I disagree with you regarding Mark Loretta.
THE ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
Pitching: Before I get all negative about the Cardinals pitching staff I want to make everyone aware of the following: Chris Carpenter, Jason Marquis, Jeff Suppan, Mark Mulder, Anthony Reyes, Jeff Weaver, and Sidney Ponson all started more than ten games for the Cardinals last year. Suppan was the only non-Carpenter one of those guys who was even barely better than league average. The other five guys were absolutely terrible in the regular season. The reason I bring this up? Because it proves that a Chris Carpenter and a bunch of schmucks who are playing for contracts can turn in virtuoso Octobers and win the World Series. This is like a beacon of hope for the "as bad or worse" 2007 Cardinals rotation. Unfortunately life doesn't work out that way. Sure you may not crash your car the first time you drive home from the bar with a BAC two times the legal limit, blindfolded, and steering with your teeth but the next time you do it you'll probably miss the playoffs (or you'll just get lazy with your metaphor.) Bottom Line: After Carpenter there is a lot of uncertainty. The suddenly-thirty Kip Wells is being billed as a number two, Adam Wainwright is making the always fun transition from closer to starter, and Mark Mulder is a 29-year-old coming off shoulder surgery and a truncated season where he got knocked around more than an Alabama hooker. The bullpen sees the return of Jason Isringhausen from hip surgery but the loss of the surprisingly effective Adam Wainwright to the rotation. NOTE ON ISRINGHAUSEN: In fantasy baseball, I traded Luis Gonzalez for Isringhausen the year Gonzalez hit 57 homeruns. Something I'm not proud to admit.
Hitting: Aside from the hitting vacuum that will be the middle of their infield and their catcher (David Eckstein, Adam Kennedy, Yadier Molina) the Cardinals are doing okay in the hitting department. Scott Rolen's shoulder is another year removed from surgery and while he may never repeat his 2004 season, he's a good bet to improve on his numbers from last year. Chris Duncan, who will start in left field, showed 30-40 homerun power in his 90 or so games last year. The negatives: Jim Edmonds will be 37 this year AND he may not even be ready for Opening Day and Juan Encarnacion is somehow still playing professional baseball. FANTASY SLEEPER ALERT: The guy heading into camp at the top of the list for the job at first base is Albert Pujols. Right now the job is Pujols' to lose and I really have to say that I'm impressed by the confidence LaRussa is showing in him. Watch out for him on draft day. You can thank me when you've got your league rapped up by mid-August.
Miscellaneous: Just to piss off roommate and FJFP writer Rob, here's a Molina-related excerpt from an NLCS Game 7 post a few months ago:
'The Mets got Molina-ed. They got Molina-ed good. Yadier "I'm not as fat as my brothers" Molina hit a two-run game winning homer in the top of the ninth. To get to the bottom of the complete improbability of this ever happening I'm going to throw out some numbers: .274, 417, 6, 87, 5. Care to guess what these numbers represent? No? Okay, I'll tell you.
The first number is Yadier Molina's ON BASE PERCENTAGE. Yes, you read that correctly. ON BASE PERCENTAGE. His OBP was almost sixty points lower than Albert Pujols' batting average.
The second is the number of at bats he had this year, fairly standard for a catcher, and the third is the number of homeruns he hit. Six homeruns in 417 at bats. That's about one every seventy at bats. If you assume he gets an average of four at bats a game, that's a homerun for every seventeen regular season games. And this was the youngest Molina's second homerun of a postseason in which he was playing his eleventh game.
Finally, the fourth and fifth numbers relate to the svelte Mr. Aaron Heilman, the man who most directly got Molina-ed. Eighty seven is the number of innings Heilman pitched this season (with a 3.62 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP) and five is the number of homeruns he has surrendered. That's a homerun every 17 innings or so against, on average, hitters who are a good deal better than Yadier Molina. And he was pitching in Shea Stadium which was, despite the very competent Mets offense, the fifth worst park for the long ball this year. And the Mets were 7th in MLB in homeruns with 96 of their 200 homers being hit at home. Assuming the statistics for homeruns per game held from September 6th through the end of the season, visiting teams hit only 60 homeruns at Shea Stadium. What in the name of Aaron f****** Boone happened last night??'
Addendum: Yadier Molina's OPS+ last year was 54. He was half as good as the average baseball player in 2006.
Cardinals-related Ridiculous Proposition Bet: Over/under on how many times my friend Pax will use the phrase "You are So Taguchi and you don't even know it" during a Dodgers-Cardinals game this year: 1,263.
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2 comments:
Very nice. At least you used the italics, allowing me to skip over the unmentionable parts... I do feel like the bet should be straight up, who says "So Taguchi" in that way more, Pax or Joel...
To be fair to Heilman, his HRs last year were to Nevin, A-Rod, Mora, Delucci, and Tracy. Also gave up one to Betemit in the division series. the mets were 5-2 in games in which he gave up a HR, including the molina one. And oddly enough a lot of 3rd basemen on that list.
Cardinals suck
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