Who, if anyone, will be joining the big league squad after the first?  With Memphis in a tight race and likely bound for the PCL playoffs and Springfield already in the TL playoffs, that will complicate things.  I'd like to get some other thoughts.  Post in the comments who you think will be called up after 9/1.  I'll jot down some likely names:

Jaime

Welly (off the DL)

Walters

Glaus

Craig

Hoffpauir

Stav

Sugar Shane

T Greene

Mather

Anyone else you think that might be added to the 40-man? By my count (according to mlb.com), we only have 37 players on the 40.

I think for sure at some point you will see Garcia, Glaus (to see if he is recovered), Walters,Shane, Greene, and Welly.  I hope to see Allen Craig and Hoff.

To begin: SAMPLE SIZE, caveat, etc., etc., etc...

Is it time to worry about the Cardinals fielding?  Sports Illustrated, in their '09 preview edition, specifically mentioned the Redbirds lack of fielding prowess.  The fact that they lead the league in errors (on the front page of STL's MLB page) doesn't bother me as much as a glance at FanGraphs here.  Check out the low UZR total for Greene & Schumaker.  OUCH.

Even watching some games, you notice.  Greene is terribly inconsistent, he doesn't know whether to charge a ball or lay back, and he bobbles many ground balls.  Skip is still adjusting, but not adjusting well.  Ankiel still routinely misplays line drives, despite his arm.  Albert is even dropping balls (4 errors?  he had 6 all of last year).

The hot hitting has somewhat overshadowed the poor fielding.  Is anyone else concerned, or am I just nitpicking a 13-6 team?

Peer into the future, if you dare...

On September 30, 2008, the following will have come to pass:

-Juan Gonzalez will start the season on the major league roster.  He will get 100 PA's before re-re-retiring because his hamstring says, "No mas."
-Anthony Reyes will spend some portion of this year in the bullpen.
-No Cardinals middle infielder (over 150 at-bats) will have an OPS over .700
-One of the outfielders (Lud, Dunc, Ank) will break out and hit 35 HR.
-Adam Wainwright will be the only Cards starter to break double-digits in wins.
-The Cards finish 4th in the Central with a 74-88 record, behind the Cubs, Brewers, and Reds.
-Colby Rasmus comes up in June and finishes 3rd in the ROY vote, behind Kosuke Fukudome and Geovany Soto.

Anybody else?

Sorry about another Rick diary, but I just wanted to get some other opinions.  I know Tony would never do this, but if you were the manager, would you try and get him some mound time?  Instead of Miles in a blowout, would you bring him in?

I say yes.  He's 27 now, not 20-21, matured, seeming confident: I think he can handle an inning or so.  I'm just a sucker for roster flexibility I guess.

And would it be a good idea for the Birds?

Mark Mulder for Lastings Milledge

I'm sure Jock would have to throw in more, maybe a Lambert or even J-Rod, who would platoon with Nady, to complete a deal.  Minaya loves Latin players, maybe he'd be willing to take Juan E if we pick up some salary.

Milledge is the #9 prospect around, according to Baseball America, and he's just ripping up AAA to the tune of .313/.451/.500.  Oh, by the way, he's only 21.  He could slide right into LF, or he could take over for JEd in center and let him get some rest in LF.  Either way, he would add youth, speed, and an impact bat for now and the future.  Hopefully then the Cards would plug Reyes into the rotation and have Wainwright ready if he fails.

What does the Cards nation think?  Pitching staff already too weak?  I think we have enough of a fallback with Reyes and Wainwright that we can afford to give up someone like Mulder, who's not that great to begin with.  His contract is up at the end of the year, and the Mets would be in a better position to re-sign him.  Comments appreciated.

SD

Alex Gordon (AA): .344/.414/.623
Mark Teahen (MLB): .233/.261/.419

Is there anything else that needs to be said?

There's no need to rush him, as the Royals aren't even close to contention, but it seems that Gordon is about as close to ready as one can be.  Should they bring him up and put him on this stinker squad?  It seems the losing got to Greinke; but are the Royals going to be any better in the near future?

A couple of sad KC Royals facts:

Team OPS: .631
OPS Allowed: .906
Mark Grudzielanek leads the team with a .735 OPS (and a .315 OBP)
Only 1(!) Royals starter has more K's than BB's on  the year: Denny Bautista

WOW.

SD

The weekend discussion has really intrigued me, so I did some deeper digging and checked out Mulder's comps at baseballreference.com.  The #1 comp through age 27 was Andy Pettitte, who had some similar circumstances.  Both succeeded very early in their career, Mulder winning 21 at age 23, Pettitte winning 21 at age 24.  Both had their best seasons at age 25, then experienced 2 seasons of decline, in which both dealt with nagging injuries.  Pettitte sometimes doesn't get a lot of respect (from me in particular), but after looking back, he has had a damn fine career.  He ranks 18th among active pitchers in ERA+ (2nd last year to Roger) and is 14-9 with a 4.08 ERA in  the postseason.
Can Mulder pick it back up like Pettitte did?  I hope so, but the question, as stated in the weekend forum, is do the Cards bet on him?  Lock him up now at a discount, hoping he'll re-emerge?  Cut bait and let someone else gamble?  You can comment in the main forum, but since Mulder seems to be getting ripped there, I thought I'd throw out this little nugget.

...for not panicking and making a Yankee-esque rash trade that would pare down an already thin system.  Even with a lineup that featured only 2 Opening Day Starters (for any team), he didn't overpay for Lawton, Huff, Winn, or any other mid-level outfielder.  He also didn't panic and try his luck w/ some re-tread middle reliever.  We can only hope that he is being honest about the health issues plagueing this team.

How in the world did Ryan LaMotta from Baylor not get drafted?  This is a guy who was the best reliever on a CWS team who has great stuff.  Nice fastball, really good slider, good change.  If you've ever seen him pitch (except when giving up a game winning home run to Wheeless), you know what I mean.  His numbers this year:

79.2 IP, 60 H, 82/21 K/BB, 5-2, 2.15 ERA, 7 SV, .207 BAA

Any others that should have gotten drafted at least somewhere?

A.  The older couple in front of you is doing the Times crossword.

B.  The older lady in the section next to you is working on her cross-stitching.

C.  The "super-fan" type in the first row has taken his shoes off and has his socks up on the concrete.

D.  All of the above.

All of these I saw at the Fresno/Omaha game last night.  Anyone else have any good stories about sights at minor league games?

P.S. - Jesse Foppert didn't look that good.  Hopefully Matt Cain looks better tomorrow.

Tim Stauffer just got the call up.  He will start on Wednesday.  I remember watching him against Nebraska at the Super Regional back in  '02.  I'm a big Stauffer fan, so I'm interested how others think he will fare in his callup/season/career.  I think he's going to slide in nicely right behind Jake Peavy and Brian Lawrence and be a solid #2-3 guy.  He's still only 22 and has shown the ability to bounce back and pitch well a number of times.  Season stats so far:

Portland (AAA) - 39 IP, 2.33 ERA, 34H, 31/8 K/BB, 1 HRA

Good luck Tim!I remember watching him against Nebraska at the Super Regional back in  '02.

There seems to be a lot of debate around Zack Greinke in the baseball community regarding how good a pitcher he will be.  Some say his stats don't indicate dominance, others believe he will have a Cy Young trophy-only room in his house.  Just an interesting note:  check out the numbers of his career so far and compare them to Brad Radke's first 3 seasons (although Radke debuted at 22 vs. Greinke's 20):

Greinke: 177 IP, 3.86 ERA, 6.05 K/9, 3.72 K/BB, 1.4 HR/9, 0.86 G/F, ERA+ (last year only) = 112

Radke: 653 IP, 4.47 ERA, 5.47 K/9, 2.6 K/BB, 1.37 HR/9, 0.88 G/F, ERA+ = 109

If Greinke turns out to be a similar pitcher to Radke (most likely better IMO b/c his numbers are a bit better; plus he started younger), the Royals got a heck of a pitcher on their hands.  Radke also improved quite a bit and is still getting better (only 1 walk this year!).  Now, if they can only get some good players around him...

P.S. - I like to use parenthesis (I don't know why)...

Got to watch Redbirds pitcher Anthony Reyes in Omaha on Tuesday.  Most of you have probably read some things about him, but I wanted to see him in person.  Some thoughts:

Reyes is 6'2"/215, a big strong pitcher.  His appearance and delivery looks to me to be similar to Roger Clemens: glove near the face when he starts, high leg kick, strong side to the plate.  He works very quickly, looking for new signs almost as soon as he gets the ball.  Reyes threw a lot of fastballs, most in the range 91-92, with a few up around 94, with what looked like really good movement.  He changed things up with a slider that was anywhere from 82-85 and a great changeup that sat right around 75.  I left after the 6th inning and he had thrown 88 pitches, given up no runs, and struck out 6.  His final line:
7 IP, 3H, 1ER, 2BB, 7K, 107 pitches

Season Stats:
3-1, 32.1IP, 5GS, 2.78, 22H, 33/6 K/BB, 4HRA

Reyes seems to be pitching with supreme confidence right now.  He didn't seem challenged or rattled at anything Omaha threw at him.  Not that Omaha has a any good bats, but he still looked very strong.  He challenged hitters with his good fastball, and his changeup looked really sharp.  Not much contact made with the change, which to me is a very good sign for a young pitcher.  I think I'd like to see him struggle a bit in his first year of AAA, but with more than a few pitchers in St. Louis looking at free agency, I'd like to think we'll see him in the rotation in '06 (along with Wainwright, who's stats are even better so far).  As a Cardinals fan, it's easy to get excited about this guy.

P.S. - Reyes' cap has the FLATTEST bill in all of baseball.  You could put a marble on that thing in the 1st inning, and it may not roll off until the 6th.

Here's my first shot at trying to do what John does:

I watched Baylor and Nebraska play at Lincoln, and paid special attention to Mark McCormick, the Baylor starter.  McCormick is 6'2"/190 and is very long and lean (like a taller Oswalt).  He has a nice, easy, smooth overhand delivery, but he gets a lot of velocity out of his motion.  He threw 5 pitches that I saw: 4-seam, 2-seam, curve, slider, and changeup.  His best pitch was his curve, which he threw for strikes all day.  I didn't have a radar gun, but I'm guessing his 4-seam was up in the mid-90's.  I didn't see any 100-mph type stuff that I heard he threw on the Cape this summer.  However, his 2-seam also has great movement, and another fan who has watched him a few more times told me he has seen his changeup be great, but he only threw about 4 today by my count (but I did see him working on it in the bullpen before the game).  He had some problems locating the fastball, but was helped out by (in my opinion) a pretty generous umpire behind the plate.  He had a pretty high pitch count, throwing 126 pitches through 6 2/3 innings, and in the 7th he was visibly fatigued.
If I was an early-drafting team this spring, I would have no reservations about drafting his in the first 10-15 picks.  He struggles a bit with control at times, but he has a very "live" arm and three excellent pitches (4-seam, 2-seam, curve).

Let me know what you think of this report, please.  I have some pictures if anybody would like me to e-mail them to you or if John maybe wants them posted we could do that.