Sorry Albert, It’s Votto’s Time

Ranking the 2010 NL MVP Candidates [Author’s note: Irony can be pretty ironic, I suppose. It’s not the first time that an MVP favorite tanked in the post-season, but Joey Votto did just that, going 1-for-10 against the Phillies as his Cincinnati Reds went three and out. It’s worthy to mention that the ballots from […]

Expectations Met

Well, it was a road game against a cellar-dweller.  Was there really any doubt how last night’s game was going to turn out? Just for kicks, here’s something interesting.  The last time the Cardinals won on Tuesday, they had a brawl during the game, as it was that sweep in Cincy that had everyone fired up. […]

Broken Promises

“I won’t lose again.” Adam Wainwright said those words two starts ago, upset with how he had been performing and looking at a four-game losing streak.  He was able to win last time out, continuing the vow, but last night, that promise was broken. The two-out problem bit the Cardinals again.  In the second, Wainwright had […]

More Of The Same

It’s a little checklist that Cardinal fans go through before games, to prepare themselves for what is to come: Is the opposing pitcher someone the Cardinals haven’t seen much of? Check. Does the opposing pitcher have a high ERA? Check. Is the opposing pitcher lefthanded? Hey, he’s not!  Maybe they have a chance! Of course, […]

Cardinals Get Off Script

We’ve seen it before.  Way too many times, in fact.  A miscue, a bad pitch, and suddenly the Cardinals are in a 3-0 hole early in the game, a hole that they don’t climb out of as they slog to another loss. Finally, someone got that script into rewrite. I was afraid we were in for […]

Steroids and Kids: Trying to Answer the Unanswerable Question

It started with an innocent question, as are all questions which come out of the mouth of an 8-year-old. Except this question cut at the heart of Major League Baseball – past, present and future. I was at Miller Park, attending a Brewers-Cardinals game with my wife and two sons. Up to the plate stepped […]

Sigh-Inducing

Just when you start to believe in this team, to think that they’ve finally found that gas pedal on the team car, they stomp on the brakes.  A four game winning streak to get into first place?  Let’s follow that up with three losses against sub-.500 teams!  I feel like I’m a driving instructor. Of course, […]

The Frustration Continues

Remember when I said that Cardinal fans should caution against getting too high off of that Cincinnati series?  Unfortunately, this 2010 team is becoming predictably frustrating.  Let’s look at the series. Friday (6-3 win) Hero: Albert Pujols.  Three hits, including a home run, and scored three runs.  AP pretty much did it all. Goat: Brendan Ryan.  Not […]

Doing It The Hard Way

When I turned on the game a little late last night, I was well-pleased to see that the Cards had already been serious, putting up six in the top of the inning.  And even though Jaime Garcia allowed two runs of his own in the bottom of the frame, I figured the Cards were well […]

Frustration Revisited

I thought this was behind us. Whatever corner the Cardinals turned after the All-Star break, they’ve turned another one or two and seem to be back where they started from–a frustrating team that can’t get anything going.  And when the big gun has an off night, you know things aren’t going your way. I guess you […]

Gaining On The Off Day

The Cardinals hit the Big Apple yesterday.  They saw the sites (Ryan Franklin went to the Statue of Liberty with his family, according to the official Cardinal Twitter feed), made some appearances (more on Albert Pujols in a bit) and picked up a half-game on the Reds when Milwaukee beat them 3-2.  In other words, just […]

All in the Cards

Ozzie Smith, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson. Three names Cardinals fans and baseball enthusiasts know well. But those are just three of the Redbirds 42 Hall of Famers. What about Rabbit Maranville, Chick Hafey or Pud Galvin? Authors Greg Marecek and Myron Holtzman engage readers with story after story in “The Cardinals of Cooperstown.” Pick up […]

Card Shuffling Proves Effective

The big news prior to yesterday’s game was the fancy new lineup that Tony La Russa was running out there.  Matt Holliday was hitting second, Ryan Ludwick was hitting fourth and, to the great joy of some, the pitcher was hitting eighth. Now, it’s hard to know if the lineup switcheroo was at all to […]

Desert Mirage

The Cardinals won the first game in Arizona, but that was just the oasis in the losing streak.  A quick recap: Friday (5-2 win) Hero: Brendan Ryan.  He’s still not found himself at the plate entirely, slipping back around .200, and a home run was about the most unlikely thing that could have happened in […]

Cardinals Struggling In LA

You know, when the offense is clicking, you think things are just going to roll on forever.  However, even with an offense like the Cardinals’, when you take out a couple of pieces, the Jenga tower apparently falls down. Another game without David Freese or Colby Rasmus turns into a 1-0 loss.  Chris Carpenter deserved […]

Their Reputation Preceeds Them

You know that going into San Diego, it’s going to be a tough place to score runs.  The park is designed for pitching and the Padres usually take advantage of that with some pretty solid pitchers.  Last night was a textbook example of that. Even though Adam Wainwright deserved so much better, striking out 12 […]

Cardinal Numerology

On a night when seven became three and five became four, it was seriously good that it all added up to six. Batting order probably is overrated and it is hard to know if the swap of Matt Holliday to third and Albert Pujols to fourth really had that much of an impact.  I think […]

Second Rate

After the sweep by the Astros, the Cardinals needed a series win to stay ahead of the Reds in the division standings.  It didn’t happen. Friday (4-3 win) Hero: Ryan Ludwick.  Three hits, including a two-run home run that proved to be the difference. Goat: Ryan Franklin.  Didn’t blow the save, but he did his darndest. […]

Laying An Egg

No, I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth or been thrown into some big glowing light on a remote island.  My work schedule has made it tough to blog this week and the Cardinals’ play has keep the motivation to blog down as well.  Let’s take a quick look at the Houston series […]

Another Rally By The Redbirds

You know, it’s kinda nice to see these comebacks.  Granted, I’d like to see them get a lead and then gradually increase it, but knowing that a team isn’t out of it is helpful. You have to give the Hero tag to Yadier Molina this time.  For the second straight night, he gave the Cards […]

Cardinal Comeback

First off, I want to say thank you to everyone who has expressed kind words over the Cardinal Blogosphere Guide.  I hope that it results in increased traffic for the blogs listed and that you can find another source of can’t-miss Cardinal writing. Perhaps it was just me, but it seems like if this was […]

Just How Good is Albert Pujols?

Would you believe that Albert Pujols is already one of the top twenty position players of the modern era (since 1920)?  In addition to that, he is the third best first baseman of the period – behind only Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx.  These are conclusions drawn from the CAWS Career Gauge. Bill James’ Win […]

Cardinals Continue to Battle Injuries

Things were rolling along.  Matt Holliday was back from his rib cage injury and starting to find his groove.  Albert Pujols was back from his back, relieving a lot of worries in Cardinal Nation.  Everything was great, until yesterday’s game, when Yadier Molina pulled up lame, left the game, and was diagnosed with a strained […]

A Pain in the Back

The Cardinals split up the squad yesterday and wound up with two wins, including a huge eighth inning that brought them from behind against the Red Sox.  So what’s the major story today? Albert Pujols’s back, of course.  The man gets a hangnail, Cardinal Nation hyperventilates.  With good reason. This is starting to trouble me […]

Garcia Makes a Statement

Even though the Cardinals lost to the Nationals yesterday, they were able to take something away from it.  Jaime Garcia isn’t interested in Memphis. Garcia struck out seven batters in three innings, allowing no runs and just one hit and a walk.  Of  course, you adjust that for competition, since the Nationals aren’t known for […]

Dealing With the “Rumor”

I guess not surprisingly, the biggest thing coming out of Cardinals camp yesterday was a Seinfeldian discussion about nothing. Look, no one took that “trade rumor” involving Albert Pujols and Ryan Howard the least bit seriously.  No one thought that it might happen, that the teams really had talked about it, etc.  I think most […]

Great What-If Matchups

One of most baseball historians’ favorite things to speculate about is how certain players would have done if their careers had happened in different times and places and against different opponents. How spectacular would Ozzie Smith have been on a dirt infield with a small glove instead of on Astroturf? Suppose Ted Williams had been […]

Fun at the Old Ballpark

The Cardinals seem to have righted the ship and are moving in a positive direction, winning both games of the weekend.  Before we talk about that, though, let’s discuss the topic making the rounds: Buster Olney’s report of a Albert Pujols/Ryan Howard trade. First off, the Olney report is probably accurate, because when you read […]

Wounded Birds

While there was plenty of news from the game yesterday, the biggest discussion point probably happened before the first pitch was ever thrown. Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday were both scratched from yesterday’s game against the Nationals.  Pujols’s back still isn’t quite right and Holliday has a strained rib cage muscle.  A team that looks […]

News and Notes from the Grapefruit League

Like the Army, baseball is filled with Hurry Up & Wait situations. That’s especially true for writers, who arrive hours before gametime in an often-frustrating effort to pin down players or managers for interviews. There’s competition for each player, with the biggest stars commanding the most attention from media types, and a pecking order that […]

Back Against It

The biggest news from Cardinals camp yesterday didn’t come out of the matchup between the Cards and the Red Sox, between Chris Carpenter and Josh Beckett.  The news of the day was made before the game even started and hopefully hasn’t put the team’s back to the wall. Albert Pujols didn’t make the trip yesterday […]

Still Just Spring Training

At least there was a reason. Brad Penny was one of the most intriguing names brought into St. Louis during the offseason.  A lot of us were interested to see what this guy, who had been a very successful pitcher in the past, could do with Dave Duncan’s tutelage.  So seeing the results yesterday would […]

Stumbling Out of the Gate

Well, that wasn’t the way Cardinal fans wanted to see things get started. OK, let’s put in the usual disclaimers.  It was a spring training game.  Most of the regulars weren’t in there, and you can’t take a lot away from one game, especially the first of the year.  So I’m not drawing any conclusions […]

Cardinals Getting Ready

Before we get to the news of the weekend, it’s just come across Twitter that the Cards have invited Shelby Miller and Sam Freeman into camp.  While it’s most likely to make sure they have enough arms for whatever drills and situations that they have in mind, it’s still interesting to see Miller get a […]

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