A great void; an abyss

The #5 hole in the Cardinals’ lineup is currently #5 in all of baseball in OPS. Hardly a great void. In fact, I’d say it is rather productive.

The #4 slot is about average as far as #4 hitters go. Is it Jimmy Edmonds at his peak? No. Absolutely not. A black hole that does not make. An .804 isn’t setting the world on fire. It’s slightly below average.

The production from the #6 hole has been lackluster to say the least, but still a bit better than the black holes that are Izturis and Kennedy (not that that is saying anything). The .711 OPS is in the bottom one-third of the league as a whole. Nonetheless, it is still better than our #7 and #9 hole production. I would designate them as the black holes of the lineup. I didn’t even put up their OPS numbers because they are so horrendous.

lineup change would help. have to break the strikeout chain that is LUDDY, RICK, AND CLAUS

but it wasn’t nearly as bad as Lady in the Water and I thought it was better than The Village as well. There were 3-4 different times where I almost jumped out of my seat and several occasions where I couldn’t watch what was happening because of the sheer imagery shock. I think it’s gotten a bad rap because everyone is looking for Shyamalan to come up with another Unbreakable or The Sixth Sense but it was a solid movie.

this time “it counts!”

because..he hasn’t been in a rotation for almost 2 YEARS! If he can only be effective for a couple innings at a time, why not take advantage of that instead of expecting more?

I used to live in Rolla and I think it was 102.1 out of Sullivan that had the games. You can probably get that in Steelville. If not, try 99.7 out of Rolla. Unless you mean Steeleville, IL. If that’s the case, you might be able to pick up 93.1 out of Perryville, MO.

99.7 is the only one i know of, they also have foxsports-talk all weekend other than ball games

are you taking a float trip, or just the camping?

Usually, if someone were to say he slumped because he didn’t get a promotion (which quite a few people did with Perez earlier this year when Izzy almost got DL’d), i’d question his mental makeup and all kinds of things. But in this case, I think it might be more to getting his hopes up and buying into the hype a little too much. Plus, he’s 21 years old. Who knows what people (outside the organization, i.e., parents, friends, etc.) were saying to him?

But, I don’t think this exactly explains why he’s struggled at every level upon being promoted. Maybe he’s making an excuse so the organization doesn’t think he’s weak mentally. First, it was his dad saying he was struggling because the cardinals were screwing with his approach and making him hit the opposite way. Now, he was disappointed over not making the MLB club. Who knows? I just hope this kid isn’t getting too much attention and is becoming something he cannot live up to.

after a pretty damn good offseason, one in which saw him trade Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen and let David Eckstien walk (would Walt Jockety done any of these things?). I’m not so quick to say he lost “a lot” of credibiltiy with me.

b/c he expects Duncan to sink or swim at the big league level? You’ve got a low tolerance for others, sounds like to me. That’s not an unreasonable expectation at all. He’s 27, blocked at 1st, and among a large group of people who do now and will soon contribute at the major league level in the OF. Why is it unreasonable to say that it’s time to contribute w/ St. Louis?

Does it really make sense for Mather to come up to the club and play once or twice a week? In my mind, Mather needs to play—that means keeping him at Memphis for the time being or was his short stint with the club so fantastic that it erased all doubt that he would be better than Duncan?

Who should be called up to replace Duncan? Rasmus? Call up Rasmus and have him play once or twice a week? Bad idea. He also needs to play. When he’s called up, the team should be ready to play him every day.

There’s no question that Duncan’s been a disappointment but there are no immediate better options at Memphis right now. I realize there are those who want to punish Duncan for playing so poorly the past year but making the decision that he’s going to have to sink or swim at the major league level hardly means that “he is in the palm of TLR and Duncan.”

He may have lost credibility w/ you b/c of this decision, but not with me. I’ll judge him on the complete body of work and this decision is, at worst, defensible and probably the right move to make.

The Cardinals could have gotten a dozen Maple Prairie Sticks bats for him.

And the success so far this year has delayed any house-cleaning Mo might have intended to do.

I do disagree about how reintroducing Izzy “destabilizes a functioning bullpen.” I would argue that it is right now at its most unstable and dysfunctional. Izzy has had two solid outings recently, and that is probably good enough in TLR’s mind to reinstall his main man as the #1 reliever. Franklin’s blown save yesterday might have sealed the deal. I think we’ll see Izzy back as the closer in July.

in long relief/mopup duty out of the pen. If they go that route and send Parisi down, it’ll be interesting to see how it turns out. OTOH, it wouldn’t hurt my feelings if they released him outright and went w/ Parisi. At least Parisi can get it up there faster than 85 and might have a future in the organization. I’ve seen nothing that indicates that Clement can get major league hitters out.

with you that we have given some away this year by making ridiculous and foolish decisions. But sending Mulder out there now would be an even MORE foolish decision, because we’ve seen him fail at AAA; until he shows conclusively that he can get people out, he has no business pitching at the big league level.

Throwing Mulder out there over and over in 2006 almost cost us the division. If we waste a game now, it may cost us the wild card. I’ll be very upset if that happens.

I think it’s already been pointed out here before.

how long it would take for him to get loose out of the pen now.

be! He shouldn’t play 1st until the Mets series or else you and me, let’s ice TLR.

the same one who told you Lohse was getting signed?

Time to repay them for that sweep.

Thank you El Hombre for returning and restoring that magic 2 spot again. May that be the panacea for El Hombrecito (Ludwick).

Some of the ball/strike calls for both teams have been laughable… what is with the umps this year?

i apologize for underestimating your baseball playing capabilities in the off-season.

because the Cubs are starting a 10 game road trip…and they are not the same team on the road as they are in Wrigley because they can’t get as many “cheap” basket HRs in other parks.

that will cost us a lot of money in the near future, especially pitchers. I think DeWitt has put a “cap” on the team’s budget…..at least that is what it seems.

Strauss reported yesterday in his chat that sabathia was high on Mo’s list of targets. I’m strangely comfortable with that, as long as rasmus and todd and garcia aren’t included…

But how many resulted in a loss? I read that they were something like 38-10 when leading after the 7th or 8th

Izzy’s on the DL and Mulder’s on the roster. WTF?

Have we reached some sort of nexxus in the universe?

Is this where 1st street intersects 1st?

you’re freaking me out, man.

Oh boy. No way he can be on the active roster – we must have just “activated” him to batting practice pitcher. That’s gotta be it.

Maybe you could make something out of it?

He can pitch better than me… I honestly think that Mike P. was just not ready

a run for his money

the Sox just scored again

9-2

no doubter. pulled.