Baseball College

If you haven’t yet heard, Jorge Sosa is coming to St Louis from Atlanta in return for triple A reliever Rich Scalamandre I guess my question is: why waste time on this deal? Is it a precursor for something else, or is Cardinal management just trying to appear busy at the trade deadline even though they have no intent on improving this ballclub further?

If Sosa stays in the bullpen, fine, but if he is thrown into the rotation, I will ask my question again…. Why waste time on this deal?

Welcome to STL Jorge, I guess.

Here’s the recap on the Luna/Belliard trade from the Cardinal blogopsphere:

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The Birdwatch enjoys the idea of pushing Aaron Miles that much closer to triple A.

Diaspora feels that the Cards are merely just…. shuffling? their players around.

Get Up Baby thinks that our manager has limitations - and on this trade topic I can’t disagree with Get Up.

VEB thinks the trade may help marginally at best, and does some summing up from the media’s perspective as well.

26th Man wonders if our focus is in the right place - good point 26.

In Walt We Trust has plenty to hate and a bit to like about this trade.

Reverend Redbird keeps it gangsta’ with his post title - as for the trade, he’s not a huge fan. Is anyone really though?

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General concensus is - ok trade, but is that the best we can do? Also, why do we love veteran players so much? Are youthful players incapable of getting the job done? Miles playing less will mean more for the Cardinals offense, hopefully.

Will the deadline bring anything more for the Cardinals? I’m locked in to ESPN’s trade deadline coverage and will be one of the first (hopefully) to report a deal that goes down in Cardinal nation. Let’s hope there is one, and let’s hope it’s more significant than the Luna deal.

This is not how I wanted to spend my Friday evening.  A few points:

1.  So Taguchi - This is something I never thought I would see out of one of the most fundamentally sound outfielders in the game.  An extremely shallow fly ball by Matt Stairs with runners on 1st and 3rd was caught by Taguchi, but he didn’t get behind it and get his momentum going forward like he should have.  I’m guessing he was assuming that the runner on third wouldn’t tag since the fly ball was so shallow, but he did, Taguchi made a 15 hop throw to the plate, and the Royals took the lead.

2.  Jim Edmonds - looks absolutely terrible at the plate, thank god Burgos threw a pitch in his soup can hot zone in the 10th for his lone hit of the game.  He better figure out something quickly, or his stay in the two hole will be really short lived.

3.  Angel Hernandez - I am not one to gripe about umpiring, bad calls, etc., but I can’t let this one go.  Loogy Johnson threw a pitch that split the heart of the plate with two strikes which would’ve made the 9th inning a lot less interesting, but Hernandez called it a ball.  Molina had already started his wind up to throw it around the horn.  Hernandez then proceeds to brush off the plate, facing Molina, scolding him the whole time, like it was Yadi’s fault he missed a blatantly obvious strike call.  Tssk Tssk Angel, don’t do that again.

4.  Ninth Inning - Yes, the bases were loaded with one out in the ninth, no we didn’t score, yes, both of our pinch hitters struck out, but I have to tip my hat to both of them.  Burgos throws all sorts of gas with a decent enough off speed pitch, and both hitters, Spezio and Miles, took their at bats 7+ pitches.

My pro of the night goes to Jeff Suppan because of his know-what-you’re-getting demeanor, and once again, he left the game with a lead.  He gave his team a great chance to win, and against the Royals, that should be all we need to put a W in the books.  My con once again goes to Jim Edmonds, and probably will continue to do so until he figures it out at the plate.

First off - here’s to hoping that the oldest and smartest baseball journalist ever, Peter Gammons, recovers from his brain aneurysm.  On to the game.
I’m already getting sick of thinking of creative titles symbolizing the Cardinals losing streak, so hopefully tomorrow the streak will end.  I’m pissed off about so many things tonight, so I’ll start with what’s most fresh in my mind.

1.  Jim Edmonds - It seems like he sometimes has amnesia.  Let me explain - he knows that he has a lot of success going to the opposite field - and since pitchers like to work him outside, it seems like the logical place to hit the ball.  Tonight, he attempted to pull the ball every time, and every time he either grounded out to second base or first base.  He’s pulling off the ball, and his swing has been weakened as a result, producing those weak ground balls that my unborn son could field.

2.  This team - It seems like we are in the playoffs right now - pick whichever series you like: 2004 WS, 2005 LCS, any other series in the playoffs we looked flat in, etc.  It just looks like we have no desire to win at this stage of the season, and our offense and pitching are suffering as a result.

3.  Adam Wainwright - The guy in our bullpen that’s supposed to be by far the most reliable member can’t throw a strike tonight.  His location was terrible, and he provided the Indians with an insurance run that enabled Wickman to pitch to Pujols with the bases empty in the ninth, meaning he was not the tying run.

4.  Juan Encarnacion - In accordance with point #2 above, Juan’s defense tonight on one particular play was downright embarrasing.  Looking flat includes not hustling, and because Juan did not hustle after a base hit down the line, the Indians leadoff hitter was able to stretch a should be single into a hustle double relatively easily.  Turns out it had no impact on the game as a whole, but it’s the little things like that which can lose a ball game real quickly for a team.

I didn’t think Reyes looked too impressive tonight, but he got the job done, and his not too impressive was a helluva lot better than a few others’ best recently.   The Cardinals staff has turned into a bunch of nibblers regardless of the count, and it drives me crazy to watch them work deep into counts because of the nibble factor.  Reyes goes out there and does his best to challenge hitters each and every at bat, and for that I thank him, because tonight was a game I was actually excited to watch.  He gets my “pro” tonight, and Edmonds gets my “con”.  Happy birthday Jimmy.

Just when you thought that home would be sweet, it turned sour.

What do you do to right the ship when your whole team can’t put it together?  It’s a tough question to answer - I would imagine it’s much like an individual slump, and you gotta just keep doin what you’re doin.

Tonight was another launchfest at the expense of Jason Marquis.  On the plus side, he gave barely more than half the runs that he did in his last start.  On the minus side, that was still 7.  The offense isn’t cashing in on their opportunites, the pitching is shaky at best, and we’re playing the best teams in the league.  When it rains it pours.  On to the pro and con of the night:

Pro:   Scott Rolen - do you realize that this guy is hitting .350 this year?  This guy absolutely needs the comeback player of the year award.  3-4 again tonight with no signs of slowing down.  Have a season Scotty, have a season.
Con:  Josh Hancock - 3 walks in 1/3 of an inning.  I don’t feel the need to elaborate on this.

Our staff seems to be a bunch of nibblers, and frankly, it’s pissing me off.  The reason I loved Reyes performance the other night is because he challenged hitters, pitched aggressively, and won most battles as a result.  I sometimes wonder if Cardinal pitchers know that working ahead in the count is easier than working from behind.

Can we stop the streak at 7?  I sure as hell hope so.

So that was the final score of the series, but it was 33-11 after game 2.  I was going to write a long recap about the game this morning, but it looks like everything I wanted to say (and more) was covered by the Diaspora and VEB.

I couldn’t agree more with VEB about Pujols and I’ve been saying it all along as well - keep him out longer than he needs to be so we can be assured he’s 100% when he comes back.  If he reaggrivates this injury, I, along with the rest of Cardinal nation, am going to be uber pissed.

As for Reyes, yes, yes, yes.

Maybe we can actually win a game in Detroit eh?

You be the judge as to whether this is good news or not - I’m not so sure it is, but a guy can hope, can’t he?

I thought that after last night, the White Sox would score a maximum of 3 runs today.  Guess I was wrong.  They will score a maximum of 3 runs tomorrow - at least I hope, because scoring double digits on us 2 days in a row just isn’t cool, and a third would be downright ridiculous.
Pro - Bullpen - I’m sure they’re getting to be a tired bunch, but they pitched well tonight.  3.0 IP, 2 H, 0ER, 4 K.  I’ll take that every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Con - Take a guess - 13 runs in 5 innings, all of them earned.  I guess he did only walk 1 batter, so that’s a plus.  14 hits, 14 muthaf&%^in hits.  I didn’t even see the game tonight, so I can’t comprehend how this line is even possible.  Was he throwing lefthanded, or was he throwing a superball? Why must he be so Jekyll and Hyde all the time?  Just when we think he’s coming around, he goes bonkers, and just when we think he’s completely lost it, he throws a gem.  He’s turning in to Izzy 2, shaky at best.

Well, tomorrow is a new day again, and although we lost a game tonight, we still have a comfy 4 game lead above the sliding Reds.  Time to at least keep it reasonable tomorrow; if we gotta lose, how bout a 1 run or 2 run game?  Let’s see what our phenom can do for us on the hill, possibly keep em under 10 tomorrow.

I’m writing this recap in inning 6 of the Cardinal game tonight - I have a feeling we aren’t coming back to win.

Is it possible that Mulder is hurt?  Obviously that’s what Bernie thinks, and I don’t know whether to agree with him and cut Mulder some slack, or just bash him mercilessly.  I’ll choose the former, but not without some serious thought for the latter.

If Mulder can’t put it together, what do the Cardinals do in regards to a trade, acquisition, what have you?  Here’s what I think:  I think we need another starting pitcher, and I’ll tell you why.  I think we need another starting pitcher because we have shored up our offense with the arrival of Juan E’s bat.  Obviously he isn’t going to continue to hit at this .400 clip he’s been going on lately, but if he can remain around .280 the rest of the year (which he’s at now), I will be more than satisfied with our lineup.  Our bullpen is currently ok, so that leaves us with our starting pitching.

Could we live without another SP?  Well, possibly, but Mulder’s status pending, we could see a rotation of Carp, Marquis, Soup, and Reyes in the postseason.  Could we win with that rotation?  I really don’t think so, and I don’t want to see Reyes thrown into that situation so early in his career, because the memories of Rick Ankiel still weigh on my brain.  I don’t care how mature Reyes is; that’s a big situation that he hasn’t been put in before, and how many regular season big league starts has he pitched to begin with?  Forget playoffs, let’s get him comfortable in the regular season.  So, if Reyes is out, who does that leave?  Well, that’s where I feel that big name SP (if there’s one out there that’s affordable) comes in.  As for the pro and con, well, take a guess as to the latter.

Pro - Juan Encarnacion - for reasons stated above, Juan E has really provided a boost to this offense at a much needed time.  Again, if he ends the year at .280, I’ll be ecstatic, and you should be too.

Con - Mark Mulder - He can’t locate, his velocity is down, his confidence is shot.  That’s it, I think those points say it all about him right now.

By the way - I want Pujols to rest, and if I had my choice, I’d keep him out until the All Star break.  We need him MUCH more later in the season than we do now.  Rest, heal, come back 100% Albert.

0-2, two outs, runners on second and third, and Zach Duke, the pitcher, gets a pitch right down the pooper and does what he should with it, ripping it into right field for a single that drives home two.  This first sentence should probably give you some indication as to who the “con” is for the day, but wait, there’s more.  Duke got another fat pitch to hit in his next at bat, and almost made us pay with a double down the left field line.  Turns out, he only blooped a single in and got his 3rd RBI, but is Ponson so thick-headed that he can’t learn from his past mistakes (to the opposing pitcher noless)?  On to the pro and con of the game.

Pro - Hector Luna - how do we always seem to get so much production out of our utility guys?  Luna has played almost every position this year aside from  P, C, and CF I believe (don’t quote me).  He went 3-4 tonight with a double, and upped his average on the year to .314.  I realize that we lost tonight, but if these guys that don’t get to play every day keep stepping up as they are, I think we’ll have no problems competing for another division title.

Con - Sidney Ponson - the only thing Ponson could locate tonight was the dugout bench.  His pitches were going every direction, and I’ve already bitched about the Duke incidents, so we don’t need to relive that.  Is it possible that all of our starting pitchers aside from Carpenter are going through a dead arm stage of the season?  It seems a bit early for that, and Ponson had 15 days of rest when he was on the DL, so I just don’t know what’s going on with our staff.  In my humble opinion, I think we could use a couple quality starts in the next few games to get our starting staff some confidence, and our bullpen some rest.

So we lost one to the Pirates tonight, big deal.  TLR is all about winning series, and we have the opportunity to do that tomorrow with Mulder taking the hill against Santos in a matinee, 1135 CST start.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if the Cardinals can play .500 ball without Albert Pujols, we will win the division.  Right now, we’re right at .500, and look to be playing a little bit better in #5’s absence.  I was watching the postgame on FSN tonight, and it was said that Brad Thompson and Tyler Johnson both shot 150+ for 18 holes of golf.  Horrible.  Anyway, on to the pros and cons of this beautiful game tonight.

Pro:  Chris Carpenter - I almost gave this to Braden Looper just because he was locating well and got two straight outs, a rarity in both cases.  However, 13 Ks in 7 innings can’t go unrecognized, especially when only 3 hits and 3 walks were scattered in amongst those 13.  Carp was dominant tonight, and I’m glad I was able to watch the game.  He was hitting his spots with regularity (as you might imagine), and kept the hitters off balance with a combination of a fastball, cutter, and curveball.  Not to be forgotten, he also mashed an Oliver Perez delivery to center, almost burning the CF who was playing shallow.  I hope we can get this kind of performance, or something similar, every 5th day from here on out from Carp.  Obviously he can’t be perfect every night, but tonight, he was very close.

Con:  The Tablesetters.  Eckstein and Taguchi went a combined 0-7 tonight, and once again when Carp takes the hill, we don’t provide much run support for him.  Wonder why he’s only got 5 wins on the season?  Well, tonight, it was the top of the order that did the damage (or lack thereof).  In baseball, it all starts with the top, and if they can’t get on base, runs are most likely going to be at a premium.  Oliver Perez is lefthanded, been struggling mightily, and is known to be wild at times.  0-7 is just unacceptable in a situation like that, especially since Eck and Taguch are right handed hitters.

All in all, not much to complain about tonight, but after all the slugfests we’ve played in this weekend, the “we don’t know how to score runs without Albert” excuse really can’t be used anymore.  Let’s hope for another win tomorrow, with Ponson taking the hill against another southpaw, Zach Duke.