Royalties & Cardinalate

Bring on Beltre; more Ankiel

Since I have seen in person or on TV probably every MLB appearance in Rick Ankiel’s career I am still feeling exulted over his re-emergence. I can’t wait to see him out there in LA this weekend. His first appearance made me as nervous as I’ve been all season. When he came in, I paused the game and paced around for like five minutes, going over the possibilities and bracing myself. Five minutes later I felt elated over his success, the ease of his delivery, his demeanor and his teamates' reaction. I am incredibly eager to see his first home appearance. That will be a spine tingler. Much of the recent Cardinals discussion is turning toward the postseason roster. Some feel if Steve Kline gets healthy that Ankiel has no shot to make the playoff roster. But another lefty would (obviously) be great and Kline’s groin injury is one that can easily be re-aggravated, making him no sure thing. With Cal Eldred on a roll (1.04 ERA since the break) he has become a lock. Though Matt Morris is the No. 5 starter based on numbers, he will not be left out of the rotation unless he is really awful in September. Essentially, Jeff Suppan is the likeliest to be in the ‘pen and I hope when Mellow Matt pitches in the playoffs that Suppan is considered a ‘back-up’ starter should MM struggle early. TLR must have a very, very short leash on Morris based on his severe early-inning struggles. So who is left out of this playoff picture? Danny Haren (and, hopefully, Marlon Anderson and Roger Cedeno). . .

None of us will ever again see a team score 26 and 0 in a twinbill. I grew curious at how many people were actually at Game 1 of the KC-Det game 1 on Thursday. Couldn’t find this, but 20,000 people were supposedly at Game 2. I bet there were like 7K at Game 1. Joe Randa became the second player in 2004 to have a chance at 7 hits on one game, something that is yet to be done . . . The MVP race will end up like this: Bonds, Beltre, Pujols, Edmonds, Rolen.

Dream season ends early

I just saved $300 on tickets, lodging and travel expenses to Columbia, MO. Though I gave it a night to swirl around my mind, I feel the same today that I did last night: I don’t think I will make any trips (or order tix) to CoMo to see my football Tigers. If they come out and pound Colorado on Oct. 2 then I will again, perhaps, open my mind again to such possibilities. Being a Mizzou fan has created some absurd frustration the past year, beginning with the basketball team losing to Belmont. At home! And now Gary Pinkel’s team continues the team’s nasty habit of terrible early-season losses. I kept hoping they would abandon the shot-gun and try to run Damien Nash up the middle and off tackle until Troy proved they could stop this. Just pound them, which would perhaps set up some play-action passes and allow Brad Smith to eventually run some sweeps (with blockers!). But it seemed the Tigers had about five total plays in their repertoire in this game. A quick sideline pass, a pass down the middle and a few variations off running from the shotgun, which really slows the RBs momentum toward the line. The offense really did seem to be in slow-motion after the first quarter. Can Brad Smith not line up under center? At least punter Brock Harvey had a huge game: 7 punts, 45.4 yards per punt. The Tigers are now 1-7 on national ESPN games.

Return of the Eephus pitch

This season has been so absurdly sweet that I am having mild problems with guilt. But the duration of these episodes is very short. I am just trying to not take every little positive thing completely for granted. I do fast forward through most of Mike Matheny’s at-bats so perhaps I am not the greatest fan.

Although Rob Dibble’s annoying notion that Rick Ankiel is a distraction has some semblance of merit, it is still pretty damn faulty. I think everyone realizes that Ankiel is just an extra option in a deep September bullpen and that TLR will be acutely aware of the consequences regarding which scenarios best suit him to perform. Plus, he did earn his way back to MLB. But this stuff does add a heavy dose of intrigue to this season. I am guessing Ricky’s first appearance will now be on the road, though I thought there were a couple of prime opportunities over this weekend for him to pitch. I wonder if Sunday’s game had gone into the 12th or 13th if he would have been used. . . . So it is now very late and I just finished Sunday’s game. About eight hours after the fact, but it was all new to me . . . I have seen three Eephus pitches this season, two to Alex Rodriguez and one to Ichiro on Saturday. The one to A-Rod on Friday was best because it was about as slow as a pitch can be (55 mph?). A high, looping toss and Rodriguez swung way too hard on the high and inside pitch, pounding a hard grounder to third. Very cool. Speaking of Ichiro, he went 5-for-5 on Saturday and ESPN’s (chipmunk) Tim Kurkjan had some intriguing perspectives:

Ichiro now has 223 hits, something Pete Rose did once and Tony Gwynn did zero times. Ichiro has hit .477 since the All-Star break. The all-time record is Sir George Brett at .421 in 1980.

Man. At .378, if Ichiro would have had a normal (for him) April and June he would be pushing .395 . . . In Seattle’s game on Saturday, the M’s lost 8-7 and Brett Boone made the game’s final out by unsuccesfully going from first to third on a single. What a dope!