Does Anyone Know Someone Who Can Play?

Not long after Tony Larussa brought in Mark McGwire as a part of the coaching staff two years ago, Larussa made some interesting comments about wishing he could put the big former first baseman in to pinch hit.  At the time, I remember wondering if this was some kind of a joke, or if the crazy old man was serious.  Who knew that only a couple short years later, we would be looking at this possibility more realistically?  Could Jose Oquendo still be “The Secret Weapon?”  There was once a time when he could play every position on the field, but do we think that 20 years later he could just make a spot start in the outfield or second base?  At least with the addition of Mike Matheny as manager, we know that when the inevitable and season devastating injury to Yadier Molina comes around, the Cardinals will have veteran options to fall back on under contract. 

Ok, in all seriousness, the Cardinals are still a ways a way from bringing “The Secret Weapon” out of his lock box that has been stowed in John Mozeliak’s closet high out of the reach of his children.  We keep hearing about the depth that this organization has and the talent in the minor leagues, but with the number of injuries that the Cardinals have seen already this season, no amount of depth will make up for the lost members of the team.  The current Cardinals DL could compete in the National League Central.  With Berkman, Schumaker, and Matt Carpenter, the team is only a shortstop away from a pretty solid infield, and when you throw Jay and Craig (although he is set to be activated on Friday) into that lineup, you have a solid middle of the order. 

And this is only the players who are listed as on the disabled list.  Mike Matheny has been hampered just as much by the players who have been unavailable to play as the players who have been officially put on the disabled list.  With David Freese and Carlos Belran needing consistent days off due to wrist and knee ailments, the Cardinal’s bench at times can be shockingly short.  Through all of these injuries to key members of the Cardinals everyday lineup, hitting coach Mark McGwire has done an amazing job of helping those few healthy players put runs up on the board.  I would be completely insane to not also point out the evolution of Yadier Molina into one of the top 2 hitting catchers in baseball.  It has been commendable in how this team has overcome these many injuries to put up more runs than any other national league team, but maybe these many and big names are not the reason for a 13-16 record in May.

While the loss of Chris Carpenter is no longer a shock and losses of pitchers like Kyle Mclellan and Scott Linebrink seem to be less disabling when they happened, injuries to the Cardinals pitching staff has been far more damaging to the team’s record.  Even with the amazing streak of success that the Cardinals have gotten out of Lynn, the loss of Chris Carpenter’s leadership has been felt, and more pressure has been put on guys like Garcia, Westbrook, and Lohse.  Westbrook and Lohse, although good early, simply do not have the talent to be dominant pitchers, and they’re fall back to earth has been rough.  Adding to the theme of too many injuries, a sore elbow for Jaime Garcia could be the knockout punch for the Cardinal’s chances at sticking with the streaking Reds in the Central Division in the early parts of the season.

The real damage to this Cardinals team has come in the loss of dependable arms in their bullpen.  I have already spoken at length at how much this unit has struggled lately, but I cannot speak enough about how much the loss of Lance Lynn’s flexibility as a talented power arm at the end of a game or an equally if not more valuable piece to come in early in the game when the tiring starter leaves a mess to be cleaned up in the 7^th inning.  It is this type of flexible pitcher that the Cardinals need more than anything, and this is the type of player that the Mozeliak needs to target in some way.  It would be great if Salas could recover from early season ineffectiveness to regain the form to be this type of a pitcher.  Another option would be Eduardo Sanchez who has shown brief flashes of the same brilliance that Lynn has taken to the starting rotation.

The biggest fear of any Cardinals fan before this season began was that the Cardinals would have the exact injuries that they are encountering right now.  Just about everything that could go wrong up to this point has for the team, and they still find themselves only a game and a half out of first place.  I am knocking on wood furiously over here when I say that the law of averages has to work itself out and the numbers of injuries for this team not continue at the pace that seems to find multiple players reporting to the disabled list every week.  The bright spot is that the Cardinals have not had many injuries to their players that are threatening the season other than Berkman and Chris Carpenter.  It seems like this season is going to be one of those years when we watch the TV and over analyze every grimace in fear that the next injury is on its way.  Last year, the Cardinals lost their best pitcher for the year before spring training fully got going, and they were still able to win a championship so there is still hope for this injury filled season.  And I guess when I really look at the bright side, just how many Cardinals players need to go down before I get a call from Mozeliak asking if I would like to pitch in the 7^th inning of a game.  Any more months like May, and we all may get our chances.

Is the Cardinals Bullpen Good Enough to Win the National League Central?

In 2011, the Cardinals slugged their way to a World Series.  They held the highest batting average in the National League by 9 points over the second place Mets, and yet with all this offense, they needed a historic run and even more improbably collapse by Atlanta to even take part in the playoffs.  It is not difficult to come up with reasons as to why they were put in this kind of position with that much offensive firepower.  The answer lies with their pitching and defense.  Although the starting rotation had to move on without Wainwright, the starters performed admirably.  The starting staff had a record that was exactly 20 games over .500 with the 8^th best ERA in the National League.

The Cardinal’s bullpen last season was a different story.  For the season they were 11th in the National League in ERA and saved only 47 of 73 opportunities on the season.  These numbers also take into account the Cardinal’s bullpen after they had settled with Motte as the team’s closer and made the trade for Dotel to stabilize the late innings and pressure situations.  It was at times an extremely frustrating season for the Cardinals because of this lack of success in finishing games.  But then there was the postseason, and much of the regular season lack of success was forgotten.  The bullpen was credited with 6 of the 11 wins that the Cardinals had to put together to win the World Series, and both Dotel and Lynn had 2 wins a piece.  Fernando Salas showed that he could be a valuable pitcher in difficult situations in the middle innings as he stopped the bleeding over and over again.  Motte was 5 for 5 in save opportunities and slammed the door emphatically in most of them with his dominating fastball.

This season, the Cardinal’s bullpen is .46 runs worse in ERA than last season, and although it is in a smaller sample size, the team has successfully saved 8 out of 16 save opportunities for an even worse save percentage from 2011.  At this rate, the Cardinals are in for another rocky and frustrating season unless the pen can come together similar to how it did in the playoffs last season after the additions of Dotel and Rzepcynski.  The Cardinals need a return to form of Fernando Salas who has simply not been the same this season after his heavy use during the playoffs.  They are also in need of another guy who can get left handed pitchers out. 

The biggest need in this bullpen though is another dependable arm that can slam the door in the 7^th and 8^th innings before handing the ball over to Motte to close out the game.  These innings seem to be the most challenging to fill every season, but this season seems to be a particular riddle.  Although Boggs has been a bright spot so far, he has been anything but consistent so far in his short career.  While watching last season with friends, I would joke that we could tell whether Boggs would make it out of the inning by watching how he pitched to the first two batters.  It always seemed that he would either come in throwing darting sliders and sinkers that disappeared.  Unfortunately he was just as likely to come in throwing fastballs either right down the middle of the plate or well off the corners. 

While speaking of pitchers with electric stuff that have just not put it together yet it is impossible not to think of Eduardo Sanchez.  His electric fastball and slider remind me of Carlow Marmol of the Chicago Cubs when he was the successful closer who struck out batters at a record pace.  Unfortunately, his lack of control also warrants this comparison.  I was able to see him pitch in person against the Phillies when he threw 2 scoreless innings, and even here in his best outing of the season, it seemed like he knew no more about where the pitch was going to end up than I did from the stands.

The arm that they really need in that late inning role is also their best starting pitcher right now.  Lance Lynn was extremely valuable out of the bullpen last season, but how can you justify taking him out of the rotation over someone like Westbrook who after an exciting beginning of the season has come back to Earth with his recent outings?  The return of Chris Carpenter will allow the move of Lynn which will really make things interesting as far as what the Cardinals decide to do. 

On top of everything else, there is Jason Motte at the end of the game.  All things considered, he has had a lot of success this season, but with his lack of an effective secondary pitch, it is difficult not to worry about him when he comes out to the mound and is not throwing 99 miles per hour on every pitch.  With few other weapons other than his fastball, it is a difficult matchup for Motte against a hitter who can catch up with his velocity, and I am afraid that he will have some stretches this season where he struggles.  It could be a very interesting season for these Cardinals, and the bullpen will surely be an enormous reason for why they either make the playoffs or find themselves wondering what went wrong.

What Will Jaime Garcia Be In Three Years?

As was evidenced by his stellar performance against the Giants, Jaime Garcia is a talented, young pitcher.  He has been celebrated by his teammates as having the best stuff on a starting staff with a former Cy Young Award winner, a runner up for the award, and a couple veteran pitchers with nearly 100 wins on the back of their baseball cards.  At the age of 25, he is still young with a very bright future, but how bright is that future really?  To watch Jaime Garcia pitch, with the ball he throws darting in all different directions, is to watch something of absolute beauty or something of tragic inconsistency.  We all hope and even expect that as a young man only a month or so shy of his 26^th birthday, he will be able to be less frustration and more exciting talent, but then again, he would not be the first young pitcher not to live up to his potential.

Cliff Lee was another talented young left hander with tons a world of potential.  He made his major league debut at the age of 23, similarly to Garcia who made his debut at 21, did not have a full season until he was 23 after taking a year off due to Tommy John ligament replacement surgery.  Cliff Lee, also much like Garcia began his career with exciting promise, going 18 and 5 as a 26 year old pitcher who seemed to be the next great lefty.  After that exciting year, his career took a turn that saw his ERA balloon to 6.29 as a 28 year old.  This career hiccup only led him on to bigger and better things, however, as the next season saw him end as the Cy Young Award winner.  To top everything off, he has made playoff runs with multiple teams and proven himself to be one of the game’s best clutch performers and most exciting talents.

Jaime Garcia still has a long ways to go before he gets to this sort of level, but the talent is there to have similar successes.  The biggest difference between Jaime Garcia and some of the other top left handed pitchers in baseball right now is his inconsistency.  We all have seen Garcia shut down the opposition when he has his best stuff and the breaks are going his way.  The only problem here is that it is impossible for anyone not named Justin Verlander to have dominating stuff night in and night out.  Garcia needs to learn some of the lessons that Chris Carpenter has been trying to exemplify for the past year. 

Whether it be age, injury, or just bad luck, Carpenter last year was handed the ball multiple times when he did not appear to have his best stuff.  Taking one look at the exasperated looks on his face during games where he would give up a few hits told me all I needed to know about how he was feeling that day.  The thing about Carpenter is that his competitiveness would not allow him to lose his focus.  Whether it be by screaming obscenities at other players or growling at the players on his own team when unfortunate young shortstops dared to interrupt his tempo (Brendan Ryan), Carpenter always seems to find a way to keep the Cardinals in the game long enough to have a chance on the days that he was working with less than his best.

Garcia still needs to learn this lesson, although it is far from an easy lesson for anyone to learn.  If Garcia could calm himself and not let one error compound into many bad pitches that end up in multiple run innings, he truly could be a leader of the Cardinal’s staff for years to come.  If he does not continue to develop, he will still be the talented middle of the rotation starter that he has been for the past few years.  In no way is this a knock on Garcia, as for the past three years now, he has been amazing in that role.  Back to back 13 win seasons in the major leagues is nothing to devalue, but with the injury/impending end of Chris Carpenter’s career in the next year or two and the possibility of losing a rehabbed Adam Wainwright to free agency a possibility, the Cardinals may be looking to Garcia as more than just a talented middle of the rotation pitcher with the upside to be more.

30 Games Into 2012: So Far So Good

When I saw how the St. Louis Cardinal’s schedule measured up for the first 30 games, I could not help but have some optimism.  With 27 out of 28 of the first Cardinals games being against the National League Central Division, I knew that St. Louis would have an opportunity to put some distance between them and the rest of their division.  I know it sounds silly to think about a 28 game stretch as being so pivotal at the very beginning of a season that is filled with 162 games, but after last year’s razor thin margin of victory for the National League Wild Card, it is impossible not to hope for a quick start from the Cards this season. 

I looked at this early stretch as a positive for a few reasons.  For one, it seems like the Cardinals are always finding success at the beginnings of a new season.  I cannot count the number of Aprils when it looks like the Cardinals are out to be dominant division winners only to see them fade as the heat of summer almost seems to be too much.  This same thing happened last year, as a team that found its way into first place early in the year hit a decline that only a magical September run could save.  In addition to the recent history of fast starts, the Cardinals seemed to have less chance for the injuries that come with having an aging team at the end of a long season.  It felt like if the Cardinals could avoid a few injuries to key players, they could get out to a quick start.

Much to my horror, the injuries decided to come early this year.  The lineup went from having Albert Pujols manning first base every day suddenly found itself trying to tread water with Matt Carpenter there after the early injury to Lance Berkman.  It is not difficult to comprehend the drop off this represented from last year in a position that is supposed to offer power in a lineup.  The pitching staff that we all seemed to hope would be able to tread water for long enough to get their co-ace, Chris Carpenter back also had to deal with the early ineffectiveness of Adam Wainwright who suffered his worse career start against the Cubs on Opening Day.  With all these things going wrong, it would not be difficult to imagine a repeat of 2007 when the perfect storm of injuries, ineffectiveness, and comfort struck down the defending World Champion Cardinals.

Surprisingly enough, though, the Cardinals have more than tread water as they wait around for their big first baseman and World Series saving pitcher.  While I did see the possibility for a fast start in the beginning of the 2012 season, I never anticipated that these successes would be made possible by the easy velocity of Lance Lynn as he made pitching in the major leagues look like an enjoyable and easy experience or a lineup that seemed to be incapable of doing anything wrong for much of the beginning of this season.  Now, with the return of Berkman looming and the already seamless transition of Allan Craig’s bat into the middle of the order, the rest of this season looks bright for these Cardinals.  I know that there will still be rough patches.  Pitchers like Lohse, Westbrook, and Lynn cannot maintain their torrid pace through the National League Central Division, and the possibility of Beltran making it through an entire season while swinging the bat as if he were the young powerful man who roamed the outfield in Kansas City like a gazelle is unlikely.  There is no doubt that this season will be less easy for this version of the Cardinals, but it is tough not to sit back and enjoy the ride right now.

Defending Benedict Arnold

  

Months ago, Albert Pujols made the decision to leave St. Louis for the greener grass of California, and I hated him for it.  At the time, I like so many other irrational fans could not see past our own undying loyalty to a team for which we have never played.  We saw Albert Pujols as a traitor, a greedy and egotistical mercenary who measured his worth only with the number of zeros on his paychecks.  Pujols, it seems, was not the only greedy one.  What about our greed?  What about the greed and egotism that goes into wondering how dare this Albert Pujols character leave behind my love for this team and him by an extension of that?  How dare Albert decide that he would rather play someplace else?  As I now watch his games only on Sportscenter or whatever tabs I can keep on him via internet sources, I see the boos coming his way from both the fans who now wear his Angels jersey and the fans who are still thinking of burning the Cardinals version of the same thing.  Amidst all this hatred and ridicule, it is difficult not to wonder one thing: doesn’t Albert, traitor or not, deserve better for all he has done for the Cardinals, St. Louis, and even baseball over the last 11 years.

Albert Pujols, as we are learning, possibly for the first time, is not a machine.  Perhaps the days of projecting his statistics for the upcoming years with a permanent marker have passed, or perhaps this is just a hiccup along the line of what is already a Hall of Fame career.  Either way, doesn’t Pujols deserve the benefit of the doubt from his new “fans” out in Anaheim?  In a team filled with overpaid stars and a payroll that is bulging around the seams, Angels fans have much bigger things to worry about than quite possibly the best right handed hitter in baseball since Lou Gehrig.  I guess those filling the stands with Pujols jerseys currently in California have not seen what I have seen from Pujols.  They have not seen a man with such intensity and ferocity that at times I wondered if he were trying to simply get a hit or if he were trying to separate yarn from leather and expose the stitching of a major league ball.  All that I ask is for these same fans who are booing to not be the first to brag about being a fan of a team with the game’s best player in a month’s time when all becomes right with the world and Pujols begins to hit at his normal pace.

As for Cardinal’s fans, I get it.  I understand the feelings of loss that came with not having the big number 5 in the middle of the order night after night.  I was amongst those who cheered the loudest for the hero of my formative years.  I have seen more Albert Pujols homeruns than possibly any other player’s over the years, and the last thing I ever wanted to think about was a lineup that did not include Albert in the middle of it.  This being said, the post Pujols era has begun with much of the success that we became accustomed to with Albert playing first.  If you are one of those Cardinals fans who has taken a moment away from your enjoyment of this year’s team to revel in the fact that Pujols has struggled so much in California, then shame on you.  Beyond the obvious lack of enjoyment of a young and exciting team that still has flexibility and as bright of a future as its present, Albert did nothing terrible to St. Louis.  He simply accepted more money to do a job in one place than another, and substantially so.  From all the reports I have heard, Albert is making almost $5 million per year than he would with St. Louis.  Is there any one of us who would not at least consider if this offer was made to us?

On top of all this, Albert Pujols was a part of 2 World Series champions, another Pennant winner, and more happy memories than I could ever quantify.  Albert Pujols made much of my youth a happy time with the help of Tony LaRussa, Dave Duncan, and all the others who made the success of the Cardinals possible.  I only wish that the Cardinals played the Angels this year, and as a group, we could show Pujols this appreciation for what he made possible in St. Louis.  We can say all that we want about how Pujols turned his back on St. Louis and made decisions that were motivated by greed, but well before he was given that chance, he gave the Cardinals a player that will go down in history as one of the best who ever lived.  He gave me as a fan, memories that I will share with whatever kids will listen around the nursing home someday.  Albert may have left St. Louis, but he sure gave us a lot before he left.  I think that is enough to deserve my sympathy, and my anger at those who will boo someone they know nothing about.