“The Cardinals have traditionally done away with the piggyback system around mid-season, and I think the personnel on this pitching staff lent itself to doing so a bit earlier this year.”

He is correct in timing in that in 2008, the move away from the piggyback starting system in its third season of usage occurred at the break in mid-June. Palm Beach also recently ended their use of the tandem arrangement approximately three weeks sooner than in 2008.

The five Quad Cities starters going forward are Gary Daley, Brett Zawacki (pictured), Kevin Thomas, Hector Cardenas and Arquimedes Nieto. Adam Veres and Scott McGregor head to the pen. Andres Rosales had already been assigned there, but was kept in the starting mix due to a roster that has been in considerable flux.

Other starters unavailable include Josh Wilson, who apparently abruptly retired again, suspended Deryk Hooker and injured starters Jared Bradford and Jonny Bravo, both on the seven-day disabled list.

All the rotation turnover has to be a contributor to the River Bandits’ uneven season to date. Despite a 2009 home record that includes six home series victories against just two losses, the club is scuffling along with a 22-24 record overall.

They are currently carrying a season-long five-game losing streak with a 2-8 mark over their last ten games. The Bandits have struggled on the road all season long, with no series wins, four losses and two splits away from Modern Woodmen Park in 2009.

Some of the Quad Cities hitters have been ice cold, including shortstop Niko Vasquez, having gone just nine for his last 76 (.118), and key RBI man Osvaldo Morales. Since driving in 33 runs in his first 33 games, the big first baseman has just one RBI in his last ten contests and is batting 3-for-25 (.120) over his last eight.

Another factor behind the club’s struggles is their porous defense. The River Bandits have committed 19 errors in their last 11 games, leading to 19 unearned runs. They are tied with Clinton for last in the 14-team Midwest League in fielding percentage (.957).

The Bandits are 13th in errors with 73 and also 13th in total double plays turned (30). They are 13-19 this season when committing at least one error in a game, compared to a 9-5 record in their 14 error-free contests. Vasquez alone has ten miscues in his last 20 games.

After three games at Lansing this weekend, Quad Cities will wrap up their ten-game road stretch with a four-game commuter series against the Burlington Bees that runs Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday of next week.

The new-old five-man rotation starts Sunday with Daley taking the hill in Lansing. The other four will cover the Burlington series in this order: Zawacki, Thomas, Cardenas and Nieto. I plan to be there Friday to check out Nieto’s outing.

As always, for current rosters and the most up-to-date transactions at all levels of the Cardinals minor league system, don’t forget to check out the Roster Matrix.

Javier, a former major league player and son of former Cardinals second baseman Julian Javier, was interviewed on the Dominican Republic’s Channel 13’s “Sports Week” on Sunday. El Heraldo apparently picked up that report, which includes direct quotes attributed to Javier. The other Dominican players mentioned are David Ortiz, Fausto Carmona, Francisco Liriano, Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Pena.

I should reinforce that this news should be considered unofficial and has not yet been verified. At times in the past, news reports out of the Caribbean have been erroneous. The telephone-like chain in this case adds to the risk.

We may know very soon, however. At 6 pm EDT today, Monday, provisional rosters for each of the 16 countries participating in the WBC will be released. These 45-man rosters are not the final 28 players that will be active for each team in the tournament. That list is not due until February 24. However, the final 28 must be selected from the 45-man provisional lists.

In Pujols’ specific case, he is speaking this afternoon at the Cardinals’ Winter Warm-up fan event in St. Louis and I hope to confirm or refute his part of the report later today.

The second World Baseball Classic will run from March 5-23.

Update (1/19, 3:15 pm CST): Speaking at WWU, Pujols acknowledged there is an insurance-related hold up over him (and others) coming off injury. However, he reiterated his excitement about playing in the WBC.

One would think that if the players want to play, these issues will be resolved.

Pujols said that he is already hitting but hasn’t thrown yet, and will not do so until spring camp. If he feels any twinge in the elbow, he will pull out of the WBC.

Update #2 (1/19 6:00 pm CST): Here is a first look at provisional WBC rosters. I will add others as I get them. Remember that not all these guys will necessarily play.

USA: Ryan Ludwick
Puerto Rico: Joel Pineiro, Yadier Molina
Dominican Republic: Albert Pujols

Update #3 (1/19 6:45 pm CST): Matthew Leach has all the details: link. He thinks Pujols may not play after all, and Ludwick will decline.

“The provisional rosters also include five Cardinals Minor Leaguers. Pitcher Blake Hawksworth is on the Canadian roster, infielder Curt Smith is on the Dutch roster, and infielder Isa Garcia and pitcher Arquimedes Nieto are on the Venezuelan roster. Pitcher Adam Ottavino is on the Italian provisional roster.”

Update #4 (1/20 6:30 am CST): Joe Strauss fills in the insurance liability details. To their credit, the original Colombian/Dominican report was right on, in Pujols case at least.

Update #5 (1/20 1:30 pm CST) This is taking on a life of its own. An ESPN Deportes report in Spanish notes the first wave of Dominican players have arrived in camp in Jupiter, including Big Papi. Stan Javier is quoted as saying that Pujols and A-Rod are expected around the 27^th or 28^th. No mention of the insurance issue, though…