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off-day thisnthat

By lboros

today's post-dispatch characterizes carpenter's health status as "unclear":

A club source suggested his availability for his next start is in doubt after bursitis that has bothered him for much of two weeks flared again Tuesday night.
matt leach had a similar but slightly more comforting take at the official site:
According to manager Tony La Russa, the condition is a "yellow flag," as opposed to red, and Carpenter said he is "not concerned about it." Nonetheless, the issue was significant enough to proceed with caution, and it's unclear how soon Carpenter will be available again.
take your time, boys; no hurry. assuming for the moment that carpenter will miss his next start, which is scheduled for next tuesday, another "bullpen game" is likely in order, because anthony reyes can't be recalled until next wednesday. there's an off-day next thursday, which gives tony an opportunity to "slingshot" ponson forward on his next turn and extend carp's idle period until june 6th. like this:

fri 26th: supps
sat 27th: ponson
sun 28th: mulder
mon 29th: marquis
tues 30th: hancock (?)
wed 31st: supps
thur 1st: off day
fri 2d: mulder
sat 3d: marquis
sun 4th: supps
mon 5th: ponson
tues 6th: carp

if they do proceed this way, they might as well disable carp retroactive to his last start and recall a warm body from memphis to sop up some bullpen innings. i wish they'd just do it; better to have a healthy pitcher sitting around on the dl for a few days than risk pushing him back out there prematurely.

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after yesterday's game, the cardinal pitchers have the same slugging percentage as the left fielders (.330), with more homers (2 to 1) and nearly twice as much isolated power (.139 to .073). and the pitchers are beating the catchers in all categories:

pitchers: .191 / .248 / .330, 2 hr
catchers: .183 / .238 / .234, 0 hr

no shock to learn that the cardinal catching corps ranks dead last among the nl teams in OPS; the left fielders are next to last, and the right fielders are 14th out of 16. you might expect the marlins' lineup to carry three black holes like that, but the league's winningest team?

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those of us who are wondering what kind of trade value jason marquis still has might use yesterday's mets-dbacks deal as a guide. in exchange for orlando hernandez, who's even shakier than marquis -- 2-4 with a 6.11 era -- arizona got a sporadically useful reliever, jorge julio. the trade eliminates the mets as potential bidders for marquis' services but leaves the dbacks' already-thin rotation that much threadbarer (new word!). the 'backs have all those extra outfielders . . . . maybe things are lining up for a st louis - arizona trade later this summer.

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check it out --- bob dylan digs baseball.

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