ok, let's take stock after the first 10 games:
- isringhausen's a bum
- encarnacion's a bigger bum than we thought
- looper stinks
- rincon stinks
- the 2bmen all stink
- and now edmonds is no good anymore?
we've seen him go through stretches like this before, but there was always a drew or sanders or renteria in the lineup to pick up some of the slack. nobody like that this season, though; it's all up to the 3 big wheels. when one of them isn't rolling smoothly, it's gonna be a bumpy ride. in 9 games since the 13-run outburst on opening day, the cardinals are hitting .223 and slugging .317.
in spite of which, st louis could very easily stand 7-3 or 8-2 or even 9-1 at this moment. the two bullpen failures vs the cubs, edmonds' errors on thursday, some great defense by carlos lee and tony womack. when you don't hit, little things like that turn wins into losses. we've been saying all winter that the cardinals' margin for error will be thinner in 2006 than in years past, and that's been the case so far. when the bats do pick up and izzy gets himself straightened out, some of the frustrating losses we've seen the last week will turn into wins. but it's still gonna be a grind. only 10 games into the season, it's pretty clear that the cards have come a ways back to the pack. after pummeling the nl central the last two years, the cards have started out 2-5 within the division.
in last night's game thread, salvomania made this observation:
so salvomania's basic point -- ie, lack of discretion at the plate -- may be on the money.
ponson williams
0-0, 5.40 0-1, 3.00