Rather than focus on just one topic, I’m giving in to my less focused side and tossing a bunch of thoughts against the perverbial wall to see what sticks. The end result is a shotgun splatter pattern of fragmented thoughts that exceed the 140 character limit of a tweet but aren’t deserving of a complete blog post. I give to you the not-so-deep thoughts:
- Matt Holliday has been every bit as good as advertised in his time in St. Louis, and he’s been worth every penny that the Cardinals have paid him. If he can keep being a 5.0+ WAR per season guy, I have no doubt that he’ll retire as a local legend in the Gateway City. The funny thing about Holliday’s journey to St. Louis is that it started with a trade to Oakland that involved the A’s sending Carlos Gonzalez and Huston Street to Colorado. St. Louis then traded Clayton Mortenson, Brett Wallace, and Shane Peterson to the A’s for Holliday. Maybe I’m wrong about this, but I think that the A’s ended up with the short end of the stick on both deals.
- The occasional rants that come from the father of Colby Rasmus aren’t worth the oxygen used to produce them. They are beyond theatrical, tiresome, and misguided. However, they are not without a purpose. All evidence to the contrary, I doubt that the elder Rasmus has a specific issue with Colby playing in St. Louis as long as the terms and conditions are favorable to his son. The key is that he wants his son to be paid, and he’d prefer that his son get paid sooner rather than later. If Colby starts creating a huge distraction, then he risks being labeled something other than a team player. If his dad plays the fool on his behalf, then Colby takes on zero risk, and the message gets out just the same. Of course, that doesn’t change what the Cardinals will do, and it shouldn’t change it anyway.
- As the team gets deeper into the season, I can’t help but wonder whether or not Lance Berkman is just a rental for 2011. If his numbers keep trending toward the high end of what a lot of people predicted (which is still quite optimistic), then there is likely to be some serious demand for his services. If it’s not completely about the money, then he might be open to returning to the Cardinals for a slight raise over his 2011 salary. The real question is whether or not the Cardinals could afford him.
- Chris Carpenter still won’t admit it, but I think that he misses the comfort level he enjoyed last season with the defense he had behind him.
- Official scoring still skews some statistics, and I don’t see that ever changing. The latest egregious example is Ryan Theriot‘s play on Matt Treanor‘s “hit” toward 2nd base. Theriot made a great diving play while moving to his left. When he stood to throw, he was unable to pull the ball cleanly from his glove, and the scorer ruled the play a “hit” for Treanor. Ricky Horton immediately confirmed this by making some ridiculous reference to “Treanor’s speed”. If Theriot had no chance to throw out Treanor, then why was he trying to make a throw? Also, since when did Treanor (Mr. Misty May) become a speed demon? The scorer effectively penalized the pitcher for a play that should have been made by the shortstop who had coincidentally just made a more difficult play right before that one.
- Chris Carpenter is currently 15th among active pitchers with 134 wins. For someone as good as he’s been, it’s hard to imagine that he has virtually no chance at reaching 200 wins. Just imagine how hard it is to reach 300. If anybody is going to do it in the near future, I’d bet on CC Sabathia who has 166 wins at age 30. Ironically, he’d have to add Carpenter’s win total to his to reach 300.
- If Albert Pujols is injured badly enough to go on the disabled list, I’d like to see Mark Hamilton get enough starts to see if he can get in a rhythm. Moving Berkman to 1B for some games would save his legs a bit, but I’d be interested to see if Hamilton can produce when given several consecutive starts.
- I can’t imagine a reason why a team that is 2nd in the league in batting average and 3rd in OBP should ever score just 1 run or be shutout. Start the runner. Hit and run. Run and hit. PB & J. Just do something…..like teach basic, fundamental baserunning. There is no reason for Yadi to be straying off of 2nd base when the cutoff man is hit. Albert and Colby can run hard out of the batter’s box each and every time. Schumaker, Theriot, and Holliday manage to do it.
- I’m a huge fan of AP, but even I’m a little tired of him admiring his home runs. Put your head down and run, big fella. Go check out that highlight of Stan Musial hitting the walkoff home run in the All-Star game that made the top 16 bracket. He immediately took off running around the bases, even though it was just a 6-5 win in an exhibition game.
- Loving the high socks look, but I wish everybody would join in and go throwback for a full series. Haircuts too.
TIDBIT: Don’t forget to vote for Stan in the All-Star top 16 bracket. He’s up against Pete Rose running over Ray Fosse.
Also, don’t forget to follow gr33nazn for more not-so-deep thoughts!
Cardinals fan since I could hold a fishing pole steady. Accidental blogger. Opinionated. I could care less about what you think of me. Constantly confounded, bemused, and confuzzled (ie I'm a pc and a mac). I'm an IT infrastructure analyst with a penchant for breaking tech toys. I ate a sabermetric primer for breakfast. I love playing "All-powerful GM of MLB". The 2010 Cardinals represented a good, practical definition "cognitive dissonance". The 2011 version got by on duct tape and a prayer, and I'm fine with that. They just need new tape for #12 in 12.
Comments on this entry are closed.