Mather’s had a good 130 PA’s after a pretty underwhelming 290 PA’s a year ago at Memphis. Yeah, I know, he had a good half season at Springfield, but he had it at the age of 24 and it followed a pretty underwhelming career to that point. He really doesn’t present an overwhelming case to be brought up ASAP and even if you dump Barton, Mather’s not going to get much playing time anyway.

It’s tough to find good middle infielders. The Cubs, for example, have been chasing after crap for years now and they’re giving playing time to Ryan Theriot and had to give a big pile of money to a utility man in Mark DeRosa. Certainly it’s pointless to do what the Cardinals are doing, since their mad scientist manager can’t somehow amalgamate the four players’ extra-base hits into one or two players. But what I take away from the middle infield mediocrity is that Pete Kozma’s value probably was underrated a year ago.

That the biggest problem with this team is filling the hitting gaps. Miles and Ryan usually do their part to justify their existence in the line up. La Rue and Kennedy have not. Izturis was useless for the first month but has since caught on fire. (If hitting 2 singles a game is catching on fire)

I think that the team as a whole has not been hot is a sign of good things to come. My biggest worry though is La Russa’s habit of changing the line up, every single day, no matter what. I get playing the numbers and odds and histories but maybe put the best 9 out there and hope for the best?

We need to really sweep the Dodgers and hope every day they get closer to falling out of contention. Furcal is still the one player that can solve all our problems. The Dodgers are trying to sign him but he already said if is not re-signed by mid season than he is just going to wait till the off season. If there is anyone we should overpay for in a trade and resign it is Furcal. He could easily bat lead off to bat clean up.

The problem is we don’t match up well with what we have and what the Dodger need. What is half a season of Furcal worth?

P.S

Derek Lowe is sucking this season. He got rocked in last start for 7 ER in 5 IP

Can Mather play middle infield?

Cards are 2-12 when behind after six innings.

Say it isn’t so, AZ! You’ve come full circle! (but I agree on Kennedy; it’s time.)

I will also add that any and all discussions of NOT bringing back Miles were premised on the notion that Kennedy would be on the roster all season. Miles is not good, but he’s better than Kennedy and I see no indication that Kennedy will improve. It’s a waste of a roster spot to have both on the roster and Miles is better. It’s time to say goodbye.

the biggest anomaly of this roster: Why in the word does a team need four middle infielders?

the only tru weak link right now. Well, and the shaky bullpen, but I agree that the kids in the ‘pen are doing very well so far.

I wonder if some of the pitching and outfield talent might be packaged for an impact bat middle infielde. Who that would be, I have no idea.

that Kennedy has a hang nail or foot fungus or some “injury” as bad as Izzy’s. If they don’t have the nerver to DFA him then they could at least disable him so they can see what Mather can do with big league pitching.

That way if Mather is just so-so and they can’t find him enough ABs they can just reactivate Kennedy and send Mather back down without the stigma of having “failed”.

but I don’t think Duncan is movable at this point…in terms of our outfield talent, teams would more interested in Studwick or Ankiel…maybe even Barton if he were freed up. If Mather continues to rake, he could be a part of a deal, perhaps, too (and don’t forget, even with his struggles, everyone would want Colby). Garcia would have to be in there as a lynchpin.

I keep hoping the Cards will make a deal with Cleveland so they can option Barton and then bring up Mather…would be interesting to see what TLR would do with the lineup then…Ank, Glaus and Mather behind Pujols and Studdy leading off against lefties?? Hmm…just like hairless pets…weird.

I’m also willing to stay up to watch Kershaw pitch. That guy has one of the dirtiest deuces I’ve seen, right up there with Ankiel’s back in the day, and he has done nothing but shred the minor leagues as a 20 year old kid. The Dodgers have themselves a pretty good bunch of young talent with him, Kemp, Loney, Ethier, Martin, DeWitt (from Sikeston), and LaRoche. Exciting time to be a Dodger fan.

that our middle infield would be the biggest problem: especially when starting izturis and kennedy. if we avoid that combination, I think it will work out a little better

Apologies if this has been discussed before…maybe I missed it. There is an article in today’s WSJ about pitch f/x (subs. only) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121149546083915647.html?mod=at_leisure_main_reviews_days_only

One of the highlights of the article, other than a good explanation of how this was put into place was this quote about Wainwright’s curve:

Pitch f/x starts baseball down the path of learning how players do things—which batter hits the ball the hardest, which shortstop has the quickest reflexes, what pitcher has the nastiest slider. It showed, for instance, that St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright had one of baseball’s most violent curve balls in 2007, with up to nine inches of vertical drop and more than seven inches of horizontal movement. Perhaps consequently, Mr. Wainwright had an unusually high rate of swings-and-misses against his curve (38% versus a league average of a little more than 25%), according to a sampling of data by Harry Pavlidis, a baseball analyst who writes a prominent blog about the Chicago Cubs.

Looking at next years pitiful MI free agents doesn’t it only make sense to make a trade with someone that has a blocked prospect at 2B or SS?

Someone like Brent Lillibridge in the Braves organization

Minor. League. Contract.

Most likely he would pitch at Wrigley or Shea if need be. Check out this link.
vr, Xei

“pointless” pickups the past few years that have paid off—Wellemeyer being the best current example

Anyone care to speculate on the time table for Peter Kozma? Springfield this year? Others in the system? Barden at Memphis in Kennedy is dispatched?

Kozma will move up before May’s over and finish 2008 at Palm Beach, go to the AFL, and begin 2009 at Springfield if he continues to bat well.

I don’t see Barden coming up until rosters expand unless Glaus is injured. He’s out of options and it sure looks like he’s gotten his swing back to where it was in his legit prospect days.

Waiting to see a little more out of Jose Martinez, who I thought belonged at AAA instead of AA this year. I imagine he’ll be promoted once Dan Nelson comes off the DL (don’t know what the timetable is on that), and that’ll most likely coincide with D’Angelo being released. Looking forward to a mix of Hoff, Martinez, and Barden working the middle infield in Memphis through the summer.

405’

Yep, Bird Land today talks about the guy at Hittracker.com that looks for true distance of home runs. His “bomb” really only went 405’ based on speed off the bat, angle, time in the air, and where it hit the building (356’ from home plate).

Good God, they are losing to the Cubs YET AGAIN. That’ll be what, 1-9? And it’s not like they’ve just got their skull pounded in either. They’ve GIVEN games away (remember Bautista’s late game bunt?).

Maybe the Pirates announcers are right, Pittsburgh really does belong in the NL East. They say it’s because of the timezone. I say it’s because they seem to giving games and players to the Cubs the last half decade.

Looking forward to hearing Vin Scully call the game. Always try my best to catch at least a little bit of Dodger home games on MLB.TV.