SB Nation User Blog: Alxfritz

Mark DeRosa's Wrist Injury

Alxfritz — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:12:44 -0000

Mark DeRosa's Wrist Injury

ST. LOUIS — Three games into his Cardinals career, Mark DeRosa is hurt. He and the club are just hoping it’s not too serious.

DeRosa injured his left wrist on a swing in the fourth inning of St. Louis’ 6-3 loss to San Francisco on Tuesday night. He remained in the game for one more inning, but removed himself before taking another at-bat. He is expected to be re-examined on Wednesday.

"I took a swing there my second at-bat and felt a little tweak in my left wrist," DeRosa said. "I went in to hit off the tee after coming in from playing the field, and it just didn’t feel right. I felt like I should come out of the game and get it looked at."

Game 54 Open Thread- June 4th, 2009: Carp v. Harang

Alxfritz — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:22:51 -0000

game thread!

La Russa appreciated the information generated by computers. He studied the rows and the columns. But he also knew they could take you only so far in baseball, maybe even confuse you with a fog of overanalysis. As far as he knew, there was no way to quantify desire. And those numbers told him exactly what he needed to know when added to twenty-four years of managing experience.

Sabermetricians – those number-crunchers who have come to dominate thinking about strategy the last few years – believe that they have debunked clutch situations as statistically irrelevant. La Russa has read the various studies. Based on his own forty years plus of experience, he believes those studies to be bunk of their own.

La Russa respected [Bill] James, but based on managing nearly 4,000 games, was convinced James was wrong.

The Oquendos!

Alxfritz — Wed, 20 May 2009 15:14:32 -0000

The Oquendos!

Missing: Brian Barden Height: 5-11 Weight: 186 Bats: R Throws: R Born: Apr 2, 1981 - Templeton,...

Alxfritz — Sun, 17 May 2009 16:47:50 -0000

Missing: Brian Barden
Height: 5-11
Weight: 186
Bats: R
Throws: R
Born: Apr 2, 1981 - Templeton, CA
Last Seen: Winning Rookie of the Month Award for April

Anyone with information on Brian Barden's whereabouts, please contact the Saint Louis Baseball Cardinals LLC, c/o John Mozeliak.

Sugar Shane Up, Dick Down

Alxfritz — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:22:43 -0000

Per Goold:

The St. Louis Cardinals placed center fielder Rick Ankiel on the 15-day disabled list this morning so that they could return their bench to full and healthy strength. Outfielder Shane Robinson, one of the leading hitters for the Class AAA affiliate, was promoted and will be activated before today’s game.
“I think the important thing here is that Rick will get regular treatment, and he’ll get a chance to recover without the day-to-day rigors of playing at the major-league level,” general manager John Mozeliak said.

Ankiel will go to the team’s facility in Jupiter, Fla., to begin his rehab.

Quality move in my opinion, albeit two days too late. How does this affect the 40 man going into the winter?

Game 22 Open Thread: 29th April, 2009 Part 2: The Sequal

Alxfritz — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 01:46:06 -0000

Maybe Skip should be the 2B defensive replacement moving forward.

Lets get some insurance.

Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler Filler

Rick Ankiel May Want To Open Hand Slap A Television

Alxfritz — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:14:04 -0000

This is going to be my least informative fan post of all time, but it has to be said:

Since July 29th of 2008, Rick Ankiel is hitting .173/.281/.279 (.560 OPS) in 39 games.

In 2008, after a horrendous August in which it was clear to everyone not named Tony La Russa that he was hurt, Dick underwent abdominal surgery on September 19th. He has not been right since then.

If someone named Barden, Barton, or Freese put up these numbers, they would be enjoying some fried catfish and ribs in Memphis before you could say Pete Incaviglia. If he was a reliever performing like this (not named Isringhausen) he would have lost his previously unnamed role in the bullpen and been put in an even more unnamed role after a week.

But, because he's Rick Ankiel and the incredible human interest story which comes with him, he's out there starting about every two out of three games.

What Rick Ankiel has done at the plate and in the outfield is completely and totally unaccaptable, and what the Cardinals are doing with Ankiel is equally as egregious. I realize we all know he's in a funk; but did you know he's in a .560 OPS funk? And has been for almost nine months? It's time to send him down and get him healthy. Putting him out there even every other day is no longer fair to him, nor to the team.

Send him down to work on things and, more importantly, get healthy. You don't need a real reason to send him down, just make one up. You used to do it all the time.

He still ain't right. I know it, you know it, Bob Dole knows it, and the American people know it.

So Long, Crabman

Alxfritz — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:38:56 -0000

Much neglected 4th outfielder and future spaceman Brian Barton has been dealt to Atlanta for Blaine Boyer, per John Marecek.

ST. LOUIS, MO., April 20, 2009 – The St. Louis Cardinals made a move today to fortify their bullpen depth by acquiring right-handed reliever Blaine Boyer from the Atlanta Braves in exchange for Memphis (AAA) outfielder Brian Barton.

Boyer, 27, appeared in a career-high 76 games for the Braves in 2008, ranking 9th among National League pitchers. He also set career highs for innings pitched (72.0) and strikeouts (67) and was among Braves' leaders in Holds with 14.The 6-3, 215-pound Boyer appeared in three games (1.1 IP) with the Braves this season, losing his lone decision on April 8 at Philadelphia.

Boyer has so far sucked this year and was DFA'd for Jo Jo Dancing Reyes a few days ago. Meanwhile, all Barton has done is be goofy and awesome down in Memphis.

The move might help the bullpen (hell, it can't hurt), but the St Louis organization has lost major cool points.

2nd Annual VEB Day At The Ballpark

Alxfritz — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:05:56 -0000

Hola Viva El Birdos,

The time has come to pick a weekend this year to put faces to screen names at thy olde haunting grounds of the home team nine. Those who partook in pleasantries and beers at the Broadway Oyster Bar during the summer of ought eight will hopefully confirm that this here blog is composed of mighty fine folks, most of whom could drink the rest of the internet under the proverbial table.

(As an aside, one of my favorite moments of last year's event was when a gentleman who described himself as a "VEB lurker" heard me talking about VEB and said "Oh yeah, isn't today supposed to be VEB day at the park?" I confirmed that it indeed was, and this whole table was full of anonymous comrades. To which he said, "Yeah, I really like that site. Except for Azz-Ruu-Vatahr. That guys a douche-bag.")

(I still hold out hope that was actually AZ, playing incognito.)

Anyhoo, enough with the meanderings, as it seems the new people to the site do not take kindly to verbose ramblings of nothingness, BLTs, or America; the time has come to pick a weekend for the 2nd Annual VEB Day At The Ballpark (which, in the spirit of ridiculous SABR acronyms, will henceforth be referred to as 2AVEBD@TB).

The leader in the clubhouse for 2AVEBD@TB (somehow leading before the first round even started...) is August the 15th. FlimtotheFlam beat the internets and figured out how to get free hotel rooms that night; the Cardinals will be taking on the Saint Diego Whale Vaginas that weekend, and I suspect there will be many a Padre fans at the game armed with pitchforks and sun tan oil as both David Freese and Khalil Greene are OPSing around 1.150 and Jim Edmonds and Mark Worrell are busy complementing themselves over appletinis at F15.

Other weekends which are intriguing for 2AVEBD@TB are:

June 6th v. the Rockies

June 27th v. the Twins

July 18th v. the D'Backs

August 29th v. the Nationals

But, since this is not a Blue Jays blog and we're all American here (I'm sure we're not, just go with it), lets do what our forefathers would have done and ~~bomb Germany~~ put it to a vote.

As always, the winner wins. A tie will be decided by a race around the world between everyone who reads this blog named Matt. There sure are a lot of those guys.

The poll will run until April 19th, upon which the winner shall be chosen and plans to be laid shall be laid. (That sounds weird.)

If participation is great enough, I'd be more than happy to look into getting some all-inclusive seats with others and really enjoy the eff out of the day.

And if the early leader of August 15th is declared champion, I would suggest looking into hotel rooms as the game will be started at... oh, you say it Mike Shannon:

"Gametime... 6:15!"

Thanks, Mike*.

And if you can't get a hotel room, you can crash at my place**.

Now get out there and lets make this the best, and least depressing, 2AVEBD@TB ever!

*My apologies for using the worst picture of Mike Shannon ever taken. Not only is he staring into my soul, but his face is melting. I'm going to have nightmares.

**Not you, though.

Poll

What says youse, when shall we meat?

June 6th

7 votes

June 27th

13 votes

July 18th

9 votes

August 15th

36 votes

August 29th

7 votes

72 votes | Poll has closed

KhalilBot's Player To Be Named Later

Alxfritz — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:34:48 -0000

Has been named today:

Luke Gregerson

Per Strauss:

The Cardinals winced Monday morning. The San Diego Padres have acquired pitching prospect Luke Gregerson as the player to be named in the Dec. 4 deal that brought the Redbirds shortstop Khalil Greene.

The selection is hardly a throwaway. Gregerson, 24, impressed manager Tony La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan during a couple late-inning appearances in Grapefruit League games. Duncan, who typically holds young arms to a high standard, mentioned Gregerson on multiple occasions as someone he would like to see again. Gregerson possesses above-average command of a sinking fastball. He had made the Florida State League All-Star Game and Texas League All-Star Game in his two full professional seasons. Gregerson last season allowed RH hitters a .202 average and six extra-base hits in 217 plate appearances with 59 strikeouts against only 11 walks.

So, in essence, with Mark Worrell's arm getting the best of him in the end (rather than the Cardinal organization's master plot to drag him down in life), we get Khalil Greene straight up for Luke Gregerson. Good job, Mo.

Win, win, win.

And no way does San Diego ever trade with the Cardinals again. You would have thought they'd have learned after that whole SS-for-SS swap.