smart attack

by lboros on Apr 24, 2006 7:56 AM EDT in St. Louis Cardinals News

i've always liked maddux; the guy flat-out outsmarts people. uses the whole plate and the whole strike zone, varies his patterns; wherever the hitter least expects the next pitch to be, that's exactly where maddux will put it. i for one am enjoying his resurgence this year, even if the cubs reap the benefit.

jason marquis outsmarted nobody yesterday; he fell behind against half the batters he faced and had to come to them, and the cubs were waiting. two-thirds of them swung at the first strike they saw. in the 7th inning, when they put the game away, they didn't take a single called strike from jason. swung (or bunted) at ev'ything. it was hardly a disastrous start; he did get groundballs (12 of em), only walked two, and kinda sorta kept them in the game through 6 innings. let's hope this is as bad as it gets for him in 2006.

the cardinal bullpen extended its string of scoreless innings to 11. for all their struggles this april, the st louis relievers have held opposing hitters to a .212 average, the lowest of any bullpen in the league. know who has the stingiest avg-against? hancock, at .143. he has allowed just 5 hits all year, but two of them were homers. wainwright is second at .161. but they've walked a few guys, and they've given up a lot of extra-base hits -- a double every 4 innings, a homer every 7. may not sound like a lot, but over the course of a season that would equal 350 doubles and 200 homers allowed; bad.

speaking of relievers, here's brian falkenborg's line at memphis this spring: 10 innings, 4 hits, 0 walks, 13 strikeouts. he has allowed 1 run, a solo homer. i'm still partial to voyles.

and now that we're on the subject of memphis, let's ask ourselves why the cardinals are gumming up the works by signing timo perez to a minor-league deal. he's a bad player -- 30 years old, career obp of .302 -- and to the extent that he plays, he simply robs at-bats from younger players who might still have careers. once bigbie comes off the dl and takes schumaker's spot on the big-league roster, here are the guys who'll be vying for playing time in memphis' outfield:

john gall, 28
skip schumaker, 26
chris duncan, 24
shaun boyd, 25
prentice redman, 26

and that group may well be joined this summer by cody haerther and reid gorecki, the latter of whom has 8 doubles and 6 homers in his first 72 at-bats.

some are apparently speculating that the signing portends a trade, into which the cards will throw some fringe outfielder; hence the need for perez. i suppose that's one possibility; another is that some scout in the cardinal system thinks the guy can still play, and they're giving him a three-week trial.

god help us if he ends up on the st louis roster.

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the big

test for Marquis is how he rebounds from this outing. Mature Marquis or Wild Man? Time will tell.

Cardinals Diaspora

by Ryan Van Bibber on Apr 24, 2006 8:37 AM EDT reply actions

Awesome news about the bullpen

It's good to know that part of the problem is just that the really bad at-bats stick in my brain.

Btw, on Maddux. Apparently he was pretty unhappy about his record last year. My Cub fan friends tell me his usual offseason regimen is golf. He apparently went to a trainer he knew in November and worked his butt off. His body fat is down and both upper and lower body strength are way up (there was an article about it in the Chicago Trib this weekend). The results are very obvious.

I don't like the Cubs but I like Maddux. More power to him.

by sdrone on Apr 24, 2006 10:24 AM EDT reply actions

Re Timo Perez,

I hope the "trade preparation" theory is correct. Otherwise I must assume that the Cardinal organization is as youth-phobic as I have feared.

by MdRedbirdFreak on Apr 24, 2006 10:28 AM EDT reply actions

T.I.M.O.

This
Idiot
Makes
Outs

I believe that's what the Met's fans called him.

Reverend Redbird

by erik on Apr 24, 2006 10:49 AM EDT reply actions

Even if this is telegraphing a trade

it better be for Manny Ramirez, Miguel Cabrera or Bobby Abreu to justify ever putting Timo on the big leauge club. I really don't see the point of adding a player this marginal unless the return is a superstar, and really, I'd rather see John Gall or Chris Duncan.

Unless, as lboros noted, some scout saw him do something good, and this is a gamble to see if he can sort things out in memphis. If that's it, then "eh" I say, though it still is kinda weird.

by Valatan on Apr 24, 2006 11:24 AM EDT reply actions

Or maybe

it's a trade for Manny, Cabrera and Abreu!

by effin fisk on Apr 24, 2006 11:56 AM EDT up reply actions

and then we can turn around

and deal for the D-Train.

Now THAT'D be a team...

by Valatan on Apr 24, 2006 1:10 PM EDT up reply actions

problem

Not sure Abreu would be satisfied being Encarnacion's backup in right.

DCGreg

by DCGreg on Apr 24, 2006 2:51 PM EDT up reply actions

Btw, speaking of last night

Was anyone else kind of pissed at John Rodriguez for sporting that huge smile after he got that hit to get on base, despite the fact that the team was down something like 3-0 at that point? I just felt like, yeah, dude, congragulations. Now get that smile off of your face and get around the bases

by Valatan on Apr 24, 2006 1:18 PM EDT reply actions

What if it was you?

To be fair, Johnny the Rod spent 8 years in the minors before channeling Hurricane Hazle and bursting up to the bigs last year. (Google that name for some good stuff, all who don't get the reference.) He knows that every hit he gets keeps in the bigs a little longer. And that's a good thing for the Cardinals community, as JRod is Mr. Public Appearance for the team, volunteering to help out all the time. Plus, if you paid attention to him down the stretch last year, the guy was in unabashed awe of getting the chance to play for a contender and in Busch's final year. In fact, after the final regular season and playoff games at Busch, JRod popped out of the dugout with his video camera and preserved what he could of the memories he was already deeming precious.

Now, in interviews, JRod doesn't come across as the birghtest bulb, but the guy is a fan of baseball and is clearly relishing every second of being in the majors. In comparison to others who are in the league due to their talent, but confess to "never watching a game I don't play in," a player such as JRod, who acts like a lot of fans would act if they got a shot at the bigs, is, to me, a breath of fresh air.

All of that aside, if he's still doing that in September, in the heat of a pennant race, then, yeah, I'll side with you.

by flynn on Apr 24, 2006 1:44 PM EDT up reply actions

I think J-Rod's simply constantly in a good mood.

Being relaxed or "loose" usually is considered an asset for a major-leaguer. We often talk about how players aren't doing well when they're "pressing."

matty fred is a web log.

by matty fred on Apr 24, 2006 1:53 PM EDT up reply actions

You've heard it a million times,

if you aren't having fun out there then it's time to hang 'em up. Also, I definitely think JRod is just "relishing" as flynn pointed out. Think back to his diary at the end of last season on STLCardinals.com Every entry had at least a paragraph which described his awe of playing in the bigs and how grateful he was to be in a place like St. Louis.

by stash3630 on Apr 24, 2006 2:18 PM EDT up reply actions

didn't notice J-Rod smile

but I did notice Jacque Jones smile right before Marquis grooved one to him. Watching on TV you could tell he knew exactly what was coming.

As for Rodriguez, I really like the guy. I met him at the Cardinal Caravan this year and he seemed like a real nice guy. You can tell he's just out there having fun when he's playing. Right now, he's the best fit in the 2 spot we have, and I hope he continues to see more time.

He's second behind Pujols in OBP with .435, and so far he's striking out less. Granted, he's only had 19 ab's....

Reverend Redbird

by erik on Apr 24, 2006 2:25 PM EDT up reply actions

smiling J-rod

Since when is smiling a bad thing? And being loose is something the Cardinals could use. In fact if you look at the last four world series winners, (Angels, Marlins, Red Sox, and White Sox) they all could be considered "loose", fun ball clubs. Nothing wrong with being busineslike. Besides, a little more smiling would do the world some good. And also, J-Rod could be smiling for a number of reasons. Who knows, maybe he hit the pitchers pitch, or got a hit on a breaking pitch that usually gives him trouble. I don't knock him for smiling at all. Let's get him in the 2-hole for a while and see how he does!

by mdarshan on Apr 24, 2006 2:17 PM EDT reply actions

addendum

Meant to say nothing wrong with being businesslike, but a little emotion and looseness is good too. Derek Jeter is a good example.

by mdarshan on Apr 24, 2006 2:19 PM EDT up reply actions

Interesting...

Timo Perez's No. 3 most similar age 30 batter is the White Rat his damn self. At least Whitey could take a walk.

The 26th Man

by 26thMan on Apr 24, 2006 2:39 PM EDT reply actions

Maybe Baseball Reference

could offer similarity scores between managers. Then we find the guy closest to Whitey (or Casey Stengel) and hire him.

by MdRedbirdFreak on Apr 24, 2006 2:53 PM EDT up reply actions

Possible Trade

This is just me thinking out loud but a lot of this makes sense to me... Marquis is in his contract year and is pitching very well so far this year. Then again so is Adam Wainwright. Trading Marquis now may be the way to go, his value is probably slightly higher after the fast start this year and we wouldn't need another SP in return to fill the spot. As lboros noted we have a few good relief pitchers in Memphis who are pitching really well right now that could come up and take a bullpen spot if Wainwright was moved into the starting rotation. So if you were to couple Marquis with a few of the "spare part" OFs in AAA or here in the majors (Bigbie, Encarncion, etc) you could end up with a halfway decient OF and rid us of the problem of having 4 of our 5 starting pitchers this year being up for Free Agency... like I said... just thinking out loud...

by BigMac545 on Apr 24, 2006 3:37 PM EDT reply actions

Echo

Scroll back into the archives of VEB over this past winter if you are interested in reading about sixty-seven million words on this same topic. Your interest is obviously piqued now, so perhaps you'd enjoy the thorough discussion about this idea that took place months ago.

by flynn on Apr 24, 2006 4:02 PM EDT up reply actions