I think I have a new favorite Cardinal

After Albert, of course.

During the first week and a half of the season, Chris Duncan has yet to show his performance in 2006 was a fluke.

Yeah, yeah… sample size and all that, but he’s strung together some good at-bats so far this season:

• Last night’s pinch-hit home run was the biggest at-bat of the game and the eventual game-winner;
• His pair of walks Tuesday night included one in the ninth inning to get on for Pujols, who flied out to the base of the wall. A heads-up Duncan then advanced to second on an ill-advised throw to third by Pirates leftfielder Jason Bay, which put him in position to score on Scott Spiezio’s game-tying single in the ninth;
• A walk Sunday against the Astros got him on base for Pujols, who hit his first home run three pitches later;
• Although it ultimately proved fruitless, his ninth-inning walk Saturday against the fantastic Roy Oswalt again gave Pujols a potential run to drive in;
• And the series opener in Houston in which he blasted a homer and two doubles, all against left-handed pitching.

Yes, it’s only eight games. But those eight games have been a continuation of what he’d been doing in 2006. Tony La Russa has put Duncan in a great position to succeed, and Duncan has taken advantage. Batting right in front of Pujols, pitchers obviously don’t want to walk him, but Duncan shows enough discipline to keep pitchers honest and enough power to punish ones who challenge him. He’s even been halfway passable in the outfield so far.

It’s only a matter of time before he gets a Skoal endorsement.

Wainwright wows in win

While the national sports media were falling all over themselves after one pitcher’s first start, Cardinal Nation was more concerned with a different hurler’s debut.

For one night at least, Adam Wainwright showed he’s a capable starting pitcher, going seven strong innings in his season debut in Houston. Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan probably couldn’t have been more pleased with the Wagonmaker’s performance, as Wainwright coaxed 14 groundball outs to only three flyball outs.

He also was involved in two key double plays, the first being a 3-6-1 twin killing to end a potential threat in the fifth. The second one probably was what killed the Astros’ momentum going forward.

With runners at the corners and nobody out, Astros manager Phil Garner took a page out of La Russa’s playbook and tried a squeeze with Brad Ausmus, but Ausmus bunted the ball right back to Wainwright, who flipped it to Yadier Molina, who tagged Chris Burke out at home and then pegged Ausmus at first. I’m anxious to visit Erik’s excellent Gas House Graphs blog to see what the win expectancy was before and after that play.

Wainwright even got the offensive party started by doubling deep to center field to plate the Cardinals first run, a shot that in a real ballpark would have been a home run.

We also can’t overlook Chris Duncan’s demolition of portside pitching. After whiffing on a breaking ball low and away during his first at-bat, Daddy’s Boy made Wandy Rodriguez pay for leaving a similar pitch up and over the plate in his second at-bat.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Chris Duncan without him making a bonehead play roughly every game. This time it was on the basepaths, getting nailed at third trying to stretch a double with Albert Pujols on deck. Of course, Al Hrabosky then dusted off that old chestnut about not making the first or last out at third base. Never mind that it was the second out of the inning, and never mind that you probably shouldn’t make any out at third base.

I can’t, however, let the mirth of the season’s first win get in the way of the fact than Duncan and Wainwright had three of the Cardinals’ four hits against Rodriguez. This team still makes every pedestrian lefty look like Sanford F. Koufax.

And I know it’s low-hanging fruit, but Jason Isringhausen appears to be in midseason form. Thank you, I’ll be here all week.

Chris Young award

(Kyle Ericson/AP)

Saturday’s game wasn’t as close as the score indicated. It could have (and probably should have) been much worse: the Padres left an astounding 27 men on base (14 if you only count those left with two out).

Chris Young was outstanding for the Padres, getting rally-stifling strikeouts in the first and sixth innings, the latter of Albert Pujols with two runners on, and an inning-ending double play in the fifth. Young wasn’t at his best today, missing high with several pitches. But the Cardinals batters obliged him by swinging through those pitches for strikes. In fact, all but one of his nine strikeouts were of the swinging variety. Other things I think:

Chris Duncan: He might just have played his way into a pinch-hitting role for the duration. Duncan made Manny Ramirez look like a Gold Glover with his defensive performance Saturday: he took bad routes on some flyballs and hesitated/froze on some liners. He’s lucky his mistakes didn’t directly lead to runs.

Albert Pujols: Two strikeouts and then a critical double-play groundout in the eighth. He still gets a pass. He is Albert Pujols.

Scott Rolen: I hate to say it, but maybe it’s time he gets benched. The defense is still there, but he’s an albatross on offense, batting .091 in three NLDS games.

Jeff Suppan: He obviously wasn’t at his best Saturday, but he did pitch his way out of a couple of jams. That last one, however, proved to be his and the team’s undoing.

Blind squirrels

(Nam Y. Huh/AP)

How is it that the Cubs play such atrocious baseball all the time, except when they play the Cardinals?

Seriously, the Cubs defense is a joke, but when the Cardinals come to town Aramis Ramirez, Todd Walker and Jacque Jones suddenly channel Brooks Robinson, Bill Mazeroski and Roberto Clemente.

Meanwhile, our own Brooks Robinson gets eaten up, again, by a playable grounder while on the Weeghman Park infield. At least Matt Murton played left field like he should have.

Something stinks in Wrigleyville, and it ain’t just the Cubs. Whatever. We’ve still got the weekend to exact our revenge on these jerks.

A few thoughts on:

Albert Pujols: Dude, Al. Come on, man. A couple more at-bats like yours in the fourth inning and people will start to think you’re actually human. That was probably one of the not-goodest at-bats I’ve seen from him all season. With the bases loaded and one out, he looks at a pitch right in his gonko for strike one. Then he swings and misses at a pitch a foot off the plate before tapping what would have been ball two to short for the double play. It was a pitch that, if the bases weren’t loaded, could have been a pitchout. Chalk that up to him being antsy to make something happen, I guess.

Chris Duncan: Kid had two hits (against a lefty, no less!), but his white-elephant defense may have cost us a run or two. In the sixth inning, the Cubs had already pushed a run across, making the score 4-3. Juan Pierre dumps one into left, and Daddy’s Boy comes in hard to try to make the play. He makes a valiant but awkward and ultimately futile dive to try to make the catch, allowing Neifi Perez to tie the game. I think that had he played it as a single, he might have had a chance to get Perez at the plate.

Tyler Johnson: Being ignorant and not already knowing that Angel Pagan (a wonderfully contradictory name) was a switch-hitter, I at first cursed Tony La Russa bringing in T.J., given his dramatic righty split. But while Pagan hits lefties better than he does righties, he has a lower slugging percentage against southpaws. And lefties Pierre and Walker were due up next in case Pagan got on. So I guess T.J. was the right call. He just didn’t get the outs, a situation that happens more than it should. A commenter on Viva El Birdos’ Game 101 thread mentioned making overtures for Pirates’ lefty Mike Gonzalez. I can’t imagine him being available; there is some chatter about Rheal Cormier. He’s 39 years old and lights out this season. A trade here might neatly complete his career arc.

Now playing on Insight Cable Channel 901, Old School Rap: “I’ll Take You There,” Big Daddy Kane; “How Ya Like Me Now,” Kool Moe Dee; “Gangster of Hip-Hop,” Just-Ice; “Big Ol’ Butt,” LL Cool J; “Brass Monkey,” the Beastie Boys; etc.

Dodge ball

Sunday, I took the family to my company’s annual summer fun frolic at Knight’s (“Where the action is!”), so I caught nary a pitch of the final tilt against the Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles. It is for this reason that I feel eminently qualified to comment on the game.

(OK. I did actually hear that Anthony Reyes struck out the side in the first. I ran into a gaggle of co-workers, one whose spouse had a nifty little device that was keeping track of the game. But I digress.)

I think I think these things:

Albert Pujols: Damn, that guy’s good. Three of his four hits Sunday brought runners home. If Joe Morgan (or is it Tim McCarver?) overuses the phrase “productive outs,” what terminology would he beat into the ground about Pujols’ hits? And if you were among those who worried that El Hombre might have come back too soon from his tweakage, you can stop: He’s gone off for a .371/.446/.674 line since his return.

Chris Duncan: Daddy’s Boy had his second three-hit game in three days. One might think he’s beginning to acclimate himself to the No. 2 hole:

“I pretty much know they’re not going to walk me, so I just try to be aggressive, and when they fall behind I usually get a pitch to hit.”

And hit them, he has. Since May ended, he’s gone .328/.364/.557. The 16/2 K/BB ratio during that period is a little troubling, but like he said, he’s going to get pitches to hit batting in front of Albert Pujols. In the few times that I’ve seen him, I think some of his strikeout woes can be attributed to his penchant for swinging and missing at a full-count ball four in trying to make something happen with runners on. In the No. 2 hole, “making something happen” is secondary to “getting on base so El Hombre can drive you in.” If baseball is a game of adjustments, maybe this is one of those for Duncan.

Day by Day Database: Readers of this Weblog (all six of you) may have noticed a lot of “Player X is batting Y in Month Z” in recent posts. This is all thanks to Baseball Musings’ Day by Day Database. Use it to see a given player’s stats in a given time period. It’s like getting THE TOY (and I don’t mean the movie) for Christmas; I can’t stop playing with it. Have you ever wondered what Mike Ramsey (who is my favorite former wearer of No. 5) batted from April 12, 1983, to April 16, 1983? Well, here you go, dudes. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Stressed out

The Cardinals’ left-field situation just got a little clearer. Or muddier, perhaps.

The Associated Press’ St. Louis writer, R.B. Fallstrom, reports that Larry Bigbie is out with a stress fracture in his foot.

Despite batting just .231 with two doubles in 26 spring at-bats, Bigbie doesn’t lack for confidence.

“It’s frustrating, but at the same time I’m not going to miss that much of the season.”

Fallstrom later speculates that John Rodriguez will slide into the vacant LF platoon space opposite So Taguchi. But Nickname hasn’t done any better, batting .244 in 41 at-bats.

Could this be the Perfect Storm that keeps Chris Duncan with the big club? TLR is on record saying that Daddy’s Boy will go to Memphis to learn the outfield. But, for some reason, he’s still in camp. And with one LF candidate out with an owie, and the other recovering from his own, Duncan might just get a look while Bigbie’s foot heals.

Not to draw any hyperbolic parallels, but recall in your mental Rolodex this name: Bonilla, Bobby.

The great leap forward

Easily the most pleasant surprise this spring is the blooming of the Chris Duncan daffodil. Much has been blogged about him already, but I’ve been busy as of late and need to get back into the swing, as it were.

Before this spring, I’d never given much thought to Duncan. Despite his first-round status, I had him pegged as a “Daddy’s boy” pick, especially coming out of those mostly forgettable late-1990s, early ’00s draft classes.

His performance at the lower levels of the minors only cemented my opinion, especially his age-22 season at High-A Potomac: .254/.322/.315 in 2003. It’s generally not a good sign when your OBP is higher than your SLG.

Somehow, though, the light went on in 2004 with Double-A Tennessee: 16 homers and 23 doubles, and a healthy 64 walks in 452 plate appearances. He put up roughly equivalent power numbers in 2005 at Memphis, though his walk rate and batting average ticked down a bit.

But damn, has he been freaky with the lumber this spring. He’s leading all Cardinals batters in PA, runs, home runs and total bases. He won’t break camp with the team because that Pujols fella has dibs at first; he’ll go to Memphis to learn the outfield. But if the preseason left-field favorites continue their underwhelming play (Bigbie and Rodriguez, I’m looking in your direction), or someone pulls a Bonilla, Daddy’s Boy just might get the chance for some on-the-job training.

Good on, ya, Chris. Way to play yourself into our No. 1 hitting prospect.