O's, Fish and Cards look like cellar-dwellers

[JK]

Cardinals

According to one scout, "They're doing to St. Louis what (Peter) Angelos did to Baltimore. They're ruining the tradition.''
And according to another, "Of the three teams, they're the ones who are going to have a difficult time reaching or exceeding expectations.''
Two years off their surprise World Series championship, the Cardinals are largely a conglomeration of Mitchell Report-mentioned players, starting pitchers who started as relievers and disappointing and/or one-dimensional players. One scout said, "After (Albert) Pujols, (Yadier) Molina and (Adam) Wainwright and Ryan Franklin, I'm not sure who I'd want from this team.''
Pujols' elbow condition is a worry but isn't affecting his play to date; he's hitting .370 with five home runs and 13 RBIs. One scout said opposing teams should walk Pujols like teams used to walk Barry Bonds. And another noted that without Scott Rolen, Jim Edmonds and David Eckstein, "they've lost a lot of athleticism.''
The Cardinals do have tradition, loyal fans, always-prepared manager Tony La Russa and pitching maestro Dave Duncan, who will try to piece it all together. Brad Thompson is the latest to be pulled from the bullpen, a la Wainwright and Braden Looper, to save the rotation.
Their cost-conscious ways appear to be catching up to them, though. They've taken a lot of fliers lately as a way to save money (for instance, Matt Clement and Mark Mulder aren't ready to help). It appears a long season looms.

Link

[backstop]

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease.

[Tazlaz]

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease.

Stamkos

[007]

Ridiculous...

[Jeffro]

I'm comfortable asserting that at this point in their careers, Ankiel and Glaus are better athletes than Edmonds and Rolen. Hell, Schumaker may well be better than Edmonds.

[Cardz82]

"After (Albert) Pujols, (Yadier) Molina and (Adam) Wainwright and Ryan Franklin, I'm not sure who I'd want from this team.''

Um....one of these things is not like the other.

[JK]

I particularly enjoyed this:

They've taken a lot of fliers lately as a way to save money (for instance, Matt Clement and Mark Mulder aren't ready to help)

They took a money-saving flier on Mark Mulder?

[Blues Fan in TX]

Ridiculous...

You spelled Stamkos wrong...

[Cardz82]

I'll gladly have them take money saving fliers on pitchers when guys like Carlos Silva are the best in the market and are getting 4 year deals for insane money.

[Ty Shula]

another estupid observation:

Brad Thompson is the latest to be pulled from the bullpen, a la Wainwright and Braden Looper, to save the rotation.

Brad Thompson made 17 starts in 2007.

[CD]

In general, I agree with the gist of Heyman's commentary.

What I really don't understand is why so many people keep claiming that the Cardinals pulled Wainwright out of the bullpen to be a starter even though he had always been a starter and was always penciled into the 2007 rotation during the 2006 season. For some reason, I don't think anyone is going to be calling Joba Chamberlain a converted reliever when he finally is put into the Yankees rotation.

[backstop]

another estupid observation:



Brad Thompson made 17 starts in 2007.

And Wainwright has been a starter his entire life except for one year, when the rotation was full and he was needed in the 'pen.

Edit: What he said. Except for the part about agreeing with most of it.

[lazydaze]

And Wainwright has been a starter his entire life except for one year, when the rotation was full and he was needed in the 'pen.

Edit: What he said. Except for the part about agreeing with most of it.

Yeah, not sure what CD is agreeing with...The whole think reeks of ill-prepared, uneducated analysis. Maybe Fox is getting to him.

[backstop]

OK, let's go through this:

According to one scout, "They're doing to St. Louis what (Peter) Angelos did to Baltimore. They're ruining the tradition.''

Who's "they"? The people who have gone to the playoffs six times in the past eight years? What would Rogers Hornsby say if he saw such a sorry state of affairs? Why, back in my day, the Cardinals, Yankees and Orioles won the World Series every year.

And according to another, "Of the three teams, they're the ones who are going to have a difficult time reaching or exceeding expectations.''

Whose expectations? Unnamed Scout's? If so, Unnamed Scout should adjust his own expectations, so that they are more likely to reach them. That's what expectations are. Perhaps he's referring to all the people predicting that the Cards will win the division this year.

Two years off their surprise World Series championship, the Cardinals are largely a conglomeration of Mitchell Report-mentioned players,

Four? Am I missing somebody? I count something like 85-90 names in the Mitchell Report. There's work left to be done, Mo! Go get 'em.

starting pitchers who started as relievers

That would be Looper and...Wainwright? No. Lohse? No. Pineiro? No. Reyes? No. Thompson? No. Clement? No. Mulder? No. Carpenter? No. Wellemeyer? Not really. So, all of them.

and disappointing and/or one-dimensional players.

Who is disappointing? Kennedy, sure. Izturis, but we knew he sucked.

One scout said, "After (Albert) Pujols, (Yadier) Molina and (Adam) Wainwright and Ryan Franklin, I'm not sure who I'd want from this team.''

If this person would rather have Franklin than Ankiel, Glaus, Duncan, Izzy or Rasmus, I hope he's scouting for the Cubs.

Pujols' elbow condition is a worry but isn't affecting his play to date; he's hitting .370 with five home runs and 13 RBIs. One scout said opposing teams should walk Pujols like teams used to walk Barry Bonds.

Fair enough, but those Giants teams scored a lot of runs with Bonds standing on first base and the rest of the team getting lucky every blue moon.

And another noted that without Scott Rolen, Jim Edmonds and David Eckstein, "they've lost a lot of athleticism.''

What the hell was athletic about Eckstein? His rocket arm? Blazing speed? Sweet vertical? Rolen's arm doesn't work anymore, and Edmonds' everything doesn't work anymore. I like those guys, but Izturis has more 'athleticism' than Eckstein, and Izturis sucks.

The Cardinals do have tradition, loyal fans, always-prepared manager Tony La Russa and pitching maestro Dave Duncan, who will try to piece it all together.

I also heard they want to win, win, win.

Brad Thompson

is the latest to be pulled from the bullpen, a la Wainwright and Braden Looper, to save the rotation.

Thompson has started almost 50 games between the minors and big leagues, and he's probably not going to be in the rotation anyway, and if he were, it would only be because the first 47 options are hurt, and the Wainwright thing is just stupid.

Their cost-conscious ways appear to be catching up to them, though.

The reason they can't win anything in the division, you see, is that they're consistently getting spent under the table by Pittsburgh, Cincy, Houston and Milwaukee.

They've taken a lot of fliers lately as a way to save money (for instance, Matt Clement and Mark Mulder aren't ready to help).

The Cardinals will have spent $25M on Mulder after paying him $6.5M this year. I want to be rich enough someday to call that a flier.

It appears a long season looms.

I predict it will end in early October.

[lazydaze]