Royalties & Cardinalate

Cruise control: It’s all good

It is as if that Pirates series did not occur. Everything has been so mind-bogglingly faultless since the Redbirds returned home it barely seems real. After dropping three at PNC, STL is 8-0 and have outscored their lesser opponents 45-13. Jeff Suppan only had to throw 85 pitches on Saturday and five relievers got some work in the late innings. Perhaps my favorite individual stat from Saturday is Tony Womack’s 3-for-4 day, which puts him at .320 and ninth in the NL batting race. That is completely whack. Anytime Ray Lankford, Hector Luna and So Taguchi each have a RBI you know it is likely a winning day. Man, Glendon Rusch looked awful coming out of the bullpen, though he recently had a very nice run in the rotation. Saturday’s game drew a standing-room crowd of 50,569 - the largest crowd since the team removed several thousand seats in 1997 to install the manually operated scoreboard. Talk about a dehydrated bunch, it was a 100-degree heat index day on Saturday for those chasing Friday's hangover with early brew.

Prior and Wood?: With their NL Central hopes slipping away (gone?), Chicago might turn to a combo of Kerry Wood and Mark Prior on Sunday, at least according to long-time Cards reporter Rick Hummel. Wood will start but is on a 70-pitch limit – which means Dusty Baker will let him throw about 88 pitches. Prior will be on his fifth day. Hmmm.

Obligatory Nitpick: I was flummoxed when TLR had Jason Marquis bunt on Friday in the fifth inning, even after two strikes. Marquis is batting .263 (OPS over .610) and there is never a reason to play for one run in the first few innings. He’s close to an average MLB hitter and that move was nonsense, as was trying to hit and run with Yadier Molina and Marquis in the seventh.

Home Run Derby B.S: No Albert Pujols in the Home Run Derby is very disappointing. He should be in there over Sosa and/or Griffey, but I guess their going with a ‘500’ theme. At least Edmonds is not in it; we don’t need another shoulder injury.

A few things to get off my chest

As usual, there is a backlog of topics to cover, which I'll attempt to do while obsessively watching the Real-Time scoreboard for my ESPN fantasy team. Tonight is the first time I noticed this feature. How awesome is that?

Octavio Dotel is on for the A's. I'm rooting for Oakland aggressively, not just because I like them but also because Dotel is a member of Tropic of Capricorn. The game is tied which raises possibility for the always gratifying phenomenon known as the relief victory. Happily, I already got one of those today when Damaso Marte hurled 2/3 of a masterful inning. It almost made it worth listening to Hawk Harrelson. Almost.

A problem with the near-monopoly that FoxSports Net has on baseball coverage is that you find yourself reciting the commercials at weird times of the day. I don't know how many times I look at a person across a counter or something and repel the urge to shout "AFLAC!" The people in these commercials become are like imaginary friends. There's that Gumbo guy in the commercial for I-don't-even-know-what. I'm going to train myself to talk like that. Then there's the sychronized swimming team on the AFLAC commercial. What a nice bunch of young ladies. And good old Yogi! And that car commerical with the song about a string on a finger or something. I don't know what it means but the nameless nightengale who is wailing away for the car company has an awfully pretty voice. I feel sorry for all of these people who think that their bag-o-McDonalds is going to give them peace and happiness. They obviously haven't seen Super-Size Me.

Damn, Scott Hatteberg just butchered a foul pop off Manny Ramirez. Not a good idea.

Strange that I haven't mentioned the Royals.

For a great read about the complexities of administrating an NBA roster, check out Mark Cuban's weblog about the Steve Nash situation. Obviously, being a dotcom mogul, Cuban is an obvious candidate to use the Web for a forum like that. But can you imagine David Glass doing something like this? Every owner should have a blog. All of them. Anyway, here is the most interesting passage in the entry:

In what is probably the ultimate stupidity of any business I have been involved with, we sign contracts that are guaranteed for periods when none of our revenue sources are.

I had never thought about sports ownership and long-term contracts in this way but that's an interesting concept to keep in mind.

Well, that's two scoreless for Dotel. Now we just need a run.

Damon scores on a mad dash to give the BoSox the win. Damn, what a good game. The Sox, A's, Angels, Yankees, Cubs (OK, the Cardinals, too) all seem to play about three games a week better than any game the Royals have played since 1994. That's an overstatement but not as much of one as I wish it were.

I guess some recent links are in order. In my latest post for ESPN, I give a position-by-position by look at our wretched Boys in Blue. Check out this Northern League Notebook. There's an error in there. Can you find it? I hate making errors, by the way. It keeps me up at night. No kidding - it really does.

In the latest Stat Guy, I wrote about Moneyball. Really, I'm sick of hearing about the book. But if announcers are going to talk about it and columnists are going to write about it, would it be nice if they had actually read the freaking thing? That's too much to ask, I know. Anyway, I threw a temper tantrum while writing this column. A have a serious problem with tantrums and thankfully, when in the presence of others, I can more or less keep this undesirable trait to myself. (Not always, though.) I'm no Tony Soprano, mind you, but more like Adam Sandler's character in Punch-Drunk Love.

The source of my frustration in this case was the extremely limited space you have when you're writing analysis/commentary for a newspaper and you're pretty far down in the peckind order or, in my case, at the very bottom. Eighteen inches. That's what I have to work with. That's about 643 words (my standard is 35.71 words per inch). It's nothing. I can write 643 words in five minutes, though some of it might be gibberish. By contrast, I read an article by Stephen Goldman on the same topic, that ran, if I remember correctly, about 3100 words. If that column were to appear in The Kansas City Star, it would be about 86 inches long. Don't get me wrong - I'm grateful for every one of the eighteen inches I do get. But, in the long run, I think I'd really like to get a gig for a magazine (online or otherwise), a sports Web site or a smaller daily paper as a full-blown columnist. Any one of those venues would give the chance to really stretch my legs. So as I was composing this latest column, when I checked my word count and it was already at 700 and I had only put in about half of what I wanted to put in, I yelled the F-word a few times, slammed my fist on my desk and otherwise acted like a general buffoon. Thankfully it was one of those tantrums when no one else was around. Even my dog was in the backyard.

I'm not entirely comfortable with the way the spots on the Dodgers' telecasts humanizes those bobblehead dolls. It sort of reminds me of the way a food commerical might have its product talking. Hey there, Mr. M&M, watch out. I'm hungry.

Swartz speaks: In the July 5 issue of The Sporting News, there is an article on pitcher health and all the new techniques like biomechanics and prehab. It's not a bad piece but if you've read Will Carroll's Saving the Pitcher, it's old hat. I would bet dollars to donuts that the writer got his idea from STP, which would be fine except that he never mentions the book. I don't see how you could write that piece at this time without mentioning Carroll when you are treading upon the exact same ground. Anyway, this nitpik aside, the whole article is undermined due to the presence of the Royals' own Alfred Hitchcock-shaped trainer, Nick Swartz. (Is it a bad thing when the person overseeing the physical well-being of your well-paid talent is built like a pear?) In the article, Swartz espouses the virtues of biomechanic imaging on young pitchers. Clearly, the Royals have put this technology to good use so far.

Can Cubs stop this train?

While waiting for the Royals to score another run, I checked some NL leaderboards. At .312, gritty and spunky Tony Womack is 12th in the NL in batting average. His previous career high is .282 in 1998. Jason Marquis and Greg Maddux will face each other for the third time this season on Friday; followed by Jeff Suppan-Matt Clement on Saturday and Chris Carpenter and (maybe) Kerry Wood on Sunday. Those matchups are pretty stellar and should provide the STL bullpen ample opportunity to shine in tight games. Sunday’s game is on ESPN and is the final game in MLB before the All Star break. Carp-Wood on national TV would be quite a thrill. Cards opponents have scored at least four runs just once in the past 13 games. In that span, the bullpen has a 0.72 ERA while the rotation is 8-1 with a 2.27 ERA while allowing just three homers in 91 innings.

Rolen vs. Bonds: The Hardball Times updated their Win Shares Above Average this week and Scott Rolen continues to trail Barry Bonds 20-14. In 2003, Bonds narrowly ranked above Albert Pujols by three Win Shares. If Rolen and the Redbirds stay hot the rest of this season, many MVP voters will cite Rolen’s defense as the difference between he and Bonds’ MVP resume. Right or wrong, I think Rolen has the inside track despite the common knowledge that Bonds, by default, is likely always the MVP.

Thrilling win lifts Morris

Cardinals fans have officially become spoiled and it feels great. Tuesday’s win featured more big moments than we’ve seen in any Cardinals win since the Cubs series two weeks ago. Jimmy Edmonds might not have hit two HRs like I had hoped for, but his monster blast in the 8th inning provided a key insurance run and when he robbed Adam Dunn of a HR in the 2nd inning it arguably prevented a disastrous inning for Matt Morris. Mo would then cruise through his last five innings of work. Edgar Renteria’s two-run HR in the 7th (for a 4-3 lead) was a goosebumps moment as was Steve Kline inducing a crucial ninth-inning double play (1 on, 1 out) on a very smooth 3-6-3 play turned by Pujols off the bat of Adam Dunn. Four defining Cardinals moments within one thrilling game and now Morris has nine wins and good vibes heading into the break – unless TLR uses him vs. the Cubs on Sunday. La Russa and Dusty Baker are currently tight-lipped on their starting pitchers for this weekend’s showdown.

FSN miscues: There were some tenuous moments on FSN’s Tuesday broadcast. Joe Buck was interviewing Cal Eldred during Edmonds’ catch and barely was able to give it a proper call, though he did make a nice recovery before telling Eldred that he had missed a dandy play. Also, interviewing Matt Morris very late in a one-run nailbiter during live action is a highly questionable move. Makes for a very uneven telecast. Poor timing, though it is always fun to listen to Morris’ soft-spoken and self-deprecating comments. Fox can really piss me off though.

Relief to see Gabe: Any one else thrilled when the Reds went to Gabe White after starter Jose Acevedo had struck out the side in the sixth? Acevedo was at 105 pitches. White has pitched in 33 games for the Yankees and Reds in 2004 and has allowed 50 baserunners in 30 innings and has a 6.82 ERA. He kinda sucks.

Keep Renteria batting second

After three straight days games, we will see the Redbirds under the lights on Tuesday at Busch where the Cards have won six straight. The official web site notes that Jimmy Edmonds is 8-for-12 with 2 HRs vs. Jose Acevedo, so maybe he can jack a pair. We can only hope that Matt Morris avoids early problems. Tonight is a big game for him, probably bigger than it is overall for STL. Who wants to be a buzz kill? Morris has been that at times, so hopefully he can add to the freely flowing good vibes before the break.

Keep Edgar batting No. 2 Though I lobbied for Edgar Renteria to bat leadoff at season’s beginning, Tony Womack has voided the need for that argument. But I do love seeing Tony La Russa batting Edgar second rather than sixth - and placing Reggie Sanders sixth with the LF batting seventh (or vice versa). Renteria is a .290/.347/.400 lifetime hitter, he does not strike out much (on pace for 60 in 2004) and he is speedy. Though I try not to buy into the historical stereotypes of what 1-2-3-4 hitters should be, it does make abundant sense to have Edgar bat ahead of Pujols and Rolen considering that Sanders is a master of the whiff (69 in 70 games played) and, overall, a pretty average hitter except his for his power. Same problem with Lankford batting No. 2. However, Sanders is batting 13-for-36 batting second and an anemic 15-for-74 batting sixth. Most of his ABs have come batting seventh, where those numbers mirror his overall numbers. But that is a small sample size and he is notoriously streaky, so it’s safe to gloss over that and wish for Edgar to stick at No. 2.

Red-hot pitching leads to win No. 50

50-32! . . . Tony Womack is showing no signs of slowing down. Since June 1, Tomack has 42 hits and 11 walks in 29 games played. His OPS is .840 in that span with an OBP of .395. For the season, he is at .310/.357/.403. I’m sure most Cardinals fans were hoping for around 280/.330/.380 or so, which would have been a significant upgrade from Fernando Vina’s awful numbers (.309 OBP in 2003). Based on his lackluster career averages of .272/.318/.362, the fact that he is almost 35 and had a poor 2003 season with the Diamondbacks-Cubs-Rockies, there was no reason to like STL acquiring Womack. But the move has worked out perfectly, including Womack’s defense being vastly improved from his April-May performance this season. He made three impressive ‘range’ plays on Monday, is throwing normally again (offseason shoulder surgery) and is on pace to play in 140-plus games. Meanwhile, Vina is slugging .270 and has just 115 at-bats in Detroit, which has a decent 2B in Omar Infante.

Fanning Reds: The Reds have struck out more times than any team in MLB (640; Adam Dunn leads MLB at 103) but it is interesting to note that their team OBP is still .339. The Cardinals are at .340, though they are outslugging the Reds .448 to .418.

Perspective: I still maintain that the Astros will pass the Reds and Brewers (a very likebale team in MIL) by the end of July, but as much as the NL Central will be beating up on each other the rest of the way, it is nice knowing that the Redbirds merely need to playing winning baseball top stay atop their cozy perch.

Seattle sweep sweetens holiday

Halfway home. After 81 games we have learned that the Cardinals are the best team in the NL. I suppose 98 wins is a lot to hope for. I’d guess that 94 would actually be enough to take the NL Central. The Cubs would need to go 49-31 beginning on Sunday to reach 94 wins. In fact, Chicago is in the middle of a stretch where they play 50 consecutive games vs. teams that are currently above .500. Brutal, though they are 16-9 in the first 25 games of that span. Of course, the most satisfying element about this point in the season is the ease in which season projections can be figured out. My faves: Albert Pujols is on pace for 42 homers and 44 strikeouts. Scott Rolen is on pace to tie Jimmie Foxx’s 1930 RBI total of 156, which is the 27th most in any single season. With 97 hits, MVP-to-be Rolen has an outside shot at 200. But the kindest numbers are reflected in the starting rotation’s innings pitched. Each of the five starters has a chance to surpass 200 innings pitched and each starter is at least .500. Three months from today I fully expect to have playoff tickets already in hand. I wonder who our LF will be at that point?