Though the St. Louis Cardinals have a day off on Thursday as they travel between San Diego and Denver, The Cardinal Nation and The Cardinal Nation Blog (and their leader), will be very busy.
Here is where to find me.
WGEM ESPN 1440 Radio
On Thursday morning at 8:20 A.M. CT, I will be joining Josh Houchins on WGEM ESPN 1440 Radio to talk St. Louis Cardinals baseball and specifically some of the younger players contributing this season.
Josh is the host of WGEM SportsCenter, the only sports talk show in the Quincy, Ill. Area, from 7:00–9:00 A.M. every morning. You can learn more at wgem.com and follow the show on Twitter at @wgemesc and on Facebook.
Sister station WGEM 105.1 FM is a member of the Cardinals radio network, broadcasting both spring training and regular season games. If you live in the Tri-State area, make sure you tune in all season long.
Sports Radio 1380
On Thursday afternoon at 1:25 P.M. CT (corrected), I will be joining the father and son team of Rob Rains and B.J. Rains on The Sports Zone Show on Sports Radio 1380 AM in St. Louis.
The focus will be the Cardinals minor league system and specifically the Quad Cities River Bandits, who play the Kane County Cougars at St. Louis’ Busch Stadium on Thursday evening.
In addition to their weekday show from 1:00 to 3:00 P.M., also catch Rob’s writings at RobRains.com and B.J.’s daily beat coverage of the St. Louis Cardinals at FOXSportsMidwest.com.
The Cardinal Nation at FOX Sports Midwest
Speaking of Quad Cities, my weekly “The Farm Report” column, which appears every Thursday at FOXSportsMidwest.com, includes short capsules for the players in my projected lineup for the River Bandits Thursday evening.
The main focus of the article is the amazing transformation of a former third baseman taken in the 26th round of the draft who two years after converting to catching full time is now a major leaguer. I am talking about Tony Cruz.
The link to that story is here.
Memphis Redbirds Notebook: 2011 Week 7
It has been a very eventful week for the Cardinals’ Triple-A affiliate, with a number of comings and goings as well as role changes, especially on the pitching side. Mitchell Boggs, Jess Todd, Brian Broderick, Jason Buursma are among the names in the news.
As I do every Thursday for The Cardinal Nation subscribers, I will break down the past week for the Pacific Coast League club and look ahead to next in my Memphis Redbirds Notebook.
This subscriber-only article will be posted late this morning at the main site, TheCardinalNation.com, with the link here.
Thanks to all for listening, reading and commenting!
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Good articles Brian. Also reading some older articles and posts on the site on my phone as there are no games tonight as the team has the day off though it would have been a fun way to pass the time here in the hospital (maybe not for my wife). I just read through one of the above suggested related articles “Presidents Day this and that” from Feb 2010. Jumbo, WC and BB having a discussion about minor leaguers Craig, Jay, Greene and a a guy named Freese set to replace Glaus for the season at 3 B.
My what the next 2 years have had in store. Pujols contract was not looming as much, Freese would do well but go down to injury and this year for the most part those minor league guys are holding their own. You long time posters had pretty good predictions for the most part.
Some of Jumbo and Westy’s posts would make good bedtime stories to read to the little guy. Put him right to sleep.
Let’s hope Jimenez doesn’t pick tonight to return to last year’s form. He’s been looking better, last time out pitching a complete game loss like Carp just did, except with 5 walks. Watching him on TV last year, his arm was really live, like Garcia’s can be. If we are patient at the plate, we might get some walks.
With King outrighted off the 40 man, there is a spot to be filled. Or is a DL guy ready to come back?
My guess will be Augenstein, though I don’t believe he is ready yet, nor is he eligible. Given the current state of the MLB pen, he seems destined to be optioned to Memphis when the time comes.
so augenstein can be optioned down after his DL rehab. thanks, i was wondering about that.
“. . . Adam Reifer. He’s on the 40-man roster and out for the season, but the Cardinals have not put him on the 60-day disabled list because that would start his major-league service time and bring him a major-league salary. Instead, to clear a spot they put reliever Blake King on waivers.” In yesterday’s Q&A column in the P-D
So the Cards could easily clear another spot besides Kings if they want to.
blingboy, they already have made another move. The answer awaits you on the main site’s home page, where we have the news first.
Regarding Reifer, that is what I was trying to tell you all along since you first suggested that move. While technically possible, practically it wasn’t going to happen. Allowing a player to accrue almost a full season of major league service before ever pitching there would be bad business.
Clearing roster spots carries inherent risk that the player will be claimed. If the org doesn’t care about losing the player, you have to wonder why he was on the 40-man in the first place.
I guess it went over my head, Brian. You were probably using big words.
I get confused about all that. If a guy is on the 40 man, but isn’t accruing ML service time, then I take it the year doesn’t count as an option year? But once a trigger happens and a guy begins accruing, he keeps accruing unless he is outrighted?
Congrats on the PJ scoop. Sad for him, but its good to see some turnover at the top.
Nope, just the opposite. If he is on the 40-man, but not on the 25-man (in the majors), then he uses an option year. A player accrues MLB service time while on the 25-man roster or on the major league DL.
In other words, the Cardinals used an option on Reifer in 2011 either way. But to clear 40-man roster space by moving him onto the 60-day DL, they first would have had to promote him to the majors (25-man roster), then DL him at the major league level. While injured, he would have accrued MLB service, in that example.
Got it.
The Cards waivered King to get rid of him. King has long gotten strikeouts and given up too many walks. After 5 years of training, the Cards gave up. King did not do well when introduced to AAA, they stepped him back to AA and he continued to be wild, so it became time to say goodbye. King has movement on pitches, so reasonable for the Astros to give him a chance.
Guys get cut at AA, with the Cards. The team must have seen enough of them by AA. This year, they have already unsentimentally said goodbye to lefty reliever Kulik, right reliever Frevert, and now King.
No, Jumbo. They outrighted King because he has not improved and is far from being ready for the majors. They want to use the 40-man roster spot on someone else. If they wanted to get rid of him, they would simply have released him.
Candidates to be added to the 40 man: lefty reliever Valdes; starting pitchers Lynn, Dickson, Additon; right relievers Marte, Broderick, and Rauschenberger. Right now, it is not clear any o of these fellows will become needed. But if there were to be an injury to the pitching staff, having two open spaces on the 40 man roster would allow a non-roster pitcher at Memphis to be brought up.
Memphis might be tapped out, Jumbo. The exciting guys seem to be at Springfield. And PB.
If a pitcher is needed in StL, one of those guys could get the call.
I expect the Matt Carpenter cries to increase.
I was rooting for MCarp to make the team out of ST, but now I think he should be left where he is. Descalso is doing just fine at 3B.
I wouldn’t mind seeing MCarp at 3rd, Descalso at 2nd and Kozma at SS. Descalso would be able to shift over if MCarp needs late inning D replacement. Of course Skip and brick hands would be the main middle infield.
I know the organization thinks Descalso has range issues at middle infield, but could it be worse than Skip and Theriot? Its not like we have Ozzie out there.
How could I forget Matt Carpenter? Carpenter too is a non-40-man roster guy at AAA. Matt has performed well. He has just 2 errors in 46 games, whereas Descalso had 15 errors in 116 games during 2010 at Memphis though fielding the easier position of 2b.
But Carpenter has not been hot during his past 10 games and is fine right where he is for the time being. Freeing up two roster spaces, and the Cards can liberate more if they need to, does not mean a trade or promotion is necessarily imminent.
The Reds demoted Hot Fingers Leake, then brought him back to pitch yesterday. Teams can fine tune their rosters, between AAA and the majors.
In JumboWorld, 2B is easier to play than 3B. Interesting…
More errors are awarded to 3rd basemen than to 2B, across MLB as a whole. There can be local exceptions to the general tendency, such as with Skip.
Errors (and associated fielding percentage) is a terrible way to measure the difficulty of playing a position. In that view, third base is also harder to play than shortstop.
3B requires a stronger arm than 2B. Thus Descalso has arm enough to defend 3B, as well as 2B, whereas TLR prefers to limit Craig to 2B (before removing him).
Its hard to imagine the ML pen being able to handle an emergency start. So if a starter has the flu or something that is only missing one turn, a guy would have to be added to the 40 man.
Batista did take the emergency start in the McClellan rain game against Cincy. Boggs is the only Memphis “starter” currently on the 40-man. So is Cleto down in Springfield, but he isn’t anywhere near ready. Depending on when the need presents itself, Augenstein could also be an option.
Maybe we can acquire Wilson Valdez for the ‘Pen, we have several 2Bers for trade, and he apparently has the red’s #
Great idea. Who would want the ones we’d like to show the door?
Wild limb…..Stavinoha or Hill are added to the 40man. Anderson as your only alternative on the 40 man, doesn’t exactly make one at ease.
Hill is back in AA, so that isn’t likely. I thought about Stavi more for OF depth. He hasn’t caught all season after they made a big deal out of it in spring training. He hasn’t hit well this season either. Batting about .230 and OPS under .700 as I recall.
Matt Adams was a catcher until draft day.
I guess Adams is down for a little while. He seems to get dinged up.
Am I the only one who DOESN’T think the rules should be changed because Buster Pansy….er Posey got hurt? What would be next, making it illegal to try to break up a DP?
The radio guys at KXnO asked me about that yesterday before we ever got into the Cardinals discussion. I am against a knee jerk reaction to what was obviously a bad injury. It is a slippery slope to try to legislate away hard slides.
I mentioned the Pete Rose-Ray Fosse All-Star Game play back in the 70′s. I don’t think anyone believes Cousins tried to injure Posey. As Chris Perez tweeted the other day, ‘where was the indignation when Carlos Santana went down on a similar play last season?’
I do disagree with Joe Strauss who tried to draw a contrast with the lack of changes made after Juan Encarnacion suffered a career-ending injury while in the on-deck circle. While even more tragic, that was a very different kind of situation, IMO.
There are plenty of Giants fans who think Cousins tried to injure Posey. Clear overreaction. But even Posey was wishy washy about it. Doesn’t want to talk to Cousins.
So there was plate visible for Cousins to slide. Posey had turned and was moving into the basepath at the time of the collision. Probably Posey was not going to completely block the plate. So how was Cousins supposed to know in that split second that (a) Posey dropped the balll; and (b) Posey was not going to block the plate even though he was moving in that direction. Are we to require runners to take a split second mental measurement of how much plate is exposed when they are trying to score? Give me a break.
On FSM pregame yesterday, Matheny explained and demonstrated how he used to position himself in such a situation to avoid injury, and how Posey was positioned in such a way as to be at risk. It sounds like similar to how a middle infielder is to position legs and feet making a pivot to avoid injury if his legs get taken out. Its sad for Buster, but failure to execute correctly may be the cause. There was some talk about worry with Craig at second and not being familiar enough to execute properly in the heat of the moment and get injured by a sliding runner. Lets hope they don’t start allowing phantom tags at the plate.
Its a situation not unlike whether quarterbacks should be blindside hit in the helmet. A catcher is stationary and vulnerable to being slammed by a runner at top speed.
For the good of the game and the health of workers, it would be good to reduce the latent violence in the situation. Call safe a runner if a catcher blocks his path on grounds of interference. Call out a runner who slams into a catcher and suspend him for as long as the catcher is hurt. Such adjustments will modernize the game.
All the talk about legislating against above-the-shoulder hits seems to have little to no relevance to Posey’s knee injury. People are using the emotion generated by this situation to forward other agendas.
Posey suffered a broken fibula and torn ligaments in his left ankle. The latter injury might be a problem for a catcher, given the ankle stress of squatting.
I have not heard Posey suffered a knee injury too.
Posey was primarily hit in his chest, even if resulting injuries were lower. This enables a fair comparison to quarterback protection. A catcher, like a quarterback, can be stationary and slammed by an onrushing athlete.
Freese’s broken hand seems an intrinsic hazard of the game. But a baserunner slamming a catcher is discretionary choice and currently allowed.
I stand corrected on the knee. Far below the shoulder in any case.
Such adjustments will sissify the game.
TLR deserves to be hogtied and whipped for leaving Jaime in there to be humiliated. And some people don’t understand why I can’t stand the man. HELLO?
Crdswmn-yadda yadda yadda.Same old whine..same old broken record.Want some cheese with that.
No need to defend Tony here as his record speaks for itself.
I am going to post on Posey .
I have no problem with a runner barreling into a catcher who is blocking the plate. But I do have a problem with this play as Posey was not blocking the plate and the runner clearly went out of his path to the plate to slam into Posey. I do not think he wanted to hurt Posey but I think with the action he took it was almost inevitable for Posey to be hurt. I have looked at the replay numerous times and there is no way I can come up with any other conclusion than he went out of his way to hit Posey.He veered to his left instead of sliding to the right, which even in the split second he had to think about it, would have been the choice of 90 out of 100 guys. 10 percent just have it instilled in them to run over the catcher any time they can.
By ‘his record’, are you referring to the fact that he’s second on the list of most losses by a manager in the history of baeball?
I am referring to the fact that he has 2669 wins and a .536 winning percentage which puts him 1st ballot Hall Of Fame
Agreed.
Its a shame, but it looks like a legit play to me. Yesterday, Mike Matheny pointed out that Buster shouldn’t have had his legs positioned behind him when down on his knees like that. He said the correct form is to come down with your legs and feet to one side, so you just tilt back when you get plowed into.
I agree that Buster must have been positioned wrong as the hit he took was not out of the ordinary for a catcher to take at least once during a season. I still think that teaching the runner to plow the catcher is wrong. Mike Shannon, who I love, was also way off base when he proclaimed last night that it was a legitimate slide by the runner and he thought all the outcry was ridiculous. He obviously never saw the play as there was never ever any slide by anyone!
I agree with Shannon, the outcry is ridiculous. If you alter the way the game has been played for over 100 years because of one injury, then you might as well have all the players wear dresses and play hopscotch.
Crdswmn-does that include letting the pitcher take his lumps without worrying about his feelings?
You do not alter the way the game is played over 1 injury. You alter the way the game is played because you realize that it is just a game!
No you don’t alter the way the game is played because it is a game. Otherwise that game would have less fans because it would be boring. If a player wants to avoid injury, play wiffle ball instead. Otherwise, quit crying.
Crdswmn-so in your view its wrong to react about the catcher getting nailed but its okay to whine about a pitcher getting hammered.Gotcha.
Let’s see, one is forever altering the nature of the game and one is a questionable managerial decision in one inning of one game in a 162 game season. Hmmmmm.
If I had proposed a rule change requiring managers to remove pitchers after said pitcher has 12 runs scored against him, then the situations might be remotely similar.
It was good for Jamie to get his work in, 106 pitches. He probably would have felt like a tooty-fruutie sissy to have come out of the game earlier.
Happily, Mr. Garcia still has an unbroken tibia and untorn ankle ligaments, so we shall hope he can pitch again during our wonderful 2011 season.
Jumbo, the real cause for joy was Franky mowing them down. Agree?