Cardinal Sin

Cheesy headline? Maybe. Awful final innings the last two nights? Absolutely.

The Cardinals rode high out of the all star breaking, going 4-0 against the Padres, gaining 2 games on the Cubs to sit 2 back in the NL Central. The Brewers came to town on Monday for a 4 game series, starting 3 back of the Cubs (1 behind the Cards).

The past two nights, the Cardinals let a game slip away that falls into the "devastating losses" category, so hard to be applied to regular season baseball games. The Cardinals led 3-1 with 2 outs in the 8th last night, after one of Kyle Lohse's (pictured) most dominating pitching performances of the year. On Monday night, we were tied at the end of 9 innings 3-3, with plenty of chances to win. We lost both games 4-3 on Bill Hall solo home runs in the top of the 10th and 9th innings, respectively.



The Brewers have a lot of momentum, recently acquiring CC Sabathia, while already being one of the hottest teams in baseball. A big series by the Cardinals would have stamped on that flame a bit, putting them in their rightful place. Now, the Brewers look extremely confident, ready to surge past the Cardinals. It must be nice to be 2-0 in the this series against the Cards, with Ben Sheets and CC Sabathia throwing the final two games tonight and Thursday.

Cards need to win both, and absolutely must win 1 of these 2. Luckily the Cubs are sliding as well, losing 5 out of their last 6. The Cubs will definitely have a tougher second half, since they will be on the road more often than the first half, and experiencing some injuries (Kerry Wood). With the dynamics of this division being a 3 team race, you hope that your team wins, while the other 2 teams beat each other evenly. Right now the Brewers are surging at the Cardinals expense, while the Cubs are losing at the same time. Tonight, the Cards need to slow down the Brew Crew, as well as their current radio broadcaster, Harry Doyle . . .errrr, I mean Bob Uecker.

"Ohhhh Shit . . . if that's not Shaquelle O'Neal in left, that baby's outta here."

"Wild Thing, you make my Butt Sting."

"I'm the only winner on the team, the rest of them are losers - either by choice, or by birth."

Happy July 4th - Go Cards!

Big weekend for America and Baseball, particularly for the Cardinals and Cubs. The midwestern rivals are 1-2 atop the NL Central, and meet in a 3 game series at Busch Stadium this weekend. Here is a quick preview of the games, with the Cards pitcher first:

• Friday - Looper (9-5) vs Zambrano (8-3)


• Saturday (on Fox) - Lohse (10-2) vs Lilly (9-5)


• Sunday - Wellemeyer (7-3) vs Marshall (0-2)

Zambrano is making his first start since missing a few starts due to a slight injury. The Cardinals are set up pretty well with their best 3 pitchers right now, throwing in the series. Would be nice if we had Wainwright, Carpenter, Clement, or a few of the other pitchers that are stashed away on our DL. But I like our chances. The walk-off HR by Troy Glaus last night was very exciting, good for momentum heading into a big weekend series at home. Should be a lot of fans there also given the holiday weekend.

These games are important, for a few reasons:

1. Cards are 2.5 games back of the Cubs; the winner of the series gains serious momentum heading into the 2nd half of the season


2. The Cards have not yet played at Wrigley this season - there will be 6 games at Wrigley in August and September, while only 3 more after this series at Busch [interesting note: the Cards and Cubs play 15 times this season total - 9 at Busch, 6 in Chicago - that's the definition of the "unbalanced schedule" that you hear about]


3. These games are always important - two midwestern teams with fans in very close proximity of each other. Very similar to the Red Sox and Yankees at least geographically, in that everyone in the entire region typically favors one team or the other.
   

If the Cards can get a sweep or even 2 out of 3, I think the Cardinals will show they are here to stay. If the Cubs dominate, the tone could be set for the second half. Hard to project so much in one series, but I'm a big believer in letting the first place team know that you are going to take their spot if they slip just a little bit. Have a great weekend.

LaRussa's Cardinals

My Cardinal posts have all had similar themes this season - blah blah blah, the overachieving Cardinals continue to win even though no one expects them to. Players you have never heard of are overachieving and together they are doing something special.

Well here is another post that falls right in line with the same message. Only thing is that lots of people - everyone really - is beginning to notice what Tony Larussa and the Cardinals are doing this season. Articles are pouring in all over the place, from ESPN to Sporting News to even the New York Times. Here are a few good ones:

• ESPN talks LaRussa and St Louis Cardinals Success - Very interesting article on the front page of ESPN.com this evening. Talks about how the Cards have not had an easy season - 2nd most appearances this season on the DL by any team, most blown saves of any team this season in all of baseball, and 74 different lineups through 82 games. Did you know LaRussa has been the Cardinals manager for 13 seasons? Pretty Cool.
• Sporting News piece focuses on LaRussa and Dave Duncan, long time pitching coach. What Duncan has done with a rotation of has-beens fully solidifies his place among the great pitching coaches of all time. As a former catcher, he has a great perspective on pitching that pushes pitchers to use their heads as much as their arms. Countless hours of studying hitters is a Duncan trademark.
  
• New York Times piece on Ryan Ludwick, journeyman outfielder having a breakout year for the Cardinals. Its good to see a 30 year old that has had 2800 at bats in the minor leagues "sticking" in the big leagues.
  

LaRussa is the real story here. With over 2400 wins as a Manager for the White Sox, A's, and Cardinals (1100 wins), he is 3rd place all time on the Managing win list. Third . . . of all time . . . trailing only Connie Mack and John McGraw. Ahead of Bobby Cox, Sparky Anderson, Joe Torre, and anyone other great managers you can think of. A lock for the Hall of Fame, and one of only two managers to win a World Series in both the AL and the NL (A's in 1989, Cardinals in 2006).

Coaching stability is too often taken for granted, especially by fans. LaRussa is the foundation that has allowed our team to be relevant and competitive for a long time, including a fantastic World Series Championship in 2006. He has gotten plenty of credit through the years, but with his best managing job possibility occurring this season, its time he gets his full due. Kudos Tony. Ok love fest is over . . . Cubs are coming to town in t-minus 45 hours . . .

Who said trouble?

In my most recent post last Friday, I was pulling a Randy Quaid on the Cardinals road trip to Fenway this past weekend. After getting swept by the Royals at home, and having 4 key players on the DL, I figured a trip to Fenway would send us reeling. Instead, we won 2 out of 3 in dominating fashion, and took the third game into extra innings, before losing in the bottom of the 13th. This team will just not give up and has yet to stop surprising everyone.

The Cardinals currently sit at 3.5 games back in the Central, with the 2nd best record in the National League, 5th best in all of baseball. The Cubs are still winning to of course, as they swept the cross town Chicago White Sox this past weekend. As I have mentioned before, the Cards and Cubs have lots of big series in late August that will determine the division crown. The Cardinals just need to hang in there and stay within striking distance, and then see what happens. Certainly the Cubs cannot continue all summer at this pace. Zambrano and Soriano are hurt, so maybe they are coming back down to earth.

Interesting Tribune article about the Cubs having success with former Cardinals. I praised the day we got rid of Jim Edmonds, because he is just too old to be effective and stay healthy. Sticking with the theme of the Cardinals season, Jimmy is proving me wrong, at least so far in Chicago. Getting younger and developing minor league talent has been a huge organizational goal since the Cardinals won the World Series in 2006. An overview of a few of the Cardinals top prospects is here, including a few Memphis Redbirds players.

Developing talent through the farm system is not only the best way to get young players, but also the best way to get cheap players. In baseball, players have no ability to be a free agent until they have given 6 years of service. If you draft well, then develop well, you can have 3 years or so of super cheap production. Ryan Ludwick, for instance, makes $411,000 this season . . . yet he is batting .300, with 16 home runs and 57 RBI, putting him easily as one of the top 5 outfielders in the national league, production wise, so far this year. He cannot sign with another team I believe for one more year. There certainly won't be many players with that much value, but at least 2 or 3 on your team at all times is definitely needed to win a championship.

The Cards won last night in Detroit, again in dominating fashion, 8-4. Next weekend, the Cards host the Cubs in a big July 4th series. With Pujols coming back, it would be nice to take advantage, since the Cubs may still have Zambrano and Soriano out. Lets go Cards

Trouble in St. Louis

The St. Louis Cardinals are definitely in trouble. After getting swept this week by the Kansas City Royals, the Cards head up to unfriendly Fenway Park to Boston for a 3 game set this weekend. With all the injuries that the Cardinals are dealing with (Wellemeyer, Pujols, Molina, Brad Thompson, Carpenter), the lack of depth and lack of starting pitching is beginning to show. Somehow, the Cardinals are tied with Philadelphia for the 2nd best record in the National League, at 42-32, luckily sitting only 3.5 games behind the Cubs, who were swept by Tampa Bay this week as well.

The Cardinals need to grind out a few wins and try to play at least .500 ball for the next two weeks. All season they have been consistently winning 2/3 in nearly every series, until this week's sweep by the lowly Royals. Every team hits a rough patch over a 162 game stretch, but its avoiding the prolonged bad run that separates good teams from bad.

There is a feeling that this team has played over its head so far this year, and might be regressing a bit. Injuries make it difficult to determine if the Cardinals slide is related to injuries or simply baseball's law of averages catching up to a team playing too well. Likely its a bit of both. The Cardinals have surprised me all year, because they seem to get going when the going get tough, as they say. I hope I continue to be surprised.

As I said recently, the Cardinals have a big July 4th series with the Cubs. This will be important, because the two teams won't meet again until a bevy of games in late August and early September. Pujols hopefully will be back by that series. Molina and some of the pitchers should be back this weekend or early next week from the DL. If the Cardinals can just stay within striking distance, the season will be much more entertaining come late August.

Cardinals Tidbits

The Cardinals sit at 38-27, second place (2.5 games back) in the NL Central to the Cubs, who sit at 40-24, tops in the MLB. The Cardinals record also puts them tied for the 6th best record in all of baseball. Not a bad start at all. Some Cardinals tidbits for ya:

• 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.

The Cardinals of the Vatican

Despite the pre-season prediction by the Pope that the Cardinals would be under .500, his Cardinals have risen above expectation as the season nears the 1/3 mark. Sitting at 28-21, 1 game out of 1st place in the NL Central behind the Chicago Cubs, the Cardinals have overachieved in the eyes of many.

Heading into the season, the Cardinals gave the prognosticators very little reason for hope:

• Ace Chris Carpenter would be out until at least the All Star break.



• Former World Series MVP shortstop David Eckstein, as well as multi-year gold glove center fielder Jim Edmonds were not resigned.



• The starting outfield on paper consisted of Chris Duncan, a former pitcher (Ankiel), and two minor league players from 2007 (Schumaker and Ludwick).



• The starting middle infield was not set, with 3 guys who are 5 foot 9, 5 foot 8, and 6 foot 1, none of which ever doing much in the big leagues (Cesar Izturis, Aaron Miles, Adam Kennedy)



• The pitching staff was a completely scattered picture, top two projected pitchers being Adam Wainwright and Braden Looper, both unproven and in their 2nd years of being starting pitchers in the big leagues. The rest of the rotation was completely up in the air.

How could anyone predict that this team - combined with a resurgent Cubs, and a young but talented Brewers squad ready to break out - could challenge in the NL Central? Quite simply, no one could. Anything other than predicting 2008 to be a season of transition and rebuilding would have been ludicrous.

How have they done it? First the easy, objective stats (all as of May 22nd):

BATTING

• 1st in Batting Average in the NL with a .284 clip



• Two batters in top 6th in NL in batting average (Pujols 4th with .351 and Ludwick 6th with .336)



• 1st in NL in On Base Percentage with .371



• 3rd in the NL in OPS (on base plus slugging) with a .792; Cubs have .814, tops in league

Most all of the players are overachieving, and the smaller guys are getting on base. Former pitcher Rick Ankiel has had an uber-strong performance in his first full year batting (.289, 8, 29), as has Ryan Ludwick, all of the sudden the team's top power hitter (.336, 12, 35). Pujols has been doing his thing as well (.351, 11, 31). Hitting at those team clips will be difficult with so many young and inexperienced players. But hey, they've proved the Vatican wrong so far.

PITCHING

• 4th fewest Walks in the NL



• Only 14th out of 16 teams in NL in strikeouts (not good - but the 4th best fielding % in the NL has made up for this shortcoming)



• Given up the 5th fewest runs in the NL



• 3 Starting Pitchers in top 30 ERAs in NL (Wellemeyer, Wainwright, Looper)

All in all, the starting pitching has been solid, with no great performances, but more important minimal bad ones. Joel Pineiro has been the 5th starter this year, and his ERA has been 4.50, which is not awful considering he is the teams 5th pitcher. I dont have stats right in front of me, but the bullpen has done well, despite some missed saves from Jason Isringhausen. All in all, Dave Duncan has gotten all his starters to be competitive, and keep the game close.

(You can find all the ESPN.com team stats by clicking here. You can find all the player stats here. You can modify and sort easily by anything - very interesting for us stat nerds out there)

Looking through all the statistics, this team has succeeded largely due to two men: Head coach Tony Larussa and pitching coach Dave Duncan. Larussa has created a team chemistry that produces a very professional, hard working team that comes to play every day, every at bat. That sounds cliche doesn't it? Other sports don't have 162 games like baseball does. The clubhouse atmosphere and values of the coach are his single biggest contribution to the team, unlike football, where strategy might be as important. Kudos to Larussa.

Dave Duncan's has created a top third staff in the NL out of a group of inexperienced kids and journeymen. Just think how this team would be if Mulder was ever healthy, and when Carpenter comes back? I don't know this man does it, but Chris's dad simply produces a staff that keeps the team competitive in nearly every game. Being a former big league catcher must have something to do with it.

The Pope looks forward to a meaningful summer of baseball, filled with significant match-ups with Central leader and chief rival, the Chicago Cubs. The Pope doesn't predict after the season's one third point, but hopefully my initial prediction of .500 will be wrong.