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Carlos Martinez and Trevor Rosenthal appear to be from the same mother except that Carlos needs his baby daddy Yadi to slap him around the head a few times to get a decent pitch. Check swings are his best friend today.
Another stinker but today is a new day.
gscottar wrote:
<Can we please toss the powder blues in a pile and light a match? We can’t win in those ugly things>I think it was Jimmy baseball who pointed out that they are only used on the road and on Saturday nights. They don’t have much a chance of becoming winners but still beat the drab greys. I prefer that beautiful red batting practice jersey that is already equipped with the birds, number and name. That, for me, beats the blues and the greys.
Anybody watch the 9th inning of that Nats/Brewers game saw Hader luck his way out of a bases loaded, 0 out situaton with Turner batting on a 3-2 count and swing at two very high balls, fouling the first and missing the second. Taking that high pitch would have walked in the winning run in a walkoff. I thought the Nats were doing their best bases loaded no outs Cards imitation. But it was a dramatic moment. Surprised to see that Hader had blown his last 5 saves. Gonna be a real fight in the NLC folks.
gscottar wrote:
<MM3, if it weren’t the for the FSM broadcasters their would be nothing for you to complain about in Cardinal Land. I admire your serenity.>
Yeah, thanks for them. Otherwise I am mostly but not always happy because there is nothing I can do about the games except read the disgruntled posts of many on the forums. They add to my entertainment.
I am absolutely rolling on the floor laughing this afternoon over all the teeth gnashing and whining about Edman playing in the OF. When he first arrived and hit a grand slam and everything else as well as did some outstanding fielding and displayed a rocket arm he was the forum hero. Then word got around that Lane Thomas was better (or so some said) so the politicking was on to get him up. Up he comes and is immediately crowned as the new wonder boy – hits his grand slam and a triple and even gets a couple of starts but Shildt plays a switch hitter in the OF and the natives go wild. Then word starts leaking out that Arozorena is being held captive at AAA and needs to be freed. The natives win once again and, lo and behold, the next hero arrives and manages a couple of starts and a couple of hits and maybe he doesn’t satisfy his fans because they almost immediately revert to Lane Thomas as being the ‘victim’ of bench rot again. Seems like our heroes only last a day or two until it becomes obvious they are, as Tony said, only humans not robots.
Keep me laughing fellers. I will stick with whatever Shildt comes up with as I have no control nor does anybody else here. But thanks for the humor. Whomever it was that quoted Edmans recent stats – thanks but they went right over a lot of heads of his detractors. Folks – they all wear the birds on the bat and even though I have to hold my nose everytime Carpenter steps to the plate, I hope the best for him because it will be best for the team.
Thanks Brian Harper. You are an honorary Cardinal for the rest of this season.
Brian wrote:
<My gosh! The month is half over. Thomas got to sit on the bench again last night as Edman finished the game in right. Even the backup catcher played ahead of him!>Yeah, it’s heck not to be a switch hitter or a LH hitter when a right handed pitcher doing the hurling. Baseball is kinda funny about those traditions and mind sets.
Can anybody explain why the white outlined strike box disappeared during and after the 3rd inning? What made it suspicious is that it did show up on the replays of pitches. It would have been nice if Danny Mac or Edmonds had mentioned it but it seemed that still had it on their feed as they were commenting on placement from time to time. This has also happened previously this season but I have never had Fox Sports Midwest respond to any of my inquiries.
I am not much for stats especially ones like this. Batters in positions 1 thru 5 each struck out twice for a total of 10 times. Add in Wacha’s two SOs and that accounts for 12 of the 15. Maybe if we lead off with 6/7/8 we could get a hit or two but then Molina/Wong/Arozarena only contributed one hit total.
It appears that Budda may have put a hex on the boys. Probably the worst offensive game of the season. Wacha not to blame for this stinker for sure. Aroz’s balloon has returned to earth and KW gave it his best shot and Matt Wieters may be out of miracles for this season. Most disturbing was the number of strikeouts looking at a 3rd strike with men on base and two outs – 5 times by my count including Goldies with the bases loaded. But I am still a Goldie fan because of what he has done on defense at 1B. That position was always a weak one for the past few years. He will get his bat going again but he has never let us down on defense. Carp? Well he is still Carp. Maybe he should try pitching in a Rick Ankiel reversal. Never can tell.
Too bad he won’t get his 20/20 goal (HRs/Steals). I think he needed only one or two more steals. He already had the HRs. That goal was for 20 year old AA players but I am glad he will make it to AAA. BTW, his numbers led his team in just about every category. Knock him if you like but he will be with the Cards MLB team late next season. If Bader doesn’t improve his hitting I would not be surprised to see him traded this winter.
I don’t know what Hamels contract is with the Cubs but he has Missouri connections. I think his wife is from Springfield and they had some sort of charity fund and possibly an investment fund here a couple of years ago. They had a multi-million dollar home on Table Rock Lake in the Ozarks (West Branson) and tried to sell it to a buyer who wanted to turn it into some sort of resort but the county turned it down so he GAVE IT AWAY to a charity named Camp Barnabas about a year or two ago. I doubt he would turn down a St Louis contract if it was attractive enough.
You know us old school guys, after our playing days were over, used to just go into a local independent or minor league game, sit down, have a brewski and enjoy watching the game. We weren’t hit with a ton of statistics for every batter and pitcher and really didn’t care. TV of local games was an unknown and even major league games were on only once per week. Yep, we all had our favorites and tended to follow them through box scores in the local news rag. There were even some stats there too but nothing like “Joe Blow is now 23rd SS in history to hit 3 doubles in a 9 inning game at Podunk Stadium during the month of April.”
That is my meek effort to explain what I am not a devotee of baseball stats to the extreme. Some are and I have no problem with that but people talk about the game changing and the development of sabremetrics is another way in which it has. Whether that is for the betterment or degradation of the game is up to the fan. Tinkering with the ball and the rules are two other areas that have either helped or hurt – you be the judge. Some whine about the 2nd base slide rule but before that rule the ‘neighborhood play’ was evolved. If they wanted to keep things as they were perhaps the SS and 2B players should be issued catchers gear. And why not make it the same way at first and third – slide to take out the defender. Sounds silly but so do some of the whines. I love this game and don’t mind saying (some say whining) so. GO CARDS
I think it is becoming known that there was a major difference in philosophies between the hitting coach and assistant hitting coach. They were probably placing blame on each other for the weak offensive showings and one had to go. Budda was obviously the old school guy versus the new school approach of Alberts and it sounds like team members were being exposed to both. It was never said but when that happens it is usually the player who gets confused as to which approach he is to follow. It may be telling that DeJong and Wong are the two players being most quoted. Wong turned hot and DeJong had a down period so which was following whom? I really don’t care as long as the offense improves and doesn’t wait 6 innings to do it in every game.
Somebody earlier on this thread or another one said that Dylan Carlson was part of the John Lackey trade. Since Carlson is 20 years old, he must have still been in the cradle when that happened. Where am I going wrong on this line of thinking?
EW wrote:
<I guess it’s a matter of semantics, but what does “acquired” mean?>OMG, busted by the word police. I don’t do indepth research on opposing team players but that guy has got a lot of press lately. I guess ‘promoted’ would have been a better choice of words. Doesn’t matter. Still gotta watch his bat. Capiche?
Kyle Barraclough was recently released by the Nats. He was picked up from the Marlins. I would not call his deal for Cishek as a ‘worse deal.’
I have to say that Dakota does not inspire me with confidence despite what looks like a very good record. Consider his outings with Flahertys and then compare the records and you see what I mean. Dakota seems to be pretty wild in the first couple of innings of every game he starts but the defense bails him out with timely double plays and great catches. This time Dakota try to do it all on your own. Ponce was almost a twin in the pitching department but fell on his sword earlier. Now Wacha gets another shot of sticking as a SP in Cincy.
Speaking of Cincy, that 4 game series may be a bit more than interesting and important since they acquired Aquino the Great. In that band box his pop flies should equal home runs.
Wooster wrote:
<On our projected lineups I see lots of good choices but do you guys really want Carp as DH? Really or do you just want to live dangerously. I prefer sure things myself.>I really don’t want Carpenter for anything but reality says that management wants him in there to earn his big paychecks. Eventually, if he doesn’t get it going they will come to the point where his presence on the bench will be preferable.
Well, it must be a disease. The Phillies just fired their hitting coach and hired Charlie Manuel – remember him.
Brian wrote:
<Just to be clear, like all the rest of our commentary here, the VEB article, while detailed, is still just opinion and speculation. They have no direct team reporting as far as I know.>Hit the nail on the head Brian – all opinion and speculation. My favorite quote on opinions: ” We all have opinions and a-holes and both usually stink.” I don’t think the specific reasons behind Budda’s release will ever be known but perhaps his not getting the head batting coaches job had something to do with it. Once again, that is only my speculation.
I was surprised as well but after reading through this thread all I can say is NOBODY knows the background with any degree of certainty. But I will give my reason as nothing more than a good old head butting between two people with the result that one had to go. The identities of the two people is what I do not know and don’t care to speculate but I would bet that Mr DeWitt had to be asked for his blessing before Budda was fired. Bad publicity usually has to be justified before an action is taken.
Edman – 3B
Fowler – RF
Goldschmidt – 1B
Ozuna – LF
DeJong – SS
Carpenter – DH
Molina – C
Wong – 2B
Thomas – CFCarp will become ‘injured’ (after the first strikeout) in the 3rd inning and be replaced by Arozarena
