our manager has never lost a game - your 2012 St. Louis Cardinals!

thought i'd go ahead and start up the thread. despite yet another offseason where the cards' perennial weakness at 2B wasn't addressed, i'm pretty stoked for this year! pujols left, and i think that's a good thing for the team in the long run. i've always been a fan of beltran and i'm looking forward to watching him play all year (at least i hope all year), furcal isn't shit your pants awesome but he's a million times better than theriot. and of course, getting wainwright back will help to eat up the WAR lost in pujols. if we could manage to snag oswalt i'd feel better, but even without him i think the cards will still manage 90 wins or so and make it into the playoffs. good ol' weak NL Central.

and then, of course, we snagged ALEX CORA this morning! 36 years old! .224/.287/.276 in 172 plate appearances in 2011! proven veteran leadership!

take it from a Mets fan, great clubhouse guy

luckily it's just a minor league contract, and apparently he's drawing interest as a future coach/manager, so maybe that's part of the thinking.

my nightmare scenario is that Berkman gets injured early on and we're left with Mark Hamilton as a starting 1B for most of the season.

May we quote you?

ha, well i haven't put much thought into the nightmare scenario. but would would happen if berkman was injured? can allen craig play 1B? he can apparently (sorta) play every other position!

A RL Petri Dish - Your 2012 Cardinals Thred

people have been trying to decipher this for days in stl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl6WnAQ6-0I&feature=youtu.be

Wainwright down. Looks like Tommy John. 12 months. Peace out 2011.

― bnw, Wednesday, February 23, 2011 8:37 AM (11 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

why i don't bet on sports

wtf

whoever wrote that was a megalomaniac with enough authority that everyone else was afraid to mention that it made no sense

"then, a player with number 5 on - PUJOLS! - gradually fades away, and YOU guys just keep looking at him while i turn around and face the camera!"

Ozzie's back!!

http://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2012/2/27/2824071/welcome-back-ozzie#storyjump

mo money, mo lina

http://i26.tinypic.com/hrlpgo.jpg

<3

Chris Carpenter is hurt.

ok ZS, what did I do to you?

Fuuuuuuuuuck.

― Z S, Wednesday, February 23, 2011 10:25 AM (1 year ago)

Carp just has a sore neck, right? I'm not finding any info beyond that.

All I can find is that, "no time table for return", and people saying thats a bad sign.

?

think you guys have been punkd!

feel bad for carlos -- that pitch was wicked

Carpenter's Diagnosis a Big Relief

Still unable to project their co-ace's return to the mound, the Cardinals nonetheless drew a sigh of relief upon learning Saturday that Chris Carpenter is dealing with a bulging cervical disc rather than a recurrence of career-threatening nerve issues.

"When you're thinking of what could have been some really bad (stuff), we can take care of this and move on," Carpenter said prior to Saturday's exhibition against the Miami Marlins.

A battery of tests conducted over several days led to Saturday's diagnosis. During the last week, Carpenter has received an injection to his neck and has been prescribed heavy dosages
of anti-inflammatory medication to address a condition he considers a nuisance rather than a threat to his season.

PHEW

Skip Schumaker tore his oblique

I don't want to make light if it, but

looooooool

Of it.

Anyway, he shouldn't be playing in the MLB, so maybe this is evidence of some sort of god.

Carpenter shut down; likely to start year on DL

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120321&content_id=27468332

Lance Lynn to the rescue.

anyone else watching tonight?

not expecting much vs johnson

i am determined to learn nothing from last year and start chicken-littling by the 5th inning

same

http://i.imgur.com/bpPRF.jpg

thought bubble: that idiot matheny is batting the pitcher 9th!

god, who in the fuck LIKES macho man introductions like this?? what the fuck is this voice??

where is pujols?

/ILBtuomas

what a graceful slide by berkman!

take that chicken little

oh yeah, i remember these guys

so, uh...lohse still has a no-hitter through 6!

get angrier, mike matheny

it must be really weird to walk out there for the first time!

but yeah, that wasn't even close. and plus, bang bang plays at 1st shouldn't be that difficult to call anyway because umpires are trained to listen rather than watch (listening for the sound of the glove catching the ball and the foot hitting the bag).

that call was really terrible

i'm watching the brewers' tv broadcast of this because i seem to have screwed up my mlb.tv order (the cardinals broadcast is blocked off for premium subscribers? but i already paid a bunch of money, assholes!

anyway, when did all sports introductions turn into Zack Synder multiplied by Lord of the Rings?

what is this shit?? am i supposed to go punch a hole in a wall now?

beltran seems great already. i'm stoked to watch him play this year

fuck yeah, beltran's 72-year old knees steal a base!

beltran just CRUSHED that

He seems to be healthy.

xpost

oh man, is anyone watching this?

<3 <3

...or maybe Gallardo just sucks today.

xpost

Oof.

a couple no-doubters there

3 homers in the 1st inning.

http://www.checkswing.com/profiles/blogs/mike-matheny-letter-to-parents

I have a headache.

1. Put forth your best effort.

2. Have fun.

3. Don't be a jerk.

4. i may be a superchristian around your kids!

5. STFU in the stands. and tell the grandparents to STFU too!

i hope this was some kind of elite traveling team and not the neighborhood little league kids. i mean it's not wrong, but chill out dude

i just feel sorry for matt carpenter's parents at during these early season games - they can't even cheer or anything!

kinda wish i didn't know matheny was a god-squadder

probably should have gathered that when everyone is like 'he's the best person ever!' tho. ventura too, then?

i was kinda being a jerk when i called him a superchristian, though. i mean he makes it pretty clear in his opening paragraphs that he's not out to proselytize but that he's also not going to shy away from if asked.

"What were you thinking when you threw that pitch?"

When I was 10/11, the answer -- every time -- would have been, "I should try to throw a strike here."

why would someone ask a baseball coach about faith?

xp haha otm

And "If I strike this guy out, my parents are going to clap...I will be a basket case if my parents clap...maybe not today or tomorrow but surely at some point down the road..."

the ace of my high school/legion team was this big insane lefty (who i think could have pitched in the minors had he been less insane). he didn't throw overly hard, but had all kinds of junk and a very good pickoff move. when i played first, he would fool me, and i was not convinced that he didn't walk people just so he could try to pick them off.

anyway, he was good, but completely fell apart if his dad was in the crowd. and of course the fucker showed up once we made the playoffs.

my mom once got into a shouting match with another parent that almost got physical (other people had to break them up)

my mom also started a rumor in my team's dugout (while i was at bat) that i would like to be called "mighty duck". every one else on the team had a nickname and apparently my mom decided that i should have one too.

oh yr mom

(mainly for the latter)

An always-hounding-his-kid parent accosted me at my HS graduation party for disrespecting the game and throwing my talent away because I had opted not to play in college. I was recruited by a couple schools but I was Frank Tanana at 40 at 18 in the body of Tim Collins. I had a part-time job at a record store and was on the fast track to a 22K salary. You couldn't tell me anything.

There were a couple minor parent-on-parent scuffles in the stands when I was 10/11/12. The players didn't start brawling until puberty kicked in.

Most of the "character building" in baseball is done by crazy coaches and parents, not by losing or passed balls or lousy umps. That was my experience, at least.

An always-hounding-his-kid parent accosted me

wow what an asshole. i dearly hope you suggested it was too bad he/his kid didn't have the talent to make it.

i witnessed a parent spit on an umpire and heard about that same parent kneeing another in the groin.

my character was 'built' by a wild arm and an inability to hit the ball the other way unless totally overpowered. i was good enough and self-centered enough to be relatively oblivious to the soap opera bits.

I was always the smallest kid in school an could barely hit the ball out of the infield. I did really well as a kid because I was a good fielder and could beat out pretty much any grounder to first base, and had my way on the base paths. As soon as that stopped working, I rode the bench, then quit the next year.

that was an amazing last inning. so tense.

Just out of curiosity - has any manager ever won the World Series during their first season? I'm sure someone has, I just can't recall.

4 as total rookies, Bob Brenly last

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_managers_have_won_the_world_series_in_their_first_year

this got me a little emo
http://vimeo.com/m/40246026

WTF??

good lord, did i just hear them say it's a minor league umpire working their very first game behind the plate in MLB? holy shit, 1st inning and his career is over. terrible call.

http://i.imgur.com/UzgDW.png

J.C. Romero
http://www.myspaceantics.com/images/myspace-graphics/funny-pictures/gasoline-fire.gif

yup

how they do it (starting pitcher has begun the 8th three times)

http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/5/10/3012120/st-louis-cardinals-analysis-news

Molina's off in some alternate dimension tonight! Two passed balls in the first inning that both allowed runs to score, and a wild pitch in the 3rd that was at least partly on Molina stabbing at it badly.

Yeah, I missed the first few innings but caught that last one. Was it scored a wild pitch? He wasn't really in a good position to block it, and then he tried to backhand it.

Yeah, that one was a WP.

1st pitch where Minor shook off McCann's sign -- Beltran sent it a mile.

What was the distance on that? I'm watching the braves broadcast since I'm in South Carolina this weekend, and they didn't choose to share the details. Looked like 440+ft?

I think they said 450-ish? I missed the exact number but they said only Pujols has hit one farther there.

w/josh hamilton hitting the way he has folks are overlooking beltran's recent run:

last ten games: 6 HR, 20 RBI

watching beltran is such a PLEASURE right now

you know, just another 13 total bases, no big deal

I dunno if we will ever win again but I am going today for "work" ^_^ cubs suck.

oh man, so jealous. I'm pumped because I have a slow afternoon today so I can listen to Mike Shannon drunkenly call the game on the radio.

Skip Schumacher is currently tenth on the Cardinals in OPS at .797.

The only guy on the Padres who has a higher OPS than Schumacher is James Darnell, who currently has 12 ABs on the season. Sigh.

We should send Skip to the Padres! God I hate having him on the Cardinals. It's this sort of small sample bullshit that somehow lands him in the starting lineup every other day, 3 years running. I don't remember the last time the Cards had a good 2nd baseman. Oquendo?

Luckily you have nine other dudes who are raking.

let's all welcome slippery rock product matt adams to the major leagues

23rd-round pick, torn up the minors

1-for-1

bad news, you guys. the cardinals trainer is injured

the injuries have just been absurd

http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4fnvoQppA1qb9x4so1_1280.jpg

<3

willie mcgee for LIFE

you can pull your hamstring just watching them

nice to see waino throw a cg*

* padres lol

Some advocacy for Lance Berkman and the HOF:

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/24715/lance-berkman-and-the-hall-of-fame

i just discovered that the owner of a very good pizza place around the corner from us used to play for the cardinals, and by "used to" i mean he had four big league at bats in 1976 and one hit, which was a home run.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Clarey

1.000 career SLG, not bad!

st. louis padres

mets 19, cardinals 0

of course none of that involved the mets' bullpen

on the board, yes

"the injuries have just been absurd"

They got a ton of guys that got that kind of history.

Lance Berkman is one of my favorite players that never played for a club I liked, but I think unlike Bagwell, he never truly had that monster year where he was the biggest bat in the NL and won an MVP. Dude had some killer half seasons, but some of his best years, he was either a terror before the break or after, never all the way through.

I think he will be with those similar guys that are piled up in the hall of very good. The guy seems to be a bro though and he has 2 good nicknames.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_m53ngqFaYV1qaipcso1_500.jpg

^the days

UGH
THIS TEAM

so frustrating to watch the last two months. are they good? i knew they were significantly overperforming during the first part of the season, and i know they'll be much better once berkman and jay (not to mention garcia and carpenter) are back. but man. UGH

i feel like we will be waiting for them to show their true identity when they are still .500 with a week to go.

but NL Central, so *shrug*

That one week with both Beltran and Berkman in the lineup was so awesome. how about Beltran, Berkman, Holliday and Craig all in the lineup on the same day?!

*mind blown*

you'd have to tell furcal he has to cover most the outfield but it could work.

Dusty Baker, asshole

In San Francisco, Baker, upset that Cincinnati second baseman Brandon Phillips and starter Johnny Cueto, weren’t named to the club, told the Cincinnati Enquirer, said, “A snub like that looks bad. Johnny and Brandon were at the center of the (2010) skirmish between us and the Cardinals. Some of the Cardinals who aren’t there anymore are making some of the selections.”

...An angry La Russa said the non-selection of Cueto was due to the fact that Cueto, who is 9-4, is slated to pitch next Sunday for the Reds and would be unavailable to pitch in an All-Star game two days later.
La Russa said, "If Dusty had been more interested in Cueto being on the team, then he wouldn’t be pitching him on Sunday. Cueto probably would be on the team if he wasn’t pitching Sunday.

awww man

The Cardinals and co-ace Chris Carpenter on Monday discussed a second shutdown and the possibility of season-ending surgery due to continued nerve-related shoulder problems that again arose following the pitcher's most recent side session.

...Surgery would require removal of his first rib, the release of scalene muscles in his neck and freeing the nerves that make up his brachial plexus, a bundle of nerves that runs from his neck beneath his collarbone to his shoulder. Carpenter has pitched with numbness in his right forearm since the 2008 episode but has not appeared in competition since working an industry-most 273 innings last season.

Standard rehab for such surgery is six months, meaning Carpenter must decide on having the procedure this month in order to recover before next spring training.

just posting to myself, i think, but if there's anything i'd criticize matheny on this year it would be use of the bunt. just now, case in point: furcal leads the game off with a double. then, matheny has Jon Jay bunt him over to third? in the first inning?? i don't recall seeing another manager pull shit like this on such a consistent basis, although maybe i just have never noticed.

just to buttress my feelings of superiority as i sit at home by myself, i thought i'd go ahead and check the run expectancy table.

runner at 2nd, no outs. avg runs scored in the inning = 1.063 runs.
runner at third, one out. avg runs scored in the inning = 0.899 runs.

he just ordered Jon Jay to reduce the team's chance of scoring.

nice way to hit break.

obv they need to make noise when berkmang comes back. were I Mo, that'd determine how aggressive I was with the tradings prospects for pitching help.

STOP BUNTING ALL THE GODDAMN TIME

someday, mike matheny will die. and when he does, i am confident that his last words will be "...and i am...so very...very sorry...that i bunted...all the...all the...god...goddamn time...during my first season...as a manager...it was...foolish...goddamn foolish...in every possible way....god forgive me"

and god, who is it's catbeastish omnipresence inhabits everything, will feel a modicum of sympathy, but will then morph into the actual baseball that was used during one of these idiotic bunts, and then for an instant into a bundle of my brainwaves as i endure this shit yet again, and then into statistics, and the warmth of an early statistician's heart as he foolishly dreamt of future generations using statistics for good, rather than ignoring them, and then he will condemn matheny to an enduring hell that somehow involves bunting all the time

and right after that, a 12 run inning. including a strikeout/wild pitch with 2 outs, AFTER the 12 runs had scored, with Beltran gaining first base. holy shit. ties the cardinals record for a single inning - 12 runs, September 15th, 1926.

i claim sole credit for this inning, and will continue to threaten matheny with eternal damnation for the remainder of the season

7 doubles in the 7th!

the "best/smartest fans in baseball" reference is always a little annoying, but just now joe kelly had a 9-pitch at bat, and even after the 7th pitch they were already cheering him, just for running up the pitch count. and even after grounding out and failing to advance the runner, he got a nice hand. say what you will, but you don't see that kind of collective crowd reaction that often.

A third-place team with MLB's best run differential

it would help if the reds didn't win every single game. they've been on an absolute tear.

i guess joey votto isn't that valuable

hmm

http://www.chadmoriyama.com/2012/07/gifcap-kyle-lohse-tries-to-make-skip-schumakers-ass-into-his-own-personal-bowling-ball/

tyler greene has been designated for aaa houston astros

so much promise
so much...really bad playing at the major league level.

http://i.imgur.com/EdwIm.jpg

FUCK YOU KEVIN GOLDSTEIN

first and second, nobody out in the fourth inning of a scoreless game

beltran bunts the first pitch foul

. . . and then, after two strikes, hits a two-run double

i think we've all learned something here

also jaime garcia is cruising

bottom of the 13th.

i know it's a long way to the end of the season, but this really seems like a must win game. a great performance from jaime on his first start back from the dl, promising relief stint by joe kelly, win and tie up the pirates in the wildcard, keep the momentum going, etc.

moving to the top of the 17th.

sigh

not to be corny, but it's seriously a pleasure to watch adam wainwright pitch. it really feels like he's totally back, the past few months.

also FUCK YOU KEVIN GOLDSTEIN, seriously

like moving lynn to the bullpen, he's looked out of gas.

r-zep is so frustrating this year. its like watching the ghost of trevor miller- seems scared to throw a strike until its 2-0/3-0.

my favorite description of the cards feast/famine offense: python-like.

http://i.imgur.com/VPDKzl.jpg
matheny warming up salas

lynn's a tough case. i agree he's looked a lot weaker recently, and it's most likely due to all of the innings. i don't know if he has a dead arm or what. still, he's striking out exactly 9 per 9 innings, which is exceptional for a rookie, and i expect him to come back next year and be pretty strong out of the gate.

but who would get the spot in the rotation? kelly? i don't like that idea, either. he did a good job stepping in for jaime, and at least he consistently manages to keep the team in the game and avoid blowouts, but i think i like him better in the bullpen.

looks like lohse's heading toward free agency, while westbrook's staying. cool with me. lohse's somehow managed to make the stupid contract they gave him in 2008 look not as stupid, but it would be foolish to follow that up with another multi-year contract.

i miss carp. :-/

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/762236/carp.gif

apparently yadi just got plowed

he did. :-/

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=24279325&c_id=stl&partnerId=aw-8775026774224044089-996

at the risk of getting hardmanned by bill magill, it kind of seems like something should be done about this sort of thing. it's an exciting play, but not exciting enough to make up for losing yadi/buster/etc for any length of time.

yeah, definitely. and especially when the player in question (like buster or yadi) is one of the impact players on a given team. and especially when the team doing the bulldozing is engaged in a tight wild card race with the catcher's team, like the pirates and cardinals are. imagine if yadi did just get knocked out for a while - it would be like running out to center field and bulldozing mccutchen.

then again, yadi was starting to put his gear back on in between innings after the play, so hopefully it's not too serious. doesn't seem like anything's broken, at least.

i think dude got concussed

apparently he is just really sore and will miss a few games?

carp coming back this season is looking like a possibility. that would make this team a lot scarier (if) in the playoffs.

jacked link up bit.ly/SRa2BB

the cardinals nightmare opponent all-stars: starting pitcher, bud norris! and at third base, pedro alvarez!

WTF

otoh, http://thebaseballcodes.com/2012/08/29/when-is-the-baseline-not-the-baseline-when-its-your-teams-catcher-blocking-it-apparently

"What I was disappointed in is we didn’t have an opportunity to make a baseball play."

It's called "continue the old baseball," numb nuts.

hey, the cardinals made history!

From Elias: The Cardinals went down, 10-0, in Washington on Friday night, after they lost to the Nationals, 8-1, on Thursday. And remember that St. Louis was shut out, 9-0 and 5-0, in each of the last two games of its previous series, in Pittsburgh. The Cardinals last scored as few as one run over four games back in August of 1958, in a four-game series at Pittsburgh. And get this: only one defending World Series champion has ever been held to one run (or no runs) over a four-game span; Cincinnati did that in September of 1920, after the Reds had beaten the Black Sox in the infamous 1919 World Series.

i'm going to be at the game here in DC tomorrow, so here's hoping they don't suck ass!

disarray in the first inning

usually i listen to the radio feed for cardinals games rather than the broadcast (hrabosky is the worst, the WORST), but I missed this yesterday:

St. Louis radio call helped Cards on appeal play

ST. LOUIS -- New York Mets manager Terry Collins said Tuesday afternoon that it was St. Louis radio broadcaster Mike Shannon that initially spotted Andres Torres' misstep at first base in the ninth inning of Monday's 5-4 loss at Busch Stadium.

Torres appeared to lead off the inning with a double down the right-field line. But he was called out for missing first by umpire Dave Rackley on an appeal play. After the game, St. Louis manager Mike Matheny gave former Mets outfielder Carlos Beltran credit for catching the mistake. Beltran, who did not play, was warming up in the batting cage underneath the dugout and saw the play on television.

But Collins says that Beltran heard Shannon mention on the radio that he felt Torres missed the base. Beltran quickly went to Matheny, who had pitcher Jason Motte appeal the play at first.

Shannon knew immediately that something was amiss and he passed that information on to his listeners.

well, it was fun watching the last 3 innings of that game at 2 a.m. By the end I was having reveries about licking Ryan Braun's neck.

man, I didnt realize how far Beltran had fallen

http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/9/7/3301619/carlos-beltran-st-louis-cardinals-slump-blame

unnnngghhhhhhh

...hhhmnnnngggyyyyeAaaaahhh!

Yes!

ZS, I was there - my first time at Busch Stadium! Motte hiccup aside, a pretty glorious day.

Wow, so jealous! Nothing like watching a game in St Louis.

A lot of broken down high priced players. Berkman, Carp, Furcal. Now Westbrook and most of Beltran. Team is on the ropes. Would be surprised if they hang onto a WC spot.

pirates and dodgers have been sucking ass too, though, and they have more difficult schedules coming up. it all hinges on the 4-game series with LA on thursday. i feel like if we can even take 2 out of 4 we'll be able to stay on top.

i predict they hold onto WC then lose to the asshole braves

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Yadi.gif

i feel like yadi is the favorite player of about 75% of cardinals fans (including me)

beltran has fallen off a cliff, his '12 reminds me of sheffield's pretty amazing last gasp '07 season w/detroit which had a similar HOF first half/willie bloomquist second half.

yeah, this year's been really weird for the cardinals as a whole. the first half felt like they were really underperforming when they were actually world series-caliber. now it feels like they may make the playoffs even though they really, really don't deserve it.

http://i46.tinypic.com/2lc4lcm.png

sup

http://i.imgur.com/MiWWBl.jpg

Ben Lindbergh, BP:

"Look, the Cardinals aren’t proud of what they did, but nothing in the current CBA prohibits winning the wild card by beating up on the Astros."

can we get an ankle brace for freese or something i mean c'mon

jeezus.

yani anecdote #230458234, but he just threw out a runner stealing second even though the batter struck out and interfered with his throw (the umpire had already signalled batter interference). he kind of had this awkward 3/4 throw OVER the batter and still gunned him down.

jeezus.