Royalties & Cardinalate

Slugging Redbirds need Matty to step up

Though last night’s long-ball thrills are still fresh in the mind, the lack of a quality start from the starting rotation remains a lingering concern. But it seems logical to deduce that Chris Carpenter took a monumental step toward becoming a much-needed anchor as he went six innings, allowed eight base runners and threw 101 pitches on Friday night.

CC was reaching 92 mph and his location vastly improved following the big early lead, presumably because he was more relaxed. It was the first time a Redbirds starter had less runs allowed than innings pitched. That’s not good, but the rotation turns over with Matty tonight, so we can only hope we see better things the second time through.

As for the offense, the only genuine concerns heading into this season were the No. 1 and 2 hitters and so far Tony Womack (.550 OBP) and Ray Lankford (.412) have been stunningly impressive. Not only are they getting on base, but also they are taking lots of pitches.

Ten of the 16 Cards hitters who faced Diamondbacks rookie Casey Daigle hit safely, seven for extra bases. Daigle became the pitcher in modern MLB history to allow five HRs in his first career start.

The Redbird’s team slugging percentage: .589. That is tops in MLB!

G-Men

Gobble and Guiel. The Royals’ G-Men rode to the rescue in the big win Friday night over Cleveland. As the pressure on the Royals’ rotation began to mount, even in these early stages of the season, 22-year old Jimmy Gobble turned in a gem. After Brian Anderson, Darrell May and Jeremy Affeldt all managed to run up high pitch counts without making it through the sixth inning, Gobble breezed his way through six, throwing only 74 pitches. He allowed just one base hit, struck out two, walked two. After each of the three baserunners Gobble allowed reached, he induced Jody Gerut to ground into a double play. Overall, Gobble collected 12 groundball outs compared to just 4 flyball outs. Offensively, the Royals continued to struggle, though the tune was a little different this time. The lineup did a better job of making Indians starter Jason Stanford work, drawing four walks and knocking him out after five innings and 95 pitches. But the Royals couldn’t drive home a runner to save their collective life. At least three times, the Royals had a runner on third with less than two outs but ended up scoreless in the inning. Finally, Guiel broke the spell in the seventh inning with a double that plugged the gap and scored a pair of runs. Tony Graffanino drove in Guiel and that was all the Royals needed. So while the team is clearly not firing on all cylinders yet, they stand 2-2. Winning games during these types of spells is important, especially early in the season. When Beltran-Sweeney-Gonzalez begin to hit, the Royals will score a lot of runs and further alleviate the pressure on the starting rotation. Every game they win in the interim is a big boost in the long run. Also, Angel Berroa is really struggling in the leadoff role. It seemed to me that he was swinging at too many pitches in early in the count but his pitches/plate appearance is actually a little bit up from last year and at 3.79, it isn’t terrible. But he hasn’t drawn a walk and his .211 OBP is ugly. Aaron Guiel, with a .400 OBP and 4.13 P/PA, and who batted leadoff in the past, might be more suited to bat atop the order until Berroa gets straightened out. Guiel came up big again in the game today, hitting a two-run homer in the third off C.C. Sabathia. Brian Anderson has been pretty sharp but is getting henpecked to death right now in the fourth as the Indians have enjoyed a succession of bloop hits and broken-bat gappers. The Indians lead 3-2 as I leave off this entry. Balls-in-play=more baserunners. Get used to it. You heard me.

My new favorite player

I love Diamondbacks pitcher Casey Daigle. Not only is he dating the greatest (female) softball player in the country in Jenny Finch, but he is serving up fat pitches with reckless abandon to the Redbirds this evening. After three innings, I have seen two no-doubter blasts from Reggie Sanders to left field, a super blaster from Phat Albert, an opposite field liner homer from Ray Lankford (No. 1 since his return) and another opposite field liner shot from Scotty Roles. Five HRs in 3 innings. So, it looks like a 15-HR night from the Cardinals tonight. Will it be enough? This will be a lenghty night in the desert .... Meanwhile, the Cubs-Braves are in the 14th!

Affeldt’s struggles continue

Jeremy Affeldt is hitting 94-95 MPH with his fastball, not quite as fast as he was at times when he pitched out of the bullpen last year, but still plenty fast to be a dominant power starter at the big-league level. Yet he has now gone three straight starts (the first two coming in spring training) without striking out a single batter.

Am I worried? Yeah, sure I’m worried. Affeldt had six appearances last season in which he failed to strike out a batter, but only one of those was a start. That game was against Seattle and came during a time when the foremost goal of any Affeldt start was to avoid getting blisters. In every other start, Affeldt struck out at least two batters. Cleveland struck out the third-most times in the league in 2003 and are ranked in the same spot in the early going in 2004 – despite Affeldt's whiffless outing. Going back to the spring, that is now 33 1/3 innings for Affeldt with 7 K’s.

Why does this worry me so? The Royals need strikeouts. The more balls that are put into play, the more hits a team is going to yield. Teams that don’t strike out batters give up more runs. The Royals need to knock almost a full run off their team ERA in order to contend in this division. Most of all, however, it worries me because Affeldt’s profile – both performance-wise and from eyewitness reports, including my own – suggests a pitcher who ought to be striking guys out. And when he fails to do that, I can only conclude that something is wrong, either physically or mentally. The velocity readings would suggest the issue is the with latter.

Affeldt says that he has retained the aggressive, let-it-all-hang-out approach that he adopted out of the ‘pen. But the numbers he has put up would suggest otherwise. At this point, all we can do is adopt a wait-and-see approach with Jeremy. It is far to early to dial the red phone. My feeling is that Affeldt is just one break-out game away from beginning the foretold break-out season. But, before that, hearing ‘Strike three!’ just one time would be nice.

The game yesterday was a bit of a fiasco. Affeldt gave up a lot of ticky-tacky hits but that’ll happen when the opposition puts the ball in play every time they swing. Affeldt got frusturated by a tight strike zone but his opponent, Jeff D’Amico, had the Royals off-balance with the same umpire behind the plate (though the Royals did hit more than a few balls hard that found their way into Cleveland leather). He committed a pair of balks, one which scored a run. If not for a some outstanding defense from the Randa-Berroa-Guiel left-side defense that will be so busy this year, it would have been even worse.

Offensively, the team has been too aggressive at the plate so far this season. The team’s OBP is just .318 and all three opposing starters have gone deep into the game without burning very many pitches. Adding free swingers like Juan Gonzalez and Benito Santiago will not help a team’s pitches-per-plate-appearance. But they can still help an offense if the rest of the lineup is doing their job and working deep counts. So far, only Aaron Guiel and Carlos Beltran have done this consistently.

There is a lot of concern going around about the starting rotation in general. I wasn’t pleased by the first two starts by Brian Anderson and Darrell May but I wasn’t alarmed by them either. They struck out a cumulative 11 while walking just two. But they were bitten by the long ball and if that continues, then they’ll post high ERA’s, no question about it. At the same time, I think that if they throw like the did in their initial starts, they’ll be successful.

The White Sox are probably the worse possible matchup for this rotation. The lineup is almost entirely righthanded, they have power up and down the order and they have a lot of batters who can really work the count. Frank Thomas’s at-bat against May was a thing to behold. That at-bat wrecked May for the later innings.

So Jimmy Gobble goes tonight and it’s an important outing. The Royals need to finish this opening homestand strong or else they run the risk of hitting the road and getting buried early in the division race, which of course would be the polar opposite of last season. The bullpen has been airtight so far but, of course, they haven’t had to preserve a lead yet. The only time the Royals have led was when Beltran homered to end Monday’s game. Other than that, it’s been an uphill battle.

So, Brian, that is seven games and 0 quality starts for our boys. I think Gobble will give the Royals a quality outing tonight. Any bets on when the Redbirds are going to get a decent start from a pitcher? I watched part of the game Marquis started. He looks like a guy could be pretty solid. He was his own worst enemy.

Spotlight shifts to Carpenter in Arizona

I just saw ex-Redbird second baseman Adam Kennedy hit a ball of his shoe tops into the right field stands for a 3-run HR. . . .I always liked him, which is why he is on my fantasy team. AK’s hit followed two straight errors by Rangers SS Michael Young . . . Anyone notice that Anaheim might be the best team in baseball?

Can we re-do the beginning to this season? A ridiculous amount of emphasis is put on the first week of the season simply because of the swelling anticipation. After months of ESPN Classic and talk radio chatter, we are bursting with stimulation once Opening Day arrives. For the Redbirds, all hopes have centered upon the starting rotation, so this week has been a disaster. Though very early, that is not an exaggeration.

The weakest part of this club has been awful. Cardinals pitchers gave up nine homers and walked 18 batters in four games against robotic-like Milwaukee. The Brewers only beat the Cardinals three times in 16 games in 2003. The rotation has a combined seven innings in the past two games and overall is allowing over two base runners per inning.

Now all eyes turn to RHP Chris Carpenter (and pretty soon, Dan Haren), who hasn't pitched in a Major League game since August of 2002. He once was an Opening Day starter for the Blue Jays and he pitched 215 innings in 2001 when he went he went 11-11 (4.09 ERA) in 34 starts. The pressure on the rotation is seriously mounting and you have to think (hope) as soon as someone steps up it will have a positive ripple effect. Perhaps getting away from St. Louis will ease the pressure.

Tonight Reggie Sanders and Tony Womack will return to Arizona, the scene of Womack’s greatest professional crime (Game 5 NLDS 2001).

I have been digging the free MLB Extra Innings on DirecTV this week. It allowed me to see Kerry Robinson in a Padres uniform. He looks right in San Diego for whatever reason. K-Rob slapped an opposite field single in the at-bat I saw. Flipping around late last night I saw Richie Sexson launch a two-run blast off of Colorado’s Shawn Chacon to lift the Snakes to a 6-5 win in 11. I also caught San Diego’s 4-3 win in the first game at Petco Park, though I missed Jay Payton robbing Bonds of No. 660.

Said Bonds: “"He was playing me back on the warning track, that little runt," Bonds said. “What the hell, I hit the ball hard.”

I also saw the 13th inning of the Orioles’ win over the Red Sox as Bobby Jones walked four Orioles to lose the game. He had several borderline calls go against him. Agony.

Thursday’s loss was so bad I did not even bother to record the last few innings, so I missed the glory of seeing backup catcher Cody McKay pitch. I guess Brooks Kieschnick is not the only two-way player in MLB.

McKay had the only 1-2-3 inning of the game, pitched two scoreless (and hitless) innings, and even showed off a couple of knuckleballs. Very cool, but also very disturbing.

Luna Time!

Marquis’ uninspiring start puts pressure on Woody

Last night’s tantalizing ninth-inning rally only amplified the night’s frustration as Milwaukee again played a much better all-around game. They are being more patient at the plate, their pitchers are throwing more strikes and generally are not making the errors the Cards are making.

It is only a two-game losing streak, but to lose a series at home to the Brewers while not getting at least one quality start would be a sour beginning to the 2004 season. In other words, I think the pressure is on Woody Williams - his start tonight is already significant because the team has admitted were it any other starter, they would not have allowed him to start so soon after health issues. If he falters, it will open a flood of concern.

The worst news from last night was Jason Marquis’ lackluster start. Really, his performance was the only thing that mattered for St. Louis and he was not good. His velocity was fine (mid-90s) but his location was poor at crucial points, a direct result of getting behind too many hitters. He often missed his spots, which was easy to see as Matheny at times moved his glove from the outside corner toward the inside corner to snag certain pitches.

The best news of the night was the two perfect innings tossed by Steve Kline and Jason Isringhausen. They looked sharp.

Marquis flashed some skill in striking out the side in the second inning. But it was the 7-8-9 hitters and he had just fallen behind 3-0 to Ben Grieve after back-to-back singles to begin the inning. He struck out six in 5 1/3 innings, but allowed eight hits and two bombs, to left-handed hitters Craig Counsell (on a 3-2 pitch following two fouls) and Lyle Overbay, neither of who is exactly Ben Oglivie.

I have been pleased with Tony Womack’s patience, so I hope he keeps it up. TLR went with Roger Cedeno over Ray Lankford in LF, which makes sense against lefty Doug Davis, though Lankford pinch hit against Davis rather than So Taguchi later on. To his credit, Lankford worked a walk as a PH in the seventh and stroked a single in the ninth.

Mike ‘Mr. April’ Matheny muscled up in the second inning, stunning me as he hit a homer to left on the first pitch of his at-bat.

Roger Cedeno left his feet to try and snare a Geoff Jenkins liner, which turned into a triple because of the misplay. It was a 3-3 game in the sixth inning when he did that, so it was a dumb play. He needs to relax a bit.

Quote from Al Hrabowski: “He (Pujols) will win some Gold Gloves at fist base.”

Hmmm.

Opening blast!

End the season right now. I mean, how do you top that? There are many moments during a baseball season when the term sabermetrics seems antithetical to the proceedings before your eyes, when the science cannot intrude upon the living poetry or the great drama, especially when there is most emphatically a third act. There cannot really be 162 of these, can there? Stop the season right now and I will be satisfied.

In the larger scheme, of course, it’s only one game. Come tomorrow when, barring the forecasted rain, I make my first trip out to the K this season, the amazing ninth inning of Opening Day will already be relegated to the scrapbook. Months of serious work lie ahead and there will be some games that leave me as depressed as yesterday’s left me ecstatic. Most games will, thankfully, lie somewhere in between.

There is a greater focus on Opening Day. It’s a time you’ve been anticipating for months. The weather has taken a turn for the better. Your team’s slate is clean. The stadium is jammed full and there is a festival-like atmosphere through the city. More often than not, the game itself is almost a letdown, especially when the home team loses. Last year, the Royals jumpstarted their season with by opening the year with a 3-0 shutout of the vaunted White Sox offense. Runelvys Hernandez looked like a future Cy Young and Mike MacDougal, in striking out Frank Thomas, flashed the signature slider that would make the game’s best hitters look silly at times through the season. That was a high, an unexpected peak which I certainly didn’t think I'd feel again this season. Not at least this soon.

The same teams came together to usher in the 2004 season. Much had changed. Hernandez and MacDougal are on the injured list. The White Sox were playing under reduced expectations with a new manager while the expectations for the Royals had (quite unreasonably) gone through the roof. The Royals’ Opening Day starter, Brian Anderson, was with Cleveland at this time last season. Mike Sweeney is now a father. Angel Berroa is the reigning Rookie of the Year instead of a big, fat question mark. But the lingering feeling from yesterday’s comeback trumped last year’s euphoria many times over. Really, I was so happy when Beltran’s homer splashed into the left-center field fountain that I am glad no one was here with me to see it. (And thank God for TiVO! I replayed the homer over and over and over, even though I was already late for work). No other sport produces moments like that. No other sport sets the scene so perfectly, when the stakes are clearly established and instead of a race to beat a ticking clock, the natural drama is allowed to slowly build, pitch by pitch, until the tension takes on a life in itself.

When I arrived at the paper, I expected everybody I passed to give me a high-five but not everyone reacts to a Royals’ victory that way I do. In the sports department, the scene was lively but not euphoric. There was a mad scramble because the planned game-stories had to be changed from ‘disappointment’ stories to ‘fairy-tale finish’ stories. There had been a question about whether the NCAA championship or the Royals game would be the front page centerpiece but that dilemma had been erased. For a good hour after I arrived, I found it difficult to work.

Setting aside all of this silliness, let’s look at the game itself. Starter Brian Anderson was just fair but he’ll win a lot of games if he pitches the way he did yesterday. In five innings, he struck out five and didn’t walk anyone. That’s a good start. Of his other ten outs, eight came on ground outs. Anderson allowed a pair of homers and I think keeping balls in the park will define his season. With two homers allowed and two fly ball outs, well, you do the math. Over the course of a season, I’m sure that rate will drop. Not many teams feature the right-handed power that the Sox do with Ordonez-Thomas-Lee-Konerko. (Yesterday, it was Sandy Alomar Jr. playing the part of Ordonez, but that won’t happen often.) Thus, with four lefties in the rotation, the Sox will be a difficult matchup for the Royals all season. Anderson needs to be more effective early in the count. He’s not the kind of pitcher who can be effective pitching behind hitters (not many pitchers are). What’s more, even though he didn’t walk anyone, he nibbled to the point that his 94 pitches only got him through five innings. Going forward, he’ll need to do a much better job of economizing his pitches. The bullpen was pretty solid. This was the hold-the-deficit-where-it-is crew – Shawn Camp, Nate Field and D.J. Carrasco. Camp surrendered a couple of runs but, frankly, I thought he was the victim of an Ed Montague strike zone which seemed to get smaller and smaller as the game went along. By the bottom of the ninth, this ended up working in the Royals’ favor. Field threw harder than I remember him throwing, rushing it up there at 95 MPH a couple of times. And Carrasco was effective in what, at the time, seemed to be a mop-up inning but ended up yielding D.J. the Royals’ first victory of the season.

The bottom-of-the-ninth was a tour-de-force of managerial strategy, player usage and team philosophy. First off, there was the issue of plate discipline. Through eight innings, Tony Graffinino had drawn the Royals’ only walk off a tiring Mark Buehrle. Buehrle threw only 95 pitches, one more than Anderson, but his pitch count was sufficient to get him deep into the seventh inning. Without his best stuff, Buehrle was able to navigate through a Royals’ lineup that was far too aggressive early in the count. It was enough to bring back nightmares of the Tony Muser era when opposing pitchers routinely breezed through games with about 10 pitches an inning (that’s a slight exaggeration – don’t go sending me the e-mail refuting my numbers).

In the ninth inning, all of a sudden, the approach changed. Beginning with Joe Randa, the Royals suddenly began making the Sox pitchers work. As it turns out, this was no accident.

“Tony told us to take first-pitch strikes and try to get on base one at a time,” Ken Harvey told The Kansas City Star.

When Sox pitchers suddenly couldn’t find the shrinking strike zone, the Royals were in business. After Benito Santiago’s double trimmed the lead to three and Billy Koch struck out Aaron Guiel, the key moment in the game arrived. Koch looked very sharp in striking out Guiel. He was hitting 97 on the radar and had good command. With Tony Graffinino on deck for the Royals and Damaso Marte was ready in the ‘pen for the Sox.

Here are the possible matchups from which Tony Pena and Ozzie Guillen to choose:

Graffanino (.666 OPS vs. RHP) vs. Koch (.667 OPS vs. RH)
Matt Stairs (.892 OPS vs. RHP) vs. Koch (.782 vs. LH)
Stairs (.550 OPS vs. LHP) vs. Marte (.532 OPS vs. LH)
Mendy Lopez (.725 OPS vs. LHP) vs.Marte (.651 OPS vs. RH)

Tony Pena got the game of wits rolling when he sent Stairs up for Graffanino, forcing Guillen’s hand. There was no way Guillen could let Stairs hit against Koch when he represented the tying run and Pena knew this. He was gambling that the Lopez vs. Marte matchup would be better than Graffanino vs. Koch. Looking at the three-year percentages quoted above, this is true, albeit not by a significant measure and Lopez’s homer was his first off a southpaw in over three years and just the third of his career. What Pena knew that neither I nor the announcers knew at the time, was that Lopez had faced Marte many times in Dominican League baseball. He knew that Lopez was familiar with Marte’s repertoire and felt comfortable hitting against him even though, as Lopez said, he had never come close to hitting one out against Marte before. To hear Tony Pena tell it, the decision to insert Lopez was a lark but there was a lot behind the decision that put the Royals in position to win the game.

The Royals already saw the value in a strong bench. Without Stairs and the threat he represents, Pena could not have made those moves. As for Guillen, he did the right thing. According to the definition of the post-Eckersley bullpen, the closer is the closer and matchups be damned. Guillen had declared Koch to be his closer, though he added a few caveats about using Marte in certain situations. Nonetheless, by not taking the easy way out and leaving the Koch in to sink or swim, Guillen left himself open to be skewered in the Chicago media, which he is certainly is today.

Here are a couple of snippets from Doug Padilla’s games story in the Chicago Sun-Times:

The White Sox continue to help bring baseball fever back to Kansas City. (That’s the lead)

Ozzie Guillen's managerial debut Monday was a bust as he wavered from his plan to have Billy Koch as his closer and watched the Royals deliver the game-tying and game-winning home runs off Damaso Marte. (Horseshit. Guillen did the right thing, though he might be afraid to do so next time.)

''I wanted to get the best matchup we can,'' Guillen said. ''I didn't want Stairs to win the game with a home run, tie the game. I'm going to play with my gut feeling.'' (Unfortunate choice of words for Ozzie. I can appreciate his desire to be defiant, but ‘going with his gut’ is precisely the pitfall that he was avoiding.)

I love reading the stories from the writers covering the Royal’s opponents so you can expect to see plenty of that preceeding in this space as the season unfolds.

Once Lopez hit his home run, the Sox were finished. I knew it, the announcers knew it, the teams knew it, the fans in the stadium knew it and the fans who’d skipped out early and were listening their car radios in chagrin as they sped away, well, they especially knew it. As great as it was to listen to Denny Matthews’ call of the homers on the radio (also, I grudgingly admit, KU-guy Bob Davis’ call on the television feed was pretty good), I enjoyed much more when I replayed Hawk Harrelson’s call from the mlb.com archive later on. He was so pissed off that he could barely growl the words: ‘Now there’s a deep fly to left…......….the game is over’. Put that one on the board, Hawk. Yesssss!

Lost in the euphoria was the injury to Desi Relaford, who strained a hamstring after getting a hit. An MRI today will reveal whether Relaford is out for a few days or for an extended period. The Royals will be weaker against right-handed pitching with Graffanino in the lineup but would be fine in the short term. However the bench would be that much thinner. And, most importantly, another ticky-tack injury would be further indictment of the team’s training and medical staff. Sure, it’s was cool out and Relaford has never been the most durable of players but, still, enough is enough.

These two tidbits from Lee Sinin’s great newsletter:

* Yesterday was the first time in modern history that 2 walkoff HRs were hit on Opening Day. Carlos Beltran and Shannon Stewart did it.
* The Royals became the 1st team since the 1901 Tigers to come back from at least a 4 run deficit in the 9th inning to win on Opening Day.

Opening Day: Let the Over Analysis Begin

Having standing-room only tickets was, as anticipated, quite the variable to overcome to reach the Max Q level of enjoyment. But the sports wife (Amanda) and I managed to take in most of what Opening Day had to offer in downtown St. Louis - without having to venture to the nether regions of the upper terrace levels of Busch Stadium. We made it inside at about 1:15 with minimal delay (despite popular exaggeration) for the 3:20 game, and were able to get to the bleachers in plenty of time to raise a Budweiser to the passing motorcade (one red truck per player) of this year’s Redbirds. Seeing the players’ big smiles and various endearing reactions was cool, but So Taguchi’s response stood out to me the most as he seemed overjoyed with the outpouring of support from section 591 in left field. There were 13 new players to welcome, so plenty of ovations followed.

Tony Womack, who reached base three times, made a great impression and I cannot recall from memory the last time a Cardinals player stole three bases in a game – and he did that in the first four innings. That kind of play will make him popular, but I am guessing it is an anomaly that will not occur once in the next 161 games. I hope I am incorrect.

I enjoyed Lankford’s – and also Reggie Sanders’ - at-bats since they showed good patience and Lanky hustled out of the box at every opportunity, leading to him getting a double that he had no business getting. Sanders barely missed a three-run homer (off the top of the LF wall) and hit a few balls solidly.

Matt Morris did not have sharp stuff (at all) and was not fooling the Brewers with his off-speed pitches, not even the one or two changeups (that I thought I saw) he tried to mix in, one if which was jerked by Geoff Jenkins 340 feet and barely foul down the right field line. Everything looked straight and hittable from M squared. Not good times.

It was not until the seventh inning that we were able to claim an obviously undisputed, high quality spot in the bleachers to watch the game, so much of my perception in the meantime was distorted either by periodic poor sight lines or the time it took to switch between the right field and left field bleachers to stand behind the crowd and find decent spots. Not surprisingly, this normally frustrating experience was smoothed over by the enormous amount of fun involved in simply being where we were. A lovely day.

The Cards allowed eight walks, so that was the day’s primary problem.

The costly error Albert Pujols committed in the third inning was agonizing, but it seemed Matt Morris interrupted his throwing view and it also is a play that will challenge Pujols much of the year as he settles into his role as the first baseman. Renteria’s subsequent error was just part of his adaptation to Tony Womack, though extremely untimely. Given Marlon Anderson’s embarrassing at-bat, Womack will not be pulled anytime soon.

I do want to mention reliever Mike Lincoln’s appearance. The word has been pretty kind on him from his spring outings but his numbers in 2003 for Pittsburgh were awful no matter how you rated them – with one exception. He had a couple of terrible outings and only threw 36.3 innings, so there was definitely room for statistical distortion. So I have high hopes he can be the stud middle reliever this team needs after enduring 2003’s Esteban Yan travesty. Lincoln tossed 1 1/3 scoreless and struck out three while making hitters look bad as well.

Mike Matheny, who was scorching in April in 2003 (.315, 13 RBI) got two hits which should give him a nice dose of confidence.

It was neat to see Prez George W. Bush wearing a Cardinals jacket, talking with Joe Buck, throwing a nice though hurried strike for the ceremonial opening pitch, spending time in the KMOX radio booth with Mike Shannon, hanging out and watching a couple of innings, and admitting that he would be watching the Rangers later. Best thing he said was that he gets MLB games via satellite at The Pasty House. His interview on Fox did show how he sounds without a prepared speech. Good humor there.

Brad: Mark Mighty Quinn struggled this spring with a groin injury and only had about 20 PAs before he was out as a potential Opening Day player. But given the tenuous STL LF situation, if he gets healthy and hits a little, he will get his shot and I think that would be cool.

So it begins

In the calm before the storm, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot to write about. I covered some stuff in my ESPN dispatch, the most important being Affeldt’s lack of K’s. Had to work last night but I Tivo’d the Red Sox-Orioles game. I thought of Affeldt as Joe Morgan – that perennial claptrap of unsubstaniated observation – reflected how the spring performances of star pitchers like Pedro Martinez are irrelevant because once the season starts, they simply dial it up a notch. He said this in response to comments regarding Pedro’s loss of velocity in camp. Sure enough, Pedro comes out with a top fastball of 88 MPH (his opponent, Sidney Ponson, was hiting 95) and several times overthrew in an attempt to get more on a fastball, usually at the cost of command. Eventually, Pedro got up to 91 and battled his way to a decent last few innings. So I don’t know whether Morgan was right – neither does Morgan, for that matter – but I still think 7 K’s in 27-2/3 is something to be concerned about. Until Affeldt starts making guys miss, I think he’ll get hit hard, especially if you buy into DIPS. But that is a conversation for another time. Happy Opening Day!

On a completely unrelated note, I was looking over the daily propects newsletter from Baseball America and, as is my habit, I drool over the great lines put up by some of the high-profile college starting pitchers and lose myself in reverie, imaging them in white & blue with the fountains of The K blasting behind them. In particular, I see Jered Weaver stalking around out there with Zack Greinke in the dugout, charting pitches for his next start. But the Royals won’t get Weaver or any of the three great starters from Rice. They did too well last year. It’s the first time in while the top layer of prospects will likely be gone before the Royals pick.

Brian – I saw where the Cards released Mighty Mark Quinn from minor-league camp. Did you ever hear anything about him? What a washout. I expect a full report from today’s game! I’ll be at The K on Wednesday afternoon. Go R’s (and Cubs)! Say hey to Dubya.

New ESPN correspondence is up.