Can the Cubs count on Carlos Zambrano?

I try my best to stick with strictly Cards talk here - and try to hold my general contempt for the Cubs as the only topic to a minimum…but this was just too good to pass up.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that I caught this episode of events while flipping through the MLB channels on my XM radio last night trying to find the Cardinals-D’Backs game. There is just something about Dave Campbell (at least it sounded like him) blurting out, “Carlos Zambrano is yelling and gesturing at his catcher, Henry Blanco - he is an emotional wreck right now!” that will likely always catch my attention.

ESPN’s recap of the game barely paid lip service to what I understood to have happened.

ESPN’s blurb on Zambrano’s latest episode:

…He muttered and glared at plate umpire Jim Wolf in the third inning after his 3-2 pitch to Wright with the bases loaded was called low and outside.

…

Given a 1-0 lead on DeRosa’s second-inning homer, Zambrano lost his control and composure in the third, when he walked Wright the bases loaded and Delgado sent a high 3-2 pitch over the left-field wall for his second slam this season and the 13th of his career. Following a dismal start, Delgado has 27 homers and 79 RBIs since June 27.

Well that seems rather pedestrian, doesn’t it? Lots of pitchers get upset with the home plate umpire, right?

Here is a real rough transcript of what I heard on the radio last night:

Zambrano had already managed to walk in a run by giving a free pass to David Wright by the time I tuned in.

Zambrano at that point was glaring at the home plate umpire, and proceeded to make several angry gestures and yell at his catcher, Henry Blanco.

Carlos Delgado came to the plate, with two outs.  Aramis Ramirez was playing deep at third, being that the Cubs only needed one out.

Jose Reyes took that opportunity to dance, according to the radio guys, “about 30-35 feet down the line.”  Of course this drove Zambrano, already in a fragile state of mind, absolutely insane.  He took a step off the mound as if he were going to run Reyes down on foot (could you imagine the sheer joy of watching that doggle of boon?), and then proceeded to run his mouth at Reyes, who barely retreated toward the bag at all.

Zambrano made several pitches to Delgado, running him to a 2-2 count.  Zambrano’s 2-2 pitch to Delgado just barely missed the strike zone, according to the home plate umpire.  Zambrano turned his back and stomped back to the mound, throwing a hissy fit, BEFORE Blanco could throw the ball back to him!  Yet another blatant show of disrespect for the umpire.

Reyes danced off of third even farther on 3-2, again drawing the ire and another confrontation with Zambrano.

The 3-2 pitch to Delgado was pounded over the left-center wall for a grand slam, giving the Mets a 5-1 lead.

Zambrano got the third out, made it through the 4th, then was pulled in the 5th with the Mets again threatening.

So Zambrano came back from his shoulder injury to throw a no-hitter, and the Cubs thought they were smooth sailing with the big right-hander.  Since then, he has proceeded to get lit up by the Cardinals, and have another classic Carlos meltdown against the Mets.

There is already talk, if not a pretty widely believed fact, that Ryan Dempster will be the Cubs’ Game 1 starter in the NL Division Series.

The real question is, which Zambrano will show up when it is his time to throw?  The no-hitter Carlos, the unhittable power pitcher with great stuff (which he supposedly had last night too, if not for his antics)?  Or will it be the mental midget Carlos, the immense talent who battles an equally immense temper?  The Cubs have been waiting pretty much all of Zambrano’s career waiting for him to hop off of his personal emotional roller-coaster, which it seems he’s not ready to leave behind just yet.  Perhaps the real question is, will the Cubs be paying for some expensive years of a mental wreck at the end of Zambrano’s recently signed deal?


Filed Under Announcers, Central Division, NL Division Series, Non-Cardinals

4 Comments | Posted on September 25, 2008 by PHE | Subscribe!

Brewers fire Yost, LaRussa glad Doug Melvin isn’t his boss

The Milwaukee Brewers fired Ned Yost today, according to ESPN.com.

The Brewers were just swept by the Philadelphia Phillies, dropping them into a tie with the Phillies in the NL Wild Card race.  The Brewers have lost 11 of their last 14 games, allowing many teams to climb back into the playoff hunt.

This makes me wonder, what would Tony LaRussa have to do to get fired?  I’m not saying that I wish termination on TLR, but more out of curiosity - what do you think would legitimately give Cardinals’ brass a reason to fire Tony?  Does he have immunity, regardless of the team’s performance?  Is it even John Mozeliak’s decision, or would that one have to come from Bill DeWitt himself?

Give me your thoughts in the comments section…

Beat the Pirates

That’s really all the Cardinals had to do this season, with any sort of regularity, to be staring a playoff berth right in the eyes.

Sure, 5-10 against the Brewers hasn’t done them any favors either (and 2-4 against the Royals, and 3-4 against the Giants).

They’ve had their other opportunities, they’ve had many chances to sweep series after winning the first two games only to get blown out in the final game (usually with a hamstrung lineup because of Tony’s ‘getaway day’ setups and a taxed bullpen).  They’ve struggled with injuries, but mostly persevered and sometimes thrived on being the underdog and the ‘pest’.

Please don’t view this post as negative, rather, it is one of lament.

All they had to do was consistently beat the Pirates.  Yet this afternoon, the Cards stand at 7-8 versus the Pittsburgh squad this season.  A team that is 61-86 on the season has bested the Cardinals 8 times in 15 games.  A team that traded away guys like Jason Bay and Xavier Nady at the trade deadline has routinely put a beating on the Redbirds this season.

To wit:

  1. The Cardinals have surrendered double digit runs in a game only eight times this season.  Four of those were against the Pirates.
  2. The Pirates have scored 90 runs against the Cardinals in 15 games this season.  To put that in perspective, the Brewers have scored only 74 against the Cards in the same number of games.  That’s a difference of over a run per game.
  3. Albeit highly unscientific, if the Pirates played the Cardinals at a .411 clip to match their season win percentage, they win 6 games instead of 8.  That puts the Cardinals only 2.5 games back, with the Brewers still having 6 to play against the Cubs.

I know, I know - woulda, coulda, shoulda.  If the Cardinals had anything resembling a Major League bullpen for the first half of the year, this is all a moot point as well.

Again, I’m not being negative - it’s just a disappointing way to look at the Cards’ performance as this season winds down.  Hopefully Adam Wainwright can get them back on track this evening.

This is why I don’t manage the Cardinals

I would not have sent Ryan Franklin out for a second inning (although, who I am kidding, I wouldn’t have brought him into a tie game to begin with).

I would have had Felipe Lopez bunting with Brendan Ryan on first and no one out.

I definitely would have had Lopez bunting with Ryan on second with no one out, after a Carlos Marmol balk.

I don’t think I’d have put Brian Barden into such a high leverage situation in his first at-bat with the big club this season, even to sacrifice bunt.  (Although I had to laugh when WGN put up a stat showing that Barden had never sacrificed in 24 (!) Major League at-bats.  24?!?!  Really?  Then I reminded myself that I wouldn’t have brought him up in that situation either.)

Finally, I would’ve had Cesar Izturis laying down a squeeze bunt with Ryan on third and Lopez on second and one out.  Even though the squeeze had to be foremost on the mind of the Cubs and Lou Piniella, Derrek Lee seemed to be playing awfully deep down the first base line, with Iz2 hitting from the left side.

Now for what actually happened…

Franklin walked Jim Edmonds to leadoff the eighth, his second inning, then got a double play and struck out Mike Fontenot to end the inning.

In the Cards’ half of the ninth inning, Lopez worked the count full, fouled off several pitches before taking one in the dirt from Marmol, giving the Birds two runners, first and second, with no one out.

Barden almost broke every finger on his right hand trying to put a bunt down the third base line on the first pitch he saw from Marmol, up and in.  He shook his hand a few times, calmly stepped back in and dropped the next one perfectly, deep enough to make Aramis Ramirez field it.  The Cards had runners at second and third with one out.  So far so good.

Izturis took a couple pitches to run the count 2-0, then swung and missed on a pitch it was clear he was just trying to get in the air and out of the infield.  Then, as if karma chose the Cards for one night out of many when it has shunned this team, Iz2 chopped a weak hopper to second on an excuse-me swing that was just slow enough to allow Ryan, running on the play, to score around the attempted tag of Geovany Soto.

I saw a lot of good things in the three innings I actually got to watch (travel day for me today, didn’t get home until the Cards had tied it 3-3).

I still don’t trust him as far as I can throw him, but Franklin did the job for one night.  Gosh if only he could’ve been that effective for half of his games pitched this year.

Felipe Lopez is hitting .382/.435/.539 since signing with the Cardinals.  I wrote at the time of the signing that if LaRussa, and more importantly guys like Albert Pujols could convince this guy to give a little effort, I thought he might be decent, but probably not enough playing time to make a difference.  I can’t take credit for having the solution that has made him hit since coming over, since if you click the above link, you will see me generally panning the signing just like everyone else, he has definitely made the most of the opportunity.  It will be interesting to see how the Cardinals treat him in the off-season.  Is Lopez any sort of long-term answer in the middle infield?

Lots to like from Brendan Ryan tonight.  The kid has always been a hustle guy from what I’ve seen, but has been in TLR’s doghouse for a long time.  If you look at the replay of Ryan’s jaunt home from third tonight on Izturis’ chopper, there’s lots to love, and plenty to get a guy out of a hard-nosed manager’s doghouse.  Once he took off, Ryan never once looked back to see where the ball was.  It’s a fundamental that every kid learns in Little League, but players seem to lose at the big league level.  Ryan put his eyes toward the plate and didn’t flinch.  Then there was the slide.  Soto had the plate blocked, and the throw wasn’t terribly late or off-target.  There was certainly enough time to stuff a foot-first slide into the shin-guard and make a tag, really putting a damper on the Cardinal rally.  Instead, Ryan dove around Soto on the outside, and made as deliberate a slap in the dead center of home plate in front of the umpire’s face on a close play that I’ve seen in a long time.  Excellent work by a kid who finds himself again trying to secure a spot on next season’s team.

So touche, Tony.  You’re the manager and I’m not.  Tonight, it all worked swimmingly for you.  Tonight…

Yes, Houston, we copy. We just lost the Wild Card.

Well, that’s really where it all began, isn’t it?

I apologize for my longer than anticipated absence, and in some ways, I’m not that sorry.  I barely got to see any Cardinal baseball while I’ve been on ‘hiatus’, and that’s seemingly been a good thing.  I hate to go down the path of pessimist, but it’s high time to face the music.

If only managing three of five from Atlanta and Pittsburgh didn’t do it…

If only managing a split with Milwaukee didn’t do it…

Then a sweep at the hands of the Houston Astros surely did this Cardinal post-season drive in.

As if that weren’t enough, the Cardinals wind up dropping two games to the D’Backs (I hate their jerseys and logos by the way) that they should’ve won.

The bullpen has reared its ugly head again.  Kyle McClellan has continued to impress and confound in equal and opposite amounts as the season drags on.  Rumors still abound that he should arrive at Spring Training 2009 prepared to take on a starting rotation spot.  And what if he fails?  Then will he be shuttled back to the bullpen, completely unprepared for a role that he should remain in?  Sounds eerily familiar for this organization.

Chris Perez suffered his first major failure tonight since taking over the ‘ninth inning pitcher’ role (he’s clearly still not the closer).  How will this leave the youngster’s standing in the mind of manager Tony LaRussa?  Tony’s obviously been prone to leaving guys to work their own issues out on the mound this season, but he’s also shown a real proclivity not to trust young pitchers in virtually any situation.  Will Perez be afforded the opportunity to learn on the job, and have the same ups-and-downs as his predecessors?

Rick Ankiel is still struggling with his oblique injury.  Why the team refuses to shut this guy down, I will never know.  This situation is dragging on eerily similar to Chris Duncan’s sports hernia last year.  We all know how that turned out.  Why not shut Ankiel down now, give him an extra month of off-season, and allow him to return to camp next season fully rested?  It’s not as if he’s playing full-time now, with the injury, so what’s the harm in shutting him down now?

Jaime Garcia’s elbow injury is seemingly going to make way for a more wide-open fifth starter competition next season.  Garcia is likely headed for a TJ, hopefully sooner than later.  His mechanics have kind of forecasted this type of injury to come, and naturally, the Cardinal staff did nothing about it.

Have I covered all of the negative issues this week?  Nope…

Chris Carpenter is returning to the big club as a reliever.  JUST SHUT HIM DOWN.  Do it.  It’s clear by the shoulder strain, by the front office’s “management” of the situation, and by Carp’s own reaction to being sent to the bullpen (he didn’t seem too happy about it) that he is not yet right.  Same deal as with Ankiel in my mind.  If Carp is not ready to be a starter (which the Cardinals are paying him handsomely to do), then he should be in rehab or on the shelf until he is ready to do so.  If that means he’s not back until Opening Day 2009, then so be it.  It is not worth the Cardinals’ entire investment in this guy to see him reinjure an elbow or shoulder throwing as hard as he can out of the ‘pen the rest of this season.

Finally, I don’t think the Brewers/Phillies/Mets can lose enough between now and the end of the season for the Cards to sneak in anymore.  I’d love to be proved wrong.

There.  I’ve said my pieces about the last few days/week.

Congrats to Jason Motte on a successful debut against Arizona.  Here’s hoping that the Motte-Perez combo is one we can enjoy for some time.

Fare thee well, good Redbirds

I am, unfortunately, going to be pretty much out of commission for the rest of this week, due to commitments out of my control.  Yes, that includes not really being able to keep tabs on what happens in the Milwaukee series.

I do plan on returning with a full head of steam during the Labor Day weekend, hopefully in the Wild Card lead at that point.

I’ve asked StLCards to fill in for me a bit in the next couple/few days so that you all will have plenty to bang your heads on while I am away.  Thanks StLCards for picking me up.


Filed Under Central Division, NL Wild Card, Site Updates

Leave a Comment | Posted on August 25, 2008 by PHE | Subscribe!

Bob Watson has lost his mind

As I was watching Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds, watching the Cards squander another opportunity for a sweep, I saw something that I hadn’t seen from a Cardinal hurler all season.  I saw Kyle Lohse stick up for someone on his team.  Granted, it was himself he was sticking up for, but he showed some moxie nonetheless.

Edinson Volquez had buzzed Lohse in the top of the fifth, high and tight under the chin, and it was clear Kyle didn’t like it, glaring out at Volquez.  Edinson, for his part, played the role he’s supposed to in that case, stomping around like he was upset with himself for losing the pitch up there - he didn’t intend to do it.  And he’d have a good argument - Volquez is among the league leaders in HBP.  He walked four just in this game as well.

Whether he meant to come in on Lohse or not, Volquez quickly saw a very similar pitch from Lohse when leading off the bottom of the fifth inning.  Said Lohse after the game:

“Same spot,” Lohse noted, referring to his reply pitch. “Wasn’t trying to hit him, though.”

Umpire Greg Gibson quickly popped out from behind the plate, warned both dugouts, and the game went on.

“Well I’ll be danged” I muttered to myself.  All too often this season, opposing pitchers have taken liberties with Cardinal hitters, all-too-conveniently plunking them after a St Louis home run or clutch hit.  For all of the reputation that LaRussa has as a head-hunting manager, I sure haven’t seen any proof this season.  Even in this instance, I don’t believe LaRussa was behind it.  Whether you see it every outing or not, Lohse does have a competitive fire in his stomach, and I’m virtually certain that this buzzer to Volquez was all Kyle’s idea.

So,  no harm no foul, the game plods on to the top of the seventh inning.  That’s when Volquez got too far inside on Felipe Lopez and hit him in the small of the back.  While half-way expecting (and hoping for, because Volquez was cruising) an immediate ejection from home plate umpire Gibson, he made what I still to this day believe was the right call.  The pitch was not intentional.  Lopez took his base, Tony argued a little bit (but you’ll note not much, as you’d think he would if he really believed Volquez wanted to hit him), Volquez remained in the game, and they went on.  The funny thing is that not once did I think to myself “he was throwing at him, he should’ve been tossed.”  And I can admittedly be an over-reactive type, when it comes to things like that.

So, at the end of the day, the Cardinals took a loss, Lohse stood up for himself, and the umpires had gotten it right.  Cooler heads had prevailed.  Or so I thought.

The news came down yesterday that Bob Watson, vice president of on-field operations for MLB, had suspended Lohse for five games.

Um, what?

So for once this season (in the midst of heated battles between ownership and the umpires’ union over replay) your umpires had played their cards right, had let the game be decided by the players and not their rash decisions, and now you’re suspending a guy who wasn’t even kicked out of the game?  Come again?

Lohse, upon learing of his suspension said:

“My intent wasn’t to hit anybody. My intent was to make the opposing pitcher feel as uncomfortable as I did the at-bat before. The way they interpreted it, it seems like they feel I was trying to hit him.”

For a guy who has only 39 walks this season and has hit only two batters, I don’t think I’m too naive to believe that Kyle could have that sort of command of his pitches.  Throw it high and tight, don’t hit him.  To his credit, Volquez responded in kind:

“I don’t know if he really tried to hit me,” he said. “Maybe he was trying to take me out of the game a little bit, and mess with my concentration on the game.”

An excellent deduction.  Volquez was cruising, and Lohse had the ultimate spot and reason to fire off that pitch.  More from Volquez:

“I don’t want to hit a pitcher,” said Volquez, who received no discipline. “If I’m going to hit somebody, it’d be position players. In that situation, that wasn’t on purpose. I had two men on base and two outs. If I hit him, I have to face the No. 9 batter. I just tried to throw inside and the ball went up close to him. I think he got ticked off. That’s part of the game.” [bolding is mine]

Two things strike me here:  First, he’s right, he had nothing to gain by hitting Lohse, and I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, based upon his statistics indicating he can get wild, that he wasn’t trying to hit Lohse.  However, he also says that he thinks Lohse got upset with the pitch regardless, and (at least the way I read it) understands why he might have seen a similar pitch in the bottom of the inning.

That’s part of the game.  Even Dusty Baker was surprised:

“Five games and they didn’t even kick him out of the game. Wow,” Baker said. “The umpires don’t kick him out but the league suspends him. That’s a first, isn’t it? I haven’t seen that.”

Well, apparently not the way Bob Watson sees it.  So in a situation that was completely diffused by the players’ behavior and the calm rationale of the umpiring crew that day, Watson has stepped in and handed down his sentence on Lohse.  Five game suspension and an undisclosed fine.

Of course, Lohse will appeal, and I have to believe that the suspension will be reduced.  SInce he is a starting pitcher, the suspension is likely to have little to no affect on his regular turns in the rotation anyway.  In my mind, that is beside the point.  If Lohse deserved this penalty, Volquez deserved at least the same.  Again, the umpires did not see fit to eject anyone from the game, yet Lohse gets five games and Volquez nothing.  It’s almost as if Volquez is being rewarded for often being wild and having a track record for hitting batters.  Yet I should reiterate, I don’t believe that either player really deserved punishment, but how can you single out one and not the other as well?

Richie Sexson went bonkers earlier this season, charging the mound and throwing his helmet and several punches at a pitcher.  He got six games that was later reduced to five.  How in the world does Lohse’s *almost* hitting a batter come even close to comparing to Richie’s inexplicable display?  Fascinating.

As I said earlier, this will likely (hopefully, assuming that more intelligent heads prevail during the appeal process) be reduced and have little effect on Lohse at all, save for the fine taking a chunk out of his pocketbook.  But the precedent or example being made here is wrong.  Bob Watson needs to let his umpires make the decisions on field, using the knowledge they have of game situations and being in the heat of the moment itself, not by watching on video in his cushy office three days later.

This time the umps got it right.  Maybe they should use instant replay for determining who should be in charge of doling out the suspensions.

Cold beer for Cards fans

Go Cards!


Filed Under Central Division, Fun

Leave a Comment | Posted on August 8, 2008 by PHE | Subscribe!

Next Page →