Even as poor as our approach at the plate has been, we’re still right in the thick of the race. If our brilliant, hall of fame manager can somehow decide that the team needs to be more patient at the plate, maybe, just maybe we can come out of this funk. Remember what we were doing in April? Do it again!

how do we get these guys to be more patient at the plate?

Since we never play them in interleague games, I had almost forgotten there was a baseball team in Detroit. How embarrassing! Boy did I luck out. Apparently LaRussa is friends with their manager or something? I wonder why nobody ever mentions this during broadcasts. It’s a good thing the schedules in major league baseball are so balanced.
OK, in all seriousness… Khalil Greene to third didn’t really cause much of a reaction in me when I first heard the news. Nothing is really shocking anymore with this team. But after thinking about it for a while I’m pretty dubious. I mean, I see the reasoning behind it. Wallace has struggled at AAA but since he’s still young they probably weren’t too worried about him struggling there, they see him as having plenty of time to adjust. So clearly they’re not worried about interfering with his development by giving PAs to Greene at third. I guess they believe it’s possible he can hit well enough to make sense there. But at this point I’m not sure it’s worth it. I believe he can field the position well enough, but I also think that the typical “successful” Greene offensive output looks way way better from a SS than a 3B. I can accept the terrible OBP if it’s paired with surprising SLG numbers, especially if it’s our shortstop, who fields well, and doesn’t hit in a prime spot in the order. But we’re gravitating more towards Ryan and Other Greene in the middle infield, and Skip hasn’t exactly impressed with the bat this year. So putting Khalil at third is basically relying even more on our outfield and Albert for offense. Albert has become almost a universal constant, like taxes or entropy. But our outfield has not exactly been the powerhouse so far we expected or hoped.
I guess the short version of my opinion on Greene is: if everything else that is going wrong with this team starts also getting better, than a better hitting Greene might work out at 3B. That might be too unrealistic for me right now.

What a horrible inning. It’s almost as if, after the club work two walks and saw 21 pitches in the inning, the batters decided they needed to be more aggressive. So, in the second inning, Yadi swung at the first pitch and grounded out to short. Rasmus then swung at the first pitch and flew out to left. T-Greene took a first-pitch ball and then grounded the second pitch he saw to the third baseman. 4 pitches, 3 outs. And the rest of our PAs last night largely followed the second inning’s pattern of aggressive swings and poor contact.

that Thurston should start at 2B. it makes things more confusing. they probably won’t start Thurston much at second anyway. so Tyler Greene is getting sent down again, right?

I understand Tony’s desire to mix and match (in addition to his loyalty to those that have performed well for him in the past). The productivity of many spare parts over the years is owed to LaRussa’s managing style.

That said, with the offense so enfeebled, I see little reason to keep sticking marginal players and outright non-answers into the lineup (yes I am looking at you Nick Stavihoha) to try and spark something. Players like Ludwick (who started the season well) and Rasmus (who has improved) should be playing everyday. If Tony wants to mix and match, do it with the 3rd outfield spot, but an outfield with Duncan and Ankiel both starting is brutal offensively and deffensively.

i know we are only a game out and in a very winnable division. i’m not advocating selling or giving up on the season. and i also realize we don’t really have anyone save rasmus to sell high on at this point and we definitely shouldn’t do that.

but my impression is that we always seem to think we are one role player and a bit of luck away from making a run at it. is this actual circumstance or something i’m fabricating in my head?

I attended two games about a week ago. I was in amazement at the 9 players that were on the field. Barden? Ryan? Stavinoha? Duncan? Schumaker(2B)? Tyler Greene? To me, our lack of offense comes down to…our lack of talent. These players are not “everyday” players in the major leagues. Yes, it’s great to see some of the Cardinal farm hands getting a shot with the big club, but I don’t see this offense turning around with five of them in the line-up on any given night. Chris Duncan showed promise early on, but this is the Major Leagues, teams make adjustments. He is too easy to get out. I feel the same for Ankiel. You can pitch to him, even when he is on a hot streak. He will not consistently burn you. Teams have adjusted to them. The organization has to take a step back and evaluate its talent base more realistically.

You guys are some pathetic mother fuckers with short term memory. Don’t any of you remember 2006!? We sucked something hard during that season. Have we lost 8 games in a row this season? No. You guys sound like band wagon fans ready to throw in the towel when we a little down on our luck. We are a half a game out of first place and you guys are talking about selling off the team cause we don’t have a chance.

Most people achieved their greatest success one step beyond what looked like their greatest failure.

I never said this season is over, my point is that to expect a repeat of 2006 is unrealistic. If you are counting on that great, but I will go with the history books. What happened in 2006 was special because no team with 83 wins had done it before. Do you really expect lightning to strike twice.

if we hadn’t lost a few games already for Carp. they guy ain’t getting any run support

Since I am getting that familiar “damn it seems like we’re just getting screwed by lefty pitching” feeling I decided to check b-ref and see if we are facing an unusual amount of LHP so far. The answer, surprisingly or unsurprisingly, is a resounding “maybe!”
This is far from perfect, as I merely made a list of PAs against lefties for each NL team so far this year to see how we compare. Maybe it would be better to see the # of actual lefty pitchers faced or something like that, but this was easier.
This still takes into account AL lefties we face, and I didn’t see much point in comparing to AL offenses. Listed in order from greatest to least.

Braves: 822
Pads: 794
Phils: 776
Cards: 720
Marlins: 714
Rocks: 688
Nats: 660
Dodgers: 659
Mets: 625
Dbacks: 616
Pirates: 579
Reds: 577
Brewers: 555
Giants: 552
Astros: 498
Cubs: 429

So out of 16 NL teams, we are in the top 25% when it comes to amount of PAs against lefthanders, so far this season. Does this surprise anybody? Is this going to be the kind of stat that will fluctuate wildly no matter what, and doesn’t tell you all that much? Probably. Also, if lefties are shutting you down then theoretically you’d have fewer PAs per game against them, but you’d have at least a set # per game assuming they last a decent amount of innings against you. Just food for thought. Or harsh dismissal as totally meaningless and irrelevant, take your pick. I like giving you the power to decide.

why John Mozeliak, and before him, Walt Jocketty, make no attempts over the offseason to fix the problem with this team versus LHP? They continuously fail in bringing in guys with favorable splits versus LHP (and i’m not talking about just impact players, even role/platoon players). We’ve had this issue with LHP since atleast 06, and probably earlier (my memory sucks), you’d think they’d atleast make an effort to fix this shit.

Cards are tied for fewest comeback wins (10) in ML

Look…Cliff Lee is a very good pitcher. However, the Cardinals made life easy for him. Plain and simple, they got themselves out more often than not. I don’t buy the “well, maybe those WERE their pitches!” argument, because if they were why were the swings so crappy and unaggressive? No, this team, as a group, has no idea what their pitches are. I think that Ludwick, if nothing else, will start hitting for more power because he always has had that ability. I think that Ank will have some kind of a hot streak at some point based on teams throwing him a few hanging curveballs here and there. That won’t be enough.

At what point does the FO and manager “get it” and realize that some of these guys simply aren’t going to turn it around because they don’t have the ability to turn it around? At what point do the team’s hitters realize that you can’t get by hacking away at everything? At what point does it become clear that just because Stavinoha has had some big hits in a few games that he’s a useless player? At what point does Hal McRae get fired, because this team goes through team-wide stretches of horrible at bats every year (granted, maybe that’s the players and I don’t know how much impact McRae really has one way or the other, but if you’re a hitting coach and your team isn’t hitting…)? At what point does TLR stop being batshit insane and just start playing Rasmus and Ludwick every day that they can physically play?

I feel that it is absolutely horrible that we are watching Carpenter and Pujols perform at a remarkably high level and yet this team can’t score. This team is below .500 since April ended…that is a month and a half of stinkitude. That’s not a bad stretch. That’s a poor team.

When I see the line-up for this team every day I can’t help but think of all the people (including myself at times) that was shouting from the rooftops a few years ago for this team to get younger and to bring up the guys from the minors to bring this team to the promised land again.

Not trying to poo poo on the plan, but when I see this team, all I can think of is that we are in desperate need of a veteran hitter to help Pujols and maybe to help these young guys out. Somebody with a presence like Reggie Sanders and Larry Walker was for us.

I’m not going to throw in the towel yet, and I may be the only one to think this but I would like to see what bringing in a veteran bat can do to help this offense. I would be ok for Mo to make a move to get us a good stick to maybe kickstart the heart of this 2009 team.

Why is there no game thread for that day? I can’t seem to find it.

The Cardinals next opponent is the Detroit Tigers, and they will get to face none other than Justin Verlander. I’m predicting CG, 0 K, 0 BB, 1 H, 1 HBP, 37 pitches. Post game post conference comments from TLR:

“We tried to change up strategies. A couple of at bats we took a pitch.”

“Hal McRae deserves a lot of credit.”

“We wanted to be aggressive.”

“I hate dogs.”

Maybe not the last one.

I was in Cleveland this weekend. We went to the game on Saturday and went to dinner afterwards. We happened to go to the same restaurant as many of the Cardinals players. We sat right next to Jason Motte, Chris Perez, and PJ Walters.

Skip walked in and was extremely friendly towards my wife and 3 year old son. He gave his autograph and a high five. He even chatted for a few minutes. He was a really nice guy.

My friend’s daughter, who is 13 years old, had her Ankiel jersey on. Rick was sitting at a table with Chris Carpenter, Wainwright, Lohse, and a couple others. She really wanted Rick’s autograph and asked me to point him out so she could ask him. (She couldn’t recognize him with no uniform) We waited till they were done eating and I pointed him out.

She walked up and politely asked if he would sign her jersey. Rick imediately turned his head and ignored her. I don’t think anyone could’ve come off anymore rude or arrogant than what he did. It was so bad that Wainwright, took the jersey and signed it himself.

Some other folks eating at the restaurant saw what happened and came up and said what a bunch of jerks they all were besides that one guy (Wainwright).

I just thought this was pathetic by a professional sports player and wanted others to hear it. It was embarrassing. I just still can’t believe that a player would treat a 13 year old fan that way. I’m definitely no fan of his.

for the MLB Network classic game of Gibby’s 1968 WS performance that starts at 8 EST.

If they hang on, we’re tied for the division league. Even as poorly as we’ve played.

DeRosa for Perez straight up. Your bullpen fucking blows.

good video for many cardinals to watch