State of the Southpaws

At this point, we don’t seem inclined to sign a starting pitcher; we’re just going to go w/ Carpenter and cross our fingers he can stay healthy most of the season.

If you mean “starter,” as in a starter who will, ya know, start, then, no, we definitely do not seem inclined to sign one. However, if you mean a “starter,” who is a veteran that can be converted to closer, then there seems to be those in favor of signing one. Hopefully, this is just TLR speaking out of the turn and the front office in no way, shape, or form supports the idea.

Mozeliak is scheduled to meet today with La Russa and his coaches to discuss the camp’s progress. The discussion might include discussion of free agent Pedro Martinez as an option at closer. La Russa suggested in November that the club should expand its consideration to include veteran starting pitchers. Martinez has a recent history of shoulder problems but said Tuesday he would be open to the possibility of closing. “I would prefer to try it first and see how my body responds because I haven’t done it in a long time,” said Martinez, who might be used in a relief role during the World Baseball Classic. “It’s something you really have to endure and really try first before you know if your body can do it.”

So, Strauss publishes TLR hopes and gets a quote from Pedro on the idea?

The first one to accept the offer becomes a Cardinal. It’s that easy.

Does anyone know if Ring can be sent to Memphis? would he have to clear waivers?

Manning is on a minor league deal, so they can keep him around for depth in case Trevor Miller gets hurt.

 I was high on ohman last year and he seems to be the guy to get, Philly was said to be offering only around a million for him, so i think now as late as it is he’d easily jump at a chance at 2 mil. Although i wouldn’t mind beimel he was pretty good out of the dodger pen last year.
being a lefty and having a descent knuckleball i wonder if i could get a chance i’d have no problem signing for the league minimum, although my 68 mph fastball might get killed even tho it has movement, is it bad when your humor makes yourself laugh.
The only way i want to see pedro in cardinal red is every 5 th day, and he’d better be able to go to the 6th alot.

plus he can also get righties out too! But I don’t imagine TLR is open to this idea. . .

Off topic but- I just got 2 General Admission tickets to opening day!

I clicked “best available” for 2 seats and ended up with Stading room only. After fees they were $32 each.

Did anyone else hit up the 9am presale this morning? Were you able to get actual seats for opening day?

and call it a day. Assuming, of course, his arm is attached. He’s gotta be better than this schmucks with or without his left arm.

Today vs. the Dominican Republic our batting order is:

Skip Schumaker 2b
Joe Mather 3b
Rick Ankiel dh
Ryan Ludwick rf
Chris Duncan 1b
Khalil Greene ss
Jon Jay lf
Jason LaRue c
Colby Rasmus cf

(From Rich Hummel, http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/commishs-hot-stove/commishs-hot-stove/2009/03/st-louis-st-louis-cardinals-wellemeyer-righthanded-relievers-to-face-dominicans/ )

If he has played at first so far, that is. Any effects of the surgery on him at his “natural” position?

Goold’s post is about the potential firstbasemen in our system. He slates Allen Craig as the prime candidate. Doesn’t even mention that guy we call Walrus. Boo Goold!

Ohman’s got to be the man. I also think we should pick him up now whilst a) he’s got some time to get accustomed to his teammates and get some innings in before the season and b) no-one else seems to be looking for LHRP – once two of these 3 get snapped up, the left over guy might become more expensive. Right now, it looks like we have them all over a barrel – there just aren’t three teams looking to give $2m+ to a LOOGY right now.

I think it’s even possible we could get one of these guys for $1m or so – a complete no-risk-all-reward pick-up. I’m quite high on Ostlund but he obviously has some longball problems so maybe it’s best to just go with a known quantity.

Another BIG reason IMO to like Ohman is as follows (and I think this is a quite important point) – he’s competent against righties.

Ohman gave up a .700 OPS against right handers last year, and pitched more innings to righties than he did to lefties. His career split is somewhat worse (about .750) but still not too bad – slightly better than league average. In contrast, Biemel also gave up a .700 OPS against righties in 2008, but for his career he’s a shabby .795 with a .367 OBP (and he’s not even been unlucky – his BABIP is actually lower for righties than for lefties). Reyes is worse, with a .802 OPS against in 2008 and a career figure of .810. He should really not face right handed hitters at all.

So, where am I going with this? Well – Ohman (and to a lesser extent Beimel) is competent against righties, so he’s OK to leave in for an inning with two lefties and one righty due up, or even to take some slightly lower-leverage innings with a more right-handed flavour. If we look at our current bullpen, we see a solid RH lineup of KMac, Motte, Perez, Franklin and probably Kinney, BUT if we move KMac to the rotation (if for any reason Carp doesn’t pan out) and if any of Motte, Kinney or Perez struggle (all of which is possible, given their limited experience and, in Kinney’s case, recent wildness and, in Motte’s case, lack of a 2nd pitch), all of a sudden it’s looking thin.

NONE of our current LHP are anything but LOOGYs. They’ll not eat a lot of bullpen innings. Also, if we go with our current five best right-handers, we don’t really have a longman (Franklin?). ALSO, we might lose one of our better RH guys to the rotation (KMac) or Memphis (if Kinney/Motte don’t pan out as expected) leaving Boggs and ? to eat up some innings. With our BRUTAL schedule and few days off, plus a few starters who might not go more than 6 innings even on a good day (Wellemeyer, Pinata, Carp?), we need someone to pitch some serious innings out of the pen on the left side. I’d feel much more confident leaving Ohman in for 1-2 full innings than I would giving the ball to Miller or any of the others – witness how Villone (despite being a reasonable LOOGY) was toasted last year by having to pitch too much to RHHs….

So, in summary, SIGN OHMAN. If we have a couple of mill left in the budget I think we give ourselves the best chance of making the playoffs in 2009 by getting him and, if possible, Grudz (still need a RHH to platoon at 2B) than by saving the money for some later acquisition.

God help me I did it again, that’s right my masochistic habit of reading Tony’s Mouthpiece Live. I had to see how he’d address the Skip situation given the dismissive nature of comments he’s made about the move. This is what he gave us.

I’m careful how to address the situation because so many in talk radio and chat boards have mischaracterized previous statements. I previously minimized the experiments chance for success because: 1.) Schumaker has only two months to become competent at a position he has never before played, and 2.) He does not retain options to further develop at the position in Memphis.
Suggestions that the ChatMeister is rooting against Schu’ in order to be proved right are absurd. There is no harder worker on the team. I do believe many overlook the difficulty of what he is attempting.

Poor Joe, having to be so careful with his words because people have “mischaracterized previous statements”. I hate it when people miscaracterize what I say, even if it is word for word. To be fair he did make those points in the earlier chat, he just put “Come on: This isn’t Glen Allen Pony League.” in between them and ended with slight to “Roto-minded folks”. At this rate, by opening day Strauss will be saying he was calling on the move to second for years now. You know just like all of those “Roto-minded folks”.

Link

Does this sound fishy to anyone? Not claiming that this is what it is, but I was reading a Men’s Health article on a writer who took steroids. He was a first timer and injected the steroids into his hip. He ended up doing it wrong and got a bubble of black puss under his skin. I wonder if that could lead to a cyst?

Sorry for showing my ignorance. Can anyone with medical knowledge tell me if this is possible?

that we should make offers to all 3 of these guys… they are all the same age, and seem to be about the same in abilities. it’s not looking like any of our lefties in the bullpen are going to be as good as these 3 guys, so why not sign one of them?

how is our new short stop doing?

any reports at all?

Is anyone else going to see Watchmen tomorrow? I have heard nothing but awesome things about it so far. I really don’t know that much about the plot which seems to be a good thing. I just got the Watchmen comic DVD though and not sure if should wait till after watching it on theater to watch it or not

Early showings aren’t very reassuring, though.

I’ve liked Reyes for a long time, he was always tough on lefties but didn’t start to shine until the Twins noticed and started using him more selectively. He had some knee problems two years ago that might account for that down season. I’d hate to see him used as Ron Villone was last year, though, and put together a mediocre season since his splits are fairly pronounced.

Of the three, if none of our current options shake the rust off in a hurry, I’d guess Ohman would be the best pick. Dude could conceivably close.

SN: Fans don’t know how much …
BD: I live and die with team performance

Did the Cardinals improve their lefty relief?

Cardinals LOOGYs: Isn’t there more to it?

Anybody able to find a link to Gameday Audio for today’s DR game?

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2009_03_05_domint_slnmlb_1

do some damage

for this exhibition game aren’t compiled into the rest of the ST grapefruit game stats? Seems like they should be.

than spending a fine 70 degree March day out in the sun, enjoying a cold, frosty one, and listening to the Birds ? I think not.

quiet game so far.

The DR’s lineup is sick even without A-rod.

I missed the beginning of the simile, but commentary was roughly “it would be like Tony LaRussa took some time off from the Cardinals to manage Team USA.”

For a second I thought he meant Ichiro was in the infield….

time to make marmalade out of marmol, or something. marmolize him

I like Ohman the best, simply because his splits aren’t quite so dramatic as the others. In order of preference, I ’d probably go Ohman, Beimel, Reyes, but any ot the three are probably okay.

And strangely enough, I would actually kind of enjoy seeing Pedro brought in to see if he could close for this team this year. I’m all in favour of just using Perez, but one year of an old dude with Perez and Motte setting him up actually wouldn’t upset me at all. Not sure why, exactly, but it wouldn’t.

Plus, I love Pedro. Always have. He may be done, I’m not sure, but if he isn’t too very expensive, it might at least be worth it to bring him in and see if he can make the transition. At the very least, it would be short-term, so I don’t see it locking us in for more than a single year.

Here are two paragraphs out of an article on the P-D website today.

Brett Wallace, the top draft pick from Arizona State who was deemed to have an outside shot at the third-base job wth Glaus out, basically has no chance right now, said La Russa. La Russa has made sparing use of Wallace in the spring games, saying other players in camp deserve the at-bats more than Wallace because Wallace does not figure in the club’s plans for 2009.

"That’s really unfair to him," said La Russa. "He doesn’t have a chance to make our club. He never had a chance to make our club as a third baseman."

Apparently, “Walrus” won’t be coming north with the big club. I thought this would be the case, I didn’t think it would come out as gospel truth, so to speak, until later in the spring. BTW, I assume in TLR’s quote, he means this season.

At least that’s the impression I got from Shannon’s call.

playng for Dominican Rep.?

I don’t like seeing him take playing time from the other outfielders

With A-Rod out till May maybe we should trade Allen Craig to the Yankees? Obviously after a month they would no longer need him so having him with options would allow him to go to AAA afterwords.

DR’s first two batters reached and they scored a run. Only three hits and no walks since…

Cards sign Reyes

3 outs for Motte

Scoop via Derek Goold’s twitter feed