[Redbird Reveille] Memphis wins, Blaine Boyer, Mets come to town

Days like today renew my interest in baseball.

The Cards took a tough loss on the chin Saturday afternoon, they lost an opportunity to strike back yesterday because of weather, and today was a scheduled day off.

I took the opportunity to listen to the Memphis Redbirds play in Oklahoma City versus the Redhawks.

The announcers are excited and truly invested in the game.  The players are giving their all, trying to make the big club.  And for me, I’m not going to have blood pressure issues if the Redbirds lose.

Talk about a win-win.

—–

How did things turn out?

Memphis won, on the strength of a start from Katsuhiko Maekawa, who pitched four scoreless.  Royce Ring blew a save, but wound up with the win because of Jess Todd‘s two inning save.

I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but this Todd kid kind of has the goods.

—–

The Cards traded Brian Barton for Blaine Boyer yesterday.

Boyer hasn’t done much to impress in his career, but judging by Bernie Miklasz’ tweet this afternoon from @miklasz:

Dave Duncan told the guys on KFNS that Blaine Boyer has a big arm and a lot of potential.

So Daddy Dunc thinks he can fix the kid.  That’s saying a lot more than could be said for most big-league pitchers.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you.  Boyer has a 5.46 ERA in 117 innings pitched for his career and has allowed 40% of his inherited runners to score.  Not exactly what you like to see out of a bullpen stopper, especially one you traded for.

That said, Boyer was Kyle McClellan-esque last season.  He pitched well into the All-Star Break, then imploded.  So, maybe worse than McClellan.

Here’s hoping that overwork out of necessity was a problem for both.  Well wishes to Mr Barton.

—–

The Mets series was our turn to pen the Birds Eye View at Cards Clubhouse.  Head over to CCH both for our intro to the Mets series and to have some intelligent message board discussion.

Oh, and fill out a YNOT scorecard while you’re there, eh?

—–

Finally, I was asked by the kind folks over at MetsBlog.com to give my answers to some Cardinal-related questions in anticipation of our Tuesday-Thursday series.

Click the obvious link to their site to check out my responses and agree/disagree with me!

Writing about the Cardinals and other loosely associated topics since 2008, I've grown tired of the April run-out only to disappoint Cardinal fans everywhere by mid-May. I do not believe in surrendering free outs.

Nick

View all posts by Nick
Follow Nick on Twitter