Splitting the Weekend

The Cards finally broke the seal on the win column this weekend.  After falling Saturday in extra innings to Florida, they were able to get a win against the Marlins on Sunday.  Kyle McClellan had a very solid start, but had to since his main competition, Rich Hill , was just about as good.  McClellan went three innings of one-hit ball, while Hill came in and struck out two in his two innings, though he did allow a wind-aided home run.

I don’t know that this outing tells us a whole lot about McClellan, though probably a little bit.  He’s not an unknown quantity.  We know that he can get batters out, especially in a short outing.  He’s gone two or three innings before in the bigs.  (OK, three innings just once, but the point holds.)  The key is going to be when he starts lengthening out his starts and facing the bats two or three times.  Will he make adjustments?  Will the batters catch up to him?  Can he keep the focus and stamina through a longer time on the mound?  While there’s no indication that these questions will be answered in a negative fashion, we still need to wait until his next start (and possibly the one after that) to get a good feel for him as a starter.

In Hill’s case, it was good to see that the “dead arm” he had earlier in camp has apparently cleared up, at least somewhat.  Seeing if he can handle the longer outings will be something to keep an eye on as well.  His command apparently was fairly strong, though he did throw as many pitches in two innings as McClellan did in three, which is something to watch.  Both of these guys go again Friday, with Hill going first, and the most intriguing battle of the spring picks up again then.

The other news from the weekend was that the first cuts were made, as ten were sent to the minor league camp .  While some of these guys will still get a little filler time with the big club during the spring, they’ll do most of their work with the minor leaguers.  Not really any surprises on there–Charlie Zink’s blowup this week apparently cost him quickly–but I think the most surprising thing to me is that Shelby Miller wasn’t on the list.  His batterymate, Robert Stock, was, so I was expecting to see his name, especially since players will still go back and forth.  Apparently they think there is still value in Miller hanging with the big kids.  I’m looking forward to him getting into a game, and wouldn’t be surprised if that doesn’t happen today or tomorrow.

The UCB roundtable is still going strong, with the transcript of this weekend’s question up over at Stan Musial’s Stance .  For the complete schedule and links to the transcripts that are up, check over here .

If you haven’t already, be sure to put in your entry into the 2010 Cardinal Approval Ratings !  Already 46 entries in, so I’m looking forward to how they shake out.  The deadline is Friday, so head on over and get them in!

Today’s an exciting matchup, even if it is spring training.  The Cardinals travel over to Boston’s spring training camp for a game that will pit Chris Carpenter against Josh Beckett.  That one should be a lot of fun!