Royalties & Cardinalate

M’s bringing rain, not resistance

I have to give proper respect (props as one might say) to my girl, Amanda, for not only sitting through a two-hour rain delay on Friday night at Busch Stadium, but actually staying at the park through the eighth inning. A 4.5-hour night at the ballpark is long and because of the delay there were many severely socially lubricated folks (like myself) that were amply thrilled when the Redbirds came out and lit up Mariners rookie Matt Thornton. While Bob Melvin decided to shelf Jamie Moyer after two innings, TLR stuck with Gregory “Woody” Williams and he delivered a gem. He also caught a soft liner barehanded; not a wise move to use your ‘money hand’. Woodrow threw just 76 pitches in his six innings and is now 3-0 with a 1.67 ERA in his past four starts while allowing just one HR and 19 hits over 27 innings in that span. His turnaround is one more reason to believe that 2004 is a potentially special season in STL. The Cards are now 9-1 in Interleague play.

Another good sign is Jimmy Edmonds’ return to the lineup on Saturday. But his play, of course, will determine if he is actually back to optimal health. Saturday’s lineup might be my favorite lineup used by TLR this season. I love Edgar batting second and, though Mike Matheny is having a decent season, Yadier Molina is more exciting to watch since he is he still ‘new’ and has shown a knack for picking off runners ala a young Benito Satiago. Fun stuff to see.

Raking away: Ray King (1.24 ERA!) has not allowed a run for two months (since May 3). I realize J.D. Drew is having an All-Star season but King’s success has obviously made him much more than a throw-in on the Braves deal, though the trade’s merit is a couple of years from being accurately assessed because of Adam Wainwright. Speaking of Bible Boy Drew, his bro Tim made his ATL debut on Thursday.

Terror alert: Scott Rolen has a sore left knee and expects to have a MRI soon. He says the injury's bothered him for a few weeks. Considering how awkward he twisted his knee trying to catch Albert Pujols’ throw earlier this week on the infamous Ray Lankford-Jack Wilson double-gaffe travesty, he might have re-aggraved something. Rolen says it is routine soreness, but I admit I’m very nervous.

Parting shot: 34 to Ruth. Bonds, now that he has Rickey’s W record, could catch Babe in 2004. If he does falls short it won’t be by much. He should be at least within 10 by 2004's end. Damn, that is hard to absorb.

Dog days have arrived early

What a lousy game. Just terrible. Three errors (including a dropped fly ball by David DeJesus and a throwing error by Angel Berroa on the very first batter of the game), a guy (Ken Harvey, of course) falling down on the bases. Not a lot to like about this one. The Royals have had some particularly bad outings lately. Let's hope it's not a trend. Since Beltran left town, here are the runs scored totals: 2-1-3-1-4-4.

Perhaps there will be a lull until the Royals begin to play better with their new players, giving us some hope for the winter time. Or maybe the new players just aren't any good, which I don't think is the case. Whatever the reason, the Royals are mired in a malaise and it seems to be getting worse and worse.

Of course, it doesn't help matters any to throw Brian Anderson back into the rotation. The assumption is that the Royals are showcasing Anderson for a possible trade. If that is the case, they'd do well to leave him in the bullpen, where his high level of incompetence is a little more obscure.

It's humorous to listen to Ryan Lefevre make excuses for Anderson time and time again. There is little doubt in my mind that the two are probably friends. That's fine and if he doesn't want to admit to the unsuspecting public that Anderson has been beyond awful, it might be a good idea to just keep his trap shut. To listen to Lefevre, Anderson's only problem has been bad luck and unfair umpiring.

On the bright side: At least the Royals have been using a lineup a little more sensible for their place in the American League's pecking order. Now they just have to get Bautista in there for Relaford. Playing Matt Stairs doesn't really serve any grand purpose either. I'd stick Ken Harvey back in left field just to see how he did for an extended period. Then I'd call up Calvin Pickering to play first. Dee Brown would play left field in this scenario. Sure it's a glorified Triple AAA lineup but the more at-bats we can have to make decisions on players who might have upside, the better.

Another way to go might be to build the defense for next year and then figure out the run production later. Bring up Andres Blanco to play second base. Call up Alexis Gomez to play left field. Stick with Byron Gettis in right. Put Mark Teahen at third base. Your rotation of Greinke-Gobble-Wood-May-whoever replaces Anderson would be similar to the probably 2005 rotation. Give some decent backing to these guys and see what they can do. You wouldn't be scoring any runs with this approach but let's build the pitching and defense first.

In the last Stat Guy, I compared the Devil Rays and the Royals, demonstrating how the superior defense played by Tampa Bay has lifted them above the dredges of the American League. Now, I'd rather have on-base percent on offense and high-strikeout, groundball-inducing pitchers on defense any day. But given the lack of both, you'd better do it the Devil Rays's way. Or else what do you have? Oh yeah - the Royals. Joe Posanski covered the same ground in a different way the next day in this column.

The last Northern League notebook is right here. Enjoy.

Cumberland canned: I've made my feelings about John Cumberland clear both in this space and in Stat Guy, especially in this column. Nevertheless, I take no pleasure in another man losing his job. I'm assuming that you've heard already that Cumberland was fired as the Royals' pitching coach today.

“I didn't see this coming,” Cumberland said. “But, evidently, I didn't get it done. And if I didn't get it done, I deserve to be fired.”

I feel bad for the guy but there is no doubt: he didn't get the job done. When a pitching coach gets fired, it generally isn't that big from a news standpoint. But from a baseball standpoint, it's a huge transaction. A pitching coach can (and should) be essential in keeping your pitchers healthy and productive. Cumberland didn't do either.

Mike Mason, the interim pitching coach, is a guy that I know nothing about. He spent the last two seasons with the Phillies' Class AA team and 12 years prior to that in the Royals system. I'm assuming he isn't a candidante to fill the vacancy on a permanent basis. He went 29-39 with a 4.53 ERA in an eight-year big-league career with the Rangers, Cubs and Twins. Haven't heard who might be up for the job but it will be a key hire. I'd trade Sweeney to the Mets for Rick Peterson.

Nightmare in Pittsburgh concludes

First, a quick look ahead. The Cardinals do not play on the road again until July 15 – after the All-Star break. Series against Seattle, Cincinnati and Chicago loom as the Cardinals return home for an off day on Thursday before playing the M’s on Friday. I already have my bleacher tickets for Friday and fully expect to see a revitalized bunch and, hopefully, a healthy Jimmy Edmonds. Considering that the past three days essentially erased the fantastic stretch preceding the Pirates series, this weekend it is very important to get rolling again before the Cubs and Reds come calling. After winning 11 of 13, the L streak is now at three.

TLR believes in a real day off: Sure, Tony La Russa often frustrates me but anyone who follows a single team from day-to-day is going to often disagree with certain managerial decisions. I actually like TLR, but it is days like Wednesday that produces enough fodder for Tony bashers to go wild. Of the many quirky decisions made in the 6-5 loss to the Pirates, only one genuinely irked me enough to actually begin flailing my arms in wonder. It was this: 4-4 game, top of the seventh, runners on second and third, zero outs and due up is Ray Lankford. The Bucs bring in lefty Jason Grabow and TLR goes with So Taguchi. Gooch K’s in a pitiful PA. But he typically puts the ball in play, so not a really bad move. Edgar is IW’ed, setting up Mabry with the bases loaded. With Scott Rolen available (as far as we know) on the bench, I was looking forward to a potentially major positive turning point. Instead, TLR goes lefty vs. lefty with Mabry, who had the worst game imaginable (seriously). He struck out and the inning fizzled with Reggie Sanders’ liner for the third out. I suppose a day off is a different entity than actually playing, but one AB would not have hurt Rolen. He did not have to trot out and back for nine innings. Frustrating. Also, letting Matt Morris bat (with Rolen, Luna and Matheny on the pine) in a tie game in the eighth inning was (to be soft) very questionable.

Mabry's waking nightmare: As for Mabry, he came up with 13 runners on the bases and only one even advanced - and that was on a double play. He also failed to complete two infield grounders that Rolen would've turned into outs. He came up five times with runners on third and had no RBI's. He came up three times with the bases loaded and struck out twice and grounded into a double play. He has been solid, but this game is hard to stomach.

It was the Pirates’ first home sweep of the ‘Birds since 1992. It was also Jose Mesa’s first blown save in 18 chances even though he seesm to throw phat pitches with little movement. Final words: that was easily the worst series of 2004 thus far for STL.

Surreal: 50 first-half wins possible

After roaming around the Midwest the past few days, I am back in St. Louis and catching up on what I missed. I saw the Royals-Cardinals last Friday while in Kansas City (with Brad) but could not watch the Saturday and Sunday games, though I did record Monday night’s game to watch upon my late return. I have only missed six games all season, so I still have a high POCGS (percentage of Cardinals games seen) ratio of 92 percent for 2004. After zipping through the various Midwest Sports Reports and Baseball Tonight’s I had recorded, I watched Jeff Suppan’s gorgeous two-hit mastery of the Pirates. I actually stayed up until 5 a.m. this morning only to be rewarded with Scott Rolen missing Albert Pujols’ throw to third base that cost STL the game. It made me feel very feeble and after two obligatory slo-mo replays I went to bed exhausted, lacking the energy to express my anger. Not sure Alberticus should have gotten the ‘E’ but with Wilson blocking Rolen’s line of vision I guess it had to be scored that way. Shouldn’t the pitcher backup that play? (yes) Jack Wilson made a horrific baserunning gaffe but scored the winning run anyway in the crappiest Cards loss of 2004.

Still, the Redbirds are in a position to potentially reach 50 wins in the season’s first half (if they win four of their next five) and that is simply extraordinary. And you have to be fired up over Suppan, who is 5-0 with a 1.93 ERA in in seven road starts. His 3.52 ERA is tops among the team’s starters, though Chris Carpenter could lower his 3.62 with a good start on Tuesday. Anyway, some info I culled after scouring the Net for recent Cards news:

Womack Update: His .305 average is second among NL second baseman and leadoff hitters. He has an OPS of .841 in June, including a .387 OBP. For what’s its worth, he has an intriguing disparity in night and day OPS (.670 in 23 day games and .803 in 41 night games.)

Staying healthy rocks: Through 76 games the Cardinals have used the DL only three times (Roger Cedeno, Mike Lincoln, Mike Matheny).

Carp and Supe: The Redbirds are 28-14 when Carpenter, Suppan and Jason Marquis start.

Kauffman Stadium: I like this place. I had not seen a Royals game (in KC) for about a decade (still had turf and Bob Hamelin) and a few things about this experience stood out. The sight lines are great; there are very few bad seats (if any). Tailgating before a baseball game rocks and when everyone is in the same parking lot, it is a lot of fun. These are two elements that Busch Stadium lacks. Though the Royals lost 5-2, no one left early - likely because of the postgame fireworks - which created a lively atmosphere until game’s end. Of course with the crowd about 35 percent (at least) Redbirds fans, there was plenty of noise. But Thunder Stix should either be banned, or at least reserved for the postseason. There were about 50,000 of those things given away at Friday’s game and many folks could not resist constantly banging them for no real reason. I give the K a big thumbs up.