KTE - The St. Louis Cardinals

[MFS62]

The defending World Series Champions are currently in second place in the National League Central - 1 � games behind the Reds.

Any discussion of the Cards must start with three key members of the 2012 World Champion team who are no longer there - Tony LaRussa, Dave Duncan and Albert Pujols.

Manager Tony LaRussa was credited by many as the person who either invented or just popularized the situational pitching change. As a byproduct, he also gave us the 3-2 game that seems to last four and a half hours. He led his team to six World Series during his career, three in Oakland and three in St. Louis. He won 3 World Series; 1 with Oakland and 2 with St. Louis. He lost 2 with Oakland and 1 with St. Louis. He retired with the third most victories in history. He has been replaced by Mike Matheny.

Pitching coach Dave Duncan had a reputation of bringing out the best in pitchers, turning mediocre pitchers into good ones and good ones into very good ones. When LaRussa took the St. Louis job, he brought Duncan with him. It is also rumored that Duncan could turn lead into gold and chicken shit into chicken salad, but there is no proof of either. The new pitching coach is Derek Lilliquist, who was the interim coach during parts of last year while Duncan was away from the team to be with his ailing wife.

First baseman Albert Pujols was the best hitter to play for the Cards since Hall of Famer Stan Musial. Until his numbers started to decline slightly in the past few years, some Cards fans were beginning to say he was better than Musial. Either way, he will be difficult, if not impossible to replace.

Now for the current team. The most current numbers are linked below.

C Yadier (insert your favorite epithet here) Molina A good defensive catcher and a good hitter with occasional power. One too many occasions, if you ask me.

1B Lance Berkman The Cards decided to replace a possible future Hall of Fame first baseman rumored to have used steroids with another one. So they signed Berkman as a free agent a year ago hoping to add outfield punch to their lineup. He was going to be the first baseman this year, but he was on the DL earlier in the year and is now out for another 6-8 weeks due to knee surgery. He has been replaced by a platoon of lefty hitting Matt Carpenter (more of a third baseman and recently on the DL) who has struggled early this season, rookie Matt Adams and righty hitting Allan Craig, who has shown some power.

2B Daniel Descalso I guess he�s a good defensive player because he started the season as the regular But he hasn�t hit much, and has been replaced by Tyler Greene, who hasn�t been significantly better.

SS Rafael (Fecal) Furcal If you remember when he first came up with the Braves, he was touted as a future superstar. He didn�t start out that way, but has become a very steady player for the past decade. He signed a 2 yr $14 M deal with the Cards this off-season and has gotten off to a hot start.

3B David Freese He seemed to come out of nowhere to emerge as the MVP of the World Series last year. Actually, he came out of the Padres organization in 2007 when he was traded for Jim Edmunds. His success has continued, and he�s having a very good year.

LF Matt Holliday The Cards signed Holliday, the Mets signed Jason Bay. For the first few years of their contracts this has worked out better for the Cards. Holliday got off to a slow start but has heated up recently. The shudda� cudda� talk will continue.

CF Jon Jay He has a similar name to the guy after which the John Jay School of Criminal Justice was named. But they�re not the same guy. He doesn�t catch perps, he catches fly balls, and he does it very well. He�s an excellent flyhawk with a decent bat, but is currently on the DL.

RF Carlos Beltran We still love you, Carlos and you�re having a good year. Just please don�t have a good series. The power is still there, but he has been bothered by a sore knee at times during the year.

The bench is comprised of outfielders Shane Robinson, and Jim Edmunds (yes, they got him back), utility guy Skip Shumacher and C Tony Cruz.


The starting pitchers are KlyeLhose,JakeWestbrook,LanceLynn,AdamWainwright,andleftyJaimieGarcia. Yes, that�s how solid they are as a staff. Each of them can give you a �quality start� or better every time out. None of them has the stuff that makes the fans swoon, but they get hitters out. Wainwright had that kind of stuff, but is coming off TJ surgery and hasn�t shown it yet.. Lynn is 8-1 and is starting to
emerge as the leader of the pack. Garcia has good, but inconsistent stuff. Dave Duncan must be proud of his legacy.

The middle relievers were to be righty Victor Marte and veteran lefty J.C. Romero, but Romero has been released and replaced by Brandon Dickson.


The late inning bullpen guys are righties Mitchell Boggs, Kyle McClellan (currently on the DL with an elbow inflamation), Brandon Dixon, Fernando Salas and lefty Mark Rzepczynski who scares proofreaders world wide as much as he scares lefty batters.

I expect there may be some changes to the bullpen before the series, since teams have been seen digging up the corpses of recently deceased lefty pitchers to throw them against the Mets.

The closer is Jason Motte, who has been effective in that role.

Their current coaches include ex-Mets Jose Oquendo. (Third base) and Dyar Miller (Bullpen)

The numbers are:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/STL/2012.shtml


Later




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[TransMonk]

Great work!

Welcome back, Carlos. The rest of the Cardinals can go to hell.

[seawolf17]

It'd be a fun old-timey prank to kidnap Carlos on Sunday night after the game and stick Jason Bay on the Cardinals' plane instead.

[Edgy MD]

Mitchell Boggs is a good name. If I'm going to a trucks-in-the-mud rally, I'm bringing Mitchell Boggs.

[Met Hunter]

Jim Edmonds may be a special instructor or an advisor, but hes no longer a player.

[Gwreck]

Nice KTE.

I saw that Jaime Garcia (supposed to start Friday) was scratched and the Cardinals moved everyone back a day, so we get Wainwright on Friday instead.

Carlos' 15 homers lead the NL.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

Nice work.

I think FK summed it up nice in his thread/column: Whatever shit they seem to throw together sticks.

Shame Garcia got scratched, it would have been a rematch of the 20-inning game.

Carlitos will bite us on the ass badly in this series. It's the Mets Hamartia.

[Edgy MD]

I got in an Interwebs fight with some haters ripping Carlos after he signed with the Cardinals. After a while, the site stopped taking my comments.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

mbtn.net ?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

mbtn.net ?

Don't be silly, nobody reads that shit.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: I got in an Interwebs fight with some haters ripping Carlos after he signed with the Cardinals. After a while, the site stopped taking my comments.

I try to avoid sites that knock Carlos as a general rule.

[Edgy MD]

It was sucktastic and (as usual) borderline racist. These shubs were insisting that Beltran never laid himself out for a catch, never climbed the wall in pursuit of an apparent homer. I put together a photo essay of 20 or so URLs of awesome photos of the bird in his glorious flight, Carlos diving left, right, forth, back, showing multiple views of the charge up Tal's Hill and the head-on with Cameron. But the site wasn't taking 'em. I thought "OK, spam protection" so I submitted them five at time, three at a time, one at a time. Nothing.

Then I realized, they weren't taking any more of anything from me.

[Frayed Knot]

Other important info:

- this is a four-game "wrap-around" series with a Night - Day - Night - Day pattern and four different starting times: 7:10; 4:10; 8:05; 1:10 (EDT)

- Cards lead the NL in runs scored/game and by a healthy margin: by 0.15/gm over the 2nd place Rox and by nearly half-a-run or more over everyone else including a full run/game over the Mets and 1.14/per over the the NL average

- their offense leads the league also in HRs, BA, OBA, SLG and, naturally, OPS

- their pitching is closer to lg avg, but we get some interesting match-ups to start things off
Friday's game sees both teams throw their supposed aces in Santana and Wainwright
Saturday pits the 8-1 Lance Lynn with 7-1 RA Dickey in a battle for ASG starter (well, maybe)

[Fman99]

Glad that none of these games are on WPIX.

Seriously, this is a first place team? That lineup isn't any more McGyver'd than ours is.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Damn good KTE!

[DocTee]

Seriously, this is a first place team? That lineup isn't any more McGyver'd than ours is.

Well, they're a second place team, and that lineup is mashing. Their rookie 1B (Adams) is huge-- looks like a bouncer and runs like one too.

I hate this team, even without the LaRussa or Whitey Herzog stink. Always have, always will. The MFY of the NL-- fuck them and their "best ever" fans.

[ashie62]

A very fun KTE.

Never heard Berkman and steroids mentioned together. Always kinda liked him..

[metirish]

For a second I thought Edmunds was back!, '62 taking the piss.......funny opening to Jim's Wikipedia page - Bold is mine

James Patrick "Jim" Edmonds (born June 27, 1970) is a former American Major League Baseball center fielder. He played for the California/Anaheim Angels, the St. Louis Cardinals, the San Diego Padres, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Chicago Cubs, and the Cincinnati Reds. He is affectionately known by Cardinal fans as "Jimmy Baseball",[1] "Jimmy Ballgame", "Lassie", and "Hollywood".[2]

yes, a most excellent KTE, thank you

[Frayed Knot]

If Berkman used steroids strictly for appearance purposes they didn't work. Dude has the chiseled build of a duffel bag.
His primary nickname back in Houston was Puma, but I always preferred the other one that got hung on him occasionally: Fat Elvis

[Guest themetfairy]

Nicely done 62!

[Ceetar]

http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/13114

Carlos Beltran (the most successful base-stealer in baseball history (min 200 Attempts or something)) needs 1 more to become only the 8th member of the 300 HR/300 SB club.


Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonds, Andre Dawson, Steve Finley, Willie Mays, Alex Rodriguez, Reggie Sanders

[metirish]

Nice company, Finley kind of sticks out in that group eh?

then I see his numbers, very nice career , played forever though

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/finlest01.shtml

[Ceetar]

yeah.

Actually, Jayson Werth and Utley have passed Beltran on the list of SB% Werth has 99 and Utley has 111 though. Beltran has 299! He's also tied for best single season percentage ever with 30+

[Edgy MD]

metirish wrote: Nice company, Finley kind of sticks out in that group eh?

For being the white guy or for being the weakest link? I'd take him over Sanders. I'd consider taking him over Bobby Bonds, but then I adjust for era.

[metirish]

Ha, for being the weakest link......didn't even notice the other stuff.....really I didn't.

close call with Saunders alright.

team mates?

[Ceetar]

saw a comment that 5/7 played for the Giants too. It'll be 6/8

[Frayed Knot]

Late StL Transactions - all in the last day or two:

- To the DL List: OF Skip Schumaker

- From the DL List: OF Allen Craig

- Sent down to AAA Memphis RH-RP Chuckie Fick & RH-RP Branson Dickson

- Called up from AAA Memphis: LHP Sam Freeman & RHP Maikel Cleto


Cleto was a hard-throwing but young/raw talent who was part of the NYM system until sent to Seattle in the ill-fated JJ Putz deal. Just turned 23 and had a few innings w/StL last year.
Freeman has never pitched in the majors before but is left-handed so gets his shot at the Mets. It was either him or the left-handed peanut vendor from Section 325. Plus I think the Redbirds were probably embarrassed to have a guy named Chuckie Fick on their roster.

[MFS62]

Thanks for the update, FK.
When I read it earlier today and saw Schumacher was put on the DL, I was happy, because I thought "Good. He's the kind of twerp who breaks up a no-hitter".
But I thought he'd do it to Dickey.

And thank everyone for their kind words.

Later