Sorry if this is old news to people, but I just wanted to say I found Bryan Burwell's column on Pujols and his father's alcoholism quite touching.  Started out thinking it was a sanctimonious take (for which, frankly, I have come to know Burwell) on the issue of alcohol remaining such a fixture for Cards' fans post-Hancock tragedy.  But in the second half of the column I was surprised -- and saddened even more.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/columnists.nsf/bryanburwell/story/122D1ED49D52CE4B862572D300 1227D0?OpenDocument

Interesting piece in the NY Times sports section today about young pitchers studying meditation/yoga  in the offseason with the guy (an ex-pitcher himself) whom Zito credits with keeping him focused and speeding up his fastball.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/12/sports/baseball/12pitcher.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

(On the front page of sports, if that doesn't work...)

Our major headcase on the mound is gone to the Cubbies, of course, but I wonder what Cards -- past or future -- might (have) benefit(ed) from this approach.  Duncan's probably getting too old to start endorsing something like this; but maybe the next Dunc?

Peace and relaxation to all VEBers.  

I saw the below prediction on mlbtraderumors.com's recent Top 50 Free Agents and Where They'll Go list...

39. Mark Mulder - A's.  Mulder still has friends on the A's and could be a bargain for Billy Beane on an incentive-based deal.  The Orioles have been mentioned as well, but are probably the third choice after the A's and Cards.

...and thought: God, if that happens, the irony!  If the A's ever win a championship I'm sure there are people in Card Land (and on this board) who'll want a share of it... or they'll just scream a lot, insofar as one can scream in print.

On the off chance the Cards end up playing the Phils in the NLDS, does anyone know what the procedure is for any sort of single-game lottery like folks have described for Busch?  At the Phillies website I only see info so far (as of 9/20) for full and partial season-ticket holders.  Do they wait until a Phils playoff scenario seems more likely to offer single-game tickets?

I'm in Boston but visit Philly a fair amount and definitely would for the Birds.  On the off chance anybody ends up with leads on Philly tickets, I'd love to hear about them.

Viva le Cardinals!  Wait...  Viva El Birdos!  

Long-time listener, first-time caller.  Regarding all of Albert's walks: I realize it's not the place to go for cutting-edge stat work, but the NY Times had an interesting piece today about an attempt to weigh the 'opportunity cost' of walks to sluggers -- in other words how to have OPS reflect the power possibilities lost by a walk, as deduced by stathead David Neft.  "In figuring what he calls on-base advantage, walks (and times hit by pitch) are weighted not as full-unit successes for the batter, but by their marginal benefit beyond the batter's sidestepped slugging percentage."  He then adds the on-base advantage to slugging percentage for a refined OPS.  Here's the whole article...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/30/sports/baseball/30score.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

If folks in the know have a chance to read it, could you conjecture on how useful this seems as a new stat category?  Does it have a chance to catch on, and does it reflect the reality of hitter-impact a little better?  Or not?