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.

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.