The All-Star Break

So, here we are, The all star break, lets look at some things shall we:

-The team is 5 games below .500 and are still in the hunt for this division race, maybe this is why it is called the comedy central

-Kip Wells will take the place of Wellemeyer in the rotation which is silly since Wellemeyer has done well in the rotation despite his 5.53 ERA. I think this was planned all along by La Russa.

-Albert will participate in the Hr Derby and hopefully he will not get injured as Jim Edmonds did in the last one he was a part of.

-As you know, Albert is the only Cardinal in the All Star game.

Enjoy the All-Star Festivities: REDBIRDFAN

D-Backs Come to Town

About the Cincy series: If you haven’t heard, Reds Management have fired Jerry Narron which to me seemed inevitable since the Reds have the worst record in baseball. Anyway he seems like a good guy and hopefully he will manage again someday. A slugfest was underway in Cincy over the weekend, especially on Sunday, in which Griffey hit his 585th homerun and is voted to the All Star team for the National League. Its his 13th time being an all star and he is well deserving. For the Cards, the lone representative will be Albert Pujols and this will be his 6th time. Of course, Prince Fielder will be the starting first baseman and he is having a career year. For the All Star Linups CLICK HERE.

I don’t know about you, but after seeing Skip Shumaker bat, boy do I miss Jim Edmonds. The guy always swings at the first pitch and grounds out, it pisses me off. Hopefully Jimmy will be back soon.

So, the snakes return to the STL to face the Cardinals. This Arizona team is no joke, only one game shy of ten games above .500 and 1.5 games out of 1st place in their division. This will be a four game stretch where we will face some pretty good pitching, particularly Webb and the Big Unit. I say the Cards lose the first two and go on to win the next two. Hopefully Albert will get to twenty homeruns before the break because I want him to hit 40 this year. And, as mentioned before, this has been a long drought without homeruns for the big guy. Oh yeah, Looper comes off of the DL today and we will just have to wait and see what happens to Reyes (another controversy brewing?)  Starters:

Brandon Webb, RHP (8-5, 3.05)           vs              Braden Looper, RHP (6-6, 4.66)
Randy Johnson, LHP (4-3, 3.81)           vs              Todd Wellemeyer, RHP (2-1, 6.04)

Livan Hernandez, RHP (5-5, 4.58)       vs              Brad Thompson, RHP (6-3, 4.88)

 Doug Davis, LHP (5-9, 4.29)                    vs              Adam Wainwright, RHP (6-7, 4.81)

Thats all for me, enjoy the series and have a happy 4th of July: REDBIRDFAN

Cardinals take on Reds and Ken Griffey Jr.

 [Update- Sat June 30, 2007]—> Apparently, Cards starter for the saturday game will be Adam Wainwright and some starting pitching changes have been made so here are the rest of the starters for this series:

Wainwright 6-6, 4.58     vs.       Lohse 3-10, 5.02  

Mike Maroth, LHP (5-2, 4.73)          vs.         Homer Bailey, RHP (2-1, 6.41)

That is all, have a great weekend……  

So, Griffey passes McGwire on the alltime Hr list which is great. Now Griffey has 584 Hrs and think of how many he would have if he doesn’t get injured as often as he has over his career. Good thing I have him on my fantasy league. Anyway, I’m in love with his swing because its so natural to me yet so simple. Oh the drama that is created when someone on your fantasy team faces the team you root for. Do you want the pitcher to strike him out in the bottom of the ninth or do you want him to hit a Hr and put you in the #1 spot in your fantasy leage, I don’t know, you decide.Okay, hopefully the Cards can sweep the Reds because they were nearly swept by the Mariners and the Phillies are putting on a batting show during their last series. Hopefully, their bats will be quiet during this weekend series and our starting pitching can continue to do well. If we get in a slugfest with them, look for the Cardinals to loose because everyone seems to be in a slump on our team. Albert seems to be in a Hr slump because the last time he hit one was on June 14th vs the KC Royals. Well what can we expect, all of these teams have gotten smart, no one around albert can hit and to prove this check this stat out, Pujols has walked at least once since June 20th. This shows the lack of hitters to protect Pujols in the lineup, Encarnacion and Rolen have not burned the pitcher when he walks Albert and look for him to keep walking in abundance at least until Jim Edmonds comes back.Now, the Cards face the Reds during this series and these are the pitchers:

Thompson  6-3, 5.04           vs.            Arroyo 2-9, 5.14

Mike Maroth, LHP (5-2, 4.73)           vs.          Kyle Lohse, RHP (3-10, 5.02)

Todd Wellemeyer, RHP (2-1, 6.04)          vs.        Homer Bailey, RHP (2-1, 6.41)

Man, I guess that Reds pitching has been as bad as Cardinals pitching. I have never seen so many pitchers facing off with ERAs of 5 or above. The only starting pitcher that will pitch with an ERA less than 5 is Mike Maroth. Hopefully, the Cardinals will take at least 2 out of the 3 from the Reds and Pujols will get back on track.

Talk to you later: Redbirdfan

 [UPDATE]—-> CARDINALS VS. METS ON THURSDAY CANCELLED DUE TO RAINFALL–WILL BE MADE UP DURING A DAY IN WHICH BOTH TEAMS HAVE A DAY OFF.

Mets series and trade talks

 

So, the Cardinals take on game of the three they were able to play due to the heroics of Brendan Ryan. Izzie blew up a save which was different because it has not happened in some time. Its hard to believe but your closer has been one of the best in baseball. Lots of credit should go to Green who was down 0-2 in the count, but worked the count and was able to walk.

Now, another loss to a soft tossing leftie- Tom Glavine who has been demolished during his previous couple of starts. The Cardinals seem to never be able to hit him (remember last year during the playoffs). Anyway, all of our starting pitching was great, are things turning around, well ask me that question in a month and we’ll know. Also, Maroth was very good during his Cardinal pitching debut, and I sense he is currently our best pitcher. Wellemeyer did well and Reyes only made one mistake to David Wright and got burned.

                                  R          H

Maroth                       2           3

Wellemeyer               3           6

Reyes                        2           2

WOW, only allowing 7 runs on  11 hits for the New York Mets is very good, but Can the starting pitching keep this up, well we’ll see during the weekend series vs. the Reds. I am really looking forward to Maroth’s next start because of what he showed me against the Mets. Also, Reyes showed signs of coming back to earth by only 2 hits. Don’t forget, the only hit allowed by Glavine over 6 innings was 1 and it was hit by Scott Rolen by all people.

Now, I don’t think that the Cardinals will trade for Buehrle, but would like to be wrong about this. He doesn’t seem to care about the White Sox and he is currently one of their best pitcher right now. I think they’ll lock him up for a long time. My brother tells me that they’ll give him an extension so that others don’t have to and he’ll become an even hotter commodity, which may be true. 

Preview for Reds series coming up……:Redbirdfan

Kip Wells Stays……….Another I-70 Series

 

 So, if you hadn’t heard the news, the Kipper will stay on the team and some moves have been made:

Jim Edmons on 15 day DL

Braden Looper on 15 day DL

Troy Cate called up

Skip Shumaker called up

I am fine with all the moves, but it seems unfair that Jimmy didn’t even know he’s going to be put on the DL. Anyway check out this unbeleivable play by Jimmy to get you excited on how good he is when healthy. All I know is that anyone from AAA Memphis is better than the Kipper, I mean I’d rather Ian Kinsler become one of our starters please just let Kip go.

I forgot, Spezio pitched! I couldn’t believe my eyes, that was one of the funniest moments of this year and the sad part is that was the only scoreless inning posted by the cardinals that day. If you want to relive Spezio’s pitching debut, click here.

Onto the present…..this series, the Cards play the Royals who they can’t seem to beat all of a sudden. My god, Encarnacion came up to bat twice yesterday, but didn’t deliver once, so much for his hitting streak: all of his hits during that streak have been useless. Also, if you missed it, Albert was walked intentionally twice and struck out against Perez (the world is coming to an end I tell you). Wainwright was pretty bad, how do you not contain a ballclub that can’t win a series in the American League. Seriously, I think that if the Royals were in the Nationals League, they would contend every year.

Now for the remaining two games:

Elarton 2-2, 8.54     Vs.    Here it comes……   Wells 2-11, 6.93      (this is going to be a high scoring game)

Gil Meche, RHP (4-6, 3.00)  (has been doing unexpectedly well)   Vs.        Brad Thompson, RHP (4-2, 5.28)

Hopefully we will win the Wells game if he doesn’t give up 20 runs and I beleive we will lose the second. I mean if Menche has posted a 3.00 ERA against the American leageu think of what he’ll do to the Cardinals.

Talk to you later: Redbirdfan  

CARDS Vs. ATHLETICS, See you later Kip Wells (Hopefully)

 

First of all, this team is horrible, horrendous, and just plain bad. Just felt that I needed to get that off of my chest here. How do you lose 2 out of 3 against the Royals out of all people, well the Cardinals seem to be inventive by finding different ways to lose games. During the first few weeks, they lost because of the lack of timely hitting or hitting at all was nonexistant. Now, all starting pitching seems to have gone down the drain and we are relying on all relief pitchers to do jobs they obviously don’t seem to be able to do. The only bright spot in the last couple of weeks in terms of starting pitching is Adam Wainwright, he seems to have found his stuff and has pitched well.

Now, not to go off on a tangent but Tony, is really making me furious. He tries to save the Kipper by taking him out real fast and this putts the bullpen in an awkward situation. Anyway, when Flores came in, I was hoping the runners on base score so that Kip’s ERA can reach 7, but it only got to 6.93. The bullpen just blew up after that. I seriously don’t know what Jimenez is doing up here, when Falkenbourg should be the one to get a chance. After 19 appearances, his ERA is 9.93, for God’s sake please realieve us of our suffereing and get rid of him!

Hopefully, that is the last that we have seen of the Kipper and Anthony will be called up and allowed to pitch the way he wants.

Now, about this athletics series, seriously, I think that there is a good chance they might get swept unless they get lucky.

Probable Starters:

Haren (best pitcher in baseball right now) Vs. Looper

Wellemeyer Vs. DiNardo (another pitcher with below 2 ERA)

Thompson (If you allow 8 earned runs vs the Royals, do you deserve to be in the Majors?) Vs. Kennedy

If ther is one game I see us winning, its the second one, when Wellemeyer pitches. The team seems to score a lot behind him. When you are relying on Wellemeyer to be your best shot for winning a game, you have to question if this team is going anywhere. Hopefully I am wrong and they pull out another win out of their hats. How good is that Mulder trade going now folks? If you remember he was the only solid reliever in the bullpen during the postseason when we got to the world series and got our butts kicked by the Red Sox. I told my brother that this guy is special, but hindsight is always 20/20 I guess.

Talk to you later: REDBIRDFAN  

The Reyes Controversy and Other Ramblings

 

So, it turns out that Reyes is having lots of success so far in triple A Memphis. He allowed only one earned run in 7 innings of work and gave up only three hits. Now granted, this is triple A, but still this is rather impressive to me.

Also, guess what, from what I have learned from an interview on the radio with the pitching coach of Triple A Memphis done by Kevin Slaten (590 The Fan), he threw all four seamers. When the man sticks to what he does best, he is successful and why don’t the Cardinals just let him throw the four seamer that he loves? I really don’t have an answer to that question, all I know is that Tony is very stubborn when it comes to certain players (John Rodriguez and now Anthony Reyes). He doesn’t seem to like youth at all on his ballclub, “Veterans, veterans, that is the way to go” is the mentality that seems to come across when it comes to La Russa. Just look at Kip Wells, I don’t even want to watch the game he pitches against the Angels, head for cover folks because there is a forecast for lots of runs early and your beloved Cardinals may get smashed badly.

I am optimistic about this series against the Cincinnati Reds who are really down in the dumps right now. I have Adam Dunn and Ken Griffey Jr. on my fantasy team and I am looking to gain some ground in my league if you know what I mean. Watch out for them because they are fastball hitters and if his last start is any indication on how Wellemeyer approaches his opponents, we might see some fireworks go off of the bats of these two hitters.

Probable pitchers for the series vs. Cincinnati:

Harang (very underrated starter) vs. Wellemeyer

Arroyo vs. Thompson (bright spot in the rotation lateley pitching very well)

Lohse (coming off a very good start) vs. Wainwright (if you remember was exceptional when pitching to the Astros)

Anyway enjoy the series,

Redbirdfan

 [Cards4life(my brother) is taking some time off ]

Game 3 of W.S. Lineups

 

Here are the linups for game 3 of the World Series:

Detroit Tigers

1. Curtis Granderson, center field
2. Craig Monroe, left field
3. Placido Polanco, second base
4. Magglio Ordonez, right field
5. Carlos Guillen, shortstop
6. Ivan Rodriguez, catcher
7. Sean Casey, first base
8. Brandon Inge, third base
9. Nate Robertson, pitcher

St. Louis Cardinals

1. David Eckstein, shortstop
2. Preston Wilson, left field
3. Albert Pujols, first base
4. Scott Rolen, third base
5. Ronnie Belliard, second base
6. Jim Edmonds, center field
7. Yadier Molina, catcher
8. So Taguchi, right field
9. Chris Carpenter, pitcher

Juan Encarnacion is not in the lineup because he is definitely not hitting during the playoffs and I think that it is a good move. But I think that Preston Wilson shouldn’t be in there either even though he is 5 for 5 against Nate Robertson because he is just waving at pitches like he’s saying goodbye to the Astros.

 Last game, Kenny Rogers was cheating and definitely should have been kicked out. TLR didn’t pursue the cheating of Rogers more because his friend Leeland was in the other dugout and that is a bunch of crap. Tony have some balls and attack the cheaters out there because the last thing we need in baseball is another cheater.  If it was Dusty Baker, TLR would have had the umpires strip search all of the cubs pitching staff and would have made a big deal out of the whole thing.

Hope the Cards win today and Carp can shut them down!!!

Rainout of NLCS Game 5

Bummer, we were all looking forwad to some baseball, but looks like the game is cancelled. Tomorrow the Cardinals will face the Mets in full force and will be fully rested. Gametime: 7:19 tuesday.

Check out the Pre-game for NLCS game 5 below.

Preview: NLCS Game #5

 

okay, today its glavine vs. weaver. For this series, here are the stats:

Glavine: (1-0), 0.00ERA

Weaver: (0-1), 3.16 ERA

Glavine pitched a pretty good game #1 if you ask me and it was all because he was hitting his spots. He reminds me of an older Suppan. Weaver also pitched a great game and exceeded expectations because I thought that he was going to blow up, but instead, he only allowed two runs on a mistake to Beltran.

Hopefully, today (if no rainout) Weaver will be solid again, and Glavine will blow up. I am hoping that Glavine will have a bad game (umpires don’t call his pitches)  and we can capitalize on his mistakes. The mang (albert pujols) needs to produce. But I don’t believe that  its his fault, I mean no one is getting on in front of him. P-Dub is just a bad 2nd hitter because everytime you look up he’s either swinging at the first pitch, a bad pitch, or striking out. This is why Pujols is pressing and trying to pull everything as Ilboros pointed out in Vivaelboros and.

Hopefully, we can take this game and head to New York for game six with our heads up. The bullpen needs to get back on track, yesterdays was horrible. La Russa didn’t want to go with matchups and went with his gut feelings and look what happend. The skipper is just not consistent anymore. I thought he was a matchup guy, but now he’s making me think otherwise. Anyway, we need Weaver to pitch another good game, Glavine to blow up, and for, the bullpen to get back on track.

Good Luck to the Cardinals today, I have a feeling they will need it.