A Disappointing Day in Cardinal Nation

For a Friday, things sure didn't lend to a happy weekend yesterday.

First, let's take a look at the game against the Mets.  There was some great news, admittedly, in that Chris Carpenter worked two more scoreless innings and reported no trouble again afterwards. Sounds like his command was a little off, but that's not terribly surprising.

There comes a point when this has to stop being news, don't you think?  Maybe it's after the season starts.  Maybe, for you, it's becoming easier to treat Carp as part of the upcoming rotation with fewer question marks. I know seeing outings like this really make me feel good about the '09 season.

Continuing in the pitching vein, Mitchell Boggs made his first appearance of the spring, also with two scoreless innings. I know that the organization is big on Boggs, but I've never quite seen it myself. 

Still, I wouldn't be surprised if he could be a servicable fifth starter on the team and should provide valuable pitching insurance at Memphis.

Also on the positive side was a life from Colby Rasmus: 2-for-2, two walks, and a stolen base makes for a very good day for the prospect. It appears that Tony LaRussa has had a talk with the youngster and went out of his way to praise his part in the Dominican win. 

Hopefully that has had the effect of calming Rasmus down and keeping him from pressing.

If Rasmus has a strong finish to spring training, he'll go north with the team, I'm fairly sure. If he scuffles, though, the team won't hesitate too much to send him to Memphis, not when keeping him there a few weeks and give them another year with Colby under their control. 

Personally, I'd like to see him riding in the convertibles on Opening Day.

All of those positives and still the Cardinals lost the game to a Mets squad decimated (or, as Matthew Leach Twittered, deci-Met-ed. Punny guy, that one.) by World Baseball Classic participants. This is the team the Cards hung 15 on earlier in the week, but yesterday could only manage four.

Kyle McClellan was charged with three runs, though I believe Ian Ostlund allowed some inherited runners to score. Ostlund continues to dig holes for himself. He was in trouble even before the Dennys Reyes signing, but now, he'll be lucky to get assigned to the minors instead of outright released.

Trever Miller faltered for the first time this spring, allowing the winning run to score.  Not that there's any cause for concern there—those days happen and Miller's spring has been fairly solid so far. He knows he has a job Apr. 6, at any rate.

The rest of the bad news yesterday came over at Future Redbirds, where Erik announced he was hanging 'em up. While there's still some possibility that someone will step in and run the site, there's a much bigger chance that Future Redbirds is shutting down for good.

This is a big blow to Cardinal Nation as a whole. Most anyone who knows anything about the Cardinal farm system learned it from reading FR. The daily updates, progress reports, and discussion about the farmhands has made for a more intelligent and informed fan base and, if it is to close, will be sorely missed.

I wish Erik the best as he steps back to be with family, especially with his future redbird and the next one just months away.  He will be sorely missed.

While it may not be easy being green, today it's not too bad to be Greene.  First, our current shortstop Khalil gets the feature over at the Post-Dispatch.  After first repeating the spring training mantra—it's early—so far Greene has looked pretty comfortable in Cardinal red. 

We knew he could play defense, but if Hal McRae has gotten his swing fixed and he's able to get back to those 20 HR days, he could make the offense that much more potent.

Think about the lineup for a second in the most positive light. Skip Schumaker is a tolerable leadoff hitter. Albert Pujols is Albert Pujols. Ryan Ludwick should be at least a 25 HR guy with good average. Joe Mather and, later, Troy Glaus bring some pop. Colby Rasmus could bring speed and power to the lineup.

We know what Rick Ankiel can do.  When you add a strong Greene to that mix, this team could put some runs on the board.  And if Carp and Adam Wainwright stay healthy...

Anyway, sorry, doing some spring dreaming. At the official site, prospect Tyler Greene gets his turn to shine. La Russa and staff seem to be using language that has to have Tyler pretty excited about his chances. Because it seems to be similar to things they were saying last year about Kyle McClellan and you see how that worked out.

Getting a solid backup/utility guy out of your farm system, one that could fill in with little dropoff, is a wonderful thing. He has a speed/power mix as well, plus has played very good defense in the spring. 

I would not be surprised to see him head north, especially as insurance on Schumaker's transition to second.

Speaking of the roster, the above-mentioned Matthew Leach has his latest roster projection out. Not a whole lot to argue with there, though Jason Motte has done pretty well this spring. Still, he might start out in Memphis to get a little more closing experience and get a callup soon after.

Cards play the Astros today with Joel Pineiro on the mound. A good start of Pineiro and I will start dreaming about this team!

On the UCB front, Fungoes got their transcript of the latest roundtable question up.  Check out how we'd change the main scoreboard at Busch.