Uno, dos, tres

•  I think Albert is ready to get things going. The Great Albert hit 3 homeruns today against the Mets.
• On the negative side of things, J-Rod's bat has just started to heat up, and now he goes and hurts himself. Too bad. If it's serious, Chris Duncan may have found himself sent down and then back up before the team leaves Florida.
• I think it may be safe to say Hancock has cemented his spot in the bullpen, as Alan Benes was awful, allowing 4 runs (2 earned) in 2/3's of an inning. Great comeback story and all, but…..Hancock on the other hand had another scoreless fram today and has struck out 12 in 10 innings. I know it's only ST stats, but it's not bad from a guy who the Red's said was too fat when he showed up to camp.

what the hey

AL East Champ:Yanks

AL Central Champ:Indians

AL West Champ:A's

AL Wildcard:White Sox

NL East Champ:Braves

NL Central Champ:Cardinals

NL West Champ: Dodgers

NL Wild Card:Mets

Cy Youngs-I think Peavy and Santana are the best pitchers, but I'm pickin' guys on the playoff picks. My strange hunch-Pedro Martinez for NL. Not as strange-Mark Buehrle for AL

MVP's-Rerun-Sir Albert the Great and Alex Rodriguez

Rookies-It's anyone's guess, but if Ryan Zimmerman didn't get enough Ab's to qualify for last year, then I'll go with him for the NL and Justin Verlander for the AL.  

Comeback-JD Drew and Frank Thomas

Teams who wouldn't suprise to upset my picks-Red Sox, Angels, and for some weird and very illogical reason, I have a hunch the Padres could suprise people.  

I'm sure I'll look back upon this and laugh come September, but last but not least-

White Sox over A's, Indians over Yankees. White Sox over Indians

Braves over Dodgers, Cardinals over Mets. Cardinals over Braves. Forget the Series, I just don't have the heart. I agree with Leach, in order for the Cards to go deep, a trade must transpire.

I don’t miss this guy

Crazy Hoolie for ya. What a freakin' goon…. Sorry for the absense, the DSL will be installed Wednesday. Hoo-ray!

It’s official

And it has been for over 24 hours, but the Right Reverend is having trouble getting online and is bumming off his in-laws. (like a total goon.) But it’s official-Sidney Ponson won the fifth starter job, big freakin’ suprise. I don’t mind the fact that they want to see if Anthony Reyes can pitch more innings, as he has that injury question mark hanging over his head. What I don’t like is they think because he’s a extreme fly ball guy, he can’t succeed yet in the majors.

It seems as if the tone with LaRussa and Duncan is that because he’s not like the rest of the staff, he doesn’t belong. Look at the staff-Mulder, Marquis, Suppan, and Ponson. They all are very similiar. (Forgive me for being reduntant about this.) They each get around 50% or more ground balls, they each only k around 4 or 5 per 9 innings, they each walk around 2 or 3 per nine. Mulder is the best out of that group at keeping the ball on the ground and in the ballpark. But pitchers like this don’t usually forecast to do much better then throw for an ERA of 4 or more and are very dependent on their defenses. That’s not a bad thing neccessarily. That’s fine if the Cards can continue to field with excellence, and it’s fine if they can score 5 runs a game on average. They should be able to, but hopefully no bad “if’s” happen. And while it’s fine to have a solid staff of guys who can eat innings and keep you in a game usually, it’s nice to have more then just one dominator.

At least Adam Wainwright looks like he may earn a bullpen job, good for him. Thought it looks as if Wainwright fits the mold. His 7 k’s per nine translate (according to BP) to around 5 per 9 in the Show, and he walks around 2-3 per nine. He can get a grounder around 45% of the time, so no wonder the team loves him. He should be able to step right in next year for Suppan or Marquis without missing a beat.

The one exception is of course Carpenter, who can get grounders and strike guys out. He’s a dominator. Reyes is a dominator, and if he can learn the sinker, he will be a Cardinal for a long, long time, and the Cardinals would have quite the 1-2 punch. If he can’t, however, I’m afraid he will still be a dominator, though wearing another jersey, all for a LaRussian fetish, which albeit wise, can be taken to an extreme and cause you to pass over the great for the decent.

 

Sorry, Uh No

Well, I step away from the computer for a couple of days, and when I return I find at the P-D rumors of Marquis for Soriano. Or if not rumors, at least some speculation on the part of Joe Strauss. This was written the day before Soriano finally agreed to play left field the next day against the Cardinals, in which he doubled off the usually alert David Eckstein.

I’m not sure the Nats are still willing to trade him. I’m not sure Soriano is very happy being moved to left field. I’m not sure the Cardinals are even interested. I’d be shocked if they were, as all the tell tale signs are out on what kind of a player Soriano is.

In Arlington-.315/.355/.656 Away from the hot air-.224/.265/.639. He’s also the worst fielding second basemen in baseball, and it’s no wonder the Nats want him to play left field. (It is a wonder, however, they expect him to hit at RFK.) Manning second base for this grounder staff would only further expose his liablities. With his legs and his bat he may be able to create 90 or more runs in a Cardinal uni, (and that’s discounting his atrocious road #’s) but he could lose 30 of them trying to play second base, making him an expensive pain in the arse.

Reyes seals his fate

Word is Reyes is moving to AAA regardless of his rough outing today against the Braves, but allowing 2 homeruns by leaving the ball up didn’t help impress the manager.

I’m sure it just proved LaRussa’s point, which is too bad, because while it would be better to get K’s and ground balls, a la Chis Carpenter, but you don’t have to do both to be a good pitcher. Just ask John Patterson, Noah Lowry, Jason Schmidt, Johan Santana, etc. All have high k’s along with high fly ball ratios. For now it looks certain to be Carpenter (who hasn’t allowed an run in 16) and 4 soft-tossing ground-ballers. That isn’t terrible given our defense, but it doesn’t thrill me either. Especially if we’re missing a second baseman. Why no Tony Graffinino?

Well, we have a problem. Benes, Voyles, Falkenborg, Hancock and Nelson haven’t given up an earned run. So far Hancock and Falkenborg seem to be the favorites, but Benes is a favorite of LaRussa and I wouldn’t be suprised him to replace Cal Eldred. Apparently Al Reyes has signed a minor league deal with Tampa Bay. Huh. Good luck to Reyes, apparently he’s improving quickly from his surgery.   

Update your blog roll, the 26th Man has moved. And there is a new Cardinal blog out there, the Progeny of Pagnozzi. The Progeny describes itself as “St. Louis Cardinals Baseball Blog, The Home of the Arch Athenaeum. Cardinals News, Stats, Sabermetrics, Commentary, Analysis…” Sounds interesting.

I’ll finally have a computer this week, so I won’t be stuck with mooching off my relative’s dial up when I can, and I hope to step things up a little bit here. Stay tuned.

Position Scrum Update, Part Dookie

Some Cardinal fans would’ve liked a signing of AJ Burnett this offseason, but not many of us would’ve enjoyed the scare the Blue Jays got earlier this week.  After throwing 1 pitch in the second inning, Burnett removed himself from the game, noting soreness in his elbow. MRI’s are negative, but something seems fishy. Burnett already underwent TJ surgery in 2003.

Still looking for that second baseman, left fielder? The Spivey verses Luna clash of the Titans has been dissappointing to say the least.

Earlier in the week PIP over at Fungoes noted that the Cardinals should maybe look no further then the tatooed and Cardinal red-goateed Scott Spiezio.

Spivey-AB 42, OBP .286, SLG .190, AVG .167

Luna AB 40, OBP .326, SLG .250, AVG .225.

Cruz AB 26, OBP .158, SLG .308, AVG .158

Spiezio AB 43, OBP .385, SLG .535, AVG .297

Then there’s Aaron Miles, who hasn’t had many AB’s due to injury, but was 5-14, all singles of course. Maybe Ryan at Cardinaldiaspora has picked the right whipping boy after all.  Not sure how Spivey’s wrist is doing, but at this rate he’s working himself out of a job. If all else fails, perhaps Wee Willie Harris will decide to refuse a minor league assignment to Pawtucket, and we can pick him up. Though Wee Willie isn’t hitting in the Red Sox camp, either. (.463 OPS) Yick.  Spring training stats, grain of salt, I know I know, but right now maybe Speez is the answer at the hot corner. That may go over with some of you like a lead balloon, and understandably so, but something just doesn’t seem right with Spivey, and I admit I’ve never had much confidence in Luna.

Max misses start

Sorry for the lack of updates on the Mizzou ace. Currently, I have no internet connection at home, but that will all change in about a week or so.

Down with a sore bicep. Listed as day to day.

 

A tear in my green beer for Anthony

Sorry to be a bit of a bummer on St. Patrick’s day, but at least according to one Bernie Miklasz, Sir Sidney Ponson is going to be the fifth starter in the rotation.

Ponson.

It’s already been determined internally.

The rest is just posturing to keep him focused and locked in and determined to “prove” himself. They don’t want big Sid (or the fans for that matter) to think they’re handing him something. They want him to earn it.

As one poster on the board noted on that board already, this isn’t much of a real competition if all the while the Cards were planning on handing it to Ponson. This was already becoming apparent with the Cardinals strange handling of Reyes, insisting he learn to throw the two-seam fastball. While I agree it would be great for Reyes curtail his fly-ball tendencies, the handling of Reyes (and Wainwright for that matter) is frustrating to say the least. Everyone in the world of baseball can tell you that Anthony Reyes is the most talented pitcher in the Cardinal system, or roster for that matter, outside of Carpenter of course, but somehow the club isn’t convinced. Maybe they should just trade Anthony for some other more expensive “proven veteran” as they did with Dan Haren, and watch him blossom elsewhere.

If I were Anthony, I would almost hope it would happen, as I would’ve been fed a lie that I was in the mix for a job that the team never planned on giving me in the first place.

Sorry for the frustrated tone, and I’m not saying the season is over, Ponson could be a decent 5th starter, and a cheap one at that. Sure, his last two seasons look like total crap, but so far at least he looks focused and has pitched well this Spring. I just hate it how the Cardinals squelch young talent in the name of experience, even if that experience has been mediocre at best.

Well, at least we will have depth in the case of an injury. 3 straight seasons of all 5 starters staying healthy all season would be amazing, and very unlikely.

Happy Saint Patty’s!

I may be in the minority, but I freakin’ love the green jerseys!