a few (more) bits

I read the scouting reports and descriptions of players' abilities, and I understand (some of) the statistics and how they correspond to success in the big leagues, but all the words and abbreviations and numbers in the world can't compare to actually making visual contact with a player--seeing him do what he does--when it comes to deciding if I like his stuff. (Now, of course, my opinion means very little to anyone but me, but given the choice between reading mountains of other people's opinions or drawing my own conclusions about a player's worth, I'd much rather see him for myself.) 

So when I finally got to see Dennys Reyes pitch an inning today, I was very excited. I was even more excited after he finished, because it went well. Seeing a LOOGY who can actually face more than one batter at a time is encouraging, because Tony's management style when it comes to the lefty specialists, to put it mildly, could use some work. 

Chris Perez, on the other hand, gave up the tie-breaking winning run to the 'Stros and didn't have much command. I guess that's part of the idea behind Spring Training, though, isn't it? Real game situations that allow you to see where you need work, without the threat of a "permanent record" hanging over your head. Well, if you say so. 

Derrick Goold has a wonderful series going on for the P-D in which he asks some very random (and rarely baseball-related) questions to baseball players. His latest "P-DQ" was with Todd Wellemeyer, and if you haven't read it, READ IT. Right now. Just go. He (DG, not TW) is also going to be a guest on the UCB's weekly podcast tonight (and for all my 31 years I still have no idea what exactly the term "podcast" refers to, but it calls to mind terrible images of pod people) and talk about everything Cardinals you can imagine for an hour or so. (But probably no extraterrestrial parasites. Probably.) 

I was looking over some predictions I made back in January about what the off-season would bring (or not bring, as it were), and so far, I'm doing pretty well. Look out for more predictions at the end of March. The UCB's next scheduled project will cover how we think the AL, NL, and post-season will break down, and posts should start going up on Monday. There may be a little bias showing when it comes to the NL Central, but they should be good reading anyway.

a little world baseball

I admit I haven't been following the other teams in the World Baseball Classic. The US team interests me because, well, I'm from here, and the Puerto Rico team interests me because I have an irrepressible (and sometimes troubling) fascination with lo todo boricua. But the rest of the competition I could take or leave.

This Cardinals blog I came across recently made me wish I'd been paying closer attention. Somehow I missed the update from Cardinals Best News Links (and just as an aside, if you're ever looking for Cardinals news and you're not looking there, you're looking too hard--he finds everything, and it is an awesome resource), although part of me wishes I could just erase it from my mind.

Apparently, in a disastrous 16-4 loss to Cuba (as if having to play Cuba isn't bad enough), Reyes showed his less impressive side.

In the 7th inning, with Mexico down 7-4, Dennys came in and faced 5 batters, did not record a single out, gave up 3 hits and 5 runs (all of them earned), walked one and beaned one. I believe there's a word for an outing like that, I'm just not going to type it because I'm trying to keep from using those kinds of words in the blog (anymore).

Yikes.

Hopefully he can get himself back on track in time to join the Cardinals in camp. Otherwise, this wonderful late-Spring signing is going to look pretty regrettable.

with a name like Reyes . . .

First of all, every time I see this guy's name, I think of greasy breakfasts and open-all-night diners where drunk people go for coffee when all the bars have closed but nobody wants to go home. It's probably pronounced like "Dennis", but maybe not. According to B-R, he pitched 46 1/3 innings in 75 appearances last year for the Mellizos, ending up with a 2.33 ERA (yes, I still like ERA) and a 1.187 WHIP. Not too shabby. More stat-savvy bloggers will probably counter with some outrageous FWAP or TWIRP or SMUT that I've never heard of (and no knock on them, they're much smarter than me), but until I hear differently, I'm a little bit psyched about this. Knowing the front office, he's not making much money, and if we can get a few good LOOGY innings out of him to complement Miller, well then, super. 

Update: USA Today has some figures. 2 years/$3 million and some incentives.