One of the most popular promotions in recent history is popping up across the St. Louis Cardinals minor league system this season.
On at least five upcoming nights, St. Louis Cardinals 2011 World Series replica rings will be given in limited numbers of fans in Memphis, Springfield and now, Quad Cities. In addition, St. Louis is having another ring night themselves.
Next up is Triple-A Memphis. On Friday, July 6, the first 3,000 to arrive at AutoZone Park will receive a ring of their own. Busch Stadium attendees will also be given rings that same night.
Newly-announced on Wednesday is the promotion in Davenport. On two different Wednesdays in July, the 8th and 22nd, the first 2,000 Quad Cities River Bandits attendees each evening will leave with their own ring.
Earlier, Springfield announced they will have two additional World Series replica ring promotions this season. However, as of yet, the dates have not been disclosed. The Double-A club had two ring nights early in 2012.
Despite the earlier giveaways, interest level in these rings remains high. They are currently selling on ebay for prices approaching $100.
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Another Cash for Player trade with the Royals.
Jamie Romak from Omaha. Okay, he’s minor league outfield depth. I understand the move. Springfield or Memphis?
I hope they are saving some rings to give away at Batavia.
The anticipated injury issues are starting to pile up.
One of the things that will result is probably extra playing time for Skip. If his bat stays hot that will be OK.
Here is an interesting note from the P-D today:
“. . . Because the Cardinals recalled Shane Robinson from Class AAA Memphis less than a week after he was sent out, they technically have yet to exhaust Robinson’s final option.”
Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/beltran-not-in-lineup-again/article_a25cec30-2f53-5e8b-beb1-bd73395cec86.html#ixzz1v9LijXAO
Yes, he has to be in the minors for more than 20 days to burn the option.
That should read at least 20 days.
99 year old Jamie Moyer went 6.1 IP, 1R to rack up his second win for the Rockies. He also beat out an infield hit and drove in 2 runs.
The Angels are drawing 5,000 less per home game than at this point last year. Hatcher was to Sciocia like Dunc was to TLR, just about anyway. Perhaps Sciocia isn’t too far behind.
Mike is a little slow getting today’s lineup posted, unless I missed it. Injury issues, no doubt. This is where we need Wainy to be Wainy.
Lets quit dawdling and get Taveras up to Memphis.
1. Skip Schumaker (L) 2B
2. Matt Carpenter (L) RF
3. Matt Holliday (R) LF
4. Lance Berkman (S) 1B
5. David Freese (R) 3B
6. Yadier Molina (R) C
7. Daniel Descalso (L) SS
8. Shane Robinson (R) CF
9. Adam Wainwright (R) P
Yikes
One of those rings would be nice. That championship was SWEET. Be nice to have one on a finger. Look at it anytime under any circumstances as a reminder to never say die. Keep on keeping on.
If they were to have replica ring nights featuring rings from the past championships, I bet it would be just as popular, or more.
None of our other banners compares to last year. 10 1/2 out of the wildcard with about a month to play.
Nice throw by Robinson to nail the guy at second. That’ll learn ‘em.
Schmalbert schmacked number 3 today, so now he’s tied with Tyler Greene and Matt Carpenter.
Arte is getting his money’s worth.
Bargain basement production:
Schmalbert $12M, 3HR
Highest paid guy production:
ARod $32M, 5HR
Mauer $27M, 1HR
Jeter $25M, 5HR
Ichiro $24.5M, 1HR
Fielder $23.3M, 6HR
Teixeira $22.8, 5HR
Ryan Howard $21.5, 0HR
It’s a little suspect judging Jeter and Ichiro on homers.
Agreed, though Ichiro is fairly old and terrible at this point. Jeter is having a surprisingly good season with a .936 OPS. It’s early.
Calling Ichiro “terrible” is a classic example of fan exaggeration. He has 45 hits in 40 games and is batting .278.
Hits, huh? Well, the guy is a major league right fielder with an OPS of .688. Last year, he had an OPS of .645. Managing a halfway respectable batting average, not walking, not hitting for power, and playing an easy defensive position seems like a rather fitting definition of terrible to me.
Lets see…..
Much of Ichiro’s remuneration owes to his great career achievement. We cannot blame him just because he has been able to play well for a long time or because the Mariners have heaped money on him. Also, RF is not an easy position.
This said, Ichiro is a singles hitter playing a position where teams like to have an OPS above 800. 688 is not very good by this standard, nor 645. The Cards have a guy, Beltran, above 1000 this season and about 908 last season, well above what one wants in RF.
Accordingly, Wes, though in general you have some refreshing outlooks, in this specific instance Nutlaw would be correct that Ichiro is not a big offensive asset for the Mariners.
Ichiro is terrible for a #3 hitter, but the Mariners don’t have an alternative. Being put in a position he is no longer suited for is what’s terrible.
Once someone is no longer great, they are terrible.
and rich
Now add McClellan to the pile of guys for the med staff to fumble around with.
Who is it going to be from Memphis? There is room on the 40 man.
We will probably regret not having taken better advantage of our hot start.
Q: When is home field advantage not an advantage? A: 2012 League Division Series’.
“Baseball’s owners have approved changing the format of this year’s AL and NL Division Series from a 2-2-1 format to a 2-3 format, giving the team with home-field advantage the last three games of the five-game series.. . . . Teams with home-field advantage will host Games 3, 4 and 5, eliminating one travel day, and the wild-card playoff winners will start the division series at home.”
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7942366/owners-approve-wild-card-winners-hosting-games-1-2-division-series
I’d prefer 1-4.
Okay, so to replace McClellan, the following pitchers have been suggested: Cleto, Fick, Reifer, Dickson. Who would you pick and why? Who do who think is likely?
The inning-eater.
Am I supposed to know who that is or are you just being deliberately cryptic?
Cotton or Cleto. Cleto has improved recently, so I’ve heard. Both have had a cup of coffee with the club. Both can eat innings.
btw, did you see the Pics on twitter of the Ugly Tuxedo bus trip to LA? Rivals the Street Walker in Philly Pics from last season.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150827881466840.393273.38596231839&type=1
Only one is a starter and his turn is Friday, so he will be at maximum rest.
Dickson? That seems to be the consensus I have heard so far.
Nobody thinks it will be a guy added to the 40 man? Also, it wouldn’t have to be a reliever.
I’m sure there are people who think that, but nobody I have talked to.
Some injuries I do not regret. If Allen Craig pulls a hamstring, stuff like that will happen, its not preventable. Same with McClellan, if he blows out an elbow tendon, it happens to pitchers. If Wainwright has a long road back to excellence, this is understandable. If Chris Carpenter has a difficult nerve problem, I am ok with it.
However, the injury that I do regret because it was preventable and that is very costly is Jon Jay’s shoulder separation from running full tilt into a wall that he did not remember was there. When healthy, Jay is a very good hitter and helps make the Cards a playoff team. Without Jay, there is a big fall off in performance and the Cards become more beatable.
Congratulations to PJ Walters for vanquishing the Detroit Tigers yesterday. PJ pitched into the 7th inning. Its not easy to collect a win, when pitching for the Twins, so congrats to PJ for this achievement.
Not to revisit the discussion from the last post. But one argument against replay being that it slows the game down i think fails if players and managers are allowed to argue calls. That can take a minute or several and in that time a replay ref could have reviewed the call. Now, I get wanting to keep the traditions alive and at the expense of missing a few calls. But that specific argument to me fails.
Also the strike zone could be done by computer at no delay.
One thing that strikes me (pun intended:-) ) is that some pitchers pitch well in certain locations and when they get an ump that won’t call a strike there or that widens the zone or makes it taller even when being consistent for that game it really messes with a pitcher. All pitchers would have a standard to meet and practice toward if the zone were a carbon copy each game.
Now, that does take out a lot of the skill element (that I for one admire) of the players, the batter has to adjust, the pitcher has to adjust and the catcher and manager have to adjust the pitch calls. The other thing is there is a great level of skill to be harnessed in framing a pitch to get a favorable call if a catcher is good enough to do it. The Molina brothers excel at this -it has even been discussed as a cause of the bad call in the Lawrie dust up.
Huh? Instant replay + argument will take the same amount of time as NO instant replay? How does that work? Are you assuming that the only calls that will invoke instant replay are those that the manager would stop the game for to argue with the ump anyway? I don’t buy that. How do you know that the availability of instant replay won’t encourage managers to challenge calls that they otherwise wouldn’t without it? Sorry, KMan but I think you jumped the shark with this one.
Me and the Fonz.
You are correct in that it would take more time if it was replay + argument. Which I didn’t state, you did (a nice strawman setup, btw). There would be no need to argue if there was replay, and if there was replay, going out and arguing would result in immediate ejection.
I was saying that one (replay) would replace the other (argument). The process would have to be hammered out. I suppose there would be a certain number of challenges per game.
Again, I am not advocating replay here, just saying that some arguments, like lengthening of the game don’t stick. Esp, when method of implementation can resolve the issue.
That still doesn’t address the argument that having replay at all would increase the number of challenges. If there would only be one challenge per game in normal circumstances (no replay) and replay causes there to be 2 or more instead, (by encouraging the manager to challenge a call he wouldn’t otherwise challenge) then those extra challenges, lengthens the game. No method of implementation can resolve an issue that wouldn’t otherwise be there in the first place without instant replay.
In the NFL there is a penalty when the challenge does not go their way (loss of timeout- which doesn’t work for MLB of course) but there could be a penalty to reduce gratuitous use.
No guarantee that if say each team got three challanges that the manager would feel compelled to use them all either. There could be incentive to make them count.
There are other ways to be dillatory if delay of game is the goal for the use of a challenge (now that was my strawman).
Also, I guess for my initil proposition to be properly vetted we must determine the actual time it would take to review a call (replay) vs. the amount of time used (average, median?) in arguing a call. Only quantitative analysis can really determine the answer.
Now there is no way in Hades, that a manager that KNOWS he can challenge 3 close calls per game without negative consequences, isn’t going to take that opportunity if he can, even if he would not otherwise do so without replay. How are you going to determine what is “gratuitous use”? If the call is close, are you going to say it is gratuitous if the replay goes against you? I hardly think that is fair. And if the manager can successfully argue 3 calls per game, with two managers doing it, at say 5 minutes per challenge that’s 30 MINUTES added on to the game. The sheer number of possible calls that can be challenged (safe/out calls on 4 different bases, trapped/caught balls. foul/fair, etc……) increases the likelihood that AT LEAST six of those are going to be close enough to be challenged without penalty.
Unlike NFL, baseball has no time limit. Just 9 inning games in the AL can last 4 hours or more. Extra inning games could be a nightmare with 30 extra minutes tacked on for instant replay.
There is no possible way that instant replay DOESN’T lengthen a game.
I am going to have to end this argument, I am going out for dinner and have to leave. I just want to add that I know a lot of people who want instant replay and have argued with me about it. But not a single one of them has ever argued that instant replay won’t make the game longer. They accept that as the result and believe the trade off is worth it. I don’t happen to agree with them on that.