run expectancy is 1.243. IE MLB pitchers historically give up slightly more than 1 and a 1/4 runs. Thompson gave up one. He did fine. Yeah, some guys get out of that jam without giving up a run, and others give up 2 or 3 or 8, (and given his GB% (50.5%!), thompson probably gets out of that jam more often than any other pitcher in our bullpen; he just didn’t last night). The only guy with a GB rate as high as Thompson was (gasp) izzy, though KMac has a 47%. Regardless, giving up one when you are called into that situation is nothing to be ashamed of.

I also think Ankiel should have caught that fly ball- he seemed to be playing very, very, VERY shallow and the ball was in the air for what seemed like forever. He just didn’t get back on it in time. Though even if he had caught it, a run would have scored, a (what’s the “blown save” analogue for “cheap save”?) on a “sacrifice fly” sounds much better than an “rbi double”.

We’re ragging on Thomspon? Snice his last call up he has bailed us out twice. Last night and Mulders start. I realize that the runner on third scored. But when the runner is on third with 1 out he should score.

Also. He was the only one able to pitch last night.

What else were they to do?

Anyway, about Pujols being underrated. He might be “underrated” by the national media, but I don’t think he’s underrated by opposing pitchers. And it shows in the way they have been pitching him.

As far as bring up Todd, why not Salas? Watched him in the Futures game and he appears to already have big league stuff. He can’t be worse then Kelvin Jiminez generally is.

Also, along the lines of stuff you couldn’t see in the boxscore: Corey’s pitches to Albert weren’t even close. The Catcher was literally set up in the LH batter’s box. Even if it had ended up down the middle, no umpire is going to call a strike when the catcher is almost in the home team dugout.

You also missed Matty V on the Padres broadcast saying they WOULDN’T load the bases in this situation after THEY JUST ARGUED TO LOAD THE BASES earlier when TLR did it. I couldn’t believe my ears.

About Carp, it’s insane to think that the guy has been an afterthought. I was listening to the game last night and it dawned on me, he is literally at the point that if he had pitched 5 innings of 1 hit, 7 K shutout baseball…he’d probably be in the rotation next week. THAT’S how close we are to getting Carp back.

I’ve been looking, and haven’t found it anywhere yet

it’s Hammons Field no “d”

you admit fault in that assertion. I have a feeling 90% of Miles bashers will still hold tight to the assertion that the guy can’t contribute to a competitive squad. He’s already produced more so far this season than I was expecting from him for the entire year… and I’m a kool-aid drinking “Miles apologist”.

All sycophancy aside, the guy is a valuable utility guy who probably doesn’t need to be starting at shortstop as much as he has. But still a good band-aid as a starting 2B.

And since I was at the game yesterday, too, I’ll mention something you didn’t SW. It was freaking hot, brutal hot, people passing out in the stands hot, and there were plenty of times when it would have been awfully easy to just say, Okay, we took 3 of 4, and pack it in on a Sunday and get ready for the Brewers. This team does not quit.

I keep hearing this, and I can’t help feeling like it’s totally unfair to Mozeliak to judge his commitment to/effort for the team based on whether he acquires someone at the deadline.

It’s really easy to get someone if you’re willing to dump your entire farm system on someone (see: Joe Blanton to Phillies), but Mozeliak doesn’t want to do that, as he shouldn’t. If he doesn’t acquire someone, it’s likely not due to a lack of effort, it’s due to his considering the price too expensive in regards to the future of the organization.

Quite frankly, unless Mo gets someone that’s more than a rental, I’ll be pretty unhappy if he trades Rasmus, Anderson, Todd, Garcia or Perez. The Jocketty model of team construction doesn’t work anymore—you need to have young, cost-controlled players on your roster to be able to afford the price of impact free agents. Trading them away before they crack the majors makes that a wee bit difficult.

That said, I have to think we could have matched up with the Cubs on an offer for Harden…they gave a pretty weak package for someone with his stuff. Oh well.

excellent writer.

Carp, Mo, TLR and Duncan all say he’ll be a starter….

After Carp and Adam return, we lose our AAA friend, a send one starter to the ‘pen.

Of course, anointing Wall-E the closer leaves Looper in the rotation, but we have to be forward thinking. When the play-offs arrive, we’ll contract to a four-man rotation. So we need to give Wall-E some time to adjust to the closer role. So we suffer few a few more Looper starts until October.

i’ll set your “plain as day” assertions about collusion aside – assertions for which you have no evidence, and which (for whatever this is worth) bud selig flatly denied recently. i’ll also ignore any “clubhouse” or “morale” effect signing bonds would have on the rest of the team’s performance, and assume it would be zero. because even given that, i just disagree that signing bonds “would probably do more to make the Cards serious contenders than any other single move.”

1. it’s not entirely clear what kind of shape bonds is in at this point, and we know he hasn’t been playing. so even if he was signed today, i’d highly doubt he could play tomorrow. even if he could, that’s 59 games left in the season after tonight.

2. bonds hasn’t been an everyday player in years. so there’s a question as to how many games he’d give the team – again, even if he was ready to start tomorrow, which i doubt he would be. i think you’d be very optimistic to predict bonds getting more than 130 or so plate appearances for the rest of the year, factoring in days off, late defensive replacements, etc. and, again, that’d be if he was signed today.

3. bonds would be replacing schumaker, essentially, in the lineup. by vorp, schumaker is the 5th-best cardinal hitter this year; his line is .293/.359/.424/.783. that’s not 2007 barry bonds, but it’s pretty solid for a leadoff hitter.

4. if you swap bonds for schumaker, i guess maybe the first two spots before pujols go from schu-miles to something like miles-ankiel, which might be better. but there’s a decent chance it would actually mean tlr makes it something like kennedy-miles, which would be way, way worse.

5. quite a bit of what bonds adds in offense, he’d give right back with defense. the cards have 3 plus outfield defenders right now, and bonds would really mess that up.

i’m not saying bonds wouldn’t help. again, assuming the morale/clubhouse/media circus effect would be zero, i think bonds could improve the team by a win or so over the rest of the year. but to say that would improve the team more than any other move they could make? i’m not even looking up any stats, nor am i spending time coming up with the very best example i can think of. i think i can just stop at brian roberts.

that the Rangers AAA team has a better lineup than the padres.

If I was another team I’d just wait for him to become a minor league free agent and try to sign him. This organization has, imo, done him a series of disservices over the last few years.

Try stopping the show by using the manual arrow commands, then just take a screen shot of the picture. You can clean up the borders, if need be, in Photoshop or whatever you have.

probably not easier, but it requires no photo editing skills

- go to the gallery.
- click and drag the thunbnail to the address bar in your browser

- in the URL address, you’ll see a file name that ends in T.jpg
- change the T to an E to see the original file.

If it’s a pressing enough need for them to move a #1 caliber pitcher to the closer role then they need to deal for Fuentes. Not to mention the ‘09 outlook where Waino needs some innings to condition that arm.

only if the finger is limiting him to shorter innings. plus, we won the world series last time he was our closer

The gist of it was that the young guys (no one mentioned by name) were relentless and always played a hard 9. The part that caught my attention was he said something to the effect of, “this is the first time we have been like this in a long time.” Sounded like a shot at some unnamed former teammates.

Because then he wouldn’t have to face Pujols anymore :P

to “Clay”

they are too defense focused to want that guy

Coleman of him.

It would be inexcusable to get rid of Skip and keep Duncan on the roster. I think Skip has more value than any player he would be traded for. As much as I hoped Duncan would turn into a consistent performer, well, that has not happened. Ankiel/Ludwick are clearly everyday players and while I think Rasmus will be our starting centerfielder next year, it may not be such an easy transition into the majors.

We need to acquire a top level second baseman over the winter. I think the Ryan/izturis combination might be good enough for another year but obviously, I say that hesitantly. I wouldn’t mind adding some speed either, since we really have none. Oh, and pitching!

does Barton have to go? You have only 3 OFs on your roster. We’re going to need a 4th and 5th OF and I see no reason why Barton can’t fill that role. Many people saw Barton as an immediate starter but most scouts saw him as a guy who’ll be a 4th or 5th OF. He’s got a little pop, can hit lefties, and has a little speed. I see no reason why he can’t be one of our reserve OFs.

In play, run(s) on the first batter of the 8th.

didn’t pitch half bad himself.

showed bunt and knocked it out on the same pitch.

but they were mostly arguing that bunting is stupid.

hit and Albert snatched his bat away from him and stuck it back in the rack?

That moment might have been my favorite (non-World Series) Cardinal moment of this decade. And it will always be my first memory of Albert.

although it’s pretty hard to defend playing Duncan instead of Ludwick. hope I’m proved wrong

the night before in Brentwood, MO.

Nice guy when he is slightly intoxicated

I was kinda surprised that the Fox guys were actually giving us props