Catching Up with the St. Louis Cardinals As They Take on the Brewers

It's been a hectic last week for me, and I apologize for not being here. I haven't had a chance to listen to or watch a lot of the games.

I moved into my apartment in NYC, but I'm now going through orientation and all the paperwork that a large grad school/hospital entails. It's enough to keep me very busy.

I normally score the games as I listen or watch, or score them retroactively if I miss a game...not sure I'm going to get caught up, but we will see what happens.

OPSing the week away

I wanted to get caught up quickly on the last week or so of baseball. ESPN does some great splits, so here are the some Cardinals' OPSes over the last seven days (with 10-plus at-bats):

Albert Pujols: 1.757
Yadier Molina: 1.211
Skip Schumaker: .988
Felipe Lopez: .745
Cesar Izturis: .702
Troy Glaus: .675
Ryan Ludwick: .664
Rick Ankiel: .592

The Cards had a pretty solid week without extremely good performances from Ludwick, Glaus, or Ankiel.

Shortstop watch

A quick comparison of August stats for those getting playing time at shortstop:

Cesar Izturis: .391 OBP, .375 SLG, .746 OPS
Aaron Miles: .319 OBP, .348 SLG, .667 OPS
Felipe Lopez: .400 OBP, .449 SLG, .849 OPS

Fielding gives Izturis a slight edge at the position, and Lopez has a slight edge on Miles at second base (according to their zone ratings).

I will eat my words about the Lopez signing. He has been a good player since being here, and the help he has already provided has been worth his signing. It's nice to have a guy with speed and hustle!

Here come the Brewers

Now to the pitching matchups in the Brewers series (with stats for the last two starts):

Tuesday:

Ben Sheets (12.2 IP, 8 ER)
Todd Wellemeyer (12.2 IP, 2 ER)

Wednesday:

Manny Parra (10.2 IP, 6 ER)
Adam Wainwright (11 IP, 3 ER)

Most of these starts were against bottom-dwellers (Houston and San Diego for Sheets, Pittsburgh and Florida for Wellemeyer, Houston and Los Angeles for Parra, and Atlanta and Houston for Wainwright).

Of course, Los Angeles and Florida have shown some offensive fireworks, so those starts were legitimate. Still, it will be interesting to see what happens.

I think the Cards have a legitimate chance to take both games in the series to close the gap. This is their last chance to play the Brewers...after this, they will have to let the Cubs take care of business (gag).