The elephant in Chris Duncan’s living room

The thing everyone notices but few seem to want (or care) to address.  (Unfortunately, between embattled closer Jason Isringhausen and Mark Mulder, the Cardinals seem to be asking this question a lot.)  Will Chris Duncan ever make it “back”?

The idea is that he’s going down to Memphis to regain his stroke, that he’s not yet fully recovered or gotten comfortable, from his off-season injury struggles with the hernia.  I’d love for that to be the case, because I still think that for the Cardinals to truly contend this season, they are going to need more power from the left side of the plate, which Duncan was supposed to provide.  But what if pitchers and opposing coaches have just found the holes in his swing?  From Bernie’s much-discussed article on Thursday:

Something isn’t right. Since last July 29, in 255 plate appearances before Wednesday, Duncan was batting .219 with a .322 onbase percentage and an anemic .324 slugging percentage. (That’s 46 points less than Aaron Miles’ slugging percentage over the same time.) Elevated to the majors for his considerable power potential, Duncan provided 43 homers in his first 562 major-league at bats but has only five homers in his last 226 ABs.

Those are staggering numbers.  His power (read: home runs) have dwindled to a quarter of his start in the majors.  More from Bernie:

If Duncan isn’t fully rebounded from surgery, then the Cardinals must deal with that. And if this is all about a malfunction in Duncan’s hitting mechanics, then the Cardinals must have the guts to deal with that, too. Better players than Duncan have been sent back to the minors for a helpful tune-up. Duncan can’t be expected to refine his swing and restore his power when he can’t get a regular turn in the St. Louis lineup.

This is certain: It doesn’t help the 2008 Cardinals to have Duncan taking at-bats from Ludwick. You just don’t give Ludwick a seat in the dugout for two games out of three, as La Russa did recently, in an attempt to get Duncan’s swing cranked up.

I think that boils the situation down to a very clear point.  Duncan wasn’t right.  His swings looked terrible.  Here’s hoping he can get back on track, and Joe Mather develops with the big club in his stead.

Joe Mather called up to the big show

The Cardinals made a move today that many have been clamoring for, including the Post-Dispatch’s Bernie Miklasz in a much-discussed article before yesterday’s game.

Chris Duncan is headed to Memphis, Joe Mather is coming to St. Louis.

This move can be viewed many random different ways, in my mind anyway:

Ultimately, good luck to Duncan in Memphis - I’d love to see his bat back in form and back with the Cardinals come stretch-time around the end of July or mid-August.

More immediately, I hope we get to see Joey Bombs park one in Big Mac Land tonight.

So, about this Pineiro/Jimenez thing…

Are we really going to go through the Kelvin Jimenez experiment again?

This guy has proven himself a poor man’s Anthony Reyes during his short stints in the big leagues (that’s not a compliment).

Where is Mark Worrell? What about Jason Motte? Mike Parisi and Kyle McClellan are both starters that are on the big club as relievers (even though Parisi will take Pineiro’s turns every five while Joel is on the mend) - so why not give Mitchell Boggs a shot to cut his teeth in the pen?

Just when I thought the organization had taken a turn for the better in giving their kids a shot by doing the right thing and calling up Chris Perez (who has been a rousing success thus far, albeit not in the closer’s role…yet), they turn around and give a retread like Jimenez another shot.

Let’s be honest with ourselves. Jimenez is not an MLB pitcher. He never will be. He’s 27 and can’t get big-league hitters out. He mows down hitters in Memphis, but can’t get it done on the larger stage. He’s a quadruple-A pitcher.

C’mon Mo - don’t let Tony get to you too. Jimenez does not help this team. This team is in a race and needs real help, both right now and to develop kids for the future. Stop wasting time with “fillers”.

NOTE: As I write, Perez is coming in to shut the ‘Stros down. Let’s go youngster!

Pineiro to the 15-day DL (again)

Joel Pineiro has once again been placed on the 15-day disabled list.

Mike Parisi will take his turns in the rotation.

Kelvin Jimenez has taken Pineiro’s roster slot with the big club.

This move fascinates and disgusts me.  More on that later (I had planned to post last night, but my host was down).

Cardinal batting stances through the years

How I missed this until now, I will never know.


Filed Under Albert Pujols, Former Cardinals, Fun

Leave a Comment | Posted on May 28, 2008 by PHE | Subscribe!

Once again it’s done with starting pitching

Adam Wainwright got back on track with a start we all knew he could make.  Kyle Lohse made a start that was very capable and within himself.  Todd Wellemeyer didn’t do too badly himself.

Take away a bloop single that Chris Duncan Soriano-ed (ok, and the wild pitch too), and this was a very successful weekend series for the Cardinals.  Given those events, it’s still a successful one, just without the modifier.

A 4-2 West Coast swing for the Birds has pulled them even with the rival Cubs, leading up to today’s off-day, a luxurious second in 5 days for the Cards.  The Cubbies return home today to face the same Dodgers the Cards just finished up with.

A few thoughts from this series:

  1. The Cardinals manufactured runs when they needed to.  They certainly didn’t explode for 11 like they did in San Diego, but they squeezed out runs when necessary.  Reference the 2-1 victory Friday night and scoring in the top of the 7th to re-knot the game yesterday.
  2. The starting pitching, despite some occasional hiccups, will continue to carry this team the rest of the season, whether Mark Mulder, Chris Carpenter, and/or Matt Clement return or not.
  3. This bullpen IS salvageable.  Mike Parisi’s loss on Sunday notwithstanding (in my opinion, once you get to extra innings, it can’t be considered “blowing” a game, first run wins), the bullpen performed admirably against the Dodgers.  From closing out the one-run victory Friday night, preserving the shutout Saturday night, even sticking tough on Sunday - these boys appear to be mentally right again (*knock on wood*).
  4. The Cardinals are starting to prove they belong.  Remember when they “hadn’t played anyone yet”?  Well, the Dodgers were only a few games behind the Cardinals in the standings when the series started, and the Birds took two of three.  I guarantee you the Cubs and Houston noticed.

All told, I was very pleased with the outcome of this weekend’s games.  Another day to rest and recuperate today, and then it’s on with the ‘Stros tomorrow.  Bring it on!

More man-crushing on Luddy

I submit as even further evidence that Ryan Ludwick is having an off-the-charts season and should be an All-Star, the Fungoes list of Cardinals’ Worst and Best Cleanup Hitters Since 1956.  Ludwick’s current pace is second only behind Mark McGwire’s torrid pace to begin the 2000 season prior to the knee problems that eventually ended his career.

Ludwick is posting a massive GPA+, a stat very similar to OPS+ in terms of evaluating production at the plate.

I say again, this guy deserves to be an All-Star.  I can’t believe that just a couple weeks ago we were still clamoring for him to just be in the lineup every day.


Filed Under Former Cardinals, Ryan Ludwick

Leave a Comment | Posted on May 23, 2008 by PHE | Subscribe!

Off-day to heal - hopefully not cool off

The Cards enjoyed a day in the sun yesterday in Los Angeles before starting up their weekend series with the Dodgers tonight at Dodger Stadium.

The off-day should be very beneficial to the Redbirds, allowing Rick Ankiel one more day to rest that bum shoulder (although the bomb he hit out of Petco the other night suggested he was *just fine*).  The bullpen will get to rest up so Tony won’t have any “he wasn’t available” excuses.  And hopefully Adam Wainwright can get right in tonight’s start after a couple of rough outings.

It won’t be easy against the Dodgers, who at 25-21 are not far behind the Cardinals in the NL Wild Card “race” (I know, it’s early).

Here’s hoping though that the day off doesn’t cool down the bats.  The Cards put up 11 on Wednesday night against San Diego, tying their game-high output for the season.  They finally got clutch hits with runners in scoring position, even with the bases loaded a couple of times!  Ryan Ludwick continues to be scorching hot, I think his spot on the lineup card is pretty secure for a while.  Troy Glaus also continued to increase his RBI total and batting average.

Cardinals Diaspora put an interesting spin on the numbers ole T-Roy has been putting up, knocking runners in, despite his low home run total.  Frankly, I don’t care if the guy hits home runs or not, if he finishes the season with 120 RBI, I would call it pretty productive.

At any rate, the Cardinals need to continue to put runs on the board.  The 11 plated Wednesday night, and the previous 11 scored against San Francisco early in the season are the only two games in which the Cards have reached double-digit runs this season.  That number needs to increase or the bullpen has to get better, one of them has to give!

A healthy Ankiel, a “I’ve got mind off of Chris Young, so I can hit” Albert Pujols, Ludwick, and Glaus makes for a very solid 2-3-4-5 punch in my book.

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