TGTIF (thank god TOMORROW is friday)

Okay, middle of the week is brutal this semester so I'm not afforded much opportunity to express my baseball-related thoughts, but since I have about half an hour (as I wait for someone) I'll give it a quick go. 

How HUGE was Motte Tuesday night? Good grief, Charlie Brown! Talk about a hold. That was phenomenal. Massive. Obscene. And then again last night after our precious lefty threw four straight balls (maybe someone should explain to him what a LOOGY does), Jason came in and wiped up the mound. Uf. 

Albert is a god. But that's not news. 

Troy Glaus is hurt. Okay, so they keep talking about this on the radio and I must confess that I'm utterly confused. Bernie Miklasz is too. Either Troy's got a small tear, he has structural damage, he's just sore from sleeping on it wrong, or he's fine and this is just a disgusting attempt to keep Troy out of the lineup against a Cubs rotation that he has not fared well against. 

The first comes from Bernie. The second is from bizarro world (because Troy claims there's NO structural damage and in bizarro world you say the opposite of what you mean). The third and fourth are straight out of my own brain, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're wrong. Just probably. 

Will we see him back in the lineup on the road trip? 

Is he done for the year? 

Can I see the MRI report? 

 Brendan Ryan put on Skip Schumaker's jersey by accident the other day. Or maybe he was trying to increase his playing time by confusing Tony. Or maybe he heard the speculation that he might play in CF and he's showing his support for the idea. Or maybe, oh hell, he makes me smile... 

Someone has been calling Cardinals players on their unlisted cell phones. I wish I had more for you, but the rain interferred with my reception in the car this morning and I only heard about every tenth sentence from Jim Hayes. Sounds like Wainwright and Perez and possibly Motte have gotten unsolicited calls from strangers and the number-giver-outer might be a producer on Cat's radio show. Please don't take any of this too seriously. 

Why (and I've said this before) does it seem like every time there's a clutch situation with important runs needed, there's a rookie at the plate? Maybe it's because when there's a clutch situation and a veteran is at the plate they get something done. Why was Phelps in left anyway? I'd much rather see Stavinoha. 

So, just a thought, but being up there in a pressure spot with 2 out in the bottom of the ninth and the team down one run and Josh pops out to end the game, well let's just say I hope he didn't kill himself last night. 

And quickly, as I run out of time... 

Where did the Astros come from? 

Ned Yost couldn't manage a ham sandwich. 

Go Reds!

don't quit your day job, boog

Brendan Ryan put on his press hat (literally--it was a brown fedora with a press card stuck in the rim) and went one-on-one with fellow Cardinal Todd Wellemeyer.

Welley likes Skittles better than Twix, has raised a plant (but no cacti), and would be "a dog that likes to have fun" if he had to pick a dog to be. He also likes rainbows but did not appreciate BR's unpreparedness for the interview. "Isis" may or may not be backwards for something. Oh, and his first-born would be named Leon.

If you missed the remarkable interview, I'd advise you to start watching the FSN pre-game shows. This was one for the ages.

Sometimes I wonder if an hour is just a little bit too long for these guys.


ps--I'll be keeping my eye on this Josh Johnson character because he sounds like he could fit in really well with our pitching staff. Just a thought.

here goes nothing

Welcome to the fun part of a less-is-more season. I say less-is-more primarily in reference to the lineup which, while usually effective, is also usually bone bare due to the ridiculous overuse--and therefore unavoidable stacking--of the bullpen. It's been going on all year, but somehow we managed to work around it, or through it, if you will, without too much random shuffling. César Izturis here, Brendan Ryan there, Felipe Lopez stuck pretty much anywhere, and Aaron Miles making Tony look really smart. All in all, guys played hard wherever they happened to be stationed, and offensive performance was stunningly adequate. (In other words, no, it wasn't a perfect system, but our infield was not banging on all cylinders even when things were lined up according to "infinite wisdom". It wasn't because of the assignments, but rather some other external force beyond our control.) I guess what I'm trying to say is that after a season of wondering how much playing time Kennedy could possibly hope for when he couldn't seem to get it done at the plate, we are now at the point in time when we can have all those extra bodies around and still come up short. I looked at the team site a few minutes ago and saw a picture of Brendan Ryan with a caption that read: "Brendan Ryan has never played center field in the majors." Why would anyone care if he has or hasn't? I asked myself. The caption might as well say "Brendan Ryan has never hula danced." Is it "Weird things you didn't know about Brendan Ryan" day? Is it "Things Brendan Ryan has never done and has no intention of ever doing" day? And then it struck me, good gods are they thinking of putting him center field? You know they are. I have no doubts that "boog" (incidentally, this was my son's nickname for a long time, short for "booger butt") is a good athlete. I am sure that he will be a top-level middle infielder someday and make us all very proud. And I know that he is a stand-up guy who would do anything to play at the big-league level, even catch, or pitch, or (shudder) play center field. But really? Center field? The most difficult of the three outfield positions? Mm-hm. So that brings me back to the fun stuff. When you come to the point in the season where things aren't going exactly as you had hoped and the chances for a real surge are dwindling, you have a couple of options. You can (a) sit back and act like it's the ninth inning of a 20-2 game, focusing on keeping your star players from getting hurt and giving some of the younglings a chance to play, or (b) you can take off the gloves, lay yourself and your team on the line, and go out kicking and screaming (and maybe taking a few other teams with you as you go). This might call for some creative (or fun) management. It might mean your catcher playing first base, your first-baseman playing third, your bat boy pitching, or your shortstop running the slushee machine. It might mean someone has to take one for the team. I totally support option b. I am in no way, shape, or form conceding that anything is done or over or finished. It's merely time to put everything we've got out there and find out if it's enough. No regrets, right? Do you want to spend the off-season wondering what if? or do you want to spend it knowing you did everything possible, no matter the outcome? Never surrender.

rest and rehabilitation

So, Brendan, gimme a call if you need some company for the AS break. My son just got Rock Band. Yes, it's that time of the year again. The Cards have played 96 (that's roughly 60% of the season), and are sitting at 10 games over .500, 4½ games back in the NL Central, with a half-game lead in the NL Wild Card race. The trade deadline is 17 days away. The rumblings are growing louder, and the one name in particular that grabbed my attention was AJ Burnett. He's a righty, and he's a starter, but he's a solid starter that could fill out our rotation. What we really need is some left-handed brilliance in the 'pen. Maybe even two. The Pirates can keep Nady, the Rox can keep Holliday, and the devil can keep Bonds. We don't need a bat, no matter what the suits say. We need some pitching, and we need it yesterday. Literally. We need to get some decent help in the bullpen and a time machine to go back to the collapse we suffered at the hands (and batting gloves) of the Bucs yesterday. García will start for the series finale with the Pads. The ever-fluid starting rotation will look like this for the start of the second half: 1. Lohse 2. Looper 3. Wellemeyer 4. García 5. Piñeiro Flores is expected to be back in the bullpen by that time, so we'll keep two lefties. Sort of. (And no, I won't elaborate on that...) So here we stand, a little more than halfway through the season, and things aren't as bad as they could be. But they aren't as good either. A little R&R might be just what we need.