Saturday, March 29, 2008

BATTER UP: ST. LOUIS CARDINALS

It's baseball season, that mystical, wonderful time of year where you commit to a team for six months, knowing full well they won't win. Here's a starting nine for the St. Louis Cardinals.
  1. Twenty-oh-six is history: The Cardinals won the World Series two years ago, but Helen Hunt won an Academy Award once too.
  2. What about the pitching? The scheduled starters for the final two games of St. Louis' opening series are Todd Wellemeyer (who's nowhere near as good as Todd Stottlemyre) and Brad Thompson. Bad omen? No, that's just bad.
  3. Carpenter's reconstruction: St. Louis' best pitcher, Chris Carpenter, won't pitch until July after elbow ligament transfer surgery. He probably won't really be back in full until 2009.
  4. The real Ankiel: The pitcher-turned-outfielder is legit; he's projected to have a 30-homer, 100-RBI season, for those of you who like your traditional stats.
  5. The experts speak: Third baseman Troy Glaus "has so many problems with his legs that even a winter's rest won't fix them." - Baseball Prospectus 2008
  6. Is it possible to dislike Albert Pujols? No. St. Albert is even raising a daughter with Down syndrome, on top of everything else. He's coming off elbow surgery, but had a good spring. He will be president someday.
  7. Branch Rickey is spinning in his grave: The Cardinals organization, way back when, invented the farm system in the 1920s and 1930s, but they haven't produced many prospects lately. Centrefielder Colby Rasmus, who's starting the season at Triple-A Memphis, is about all to get excited over in the non-Rick Ankiel division.
  8. Comparisons are for the birds: The Jays have, what, a $95-million US payroll that keeps the fairly competitive in the cutthroast AL East? The Cardinals project to have a $102.3-million payroll and might go below .500 in the NL Comedy Central.
  9. Need-to-know: St. Louis has seven players in the potential final year of their contracts and three more who could be free agents after the 2009 season. That means they can contend, but they have to rebuild really soon.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I can't believe you didn't make fun of the flameout of Spezio. An all time classic! ( the flameout, not the on field performance ).

Oh well, Rico Washington probably wouldn't have made the bigs at 30 if Spezio were still around.

sager said...

Thought about it, really thought about it, but after defending Sean Avery for allegedly liking the ladies of the night, it didn't seem cool to mock Speizio for going to rehab.

BP 2008 did note how it's funny that Speizio going to rehab for his cocaine problem got buried by the Mitchell Report. Times change, eh?

Unknown said...

It's not going to rehab. It's the salacious details of his bender in December.

"According to prosecutors, Spiezio left a bar, got into his 2004 BMW and tried to drive home while under the influence of alcohol. He is accused of speeding, cutting across several lanes, crossing through the oncoming traffic lanes, driving over a curb and crashing into a fence.

Spiezio also is accused of running away from the crash scene. He ran to a friend's condo, vomited in his friend's room and -- when the friend said something about the vomit -- Spiezio became angry and attacked his friend, punching him repeatedly and throwing him against a wall, prosecutors allege."

Later when police came to his home, he hid in a storage closet while his wife covered for him.

Hancock, LaRussa, Spezio....but Bonds is the biggest villain. Right?

sager said...

... vomited in his friend's room...

For some guys, that's every weekend.