Leave a Pitch In The Middle Of The Plate, Get Burned

AP Photo/Larry Ignelzi

Piniero made one mistake in a bad spot - 2 on, 2 out in the sixth against the Padres #5 hitter - and Kevin Kouzmanoff hit it out to dead center for a 3-R HR.

Padre color commentator Mark Grant thought it was a slider that didn't slide. Whatever. It was definitely a breaking ball, and it hung in the middle of the zone, the proverbial "ball on a tee". Kouzmanoff didn't miss it. It was Piniero's 88th pitch of the game. He would throw 2 more, the second turning into a sharp single to LF by Khalil Greene, before exiting.

The warning signs were already up before Kooz hit his HR. Piniero missed his targets badly while striking out Adrian Gonzalez for the second out of the sixth. His 1-0 pitch was supposed to be on the inner half, but actually got a lot of the outer half of the plate. I can only assume Gonzo wasn't looking for that pitch in that spot, because that's a pitch he usually handles with power. The other pitch was on 2-1, I believe; Molina set up inside and Piniero missed way outside.

I have noticed that LaRussa tends to let his pitchers work out of trouble, even when they are missing their spots; he did it in 2006 with Carpenter on several occasions, for example. Carp is a good enough pitcher to battle through when he's tired. Piniero is hit or miss. I thought, watching that game, that perhaps LaRussa should have gotten Joel after he retired Gonzo. Hindsight is always 20-20, of course. There were good reasons to leave him in. It was only the bottom of the sixth; Piniero had barely cracked the 80 pitch mark; the Padres had only 2 hits coming into that inning (although they had matched that total in the sixth); he had just struck out the Padres best hitter. Of course, some of those reasons are also good ones for taking him out.

Can't really blame the offense for this one. Maddux pitched well other than the second inning, and the Cardinals managed to plate 2 runs. It could have been at least one more if Piniero gets a better bunt down. Credit the rookie Carlin with a good play to retire Kennedy at second. Other than that threat, Maddux pitched like he always does against St. Louis - Tough.

In other news, AP went 0-4, but that o-fer included a line shot in the first right at Gonzo that turned into a DP, and a hard ground ball in the sixth that Kouzmanoff made a real nice play on diving towards the LF line.

AP gave an interesting interview to the Padres radio pre-game show yesterday afternoon. I caught about 2/3 of it before pulling into my driveway. In addition to the usual platitudes about the team and LaRussa (and that' s not a dig at AP; just good interview-ese), he was asked about his approach, specifically if he changes his approach for a notorious pitcher's ballpark like Petco. His short answer: No. His longer answer focused on keeping his routine, which includes video of that night's pitcher and time in the batting cage to get loose.

He also said "I don't worry about the ballpark. I can hit it out of anywhere." Not boastful, just matter of fact. I thought that was cool. His approach during BP, if you are interested, is to make good contact and concentrate on hitting line drives gap-to-gap (this matches what he told Joe Morgan during an interview ESPN played on Sunday Night Baseball about 2 weeks ago). If it goes out, it goes out. He wants to get the ball deep in the power alleys on a line. Real interesting to me to hear what he focuses on. I know I'm only a beer-league softball player now, but I tend to get caught up trying to hit it 350 feet plus (because I can) instead of concentrating on making solid contact and hitting a line drive.

Which, incidentially, is what my father tried to impress on me. Since AP does the same thing, looks like my dad knew what he was talking about. And that doesn't surprise me one bit.

Cardinals Pummel Padres 8-2

A good friend of mine offered me last-minute tickets to the game. With regret, I had to turn him down.

Boy, what I missed.

If I ever need a photo of a half-hearted effort, I'll use this one:

AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi

That's as high as Hairston could get? I can jump higher than that, dude.

And thanks for challenging Pujols - two HR. The one off the Western Metal Building was a moon-shot, and his eighth inning effort was gone when he hit it. Beautiful.

Just three other comments:

- Brian Barton had by far the worst AB I've seen in a long time with the bases loaded in the seventh. Caught looking at three fastball strikes in a row? Come on, Brian. How can you be sitting on an off-speed pitch in that situation? I was always taught to look fastball and adjust - it's easier to slow down your bat to meet a breaking ball than to speed it up after a fastball. And the 0-1 pitch looked really, REALLY fat to me (in perfect position to see it, 10 miles from the game on my couch, of course). Strike 3 was a tough pitch, but that 0-1 pitch? Wow. You got to swing in that situation, don't you?

- Love Russ Springer's beard. The first thing I thought of was "Shaggy" from Scooby Doo, except Shaggy doesn't have a full beard like that. Grizzly Adams, perhaps?

- You may have heard about the explosion yesterday in downtown SD. The Hilton that's under construction which suffered the blast is right across Harbor Drive from the Ballpark. It, as you migh expect, was the lead story on the late news, and has been blamed on a slow gas leak in a machinery room; apparently the leak had been present for a while, for it filled the room and then something sparked it. 14 injured, 3 seriously (second and third degree burns). Keep them in your prayers, please.

Maddux tonight. The Padres look like a beaten down team.

Post-script: The hot topic this morning? Edmonds' catch. Now the wagging tongues are saying, why didn't we give him a longer look? Hilarious. Also, Kevin Towers is pretty pissed off about his team's effort; stand by for more knee-jerking from the left coast.

You Just Don't Know, Do You?

This Cardinals team, although very entertaining, is going to drive me crazy over the next 4 months. How do you drop 2 of 3 to the Pirates, then turn around and take 2 of 3 from the best team in the AL? Crazy.

Cardinals flat-out stole one yesterday. Tampa Bay has had, statistically, the best bullpen in the AL this season. To trail 3-0 after 6 and win 5-4 in the ninth against that group is quite the achievement.

There's been a lot of ink spilt discussing the propensity of this team to leave men on all over the place, and rightly so. They stranded 6 on Friday, 16 on Saturday, and another 10 yesterday. The silver lining is they're getting guys on consistently; the hits with men in scoring position will eventually come. I'd be a lot more concerned if they were hitting .800 with men in scoring position and only stranding 2-5 runners a game, because that success rate is not sustainable over the season.

Shore up the bullpen, and get some hits to fall in, and this becomes a VERY dangerous team.

So it's off to the west-coast to complete their swing through California for the season. One of the things I liked about the old schedule (and this goes back to the 12-team NL, when they played 18 games against teams in their division and 12 against the NL West) was they had 2 nine-game road trips through the coast a year, and hit SD, LA, and SF all in the same trip. If you were so inclined, and could get the time off, you could follow the team up the coast. Why they made the trip out to SF in April and then swing through LA/SD now is beyond me. I can see why a lot of folks in the league think this schedule stinks.

For the first time in 10 years I won't be going to see the Cardinals in person. My schedule is too chock-a-block right now to afford taking 4 hours to attend a baseball game. That's a sad state of affairs, but it's reality. Since we're back on Cable TV (having told ATT to shove it with regard to Dish Network), I'll be able to watch all 3 games from the comfort of my own home, so at least I'll get to see them play.

Pitching matchups for the next 3 days:

Wellemeyer vs Ledezma
Piniero vs Maddux
Looper vs Young

Maddux has owned the Cardinals during his career, and Young is very tough at home; I think we'll be fortunate to take 2 of 3 in this series, even though we're playing the Padres, who were anointed the worst team in baseball yesterday by virtue of dropping 2 of 3 to the Mariners. Talk about the Toilet Bowl - a weekend series that pitted the worst AL team against the worst NL team.

Giles is hot, Adrian Gonzalez is tearing the cover off the ball, but the rest of the lineup is scuffling right now for San Diego.

In-depth analysis over the next 3 days for this series. Go Cards!

Even Jim Edmonds Can't Make This Uni Look Good...

AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh

Bleech.

The San Diego paper points out Edmonds didn't improve much from his Padre stint, but he is hitting .250 as a Cub. That's 72 points better than with the Padres! Go Jim!

Looks like the bullpen has become a major problem.

Lost 2 of 3 to the Pirates. Blew a 5-1 lead. Izzy and Villone can't get anyone out. Whoo, boy; doesn't bode well for the home team.

Izzy seemed so despondent in his post-game comments, I wonder if he's mentally tough enough to pitch at all in pressure situations anymore. He also seemed to indicate he expected the Cardinals to make a move regarding his status on the roster.

Boy I hope they offer to send him down to Memphis vice releasing him outright. Somehow, I don't think designating him for assignment is the right answer. It (one more time) also seemed he would be willing to spend some time at AAA to clear his head.

That's one problem. What do we do with Villone? He's one more team away from tying Mike Morgan's 'most city stickers on your bag' record for a reason. I say we punt him outright and bring someone else up. I don't care who accompanies Chris Perez to the majors, whom I would expect to be called up if they make a roster move with Izzy.

Reyes' line from tonight: 3 2/3inn, 6 H, 2 ER, 2BB, 3K, ND (Memphis won in 12). Recap didn't say why he was pulled in the fourth; his pitch count might have been high, or they're working on lengthening him out to pitch more innings per appearance.

Now this is funny

I've been wracking my brain looking for something to blog about today.

So far, I've got nothing.

Edmonds signed with the Cubs this morning and was rumored to be in the lineup today.

Let's check CBS Sportsline. Yep, he's there, hitting sixth. Had a hit in his first AB off Maddux.

Then I noticed something was amiss with the box score:



If you can't read that, it shows Edmonds replaced in the Padre lineup, and in the Cub lineup.

Yep, apparently Edmonds was in the Padre lineup, was substituted for, but still wanted to play today, so he went over to the Cubs side and is now in CF hitting sixth.

They better run a breath-a-lyzer on the guy covering this game.

Was Villone the best option?

It sucks when you fight back from an initial 2-0 deficit to tie the game in the eighth, then lose in extra innings. I didn't realize that Villone was the guy tagged for 4 ER in the 10th until seeing the highlights (lowlights?) on ESPN.

Which got me thinking: Was he really the best option at that point in the game?

LaRussa famously remarked about Braden Looper's 6 May start, that Loop needed to go deep into the game, because the bullpen was gassed. Why the bullpen was gassed given the excellent April our starters had is a whole other discussion; but I figured that was a good point to start from when looking at bullpen loading leading up to last night's game.

Here's the usage graphic:

If that were at all legible you'd see what I mean.

What it does show is that Villone had only been used one time in the previous 7 games, thrown 5 pitches, and not gotten anyone out. It also shows that Parisi wasn't available for extended duty, and that Izzy and Flores probably could have gotten one guy out. McClellan, however, was fully rested. Franklin and Springer had already been used.

Lets look at the lineup Villone faced. He started with the top of the order (Sanchez). Sanchez is right handed. In fact, other than McClouth (hitting behind Sanchez), LaRoche (hitting seventh), and Mienkiewicz (isn't there a 't' in there somewhere) hitting ninth, the lineup was right handed, and Villone wouldn't face 2/3 of the lefties until the bases were loaded and 2 out (assuming no runs had scored).

So why throw him in there? Even if you want to use him there due to his lack of work, why leave him in to face the 3-4-5 hitters, all right handed, after McCouth sacrificed Sanchez to second?

Why not bring in McClellan?

I don't understand the logic there. Why save McClellan for a protracted extra inning game when the game was on the line there?

Better 201st Post - Anthony Reyes

Let me pull out my old moniker (The AngryRant, for those of you new to the site) to discuss Anthony Reyes for a moment.

As you know, Reyes was sent back to AAA Memphis on 4 May. He wasn't happy about it, and I don't blame him; I don't think his performance was so bad it merited his being demoted. But let's look at the data to see what it tells us.

In his first 6 appearances, he pitched very well. He did have a hiccup in his second, against the Nationals; he gave up a 1 out 2 run HR to Flores, Washington's catcher. He got the next guy out and was replaced by LaRussa, getting credit for a hold.

For his first 6 games, his line looked like this:

9 2/3 IP, 3R (all earned), 8 H, 1 BB, 8 K, 2 holds, 1 save, 1-0 overall record, 2.79 ERA, WHIP 0.93.

Pretty darn good.

LaRussa at least evinced some faith in him then, using him in tight, close games. You get holds only if you come into the game in a save situation; his save was in the 10th inning against the Giants, who the Cardinals had trouble with (they went 4-3 against St Louis this season). Reyes was pitching about every 3 days to start the season. Since he had gone through spring training as a starter, I thought that was a reasonable approach to a kid now shifted to the bullpen, as you work him into working on consecutive days.

Reyes' 6th appearance was as the long man out of the pen, spelling Looper after Loop gave up 6 runs in the third to those same Giants. He pitched as he had in the previous 5, but he was working on 4 days rest.

It's his next appearance that apparently did him in. Entering in the 8th, against Pittsburgh's 4-5-6 hitters, he gave up 4 hits, one loud flyball, and a groundout. The damage might have been worse had Schumaker not cut down Mientkiewiez at second trying to stretch a single into a double.

After that, he pitched at the back end of 2 blowouts, and got sent down.

Why would a poor outing after 6 good ones get him reassigned? Putting on my JFK "there was a second shooter on the grassy knoll" conspiracy hat, doesn't this ooze something nefarious?

It's almost as if LaRussa and Duncan gave Reyes just enough rope to hang himself. It's no secret neither one of them trust Reyes, otherwise why would he have spent the better part of 2 seasons wearing out the road between St Louis and Memphis? If they really bought into Reyes as a top-flight pitching prospect, why did they not let him work out his problems in 2006 and 2007 at the big league level, like other teams have done with Edwin Jackson, Cole Hamels, John Danks, Gavin Floyd, and several other young pitchers over the past 4 years?

But they didn't; they turned him into a yo-yo, and in the process sapped his confidence to the point he was a wreck last season.

And this year was even crueller. The kid worked his butt off in spring training but would have been sent down anyway if not for the intervention of Mozeliak at the start of the season. So LaRussa and Duncan (seemingly, I have no proof of this) went into a dark room and decided to let the kid pitch out of the bullpen until he made enough of a mistake to justify sending him down.

Which he did in that game against the Pirates.

1-1, 2 holds, 1 save, 1 really bad inning, and back to Memphis you go. Obviously I think he got the shaft...again.

He's pitched only once since returning to Memphis - 3 shutout innings in an abbreviated start on 9 May (4 hits, 3 walks, 3 K). He should start again Thursday (Memphis is off tomorrow) at home against Oklahoma City.

Clearly I want him to have a chance to succeed at the Major League level for the Cardinals. I think he's good enough and the team was foolish for cycling him between St Louis and Memphis last year (yes I know he was 2-14 in 20 starts over 107+ innings). But it may well be time to trade him away, especially if he continues to have this to look forward to as long as LaRussa and Duncan are in charge in St Louis.

GALA 200th POST!

Too bad it follows a lack luster effort at Milwaukee. It's tough to go 3-5 on a road trip when you won the first 2 games.

And as a reward, they come home and get the Pirates, winners of 7 of their last 8.

It doesn't get any easier.

Padres are in Chicago this week, so I get a close-up look at our rival (courtesy of local TV). They exploded for 6 runs in the 5th and 5 in the 6th enroute to crushing San Diego 12-3.

Kyle Lohse tries to stop the bleeding, both personal and team, against Phil Dumatrait of the Pirates. Dumatrait is 0-1 with a 9.45 ERA lifetime against the Cardinals. Lohse is slightly better (2-0, 1.78) lifetime against Pittsburgh.