Phillips Rips Cardinals, Carpenter Rips Ryan

About a month ago, Joey Votto professed his feelings for the Cubs. 

On Monday, Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips let the world know how he felt about the St. Louis Cardinals.

“I’d play against these guys on one leg,” Phillips told the Dayton Daily News’ Hal McCoy.  “We have to beat these guys.  All the do is bitch and moan about everything, all of them, they’re little bitches, all of ‘em.  I really hate the Cardinals.”

Phillips then went on to say “Compared to the Cardinals, I love the Chicago Cubs.  Let me make this clear- I hate the Cardinals.”

Wow.

As a Cubs fan, I obviously love seeing this kind of stuff.  Phillips was very unprofessional in his comments and it’s something you just don’t say.  But it feels good that other people, especially players themselves, have similar feelings as I.

I’m a Cubs fan, so I am required to hate the Cardinals.  It hasn’t been a tough task, but I will say that they do have some classy, professional players on the team.  As much as I would love to hate Pujols, he is a classy guy.  Yeah, he stands and admires his home runs sometimes- but so does Soriano.  You just don’t get to see it as often.

I also like Wainwright- he’s really good and so far hasn’t come across as a tool.  Holliday keeps his mouth shut and plays hard- I respect that.

There are still some Cardinals that are just… Cardinals though.  The team is still led by Tony LaRussa and every couple of weeks he says something that reminds you that he is a piece of garbage. 

And then there’s Chris Carpenter.  He has to be the reason for Brandon Phillips’ comments.

I won’t even keep this guy on my fantasy team.  Part of the reason is that he’s too much of an injury risk.  The other part is he’s just a jerk and I don’t want to root for him.  How many confrontations has this guy had this year already?  I’m not sure why, but he seems to get a free pass from the media.  Maybe it’s because when he’s healthy, he’s one of the best pitchers in baseball.  But he has to be a horrible guy to have around.

In last night’s game, Brendan Ryan was late to get onto the field in the bottom of the first because he apparently grabbed the wrong glove.  Carpenter was visibly upset and took Ryan into the dugout tunnel after the innings where TV cameras caught Carpenter lecturing Ryan and Ryan listening intently and then nodding after the chastisement. 

Then in the seventh, Carpenter had more words after Ryan could not get to a ground ball that resulted in a run scoring single.  Ryan was playing up the middle with the lefty up and the ball was hit where a shortstop would normally play.  Carpenter could be seen yelling on the mound after the ball scurried out of the infield. 

Pujols walked by during the confrontation and patted Ryan on the back in a sign of encouragement. 

Look, as much as I am ready for Derrek Lee’s Cubs career to come to an end at the end of this year, at least he was willing to stand up and tell Zambrano where he could shove it when he was out of line.  The Cardinals have too much to risk this season to have any huge blow ups.  But at some point, someone’s going to get sick of Chris Carpenter’s antics. 

That is, if Brandon Phillips doesn’t get to him first.