MVP(ujols)

The announcements are in and Sir Albert has brought home another well deserved MVP Award. You can listen to the conference call, watch video, etc from the link above.

Highlights : Elbow is doing good :)  Will be cleared to do weight lifting soon, but can’t push too much.

Other questions surrounded the fact that the Cardinals didn’t make the playoffs. Was he surprised to win?

Good point made by a Milwaukee reporter that Albert doesn’t strike out like other power hitters. Work hard, patience, trust your hands.  Always learning.

AP reporter asks what does most valuable mean? Not his decision, laughs.

Albert most proud of his batting average. Keeping up all year with these hard throwing pitchers is tough. Hit conistently and the other numbers will follow. Tony set him straight on that importance in 2001. Walks are ok, can’t think about it, try not to expand strike zone.

Elbow pain question, had some pain, tingling later in the year really bothered him, couldn’t feel pinky, concerned about. Surgery was to prevent that from getting worse. 75% of pain was from nerve and not ligament. Still a chance for TJ surgery, but for now things look good.

What should happen to make team better? Bullpen, starting, hitting.  Cards will always put out a team that won’t embarrass you. Give credit to Cubs and Milw.  Didn’t really expect much of an answer on that lol.

Will celebrate with family and kids tonight. Maybe a good night to go to Pujols5!

I think Harold Reynolds says it really well here.

Congrats to Albert Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals.  Certainly earning a MVP award takes a nice surrounding cast of players.

Will be very interesting to see who that cast is in 2009 :)


Filed Under Albert Pujols, National League, Tony LaRussa

2 Comments | Posted on November 17, 2008 by StLCards | Subscribe!

Cardinals need a Holliday

Ed. Note: My apologies to PHE contributor StLCards, who put this post up a few days ago, and I didn’t even realize it was here.  Please read below.

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Last week amidst all the Jake Peavy rumblings I came across a headline that basically indicated the Rockies were now ready to accept less for Holliday. I instantly started writing a post, but unfortunately by the end of a busy work day that post was left unfinished, so I will start anew.

Today I see many headlines indicating a few things, among them that Peavy is almost certainly going to be moved “The train has kind of left the station”, that Manny is still in play, that Cashman is pursuing pitching, that CC is still available, etc. The teams with the big money, ie Yankees, Cubs, Dodgers, Angels, seem to be pursuing pitching. I’m not sure what the Red Sox are doing right now, although they seem to be pursuing pitching as well in Lowe and japan free agent Junichi Tazawa. What this says to me is, STRIKE NOW for Holliday!

The Rockies want to trade Holliday, Atkins, and Fuentes. That would actually make a nice trio to add if you think about, although the key is to for sure get Holliday. Holliday only has 1 year so we would need to make sure he really wants to stay a Cardinal and get him signed to a quick extension. He would provide an everyday left fielder (Duncan would strictly back up Pujols and be a pinch hitter), provide the much needed protection for Pujols, and would be a huge draw for fans. I’ve dreamed of the day when the Cardinals had a 1-2 punch like that.

Taking a look at the other two Fuentes needs no explanation. Atkins on the other hand, well, we move the versatile Glaus to SS and put Atkins at 3rd. We then sign Orlando Hudson to play 2nd, or how about forgetting infield speed althogether and signing veteran Jeff Kent? How about a lineup of Schumaker, Rasmus, Pujols, Holliday, Glaus, Molina, Kent, Pitcher, Atkins? Wow, do I ever like the sound of that. Kent isn’t an everyday player and Glaus could use some time off as well, so it gives lots of playing time for whichever MI are left. Ludwick and Ankiel and Duncan or whoever else could be traded away. That could be too much money but if they could get something along those lines I’d be very happy. We still have Lopez that can play a variety of positions so Atkins isn’t a requirement to get, and either a power hitting 2B or speed 2B could work. Lots of possibilities once we add Holliday.

What to do on Sept 1

This has been a tough season to really understand.  At the beginning not much was anticipated.  Rotation seemed shaky with Carpenter out and three rookies in the outfield and an injury prone 3B taking over for perennial gold glovers Edmonds and Rolen, together with all the uncertainty of Pujols’ elbow, tempered expectations to say the least.  Then the season got started and things began to roll the Cardinals way.  What that did was to raise expectations.

All of a sudden we became believers that the Redbirds could actually do this again.  By the trading deadline we could start seeing cracks however and the Cubs soared to the top and kept right on going showing no signs of slowing down.  In the meantime the Brewers went to the trading well and came up big with CC.  As Sheets struggled CC dominated and the Brewers got hot.  The Cubs however pulled away and it seemed to become a race for the wildcard between the Cards and Brew Crew.

With the wildcard hanging in the balance the Cards seemed to have things going their way.  They were coming home to face the lowly Pirates and Braves and then square off with the Brewers to close the gap.  Splitting with the Pirates was the first sign of doom although they looked good vs the Braves.  So the stage was set with a two game series with Milwaukee and a chance to close the gap.

So how did the Cards respond to that big game situation?   A day of rest, Wellemeyer on the mound, Pujols hot, a home game, and BAM! a 12-0 loss in one of the ugliest games of the year.  It seemed winnable until Pujols threw the ball into the outfield allowing the 3rd run to score.  At that point you could just feel Sheets and the Brewers get the confidence they needed.  All I can say is that I’m glad I missed the rest of that game as the 9th inning must have been a train wreck as they allowed 7 runs.

The following day the Cards rebounded playing Cardinal baseball and won a nice ballgame with Perez closing it out be striking out the side.  The Cards really seemed fired up after some trash talking by the Brewers.  So you’d think going into Houston the Cards would be on a roll, but again the bats go silent and they lose 3-2 with only 5 hits in the game and waste a strong effort by Lohse as Berkman takes Springer deep in the bottom of the 9th.  The Brewers didn’t wast their opportunity and beat the Pirates 3-1 to extend the wildcard lead over the Cardinals to 4.5 games and the Phillies are now only a half game behind the Cards for the wildcard as well.

This all sets up tonights game.  Looper takes the mound coming off 5 staight games of 7 IP and giving up no more than 3 runs in any of them.  So what happens of course is he gets spotted a 3 run lead and then gives up 6 runs in the bottom of the first inning!  So what is up?  Why can’t the Cardinals seem to win when it matters most?  Are they being outplayed?  Do the young players on the team tighten up during the important games?

As of now the Cards are losing 6-3 and the Brewers are up 2-0 and the Phillies have already beaten the Cubs 5-2. If it stays this way then the Cards are 5.5 games back with no games left vs the Brewers.  So should they take a look at the farm system down the stretch or keep playing the regulars?  They’re not winning with the regulars anyway, so I say let’s take a look at some younger players.  Let’s see Garcia get some starts in September and get some of the youngsters some playing time.  Maybe this would even be a good time for Albert to get his elbow reconstructed.  Probably a good idea if they fall a few more games behind since that elbow isn’t going to repair itself.

What do you all think?

Izzy Injured

You’ve probably all heard by now that Jason Isringhausen’s tenure as a Cardinal is likely coming to an end with the announcement of a torn flexor muscle and inflammation in his elbow.

I had previously speculated that Izzy had an undisclosed injury so this announcement comes as no surprise. The question is again one of disclosure. Was Izzy hiding this injury from the Cardinals in an attempt to achieve the 300 save milestone, or was the Cardinal organization hiding it? And how long has this been a lingering concern? Certainly Izzy was feeling discomfort and making a game effort to contribute to the club and pitch through the pain.

I for one applaud all that Izzy has done for the Cardinals. He has had a tremendous impact and despite a few injury plagued seasons where he wasn’t effective, he has been the reliable stopper that a team needs to have winning seasons.

Izzy left Oakland as a free agent and was signed by the Cardinals prior to the 2002 season. From 2002 through 2005 Izzy accumulated 140 Saves, 8W, 7L, 231K, 86BB, 175HA, in 241.2IP. Despite recent memory suggesting he would walk runners or always seem to have men on base, his W+H/IP ratio was around 1 except for the injury plagued year of 2006 and of course this year, seemingly another injury plagued year.

During his post season career Izzy pitched in 23 games earning 1 win and 11 saves with a 2.36 ERA. He pitched in 26 2/3 innings allowing 17 hits and 12 walks while striking out 23.

2006 seemed to be the turning point for Izzy and Cardinal Nation. We didn’t realize the extent of the injury that Izzy was dealing with and all we saw was one terrible performance after another. Hiding the injury hurt the relationship with the fans and did nothing to make him more effective against the opponents. Last year he rebounded nicely, but you had to wonder whether the hip would hold up. Turns out the elbow dealt the final blow. Yes, Izzy may still pitch again, but hard to imagine any scenario where he returns to the Cardinals next year given his huge salary.

So I guess it’s time to turn all of our attention to Mr. Chris Perez and see how he meaures up to the closer role. He will have big shoes to fill. I will conclude by saying that this recent announcement of Izzy’s injury has me a bit more concerned with the status of Chris Carpenter and even Adam Wainwright. How often did we hear the positive news about Mark Mulder and Matt Clement just to be frustrated when learning how far away they really were from joining any major league rotation.

And the Magic Number is…

5

Pretty obvious that the number 5 would be significant for the Cardinals as one of the best hitters in the game wears that number for the Redbirds. But I’m talking about another number 5. This goes back to a post game interview when the bullpen let yet another game slip away. In that interview the fearless skipper was a bit incensed at the mention of a bullpen meltdown costing the Cardinals the game when they had only scored 2 or 3 runs that game (I’d just as soon not look that up and bring back bad memories!)

So that led me to think, just how many runs do the Cardinals need to plate in a game in order to win? The number seems to be 5. There have been a total of 56 games to date in which the Cards have scored 5 or more runs and in those games where they score 5 or more they are an impressive 51-5.

Uh-oh, as I was typing this somehow the Dodgers have managed to score a run and now have the bases jammed, and the Cardinals have only scored 4 runs. The nemesis Kent is at the plate to boot facing Izzy. Sure enough, 4-3 as Izzy is being Izzy and now 4-4. Kind of highlights the importance of that 5th run, while at the same time demonstrating that you shouldn’t have to score 5 runs to win a ballgame! Just glad I was spared the misery of seeing that unfold.

I guess you have to wonder if this is it for Izzy? Probably still gets another shot or two, but I’m sure the fuse has to be getting shorter. Franklin doesn’t look like the man either. Springer blew it the other day. Kind of leaves McClellan and Perez if you ask me.

Looking at games where the Cardinals score less than 5 runs they are 11-47. An interesting exercise would be to look at how many games the Cardinals have lost to the bullpen. Without calculating that myself I think that blown saves would answer that question and unfortunately that number is 26. I guess the real test would be to know how many of those 26 blown saves were ultimately lost. So I guess Tony has a legitimate point. If the Cards can score 5 runs in a game they are likely to win despite the bullpen woes. However, just think where they might be if they actually could win some of those games where they don’t score 5 runs a game!

Looks like the magic number for the Cards could once again be to score 5 runs to win tonight’s game. So don’t go blaming this one on the bullpen ;-)

In other news I see that Clement has been given his walking papers. That reminds me of another topic I’ve been thinking about and that is the signability of Lohse. I’m guessing we can just say goodbye to him right now. Just look at Weaver and Suppan of recent past. Once the contract is up and the pitcher has had a good year he is basically gone if he isn’t in the long term plans. I guess we’ll be looking for another reclamation project or two next year to fill out the rotation unless Garcia, Boggs, and or Parisi or someone else are ready to step in from the minor leagues.

Ludwick actually doesn’t swing at the first pitch, works the count to 2-1 and blasts one to center for the game winner. Sweet! In an ironic twist of fate, the bullpen blows Carpenter’s first win of the year, but sets it up to give Garcia the first win of his career.

StLCards