KTE: Cards at Pond Scum, 4/21-4/24

[Guest d'Kong76]

Just realized I'm up. I should be able to whip something up
by late afternoon tomorrow. Feel free to help in the meantime.

[Frayed Knot]

They'll be the ones wearing red.
That's all I got.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Plus, I hear they're really good!

[Frayed Knot]

And they have the 'Best Fans in Baseball'.
It's true, just ask them!

[Lefty Specialist]

Rumor has it that the Cardinal is a kind of bird or something.

[Fman99]

The "Cardinal Way," the YLDBs of the National League, Yadier F. Molina. I still hate all of these assholes. I can't say I ever paid them much mind prior to 2006.

[metirish]

Cue much fawning from the booth about the Cardinal way ........wankers

[Frayed Knot]

Fman99 wrote: The "Cardinal Way," the YLDBs of the National League, Yadier F. Molina. I still hate all of these assholes. I can't say I ever paid them much mind prior to 2006.

They were pain in the asses in the mid-80s too.

[metirish]

That is where the term pond scum came from, the 80"s?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

They're the Bob Costas of baseball. Pretentious windbags with an infection and an inflated sense of their own importance.

[Frayed Knot]

metirish wrote: That is where the term pond scum came from, the 80"s?

Yes. It was from that era that a bunch of Cards fans publicly declared the Mets to be "Pond Scum".
I believe it was originally done via a newspaper ad in those pre-internet, pre-twitter days.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Here's a start, I'll try and find some more later maybe ...

Stl Cardinals are 11-8 and are 3 games behind Mil Brewers in the Central Division. They are on a three-city road trip going 2-1 against the Brewers and 2-2 in Washington.

Probable pitching:
Mon: Tyler Lyons (2?0, 3.32 at AAA) vs. Jenrry Mejia (2?0, 2.81)
Tue: Adam Wainwright (3?1, 1.80) vs. Dillon Gee (1?0, 3.71)
Wed: Michael Wacha (2?1, 1.73) vs. Jonathon Niese (0?2, 2.84)
Thu: Lance Lynn (4?0, 3.42)+ vs. Bartolo Colon (1?3, 5.40)

*Matt Adams is on an 11-12 game hitting streak
*Yadier Molina is on an 11 game hitting streak
*Lance Lynn 4 wins ties him with one other to become first 4 game winner
*Tyler Lyons (Mon starter) was recalled today from Memphis

[TransMonk]

THE KTE already proving useful...I had no idea this was a four game series.

[Frayed Knot]

And Thursday's game, as the finale of a midweek series often are, is a day game.

[Edgy MD]

I had no idea this was a four game series.

And I had no idea Milwaukee, apart from being a great song by Ted Leo and Aimee Mann, is also the name of a first-place baseball team.

I seem to recall pre-season buzz that they were looking at 2014 as a write-off.

[Frayed Knot]

Writers--more than one of them that I heard--started talking about the Brewers during ST, saying they looked a lot better than they expected.
They then reeled off a nine-game winning streak which, during the first three weeks of a season, tends to puff up ones record quite nicely.
They then lost a couple but followed that by taking 3 of 4 in a tough series w/Pittsburgh this past weekend - all wins by one or two runs and all via saves by one F. Rodriguez.
Strangely enough it's been good pitching that's kept the Brew Crew afloat. 2nd best ERA in NL ... whoda thunk it?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I just bought tix to the Mets-Brews series today before they all sell out.

[seawolf17]

Frayed Knot wrote: And Thursday's game, as the finale of a midweek series often are, is a day game.

Which means that if Lance Lynn is on your fantasy team, you're going to want to start him this week.

[TransMonk]

Edgy MD wrote: I had no idea this was a four game series. And I had no idea Milwaukee, apart from being a great song by Ted Leo and Aimee Mann, is also the name of a first-place baseball team. I seem to recall pre-season buzz that they were looking at 2014 as a write-off.

I can certainly say that I didn't hear anyone within the Brewers organization mention anything about winning 90 games before the season started.

They have every reason to be happy through the first 20ish games with good hitting and outstanding pitching nearly across the board. History would suggest that some of their starters are going to start reverting back to the mean, though. It might be tough for them to hold off these Cards all year.

[Frayed Knot]

New to Cards lineup:

- Jhonny Peralta at SS
The former Cleveland Native American and Biogenesis client signed a big four-year deal, displacing Daniel DiScalso mostly. Is so far hitting a Grandersonian .179 but oddly with 7 of his 11 hits for XBs

- Peter Bourjos in CF
Former Angel is an excellent fielder and runner but also isn't hitting [.190/.261/.310]. His presence shoved Jon Jay to RF although Jay will still play CF on days when the RH-hitting Bourjos is grabbing some bench

- Kolten Wong at 2B
A 1st round StL draft pick (#22 over in 2011) he showed up at the tail end of last year, most notably when he got picked off to end WS game #4 w/Beltran at the plate representing the tying run. If he had a shovel at that point he'd still be digging.

Edited April 21, 2014 by Guest

[Frayed Knot]

TransMonk wrote: I can certainly say that I didn't hear anyone within the Brewers organization mention anything about winning 90 games before the season started.

I didn't hear anyone from the Brewers crowing early on either. But several national writers, when asked during preseason talks to do things like pick a 'surprise team', named the Brewers as looking much better than they or anyone else expected.
Not that this means it won't all fall apart for them soon. Like I said, a nine game winning streak does better things than usual to an overall record when the season is still new.

[Edgy MD]

How You Doin'?
Currently failing to answer the bell are lefthanded starting pitcher Jaime Garcia, righthanded starting pitcher Joe Kelly, and bearded reliever Joe Motte.

Don't I Know You?
No ex-Mets adorn the Cardinal roster, or even their 40-man roster. But David Aardsma is throwing well for the Memphis Redbirds, so maybe he'll get a call.

Jose Oquendo is in his 15th windmilling season as the Cardinals third base coach. That's got to be an impressive run in a position with a high mortality rate.

Mike Jorgensen is one of four Cardinal staffers to hold the coveted position of "special assistant to the GM."

Randy Niemann is the pitching coach for the AA Springfield Cardinals.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: They're the Bob Costas of baseball. Pretentious windbags with an infection and an inflated sense of their own importance.

Also, shortish-- though probably not quite as short as you remember-- and really white.

Speaking of which, Mark F. Ellis just joined the Red Menace to back up young Mr. Wong and run out groundballs with Ecksteinian effort. We've got a history with this one, so, y'know, he'll probably do something irritating like this.

[Frayed Knot]

Obviously it�s early and just as obviously we�ve only seen this team for one game so far, but my early observation is that these self-proclaimed �Best Fans in Baseball� better hope their guys pitch and field REAL well this season because I think they�re going to find runs tough to come by.

In 2013, StL was on top of the NL in runs scored, averaging nearly one run/game above league average and more than 1/2 run over the 2nd place team (COL). I think you�d be hard-pressed to find a gap that large in most seasons. But their offense was based on good to great years from just about everyone �as a team in 2013 they hit a very nice .269/.332/.401 �but especially that it jumped to .313/.369/.463 with men on base and a reedonculous .330/.402/.463 w/RiSP. Now you can talk all you want about �good approaches� and �the Cardinal Way� and all that but, I don�t care how good you are, those rates are unsustainable and can�t simply continue to be conjured up whenever you need them.

Right now they�re 4th from the bottom in NL runs/game (and that didn't get better after tonight's game), below league average, well below NYM levels, and ahead of only Arizona (and how bad did THEY look last week?), the Cubs (who are, after all, the Cubs) and San Diego (who I think are the caboose on this list every year).

I�m not suggesting that they�ll stay down at these levels the whole year, but if I were them I wouldn�t count on it rising automatically. Right now their only real �swap� was Beltran for Peralta and I think that�s going to be a net negative plus whatever decline they'll see if they only hit at 'normal' rates with runners on.
The other hope they've got is their top prospect, Oscar Tavares, is an OF who's considered one of the top hitting prospects in baseball and who'll probably be ready to come up soon.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Bernie of Bird Bytes agrees with you, and more...
From St Louis Post-Dispatch:
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/bernie-miklasz/bird-bytes-where-s-the-cardinals-offense/article_865bb4de-c842-52d6-a2e5-956ddf382817.html?print=true&cid=print

[Frayed Knot]

Bernie of Bird Bytes agrees with you, and more... From St Louis Post-Dispatch: http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/ ... &cid=print

I think that guy, Bernie Miklasz, has been covering the Cards since around the turn of the century ... and I'm talking about the previous turn, not the one just 14 years ago.

[Frayed Knot]

Game 2 starter Adam Wainwright, despite his lengthy accomplishments and called strike three memories, is a very UNimpressive 2-4; 6.02 over 8 games/6 starts vs the Mets

Let's go kick his ass.

[Edgy MD]

Another Cardinal offense watcher I just stumbled upon is inching out on the ledge.

It continued Monday night in New York as the Mets blanked the Cardinals 2-0 as someone named Jenrry Mejia blanked the Cardinals on four hits for 6.2 innings, as another National League pitcher fattened up his stats on the NL Champs. That crown means nothing in 2014 and the Cardinals play has resembled little from the previous season.

His name is "Jenrry." Two R's. Get used to it.

[seawolf17]

The MLB Network guys kept pronouncing it with a hard J during the Montreal game.

[Edgy MD]

Gary has been pronouncing "Jeurys" as "JER-ris," while in my mind, it's "HYOR-ees."