Aaron Miles the hero

Did you know Aaron Miles, as well as Morgan Ensberg and other Astro players were held hostage in 2000? And it was mighty mite Aaron Miles who pounced on his captors, not the slugger Ensberg. The P-D has the story, check it out.

 “The gunman would take the gun away to scratch his head with the handle. He would slide it off Miles’ neck when peering out the window. Once when he did that, Miles pounced.Miles seized the barrel of the gun while snapping his head back out of the line of fire. Twisting the gun away from him and to the floor, he and the captor wrestled to the ground. As he was being pummeled by the gunman’s left fist, Miles bit into his right forearm – twice, drawing blood – to loosen his grip.The gunman jumped on Miles’ back and sunk his teeth into Miles’ shoulder. Miles lifted and slammed the gunman into the wall.

The two fell to the floor, the captor’s back to the carpet and Miles’ back to his chest. Both men had both hands on the gun and were attempting to wrest it free.”

Wow! Aaron Miles (5’7, 180) bit the gunmen and tossed him into a wall! As a fellow short man (5’6, 155), I find this story pretty entertaining. I’ve been ragging on Miles, as I’m not sold on his abilities even as a bench player, but that story makes me at least like the guy as a person, and maybe even root for him a bit as an underdog of sorts.  

Wow! Aaron Miles (5’7, 180) bit the gunmen and tossed him into a wall! As a fellow short man (5’6, 155), I find this story pretty entertaining. I’ve been ragging on Miles, as I’m not sold on his abilities even as a bench player, but that story makes me at least like the guy as a person, and maybe even root for him a bit as an underdog of sorts.  

Uni Debut-Rincon Arrives

Ricardo Rincon finally arrived to camp, nearly 2 weeks late. The lefty tried to smooth things over with Tony.

“I talked to Tony and he’s happy now.” Rincon said.  La Russa sounded less then amused. “He has been working, but there’s a difference between throwing to friends at home and our guys in camp.” Word is La Russa will try and talk Rincon out of playing for Mexico in the World Baseball Classic.

What is it with Tony and lefty relievers the last 3 years? Steve Kline gave him the finger later in the season in 04, Ray King pouted and vented his frustrations to the media last year during the playoffs. Both are now elsewhere. Now Rincon seems to have already drawn the ire of the skipper before even a spring training game has been played.

Oh, well. I’m sure things will calm down, but Rincon would be wise to forego the WBC. If it weren’t for the 2 year deal, I would almost wonder if Rincon would lose his job to Tyler Johnson or even Carmen Cali.

 

The battle for the 5th starter’s job begins

(Photo from http://www.stltoday.com)

I’m sure they are just having a friendly chat, but Reyes looks like he’s gettin’ into it a little with Ponson. Note the finger coming out of the glove, very subtle Anthony. (You wanna piece of me fatty?!)

MLB.com’s Matthew Leach covers the first workout– 

“Both men got in close to a full workout, though Ponson’s 40-pitch workout ended up being cut to 35. Reyes, the rookie, has more electrifying stuff than the veteran Ponson, but in the very early going, Ponson has showed better location and command.”  

It’s still early, and there will be a lot more battling going on between the two, but I guess you can say it was at least a minor victory here for Ponson. Maybe it was due to the rain during the throwing session, because Reyes has demonstrated excellent command in his career thus far. (10.36 K’s per 9 verses 2.03 BB per 9, 1.09 WHIP in MiLB career) Ponson has been a lot messier. (5.42 K per 9 verses 3.01 BB per 9, 1.44 WHIP during MLB career.)

 

Scherzer Sinks #1 Ranked Florida!

It was a huge win for the Tigers, pounding out 22 hits against top ranked Florida. (Unfortunately they lost their next game to Wake Forest.)

Max strengthened his resume, striking out 8 batters and allowed just 1 run on three hits in 7 innings.

Sickels Ranks Cardinal Prospects

Check out the Top 20 list here.

Over at vivaelbirdos lboros poses the question on which prospect is most intriguing to you? lboros likes Cody Haerther, and I agree, he is very intriguing. He hit well in AA last year, and I could see him making it to the show pretty soon. Sickels ranks him very high, #3 on the list behind Reyes and Colby Rasmus and gives him a B+. His minor league line is a solid .316/.373./.488

But the prospect that intrigues me the most is Nick Stavinoha. I thought I was getting overly giddy about him, but Sickels has him #7 on his list, and gives Stavinoha a B-. That’s quite a bit higher than what Baseball America or Scout.com ranked him.

Stavinoha was drafted out of college last season in the 7th round. He was quite the slugger at LSU last season, hitting 18 homeruns with a batting average of .370 and an OPS of 1.085. His success carried over in Low Class A Quad Cities, hitting .344/.962 with 14 home runs. That’s a heck of a year when combining both college and pro.  What’s also an outstanding number combined between LSU and Quad Cities is his low K totals. In 507 AB’s, Stavinoha only fanned 45 times.

Cardinal Uni Debut-Juan E

Juan yuckin’ it up with fellow Dominican Sir Albert.

Who is the Class of the NL?

Ben Jacobs at The Hardball Times has his annual offseason rankings up, and the Cardinals are around the bottom, 22nd to be exact.  Feel free to check it out, it’s well worth the read, but if you’re too lazy to do that, here’s the gist.

• Ponson isn’t going to be what Matt Morris was, but he’s cheaper and a better risk.
• Enc is no Larry Walker at the plate, but he will obviously give the Cardinals more playing time.
• Rolen back at full health will be great, but considering the overall turnover, we’ve taken a step backwards verses forward.
• We didn’t sign any terrible contracts, but Looper’s and Encarnacion’s contracts were “less then ideal.”

Yada, yada, not much we haven’t heard or said a million times this offseason. One thing that sorta bugs me is that he figures Ponson is Matty Mo’s replacement. That still hasn’t been determined, thought it’s already a starting to be a forgone conclusion. But Anthony Reyes could possibly represent an upgrade of Morris even in his rookie season if he does get that chance.

But the part that stuck out to me is that because of these moves Mr. Jacobs says we are the class of the NL Central, we are no longer the top contender in the NL. While I admit the pessimist inside me was inclined to agree with that statement, I had to ask myself, if not the Cardinals, then who?

Using the same sort judgment Jacobs used in order to take answer this question, I ask what did teams in the NL did enough this offseason to leap over us?

To swing or not to swing

Dan Fox from the Hardball Times takes a look at different aspects of swinging, missing, fouling balls off and plate discipline over at Baseball Analysts. A few Cardinals (and an ex-Cardinal) made the top ten in several categories, which I found rather noteworthy..

Yadier Molina ranked in the top 10 among fewest pitches seen per plate appearance, 10th to be exact, seeing 3.24 pitches on average in 421 plate appearances. What does that mean for young Yadi? Well, it means he’s going either improve be more patient and start taking walks, or he’s going to have to start hitting for a higher average or for more power. Sounds simple, right?  Right. That isn’t easy, as Fox aptly puts it, but with a terrific May and a decent June that followed a horrific April encourage me that he has potential to be able to do so at least a little of both,  but mostly raise the average.

Everyone’s doing it-A rebirth

The Diaspora and I Bleed Cardinal Red have moved to wordpress. Cardnilly uses it and heartily endorses it. And while I love the play a hard 9 slogan, I’m afraid it’ll get played out like the White Sox’s “win or die trying”. Keep checking in at play a hard 9 for a little while longer, but I’m reborn here at Reverend Redbird….and as you can see there are some themed categories, sorry, I guess I have a cheezy sense of humor…

Why the new name? Well, let’s call Cardinal baseball what it is. It’s more then just a passion, it’s a religion, a way of life. Think about it. People from all over the country make special pilgrimages to see the Cardinals play in their cathedral in St. Louis. When they tore down the old cathedral, people were grabbing whatever relics they could, dirt, wreckage, urinals, whatever. We have our own set of saints in Dizzy, Stan the Man, Gibby, & most recently Albert the Great whom we revere, just as other religions have their set of men and women they revere as great.

Most religions have certain holy days, in which people cease from their work. We have the playoffs, when work ceases to be done if you are like me. Religions have their prophets, strange people whose voices declare the truth that people flock to to hear. We have had Jack Buck, Harry Caray, and Mike Shannon who we all would stay up all night to listen to if we could. Religions are passed down to generations, Cardinal baseball is passed down to generations. And there’s a Cardinal way, such as appreciating hustle over braun, hard work over talent, giving it your all instead of going half-way. It’s Enos’s mad dash, Jack telling the fans to “Go Crazy”, Pujols’ monster shot in the 9th. These things have made Cardinal baseball the great tradition that it is.

Anyway, enough sermonizing for now, and from now on call me Reverend Redbird and welcome to my gospel.

Scott Spiezio auditions for new gig

I was away from my computer this weekend, so I missed Scott Spiezio accepting an NRI. I’m not sure he’s here because his dad was a Cardinal or if David Eckstein vouched for his ex-Rally Monkey teammate, but I do hope Spiezio can bounce back and revive his career here in St. Louis. (On a side note, a little “did you know?” trivia. Did you know David Eckstein, Adam Kennedy, and Scott Spiezio made their acting debut on the TV series, She Spies? What! You never heard of She Spies?Granted, he was terrible in every sense in Seattle, but in his defense he was suffering through injuries, not to mention go through a mid-life crisis of sorts, divorcing his wife, quitting the hard rock band he was in, Sandfrog, and getting a tattoo of his new girfriend on his arm. (The tattoo opens a can of worms for me. First of all, what happens if it doesn’t work out? How do you explain that if you decide to marry someone else? Or if you do marry her and have kids, how will your kids feel about a picture of mom stripping on your arm? Plus, those muscles are going to fade away some day, along with the girlfriend’s sexiness.)But I digress. I for one am rooting for the guy. We’re hearing a lot about Rolen’s improving health, and thank God we are. But Spiezio is adds a little insurance for Rolen. He can also play second, first and both corner outfield positions. And he’s a switch-hitter. That kind of versatility is something La Russa loves to have around, and maybe having him in camp this spring will quell this talk of Aaron Miles making the team just because he’s a switch-hitter.In spite of his rock-star image and his horrific last 2 seasons in Seattle, I personally feel more comfortable with him then the likes of Brian Daubach, Deivi Cruz or Aaron Miles. My hunch is he’s over his injuries and other troubles, and he’s my pick to make the team out of the NRI group along with Jeff Nelson.