Lots of news to talk about from yesterday while I was incommunicado:
- Matt Morris is hanging it up according to Rick Hummel at the Post-Dispatch. It’s a shame Matty couldn’t carry on, but I appreciate his candor in saying that it just was too stressful on him having to deal with failure. Morris was the consummate pro, a great Cardinal. TLR states in that article that he “wishes we had a spot for him,” and while I appreciate the sentiment, I think the statistics bear out that Morris is making the right decision. Three cheers for Matty Mo – congrats on your career, and we wish you success in your future endeavors (a coach with the Cardinals perhaps?).
- Derrick Goold writes in his Bird Land blog that Mark Mulder has a mild rotator cuff strain, and his rehab assignment will be shelved for at least a week. As I’ve mentioned previously, I don’t particularly view this as a huge setback in terms of the Cardinals and their starting rotation, because I think Mulder needs to be in a rehab assignment until their is undeniable proof he is healthy (read: more than 2 good starts in succession). That being said, for Mulder, this has to be devastating. I continue to wonder if the guy may never make it back. The eternal optimist in me wants to believe that this is a by-product of trying to get his mechanics back in order, that it’s because they’re trying to get him to throw over the top again. But my growing suspicion, along with others, is that he’ll never get healthy, and they’re just stringing him along because they’re paying him anyway.
- Yesterday’s game against the Rockies was a great display of pitching – for seven innings. Adam Wainwright stymied the Rockies for 7 scoreless innings, furthering his path to ace status in this league. The bullpen was horrible. Kyle McClellan thanks me for my support of him as setup man by promptly imploding in 2/3 of an inning yesterday. Randy Flores should probably continue to be a “pitch to the one lefty and get yanked” specialist. Jason Isringhausen is a mess right now. Izzy takes the loss, and he was lucky to get out of that inning without allowing more. It might be time to take a similar approach with this bullpen that they took with the starting rotation last season. It’s clearly not working, you’ve got guys hurting (Brad Thompson, Russ Springer), and guys just having bad years so far compared to their past performance. So why not start shuffling bodies? Give Izzy a rest in a save situation once a week. Let Villone throw 2 innings here and there. Start brining up guys like Kelvin Jimenez and see if they can catch lighting in a bottle. It’s just a thought…
- Couple of positives to take away from yesterday’s game. Ryan Ludwick continues to make folks wonder why LaRussa won’t play him everyday. Luddy is tearing the cover off the ball, and one of the guys who has seemingly been able to consistently hit a long ball…when he’s been in the lineup. More on Luddy later. Cesar Izturis has been hitting the ball well lately (well, for him). Iz2 is a career .259 hitter, and I think the Cards would be ecstatic to get that sort of performance out of him, combined with his defense at short. One week into May, Iz2 is hitting .375, on 6-16. Perhaps most importantly, he has been taking walks this season. While he has none yet in May, he took 11 in April – a big departure from his previous seasons. Iz2 is currently sporting a .350 OBP, compared to his career number of .297. This could be a huge boon in the Cardinals offense, where as we know Pitchers Hit Eighth…
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