Cards Bullpen

Extremely rare sight this season

The Cardinals have blown an incredible number of saves this season. The total is 5 or 6, I know Franklin has 4 and the rest of the staff has at least one. So about HALF their losses are due to blown saves! That is just an amazing feat. FYI without any blown saves the Cards would have the best record in all of baseball and by about 3.5 games, these are all amazing numbers in the majors after only one month. But what has shocked me the most is that the Cardinals bullpen ERA is 3.30. That puts them 8th in the NL smack dab in the middle. But it certainly seems like our numbers should be much worse than that. Apparently we have some pitchers that know how to pitch late in games, just not the ninth. By comparison the Cubs bullpen ERA stands at 3.44, so I guess it could be worse...

Also, why for a team that is hitting an amazing .301 on the season is Tony LaRussa so adamant about batting Descalso or Punto at the top of the order? They are hitting a combined .206. If you need a middle infielder to hit at the top of the lineup so badly at least put Green up there. He is at least semi-competent and does not take strike three three damn times in one game.

No Really, I am Serious, Put Me In

I do a lot of joking about the fact that I should be put into professional/college games from time to time. But let's look back at my credentials. I played exactly one high school sport. Golf. Could I have played college golf, yes, but I decided to go to UNL and I could not have made that team... and lets face it, they are not exactly a dominant program. But I could have played DII golf had I wanted to. The rest of the sports are a different story. I played football in junior high, but I was 5'2" then and slow. There is no place for a slow tiny kid on the football field. I played basketball in junior high as well but did not make my high school team. Shocking a 5'2" kid missed out there as well. (I will caveat that by saying that I made the JV team and would have ended up on the team but my heart was not in it so I quit)

What about baseball? I played for years and years and the two things I took from it is that I was a really good pitcher and a terrible hitter. I could throw a mean hook and I could not hit one to save my life. I gave it up because I was a scratch golfer and they were both spring sports. I had a -1 handicap in golf and that is better than an above average curveball and a much much below average fastball especially in high school when you need to hit as well as pitch.

So there are tons of times when I kid around and say that me and 4 of my friends could go out and beat the Maine basketball team. I know for a fact that we would get dominated. Yet I think it is funny to say when the 'Cuse is struggling against a team it should dominate.

But that being said, I would stake a month of TV watching (and if you know me this is a big bet) on the fact that I would fare better than Ryan Franklin on the mound in the same number of innings he has pitched. Now sure, after a while I would regress towards the mean, but I have some serious advantages he does not. One, I believe I can throw a fastball about 59 MPH. Who is going to see that coming? And I can easily vary the speeds of my fastball. I can certainly toss one up there at about 50 MPH. FYI for those keeping track at home, batting practice pitchers throw about 70-78 MPH, and remember when they tried to screw up McGwire by throwing lob balls up there and it worked? I can do that with some actual late movement on the ball. Two, I can toss a wicked circle change at about 46 MPH. Try squaring up a pitch more than 40 MPH below anything you see in live action AND with a solid 15 MPH difference between that and the fastball. UNHITTABLE! Oh and it does not matter what your bat speed is, it will be tough to turn a 46 MPH change up into a homer. Three, I can actually still throw a 12-6 curve ball (kicked my nephew's ass with this last xmas). My curve looks like Darryl Kile with all the movement, just in super-slow motion. So I would have 3 pitches that would easily unnerve the best MLB hitters out there. If you are keeping track at home that is 3 more pitches than Ryan Franklin has right now.

Look, I will take the league minimum to test my theory. No problem there. But as is apparent, we need all of us to bring our 30-something asses out from retirement and start dominating hitters with our wicked, super slow stuff for the Cardinals relief staff to stand a chance this year. I believe we are on pace for 40 blown saves! This has to change. And it starts with removing Franklin, but I am not impressed with the rest of the staff, so:

"Put me in coach, I'm ready to play... today."

NFL Draft

Anybody excited for the Draft? Im usually pretty pumped for the Draft by this time but with the lock out and all I dont feel as excited forn the draft as I usually am. Most Mock Drafts have my 49ers taking LSU CB Patrick Peterson, I would be happy with that pick CB is a huge need. We also need a damn QB but please no Cam Newton, Blaine Gabbert, or Jake Locker! Im just not sold on these guys in the NFL

Let's Play Two!

After the Cards game was washed out last night they rescheduled for a double header today. But it is one of those damn day-night double headers. I wish that baseball wasn't so greedy that they really needed to get gate sales from two games. And the last time I attended a game that was rained out my option was to come back tomorrow for the game... umm I am not from this city, but alas I had no other options. So I was out my $50 without any recourse. So how many people that had tickets last night are now sitting at work eating $50 or more for tickets to a make up game today that they cannot attend? Lets go back to REAL double headers. One ticket, two games! How fantastic an idea. And lets let people attending a rain out to exchange their ticket for another game of their choosing during the season. I bet there are 20,000 at Busch Stadium today for the day game. Quite an atmosphere that will bring in!

The last REAL double header I attended was in 2002. I went with my brother in law and nephew. I was spotted on the jumbo tron without my shirt and my nephew and I had dinner with my parents the next night where he retold the story better than I ever could. "Uncle Keith had 7 beers at the baseball game and didn't eat ANYTHING!" Man that was a fun day. I hope it is not my last double header ever...

Justice?

So Barry Bonds is only found guilty of obstruction of justice? Really? After all of that evidence a jury couldnt convict Bonds of perjury? What a freakin joke! On the radio people are calling in saying "who really cares?" then it was asked "does the real baseball fan care about all of this steroid stuff, after all it were these "juicers" that saved baseball" In my opinion and I am only one man, it will forever matter to me. Part of my love for baseball is the love for all the crazy statistics that baseball has, growing up I knew all the HR numbers of the 500HR club, I knew Cy Young had 511 wins, I knew Ty Cobbs lifetime batting avg, I knew that 56 meant DiMaggio's Hitting streak and that Ted Williams was last hitter to hit .400. Players who have decided to use PEDs have tainted these cherished statistics and have forever tainted the game. I was right there with everyone else back in 1998 glued to the TV and checking sportscenter to see "did McGwire hit another one, how about Sammy" That was a magical year, no doubt about that but looking back on it now, its kinda sad. I will say this, McGwire and Sosa are both great guys and have done so much with there fame and fortune to help children out in thier areas and hometowns but its just sad to think that these guys "cheated the game" and frankly "cheated us" I love the HR just as much as the next person, but not if its not 100% real. As a lifetime baseball fan I have to say "i do care" Shame on MLB for allowing the "steroids era" to happen and not do anything about it and Shame on the "juicers" for tainting a game I love. I personally hope the Hall of Fame voters keep them all out of the Hall of Fame, which is a shame because most of the guys on the list, especially Barry Bonds would be HOFers even with out the juice, but then again we will never know now will we? As the years go by I hope we can distance ourselves from the "steroid era" and find our baseball Heroes that play the game the right way.

2 weeks in....

With nearly two full weeks of baseball down, the cardinals have already shown the fans quite a bit. With the offense starting off in the toilet the pitching was basically dominant. Aside from the game Keith and I attended they were in every game they played. Clearly this team is not the same with no. 7 on the bench. As good of a hitter as Allen Craig is, he is certainly no Matt Holiday. Then again who is? Good god the man came back from an appendectomy is half the time it was expected.

One shining light beaming from these first two weeks is the young talent the cards have. Colby Rasmus, David Freese, Allen Craig, Jaime Garcia and Kyle Mclellan, to name a few. Rasmus and Freese have been carrying this club with the absence of Pujols' bat. Once he starts swinging(I'm no longer as salty about his slow start and am just now eagerly awaiting the show) and Holiday and Berkman(who has 3 HR in 2 games) do what they have always done, you might have a club that will contend with Votto's red hot Reds.

Starting pitching has absolutely not gone the way the pundits predicted. Once 50 was out for the year everyone turned to Carp to handle the load. Aside from Westbrook, Carp has had one of the least impressive showings since the season started. Lohse has completely surprised me in that his stuff looks sharp and he appears to be in control. I'm cautiously hopeful that Kyle can pick up a significant amount of wins. Jaime's complete game shutout of the Padres team that posted 11 the day prior was magnificent. Dave Duncan has spun pure gold out of Jaime's arm. Jaime clearly passes the eye test and has enough break and deception to fool any big league hitter. The sky is the limit.

Moving forward, optimism lingers in redbird nation. With an offense that can do its share of damage and pitching that may surprise a few clubs, the Cardinals have a chance to dig themselves out of the hole they have been in since Jocketty left.

Slacking

Well, we have all either not had much to say, or we are all slacking. Either way I want to put something out there that has been driving me nuts. NO, it is not the pathetic start by Ryan Franklin. I have been VERY unhappy with my LG blu ray player.

What the heck does this have to do with sports? Well my player is supposed to support my MLB.tv package. But that has not been the case. First off, they did not have any preseason games that my blu ray player could get. This was not too big a deal as not many of my Cardinals games were ever broadcast this spring. But since they did not have spring training games they were unable to work out any kinks!

Opening day came and my MLB.tv worked perfectly as it has for years on my computer. I had no problem watching games (even on my google chrome browser, that was a bit of a surprise) at work on my computer. But when I got home and wanted to put up games on my tv via my LG blu ray player... I got to watch 2 seconds before "cannot connect to MLB.tv server". BASTARDS! And this problem did not just persist for opening day. It has been a problem for days until finally a firmware update was released that fixed the issue late on April 9th.

The problem with this was that I had bookmarked a couple of sites (like the LG and MLB forums) that promised an update when the problem was resolved. Nope, nothing. It has been out for two days and no site manager has let the masses know the issue has been fixed. Come on people, let your customers know the issue has been resolved.

Anyway, the LG update BD.8.31.339.C has finally resolved the issue. The first couple days it was tough to download because their servers were being stressed, but you should not have an issue now. I can now watch in frustration as Pujols struggles at the plate in beautiful HD on my TV and not just my computer. This was unacceptable, lets not allow this to happen again.