Bleacher Report - Articles by Daniel Shoptaw

Putting the Padres Out to Pasture

Daniel Shoptaw — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 08:17:07 -0400

A real nice weekend in St. Louis, full of interesting twists and turns. For the most part, the Cardinals took care of business and were able to show that this is a very different team than what we saw earlier in the year. The team earlier in the year probably loses two out of three of these games instead of a Cardinal sweep. Let's break down the games.

Friday (9-2 win)
Hero: Adam Wainwright. Seven scoreless innings and a home run to boot? Look, if you want to win the game by yourself, just say so!
Goat: Jason Motte. Ruined the shutout and continued to cast questions upon the bullpen.
Notes: Colby Rasmus started hitting this weekend. Three for five in this game and, of course, more to come from him....Matt Holliday continues to pound the ball as a Cardinal. Maybe the NL is that much easier!

Saturday (7-4 win)
Hero: Yadier Molina. A lot of offensive possibilities in this game, but Yadi's pickoff—with the bases loaded!—may have kept the game in the win column.
Goat: Dennys Reyes. He did his best to turn this game into a very close one.
Notes: Holliday and Rasmus again, spraying the ball all over the yard... Joel Pineiro was a little shaky at the beginning, but was able to settle down and, with this offense, three runs isn't what it used to be.

Sunday (7-5 win)
Hero: Colby Rasmus. You do the walk-off thing, it's hard not to get the Hero tag.
Goat: Kyle Lohse. Five runs isn't what you want to see out of him. Just about the time you think he's getting back on that roll, he has another stinker of a game.
Notes: Much credit to Blake Hawksworth for keeping the team in the game and not letting things get away... Rarity: Albert Pujols came up with the bases loaded and didn't get the job done, grounding out on a hard-hit ball with two outs.

Couple yesterday's win with the rainout in Chicago and the Cubs beat up on the Pirates twice this weekend... and lost a half-game in the standings. That's got to be frustrating for the North Siders. Not that Cardinal fans are feeling too sympathetic toward the guys in blue!

Today's big news will come off the field, as it's the deadline for teams to sign their draft picks. The Cardinals are still talking to Shelby Miller, but all indications seem to be that they will come to an agreement sometime today, if they don't have the basic framework already established. We talked about it some on the Sunday edition of the UCB Radio Hour yesterday and the consensus seemed to be that Miller would sign. Both sides have a decided incentive to get the deal done.

I'm sure that'll be a talking point on tonight's broadcast, because the Cardinals don't get started until late as they begin a West Coast road trip. It's a pretty big one, at least the first part of it. Even though the Dodgers have been struggling of late, they still lead the NL West by five games, and have a 3.5 game edge on the Cardinals in the overall standings for the best record as well. Going out to their park will help get a real good sense of how this team is coming together.

Chris Carpenter takes the mound to kick off this potential October preview. If he can keep Manny Ramirez in the park, he's had pretty good numbers against the Dodger hitters in his career. He shut down LA when they were in Busch at the end of July, allowing one run in seven innings. Carp's been a little shakier on the road (2.69 ERA to 1.74 at home) but still definitely nothing to be concerned about.

The Dodgers roll out Charlie Haegar, a knuckleballer that only Julio Lugo has seen before. That's not necessarily a combination that would normally scream "run explosion" for this team. It may be a good thing that Carpenter is going, because it could be a quiet night for the bats, especially when you factor in the trip across country.

The Cubs go with us out west as they visit San Diego. Cards game is on ESPN tonight as well as FSMW, if you want to stay up late and see how it turns out. Since my evening is booked until around 9:45 or so, it'll be nice to see some of the game instead of getting home after it's completed. Hopefully we'll have another Cardinal win to talk about tomorrow!

Missed Opportunities

Daniel Shoptaw — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 08:12:03 -0400

Too bad Mitchell Boggs didn't show up for the first inning. Too bad Jose Oquendo doesn't realize that Yadier Molina isn't exactly Mr. Swift. Too bad the big bats couldn't come through in the ninth. There were plenty of opportunities for the Cardinals to extend their lead in the Central, but none of them came to pass.

There were a lot of flawed heroes in this game. Albert Pujols hit #37, but couldn't get a hit in the ninth to extend the scoring threat. Matt Holliday had three hits, but struck out with a runner on and two outs in the ninth. Molina had three hits, but was thrown out twice on the base paths. Boggs only gave up one run in five innings, but that was after three in the first.

We'll slap the Goat tag on Jason Motte, since the run he gave up decided the game. Motte is working on some things, but it's possible that he should get some time in Memphis to figure them out. While the Cardinals do have a cushion right now, those memories of 2006 and how quickly cushions can deflate are still strong. I'd rather him spend some time in Memphis and get on track so as to be ready to pitch in October than miss out because he was experimenting in St. Louis.

Pip had some great postgame notes at Fungoes. Head over there to catch up.

Still, most of the Central, including the Cubs, lost last night, so the Cardinals continue to have their three game lead as one more game was marked off the schedule. While it's way too early to really keep track of it, the magic number is 47. Every day is another chance to chip away at that.

Shaq was in the house last night, throwing out the first pitch (and doing a tolerable job of it as well, even if AP was on the plate instead of behind it) and working up interest in his reality show. It should be an interesting event on Thursday when the two of them go head to head in a hitting contest. Can't wait to see the episode!

The Cards wrap up the series, which is the last one against Cincinnati in Busch, by sending Chris Carpenter to the mound against Homer Bailey. Carp was human last time out, giving up four runs against the Pirates, but you have to figure he'll be wanting to redeem himself from that outing. Nobody currently on the Reds has had much success against him in the past, something that may continue this evening.

St. Louis has had a bit more success against Bailey, with a few long balls sprinkled in there. Nobody has faced him a lot, though his lack of success around the league this year doesn't bode well for the Redlegs.

Cubs take on the Phillies again tonight, so maybe the Cards can push that lead out a little farther.

Cardinals Keep Pushing

Daniel Shoptaw — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 08:15:30 -0400

Another day, another win and another Cubs loss. I'm pretty sure Cardinal fans could get used to this. It's nice to have that three-game cushion at the top of the standings.

It's been a while since the Cards put four wins together. You have to go back to May 19-23, when they swept the Cubs and won the first two against the Royals, to find a streak that long. As constructed, though, this team could continue to do this for most of the month.

Ironically, the last of those wins in that May streak was the last time Kyle Lohse won a game, until last night. I think you have to temper the "he's back!" talk because it was the Reds, who aren't exactly an offensive juggernaut right at the moment, but it definitely was a step in the right direction. Adding him to the already potent rotation could have the Cardinals on a final kick that would rival some of those second-half surges of the early part of the decade, plus give them even more options in October.

Have to give Rick Ankiel the Goat tag last night. He had good numbers coming in against Johnny Cueto, but with Cueto leaving early he only got one AB against him. No hits, four at-bats, two left on.

Quite a bit of off the field news from yesterday. The biggest was the return of Scott Rolen to St. Louis. I've always felt like Rolen was a class act and that, as much as I like Tony LaRussa, it might have been best to keep Rolen instead. Part of that was reinforced with the story yesterday that Rolen made the effort to find LaRussa to talk. It sounds like Rolen really thinks fondly of his time in St. Louis. It'll be interesting to see if he is involved with the Cardinal organization after he retires.

After all the workup and hoopla, it turns out Todd Wellemeyer won't be pitching tonight after all. Instead, he'll be placed on the disabled list with his elbow problem, clearing the way for Mitchell Boggs to be recalled and start. Some people think this is just a convienent way for Wellemeyer not to pitch and LaRussa to save face. Given the fact that he apparently had a great bullpen and then the elbow flared up, it may be that the mechanics he needs he hasn't had, which caused the problem when he found them.

Whatever the reasoning, most Cardinal fans are pretty happy to see Boggs take the mound instead of Wellemeyer. Hopefully it can't be any worse!

Shaquille O'Neal will be throwing out the first pitch tonight, as part of the activities surrounding his new reality show (Depending on your political persuasion and point of view, it could be argued that Albert Pujols is making a step up in his batterymates). Shaq will take on Pujols Thursday on the Cardinals' day off. I'm interested to see at least this episode of the show when it airs later in the year.

Both pitchers tonight are pretty much unknown to the opposition. The Reds are throwing Justin Lehr, a guy that my father-in-law, a pretty avid Reds fan, knew nothing about until a couple of weeks ago. Lehr's definitely had a good couple of games, but his career ERA approaches five. Boggs has an ERA around three and a quarter right now, though his WHIP is on the high side. Still, with the offensively challenged Reds in town, he may be OK.

Might be a low scoring game tonight, might be a high scoring one. Just never know when you have these kind of pitchers going. We'll just have to watch and find out!

St. Louis Cardinals Enjoy Their Homecoming

Daniel Shoptaw — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:23:52 -0400

No matter the long term ramifications of John Mozeliak's machinations, one thing seems to be clear.

These guys can hit.

The Cardinals got serious for the third time in four games, reminding people of the heady days of April when the offense could actually put up runs with regularity. Look at this breakdown of when the Cardinals have scored six or more runs:

April: 10 times in 23 games
May: 5 times in 27 games
June: 6 times in 29 games
July: 7 times in 23 games

While the new guys got a lot of the noise and accolades, the Hero tag should go to Brendan Ryan, for some smooth defense as well as a nice 4-4 night. Ryan's got to step up his game with Julio Lugo in town now, so seeing that was a good thing. Of course, let's not get carried away. I don't think anyone is going to be confusing him with Ozzie Smith. Oh, wait...

Of course, it's not like you need a whole lot of offense with Chris Carpenter on the mound. I'm pretty sure few Cardinal fans dared hope that this Chris Carpenter would be the one that returned to the team this year, but he's been everything you could hope for. If this offense is able to carry the team into October, there's a good chance the pitching will help keep them there.

Rick Ankiel continues to pound the ball while Colby Rasmus sits with his heel injury. Since the All-Star Game, Ankiel is hitting .419 with a slugging percentage of .742. There are going to be some interesting decisions to make once Rasmus is healthy enough to get out on the field, which sounds like it should be today or tomorrow.

Ryan Ludwick would have to get the Goat label after an 0-4, 2 strikeout, 4 LOB night. Some nights, it's just not your night and there's not much you can do about it. Ludwick's bat has been on fire of late, though, so a bad night is not the worrisome thing it was earlier in the season.

It was a welcome thing when I read this morning that apparently Todd Wellemeyer is heading to the bullpen. Granted, I'm not sure where you'll use him out there. Will he be the mop up long man? You won't bring him in to a game that is on the line, I don't think. So we may not see a lot more of him, unless Mitchell Boggs, who is in line to take over the role, bombs a couple of times.

It was also interesting to see Mozeliak indicate we won't see any more of Troy Glaus. Not that it is surprising, since we know there's no place he could play. Even if he was able to play third right now, would you move Mark DeRosa off of that? Where would you move him? Granted, if Glaus was reasonably thought to be able to play third right now, the Holliday deal maybe doesn't get made, but as it stands there is no place for him save off the bench.

Glaus's rehab stint is up in the next few days. Now, they can just not activate him, leaving him to sit around, or they can "find" another injury and disable him. Hopefully, though, they can find someone that'd give up a mid-range prospect for him. It was great having him on the team last year, but I'm still not completely sure that was a winning trade for Mozeliak. Probably did get the win on it, but it may depend on how Scott Rolen finishes up the year.

Another great pitching matchup tonight, as Adam Wainwright takes on Chad Billingsley. Wainwright has tolerable career numbers against the Dodgers, though he's not fooled Rafael Furcal and Russell Martin very much. Billingsley is a welcome sight for new Cardinal Matt Holliday, who has three home runs off of him. Otherwise, Billingsley has done OK against Redbird hitters, at least the ones that have faced him.

If you've got the time, the "Victoria Times" blog has been doing a "Position in the Spotlight" series and, for St. Louis, has focused on No. 3 hitters in Cardinal history. Check it out.

Cardinals Get Holliday

Daniel Shoptaw — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:10:42 -0400

Well, Albert Pujols may read this blog, but obviously the front office doesn't.

If you haven't heard by now, you are probably living in a vacuum or really have a strange idea about where to turn to for your news, but Matt Holliday is a Cardinal and Brett Wallace, Clayton Mortensen and Shane Petersen are A's.

It's enough to make you run through the five stages of grief. I was sure it wasn't going to happen, then very angry that it was actually going to happen, skipped over the bargaining and went straight to depressed that it had happened, and now am moving to the acceptance that it has happened and there's nothing we can do about it. So I'm going to move on.

The price of Wallace was bad enough, but the other two as well, including probably one of our top pitching prospects? For that, I was expecting that Oakland was paying the rest of Holliday's salary or at least had allowed for a window of negotiation where the Cards would work on locking down an extension. Instead, the Cards just get back $1.5 million of the $6 million Holliday is earning the rest of the way. Really?

According to Derrick Goold on Twitter, the organization is hoping to get him in and do the sell job that way, like they did with Mark McGwire, Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen. There are three problems with that.

One, it's a different game now. I think it's harder to use that hometown discount/sea of red motivation than it was a few years back.

Two, Matt Holliday is a Scott Boras client, a client that Boras has indicated will see free agency. None of the other guys were Boras players.

Three, the Cardinals gave up more in this trade than any of the other trades. They are risking a lot on the fan base, a fan base that Tony LaRussa was at odds with just earlier this week.

It just reminds me of Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars: "I'm taking an awful risk, Vader. This had better work."

So the Cardinals have again dealt with Oakland, after the majestic Mark Mulder trade that most Cardinals' fans have yet to forget or forgive, even five years later. (That happens when one of the guys you give away turns into a top 5 pitcher while the guy you get breaks down almost immediately.)

Perhaps, if this trade is going to be completely analogous to the earlier one, we should care more about losing Mortensen instead of Wallace. The big prospect we gave up in the Mulder trade, Daric Barton, created much angst, but hasn't exactly set the world on fire. If Haren hadn't blossomed, that'd have been a no-win deal.

What's done is done, though, so Cardinal fans have to pick themselves up and welcome Holliday into the fold. For what it's worth, national writers think the Cards did OK for themselves and may have set themselves ahead for an October date. Keith Law does make the point that he leaves the tougher AL and that should help some, though the idea that power fastballs "knock the bat out of his hand" doesn't make me feel great for postseason.

Tony LaRussa finally got his man. We'll find out if it was worth the cost.

It's likely that Holliday will be in the lineup tonight, making me quite aggravated that events are going to conspire to keep me away from the TV tonight. Looking forward to seeing him in Cardinal red this weekend and hopefully giving this offense the boost he was acquired for.

Cardinals-Astros: Mistake Dooms St. Louis in Houston

Daniel Shoptaw — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:12:02 -0400

It's like I never left.

Even as out of the loop as I've been, last night's Cardinals vs. Astros game was a pretty familiar tune. Good pitching, not enough offense, and a tough Cardinal loss.

Of course, if the Cards had been playing in a real ballpark, it might have been a rout. Albert Pujols hit a couple of balls that might have been homers in some yards, and Ryan Ludwick hit one that would have cleared all fences, save Minute Maid's center.

The hero of the night award goes to Yadier Molina for driving in both runs for the Redbirds.

While we are talking positives, Kyle Lohse had a good game (save the walk to Lance Berkman, and the homer to Carlos Lee), and it was great to see Rick Ankiel get two hits. We'll have to wait and see if it was a temporary blip or the start of a resurgence, but it was good no matter which way it turns out.

I'm going to give the goat award to Nick Stavinoha, mainly for not getting on base in front of Pujols. I don't know that it would have made any difference, but having runners on with AP up definitely doesn't hurt the offense any.

According to MLBTradeRumors.com, the four teams "kicking the tires" on Roy Halladay are the Phillies, the Brewers, the Dodgers, and the Giants. I don't see the Dodgers or Giants going all-out to get Halladay, since their pitching isn't at all an issue. The Phillies are probably pretty serious, though apparently they also have their eye on Cliff Lee.

While there is no guarantee that Toronto would move Halladay, do we really want a repeat of last year, and have the Brewers land him? Not only that, but to also have him for all of 2010 as well? I don't know how serious their pursuit of him would be, but it has to be something that John Mozeliak thinks about.

The opportunity to have three dominant starters on a staff, coupled with a resurgent Joel Pineiro and a solid Kyle Lohse, is one of those very rare opportunities to turn your team into a top team for not just a couple of months, but for another year as well. These kind of opportunities don't come along every day.

Troy Glaus got some outfield time last night. Apparently the throwing motion from the outfield is more conducive to what his arm can handle right now. Reading through the story makes me wonder if it is going to be worth it.

Glaus seems to be confident enough in his offense, which would be good, but how many guys are going to score from second or take extra bases on him? Still, if nothing else, he won't have to do much to improve the offense of the team.

Apparently Joe Strauss indicated on the radio that the Cardinals are interested in Adam Dunn. Dunn would be under contract for next year as well and, while the strikeouts might get a little frustrating, a .265 hitter with 24 home runs would look very nice behind Pujols.

I don't know what it'd take to get him, and I'd still rather have Halladay, but I believe Dunn would definitely fit in the Cardinal plan.

Todd Wellemeyer goes to the mound tonight, in what may be a job-saving outing. When the most ringing endorsement is that you are the best option right now, that doesn't necessarily bode well for you.

Wellemeyer has had some success against Houston in the past,though Berkman and Lee have had their way with him. There's a good chance there are going to be more than three runs allowed tonight.

Wandy Rodriguez goes for the 'Stros. Rodriguez has been tough on the Cardinals in the past, and has really come into his own this year. The Cardinals did beat him in his only outing against St. Louis this year, as he allowed three runs in six innings, but that was back in April, when the Cards were beating everyone, and scoring at a much higher rate.

Pujols has struggled against him, but Mark DeRosa's done OK, and Chris Duncan is hitting .333 against Rodriguez...so you'll probably see an outfield of Duncan, Colby Rasmus, and Ryan Ludwick tonight.

We Are All Witnesses

Daniel Shoptaw — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:19:27 -0400

I don't think of Albert Pujols as a home run hitter. I mean, obviously he can hit home runs, that's never been in doubt. However, in my mind he's a 35-40 home run guy, which is very good power, don't get me wrong, but being that he is such an all around hitter with average, RBI, etc., the home runs don't stand out the way they do on, say, Ryan Howard. I mean, Ted Williams had 521 homers, but power isn't the first thing that comes to mind with him.

Albert may be changing that perception somewhat this year, and not by losing anything, but by hitting so many home runs that you have to sit up and take notice. Two more last night, off of a Hall of Famer-to-be, even, pushed him to 30 before the calendar changed to July. Thirty by the end of June! We've already gotten to one-third of the marks Cardinal fans watch on him.

Everyone knows by now that he's the only one to start a season with so many consecutive years of .300, 30 HR and 100 RBI. Some years, he's needed a little kick to get there (as in 2007, when he finished with "just" 103 RBI), but he's always gotten there. Now, he might get there by the All-Star Break.

That's assuming, of course, that anyone else could get on for him to drive in. After his three-RBI night, he stands at 77. Again, though, the Cardinals only scored when Albert was in the middle of it. There were signs of hope, though, as the Cardinals almost looked like they were going to rally from a five-run deficit for the first time this year. The double play by Tyler Greene in the sixth really broke the back of the rally, though.

Even a sac fly in that situation would have been nice, and it would have put the team one step closer to rolling over the lineup again to have Pujols up in the ninth.

Greene's double play gets Chris Carpenter off the hook for the Goat tag, but you know things are going wrong when Carp gives up six runs. As the Post-Dispatch story said, it's not like he was necessarily hit around the yard, but the flares weren't spread out enough and it led to runs. You'd like to think it was just an off-night; we'll see what happens when Carpenter takes the mound again against the Reds this weekend.

In what was hopefully a positive development, it was good to see Ryan Ludwick hitting the ball well. Two extra-base hits, including a triple that was just a foot away from leaving the ballpark. If he can start getting rolling, maybe that'll help the offense put together some sustained rallies.

Hopefully Ludwick won't be forced to step up to replace Mark DeRosa, but apparently that's a possibility, as DeRosa is feeling pain in his wrist. DeRosa, who has run his hitless streak with the Cardinals to nine at-bats, tweaked it on a swing and will have it examined today. You have to hope that it's nothing serious, but wrist injuries are a difficult thing.

If he goes down for any length of time, you know John Mozeliak's going to be feeling snake bit. Not pressure, because it's one of those things, but his last two trades are DeRosa and Khalil Greene, and we know how Greene has turned out so far this year.

Rick Ankiel had himself a rough night, didn't he? He seemed to misplay a drive over his head that allowed a run to score, then threw to an uncovered base, allowing another run in. Add to that an 0-2 and, well, not one you want to put in the scrapbook.

It doesn't get much easier for the Cardinals tonight. Matt Cain goes for the Giants against Adam Wainwright in a game that can be seen on ESPN. While Cain's numbers against the Cardinals aren't that impressive, a lot of that comes from the beating St. Louis put on him last year. Cain faced the Cardinals earlier this year and allowed two runs (one earned) in six and a third. On the plus side, DeRosa doesn't hit him so it's a good night for him to be sitting.

Wainwright, who hit his first major league home run in San Francisco, didn't have as much success in his first outing against the Giants this year. He allowed four runs in seven innings as the Cards took the loss. Historically, the Giants have been tough on him as well, but no home runs allowed at least.

So it should be a good game. If nothing else, you have to tune in to see just what Albert is going to do tonight.

Mets-Cardinals: Birds Struggle in Big Apple

Daniel Shoptaw — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:03:36 -0400

Well, the offense seemed to make it to New York, at least in some fashion. On a good night, especially against a banged-up Mets team, four runs would have been enough. However, more and more frequently, that's not enough with Todd Wellemeyer on the hill.

While the Post-Dispatch story indicates that Wellemeyer may not be in the rotation for long, Matthew Leach twitters that Dave Duncan says no changes are imminent, mainly because they don't feel like there are a whole lot of other options. Wellemeyer's numbers are really getting ugly to look at, as his good starts have been much more rare this season and overwhelmed by his mediocre-to-bad ones.

He's been bad at home, bad away, bad in the day, bad at night. And for all the talk that he was having trouble in the early going, overthrowing his fastball, right now his BAA for his first 15 pitches is now the lowest BAA against him at .278. Every other breakdown, people are hitting .300 or more off of him.

He can occasionally tantalize (two runs in 5.1 against Detroit, six shutout innings against Kansas City) but it's just becoming too rare to count on. With an offense that appears to be coming out of the doldrums, he may get some more wins, but the odds of him regaining the confidence of Cardinal Nation is pretty slim.

While Wellemeyer has to bear the brunt of the blame for last night's loss, the offense isn't completely without fault. Four runs is much better than Cardinal fans were used to earlier in the month, of course, and they seemed poised to get back into it after Ryan Ludwick's home run cut the lead to one.

However, again a pitcher with terrible numbers, a pitcher the Cardinals on paper should have dominated, held the offense basically in check. It would be an interesting project to see what St. Louis has done against pitchers that had an ERA over five when they faced the Redbirds. I would suspect it wouldn't be all that great.

In other news, Khalil Greene has expressed his appreciation to his teammates for their support during his mental crisis. Greene, who got another hit last night and is hitting .500 since he returned, credits the organization for trust and positive reinforcement, something that he doesn't feel like he got in San Diego. This will hopefully result in a strong second half for Greene.

Joel Pineiro goes for the Cardinals tonight vs. Livan Hernandez. Pineiro is probably glad that Carlos Beltran is on the disabled list, but still will have to deal with David Wright. Hernandez has done fairly well against St. Louis, though Albert Pujols does have three home runs off of him. (By the way, you know how old Hernandez is? He's 206.)

The Cardinals beat up on Hernandez to the tune of seven earned in 4.1 back in April, so they'll be looking for a repeat performance tonight.

Remember that at 10:30 central time, Mike from Stan Musial's Stance will be interviewing 1982 World Series closer Bruce Sutter. If you can't listen live, you'll be able to listen at Blog Talk Radio, any UCB member site that has a player (such as this one), or download it off iTunes.

Many of you know that this blog gets syndicated in numerous places around the internet. I wanted to point out that now Seamheads has picked up this blog to supplement their content. I would think it's possible that there will be an occasional original article from me over there, though nothing is in the works. Also, the blog roll has been updated with some new sites, so be sure to check that out as well!

Where Have These Bats Been?

Daniel Shoptaw — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:47:05 -0400

The On The Run people were probably pretty busy this weekend as the Cards really got serious in Kansas City.

When the Cards wind up scoring 29 runs in a three game set, there are a lot of offensive heroes. Let's break down the series game by game.

Friday, while you have to love what Khalil Greene did in his first game back, smacking two extra-base hits, I think I want to give the Hero tag to Ryan Ludwick for making Kansas City pay for walking Albert Pujols. Ludwick's grand slam may have helped lead to Pujols's big weekend, as it made KC gun-shy about walking him.

Add on to the fact that Pujols drove in two runs anyway early in the game, Skip Schumaker went three for four, Colby Rasmus four for five and Rick Ankiel even went yard and suffice it to say it was a great Friday night in Kansas City.

Finding a downside is pretty tough, but Chris Duncan did go 0-4 with two strikeouts and three left on base. That and Tyler Greene's hitless night could be overlooked though, when you have everyone else clicking.

Saturday wasn't quite as explosive, but still was more offense than we have been used to seeing out of the Cardinals. With Chris Carpenter on the mound, it's not like they needed a ton of it, anyway. Carpenter was, well, Carpenter, and he pretty much had to be until the Cards put up a couple in the sixth then tagged Royals relief pitching in the ninth.

Pujols went yard again. He's been on such a tear since I hinted he was slumping (you're welcome). Khalil Greene went yard for the second straight day, helping provide a lot of that ninth-inning insurance. Yadier Molina and Ludwick had two hits each and Ryan Franklin continued his All-Star year (he has to go, right? 17 saves and an ERA of 1.00?) with another save of longer than one inning.

I love this quote from Royals pitcher Brian Bannister:

"And when he gets in the batter's box, if you pray, then you start praying. And if you don't pray, you think about starting."

About the only downside to that game, besides the inexplicable decision by Fox not to return to it after the rain delayed the start, instead leaving us in this area with Detroit and Milwaukee (which was nice, being that the Brewers lost and the Cards moved into first), was the fact that Rasmus went 0-4.

Then we get to Sunday's game. Pujols. Need we say more?

Actually, apparently we do, since now we know that Pujols called his shot on Sunday, a story that is making the rounds. Not that he would hit a home run next time up. Not that he'd hit it to center field, but that he'd hit the Royals HOF, which he did. In case you ever wondered just how special that guy is..... Perhaps Bernie Mikalsz is right, Pujols needs to be walked all the time. Just hope people don't actually start doing that.

So, besides hitting a called-shot grand slam, he follows up with another solo shot after driving in two runs in the first inning. Not hard to find a hero in that one, though you have to also like Khalil going deep yet again and Duncan and Ankiel each getting two hits.

The downside was Adam Wainwright. I know he got the win. I know he got 8 strikeouts and didn't walk a batter. But eight hits and two homers? Five runs? Not exactly what we need to see out of the "co-ace."

You have to think Pujols was also very happy to help Tony LaRussa win his 2500th game. Can you imagine that we'll ever see this again? TLR started managing so young and has never taken a full year off. The one year he was fired, he had another job within weeks. He left Oakland in an offseason and was in St. Louis by the next opening day. 30 straight years, basically, and having very good ball clubs in that span as well.

He's 263 wins from second place. Figure that he gets another 43 wins (just a guess--I could easily see them winning more) by the end of this year, he sits 220 behind John McGraw. That's just three more solid years. Would he stick around that long, especially since he'd have the best player in baseball on his team? You'd like to think so.

The key now is to see if this offensive renassiance can be carried into the new Citi Field. Todd Wellemeyer goes tonight, which is always a gamble. His numbers against the Mets don't inspire a lot of confidence either, as David Wright (.700) is probably looking forward to getting jump-started.

The Mets counter with Tim Redding, who hasn't exactly been a Cardinal killer in his career either. Albert has hit a home run off of him before, and the way he's swinging the bat now, Redding might want to be very concerned.

Most of you know that last week, I had the chance to interview Ozzie Smith. In the same contact, the opportunity to interview Bruce Sutter was extended. Being that Sutter was gone from St. Louis before I really got started following the Cards (and wanting to spread the wealth, as it were), I put this out to the other UCB members. Mike at Stan Musial's Stance jumped at the chance, so you will be able to hear him talk to Sutter tomorrow morning on Blog Talk Radio at 10:30 Central. It should be a great listen!

Also, a note of remembrance that today is the 7th anniversary of Darryl Kile's tragic passing. The anniversary of Jack Buck's passing last week slipped past me and, honestly, Kile's might have as well without a Facebook status reminder. So hard to believe that much time has passed.

Rock Bottom for the Cardinals

Daniel Shoptaw — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:53:09 -0400

So possibly the worst four game series in the history of the Cardinals came to a close yesterday not with a bang, because that seems impossible for the team right now, but with the expected whimper.

Without Brendan Ryan, it likely would have been another shutout against a team that, even on a five game-winning streak, still sits last in the NL West.

The listlessness of the gameactually makes it hard to find a Goat. Brad Thompson was serviceable as the starter, even if Tony La Russa didn't let him linger around long.

Chris Perez allowed a run in his inning after the Cards had cut the lead to two, but it really was just window dressing. As I've often pointed out, the Cards have rallied from three or more runs down only twice this year, so once it got to 4-1, you had to feel like it was about over, even with the extra run scored by the Birds.

Maybe that's why we should go with Jason Motte, who gave the Rockies their three-run bulge.

Being a day game, I was actually able to follow the game on Fox Sports Midwest's live blog, via Twitter discussions, and on the CardsClubhousegame thread, as well as listening to John Rooney and Mike Shannon on XM Radio.

Reading the comments and discussions, you can tell that Cardinal Nation is very frustrated. The expectations for Chris Duncan and Rick Ankiel are about as low as possible. People are worried about the pitching staff. All in all, the natives are restless.

It may be one of the reasons that Bill DeWitt came out and said, yes, we can take on payroll if the situation is right. While the cynics in Cardinal Nation will say something along the lines of, "Talk is cheap," I think it's an encouraging thing.

Usually the talk is about containing payroll, being able to stretch just a bit. I think that with attendance being above what they had projected, there's a good chance a significant amount could be added.

Whether it will or not is a totally different topic. But I think that if a trade isn't made, it's because the two teams couldn't match up, not because the Cards wouldn't take on the contract.

I do hope that John Mozeliak is working the phones pretty hard, though.

The only reason the Cards are still in contention is the fact that the pitching staff had that amazing run in the latter part of May. Lose a couple of those games, which could have easily happened given the lack of offense, and the Cards are closer to five games out now. Resting on the "we're 2.5 games out" laurel isn't going to hack it much longer, because it doesn't take long for 2.5 to get to 6 to get to 10.

I think, more than anything, the team needs a mental boost, the knowledge that the club is working for them as well as them working for the club.

I know that a lot of teams are still counting themselves in contention and therefore aren't necessarily willing to part with much. But even a small deal now that leaves you bullets for one closer to the end of July might work from the reinforcement end of things.

Speaking of reinforcement, Khalil Greene is on his way to Memphis to start his rehab assignment.

I honestly didn't expect to see him back in the news so early and wonder if he's really ready for this. He's saying the right things, the club's saying the right things, and maybe a few days away from the game, with counseling and potentially medication, really did get him on the road to recovery. You have to hope so, if only for his sake.

Plus, if he can get back to an average season for him, that'll help the offense right there.

Tonight, the big club takes the field in Florida while the front office looks to the future. Chris Carpenter takes to the mound hoping to stop the losing that has gone on since his last outing.

The Marlins basically haven't seen Carpenter before, so they could be in for a long night. (If, for some reason, Carpenter gets touched up, the wailing and gnashing of teeth in Cardinal Nation goes up 50% tonight.)

Josh Johnson has a touch more experience with the Cards, who have hit him in the limited exposure. Albert Pujols even has a home run off of him, something that'd be great to see tonight as well.

My guess for the lineup tonight:

Schumaker (4)
Ankiel (9)
Pujols (3)
Rasmus (8)
Ludwick (7)
Molina (2)
Greene (5)
Carpenter (1)
Ryan (6)

I was suggesting Colby Rasmus in that cleanup slot yesterday, and TLR has indicated that, while initially opposed to it, he's coming around to thinking it couldn't be any worse. Expect to see Colby in that slot tonight.

The front office will be drafting tonight, with no real indications on who they will take. I know little about the draft, though I hear that Strasburg kid is pretty good. Wonder where he'll go...

So check out Derrick Goold's wrapup on some possible picks, and, of course, keep it tuned to Future Redbirds as they follow and discuss this evening.

I understand you can follow it on Twitter as well, which is pretty neat. I'd check out some of the MLB Network coverage if I had the station, but you've heard that rant before.

You'd like to think that, if the Cards could bust out in a game, maybe they'd get something going. It'd just be nice to see some crooked numbers for once, though.

Do We Have To Talk About It?

Daniel Shoptaw — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 08:17:12 -0400

Putrid. Pathetic. Despair-causing. Ugly. Pick your negative adjective and you could apply it to the three games this weekend against the Rockies. When your opponent scores more in one inning (nine) than you do in three games (seven), you could be in a slump. When your opponent scores more in its lowest scoring game than you have in a week and a half, you are in a slump.

At least Friday was a decent game that the final score disguised as a blowout.

Adam Wainwright, while not as dominant as he's been at times this year, did well enough to keep the Cards in the game. Take that back, he did well enough to keep a normal offense in the game. When he left with the score 3-1, there was a strong chance the game was over anyway. That didn't give Dennys Reyes and Jason Motte and Jess Todd the right to go blow things out of proportion, however.

Sure, the Cards scored a few runs late with homers by Yadier Molina and Ryan Ludwick, but you have to figure by that time, with that lead, Rockie pitchers are just putting it in there, letting people hit it to get out of the innings.

Speaking of Jess Todd, I've not had this explained to my satisfaction yet. The Cardinals designate Blaine Boyer so they could bring up Todd. They add Todd to the 40-man roster and start his arbitration clock. They go through all of that, then send him back down the next day for Blake Hawksworth?

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to see Hawksworth get a call up as well, but it seems ridiculous to go through all of that with Todd for a couple of innings. Unless there's some sort of trade showcasing going on (and neither of them really passed that test, did they?) it doesn't make sense.

Saturday was another listless, unexciting game as the Cardinals continued to hit Aaron Cook's pitches into the ground and Ian Stewart kept hitting pitches out of the park.

Four hits won't win many games, though at least one of them was a Rick Ankiel home run. Still, with the way this team is performing, when an opponent reaches a lead of three or more, it's basically over. Which makes it depressing when that happens in the fourth. You could probably pick numerous goats, but Todd Wellemeyer giving up six runs, including two homers to Stewart, will do the trick.

At least on Sunday the Cardinals had a lead for a while before the bullpen, again, was less fireproof than fire starter. Sunday also had the novelty of Albert Pujols driving in two runners on a sacrifice fly. (Just when you think you've seen it all out of the guy.....) But the game again boiled down to not enough offense (only Colby Rasmus and Pujols, and AP didn't do anything after that rare sac fly) and an explosion in the pitching staff, this time by Kyle McClellan.

It's getting to the point where, as a fan, you throw up your hands and wonder what is going to go wrong now. At least earlier in the season, there was great pitching giving the Cardinals a chance to win and distracting from the offensive woes. I don't mind 3-2 games or 2-0 games if the Cardinals are winning them. It's just tough to stomach two runs or less on a regular basis when the pitching staff is giving up four or five.

If Bernie Mikalsz is to be believed (and there's not really any reason he shouldn't be, save the fact he likes to stir things up occasionally), the clubhouse is starting to have the same doubts and frustrations. I'm not to the level of suggesting John Mozeliak package the farm for anybody, but I do hope he's being creative.

Someone suggested Ryan Zimmerman, though the odds of the Nats moving him are almost zero. Still, things like that, thoughts not necessarily being hashed and rehashed in the marketplace of ideas, are more likely to improve this team than the ones being batted about.

If getting smacked around by a last place team wasn't enough, today we get Brad Thompson back on the mound against an old acquaintance. I wouldn't say friend, because Jason Marquis frustrated a lot of people when he was in St. Louis. I was one of his early defenders, saying he hadn't been as bad as his detractors claimed. By the end of his tenure, though, there wasn't much left to defend.

Still, because he's a former Cardinal, you know he's going to wind up handcuffing this already anemic offensive production. He has a pretty decent history against most of these Redbirds, though the maligned outfield has done damage against him, which hopefully won't tempt Tony La Russa to sit Rasmus tonight, even though Chris Duncan is .300 with a HR, Ankiel is .400 (in five at bats) and Ludwick is .333 (in six at-bats). St. Louis was able to get to him last time they faced him, so maybe Marquis won't be able to get revenge this afternoon.

Thompson, on the other hand, doesn't have good numbers against the Rockies. Nobody's taken him deep, but they put the runners on. He actually has a career ERA of 1.50 against Colorado, but there's no way to tell how many inherited runners might have scored in those games (at least, not where I'm looking).

It's an afternoon tilt, so maybe the bats will warm up. Otherwise, it's going to be a frustrating Monday and a long flight to Florida.

A friend of mine works for the Cardinals and suggested I pass along this deal if anyone is interested. You can see the Cards take on the Giants from the Legends Club for $70, which is apparently 30% off the regular price. If interested, click here and check it out. The coupon code is INSIDER.

All You Need Is Carp (And Albert)

Daniel Shoptaw — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:59:51 -0400

Get an MVP and a Cy Young together and what do you get? A victory—at least these days for the Cardinals.

Last night's game was a wonder to behold, but it usually is when Chris Carpenter is on the mound. It's amazing that all the expectations and all the hype we've had about Carpenter the last few years, while he's been hurt and unable to pitch, were actually understatements. He's been as dominant as any pitcher I've seen and he does it without (usually) a high number of strikeouts. He just knows how to pitch and it's special every time he takes the mound.

(Speaking of special, two complete games last night between him and Aaron Harang? How often does THAT happen these days? Very cool.)

If he keeps up this run, how much will the month off for the oblique injury hurt him in his chances for another Cy Young? And, if Carpenter won another Cy, how long would it take to get a statue of him outside Busch?

Carpenter was impressive, but without Albert Pujols, he might have suffered another tough-luck no decision, or even loss. Pujols went yard and drove in all three runs. All that, plus his base-running was on display again as he completely deked out Brandon Phillips from second, causing him to throw wildly to first (and then Pujols took third on it).

The Cards didn't score out of the situation, but that wasn't his fault. We already know there's going to be a statue of him outside Busch. The question is, will they make it the same size as the Musial one? I'm thinking it has to be.

For the Goat, we'll give it to Joe Thurston, who went 0-3 with three left on. Thurston's been hitting pretty well, but everyone has an off night.

Off the field, it was a little busy as well yesterday. For one thing, Kyle Lohse does appear headed to the disabled list, but they've not put him there yet. Instead, they put Blaine Boyer on waivers as a DFA so they could bring up Jess Todd.

I am guessing that John Mozeliak knows the market for Boyer and expects him to clear waivers and head to Memphis, but it's possible that Boyer's five innings on Wednesday may be the last we see of him in St. Louis. If so, at least he left on a fairly positive note.

Personally, I'm pretty excited to see Todd. Not only is he a guy that's rocketed through the minor leagues, but he was an Arkansas Razorback, the same as your author (though, of course, all my time was spent in the Business Department, not the ball field). There might be a few "Woooo Pig Sooies!" in Busch tonight if he gets into the game.

Mozeliak talked a little about the trade market and various other things with Jeff Gordon. Not that he tipped his hand much, but it's still worth reading.

Tonight, the Rockies come into Busch, having just broken a four game losing streak. The Rocks are struggling, sitting last in the NL West with a record that's 11 games under .500.

They will send out Jorge de la Rosa, who's not having the best of seasons. He hasn't been historically that great against St. Louis either, though Pujols is just hitting .250 against him. Look out for Ryan Ludwick, who has two home runs in four at-bats against de la Rosa.

The Cardinals counter with Adam Wainwright. Wainwright seems to have found his rhythm, though he was a little shakier last time out than Cardinal fans would like to see.

The Rockies haven't seen him a lot, but they have hit him a decent clip. It'll be interesting to see if Garrett Atkins uses this series an audition, as he's been rumored to fill the Cardinal third base hole.

Don't Panic! (Or Should We?)

Daniel Shoptaw — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 08:54:18 -0400

Let's get last night's game out of the way. There's not a lot of positive things to say about it, and I hate to dwell on the negative.

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, the Cards have only rallied from down three runs twice this year, so once Blaine Boyer allowed that extra run in the third, you could just about pack it in. The problem with last night's game is that there just wasn't much to recommend it, either on the positive side or the negative side. Well, Chris Perez had a terrible night, but nobody really thinks that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Most everyone wound up with a hit last night, but never at a time where it mattered.

In fact, the most exciting part of the night may have been when Colby Rasmus doubled (on a pretty tough pitch) and came around to score the first run of the evening. Rasmus is one of the only outfielders hitting at the moment, so it would seem he needs to be in there just about every day, and I think that's what we'll see for a while.

Again, though, the middle of the lineup has been the biggest problem. It does little good for Albert Pujols to hit anything short of a home run, because lately the three guys behind him aren't going to get him in. Ryan Ludwick epitomized this last night, going 0-4 and leaving three men on base. The pitching staff, for the most part, is hanging in there, but this offense hasn't been up to snuff.

Not surprisingly, there's been a lot of talk about what should be done. Bernie Mikalsz thinks it's time for John Mozeliak to be bold. Joe Strauss has his opinions. It was a major topic on last night's UCB Radio Hour and in the chat room during the show. Everyone thinks something should be done, even if they aren't sure what or how desperately it needs to be done.

There is the line of thinking that the Cards don't need to panic, that they are only a game out in the NL Central. This is very true and I wouldn't recommend that Mo just give away the farm for a marginal talent. However, I'm wondering if things aren't a little worse than the standings indicate.

The run of great pitching at the end of May kept the Cards in the race. If they'd pitched even at a normal rate, there's a likelihood they'd have lost 2-3 more games than they did, pushing them closer to four games out. That would put them tied with the Cubs for third and just a game over .500.

Now, obviously they didn't lose those games and they are still in the hunt, but with the pitching being a little less than dominant over the past few days, there comes a time where the offense has to step up or the slide will be pronounced.

On the side of not rushing, the Cardinals's schedule is in their favor. After today's tough matchup, the Cards get four with a bad Colorado team that has already lost their manager, three with Florida, who sit under .500 even with their very strong April start, and three with Cleveland, last in the AL Central. That gets the Cardinals to the middle of the month and their next off day.

Mozeliak probably should make a move by then, though, because the rest of June is the Tigers, the Royals, the Mets, the Twins and the Giants. That's a stretch where the offense really needs to be clicking.

Tonight should be another low scoring game due to the quality of the pitchers that are going. Aaron Harang goes for the Reds, and after a down year last year, he's bounced back to his normal ace-like level. He's been hit pretty well in the past by the Cardinals, though, as Pujols and Ludwick both have two homers against him and Skip Schumaker has a .333 average vs. the Cincinnati hurler.

Chris Carpenter goes for the Cardinals and we all know what he's capable of. The Reds have had fits with him in their history, though a lot of the Reds are young enough that they've not faced the St. Louis ace. At the least, Carpenter should be able to keep it in the yard, something that was a little difficult last night.

As a final note, many of you have seen that Tony La Russa is suing Twitter, though it looks like he's already gotten what he wanted out of the deal. I think TLR Twittering would be pretty cool, though. Imagine getting "Thompson lot of heart, even if he wants to kick puppies" on your feed!

Cardinals-Reds: Mea Culpa, Brad Thompson; St. Louis Ties for First

Daniel Shoptaw — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 08:04:46 -0400

Few were harder on the St. Louis Cardinals' Brad Thompson than I was, either on here or Twitter, when it was announced he was going to start last night's game.

While I wouldn't take much of that back, I will say that he did a wonderful job, especially for a guy that hadn't thrown in forever. So, as usual, I was wrong. Not that I'm hoping Joel Pineiro hits the DL so Thompson can linger around.

Thompson's ground ball ratio still wasn't what you'd want to see (eight grounders, seven fly outs) for his skill set, but he got it done, and the Cards were able to move back into a tie for first with the Brewers.

(And, as a side benefit, keep Jay Bruce's boast from coming true.)

Speaking of being in first, I found it interesting that the Cards are second in the NL in run differential. The Dodgers are pounding that with a +87, but the Cards have a nice +34. The Phillies (+29), Mets (+21) and Brewers (+14) round out the top five.

While Thompson is, of course, in the running for the Hero tag, I think you have to again give it to Nick Stavinoha (with an assist to Willy Tavares).

Nick's two-run double, which looked to be just a sacrifice fly until Tavares misplayed it, broke the game open and put a lead into the hands of the Cardinals' bullpen, who have been very good about protecting those lately.

Of course, you have to also give some credit to Albert Pujols, who tied up the game with a double, and to Skip Schumaker and Joe Thurston, who both had two hits.

It was nice to see the Cards put together a solid game from pretty much all facets.

On the flip side, Ryan Ludwick had a real rough night. Zero for three and he left four men on base. I'm sure he's still getting his legs under him from the time off, but the Cards are going to need his bat to wake up soon.

Rick Ankiel actually broke through with a hit last night. I found it interesting that Tony LaRussa was complaining that Ankiel is just taking the same at-bat over and over again.

Ankiel's adjustments since he came off the DL have been minimal at best. Maybe getting that double will help light a fire on him and the Cards can get the good Ankiel back. Or maybe sometimes a double is just a double.

Tonight, Kyle Lohse goes for the Cardinals. I think a lot of Cardinals fans will be holding their breath early, trying to figure out if the effects of that HBP are still lingering on Lohse.

It'll be his first start since then and, well, you know the reputation Cardinal trainers have on injuries.

The Reds have been tough on Lohse in his career, hitting .256 against him, though Bruce is the only one to have taken him yard.

Johnny Cueto goes for the Reds. The career numbers look very favorable for the Cardinals, but those are mainly functions of the two games last year where they pounded him, especially this one.

St. Louis faced him earlier this year in Cincinnati, and he allowed only one run and five hits in seven innings, so he's likely to be tougher than the numbers indicate on the Birds tonight.

Remember that UCB Radio Hour is on this evening! You get a break from me as the bloggers from Pitchers Hit Eighth and Redbirds Row are hosting. Give us a call after the game!

New Month, Same as the Old Month for St Louis Cardinals

Daniel Shoptaw — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:10:17 -0400

You could hope that, with the calendar changing, perhaps old habits of lackluster offense could be put away. However, the Cardinals carried that baggage into June as well, taking it to the extreme by struggling against a Cincinnati bullpen that was pressed into service in the second inning.

If it wasn't for Colby Rasmus, it would have been even more of a frustrating outing than it actually was. It was great to see Rasmus get into the swing of things and get that average up somewhat, though I expect he'll get today off (more on that later). It seems like whomever hits in front of Albert Pujols is able to do something, but if they hit behind him, not so much.

Todd Wellemeyer didn't help things, either. I thought it was going to be a good night, since he got through the first two innings unscathed. But then the wheels came off in the fourth, and he wasn't around to see the sixth.

Still, I can't give him the Goat tag. Some days, four runs in five innings would have done it, but with an all-around bad game like Rick Ankiel had, Wellemeyer is off the hook. Ankiel was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, an error in the field, and was doubled off the time he did reach base (via an error). There's not too many more aspects of the game you can get wrong.

You might be able to sum up the offense in this way. I went back and looked to see how often the Cards are able to erase a deficit in a game and how large those deficits are.

In 37 of their games, they've either gotten down and never tied the game or lead throughout. In seven games, they've rallied from a one-run hole. In five games, they've come back from two down. In only two games, April 17 vs. the Cubs (three runs) and April 21 vs. the Mets (four runs) have they put together a big come-from-behind run.

If the game is basically over when a team gets down by three runs, there's definitely something wrong with that team's offense.

Because of that, offense is on the mind of John Mozeliak, even with Troy Glaus's—well, encouraging isn't the right word, maybe expected will work—report yesterday. Glaus is starting to do some throwing, but he still likely won't be back before the beginning of August.

For a team that's averaging just over three runs a game in the last three weeks, that's not going to help much. Getting Ankiel or Ryan Ludwick on track would help, but a move has to be made, most likely—and sooner rather than later.

Things don't look much better for today's game, though, as Brad Thompson gets the nod in a fill-in role. Thompson, who hasn't thrown in competition in two-and-a-half weeks, worries me immensely.

Why does he worry me? Probably the easiest way to explain it is the following numbers:

2005—1.46
2006—1.32
2007—1.04
2008—1.09
2009—0.93

That's Thompson's ground ball to fly ball ratio over the past five years. Thompson's biggest advantage was being able to throw the sinker, get the double play off of a grounder, that kind of thing. He's not doing it anymore, and batters are now able to let the sinker go by and pound the stuff up in the zone.

It's probably not a coincidence that his ERA has continually climbed as well, save this year, in which he has only 14 innings.

Thompson has been a little better since his demotion to the minors earlier this season. He's posted a 2.25 ERA and a GB ratio of 1.17, but it's been in very limited time (eight innings). Needless to say, I really think the offense needs to come through for the Cards to have a chance tonight.

Historically, Thompson has not been that bad against the Reds, though. They've not seen too much of him (the top exposure is twelve plate appearances), but they are hitting only .204 as a team. Then again, the Reds were hitting .150 against Wellemeyer before last night.

Bronson Arroyo has had a little more trouble with the Cardinals. Both Pujols and Ankiel have three home runs against Arroyo, which probably gets Ankiel in the lineup. Chris Duncan also has solid numbers against him. Unless Tony LaRussa decides to bench Ludwick, it might be a night off for Rasmus, even with the strong game last night.

St. Louis Cardinals: That Wasn't in the Script

Daniel Shoptaw — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:43:44 -0400

So the Cards take their two aces, throw them at a team with worse offensive production than they themselves have...and come out with a series loss?

Friday night, the pitching finally stumbled a little bit. Joel Pineiro gave up four in four innings, and with an offense that is struggling as much as the Cardinal offense is, even with the return of Ryan Ludwick, that's just not something you can do.

You have to give Albert Pujols the nod for the Hero with two hits, though the bullpen as a whole did a solid job as well.

As I expected, the return of Ludwick coincided with Khalil Greene being placed on the DL with anxiety issues. You hope that this means that Greene can get the help he needs and get back to being healthy in mind and body. But you also have to wonder if we've seen the end of Khalil in a Cardinals uniform.

Do you think that a month off would help him? I don't. I don't know what kind of medications or other treatments are out there and how quickly they work, but I really would be surprised to see him play again for the Redbirds.

Saturday was, again, the Albert Pujols show. Two home runs, though distressingly they were still solo shots. The offense in general did show signs of stirring, pounding out 15 hits and, yes, six runs.

Skip Schumaker had a solid night as well, with three hits and two RBI. Chris Carpenter had a pretty good outing for normal people, though two runs in six innings is a rocky outing for a guy that hadn't given up an earned run all year.

The two outfielders, Ludwick and Rick Ankiel, are definitely still rusty. Ankiel especially, with three strikeouts and two left on base. Ludwick at least was able to scratch out a single, though he did strand five.

Then again, these guys weren't exactly lighting it up before they got hurt either, so it's probably not a big surprise they didn't roll off the DL with a three hit game.

Sunday, you had to feel going into it that the Cards had the advantage and, when you stake the Adam Wainwright that's been pitching lately to a 3-1 lead, you'd think it's all over but the shouting. However, that was not the case.

You could easily have a weekend sweep and give the Hero award to Pujols again for a three hit day, but to spice it up a little let's award it to Brendan Ryan, who also had three hits and scored two of the Cardinals' three runs.

On the flip side, you have to give it to Wainwright, especially for that tie-breaking home run to Rich Aurilia. Dennys Reyes made a bid as well, allowing two hits and a run without getting anyone out.

So what's the best news to come out of this weekend? In my book, it's the fact that Kyle Lohse will likely make his start tomorrow night. Because that means that Brad Thompson won't be. It's possible that the fact that Thompson, who has sat for about two and a half weeks now, would be perfectly fine to start the game.

Odds are, though, that layoff wouldn't do anything to improve his already shaky pitching. There's a reason he's not pitched in so long—the Cardinals have been in close games. Which shows where Thompson ranks in the pecking order and the faith the coaching staff has in him, if you ask me.

Also in the Post-Dispatch today, the Cardinals are in on one of the top prospects from Latin America. The expenses in developing a Latin pipeline aren't necessarily seen by the public, but have to be taken into account when you start hearing about people griping about cheap ownership.

Even this news, though, doesn't satisfy some people in the "win now" mindset, as they complain this money could be better spent bringing in current talent. You have to take the long view if you plan to be competitive for more than a season or two, though.

More links: Rick Sutcliffe makes the case for Dave Duncan being selected for Cooperstown and today, instead of Wednesday, Joe Strauss holds his weekly chat.

Tonight, the Cardinals take on the Reds. The pot was stirred a little bit recently as Jay Bruce said they were going on the road and coming back in first place. A little youthful exuberance there, perhaps, but the Reds are a solid team.

They sit 3.5 back of Milwaukee, so it's possible they'd get into first after the four game set with the Cards, but I don't expect that'll happen. Still, the Reds have a good offense and a solid pitching staff, so they could give St. Louis fits this week unless the Redbird offense gets going.

Edinson Volquez comes off the disabled list tonight to take the hill for Cincinnati. The Cardinals, historically, have had troubles with the Reds ace. Pujols is hitting .333 with two homers against him and Schumaker has a .375 mark, but the team as a whole is just hitting .209 against Volquez.

That's a huge number, though, compared to what Cincy is hitting against Todd Wellemeyer, the Cardinal starter. The Reds are hitting just .150 against the Colonel, with Bruce and Paul Janish the only people that have gone yard against him. Hopefully Wellemeyer channels this tonight. If so, it'll likely be a low-scoring affair.

My wife is an Ohio girl and her dad is a huge Reds fan, so we always enjoy when the two teams get together. Should be a fun week!

Cardinals Head to San Fran

Daniel Shoptaw — Fri, 29 May 2009 07:13:32 -0400

Joel Pineiro has done a tolerable job with the Giants in the past. Juan Uribe and Aaron Rowland have touched him up some, so he'll have to be careful with them.

Matt Cain has been a little bit better historically against the Redbirds, though Khalil Greene has four home runs against him.

I don't expect, however, that Khalil will be in the lineup today. John Mozeliak wouldn't confirm it in his chat at MLB yesterday, but I still expect Khalil to be disabled as they activate Ryan Ludwick. Cardinal fans just hope that Cain has an outing like the last one he had against St. Louis.

The AccuScore projections at ESPN give the Cardinals only a 40 percent chance of winning this game. However, if Pineiro can keep the good pitching going, I think the Cards have a much better chance than that. Pineiro is looking to become the first pitcher since Greg Maddux to have five straight starts without a walk or a home run. I don't expect he'll get it, but it's something for which to watch.

If you want more on this series, you can check out the revamped Busch Birds and their series preview. The Cards stack up well in this one with the two aces going this weekend.

And, if you want more from me, you can read my summary of the Redbirds' May over at Baseball Reflections.

St. Louis Cardinals: Let's Get Serious

Daniel Shoptaw — Wed, 27 May 2009 16:19:38 -0400

Earlier in the week, I broke the standing policy not to post pictures. Today, I'm posting the first video because it is vital to the rest of the post. You know you want to watch it, so click and sing along. I'll wait.

OK, now that you've watched it (a few times, I'm sure), let's see just how savvy those "On the Run" folks are.

Below is a table of how often the Cardinals have scored six this year, whether it was at home or on the road, and whether they won or lost, plus the gap between "serious" games.

So, out of their 47 games, the Cards have reached the six level 14 times, or almost 30 percent of the time. That was brought down significantly, though, with their 13 game drought that was snapped last night. Before then, it was up around 41 percent, which means almost every other day before this power outage, you could get a cheap drink.

The Cards are 11-3 when they put up six runs or more, which is what you'd expect. If a team is losing a lot of six run games, they've got some serious pitching issues to address. Interestingly, though, they are only 6-3 in these games on the road compared to 5-0 in Busch Stadium. Those three losses, though, came in Arizona, Chicago, and Philadelphia, which have never been confused with "pitcher's parks."

I have no idea what a regular drink costs at "On The Run," but I'm guessing $1.25, which means that if you'd bought a drink every time, you'd have saved yourself $14, unless, of course, you wouldn't have bought one otherwise, in which case you've cost yourself $3.50.

Don't worry, I'll continue to keep an eye on this and I'm sure you'll see periodic updates on this crucial part of Cardinal fandom.

St. Louis Cardinals: Pitching Is a Wonderful Thing

Daniel Shoptaw — Mon, 25 May 2009 22:33:24 -0400

How things have changed. It used to be, just a week ago, where if the starting pitchers gave up only three runs in seven innings, plans were drawn up for a parade. Now, that's pretty shoddy work, at least in context.

We've already talked about Saturday's game as the wrapup to the UCB progressive blog project. Let's look back at Friday and Sunday as well as Monday's heartbreaker.

You had to figure that, if anyone was going to break up the string of good pitching, it'd be Todd Wellemeyer on Friday. Wellemeyer has struggled so often this year and, even when he's been going good, it's not been necessarily to the level that Joel Pineiro, Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright took it to this week.

Wellemeyer stepped up to the challenge, though, and you have to like that. Seeing all those zeros this week was a sight for sore eyes.

You could flip a coin on the Goat, which is not surprising as sputtering as the offense has been. Chris Duncan went 0-3, struck out once and left five on, but he did get a walk. Colby Rasmus went 0-4, struck out once and left three as he continued his dry spell.

The Goat, though, goes to Jason LaRue, who also went 0-4, but struck out three times and left two on. Surprising the Cards plated five when you look at these three, isn't it?

So the Cards roll into Sunday with outstanding performances by all five of their starters. I mean, when you've only given up two runs total in five games? That's crazy talk, but it's the good kind of crazy.

I don't know how to express my disappointment when the Royals were able to score in the first inning. Don't they read the script? Don't they know the opponent isn't supposed to get on the board until the sixth at the earliest?

Sadly, they skipped the rest of the script as well, which says no matter how bad the Cards hit, they score more than you do. Joel Pineiro pitched a very good game, a game that normally he would have won.

I almost gave the Hero tag to Yadier Molina for his 1-for-4, RBI, run day, until I realized that Pineiro not only pitched well, but went 2-for-3 with an RBI. Rick Ankiel might have gotten consideration, but striking out twice with two runners on doesn't help the cause.

On the negative side, I think you probably give it to Colby Rasmus again. I'm a huge Rasmus fan, but 1-for-4 (which, granted, is better than a lot of days for him) doesn't help cancel out the mental error in the seventh which led to the game-winning run.

Still, the Cards were able to take two out of three from a tough Kansas City team and get into a first place tie over the weekend. I've seen much worse from the Redbirds, so you'd have to take it.

Monday's game was a masterpiece from both sides, save the fact that the Cards didn't win. Chris Carpenter...what can you say? Really? I mean, was anyone really surprised that he was perfect into the seventh? The guy could throw a perfect game every time out and I think I wouldn't be shocked.

Now 23 innings without an earned run allowed this season. As the commentators noted during the game, he didn't even look like he was working hard. 93 pitches in eight innings. There's no doubt he could have finished it off if necessary.

Of course, Yovani Gallardo is a tough one as well. You knew it'd be a great pitching duel going into the game, but a double no-hitter into the sixth? That was unexpected. Then again, as stagnant as this offense is, it shouldn't have been a surprise that a pitcher like Gallardo was shutting them down.

Kudos to Brendan Ryan for hustling hard and breaking up the no-hitter, so that they lost theirs before Carp lost his.

The Cards never had much of a chance in the game, either. Two on a couple of times, but they were always with two outs and people like Chris Duncan up, whom you were pretty sure weren't going to get the hit that was needed (though Duncan did give a ball a ride there in the late goings that about got me excited).

A lot of OFers in this one, but you have to give the Goat tag to someone that didn't play the whole game. The error by Brian Barden pretty much spelled doom for the Redbirds. I almost thought Kyle McClellan was going to get out of it, but Bill Hall got the bat on a pitch and that was that.

That takes care of the on-the-field stuff. What about off the field?

Well, as noted above, Rick Ankiel came off the DL this weekend. That wasn't completely surprising, though all the talk had been that it might be another week, that Ryan Ludwick might come off first. What was surprising, at least to me, was that Tyler Greene was sent down to make room for him, not Nick Stavinoha or Brad Thompson.

So, just a week after it looked like he might get a starting job in the majors, he's farmed out because he needs to play. A fascinating turn of events and one that I frankly don't understand. I'm sure that it means that Khalil Greene could be close to coming back. But is he going to be playing regularly before this weekend, with Ludwick's return?

Khalil got two at bats in the Kansas City series and didn't start against Milwaukee. So exactly how close is he?

The other rationale was that there are options at the major league level, presumably meaning Khalil, Joe Thurston and Barden. However, it's not like any of them were showing the offensive spark that Tyler Greene was showing.

The month of May shows Thurston batting .180 with three RBI (though he does have nine walks) and Barden at .146 with one RBI (and only two walks). These are the guys you want to keep running out there? Really?

I'm not saying that Tyler Greene was the answer to the offensive puzzle, but a .273 average with two homers and three RBI in the same span is worth keeping around, even if he does have 10 K to only two walks.

With the offensive shortfall, the Nation's eyes look to Brett Wallace, who is still hitting pretty well in Memphis (.342 with one HR) even though the last four games have seen him on a two for 17 skid.

According to the latest reports, John Mozeliak will be checking on Troy Glaus next week to get an update on his condition. If Glaus looks to be out this year, Wallace should get consideration for a call up. I don't know that he will, but he should.

Let's look at Tuesday's game, matching Adam Wainwright and Jeff Suppan. Hey, haven't we seen this one before? I hope the sequel is better. Wainwright's got good career numbers against the Brew Crew, but Suppan has owned his old team since his departure, going 5-0 with a 1.62 ERA since he signed with the Brewers after the World Series run in '06.

Ironically, a lot of the Cardinals hit Suppan at a decent clip, but he's apparently able to work around the damage. If Wainwright comes out like he has since he corrected his flaw and starting featuring his fastball, it could be another scoreless pitching duel.

Little housekeeping. First off, MVN is running a mock draft. You can check it out here and see who Future Redbirds founder Erik Manning took for the Birds.

Also, you can find an interview with Brendan Ryan and Nick Stavinoha over here at Bleacher Report. Nice look at a couple of the young Cardinals and the impact they are making on the team.

Finally, this Wednesday's UCB Radio Hour will have a special guest. Rob Rains, who has written numerous books about the Cardinals and has a new book out on Tony LaRussa, will be joining us to talk about that book, his work with the Cardinals, and anything else we can think to ask him about.

If you have some questions, leave 'em in the comments!

Book Review- "St. Louis Cardinals: Past and Present"

Daniel Shoptaw — Sun, 24 May 2009 22:48:01 -0400

A month or so ago, I received in the mail a copy of Doug Feldmann's St. Louis Cardinals, Past and Present. It came at a pretty busy time for me, so while I immediately sat down and started poring over the book, I wasn't able to get around to publishing a review of it until now.

I'm also breaking from my normal tradition of keeping posts unillustrated. This picture of my kids and I points out one of the strongest points of this book--the ability to educate the coming generation about the great history of the Cardinals.

Feldmann, who sat down with us on the UCB Radio Hour a month back, has put together a great historical reference book, filled with photographs of the great Cardinals of the past and present (hence the name--shocking, huh?).

From the turn of the last century all the way through 2008, Feldmann does a wonderful job of hitting the high points and finding pictures of those players, managers, and owners that he's talking about.

This is not a book for those looking for details and elaborate discussions of the past. It's 140 pages and chock full of pictures, so the writing is limited. What writing there is in it, though, is done very well.

You move seamlessly from, for example, Branch Rickey to Bing Devine to Whitey Herzog to Walt Jocketty to John Mozeliak. The book is presented in sections, so you can trace the line of Cardinal first basemen, or shortstops, or starting pitchers.

Other sections include The World Series, The Rivalries, Down on the Farm, and The Great Teams and the Dynasties. If you can think of the angle, Feldmann seems to have covered it in this book.

For older Cardinal fans, this is a great way to bring back memories of watching the Cardinals. It was great to see the old Busch in its pre-1996 configuration again. To see pictures of Jack Clark and Tommy Herr. To revisit the controversy of 1985.

As I noted before, though, it also works great as an introduction to Cardinal history for the younger set. My four-and-a-half year old loves looking through the pictures. When I can show him some of the players that he's learning about in his other Cardinal book, it only reinforces things and helps him at least start learning names of the past.

Later on, he'll be that much further along to being an educated Cardinal fan. (My two year old just likes pointing at all the Cardinals and saying, "Albert Pujols".)

There's not much downside to this book. Obviously, it wouldn't have been a terrible thing if it were longer, but you'll never find a Cardinal book that's long enough for me. Since it was designed as an overview, you don't get a lot of depth in any one topic.

On the whole though, I'd definitely recommend this book for young and old alike.

Sweep! Sweep! Sweep! Cardinals Put Cubs Under The Rug

Daniel Shoptaw — Fri, 22 May 2009 08:21:49 -0400

There's nothing quite like a sweep of the Cubs to kick off a long weekend. Or, really, any weekend!

I think it is safe to say that Adam Wainwright is back. I've always taken the "found a flaw" comments with a grain of salt, but Wainwright has shown much more command and consistency since those comments.

This means the NL Central has to be worried now that Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright are running back to back in the rotation.

As much as I'd like to give the Hero tag to Albert Pujols for taking the I, not out of team, but out of Big Mac, it has to be Wainwright, doesn't it? He capped an amazing series for Cardinal starters by getting two outs in the ninth and allowing only one run on five hits and, again most importantly, only one walk.

The increased command of the strike zone that Wainwright has shown in the last two games is the biggest reason that I feel confident this correction is lasting.

Pujols does seem to be shaking out of the slump he's been in recently. The mammoth home run in the first was a great kick start to the game, and he had three extra base hits in the series. He always seems to play pretty well against Kansas City, so hopefully he'll continue to mash this weekend.

Nice to see Colby Rasmus get another RBI. It's interesting that he leads the team with 12 RBI this month. With Rick Ankiel still not back (seemingly now on a day-to-day type of evaluation), Rasmus has continued to earn his keep and apparently has won center field as well, with LaRussa saying Ankiel will go to right on his return.

Another tough night for Yadier Molina. Zero for four with two left on. I don't think hitting in the fourth slot is agreeing with him.

Something I noticed last night, I believe it was, was Ankiel sitting next to Khalil Greene in the dugout. You have to think that if there's anyone on the team that can identify with Greene's mental state, it would be Ankiel. Maybe he can help get Khalil on track.

Bernie Mikalsz has a few notes up about LaRussa's lineups and the upcoming Kansas City series. I admit, I was one that wasn't sure about last night's lineup, but it worked out. Whether it would have if someone like Wellemeyer had been on the mound, I don't know. Nice to see the tip to UCB member Pip in there. (Pip is the author of the blog Fungoes.)

So the Cards ride this momentum into a showdown with the other surprising story in the state. Kansas City has slacked off some, but is still right in contention in the AL Central.

The Cardinals are three games better than them in the standings and are a game closer to first, but KC has always been a tough obstacle for St. Louis to get over, even when they aren't any good.

The first game has Todd Wellemeyer going up against Kyle Davies. Wellemeyer, of course, was a Royal before being put on waivers and coming to St. Louis to restart his career.

Todalion (that's his Twitter handle, even if he doesn't use it much) hasn't faced the Royal hitters much, but when he has, he's been dominant. Only David DeJesus and Mark Teahen even have a hit off of him.

With Wellemeyer's struggles this year, either this is just what the doctor ordered or those career numbers are going to spike upwards.

Davies has about as much experience against the Cards as Wellemeyer does the Royals and the success rate is close as well. No one has gone yard against him and Skip Schumaker is the only one with two hits against him.

A reminder that the UCB Progressive Game Blog will be based on tomorrow's game against the Royals. You can see the rundown of which blogs are taking which innings over at our official site. Plan on doing some reading this weekend as you see the game in a whole different way!

A Welcome Return; Chris Carpenter Back For Cardinals

Daniel Shoptaw — Thu, 21 May 2009 09:23:55 -0400

Chris Carpenter took the mound last night. If you could tell he hasn’t pitched in over a month, you are a better observer than I am.

Carpenter kept his perfect 0.00 ERA for the season, going five scoreless innings while striking out four. He was never really challenged and threw 41 strikes out of 67 pitches.

I would have liked to see him get out there for the sixth, but it's not surprising that Tony LaRussa would keep a short leash on him coming back from injury.

If Adam Wainwright shows tonight that the corrections he made that were so effective against the Brewers are permanent, having Carpenter and Wainwright back -to-back in a rotation should keep the Cardinals from any extensive losing streaks.

The bullpen, in theory, will get some rest on those days as well, which may help them be more effective when needed. It's a ripple effect that could spread throughout the whole team.

Offensively, again it was a quiet night.

It's a good thing that Carpenter and Joel Pineiro have kept the Cubs off the board, otherwise there'd be some problems. The Cards have scored only 19 runs in their last eight games, keeping the people at “On The Run” from giving out 25 cent drinks since last Monday.

We'll have to give the Goat to Yadier Molina, who went 0-2 and left three men on, not including the double play he hit into.

A man who could be part of the reemergence of the offense is Rick Ankiel, but he was not activated from the disabled list last night as was expected.

Ankiel is going to be reevaluated in the next day or so and hopefully rejoin the team, though last night was the first time I had heard anything about the oblique strain. Not that it was surprising, just that it hadn't been mentioned. It'd be good to see him back this weekend against the Royals.

There was a pregame interview with John Mozeliak on Fox Sports Midwest. He said something that was a little interesting, at least in my mind.

Mozeliak was asked about Brett Wallace, his promotion, and when we might see him in St. Louis. While saying it was premature to talk about it, he did indicate that, if Troy Glaus is out for the season and Wallace hits at AAA like expected, he could be in the conversation for the latter half of the year.

There's a lot of talk about Wallace around the net right now. “Future Redbirds” questions the call up. Jerry Crasnick puts him on the list of coming attractions. Ken Rosenthal suggests he's the kind of guy Boston is looking for in return for one of their young pitchers.

Albert Pujols was recently ranked the top player in baseball by Sporting News. Tell us something we don't know!

The Cards look for the ever-sweet sweep of the Cubs tonight behind Wainwright.

You have to hope that Wainwright put his problems him, because the Cubs are a team that he's struggled with in the past.

Wainwright has been able to keep the Cubs in the yard, but they hit him at a good clip. He's already seen the Cubs twice this year, going 1-0 in 13 innings but allowing seven runs (five earned). Increased command will help as well, as he's walked five Cubs this year.

Sean Marshall goes for the Cubs and likely keeps the Cards under six runs yet again.

The Cards did get to him for three runs in five innings in his only start against them in '09, but historically the Cards are only hitting just .260 against him and he's been one of the few pitchers to keep Pujols at bay.

Thursday’s game should be another low-scoring affair.

A note: The UCB has its progressive game blog coming up on Saturday. You can read more about it and see the lineup of blogs over here.

St. Louis Cardinals: A Band-Aid On The Bleeding

Daniel Shoptaw — Wed, 20 May 2009 09:11:36 -0400

Yesterday, I looked at the career numbers for the Cubs against Joel Pineiro and thought, perhaps, Tony's idea to flip him and Kyle Lohse should have been followed up on. Today, I'm glad that it wasn't.

Pineiro had everything working last night, throwing a complete-game shutout at the Cubbies. While the offense wasn't really clicking either (not surprising against Ted Lilly), it doesn't take much to win in that case. Yadier Molina's first inning RBI single was all that was necessary, but seeing Colby Rasmus go yard again was a nice sight. Including the washed-out bomb, he's gone deep four times in six days. He looks like he's getting comfortable, even though his average is a little low.

The question about Rasmus is, what happens to him starting tonight when Rick Ankiel is activated from the disabled list? There's some indication that he may get to keep center field, at least for a while. Now that he's starting to get into a groove, it'd be great to see him playing on a daily basis. Whether that will continue after Ryan Ludwick returns or not is a different story.

Returning to Chris Duncan for the Goat last night, with an 0-3, 2 strikeout night. Not that many people were doing stuff against Lilly, though.

Tonight could be a really big night for the Cards. Not only should Ankiel come back, but Chris Carpenter is set to start. Carpenter has had some troubles with the Cubs, especially Alfonso Soriano, but having him back on the hill should give the team quite a boost. They run up against Ryan Dempster, who has faced the Cards twice already this season and has a 1-1 record and a 5.25 ERA to show for it. Skip Schumaker will be in the lineup, as he has some great numbers against Dempster.

Don't forget it's Wednesday, which means UCB Radio Hour. Still not sure who will be hosting, so you may have to put up with me, but there should be plenty to talk about! Call it at 646-929-1758 between 9:30 and 10:30 Central time!

Cardinals Start a Downward Spiral

Daniel Shoptaw — Tue, 19 May 2009 09:27:17 -0400

It's too early for Cardinals fans to panic, right?

That said, there's a lot of concern in Cardinal Nation. An Apr. that gave so much promise led to an ugly May. A team with the largest lead in baseball now sits three games out of first.

It was a terrible night, but especially from the pitching staff. 11 walks—seriously? I can understand being careful to the batters, but that's beyond the pale. It's not like it was in Sunday's game, either, when the starter gave up six or so.

Kyle Lohse didn't look good and Tony LaRussa admitted he probably shouldn't have pitched him, but he walked only three in four innings. It's not a good rate, but, when you compare it to Chris Perez (three in one inning), Jason Motte (three in one inning) and Dennys Reyes (two in 0.2 innings), it's positively Madduxian.

I'm not really sure who the scapegoat is. Chris Duncan, for striking out with two on and two out in the seventh, is a strong contender. Last week, I looked at some batting lines when the hitter has a full count. At that time, Duncan was one of the best at it, with a .333 average and 8 walks against only three strikeouts. Unfortunately, he just couldn't come through last night.

I think, though, it has to go to Motte, because you can make the argument that Lohse's start was at least in part to coming back out of rhythm. Pitching on Friday and then on Monday has to at least mess with your preparation.

Heroically, let's go with the rookie Colby Rasmus. The hit was a two-run homer and he also walked. He's one of the few bright spots (along with Skip Schumaker) in the offense lately.

So, is it time to panic? There are things about which to be optimistic, starting with Chris Carpenter's return on Wednesday. With Carp and Adam Wainwright scheduled for this coming series with the Cubs, the offense shouldn't have to score too many runs for the Cardinals to win the series. Rick Ankiel should, in theory, at least, be back in time for the Royals. Ryan Ludwick could return before the team heads to San Francisco.

I think we have to withhold some judgement until those guys get back. This team obviously has the talent to do well if the pitching and hitting can get together. It is a little troubling, though, that May was thought of as an easier month for the Cardinals and has been so traumatic. June is going to have to start off strong, with home games against Cincinnati and Colorado before a trip to Florida, or John Mozeliak may have to find that panic button.

In other news, Khalil Greene is mentally not doing so well. You hate to read stories like this, especially because, once he gets into that state, it's going to be very hard to get him out of it. LaRussa's idea of taking him out of the starting role and helping him just relax may be what is needed. It definitely can't hurt either him or Tyler Greene, who probably appreciates the extra ABs. It may also help the Cardinals determine what they need to do at shortstop next year. If Tyler looks like he can handle the role, it'd be a boost for 2010.

The Cubs come into Busch tonight for a three game set. It's the third time already the Cardinals have seen the little bears, which may or may not bode well for them. Ted Lilly gets the first assignment and he's been historically tough on the Birds. Albert Pujols has done OK against him, but that's about it. We'll have to see if Pujols can break out of this little slump he's been in recently and provide some offense.

Joel Pineiro goes for the Cards. I'm not sure exactly what went into the decision to send Lohse out there last night instead of Pineiro, but it must have been something very potent. When you look at Pineiro's numbers against these Cub hitters, you wouldn't necessarily choose to have him face them. Alfonso Soriano especially has done a number on Pineiro with three home runs.

It may be another long night for the Redbirds.

Something Missing In St. Louis

Daniel Shoptaw — Mon, 18 May 2009 10:28:29 -0400

I'm not sure exactly what it says when the Cards get just as much offense washed out this weekend as they do in games that count.

I hated to see Colby Rasmus lose a homerun and I'm pretty sure St. Louis was expecting to get fewer runs off of Yovani Gallardo than any other Brewers pitcher out there. However, the rain is uncontrollable when you play outdoor baseball (the only way to do it) and as such that game is treated like it never happened. If only the Cardinals got to pick which game this weekend didn't count...

Saturday's game was a pretty enjoyable one, save the fact that the Cards lost. All the talk leading up to the game was about Adam Wainwright finding a supposed flaw in his delivery and whether that would get him back on his game. If Saturday's results are any indication, the Wagonmaker is back. Two hits in eight innings is incredible, considering the season he's been having. The bigger story in my book, though, was the fact that he only walked two batters as well. The baserunners have piled up for Wainwright early in the season. There's more than cautious optimism that those days are over.

You'd like to give the whole offense the Goat tag for Saturday, but if anyone's going to be singled out, I guess it's Chris Duncan. He was 0-3 with three left on, thats tough to handle on a day when runs were at a premium.

You really have to tip your cap to old Bird Jeff Suppan, who has owned his former team since moving on to Milwaukee. Sometimes you think maybe it'd been worth paying him all that money, just so St. Louis wouldn't have to face him!

Sunday, though, was a disappointment through and through. When your starting pitcher can't find the plate and has you down 4-0 with a struggling offense, you know it's going to be a long day.

Todd Wellemeyer just can't get on track and you have to start wondering just how much more rope the Cardinals are going to give him. It was good to see him rebound after that disasterous first and he did work into the sixth inning, which is better than I would have expected. Who knows. I wouldn't put much faith in a renewal of good pitching from the Colonel next time out, but it's not out of the realm of possibilty.

Also don't like to see Blaine Boyer go out and give up three runs, including a blast to Prince Fielder, and not record an out. It's not likely that the Cardinals, with their current lineup (which was even worse on Sunday) would have overcome the deficit late, but letting the Brewers tack on removed any doubt.

I guess you give the Hero tag to Albert Pujols for his two hits and a walk, which may indicate that he's starting to come around. No one did much of anything in the game, so it's hard to hand out that award.

At least the Cardinals are starting to get healthy. Chris Carpenter will pitch Wednesday (which I actually predicted a week or so back, even though my logic doesn't hold up) and that should give the team a boost. Carp will face the Cubs and the Brewers, so that could be a big deal in the NL Central race.

From what John Mozeliak said in yesterday's TV interview, it sounds like Rick Ankiel could be back by this weekend as well. While Rick hasn't had the strongest of years, getting his bat back in the lineup wouldn't hurt a bit. The question will be, will Rasmus have to move over for him again? I'd expect so, but Colby's played better, it seems like, since he started regularly in center.

Another old friend, Braden Looper, goes for Milwaukee tonight against Kyle Lohse. We'll have to see if the bats have dried out and are ready for use.

A Painful Night In Pittsburgh

Daniel Shoptaw — Wed, 13 May 2009 09:03:47 -0400

Losing by six to the worst team in the division is bad enough. Losing your second-biggest bat is beyond icing on the cake.

Losing Ryan Ludwick to the DL, which hasn't happened yet but is a strong possibility, could be that proverbial straw. Rick Ankiel is still a few days from returning and he'd have to step up his production anyway to cover Ludwick. Will Albert Pujols see any pitches to hit for a while? The offensive burden is going to really come down on Chris Duncan and, honestly, Colby Rasmus.

It was almost predictable, though, that this apparent surplus of outfielders the Cardinals had was going to be tested. As the PD story notes, there's no obvious move to make. You'd think Jon Jay would likely get a call, but he's been struggling, as has most everyone else that would make the jump.

Of course, you want to get real creative? Why not think about Brett Wallace?

He's hitting .283 with five homers down in Springfield. He hasn't hit any long balls in May, but his average is right in the .270 range. I think the chances that Troy Glaus returns this year are getting slimmer by the day. Let's see what we have with Wallace.

I know it's not going to happen, due to 40-man rules and arbitration thinking, but everything written about Wallace is that he could hit in the majors now. The Cards have already had plenty of defensive problems, so it's not like he'd necessarily be the weakest link there either. Anyway, just tossing it out there.

Last night's hero has to be Albert Pujols, of course, for being responsible for the only Cardinal run. The Goat is Todd Wellemeyer, for being responsible for all seven of the Pirates' tallies.

Has it come to the point where we just can't trust Wellemeyer anymore? Every time he has a strong outing and it looks like he's turned the corner, something like this happens. To me, there's some concern with the pitcher says that "they hit good pitches" and the manager says "they were right down the middle of the plate." Someone needs to get their eyes or perceptions checked, and the way Pittsburgh was going at it last night, it's not the manager.

Positive news for the rotation, though, comes from the fact that Chris Carpenter threw off the mound yesterday and everything went very well. It sounds like the rotation is going to be moved around and he'll pitch May 23, which would be great from the United Cardinal Bloggers' standpoint, since that's the date of our next project, but I'd still like to see him go against the Cubs earlier in the homestand.

The Cards try to get back on the winning track against the Pirates tonight. Joel Pineiro goes up against Ross Ohlendorf. Just the mention of that name probably makes Pujols's back twinge. Let's see if maybe he can keep it over the plate tonight. The Cardinal trainers are dealing with a lot of bruises this year, aren't they?

UCB Radio Hour is back tonight at 9:30. Our professional hosts are back, so you don't have to listen to me stammer around. Feel free to call in and slam my Wallace idea!

What's Wrong With Wainwright?

Daniel Shoptaw — Wed, 06 May 2009 09:47:33 -0400

If there was one constant expected in this 2009 season, it was that Adam Wainwright would be the rock of the rotation. He'd stop the losing streaks, give a solid outing every time out, and generally be the joy of the rotation. After six starts this year, though, he's not quite been there. The question is, why not?

I don't have any answers to that, but I wanted to see if it really has been that bad. I mean, Wainwright did go into last night's game with a 3-0 record and a 2.76 ERA. What more can you expect out of him, huh?

Still, watching him, you know there's been problems. He's walked 20 batters this year against only 30 strikeouts. Batters are hitting him for a .274 average and reaching base 36 percent of the time. Some of his problems might come from the fact he has a .327 BABIP, but that's not extremely high.

For comparison's sake, in his first six starts of 2008, he was also 3-1, but he had a 2.60 ERA, a BA against of .207, and an OBP against of .256. Even if you mark that down to a fast start, you wouldn't expect the numbers to increase as much as they have.

Another way to look at it is game scores. A Bill James invention, game scores are used to note how dominant a pitcher is. Last year in the span we are talking about, Wainwright had only one game score that was under 60, and that was a 51. This year, Wainwright has only hit 60 twice (exactly 60, even, not over it) and has three starts that were below 50, including last night's 29.

On Twitter last night, Matthew Leach opined that he liked this start more than some of Wainwright's other, nominally more successful starts because he didn't walk batters. He did only walk two, including a unintentional-intentional pass to Ryan Howard with two outs in the fifth which was completely justifiable, if moot when the next batter, Jayson Werth, went yard to land another punch on the Cards' comeback. If he's going to throw strikes (something I believe we all want to see), they definitely need to be better than the ones he threw last night.

Last night's game felt like Sisyphus rolling the rock up the hill. Just when the Cards would look like they were coming back, the pitching staff would give up more runs and make the boulder roll back down. When they were able to rally to 4-3 after home runs by hero Ryan Ludwick and Yadier Molina, I thought they had a chance, but those hopes were pretty much dashed by Werth's blast.

So the Cardinals finally lose their 10th game of the season and have now lost three in a row with Pittsburgh coming in tonight. Mitchell Boggs goes up against Zach Duke.

The Pirates haven't seen Boggs before (well, Brandon Moss has, but that's it), but the Cardinals are well acquainted with Duke. I believe he will be the first pitcher St. Louis has seen twice in 2009, as he gave up three runs (one earned) in six-and-two-thirds innings in the season-opening series, getting a 7-4 win against Todd Wellemeyer.

In his career, he's struggled some against the Cardinals, though he's usually kept them in the yard. Duke seems to have recaptured some of that promise that he had early in his career, as he sports a 2.21 ERA coming into tonight's game.

Various other things. It looks like Rick Ankiel won't be out for an extended period of time. Thank goodness that crash didn't happen at Wrigley, because I'm thinking the padding was better on Ankiel's head than bricks would have been. While he's OK now, as it happened, Ankiel wasn't quite as sanguine about what was going on.

Krylon is running a sports trivia contest and the winner gets tickets to the World Series. Head over here and try your luck!

Jay from Riding the Pine hasn't done a lot of blogging lately, but did want me to mention that he's got a forum for St. Louis autograph hunters, no matter the sport. If that's one of your interests, head on over there and see if you can make some connections.

Finally, it's Wednesday, and you know that means UCB Radio Hour. I'll be hosting it tonight as most of the regulars are out of pocket, so tune in and call in with questions or comments to try to keep the dead air to a minimum. Tonight's featured blog is Baseball Digest and we'll be talking to Andrea at the top of the show. Hope to see you there!

Catching Up with the Cardinals

Daniel Shoptaw — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:30:00 -0400

Hello, my name is Cardinal70.

You might remember me from such posts as Reading The T-Shirts and Casey In Today's Baseball...

OK, maybe it hasn't been that long, but it's been a while since I've had a chance to write about the Cardinals. Since we have a week's worth of games, I'm not going to sit down and talk about all of them.

We'll just hit the Heroes and Goats, and then look at the overview and what's coming next.

Monday at Atlanta (Win 3-2)
Hero: Joel Pineiro
Goat: Albert Pujols

Notes: Normally, Brendan Ryan's 0 for 4 would have given him the Goat tag, but his spectacular defense in this game spares him. Pujols was 1-5 but left six men on—something that could have easily haunted the Cards.

Tuesday at Atlanta (Loss 2-1)
Hero: Yadier Molina
Goat: Kyle McClellan

Notes: Kyle Lohse had an outstanding game, but he did walk four which is why Molina got the nod.

Wednesday at Atlanta (Win 5-3)
Hero: Ryan Franklin
Goat: Colby Rasmus

Notes: The closer doesn't get the Hero tag very often, so since he went four outs—I'll give it to him. Adam Wainwright would have been in line...but five walks is not good at all.

Thursday at Washington (Win 9-4)
Hero: Albert Pujols
Goat: Joe Thurston

Notes: Nice to see Tyler Greene make his debut, even though it came at the expense of Ryan heading to the DL.

Friday at Washington (Win 6-2)
Hero: Albert Pujols
Goat: Skip Schumaker

Notes: Albert's two extra runs gave him the slightest of nods over Chris Duncan.

Saturday at Washington (Loss 6-1)
Hero: Colby Rasmus
Goat: Chris Duncan

Notes: Duncan's 0 for 4 was bad enough, but the error didn't help matters. I just missed watching Colby's homer, sitting down to the computer and catching it on Twitter.

Sunday at Washington, rained out

Monday vs. Philadelphia (Loss 6-1)
Hero: Joe Thurston
Goat: Kyle Lohse

Notes: If he's not using the HBP as an excuse, then I can't either. But, I do think that had to have some effect, and a Cardinal starter has to be fully healthy to even have a chance against Ryan Howard.

So that brings us to the present.

After the jump, more talk and looking forward to tonight's game.

Of course, the biggest news from yesterday was Rick Ankiel crashing into the wall.

My following of this was a testament to modern technology. Being that I didn't have a chance to watch the game, my first inkling that something was wrong was from Facebook statuses of my Cardinal friends mentioning praying for Rick.

So, I flipped to the Post-Dispatch site and saw the picture of him being taken off the field, which was quite scary. After reading that story, I got my Twitter account up so that I could see if there had been updates and saw where the doctors thought he was basically OK.

Amazing how things have changed in just two or three years, huh?

The good news is, though, that he looks to be OK.

He's already out of the hospital, though I expect he's a few days away from getting back on the field. The Cards just about have to make a move, though, since their bench has just gotten even smaller.

With Ankiel out, you have only three batters, and one of those is Jason LaRue who won't be used to guard against a Molina injury. That means the bench would basically be one of the Greenes (Tyler or, if he's not ready to play in the field, Khalil) and either Thurston or Brian Barden...whomever isn't starting that night.

Not many options for Tony LaRussa.

The Cards stand at 17-9, 2.5 ahead of the Cubs and a game and a half behind the Dodgers for the best record in baseball. The Cards and LA are the only teams that haven't lost 10 times yet this season.

What's really interesting is looking at run differential.

The Dodgers are +46 and the Cards +31.

Who is next on the list? T

he leader of the NL East?

A second place team?

Nope...it's the Pirates with a +16 even though they sit in fifth in the Central. The Phillies, second in the NL East, are the only other team in positive double digits.

Tonight, the Cards try to break out of this little slump they are in (when you lose 22 percent of your season's total losses in a row—it's a slump). Wainwright goes for the Cardinals and Brett Myers for the Phillies.

Wainwright has struggled at times this season with his command and hasn't been the dominant pitcher we saw last year, but he's been able to get out of jams and not hurt the team too much.

The Phillies haven't done much with him in his career, and he's one of the few Cardinal hurlers who hasn't been completely raked over the coals by Ryan Howard.

Myers is 2-0 with three no decisions in his last five outings against St. Louis. This group has hit the long ball against him, though.

Pujols has hit two off of him, which is not surprising, but Schumaker with two as well?

That's crazy talk.

Looking forward to seeing a lot of the game tonight, and I promise it won't be a week before I return to this corner of cyberspace no matter how much you may beg me.

Cardinals-Cubs: Ending On A Down Note

Daniel Shoptaw — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:11:09 -0400

There are two games I need to write about; one was great, the other not so much.

Depends on your perspective which was which, but most of you are Cardinal fans, so it's safe to say Saturday was a blast and Sunday was a day to turn off the game early.

Saturday, anything else that happened was overshadowed by one swing of Albert Pujols's bat.

One of the best parts of that slam? Check out the reaction of the Cubs' catcher as soon as AP puts the ball into orbit. It was almost like "Why do we bother?"

While that was the biggest thing to come out of Saturday, there were other highlights. Mitchell Boggs did a little better job as a Chris Carpenter substitute than P.J. Walters did on his first attempt; getting into the sixth with no earned runs is the best way to keep your slot in the rotation, and Boggs is starting again on Thursday.

Khalil Greene had two hits, including a double, and Brian Barden continued to make me look silly for bashing him earlier by tallying three hits.

And while he only had one hit, Colby Rasmus did a good job of not being too aggressive with two on and two out, drawing the walk that helped set up the grand slam.

Now, after a game like that, you hate to put a Goat up, but every game has to have one.

Blaine Boyer's Cardinal debut wasn't anything exciting, as he gave up an unearned run in his outing, and Chris Duncan went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts, though he did draw a walk. But the title goes to Brendan Ryan, who was 0-for-4 from the leadoff slot.

Probably the less said about Sunday's game, the better. I know the Cards won two out of three against the Cubbies, and you are greedy if you expect more, but this was such a terrible game from the start.

You know that if Rich Harden is on, getting three runs is going to be tough, so you are in for it from the very beginning. The Cards had won nine in a row at home, were going for the perfect homestand, and then the bottom falls out.

Yadier Molina continued his hot hitting and was the only Cardinal with two hits in the game, including a home run that got the Redbirds on the board. Couple that with his defense and there's no way, at least right now, he's not representing the Cardinals at the All-Star Game, is there?

But other than Yadi, Rick Ankiel's bomb, and maybe Pujols's three walks and HBP (that really wasn't necessarily, in my book, though the manager didn't have a big beef with it), there wasn't much positive going on.

Which means coming up with a Goat is at least easier from the point of view that there are plenty of options.

Todd Wellemeyer has a lot of people concerned right now. He seemed to come back at the end of his outing and started looking better, but we thought that after his strong Arizona start as well. The Cardinals really need him in last year's form, especially with Carpenter out. If he gets on a roll, this rotation is so much more dangerous.

However, I think the Goat of Sunday really goes to Khalil Greene. No hits in four trips and an error that allowed runs to score made for a day he was hoping for. Such a performance leaves one wondering exactly where the slick-fielding Greene is, since he now has five errors and leads the league.

Still, the Cardinals wrap up the third week of the season leading the NL Central with a 13-6 mark. Tony LaRussa has to get a good chunk of the credit, as his mixing and matching plus his managerial style seem to be getting everything possible out of the players on the roster.

It was expected that April would be the toughest part of the early schedule and that May would be where the team could kick in the jets. When you look at the teams on the schedule in the coming month (Washington, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cinncinati, Milwaukee, Kansas City, San Francisco), there's not a whole lot of reason to think that that prediction will be wrong.

After a three-game set (whcih starts tonight) with the Braves, the schedule seems to ease up, which could be bad news for the rest of the division.

Take a look at tonight's starters: Joel Pineiro, who is coming off the strong outing against the Mets, going up against Jair Jurrjens, who has had a strong outing against just about everyone.

Pineiro hasn't had a lot of success against Braves' hitters, while Jurrjens has hardly seen Cardinal ones. If everyone's on, though, it should be a pretty good pitching duel.

The CardsClubhouse Bird's Eye View and YNOT are both up, so check them out and enjoy the game!

Albert Pujols Becoming "Perfect Player", But There Are Still Holes To Fill

Daniel Shoptaw — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 08:54:54 -0400

As Cardinal fans, we've seen Albert Pujols for the last eight-plus years. We've seen him do astounding things at the plate, whether it's walk-off shots or multi-homer games.

We've seen him be aggressive on the bases, famously scoring from second on an infield grounder last year in Colorado. Now, apparently, we are seeing the evolution of him from Ted Williams to Rickey Henderson.

There's a reason Tony LaRussa called him a "perfect player" after the last game with the Mets and Buster Olney tends to agree. Whatever needs to be done to win the game, Pujols is going to try to do. And, lately, that means adding to his repertoire the stolen base.

Once that ball Ryan Ludwick hit passed the second baseman, there was no question Pujols was scoring. Ryan Franklin locked it down and that was that.

There were a few others that had strong games. Joe Thurston smashed a two-run double and went to second on the throw, scoring on a single by Skip Schumaker.

Franklin pitched a pretty solid ninth, with only the walk to pinch-hitting Milton Bradley blemishing the record. Ludwick had two hits, counting the game winner.

Really liked the way Kyle McClellan looked last night before Franklin came in. His spring struggles appear to be behind him and he's one of the few St. Louis can rely on coming out of the pen right now, it seems.

The person that made the most impact, though, was Adam Wainwright. Wainwright hasn't looked like the ace he was becoming last year so far in 2009.

His command has been shaky and he's been good enough to keep the team in the game, but only by a thread. Last night, though, he looked more like Adam Wainwright. His breaking ball was moving quite nicely, he didn't walk but one, He wasn't able to get a decision due to a breakdown behind him, but he'll take that kind of game just about every time.

Can someone explain, though, what is going on with the Cardinal defense? We knew going into the season that it was a little shakier than it has been in the past. Still, there was Yadier Molina, Albert Pujols, Rick Ankiel, likely Colby Rasmus, Khalil Greene, guys with good defensive reputations.

So how come this team is leading not only the National League but the majors in errors? Seventeen in seventeen games.

If you said two weeks ago that Skip Schumaker would make a crucial error that would help blow a Cardinal lead, you'd have probably railed that the second base experiment just wasn't working and the Cardinals needed sure hands at the keystone. However, Schumaker makes this error after moving to left field to provide defensive support, replacing Chris Duncan.

The error virus seems to have infected everyone, with no real reason for it. Pujols has four, which is totally unlike him. Schumaker is supposed to be very strong in the outfield.

Hopefully this is just a concentrated streak and things will hit the other end of the pendulum very soon.

The Redbirds opened the last Cubs series with a win as well. They hope to do better in the next two games than they did up in Chicago starting this afternoon. Mitchell Boggs goes against Sean Marshall.

Marshall has done pretty well against the Redbirds in the past. If it wasn't for LaRussa's assertion earlier in the week in the Fox Midwest pregame that Ludwick was going to play five of the six games this homestand, only sitting out the second Mets game, I'd think he'd take a pass today with his .182 mark against Marshall.

Rick Ankiel and Duncan seem to have good, if very small sample size, numbers against Marshall, so it's probably another day on the bench for Rasmus.

Boggs has a very small sample size against the Cubs, but the numbers are good for him. It'll be like a new experience for most of the Chicago batters since they've only seen him once. Hopefully he'll be able to show something to the national audience that will be tuning in on Fox!