskins) in all three games depend on one another.

3) New Orleans ties Carolina, at Carolina

Hey, you never know. A hotly contested game for a likely playoff berth goes to OT, defense takes over... and by the end, both teams end up screwing themselves.

Ah, who am I kidding? There hasn't been a tie since 2002, and only three in the past ten seasons (since I started paying attention when the Rams moved to St. Louis). Heck, there have only been three since the '80s. Thank God this game is at noon, and not the night game or something, so it can't be a last resort. Yeah. It's not even remotely likely at all that there'll be a tie... but hey, it'd be nice if it happened, wouldn't it?

So, you've seen what the Rams need to do -- and have done. Is that proper English? Ah, who cares. Go Rams, go Falcons, go Redskins, and go... uh... neither of those other teams!

Catch you later

2004-12-14T09:20:00.000-06:00

Yesterday marked the end of the Mike Matheny era with the Cardinals. It's been a great five years -- not just thanks to Mike, but still:

2000: 95-67
2001: 93-69
2002: 97-65
2003: 85-77
2004: 105-57

An average of 95 wins over a five-year period isn't too shabby. And despite his offensive shortcomings, Mike's had plenty to do with that. Unfortunately, at age 34, he isn't worth what the Giants are paying him (3 years, $9 mil). So, Yady, it's your turn.

Delinquents...

2004-12-12T01:39:00.000-06:00

I know I said I dislike the Hot Stove stuff... but I sure get a kick out of stuff like this. The Marlins are going to be evicted! Man, you'd think winning 2 world titles in 17 years wasn't good enough. I hope the Rams don't get that same treatment around here in '11.

The endless dead of winter

2004-12-11T20:01:00.000-06:00

I've gotta be honest -- I can't get into this Hot Stove League stuff at all. It's interesting to read about occasionally... but to post daily, or even more than once a week on? I need actual, quantifiable baseball to be played, preferrably right in front of my face.

How much longer until Opening Day again?

Post-arby deadline news

2004-12-09T11:00:00.000-06:00

The arbitration deadline came and went on Tuesday night, with some significant news:

1) The Cubs signed Nomar Garciaparra to a 1-year deal, worth $8 million.
2) The Yankees signed Tony Womack to a 2-year deal, worth $4 million.
3) The Cardinals signed Matt Morris to a 1-year deal, with a $2.5 million base salary (and an additional $4.5 million in incentives).
4) The Cardinals signed Cal Eldred and John Mabry to 1-year deals, worth $600,000 and $725,000 respectively.
5) The Cardinals offered arbitration to Mike Matheny and Edgar Renteria.
6) The Cardinals did not offer arbitration to Woody Williams (who as of Wednesday, signed a 1-year deal, guaranteeing $3.5 million, plus $11 million in incentives including a 2006 option, with the Padres), Ray Lankford, and Steve Kline.

Here's my take on these events:

1) See previous post.
2) This one leaves me with mixed feelings. I loved the heck out of T-Dub last year, and was very pleased with the season he had. Unfortunately, I knew that at age 34, he a) was playing way over his head, and b) likely wasn't going to play at the same level in 2005. That's why, despite my feelings for the guy, I'm glad another team else took the bait and signed him. As far as options for the Cards at 2B go, I would actually really like to see the Cards sign Pokey Reese, who was offered arbitration by the Red Sox. Assuming we can get Renteria or Cabrera at short and not another Reese clone, I think we have enough pop in our lineup elsewhere to afford to put a defensive stud in there for cheap, despite Reese's offensive shortcomings (and as long as he doesn't lead off). As an example, Jose Vizcaino signed for $1.25 million for next season, so I can't imagine Reese to be much more expensive than that. I also doubt he'd cost us too high of a draft pick, either.
3) When I first read of this deal, the report I saw included the ominous "terms undisclosed." After hearing the basics of the deal, though, I'm much more pleased -- it's a fairly low-risk signing, since if Morris tanks, the Cards are only out $2.5 million, and if he pitches closer to his 2001-02 form, he'd be well worth the $7 million if he covers all his incentives (unfortunately, I don't know specifically what those are). So on a scale of 1 to 10 for the Cards, I'd give this one a 7.
4) Two guys who played key roles last year were signed for cheap. I'm not very sold on Eldred, who gave up a lot of HRs last season, but for $600k, it's not a huge waste of money. I'll call it a 7½, as long as La Russa isn't forced to use Eldred a la 2003.
5) Offering arby to Renteria seems to me to be a no-brainer. I'd be more agreeable for a long-term deal for the guy, but if he declines the offer and then prices himself too high, it'd be nice to see us make a run at Placido Polanco, Orlando Cabrera, or even Jose Valentin (for a year or two). Matheny's offer, on the other hand, is a bit curious, but I wouldn't be all that opposed to bringing back a catcher familiar with our staff for one more year to let Yadier Molina prepare under his tutelage.
6) It's very disappointing for me to not see Woody back another season, but baseball is a business. With Ray King sticking around (I assume) for another year, Kline was expendable. And I'd also like to have seen Lankford back another year, but with the Mabry signing, and Roger Cedeno (who could be my oncologist!) still under contract, it just wasn't practical.

Some bigger-name signings are already beginning to take place (i.e. Glaus, Leiter), so the Cards had better throw their hat into the ring if they want to get anyone good.

Da Nomah

2004-12-07T17:45:00.000-06:00

Hallelujah!

The Cubs, who from all indications would be gunning for Renteria this offseason, have signed Nomar Garciaparra to a one-year deal. I really had hoped the Cards would stay away from Nomar, given his declining production and injury history, and I was also a bit worried that the Cubs would outbid us for Edgar, or at worst raise his price a bit. That signing killed two birds with one stone.

Clarity

2004-11-17T02:01:00.000-06:00

Yeah, screw the offseason reports for now... it's still college football season. I'll get to work in January when there's nothing else to do.

From the Texas Cable News' "Around the Big 12 North" column on November 15:

Four teams still have a chance to represent the division against Oklahoma in the Dr Pepper Big 12 Championship on Dec. 4 in Kansas City, Mo. Only Kansas State and Kansas have been eliminated from contention. Colorado, Missouri and Nebraska will be out of the picture with a loss. The scenarios:

Iowa State wins the North by winning out against Kansas State and Missouri. If Iowa State loses to Kansas State and beats Missouri, the Cyclones would go if Nebraska beats Colorado. Iowa State and Nebraska would be 4-4, and Iowa State wins the head-to-head tiebreaker. Colorado would win a head-to-head tiebreaker with Iowa State.

If Iowa State beats Kansas State and loses to Missouri, it could result in a three-way tie at 4-4 involving Iowa State, Missouri and the Colorado-Nebraska winner.

*If it's Nebraska, the Huskers go. According to the Big 12 tiebreakers, Missouri and Nebraska would own wins over next-best finisher, Colorado, eliminating Iowa State. Then Nebraska would win the head-to-head with Missouri.

*If it's Colorado, the Tigers go. Missouri would have beaten both Iowa State and Colorado.

Nebraska goes if Iowa State loses out and Nebraska beats Colorado.

Colorado goes if it beats Nebraska, and Iowa State and Missouri each lose a game. Missouri is eliminated with its next loss.

Missouri goes if it wins out against Kansas and Iowa State, and Colorado beats Nebraska.

Wow. That makes more sense than what I've heard so far, actually, though. Go, Tigers, and go, Buffs.

Divisional domination

2004-11-16T11:12:00.000-06:00

Rams 23, Seahawks 12

With that win, the Rams sweep the season series against Seattle, and tie them at 5-4 overall for first place in the West. The Rams' divisional record sits at 4-0, with only games at Arizona and at home against San Francisco remaining. Unfortunately, the 49ers game is really the only "gimmie" left on the schedule, as the other six games consist of four road games (at Buffalo, Green Bay, Carolina, and suddenly potent Arizona), and home games against playoff contenders Philadelphia and the New York Jets. The Seahawks' schedule is much easier, with only two remaining road games out of seven. Still, the head-to-head tiebreaker is huge, as Seattle needs to finish a game better than the Rams to win the division.

If the Rams can go 6-0 in the division, they'd be hard-pressed not to win the thing at this point. Their conference record would be no worse than 7-5 (and likely higher, with games at Carolina and at home against the Eagles -- two tough, but winnable games), which helps immensely when it comes to tiebreakers. I doubt they'll get in the playoffs unless they're at 9-7 or greater, but at 6-0 in the division... you never know. I played in a Madden '04 franchise once with several other people; one season, a guy went 7-9 with a 6-0 divisional record. All three other teams in his division finished 7-9, so he obviously won the tie-breaker. You never know is right.

R.I.P., RBN

2004-11-10T01:28:00.000-06:00

I'm a bit staggered by the news that Brian Gunn over at Redbird Nation, the personification of the perfection for which every one of us substandard Cardinal bloggers strives, has decided to quit posting on his site, presumably to be going on to bigger and better things. I don't know what will become of RBN, but (and I mean this in no derogatory way) it is slightly reassuring for this struggling, novice blogger to know that Brian -- who wrote so much, so well for RBN -- is, in fact, human.

So, thanks... and good luck, Brian, wherever life takes you.

2004 season recap, Part I: The Best of Times

2004-11-03T23:23:00.000-06:00

What a year. I'm still not over the World Series loss, and there's plenty I'd like to say about the playoffs which I haven't had a chance to yet, but I thought I'd start off my season recap on a positive note with a list of the top ten games of the year. Obviously, there were a lot of great games, and it was tough to pick just ten. So, without further ado, here it is:

The Top Ten Cardinals Games of 2004

#10 - Yady Comes Through, August 7 - Cardinals 2, Mets 1 (Box) - Larry Walker's debut in a Cardinal uniform, this Saturday afternoon classic featured Woody Williams' no-hit bid going 5 1/3 innings, and a 1-1 game going into the bottom of the ninth. A couple of walks and a couple of outs later, Walker came up the plate for his second plate appearance to another standing ovation, only to be intentionally walked by Mike Stanton to load the bases for Yadier Molina. Swinging at the first pitch, Yady bloops one into left center field... game over.

#9 - The Balk Game, May 28 - Cardinals 2, Astros 1 in 10 innings (Box) - I didn't get to see much of this one, but I recognize that it was indeed a great game. Roger Clemens was good, but Chris Carpenter was even better. Carpenter allowed only two hits in eight shutout innings, and the game went to the bottom of the ninth 1-0. Jason Isringhausen blew the save, however, by allowing an RBI double to Lance Berkman. Thankfully though, Isringhausen ended the threat in the ninth at one run, and then, with runners on first and third in the top of the tenth, Astros then-closer Octavio Dotel stepped off the mound, only to be called for a balk. Dotel was amazed, but Ray Lankford scored the winning run, then Isringhausen pitched a scoreless 10th, and the game was over. The Cardinals started the day of this game in fifth place in the NL Central, but this game began a 68-22 stretch that allowed them to run away with the division.

#8 - Roller Coaster Ride, April 29 - Cardinals 5, Phillies 4 in 13 innings (Box) - A Thursday getaway game, this one seemed as though nobody wanted to win. The Phillies led 2-1 through 7½ innings thanks to a Jim Thome home run, but the Cards loaded the bases against Tim Worrell and Rheal Cormier, who was replaced by Roberto Hernandez after Colin Porter was lifted for pinch-hitter Reggie Sanders. Sanders proceeded to bang a ball off the centerfield wall for a triple, clearing the bases. Again, however, things turned sour. Isringhausen again blew the save, giving up a two-run home run to Ricky Ledee, and Amaury Telemaco shut down the Cards for the next four innings. Thankfully, the Cards' bullpen held also, as Steve Kline, Julian Tavarez, and Mike Lincoln also combined for four scoreless innings. Finally, leading off the bottom of the 13th, Jim Edmonds deposited a home run into the right field bullpen to win the game.

#7 - A Wild Save, May 4 - Cardinals 6, Phillies 5 (Box) - Another game I didn't get to see, but it appeared to be a wild one. The Phillies hit four home runs off winning pitcher Chris Carpenter, and lost. The Cardinals had only one extra-base hit. But the real fun didn't begin until the bottom of the ninth, when Izzy came in and went strikeout, walk, single before Bobby Abreu. After striking out Abreu, La Russa had Jim Thome intentionally walked -- bringing the tying run to third base with two outs -- to face Pat Burrell. With two strikes, Izzy threw a high fastball to Burrell, who swung and missed... but Mike Matheny couldn't come up with the ball, and it went to the backstop. Fortunately, the ball bounced back to Matheny, and he was able to make a great throw to get Burrell by a step at first base to end the game -- right as the tying run, Timo Perez, was crossing home plate. Doesn't get much closer than that.

#6 - The Comeback Kids, June 23 - Cardinals 10, Cubs 9 (Box) - The Cardinals took the lead early in this game on a Pujols home run, but the Cubs tied it 3-3 in the fifth. The Cardinals took the lead 5-3 in the bottom half, but they could've had more, as Tony Womack was thrown out at third base by Moises Alou for the second out. That run loomed larger as the Cards' bullpen duo of Calero and Tavarez had trouble getting people out in the sixth, including the key two-run double by Ramon Martinez to swell the Cubs' lead to 9-5. After Martinez, Tavarez walked Jose Macias before being left in to face lefty Todd Walker (who was retired), which was ill-received by Steve Kline in the Cards' bullpen -- his gesture towards the dugout was recorded for posterity by the Cubs' TV broadcast. The Cards struck back in the bottom half once more, scoring three runs -- one unearned thanks to an error by Martinez -- on hits by the likes of Hector Luna, So Taguchi, and Tony Womack. Luna drove in another run in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game, and Taguchi scored the winner in the bottom of the eighth on a passed ball by Paul Bako -- making Kline (who had entered in the top of the eighth), ironically, the winning pitcher.

#5 - One-Two Punch (NLCS Game 2), October 14 - Cardinals 6, Astros 4 (Box) - After a fairly convincing 10-7 win in Game 1, the Cardinals absolutely had to come through with another win at home over Pete Munro before facing the two-headed Clemens/Oswalt monster in Games 3 and 4 down in Houston. Matt Morris wasn't very good, allowing 3 runs in 5 innings -- and it certainly could've been worse (6 hits, 5 walks, 2 HR). But the Cards struck back with home runs by Walker and Rolen in the bottom of the fifth to take the lead. Kiko Calero gave a run back in the 7th to tie the game, but after Astros manager Phil Garner made the decision to have Dan Miceli pitch the 8th inning over a rested Bullpen God in Brad Lidge, Pujols and Rolen led off the inning with back-to-back home runs. Just like that, it was a 6-4 lead, and despite a shaky ninth by Izzy, the Cards took a 2-0 series lead heading back to Houston.

#4 - Fresh Squeezed Win, April 22 - Cardinals 2, Astros 1 in 12 innings (Box) - Another one I didn't get to see, but after seven innings of solid efforts by Jason Marquis and Roy Oswalt, the score was tied 1-1. The battle of the bullpens began, as the Astros got four scoreless innings from Lidge and Dotel, while the Cardinals received theirs from Lincoln and Isringhausen. In the top of the twelfth, Reggie Sanders beat out an infield single off Miceli before stealing second base and going to third on a throwing error by the catcher. After Matheny struck out for the first out, Hector Luna pinch hit, and squeeze-bunted Sanders home to take the lead. Unfortunately, the bottom half of the inning became an adventure, as Isringhausen had already been used -- Eldred, Kline, and Tavarez combined to keep the Astros off the board and save the victory.

#3 - A True Walkoff, April 30 - Cardinals 4, Cubs 3 (Box) - Later on this list I'll have the last of the nineteen great Cards-Cubs games this season, but this one was the first. On this Friday night, the Cubs jumped ahead early 2-0, but the Cards fought back to tie it with a run in the fourth and a Sanders home run in the fifth, and took the lead with a Lankford sacrifice fly in the sixth. The Cubs tied it in the seventh when Ray King came in with a runner on third base and threw a wild pitch. Not much else happened until the ninth inning, when in the top half the Cubs got a walk and two hits, but could not score, as Alex Gonzalez bunted into a 2-6-3 double play. In the bottom half of the inning, Kyle Farnsworth came in and walked Pujols, the leadoff man, on four pitches. He was relieved by Kent Mercker, who... walked Jim Edmonds on four pitches after throwing strike one. Mercker was taken out immediately in favor of LaTroy Hawkins, who probably was as shocked as anyone when Scott Rolen, league leader in RBI at the time, sacrificed the runners to second and third. Happily, I'm sure, Hawkins intentionally walked Edgar Renteria and forced Reggie Sanders into popping up in foul ground for the second out. After going ahead 0-2 on Mike Matheny, however, Hawkins lost control and threw four straight pitches outside the strike zone to walk in the winning run. The Cubs' line on the bottom of the 9th? 4 BB, 0 H, 1 ER in 2/3 IP. The Cubs' bullpen fails them once more.

#2 - Jimmy Conquers All (NLCS Game 6), October 20 - Cardinals 6, Astros 4 in 12 innings (Box) - Unlike the figurative must-win nature of Game 2, this Munro-Morris matchup was literally a must-win game for the Cardinals, as they'd allowed the Astros to win all three games in Houston to fall behind 3-2 in the series. Once again, Morris struggled, but this time the Cards jumped on Munro early, taking a 4-2 lead into the 4th inning. Houston cut it to 4-3 on a Mike Lamb home run, but the Cards bullpen came in and shut the Astros down until the ninth, when Jason Isringhausen blew yet another save -- but managed to strike out Lance Berkman with two runners on to keep the game 4-4. Lidge came in and dominated again, pitching three innings and striking out five, before his spot in the order came up in the top of the 12th. With Lidge removed for a pinch-hitter, Dan Miceli came in the game and gave up a home run to the member of the Big Three that didn't get one in Game 2 -- Edmonds. With that blast, the Cards forced a Game 7, and the rest is history.

#1 - The Pujols Game, July 20 - Cardinals 11, Cubs 8 (Box) - Obviously, this one takes the cake. The Cards had beaten the Cubs in the opener of this two-game series the day before at Wrigley to go nine games ahead and clinch the season series between the two teams. Still, Cubs fans believed that they would eventually catch us, despite this game being the teams' last meeting of the year. Sure enough, after the Cardinals scored first, the Cubs jumped all over Matt Morris to take a 7-1 lead through two innings. Pujols got one back in the next frame with a solo home run, but Aramis Ramirez answered off Cal Eldred to make it 8-2. It stayed that way until the sixth, when the Cards strung together a bunch of singles and walks, scoring four times despite Tony Womack's strikeout with the bases loaded and one out. Pujols hit another solo home run off Kyle Farnsworth in the seventh to make it 8-7, before Farnsworth mowed down the next three hitters. Meanwhile, the Cardinal bullpen was solid. Eldred got into a two-on jam in the fifth, so Steve Kline relieved and worked his way out of it before Kiko Calero followed with perfect sixth and seventh innings. Farnsworth came back out to pitch the top of the eighth, and quickly struck out Marlon Anderson -- his third in four outs. With the bottom of the order I swear, before So Taguchi came up, on the FSN broadcast Al Hrabosky said something to the effect of: "if So can center one of those 100 mph fastballs, you never know what can happen." Sure enough, So centered one, and jacked it onto Waveland Avenue to tie the game at 8. After Ray King pitched a perfect eighth, you just knew we were going to win the game. Sure enough, after Edgar Renteria led off with a single, Pujols hit his third home run of the day into the basket in right center. LaTroy Hawkins gave up another homer to Reggie Sanders in the inning, and the Cards suddenly were ahead 11-8 -- but not out of the water yet, as Izzy walked two men, including Derrek Lee on four pitches, to load the bases for Aramis Ramirez with two outs in the ninth. Thankfully, Ramirez bailed him out by popping up to Edmonds, and the greatest Cardinal game of the year was finally over. The loss really shoved the dagger into the Cubs' (and their fans') hearts, because the Cards' lead grew to double digits for the first time in 2004 -- and it would only grow (to 15 games at season's end). For the first time, the Cubs believed there was no catching our Cardinals.

Honorable Mention - April 11 vs. Diamondbacks, May 2 vs. Cubs, June 7 vs. Cubs, June 18 vs. Reds, July 16 vs. Reds, July 19 vs. Cubs, July 26 vs. Reds, July 28 vs. Reds, August 5 vs. Expos, August 26 vs. Reds, September 17 vs. Diamondbacks, October 21 (NLCS Game 7) vs. Astros

Yeah, I realize that the top six games were all against the Cubs or Astros (in addition to many others). But think about it: we played the Astros eighteen times, and the Cubs nineteen. Both were good teams. And since both were in our division, those games were a heck of a lot more meaningful than when we beat the Philles or the Mets. Again, it was tough to pick, but these were some truly awesome games from a truly awesome season.

Politics and baseball

2004-10-28T23:49:00.000-05:00

It seems that our presidential hopeful pals Mr. Kerry and Mr. W. Bush made their allegiances during the Series. Supposedly Bush has remained neutral, while Kerry claimed a lifelong allegiance to the Sox -- although he's apparently not following the games very well, in addition to not knowing the players. I'm not one to delve into politics much, but as for my status as an undecided voter, the Red Sox did not do John Kerry a favor by sweeping my Birds.

It's over...

2004-10-28T02:50:00.000-05:00

...in case you didn't already know. I'll write a proper eulogy when I have time, and once I'm over the loss. But for now... I'm exhausted, and emotionally drained, so this is all I've got.

Busy, busy

2004-10-25T22:57:00.000-05:00

I've been away for a while, so posting has obviously ceased since before Game 6 of the NLCS. We won. It was awesome. Then, the next night we won Game 7. So, we play the Red Sox in the World Series -- for the first time since '87 -- only now, we've lost the first two games at Fenway.

I'm pretty busy all this week as well, so posting might be sparse, at least 'til the Series is over. All I can say is GO CARDS.

Home field advantage, to the max

2004-10-20T01:51:00.000-05:00

There's nothing I can possibly say to help explain the situation, or make it better. Brian over at RBN has already written everything I possibly could've -- and more -- about that game. All I know is, we've just got to win these next two games. Just got to. C'mon Matty Mo, you know what to do.

Wham, bam, thank you ma'am

2004-10-14T23:05:00.000-05:00

Game Two ended with a serious bang. Pujols and Rolen, back to back home runs, in the bottom of the eighth. It's tough to write a better script.

First off, Matt Morris was the Master of Disaster this evening. Wow. Matty Mo gave up five walks and six hits, two of which were home runs -- posted a WHIP of 2.10 and an OPS against of 1.143 -- but allowed only three runs in his five innings. Why? He struck out five men, and benefited from some excellent defensive plays (Matheny throwing out Bagwell, Sanders throwing out Vizcaino). La Russa said of Matt, "I think he was real good, and deserves a huge amount of credit." I disagree with the former, but I can sort of agree with the latter.

The real credit, however, goes to the sluggers. When you have the likes of Walker, Pujols, Rolen, and Edmonds in your lineup, you come to expect some nights like this. They're just plain good.

The heck with just winning the series; now, let's sweep 'em!

Seven legs left on the octopus (plus three)

2004-10-13T23:51:00.000-05:00

Tonight's NLCS Game 1 victory was the 46th Cardinal game I've attended this season, playoffs and regular season combined. Sadly, now is the first time all season, since before Opening Day, that their record in those games has been at .500 -- they lost the first two games of the season, and never came back to better than 1 game below, until tonight's win put them at 23-23. It can only go up from there.

Also significant: that tonight's win was the first NLCS Game 1 victory by the Cardinals -- in their fourth try -- since 1987. That's good, since the team to win Game 1 of the NLCS has gone on to win the series the last eleven times. Every year since '92 (except '94, of course), although the Marlins needed a Bartman and a Prior implosion later in the series to keep the streak alive. But either way, I'd say we're looking alright.

Four wins down, seven more to go.

LCS time

2004-10-11T23:15:00.000-05:00

PCO has been a little busy elsewhere lately, but it seems there's not much to talk about, as the Cards simply beat the overmatched Dodgers, despite an inspired performance by Jose Lima, and head into the NLCS starting Wednesday. Their opponent: the Houston Astros, the only team to which the Cards have lost their season series.

I posted earlier about Roger Clemens' dominance over the Cards this season. He'll be starting twice in the series (likely games 3 and 6), as will Roy Oswalt (games 4 and 7) and Brandon Backe (1 and 5). Pete Munro will likely start game 2. The last three games, as well as game 1, will be started by pitchers on three days' rest. The Cards, on the other hand, will use Woody Williams, Matt Morris, Jeff Suppan, and Jason Marquis, in that order (repeating after game 4). Each will pitch on normal rest. Our top two guys might not match up perfectly against their top two guys, but I have to believe the longer the series goes, the more the advantage turns to us. Houston's bullpen isn't very good to begin with aside from Brad Lidge, so if any of their starters get knocked around early in a loss, the long relief guys will have to eat some serious innings -- a recipe for disaster if they are needed repeatedly throughout the series.

Let's go get 'em.

Go Braves!

2004-10-07T01:56:00.000-05:00

Please. Because I'd just as soon avoid seeing him. Not that the Cards haven't beaten other top pitchers in the playoffs in recent years, because they have (see: Johnson, Randy; Glavine, Tom; Maddux, Greg); it just seems like the dude is on a mission this year. Plus, he owned us during the regular season (2-0, 2.36 ERA in 4 starts). His postseason ERA by series:

LDS - 4.25
LCS - 3.90
WS - 1.90

Dude turns it up a notch as the pressure mounts, doesn't he?

Oh yeah, Roy Oswalt hasn't been too bad either.

UPDATE: ESPN's website was a little slow to update the splits, so his stats against the Cards are now fixed.

One down, ten to go

2004-10-07T01:32:00.000-05:00

See what I mean? Now that was a quality peformance by all involved... except for Izzy's home run allowed, but I'll cut the guy some slack for throwing a ball over the middle of the plate while up 8-2, 2 outs, 9th inning.

As exhilarating as that was, we've still gotta keep the pressure on. Josh over at Go Cardinals found a blurb from Dodger Thoughts that sums up my worries, however misguided they may be considered by some after Tueday's bomb-fest:

"And think how one victory would alter the perspective of the series: the Dodgers return to Los Angeles 1-1 in the best-of-five, the playoff losing streak off their backs, with proof they can beat the Cardinals in October, and suddenly with a chance to clinch at home behind a Dodger Stadium-loving Jose Lima and an atoning Perez."

Yup. Let's win tomorrow night.

An Old Golden opportunity

2004-10-04T23:37:00.000-05:00

Before every football season, it's commonplace to look at a team's schedule and pick out games that are "sure" wins or losses. When I looked at Purdue's for the first time, there were only one or two "sure" wins, but zero "sure" losses. The rest of the games seemed up for grabs, depending on how the team was playing.

Here's the schedule:
Sept 5 Syracuse (W, 51-0)
Sept 11 Ball State (W, 59-7)
Sept 25 @ Illinois (W, 38-30)
Oct 2 @ Notre Dame (W, 41-16)
Oct 9 @ Penn State
Oct 16 Wisconsin
Oct 23 Michigan
Oct 30 @ Northwestern
Nov 6 @ Iowa
Nov 13 Ohio State
Nov 20 Indiana

I figured we'd handle Ball State, and probably IU, but the rest I wasn't prepared to judge. I knew we'd have a great offense, with much of that unit returning, but one of the better defenses in the Big Ten in 2003 lost a lot of players to graduation, so how good the defense played right away would tell the tale for the rest of the season. Also, the schedule was pretty favorable for a decent season, with three of the top teams in the conference forced to come to West Lafayette, and no road games that were nearly impossible to win (such as last season's trips to Ann Arbor and Columbus).

Now, however, things are looking very, very promising. The 2004 Boilermakers seem to not have been plagued by sloppiness and inconsistency like past Tiller seasons. Every game appears winnable at this point, with the team playing as well as it is. Their Heisman candidate quarterback has put up insanely good numbers so far; 17 TDs, 0 INTs in 4 games. Wow.

Still, Joe Tiller has never coached a team to double-digit victories in his tenure at Purdue, despite his success and consistency. But 2004 seems like the perfect opportunity for him to do so... and then some.

My kind of postseason preview

2004-10-04T23:02:00.000-05:00

The Division series against the Dodgers begins tomorrow. Most other bloggers (see: RN, RRR, DT)are going all-out in their pre-postseason analyses (wait a minute... pre-post?), but I like to keep it simple -- so without further ado, my two rules of postseason baseball:

1) If we play like ass, we'll probably lose.
1a) If Tony lets Matt Morris bat in the 9th inning of a tie game with runners on base, we'll probably lose.
2) If we play well, we'll probably win.

I like number 2. Go get 'em, guys.

What's the point, again?

2004-10-01T01:17:00.000-05:00

Tonight's loss to the Brewers was the first utterly meaningless game of baseball in St. Louis since this one, over four years ago. That's a pretty nice run. Of course, tonight's lack of meaning is the good kind, so maybe it shouldn't count.

A farewell to Lankford

2004-09-30T10:58:00.000-05:00

Ray may be back... but it's doubtful he'll be on the postseason roster. Whether or not he'll be on the 2005 edition of the Cardinals remains to be seen, but to me it doesn't appear likely at age 37 -- 38 in June '05. Hopefully Tony will at least acknowledge that it could be Ray's last four games in a Cardinal uniform this weekend, and with all that Ray's done for the team in his career, give him a start in left field for a proper farewell... unlike the last time.

Defending Mike Martz

2004-09-29T10:33:00.000-05:00

A controversy has enveloped St. Louis after the Rams' grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory against the Saints on Sunday, specifically around the use of the squib kick after scoring the go-ahead touchdown with 28 seconds left.

It was the right call.

First off, as a coach, you cannot let a return TD beat you. Hence the squib (although I will give that Wilkins' kick was more of a dribbler than a line drive, as perhaps it should have been). Secondly, Will Smith made a great play on the ball. Nobody, not even Will Smith, expects him to return that ball 17 yards. You'll see the squib kick fallen on by a lineman 99 times out of 100. It was an unlikely event. Finally -- and this is the biggest problem of all --"After the squib, Saints quarterback Aaron Brooks quickly picked apart the middle of the St. Louis defense." [P-D article] Why? Is our defense that terrible? The kick was returned to the 42-yard line. The Saints had to move the ball 20-plus yards to get into field goal range. Make a stop, guys.

The Rams were not coached perfectly on Sunday; penalties ate them alive all day, and were probably more involved in the loss than the kick. Martz clearly did a poor job. But please, get off his back about the squib call.

Pondering the postseason roster

2004-09-28T23:25:00.000-05:00

The first playoff games are a week away. As far as the regular season goes, despite all the exciting stuff going on, my main thought is: let's get it over with. Womack's scare (see previous post) had me frazzled enough that I cringed on nearly every uncomfortable play tonight. Rolen started tonight for the first time in what seems like forever, but still appeared fairly ginger; with a week to go, he should be able to play sparingly between now and the playoffs. The proper combination of health plus sharpness is the key.

With some aspects of the postseason roster still a mystery, I thought I'd venture a guess -- perhaps wishful thinking -- about who those twenty-five souls might be.

"Duh" (the starters and other key guys)
Pujols, Edmonds, Rolen, Renteria, Walker, Sanders, Womack, Matheny, Morris, Marquis, Suppan, Williams, Isringhausen, King, Tavarez

The guys who've been there all year long, minus the injured Carpenter & Kline. The total is 15.

"Sure, why not"
Mabry

John's earned a spot as a quality fourth outfielder/utility guy, so there's no sense putting him on the bubble. The total is 16 now, 7 of which are pitchers. That leaves 9 spots, 4 of which should probably be pitchers. The absolute most we need in the playoffs is 11 pitchers, especially in the later rounds with plenty of off days. I'm hoping we're not subject to a goofy rule like in 2002 that makes us carry 12 (although I must note I have no idea what our roster composition was on August 31), but even that roster composition rule's existence remains unclear to a lot of people, even the world-renowned Transaction Guy.

The Rest (listed in alphabetical order)
Position players: Anderson, Cedeno, Lankford, Luna, McKay, Molina, Taguchi
Pitchers: Ankiel, Calero, Carpenter (injury), Eldred, Flores, Haren, Kline (injury), Reyes

So, we have 16 guys for 9 spots. First, the catchers; I don't see the need for carrying three catchers on the postseason roster, so either McKay or Molina is toast.

McKay .236/.276/.264
Molina .258/.324/.320

Both have less than 150 PA in the regular season (Cody has about half of Yady's). It's really pointless, since neither would see much playing time, but it's a pretty easy choice to go with Molina. Remember, no brother Molina has ever lost a postseason series. Now, the other 5 position players must be trimmed to 4.

Anderson .234/.267/.377
Cedeno .266/.333/.380
Lankford .247/.341/.404
Luna .255/.308/.376
Taguchi .283/.330/.404

Shame on Ray for getting himself hurt. He's been the best of the left-handed outfielders (or wannabe outfielders) in this bunch, but Tony has been down on the guy ever since May. However, due to that lack of activity, or injury, or whatever, Ray has only had 11 extra-base hits in 172 PA's since the beginning of May -- compared to 9 in 60 before that. So it really is a tough call. Little Danny and Hungo, among others, have constantly raved about Marlon Anderson's pinch-hitting ability; however, other than that (if that indeed is something good enough to keep him), he's pretty bad. If it were up to me, I'd choose Taguchi, Cedeno, Luna, and a healthy Lankford. However, Ray's injury may keep him from the roster in favor of Marlon Anderson. To me, if it came down to Anderson's ability as a second baseman if somehow both Womack and Luna were injured or otherwise unavailable, I'm sure Mabry could fill in during an emergency. All in all, however, this argument isn't very meaningful, since either one will likely receive 4-5 PA's per series, at most.

The pitchers, on the other hand, are a different story. Carpenter's injury will likely keep him from the first round at least, so the four-man starting rotation is set by default. If Kline is healthy, and all reports are suggesting he'll be back by this weekend (see article), then he is a given. So, that's 3 spots among Ankiel, Calero, Eldred, Flores, Haren, and Reyes (I don't consider Carmen Cali or Jason Simontacchi options). Here's those guys' numbers out of the 'pen:

Ankiel 6 IP, 7.50 ERA, 3.00 WHIP, 10.50 K/9, 6.0 IP/HR
Calero 43 1/3 IP, 2.91 ERA, 0.83 WHIP, 9.55 K/9, 8.6 IP/HR
Eldred 65 IP, 3.60 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 6.92 K/9, 6.5 IP/HR
Flores 9 IP, 2.00 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 3.00 K/9, INF IP/HR
Haren 19.1 IP, 2.79 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 5.12 K/9, 19.1 IP/HR
Reyes* 9 1/3 IP, 0.96 ERA, 0.54 WHIP, 6.75 K/9, INF IP/HR

* - for Reyes, I included his 3-inning start at Coors Field

I know this doesn't show much, since half of these guys have barely pitched nine innings. But two things I'd like to express: 1) Haren's been pretty good in relief; I envision him in a Britt Reames-like role if any of the starters get shelled. He's much less apt to give up a home run than Cal Eldred, too. And, 2) the two "third lefty" candidates haven't thrown a lot of innings recently at the major-league level. Sometimes, having a guy come up with so few ML innings can be good, but with these guys I wouldn't count on it. Plus, Ankiel's main purpose on the roster is to prepare for 2005. While his Coors Field outing didn't bother me regarding his status for 2005, I think it proves (along the fact that he's still thrown less than 30 professional innings since his Tommy John surgery over a year ago) that he's not ready to be thrown into the fray in postseason play. The only reason I could envision Ankiel on the roster can be summed up in two words: Barry Bonds. We'd need a third lefty against the Giants, and Rick has K'd Bonds in every one of Barry's three career at-bats against him. I'd certainly rather see a training-wheels Ankiel face Bonds than Randy Flores.

So, Haren is a given, and I probably should have shoved Calero onto the roster with Mabry; he's been lights-out for much of the season. The third spot is up for grabs; if we want a righty for mop-up duty, we could take Eldred or Reyes (Tony would likely pick Eldred), and if we want a lefty, Ankiel should get the nod.

Thus, the 25-man playoff roster (I hope) is as follows:

Catchers (2): Matheny, Molina
Infielders (4): Pujols, Womack, Renteria, Rolen
Outfielders (5): Sanders, Edmonds, Walker, Taguchi, Cedeno
Utility (3): Mabry, Luna, Anderson
Starting Pitchers (4): Morris, Marquis, Williams, Suppan
Relief Pitchers (7): Isringhausen, Tavarez, Calero, Haren, King, Kline, Ankiel/Eldred

When and if Carpenter returns, Haren would be my choice (albeit a reluctant one, over Eldred) to drop. We don't really need six would-be starters on a postseason roster.

Guys, go win us a championship.

Man down

2004-09-27T22:04:00.000-05:00

Bad news. I know every Cards blogger from here to Timbuktu has been down on Womack for much of the season, but the guy has persevered and still managed to post a career-high OBP of .349 in the Cards' leadoff spot. Nobody can argue against his being a critical part of the team; if this injury turns out to be a broken arm, or the like, he will really be missed going into the playoffs.

UPDATE, 12:00 a.m.: It seems that the AP has updated the story saying the X-rays were negative. We can all breathe a sigh of relief.

Boilering up to 3-0

2004-09-26T11:20:00.000-05:00

"'Those guys came in our house, favored by a lot of points, to beat us,' [Illinois defensive back Morris] Virgil said. 'I didn't see what the hype was. It was just another football team. We had them confused in a lot of situations. [Orton] didn't know where he wanted to go with the ball.'"

-- St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 9/26/04

Uh, yeah. I guess it wasn't the 35 times he completed a pass (for 366 yards), or when he threw one of his 4 touchdowns. And if Purdue is just another football team, then what are you?

Yeah... Illinois sucks. On to South Bend!

Awards, Part IV (Rookie Edition)

2004-09-26T02:31:00.000-05:00

Well, the awards section took a bit of a sabbatical, but now it's back. Let's see who's up for the Rookie of the Year awards in each league.

American League Rookie of the Year

Main Contenders:
Lew Ford, Minnesota: 624 PA, .302/.387/.457 (.845), 15 HR, 49 XBH, 72 RBI, 19 SB
Bobby Crosby, Oakland: 592 PA, .246/.327/.437 (.764), 21 HR, 56 XBH, 62 RBI, 7 SB
Justin Morneau, Minnesota: 284 PA, .272/.342/.547 (.889), 18 HR, 34 XBH, 54 RBI

Others:
uh... maybe...
Robb Quinlan, Anaheim: 177 PA, .344/.401/.525 (.926), 5 HR, 19 XBH, 23 RBI, 3 SB
John Buck, Kansas City: 237 PA, .243/.288/.450 (.737), 12 HR, 31 XBH, 30 RBI
Ross Gload, Chicago White Sox: 231 PA, .319/.378/.444 (.823), 5 HR, 16 XBH, 39 RBI

Pitchers:
Zach Greinke, Kansas City: 22 GS, 8-10, 133 IP, 4.13 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 6.23 K/9, 4.00 K/BB, 12 QS
Daniel Cabrera, Baltimore: 27 G, 26 GS, 12-7, 4.67 ERA, 1.54 WHIP, 4.55 K/9, 0.86 K/BB, 14 QS, 1 SHO
Shingo Takatsu, Chicago White Sox: 6-4, 56 G, 18-of-19 SV, 2.43 ERA, 0.99 WHIP, 7.28 K/9, 2.29 K/BB

I'd say this is pretty much a three-horse race between Crosby, Ford, and Morneau. Others could be involved if the circumstances were right; for instance, Greinke, who has been a very effective starter this season, at age 20. However, Greinke pitches for the Royals -- with many other teams in the league, he could be a fourteen-game winner very easily. Also on the Royals, Buck (a catcher) has been a pleasant surprise after the Beltran trade. With about ten games left for most teams, the stats aren't going to change too terribly much from here on in, so those with fewer plate appearences are just stuck with the fewer PA's. Morneau, at his current rate, given a full season of, say, 550 PA's, would be around 35 HR and 104 RBI -- a shoo-in for this award. Unfortunately, he's not had that opportunity. One set of numbers does stick out, though: when Morneau arrived back in the majors for good on July 17, the Twins were 47-42 and led Cleveland by 4 games, while trailing the White Sox by ½ game. Since, they've gonee 42-24, gaining 9½ games on the Indians and 11 games on the Sox. Coincidence? Probably not. The guy has mashed.

My vote:
1) Morneau
2) Crosby
3) Ford
4) Greinke
5) Takatsu

A no go for Carp

2004-09-24T17:24:00.000-05:00

This is not good. Carp's supposedly out for a while now. It seems that a higher authority has decided on the four-man postseason starting rotation.

Let's just hope we never end up wondering "what if?"...

Baseball worth staying up for

2004-09-24T01:56:00.000-05:00

With the Central divisions both decided, and the Yankees, Braves, and Red Sox, all having effectively clinched -- the Yankees did today, and the Braves' magic number is 1, while the Sox are closer to the Yankees than the teams behind them in the wild card race -- it seems all the meaningful baseball is going on in the Pacific time zone.

Today -- especially tonight after most people in our neck of the woods had gone to bed -- that was absolutely the case, as there were three games that were critical for the playoff races going on out there.

First, this afternoon in Arlington, the Rangers stunned the A's with a three-run comeback in the ninth. David Delucci's 2-run double -- scoring, of all people, Brian Jordan from first -- was the game-winner. That game gave the series sweep to the Rangers, so the AL West standings look like this:

A's	87-65	(GB)
Angels	85-67	2
Rangers	85-67	2

The A's head to Anaheim this weekend for the front end of a weekend home-and-home, while the Rangers host the Mariners. We should see quite a three-team race there.

Later in the evening, the Dodgers played the Padres and the Giants took on the Astros.

The Dodgers, whose lead in the NL West shrank to a mere ½ game yesterday, got a big win by beating the Padres and effectively ending the Pads' postseason hopes. The Giants, on the other hand, despite a gem by Jason Schmidt, gave up a ninth-inning Lance Berkman home run and blew their game, to fall not only 1½ games behind the Dodgers, but ½ game behind the Cubs in the wild card race, who won earlier in the afternoon. The Giants also host the Dodgers this weekend, and finish the season at Dodger Stadium.

The standings there (bold is NL West-related):

Dodgers	87-65	(GB)
Cubs	86-66	-
Giants	86-77	½,1½
Astros	84-69	2½
Padres	82-71	4½,5½
Marlins/Phils	79-73	7

Some folks around here are missing some pretty good races if they're in bed at 11:00.

At the Zoo

2004-09-22T20:10:00.000-05:00

Busch Stadium's exterior greatly resembled a Hooverville this morning. Thousands of people, some having been in place for days, were in line for postseason tickets (Division and LCS only), which went on sale this morning at 8 a.m. They brought food and drink, slept in tents and on folding chairs. As the sun rose, they packed their things away and lugged their couches and such to their position in whereever their particular line had woven itself, to begin the long wait to get to the ticket window.

I was a part of the festival this morning; here is an account:

3:30 a.m. - I took my place the line around the northwest side of the stadium, which by that time had made its way down Walnut Street to 9th. The couch group mentioned in the linked article was four groups in front of me (I was #374 in that particular line), and were among the only ones awake.

3:40 a.m. - The group behind me arrived, and immediately began celebrating one woman's birthday by giving out cake to anyone awake nearby (it was good).

5:00 a.m. - The couch group tried organizing a football game, to no avail.

7:00 a.m. - Indeed, once the sun rose, the line moved significantly, as everyone packed their tents and such and filled the empty space between groups. We ended up on the bridge leading from the Stadium West garage to the stadium deck, and there we began our slow trek towards the ticket window.

7:35 a.m. - A guy wearing a Krispy Kreme hat passed by handing out free donuts, which were welcomed by most.

8:00 a.m. - As the cheers erupted from a window on the other side of the stadium, signifying that sales were beginning, a guy from the group in front of me whipped out his laptop. He logged onto the Cardinals website to try and buy his tickets online, immediately being dumped into the "Virtual Waiting Room."

8:20 a.m. - A guy from the group behind me showed back up after scouting out the celebratory crowd around the ticket window. He informed us that a) we were fifteen "columns" away from the window, and b) a man had been trying to sign credit card receipts for, then giving $100 bills out of an envelope to, each of several people at the front of the line -- something that drew the ire of people in line behind the group of people in question. Sparks flew, and the man had to be escorted away with his group.

9:00 a.m. - Rumors began circulating about the identity of the man giving out so much money; supposedly he was a scalper that offered twelve homeless people $20 plus food to wait in the front of the line for several days, then having them buy the maximum allowable number of tickets (12 per person per game) for him. He was rumored to have made off with around $30,000 in tickets. Meanwhile, the laptop guy was still in the Virtual Waiting Room.

10:15 a.m. - Several groups of people began making "runs" to various restaurants around downtown for lunch.

10:30 a.m. - The laptop's battery finally died, having never made it out of the Virtual Waiting Room. The guy lamented earlier that he was fully expecting to have the battery run out right as he was entering his credit card information, but fortunately (psychologically, anyway), he never made it that far.

11:40 a.m. - Two of the three people in the group behind me had to go to work; the lady that remained had several ticket orders to fill. The man with the laptop also had to leave shortly thereafter, leaving his ticket orders to his lone surviving groupmate. More rumors began swirling that certain games were sold out, but the ushers walking along the line kept saying there were tickets available for all games, albeit not in all sections.

12:40 p.m. - The window was within sight.

1:00 p.m. - I jubilantly made my way to the window, only to find out that the first two games of both the Division and LC series were standing-room-only. At that point, though, I was just happy to finally be there.

1:10 p.m. - On my way back to the car, with my wallet still stinging, I walked past a man who'd just walked away from one of the other lines (there were three) with his tickets. I asked him what time he'd arrived at the stadium, and he said 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Wow, did I luck out, I thought.

Hopefully... in the end, it'll all be worth it.

Finally, it's official

2004-09-21T02:21:00.000-05:00

If Tony says we've clinched, now we've clinched.

All Hail the 2004 National League Central Division Champion St. Louis Cardinals.

September 19, 1968?

2004-09-20T02:03:00.000-05:00

Scouring the scoreboard...

Random fact: Sunday's action saw not one, not two, but three games decided by a 1-0 score (Texas-Anaheim, Pittsburgh-Mets (#1), and Milwaukee-Houston). I figured this was pretty rare. It hadn't happened this season, but it's been surprisingly close -- there were several days with two 1-0 games, and even one with four 2-0 games (May 5). The last time there were three 1-0 games was (suprisingly recently, to me) on September 2, 2001, when there were actually four. And weirdly enough, one of those matchups was the same (Brewers-Astros). No, I didn't look to see when the last time there were more than four was, because that really had to have been a while. Forgive me.

Just call me Jayson Stark...

Champagne... on ice

2004-09-19T22:49:00.000-05:00

Did we clinch or didn't we?

"You don't win things because of a formula, only if it comes down to the fact that you can't do it on the field. We can do it on the field," says Tony. I whole-heartedly agree with Tony that the Cards will do it on the field, but I think what they've accomplished already is worth something.

The Cardinals are Central Division champs, even though the magic number is still 1. Why? If we did end up tied with the Cubs (in only one possible scenario), the Cubs would be guaranteed the wild card, and we would win the head-to-head series tiebreaker (11-8). Even if they are co-champions in that scenario (as TLR claims his 2001 team was -- see below), they still are in the playoffs.

I must admit that when first informed of this scenario, I was a bit confused myself. I knew about the season series tie-breaker between two teams who tied for both the division title and the wild card, which had happened to the Cardinals and Astros in 2001. I knew that the magic number was 1, so that meant the worst we could do was finish tied with the Cubs at 97-65. But I could've sworn that the Cubs weren't ahead in the wild card race. And I was right: they're not, but with a catch. The Cubs have played three fewer games than the wild card-leading Giants, and have one fewer loss, despite being one half game behind. So, if both teams won their remaining games -- which is required for the scenario that would involve a head-to-head tiebreaker -- the Cubs would finish a game ahead of the Giants. Thus, it's impossible for any other team to win the NL Central, by the current tie-breaking rules of MLB. If a team in the NFL clinched a tie for its division, and held the tie-breaker, it would be crowned division champion; why should the procedure be different in MLB? Unfortunately, in the NFL, the team that loses the tie-breaker is not considered division champion; in contrast, La Russa still contends that the '01 Cardinal team should be considered co-champs of the NL Central, which probably explains why he still does not believe the Cardinals have clinched the division. Either way, the Cards have clinched a playoff spot. Ho hum.

Obviously, this debate is pointless, since there are 20 games left. I'd be very willing to bet the farm that we'll win this thing by at least ten games. But nobody would be sucker enough to take that bet.

...had it coming

2004-09-17T01:00:00.000-05:00

I guess I got what I asked for. Tonight, TLR didn't start any of the following players: Renteria, Matheny, Walker, Rolen (injured). And four errors and a lot of other problems later, we've got a loss.

Quote Tony: "Bad ballgame. Good for them, bad for us." ...and it's especially good for them, since the Astros remained 2 games behind the Giants in the wild card race. Five teams remain within 3½ games (4 in the loss column, where the Cubs lead) in that race. Should be a doozy.

However, relief for the Cards comes over the next few games, with series this weekend against the MLB-worst Diamondbacks and next week against the NL Central-worst Brewers. We'll get it back.

Fears and desires

2004-09-16T01:08:00.000-05:00

To continue from the previous post: in the back of my mind, there is a fear that the 2004 edition of the Cardinals are just waiting for the traditional ailment that's plagued our postseason-bound teams -- in recent times, anyway: the Late Season/In The Playoffs Injury. Rolen in '02, McGwire & Matheny in '00, Lankford in '96, Coleman in '85, you know the drill. Sure, that's not every postseason year, but I'm sure I'm forgetting someone.

That fear has only been reinforced by Rolen's recent calf injury. It was supposedly not terribly serious, and I think the Cardinals brass is just being overly cautious... but he's still not supposed to be back this homestand. Given recent history, I'd agree with the "better safe than sorry" approach. I'm not sure we can afford to play without any of the Big Four. And probably not Renteria, either.

With that said, and our magic number currently at 4, I personally would like to see Tony go overboard resting the starting position players -- particularly Renteria, Matheny, Edmonds, and Rolen -- once we've mathematically clinched the division. I'm a little surprised that currently the roster is only 31 players (32 once Steve Kline comes off the DL). Where are the Colin Porter, John Gall, Scott Seabol types? The only position players that were brought up for the roster expansion were Ray Lankford (off the DL) and Cody McKay (third catcher, no-brainer). Even Bo Hart, fan favorite, didn't manage a call-up.

Anyway... back to my original point. Here is a table, by month, of each starter's OPS:

Player	Position	April	May	June	July	Aug	Sept
Matheny	C	.753	.610	.624	.554	.545	.823
Pujols	1B	1.020	1.032	.932	1.140	1.177	1.118
Womack	2B	.924	.551	.834	.730	.731	.659
Renteria	SS	.775	.569	.840	.852	.763	.304
Rolen	3B	1.047	1.017	1.048	.988	.994	1.057
Sanders	LF (RF)	1.055	.459	.722	.835	.945	.904
Edmonds	CF	.963	.835	.976	1.427	1.313	1.259
Walker	RF	n/a	n/a	1.333	1.046	.956	1.198

Whew. I hate HTML tables. Probably unnecessary work, but whatever.

A few notes: 1) Walker's June and July came, obviously, as a Rockie; 2) Walker's June, Matheny's June, and Womack's April were injury-shortened, and 3) you can pretty much throw September out the window for most guys, as a lot haven't had 40 AB's.

What's obvious to me is that, first, despite a hot September, Mike Matheny seems to be wearing down. 2004 is not one of his better seasons as a Cardinal at the plate anyway, but July and August were pretty awful. Matheny has recently been a better hitter in April than any other month, likely due to a clear head and plenty of days off in spring training. Personally, I would limit Mike to no more than three starts per week (if that) after we've clinched. Renteria's awful start to September is probably a bit of a fluke, as he should work his way out of it soon. A few days rest probably wouldn't hurt him either, although I'm more in favor of letting his way play his way out of the slump before giving him a couple days off. Rolen is being rested right now, with his sore calf, so that's not a concern. Reggie Sanders actually appears to be hitting better as the season wears on, so he should be fine. Pujols and Edmonds are just unreal good right now (although Edmonds is slipping a little... 1.259, come on, that's horrible compared to July!), and Walker should also be fine since he took the first half of the season off due to injury. Womack is still plugging away, and his OBP monthly splits do not drop as significantly as his OPS does (thanks to a .369 OBP in August), so the typical days off should be sufficient for him.

It seems the main culprits for a little extra rest are Matheny and Renteria. Given the three catchers on the roster, giving Mike plenty of days off shouldn't be a problem. Renteria's days off are a little trickier, although I am of the opinion that Hector Luna is fully capable of playing a league-average shortstop defensively, and won't be a terribly huge hole at the plate. Besides, what's it hurt to give the guy some PT when we've pretty much got everything (division, home field) sewn up?

Just a thought.

Call Brown & Crouppen!

2004-09-14T23:42:00.000-05:00

For the record, I was close to suing Eric Bruntlett. Why? Because of his error on Reggie Sanders' popup tonight, I nearly fell off the upper deck (section 307) of Busch Stadium onto the bleachers below.

That error brought Albert Pujols to the plate, and nearly helped complete the craziest comeback I'd ever seen. Down 7-1 in the ninth inning, with a runner on second base, two outs, and Mike Matheny, Marlon Anderson, and Cody McKay due up. It felt about as hopeless as a baseball game could get, and yet... a voice inside me told me I could not give up. Sure enough: single-single-double, and pinch-hitter Reggie Sanders stood at the plate with the score 7-4. Albert Pujols loomed on deck as the tying run. This was getting good. But Sanders hit the ball completely out of the proverbial silo, and somehow, Bruntlett -- no thanks to Mike Lamb (nearly Goat) -- managed to stumble, letting the ball roll free. McKay scored, 7-5, Sanders on second base. Closer Brad Lidge came into the game, tested the waters with Pujols before intentionally walking him on a 3-1 count; the only strike to Pujols was a ball below his knees that Pujols fouled straight back to the screen. So Taguchi swung at a few balls in the dirt, however (including a wild pitch that brought the tying run to second base... oh so close!), and struck out to end the game. Agh! My heart...

No longer perfect

2004-09-13T16:16:00.000-05:00

It took the Cards over five months of baseball to finish a road trip with a losing record. Wow. But last week's jaunt to the Pacific time zone finally caught up with them, as they lost series to both the Padres and Dodgers, and finished the trip with a 2-4 record. I don't know if the trip is reason for too much of a concern, despite the two teams being potential playoff opponents, partly because we swept both of them in St. Louis the week before.

The biggest blow, however, was Scotty Rolen's strained calf muscle. Rolen appeared to foul a ball off his leg before hitting a bases-clearing double on Friday night in Los Angeles; he pulled up gingerly at second base and was taken out of the game shortly thereafter. He didn't play Saturday or Sunday, and despite today's off day, I am not sure we'll see him in the lineup Tuesday night against the Astros or not. I hope this doesn't turn into anything serious; losing Rolen would be a devastating blow to a club with a recent tradition of late-season injuries to its postseason-bound teams. Rolen himself was a victim in '02, by being run over by Alex Cintron early in the NLDS.

The optimist in me will not let that stand, however, and I'm sure he'll be back before October. (Fingers crossed...)

Road trippin' reviews

2004-08-30T01:49:00.000-05:00

So, I've been kinda absent posting lately, but that was because I took a road trip to follow the Redbirds through the Ohio Valley. I began in Cincinnati on Thursday night, where the game was decided 1-0 despite an absolute gem by Chris Carpenter (8 IP, CG, 11 K's, 4 baserunners)... and the scoreboard didn't work. Seriously:

Weird, eh? It remained that image through the first four innings, then shut off completely for the next few, only to come back on again with the same jumble shortly before the end of the game. For the first three innings or so, there was no display of the ball-and-strike count anywhere in the park. Only after mooching the screen-top info display off Fox Midwest's cable feed (the game was not televised in Cincy) and somehow pasting it onto the bottom of the color display to the right of the main scoreboard were they able to show the count. I sat next to the Cards bullpen, which was not used. The GABP is a good place to sit and relax and watch a game; it's not its own spectacular architectural entity like the BOB, Minute Maid, or Miller, and it doesn't have an distinctly beautiful feature, like the fountains at Kaufmann, or view of downtown at PNC. To me, what it does is create a very subtle aesthetically pleasing environment; small things like the asymmetrical nature of the entire ballpark (i.e. the rounded wall on the right side vs. the sharp-edged wall on the left side), the gap in the stands behind the third-base dugout, or the view of the pastoral Kentucky shoreline beyond the river. It's definitely cool in a not-so-obvious sort of way. But maybe that's because I've been there so much; Thursday was the fifth game I'd seen there in only two seasons since it'd opened.

After that tough loss, however, it was on to Pittsburgh for one more game before returning to St. Louis. The Cards did manage to win that one for me, however, which was nice -- I was worried my jinx would carry over, but 1-1 is a better winning percentage than I've seen them play at Busch. I'd never been to PNC Park before (one of the main reasons I made the trip), unlike Great American Ball Park, so I took a lot more pictures at PNC than at GABP. Here's a sample:

PNC as seen from the Roberto Clemente Bridge.

The statue of Clemente right outside the ballpark.

Cards relievers warming up in right field during the team batting practice.

The view of the Ohio River and downtown Pittsburgh from the upper deck.

I called PNC the coolest park in baseball before having seen it, and seeing it only backed up that assessment. It is truly a jewel. The setting, a short walk across the Clemente bridge -- open only to pedestrians after 4 p.m. -- into downtown (which reminded me more of some downtown areas in Europe than downtown St. Louis -- for example, the McDonalds in downtown Pittsburgh still exists), is great. The ballpark itself is also, with features such as the large concrete deck/walkway overlooking the river beyond the outfield, the black metal walkway with a view onto the playing field in left, and the press box being located above the upper terrace seats. All in all, the trip was definitely worth it for the experience.

Some more notes from the trip:
• In Cincy, I sat behind some Reds fans who impressed me with their knowledge of the game. There were two twenty-something couples there together, both appearing to be straight out of a Gap commercial, so when one of the guys said something about Wily Mo Pena's upside (yes, he used the word "upside") appearing limited by a lack of plate discipline, I was a little surprised. We got to talking Reds baseball, despite my Cards outfit, and it made for a good time. Even one of the women chimed in that she didn't think Ryan Freel was an everyday player.

• In addition to the fans in the previous bullet, I talked to several fans of both the Reds and Pirates who said they were rooting for the Cardinals to win it all. It could be that these towns (among others) think of St. Louis as the model; a medium-sized Midwestern market with knowledgeable fans makes good, perhaps?

• In Cincinnati, I walked up to the ticket window, and was given a free ticket by the woman inside, even after she showed her disdain that I was a Cards fan. No kidding. No complaints on my part. But that can't be good for business, especially when this sort of thing has been happening.

• One feature I would remove from each ballpark: PNC -- the overdone animated pirate character on the scoreboard. Most of the animations aren't too silly (I especially liked the one of the pirate ship firing cannonballs into ships representing other NL Central teams, played before the game), but that one is a little annoying. And GABP -- the sound effects on foul balls (a carry-over from old Riverfront Stadium). What's the point of playing a loud glass-shattering sound when a ball hits an empty seat? I've only been to a few games there, and it's already gotten old.

• Thursday night's game was a rare one -- in this era, anyway -- in which both starting pitchers went the distance (had there been a bottom of the ninth, however, Carpenter would have been gone). There may have been more recent ones, but this is the last one I can think of involving the Birds on the Bat.

Awards, Part III

2004-08-26T00:55:00.000-05:00

American League Most Valuable Player

Main Contenders:
Manny Ramirez, Boston: .316/.408/.624 (1.032), 34 HR, 102 RBI
David Ortiz, Boston: .302/.375/.612 (.988), 33 HR, 111 RBI, (72 XBH)
Melvin Mora, Baltimore: .349/.432/.594 (1.025), 22 HR, 78 RBI
Vlad Guerrero, Anaheim: .329/.383/.570 (.954), 28 HR, 100 RBI, 10 SB
Miguel Tejada, Baltimore: .311/.363/.533 (.895), 24 HR, 113 RBI
Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle: .366/.408/.457 (.865), 6 HR, 46 RBI, 29 SB
Gary Sheffield, New York Yankees: .296/.405/.554 (.959), 32 HR, 95 RBI

Others:
Mark Teixeira, Texas: .269/.354/.563 (.917), 30 HR, 82 RBI
Carlos Guillen, Detroit: .317/.382/.558 (.940), 20 HR, 94 RBI, 11 SB
Travis Hafner, Cleveland: .310/.408/.576 (.984), 23 HR, 92 RBI
José Guillen, Anaheim: .306/.368/.534 (.902), 26 HR, 99 RBI
Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees: .281/.366/.511 (.876), 30 HR, 73 RBI, 22 SB
Victor Martinez, Cleveland: .287/.363/.510 (.873), 20 HR, 93 RBI
Scott Hatteberg, Oakland: .304/.389/.459 (.849), 14 HR, 70 RBI

Pitchers:
None.

Wow. Kind of a jumble, although two names stand out somewhat when you look deeper at the numbers, and they both play for the Red Sox. Melvin Mora actually has put together a marvelous season to this point, but his team is struggling, and his teammate Tejada has the league RBI lead, which will likely hurt Mora in the voting. Ichiro may also get himself some votes with a successful run at George Sisler's hits record. It's a shame that two guys from the big-time media market of Boston are the front-runners for this award, since there really are a lot of players in the AL this year who're enjoying breakout seasons (Martinez, Teixeira, Hafner, C. Guillen, Hatteberg, and Mora to an extent). Those guys are worthy of some votes, but Ramirez and Ortiz have carried the offensive juggernaut that is the Red Sox, and one of them will likely win the award.

My vote:
1) Ortiz
2) Ramirez
3) C. Guillen
4) Sheffield
5) Hafner

It's a tough call, since both guys have performed so well, but the nod goes to Ortiz merely because his expectations going into the season were lower, and their numbers are pretty similar. Among the others, the Tigers would certainly not be on pace to improve 30+ games without Carlos Guillen's breakout year, and the Indians also with Hafner. Sheffield has been the most consistent and solid offensive performer (along with Hideki Matsui) on the AL's best team, the Yankees, so he deserves some kudos.

Awards, Part II

2004-08-22T02:20:00.000-05:00

American League Manager of the Year

Main Contenders:
Ken Macha, Oakland
Ron Gardenhire, Minnesota
Buck Showalter, Texas
Eric Wedge, Cleveland
Lou Piniella, Tampa Bay
Alan Trammell, Detroit
Mike Scioscia, Anaheim
Joe Torre, New York Yankees

This race is pretty wide open, and probably changes week-to-week given the streakiness of many of the teams in the West. Scioscia and Torre almost not worth mentioning, because they, along with the Red Sox's Terry Francona, have merely met the expectations for their high-payroll clubs. Piniella and Trammell have taken teams that were absurdly awful in 2003, and made them mediocre in 2004 -- that may garner some votes, but probably won't win them the award. Wedge's team showed consistent improvement, and shot up within a game of the Twins for the Central lead towards the beginning of August, but has since faded, along with Wedge's chances. Showalter has led an incredible post-A-Rod turnaround of the Rangers; however, much of the offensive nucleus of that team (Teixeira, Young, Blalock) was in place before he arrived. Macha has turned Billy Beane's El Cheapo Special into a West division lead for yet another year (minus pitching coach Rick Peterson, who defected to Art Howe's Mets before the season). Gardenhire has taken a team that had several questions going into the season (most notably its bullpen), and handled the weak Central once more.

My vote, as of today:

1) Showalter
2a) Gardenhire
2b) Macha
4) Trammell
5) Torre

The Rangers are hot right now, having won 8 in a row, so Showalter gets my vote in a tight one over Gardenhire and Macha, whose teams are also playing pretty well. The difference? The A's and Twins both won their divisions in 2003, while the Rangers were dead last in theirs. Trammell gets the 4th place vote merely because of how awful the Tigers were in 2003, while Torre gets points for winning despite George Steinbrenner holding a gun to his head.

Awards, Part I

2004-08-21T03:04:00.000-05:00

This week, I'm going to take a look at the various end-of-season awards around the league, and give an analysis of the contenders, and my pick to win with just over a month left of regular season baseball. Today, I'll start with the AL Cy Young, and move on from there.

American League Cy Young Award

Main Contenders:
Mark Mulder, Oakland: 16-4, 185 IP, 3.75 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 5.79 K/9, 1.95 K/BB (5 CG)
Johan Santana, Minnesota: 13-6, 173 IP, 3.23 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 10.20 K/9, 4.36 K/BB (61.3 AGS)
Pedro Martinez, Boston: 13-4, 166 2/3 IP, 3.78 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 9.18 K/9, 4.15 K/BB
Curt Schilling, Boston: 14-6, 171 2/3 IP, 3.51 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 7.65 K/9, 5.21 K/BB

Others:
Tim Hudson, Oakland: 8-4, 128 1/3 IP, 2.95 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 4.63 K/9, 2.44 K/BB (2 SHO)
Brad Radke, Minnesota: 8-6, 170 IP, 3.55 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 5.98 K/9, 6.64 K/BB (19 QS)
Kenny Rogers, Texas: 15-5, 158 1/3 IP, 4.55 ERA, 1.43 WHIP, 5.06 K/9, 1.97 K/BB
Mark Buehrle, Chicago Sox: 11-6, 182 1/3 IP, 3.90 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, 6.27 K/9, 3.43 K/BB
Ryan Drese, Texas: 11-6, 163 2/3 IP, 3.30 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, 3.90 K/9, 1.54 K/BB
Jake Westbrook, Cleveland: 11-6, 156 2/3 IP, 3.50 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, 4.83 K/9, 1.75 K/BB
Freddy Garcia, Seattle/Chicago Sox: 10-10, 173 1/3 IP, 3.74 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 7.53 K/9, 3.22 K/BB
Javier Vazquez, New York Yankees: 13-7, 155 1/3 IP, 4.29 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 6.72 K/9, 2.97 K/BB

Best Relievers:
Mariano Rivera, New York Yankees: 3-1, 57 G, 41-of-44 SV, 1.46 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 7.34 K/9, 2.94 K/BB
Francisco Cordero, Texas: 2-0, 49 G, 38-of-40 SV, 1.71 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 9.40 K/9, 2.20 K/BB
Joe Nathan, Minnesota: 1-1, 54 G, 34-of-36 SV, 1.30 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, 10.73 K/9, 5.21 K/BB
Keith Foulke, Boston: 3-3, 53 G, 21-of-26 SV, 1.97 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, 8.16 K/9, 4.14 K/BB

Note: Bold indicates league leader in that stat category. Rate stats are best among qualifiers.

Mulder has been doing his best Roy Halladay (circa 2003) impression, eating up lots of solid innings and racking up wins, while Santana has put up very pretty numbers in the Baggy Dome. Those two are probably the real favorites at this point, mainly due to the fact that Pedro and Schilling -- same team, nearly identical resumés -- will likely eat up each other's votes.

Among the others, only Hudson and Radke stand out -- although with a strong finish, I believe Rogers (if he gets to 22+ wins) or Garcia could sneak into the top two or three candidates. Drese and Westbrook are nice stories, but they clearly are not Cy-worthy. Vazquez may get some votes since he plays in the media capital of the world, as may Rivera, but won't win. Nathan is clearly the best of the relievers, but none of them are at the level of Gagne's 2003, which is essentially what it takes to win this award for a reliever.

Garcia has received the second-worst run support among AL qualifiers due to pitching most of the season in Seattle, which somewhat explains his 10-10 record. Hudson is also in the bottom ten among qualifiers in run support, in addition to missing 4 or 5 starts while on the DL. On the other end of that spectrum in the AL, Buehrle, Mulder, Rogers, Westbrook, and Schilling rank 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 9th respectively. Radke, in case you were wondering, is in the bottom half for run support -- which only partially explains his lack of wins. Of Radke's twelve no-decisions, four were blown saves, and seven were games he left while tied. Only once, on Opening Day, has the Twin offense bailed Radke out of a possible loss.

So, to use a big cliché, "there's plenty of season left", but as of right now, my vote for the AL Cy Young Award (if I had one, of course) would go:

1) Santana
2) Martinez
3) Mulder
4) Schilling
5) Radke

You just can't ignore the phenomenal season Johan Santana is having, no matter how many wins or solid innings Mulder and Schilling have. Pedro has also been good, but not quite good enough.

The Magic Number...

2004-08-21T02:30:00.000-05:00

...is 28. On August 21st. Boys, let's get this thing done and over with by mid-September, without worry.

Through the wickets

2004-08-20T01:25:00.000-05:00

Ick. What a loss.

Jason Marquis pitched like a champ tonight (from the 4th inning on, anyway), but Oliver Perez was unreal good. That kid could be ridiculous someday, as evidenced by his 10 K's, 1 unearned run in 7 innings (perhaps more, if not for the rain delay) against the best lineup in baseball. And he's done it all season, too. He is fifth in the majors with 175 K's. In only three of his twenty-two starts has he allowed more than three earned runs, and not since June 10. His ERA is 2.90, and hasn't been above 3.74 since his first start of the season. He's "only" 8-6, but the Pirate bullpen has blown five saves behind him. He throws 95-96 mph. Oh yeah, he just turned 23 years old. Because of Perez and Jason Bay, who is hitting .299 with 17 HRs (despite not playing in the majors in April) and a .943 OPS at age 25, the Pirates are probably feeling pretty good about the Giles trade last season.

But Reggie Sanders took away another one of Perez's wins, with a dramatic 9th inning 2-out HR. Unfortunately, Kline gives an unearned run back in the 10th, intentionally walking Daryle Ward (scary, I know... especially to a lefty) to face right-handed pinch-hitter Jose Bautista, who hit a ball that hopped through Scott Rolen's legs, and the Pirates had their run. Larry Walker hit into his second double play of the night -- an awful one for him, with 3 Ks and 2 GIDPs -- in the bottom of the 10th, ending the game with Pujols in the on-deck circle. Ouch.

But... I suppose losing a game on a Rolen error doesn't happen too often, so you have to take it and move on -- since you feel pretty secure that it won't happen again for a long time.

The Matty Mo of old?

2004-08-18T00:43:00.000-05:00

This game could have been a renaissance of sorts for Matt Morris.

The results were solid, but fairly unspectacular -- 7 IP, 2 ER, 6 K, 6 H, 2 BB, in a no decision. Not bad by any stretch. It kept us in the game for yet another win.

But what got my hopes up was this: I don't know if it was the humidity or gusts of wind or if this was actually happening, but Matt's fastball was routinely hitting low 90's last night on the Busch Stadium radar gun. Several reached 93-94 mph -- and not just one or two. In fact, his last pitch of the game, in the top of the seventh, was a fastball clocked at 93 mph that retired Adam Dunn on a groundout to short with the bases loaded. He also struck out several hitters using that pitch earlier in the game.

If Matt's mid-90s fastball truly does return from its year-plus-long hiatus (provided he remembers how to use it), it could be an even bigger boost for the team than acquiring a mid-level starting pitcher. A dominant and resurgent Matty Mo could prove very useful come playoff time.

It's almost unreal. 78-40. Not even in my wildest April dreams.

Reborn!

2004-08-17T23:25:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm not dead, and thankfully, neither is PCO.

Much has happened in the (nearly) month that it's been since I've last posted. The Cards a) only won 19 of 24 games, moving a whopping fifteen games ahead of the Cubs; b) didn't make a trade at the non-waiver deadline July 31; and then c) went out and acquired now-former Rockie Larry Walker (who passed through waivers unscathed) for three minor league pitchers (two of whom I'd actually heard of, Chris Narveson and Luis Martinez) and some cash. Walker, batting mostly in the 2-hole, has made Jocketty look good thus far, posting a .571 OBP with 3 HRs and 11 RBIs in the eight games since joining the team. The prospects given up were a mixed batch; Narveson supposedly has injury problems but a higher upside, Martinez is a lefty who essentially we got for free (claimed off waivers from the Brewers after a shooting charge that was dropped, I believe) but also has a high upside, and Jason Burch, the third pitcher in the deal, is a closer at one of our Class A-level teams. The Rockies are also paying $7.5 million (I've seen different numbers, so this is a bit confusing) towards both Walker's salary this year and next, making him free for the remainder of this year and $9 million next year. If healthy and productive, that's a decent bargain for a player of his caliber.

Let's make no mistake about it: the Walker deal is essentially about this year's team, but Jocketty did the right thing. If you have as great a chance as the Cardinals do this year to win it all, there is no reason not to go all-out in your efforts to put the best possible team on the field. That is what Walt did, and we will (hopefully) be thanking him in October.

"Team of Dessssssssstiny"

2004-07-20T20:59:00.000-05:00

This afternoon's affair at Wrigley has to be considered the Game of the Year to this point. It was the last time the Cards were scheduled to play the Cubs, and having already clinched the season series going in, in addition to having won in thrilling fashion the previous night -- thereby clinching no worse than a split in the two-game series (and thus losing no ground to the Cubs) -- I considered this game nearly meaningless beforehand. With the adrenaline flowing between the two teams as well as the wind blowing out, I figured Morris would leave a few fastballs over the middle of the plate that would be hit out (he did). After the Cards fell behind 7-1, I was sort of resigned that we'd lose the game, but not disappointed, since they'd done everything I'd asked of them on the road trip to that point (3 of 4 in Cincy, at worst a 4-2 trip). Then Pujols hit a solo HR, which was nice to see, but I figured it probably wasn't going to affect the game's outcome, and after Ramirez homered off Eldred to lead off the bottom of the 3rd, I felt like it was just going to be more BP to the Cubs' hitters.

But Cal fought and fought, and eventually gave up just the one run in 3 innings, pushing his ERA to essentially the lowest it's been all season (4.79). For a guy who's been resigned to mostly mop-up duty since an awful April, Cal has been pretty good, allowing only 3 earned runs in his last nine appearances (2.13 ERA).

Anyway... when the Cards' bats finally woke up in the 6th, I felt a sense of destiny, like I thought that we were going to win the game -- the key moment, to me, was this: "R Sanders walked, S Rolen to third, J Edmonds to second." It may not seem like much in the Post-Dispatch tomorrow, but that at-bat was enormous. Reggie laid off some borderline pitches to get ahead 3-1, but the big one was taking strike two on a good pitch by Beltran. It was a fastball (I think), but it was down and on the outside corner, perfect for forcing one of those 4-6-3 double plays. To Reggie's credit, he took the pitch, even though it was a strike, and was able to draw his walk with the full count on the very next pitch. That loaded the bases and (eventually) opened the floodgates.

Pujols' HR to make it 8-7 the next inning further encouraged me, but then Farnsworth mowed down the next four guys (3 K's) and was to face the bottom two spots in the order before Dusty went to Hawkins in the 9th.

My primary hopes during the top of the 8th basically were to get the game to the top of the 9th with the score still 8-7, and see what we could do against Hawkins. But So Taguchi changed that, hitting a home run off Farnsworth onto Waveland Avenue. At that instant, I knew we were going to win that game. It's one of those "Team of Dessssstiny" sort of things. I can't explain it. But after Taguchi's bomb, nothing at all that happened in the top of the ninth surprised me. Renteria's chopper single, Pujols' HR, Sanders' HR, and Hawkins' subsequent meltdown all seemed anticlimactic compared to itty-bitty So hitting a gargantuan home run off the intimidating Farnsworth. (Of course, Tony ended up double-switching Taguchi, who'd also made an incredible leaping catch at the wall in the 6th, out of the game immediately after his homer.)

So what does this win do? It puts the Cubs 10 games back (potentially 3 back in the wild card race, assuming the Giants win) and the Astros, who are currently in the process of blowing yet another game, are close to being dropped 14 out in the division (and 7 out in the WC). Houston, if they indeed lose (currently down 7-5, mid-9th), is only one game away from being in last place. Wow, wow, wow.

A winning month

2004-07-11T15:18:00.000-05:00

The Cardinals still haven't lost in July (8-0). Unbelievable. They just keep outplaying everyone. If we can sweep the Cubs tonight, it would be a perfect end to, essentially, a perfect first half of the season. In a way, I almost don't want the All-Star break to happen, because I worry it will cool them off.

Enjoy the ride...

POST-ALL STAR BREAK UPDATE: I'm not doing posts before games anymore. I think I jinxed 'em that night. But oh well... they've made up for it since.

Life is good

2004-07-07T13:55:00.000-05:00

The trip to Pittsburgh obviously was an abberation. Actually, I heard somewhere that we had more total bases than the Pirates in that series, and yet lost all three games (due to... bad "clutch hitting" i.e. luck?). Go figure.

Last night's win over the Redlegs was the fifth in a row for the Cardinals, making it the fourth five-plus game winning streak in the last 40 days. For the second time this season (the first being June 1-5, another one of those streaks), every member of the starting five got a win on the same turn through the rotation. Nice.

...and why I do not love Matt Morris

2004-07-07T03:21:00.000-05:00

Matty Mo turned down a two-year, $15.5 million extension in February. He's then proceeded to lead the league in HR allowed and thus post a 4.33 ERA that isn't worth the $12.5 million he's earning this year alone. He's also made the fewest quality starts of any of our starting pitchers (nine, although it is the same number as "All-Star" Cory Lidle has pitched). Those aren't numbers you'd like from your ace, especially in his walk year.

(Side note: I hate to assume things about people, but it's hard not to with Matt... he just fits the stereotypical "pothead" mold. That's why I found this box score funny/ironic: W - Bong, L - Morris.)

I don't know what to think about Morris, though. His fastball is obviously not what it once was, even at the beginning of 2003 when he was darn near the best starter in the league for two months. It's a mystery why; both injury and mechanical problems have been denied by La Russa and Duncan repeatedly. His curve is still very effective, but when hitters are looking for the fastball and they get it, it gets hit hard, as evidenced by all the HRs Morris has allowed. He's not been terrible, but it's obvious he's not the pitcher he was two or three seasons ago. I don't question Matt's desire, either, since I know he wants to win. But something is not right. So... if I was Walt Jocketty, I would avoid getting in a bidding war to re-sign Morris after this season -- if we do re-sign him, stick to our original offer. Spend top-starter money on a Matt Clement or Derek Lowe.

Why I love Jimmy Edmonds

2004-07-07T01:42:00.000-05:00

It seems the public perception of a certain Cardinal center fielder has changed from admiration to mild frustration in recent years, and yet, he still goes out and puts up numbers at the plate, while playing with a certain flair for the dramatic in the field. Before I continue, it should be noted that my opinion is indeed biased, since Jimmy Ballgame is my most favorite Cardinal.

However, who can argue with the stats he's put up? Jim has posted four consecutive seasons with 70+ XBH (which he is on pace for this season as well), OPS's of .970 and above (.940 to this point in '04), and enough walks (an average of 90+ per season, including this one's pace) to offset the strikeouts that his detractors claim are unproductive. His career OBP as a Cardinal is a shade over .400, which to me is good enough to deal with 130+ K's per year. Jimmy's RBI totals have gone down every season, but a) so also have his PA's and b) his role in the lineup has changed. In '00 and '01, with an injured McGwire and 350 PA's for the infamous Craig Paquette, Edmonds had to be one of the 1-2 big run producers in the lineup, batting 3rd and 4th (ahead of McGwire predominantly in '00 and '01, then later behind Pujols); however, last season, because of the continuing emergence of Pujols and Renteria as well as the Rolen trade the previous summer, Edmonds was all over the lineup, batting a lot of 5th, but some 2nd as well as the occasional 3rd or 4th. This season, it's more of the same, with Edmonds mostly at 5th (especially lately), 2nd, then 4th. I, for one, would love to see Jimmy in the 2nd spot all the time, as he gets on base frequently enough and with all the doubles he hits, would present plenty of runners in scoring position ahead of Pujols and Rolen. However, now that La Russa has seen the light and put another good #2 guy (Renteria) in that spot, I don't mind seeing Edmonds batting 5th for now.

All in all, not a bad deal for a journeyman pitcher and a former prospect middle infielder who still hasn't OPSed .800. Keep up the good work, Jimmy.

That's baseball

2004-07-07T00:56:00.000-05:00

You know you're watching the greatest game on Earth when a team buried in last place, that had gone 4-21 in their previous 25 games, goes and wins ten games in a row. Yes, the "suddenly resurgent" (as I put it, very mildly) Pirates somehow managed that. What a game.

Truly the Junior Circuit

2004-07-04T03:45:00.000-05:00

After hitting a minor speed bump in Pittsburgh by being swept by the suddenly resurgent Pirates, the Cards are back on track with a couple big wins at home against the Mariners. At 10-1 with one game remaining in their interleague schedule, the Cards have easily posted their best ever interleague record, although given recent seasons, that's not saying much.

Some thoughts on the Junior Circuit, since I don't really discuss it much:

1) The Royals have been awful. I knew they were a fluke last year to finish above .500, but I considered their offseason pretty solid, acquiring Juan Gonzalez, Benito Santiago, Matt Stairs, and Scott Sullivan, and resigning Curt Leskanic and Brian Anderson, so I fully expected them to at least contend in a very poor AL Central. Instead, their pitching, which was expected to benefit from moving the fences in at Kaufmann Stadium, has been beyond awful. Anderson is 1-8 with an ERA over 7, their "ace" Darrell May is 5-9, and supposed key relievers Jason Grimsley (Orioles), Leskanic (Red Sox), and closer Mike MacDougal (minors) are no longer with the team, although to Grimsley's credit he performed decently with the Royals. Their best starter thus far has been 20-year-old Zack Greinke, who despite a solid 1.05 WHIP in eight starts, is only 1-5. And, to top it all off, Carlos Beltran has finally been traded to the Astros, with mixed reviews ("not bad" vs. "not as good as it could be").

2) The Tampa Bay Devil Rays have won 30 of their last 40 games. For a franchise that's never won 70 games in a season, that's unheard of. They've climbed to 40-38, way behind the Yankees but within 2½ games of the Red Sox as well as 4 games behind the wild-card leading Rangers. According to somewhere I read, the Rays are the first team to ever get to .500 after being 18 games below it at any point in the season. And if I remember correctly, the '02 Angels and the '03 Marlins were significantly under .500 early in the season. No, I'm not saying the D-Rays are going to win it all... but man, wouldn't that be insane? Reality is likely about to set in for the Rays, as they travel to Yankee Stadium for four games right before the All-Star break.

3) Speaking of the Rangers, they haven't been bad either. That lineup is still incredibly deep from top to bottom, despite the A-Rod for Soriano trade, but the pitching staff (most notably the bullpen, led by Francisco Cordero) has been improved, and thus, the Rangers are in the midst of the very exciting three-team race in the AL West along with the Angels and A's.

4) The AL Central, as expected, is awful. The Tigers, who lost 119 games in 2003, though improved in a few spots in the lineup, are only six games out of first place. 'Nuff said.

Throwing away a victory

2004-06-29T12:51:00.000-05:00

So much for having nothing to complain about. The Cards lost last night in disappointing fashion, giving up a run on a throwing error after a double in the ninth inning... eerily reminiscent of this game, lost to the Reds on a Griffey inside-the-park home run that Edmonds nearly caught (however, it bounced off him so hard that even the speedy Kerry Robinson could not get to it in time to prevent Junior from going all the way around). Ironically, that game also ended a long Cards winning streak.

Who's to blame for such a loss? To me, it wasn't Suppan for giving up the tying run, Tavarez for giving up the double, or any of the Juggling Fielders who made wild throws on the game-winning play; instead, it was the offense's lack of productivity with guys in scoring position. In two innings (that I remember, anyway), Cardinals came to the plate with a man on third base and one out. In those situations, Cards batters were 0-for-2 with a walk and a GIDP, and most importantly, 0 RBI. But... it's just one game. There's two more in Pittsburgh, and with Carpenter going tonight, we should do no worse than split them, before coming home for nine games before the All-Star break, six of which are against our closest competition in the Cubs and Reds. Cruisin' in first place is mighty fun.

Keep on chuggin'

2004-06-27T23:24:00.000-05:00

Five games.

The Cards have a five-game lead in the division, thanks to the current five-game winning streak. And that lead, in addition to their nearly spectacular play of late, has made them the talk of the town. On all three Sunday night sports programs in St. Louis, the main story (other than the death of a race car driver at the Gateway race track that day) was the Cardinals.

What's not to like? Nothing. That's why I'm not going to complain.

Catching up, and staying ahead

2004-06-23T23:35:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy past two weeks in my neck of the woods, and with dial-up internet, posting requires patience -- so I've avoided it entirely. However, in the meantime, our boys rattled off a pair of 6-game winning streaks to pull away slightly from the rest of the crowd at the top of the Central. Tonight, after having split the first two games against the Cubs, the Cards sit two games ahead of said Cubs, and five ahead of the slumping Astros, who are all the way in fifth place. The Reds and Brewers are still hanging around, too.

Given the Cubs' resurgence this season and last, I'd say that the Cards-Cubs rivalry has definitely heated up. Every game seems more intense than, say, your average game against the Reds. Many have been close this season especially (7 of the series' 13 games have been decided by one run) -- including the last two games.

That said, every little thing is important in order to win these 1-run games (the Cards have won 5 of the 7 -- and only one other game in the series, which now stands at Cubs 7, Cards 6). And La Russa's decisions to use Isringhausen in the 8th inning Tuesday night and then to not use him at all in a 1-run save situation in the 9th Wednesday night suprised me. First off, Tavarez has been lights-out in a setup role this season. With Marquis done, and a runner on second base and one out in the top of the 8th, and a whole bunch of right-handed hitters due up (Alou-Sosa-Ramirez-Lee), why not put in Julian? The pitcher's spot in the order wasn't anywhere near due up, and if need be Tony could double-switch after the bottom of the eighth. Who knows. (It must be noted that tonight, placed in a key situation in the 6th, Tavarez responded by blowing the lead -- however, it was the 6th inning, which is not his accustomed role. Perhaps he had not woken up from his mid-game nap quite yet.) I don't necessarily disagree with Wednesday's decision to leave in Kline, who was throwing well -- perhaps he wanted to give Izzy the day off, in addition, although he only threw 18 pitches in 2/3 of an inning Tuesday. Again, who knows.

If you had told me on Opening Day that on June 24, the Cardinal starter with the lowest ERA would be Jeff Suppan, I'd have thought you were telling a belated April Fool's joke. But sure enough, he's managed to post the lowest one of the five -- and ironically, the two highest are the big salaries of Woody Williams and Matt Morris (although, to Woody's credit, he has pitched better of late). Chris Carpenter, however, is leading the starting staff in quite a few other categories (wins, WHIP, K rate, etc.).

Wednesday morning, the organizational revolving door turned once more and sent Cody McKay back to Memphis in exchange for So Taguchi. I agree with the Cards not having a need for three catchers; however, I think Yadier Molina might be better served by playing every day in Memphis instead of every third day in St. Louis -- but really, that doesn't matter all that much. Let's see what the kid can do. I also get the impression that La Russa is a huge Taguchi fan, as am I, but it's hard to ignore the numbers put up by John Gall in Memphis. I know very little about Gall, except for the fact that he didn't seem to have a position in the field last year -- perhaps Tony questions his ability to play the outfield at the major league level, and that's why he's hesitating bringing him up. However, if La Russa is willing to play the Marlon Andersons and Hector Lunas in left field ahead of capable defensive players such as Ray Lankford, then why not bring up Gall, if he's even remotely able to match his production at the plate in the majors? And if La Russa is willing to play a rookie (Molina) ahead of a veteran (McKay) in one situation, then why not another (Gall vs. Mabry/Taguchi/Lankford)? Seems a little hypocritical to me.

Let's take this series from the North Siders Thursday... Carpenter vs. Clement, it should be a dandy.

Please go away, guys

2004-06-15T14:50:00.000-05:00

After yet another winning road trip, the Cards return home this week to face the Oakland A's. Their home record is an astounding 13-15, and yet, they are two games clear of the rest of the NL Central Division. In looking for an explanation to the Cardinals' struggles at home, I first thought of the pitching staff's affinity for giving up the long ball; however, that seems to not be the problem, as Busch is 24th in the league in park factor for home runs. Surely, that isn't a perfect measurement, but it is baffling nonetheless, especially considering that Carpenter is the only starter with an ERA under 4.00 at Busch (however, in only 3 starts compared to 6 or 7 for the other four guys). The staff's ERA as a whole is nearly 0.80 higher at Busch, also, despite nearly the same HR rate (1.21 HRA/G at home, 1.20 on the road) as well as K rate (5.66 K/9 IP on the road, a higher figure of 5.78 at home). So, what's the difference, you ask? The answer is walks. At home, Cards pitchers have issued 3.36 walks/9 IP per game, as opposed to 2.51 on the road. (A note: the hits/9 IP rate is also about the same amount higher at home, but that can be attributed somewhat to luck. Keep men off base by not walking as many, and the hits won't score as many runs.) And, for the record, the batters are .278/.342/.440 (.781 OPS) at home, versus .267/.328/.471 (.799) on the road -- not as significant difference as the record would indicate, assuming all pitching statistics as equal.

Let's hope those hurlers can keep the ball in the strike zone over the next few weeks, during which we play 18 of the next 24 games at Busch Stadium.

Putting some things to rest

2004-06-11T03:33:00.000-05:00

For the record, after Thursday's debacle, the Cards finished their 20-game stretch of divisional note with a record of 12-7, plus a rainout. Against the Cubs, they were 3-4 (all in Wrigley); Astros, 4-2; Pirates, 5-1.

All in all, that record is decent, since it got us to the top of the division when the Cubs were struggling; however, the blowout Thursday left a bitter taste in the mouths of fans, and hopefully left the team hungry (angry?) enough to keep playing well.

A note: Chris Carpenter has emerged as the ace of the Cards starting staff. He's won 6 straight decisions (it would be eight straight starts, but for two Isringhausen blown saves in this game, in addition to The Balk Game), and lowered his ERA from 5.28 on May 4 to a solid 3.42 this morning, thanks to a stretch of:

6 starts, 44 2/3 IP (avg. 7 1/3+), 11 ER (2.22 ERA), 32 K (6.5/9 IP), 34 H + 5 BB (0.87 WHIP)

Quality numbers, especially when you add in that in 4 of his 6 starts he did not walk a batter, and only threw 100+ pitches in 2 starts. Yow.

Now... to Texas. That's right... Texas. I love interleague play.

View from the top

2004-06-10T02:04:00.000-05:00

First place is nice, isn't it?

Things are progressing very nicely this week. Not only did the Cards win the series opener on Monday night -- almost a must-win with Carpenter pitchin against Glendon Rusch (I finally saw a loss out of him), but we beat one of the "big three" in Prior to guarantee at least a split in the series. As far as I'm concerned, the series is almost a victory already (I would be satisfied with a split); however, why not go for the jugular tomorrow, since the Cubs are hurting? Three games out of four would be a great statement to make at this point in the season.

Albert, the Franchise

2004-06-08T00:17:00.000-05:00

My, my, how scary that moment was. Pujols rounds second base on a single by Edmonds, and since the Golden Rule of Baseball says "Never make the last out of an inning at third base," Albert wisely held up. But, in the process of holding up, something in the left hamstring tweaked, and as Albert hobbled back to second, millions of people held their breath.

Supposedly, the injury will only cost Sir Albert a couple of games. They come at an inopportune time against the Cubs, yes, but I say this: if he has to sit out a week and a half for an injury that would cost Reggie Sanders (for example) three days, it's worth it for the length of his contract. Hamstring problems can wreck a player (a la Griffey Jr.), so the team's staff should be very careful with Albert, especially at his young age.

The awards section

2004-06-07T22:45:00.000-05:00

I've touted Scott Rolen for MVP elsewhere, but not on this site. Consider that changed. Here's the pace he's set, through tonight's game:

.353/.411/.627, 208 hits, 41 HR, 174 RBI

Each one of those would shatter his career high in that category. Wow. I'd be happy with a .320/.400/.600 line with 35 HR or thereabouts (with a few more walks), since nobody can be expected to keep up that pace, but it's nice to think about while it's still going on. Even if Rolen drives in 150 runs, that would be the highest total for a Cardinal since Joe Medwick set the franchise record in 1937. Medwick's total, you ask? The number is 154, which Scotty is on a pace to shatter.

...I'll also add that Rolen's lead over 2nd-place Aramis Ramirez in the All-Star voting is over 250,000 votes. To his credit, Ramirez is having a very good season thus far, as are Mike Lowell, Vinny Castilla, Sean Burroughs, and Adrian Beltré, but Rolen is the class of what is a strong position. Other Cardinal positional voting leaders include Pujols and Renteria, although Renteria (lower OPS than César Izturis, among many other SS's) appears mostly to be taking advantage of both a good 2003 as well as a weak crop this year. Strangely enough, the two best SS's in the NL to this point (Jack Wilson and the Coors-powered Royce Clayton) aren't even in the top five in the voting. And, for the record, Pujols has a narrow lead over Jeff Bagwell at 1B -- which he should keep if he gets back on the field and hits remotely decent.

Thanks to an unreal road record of 20-9, the Cardinals will be a game out of first place at the end of the night -- after having taken 3 of the first 4 games of one of the biggest 7-game stretches of the season. Thanks to that, their record in the 20-game divisional stretch I mentioned earlier is now 11-5, with one rainout, through 17 games -- and a more respectable 6-4 against the Big Two. I'd have committed anyone who told me on April 1 that the Cards would be ahead of the Cubs and Astros right now despite being 2 games under .500 at home. Now, I'll gladly take it.

Yearning for the good ol' days

2004-06-04T00:03:00.000-05:00

Tonight's game momentarily eased a couple of concerns. First, Scotty Rolen looked just like his old self, blasting balls off walls and into gaps, driving in runs (55!), and playing solid defense like always. I'm a little more convinced now about Rolen's health than I am the stability of the catching situation. Yadier Molina was indeed promoted to the bigs today, and started tonight, going 2-for-4 with a double. He also put down a nice tag on Abraham Nunez, and threw out Jack Wilson trying to steal a base. So, a solid debut for the kid, but we'll see how he does after 2 weeks or so before we can fully judge his adjustment to the majors. So far, so good though.

This 4-game sweep was also the Redbirds' first 4-game winning streak of the season (yes, the Expos and Devil Rays both had won 4 in a row already). Here's to many more of those.

Isn't it sad for the state of baseball today that Wednesday night, the defending world champs -- who are currently in first place in the NL East -- closed out their series against the NL Central's first place team by drawing 12,222?!? That, I might add, was after only 13,269 showed up the night before. The people of South Florida simply do not deserve the team that they have.

Also, it's nice to see this from tonight's Cards game notes: "It was 'Classic Night' at PNC Park. Instead of live, animated videos, the Jumbotron scoreboard remained static with an image representing the scoreboard at old Forbes Field. There also was no music other than an organist." Cool! Teams should do things like that more often. It's sickening that every game fans have to not only put up with the "Cap Dance," but painfully find out, yet again, that people "want to go for the doors."

TCB, but not quite enough

2004-06-03T16:56:00.000-05:00

PCO returns to find the Cards tearing through Pittsburgh, going for the sweep this evening. Twelve games into what I'd consider one of the more major 20-game stretches of this season, the Birds have performed admirably, posting a 7-4 record (with one rainout). Unfortunately, four of those seven wins -- and only one of the losses -- have come at the hands of the Pirates, and thus the remaining 3-3 record against the Cubs and Astros is merely ordinary. However, it's nice to see the Cards taking care of business against a team they needed to dominate. That said, the next seven games following tonight's -- all against Houston and the Cubs -- are a bit more important.

The scoreboard-watching over the weekend went well, but the most pleasing experience of the trip was sitting in TGI Friday's at Miller Park both Friday and Saturday evenings watching the Cubs lose in painful fashion. Rob Mackowiak and the Buccos picked the perfect time to bust out of their slump at home and win a couple games.

It's safe to say that the past week Albert Pujols has woken up. He's raised his average from .279 to .320, while vaulting into the league lead in HRs with 17. His OPS ranks only behind Berkman and Bonds in the NL, and over the past week is nearly 2.000. That is officially a tear.

Rolen's beaning was pretty scary; hopefully he won't go into a funk like Sosa did last season after he got hit in the head -- the spots of those are a little different, but still... a fastball to the head is a fastball to the head.

And then there's Matheny's muscular problems. How long he'll be out is anyone's guess. Cody McKay is a decent backup, and has done well as a "personal" catcher for Jeff Suppan so far this season, but he cannot be made our starter for a long period of time if Matheny is indeed out. Yadier Molina? Perhaps, but the arbitration clock would have to begin since he is not currently on our 40-man roster. I'm not sure quite what the free-agent market holds, but one name jumps out to me as a trade possibility (assuming Matheny will be out long-term), if the Tigers are up for it: Brandon Inge. Unfortunately, the price might be too high for him, and we'll get stuck with McKay.

Regardless of the injuries, the next eight games could very well determine the course of our season. Let's go win 'em all.

Pittsburgh series recap, etc.

2004-05-28T01:12:00.000-05:00

Despite this week's nearly apocalyptic thunderstorms, the Cards did manage to get two games in against the Pirates. They didn't win the series, as I decreed they must earlier, but I suppose they didn't lose it either. I didn't see any of Wednesday's game, but reading the boxscore allows me to speculate on a few things:

(note: I really do love boxscores. Someday I'll write an ode to boxscores.)

1) I'm not terribly worried about Marquis' bad start. He didn't give up a HR, so it may have just been a case of bad luck to have given up so many hits; however, a walk per inning isn't going to help that either, despite even more K's than that. I chalk it up to just a bad outing and (hopefully) not the start of an ominous trend.

2) Kiko Calero failed miserably in his role. That goes nearly without saying. I'm sure the Cardinals have 20+ guys in the organization who could come into a major league game, trailing 6-2, and promptly give up 4 more runs. Kiko must perform better than that to stay up. Speaking of Kiko, he and the Pirates' Thursday starter Ryan Vogelsong could very well be twins seperated at birth (they sure pitched like it this series...).

3) The 2004 Cardinals seem to have scored more meaningless runs than any team I've ever seen (last year's team being the previous apparent record) -- as evidenced by the late orgy of offense that at least made Wednesday's game look close. The statistics sort of point to it too: even though we're 8-6 in one-run games, we're still managing to do worse than our Pythagorean expected record (although only by a half game). I'll still have to do some more research on this topic, since I don't have enough time right now.

Moving on...

I was, however, able to attend Thursday's game. The offense was opportunistic if not good (Rolen's key 3-run HR followed 2 walks -- 3 runs on only 1 hit is nice if you can get it), the pitching was solid (Suppan allowed a lot of baserunners, but did enough to win), and while the defense wasn't spectacular, it draws few complaints. It really is difficult to complain about anything when the team wins. The win was key, as a sweep -- even just 2 games -- at home to the Pirates would have been a deflating experience. However, the Pirates seem to be faring better on the road this year; maybe we should take the split as a minor victory and go get 'em in PNC, where they are playing even worse than the Cards have at Busch -- they currently sport a ghastly 6-13 home record. Can you blame 'em, though? If I had to play 81 games a year in the coolest park in baseball, I wouldn't be able to concentrate either.

Now it's on to Houston for the Redbirds... I'll be traveling to Milwaukee for the weekend, so I won't be commenting on the big weekend series; however, you can bet I'll be scoreboard-watching from Miller Park Friday and Saturday evenings. Let's hope the Cards can continue their winning ways in the Juice Box!

Rain, rain, go away

2004-05-26T12:24:00.000-05:00

St. Louis has been hit hard by storms the past few days, and it seems unlikely that any of the Pittsburgh games will be played here this week -- one has already been cancelled, and tonight's and tomorrow's still remain in doubt. It's times like these when people beg and plead to build $200 million retractable roofs on new ballparks, but it seems to me that they don't realize rainouts are a part of baseball. Yeah, they're tough to reschedule, and the teams probably lose a little money (a driving factor of MLB these days) from having to do so. Maybe the roofs and the reluctance to call games due to rain is just part of the evolution of the game, which nowadays no longer sees games called due to darkness, or even doubleheaders, which are rare -- and never scheduled. Perhaps someday all ballparks will be built under huge, retractable, Climatron-like Plexiglas domes, and we won't have to worry about rain ever again. In the meantime, though, I'll gladly deal with a rainout 3 or 4 times a year if it means I don't have to see a ball game in a box.

Scouring the news

2004-05-25T12:57:00.000-05:00

Seeing this makes me smile. Of course, we all expect this sort of thing to happen. Hopefully, Wood's and Prior's returns won't align themselves with the Cards' June 7-10 date in Wrigley.

Sunday night's "scandal" involving Albert Pujols' hip flexor soreness scared me a bit, mostly because of La Russa's anointing of Cody McKay as our backup first baseman. Seeing this article this morning made me feel a little better, since Mabry's been killing the ball down in Memphis. However, this move only increases the left-handedness of the Cards' bench -- though my guess for the player being sent down would be Colin Porter, since Mabry and Porter are rather interchangeable left-handed corner outfielders. The right-handed bats are So Taguchi, Hector Luna, and the waste-of-a-roster-spot Roger Cedeno -- names which don't strike fear in the hearts of opposing pitching staffs like Eduardo Perez has done the past couple seasons. A right-handed power bat coming off the bench is something the Cardinals have needed all season. Supposedly they're one of the many teams in the market for Raul Mondesi, despite his weird situation. But here is another option, even though he will be 43 in less than a month (think Julio Franco-like agelessness!) -- it'd be nice to see El Gato Grande making a valuable contribution off the Cardinal bench this season, which likely would be his last.

Meet Glendy Johnson

2004-05-24T12:41:00.000-05:00

Frank Cusumano and I were both wrong about Glendon Rusch, since he mowed us down on Saturday, and it seems I was unfortunately right about Matt Clement -- he took care of us Sunday night, just as he did here May 1. So, the Cards are back to square one against the Cubs. I'm not sure we can afford to lose many more series against them this season. Fortunately, we travel back there for four more games the second week in June.

Meanwhile, the Cardinals are coming home to face the smoking hot Daryle Ward and his Pirates this week. The Giles-less Pirates have hung in there with the best of them to this point, despite being in last place for most of the season, thanks to the killer Wilsons, the suddenly reliable José Mesa (13-for-13 saves, 0.47 ERA) closing, and most recently, Ward's rejuvenated power stroke. They're only 2 games behind the Cardinals/Brewers tie for fourth, and only 4½ out of first place. I would consider this series a must-win, almost a must-sweep, considering that after this week's series, 10 of the next 13 games are against either Houston or the Cubs. We can't afford to dawdle against the lesser opponents, scrappy as they may be, if we're going to do things like lose 2 of 3 at Wrigley.

Fearless predictions?

2004-05-22T00:00:00.000-05:00

On the 10:00 news on KSDK-TV Channel 5 in St. Louis, Frank Cusumano predicted that by that time tomorrow, the Cardinals would be ahead of the Cubs in the standings. While I share in his optimism about the pitching matchup (Williams vs. Rusch), I wouldn't go quite that far. Though he's gotten better the past 2 or 3 outings, Woody has obviously struggled this season. Glendon Rusch is making his second start of the season, and seems to have also struggled based on his early numbers (1.75 WHIP, 5.25 ERA). In his only start, he gave up 2 runs in 4 2/3 innings. I'm amazed after reading in the Post-Dispatch today that Scott Rolen is only 3-for-17 against Rusch in his career. Those numbers notwithstanding, I'm sure the Cards can score plenty off Rusch -- because a) we mash lefties and b) I'm guessing the Post did not mention other guys in our lineup who'd had better numbers against him.

I've been all over Rusch since this blog began, so let's hope I'm right in my assessment.

Stepping on wounded Small Bears

2004-05-21T18:43:00.000-05:00

Today's win over the Cubs was mighty key. It sets the tone for the remaining two games, and gives us an opportunity to clinch the series tomorrow with the favorable pitching matchup described in the previous post.

Also, this game was a prime example of the type of game that last year's team would lose. For evidence of that, just think back to the five-game series in Wrigley the first week of September when we blew leads in three of the four losses. Today, Carpenter did give up 3 solo HRs, but other than that was solid. The bullpen bent, but didn't break (again, unlike last year). Eldred made only one bad pitch -- which unfortunately hurt Kline's ERA quite a bit -- but other than that looked pretty good. And despite his recent struggles, Jason Isringhausen has now posted the following line in key appearances against the Cubs and Astros this season (which eliminates his appearance April 12th vs. Houston, when he pitched the 9th to get work in, trailing 8-1 and gave up three runs):

4 G, 2-0 record, 2 SV, 5 2/3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 SO

In two of those games, he entered in tie games and became the pitcher of record. The other two were save situations: today's game, plus a 5-out save in Houston. That's coming up big against the teams we need to beat. As far as I'm concerned, it's alright if he blows the occasional save against the Mets or Phillies and the like if he keeps this up against the "big two" all season.

On a side note, Al Hrabosky really needs to shut up about how some guy has burned us in the past when he's hitting in a key situation in the game. Today he kept blabbing about how Alou has gone 5-for-5, hit 3 HRs against us before... and then, of course, just then Alou takes Eldred deep. I'm not a terrbily superstitious person, but that's kinda creepy.

Welcome!

2004-05-21T00:29:00.000-05:00

...yeah, I'm a sheep, a copycat, whatever you want to call it. I'm probably the 102,381,908,248th person to have created a baseball blog these days, but it's something that interests me. So, without further ado, welcome to Pure Cardinal Obsession. My name is Jeff, and as the original and principal poster on this blog, I am glad to have each and every one of you visiting this site. I hope you find my comments at least semi-stimulating throughout the course of this and future baseball seasons.

First off, in case you can't tell, I'm a huge fan of the St. Louis Cardinals. Lately I've been a frequent visitor to Busch Stadium (22 times in '03 plus 5 road games, 15 so far in '04), and thus I feel I've invested enough in the team, and as a minority shareholder, I expect at least some winning in return. I'm typically an optimist through June, then things get serious and I expect, as has traditionally been the case, Tony's team to turn it up. Primarily during the summer this blog will focus on the Cards, however I do root for other teams in other sports (even baseball!), so I may stray from the Birds on the Bat at times. Among others, these include the NHL's Blues, NFL's Rams, and colleges Purdue and Missouri -- those are the main ones.

So as I've begun this blog very early on a Friday morning, the Redbirds have won 7 of 10 and are heading to Wrigley for a big weekend series. They're in 4th in a bunched NL Central, 2½ games back of 1st place Houston, at 22-19. No complaints here, especially if they can take two of three up in Chicago from a wounded Cubs team. The scheduled Cubs starter on Saturday: Glendon Rusch. The same Glendon Rusch who posted the 1-12/6.42 line in 19 starts, among other apperances, in '03 with the Brewers. Against a Cards lineup that's historically mashed lefties. Amazingly, Rusch has not given up a home run yet this season, in 12 innings; he's due, right? (I must note, though, for his career, he's averaged one per 7.8 IP -- not terrible -- for comparison, Woody Williams has put together a decent major-league career at 1:7.4, and Matt Morris is at only 1:6.9 for '03 and '04 combined -- yet has managed an ERA under 4.) So, I'm licking my chops -- an entree of Rusch after the Mitre appetizer on Friday afternoon certainly can't hurt the Cards' slightly struggling offense -- although they might've gotten a jolt already with the 6-run 9th Thursday in New York. We'll certainly need the momentum with a red-hot Clement going Sunday night. Still, the series sets up well for us, I think, given all the injuries that God has inflicted on the Small Bears (Prior, and now Wood, Sosa, and Gonzalez).

Completely Useless By September, indeed.