Posted 12:58 PM by Brian
SEARCHING FOR RICK ANKIEL If someone had told me back in March that the Cardinals would basically sit out the September pennant race, I'd have guessed that the team had transmogrified into the late-'90s, McGwire-era Cards: big fat individual numbers surrounded by an emaciated supporting cast. Instead we've basically ended the race by playing some of the most inspired ball in Cardinals history, leaving only a few areas of drama before the postseason starts, namely:

1. Watching that Magic Number at left shrink and shrink.

2. Watching to see who we might play in the playoffs. The contenders for the first round are: L.A., Atlanta, San Fran, or San Diego. We'll know more about how we match up with the Pads and Dodgers after we go head-to-head with them over the next two weeks. Otherwise I'd say it's six/half-dozen with each of them; they worry and unworry me equally.

3. Watching to see what kind of cool numbers the team can compile. Will we win 102 games (the most since 1944)? Will Pujols hit 50 dingers (he's on pace for precisely 50 right now)? How many ribbies will Rolen collect? Can Izzy lead the league in saves? Can the Cards have four 16-game winners (again, haven't done that since 1944)? What about three 40-HR guys? Should be fun stuff to watch.

4. This would have been unthinkable a few weeks ago -- but will Rick Ankiel pitch good, meaningful baseball in a Cardinals uniform again? This is one of the hottest side stories in baseball right now, with most of baseball pulling for the kid for humanitarian reasons alone.

His minor-league numbers are pretty dazzling: 23 strikeouts, 2 walks, an ERA under 1.00, and -- best of all -- he seems to be getting better and stronger the higher he goes up the ladder. Can it continue? Hell, who knows. No one has been able to diagnose what ailed Ankiel to begin with, so it'd be foolish to pretend we know the prescription.

But there are two things that have me more excited than I might normally be. First of all, Ankiel is not only showing good control, but with only two walks in 23.2 innings (against 23 K's), he's showing better control than he ever did. I know I might get arrested here by the Small Sample Size Police, but Ankiel's 0.76 walks-per-nine is better than his previous season low of 2.80. And it's much better than the 4.5 walks-per-nine he had in the major leagues before he went haywire.

The other reason for optimism is that, since his meltdown, Ankiel has occasionally shown flashes of brilliance -- like his 1.34 ERA and 1.85 BB/9 totals in the '01 rookie leagues -- but he's never done this well above A ball, even for one game. You may remember that Ankiel pitched a swell game vs. Randy Johnson at the start of the '01 season. But even then he walked three guys in only five innings.

Obviously, though, there are the usual cautions: Ankiel has pitched only a handful of innings so far, it was against bush-league competition, he's been largely inoculated from an all-out media blitz (which would change if he made it to St. Louie), and, most importantly, we never know when or if Ankiel will be officially "cured." Sadly, it's all too easy to see Rick getting up here and winging a few to the backstop (and no matter how well I gird myself for it, I know it'll feel like a knife to the gut).

But suppose Ankiel comes up here and pitches swimmingly -- what will that tell us? After all, it's only September baseball, without much heat from the pennant race, and Ankiel will most likely be used in comfy, mop-up settings only. So if he passes that test, what about spring training, or next season, or the next time Ankiel is in a stretch-drive game, or in a playoff game? Is his syndrome over, or merely hibernating? Who knows? But it'll be fun to take the plunge and find out.

Posted 12:48 PM by Brian
CARROLL KISSES, MAKES UP Will Carroll sent me a nice email yesterday, clarifying and defending some recent swipes he made at the Cardinals. He goes further with this write-up in today's Under the Knife column:

My pal Brian Gunn of Redbird Nation called me to task for my jabs at the Cardinals' rotation. I'm an admitted Cubs fan, but try hard to stay objective and honestly, I don't hate the Cards. I may not wear my Cards jersey anymore, but that's simply because J.D. Drew moved on. I remain unconvinced about the Cards rotation, but the fact that it has been so successful is testament to Dave Duncan and Walt Jocketty. Jocketty gave Duncan what he works with best: older pitchers with talent who have had mechanical and injury problems. Chris Carpenter is one of the top stories, showing some light in the darkness of labrum statistics. You'll probably remember last August, when I was regularly unconvinced by the Florida Marlins. As far as the staff goes, they'll be better when they get Steve Kline back. He should be back when eligible on September 12th, plenty of time to let Tony La Russa see he's healthy.

Posted 9:23 AM by Brian
SELF-LOVE ITEM OF THE DAY I did an interview with a cool online pub called SportsFan Magazine recently. Hopefully I represented Redbirddom well -- check it out if you get a chance.

Posted 11:53 PM by Brian
BASEBALL BALLET, REVISITED Speaking of grace on the ballfield, our good friend June passes along this apt photo:

Posted 8:53 AM by Brian
A CHANGE OF HEART I got a kick out of this pair of comments --

Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon before Sunday's game: "They're much more talented than we are at this stage of the game, but I enjoy playing the Cardinals. You don't like the losses, obviously, but I really believe the competition has made us a better club. It has elevated our game. I think because of it we're going to be a better team next year."

Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon after Sunday's game: "Quite frankly, I'm tired of talking about St. Louis. I'm glad to see them leave."

Posted 4:24 PM by Brian
BASEBALL BALLET You can't do much to convince someone who's not into sports to fall in love with them, but occasionally I've tried. At times I've found myself arguing with bookish sorts that baseball is like any three-act narrative, with heroes, villains, dramatic tension, and far less predictable endings than you're likely to find in most movies, plays, or novels. Other times I've tried to argue (with women, mostly) that baseball is nothing more than ballet for guys. After all, I don't watch SportsCenter to get the stats or the scores, which I can get more quickly and thoroughly over the Internet. No, I watch them for the highlights, the Web Gems, the look of the ball leaving the bat on a home run, and the entire kinetic thrill of bodies in motion.

There were a number of great things about this weekend -- we swept three from the Bucs, continued our streak of winning road trips, gave most of our starters a rest, saw Pujols go to .300/30 HR/100RBI + for the fourth straight year, improved our record to 42 games over .500, widened our division lead to 15 games, and surpassed our win total from last year. But the real treat about Birdinal baseball these days is that you can sit back and sink into the games without fretting too much about the scoreboard. (That doesn't explain why I chucked a shoe against the wall when the Cards fell in extra innings the other night, but I'm trying to make a point here...) Our comfy lead going into September makes it easier to enjoy the ballet of baseball. So rather than discuss anything that happened on the field this series, hopefully these pix from Yahoo! will speak for me:

Posted 3:09 PM by Brian
PLAYA HATER WATCH Two weeks ago we chronicled a few digs that medhead Will Carroll had taken at the Cardinals. We should probably turn it into a regular feature after this item buried in one of his recent columns:

Is Ankiel the savior for a shaky Cards rotation in the late season?

             Games  Quality Starts

Cardinals     28         17  

Cubs          28         14

Posted 2:52 PM by Brian
FINISHERS Bernie Miklasz passes along these neat stats re: the Cards' success in the late innings:

Through Wednesday, the Cardinals led the National League with 40 comeback wins. From the seventh inning on, they were outhitting opponents .269 to .223 and outhomering them 53-30. They had outscored opponents by 78 runs after the sixth inning, a margin more than twice as high as the next-closest mark in the majors. (The Yankees and Rangers were next, with a 34-run differential). The Cardinals' 213 runs after the sixth were tied with San Francisco for most in the majors, and their 135 runs allowed were the fewest in the majors. By comparison, the 1987 NL champion Cardinals had just a one-run advantage (243-242) after the sixth inning, and the 1982 World Series champion Cardinals were actually outscored by 13 runs after the sixth inning (221-208).

Posted 1:46 PM by Brian
THE BLUE BALL YEARS That was the name my brother Matt gave to this era of Cardinals history, where the team has gone to the postseason in four of the past eight years but hasn't seen their success, er, climax in a World Series victory. (Although perhaps we shouldn't complain too much, as the cases of blue balls in Chicago, Cleveland, and Boston have now advanced into something like gangrene, amputation, and/or death.)

Dan over at Get Up, Baby! now has a cool post up where he compares the starting lineups of our past four division-winning teams (1996, 2000, 2001, and 2002) against this year's model. His conclusion? The '04 Cards are awesome -- but then again, so was that '00 team, what with Big Mac and Thrill at first, Vina's best year in a Cardinal uniform, and Lankford last superlative year in the Lou. Hard not to wonder what may have been if Ankiel had kept his head on straight that year.

Posted 12:43 PM by Brian
REGIONALISM REDUX Last week Eric Gagne said Adrian Beltre won't get recognition as MVP because of East Coast bias, despite the fact that 14 of the last 16 MVPs have played in the Western Division. And just the other day Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated said this about San Diego's Jake Peavy:

He's a bit overlooked this year because he missed a few starts, doesn't have a tremendous win total, and suffers from the usual bias toward teams that play in the Eastern time zone.

   Award    BBWAA Winner (WS)     Shares Winner (WS)      "Bias"



95 AL MVP   Mo Vaughn (24)        Edgar Martinez (32)      East

95 NL MVP   Barry Larkin (30)     Barry Bonds (36)         East

96 AL MVP   Juan Gonzalez (21)    Alex Rodriguez (34)      East

96 NL MVP   Ken Caminiti (38)     Jeff Bagwell (41)        West

97 AL MVP   Ken Griffey (36)      Frank Thomas (39)        West

97 NL MVP   Larry Walker (32)     Piazza (39), Gwynn (39)  East

98 NL Cy    Tom Glavine (23)      Kevin Brown (26)         East

98 AL MVP   Juan Gonzalez (28)    Albert Belle (37)         --

98 NL MVP   Sammy Sosa (35)       Mark McGwire (41)         --

99 AL MVP   Ivan Rodriguez (28)   Roberto Alomar (35)       --

99 NL MVP   Chipper Jones (32)    Jeff Bagwell (37)         --

01 AL Cy    Roger Clemens (19)    Joe Mays (22)             --

01 AL MVP   Ichiro Suzuki (36)    Jason Giambi (38)         --

02 AL MVP   Miguel Tejada (32)    Alex Rodriguez (35)      West

03 NL MVP   Barry Bonds (39)      Albert Pujols (41)       West

Posted 12:36 PM by Brian
THE CARDINALS OF THE KREMLIN There's a good new Cardinals blog out there that I forgot to mention in last week's roundup. It's called The Hunt for a Red October, and it's written by Benjamin Franklin, an 18th-century American statesman and inventor.

Posted 12:31 PM by Brian
DREW IT AGAIN So the Diamondbacks may not be able to sign their #1 pick, Stephen Drew, younger bro of J.D. If Drew isn't signed, he'll go back into the amateur draft, which sets up a potential repeat of 1998...

Posted 10:05 PM by Brian
WHAT IF YOU THREW A BASEBALL GAME AND NO ONE CAME? They say there were 19,000 people watching tonight's contest in Cincy, but I think they used the same counting mechanisms they used in Chicago in 1960. The crowd had to be closer to 19 than 19,000, which lent a weird sense of irreality to the proceedings, like maybe the two teams were playing underwater or something. I swear at one point I heard someone in the stands sneeze.

But unfortunately this one counted, regardless of whether anyone was there to record it. (The scoreboard wasn't working all game, which added to the ghostliness of things.) Each inning I expected something to happen -- a ball to explode off Pujols' bat, or a 500-foot home run by Adam Dunn, or someone to crack open a bottle of that vintage Cardinals Magic -- but the two starting pitchers (who both went the distance, by the way) made sure they suppressed all uprisings.

Carpenter was almost perfect (although unfortunately the operative word is almost). It was the fourth time this year he pitched 8 innings and gave up one or no runs. Only two guys got to second on him all night -- one on an error, the other on a home run trot. The latter was of course Sean Casey, whose jack in the 6th was the only interruption to Carpenter's steady rock-and-fire-rock-and-fire efficiency. All in all, a brilliant performance, just not brilliant enough.

Aaron Harang, on the other hand, was brilliant, from start to finish. It may have been the best performance by a mound opponent this year: 9 innings, only 4 baserunners, 106 pitches, 73 strikes. The most amazing thing was the way he treated our Big Four of Walker, Pujols, Rolen, and Edmonds: collectively oh-for-14 with 4 K's, and only two balls out of the infield. Wow.

He did get a little help along the way. In the 8th inning Renteria hit a bomb to right center that Austin Kearns made a diving, sprawling catch on. And the next batter, Reggie Sanders, got robbed by another diving play, this time by third baseman Felipe Lopez. Two of the best back-to-back grabs I've seen in a long time. At that point you just had to tip your cap to the Reds; they outplayed us, pure and simple.

The real moment of truth for Harang came with two outs in the ninth. Up 'til that point, the Cards were only a Tony Womack away from being no-hit. But Walker's nubber through the infield brought up the final showdown: Big Bad Albert, potential winning run at the dish. The crowd -- all 19 of them -- came alive, sounding more like 19,000 at last. And just like a week ago against Cincy, Pujols ended the game by bouncing out to the left side. Damn Kryptonite.

So the Cards drop a rare road series, and in truth they quite easily could have been swept. (Although, to be fair, the Reds quite easily could have been swept too -- each game was decided by one late-inning run.) I think it's too soon to draw any conclusions about the current mood of this Cardinals team, but they don't look quite as spunky as usual, even with the big come-from-behind win last night. Rolen, for one, looks extremely tired. No hits in 11 ABs in the series, plus an uncharacteristic error. It might be wise to rest him for a game in Pittsburgh before the SoCal niners come to town on Tuesday.

I will say one thing, though: it feels very weird to be fretting about a team that's gone 17-7 on the month.

Posted 4:00 PM by Brian
KAP KONTROVERSY What follows is an authentic, on-the-record phone interview I conducted with Major League Baseball from inside my head:

[phone rings]

MLB: Hello, Major League Baseball speaking.

RBN: A ten-game suspension for Julian Tavarez? Just for having gunk on his cap?

MLB: Who is this?

RBN: Redbird Nation. You don't recognize my voice?

MLB: Sorry, Redbird, you sounded like someone else. As for the stuff on Tavarez's cap, first of all it wasn't just any old gunk --

RBN: -- all right, dirt, whatever.

MLB: No, pine tar. Key difference.

RBN: How so?

MLB: Pine tar is a foreign substance. You can't have it on your cap. Tavarez did, so we suspended him.

RBN: So just having it on your cap is enough to get you busted?

MLB: Check out the rule book. 8.02(b) -- you can't have on your person, or in your possession, any foreign substance. If you do, you're out the game, if not several games.

RBN: I don't get it. Biggio, Thome, Vlad Guerrero -- they all come to the plate with pine tar caked all over their batting helmets. No one tosses them out.

MLB: Because they're not pitchers. 8.02(b) only applies to pitchers.

RBN: I still don't get it. Steve Kline has been in hundreds of games with gunk all over his hat -- Gagne too. Are you sure there isn't a double standard here with Tavarez?

MLB: You're missing the point. The infraction is the foreign substance. Kline's hat is dirty, but that's dirt from the playing field. Totally incidental. Same with Gagne and his sweat-stained cap.

RBN: Okay, so what is it about this pine tar? Isn't it something that only helps batters?

MLB: It can help pitchers too -- not much with the fastball, but you put it on a breaking pitch and you'll see the ball do some crazy things. Altering the grip or shape of a baseball will always be an advantage to the pitcher.

RBN: Okay, so I get all that. But hasn't Tavarez had this stuff on his cap all year? In fact, this was the third time the umps inspected him. Presumably he had the same caps, same gunk, and yet this was his first ejection. What gives?

MLB: There were a few differences this time. First of all, Tavarez and La Russa admitted to Joe West that the substance on his cap was pine tar or resin or some similar foreign substance.

RBN: Exactly. Grime and resin and pine tar -- all that gunk we were talking about -- collects on an unwashed cap over the course of a year, just by happenstance, same as the dirt on Kline's cap or the sweat on Gagne's. By admitting this, surely La Russa and Tavarez weren't fessing up to the crime of doctoring baseballs. They were fessing up to the crime of having incidental gunk on his cap.

MLB: Again, it doesn't matter -- like I said before, just having an illegal substance on your person is enough to get you kicked out. When we found a nail file on Joe Niekro a number of years back, or a thumbtack on Kevin Gross, we didn't need to get into the intetionality of the pitcher or anything like that. We didn't even need to find doctored baseballs. All we needed was the offending object, and in this case all we needed was Tavarez's gunky hat.

RBN: Now, wait a minute -- if that were true you'd have the hat itself. But you gave it back to Tavarez.

MLB: Joe West saw it. So did the rest of our umpiring crew. That's enough for us.

RBN: That's enough to throw Tavarez out of the game, but is it enough to suspend him? I mean, if someone's, say, corking his bat, you'd certainly want to have the bat and you'd want it analyzed. Why then don't you have Tavarez's cap?

MLB: Ask him. Didn't he throw it into the stands?

RBN: You gave it back to him. He's free to do whatever he wants with it.

MLB: But don't you find it odd that he got rid of it so quickly? It's like flushing the dime bag down the toilet before the cops come.

RBN: Well, if you want to extend the analogy you guys basically sentenced a guy to jail because you heard water swishing around in the toilet. There's no evidence of a serious crime.

MLB: We do have evidence. We have baseballs he doctored.

RBN: When? You tossed him while he was throwing warm-up pitches.

MLB: Yeah, but he threw the inning before that. We have those baseballs, and they do show the presence of a foreign substance.

RBN: Where are these baseballs? He threw only 5 pitches -- one was fouled out of a play and is presumably on someone's mantelpiece right now. Another was hit in play and easily could have collected pine tar from a player's bat. So you're talking at the most three questionable baseballs, and that would be if the ump threw out a new baseball on every single pitch. I don't buy it. In fact, I don't think you have any baseballs.

MLB: Okay, maybe we don't.

RBN: What?

MLB: Nothing.

RBN: Dude, I totally heard you admit you were lying.

MLB: No, I just, you know, sneezed, and by coincidence it probably came out sounding like human speech.

[Redbird Nation sighs]

MLB: Look, we do know that the balls Tavarez threw were doing some wicked things in that game. Talk to Lloyd McClendon. His guys told him Tavarez was throwing a 90-mph knuckleball.

RBN: Which guys? Tavarez faced only one batter that game. McClendon was trying to mess with Tavarez's head and now he's just covering his own ass by making up witnesses. Besides, McClendon himself said last year that Tavarez doesn't doctor his pitches.

MLB: Right, when he was his manager and looking out for him. Now that he's on the other team, he has an interest in telling the truth.

RBN: Why do you assume that? Doesn't he have just as much interest in making shit up? Here's what I think: I think you guys don't like that schtik Tavarez pulled by leaving the field and throwing his arms around the home plate ump; I think you don't like that he threw his cap into the stands when your own umps should have confiscated it; and I think you just plain don't like Julian Tavarez. His crime is alot like Driving While Black -- Pitching While Flaky. So you threw the book at him.

MLB: Nonsense. We don't consider the personality of anyone we suspend.

RBN: Well, perhaps you should. I mean, have you heard Tavarez talk about this incident? He makes sense.

MLB: Yeah, Julian Tavarez always makes sense. Same guy who called fans in San Francisco "a bunch of assholes and faggots." Same guy who slammed an umpire to the ground about seven or eight years ago.

RBN: Okay, I'll admit -- Julian has a few screws loose. But the man said he didn't doctor baseballs and he swore on the heads of his own children! Now, forgive me if this is some kind of gross stereotype, but it's been my experience that when Latino men start swearing on the lives of their family they're telling the truth.

MLB: Look, even if Tavarez is more-or-less innocent, even if he had good motives, we have to uphold the rule, and the rules say you can't have gunk on your cap.

RBN: Probably because you don't want the MLB logo obscured for merchandising.

MLB: What, are you a Marxist now?

RBN: No, I'm just upset that there seems to be a double standard. I don't believe you guys have proof of wrongdoing, you only have one grimy cap. What's more, by precedent you've always let this stuff slide in the past. That's a dangerous place to be -- sorta like the Pine Tar Incident twenty years ago, where baseball decided to crack down on something that it had always winked at. According to the letter of the law, they were right. According to the practice of the law, they were wrong. That's called bad policy and, again, a very dangerous place to be.

MLB: You're being hyperbolic. You know how these things work -- we hand down a ten-game suspension, Tavarez appeals, we reduce it to seven games, and by that time it's September, the Cards have wrapped up the division, and you're more concerned with how Rick Ankiel pitches out of the pen than any of this rigamarole. So let it go.

RBN: I would be able to let it go if it weren't for Stinkhat.

MLB: Who's Stinkhat?

RBN: Steve Kline. Krazy Kliner. Says he won't wear his greasecap now for fear of getting busted by the boys upstairs.

MLB: So what?

RBN: That cap's like Samson's hair, man. It gives Kline power and courage. If he gives up a salami to Derrek Lee in the NLCS, I'm blaming you.

MLB: Jesus, I gotta go...

RBN: Okay. Thanks for talking to us. By the way, can you score me any good seats for the playoffs?

[click]

Posted 7:21 PM by Brian
SWEET RELIEF There. Now that's more like it. Tonight was iffy, bumpy, and occasionally ugly -- the winning run scored on a wild pitch -- but in the end the Redbirds came out on top. So now let's do that thing where I make a series of glib comments:

                            IN   ER  HR  BB  K   ERA

Woody vs. Cincinnati       31.3  19   8  14  29  5.46

Woody vs. everyone else   117.3  46   7  36  73  3.53

       AVG   OBP   SLG

ATL   .162  .205  .204

STL   .163  .201  .206

Posted 12:01 AM by Brian
ROLEN'S TRAVELS When the story of Scott Rolen is told at the end of his career, hopefully at some podium in Cooperstown, it'll be told in two parts: his years in Philadelphia will end in a haze of rancor and misunderstanding, and his years in St. Louis will seem like one big warm embrace.

But the real story isn't so cleanly bifurcated. As this Post-Dispatch article suggests, Scotty was far from happy his first season wearing the Birds on the Bat:

Rolen admits 2003 bothered him... Abstaining from specifics, [he] said, "There were things that were allowed to slide that I didn't understand. At some point, you look around and ask, 'What the heck's going on?' Right now, guys are having fun coming to the ballpark. It's a game and everybody's having a great time. Last year it was like a job. What shoe was going to fall next? What's going to happen? Is somebody going to get upset in the clubhouse?... Last season was not comfortable. It was not fun."

Posted 10:51 PM by Brian
FUN WITH P/PA! You know it's a slow Monday when the Cards don't have a game and you find yourself looking at the pitches-per-plate-appearance numbers over at ESPN's sortable stats page. The Cards have three of the 20 most patient hitters in the league: Jim Edmonds (4th in P/PA), Rolen (14th), and... Tony Womack? Yup. He comes in at #18 in terms of pitches per plate appearance.

Now, this doesn't mean that T-Dub is drawing a lot of base on balls. He's on pace for only 43 in 145 games, and his walk rate is the same as it was in 2002, his last full season of play. But luckily he's sporting the highest BA, OBP, and SLG of his entire career, and has been one of the more productive second basemen in the league (although that's partly due to injuries to other 2Bmen like Marcus Giles and Junior Spivey).

But the reason I checked out the P/PA numbers to begin with is because I was interested in Albert Pujols. He set a goal before the season to draw 100 walks, but he's on track to fall short of the mark. Plus I've noticed that his strikeouts are up and his walks are down since the All-Star break:

                  K/100 PA    BB/100 PA

Pre-All Star        6.6         13.6

Post-All Star      10.1         10.1

Posted 5:00 PM by Brian
EDGAR 11, BUCS 4 For awhile it seemed like this game might be like Saving Private Ryan, with all the good stuff in the beginning, but Edgar and Walker and Co. provided us with a few late fireworks to cap off a nice third act. Some notes:

                         Games    Grand Slams

Larry Walker, MTL/COL    1,845         5

Larry Walker, STL          13          2

Posted 2:46 PM by Brian
ODDS AND SODS Here's a grabbag of stuff filling up a folder on my virtual desktop:

Posted 1:10 PM by Brian
ANTHONY REYES WATCH Last summer we followed the exploits of Danny Haren during his trek through the minors. Now we can follow Cardinal-to-be Anthony Reyes (not to be confused with recent bullpen addition Al Reyes). Last night in Tennessee, Anthony struck out 11 in 7 shuout innings, and added a home run of his own for good measure. Over his last two starts covering 14 innings, Reyes has struck out 26 guys against only one walk. It's becoming more and more obvious why the Cards felt comfortable dealing Chris Narveson to Colorado -- Reyes is our future hotshot now.

Posted 4:54 PM by Brian
CAP FLAP The latest brouhaha down at Busch is absolutely priceless. I can't decide what's the best part. Is it Tavarez putting his arm around home plate ump Ron Kulpa and suggesting they grab a beer after the game? Or is it Tavarez dumping all his caps on McClendon's desk? Or is it McClendon storming out of his office, slamming the door, and weepily cutting Tony La Russa's photos out of his friendship collage?

Didn't I tell you that Joe West has to be the star of every game he works? He kicked out Tavarez just for the hell of it. After all, if there was an illegal substance on the cap it would have been confiscated.

Posted 3:35 PM by Flynn
What I'd do if I were Tony LaRussa....

Give Larry Walker this Sunday off. Joe West and his mysterious strike zone will be back behind the plate Sunday. Given Larry's abominable performance Thursday (0-5 with three Ks and two GIDPs) it seems wise to just keep him away from any plate with Mr. Illegal Pitch behind it.

Enter Ray King in a contest sponsored by these guys. Bet on Ray. Clean up.

Use Cal Eldred more. His performance has picked up significantly recently, which coincides with an increased workload. The team apparently isn't going to pick up any right-handed bullpen help (and the marquee September call-up is a certain enigmatic lefthander) so it would seem prudent to keep Eldred in top form down the stretch. One would presume that he, Izzy, Tavarez, and one of the starters would make up the right-handed side of the postseason bullpen.

Take and hour and watch the Sklar brothers hilarious show where they campaign to get Jose Oquendo in the Hall of Fame. Then, join the movement. He did, after all, strike out Deion Sanders looking.

Use Marquis as a pinch hitter. Just a few times because it's cool.

Understand that everyone knows I wear glasses. Taking them off and putting them in my shirt when I run on the field fools nobody.

"Call" on Renteria every time he stretches his arm above his head during a game. This happens about once every minute so the hilarity should be non-stop. Imagine "Yes, Edgar, do you have something to tell the class?" Every time. Oh, that would be great. And surely Edgar would call his agent and ask to re-sign right away. I'm a funny manager guy.

Hopefully I'd have already done this, but assure Lankford he will be back on the team Sept. 1. I'm guessing this has happened and was the only reason ray accepted the minor league assignment.

Just drop the posing and fly down to Houston this weekend and kick Dusty Baker's ass. Dusty's kind of big, though. Better bring Dunc.

Write this on the underside of my cap - "Infielders cannot just go play the outfield. This is the majors. It's hard."

Secure a visa to visit whatever planet Roger Cedeno seems to escape to during some of his at bats. Go there; convince Roger to return to Missouri. Hope for the best.

Disappear from the dugout mid-game and show up in the Fox Sports Booth to whale away on Al Hrabosky with a fungo bat. (Sub in Jeff Brantley for Hrabosky if it's an ESPN game.) All that "He's not Herzog so he sucks" crap would end right there.

Three words - Nurture The Mullet.

Posted 12:02 AM by Brian
CARDSAPALOOZA I've heard some people complain that the Cards aren't getting the attention they deserve this year. But in this day and age it's nearly impossible for a team with the best record in baseball not to get a lot of press, and to my eyes it seems the Cards have had their fair share: they've been the Fox and ESPN games of the week many times, their game highlights frequently kick off SportsCenter, and they've been #1 in every power ranking I've seen for weeks on end.

But if you're still not convinced, take a look at the outpouring of love for the Birdinals all around the web recently. First there's Peter Gammons' homage to GM Walt Jocketty, which has this interesting quote from Tony La Russa:

"There may not be anyone else who has brought the types of star players to one team the way Walt has. It started in 1996 when he got Todd Stottlemyre to make us a contender, and it's gone on and on to Mark McGwire and Darryl Kile, Jim Edmonds, Rolen, Edgar Renteria... Star players, star people."

It is Ernie Els-like, you wonder how the ball travels so far when he swings with seemingly so little effort and force.

Posted 9:44 PM by Brian
NOT OUR NIGHT This was a strange one. Scott Rolen made two errors, one a dropped popup and one right through his legs. Larry Walker came up four times after a Tony Womack single -- twice he whiffed, twice he grounded into a DP. And the Cards got a dramatic two-out, game-tying home run from Reggie Sanders in the bottom of the ninth, then turned around and dropped the game in extra innings. It was their fourth loss in a row to the Pirates. Very strange.

This is not to say the Bucs didn't deserve to win. Oliver Perez was on tonight, routinely ratcheting it up to 96 mph on the radar gun. He's probably one of the ten best pitchers in the NL at this point, and, at only 23 years old, figures to be a major thorn in the Cardinals' side for years to come. This is especially disconcerting given his awful facial hair (is there anything worse than high-maintenance stubble?).

I don't have much more to say about this game, but I will say this: Joe West, who worked home plate tonight, is just about the worst umpire in all of baseball. (I'd put him second from the bottom, just ahead of Jerry Crawford.) It's bad enough that West has no discernible strike zone, even worse that he has to make himself the star of every game he works. He baits players, holds grudges, goes out of his way to make "startling" calls (I didn't see the illegal pitch call he made against Oliver Perez, but I'm betting he made it up just to show everyone who's boss). Last May, West called out Scott Rolen for failing to tag up from third base on a flyball, but the replays showed that Rolen clearly left on time. As I wrote back then, West is "the type of smug, complacent ump who gets so bored that he needs to insert himself into the action now and again." I'd put him in the same category as small-town cops and high school administrators -- petty tyrants who throw their weight around simply because they can.

Posted 6:42 PM by Brian
SO FAR SO GOOD Dan at Get Up, Baby! takes a look at Rick Ankiel's first start in Double A. Not bad, Rick. Not bad at all...

Posted 9:15 PM by Brian
PASS THE MIC A few weeks ago SI.com ran a piece by Tom Verducci in which he picked his favorite baseball broadcasters of all time. I can’t complain much about his choices – personally I’d’ve picked Jack Buck over Harry Caray for play-by-play, but beyond that, who am I to say? I mean, I’ve never even heard Red Barber or Ernie Harwell or Curt Gowdy for more than ten seconds in a row.

So I thought it might be fun to do the flipside of this article. But rather than draw up a list of my least favorite broadcasters, I’ll give you a list of my least favorite broadcasterisms – on-air tics, opinions, and idiocies that drive me up a wall. At first I thought I'd do a Top Ten list, but that's sort of a clam. Besides, I know you're busy, so instead I present to you my 9 Baseball Broadcast Pet Peeves, in no particular order:

1. No one sucks.

Announcers often seem like they're covering a Little League game -- every hitter is dangerous, every pitcher has good stuff, and the newest player on the roster is a great pickup who gets a honeymoon period for at least a year.

But the main beneficiaries of broadcaster largesse are veterans coasting by on reputation alone. Just tonight Al Hrabosky and Dan McLaughlin went on and on about what a fine pitcher Danny Graves was, even though he was getting hit hard, and even though he hasn't been sharp for two years now. In the same way, Jeff Bagwell is considered a top-shelf first baseman, despite a steady drop-off in value.

Baseball announcers rely on rep particularly when it comes to glove men. Most guys in the booth don't know how to discuss defense beyond throwing around numbers of errors and excessively lauding certified Gold Glove winners. This generosity toward glove men sometimes bleeds over to entire glove teams. The goofiest example of this? Earlier this year Chip Carey intoned, "The Cardinals, as usual, terrific infield defense: Rolen, Luna, Womack, and Mabry." Okay, Rolen, sure, he's terrific, but then Luna? Wom -- ? Huh?

Sometimes announcers go way out of their way to stroke the hometown players, for no particular reason. Take this comment about Brad Lidge from earlier this year, courtesy of Houston color man Bill Brown:

"Only 1 out of 6 in save opportunities last year, but that’s deceptive, because your middle reliever is usually facing the heart of the order in the 8th inning, and many times your team regroups to come back and win."

Hernandez: Do you know how hard it is to hit .352?

Healy: Well, the argument against that is that Bonds gets a lot less chances to make outs.

The Anaheim Angels had just scored a bunch of runs with two outs in their game against the Chicago White Sox Thursday when ESPN flashed a graphic saying the Angels score 40 percent of their runs with two outs. "Uh," thought I. "Is that a lot or a little?" I mean, it seems to me that a pretty healthy percentage of runs are going to score with two outs. There are only three possibilities -- no outs, one out or two outs -- so if everything were distributed evenly 33.3 percent of all runs would score with two outs. And since it sometimes takes a while to get runners around the bases, it makes sense that more than a third of the runs are going to score after two are gone…
Forty percent just didn't seem that high to me, but analyst Buck Martinez launched into a lecture about how that stat reflects the Angels' scrappy personality, that they never give up on an inning, etc. and so on. It was a measure of their character, he said.

As it turned out, at the beginning of that game the Angels had scored 39.3% of their runs with two outs. The AL average was 37%. Evidently that 2% difference was enough to prove whatever point Buck Martinez wanted to make about the Angels' tenacity, a view he probably held regardless of what the numbers said.

6. The Myth of Continuous Motion

I don't know what to call this one exactly, but it's definitely a pet peeve. It's when announcers linger over some mistake -- usually an error or a guy thrown out on the bases -- and harp on it as the key to everything that happens afterwards.

Example: August 6th, Cards vs. Mets on FSN. Matt Morris leads off the inning by coasting into second on a throwing error by Kaz Matsui. Marlon Anderson pinch runs, and So Taguchi bunts him over. And the Mets broadcaster, Ralph Kiner, gripes, “So instead of two outs, now there’s a runner on third one out.”

Wait a minute -- why did Kiner presume two outs? Didn't the whole inning change after the error? Isn't that what set up the Cards sacrificing out #1? But Kiner wouldn't stop harping on it, and it really got on my nerves. The fact is, you can't just hypothetically extract one play and assume that everything else would proceed unaltered. Every play in baseball begets every other play. And yet mark my words: the next time a guy hits a home run after a caught stealing, you'll never hear the end of it, even though the hitter probably got a fat pitch precisely because of the dude who got gunned down on the bases.

7. Do the Hustle

Al Hrabosky recently: “You gotta love Marlon Anderson – first-ball fastball hitter.” No, actually I don’t gotta love that. I mean, don't get me wrong. I like briskly played games, I like infield hits, and I like guys who sprint out of the box on a dead run (are you as amazed as I am these days at the number of guys standing and admiring their doubles off the wall?).

I'll admit that hustle is more exciting than, say, sloth. But even more exciting than hustle are wins. Nonetheless, announcers still tend to reward spunk and aggressiveness, regardless of the context. If a guy is running all the way -- even it means he goes knee-first into an outfield wall, as Jim Edmonds did last year during a 12-3 blowout -- the boys in the booth will give him an A for effort. As Joe Sheehan once wrote,

Posted 8:51 PM by Brian
JACKPOT Okay, this is getting ridiculous. The Cardinals are now at a point where if they play .500 ball for the rest of the season, they'll win 100 games. 100 games! They've won in the triple digits only once in the past 36 years -- only twice in the last sixty years -- and now, with seven weeks left in the season, it's just ours for the taking? What did we do to deserve this? Did the entire city of St. Louis lead the league in puppies saved, or volunteer minutes at the soup kitchen? Or is this some big set-up? Is Someone Upstairs telling us to sit down and enjoy it just so He can pull the chair out from under us?

I don't even care anymore. The ride could end tomorrow and I'd still be thankful for all the thrills this team has given us. Take tonight's game. I missed the first five and a half innings, and turned on the TV to hear these words from Joe Buck:

"Two outs now, so it'll be up to Matheny."

And I'm thinking, screw Tinkers to Evers to Chance -- those are the saddest of possible words: "It'll be up to Matheny." Matheny, of course, bounced into a force out. And from what I could gather from the scoreboard, it seemed like it just wasn't the Cardinals' night.

For starters, Brandon Claussen -- who had gotten bombed for 7 runs in only 3 innings his last outing -- was pitching a whale of a game. This was no mean feat, especially when you consider that Claussen is a lefty and we have guys who do this against southpaws:

           AVG   OBP   SLG

Walker    .357  .500  .548

Pujols    .400  .490  .800

Rolen     .397  .543  .706

Edmonds   .329  .398  .598

Renteria  .444  .510  .700

Mabry     .359  .435  .564

Posted 8:05 PM by Brian
THE BOYS OF BRUMMER: THE ANSWERS Let's forget for a moment about tonight's ho-hum 10-5 win down at Busch, and instead take a stroll into the past. Last Saturday my brother and I posed a few trivia questions about the '82 Cardinals. Here are the answers:

1. There are two Redbirds whose '82 season was their only season with the club. Who are they?

ANSWER: Kelly Paris and Steve Mura

Neither Paris nor Mura played in the postseason. Paris was traded in the offseason to the Reds for the immortal Tim Strichek, while Mura was plucked by the White Sox in the free-agent compensation draft and won only one more game in the bigs.

2. If Joaquin Andujar hadn't been able to pitch Game 7 of the World Series because of his injured knee, who would have started in his place?

ANSWER: Dave LaPoint

I don't know if LaPoint would have dropped the ball in Game 7 of that Series, but he certainly did in Game 4. The Cards took a four-run lead on the Brewers into the seventh inning, but LaPoint bobbled a shovel pass from Keith Hernandez, the Brewers ended up batting around, and before you knew it the series was tied. Afterwards Herzog fumed about the dropped ball by the portly LaPoint, "If it was a cheeseburger he wouldn’t have dropped it!"

3. In the middle of the season, Gussie Busch's wife asked which Cardinal to get her bags at the Grand Hyatt in New York, mistaking him for a bellhop?

ANSWER: Tito Landrum

The other anecdote you hear about Landrum -- which still makes the rounds in St. Louis -- is that he had an affair with Jack Buck's wife Carole. Uhh... doubtful. My favorite memory of Tito is from Game 4 of the '85 NLCS, when he collected two hits in one inning vs. the Dodgers.

4. Which former Cardinal served up Willie McGee's first major league hit?

ANSWER: Al Hrabosky

McGee came into this game as a pinch hitter against the Mad Hungarian and promptly drove in Keith Hernandez and Gene Tenace.

5. Complete this quote from Joaquin Andujar: "You can't worry if it's cold; you can't worry if it's hot; you only worry if you get sick, because..."

ANSWER: The complete quote is "You can't worry if it's cold; you can't worry if it's hot; you only worry if you get sick, because if you don't get well, you die."

So true.

6. Keith Hernandez tried unsuccessfully to block his '83 trade to the Mets. To which team did he successfully block a trade the day before?

ANSWER: The Houston Astros

I have no idea how this went down, but that's the way it was reported in the book Whitey's Boys. If anyone has any details, please send them along.

7. Three members of the '82 squad still reside in the Lou. Who are they?

ANSWER: Bob Forsch, Ozzie Smith, and David Green

8. There were 17 pitches in the '82 season in which the Birds tried a suicide squeeze. How many were successful?

ANSWER: Fourteen

Amazing. Of the three misses, two were fouls and only one was an out. People downplay "the little things" these days, but back then -- when the you could finish above .500 by scoring under four runs per game -- those successful squeeze plays were much more potent.

9. Losing 5-4 in the ninth inning of game 2 of the World Series, which Brewer swung and missed a fastball on a hit-and-run, so that the runner was caught stealing?

ANSWER: Robin Yount

But Yount didn't miss many that year. His '82 season was the very best individual season of my entire baseball childhood (I became a serious fan around '79 or so). In fact, I don't think anyone bested Yount's '82 season until Barry Bonds in '93. McGwire probably passed him in '98, then Bonds turned around and passed him in '01. And I'm not sure anyone in my lifetime will surpass that season (unless it's Bonds himself).

10. What pitcher did the Redbirds beat 14-3 on opening day in '82?

ANSWER: Nolan Ryan

Ryan righted himself to have a pretty good 1982, but check out this article if you want a fun read about the bad luck he experienced a few years later.

11. Which member of the squad has a son in the Braves minor league system?

ANSWER: Tom Herr

His son Aaron plays for the Braves' AA affiliate in Greeneville. By the way, does anyone remember how often Jay Randolph, the Cards' old TV broadcaster, used to mention Herr's hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania?

12. Which Cardinal yelped during the World Series victory celebration, "Hooo-ee! I been to two county fairs and a goat roast, and I ain’t never seen nothin’ like this!"

ANSWER: Darrell Porter

You can find this tidbit (and more!) at the post I had the most fun ever putting together, The Greatest Moments in (Recent) Cardinals History, Parts 1, 2, and 3.

13. Dave LaPoint stumbled into the Cards' hotel lobby at 3 a.m. during a road trip to find who teaching a bellman how to throw a forkball?

ANSWER: Cards' pitching coach Hub Kittle

As long as I'm linking to old Redbird Nation pieces, here's our ode to Hub after he passed away earlier this year.

14. Had the Angels defeated the Brewers in Game 5 of the ALCS and advanced to the series, which pitcher would have faced Bob Forsch in Game 1 of the World Series?

ANSWER: Ken Forsch

Can you imagine??? That would have made the cover of Sports Illustrated, People Magazine, and Der Spiegel all at once.

15. Which Cardinal has performed in three plays at the Muny?

ANSWER: Ozzie Smith

In one of those plays he starred as the Wizard in "The Wizard of Oz." I kid you not.

16. When the '82 Cards clinched the NL East on September 27th, how long was their longest losing streak?

ANSWER: Three games

Right after clinching, the Cards had a four-game losing streak, their longest of the season up to that point.

17. David Green now owns a successful business that does what?

ANSWER: Grooms dogs

That detail tickles me, especially considering Green's hard road in the majors (after problems with alcohol, as well as constant fear for his family back in war-torn Nicaragua, Green's playing career was considered a bust).

18. Which member of the '82 team appeared in the most World Series in his career?

ANSWER: Lonnie Smith

Lonnie went five times, with the Phillies in '80, the Cards in '82, the Royals (dang!) in '85, and the Braves in '91 and '92. He was pretty good in those Series too, popping four home runs, but he's best known for a faux pas he made in Game 7 of the '91 Series. He took off from first on a hit-and-run with no one out in the 8th, but didn't score on Terry Pendleton's double because Chuck Knoblauch deked him into thinking he was taking the relay. Lonnie was stranded at third and the Twins went on to win the game 1-0 in 10.

Incidentally, the other members of the '82 Cards to win rings with other teams: Gene Tenace ('72-'74 A's), George Hendrick ('72 A's), Tito Landrum ('83 Orioles), Doug Bair ('84 Tigers), Dane Iorg ('85 Royals), and Keith Hernandez ('86 Fucking Mets).

19. Who used to come to the ballpark early to learn a slidestep change from Dave LaPoint?

ANSWER: Jim Kaat

The amazing thing about that is that LaPoint was 22 at the time and Kaat was 43. That's about how old LaPoint is now.

20. Every winter, which Cardinal pops in tapes of the Birdinals' World Series wins and watches them again?

ANSWER: Ken Oberkfell

One time my Dad and my brothers sat next to Ken Oberkfell's parents at a ballgame. They had driven from central Illinois and were literally straight off the farm. Supposedly they were also the nicest folks you could possibly imagine, just thrilled that their son had made good in the bigs. Add in the fact that Obie still gets fired up by our '82 champion team and I think that earns him a spot in the Redbird Nation Hall of Fame.

Posted 9:37 PM by Brian
SLOPPY SECONDS There was a sense coming into tonight's game that the Cards were getting a little rudderless. They had just dropped two of three, with both losses among our sloppiest games on the season -- first Thursday's pratfall in Florida, then Saturday's clunker, which featured Jason Marquis' worst start in over two months, a key flyball lost in the sun, and a late blown lead.

Tonight's game figured to be more of the same. Danny Haren was pitching, the Cubs were making it awfully easy to coast for a few games, and during the pregame show ESPN's Rece Davis said that the Braves saw this series as an NLDS preview whereas Jim Edmonds thought it might be a good chance for the players to pad their stats. Okay, that wasn't exactly how Rece put it, but that was the gist of it.

But if there's one lesson we've learned about this Cardinals squad, it's that they're virtually slump-proof. And oddly enough, it was the Braves who looked like they were sleepwalking tonight. They bobbled a few balls, threw wildly a couple times, threw to the wrong base at least three times, and allowed Reggie Sanders to take second after the Braves infield fell into mass hypnosis following a foul pop-out -- a true stolen base if there ever was one. In the second inning alone the Tomahawks gave the Birdos about 12 extra outs.

You'd like to think the Cards would have won this game even without the Christmas gifts -- after all, they did get two moon shots from Rolen and a home run by Pujols (one of the rare players who can go deep even when he gets cheated on his swing). But the early lead did wonders for Danny Haren's confidence. He looked a bit scattershot early on, but after the second he was able to come right after hitters, walking no one and bringing high heat all evening long. All in all, it was a good win and a surprisingly effective road trip. Some additional notes:

            AVG   OBP   SLG

Furcal     .390  .429  .542

Giles      .341  .362  .682

C. Jones   .340  .478  .660

Posted 9:22 PM by Brian
OUR VERY OWN WILLIS REED Was anyone else out there terrified by the image of Albert Pujols rounding first base after his home run on Friday night? He looked very gimped-up -- like Forrest Gump before the leg braces came off -- and I started to wonder if it made sense to rest him while he deals with an agonizing case of plantar fasciitis.

I guess Pujols answered my concerns by going 6-for-13 with four yard jobs over the weekend. And if there's anyone out there who runs roughshod through pain, it's Pujols. But still, I worry about the guy. Tonight he beat out an infield hit with a sprint you could have timed with a sun dial. And I have too many memories of postseason teams done in by injuries and Cardinals playing at far less than 100%:

1985: Vince Coleman
1987: Jack Clark, Terry Pendleton
1996: Ray Lankford
2000: Rick Ankiel, Mike Matheny
2001: Mark McGwire
2002: Scott Rolen

This might be a lot to ask, but I really want to see how far we can go if all our ducks are healthy.

Posted 8:59 PM by Brian
FILLER Joe Sheehan has an interesting article about all the unpredictable years from pitchers around the league. Perpetual waste cases like Jaret Wright and Ryan Drese are rolling. Shawn Estes has gone 13-4 pitching half his games in Coors Field. And Mark Prior has fewer wins and a higher ERA than last year's 21-game loser, Mike Maroth.

Crazy year, huh? But as Sheehan points out, every year is crazy when it comes to pitchers. That's the nature of the profession. Even someone like Randy Johnson, who's as tall and reliable as Old Faithful, was at one time a Nuke LaLoosh in the making -- all gas, no valve. Which is why it's important to keep Sheehan's counsel in mind:

Whether it's the physical toll, the mental strain or just the way the world spins, the vast majority of pitchers are completely unpredictable. They get good, and they get bad, and they get to all points in between, and they do so randomly. This is why, when it comes to building a team, I don't see any need to spend money on the middle of the pitching bell curve. If you can invest in the top tier, then you should do so. Get Johnson or Greg Maddux or Roger Clemens. Money spent on the Sidney Ponson class is money thrown away, because the chances of getting three straight good years from a guy like that is tiny. So you build a staff around the very best, then fill in around it with low-risk gambles and guys you develop.

Posted 8:44 PM by Brian
I HAVE A CONFESSION. I like Chipper Jones. Now, I know that's heresy in these parts -- my sister, for example, can't stomach the guy, and most Cards fans I know are put off by the way he kills Cardinals pitching, or the fact that he fathered a child with a woman not his wife, or perhaps they're just turned off by his shit-eating sneer. But I think Chipper is baseball's Andre Agassi -- a brash kid who became very famous very fast, then became much more generous and contemplative as he aged. In some ways those guys are more impressive to me than the ones who were by-the-books gents all along.

Anyway, there's no point to any of this, just a long wind-up to intro'ing this quote from Chipper Jones about the St. Louis Cardinals:

"That may be one of the best lineups I've ever seen. Last year's [Braves] lineup doesn't compare to that one. They've got an All-Star at every position. I've already given them a nickname - the Yankees of the Midwest."

Posted 11:11 PM by Brian
THE BOYS OF BRUMMER The last World Champion Cardinals team has been on my mind lately -- maybe it was my mention of Ozzie and Whitey in yesterday's post; maybe it's because we seem primed to make another run at a world title. Or maybe it's because we're playing the Braves, who would be our first-round playoff opponent if the regular season ended today, just as they were back in 1982.

Whatever the case, I thought it might be fun to play 20 Questions and ask you some trivia from that 1982 season. Each question was drawn up by my brother, The Judge, with an assist from the book Whitey's Boys by Rob Rains and Alvin Reid. I wish I could print the answers upside-down at the bottom of your computer screen, but I suppose flipping your monitor over would be rather unwieldy. Instead I'll give the answers on Tuesday. In the meantime, enjoy...

1. There are two Redbirds whose '82 season was their only season with the club. Who are they?

2. If Joaquin Andujar hadn't been able to pitch Game 7 of the World Series because of his injured knee, who would have started in his place?

3. In the middle of the season, Gussie Busch's wife asked which Cardinal to get her bags at the Grand Hyatt in New York, mistaking him for a bellhop?

4. Which former Cardinal served up Willie McGee's first major league hit?

5. Complete this quote from Joaquin Andujar: "You can't worry if it's cold; you can't worry if it's hot; you only worry if you get sick, because..."

6. Keith Hernandez tried unsuccessfully to block his '83 trade to the Mets. To which team did he successfully block a trade the day before?

7. Three members of the '82 squad still reside in the Lou. Who are they?

8. There were 17 pitches in the '82 season in which the Birds tried a suicide squeeze. How many were successful?

9. Losing 5-4 in the ninth inning of game 2 of the World Series, which Brewer swung and missed a fastball on a hit-and-run, so that the runner was caught stealing?

10. What pitcher did the Redbirds beat 14-3 on opening day in '82?

11. Which member of the squad has a son in the Braves minor league system?

12. Which Cardinal yelped, during the World Series victory celebration, "Hooo-ee! I been to two county fairs and a goat roast, and I ain’t never seen nothin’ like this!"

13. Dave LaPoint stumbled into the Cards' hotel lobby at 3 a.m. during a road trip to find who teaching a bellman how to throw a forkball?

14. Had the Angels defeated the Brewers in Game 5 of the ALCS and advanced to the series, which pitcher would have faced Bob Forsch in Game 1 of the World Series?

15. Which Cardinal has performed in three plays at the Muny?

16. When the '82 Cards clinched the NL East on September 27th, how long was their longest losing streak?

17. David Green now owns a successful business that does what?

18. Which member of the '82 team appeared in the most World Series in his career?

19. Who used to come to the ballpark early to learn a slidestep change from Dave LaPoint?

20. Every winter, which Cardinal pops in tapes of the Birdinals' World Series wins and watches them again?

Posted 6:24 PM by Brian
DECISION '04 So the Cardinals brass has offered Tony La Russa a two-year contract extension. TLR says he won't talk turkey in-season, but he's certainly in a more enviable negotiating position than he was just nine months ago. Back in November I suggested that 2004 would be La Russa's last season in the Lou. I figured either he'd win it all (in which case he'd go out on top) or he'd fall short once again (in which case it'd be clear that La Russa would never win the big one for the Cardinals).

Either situation could play out, but a third scenario has emerged -- that is, that La Russa (and his kemosabe, Dave Duncan) would be so sound, so steady in the regular season that it would be foolish not to acknowledge their worth to the team, regardless of postseason hardware.

Some of you, I'm sure, would prefer to wait on La Russa. Perhaps you think we should measure him at the end of the season, and I can see the logic. After all, we've been through torrid regular seasons in 1996, 2000, 2001, and 2002 -- what we really want is a ring. And if TLR has some limitations that make him a poor tactical general in the postseason, then screw him. He's as good to us as Ken Boyer, Vern Rapp, and all the other knuckleheads who never won it all for the Birds on the Bat.

Yet I think -- and I can't believe I'm writing this (I first had to swallow a lot of bile Tony called up in me over the years) -- that this La Russa guy might be a keeper. I've said this before, but my philosophy is that most managers are neither good nor bad. Each of them brings something to the table that works well in one circumstance but may backfire horribly in another. (Witness Joe Torre, whose relaxed hand is ideal for the Yankees caught in the psychodramas of King George, but awful for the Rebuilding Redbirds of the early '90s.) I think La Russa and Duncan's penchant for focus and preparation, as well as their fine work with rehabbing pitching arms, is a nice fit for our current roster.

And what of the idea that La Russa can't take us over the top? Ozzie Smith -- who's on Year 8 of his vow of petulancy -- recently appeared on the Marlins broadcast to remind everyone that La Russa hasn't won a ring in St. Louis. True enough. I mean, Herzog had us in the Big Dance three times, whereas La Russa, who came close in '96 but fell a Maddux and a Glavine short, hasn't gotten us there once. And he's had some big budgets and even bigger superstars to help him out.

But remember, La Russa has had a much tougher row to hoe than Whitey when it comes to the postseason, for no other reason that there is now an extra layer of playoffs as there were in the 1980's. If you lay La Russa's and Herzog's track record in St. Louis side-by-side, you get something like this:

            Years    Division   Won 1st round  Won 2nd round

            in STL    Titles     of playoffs    of playoffs

La Russa      8         4            3               0

Herzog       10         3            3               1

Posted 5:27 PM by Brian
THE WIND AND THE STRETCH... From Will Carroll in today's Under the Knife column:

The cushion the Cards have in the standings never looked so good, but an old
team with little depth winning more and more one-run games has the look of a
team that could flame out in October.

Posted 1:25 PM by Brian
HURRICANE EASLEY This had all the hallmarks of a getaway game -- five starters sitting on the Cards bench, nobodies like Damion Easley having fun, a lot of distracted play, and a brisk pace (there was a rain delay early, but otherwise the game was over in 2:21). The Cardinals had added incentive to skip town in a hurry, what with Hurricane Charley about to clobber the Florida coast.

I didn't actually see the game, but it sure reads ugly. In the third inning, Marlon Anderson failed to cover second on a bunt and then, two batters later, threw the ball away. Two runs scored on account of those flubs. In the seventh the Cardinals gave up more runs than they had in the past four games combined. There were yet more miscues (throwing error by Molina, fielding error by Pujols, a guy reaching on a bunt), as well as a flashback to April and May, with Jason Simontacchi coming in from the pen and blowing the game wide open.

Given the Cards stellar defense in the first two nights of this series, plus their seven-game winning streak, plus their run of one-run wins, I think it's only fair to allow this team an off-game. I'd almost forgotten this, but off-games do happen.

Posted 9:32 PM by Brian
THE RAGE FOR PERFECTION I have a couple good friends who are Yankees fans, and they're frequently asked, "Don't you get sick of winning every year? I mean, you have 26 world titles -- isn't that enough?" Set aside the notion that the Yanks win every year; the fact is, winning never gets old. I learned this in 2000 with the St. Louis Rams. After they won the Super Bowl that year I thought, well, that'll tide me over for the next several seasons. But sure enough, autumn rolled around and I wanted the Rams to win as badly as ever. When things are going well you turn into an armchair Patton: you expect victory to be absolute, not occasional.

Thus I find myself with the 2004 Cardinals -- I've turned into a glutton for winning. How much is too much? A 12.5-game lead in August? A 74-38 record? The answer is it's never enough. How else to explain the knot in my stomach in the bottom of the ninth tonight? I mean, in the broad scheme of things the game meant virtually nothing. But we're no longer competing with the rest of our division so much as we're competing with an ideal of perfection, with the ghosts of Cardinals past. It's simply thrilling to see how good this team can be. For some reason I'm reminded of the final words from the movie The Right Stuff (which give me chills every time I hear them):

On that glorious day in May 1963, Gordo Cooper went higher, farther, and faster than any other American -- 22 complete orbits around the world; he was the last American ever to go into space alone. And for a brief moment, Gordo Cooper became the greatest pilot anyone had ever seen.

Posted 9:16 PM by Brian
SWEET STUFF This two-part article (here and here) by Steve Treder is one of the best pieces of baseball writing I've read all year, up there with Nate Silver's breakdown of the Atlanta Braves in the 2004 Baseball Prospectus, Alex Belth and Rich Lederer's look at Yank teammates Bernie Williams and Derek Jeter, Frank Deford's piece on the odd partnership of Christy Mathewson and John McGraw, and Mark Armour and Dan Levitt's profile of Hoyt Wilhelm from their book Paths of Glory.

Posted 7:12 PM by Brian
REGARDING THE CHICAGO CUBS: There are two main camps among Cardinals fans, and they break down like this:

Camp 1 believes that the Cubs and Cards constitute one of the great rivalries in all of sports, and that it's a shame their head-to-head series came to an end on July 20th, before the Cubs got Nomar, before the September stretch drive. The only true, proper stage for these venerable combatants, then, is the NLCS. No backdoor routes to the World Series allowed -- let these two teams go mano a mano, winner gets a ticket to the Fall Classic.

Camp 2 doesn't want the Cubs in the playoffs at all, but to understand why you need to break them down further:

Camp 2(a) fears that the Cubs, when healthy, are a powerhouse that shouldn't be messed with. Only bad luck has prevented them from a record as good as the Cardinals' (okay, maybe not as good, but at least in the same zip code). Therefore, if the Cards do indeed finish the regular season with the NL's best record, why jeopardize our title chances by facing a team that is, for all intents and purposes, more dangerous than the Braves, Dodgers, Padres, Giants, or Phillies? Especially if the Cards prove themselves so superior over 162 games? (The rebuttal to Camp 1 is that if no backdoor routes to the Series are allowed, then that means no Wild Card teams beating up on our Redbirds).

Camp 2(b) makes an argument against the Cubs based in spite more than fear. In short, they believe that the Cubs and all their fans are reprehensible losers, and that the further they're blown out of the playoffs, the better, especially considering the way they gloated over the Cardinals' bloody carcass last September.

Now, I'm pretty firmly in Camp 2a (although in rare moments I fall into 1 and 2b as well), but Dayn Perry -- himself a Cards fan -- makes a pretty convincing case for Chicago as the runaway favorite for the NL Wild Card. The Cubs have a very favorable schedule down the stretch; they play 26 of their remaining 48 games at Wrigley; and, most importantly, their hitting and pitching numbers -- especially when you adjust for schedule and other random elements -- show that they are far and away the strongest of the Wild Card contenders. In other words, we should prepare to see the Cubs in the playoffs regardless of what we wish.

Posted 7:02 PM by Brian
THE MURDERER'S ROW OF MURDERER'S ROWS A couple weeks back I asked if the Cards had the best heart of the order in all of baseball. I was thinking much to small. This article by Chaim Bloom and Keith Woolner claims that the gauntlet of Walker-Pujols-Rolen-Edmonds is not just the best murderer's row this year, it might be the best of all-time. Or at least the best in over 100 years:

When we look at the top four batters instead of the top five, we see that this year's Cardinals, with Pujols's .463 MLVr their fourth-best, are second all-time behind only the 1894 Phillies. By that measure, the heart of this Cardinals lineup is the best in modern baseball.

Posted 8:45 PM by Brian
YOUR ENERGY EFFICIENT CARDINALS If the division race were closer, every fingernail in Redbird Nation would look like a chew toy after tonight's game. Instead it was a nice, relaxing, well-matched game between two good teams, with the Cards (I should seriously create a macro for this phrase) coming out on top. Let's go to the notes, shall we?

Posted 12:01 AM by Brian

[NOTE: What follows is a first for Redbird Nation -- a piece with two authors. My buddy Richard Lederer, who runs the fantastic Rich's Weekend Baseball Beat, emailed me a couple weeks ago about the greatness of Jim Edmonds. The following profile is a result of our lengthy discussions since that time. So kick back and enjoy!]

THE MOST UNDER-OVER-UNDERRATED PLAYER IN BASEBALL
By Brian Gunn and Richard Lederer

In a fine article published last Friday in the New York Times, Lee Jenkins made the Cardinals sound like an army unit from a World War II propaganda film – they’ve got the aw-shucks hick Scott Rolen, the Bible-quoting Latino Albert Pujols, and Jim Edmonds, "who scales fences and streaks his hair, drives a Ferrari, and goes by the name of 'Hollywood.'" Indeed, at first blush Jim Edmonds seems like every jock you went to high school with – note the cocky swagger, the loping gait, the beefy shoulders and hammy thighs. He’s the very picture of California cool.

But put Jim Edmonds in a batter’s box and he’s transformed. Gone are the heavy eyelids and the cavalier attitude, and they’re replaced with something else altogether – a series of rituals, neuroses, and tics. He grimaces, jabbers with umpires and catchers, steps out to do calisthenics or pace around or talk to himself. Just last week he had an at-bat where he leaned in from a pitch on ball four, then righted himself by staggering toward the visitors’ dugout. His route was practically Magellan, perhaps the only time in the history of baseball a guy walked 120 feet to get to first. Last year in San Diego, Edmonds swung at a pitch, dropped the bat, clutched his right shoulder, doubled over in pain, caught his breath, then picked up the bat with his left hand and continued hitting! The whole thing was as melodramatic and masochistic as the Stations of the Cross: Edmonds is Condemned to Die, Edmonds Swings a First Time, Edmonds is Laid in the Tomb.

............................................................*****

That’s Jim Edmonds for you – one of the most mercurial players in the game, and perhaps the only one to catch grief for being both under-emotional and over-emotional. He’s been called, variously, a showboat, a stud, a lazybones, a workhorse, a whiner, a powerhouse, an overachiever, an underachiever, you name it. But let us submit to you one label you almost never hear in relation to Jim Edmonds: Hall of Famer.

Hall of Famer? Jim Edmonds? The guy who’s finished in the top ten in MVP balloting exactly once? The player who’s never led the league in any hitting category, who’s not even halfway to 3,000 hits, who has fewer career homers than Kent Hrbek? Is that the Cooperstown Jimmy Edmonds you’re talking about?

Let us say right off the bat that Hall of Fame arguments have become increasingly degraded and muddled over the years. Part of this is due to a phenomenon that Bill James put his finger on years ago. See, the HOF is a self-defining institution; that is, a Hall of Famer is no more and no less than someone in the Hall of Fame. Therefore, if you want to make a case that your guy belongs in the Hall, all you have to do is prove he’s better than the lowest fungus taking up space in Cooperstown (Rick Ferrell, anyone?), and he’s in.

So let’s clear away some of the muddle and ask a couple simple questions to establish Hall credentials. Is he one of the top two players of his era at his position? (Think Mike Schmidt and George Brett.) And/or is he one of the dozen greatest players ever at his position? (That’s roughly one HOFer per decade at each position.) And then let’s stop right there. Does Jim Edmonds meet those standards?

Let’s take a look. There are three center fielders who have stood out during the current era. Despite a disappointing homecoming in Cincinnati, Ken Griffey Jr. has put up the best numbers of any CF in baseball during this time, hands down. The battle for second best is a close one between Bernie Williams and Jim Edmonds. Two opposites. Night and day. Big market, small market. San Juan, Puerto Rico vs. Orange County, California.

What Williams and Edmonds share in common are highly productive playing careers that have not registered on the average fan’s radar screen to the extent that they deserve. If it’s true that players who rank at or near the top of their position for a decade or longer are worthy of HOF consideration, then it’s time to take a bow to Bernie and Jim.

Runs Created Above Average
Center Fielders, 1995-2004
Position Classified By Season

                                RCAA

1    Jim Edmonds                 340

2    Bernie Williams             339

3    Ken Griffey Jr.             287

OPS               1.062          6th

SLG                .649          2nd

OBP                .414          3rd

Tot Avg.          1.186          3rd	

HR                   30          T4th

TB                  229          7th

BB                   67          T10th

Runs                 75          8th

RBI                  79          T5th

                                RCAA

1    Ty Cobb                    1107

2    Tris Speaker               1054

3    Mickey Mantle              1009

4    Willie Mays                1008

5    Joe DiMaggio                672

6    Ken Griffey Jr.             547

7    Duke Snider                 406

8    Earl Averill                394

9    Larry Doby                  369

10   Bernie Williams             354

11   Jim Edmonds                 340

12   Hack Wilson                 332

13   Edd Roush                   302

T14  Fred Lynn                   285

T14  Jimmy Wynn                  285

Jones      2.68

Edmonds    2.59

Williams   2.55

Lofton     2.52

Griffey    2.48

Grissom    2.40

Finley     2.32

Edmonds     7.9

Lofton      7.2

Jones       7.2

Griffey     6.9

Finley      5.7

Grissom     4.9

Williams    3.4

Posted 11:32 AM by Brian
SCRAPS FOR SUNDAY A few things to chew on while listening to the Cardinals game:

1. Mabry     .934

2. Cedeno    .826

3. Lankford  .778

4. Taguchi   .678

5. Luna      .667

6. Anderson  .653

Posted 11:25 PM by Brian
HELLO LARRY Larry Walker -- former MVP, lifetime .314 hitter, and charter member of Redbird Nation's All-Hoosier team -- is now a Cardinal. Sounds pretty good, don't it? Is it a good deal? Well, some of my thoughts are pretty slapdash, but I'll try to answer a few questions before I hit the hay:

Will Walker help the Cardinals? He certainly should. Cardinal leftfielders are a collective .260/.326/.411 -- that's not good. The acquisition of Walker allows us to cut Lankford out of the picture (I feel bad putting it that way, but it's true), slide Reggie Sanders over to left, and put Walker in right. Walker can still rake, no question about it. He's got a .324/.464/.630 line this year, and you're not wearing Coors-colored glasses either: Larry is slugging .780 with a .500+ OBP on the road this year. Okay, okay, that's in fewer than 100 PA's, but he does have an .886 road OPS the last three years combined. How good is an .886 OPS? Well, it's not as good as the best RFers this year (Drew, Abreu, Cabrera, Sosa), but it's the next level down and, more importantly, a sizable upgrade over what the Cards are getting from their corner outfielders. And by having Mabry, Sanders, and Anderson vying for one slot, TLR can better exploit their strengths and/or mix-and-match to give Walker some rest. (By the way, I don't know where Walker will bat in the lineup, but I'd prefer he hit ahead of Pujols and Rolen, where the Cards could take advantage of his uncommonly good eye. Walker trails only Bonds and Berkman this year in walks per plate appearance.)

Can Walker stay healthy? Walker gets banged up easily, everyone knows that. Some have even compared him to Pete Reiser, the WW2-era outfielder for the Dodgers who may have made the Hall if only he managed to stay in one piece. What about Larry? Can he stay healthy? Well, depends what you mean by "healthy." Larry Walker will never again be 100%; let's accept that right off the bat. Will he be healthy enough? That's a harder question to answer. Despite working his ass off all winter and getting into "the best shape of his career," Walker suffered a badly strained groin that took awhile to heal (that's par for the course with LW), and he didn't join the Rox lineup 'til the last week of June. In the past year alone, Walker has had a bad groin, a bad hip, a bad elbow, a bad hammy, a bad shoulder, as well as surgery to clean up cartilage in his knee. (I was about to make some lame joke about Walker needing a walker to get to the plate, but... Is it too late? I made the joke already? Shoot, sorry.) The bottom line is I have no idea if Walker will stay healthy, but he's at a point in his career where each injury seems to beget more injuries (or what Will Carroll calls the "cascade" effect). I won't put odds on Larry staying healthy, but it's safe to say he's a gamble. In other sobering news, Walker's batting line for the last two Augusts and Septembers: a fairly ho-hum .265/.373/.465. So Redbird fans, cross your fingers, say the rosary, do whatever you need to do to keep Larry healthy and hitting.

What did he cost? Two farmhands to be named later, an okay Class A pitcher, and $8 million (the Rockies agreed to eat $9MM of the $17.5MM left on his contract). In return the Cards get Walker for the rest of this year and all of next. I've heard that one of the PTBNL might be Chris Narveson. Narveson's had an up-and-down year in AA, but he's only 22 and still a big prospect (at least for us he is). That might tilt the scales a bit. I've never heard of Jason Burch, the one name we do know, but I hear he's got good breaking stuff. No big loss there, it seems. The real sacrifice, so far anyway, is money -- about $3 million this year and $5 million in 2005. $5 million can buy you a bit of talent these days. Among the worthies who signed for that amount of money (or less) this past offseason: Jose Guillen, Rondell White, Raul Ibanez. Not great players, no, but serviceable guys. It's very possible Walker would get $5 million (or even more) if he were put up for auction right now, so the money isn't a huge issue (and the Cards should get some extra postseason revenue if they play their cards right). Basically the Cards are shelling out the money not to win the division, but to go deep into the playoffs this year. Whether it was worth it may depend on how well Larry does during that three-week window in October.

What about intangibles? I just always like how pundits talk about intangibles as if they know what the hell they're talking about. (Favorite recent example: Pete Gammons reamed the Dodgers for trading Lo Duca, the leader of a team that, in Gammons' words, "had the best chemistry of any team over the last 15 years." Where did he come up with that data? And how is it that the leaderless Dodgers reeled off a four-game win streak right after Lo Duca left?) Anyway, the intangible I appreciate is this one: Larry Walker was one of the best players on one of the best teams of our era, the 1994 Montreal Expos. But he never got to play in the postseason that year because the owners and players thought it made more sense to cancel a whole shitload of baseball games. Hopefully Larry will get to finally play for a great postseason team (he played for a non-great postseason team in 1995, his first year in thin air) by donning the Birds on the Bat.

What's the final verdict? Walker is a gamble worth taking. Yeah, he's brittle; yeah, we gave up some commodities to land him. But what the hell -- the Cardinals haven't won it all in 22 years (meaning there are Cards fans who have graduated from college who were born after our last championship team). We have such a grand opportunity to go deep this year, and there's no reason to put up with subpar play from our corner outfielders. In fact, there's no reason not to put all our chips on the table. I mean, it might bum us out if we give up someone like Narveson and he turns out to be something special, but put it this way: would you sacrifice, say, 4 wins in 2007 if it meant having the best team possible in 2004? Unless there's something we don't know about (I'm thinking specifically of the possibility we could have landed the Big Unit; but I highly doubt we could have gotten him with only $4-5 million per year), I believe that the addition of Walker makes us the best team we can be for the rest of the season. Congrats to Walt Jocketty and the Cardinals brass for seizing the day and bringing an extra gun to a gunfight.

Posted 8:40 AM by Brian
THE PORTABLE REDBIRD NATION No posts today on this site, but if you want a RBN fix, you can check out this guest column I did over at the Hardball Times. Aaron Gleeman, the wunderkind blogger and co-founder of THT, approached me about a week ago and asked me how in the world the Cards got to where they are. Hopefully my article provides a partial explanation.

Posted 5:36 PM by Flynn
ONE WAY TO LOOK AT IT Much was made last year of the fact that the Florida Marlins "had the best record in the league after May 30th (or whenever) last year. Like many teams in many years, Florida had a rough period, a super-hot period, and then a lot of time where they played .500 ball and didn't really hurt themselves. Recent Cardinal teams have followed this trend as well. LaRussa's teams have a nice history of finding their stride in late August and September and sprinting to the postseason (where they cut themselves with a hunting knife... but that's a different story and those were different teams).

But this year, well, this year's been different. The consistency has been fairly incredible. The Cardinals have had NO really rough periods, which I think leads to worrying among many members of the Nation. It's gotta happen sooner or later, right? I mean, every team has a 2-8 streak in there somewhere that just needs to work itself out, right? Well, maybe. (If you're scared of witnessing a rough stretch, I'd make plans to go camping from August 31 to September 12 when the Birds play 12 games against the Padres and Dodgers in 13 days. Actually, those teams don't scare me that much but, other than the Mets at home and the Florida-Atlanta road trip next week, that's about all that's left of the over-.500 teams for the rest of the year.)

If you look at the Cardinals' weekly results you see that they've played 17 calendar weeks (Sunday to Saturday) and only lost two of them. Obviously some of the weeks span two different months. Check it out:

APRIL
Week 1 3-3
Week 2 3-3
Week 3 3-3
Week 4 3-3

MAY
Week 5: 3-4
Week 6: 5-1
Week 7: 3-3
Week 8: 3-2

JUNE
Week 9: 6-1
Week 10: 3-4
Week 11: 6-0
Week 12: 4-2
Week 13: 3-3

JULY
Week 14: 6-0
Week 15: 2-2 (All-Star Week)
Week 16: 5-2
Week 17: 5-1

Ever hear the old cliché that pennants are not won in April? Well, I buy into that one. I do think, though, that pennants can be lost in April. Stumble out to a 6-18 start and see how many guys stay fired up to win the rest of the year. Give credit to the team for staying afloat through the first two months and not really hurting themselves.

The key week, I think, was Week 11. Sure, they'd had a nice run in Week 6 and again in Week 9 but Week 10 set them back a bit. When the team proved to itself and to its fans that it could bounce back and rip off yet another 6-0 run I think we all realized this year was different. Basically, that sweep of Oakland and weekend series with Cincy (which included two miracle comebacks) launched the Cardinals into the orbit they are currently in, miles above the rest of the NL. There were a few attempts at mission interference by the Cubs, but the June 23 and July 20th games restored order and kept the good guys on top.

What's interesting, and neat, about the level of play this team has reached (a level not seen in the Nation since 1985) is that it is pretty much the same team that played .500 ball early on. Normally you can point to an infusion of something new like Jack McKeon last year, or the myriad second-half players Billy Beane has equipped his Oakland teams with, making them the best second-half team in baseball over the last few years. The only real changes I can see on this team since Opening Day are Yadier Molina, John Mabry, and Kiko Calero.

To be fair, Molina has actually been a godsend, if only to keep Matheny fresher and perhaps a bit less of an offensive liability. And Mabry has sort of stepped in for Lankford as a decent left-handed bat and LF option. (Odd how both guys are Cardinal retreads, eh?) Calero is basically Mike Lincoln with a bit less ability. Finally, I cannot skip over the fact that Greg Williams is a healthy Woody now and certainly was not back in April. Other than that (and please prove me wrong if I am) I can't see any huge personnel changes that would point to the dramatic transformation of this team from middle-of-the-pack to Kings of the National League. And I have no problem with that.

Keep it going, boys. Keep it going.

Posted 11:30 PM by Brian
IT'S THAT MAN AGAIN Albert Pujols is your classic enabler -- he'll cover up just about any mistake you make. And believe me, the Cards made a ton of mistakes tonight. There were three errors (including a gigantic muff by Womack and a shocker by Mike Matheny of all people), slipshod relief work (for the second night in a row), shaky starting pitching (including a big double to the opposing pitcher), a bad bunt (Suppan, hurting his own cause), a man caught stealing (Mabry, naturally), a busted hit and run (which turned out okay b/c Vidro goofed up the tag), lots of runners left on base (the Cards had 19 baserunners in all but only five came home), and three GIDPs that looked for all the world like killers (the worst was Renteria's with runners on first and third, one out in the 8th).

But just like the game a week ago, our big boys made up for a lot of ef-ups. That is, if you can consider John Mabry a big boy. He came up large all night long -- a two-run jack to start the comeback, then a massive two-out two-run go-ahead single in the eighth. But that was just table-setting for the man of the hour, Mr. Pujols. How sweet was his walk-off job? Well, I've already converted Mike Shannon's home run call into free verse. It goes like this:

Swing and a DRIVE
to deep center.
GET UP, BABY!
Git up git up git up!
Good night, folks.

It was Albert's fourth career "good night" homer (the active leaders are Bonds and Sosa, each with 10), and perhaps his giddiest yet. He just floated around the bases.

Looking ahead: Thursday night's game may be the last ever between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Montreal Expos. Due to various misdeeds and demographic trends, Montreal's ballclub has been on life support for some time. When they go, it'll be like the death of a long-suffering relative: "It's sort of a relief, but sad all the same."

And like a frail relative, it's best not to think about their current state of decrepitude (those 3.7 runs per game sure are ugly, aren't they?); instead we should remember the good times. When I first became a baseball fan -- I mean a truly rabid baseball fan -- Les Expos were an NL powerhouse. It's easy to forget this now, but at one time the Expos looked resplendent in their robin's-egg-blue unis, and I can still recall my old ritual of opening the Post sports pages each morning and checking in on the exploits of guys like Steve Rogers, Rock Raines, and Hawk Dawson.

The Cardinals were the first team to play the Expos in Canada, all the way back in 1969, before I was born even (the Expos won the game; one of the few times they actually won that year). Assuming Herr Bud doesn't jerk us around for another year (and really, no one should assume that), tonight the head-to-head meetings between the Birds and the 'Spos will come full circle. But don't worry about losing bragging rights. The Cards lead the all-time series, 266-262.

Posted 11:28 PM by Brian
SUPPAN SUPPRESSED Jeff Suppan coasted into the All-Star Break with a nifty 3.33 ERA and a long string of good, workmanlike outings. In four starts since the break, his numbers look like this (if there are women or children present, you may want to cover their eyes): 22.2 innings pitched, 44 baserunners, and an unsightly 7.54 ERA. That's not quite Matt Morris territory (his post-break ERA is a tumid 8.31), but it's more out of line with his performance to date.

Now, you know and I know that 22 innings don't tell you much (just last year, the Big Unit had an 8.10 ERA in April), but you'd have to be made of some pretty strong stuff not to get just a wee bit worried at Suppan's recent dive. I mean, allowing two baserunners per inning? That's obscene. From 2002-2004, Suppan has a 3.83 ERA before the break, 5.95 after. That's more than a slight dip and a lot closer to a disturbing trend.

Posted 11:21 PM by Brian
WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO? First we had Minute Maid Park. Then we had U.S. Cellular Field. Next came Network Associates Colesium. Now we have a new name for the stadium under construction in St. Louis: get this -- Busch Stadium. Evidently it's named after Adolphus Busch and the brewery he founded in 1864, which I believe is called Anheuser-Busch. This baseball-industrial complex is getting out of control. I mean, it's one thing to name a ballpark after chewing gum, but beer? This is very disturbing.

Posted 10:58 PM by Brian
RICK ANKIEL REVISITED, REVISITED Here's what Will Carroll has to say about Dick Ankiel's start yesterday:

It would have been enough to see him out on the mound, but when Rick Ankiel struck out three and walked none in the Florida State League on Monday night, both Cards fans and medheads rejoiced. Cards fans can hold out hope that Ankiel could finally live up to his promise, while medheads have another data point that "Steve Blass Disease" is actually a medical condition related to proprioception in the elbow. Ankiel has a ways to go and is operating under strict limits, but he will be up in September. While it's too much to think that Ankiel could be the rotation saver the Cards need, it's not out of the question that we might see him pitch in the playoffs.

Posted 9:47 PM by Brian
BOMBED BY BATISTA Tonight's game should be enough to convince anyone that (a) the Cardinals are not invincible (the team made things interesting in their last half-inning, but otherwise they rolled over after going up 6-2), and (b) Danny Haren needs more work before he proves anything to anybody. The AP wire was so convinced that the Cards had this game in the bag that they closed their report with this sentence: "St. Louis is a season-high 31 games over .500 (68-37)." Nope -- we actually lost tonight, falling to 67-38, not to mention 1-3 on the year against the Expos. How embarrassing.

Posted 3:35 PM by Brian
RICK ANKIEL, REVISITED I tried to listen to Rick Ankiel's first start in more than a year over the Internet, but the radio station's server got so jammed that I couldn't even log on. There wasn't much drama to report -- just two innings from Ankiel, 33 pitches, one run, no walks -- which is exactly how the Cardinals prefer things: nice, easy, no fuss. Heck, if they had their druthers Rick Ankiel would pitch all his games in some fortress of solitude somewhere, without the prying eyes of the press, the stomping feet of the fans, or countless ears over the Internet.

But of course, that won't happen. Instead every game Ankiel pitches from here on out will be pored over like an Encyclopedia Brown mystery, everyone combing for clues, errors, flaws. But if there was a smoking gun lying around yesterday, you wouldn't know it from these press clippings:

...Ankiel did not walk a batter, and reached three balls to just one hitter. He struck out three, as his fastball reached 92 mph in the second inning...

...He needed 33 pitches to complete the two innings, 20 of them strikes....

...On one of the strikeouts, he froze left fielder Joe Jiannetti with a big-time curveball. It was reminiscent of the one he displayed during a distinctive 2000 rookie regular season with the Cardinals, when he struck out 194, breaking Dizzy Dean's club rookie record. "It went from 12 to six," Jiannetti said, meaning, by the arm of a clock, how sharply Ankiel's curveball broke. "He had such a sharp break on it, you could hear the snap coming out of his fingers"...

Posted 3:29 PM by Brian
CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE CARDINALS SOUL Josh Schulz has some intelligent suggestions for Tony La Russa down the stretch. Basically they boil down to giving John Gall a shot in left, and using August and September to rest Edmonds, Rolen, Renteria, and a couple of our bullpen arms. With a home series starting tonight against lowly Montreal, this might be a good time to comfort those weary bones.

Posted 3:25 PM by Brian
BUM WING Here's Will Carroll's take after watching Matt Morris on Saturday night:

I come away more convinced than ever that he has a progressive problem in his shoulder. I won't Houdini the thing and diagnose him, but I think that it speaks well that he's been able to have some success in spite of it. If something isn't torn, he could be rested—given the Cards' big lead— and come back stronger. There are some situations where a DL stint is a net positive and I think Morris could be in one of those situations.

Posted 3:02 PM by Brian
COMING UP ACES King Kaufman has a complimentary article about the 2004 Cardinals (warning: you have to sit through an ad to read it). The most astonishing part of the article was this stat -- the team record in games started by individual members of our rotation:

Chris Carpenter: 13-6
Jason Marquis: 13-7
Jeff Suppan: 13-7
Woody Williams: 13-7
Matt Morris: 13-8

These numbers have changed a bit the last couple days, but the general point holds. As our friend Retro-shiite observed, that's a .619 winning percentage when our worst starter takes the mound. The Cardinals are becoming the mirror image of the old Unit-Schilling D'Backs, who were mediocre on most days but devastating when the Goliaths took the mound. We don't have any Goliaths over here, but we do have a lot of tallish guys.

(Speaking of which, Jim Baker has an interesting tidbit about how the Cards' starters stack up against the other NL rotations if the playoffs started today. I started to write something about it, then realized the utter absurdity of breaking down playoff pairings on August 3rd. I mean, I know this is pretty paranoid, but check out what the AL West standings looked like on August 3rd just nine years ago. I don't think I need to tell you that the Angels didn't make that postseason.)

Posted 2:49 PM by Brian
TWO-BAGGERS Have you noticed that the Cardinals hit a shitload of doubles? Pujols is on pace for 45. Edmonds is on pace for 48. Renteria, 39; Rolen, 37. Altogether the Cards are on pace for 347 doubles, which would be the highest total for any National League club since World War II. Here's the post-WWII leaderboard:

1. 2003 Cardinals, 342
2. 1997 Expos, 339
3. 1998 Rockies, 333
4. 2003 Rockies, 330
5. 1998 Astros, 326

Did you know last year's Cards team hit that many doubles? Me neither. They had more doubles than any NL team since... the 1931 Cardinals. Who had more doubles than any NL team since the 1930 Cardinals, who share the all-time record.

Posted 2:47 PM by Brian
CAL THE DIVINE Eric Neel and I have something in common -- we both think The Streak is one of the more overrated records in all of pro sports.

Posted 2:35 PM by Brian
NOMAR NO MORE Here's how a New England pal of mine reacted to losing Nomar:

Nomar had become like an old radio that you had in college, that was great for a long time, still very useful, played great music for you during some great years of your life - heck, you were emotionally attached to the ol' boombox. But time came when you needed something more, and the old boombox needed to go to Goodwill or Salvation Army. You're nostalgic about getting rid of it, plus you feel like there's some use left in it, but you know that you need to cut the cord and move on. Once you've dropped it off at the donation center, you feel better knowing that you're looking ahead. I feel like we dropped Nomar off at the Salvation Army donation center and we're moving on.

[H]ow cool was it when Nomar asked for the ball after his first hit as a Cub? I'm no psychologist, but I don't think players who view their time with a team as a short-term rental agreement ask for sentimental souvenirs of their stint in
uniform. He looked like a man who wanted to be where he was (and who wouldn't, with the reception he got?), and who might want to stay there for a long time.

Posted 4:50 PM by Brian
STANDING PAT Walt Jocketty has said that the trading deadline hasn't kicked in for him, that he might go out and make some deals this August. But whatever he does, it'll likely be minor, if not cosmetic -- whoever he gets will have to pass through waivers, and no team under the Cardinals is going to sit on its hands and watch the Birdinals re-load for the playoffs.

In a recent post over at All-Baseball.com (and if you don't read the guys over there already, you should start; to a man they're wildly smart about baseball), a roundtable discussion about deadline winners and losers took the following turn:

Jon Weisman: Is it possible that the Cardinals are losers for standing pat? Sure, they've locked up the division, and their offense is wonderful, but aren't they vulnerable in an October series with their current starting rotation? I don't know the answer; I'm just asking. Should they have been going after a Brad Penny or the equivalent? What might they have traded for a Brad Penny? Prospects? Or am I underrating the St. Louis starters?

Mike Carminati: No, you're not. Everyone's all over the Yankees for the same issue, but no one seems to mind that the Card's best pitcher is Jason Marquis(!).

Alex Ciepley: The Cardinals were in an interesting position -- based on how they've played so far, there was no reason to look for an upgrade. But do people really think this team is for real? Would you really want to enter the postseason featuring a "fearsome" rotation that headlines Jeff Suppan, Chris Carpenter, Jason Marquis, and the tattered remains of Matt Morris's shoulder? They could luck into a World Series championship with the club they have, but I don't think this is anyone's idea of a truly great team.

Christian Ruzich: I don't think they're losers, necessarily, since they have the division pretty much in hand. But the rotation is a little shaky (the baling wire and papier mache seems to be coming loose from Matty Mo and Jeff Suppan), you're right. The thing is, I don't know what, if anything, they had to offer in trade. As Brian Gunn said on Redbird Nation the other day (as he was grudgingly admitting the Cubs made a good trade), "the fact remains that our shallow farm system really limits our options. I mean, Jocketty has been saying for weeks that he won't deal any prospects if the price is too high, but when you have only a handful of legit young talents (Haren, Molina, Daric Barton), almost any price is too high -- hell, you trade one of those guys and it's like mortgaging half your future."

Will Carroll: They're not winners, but they had nothing to deal with. They have a complete dearth of prospects and little cash to work with to take on payroll. Besides swapping Matt Morris for Lowe (no upgrade there) or Millwood (couldn't work out the $$), there wasn't much they could do.

Posted 7:34 PM by Brian
MY FELLOW MERKINS Imagine Merkin Valdez's luck. First some fool saddles him with a name that's synonymous with a pubic toupee; next he has to make his major league debut against Pujols, Rolen, and Edmonds, only the most dangerous murderer's row in all of baseball. Merkin never did make it to Edmonds -- instead he became the first of many Giants relievers that the Cards battered into submission tonight, same as they'd done the last two nights. So the Cards came away with a win, ended the road trip 5-1 (what else is new), and split their season series with the Giants (I guess I had it in my head that we were becoming the Giants' own personal Washington Generals, but we actually came this close to sweeping them this weekend).

By the way, did you hear Jon Miller say that both Woody Williams and Jason Schmidt were vying for their 100th win tonight? Wonder if that's ever happened before -- a head-to-head showdown for such a milestone. Woody became the Century Man before Schmidt, although it took him 5 more starts and 87 more games to get there. He's still got bragging rights.

You know what my favorite shot of the night was? It was around the eigth inning or so, and the ESPN cameras cut to a guy in PacBell holding a red-painted rubber chicken at his side. As you might know, the fans in San Fran bring rubber chickens to the park to chide teams who don't have the balls to pitch to Barry Bonds. I guess this guy painted his chicken red to ridicule the Cardinals in particular.

As it turns out the Cardinals did pitch to Bonds -- all weekend long -- and retired him all four times he came to the dish (it was only the fourth time all year he went the whole game without reaching base). And I couldn't help but think of that poor dude walking home after the game, holding that stupid red chicken at his side, thinking, "Man, what do I do with this thing? I mean, I could just throw it away, but I spent half the damn morning looking for a rubber chicken at Spencer's and Sav-On, then spent even more time dyeing it in the bathtub and all that. I guess I could just throw it in a drawer somewhere, and maybe use it next time I got tickets to a Reds game. But do I really want to go to a Reds game? And what if Barry is retired by then? Shoot, man..."

Posted 8:59 AM by Brian
RUBBER GAME Two very odd games kicked off this weekend series in San Fran. After the first inning of Friday night's game, with Jerome Williams rolling and the Giants going nuclear on Chris Carpenter, I thought the Cards would take a rare mulligan. Instead they tightened their cleats and went to work, outscoring the Gints 7-1 the rest of the way and, to paraphrase the logo on Elvis' gold-plated Beretta, took care of business.

Last night's game was even less expected, but with different results. Once again the Cardinals, and the reliably unreliable Matt Morris, spotted San Fran an 8-spot in the first, then came roaring back thanks to another bombalicious game from Jim Edmonds and an attractive turn from Danny Haren. But the rally fell short and the Cards turned the 8-0 laugher into a one-run loss that was, in retrospect, eminently winnable (they actually outhit and outslugged the opposition, but didn't cluster their hits together like San Fran did).

The loss makes taking the series a real uphill climb -- the Cards face Jason Schmidt this evening -- and it also ended the team's latest five-game win streak. Did you know the Birdinals have now had six five-game winning streaks, all of them since June 4th? That's incredible. And a far cry from what some moron wrote back on May 24th on Redbird Nation:

Once again the Cardinals are finding themselves like Rocky or the Bad News
Bears in reverse: they simply cannot deal with prosperity. Every time this year
they've had a chance to make a run, they've faltered. Sweep the Astros in Minute Maid -- drop two of three to the Brewers. Take two of three from the Phils on the road -- lose two in a row to the Expos. Win in Wrigley on Friday -- fall on Saturday and Sunday. In fact, the Cards haven't had a single four-game win streak all year. Even the Mariners, even the Expos, even the Devil Rays, for God's sake, have had four-game win streaks.

Posted 8:58 AM by Brian
TOE TO TOE Once again the Cards have stared into the teeth of Barry Bonds without flinching. A few Fridays ago in Busch, Barry hit a monstrous bomb off Chris Carpenter, but the Cards still refused to pitch around him. Same deal so far in PacBell -- Barry, an aquaholic when it comes to putting them in the Bay, hit a huge homer in his first AB of the series, but La Russa kept sending his boys right at him.

As I mentioned last week, the Cards are the only team in the majors that consistently challenges Bonds. Over the past two seasons, they've only walked him 5 times in 34 plate appearances (they also hit him once; don't know if that qualifies as pitching around him or not).

I'm surprised this isn't a bigger story. For the last couple years baseball people have been wondering what might happen if teams actually pitched to Barry Bonds. Would the Giants score more or less runs? Would Barry become more or less locked in? Would his homers outweigh his walks? What would happen?

Well, the Cardinals are giving armchair managers a micro-study in what might actually happen. I know this is an extremely small sample size -- just 8 games -- but here are Bonds numbers against the Cards' approach in 2003-2004:

28 at bats
9 hits
1 double
5 homers
5 walks
1 hit by pitch

That works out to a AVG/OBP/SLG line of .321/.441/.893

Against the rest of baseball the last two seasons, Bonds is hitting .347/.565/.750

In other words, what happens when you pitch to Bonds -- and again, this is a very small sample to draw from -- seems to be what people thought might happen: his on-base percentage drops (obviously) and his slugging goes up (perhaps because he can sit on pitches more).

Is it a net gain for the Cardinals? Not really. Using Bill James rough-n'-ready runs created formula, Bonds created 1.33 runs per game in his matchups vs. the Cardinals, compared to 1.13 vs. everyone else. If that's enough to convince you that pitching to Bonds is a bad strategy, fair enough. To me it seems like the jury is still out, or perhaps it's more of a wash, or perhaps it's a slight negative -- who knows. If nothing else, pitching to Barry makes the game much more fun. I'll take that.

Update: The above numbers have changed after Sunday night's game. The Cards pitched to Bonds all four times he was up -- in fact, they threw him only four balls out of the strike zone all night, and Woody Williams threw him 11 pitches in one AB to close the fifth (which is probably as many pitches as Bonds has seen in one plate appearance all year, maybe the most in years). Anyway, the Cards got Bonds out all four times, which means we've now walked him only 5 times in 38 plate appearances over two seasons. His line against us over that span: .281/.395/.781, which is now worse than he does relative to the other teams.

Posted 8:44 AM by Brian
THE $32,430,000 INFIELD Rob Neyer has an interesting article in which he sizes up the Cards' and Rangers' infields against the best infields of all time. He writes,

[I]f the Rangers have been impressive, the Cardinals have been
historic. Powered by MVP-caliber seasons from both Albert Pujols and Scott
Rolen, the St. Louis infielders -- Pujols and Rolen, along with second baseman
Tony Womack and shortstop Edgar Renteria -- totaled 71 Win Shares through their first 95 games, which projects to 121 for the season. That would be
the second-biggest number I've found, behind only the $100,000 Infield.

Posted 8:41 AM by Brian
DANNY GRAVES, on the 2004 Cardinals: "If you started the postseason right now, I think the Yankees are the only team that could hang with them."