Game 77 Open Thread: June 28, 2006

He is 8-20 with 1 HR and 2 RBIS.  As much as we blame the pitching staff for this losing streak, Albert has come up in plenty of situations during this stretch with a chance to give us a win or tie it in late innings and hasn't come through.  Other than his meaningless homerun against Chicago, he seemingly has had a power drain, returning to that 'Singles hitter' he likes to classify himself as.

That's not good, especially since we already have a really, really good high paid singles hitter in Scott Rolen.

By the way, what do you folks think of this Ken Rosenthal blurb? "Right-handed sinkerballer"...Could the Cards resist? He sort of puts out this notion that Westbrook may be on the block (which makes absolutely no sense to me) and then retracts it:

"The Indians likely will trade only players under one-year contracts if they become sellers, but contenders that play in hitter-friendly parks -- the Rangers, Reds, Phillies, etc. -- would perk up if right-handed sinker-baller Jake Westbrook became available. Westbrook, 28, has recovered from a rocky first two months to post a 2.27 ERA in his last five starts. The Indians probably wouldn't trade Westbrook, though -- they hold a $5.6 million option on him for 2007."

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5733200

Then, move Edmonds to right to give his legs and back a break, put Enc in left.  That would make the lineup something like

SS eck
2b luna
1b pujols
cf jones
3b rolen
cf edmonds
lf enc
c molina

this would basically require the cards to take on Jones's entire contract, so it would almost certainly preclude any pitching help, but I'm not convinced that the staff as is isn't built for the postseason provided that you have a lineup as good as the one above.  Certainly, as is, you can ride the patchwork through to a NL central title.  Then, you have Carp and Reyes up front.  Ponson can be moved to the pen (his stuff probably translates best to bullpen work, I think).  Then, take the best two of Suppan, Mulder and Marquis down the stretch.  The first two will give you a chance to win, and the second two will keep you in the game, and you only use the fourth starter once in a 7 game series, anyway.

If two of them haven't stabilized by then, then start conditioning Wainwright to be a starter sometime in early to mid August and plug him in as the 3rd or 4th starter, and let Ponson take over his role in the 'pen.

That team has at good a shot at the series as any, methinks.  Really, we are a couple of band-aids or one impact signing away, even with this putrid interleague disaster.

CLE
sizemore cf
belliard 2b
peralta ss
martinez c
broussard 1b
holl'sworth lf
boone 3b
gutierrez rf
westbrook p

STL
eck'n ss
edmonds cf
pujols 1b
rolen 3b
en'cion rf
rodriguez lf
molina c
miles 2b
carpenter p

looks like a win for the cardinals to me . . .

It's not a left right thing (Miles: .245 .310 .305 .614 vs. Right, Luna .288 .329 .425 .754), it's not a who's hot thing (Miles .232 .280 .319 .599 Luna .297 .342 .378 .720 in June).  It's not a what-did-you-do-yesterday thing, or a what-did-you-do-the-last-two-games thing-----I don't get it.  He's better than Miles in every way.  More range, faster, better hitter, stronger arm, more power, better OBP...everything.

Way to go, Yadi!!

have we ever figured out who la russa was talking about when he said "someone I previously thought was unavailable" last month?  That would be a heck of a july 31 comeback.

right?
right?

Bueller?

Our pitchers can't pitch when our offense is performing.

And our bullpen can't pitch. Period.

We're a triple threat!

error or no error, i don't care!!!!!!!

wahoooo!!!!!!!!

"in play, run-scoring play"

and they handed us the game.

TLR is a m-f genius.

we actually picked up a game on some folks.