SB Nation - Mitchell Boggs

Closers as synonym for Relievers

DanUpBaby — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 11:00:30 -0000

^^ is a closer.

The Matt Holliday Question—I like thinking of it that way, as though its ramifications for Singapore are about to be discussed in an unsigned piece in The Economist—has kept us from freaking out about the bullpen. In some ways this is a good thing; there's nothing less satisfying that worrying about The Bullpen Question, which is never answered to our satisfaction on a year-to-year basis. But with Holliday in Flux, we've got no choice. As a prompt, this headline from Ken Rosenthal: "Too many closers, not enough jobs":

For some closers, the free-agent game of musical chairs is not likely to end well...

Two more closers -- Pirates righty Matt Capps and Nationals righty Mike MacDougal -- became free agents when their respective teams declined to offer them salary arbitration.

The availability of the Padres' Heath Bell in trade only adds to the squeeze. Bell is more affordable than some of the closers on the open market...

Four teams already have found closers. The Braves signed left-hander Billy Wagner. The Orioles signed left-hander Mike Gonzalez. The Rays traded for righty Rafael Soriano and the Astros signed righty Brandon Lyon...

This article is why the term "closer" is worthless. I'm done trying to convince people any other way—no more decrying the overrated concept of "closing experience", of "the closer's mentality", of anything else that can be measured statistically. Mike MacDougal, Heath Bell, Billy Wagner, and Mike Gonzalez are all described here, by a well-regarded baseball reporter, as closers. If that is the case—then this term is completely without meaning.

Does labeling this set of relievers "closer" tell you anything more about them than labeling them relievers would? Just one thing: they have all pitched in the ninth inning for at least one season. This information is completely worthless.

That aside—this is not an extremely promising crop of relief pitchers. Jose Valverde is the best free agent, but as a Type A free agent who was offered arbitration he'd cost the Cardinals a draft pick. The Cardinals haven't been linked to Matt Capps's list of finalists, and that he's in such demand following a really ugly season—Jason Motte with fewer strikeouts and walks?—is condemnation enough of the remaining prospects. (Though, seriously, where are they on Kiko Calero? Where is everybody on Kiko Calero?)

For these prospects are, in grand La Russa/Duncan fashion, interesting-but. My favorite, and probably Duncan's favorite, is Mike MacDougal, but my interest is purely as a spectator; his fastball is awesome, his nickname is awesome, and he gets a ton of groundballs and doesn't give up any home runs, which would be awesome if he were still striking batters out. (Bizarre, possibly related Fangraphs fact: he almost totally stopped throwing his once-vaunted slider last year, going with the fastball more often than Jason Motte.) MacDougal's not likely to be a good reliever, and my taste in bad relievers aside he's of interest mostly as a Dave Duncan lottery ticket. But he's also a closer, so there's that.

What this means for the Cardinals is that barring a trade their improved bullpen will have to come from within. Is anybody here willing to nominate someone other than Motte as the bullpen savior in 2010? Relievers are so difficult to predict that I've almost stopped doing it; it's the last baseball territory in which my emotions are basically sovereign over my common sense, and it would definitely be my weakness if I were a GM. Francisco Samuel? Certainly this is the year he puts it all together, perhaps under the steady tutelage of a veteran closer like Mike MacDougal. Casey Mulligan? He's apparently got no stuff whatsoever, but he's dominated four levels in two years, so why not? Gary Daley? Well, he got to AAA, and he didn't walk 25 batters per nine innings this year.

I thought about ending this entry with a poll, but there are just too many choices, even though in the end my tastes run, conventionally, toward Mitchell Boggs, whose fastball looked nearly as good as Mike MacDougal's in the bullpen, and Eduardo Sanchez, the only blue-chip reliever left in the high minors. It's just that in the bullpen it's harder than any other corner of the roster to discount the possibility that someone who I was not counting on at all in March is carrying the team in July.

Dodgers, Cardinals Set Rosters for NLDS

Eric Stephen — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:31:23 -0000

More photos » by Jae C. Hong - AP

Emperor Palpatine takes questions before tonight's game

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NLDS: Cardinals vs. Dodgers
Game 1	Tonight	Dodger Stadium	6:37pm
Game 2	Thu	Dodger Stadium	3:07pm
Game 3	Sat	Busch Stadium	3:07pm
Game 4*	Sun	Busch Stadium	TBD
Game 5*	Oct 13	Dodger Stadium	TBD
*if necessary		All times Pacific
All games televised on TBS

The Dodgers and Cardinals have announced their roster for the division series.

Dodgers

Catchers (2): Russell Martin, Brad Ausmus

Infielders (7): James Loney, Ronnie Belliard, Rafael Furcal, Casey Blake, Orlando Hudson, Juan Castro, Mark Loretta

Outfielders (4): Manny Ramirez, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Juan Pierre

Pinch Hitters (1): Jim Thome

Starting Pitchers (4): Randy Wolf, Clayton Kershaw, Vicente Padilla, Chad Billingsley

Relievers (7): Jonathan Broxton, George Sherrill, Hong-Chih Kuo, Ronald Belisario, Ramon Troncoso, Jon Garland, Jeff Weaver

Cardinals

Catchers (2): Yadier Molina, Jason LaRue

Infielders (7): Albert Pujols, Skip Schumaker, Julio Lugo, Brendan Ryan, Mark DeRosa, Troy Glaus, Old Friend Joe Thurston

Outfielders (4): Matt Holliday, Colby Rasmus, Ryan Ludwick, Rick Ankiel

Starting Pitchers (4): Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, Joel Pineiro, one of John Smoltz or Kyle Lohse

Relievers (8): Ryan Franklin, Kyle McClellan, Jason Motte, Trever Miller, Dennys Reyes, Blake Hawksworth, Mitchell Boggs, one of Smoltz or Lohse

The Dodgers starting rotation will be Randy Wolf, Clayton Kershaw, Vicente Padilla, and Chad Billingsley, in that order.

The Cardinals will counter with Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, and Joel Pineiro for the first three games. Either John Smoltz or Kyle Lohse, who will both be available in the bullpen tonight, will start game four on Sunday.

Playing Hardball With Dodgers / Cardinals

Eric Stephen — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:57:00 -0000

More photos » by Jae C. Hong - AP

The fun starts tonight at Dodger Stadium

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I wrote a NLDS series preview for The Hardball Times, which can be found here. I picked the Dodgers to win in four games, for these reasons:

The Dodgers do have a lot of things in their favor, however.

The best record in the National League, at 95-67

The best run-differential in baseball, at +169 runs

The best ERA in baseball, at 3.41

The best bullpen ERA in baseball, at 3.14

The best OBP in the National League, at .346

Scored 50 more runs than the Cardinals

Allowed 29 fewer runs than the Cardinals

12 walk-off wins on the season, second only to the Yankees

Home field advantage through the first two rounds of the playoffs

The Cardinals have the worst OPS in baseball against left-handed pitching, hitting .233/.312/.362 against southpaws this season. I expect Wolf, Kershaw, Kuo, and Sherrill to pitch about half the innings this series, shutting down the Redbird offense and keeping the Dodgers in the game.

SB Nation has also teamed up with USA Today for the playoffs. Each series has it's own blog with posts from each team's blogger from SB Nation. The Dodgers/Cardinals NLDS blog can be found here. In addition, if you happen to see a USA Today Sports Weekly in newsstands this week, be sure to flip to the Dodgers/Cardinals series section and read my reasons for why the Dodgers will and won't win.

**********

Tony LaRussa hasn't yet announced his lineup or roster for the NLDS, but it appears rookie pitchers Blake Hawksworth and Mitchell Boggs will be two of 12 pitchers on the squad. The Dodgers battered Boggs in August, scoring five runs off 12 baserunners in four innings. Haksworth pitched three scoreless innings of relief against the Dodgers in July in St. Louis for his first major league win.

Rosters are due at 10am this morning.

Baseball Reference Game One Preview

Playoff Worrying In Particular

DanUpBaby — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:30:19 -0000

by Jeff Curry - AP

2 months ago: St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Troy Glaus (8) leaps over Milwaukee Brewers' Alcides Escobar, as Escobar steals third during the 10th inning of a baseball game Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009, in St. Louis. The Brewers won 9-7 in 10 innings. (AP Photo/Jeff Curry)

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Anybody can, and does, worry about the playoffs in general. But worrying about particular parts of the playoffs, especially tangentially relevant ones? That's the blogger's job.

No playoff roster surprises yet—Khalil Greene in his second comeback was rendered basically irrelevant by Julio Lugo's arrival and Tony La Russa's reluctance to move past the put-him-in-good-situations point on the comeback trail. From the first of August to the end of the season he'd played fewer than forty innings in the field, which is fewer than Troy Glaus played as a September call-up. The current arrangement leaves the Cardinals without a real backup shortstop, but Greene probably wouldn't have helped matters there, either; his play-by-play numbers, as one would expect of a guy dealing with serious emotional problems, moving on and off the DL, playing sparingly, were... almost as bad as Julio Lugo's.

What it does do is leave the Cardinals—Cardinals fans, really, since there seems to be no real internal debate about it—with an odd positional controversy. How healthy is Troy Glaus?

I don't know if I had any logical reason to be as surprised as I have been, but Glaus's brief comeback has been as spotty as I expected but in a totally different way than I'd anticipated. Some combination of his long, unexpected layoff, his size and shape, and the shoulder problems that were apparently keeping him from throwing three months ago had me expecting a loping slugger, our homegrown version of the PH-only Jim Thome the Dodgers acquired from the White Sox. While his usage did sometimes shake out that way, the results—as with Thome, but not Jason Giambi—were not there.

But his defense, when he was made to play defense, was a revelation. I didn't realize it until Glaus got back—middle infielders have been at the hot corner all year—but when Mark DeRosa plays third base, he looks like a second baseman. He's nimble out there, but his reflexes, his first move in either direction, just aren't natural. Sometimes he just doesn't make them. Glaus is a big, slow, heavy guy, but he moves immediately and aggressively toward balls; that almost-play on a barehander Sunday was something I wouldn't expect DeRosa to make—but it was also, before I saw him play, something I didn't expect New, Sedentary Glaus to make.

Unfortunately, if we're extrapolating from subjective observation and small samples (his UZR/150 is 125.3!) there's also the matter of his slow bat and his 130 professional at-bats in 2009. During his long rehab Glaus struggled at three different levels, peaking in an encouraging-but-not-very .216/.369/.392 at AAA. In the bigs he didn't have much room to work through a slump, if it's a slump, but he certainly hasn't looked as capable offensively as he does defensively. (Not that Glaus has ever looked like a worldbeater.)

So now the Cardinals are in an awkward position, at least if they want to press the issue: Play Glaus for his defense, even though he might not be able to hit? I can't say I ever expected to say something like that.

II.

While we're on the topic—I don't expect this to prove either really important or, in the end, determined in such a way that antagonizes the Viva El Birdos contingent. But B.J. Rains of the mothership knows how to make us worry: suggest that Brad Thompson and Todd Wellemeyer are both candidates for the playoff pen:

The decision to go with 12 pitchers means that two of the four among Blake Hawksworth, Mitchell Boggs, Todd Wellemeyer and Brad Thompson will be on the playoff roster. Hawksworth and Boggs, both rookies, are the likely choices to make the cut based on their performances and the number of their appearances down the stretch in relation to Wellemeyer and Thompson.

He's right: Brad Thompson hasn't appeared in a leveraged decision since the end of July, and Wellemeyer—well, no. Not Wellemeyer. Hawksworth has shown up twice as often as either of them in the second half of the season, and Boggs's startling bullpen fastball—I haven't seen a bullpen transformation as complete and abrupt as his in some time, no matter where he ends up permanently—is certainly a higher upside play than WonderBrad.

But mentioning it at all, even as a theoretical possibility... it gives me the shakes.

III.

I've saved the most worrisome for last; so finally we've gotten to Joel Pineiro's tentative transformation back into Joel Pineiro. The strikeouts are fine; they're up, actually. The home run rate had to come up eventually, though I didn't expect him to give up 46% of his seasonal home run total in the last month of the year. But his command, the supernatural aversion to walks that characterized the first five months of the Joel Pineiro Comeback Spectacular—gone. Four strikeouts and less than one walk per nine is Christy Mathewson; Four and a half strikeouts and two walks is last season's version of Braden Looper.

That guy is a useful pitcher, even in the playoffs, but for now that's what I'll be expecting, so that when Joel Pineiro turns in a shutout and the Cardinals advance to the NLCS I will be pleasantly surprised.

Milton Bradley Suspended; Cubs Win In Extra Innings

Al — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:04:59 -0000

More photos » by Tom Gannam - AP

Jake Fox's HR wins Sunday's game. Why hasn't this guy played this month?

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Milton Bradley's suspension for the rest of the season is obviously the topic everyone's talking about this morning. I'll have more to say below the fold, but first, let's at least enjoy the Cubs' 6-3 win over the Cardinals in 11 innings. If nothing else, it at least gave the Cubs the satisfaction of winning the final game of the season series between the two teams and delaying the Cardinals' clinching celebration for a couple more days.

It was the type of game you'd have liked to see far more of all season. Carlos Zambrano stayed within himself and threw six strong innings -- the ESPN crew said they thought Z should have been left in for one more inning, but after 102 pitches, that was probably enough. John Grabow threw well in relief, and Kevin Gregg got Albert Pujols to end the seventh.

Unfortunately, Gregg wasn't as good in the eighth, and the Cardinals tied the game. In the last of the ninth, the Cubs appeared to have lost when a double-play relay was thrown wide by Ryan Theriot with the bases loaded; the apparent winning run crossed the plate. However, the umpires conferred and correctly ruled that Matt Holliday had slid out of the baseline -- even going so far as to show Tony LaRussa the "skid mark". The run was nullified and the game continued.

Sean Marshall, Aaron Heilman and Esmailin Caridad held the Cardinals down until Jake Fox slammed a two-run homer off Mitchell Boggs; Carlos Marmol dispatched St. Louis easily in the last of the 11th and the Cubs had their 76th win of the season.

The Milton Bradley signing was doomed to fail from the moment it was made. First, Bradley was supposedly signed due to Lou's "we're not lefthanded enough" mantra. The switch-hitting Bradley has the following career numbers:

as right-handed hitter: .305/.385/.496 (.881 OPS)
as left-handed hitter: .266/.365/.431 (.796 OPS)

So right from the beginning, the Cubs were getting someone who hit significantly worse, as a switch-hitter, from the side that they supposedly needed the most production. His 2009 splits were even more extreme:

as right-handed hitter: .324/.375/.431 (.806 OPS)
as left-handed hitter: .234/.379/.385 (.734 OPS)

Note: both of the above stat boxes include an 0-for-3 that Bradley registered while batting right-handed vs. a RHP this year.

From that standpoint, the Cubs would have been far better off in 2009 with Raul Ibanez, Bobby Abreu, or yes, Adam Dunn in right field. Had they signed Abreu, it would have cost them far less money (Abreu's making only $5 million this year), which might have allowed a mid-season acquisition along the lines of a Holliday -- who could have filled in while Alfonso Soriano had the knee surgery that he should probably have had in May, or a Mark DeRosa, who could have filled in while Aramis Ramirez was out. Jim Hendry bid against himself for Bradley, and now finds himself with more than $20 million that he has to remove from the payroll. There is no doubt in my mind that Bradley won't be back -- even if Tom Ricketts has to give the go-ahead to eat Bradley's contract.

A big thank-you to Bruce Miles, who broke this story on Saturday unintentionally; he was simply trying to ask Bradley some questions about his knee injury and place in the lineup, questions that were mild and that any ballplayer should be able to quickly give rote answers to. Instead, Bradley threw the entire Cubs organization, players, media and fans under the bus, and Bruce's quote of Ryan Dempster, I think, is telling:

"To say that everybody's out to get you and the reporters are looking for you and always looking to stick a microphone in your face, well, if you notice that they're always for you, I think maybe you're always looking for them," Dempster said. "I've been here six years now and haven't had a problem with anybody here. D-Lee's been here, Z, a lot of guys for a long time. Yeah, you have some tough times, but the city's great. The fans are great. You've got to realize sometimes the consequences of your own actions."

Dempster's a smart guy and he's got it exactly right. There are several other player quotes in Carrie Muskat's cubs.com article that I believe are illuminating and further, put the lie to the often-posted-here statement that "everyone says Milton is a great teammate".

Reed Johnson:

"That's tough for a guy like me to understand," Johnson said. "I came from Toronto and fell in love with the city [of Chicago] and fell in love with the organization. It's hard for me to believe you can come to this city and come to this organization and not enjoy your time here.

"I've heard guys like Eric Karros and Jason Kendall say if you're playing Major League Baseball over a long career, you have to play at least one year for the Chicago Cubs. It's a good thing, not a bad thing. I think all of us are really surprised that a player could come here and not have the time of his life."

Ryan Theriot:

Ryan Theriot's locker was next to Bradley's at Wrigley Field, and the shortstop tried to reach out to him.

"There were good days and bad days," Theriot said.

Derrek Lee:

The Cubs first baseman called Bradley after he and manager Lou Piniella got into a shouting match at U.S. Cellular Field during an Interleague game.

"I think this is a different situation," Lee said. "I would let him reach out to me on this one. He got suspended for the season. There's not much I can do to help him on that one. If he needed to talk, I'd talk."

Lee's locker is on the other side of Bradley's. What was his take on him?

"He's a quiet guy," Lee said. "I think he likes his privacy. ... I think a lot of frustration built up in him and he didn't let it out the right way."

Aramis Ramirez:

"I don't know," Ramirez said when asked if Bradley could come back. "I don't think so."

Aramis Ramirez, a guy who doesn't say much and goes out and does his job, especially in a year where he's suffered a serious injury, saying he doesn't think Bradley could come back -- that's a damning indictment. The most descriptive line I think I heard from someone who's met Bradley is that he's a "strange dude". He also broke commitments; George Castle of true/slant.com writes:

No doubt Bradley talked a good game in persuading the Cubs to sign him last winter. He briefly seduced me during his introductory press conference in January the situation was different and Chicago would finally provide a baseball home for him. I even wrote he could rack up MVP numbers with that kind of attitude. Unfortunately, it was wishful thinking for Bradley, the Cubs and me. The real Bradley was soon exposed. See a previous blog about my experience with the outfielder, who stiffed me three times in four days after he had committed to doing an interview for my syndicated baseball radio show "Diamond Gems."

Gordon Wittenmyer of the Sun-Times makes it clear that the problems originated with Bradley:

Around the middle of the season, Bradley told a reporter he felt "isolated" in the clubhouse.

"I think for the most part that was his choice,"said Reed Johnson, whom Bradley once gave credit for getting in his face and helping straighten him out -- however temporary.

Said Piniella: "I just know that last year, I don't know how many times I heard from the media that we had the best clubhouse in the league. And things don't change that rapidly in a year."

Paul Sullivan of the Tribune quotes Hendry:

"The last few days became too much for me to tolerate," Hendry said. "I'm certainly not going to let our great fans become an excuse. I'm not going to tolerate not being able to answer questions from the media respectfully. Whether you feel like talking or not, it's part of all of our jobs.

"There's a right way to do it and a wrong way. I'm not going to allow disrespect to other people in that locker room and uniformed personnel, and I'm certainly not going to let a player, as was mentioned in the article today, (talk about) negativity of the organization."

Jim -- I think you did this to yourself. You didn't do your due diligence in trying to find out exactly what makes Milton Bradley tick. His blowups were well-documented, and there were, according to Sullivan's article, more troubles than we knew, even recently:

Bradley had been more erratic than usual this weekend, telling teammates he was having marital difficulties and sparring with hitting coach Von Joshua. Hendry spent the last three days contemplating the suspension.

The final beat-writer quote goes again to Bruce Miles, whose article contains many of the above quotes, and also this from Lou:

"I read some of his comments," Piniella said. "I can tell you this, that I've been here three years and I feel blessed that I've been able to spend three wonderful years here in Chicago. What a great city. Wrigley Field, what a fun place to play. And our fans are second to none."

Thank you, Lou. We may disagree with Lou's decisions and his apparent lack of interest this year, but he's got that right. Maybe the "disenchantment" that Bruce Miles says Lou had with Bradley all year had something to do with what appeared to be Lou sleepwalking through the 2009 season.

The final words, since this is my site, go to me. As noted above, this move was doomed to fail from January 6, the day it happened, for both on- and off-field reasons. It's almost certain that Milton Bradley has played his last game in a Cubs uniform, and for that I am glad. He's been a distraction and did not produce on the field. Why would you want a guy like that on your team? The situation is somewhat comparable, though more extreme, to the situation seven years ago involving Todd Hundley, also signed as a big-name free agent and who had the same production and complaining problems, although he simply complained TO the media, not ABOUT them, and didn't affect his teammates as negatively as Bradley has.

Jim Hendry was able to turn Hundley into two productive players who helped the Cubs win the NL Central in 2003. Perhaps he can perform the same thing with Bradley; it's been suggested by some that the Cubs might be able to send him to Toronto for Vernon Wells. Though Wells' contract is almost as onerous as Alfonso Soriano's, I'd do it. There's at least a chance that Wells will return to previous levels of production, and the alternative is probably simply to send Bradley home and pay him for doing nothing.

I never rooted against Milton Bradley when he was wearing a Cubs uniform. Had he produced, he would have helped the Cubs win games and that would have been a good thing. But starting from the injury in Milwaukee and the brief suspension that resulted from his tirade in his first Wrigley Field at-bat, Bradley was never a good fit for the Cubs, either emotionally or in the lineup. I'll be very happy when this chapter in Cubs history is just that -- history.

St. Louis Cardinals Get Two Three-Run HR's, Beat Washington Nationals 9-4.

Ed Chigliak — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 06:09:49 -0000

More photos » by Tom Gannam - AP

3 months ago: Washington Nationals starting pitcher Craig Stammen reacts as St. Louis Cardinals' Matt Holliday circles the bases after hitting a three-run home run in the third inning of a baseball game, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009 in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Tom Gannam)

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E: 17, 115:

To be fair to Cristian Guzman, Albert Pujols, who was running from second, did momentarily block his view, stopping, before running to third, so that Guzman didn't see the ball hit toward short off Ryan Ludwick's bat until it passed the big Cardinals' slugger, but the Nationals' shortstop was still given a two-out error when it bounced off his knee and into center. Pujols scored from first on Guzman's 17th E of '09, which also ended Stammen's night, and Matt Holliday went first to third to put two on for Colby Rasmus, who launched a two-out, three-run HR to right of Washington's lefty reliever Ron Villone to put St. Louis up 7-2 after five innings of play tonight in Busch Stadium.

DC starter Craig Stammen didn't make it out of the fifth. Nationals' Manager Jim Riggleman lifted Stammen after he allowed 4 hits, 4 walks and 6 runs, the three scored after Guzman's E unearned of course, but still on the board, and the other three earned with one swing when Matt Holliday took umbrage with the intentional walk of Albert Pujols that preceded his AB and hit a 3-run HR of his own on a first-pitch fastball from Stammen that didn't quite make it all the way inside. It was 3-1 Cardinals at that point, 5-2 after Rasmus' blast and 9-3 after back to back RBI hits by Brendan Ryan and Albert Pujols in the sixth, and a 9-4 final after Ryan Zimmerman's RBI single in the seventh ended the scoring. Cardinals right-hander Mitchell Boggs (2-2, 4.57) got his second win of the season for 6.0 innings of work over which he allowed 8 hits, 1 BB, 3 ER and 1 HR. St. Louis' skipper Tony LaRussa uses four separate pitchers with a 9-3 lead, but who can blame the Cardinals for making sure they get the win with the post season at stake...

Cardinals win, 9-4 final.

Miss The Game? The DC Faithful Were Watching...

Check Out The SB Nation's St. Louis Cardinals Blog: Viva El Birdos GameThread.

BACKPAGE:

• #35

• "Perfect" Pete Orr Goes 4 for 4.

For the Completists, Full Game Reports After The JUMP...

Nationals now 46-84. (Countdown To 100 Losses Stands At...16)

BACKPAGE:

• #35

Mitchell Boggs, the Cards' hard-throwing right-hander will probably think twice before he throws Adam Dunn a first-pitch fastball waist high over the outside edge of the plate again, since it was hit so far the St. Louis fans had time to, "Ahhhh!" as it soared out to right. Dunn's no-doubter is the Nationals' big boppers' 35th of the season, five off his trademark total with 32 games to go. In 21 games and 92 plate appearances in April, Dunn hits 6 HR's, in 29 games and 126 plate appearances in May, Dunn connected for 10, 4 in 26 games and 108 PA's in June, and 6 in 26 games and 101 plate appearances in July, with 9 HR's (so far) in August and thirty-two games to go...Does anyone doubt Dunn does it? NEW POLL!!!

• "Perfect" Pete Orr Goes 4 for 4.

I made the mistake of calling "Pinch Hittin'" Pete Orr a gritty hustler who was "wholly unspectacular" but nonetheless a favorite everywhere he plays because of the effort he puts out each and every game and Orr went out and collected 4 hits in 4 at bats tonight, all singles, to prove his worth and my point.

GAME REPORT:

Washington Nationals At St. Louis Cardinals. Game 130 Of 162.

Cards’ right-hander Mitchell Boggs gets a groundout to first from Willie Harris to start the second of three in St. Louis. Cristian Guzman legs out a triple on a sharp grounder that gets by Pujols at first and rolls into the corner. Ryan Zimmerman flies to the track in right allowing Guzman to tag and score. 1-0 Nationals. Adam Dunn archs a line drive over Mark DeRosa at short for a two-out single. Mitchell Boggs gets Josh Willingham to chase a two-strike slider out of the zone...Skip Schumaker doubles into the left field gap off DC right-hander Craig Stammen to start the Cards’ first. Brendan Ryan grounds to short and Schumaker breaks for third and gets cut down, Zimmerman with the tag. Alberto Pujols pops out to Adam Dunn foul of first. Ryan Zimmerman catches a pop fly from Matt Holliday in front of the third base dugout. 1-0 DC after one.

Elijah Dukes grounds out to short to start the second. Pete Orr lines a single to center with one down. Wil Nieves grounds back to the mound, Boggs to Schumaker to Pujols, double play...Ryan Ludwick starts the St. Louis' second with a base on balls. Colby Rasmus grounds into a force at second. Rasmus steals second without a throw when Wil Nieves rushes and loses it. Stammen issues a two-out walk to Mark DeRosa. Jason LaRue pops out to third, and Stammen gets Boggs looking at a two-strike curve.

Craig Stammen grounds out to short. Willie Harris hits a one-out single over second that drops into the grass. Cristian Guzman grounds to first, Albert Pujols throws to second to get Harris, but Guzman’s safe at first. Ryan Zimmerman grounds to short and DeRosa takes the force at second...Skip Schumaker gets robbed by a sprinting Willie Harris, who gets to left center on a hard hit liner. Brendan Ryan singles up the middle with one down. Stammen throws a high full-count fastball to walk Pujols. Stammen doesn’t keep his fastball low enough and Holliday lifts it off the inside corner for a three-run blast. 3-1 Cardinals. Stammen gets Ryan Ludwick swinging. Colby Rasmus flies to left to end the third. 3-1 Cards.

Adam Dunn pops out to the catcher. Josh Willingham takes a full count fastball down low for a one-out walk. Elijah Dukes rips a single through short. Pete Orr goes the other way to load the bases on a line drive to left. Wil Nieves grounds out to score Hammer from third, 3-2. Craig Stammen pops out to end the inning...Cristian Guzman throws out Mark DeRosa. Jason LaRue can’t swing at a two-strike slider that breaks across the zone for strike three. Mitchell Boggs K’s looking too.

Willie Harris flies out to left field to start the fifth. Cristian Guzman grounds to first, Boggs gets over to cover. Ryan Ludwick goes back to the wall to catch Ryan Zimmerman’s fly ball...Stammen vs Schumaker in the fifth. Schumaker grounds out to second. Brendan Ryan flies out to Willie Harris in the right-center gap. Albert Pujols torches a double to left, one hop and off the wall with two down. Holliday gets a free pass. Ryan Ludwick grounds to short, and Pujols blocks Guzman’s view, the ball bounces off Guzman and flies into center, one run scores, 4-2 Cards. Ron Villone comes on to face the lefty Colby Rasmus. Rasmus destroys a fastball over the middle of the plate, GONE!! 3-run HR to right. DeRosa lines out to end the frame. 7-2 Cardinals.

Adam Dun---SHAKE N BAKE!! SHAKE N BAKE!!! Adam Dunn goes real deep to right for his 35th HR of the year. 7-3 Cardinals. Elijah Dukes pops out to first. Pete Orr hits a two-out double to right. Wil Nieves is robbed by a diving Skip Schumaker at second, 7-3 Cardinals, middle of six...Jorge Sosa takes over for DC. Jason LaRue pops out to Pete Orr at second. Pinch hitter Joe Thurston pops out. Skip Schumaker doubles to the left field corner. Brendan Ryan gets a single through second to score Schumaker, 8-3 Cardinals. Albert Pujols doubles in a run off the center field wall, 9-3 Cardinals. Holliday grounds out to second to mercifully end the sixth.

Mike Morse grounds out to start the seventh. Kyle McClellan on to pitch for St. Louis. Willie Harris works a one-out walk. Cristian Guzman splits the right-center gap with a low line drive single. Zimmerman singles through short, Harris scores from second, 9-4 St. Louis. Lefty Trever Miller on to face Dunn. Adam Dunn lines out to Ludwick in right. Josh Willingham will see a new pitcher. Jason Motte vs The Hammer. Motte walks Willingham to load the bases for Dukes. Dukes K’s looking at two pitches out of the zone...Saul Rivera gets a groundout from Ryan Ludwick to start the Cards’ seventh. Colby Rasmus goes opposite field with a line drive single to left. Mark DeRosa follows with a single to right. LaRue grounds to short, Guzman to Orr to Dunn at first, double play.

Motte’s back in the eighth. Pete Orr hits a broken bat single to center. Wil Nieves K’s swinging over a two-strike curve. Ronnie Belliard grounds into the inning-ender, DP by the Cards to end DC’s eighth...Jason Bergmann comes on for the Nationals. Rick Ankiel takes a leadoff walk. Skip Schumaker lines to right for a single. Brendan Ryan grounds out but moves both runners over, opening up first for Pujols, who gets the intentionals. Matt Holliday goes down swinging. Ryan Ludwick goes down chasing, 9-4 Cardinals after eight.

Willie Harris vs Brad Thompson. Harris takes strike three on a fastball up high. Cristian Guzman pops out to second. Ryan Zimmerman’s bat explodes as he grounds out to first, game over. Cards win, 9-4 final.

Nationals now 46-84.

Poll

Will Adam Dunn Reach 40 HR's?

Without A Doubt! Shake N Bake!!! Dunn Will Hit 40!!!!

60 votes

Not This Year! Dunn Finally Falls Short Of 40!!!

6 votes

Dunn Will Not Only Hit 40 HR's, He's Going To Top His Career High Of 46!!!

9 votes

75 votes | Poll has closed

John Smoltz set to sign with Cardinals

Randy Booth — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:12:40 -0000

More photos » by Winslow Townson - AP

4 months ago: FILE - In this July 6, 2009, file photo, Boston Red Sox starting pitcher John Smoltz delivers against the Oakland Athletics during the first inning of a baseball game at Fenway Park in Boston, in Smoltz's first home start for the Red Sox. Smoltz has been released by the Boston Red Sox. Now the question remains: Will he pitch again? After eight starts with the Red Sox, Smoltz was 2-5 with an 8.32 ERA. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson, File)

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It looks like John Smoltz has a new home, and is anyone surprised it's in the National League?:

Right-hander John Smoltz will sign Wednesday with the St. Louis Cardinals if he clears waivers, according to an online report.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, citing "multiple sources," reports on its Web site that Smoltz will join the club and become its fifth starter, replacing rookie Mitchell Boggs. Boggs was the losing pitcher Tuesday night as the Cardinals fell 7-3 to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Earlier Tuesday, ESPN.com reported that Smoltz was "strongly leaning" toward choosing the Cardinals, who contacted Smoltz's agent on Monday.

Redbirds general manager John Mozeliak told the Post-Dispatch on Monday that he called Smoltz's agent, Lonnie Cooper, to express interest in signing the 42-year-old righthander as a setup reliever.

"We're looking at a number of options for our bullpen right now. It's fair to say he is someone we have legitimate interest in," Mozeliak told the Post-Dispatch.

Geez, Cardinals. Why don't you take all of our leftovers? Why don't you take Julio Lugo off our hands, too?

Oh, wait.

I really don't understand Smoltz. He refuses an assignment to Pawtucket and says he doesn't want to pitch out of the bullpen, but look where he's going to go: the 'pen! Smoltz could have just gone to Pawtucket, sat there for a few weeks and then come September be called up and be ready to go. But no. Instead, he decides to go back to the NL-- where he last pitched well -- and try to get a ring there.

Whatever, Smoltzie. I wish you the best of luck in your new red uniform.

Dodgers Full Deck Good Enough To Beat Cards

Eric Stephen — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 05:51:21 -0000

Chad Billingsley made a triumphant return from his left hamstring injury to pitch six solid innings, and with the backing of a balanced offensive attack, the Dodgers were able to beat the Cardinals 7-3, in front of 45,085 at Dodger Stadium.

Billingsley was again dominant through five innings, allowing only one hit, a second-inning single to Rick Ankiel. In three of his last four starts, Billingsley has allowed zero runs on two hits or less in the first five innings. However, Billingsley ran into some trouble in the sixth, but finished the inning allowing only two runs. Tonight was the eighth start of Billingsley's career in which he lasted at least five innings and didn't walk a batter.

Those two Cardinal runs in the sixth inning were bearable because the Dodgers already had a 5-0 lead. The Dodger offense, minus Matt Kemp -- who sat with flu-like symptoms -- came to play, collecting 14 hits and scoring seven runs on the night. Every starter, including Chad Billingsley, had at least one hit and either a run scored or batted in. The offensive stars:

Andre Ethier had three hits, including a double, a triple, a walk, a runs scored, and an RBI
Orlando Hudson had three hits, and is now hitting .327/.386/.462 in August
Russell Martin had two doubles, a run, and an RBI
James Loney looked to be out by a mile at home plate in the seventh inning, but a wonderful slide on a bang-bang, both players sliding play at the plate allowed Loney to score the Dodgers sixth run of the night
Loney also had two walks, making him the fourth member of the 50-walk club. Four down, four to go.

James McDonald allowed a run in a brief relief appearance, but George Sherrill and Jonathan Broxton each got four outs to close out the game, including Broxton retiring Albert Pujols with a man on base to end the eighth inning. Pujols, who struck out as the first out recorded in Broxton's career, back in 2005, now has just one single and a walk career against Broxton in 11 plate appearances.

Clayton Kershaw, hopefully recovered from the flu bug that also felled Kemp tonight, will face Adam Wainwright in a great pitching matchup to end the (regular) season series.

WP - Chad Billingsley (12-6): 6 IP, 5 hits, 2 runs, 1 strikeout

LP - Mitchell Boggs (1-2): 4 IP, 9 hits, 5 runs, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts

Sv - Jonathan Broxton (26): 1.1 IP, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts

Box Score

Cardinals the favorites for John Smoltz?

Eli Greenspan — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 02:14:16 -0000

More photos » by Frank Franklin II - AP

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Free agent pitcher John Smoltz is 'strongly leaning' towards joining the Cardinals, ESPN.com's Jayson Stark is reporting. This comes after a FOXSports.com report that the Cardinals were the favorites to land the 42-year old future Hall of Famer.

Smoltz has told friends he will decide on a team Wednesday, once his release waivers expire and he officially becomes a free agent. However, all indications were that he will choose the Cardinals over a group of pursuers that includes the Los Angeles Dodgers, Florida Marlins, and Texas Rangers.

Smoltz is close with two current Cardinals - Mark DeRosa and Adam Wainwright - who have both actively recruited him this past week.

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2009 - John Smoltz	2-5	8	8	0	0	0	0	40.0	59	37	37	8	9	33	8.32	1.70

Smoltz would likely replace Mitchell Boggs in the rotation, but with Boggs pitching well, it is possible we could see Smoltz go back to the bullpen. While Smoltz's numbers this season are disappointing, he was lights out in the first two innings of his final seven appearances, leading some teams to believe he could be more effective out of the bullpen.

In the final seven of those starts, he had a 0.64 ERA in the first two innings -- which led both the Cardinals and Marlins to conclude he would be most effective pitching out of the bullpen at this point in his career.

The team that signs Smoltz with have to pay the prorated major league minimum while the Red Sox are on the hook for the 5.5 million dollar contract he signed last offseason.

Dodgers Welcome Billingsley Back

Eric Stephen — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:00:11 -0000

More photos » by Mark Avery - AP

Chad Billingsley returns to the mound -- and the plate -- tonight against the Cardinals

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After last night's game, the all-time series between the Dodgers and Cardinals is tied at 993 wins apiece. However, it may not seem that way given recent events. The Cardinals have won four out of five games this season -- although the last two losses were by one run and involved the Dodgers giving up late-inning leads -- and 27 of the last 37 dating back to 2004.

Tonight, the Dodgers get a boost with the return of Chad Billingsley, who missed his last turn in the rotation with a mild left hamstring strain. Facing St. Louis on July 28, Billingsley cruised into the fifth inning with a one-hit shutout, but came crashing down with a six-run rally filled with bouts of wildness and grounders that found holes. Since that start, Billinsgley has allowed just two runs in 11 innings over two starts, but both starts were cut short due to injury.

Starting for St. Louis is 25-year old rookie Mitchell Boggs, who has made a few trips back and forth to the Cardinals' Triple A affiliate in Memphis. In 67.1 major league innings, Boggs has allowed 85 hits and 42 walks, for an eye-popping 1.886 WHIP. In each of his last four starts, Boggs has allowed at least 10 baserunners, continuing the time-honored association of the name Boggs with getting on base.

I will admit, I was a little surprised when I saw this stat today: Matt Kemp (1047.0) and Andre Ethier (1019.0) rank first and second, respectively, in the National League in defensive innings in the outfield. The only other National League outfielder with 1,000 innings is Hunter Pence (1013.2).

The Cardinals are very interested in John Smoltz, who was released yesterday by the Boston Red Sox, and is expected to clear waivers on Wednesday, per Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The Dodgers are 23-23 at home since starting the season with 13 straight home wins.

The Dodgers are 12-5 on Tuesdays this season, and have won four of their last five Tuesday games, all by at least eight runs. The lone loss was a 10-0 drubbing by the Cardinals.

Get your guesses in for "Just A Bit Outside" here.

Game Time: 7:10pm

TV: KCAL

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