reyes penny
1-3, 3.86 10-2, 2.91
who said jeff weaver wouldn't improve the cardinal rotation? since the cardinals acquired him july 5, the stl starters have posted a 2.66 era (50.2 innings) and thrown 5 quality starts in 7 games. weaver hasn't thrown a single inning, but who cares . . . . . he makes his cardinal debut in a nationally televised game on espn, just as ponson did. anybody noticed the cards haven't lost since ponson got DFA'd?
reyes: i'd like to see a little more of his changeup. he doesn't have to be too fine with that pitch -- can get a lot of the plate with it and still make hitters look bad. that, in turn, might allow him to stop trying to pinpoint every fastball and just concentrate on throwing strikes. in his first three starts this season, anthony threw 70 percent of his pitches for strikes (184 out of 269); in his last three starts, only 57 percent (154 out of 272). he's walked 10 guys in his last 15 innings, which is extremely uncharacteristic for him; he's had outstanding control at every level of the minor leagues. if he keeps putting hitters into favorable counts, he's gonna keep scuffling. throw it over the plate, kid.
los angeles must hate coming to st louis. going back to 2004 (including playoffs), they're 1-11 when playing in the gateway city. their lone win came in the infamous "choi" game last year, when hee sop choi collided w scott rolen in the bottom of the 5th and effectively ended his season, then hit a game-winning homer in the next half-inning.
anybody know when the cards' last 4-game sweep occurred? i scanned the last two years' worth of game logs and didn't see a single one. . . .
i'll end this lazy sunday a.m. post with a quick tour through the minors. good pitching throughout the system, both for and against. chris narveson threw well at triple a -- 6 inn, 2 runs -- but took a loss because memphis got no-hit by three nashville pitchers. the nashville starter was carlos villanueva, a 22-year-old domincan right-hander making his first triple-a start. he spent most of last season in a ball, got promoted two weeks ago after a good first half at huntsville. a member of the milwaukee farm system . . . .
one classification below that, the stl organization nearly notched its own no-hitter as blake hawksworth dominated san antonio. he gave up a walk and a homer to the first two batters of the game, then threw 7 no-hit innings with 8 strikeouts. springfield rallied to get him the win, his first in double-a.
drop another level, and another low hit total: nick webber tossed a CG 3-hitter for palm beach. webber, a 2d-rounder from the 2005 draft, has scuffled in high-a, with more hits allowed than innings pitched and, worse yet, more walks than strikeouts. . . . step in the right direction.
finally, our own very favorite minor-leaguer in the cardinal chain, trey hearne, won his 5th straight for quad cities with 7 efficient innings. shane robinson and bryan anderson got 2 hits apiece; so did larry bigbie, who's now 5 for 14 on his rehab assignment. all 5 hits are singles . . . .