- The Cardinals had some transactional movement in the past week, calling up young Joe Mather (pictured) from Memphis (AAA), and sending down slugger Chris Duncan, a fixture for the Cardinals since late 2006. Mather had been batting over .300 with some
power at Memphis, and seems to be ready at 25 years of age. Duncan initially provided some much needed pop to the lineup starting in late 2006, hitting 22 and 21 HRs in '06 and '07. However, his inability to be effective against lefties, combined with his sluggish outfield play and very long slump to start 2008, made this move inevitable. Last week, in a dramatic loss to the Nationals, Mather hit his first career home run, breaking up a tie in the 10th inning. Unfortunately his was a solo blast, and we gave up a 2 run shot to end the game. Speaking of that game, the Cards also pitched new callup Mark Worrell (also from Memphis) for 2 innings. Not only did he pitch two scoreless, but in his first big league at bat, he hit a 3-run HR. Great start for the two Redbirds I watched in person two weeks ago. - Todd Wellemeyer continues to impress, winning National League Pitcher of the Month
for May. As you can see in the article, homeboy was 4-0 with a 2.19 ERA in May - not bad. Nicknamed "the Colonel", Todd has been the most consistent pitcher of late. It will take a long season of consistent production from pitchers like Todd for the Cardinals to make any noise in the playoffs. - Injury bug has officially struck. Just as soon as Wellemeyer wins the player of the month award, he has a sore elbow and misses a start. Pujols has a calf injury that has
sidelined him a bit, while Ankiel has missed some time with a sore knee. To top it all off, our #1 starter Adam Wainwright was put on the DL this week with a sprained finger. Hopefully Wellemeyer can come back this week and pitch, although that's up in the air. The guys over at Viva le Birdos (Cardinals blog) think that Wellemeyer's just being in his second year as a starter is a major part of his injury. They seem to question whether he can keep logging starter innings without the experience of doing it healthy for a full season. - MLB Draft was last week - Cardinals selected Arizona St 3B Brett Wallace, a pure power hitter. Overall the Cardinals used 51 draft picks (!) to take 27 pitchers and 24
position players. Good recap of it here. Many think the draft is not as big a deal, but they are wrong. Teams like the Devil Rays are a perfect example. At the minimum, you need young talent to make trades in baseball. But also you need homegrown talent brought up for cheap $$ through your farm system. Remember, a player's first 6 years in professional baseball, they are essentially at the mercy of the team. If those guys develop in 2 or 3 years, then you have some cheap talent on the big league club for a 3 years or so. I'm hoping we can get some young infielders especially, as well as more power bats, to develop through our farm system. Our top pick satisfied both, so hopefully we'll see Wallace in a few short years.
These next two weeks will be interesting for the Cardinals, and will largely reveal if they are in fact "for real". Many skeptics out there doubt the Cardinals due to the lack of power in their bats, as well as starting pitching that many think has over performed. The Cards are at Cincinnati for 3, then back home to face the 1st place Phillies and cross state rival the Royals. Hopefully the Cardinals can keep their pace of winning at least 2 games in their last 7 series.
Looking way way ahead, the Cardinals have two series with the Cubs in the first week and a half of September. I imagine that will be when the division winner is finally settled. At least I hope we can hang with the Cubs until then. Likely we will, largely because the Cubs just cant keep winning at this pace, especially with a tough road and inter league schedule coming up.
