Where Did You Go Rafael?

So much was made about the Cardinals blockbuster trade last season which sent Colby Rasmus to the Blue Jays for a complete makeover of the Cardinals pitching staff which was in desperate need of help.  It is not difficult to understand why this trade is received so much publicity and eventual credit for the fortunes of the team.  The Cardinals traded away the jewel of their minor league system in exchange for a group of pitchers including only one that would be under club control beyond the end of that season.  It was a gutsy move for the present on a team which was at the time watching its present chances flushing down the toilet.  It was the kind of trade that was going to make John Mozeliak either the hero or goat of the season, but there was another trade that was equally important to the Cardinals’ chances last season.

Even later in the season, when hope seemed perilously close to being lost, the Cardinals traded young minor league outfielder Alex Castellanos for Rafael Furcal, and not long after that the team caught fire.  To say that Furcal was the reason that the Cardinals won the World Series is a stretch.  There were periods when his light hitting made fans almost wish that they had their opening day shortstop, Ryan Theriot’s bat back in the lineup.  Defensively, though, there was no more important move than acquiring Rafael Furcal.  For a pitching staff which under the tutelage of Dave Duncan had always adopted a pitch to contact strategy, having a shortstop who was better served to play second base as a result of both his range and his ability to make the routine play like Theriot simply would not due.  Furcal gave them the defensive stability which allowed the pitching staff to use their strengths.  Without this defensive stability, there is little chance that the Cardinals would have been the eventual World Champions.

This season, Furcal has been even more important to the success of the St. Louis Cardinals.  After a brutal spring which made everyone question his signing, Furcal started the season off on a tear.  He batted .315 in April and not by coincidence, the Cardinals were 14-8 during the month.  Furcal seemed to always be on base in the beginning of the Cardinals season, and he only got better.  The Cardinal shortstop ended May with a .349 batting average even though he tailed off considerably in the latter half of the month.  So far, in June, Furcal is only hitting .145 which has corresponded with a 6-8 record.

While Furcal’s defense has been as steady as ever, it is his offense that the Cardinals were reliant on in the beginning months of the season, and it was largely due to this offensive output that the Cardinals found themselves in first place for much of the beginning of the season.  In fact, in Cardinal wins this season, Furcal is batting.351 with a .390 on base percentage, but in losses, he has hit only .227 with a .295 OBP.  While it is anecdotal that the Cardinals players would bat better in wins than losses, these extreme splits show just how important the Cardinals lead off batter has been to their success this season.  There is little doubt as to why their offense has been having so much more difficulty scoring runs lately. 

The Cardinals won earlier this season with an all-around team where everyone contributed to their success.  They had a high powered offense as well as solid pitching from both starters and relievers.  Recently, the Cardinals have been struggling so much to see their substantial lead in the central division turn into a four game deficit and a record that seems destined to hover around the .500 mark.  While the Cardinal pitching staff has been able to improve, the offense has continued to struggle.  Unfortunately, there is no quick fix for the offense, but getting Rafael Furcal to find his way on base more consistently may be precisely what the team needs if it is going to find its way back into first place.

All-Star Voting Travesty

I have never given too much weight to the starting members of an All-Star team.  The voting of the fans often leads to the most popular player being selected over the most worthy player, and like Gold Gloves often are, being selected to an All Star game is often a process where previous award winners are grandfathered in, sometimes long after their skills are worthy of recognition.  Just ask Scott Rolen.  I loved the guy when he played for the Cardinals, but how does someone find their way into an All Star starting lineup in a year that he hits .242?  The National League, you can be sure had more qualified hitters at that time.  The MLB All Star game is a fun game, and although we have been told so many times by so many people that it now counts for so much more, I do not believe for a second that the players all truly buy into this.

All this being said, I cannot help but be disappointed in the voting this year.  If I were to create an All Star team based on which players have the coolest baseball sounding names, I think I would vote Buster Posey to play catcher, and I would probably cast a write in vote for him to play every other position on the field too.  I mean really, could there be any better name than Buster for a catcher in the Major Leagues?  And on top of his name, the guy is an amazing player.  He anchors the middle of the San Francisco Giants’ lineup and is in position to drive in as many runs as he can.  As far as young and exciting players go, Posey is in the top dozen in the Major Leagues.  There is no doubt that he is an All Star, and he will be the incumbent All Star in the years to come for a long time if he is able to stay healthy.

He is not even close to the best catcher in the league this year though.  After three years of Yadier Molina being an All Star, he is more deserving this year than ever.  Yadier Molina is a catcher who has always had defensive skills that will one day give him consideration for Hall of Fame voting, and we have been privileged enough to see him mature into offensive skills to match these talents.  This season, Yadier Molina is leading Buster Posey in literally every offensive category other than RBI’s which he trails by only one after hitting deep in the Cardinals order for much of the season compared to the heart of the Giants’ batting order for Posey. 

And while it is not as sexy as the offensive statistics, there is no disputing that Molina is the superior defensive player.  Watching Molina play defense is an experience approaching nirvana.  It has gotten to the point where I find myself wishing people would try to steal every time they get on base just so that I get a chance to watch Molina throw a baseball down to second.  The All Star game is meant to be a game where the top talents in baseball are on display, and there is literally no argument that could be made in support of Buster Posey over Yadier Molina.

Is Jason Motte Really a Closer?

I am trying to avoid a knee jerk reaction to a bad outing by Jason Motte which cost the Cardinals a game and possibly the series against the Cleveland Indians.  Jason Motte is a talented pitcher.  How many other teams have a guy who at the back end of the bullpen can legitimately throw a baseball 100 miles per hour?  With ability like this, on paper Jason Motte should hands down be the Cardinals’ closer.  The only problem is that in reality, Motte has had some difficulties in the 9^th inning.

It may seem like nit picking with Jason Motte really.  Motte is an exciting and fun pitcher to watch with his blazing fastball and his demonstrative attitude, and who can forget the looks on his face as he closed out both the World Series and National League Championship Series.  Motte has had some amazing times here in St. Louis during an already short career.  He has also blown one save for every two he has nailed down during his career with the Cardinals.  While many of these blown saves occurred earlier in his career, it is still worth noting, Motte has not changed too much during his career with the Cardinals.

Since 2009, Motte has been about as consistent as a middle reliever could possibly be, posting 4- 2 and 5 - 2 records in 2010 and 1011 with a 2.24 and 2.25 ERA respectively.  It is this kind of consistency that someone looks for in a closer.  Motte is the kind of guy who can get a big strikeout at an opportune time, and is able to bounce back night after night.  What more could someone ask for from a closer, you might ask?  Well my answer is quite simply: a second pitch.  Jason Motte has been able to get by with throwing four seem fastballs by batters for years now, but how long can someone throw nothing but a fastball and have success?

Mariano Rivera is the only pitcher I can think of who throws one pitch, and he has been able to have success.  The reason for this is that Rivera has movement in addition to his velocity.  By throwing a cutter, he can get in on the hands of a batter and continue to break bats for the entirety of his career.  Rivera has found the perfect combination of velocity, movement and accuracy, which is why he has had so much success as a major league pitcher.  Motte’s one pitch is simply a fastball.  It is an amazing fastball to be sure, but it is a pitch that is not deceptive.  Jason Motte’s fastball although difficult to time, is a pitch that simply involves getting the batters front foot down and time the pitch.  Obviously this is easier said than done for mere mortals, but as the closer, Motte is responsible for getting three of the toughest outs in a baseball game.

We have been hearing for some time now about Motte is developing another pitch, but maybe he is one guy who will just not have anything other than his unbelievably fastball.  As a guy who throws that fast, just the threat of an off-speed delivery could be devastating if he could develop it.  This is precisely why it is so frustrating to watch Motte give up a game without even the thought of developing something to compliment his fastball.  I am sure that Motte will have another string of success before he has more difficulties finding outs, but there is a reason that so few pitchers make it to the major leagues without a second pitch.  I am afraid that we will continue to be reminded of this for as long as Motte is the closer for the Cardinals.

A New Rivalry at Home

I have been dating the woman that I will marry next May for more than three years now, and during that time, we have been through our ups and downs.  Our relationship has been able to survive months of distance, an uncertain future after graduating from the undergraduate university at which we met, and more little arguments than I could ever count.  We are only three days away from what is going to be one of the biggest challenges of our relationship.  You see, my fiancé is a White Sox fan. 

Next Tuesday, we will be going to a game together, and for the first time we will be supporting opposite teams.  My fiancé has been good enough to adopt the Cardinals as her “National League Team” while she is dating me and living in St. Louis.  There have even been times that she has been genuinely excited about the successes of the Cardinals.  While I have claimed that the White Sox would hold a similarly high status for me in games that we have gone to in Chicago, I can completely understand her hesitance to be truly excited about a team that she only adopted as her own recently and as a favor to someone else.  Next Tuesday, we will not be trying to pretend anymore that we are fans of each other’s team, and it should be an interesting first for us.

My fiancé and I were thinking about what kind of a bet we should come up with to make this series a little more interesting, as if that is something that we will need.  We settled on the old stand-by bet for the two of us: loser buys dinner at one of our favorite restaurants here in St. Louis.  I guess we could have gone for the bet of what team’s jersey our first child is given, or which ballpark he or she will see the first game in.  I guess we could have gotten really interesting, and based all of the fan representation of our future hypothetical children on this series.  Then again, I guess with the Cardinals playing poorly and the White Sox getting into first place in the American League Central Division, maybe we should keep our bets small for now.

There is a very real chance that the two of us will end up in Chicago at some point in our futures, and any bet about the sporting souls of our future children may come very much in handy living behind enemy lines.  I can only hope that at the end of next week, my fiancé and I are still on speaking terms.  It should be an interesting night filled with fighting and baseball, next Tuesday, and for now, the winner will be happy with dinner. 

Is This Rock Bottom?

It is amazing how much difference a month can make.  It seemed like so recently when the Cardinals were cruising through the National League while winning series after series.  Now, the Cardinals find themselves in a tie with the Pittsburg Pirates.  St. Louis seems to have a solid recipe for how to lose games with the combination of a starting rotation that runs out of gas and a leaky bullpen that seems to have developed the motto that “no lead is safe.”  This is not to say that they are not versatile, though.  I mean look at the series with the Mets where the team managed to score only one run over the course of three games including a no hitter thrown by Santana.  How much worse could it get?  Oh, yeah, a pitching staff that is already lacking in consistent pitching could lose its number three starting pitcher.  Don’t worry, I’m not going to ask that question again.

The Cardinals are now looking at either Brandon Dickson or Joe Kelly, both minor leaguers in the Cardinals’ system although neither really a part of the Cardinals plans over the next few years.  Maybe this is exactly why one of them will find success.  The motivation of a try-out for a future job could be a powerful motivator and just what one of these guys need.  Although this sounds good and either of these guys are worthy of a shot given their time put in and success in the minor leagues, the Cardinals would not be looking at the bargain bin of pitchers where names such as Jeff Francis and Jamie Moyer look for minor league deals from a team somewhere if anyone truly believed in either of these guys.  How much do the Cardinals miss Dave Duncan now with veteran names like these out there?

While starting pitching has become the biggest Cardinal issue over the last few weeks, it is far from their only problem.  I am not a mind or even lip reader so I cannot be certain, but I imagine a conversation between Molina and Matheny going something like this as he goes out to the mound to make a pitching change after the pitcher is out of earshot:

Molina: “Who we bringing in, Skip?”

Matheny: “Don’t even joke about that, I’m tempted.  No, I’m bringing in Schoemaker to play second as a part of a double switch.  What do you think about Rzepcynski?”

Molina:  “We’re only up by 4, Coach.”  Molina shakes his head.

Matheny: “Well there is only one lefty coming up so depending on how he looks, I can always take him back out after that.”

Molina: “Just make sure you have somebody warming up down there.  There is only so much I can do when he keeps throwing balls right over the middle of the plate.  How did Freeman look today?  We may need another lefty when Votto comes next inning?”

Matheny:  “I asked McClellan to spy on him today, and he said that he only threw 10 out of 20 of his flat ground pitches to the back wall of the bullpen so he is getting better at least.”

Molina: “Well we’re not looking for him to work miracles.  Just a strike or two will be something we can work with.”

Matheny: “I’m planning on Boggs in the 8^th.  How’s that wrist.”

Molina: “It’s ok.  Did anyone work with him on the signs again?  How the hell can someone not know what the difference between one finger and two are?  Ever since he decided to try to throw that shitty changeup of his, he’s been lost.”

Matheny: “We will get him to figure it out.  At least with Motte you don’t even have to worry about giving signs.”

Molina:  “I don’t have to worry about moving my glove either.  At least he is wild enough that when I give him a target down the middle he will occasionally throw a pitch on a corner.”

Matheny: “You should have been here the year Jocketty brought in Esteban Yan and tried to tell us he was a closer.  Hang in there, maybe someday we can get a pitcher who actually throws to corners of the plate.”

Molina:  “That would be awesome.  I’d just settle for 50% strikes.  Oh, well.  Maybe today we can hold a lead.”

Matheny:  “Good luck…”

As if the pitching struggles were not enough to depress a Cardinal’s fan, the lineup that had been carrying the team at the beginning of the season has had more than one bout of maddening inconsistency.  As a team, they are striking out more than any Cardinal team in recent memory, and although a combination of Chambers and Robinson has been passable in center field for the Cardinals lineup, the second base position is another story.  Without Schumaker in the lineup, the Cardinals second basemen are hitting .218.  This is a non-issue for this team when the rest of the batters are hitting, but when the middle of the order guys are not picking up the slack, this hole in the order becomes less easy to hide.

I am cautiously optimistic about the lineup now that Allen Craig is back from the disabled list.  The hitter that he has turned himself into at this point in his career is nothing short of remarkable, but then again, I remember thinking the same thing about David Freese right before his batting average dipped closer to .250 than .300.  Any thoughts of Beltran playing center field in order to get an extra bat into the lineup seem to have died also.  Watching Beltran move around on those old knees of his is painful for me to watch in right field, but the thought of him covering more ground in the outfield is all but unbearable. 

If I have learned anything over the past year and a half, it has been to not count this Cardinals team out of anything.  We have all seen that even the most improbable scenarios can find their way into reality with the current group of Cardinals.  I am in no way suggesting that because of a period of struggle, the Cardinals are somehow more likely to have success this year.  Unfortunately, I am pretty confident that seasons like last year do not have a tendency to repeat themselves.  The Cardinals need to turn this season around, and they will probably need some help from someone outside of the organization to do that.

Rooting for my Team or for History?

I have a few things to admit.  I feel like I am sitting here confessing my sins, but here we go.  For the first half of the game against Johan Santana and the Mets, I was hoping for a Cardinal come back as much as anyone.  I was angry when I saw Beltran’s double get called back by an umpire who had to make a split second call as to where exactly that baseball landed, but the more I see of the replays of that one moment, the more tired I am of hearing so many people use that as some kind of half-baked excuse for a team that showed little if any ability to product offense. 

Another thing that I need to confess is my love of pitching.  While friends of mine told me claimed that low scoring baseball games were somehow boring, a bad draw of a game when they saw a contest that ended with only a few runs on the board.  I downloaded the 2011 NLDS game 5 off iTunes the second it became available, and I cannot count the number of times that I have watched the replay of that game with every perfectly placed pitch reminding me that baseball would soon be coming.

Now how do manage the conflicting nature of this love of pitching with the desire to see the Cardinals win the game?  The truth was that after I realized the lack of a bullpen and pathetic offense with replacements of back-ups filling the batting order made a Cardinal’s victory all but impossible, I found myself rooting for the first no-hitter in New York Mets’ history.  If there is someone who deserved a no-hitter even if it was against the Cardinals and taking advantage of their sudden offensive weakness, a case can be made for Santana.

How could I not root for a man who was left for dead after shoulder surgery?  Santana was once a great pitcher who was a favorite every year to win a Cy Young, and while injury has robbed him of his fastball, no Cardinal hitter would be able to claim that his changeup was anything but dominant.  There is no shame at being no hit by a pitcher with this combination of talent and motivation.  I wonder how many times Santana heard that he would never come back to pitch and have success in the Major Leagues?  I am sure all that these voices were in his head as he reached the 120 pitch mark and above and I wonder if he smiled to himself, more determined than ever to prove all these people wrong.  Yes, for one day, I found myself rooting for the team that was playing against the Cardinals.  How could I not root for Johan Santana?

Matt Holliday Deserves Better

The second game of the Cardinals and Phillies series just this last weekend at Busch Stadium was a frustrating for all kinds of reasons.  Watching Kyle Kendrick cut through the Cardinal’s line up as if he were a Cy Young award candidate was painful to watch, and it was insanely frustrating for a fan to see the Cards line up take such incompetent swings.  By the ninth inning, this frustration was palpable at Busch Stadium as if everyone with a ticket was looking around, hungry for a place to set the blame for such a horrible offensive showing against a pitcher who came into the day with an ERA over 5.  With one out in the 9^th inning, Matt Holliday came up to take his last at bat, and this was the target that we all needed.

Holliday hit a line drive directly at the first baseman, Ty Wigginton, and he reacted the same as any of us in the stands would have.  He was as frustrated as any of the paying customers as he saw the ball that surely would be the second out of the inning make its way into Wigginton’s glove, and he made a half-hearted run towards first base as a result.  Of course, as if Wigginton had plans for adding insult to injury, the first baseman dropped the ball and appeared to fumble it just enough for the crowd to look back and see whether it was going to be a close play at first.  Of course, with Holliday frustrated and jogging down the line to first base, the reaction was not appreciative from the crowd.

I have been at Busch Stadium more times than I can count, and I can remember some amazing things that filled me with pride of being a part of the fan base that so many players rave about.  I have seen the fans give a standing ovation to So Taguchi when he made his return to Busch Stadium as a member of the Phillies.  Where else would a fourth outfielder get such a warm response?  The one thing that I had never heard at Busch before that Saturday game in late May where Kyle Kendrick became Bob Gibson was Cardinal fans boo their own player.  It was more than an isolated section too.  This was a stadium-wide booing unlike I have ever heard for any player not named Brandon Phillips in Busch Stadium.  I must admit that my first reaction was to join the mob, but before the sounds of disapproval could leave my mouth, I could not help but feel dirty.

Matt Holliday is one of the unquestioned leaders of this Cardinals team.  Next to Yadier Molina and Chris Carpenter, who deserves this leadership role more?  Holliday is the highest paid player in Cardinals history, and has been a perennial All-Star since coming over to St. Louis.  Holliday has and will continue to be a centerpiece of this lineup for years to come, and yet still, we in St. Louis seem all too willing to boo and criticize a man that should be treated with much more respect.  I do not mean to say that Holliday is being constantly mistreated in St. Louis, but as far as St. Louis baseball fans go, we seem far too willing to criticize a guy who has done nothing but the right things since he became a Cardinal in 2009.

 Before you disagree with me and claim that St. Louis simply demands a consistent effort, and this is why we boo when someone as highly compensated as Holliday loafs to first base, hear me out.  Albert Pujols, before he left for California rarely ran hard to first base during his last few years in St. Louis, and we seemed to reward this heads up strategy to save wear and tear on his legs with standing ovations.  Can you imagine anyone ever booing when we see Molina not run at his full speed towards first and get thrown out by half the baseline?  I can’t either.

Why is it that we are so hesitant to embrace Holliday as a player?  Is it because he dropped that baseball in the 2009 NLDS?  Is it because as the highest paid player on the team in franchise history, and still was the second best player on the team for his first two full seasons here?  Do fans see him as the guy that was chosen over Albert Pujols as the face of the franchise going forward and because of this hold him up to these impossible standards?  Is it because he struggled down the stretch last season in the playoffs and at times seemed to be swinging one handed before being taken out Game 6 of the World Series?  Whatever it is, stop it St. Louis.  This is ridiculous.

Yes, Holliday was off to a slow start this season before turning it on more recently, but anyone who criticizes this is looking at the box score and not watching the games.  I do not know if I have ever seen anyone hit more line drives all over the field only to have them find outfield gloves more than Matt Holliday has at the beginning of this season.  Other than Pujols at times, I do not know if I have seen a Cardinal player who hits the ball harder more consistently than Holliday, and while this is not measured in his batting average all the time, I can guarantee it is noticed by the opposing pitchers who breathe a sigh of relief every time one of his lasers finds a glove in the outfield.

Watching Matt Holliday play, especially last season when he was suffering from the inflamed tendon sheath in his hand that kept him out of games and sapped his production while in the line up, I could not help but think of a former Cardinal player, Scott Rolen.  Scott Rolen, like Holliday was a no-nonsense guy who did nothing but play hard and do the right things to help the team win.  Neither of these guys comes off as the type of player who is going to rally his team with great speeches, but these are the guys who will never complain when they can’t grip a bat because of a finger injury and accept the boos that come along with it.  I wonder how many of those Cardinals fans who had the audacity to boo Holliday would have also had the intestinal fortitude to put himself in the lineup when he could not swing a bat without pain while trying to hit pitchers who throw in the mid 90’s.  Holliday did this because it was what the team needed, just as he did not play in Game 7 because it was what the team needed.

I do not mean to say that Matt Holliday is perfect.  He has defensive lapses at times, and there will even be an occasional disappointed jog to first base.  Holliday is also the first guy to slide hard into second base to break up a potential double play or hustle his rear end off to get to a ball in the outfield even if he lacks the grace or instincts to look good doing it.  He is a big enough man to accept the occasional boo as a part of life and continue to hustle despite a lapse in our appreciation of his efforts.  I for one, will never be amongst those who boo a guy like this.  He deserves so much better than that.