What went right: The top three the rotation (Carpenter, Wainwright, and Garcia) were great. Carp has been a little up down I guess, but overall pretty good. Wainwright has had, maybe, one poor start. Ditto for Garcia. The bullpen, overall, has also been excellent. Obviously, the recent series at Colorado was terrible for them, but take that away and they've been great. I think the top six relievers (Miller, Motte, Boggs, McClellen, Reyes, Franklin) all have pretty good stats for the year. Miller has the "worst" ERA of the bunch at 4.05, which isn't really that bad. Offensively, despite struggling at times, Pujols and Holliday have put-up their expected numbers in the end, though the batting averages are perhaps a little low. That seems to be the case across baseball this year though. When healthy, Ludwick and Rasmus have supplied some nice power to go with the two big guns. John Jay has been a revelation filling in for them. The infield, Pujols aside, has been another story.
What's gone wrong: Freese has hit for a nice average, but not much power yet. Shu was terrible at first, and now is mediocre. Ryan has been beyond horrible. Yadier, much worse than expected. Tyler Greene I guess has been a little better than I expected since he was called back up. Lopez has been the best of the bunch, but that's not saying much. Injuries have hurt the lineup recently, with first Lopez and now Freese missing time. Ludwick is on the DL right now, but should be back soon. When everyone is back in there, maybe Lopez plays every day at second and this team has the chance to score a lot more runs, and i think they need to. Early in the season, the pitching was so dominant, we didn't need to hit much. Unfortunately, Penny and Lohse have been out for a while and don't appear likely to be back anytime soon. Suppan/Hawkesworthe/Octaviano or whomever have taken their place have been completely awful. Quite frankly, I also don't see how Garcia can keep this up. At the very least, the team will have to try and limit the guy's innings in the second half as: A. He's still young and: B. He's already had elbow surgery. This leads me to:
Looking ahead: I still think we are the favorites to win the Central. I think the Reds are playing over their heads. Even with Volquez potentially coming back to bolster their rotation, I think they'll have injuries of their own and they don't have to depth or payroll to compensate. The Cardinal's management, on the other hand, has already made it known they have the flexibility to add a piece (or two hopefully). Earlier in the year, I figured that would have to be an infielder like Dan Uggla to get at least one of the automatic outs out of the lineup. Now I think it will be a pitcher, at least at first. If Penny can somehow make it back by the end of the month, then maybe that changes things. I think we can win with one black hole in rotation, but not two. Who could we add? Oswalt would be the dream, but I think that's unlikely. He's too expensive both in terms of prospects and payroll. The guy I would really love is Fausto Carmona. He's still relatively young and cheap, and he already fits into Dave Duncan's sinkerball mentality. We've done deals with the Indians recently as well. Edwin Jackson of Arizona might be another good option. He's another relatively young pitcher I've always thought highly of, even before his no-hitter this year. It would be tough to afford Uggla as well on top of one of those two pitchers, but hopefully we can add a utility-type that is at least an upgrade over Aaron Miles. I'm hoping Randy Winn's days are numbered at least with John Jay's emergence. I will literally throw a fit if they send Jay back down when Ludwick comes off the DL. I was not pleased when he was sent down last time, and he's only done even better in this most recent call-up. I'm tired of LaRussa's fascination with veterans. Play the better players! Alright, enough with my ranting. Looking forward to the re-start of the season against the Dodgers today. Go Cards!
-Trey
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