Shaking out the cobwebs

Me to this Web log: “Hidely-ho, neglecterino!”

Posting here has been, to put it mildly, sporadic since the end of last October, when something cool happened.

I attribute the spotty posting to emotional letdown from the World Series and to the other, non-baseball blog I started.

But hopefully, this post amounts to a spring training of sorts for the Cardsblogging season. Gotta start getting my legs under me again.

Speaking of spring training, I’d like to take a look at this year’s non-roster invitees:

PITCHERS: Kelvin Jimenez, Mike Smith
CATCHERS: Ryan Christianson, Danilo Sanchez
INFIELDERS: Tagg Bozied, Jolbert Cabrera, Edgar V. Gonzalez
OUTFIELDERS: Rick Ankiel, Ryan Ludwick, Eli Marrero, Miguel Negron

Interesting that this season, there are only two NRI pitchers when last year there were 10. Here’s who might be mildly intriguing:

• Jimenez: A former swingman having apparently been converted to a full-time relief role in 2006, the right-handed Jimenez has spent his entire career in the Rangers organization. His nice HR/9 and K/9 rates are somewhat marred by his less nice H/9 and BB/9 rates. Last year at Triple-A Oklahoma, he had a pronounced reverse platoon split. His G/F rates show he may have a future in middle relief.
• Bozied: A former up-and-comer in the San Diego system, Bozied spent 2006 in Triple A-Norfolk. He owns minor-league career OPS of .826, having gone 1.003 in 2004 in Triple-A Portland. As a corner IF/OF, his only hope is to stick as a pinch-hitter.
• Gonzalez: Keep an eye out for this guy during spring training. Another career minor-leaguer, Gonzalez has hit everywhere he’s been. Although he’s primarily a third-baseman, he does have playing time at second and owns a career line of .295/.375/.466. Me likey. Unless he’s a total butcher with the glove or pulls a Spivey, I’d give Gonzalez the backup 2B job before the crimefighting Aaron Miles, based on his 2006 major-league equivalents.
• Ankiel: I presume you’ve heard of this guy. I just don’t get the Cardinals’ obsession with this guy. To have kept him around this long, he must have pictures of Tony La Russa clubbing baby seals. That, or the brass thinks he has ball-crushing potential. He did hit 21 homers in 321 at-bats in two minor-league stops in 2005, so maybe he does. He’s also got a maddening injury history, which is where my skepticism and frustration with him comes from. His ticket is punched for Triple-A Memphis. I wish him the best, but I just don’t see a viable major-league career as a hitter happening for him. I hope I’m wrong.
• Marrero: After bouncing around five clubs in the past three seasons, Marrero comes back to where his career began. With his catching days pretty much over, his only hope is as a platoon partner with Chris Duncan. While he does sport a three-year lefty split of .313/.378/.580, that line is skewed by his 2004 with Atlanta, when he hit .415/.462/.670 against lefties. His career line against southpaws is a more modest .266/.335/.457.

The guy that intrigues me the most is Edgar Gonzalez. Playing in the Mexican Winter League, he started those playoffs very well, but soon shit the bed and lost his starting job. But it’s hard to sneeze at his minor-league body of work. If anything happens to Adam Kennedy, I’d like to see Gonzalez get the first shot.

Of last year’s NRIs, only Brian Falkenborg saw the light of major-league day.

Let’s change the subject

Jiminy crap… I have about had it with this bullcrap weather. Before last month, Springfield had gone nearly 50 years without having a tornado hit. Now we’ve had three in the past three weeks. Funk dat.

So… how ’bout that local sports team? It appears that The Junior Spivey Experiment is over. STLtoday’s headline says it all: Spivey is out, Luna is in.

According to Derrick Goold, Spivey’s shoulder is giving him trouble (get in line, dude), but not so much trouble that he would go on the disabled list. So that leaves the braintrust with a move to make. There is one open spot on the 25-man roster, so another one will have to be made to accomodate Josh Hancock and Scott “It’s Nothing Like That” Spezio. Goold suggests that the team likely will DFA Spivey and hope he accepts a bus ticket to Memphis. The other option is outright release.

I can’t say I disagree with either of those. On one hand, perhaps Triple-A will be all that’s needed for Junior to Get His Groove Back. On the other, I’ve long advocated using Hector Luna at the keystone. If Spivey is released, you’d think some team would pick him up, potentially saving the Cardinals about $900K or so-ish.

So who knows. My brain hurts from all this storm nonsense. A baseball post served as a welcome and needed respite. The grind is not over, however.

But spring training is. Game on.

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.

Reading between the lines

Over at Bird Land, the Post’s Derrick Goold spells out the Cardinals’ troubles at 2B. My thoughts exactly:

• Scott Spiezio’s on the team as the John Mabry Versatile Veteran off the Bench.™ I think this spells the end of Brian Daubach.
• Spivey is scuffling big-time, but will probably make the team because of his contract.
• Aaron Miles will be this year’s Abraham Nunez. I keep hearing and reading that the Miles boy can hit. His career OPS+ is 67.

Derrick then speculates that a 2B trade might be in order. Todd Walker and Jerry Hairston are the names he throws out there. I wouldn’t mind Hairston; he’s a fellow Saluki. Ryan at Diaspora has a good idea in that, with all the talk that Tony Reyes might be traded, that it should be for a MLB-ready 2B prospect (Ian Kinsler, Ryan’s looking in your direction).

As long as he plays solid defense, I’m not all that concerned with what a 2B might do at the plate. What I’d really like to see is how Chris “Daddy’s Boy” Duncan handles major-league pitches actually thrown in anger. I need to justify the optimism (wishful thinking?) I have for that boy.

There’s the guy who does that thing!

It’s good to see Our Man Albert back with the team. He looks locked in already.

Sort of liveblog — Cardinals vs. Braves

OK… I’m going to try sort of liveblogging today’s tilt at Roger Dean. I say sort of because:

• I have to take The 26th Girl to school in a few minutes.
• Once I get back, The 26th Boy will still be here, although he’ll be cool playing with his trains for like an hour or so.
• I have to clean up my damn pigsty of a house, and finally,
• The computer and television are in separate rooms.

So I have my work cut out for me, but it’s baseball, and that’s all that matters. Back in about 45 minutes or so.

Bottom 3rd: I saw the Reyes boy give up two hits to start the game, then left. Now it’s 1-0 ATL. Ooooh, nice rip by Eckstein down the line. Sounds like a commerical now, so we must be between innings.

Top 4th: Ten-pitch walk to Diaz followed by a belt-high fastball to Francoeur, who belted it high. Eep. 3-0 ATL. Reyes did make quick work of Smoltz, so he’s got that going for him, which is good.

Top 5th: Izzy’s in now. Four rather blah innings for Reyes. I hear Memphis is beautiful in the spring. Izzy has an easy time: popout to Spivey, flyout to Duncan, and he made Chipper look silly. Let’s have some of those innings when the games count.

Bottom 5th: Smoltz is dealing, and I wish Brantley would shut up.

Top 6th: Looper whiffs a lefty, which I believe is a little-known Dr. Seuss book and which is an encouraging sign for B-Loop. Couple of flyball outs end the inning.

Bottom 6th: John Gall works a walk from Remlinger. Gall did a good job laying off an outside fastball, but ball four could have been strike three from a different ump. Eckstein works his magic, poking one into right that gets Gall to third. Duncan, first-pitch swinging, grounds into a run-scoring DP. With the way Remlinger was pitching, he could have waited for something better, IMO. Rolen gets jammed to end the inning.

Top 7th: Falkenborg looks good, striking out two in a perfect inning. Dude has a good relationship with his Uncle Charlie.

Top 8th: Ty Johnson looks a little shaky today. A wild pickoff throw doesn’t help matters. Kinda looks like he short-arms those pickoff attempts. And he’s got kind of an odd, two-thirds (you know, not quite three-quarters) delivery.

Top 9th: More of the same from Carmen Cali, altho a couple of instances of poor defensive execution contributed to his lousy inning. Spivey one-hops a throw to first to end the inning. Mateo was warming up in the 8th; Benes during the 9th.

Bottom 9th: Cards go in order. Ballgame. 8-1 ATL.

Well, that was fun. I certainly got my exercise for the day running between the TV and the computer. We’ll do it again sometime.

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.

Back to the important stuff

The long national nightmare is finally over. Well, at least the long national nightmare that was my all-consuming work project. It’s done, I’ve turned it in, and it’s out of my hands. Hopefully some good comes out of all that work.

Anyway, it’s good to be back blogging about Cardinals baseball. Did you miss me? Awww, that’s sweet of you to lie like that.

Let’s see… I’ve almost forgotten who’s on our team. I understand that El Sid has all but locked up the No. 5 spot in the rotation. The Rev. Redbird has a wonderfully crabby, 26th Man-esque post about how he thinks the competition for said slot was not quite on the level. … The Red Crush tries to shoot down the Miguel Cabrera rumors. Yeah, the post is a week old; I told you I’ve been busy. It’s still a good read.

Well, I’ve run out of gas for tonight. Missing two weeks of spring training will do that. Hopefully, the next post will come sooner than the recent ones have.

Bad news, worse luck for Ankiel

Derrick Goold, on the Post-Dispatch’s Bird Land, reports that Rick Ankiel apparently strained a patellar tendon and will miss the next 10 to 14 days.

That’s just a shame. To miss the first half of spring training when you are fighting like mad to make the team has to be frustrating. I can’t imagine him possibly making the team after missing that much time. Hopefully he comes back and knocks the snot out of the ball in the two weeks remaining.

Rick, Cardinals fans everywhere are pulling for you. Get well soon so you can prove all the doubters wrong.

Welcome to Jupiter

Joe Ostermeier at the Belle Vegas News-D reports that the Cardinals have invited former Reds pitcher Josh Hancock to camp, pending the obligatory physical of course.

This is the same Josh Hancock whom the Reds released Saturday for being overweight. Reds manager Jerry Narron had this to say:

“Can he be a successful major league pitcher 17 pounds more than he’s asked to be? Maybe. But we looked at last year — he was on the disabled list for 133 games — and just did not see the commitment that we wanted to see this winter.”

Not the ringingest of endorsements.

Here’s his page at Baseball Cube. Judging by the numbers, he appears to be just more fodder for the machine.