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Cardinals Fan Confidence Poll

Last tallied on 07/28.

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bottom of the 8th 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R
Pittsburgh Pirates 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1   1
St. Louis Cardinals 0 1 0 1 1 1 2   6

Join the Game Thread

game 104 - PIT @ STL - 7.31.10

wet paper sack* v. jeff suppan

5.76 ERA 6.18

5.43 FIP 5.57

5.62 xFIP 5.38

5.22 tERA 5.80

 

* as of press time, the pirates still had their intended starter as TBA. the sack's stats are made up. sadly, jeff's are not.

no word on whether the cardinals will attempt to trade for pittsburgh's wet paper sack prior to game time.

this series is a good chance to improve our standings. don't fuck it up, guys.

823 comments  |  1 recs |

Westbrook/Ludwick Trade Overflow

Beloved.

More photos » Nam Y Huh - AP

Beloved.

The discussion continues. . .

666 comments |

Cardinals Acquire Jake Westbrook and Trade Ryan Ludwick

Why hello Jake Westbrook. You look like 6 innings of not Jeff Suppan/Blake Hawksworth. That is a good look.

More photos » Jared Wickerham - Getty Images

Why hello Jake Westbrook. You look like 6 innings of not Jeff Suppan/Blake Hawksworth. That is a good look.

Update: It's a done deal. Ludwick to Padres. Westbrook to Indians. Padres giving up to prospects. It's unclear who the prospects are but it's probably one to Indians Indians get Cory Kluber, one to Cardinals. Nicholas Greenwood to the Cardinals. Unclear how the $$$ is shaking out.

It looks like the Cardinals are getting Jake Westbrook from the Indians and may or may not be sending Ryan Ludwick to the Padres.

MLBTR

Original Story below.

Continue reading this post »

1167 comments |

the deadline

i have no words.

More photos » Jim McIsaac - Getty Images

i have no words.

hmm, so the astros now have brett wallace? i can't say i care for that notion. the idea of watching the walrus take over from fat elvis and play us regularly gives me some minor heartburn. that's assuming he stays in houston; wallace is now a well-traveled fellow (STL, OAK, TOR, HOU). as has been pointed out before, he's hitting an .872 OPS in AAA, but in a ridiculous hitters' park (.921 OPS @ home; .816 away). it's way too early to call him a bust, but i would be a little concerned about his continued value. 

as of press time (friday lunch), the cards have not sealed any major deals. i still continue to believe that pitching rather than offense is the area for improvement. not because our offense doesn't need a kick in the pants, but because the options are just not very good for offensive improvement. first base, catcher, and the outfield starters aren't going anywhere. and there aren't any substantial upgrades available in the infield, unless florida comes off its recent love affair with dan uggla.

VEP had a good comment thursday regarding boog's struggles at the plate in light of his BABIP. basically, both brendan ryan and skip schumaker are most likely to regress to an improved outcome (BABIP of .293 v. career .324 for skippy; BABIP of .226 v. career .293 for ryan). suppan is replacement value at best, and not coming back from it (ERA 6.18 v. xFIP 5.38). hawksworth is somewhat better and may have a little regression to replacement value for us to look forward to - ERA of 5.38 v. xFIP of 4.78.  as painful as it may be to sit tight while we get shut out by the cubs, etc., we may well be looking forward to improvement just by sitting still. 

my mantra is to never trust that a cardinals pitcher is healed until he's made at least 3 ML appearances and pitched competently in each. kyle lohse is allegedly on the way back after another rehab start. if he can show up healed, that would be a big bump for us. my confidence in both kyle's healthy return and in blake hawksworth's improvement are sufficiently limited that either cook or westbrook would be worth the attempt, as long as major talent is not demanded.

Continue reading this post »

145 comments |

Overflow Vengance


It's the Pirates... the PIRATES.  Do this.  

458 comments |

Game 103 Has Finally Started Thread

Karstens v. Carpenter

i don't know who this karstens guy is, but i'm glad we've never faced him and had embarrassing results before

about 23 hours ago Motte_tiny prophetjohn 1052 comments

Anatomy of a Curveball

Hello everybody, with Dan on vacation the VEB higher ups were kind enough to ask if I would be willing to pinch hit for a day.  I jumped at the chance to put some analysis in front of you guys.

As a quick comment on yesterday’s game, here is a chart on run distributions comparing 2009 and 2010 actual runs scored.

Run_distro_medium

Clearly these are actual data points and don’t necessarily speak to true talent; however, it does confirm the common talking points.  Yes the offense is scuffling.  Yes the Cards have been shutout or held to one runs more frequently than last year.  That being said that graph even looks "flukey" (and I'd venture to say not representative of the true talent of our offense).  Hopefully the guys will get if figured out.

Being the optimist that I am I wanted to talk about something a little more uplifting though, Adam Wainwright’s curveball.  I’ve always been fascinated by good 12-6 curveball be it Darryl Kile’s, Matt Morris’, Wainwright’s, or Carpenter's, but I haven’t put much analytical effort behind what makes them effective.

Continue reading this post »

633 comments  |  8 recs |

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NL Central Standings

W L PCT GB STRK
St. Louis 57 46 .553 0 Won 1
Cincinnati 58 47 .552 0 Won 1
Milwaukee 48 56 .461 9.5 Lost 3
Chicago 46 57 .446 11 Lost 3
Houston 43 59 .421 13.5 Won 3
Pittsburgh 36 66 .352 20.5 Lost 2

(updated 7.31.2010 at 7:21 PM EDT)

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