Given the nature of the St. Louis Cardinals’ long rivalry with the Chicago Cubs, I watch that club a bit closer than some others.
Lame-duck Lou Piniella walked away with 37 games last season and coach Mike Quade was given the managerial reigns on an interim basis.
The Cubs went 24-13 in garbage time to finish the season, while Quade received high marks for his leadership. He was kept on for 2011 ahead of Triple-A manager and Hall of Fame Cubs second baseman Ryne Sandberg, who left the organization when he was passed over.
Expectations were high coming into 2011. In fact, at least one well-known Cardinals beat writer picked the Cubs to win the National League Central.
It hasn’t gone that way. Starting with the Carlos Silva-Aramis Ramirez spring training altercation and through multiple injuries since, the Cubs lost the first two games in St. Louis this weekend and sit at 23-33. Being ten games under .500 and ten games out of first place provides a major contrast to the ten-games-over 35-25 Cardinals.
Amid general poor play and a meltdown against the Reds on May 17, Quade called a team meeting. It didn’t help. At that time, they were 17-23 (.425). Since then, the Cubs have gone 6-10 (.375).
The survivor in the general manager’s chair throughout all of this including the Piniella years and the Dusty Baker years is Jim Hendry, hired in 2002.
The Arlington Heights, Ill. Daily Herald may be the first of the Chicagoland papers to be calling for a change in leadership. You can read the article yourself, but I find the most interesting questions to be whether or not Hendry deserves a third rebuilding shot and if not, how much more traumatic the resulting changes may be in the short term.
Hugs or no, the potential impact on signing Albert Pujols in the upcoming off-season was not mentioned.
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Hendry probably wishes he’d gone with Sandberg. He’s turned the Phillies AAA team into a big winner this year after being a loser. I think he always did well managing in the Cubs system.
Given Hendry’s track record with money players he signs, Albert ought to steer clear.
Alberts not going anywhere. He’ll end his career right where he sits today, St. Louis. He’ll get 7 or 8 years, over 200 million, and he deserves it. He is the type of player that St. Louis covets and there could be no positive to come out of letting him go elsewhere.
With Albert, Matt, Waino, Jaime, and Yadi leading the way and really good young players in Craig, Jay, Freese, M Carpenter, Salas, Sanchez, Descalso already making a name for themselves and Chambers, Ryan Jackson on the move to the show, the cardinals will be right at the top of the division for every one of Albert’s years in St. Louis. He is not a dummy. He is a GOD here, and the team will remain winners for the duration of his career.
I do believe its time to pat Jeff Luhnow on the back for the job he’s done against a formidable foe in the old school tandem of TLR and Dave D in building up the farm system. Great job Jeff.
Ooh, thems fightin words to some.
I don’t know enough to say whether the farm system has been improved by Luhnow or not. I do know that the young guys we have on this team are pretty impressive.
It appears to me that TLR and Dave are finally giving in and are actually beginning to embrace the young players a bit more than in years past. The guys coming up today are not gonna be subjected to the same kind of vitriol than the early guys received. You can see the enjoyment of playing for the cardinals in every shot you see of them. This is good to see and good for Cards fans to see as well.
You forgot to mention Colby, RC.
I believe its fairly obvious that Colby needs to be somewhere else. I highly doubt he will be in St. Louis for the Albert Pujol’s new contract duration. I don’t think Colby will ever be good enough to play in St. Louis. But I knew this way back.
I give you credit for consistency. Same basic message for at least the last three years.
There seem to be expectations that have not have been met to date. Plenty of first round picks don’t realize their potential in 30 MLB organizations. Maybe, just maybe, the city or the uniform aren’t to blame…
Why does there have to be somebody to blame? Sometimes people and places just don’t jiha. Colby obviously hasn’t played well enough in St. Louis to garner fan approval, that is his fault, not St. Louis or the cardinals.
Why worry about what some think? I don’t know who holds the official fan approval meter and what it reads. Playing good, hard, winning baseball is appreciated anywhere and when it doesn’t happen, the heat can be much hotter in any number of different cities, especially major markets.
In my opinion Colby’s chameleon approach to playing baseball since he has reach St. Louis has doomed him….in St. Louis. He has tried to change most every facet of his game to please this person or that person. He never had throwing problems or fielding problems until he reached St. Louis. These changes have been bad judgement decisions by Colby and have hurt his game. The fans have noticed he is not the player that he was proclaimed to be. It sickens me that he chose against my advice I might add to change the way he played the game, lost his aggressiveness, and became a passive looking player that I find hard to watch. He has made bad decisions and forgot how to play the game. Thats my take on the situation and I believe the only way out for him is to start fresh somewhere else. He may forever be this boring player that doesn’t seem to care about the game even if he gets traded but he surely isn’t going to change the way he is viewed in St. Louis. I’d like to watch the kid that busted his ass when he played again one day. It may never happen again but a guy can dream can’t he?
RC…………Colby was handed the silver platter…………he was given the golden spot in the lineup. He was going to be one the anchors of the 2012 team without AP……..likely without Tony LaRussa.
Clearly something is bothering him. He appears to be under emotional pressure that has nothing to do with the national league………………………….very little is/has changed as far as opportunities to profit greatly here…………..except his personal focus………… do you really believe that he will find more freedom in another system? I think just the opposite is true………… something is on your mind…what is it? Is he having diet problems again? Another child on the way?
Mental errors by Craig, Carpenter are classic summer day “rookie” malaise…………
Ha ha. No child on the way. I’m sure he and his fiance wouldn’t want another one….ever.
No diet problems. He is in the best place of his life I would venture a guess as far as family, diet, and baseball goes.
I can tell you, this newborn thing is taxing. If you’d ask me and momma last week if we wanted another we’d have said no way, but it’s getting better and sure is rewarding already. I am admittedly not the most knowledgeable baseball fan but I try to read up as much as I can and watch as much as I can and that being said, I don’t know anyone on the team that apppears to have put in more in the offseason than Colby. He completely changed his batting approach, philosophy and himself as a type of batter at the apparent request of the coaches. I don’t know what more a guy could do, baseball seems to be a mentally taxing game and when a guy gets asked to change his whole approach to the game when what he was doing got him to that level that has got to mess with ya. Here’s to wishing everyone on the team success
When I was 23 I had 4 boys already KBM. Tough tough tough is all I can tell you. Kids are life changing thats for sure.
Theriot, SS
Carpenter, 3B
Pujols, 1B
Jay, CF
Craig, LF
Schumaker, RF
Molina, C
Descalso, 2B
Carpenter, P
Colby is on fumes and needs a rest?? Gad. He’s 24 and he doesn’t play full throttle all the time. Seems like he paces himself and takes care not to tear himself up. My wild guess/conspiricay theory is niether Tony nor Carp want to see any nonsense out there on D today, after what Carp has had to endure lately.
I’m excited to see how the MCarp, AP, Jay, Craig meat of the order does.
I agree bling. The sooner Colby is somewhere else the better for all involved.
Colby’s done an amazing job adjusting himself offensively to fit the model Tony wants. Look at his reverse split this year, both avg and power, after a professional career of problems with lefties. That proves a big change in approach, that has worked. I have no reason to think he won’t want to, or be able to, make the necessary adjustments on the defensive side of the game since its not a matter of ability, but rather of approach and the mental game.
I agree he’d have an easier time elsewhere, but he might be better off in the long run if he stays where he’ll be forced to get out of some bad habits he’s never been forced to get out of before.
Yeah, while Colby and his dad and maybe a few fans (I guess?) want Colby to be traded, I seriously doubt that it will happen soon. The Cardinals aren’t going to give up on a very productive, cost controlled player. There’s no benefit to them. Once free agency approaches, we’ll see.
Truthfully nut I think the Cardinals are better off with Jon Jay in CF at the moment. I like the kid as a player. The main reason I’d like to see Colby traded is so that I can see for myself if he can get back to playing all out somewhere else. Because it sure seems like he can’t seem to do that here. Maybe that all he’s got but I’ll be forever disappointed if he doesn’t smooth out these defensive snafus.
There are a significant number of fans that do want him traded but I doubt they are the majority. The ones who don’t like him will continue to do so no matter he does. Screw em.
His play has left a lot to be desired.
Agreed, but why is a trade necessary? How about a wake-up call?
Hey as a Colby supporter I’m looking for something or some way to see some improvement. I’ve said it many times, he seems to have lost every bit of aggressiveness since he has been in St. Louis. I don’t know why. But I know I’m sick of watching it. I mean sick.
Baseball Reference suggests that Colby is the fifth best centerfielder by WAR in MLB (batting and fielding). This follows up a season in which he was the best CF in the NL, at least, if I recall correctly. Uh, that’s really really good. (Much better than Jon Jay, of note). Why work yourself into knots worrying about the smaller things that you can’t control? It’s not as though he isn’t off to a great career…
Honestly I believe he is a better player this year than last and has made improvements each year, if only a little bit. He was just a stud in the out field in high school and even in the minors, really got after it. I can’t for the life of me get a grip on why he has played CF so passively. It stresses me to the nth degree.
He’s flying in tonight for our yearly crash course in June hitting.
We’ll be at Tim Hudson’s hitting facility for 4 or 5 hours tomorrow. Hopefully he can heat up for the rest of the month.
I watched the TBS feed of the game today to catch John Smoltz as the analyst (did a nice job). If you can view a replay (perhaps if you subscribe to MLB.TV), watch the camera view that covered the Cardinals players at the dugout rail as Pujols’ homer went out. Colby was in the center and he stood out. That is all I will say.
It seems like Colby decided to buy in this winter and did what it took to remake his offensive game. I doubt he wants to be traded anymore. So I’m not surprised by his enthusiasm.
I don’t think his D inconsistency is due to not being happy or not caring, or lack of skill. Its as if he is so focused on his new approach at the plate he lacks focus sometimes on D. It might be he will tackle the D issues as effectively as he did the O. Or, failing that, move to the less demanding RF after Fit Elvis hangs it up. Craig, of course will be at 2B.
That’s not to say he won’t ‘need a rest’ again next time Carp starts. Dan at second again, too.
I can say that Colby is the happiest he has been in his 3 years in St. Louis. His mother tells me that he really is having a good time for the first time in the last 3 years. I’m just searching for reasons and possible solutions for these defensive lapses. And there is no doubt my possible solutions are radical and probably not the cause of his poor play and so far fetched as to be ridiculously stupid. At least I’m honest.
Dads are supposed to have all the answers and never be wrong. What’s the matter with you.
Is he happy or miserable? Or somewhere in between? The best of all possible worlds is that he starts playing CF like he can and hit the cover off the ball so I can tell all the Colby haters to suck it. I don’t ask for much, so tell him that is the least he can do for me, okay?
MLB.tv doesn’t seem to carry the TBS feeds. We’ll have to make the obvious assumption.
Rasmus is 3rd in at bats on the team. It was hot on Saturday. Fine for Uncle Tony to take care of Colby today and give him a rest. Get Skip untracked.
Looks like pitch count will get to Carlos if our hitters don’t. Carp’s is lower so he may have better staying power.
Our snoozing O will rumble to life any time now.
Carp’s at 99 thru 7 and he’s batting here. Hope he isn’t left in too long like Lohse yesterday.
It appears that “the win” and giving the team the opportunity to step up and back his effort supersedes reason BB…………….. As to your other question recently…….rotation is JG KL CC JW KM/XX……… Lohse was moved to the Brewers start for a reason………..
That’s provacative WC. The way to tell is who faces off against the other team’s ace. I expect it will continue to be Carp, Jake drawing the top of the opposing rotation with Jaime matching up with a middle rotation guy. But time will tell.
Still no run support for Carp
I just got home in time to see the bottom of the ninth. Excellent timing, if I do say so myself!
I think that I now prefer the Horton/Hrabosky broadcasting team to the other two configurations. Horton seems more genuinely excited than Dan.
All this late-inning, two out hitting makes for exciting games. And now pujols added another walk-off homer. What an exciting game for crdswmn to be at!
It was a bad weekend to be a Cubs fan.
Wow. Two walk off homeruns in extra innings in consecutive days for Pujols.
Amazing………..Wow! When he’s hot …….he’s hot. Big walk off Jack.
So who gets the win? Salas?
Carp gets rooked again. He had a good defensive game played behind him.
Hats off to Albert.
MCarp looks overmatched at the plate, which isn’t surprising. I hope they stick with him a while to see if he can adjust and step it up. His history says he can.
I thought it was a good solid game played by both sides. Great pitching by Zambrano and Carp. Good defense on both sides. Barney really looked good today as well. Great clutch hit by Theriot to tie. Carp pitched good enough to keep his team in the game until Theriot and Albert bring home the victory. Great win for the Cardinals.
Big Z self-destructing again in post-game remarks. Capt. Quade may lose control of the ship.
Can I pick em or what? 5 for 5 in games at Busch III. I thought my charm had worn off there for awhile, but I still got it.
As for Colby, if he is that miserable he needs to go, for everyone’s sake. The grass is not always greener, but hey, whatever. Just get a good return for him and move on. Now that I have solved that problem, I wish I could figure out a way to pull my life out of the dumpster.
Perhaps a new career as the Team’s good luck charm? We just have to figure out a way to get paid for going to games
If someone wants to pay me to go to games, I’m there.
What a game to be at. I’ll bet the place was crazy there at the end. Have you caught your breath from all of the yelling yet?
I had a bunch of Cubs fans behind me and on one side. Not a real loud bunch though.
When Theriot tied the game with the double, my section went nuts (except the Cub fans). But the best part was when Albert came up to bat at the end. I almost busted a gut when they played the Jaws music and had the eletronic board flashing Albert’s names with the fins surrounding it. Then he hit the HR and wow. I haven’t had that much fun in awhile.
Nice work, crdswmn.
As Colby’s Dad, I respect that you have your strong opinions and feelings for him, as a GM, his trade necessity needs to valued.
You cannot blame a fanbase or coach towards a player’s ability or struggle. I think it is an adjustment to the major league level – he’s never struggled before? Well, he has to learn to adapt on this level in ANY organization. He is adjusting to full adulthood playing baseball in a storied franchise. Move on? Perhaps. But troubles seem to follow players in this day and age. Ability to perform should not. TLR is a staunch old school manager, but would Colby face lesser bosses in Francona, Girardi, or wherever. He has to persevere. He just has to for this level. STL didn’t make Ankiel throw wildly.
And STL as a “pressure cooker”? So much so as any other ballclub. We are at least more cordial about it. If he was in a bigger market, they’d call for his head on a platter. Philly after a .194 month, forget it. NY, CHicago; next. Even Cincinnati or an Atlanta – anywhere where there is baseball acumen, you will find strong critics – it is the highest playing field, the highest level.
The city likes him, just thinks he is young. But he is not a Chris Duncan. People do believe in him and STL is willing to give him the time. I think that is a gift.
Aggressiveness? Maybe he is realizing this isn’t Triple-A ball and the performance level is the highest in the world. His aggressiveness is based in CONFIDENCE and that is something a coach can’t hand-hold or a city to thread lightly over. He must overcome it WHEREVER he is.
I think a lot of his baseball adjustment is just living life. A trade would be the WORST thing for him. He would come in with such high expectations and the vise would be even TIGHTER on him.
Colby will outlast TLR. And Let’s be honest, The Puma got maybe two more years left. If he’s smart, he’d DH with the Angels or something.
BUt if Colby wants to leave, then he should, but man up – don’t blame it on a city, a fanbase, a proven coach, or something. That’s Milton Bradley territory.
The kid is great and STL is a great players town. If he shows back up, they’ll love him for life. He could be MVP in Colorado and they won’t even remember him, by and large, in three years.