Game 108 Open Thread: August 4, 2006

carpenter davis
10-5, 2.93 6-6, 5.02

much ado about the rumored waiver claim on andruw jones by an unknown team. not impossible -- but not likely either -- that the cardinals are the claimant. when peter gammons dropped jones' name into the trade-rumor mill in late june, it was thought that the braves wanted young position players back, and that the white sox might offer centerfielder brian anderson as the centerpiece of a deal. assuming that's still the type of commodity the braves would want back, the cardinals can offer chris duncan and . . . . that's about it. but if he were paired with, say, brad thompson and one of the strong-armed pitchers at double a . . . . squint real hard and you can maybe almost kinda sorta see the vague outlines of something. jones is under contract for 2007 at $13.5m, so if he did join the cardinals it might mean au revoir, jimmy edmonds. or maybe they'd try to dump en'cion's salary in the off-season . . . . . .

to repeat: this is a lonnnngshot. jones probably isn't coming to st louis. but just on the off-chance . . . . if jocketty were somehow able to get him without losing wainwright or reyes, a lot of us know-it-all critics would stop carping about front-office inaction and resume singing walter's praises. at least, this know-it-all would.

for tonight's opposing starter, doug davis, it's all about the walks. in his one good month (june) he issued 2 free passes a game; in his three lousy months he walked at least 4.5 men per 9. he no-decisioned the cardinals long, long ago, in the 3d game ever played at the new stadium. . . .

jaime garcia nominally threw a complete game loss vs tampa last night -- 6 innings in a rain-shortened road loss. a good outing, despite the L - 6 hits, 1 walk, 4 ks, and 2 runs, both earned. garcia has steadied himself after a rough transition to high-a ball; still probably has 5 or 6 starts left on the schedule. if he pitches consistently well in them, you never know but what he might debut at double a next april.

at the quad, mark hamilton hit his first homer in a 6-4 loss. his college teammate nate southard also homered --- a walkoff to give state college a 3-2 extra-inning victory over williamsport.