Royalties & Cardinalate

September baseball in May

It felt - and looked - like a late September game last night and that only emphasizes how much of a travesty it is that the Cubs and Cardinals do not play a regular season game in 2004 after July 20. After last season's September series in Chicago, it is hard to accept that cannot happen this season. I was not part of the 44,000 at Busch on Friday, but saw the entire game on TiVo late last night. Total nail biter.

Mike Matheny deserves abundant credit for a sharp batting eye in drawing four consecutive balls from LaTroy Hawkins after falling behind 0-2. But I actually thought that last pitch was a strike. Joe and Al said nothing and ESPN said nothing. Hawkins didn’t complain. But after a few slow-motion looks, the pitch arguably got part of the outside corner. That part of the argument aside, the pitch was called high. In fact, I doubt any umpire in MLB would’ve called that pitch a strike. But according to the rulebook, since the pitch was under the shoulders and at the letters, is not that a strike? In that game-deciding situation, I hate to see a ball called on a borderline pitch.

It is a crazy notion to think a pitch that looks like a ball could be a strike, but then why even have rules regarding the strike zone if they’re to be constantly ignored? Even if it can be proven that pitch was a ball, my argument is that there is a shifting strike zone not only from umpire to umpire, but from inning to inning in some cases. No consistency. And there is no respect for the high strike (or rule book strike zone), something that was actually being called a couple of years ago. I’d like to see this addressed, but inevitably it is a subjective thing and an umpire is going to call what looks like a strike and that depends too much on hitter reaction and catcher reaction. Very old debate, but always fun.

Enough bunting: Scott Rolen and Jim Edmonds should not be bunting. Ever. First and second, 0 out, tied in the 9th and Scotty Roles lays one down. I see the logic to a degree (1 run ends it), but Rolen had a chance to win the game with a hit and with Sanders prone to the K and Matheny behind him, I did not like that play. Rolen - who leads MLB in RBI! - got the bunt down to move the runners up. Then Sanders popped out before MM’s game-winning stroll. Rolen said he bunted on his own, so don’t blame TLR for that one.

Matheny had struck out all three times against Kerry Wood before his final AB. Wood and 5-0 Roger Clemens are the two most dominant pitchers in MLB right now, a scary thought in terms of our NL Central hopes.

I am beginning to feel some love for Julian Tavarez. He is holding up under pressure of late and his flawless 8th was very timely on Friday. His ERA is already below 5.00 after that rough start.

Busch Domination: The Birds are 14-3 against the Cubs at Busch Stadium the past three seasons and 26-5 the past five years.

Edmonds’ HR saves the day

It was set up perfectly. I had 10 minutes until I had to leave the house for work, Izzy was on the mound and the Redbirds were up 4-2 in the ninth after Reggie Sanders’ fist-pumping three-run pinch-hit triple in the bottom of the eighth. Then Ricky Ledee bombed a hanging curveball for a two-run HR. The dreaded double whammy: tie game and time for work. But Jim Edmonds’ 13th inning HR quelled all of this tension, plus I got to hear my first full-fledged “get up, baby, get up, get up” of the 2004 season as Shanny was on the walk-off call.

Edmonds’ homer came on an 0-2 pitch from Amaury Telemaco, who was in his fifth inning of relief. Jimmy nearly had his fourth K and looked bad most of the afternoon (Kevin Millwod can do that.)

Chris Carpenter’s fantastic start (7 IP, 3 H, 7 Ks) highlighted a great day of Cards pitching outside of Izzy’s misstep. Julian Tavarez threw 2.1 scoreless and Mike Lincoln was able to pitch a 1-2-3 13th - just 18 hours or so after going 2.1 (28 pitches) innings on Wednesday night. Take tomorrow off Lincster.

Can’t stop Reggie: As odd as it is, Reggie Sanders is the only player in MLB to have at least 20 RBI and six SBs. The only other player close to that is Carlos Beltran at 19 and 7. Beltran should be a 40-30 player while I’d settle for 32 and 15 from Reggie.

Other observations:

A home W!: The Cardinals (11-11) are now 4-9 at home. They avoided their worst home start at Busch since going 2-11 in 1969. They went 48-33 in 2003.

Two Tony tidbits: TLR became the second manager to win 700 games with two different teams, joining Sparky Anderson. La Russa won 798 games with Oakland from 1986-95. Anderson won 863 with the Reds from 1970-78 and 1,331 with the Tigers from 1979-95.

Even cooler was La Russa having Pat Burrell’s bat impounded after he flied out in the 10th. Earlier, Larry Bowa (that man’s man firey firecracker) asked the umps to check out Tavarez’s hat.

Thome is a monster: Jim Thome is a career .456 hitter (31-for-68) against the Cardinals with 14 homers and 33 RBI in 18 games.

Keep an Eye on: Double-A Tennessee starter Brad Thompson went 8 2/3 shutout innings on Thursday, allowing three hits and no walks. He struck out eight and retired 21 straight batters at one point. Thompson, in his first season of pro baseball, has not allowed a run in 23 1/3 innings. He's struck out 22 and walked three.

Twin Killing

I saw the Cardinals lose twice today. But it was not all bad, thanks to nostalgia. Late this afternoon I noticed that my TiVo was recording a Cardinals-Phillies game on Classic from September 23, 1983. I allowed the recording to finish and checked it out later. I had no clue what the significance was concerning this game, but figured there was some worthy historical element. The first thing I watched was Steve Carlton pitch to Ozzie Smith. Kind of a surreal moment, especially with (The Voice) Harvey Kalas doing the broadcast. Turns out it was Carlton’s 300th win.

The Busch Stadium turf looked terrible. It was patchy and there was little uniformity with its color - many shades of greenish carpet. I saw a two-run blast by David Green off of Carlton, really the only Redbirds offensive highlight. Slugger Joaquin Andujar swung wildly at a Lefty curve to K, which was a hoot.

Media swarmed Carlton after the game, but he simply found his family and friends that were in attendance, shook some hands, gave a few hugs and, though he continued to shake hands and stop for a few pictures, he slyly avoided every singly microphone. Silent Steve, baby.

I had forgotten that Joe Morgan played for the Philles for one season, so I was stoked to watch him grace the Busch turf. Well, grace is a strong word, but it was neat to see him in action. Mike Schmidt went a sturdy 3-for-5 with a HR and SB; he also doubled in Morgan, Michael Jack’s 105th RBI of the ’83 season.

Glenn Brummer managed to go 3-for-4 with 0 runs and 0 RBI. Philly’s Al Holland got Ken Oberkfell on a K to end the game.

Tuesday’s game was not worthy of any classic references. It sucked. What irked me the most was this: Cardinals batting. The Phillies are ahead 3-2 in the bottom of the fourth with runners on first and third with one out. Matt Morris bunts (0-0 count) to get runners on second and third for So Taguchi. So cannot hit very well. At all. Morris might be a better hitter than So-Gooch. That move made no sense (avoid the DP?), though it certainly did not lose the game. LHP Eric Milton throws breaking stuff, but Morris is smart enough to work a decent AB regardless. Taguchi weakly popped out.

It seems Morris gets very grumpy when things start to go awry at home.

DeJesus has arrived

The newest Stat Guy is up - or at least a version of it is. The chart that is supposed to accompany the story is till not hitting the Web. Also, the published version of this article has about 10" cut from the version I wrote. That's life in the newspaper biz. Anyway, when I get some time, I plan to reconstruct the article and post it here including a much more in-depth look at the defensive analysis that is only glossed over here.

Suppan’s Super Sunday

Salvaging the Sunday finale at Miller Park gives the Redbirds some positive momentum heading into their off day before their three-gamer at home against the 7-10 Phillies - who are 6-4 in their past 10 games. The Phillies do not excite me much, but it will be my first prolonged look at them, so that is always fun. It will be even more fun when our hitters go crazy in their new Citizens Bank Ballpark. Watching Jim Thome hit and seeing Placido Polanco receive a nice cheer will be cool. Hopefully, Billy Wagner sightings will be scarce in this series. I’m hoping Tony Womack returns to the lineup. That’s right; I’m eager to see if he can stay hot.

Despite the 1-2 weekend, good vibes are strong after a tremendous road trip (1.63 ERA!!!) from the starting pitchers. Suppan capped the week by tossing 7 2/3 innings on 93 pitches, allowing just three hits. Overall, the Cards’ pitchers are now in the middle of most statistical categories, a huge leap from their bottom-scraping beginning. They are No. 11 (out of 30) in WHIP and No. 3 overall in ground ball-to-fly ball ratio, a result of Suppan, Carpenter and Marquis getting hot recently. They’re not big K guys and each relies on good breaking stuff down in the zone, so this stat is worth keeping an eye on with this group. The more quality innings the starters rack up, the better this stat will be. (Obvious enough)

When Edgar Renteria gets out of his defensive slump, that will help also. He has had a few non-errors already that really deserved the E.

From Redbird Nation:

Studies at The Hardball Times have been keeping track of line drives -- specifically, the number of line drives per at bat for each player in the major leagues. Number 7 on the list is Ray Lankford, who has hit a liner in 31.8% of his ABs so far.

So those of you who are noticing how much better Lanky looks at the plate compared to his awful 2000 and 2001 seasons, you are right: The hole in his bat is seemingly gone. And so is that uppercut.

Royals show some cajunes

I’m pretty pleased with the Royals today. And it’s not just because they beat the Twinkies 10-1 last night – though that certainly doesn’t hurt.

If you’ve been reading these pages for the last couple of months, then you know my strong preference that David DeJesus be installed in left field. Alas, it has come to pass. The Royals shook up the roster yesterday and at the forefront of the moves was DeJesus’ recall from Omaha. What’s more, Tony Pena declared that DeJesus would be in the lineup at least five days per week. The Royals got better yesterday.

In last night’s lineup, Tony Graffanino led off. I’m not sure how long the team will keep DeJesus at the bottom of the order to get his feet wet. But there is no doubt that he will soon be installed at the top of the order. I have a lot to say about DeJesus but I have to keep a lid on it right now. He is the subject of the next Stat Guy column – coming your way in this Tuesday’s edition of The Kansas City Star. (Forgive the plugging of my employer – I figure if I throw them some love now and again they won’t ask me to cease and desist this blog, at least until I write a column about blogging, which is on my docket.)

Freddie the Flea. Freddie Patek left the Royals after the 1979 season. I was ten years old. Since then, the shortstop postion has been manned by such iconic figures as U.L. Washington, Onix Concepcion, Buddy Biancalana, Angel Salazaar, Kurt Stillwell, David Howard, Greg Gagne, Jay Bell, Rey Sanchez and the always lovable Neifi Perez (who can ever forget those first-pitch pop outs with the bases loaded with less than two outs? Mmmmm, mmmmmm. Makes we warm and fuzzy!). For me though – at last until Angel Berroa came along – Freddie Patek is the guy I think of first. The image of him sitting on first base crying at the end of the 1977 ALCS was one of the first and most haunting images of my childhood. Patek lives in Kansas City and has ever since he retired. You never heard much from him and this season, he resurfaced as a commentator on Royals pregame broadcasts. And while he’s no Vin Scully, it’s fun to listen to his down-homey responses to the softball questions tossed his way. Joe Posnanski wrote a great piece about him for this morning’s Star and if you remember Freddie from the good ‘ole days, I urge you to check it out.

MacDougal IS the closer. I’m still getting the ‘who is the closer/will MacDougal close right away e-mails’. Yes. MacDougal is back. He’s active. He is the closer. Once again, Tony Pena reiterated that Mac will slide right back into his back-of-the-bullpen role. They didn’t need him yesterday. I hope they need him today, they use him and he succeeds. Then maybe these e-mails will stop. Just kidding, sort of.

Who? RHP Justin Huisman was recalled from Omaha and D.J. Carrasco was sent out. I was sort of surprised by Carrasco’s demotion but I shouldn’t have been. In the early part of last season, Carrasco was invaluable in helping to keep the Royals afloat as they got off to a fast start. Through June of last season, he had piled up 42 1/3 innings and posted a 3.61 ERA. Since then, he has thrown 44 1/3 innings with an ugly 6.09 ERA to show for them. As a Rule V guy, the team had to keep him around last season. Now, let him go to Omaha and rediscover the ability to get guys out.

As for Huisman, here is what I know about him: not a lot. So I'll defer to Baseball America. The Royals acquired Huisman in the spring in the trade that shipped out RHP Robbie McClellan and 1B Chris Fallon, a pair of fringe prospects. In the Baseball America Prospect Handbook, Huisman is listed as the Rockies’ 29th-best prospect. He is 25 years old and is in his fifth year of pro ball. He was the 15th-round pick by the Rockies in the 2000 draft. He was a closer during his minor league career, logging 79 saves through the end of last season. He pitched for Class AA Tulsa in 2003, putting up a very good 46:7 K:BB and allowing just 1 homer in 62 innings while picking up 26 saves.

Huisman doesn’t throw very hard. His specialty pitch is a two-seam fastball that moves in the high-80’s but has a deceptive, late sinking action. He’s a ground-ball guy who has struggled at times against the better lefties. So far for Omaha this season, Huisman had 3 saves in six appearances; 6 2/3 innings, 6 hits, 0.00 ERA (but 4 unearned runs allowed), 3 strikeouts, 0 walks. In the high minors, at least, Huisman has demonstrated the ability to throw strikes – an ability which eluded the rest of the Royals’ bullpen this week.

Lil’ Richie sent out. To make room for DeJesus, the Royals designated Rule V pinch-runner Rich Thompson for assignment. This means the team has ten days to work out a trade with the Pirates or else they’d have to return him to the Buccos. Apparently, they want to work out something and I hope they do. Thompson is a player with a little bit of upside who has some useable skills. He’d make a good addition to the expanded September rosters doing what he does best – running for Juan Gonzalez.