Night and Day

After my last post, this one was polar opposite:

Class article.

Class player.

Class father.

-CJ

Excellent...Excellent...and Not so Excellent

...I'll try to say that in the most menacing voice I know. Very Burns-esque. This article reminded me of perhaps the best thing about next year: a year of baseball NOT played in the Metrodome. That's right, kiddies, you heard right. The Metrodome will be a thing of the past come next spring. I'm sure I don't need to remind you of that hideous stadium with all its glitches and what it cost us in 1987. My hatred for quirky ballparks is no secret...look at the blog's subtitle. But I think I hate the Metrodome even more so than Minute Maid Park. Actually I know I do. Okay, back to the article. It's a poorly written mishmash of interesting stuff. There's good stuff in there, but it was put together with as much care and thought as potpourri in a bag. Not only was it completely random and virtually pointless (as many nostalgic sports articles are), but there were some silly mistakes throughout. It makes me wonder, could I get a job for the likes of Sportsline? Anyhow, I can forgive swapping the Braves and the Cards as you list what years they got screwed in the Metrodome--especially after you already got it right, but then we have this gem:

"In '87, the Cardinals were so helpless in the Dome that Herzog was sure the Twins were stealing their signs.

'Lots of things were funny,' he says.

But years later, when former Twins Tom Brunansky and Tommy Herr came to play for the Cardinals, Herzog asked each of them about it, and both players told him no.

'I believe them,' Herzog says today. 'They're both good guys, and we changed signs an awful lot. Every few innings.'"

Now, maybe I'm missing something but just in case, let's break it down carefully.

1. Tommy Herr was on the 1987 Cardinals. Maybe we can believe that Miller meant that Herr, from 2B, could tell they weren't stealing signs. That is until...
2. Tommy Herr never came to the Cardinals after being traded to the Twins...
3. ...for Tom Brunansky...
4. ...in 1988. "Years later"? Since when does half a year later (Herr was traded early the next season) equal "years? Maybe he meant Herzog talked to them years later on the golf course?
5. But it says "to play for the Cardinals."

This all means I can't help but think this was a completely fabricated insert by Miller. Especially with Herzog's "quote" at the end of it. This silliness makes you wonder about all sorts of inside info stories that Miller shared in this article and in general. At best, and this is a reach, Miller simple doesn't care enough to look over what he writes.

So, yeah, believe it or not, I am not under any contractual obligation to do a rant on a Sportsline article once a year, but I really wonder how these people not only get these cushy internet writing jobs, but more importantly, how they keep them.

-CJ

Get Excited Folks!

"So you're telling me there's a chance..."
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/08/holliday.html

-CJ

Glutton Red Sox Pass On Another?

The Red Sox are about to release Brad Penny. Let's make it an even three for three. I wanted Penny before the year began, and I believe that LaDuncan would be great for him. The Sox are on the hook for at least $5M (not counting incentives). Since Penny was already placed on waivers and pulled back the Sox have painted themselves in a corner and cannot trade Penny. This means that Penny will be signed at quite a discount (probably back in the NL) with the Red Sox footing another fat paycheck while another teams reaps the benefits. Theo is looking less and less golden these days. We have the options (off the top of my head) on Hawksworth and Boggs--so there is room to maneuver. The main problem is that Penny would be simply pitching depth once Lohse comes back from the groin injury. I'm not sure if Penny would be interested in working as a set-up man--especially once the post season came around. However, I don't believe his tank is close to empty and I believe he would be just the type of player LaDuncan would do wonders with.

Not completely unrelated, Chris Duncan was released from the Sox the other day. I for one, unlike others, would love to see him signed to a minor league deal. Although Cardinal Nation is still wondering about the PTBNL in the Lugo-Duncan deal, this sure looks like it panned out well.

-CJ

Read it. Learn it. Apply it.

OBP vs. BA

Thanks, Pip.

-CJ

P.S. Check out the newest Cardinals blog. Good reads.

All On Their Dime...

So my cousin sends me this little video message:



And I guess he'll be right...when Lugo and Smoltz win alongside the rest of the Cardinals. BTW Trey has plenty of right to toot his own horn as MANY MANY others predicted doom and a downslide in Aug for the Redbirds.

Lugo-"Red Sox to pay all of approximately $13.5M still due Lugo in 2009 and 2010" -Cots Check out the difference between Lugo's play with the Red Sox and with the Cards.

Smoltz-signed for league minimum (Red Sox, after releasing him are on the hook for >$5M) It's a bit early to call this one a win, but in the world of baseball $100k is a drop in the bucket. It's certainly a no-lose. However, I'm still gonna call this a win as Smoltz delivered a dazzling performance against the Padres the other night.
Next, we hear that the Sorcerer Dave Duncan is at it again. Turns out that Smoltz was tipping his pitches. Look what happened when they fixed it.

So, to Dave and the Red Sox, we here at the Cardinal Virtue say: Thanks and good luck making the playoffs.

-CJ

Playoffs a sure thing?

You know how I HATE to toot my own horn, but I did say a while back that the schedule was quite favorable for the Cards to go on a nice run. They've exceeded my expectations, however, with their latest feat being a 5-2 West Coast road trip to extend their lead in the Central to an MLB-best 8 games over the Cubs. With the Cubs on the skids and no other Central team above .500, it seems almost a certainty the Cards will win the division. Lots of baseball left I guess, but it seems pretty unlikely we could lose an 8 games lead with 36 left to play. Tomorrow is an off-day, then a 9 game homestand against the Astros, Nationals, and Brewers. Best news of all: that black hole known as the 5th starter role my now be filled! Certainly, it's just one start, but Smoltz gave us quite a bit more than Wellenmeyer, Boggs or whomever else we've tried at the back of the rotation. Now, if we could some get Lohse turned back around, but really, it's hard to complain. The team is playing great, and life is good as a Cardinals fan right now.



-Trey

Dodgers game

The first game of the west cost trip was on ESPN tonight, and it was a very interesting entertaining affair to watch. The Dodgers had a rookie knuckle-baller pitching against Carp for us. Sure thing right? Well, it didn't look that way through the first few innings. Carp seemed very out of sorts the first two innings and was lucky to give up only one run in the first (aided greatly by Ludwick ending the inning with a great throw to third on a sac fly to get Ethier trying to advance). He seemed find himself in the third though, and was dominant the rest of the game. The Cardinals on offense seemed to swing at a lot of high knucklers in the first three innings especially. Second time through the line-up was a little better, but only Albert did any damage with the solo home run. The third time through guys seemed to finally try and wait for their pitch, and Ankiel delievered the big blow with the game winning two run homer. Rick has obviously had a very dissapointing season overall, but at least he's been more of a positive than a negative in the lineup the last month or so. Props to TRL using Miller to get Ethier and then Franklin against Manny and Blake in the 9th. I believe it only took five total pitches to get those three final outs, so those two guys will obviously still be available tomorrow. I guess Boggs will be the guy again tomorrow....hopefully he'll do a little better than the last start. L.A. has their best guy, Billingsley, against him. At least Waino has the last game of the series the next day, so not too much pressure on Boggs. Would be nice to keep the winning streak going though.


-Trey

Col-by!

Wow. Like most rookies, Colby Rasmus has had his ups and downs in his first year in the bigs. He got-off to a slow start, then had a great May and June, but struggled in July. He lost playing time when Holliday was acquired obviously, and Ankiel seemed to play better at the same time Rasmus was struggling. The last 10 days or so, Rasmus has started to turn it back around though and he put a big exclamation point on that by hitting his SECOND walk-off home run of the year. That made-up for a botched squeeze at home earlier in the game and a shaky start by Lohse. The bullpen deserves credit today as well, especially Hawkesworth, who got Reyes out of of two on, no out jam in the 7th and then added a scoreless 8th. Anyway, the Cards have done a good job so far taking advantage of the soft schedule winning eight of the last nine. West coast roadie coming-up with three against the Dodgers and four back with the Padres. Hopefully, we'll keep rolling.


-Trey

Chance to make some hay

The schedule for the next month is VERY favorable. The only games we have against a team currently over .500 is a three game set against the Dodgers in L.A. We do also have three key games against the Astros at home, and 6 games against the Brewers (3 at home, 3 away). We play the Pirates 5 more times over that span. 7 against the Padres, 3 against the Nats and three against the Reds. That's 15 games against probably the 4 worst teams in the NL right now. If we could say, go 20-10 or better over than span, that would set us up real nice for the stretch run. We'll see. Carp was not great tonight, but we still won. Of course, his "not great" still means he went eight innings. Would be nice to see Waino and Pineiro do a little better and lead a sweep.


-Trey

Post-deadline thoughts

Well, what a difference a year makes. Last year, everyone in the Cardinals' Nation was screaming and begging for management to do something, anything, to keep us in the race with the Cubs and Brewers. This year, they did quite a lot. Obviously, Holiday has been on absolute fire since he was acquired, but DeRosa has hit SEVEN home runs and been a huge upgrade at third and Lugo has added almost as much to the offense in the middle infield. He looks like a huge get right now especially with Brenden Ryan's injury. The question is of course, did we savage our farm system for the next couple of years to get all these guys? I don't really think so, as Wallace was the only A-level guy we gave-up. I think there is a real good chance we re-sign at least DeRosa after this year. He'll come cheaper than what we are paying Glaus this year for instance. Lugo is on the team basically for free next year. Holliday might be another matter, but we will have some cash to play with with Pineiro, Glaus, and K. Green all coming-off the books. And if we lose him, we get two new first-round picks to re-stock the farm system. Now, for the rest of baseball:

NL Central - the Cubs made a couple of additions to their bullpen, but that's it. They are pretty cash-strapped with the NL's biggest payroll and an ownership transition. Unfortunately, their line-up has started to wake-up, so I see it as a pick'em between them and us down the stretch. The Brewers weren't able to do anything, and their lack of pitching is catching-up to them. Ditto for the Astros. We have a great chance to help bury them this weekend as they are sans Lance Berkman for a couple more weeks it looks like. Strange trade by the Reds to get Rolen, as it looks like they are out of it with Volquez and Bruce still on the DL.

NL East - Obviously, the Phils are the big winner here. Big favorite to not only win the Division, but get back to the World Series with Cliff Lee in the fold. Smart move to go for him rather than give-up the farm (literally) for Halladay. Braves could make a run at the wild-card if LaRouche can help-out the offense. Mets are playing better, but it looks like Reyes and Delgado won't be back anytime soon.

NL West - Nice move by the Dodgers to get Sherill. They needed help in the pen, especially from the left side, so he was a perfect fit. They should win this division easily, and will be a threat in the post-season, but I think their starting pitching is just not quite good enough. Giants upgraded the offense some, but weren't able to really get that "impact" bat. Still, I see them as the favorite for the wild-card because their pitching is just so good. The Rockies weren't able to do anything to match and seem to be cooling-off a little, but they are streaky team and could always get right back in the wild-card race.

AL: Red Sox made the only moves really in the east, which is surprising. Victor Martinez adds not just power, but versitillity to there everyday line-up. The Yanks are playing great right now, so I guess they didn't want to mess with anything. The Rays obviously, have limited resources and seem doomed to being the third-best team in the entire AL, but not making the playoffs. In the Central, the Tigers and White Sox both bolstered their starting rotations. Peavy to the White Sox was the big move, but it seems questionable if he will really be healthy in time to have a big impact this year. He's signed though 2012, however, so the next couple of seasonsthe White Sox will have a great rotation. The Tigers have to be favored to win the division this year, as Washburn gives them the left-hander they needed to split-up Verlander and Edwin Jackson. The Twins made a nice move to get help in the middle infield getting Cabrera from the A's, but it's doubtful that will be enough. In the West, nothing much happened, so you have to still favor the Angels if they can get even marginally healthy, but unlike past years, they don't look like much of a post-season threat.

That's it. I've gotten to see the Cards on TV a bunch recently between the Astros' games and a few nationally televised games as well. I like what I've seen from the new offense, but the bullpen has shown a few kinks recently. Hopefully, they'll get things turned back around. Last night was a good start. The rotation looks solid aside from the 5 spot. Boggs was rocky last night, but much better than Wellenmeyer sadly. We have a lot of off days the rest of the year thankfully, so we'll be able to skip that spot quite a bit. I'm more excited to be a Cardinal's fan right now than I have been since 2006, I know that!



-Trey

"Be Careful What You Wish For..."

"...you just may get it." So three posts ago I stated: "We can't waste these performances from Carp and Pujols. If we don't take a stab at a major bat NOW we will regret it for years." Now that we've pulled the trigger I keep reading the likes of: "Now that we've taken a stab at a major bat we will regret it for years." I've let this trade marinate for a few days wondering if I'm missing something.

1. DeRosa turned out to be a lot more expensive than I thought. I was shocked to learn that the PTBNL was Jess Todd. However, I still like this trade. We traded out of our bullpen surplus to acquire a solid 3B. Effectively this allows for the Cards to make another move...more on this later.

2. The Lugo deal is perfect...so far. We still don't know the PTBNL. Nevertheless, we get a player for free. We shore up a weakness. We don't have to pay for Duncan. We make room for...

3. ...Matt Holliday. Another player who turned out to be more expensive than I thought. I thought as a rent a player he was worth Wallace alone. But I wasn't taking into consideration the two draft picks Beane gives up by dealing him. The other two really make one worry about the future. However, it really didn't look like Wallace was working out at 3B. Viva El Birdos have raised the objection that if Skippy can play 2nd than Wallace would have been fine at 3rd. Going into the draft, Wallace's suspect defense was no secret. Red Bird Row speculates that the Card's merely drafted the best prospect as opposed to needs based drafting. I.e., they fully intended to trade him. I didn't get to hear his full thoughts on the UCB Radio hour but I don't know why he's surprised. My main concern is even if Wallace was never intended to be a Cardinal, did we get the best value for him?"

4. Funny enough, the newest Cardinals have played CRUCIAL roles in our two most recent wins. Big enough roles that you could reasonably say that we might have lost without them. Of course you never know how someone else might have done in their situation. Yet, if we get more performances out of them like we did this weekend, it should be a good second half.

5. I honestly don't think Mo is done yet. It is no secret that Glaus is on the block, and I believe that we'll see a new 5th man from outside the organization before or even after the deadline. The DeRosa deal really made this possible.

6. IF the Cards can land Holliday to an extension before the end of the season then wow. But I just don't see this happening--Boras is his agent after all. Yet, I don't know how we won't be able to afford him.

7. One thing I really like about DeRosa, Lugo, and Holliday is the speed they bring. The Cards weren't a slow team as it was, but it's so nice to see someone like Holliday with so much power and speed. Not only that, but the recent additions have made the Cards an EXTREMELY flexible team. It's like we have Figgons at every position...okay, maybe not. But there are many players that are capable of moving around. For a TLR team...is nice.

The future is less bright...but really. I honestly don't believe we gave up ANYONE that our hopes were riding on. Instead, we have a very exciting season that actually has promise. With key players playing like they are, now was the time to strike. And when we're hosting a trophy up at the end of the season, we are going to look back at these three deals as the difference.

-CJ

P.S. I think the clubhouse is happy about their new teammates: Check out this celebration after DeRosa's HR.

Big Trade

I'm on my lunch break, so only some quick thoughts on the Holliday trade, which is sure to generate a ton of controversy in the Cardinal Nation.

It's a good trade if......
1. We win the world series this year.
2. We can sign Holliday long-term to pair with Albert.

It's a bad trade if.....
Neither of the above happen. Wallace looks like a future star, and we know we have a big whole at third. The silver lining here is we should have some financial flexibility this off-season with Pineiro, Glauss, K. Greene and Ankiel all likely being let go.

Overall, I applaud Cardinals management for really going for it this year. If DeRosa and Holliday do turn the offense around, we definitely have the pitching to win it all.



-Trey

A Perfect Diversion...

I don't know if anyone has ever noticed, but I almost never talk about something that isn't Cardinal related. Sure, I'll talk about opponents, but if it isn't somehow connected to the Cardinals it doesn't get play. There's always an exception, and this is it: Mark Buehrle for the Chicago White Sox has just pitched a perfect game. I guess the connection is that Buehrle is a St. Louis native. Close enough? Heh

In a really cool twist, a defensive sub, Dewayne Wise made an outstanding juggling catch to rob Gabe Kapler of a HR and to preserve the perfect game. It's not the hardest catch ever made, but considering the circumstances, I defy you to name a better individual catch in the history of baseball. Maybe there's some catch to win a post-season game....maybe I'm just not thinking of it.

Anyhow, it's up there. And I loved it. Congrats to Mark Buehrle and the White Sox.

-CJ

Duncan Dealt

Photo courtesy: Dustin Winter.

Check out DG's blog as he makes this comparison Minute Maid Stadium. Brilliant!

First things first, another strong start is wasted thanks to an anemic offense and a ultra rare blown save by Franklin. Playing in the fun-house against Oswalt I guess we should be happy to be in it. Nevertheless, a sweep to the not-surprisingly resurgent Astros puts us only 1 game ahead of those with the stadium that closest resembles Never-land Ranch. Same good news as last night--DeRosa looks to be finally transitioning well.

Where to start? For those of you who haven't heard, Chris Duncan was dealt to the BoSox for Julio Lugo (who had been DFA), cash considerations (which means that the BoSox will pay nearly all of Lugo's salary), and a PTBNL. In one day, the Red Sox have channeled Phil Donahue and broken up not just one but two baseball families.

Before I go into my opinions on this deal, I want to thank Chris Duncan for his service to the Cardinals. He had a great year in 2006 and has fought through some nagging injuries this past year. I also believed he probably battled a good deal of nepotism rumors and a good deal of reverse nepotism. He handled it all with class. It was no surprise to see him become so popular in the dugout. I really enjoyed him as a part of my Cardinals.

Sooooo, the day before the trade, TLR goes on a rant about the public's treatment of Duncan.

The next day, we were getting seemingly conflicting reports that Duncan had been traded or demoted.

Apparently, they weren't conflicting reports after all: Duncan was officially optioned (How the heck does he have any remaining options?! I musta missed some clause in the rules.) to Memphis before being dealt. It looks like he'll join up with Pawtucket. I wonder why both happened... Speculations galore! Supposedly, it was coincidence that TLR's rant was the day before the trade.

This was a great move, in my opinion. Chris has been struggling at the plate (and was a severe defensive liability) and the Cards have had a rotating outfield for too long. We've had a glut in the OF (so much so that we even converted Skippy to 2B) and many have been clamoring to deal from that surplus...some for a long time. Funny enough, this just might be a preemptive move... I mean, Ankiel's only strength over Duncan is his fielding--and I don't believe Slick Rick is the answer. I honestly wouldn't be shocked at all to see Dye or Dunn come our direction (Holliday too, but to a lesser degree). I really don't see us in the hunt for P Halladay. Although Welly is certainly the weakest link of the rotation, we're losing games with Carp AND Waino on the mound--ALL because of poor run support. Adding another arm won't help us in those games. But I digress, dealing Duncan for a middle infielder works great as we deal out of depth to add depth to an shallow area. Although we are selling low on Duncan, we are buying low on Lugo--both statistically and financially. We'll get Lugo for the remainder of this year and next year for virtually nothing. Sure, we need to find out who the PTBNL is (or if it is cash)--but Lugo will work great. Lugo is not better overall than Ryan. Ryan's glove is vastly superior, but against Southpaws we'll have a better option at the plate. Don't forget we also have to deal with another PTBNL.

If this is the only deadline deal we make, then I'll be disappointed. Although Mo's been infinitely more active this year than last year, we really need to make a run at it this year and next. We can't waste these performances from Carp and Pujols. If we don't take a stab at a major bat NOW we will regret it for years.

All that said, make us regret it, Chris! Best of Luck!
-CJ

P.S. I've finally updated the lineup (blogroll) to the right. Due to the nature that is blogging there are too many blogs to have on a 40 man roster--so I added "Memphis". Most of the active roster blogs are the ones I read the most, but there are good ones from top to bottom, please don't take offense if you're merely on the expanded roster. ;)

P.P.S. Note this interesting tidbit. I don't want to give up too much for a Holliday.

P.P.P.S. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/UCB-Host/2009/07/23/United-Cardinal-Bloggers-Radio-Hour Excellent show guys!

Great Start, big game today

Our two best players carried us like they were supposed to last night. Albert gave us the lead with two solo shots, and Carp went eight scoreless. Equally important, however, was another big hit by Ludwick when they did walk Albert to load the bases in the eighth. If you haven't seen it, check out John's ode to Luds due to his great play recently in the post immediately below this one. More good news: DeRosa had a pain-free BP session yesterday, so maybe he'll be able to come-off the DL as soon as he is eligible. Honestly, if we plug him the the line-up everyday, I think we can survive the lack of production at either third or left field. It's having holes at both those places that is killing us. Really interesting match-up on the mound today. D-Backs All-star Haren, who leads in the NL in ERA, vs. Waino, who in my opinion has been as good as anyone in baseball the last six weeks. It would be huge to beat Haren and have a chance at the sweep before the upcoming roadtrip, that's for sure.




-Trey

My Ode to Luds

Thudwick, Luddy, Luds, Studwick (for you ladies out there), whatever you want to call him. This is my temp tribute to him and the rest of the 70's-bad-stash-wearing-'87-wanna-be-Cards. By temporary I mean, 30 seconds after I took the picture, the stash was gone. Luds is on freakin' fire. Get that man in there EVERY DAY!

UCB Live Blog

July 12, 2009: United Cardinal Bloggers (UCB) Live Blog Event

Half-way thoughts - NL Races

Aside from the Dodgers, who are way out in front in the West, the Nationals (who are hands-down the worst team in baseball, and maybe the Padres and D-Backs; every NL team is basically in the same boat. They all have holes in their line-ups, voids in their pitching staff, and injuries they don't have the depth to replace. It's going to be a very interesting second half of the season. One hot streak can easily put a team in first in the NL East or Central and conversely a cold streak will put you in last. It's tough to predict what will happen because of this, but here is what I think.

NL East - The Mets are probably the best team, but they've been killed by injuries. The Phillies are leading right now, but their pitching is a mess, and it's hard to see a way for them to fix that. The most complete team right now is probably the Marlins. They have a porous defense, but their pitching and line-up are quite good. I think they'll make a run at it, but that the Mets will get just healthy enough to win the division with a pedestrian 88 wins.

NL Central - I went over this quite a bit yesterday, but I'll just re-iterate that I think the Cardinals can and should win this division. They have the best pitching staff, and the offense should warm up enough for them to pull away. The Brewers don't have the starting pitching, and the Cubs' line-up and bullpen is a mess. The Reds could be a surprise team though.

NL West - Obviously, it would be a huge shock for the Dodgers to falter here.

NL Wildcard - As I said before, basically 12 of the 16 teams in the NL are contenders for this. The biggest contenders are the Cubs, Phillies, Marlins, Giants and Rockies. All of these teams have major faults. The Giants have by far the best pitching, but desperately need a bat. If they can get that in a trade, I like their chances. If not, I'll take the experience and talent of the Phillies, but really it's a coin-flip between any of these clubs.

My predicted results would pit the Cards against the Giants in the first round. Not a match-up I would love with Lincecum and Cain maybe the best 1-2 punch in baseball. Carp-Waino is nothing to laugh at, but still. In other words, I'm kinda hoping the Giants DON'T get another bat, because they'd be a real tough out in the postseason.



-Trey

Half Way Thoughts - On the Cards

To make-up for my lack of blogging activity lately, I'm going to use the holiday weekend to do a series of posts. Today I'll cover the main team. Later today or tomorrow I'll discuss the NL as a whole. And then finally I'll briefly go over the AL race and give my mid-season awards and playoff predictions based on what we've seen so far. So, here's how I stack-up our team so far:

Where we stand now: Well, the team obviously hasn't played great since April. The main reason for that is the offense. Amazingly, Albert is having probably his best season ever to this point, which is really saying something. The rest of team, however, has been not too good. Shu and Ryan have done a pretty good job of getting on base thankfully, or else Albert would never get pitched to. The so-called power hitters in Ludwick, Ankiel and Duncan have been dreadful, though Luds has begun to show signs of life this week. I'm beginning to wonder if Ankiel will ever to disciplined enough to truly be an everyday player and I'm glad he's a free-agent after this year right now. Rasmus looks like not just the future in CF, but the better player by far right now. Duncan to me has looked like he at least has a clue at the plate, but he just hasn't shown the power this year yet. You have to wonder if his neck is 100%. I definitely applaud the DeRosa acquisition by management. He is a big upgrade at third for starters, and is the kind of versatile player LaRussa loves. It's not Mozeliak's fault he got hurt right away, that's just bad luck. Certainly Perez has the potential to be a good closer in the future, but right now, Franklin has been golden and you have to give-up something good to get something good. IF we can get DeRosa healthy and a couple of the outfielders step-up a little, that should be enough offense -because the pitching has been outstanding. The best pitched game I've seen all year was this past Wednesday with Wainwright going 9 and striking-out 12. Carp has been great, Pineiro very good. Wellenmeyer has been the weak-link, but he showed good signs this past start. Thompson has been a decent fill-in, but fortunately Lohse should be back in a week. The bullpen has been almost the polar-opposite of last year. Led by the near-perfect Franklin, they've given-up few leads and often kept us in other close games late. Now, yesterday was one of the few times the offense has managed to take advantage of that and stoke a come-back, but I believe more of those are in the future. We'll need Kinney and Motte to pitch better than they have with Perez gone, but I'm hopeful they can do that.

So what about the future, Conan? Well, looking ahead, all the way to September, 2009, the NL Central is obviously still up for grabs, as well as the wild-card. As poorly as we've played, we sit today atop the division by one game over the Brewers. Granted, we only have a 6 game lead over the LAST PLACE team (the Pirates), so that shows we still have a lot of work to do. Personally, I don't think the Brewers have the pitching to stay with over the long run unless they can find another Sabathia-type deal out there. The Cubs, obviously, are a team to watch. Their line-up has been even worse than ours though, and they don't have a Pujols to carry them. Their bullpen has also been a problem. Honestly, the Reds could be a team to watch if they can get Volquez back, because that would give them a great rotation. Overall, however, I think this race is ours to lose. I feel we've weathered the worst from an offensive stand-point, and the team should just better from here on out. Lohse and DeRosa hopefully shouldn't be out much longer and there is even hope Glaus could return sometime in the next 6 weeks or so. Certainly, other injuries could happen. We always keep a watchful eye on Carp and I'm a little worried we've asked too much of Franklin so far (has has pitched the last three days in a row for instance). Still, I think the team has to start hitting and hitting for power, and even a little more run support should send us on a big streak which could easily allow us to run away and hide from this mediocre division. It would be nice to have a little lead heading into what should be a fun and historic all-star break for the Cardinals and the city of St. Louis.




-Trey