Carpenter's rib to play second base - 2013 St. Louis Redbirds

‏@JoeStrauss
Matheny acknowledges Furcal won't be available for early Grapefruit League play. Won't commit to when SS becomes available.

And we're off!

check out the dope jersey i got my bro
http://i46.tinypic.com/8x94j7.jpg

fresh

so glad you started this thread! i've been wanting to all week but i can never think of a good title.

once again, another season where the middle IF is really disappointing. i know it was kind of unrealistic, but it would have been so awesome to pick up elvis this offseason.

it'll be interesting to see who wins the 5th rotation spot in spring training. why do i get the sinking feeling it's somehow going to be joe kelly?

http://cdn2.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1446873/YfFa2_medium.jpg

it seems like it's going to be tough to compete with the reds this year, too :-/

willie jersey is awesome

Of all the players on this list, Kolten Wong probably comes with the most modest skill set. The 22-year-old Hawaiian hit a solid but unspectacular .287/.348/.405 in his first go-round at Double-A last season and doesn't project as a major power threat. He's here because the Cardinals' incumbent second baseman, Daniel Descalso, has shown very little value in the first 300-plus games of his career, hitting just .245/.318/.337, with below-average defense according to advanced metrics. In fact, it's entirely possible the Cardinals have a different double-play combination altogether sometime this summer, given Descalso's limited ability and Rafael Furcal's combination of age and injuries.

several other cardinals on that list too

so sweet (pun intended) that there are 4 cardinals on that list of 16

somewhere in like the last 2 months Wong got moved to 2014, wha happen? maybe if he rips up triple a for a couple months.

apparently Mo revealed today he offered 18 over 2 to Scutaro. even had Holiday text him (lol).

hope the battle for 5th SP goes:

Miller - 5th starter
Rosenthal - bullpen flamethrower, designated 'we need a K now' guy.
Kelly - spot starter, long man.

This day 60 yrs ago, August A. Busch convinces the Board of Directors of AnheuserBusch to purchase the Cardinals for $3.75 million

after an hour of going back and forth about whether or not to subscribe to mlb.tv, i decided to bite the bullet because i'm jonesing for baseball and i want to watch some spring training games. after submitting my payment information i was informed that they kindly re-upped my subscription from last year and charged me for it, months ago. thanks mlb.tv!

anyway, i've got the cards/mets game on in my iphone right now. i hadn't really seen wacha pitch until now! there's a lot of hype about him (not really in the cards - no pun intended - for this year probably, but soooooooon_romney.jpg), but he really does look good! small sample size, and it's spring training obv, but he just kind of quietly mowed through the mets order in 3 innings. his delivery looks great, his fastball pops.

really really sick of having to watch adron chambers and shane robinson, though. they are so fucking boring, no upside

Wacha footage from today:

http://vine.co/v/bXZg7I3w1dT

grand slam by oscar taveras. :)

R.I.P. furcal

How can you find Shane Robinson boring?! His head is so tiny! I welcome his at-bats just to giggle about the ratio of head to batting helmet.

klaw: The Cards' options at shortstop right now are Ryan Jackson and a bunch of guys who can't play short.

somehow this is going to turn into pete kozma playing ss until july, i can tell. sigh. kozma and descalso, our unstoppable middle infield

well, i guess it could be worse.

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/819980/theriot_roll_rofl.gif

Derrick Goold ‏@dgoold
#Cardinals shortstop Rafael Furcal will have Tommy John surgery to repair torn ligament. Recovery could be eight months.#stlcards

with the way he throws, there's no chance 8 months happens imo

when does his contract run out anyway? end of 2013? end of 2014?

sigh. i can't BELIEVE i have to watch pete fucking kozma again all year

Wacha sent to minor league camp. He definitely needs some time in the minors, just to work his arm strength up, but holy shit, he's promising. tiny sample size, etc etc, but still.

For the 3 readers of this thread: who should get the 5th rotation spot? Kelly or Miller? (Rosenthal's already been designated for the bullpen, apparently)

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/03/18/pete-kozma-is-the-cardinals-starting-shortstop

facepalm

fangraph's positional power rankings for SS

cardinals: DEAD LAST

MOZELIAK pleeeeeeeease

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/2013-positional-power-rankings-shortstop/

lol u behind the pirates:

Barmes is gifted in the field, and that’s the reason he stays in the lineup, but you wonder how much more he might’ve been able to accomplish had he not elected to play all the time with a partially broken bat. You can use another bat, Clint Barmes. Some bats aren’t broken and terrible. For the record, this is a substantial projected wOBA bounceback. Last year was really bad.

Derrick Goold
‏@dgoold
Ronny Cedeno says the #cardinals told him they were "going in a different direction." Adams the obvious choice to make bench now.

now dump wigginton!

^^

Ronny Cedeno says the #cardinals told him they were "going in a different direction."

lol, this is basically "it's not you, it's me"

chone figgins is available . . .

Marlins cut him?

yup

hidden in the middle of this article about how the cardinals players and staff are trying to groom taveras:

But the process is more about veterans helping kids to perpetuate the organizational legacy of winning. Chris Carpenter did it for Adam Wainwright and Jaime Garcia, Skip Schumaker helped Descalso at second base, and now Beltran, Molina and Jay have teamed up to shorten the learning curve for Taveras.

?!?!?!

Reporters in Ft. Myers told that Shelby Miller has earned the fifth spot in the #STLCards rotation.

pretty much all Mo's little filler moves look terrible at this point. cedeno, wigginton, & choate have been like their worst players in spring. god bless the #1 farm system I guess.

the accumulation of seemingly minor injuries sorta making me nervous: freese's back, beltran's toe, motte's elbow. if freese were to miss significant time, that leaves an infield of Carpenter, Kozma and Descalso. giant sadface. a beltran injury could be weathered halfway decently (either with craig in the OF and adams at 1B or an early Taveras call-up).

there's also lynn, who just doesn't seem right. lol small spring training sample size, but i've watched him 3 times this month and he's seemed off every single time.

by this point, most teams have long since sent down their real prospects and are playing either a real starting lineup (braves) or a lineup of triple-a vets (mets, although it's much the same thing). it's partly because their prospects are *ready* but it's cool to see adams and taveras etc. still playing -- taveras had four hits today and adams had three rbis.

it's pretty impressive that st. louis has been a routine playoff team for years but still can bring guys like this along. lol pirates and a lot of other teams.

also taveras is 20 ffs

yeah, i'm getting a really good vibe from him. his greatness seems so inevitable!

@closernews Jason Motte has officially been placed on the DL, Wade Boggs more than likely first in line for saves

http://i.imgur.com/M4trpbul.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/I904x2J.jpg

that's bullshit carlos rules

he rules but dude cannot play RF right now

even when healthy, he's lost a step, but with his bum toe he can barely move out there

uh

http://deadspin.com/nice-going-boyfriend-perfect-gentleman-runs-away-fr-467037244

my ex would have at least tried to catch it, jeez

on Holliday's HR

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=20081

lotsa free baseball tonight

i want to go to bed. please win, cardinals. 1st and 3rd, 1 out. with pete fucking kozma batting.

never in my life have i been so angry at an overachieving player. but if he could just overachieve one more time...

thanks pete

wtf

LEVEL	PA	ISO
A	        640	.097
AA	       1029	.121
AAA	        846	.101
MLB	         111	.221

it's baffling. i'm happy that he's surprising everyone in a positive way, but seriously wtf

and re-tied. on past 400 pitches we go....

watching as well but it's midnight and i'm putting in 10 hours tomorrow. going to sleep.

leadoff walks'll kill ya

kinda worried about lance lynn. i know it’s only one game, but looking at his pitch f/x data for his start the other day, his avg fastball was 91.1 mph (max 92.7). In 2012, his avg fastball was 92. 9 mph (max 96.9). if his velocity continues to stay down 2mph from last year, he’s going to be in trouble. he didn't look so good in spring training, either. :(

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Lynn1.gif.opt_.gif

don't know if this link will work, but check out the velocity range of his pitches compared to last year:

http://www.fangraphs.com/images.aspx?img=fgraphs/2520_P_FA_20130403.png

well, shoot. i'll take a screenshot. here:

http://i.imgur.com/YQB70B2.png

it's true that his velocity increased a bit as the season progressed last year, but still - that was his second lowest avg velocity in a game, ever. something just seems off with him.

(the graph shows just his fastball, btw, not including curve/change etc)

wacha (flocka) triple-a debut today

Heisey needs some sliding lessons! first he slid head first into 2B and just bit it, and then he decided to slide directly at Yadi (2 feet to the left of home plate) rather than sliding to the right side of the plate, where he likely would have scored.

i must say, as usual it is agonizing to listent to dan and al. and the other guy, whoever he is. they were talking about carpenter and descalso, and how it would be tough to keep descalso out of the lineup because his bat's so good (???!!?! maybe he hit ok this spring but...what?). then they segued from to a discussion of how matt carpenter is potentially a "top-5" hitter in the national league. carpenter's alright, but to think he has a chance of top 5 who have to be baked.

"of course...there are 9 quadrants in a batter's hitting zone..."

- al hrabosky, numerologist

Good to see the Cardinal bullpen at mid-season form.

ugh

i don't know how, but this is all al hrabosky's fault

as bad as this already is, without choo's two errors, it would be 13-1

ugh, mozeliak just mentioned the possibility of tommy john surgery for motte. :( apparently they're going to give him 3 weeks, and if he's not throwing by may 1, they'll look at surgery.

i swear i was going to post this before matt adams hit a hr just now, but it's so nice having someone like him coming off the bench this year in a high leverage situation.

slippery rock ftw

compare/contrast

matt adams appearing earlier
ty fucking wigginton, right now

he should not be in a uniform ugh ugh ugh

god he blows

it would be so great to watch him and kozma run at each other, head on, and just booooooooom

hahaha

the sad reality is that ty wigginton would survive that collision and his brain would probably perceive it as some sort of indigestion, whereas kozma would die in the hospital several hours later

matt heavy lineup today
motte's elbow sauced :(

matt adams strikes again

SMASH ADAMS

reds are 3-22-2 in series in st. louis since 2002

just tuned in.

QUESTION TO THE BOOTH (from some viewer):

Q: "How do they mow the arch and #6 into the outfield grass?"

Al Hrabosky: "Well, they cut it in different ways."

Followed by a few seconds of silence.

for christ's sake al, c'mon

Ha I think he said a different direction. Cards look loaded suddenly. More hitters then we can fit in lineup.

well, last night was fucking terrible. apparently jaime has had more leads blown for him - 15 - over the last three years than any other pitcher. "blown" as in he left the game with his team ahead, in line for a win. i know "wins" are stupid and all of that, but it does seem like he gets fucked over more often than he deserves.

in other news, i am going to all three of the cardinals games in DC next week. i feel like i should get some sort of free shirt from the cardinals or something

baserunning

i tuned in just after the debacle, but from the replay it looked like oquendo fucked up by holding up jon jay on a play in which he could have easily scored. that was the kind of play where pujols would routinely barrel past 3rd without even glancing at oquendo's (stupidly) upstretched arms

seems unlikely to matter in the long run

yeah, mcdonald is getting shelled

oquendo is going to take a long, peaceful dump in between innings here

outta sight outta mind

Reporting live from Washington. I am sitting in the $1 Monday seats, way up, deep left field to the left of the foul line. Watching Shelby stretch. He looks good. I can guarantee, without hesitation, a cardinal victory tonight.

This is one of those locations where if a foul ball happened to land here it would potentially murder someone

Miller is pitching very well early on - almost all fastballs. If he ever develops a plus out pitch he's going to be unstoppable.

I was happy that everyone here booed kozma when he came up until I realized they were booing for a completely different reason. Who fiercely boos a mediocre player on the opposing team because he got a hit once? Nats fans suuuuuck, they don't deserve their team.

St. Louis Cardinals ‏@Cardinals 13h
Cardinals go for history tomorrow. Have not swept the Nationals/Expos in a three-game road series since Sept. 26-28, 1969 in Montreal.

all because of z s

i was totally that guy last night. i was sitting in a small boxed off section with 12-15 nationals fans, including several youngsters who were disappointed at the nats' performance. and in the midst of their groaning was me, hissing "YESSSsssss" after each of wainwright's 9 strikeouts. my "yessssss" after laroche's strikeout with the bases loaded in the 6th inning was particularly cutting. take THAT little kids!

also overheard a hilarious conversation about pete kozma: "who IS that? why is everyone booing him?" - "that's the guy that got the hit off of us in the playoffs last year" - "oh. and two hits this game!" - "yeah. we should just walk him, he's too dangerous!"

*rude giggles from behind*

Headed to the game here in a minute! would be awesome if they could complete the sweep.

alas, strasburg...

i am attending this game by my lonesome, so expect frequent annoying updates that get progressively inane as the afternoon wears on as I purchase more and more cans of overpriced beer.

strasburg sux amirite

Yeah he'll never amount to anything!

Two stupid Matt Carpenter baserunning mistakes in two at bats. He got away with the first - trying to stretch a single into a double - only because the infielder dropped the ball at second. Then he floundered between second and third on what should have been a safe double.

If he eve hits a home run he's going to get lost on the way to the dugout and dive into the seats

I think he just stumbled on that double

I feel like old man little league, but the cardinals just don't seem to execute this year. Jaime just picked Desmond off! Desmond isn't Billy Hamilton. Why is he standing on 2B right now?

If he eve hits a home run he's going to get lost on the way to the dugout and dive into the seats

lol

xpost the first hit or second? If it was the second, I couldn't tell if he was just hesitating or if he stumbled.

Feel kinda bad for Rendon. He's obviously talented but he needs way more seasoning before he's ready. The crowd is tearing him up here (at home! He's a kid ffs!) because most of them have no idea what's going on in the Nats organization. I mean, they're booing Pete Kozma. This is their first time watching baseball or something

good work dude

thanks!

btw, nice article on Rick Ankiel: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/51640228/ns/sports-baseball/

it starts with the usual trip down Rick Ankiel memory lane, which is amazing enough as it is. but then...

Then there’s this year. This epic year. Rick Ankiel has become perhaps my favorite hitter to watch in baseball. This year, Rick Ankiel has decided to do what a friend of mine calls “The Full Rob Deer.” You will remember Deer as a guy who swung for the fences, who hit 25-plus homers five times and who led the league in strikeouts four times. And while there have been many other players who have swung for the fences, I would say that none of them have done it with the relish, the persistence or the sheer chutzpah of Rick Ankiel.

We are talking every ... single ... at-bat.

Look at his amazing numbers.

Ankiel has come to plate 38 times this year.

He has struck out 24 of those times. Yeah. Twenty-four of 38.

He has walked zero of those times.

He has hit five home runs and two doubles and two singles.

...What is he doing? In a weird way, I kind of think I understand — understand, that is, on a deep and personal level. Look at Ankiel. He’s 33 years old, and he’s playing on an Astros team that has a chance to be the worst team in baseball history. The Astros probably won’t become that team — they will probably settle into just an ordinary bad team — but so far, they have been shut out three times (one a near perfect game), they have had to pull their pitcher in the first inning twice and so on. They’re spectacularly bad.

And Ankiel, well, he’s facing the end. He has to know it. Since 2009, while playing for four teams, he has hit .234, he rarely walks and he has also slugged just .383 — just 31 homers in more than 1,200 plate appearances. He’s not offering anything. It’s almost over — the Astros are probably the last stop.

And he seems to have decided, like the boxer entering the final round losing on all scorecards, like the broke gambler down to a final bet, like the golfer facing the impossible shot but needing to pull it off to make the cut — that he might as well go for everything. Maybe, just maybe, if he can hit a noticeable number of homers — strikeouts, walks, singles, all of them be damned — he can keep this crazy career alive.

ha ha! love "The Full Rob Deer”.

lol, yes.

I thought about bringing up Jordan Schafer a couple of days ago -- he seemed to be heading down a similar path, just a lot faster. Joe Simpson was talking about how getting cut from the Astros was apparently just the slap in the face he needed, because he's been really good in a limited role so far this year. I would love to know the inside story of how and why he managed to get back on the Braves' radar & roster.

only just noticed waino has 37k / 1 bb O_O

woooooooo

I am going to save my counter-woooooo until the day the bucs inevitably fall below .500 in mid-august

otm

i'm tuning into the game a little late, but i already have one burning question:

why is ty wigginton starting at 1B when Allen Craig and Matt Adams are both on the team? are they both hurt? wtf?

ugh, these last 9 games have been frustrating to watch.

the starting pitching has been dominant. the relief pitching makes me want to tear my eyeballs out. here are the scores from the last 9 games as of the end of the 6th inning:

Cardinals Opponent
5         0
2         2
3         2
2         0
3         1
5         1
2         0
0         3
0         2

over those first 6 innings of each of those 9 games, the cardinals have a 1.83 ERA. somehow they went 5-4.

it's not like 5-4 is that bad, and sweeping the nats in washington was pretty awesome. but it's pretty rare that you get a stretch of starting pitching that's dominant like that, and the best teams tend to take advantage and go 8-1 or something.

exit boggs
enter carlos 'vote for pedro' martinez

http://baseballprospectnation.com/2012/10/22/scouting-report-carlos-martinez-rhp/

Summation: Smaller RHP without prototypical size. Tremendous arm speed and high-effort delivery generates impressive velocity. Can sit in the upper-90s with explosive life for short stints. Will consistently sit mid-90s over longer outings. CB is hit or miss but will flash plus potential with 11-5 break. CB has more potential when thrown harder. CH lags behind but isn’t necessary for overall profile. Lack of command profile is concerning as he would need to throw more quality strikes to be effective long term as a starter. Shoulder tendonitis this year raises flags over durability and how many bullets are in the arm. Relief profile is impressive. Potential elite RP. Potential star-level closer.

Whoa, just emerged from wilderness weekend to this news. Awesome! I was hoping we'd get to see Martinez before too long. Has he pitched yet? *looks*

firing on all cylinders. offense letting the kid crew bullpen ease into things.

+ seth MANess is fun to say/mispronounce. don't think we will see motte closing again for 2 years, if ever.

ty wigginton still terrible.

and the ankiel returning fantasies have begun. pitch, rick!

ty wigginton's wRC+ is negative one

jeezus kozma,

tip one: don't do that thing where you strike out looking and you stare back at the umpire in disbelief. everyone fucking hates that

tip two: if you just can't help doing it, make sure that the called third strike wasn't actually ON THE CORNER! christ, now you look like a magnificent asshole AND you're wrong! you don't get to pull that kind of shit when you're only a starting SS due to an unbelievable string of good luck (for kozma), bad luck (for others) and poor planning (cardinals management)

it won't last for long, so i'm going to enjoy this one day when the cards have the best winning % (.636) in baseball

i miss ozzie smith

*drunk*

one more rambling comment: i just noticed that the cardinals have played only 12 games at home, vs 21 on the road. every other team, except the tigers, has played more games at home. hmmph

Naw, Braves have played 14 home/19 away. And after Wednesday it'll be 14 home/26 away.

miller/wainwright have retired the last 39 colorado rockies in order

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Adam Wainwright carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning and was one out from the St. Louis Cardinals' second straight one-hitter over the suddenly punchless Colorado Rockies in a 3-0 victory Saturday.

The Rockies had been hitless in 49 consecutive at-bats before Nolan Arenado lined a clean hit to center field with one out in the eighth. Eric Young led off Friday night's game with a broken-bat single off rookie Shelby Miller then failed to put a runner on until Todd Helton walked with one out in the fifth inning a day later.

The 49 at-bats is the longest hitless stretch since Sept. 25-27, 1981, when the Los Angeles Dodgers went 50 at-bats without a knock, according to STATS.

:D

so, garcia out for the season and westbrook probably out for longer than initially expected.

gast was brought up to spell westbrook for a few starts, and then when garcia went down, lyons came up to fill a couple starts until westbrook came up.

neither one of those guys were really expected to semi-permanently join the pitching staff when they were called up, i don't think. and once westbrook comes back, i'm sure lyons will be sent down. but what about garcia's spot? is gast going to take it? will they give carlos martinez a chance to take it on? or even wacha? or is going to be gastly all year?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BK92tOoCMAM8WYD.jpg:large

incoming wakka wakka wakka

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l06l7qmGgH1qbvk7po1_250.gif

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ltgc6r72Hj1qbaamvo1_500.gif

it's amazing that we're doing so well with 3/5ths of the original starting rotation (carp, garcia and westbrook) + Gast on the DL.

i'm wondering how long it can last...Miller's doing fantastic but if he started regressing a fair amount over the summer it wouldn't be surprising. Lyons/Gast have filled in admirably but they're just stopgaps for Carlos Martinez and Wacha, who may have growing pains learning how to pitch in the majors. dunno. i'm pumped about the hot streak but wouldn't be surprised if june and july brings a middling record, pittsburgh regressing as well, and the reds continuing to dominate.

jeez, this Wacha (and yet another 6'7" pitcher).

yeah, this is insane. i was expecting to see all these guys (miller, martinez, wacha) roll out over the course of 2013-15. kinda crazy to seem them all by may 2013.

so much starting pitching and we still have to throw boggs/marte :```(

That was bullshit... Molina was upset that he was too slow to beat out the throw, so he threw his helmet... that's no reason to eject him.

Now you have Molinas restraining Molinas.

yeah, i thought it was clear that he was just frustrated at himself with being incredibly slow on the basepaths and not beating that out. still, after he was thrown out he touched the umpire multiple times. he'll be lucky if he doesn't get suspended. goddammit yadi.

why is bengie the 1st base coach now, by the way? is he just filling in or did mckay permanently poop his pants or something?

dave mmmm-kay </southpark> left with TLR. think he went to cubs. they gave 1st to whoever was triple A manager when they brought Matheny in.

i going to game tonight!

oh shit, I meant Maloney, not McKay.

Manager Mike Matheny called Matt Carpenter "the best second baseman in the league" on Thursday.

he pretty much saved the game there in the 9th, that's for sure

yeah, i guess in the NL his only real competition is brandon phillips.

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

his plate discipline is what really sets him apart, though. 11% walk rate, .410 OBP

(also his scintillating .361 babip)

i try to totally ignore high babips when they belong to my players on my favorite team, so if you could just not mention that please

my bad

look at this instead: http://vine.co/v/blFMUum0On3

aaaahahahaha, that little glance over the shoulder, perfect timing

hahahaha, that's beautiful

for some reason, nothing bugs me more about this team than pete kozma's insistence on being present at every mound visit. you're not a respected leader! none of the other infielders are there! you're only on the team because of a series of unfortunate events! gtfo!

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/goodbye-ty-cards-release-wigginton/article_0bdf1c8b-c268-5b86-a810-2e35294f7652.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4BWhvIlFVE

i know he hardly even played (~60AB this season, i think), but god, what a worthless piece of shit signing that was. i truly think that i audibly groaned every single time he appeared on television this year.

replaced by a backup backup catcher, rob johnson.

http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/stltoday.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/6b/56b93895-570b-5c68-8b43-1bf0b6ec2976/51dc4e7c0e11e.preview-300.jpg

he looks like an usher who snuck down into the dugout for pretend photo time in the middle of the night

christ, they gave him 2 years, $5 million? what were they THINKING? seriously.

top of the 8th, up 6-4, cards have the bases loaded, pitcher's spot in the lineup coming up. matheny...leaves rosenthal in, who of course strikes out. a sign of incredible confidence in rosenthal to handle the 8th well (as he normally does) and keep the cards 2 runs up? a sign of an incredible lack of confidence in the rest of the bullpen that is not mujica, rosenthal or siegrist? a sign of incredible stupidity? time will tell!

i HATE being right about stuff like this

it should be noted that the pitch just BEFORE that game-tying double was absolutely perfect, right on lower-outside corner. everyone seemed astonished that it wasn't called strike 3, including the chicago home crowd.

i....just realized that i've made the last 9 posts, including this one. i will shaddup.

No no no, I'm very glad that Bee OK and I aren't the only ones who get this way for our teams.

I was at last night's game btw. Now if the March of Progress takes Wrigley and Fenway, I can say I've been to games at both.

my terrible shameful secret is that even though i lived in chicago for about a year, i never made it to a game at wrigley field. :( i kind of stopped paying attention to baseball from about 1998 to 2007, so i didn't even really think about it. when i got back from living in shangai, suddenly following baseball seemed like one of the best, simplest luxuries in the entire world.

also, just now, yadi. <3 o.o <3

shangai=shanghai

that's a lot of hits, dawg

SweetSpot's been working its way through all 30 teams in a best-deadline-deal-ever series. They've mostly picked trades from the past decade, some of which didn't seem like all that big a deal to me. But their last two have been famous older ones: Seaver for the Reds in '77, and this one, still my frame of reference for this kind of thing:

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/38291/38291

wow I didn't realize Brock had his 118 steal season at the age of 35(!)

i know it's heresy in st. louis but newer metrics like WAR and wRC+ make brock seem like merely a pretty good player, not a legend. he was a 3-5 WAR player in his prime, and his lifetime wRC+ was 109, which is...eh. he stole a ton of bases, but it looks like he gave back that value with his relatively poor defense. dunno.

He's clearly one of the weaker post-war writers' picks in there. You can sum up what got in him very succinctly: the 3,000 hits, the SB record, a few 200-hit seasons, and the two WS teams. I'm most surprised that he was first-ballot--edged in (79%) in a year with no huge names on the ballot.

Having said all that, I would have preferred him to Garvey as the '74 MVP (even though WAR gives the edge to Garvey, and also says neither one of them should have been anywhere close). And the '64 trade is justly celebrated, I'd say.

Brock, careerwise, was a stat "accumulator." He's likely the least impressive player with 3000 hits.

Worst Cards deadline trade was obv Keith Hernandez.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/allen-craig-ignominious-league-leader

5 runs over the last 41 innings..

matt holiday is having adventures in the outfield

I turned the Cards game on and these guys in the booth are looking for the nearest sturdy ceiling joist to hang themselves from.

5 runs in 54 innings! ouch.

RIP Yadi

fine, go crazy

You just got DESTROYED!!

FINE i said

no save for you mujica

the sleeper has awakened

oh my

the "penis" is "fully erect"

if you know what i mean

i turned off the game in disgust last night after the 8th inning, with the cardinals down 3-2, and blowing yet another opportunity to tie it up. looks like they pulled it off in 14!

kind of sad/amazing stat, though: now the cardinals are 2-37 in games in which they're losing after the 7th inning. if i remember the stat correctly. i think the announcers mentioned that the pirates had won 7 or 8 games in the same situation.

The typical team is much closer to the Cardinals... 0-40 after 8 til last night. (Which points to why the save is a junk stat.)

You leave Lee Smith out of this, he was a legend.

How are you looking up the cardinals' record after 8 innings, by the way? I'd love to compare it to other teams.

Go to any team page on Baseball Reference and click on "Scoring"--you can get inning-by-inning W-L records according to ahead/behind/tied.

The Blue Jays, for instance (sorry if this ends up a mess):

 	Ahead 	Tied 	Behind
Inning 	W 	L 	% 	W 	L 	% 	W 	L 	%
1 	0 	0 		54 	65 	0.454 	0 	0 	
2 	21 	8 	0.724 	28 	35 	0.444 	5 	22 	0.185
3 	29 	8 	0.784 	16 	17 	0.485 	9 	40 	0.184
4 	33 	9 	0.786 	11 	13 	0.458 	10 	43 	0.189
5 	34 	7 	0.829 	9 	10 	0.474 	11 	48 	0.186
6 	35 	7 	0.833 	10 	10 	0.500 	9 	48 	0.158
7 	37 	7 	0.841 	8 	8 	0.500 	9 	50 	0.153
8 	39 	2 	0.951 	9 	12 	0.429 	6 	51 	0.105
9 	41 	1 	0.976 	9 	9 	0.500 	4 	55 	0.068

thanks!

lotta swings and misses for wacha

Wong was called up, Chambers sent down. Since Freese is a righty and Wong is a lefty, they'll probably be platooning them by shifting Carpenter between 2B and 3B, with Wong or Freese benched, depending on the day.

it'll be nice to inject some speed into the lineup, gotta say (wong had 20 steals in 21 attempts in about 100 games at AAA this year)

the cardinal way

Yeeeeess!!!!

That felt like one of the first defining 2013 moments, right there. Ugh ugh ugh yes

I might've seen it if MLB.tv didn't decide to buffer for 10 minutes. What an amazing product.

also, man, do I hate the Cardinals.

Neyer addresses ZS's bete noire

http://www.baseballnation.com/2013/8/28/4668264/stlouis-cardinals-shortstops-pete-kozma-daniel-descalso

walp, we acquired a john axford for some reason

it's going to be awesome watching him walk about 4 or 5 guys per 9IP

ugh, kozma

fangraphs has a list of the top 50 shortstops by wOBA, using ZIPS rest of season projections (which go ahead and project the last few weeks of the 2013 season's stats). where could pete kozma be???

#50, of course. 0.259 wOBA. .221/.278/.308 .585 OPS

pete fucking kozma man, pete kozma.

man, the way Siegrist paints those corners is just brutal

Craig in a boot for at least a few days w/ sprain

he's no matt adams anyway

adams will be a nice sub for the next week or two - hopefully craig won't be out much longer. my dream offseason scenario is that adams + one of the several outstanding young arms are traded to the AL for an actual shortstop.

slippery rock ftw

i wonder if we could somehow trade for an actual tv crew as well

Matt Carpenter is a really good hitter. I don't really see any flaws in his hitting game. I'm not sure other than just brute force on his hands, I don't know how you really plan for anything other than hoping he hits the ball at someone.

wainwright now second all-time for strikeouts as a cardinal with 1,096 -- only 2,021 behind bob gibson

http://www.baseballnation.com/2013/9/10/4713908/best-run-organization-baseball-stlouis-cardinals

Kind of hard to argue with the Cardinals scouting this year, criminy they have pulled up some good talent this year to their big club.

10 playoff appearances since 2000 *yawn* matheny is a terrible idiot manager who is 27 games above .500.

if he wouldn't have bunted so much, we would be 30 games above .500!

this year's team is kind of odd, though. sad to say but i can see them just falling apart in the division series, no matter which opponent it is. somehow the relief pitching has turned into a reliable plus point, but the offense and starting pitching seem to be feast or famine this year. that's weird to say about the offense, which has scored more runs than any other NL team by far, so maybe that's just my anecdotal memory tricking me.

maybe matheny can just ask all the players to strike out on purpose until there are two outs in every inning. then swing away!

without craig - hard to see them going anywhere. but playoffs are weird, people like pete kozma get big hits so who knows.

one win (or a pirates loss) away from the division championship! feels kind of strange that the cardinals haven't won the division since 2009! i guess the teams of the last few years have felt more dominant than they actually were. not only did they win the WS in 2011 and make it to the LCS in 2012, but the run differentials/pythagorean record the past few years have always suggested that they should have been winning more games than they actually did.

also, an interesting tidbit:

I've been watching these lines converge all season, and I can finally report the weirdest stat of the year for me: Trevor Rosenthal has been worth more by fWAR in the bullpen (2.1) than Shelby Miller has in the rotation (2.0). That's pretty amazing.

http://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2013/9/26/4772456/cardinals-on-the-verge-of-a-central-takedown

heard a stat that the only post-2000 playoff missing teams both had more wins then the '06 WS winner team. wonder if they'll give waino another start for the sake of best record/avoid dodgers.

yeah, i'm not sure how i feel about all of that. if the cardinals did get the best record, then they'd play either the reds or the pirates. between the two i'd much rather face the reds! in fact i'd rather play the braves or the dodgers than the bucs, too.

at least, in the scenario that the cards have the best record and the pirates win the wild card, they would only have to deal with liriano once in the division series, since he's very likely to start the wild card game.

uh, oscar taveras just changed agents...again.

Taveras has now changed agencies a remarkable four times since January and, strangely, is back with Roman for the third time in 2013 alone. Taveras left MDR for Plummer back in January but switched back less than a month later. He remained with MDR through mid-August when he joined Greg Genske's Legacy Agency.

maybe he gets bored being hurt all the time

so if the cardinals can win today (or if the braves lose) they'll get home field advantage throughout the playoffs (until the WS). so today's game is actually...important?

but we're starting westbrook so that the cardinal fans can pay tribute to one of the best ever groundball specialist inning-eaters who never struck out anyone and always managed to leave the game in the 6th inning after giving up 4-5 runs?

and holliday is probably going to sit. to rest up due to his recent injuries? no, it's because his average crossed into .300 after yesterday's game.

Matt Holliday hit a two-run first-inning homer, his 22nd, pushing his average to .300 for the first time all season. He drew a walk in the third inning and was replaced by Shane Robinson with his average still intact.

Holliday has rebounded from batting .268 in the first half to hit .344 with eight homers and 45 RBIs since coming off the disabled list on July 27. It's possible the Cardinals will sit Holliday for Sunday's series finale so the left fielder can hold on to his .300 average, a decision Matheny said would be made on Sunday.

"He's worked real hard to get there," Matheny said. "That probably means more to us than it does to him, but he also understands that we're acknowledging what he's been able to do."

chris carpenter has retired

Do you post as Z S on Fangraphs, Z S? If so I agree with you 100%.