Royalties & Cardinalate

Reds-Cards finally set to play

St. Louis is tops in MLB in runs scored (351) and has allowed the second fewest walks (185 - the Yankees have allowed 161). The next NL team in runs scored is the Rockies, who are 7th with 339 runs.

Gotta love TV: I plan to pull a TiVo doubleheader tonight. Cubs-A’s followed by Cardinals-Reds. Hopefully, Oakland’s miserable sweep in St. Louis will serve as motivation for them to kick small bears around this weekend. The A’s now have more blown saves (13) than saves (12) after Thursday’s Jim Mecir-Marco Scutaro-induced calamity. Saturday’s Prior-Mulder matchup should be great. The Cubs are certainly beginning to roll and now have Sosa back. Meanwhile, the Reds are in Busch for three, marking this season’s first three games (of 19) between the two teams. The 2004 schedule is very strange.

Matheny returns: Though perhaps in error, I have not been looking forward to Mike Matheny’s return. With Yadier Molina handling himself very well at catcher and with Cody McKay batting 11-for-27 since May 30, I thought Matheny could take his time. But he is ready and TLR has decided to go with three catchers. I suppose Jason Simontacchi is not needed with Cal Eldred still around. Still, three catchers is hard to justify. La Russa says with the starters going so deep into games, they do not need another bullpen arm. I’m guessing this will change within five days.

Bring on the Reds

It was not long ago that the Redbirds were 23-22 and reminding their fans a little too much of the agony of the 2003 season. But after winning 15 of their past 20 games, it is now abundantly clear that this team is different than the 2003 team. There are numerous reasons why, but I like to compare Ray King to Jeff Fassero as one nice example of why this team is so much easier to watch. Fassero became synonymous with terrible losses while King has reached the point where we do not expect ANY batters to reach while he is out there.

The Cardinals held a players meeting on Wednesday and elected King as their new rep to the MLB Players Association. Even more reason to love King, who replaces Kline in the role. Jason Marquis has 17 strikeouts and three walks in his past three starts. Great sign.

Fox and Novelty: Fox has mandated that their affiliates use microphones on players and do in-game interviews with players during these Interleague games. The Cards players seem very easy going about all of this, but it might be bad sign that a network can create such circumstances. These types of intrusions tend to amplify until a problem arises. Thankfully, Fox Sports Midwest has done a great job of fitting these ‘insights’ into the context of a broadcast, but it still creates those troubling scenarios where interviews are taking place over the action. KPLR-11, especially on Sunday Cardinals broadcasts, will consistently talk over the action to people no one really cares about. Isn’t that stuff best left for pregame shows?

Pujols poised: Mark it down. Albert Pujols’ slump ends on Thursday night. That is not much of a bold statement considering how due he is. Phat is 2-for-22 in his past five games, but much more importantly he is feeling nearly full strength following his hamstring injury. He was running full blast on Wednesday, which will hopefully boost his confidence. Like most things in life, when you feel somewhat inhibited you do not perform at maximum strength.

Haren rebounds: Danny Haren continues to pitch great in AAA. He shook off his horrific outing vs. the Cubs to go seven innings for Memphis on Wednesday, striking out six and walking none. He leads the Pacific Coast League in strikeouts with 96.

Believe it: 10 games above .500

The Redbirds’ lingering sub-.500 mark at home can vanish with a win on Wednesday night, which would put STL at 15-15 at Busch Stadium with seven games left on this current nine-game homestand. Offensively, the primary points of contention heading into June centered on the performances of Edgar Renteria and Jimmy Edmonds. But each is beginning to create distance from their once-.260 batting averages. Check out their June OPS numbers: Edgar is at .833 and Edmonds is at a whopping 1.027.

The Joy of Bradford: Is there anything more fun than watching Chad Bradford pitch in slow-motion? I could not get enough of it on Tuesday. It seems impossible - and quite unnatural - to pitch the way he does. But the knuckle-scraper has had plenty of MLB success, though 2004 has been a little rough for him. Bradford’s showdown against Jedmonds in the seventh inning was one of the game’s most important ABs, if not the biggest. Jimmy’s walk began the five-run rally in the 7th and came after 11 pitches and five foul balls.

Cardinals fans can relate to this after what transpired in early 2003: The A's have blown 12 saves in 24 opportunities. The latest one officially occurred after pinch-hitter Marlon Anderson lined a two-run single with the bases loaded with the score 4-3 in the 7th inning on Wednesday. Manderson is 7-for-18 as a PH.

Morris Follies: Matt Morris is very frustrating, but also extremely likeable. His soft-spoken manner and humble attitude makes it hard to blast him. But not only did he hang two curveballs high in the zone that resulted in two homers and four runs, but they were slugged by Oakland’s Damian Miller and Mark Kotsay. That duo, in about 400 plate appearances, had a combined six homers coming into Wednesday. Morris has now allowed a career-high 21 homers. It has to be that he is having problems with concentration, which seems inexcusable. His inability to put away Barry Zito on Tuesday was also notable. Zito forced Morris into throwing 11 pitches before lining out.

The Redbirds are 55-52 all-time in Interleague action. One final note: Watching Erubiel Durazo play first base made Alberticus look like Keith Hernandez.

First-place ‘Birds fly home

Now that the Cardinals have firmly established that they can win (dominate?) on the road, it is time to start dazzling the home fans at Busch Stadium. STL, a MLB-best 23-13 on the road, has 53 home games left and 46 road games remaining. The Cards did not win their 23rd road game last year until July 23. Beginning Tuesday against Oakland, the Cards play 18 of their next 24 games at home leading up to the All-Star break. The A’s have never lost to a NL Central team. They are 18-0 all-time against Cincinnati, Houston, Milwaukee (after their move to the NL), and Pittsburgh. ESPN says that it is the longest such streak since 1969 - except for the A’s 20-game streak vs. the AL Central in ’02.

Run producers: The Hardball Times has an article breaking down this seasons’ top run producers. The logic used seems sound and weighs batting average with RISP heavily, as well as when a batter homers. Topping the NL list is Ken Griffey, followed very closely by Scott Rolen. The AL leaders are full of surprises, including Michael Young placing third according to the criteria used. Bonus Rolen stat: he tops the NL with a .406 average in night games.

Marquee matchup: Though there are only two MLB games on Monday night, one is a must-see. Why? Prior vs. Clemens on national TV.