St. Louis Cardinals Say Goodbye to Florida

Let's take a quick look at yesterday's 5-2 loss to the Mets before moving on.  As we said numerous times last night during the UCB Radio Hour (and thanks to everyone who helped me survive that!), right now everyone is just ready to get spring over with and get into games that matter.  I'm sure the players are even more so than the fans.

What really stood out yesterday was that Chris Duncan and Rick Ankiel both went yard off Johan Santana.  Both of them, of course, struggle with left-handed pitchers, so to see them have success against probably the top lefty in the game is encouraging.  I know Santana's not had a full spring, but usually any lefty can befuddle especially Duncan, so I think it's pretty noteworthy.

Duncan also walked twice in the game, keeping his spring average over .300.  If he can hit in the .280 range during the regular season with his power, he's going to be a valuable commodity either for the Cardinals' efforts or as trade bait.

The down side of the game, really, was Kyle McClellan.  Kyle Lohse got the start and put in a solid effort.  Three runs in six innings, four strikeouts.  That keeps the team in the game and gives them a chance to win.  McClellan, though, gave up two runs in an inning of work to basically put the game out of reach.

It's come to the point where the team is publicly worried about McClellan.  If it wasn't for the good first impression he made last year and the fact that he has had some success in the bigs, I think he would have been sent down to Memphis.  With these comments, I think he's on a short leash.  If he's still struggling by the first off day, we may see him go down and either Chris Perez rejoin the team or someone like Jess Todd get a shot.

On the injury front, Chris Carpenter won't make the start Friday against the Redbirds in Memphis.  It's not his shoulder, not his elbow, but a left calf tweak.  Matthew Leach offered on Twitter yesterday that he doesn't think it's likely to be a problem, and Carpenter is of course saying all the right things, but anytime there's an injury to a Cardinal, you worry if you aren't getting the whole story.  Again, though, it's not anywhere close to his "trouble spots," if you will, so I think he'll be fine.

Joe Strauss had his regular Q&A chat yesterday.  Seem to be a lot of people that think we need a "proven closer."  I honestly am not sure exactly what they are thinking.  The cost for winning maybe 2-3 more games (and that's a big maybe) would be ridiculously prohibitive.  I, for one, am looking forward to seeing Jason Motte at the end of games.

Cards are the road team in their own park today as they take on fellow Roger Dean inhabitants Florida.  Today's lineup:

Schumaker, 2B
Rasmus, RF
Pujols, 1B
Ankiel, CF
Greene, SS
Molina, C
Freese, 3B
Wellemeyer, P
Thurston, 2B

That last slot still needs to be filled.  One of Brendan Ryan, Joe Thurston, and Brian Barden will be going to Memphis.  My bet is on Barden.

Finally, I don't typically fall for the April Fool's jokes, but this is the best one I'd seen in a while.  Written like a real news story and I could see some of the quotes coming from those that supposedly said them.  Kudos on that one!