The Cardinals’ starting pitching rotation is on this week’s cover of Sports Illustrated.

Well, what WAS the Cardinals’ starting pitching rotation.

Image courtesy sicovers.com

Two-fifths of that photo are now on the disabled list. One for the season (Jaime Garcia) and one indefinitely or until the medical staff runs out of elbow injections (Jake Westbrook).

Damn you Sports Illustrated, and your nefarious cover jinx.  I bet your editors are the types of people who openly talk about a no-hitter while it’s in progress too, right?  *ducks*

All kidding aside, it’s a great photo, excellent recognition for what these five guys have accomplished to date, and I’m sure the cover piece is wonderful as well.  Now, about getting that elbow fixed…

As the Redbirds prepare to begin another road series, this one their first trip to Wrigley Field in 2013, they bring with them a 2013 MLB best seven-game road winning streak. By virtue of a three-game sweep in the nation’s capital and four games worth in Milwaukee, the Cards head into Chicago with an opportunity to set themselves apart with the longest road winning streak in the league this season, a distinction currently shared with the Atlanta Braves.

While the Cards obviously hold the longest current streak, you’ll note that the Detroit Tigers are lurking right behind, albeit having taken four off of the Houston Astros.  Yes, albeit.  As in, hapless.  Not to be confused with J.A. Happ-less.

I digress.  The goods on 2013 road winning streaks from B-Ref:

Lest we be “ho-hummed” or non-plussed by this achievement, let’s look at it in a more historical context.

In the Cardinals’ history (nevermind how many total games Baseball Reference argues versus how many the team claims, especially since we can only use B-Ref’s data), the team has only recorded 38 such streaks or better since the beginning of the 1916 season.

A win tomorrow will put the 2013 Cardinals in some pretty rare company in franchise history. A sweep at the hands of the Little Bears will put this year’s club in “not in the last 43 years” territory. Fascinating yes, but also illustrative of how these things can be, well, streaky. *cue drumroll*

It is notable, for a club with documented issues early in this season (read: bullpen, some concern over streaky offense – although maybe streaky offense is the reason for the season?) to be so dominant against teams of talent, teams of note within the early “these teams are good!” race, to have the aforementioned success.  I mean, for crying out loud, Allen Craig JUST HIT HIS FIRST HOME RUN!

The Cards will likely require several more dingers from their clean-up hitter if they wish to equal the longest road winning streak since 1916 in MLB.  The Detroit Tigers did something silly between the 1983 and 1984 seasons.

Even the most recent double-digit road winning streak, by the Oakland A’s is but a twinkle in the eye of the current Cards streak. “Get to ten and we’ll talk,” kind of territory. Frankly, the Cards don’t have to get there to be successful. They’ve already succeeded in winning the seven they have in hand.

But it’s fun to dream on a twenty-one game road winning streak, right?

Pitchers Hit Eighth has the distinct honor of calling the third inning action in the United Cardinal Bloggers’ 2013 Progressive Game Blog.  If you’ve not seen one of these things before, here is the gist of it, from the UCB site:

If you’ve never read one of our Progressive Game Blogs before, you are in for a treat.  The PGB is a unique way to look at a game–you’ll not find anything like it elsewhere–and is always a lot of fun.  Nine blogs will each analyze a different inning, linking to each other in a seamless line.  When you are done, you’ll have read a number of points of view and seen the one game through many different eyes.

We pick up the action in the top of the third inning, with the Cardinals leading the Brewers 3-2.

Top of Third (Cardinals batting versus Yovani Gallardo)

Matt Carpenter

One of the Cards showing the most patience at the plate this season, Matty Carp conversely quickly lines out to center field on a 0-1 pitch.

Carlos Beltran

Fox broadcast talking to Kyle Lohse about facing the Cardinals again.  Lohse wistful about winning a World Series, Cardinals “not wanting anything to do with (him)” coming off of the year he had.  Meanwhile, Beltran runs the count to 3-1 before taking a fastball for strike two.  Full count tapper back to Gallardo makes for the second out.  Lohse has an outstanding golf handicap.

Matt Holliday

Holliday shows Lohse what a real golf swing looks like for strike one.  Gallardo loses an 0-2 pitch up around Holliday’s noggin.  A 1-2 fastball that likely should’ve rung Holliday up is called inside, Lohse thought it was a strike.  Ground ball to shortstop Jean Segura ends the inning quite innocently.

What seemed like a great inning for the Cardinals to continue to batter Milwaukee starter Gallardo (the Cardinals have straight OWNED Yo in recent seasons) falls by the wayside with little to show from the top three in the Cards’ lineup.

Bottom of Third (Brewers batting versus Adam Wainwright)

Ryan Braun

First pitch swinging, Braun almost kills Wainwright with a broken bat, ground ball to Allen Craig ranging to his right, Waino barely beats Braun to the bag for the first out.

Yuniesky Betancourt

I would just like to take this opportunity to make it clear to everyone reading that Yuni Betancourt is batting clean up for the Brewers.  That is not a typo.  Betancourt lifts a 1-1 pitch to center field, the home crowd gets excited, and it is a routine F8.

Rickie Weeks

Weeks lines a 0-1 pitch into left field, causing Matt Holliday to dance around a bit before finally charging on to make the catch.

Uneventful inning for Wainwright as well, with very few pitches.  A welcome sight.

—–

Well folks, sorry there wasn’t much to see here for our third inning.  To catch the rest of the action, check out the following sites for their inning recaps for the UCB Progressive Game Blog!

First inning: Aaron Miles’ Fastball
Second inning: Stl Cards ‘N Stuff
Third inning: Pitchers Hit Eighth
Fourth inning: I70 Baseball
Fifth inning: On The Outside Corner
Sixth inning: Keene On MLB
Seventh inning: Fungoes
Eighth inning: ManFridge Baseball
Ninth inning: Cards Tied For First
Extras/Postgame: C70 At The Bat

Dearest Cardinals fans,

I am before you today, a humble basement blogger, asking – nay, pleading – that you stop your incessant booing of Brandon Phillips when he plays at Busch III.

Exhibit A:

No, I am not convinced that there is some snake-oil in your boos that fuels Dat Dude.  However, there’s simply no reason to any longer provide him the crooked, misplaced fuel that he so desires.  The guy clearly gets off on your disdain.

May I suggest an alternative?  (I’m assuming you said yes.)

Just do nothing.  Absolute silence when he’s at the plate.  It might not work, but it certainly can’t be any worse than the OPS-fluffing boos.

That is all.

Sincerely,
Nick

For the third straight season, the United Cardinal Bloggers were guests in St. Louis and in my opinion, the team may even invite us back! It is the least we can do since the win streak was snapped by Pittsburgh. Christi and I made the trip up Saturday to attend the dinner and brought with us the unseasonal Winter Warm-up weather instead. Those festivities will be covered later in the week, as tonight’s offering is strictly about the insider knowledge the Cardinals bestowed before the chilly battle with the Pirates.

UCB Weekend

Those pictures are courtesy of Lindsey Weber, who again gets all of the credit as well as Ron and Paige for putting up with us. We are willing guinea pigs for the new food offerings, and my personal opinion is that every ballpark should have a pasta station! Bill DeWitt III and John Mozeliak again were gracious with their time, and everything from Ballpark Village to Lil’ Pedro was fair game. Since the loyal readership (up to 4 now!) has to be curious, PH8 again picked Mo’s brain to dig up some dirt.

Two weekends in a row will feature Cards’ baseball, but the upcoming trip to Springfield may offer a glimpse at more than just Carlos Martinez. Today brought news that site favorite Matt Adams will be making a rehab trip back to the Texas League just in time to hand out the shiny replica rings. That could double the interest for this scribe, as Mo made it clear that Martinez will not be enjoying AA hitters for very much longer.

PH8: Mo, what are the chances of being able to catch Carlos Martinez in the near…

Mo: You better hurry up big boy.

I am a quick study, so that gave me all the insight needed heading into Saturday’s scheduled affair. And as the weather could inadvertently work to our advantage, Martinez now appears to be on tap for the start against Tulsa. That is unless he gets called up prior to that! And where might the hard thrower end up first? My money is on the Rosenthal plan that could very well involve skipping Memphis altogether.

[ED. note - I am not a pro-fesh-un-ul scout nor do I pretend to be one.  I am far from qualified to be giving advice to big-league pitchers.  That said, here are some things I would consider, were I in a position to communicate things to the staff in charge of said advice and/or improvement amongst Major League Baseball Cardinals.]

In the spring of 2012, Pitchers Hit Eighth completed a pretty thorough (at least we’d like to claim so) review of the hot new middle relief band Mitchell Boggs and the Consistent Delivery.

Boggs had adopted a more over-the-top approach, noticeably.

Mitchell Boggs sometime 2011:

Keeping in mind that Boggs’ 2011 had some, well, ups and downs, let’s take another look at his 2012 delivery:

As noted in the previous post reviewing these approaches from Boggs…

You can see a less-pronounced angle in his front (drive) leg toward the first-base line, far less (and seriously, watching this live he looks like he’s standing up on his front leg) hinge at the waist, and the arm angle is much higher.

Having looked at this closely last spring, I obviously had to go to the tape this season to see where Boggs is winding up at release.

I’m still no scout or pitching coach, but look at this release:

I see a lot more of 2011 Mitchell Boggs in this frame than 2012.  To wit:

1. Falling off to the first base side (even more!) again.
2. Left shoulder falling out of delivery more than even the 2011 release.
3. Drive leg back into compromised angle instead of driving over top of it.
4. Arm slot back into three-quarter release instead of coming over top.

Tell me I’m crazy (please!), because these are the sorts of things that keep me up at night thinking bad bullpen thoughts.  Tell me Mitchell Boggs found some foul talisman under his in-season mattress that removal of said foul item will restore order to the Cardinal bullpen (how’s that for a reach? you still with me, loyal four?).

I’m no expert.  I see things that interest me.  Mitchell Boggs had a tough go in 2011 with a three-quarter release and falling toward first base.  Boggs’ 2012 was successful when he “stood up” on his release and came at hitters over the top.  2013 (at least from the video I can poach from MLB.com) shows Boggs maybe falling back into three-quarter fall-out…

Lilli?

Adam Wainwright (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Shelby Miller: 6.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K

Adam Wainwright: 8.1 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K

Three total innings of relief in two games.

This is an opportunity for the much-maligned Cardinals bullpen and their manager to reboot. Reset expectations. Survive and advance (am I wandering into the wrong sport here?).

Mitchell Boggs needs fixing, and the manager has all but acknowledged it.  Trevor Rosenthal needs a break.  Joe Kelly needs innings.  And there’s not a more appropriate time than following the starting efforts of Miller and Wainwright to do it.

Give Rosey another day off, just for good measure.  Let Boggs have a day or two to shake out the demons, and when you bring him back, make it more of a “Joe Kelly-ish” role.  In other words, low leverage and well-chosen (read: perhaps sparingly).  On the other hand, let that Ferrari out of the shed a bit.  Matheny was either getting closer to that point tonight, with Kelly warming up, or was itching at the chance to use Kelly in his originally intended “long-relief” role if and when the game was tied up.  I choose to believe the former.

So if there is only one bullpen role solidified (ok, two if you count Randy Choate throwing a third every other game) – Edward Mujica appears to be the closer du jour – then what’s to say that going forward anyone else down there has to be beholden to a particular inning or job?  If the situation calls for triple digit heat and a deftly located 89-mph slider, Rosey’s your guy.  If it’s upper-90′s and then a filthy sinker, based on batter or batters coming up, then Joe Kelly.  Boggs can fill in until he decides he can pitch again.  Choate and Marc Rzepczynski can arm wrestle (with their right arms, natch) for the job of frustrating left-handed batters.

Oversimplifying?  Why yes, I am.  It’s my hobby job hobby.  You’ve forgotten Fernando Salas, you say?  I beg to differ, I retort. **

** ED. note – For the record, I didn’t forget Fernando Salas.  I also didn’t have anything further to add.  He is not included in this web log post.  I’m not sure how to be any more clear about this subject.

Early usage of Rosenthal, Boggs, Mujica, et al has seemed to follow a pattern of “these are my guys in these innings” instead of a focus on who is rested, who matches up best, and perhaps most importantly who can get the most important out – which is the one currently at the plate.  If that’s the starter, great.  Let him bunt with runners in scoring position and two outs (let the record show I disagreed vehemently with this decision, but was roundly dismissed by the masses).  But as much as that unfortunate situation may have been an indictment of the bullpen, let’s not confuse it with letting Miller hit for himself Monday night with the bases loaded, only 75 pitches thrown, and cruising.  MIKE might be protecting his bullpen in some cases, but in others, the dominating starter is the guy to run with.  ’Twas the case Monday night, and is likely to be the case again sometime soon.

Get the best arm into the game for the situation.  I can’t believe I’m arguing for small sample size situational use, but by golly, this whole “YOU GET THE SEVENTH” and “YOU GET THE EIGHTH” ad infinitum makes me bonk my head.

Oh, you thought it was going to be of hits?

[Ed. Note - the following post is sponsored by PH8 Partner DraftKings.com - we encourage you to visit their site and participate in this fantastic contest that offers our wonderful readers the opportunity to win $50,000!  Thanks for reading.]

Baseball season is here and that means one thing—fantasy baseball is upon us!

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Have you ever wanted a personalized message from a big-league ballplayer?  From one who plays for the Cardinals, at that?

Nevermind asking a Cardinal to write a treatise to how cool you are on their latest baseball card or a fresh horsehide from the team store – now you can get a personalized voice message from them!

Enter EGraphs.com – a cool new venture aimed at further connecting ballplayers with their fans by sending an autographed image with a personalized voice message for the recipient.  Not only is it ballplayers now, the egraphs folks have also added NBA egraphs if that’s your cup of tea.

How does it work, you ask?  From “Inside an egraph” at egraphs.com:

What is an egraph?

An egraph is a shared moment between you and your favorite star. It is immortalized forever with a beautiful high resolution photograph, handwritten note, signature, and personalized voice message. It’s their voice, their handwriting, their time — every egraph is one-of-a-kind.

Still not sure exactly what we’re talking about here?  Check out a sample from Matt Carpenter after the jump…

Technology is always creating cool new ways for folks to interact, across different lives, different geography, etc – and this is another.  Several Cardinal players (and one former Cardinal) have signed up: Matt Carpenter, Jason Motte, Jon Jay, Daniel Descalso, Shane Robinson, and Mark Mulder.

Thanks to the generosity of the kind folks at egraphs, we have a few of these things to give away.  DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION?  Good.

Here’s the gag:  tell us your favorite on-field moment involving one of the above-mentioned players.

We’ll choose three winners from the stories posted in the comments below.  We won’t necessarily pick one for each player, this is totally subjective, and the more vivid your memory or story the better.

Post your story in the comments below by this Friday at 5:00pm CT and we’ll choose three winners then, to be put in touch directly with the egraphs folks to redeem your prize – one egraph from the Cardinal of your choice.

Good luck, and thanks to the folks at EGraphs.com!

Michael Wacha was a guest on TexAgs Radio in late January, with fellow former Aggies Barret Loux and Brooks Raley, both members of the Chicago Cubs organization.

There’s obviously a lot of chatter about the latter two throughout the video, but Wacha gets his time to talk about going to Cardinals camp in Jupiter and what his experience was like as a first-year professional last season right out of the draft.

Check out the video after the jump.

If you’re most interested in Wacha talking about the Cardinals, skip to about 4:45 when he talks about going into big-league camp with the Cards and learning from the veteran pitchers. He goes on to talk about spring plans for being a starter at about 11:25, and continues to talk about learning the “Cardinal Way” (love that he knows it already, by the way), and how he figures he managed to achieve a 10 K/BB ratio in his short stint as a reliever in the Cards’ minor leagues last season.

Looking forward to seeing more of this guy in the coming season.

With 47 custom shovels at the ready to commemorate the event, a small army of Burberry-clad townsfolk braved the chilly weather in downtown St Louis.  They gallantly stepped outside of their luxury automobiles long enough to break ground for the first phase of Ballpark Village (BPV).  While this day has been long in the making, it should be noted that building a one-of-a-kind monolith to capitalism, baseball, and capitalism (again) is never easy.

Once you get past the conceptual drawings, roughly hewed schematics, and artist’s renderings, you’ll find that BPV represents very little of what STL has to offer.  It is far more than just a nod to the overindulgent deep pocket crowd working feverishly to collectively pat itself on the back for this achievement.  Okay, maybe it really isn’t more than that, but grandiose displays of wealth have a certain charm anyway.

Still, the average person who pays taxes and thinks twice about spending $15 for a beer at the stadium needs to know what is going into BPV.  So, here you’ll find the definitive guide to what will and probably will not be found at BPV upon completion.

Definitely will be found…

• Exotic foreign label beers like Budweiser and Bud Light
• Popular domestic beers like Budweiser and Bud Light
• Overpriced merchandise for sale
• Overpriced food on par with the local Hooters family restaurant
• Homeless people
• Vince Coleman patio with tarp for rainy days
• The priceless single tear drop shed by a member of the DeWitt family over the loss of softball in downtown St Louis.  The tear purportedly has 10x the healing power of a mermaid’s tear and is only surpassed in efficacy by those of Chuck Norris who does not actually cry.
• Baseball players you can’t remember hovering to sign anything you leave on your table
• A deer carcass or two courtesy of Mayor Slay
• Ozzie Smith‘s Pawn and Check Cashing Place
• Habitats of the Wolf Pup conservation project featuring Lance Lynn

Not likely to make the final project…

• Don Denkinger tribute complete with a blind tattoo artist who will happily tattoo “1985 World Series Champonions” somewhere between your knees and upper back.
• High tech security cameras provided by Chuck Berry Bathroom Cam Corp.
• Steve Kline single finger salute drawing booth
• Dan McLaughlin Driving Experience Go Kart track
• Brendan Ryan and Tyler Greene featured in a “Great Shortstops of the Past” section
• Meet Team Fredbird and Jaime Garcia room sponsored by Mattress Giant
• WS parade routes of the Chicago Cubs for the past 100 years
• Keith Hernandez mustache photo booth set in a windowless van
• Dedicated seating area for AT&T/T-Mobile smartphone users with micro-antennae for high speed data…..(deemed technologically impossible)

In other words, be prepared for a fully sanitized and sanctioned version of what St Louis really is.  Great baseball city?  Sure.  Just know that we drink, swear, and throw remotes just like everybody else.  We just try to keep it out of the news.  Huzzah for the great monument to managed perceptions, y’all!

Follow gr33nazn on Twitter for more about BPV (not to be confused with HPV which is bad)!

USA Today Sports has reported that the Mariners have been somehow leveraged into a 7 year, $175M contract extension for Felix Hernandez, because you can never pay too much to be a solid 4th place ahead of the Astros.  Granted, that shouldn’t be viewed as the floor for an Adam Wainwright extension, but even seeing it as a glass ceiling means potential sticker shock for some in the #SignWaino movement.

• Pitcher A – 80-48 record, 3.15 ERA, 130 ERA+, 1.211 WHIP, 7.6 SO/9, 3.02 SO/BB
• Pitcher B – 98-76 record, 3.22 ERA, 127 ERA+, 1.212 WHIP, 8.7 SO/9, 3.10 SO/ BB

Pitcher A is Wainwright, and Pitcher B just signed a $175M extension.  If B is worth $25M per year until through his early 30′s, then what is A worth for at least 3-4 years?

$25M per year.

Maybe.  It would be surprising to see the Cardinals go that high, and it would certainly be next to impossible to justify a 7 year deal for Wainwright.  Then again, the market for top tier pitchers isn’t exactly a large one, and the loss of Chris Carpenter to injury makes Adam Wainwright even more important as both the ace of an inexperienced staff and a locker room mainstay.

Given the likelihood that teams will continue to hand out ludicrous, long term contracts it makes some sense to lock down Waino for 5+ years while securing a slight discount versus future market prices.  The approach has worked well.  Why shouldn’t it work for King Adam?

See also: 2-0, 2.48 ERA, 1.010 WHIP, 7.4 H/9, and 11.6 SO/9 in 32.2 playoff innings.

Follow gr33nazn on Twitter for more about #SignWaino.

As long as games exist so too will cheaters that target those games.  Taking a legislative approach to prevent cheating accomplishes a lot, but it comes with some inherent limitations.

Primary among those limitations is that the system is necessarily a reactive mechanism much like the criminal court system in America.  MLB can educate, inform, and penalize, but it cannot actually stop players from trying to gain an unfair advantage.  Emperor Bud and cohorts can cajole, ban, threaten, coerce, and bribe players not to cheat, and players will still possess the ability to cheat.

Would stiffer penalties reduce the amount of PED use?  Maybe.  One might certainly argue that re-balancing the risk component of the risk/reward scenario would have a positive impact.  However, you may still be hard pressed to affect the player working to rehab an injury who perceives a significant benefit from PED use.  What about the marginal player who just needs a multi-year deal to secure his financial future?  If he goes year to year making the minimum and takes a all-or-nothing attitude about PED use, even a performance boost for a few months means millions to him.  Same thing goes for some guys trying to hold on to what careers they do have.  The risk simply does not always outweigh the potential reward.

People do stupid things and have since the dawn of mankind.  MLB certainly won’t be the organization to change that, but that doesn’t mean the league shouldn’t try.  Mind you, the truly useful tools in the deterrent toolbox simply cannot or will not see the light of day.  Giving teams the ability to void a contract due to a PED violation would certainly change the way many view the reward for improved performance.  The player’s association will never agree to this, and I’m not here to say that it should.

On the flip side, teams could be the real winners in the PED discussion.  What does a team lose if a player decides to load up on HGH or synthetic testosterone?  Sure, the team likely loses that player for a period of time, but one might argue that the player’s perceived value to the team diminishes the moment the PED case has been made.  It’s a rather morbid win-win situation for the team that may profit from the PED user’s work but pay no significant penalty when the user gets busted.  What if MLB having a PED policy violator play could result in a penalty for the team?  Maybe MLB could coax teams to truly join the fight on the side of good.

After all, the league currently has a fight on its hands with perceived apathy on one side and testing limitations on the other.  If you find yourself in a battle you cannot win outright, then change the battle by changing the rules.  Understand the perceived apathy, and encourage the apathetic to join the less evil side (MLB in this case).

Use the Todd Helton DWI charge as the catalyst for sweeping changes.  Sure, public outcry may not seem commensurate with the crime in this case, but maybe that’s because as much as we would like to logically connect drunk driving with PED use, it simply won’t happen.  I’d venture that almost everyone above the age of 18 personally knows at least 1 person who has been arrested for public intoxication, driving under the influence, or driving while intoxicated.  No matter the semantics, operating a motor vehicle while drinking fire water happens, and it happens a lot.  It’s bad.  We’ve also been slightly desensitized to it by now.

PED use may or may not occur which anything near the frequency that intoxicated driving does.  Given the number of athletes involved with MLB, the rate of occurrence could be as high as intoxicated driving is in the general population.  Regardless, we’re talking about significant differences in terms of both scale and celebrity.  A PED accusation or violation may seem worse simply because it receives much more news coverage than your average DWI does.  Add the media layers comprised of talking heads decrying the heinous violations that impact the holy game of sportsball, and you have a multimedia melee on your hands.

As of now, no single PED violation has been as terrible or potentially life altering as a single incident of drunk driving.  None.  A drunk driver can injure or kill themselves and other people, thereby passing on a horrific verdict on the lives of a few to dozens upon dozens of lives.  A PED user can do much the same to himself, but we simply do not logically connect that use with the all-too-familiar story of some drunk idiot running a light and broadsiding a family of 4.  Yet we still have tempered reactions to the drunk driver.  Maybe that’s because many of us understand that alcoholism as a disease process still defies comprehension.  Maybe.  Or maybe many of us have seen both sides of that terrible equation.  We’ve seen the gradual decay of an alcoholic and the subsequent decay of the support system around that person.  Sympathetic? Maybe, maybe not.  Empathetic? Possibly.

Regardless, PED users and drunk drivers simply cannot be lumped together so easily as some might suggest.  However, please understand that the answer may not be as easy as getting more upset about drunken driving.  Maybe the real answer is to be slightly less invested in the outcome of sportsball events and more focused on real problems.  That’s not to say that I don’t want a better mouse trap for PED users.  As a matter of fact, I’d like to see a DWI conviction given the same treatment as a PED offense and part of a 3 strikes program.  More on that…

• Drug program 1st offense for DWI, DUI, PED = 81 game ban with 1 year contract subject to being voided.  If voided, a portion of the contract goes to a drug awareness and/or rehabilitation program specified by MLB.  The money is paid by the team.
• Drug program 2nd offense for DWI, DUI, PED = Full season ban with 1 year or multi-year contract subject to being voided.  If voided the equivalent of the average annual base salary in present day dollars is payable over what would have been the lifetime of the contract to a drug awareness and/or rehabilitation program specified by MLB.  The money is paid by the team.
• Drug program 3rd offense for DWI, DUI, PED = Lifetime ban from MLB.  Contract voided.  Team pays monetary penalty equivalent to 10% of the total base contact amount.

Is this really a better mouse trap?  Probably not, but it does shift some of the onus to teams to steer clear of cheaters or at least not to risk too much on them.  The suspension penalties for drug program violators appear to be more severe, but the ability to void a contract might be a greater deterrent.  Not that the player’s association would ever agree to any of this, but we easily forget that the PA protects the players and NOT the game itself.

Perhaps the most important provision here relates to the handling of DWI/DUI convictions.  Group them with PED use, and maybe we can all learn more about both.  While they certainly are not equal, I see no reason to keep them logically separate.  Maybe that’s just me.

Follow gr33nazn on Twitter for more about PED Dispenser’s…

While today’s news about Carp certainly dampens the mood, there are still some positive St. Louis baseball activities happening. Personally, I look forward to Spring Training as a way to escape Winter in the Midwest, so even stories about packing up the gear gets me excited. One new wrinkle to add fun again this February is the return of the MLB FanCave.

Three Cardinals’ fans earned their shot to battle 49 other hopefuls in getting to New York. Each of the finalists submitted videos that can be voted on until February 13th with the top 30 heading to Spring Training. Tune in at 7 pm CST as UCB Radio catches up with returning finalist Kelsey Weinrich and Drew Fleming.

I caught up with Kelsey as she starts down the path once more hoping to reach the Big Apple. On what made her apply again, it’s called “baseball’s dream job” for a reason. “Walking away from the MLB Fan Cave after making it so incredibly close last year, I told people I wasn’t sure if I’d be back. But I think I really knew the whole time that I couldn’t stay away.”

Catch up with all three on Twitter as well, with Dom Palumbo‘s eerie Keith Hernandez look sure to draw the ladies! Dry those eyes for Carp and follow the trio as they attempt to follow Kyle Thompson into FanCave history.

Kelsey Weinrich                       Twitter: @kelseyshea11

Dom Palumbo                           Twitter: @dfpalumbo

Drew Fleming                           Twitter: @thefilmjerk