On Thursday afternoon, I joined Rob Rains and his son and co-host B.J. Rains on The Sports Zone Show on Sports Radio 1380 AM in St. Louis. Even if you are outside the St. Louis area, you can always catch the show’s live internet stream for free.
Our focus was on some of the emerging Cardinals minor leaguers, performance of recent draftees as well as a long discussion about the future of Shelby Miller and other potential trade chips in St. Louis’ system.
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Wainwright has looked darn good for most of the game in quite a few of his appearances. And then one big bump in the road comes. I think he’s an ace in the hole for the future. Even if it turns out that he doesn’t return all the way to form this year, or if it turns out it’s not our year in general.
Again, in the middle of the off season if someone had said at game 87 Carpenter, Wainwright, and Garcia would have 10 total wins I would not have anticipated being where we are.
As to the previous discussion of attitude, in any event the thing that is most important, I think, is to not become insatiable. It can happen and you not even know it.
Dogs are a mans best friend. But a lot of them will keep eating as long as you put stuff in the bowl. And when you eat yourself they are close and perched, hoping for a handout. Nothing is enough. Any satisfaction is only temporary until the next fix. They have no idea that they are spoiled. They just have their eye on the bowl.
To maintain superiority over our canine companion we have to rise above this philosophy ourselves.
Clever reasoning, Wes.
In this spirit I will propose a radical idea towards the thread topic. How about a year with no trades. Just one year. Hey you guys have hung tough through a bunch of adversity. Now go for it, without any supposed incoming saviours.
We have to look for every edge. Last summer, Mo had to make a bunch of July moves (Furcal, Jackson, Rzepcynski, Dotel, Rhodes) to get us to the playoffs. Like last year, we need more pitching, with Carpenter and McClellan gone and Garcia likely out of it.
Browning had a great game last night. Matheny brought him in to face Votto. Browning threw three strikes, but the ump did not want to show up an MVP by ringing him up, so gave the batter the call. Later Browning whiffed Bruce. Matheny removed him, probably to save him for a return appearance today or tomorrow, against the same two guys. Based on last night, Browning is our best guy against Votto and Bruce.
Last comment on the game this evening. What you are looking for on a daily basis in the second half when in the race is to gain ground on first place or to at least not lose ground. 2 1/2 back yesterday, 2 1/2 out now.
If Fuentes signs with Cards who goes down and who goes off the 40-man roster?
Browning would have to go down, right?
Not necessarily. They could decide to keep 3 lefties and send a righty down, maybe Cleto or Marte.
Not Marte! He’s (sadly enough), their third best reliever! Maybe Cleto.
Fuentes signed a minor league deal, so will apparently begin in Memphis.
We will see if the terms come out, but my guess is that he has an out if he isn’t in StL soon – maybe 8/1?
Ken Rosenthal says he is going to GCL with StL decision in two weeks.
So it’s like a tryout, and the club is not satisfied and decides not to bring him up, Fuentes can opt out of the contract? I hope that is the case and the club has not committed to bring him up within two weeks.
That is commonly done with fringe major leaguers who have to sign minor league deals. That protects them from being buried and forgotten. bling’s hero Jamie Moyer has had several of those deals this year. Either he is in the majors by a certain date, or he returns to free agency, to try again with another organization.
Again, I do not know if that is the case for sure with Fuentes, but if I was his agent, I would have demanded an out like that before agreeing to terms.
Jenifer Langosch is reporting it is a July 31 opt out clause for Fuentes
http://langosch.mlblogs.com/
OK, my guess was off by one day…
It is revealing if Fuentes is going to Jupiter. The Cards and Fuentes must have agreed that something is not working so he wants to work on the difficulty at the training facility, rather than in the spotlight of the majors. Fuentes has 200+ ML saves. He can work on improving a pitch or his delivery, then get a call to the majors.
Fuentes is still going to be collecting his multi-million salary from the Athletics. In terms of pay, it makes no matter to Fuentes if he is in St. Louis or Memphis or Jupiter. So why not go down to the training base for some extra tutoring?
In terms of pay, it makes no difference if he stays on his couch.
Fuentes will be trying to improve and to demonstrate improvement so as to get a contract or a tryout for 2013. If he sits on his couch, this sloth will not help his earning potential for 2013.