Some Numbers

On occasion I'll listen to a classical/jazz radio station here in Indianapolis. It's a little bit different though, as they sometimes will give detailed sports stories during the hourly news. Every once in a while they'll even throw in a sound clip from Peyton Manning or maybe a Pacer. During lunch on Wednesday, I hopped into the car and just as I started it up, I heard this snippet:

have lost eight straight games

I hit the button for the a-ha station pretty quick on that one. I'll try to put a stressful week behind me and have some fun with a few silly stats I've dug up. With apologies to David Letterman and Harper's...

1 -- Number of two-out RBI hits from Junior Spivey this season at Memphis. He had that hit Thursday night. The weird things you learn while listening to Memphis Redbirds games online when the Cardinals have a day off.

31 -- Jason Isringhausen's rank among all relievers in expected wins added. That's major league relievers, not Cardinal relievers. Yes, Izzy's been valuable to this point. Don't ask how.

9 -- Rank of Scott Rolen's OPS among qualified NLers. Welcome back, Scottie. Albert Pujols is first, of course. Yadier Molina is 4 PA's short of qualifying, but he's dead last among NLers with 200 at-bats.

13 -- Rank of Cardinals' 2B in OPS. Somehow, some way, that's better than Boston (14th and home of Mark Loretta), Kansas City (24th, Mark Grudzielanek) and Minnesota (26th, Luis Castillo). OK, I'm not counting on that lasting either. Dear Tony, please give Hector Luna more time at 2B against right-handed pitchers.

28 -- Juan Encarnacion's OPS advantage on Reggie Sanders. On the other hand I count only six qualified major league batters (Yuniesky Betancourt, Jay Payton, Jeff Francoeur, Angel Berroa, Juan Uribe and Clint Barmes) with fewer walks than Encarnacion.

6 -- Number of stripes showing on Anthony Reyes's socks. This conforms with the dress code the Cardinals impose on their minor leaguers. Dear Anthony, make a statement and start wearing your pants like Chris Carpenter.

-88 -- Number of days between Dontrelle Willis's and Anthony Reyes's birthdates. That's a convoluted way of saying Reyes is three months older than Willis.

1 -- Number of qualified major league pitchers with DIPSes worse than Jason Marquis's 6.04. Unfortunately Scott Elarton isn't scheduled to pitch this weekend for the Royals. Even if you're not a full-fledged fan of baseball's gourmet stats, the ingredients of that number are not good.

1.07 -- Jason Marquis's groundball-to-flyball ratio. That makes him something of a flyball pitcher. Forget about the bottom line for a moment. What is he trying to do out there? It's hard to believe Reyes is the rookie and Marquis is a half-season away from free agency. I'm rather tired of putting apostrophes on names ending with the letter "s", but I've got one more in me...

16 -- Number of baseball months since the Cardinals had a losing record for a month. Barring something strange Friday night, that string will be snapped. The last time it happened was July 2003, as the Cardinals went 13-14. You have to go back to July 1994 to find a full month (April - September) as bad as June 2006. When you get plopped in the head with a big hunk of something unfamiliar, it's OK to assume the sky is falling. The best news of the month was Pujols's home run the day after his return from the DL:

It's always nice to get some confimration that the "5" is in fact an "S".

What Would Crash Do?

Kyle asks:

What's with the lack of actual "baseball" talk on this site lately? The team is falling apart at the seams, and the posts on this site show up about as often as Yaddi gets on base.

Good question. That is to say, the last day or two I've been preparing an explanation for my own silence.

My answer starts here: The Cardinals are a mediocre baseball team in a weak division. I think you can guess my reasoning, even if you don't agree with it. A while back I hypothesized that this kind of team would make for great blogging, the theory being that they'd have plenty of obvious weaknesses to analyze while being good enough that you wouldn't just give up on them. In this case, the Cardinals are in first place, but everyone's favorite mediocrity currently leads Cardinal outfielders in WARP and the pitching's not been good. The farm is weak, with the only valuable trade-bait -- Reyes and Wainwright -- almost untouchable due to the needs of 2007 and beyond, so what you see is what you get.

The problem is that, well, these weaknesses are obvious to Cardinal fans. I can quantify them, spin them or maybe sneer at them. The first one seems pointless -- unless you live in a cave you know about the struggles of Mulder, Marquis and Edmonds -- I don't have the chutzpah to do the second, and the last one, while perhaps most appropriate, doesn't hold much appeal for me these days. Whenever I'm tempted to follow that path, I remember my favorite quote from the other Bill James:

The mood of a Schopenhauer or a Nietzsche,- and in a less degree one may sometimes say the same of our own sad Carlyle,- though often an ennobling sadness, is almost as often only peevishness running away with the bit between its teeth. The sallies of the two German authors remind one, half the time, of the sick shriekings of two dying rats. They lack the purgatorial note which religious sadness gives forth.

I don't want to sound like a dying rat.

Jocketty's offseason work was much criticized, and looking back, the offseason is proving a mixed bag. Looper has been adequate and the 2B situation has worked out well enough in spite of the Spivey debacle. Encarnacion, like Sanders in 2004, has struggled with his OBP, but again probably would be best classified as mediocre. Ponson's gotten by as a starter. Left field has been a mess, although that's partially a function of Taguchi's place in LaRussa's pecking order. Overall the offseason was filled with filler, nothing more and nothing less.

We've been conditioned to expect 'more'. The thing is, with the benefit of hindsight we know this is a mediocre team. Unless Brian Giles could've been coaxed into leaving his hometown, along with another thing or two, it's clear we weren't getting that 'more'. If Jocketty had flushed away the farm, he would've ended up like Sizemore on Luna's bloop Monday night -- about ten feet short and hoping somebody covered for him. In fact, if it weren't for Bernie Miklasz banging the payroll drum, it probably would've been a good idea to let Spivey, Encarnacion and Looper pass, even though it probably would've cost the Cardinals a couple of games.

This is a wait-it-out season (so what is Sterling Hitchcock doing these days?). Neither a buyer nor seller be. Win an ugly division, let LaRussa continue his LDS mastery, and hope the Cardinals hit .450 with RISP in the LCS and World Series. I don't like this situation. I also don't see any point to dwelling on it. Baseball's supposed to be fun.

"Redbirds: The Movie" Revisited

In a recent blog entry, Derrick Goold tells us that Kevin Pollak and Tony La Russa (along with some guy named John Loar) have formed Red Bird Cinema, and begun work on bringing "3 Nights in August" to the silver screen. In honor of this announcement, I thought it only fitting to take another look at the classic Redbird Nation post, "Redbirds: The Movie". Ironically, that entry was posted exactly one month after the end of the series which "3 Nights in August" is based on. Unfortunately for updating's sake, that means the roster of the team in the movie will be that which was already outlined in the original post. But just for fun, let's see what we can come up with for the '06 Team.

Now, there are only 5 players left from the '03 team: Jim Edmonds (John Ritter), Albert Pujols (Franky G), Scott Rolen (Julia Stiles), So Taguchi (Ming Na), and Jason Isringhausen (Jimmy Cagney). Also remaining with the team are all three coaches which were cast in the original RBN post: Jose Oquendo (Luiz Guzman), Dave Duncan (Peter Graves), and Tony LaRussa (Neil Diamond).

So, that leaves us with a lot of work to do, which is why I'm asking for the Cardblogosphere to lend a hand. Here's a list of players we need to "cast":

David Eckstein
John Rodriguez
Juan Encarnacion
Yadier Molina
Aaron Miles
Hector Luna
Scott Spiezio
Gary Bennett
Chris Duncan
Chris Carpenter
Mark Mulder
Jason Marquis
Jeff Suppan
Sidney Ponson
Anthony Reyes
Tyler Johnson
Adam Wainwright
Josh Hancock
Brad Thompson
Randy Flores
Braden Looper

What we need here is a matching name, and links to a picture of both the player and the celebrity who could play them. Once we get most of them matched up, I'll compile the list with pictures and make another post here.

Meltdown

I go off to my mountain to try to figure out a way to write about an ongoing baseball season in some statistically meaningful way, and yet different from the new MGL/TangoTiger/Dolphin blog. I've got lots of things to mull over still... and then the poop hits the fan. Mark Mulder's performance of late, and tonight in particular, has hit me on two different levels. I'll have to suspend my search for the moment.

On one hand, I don't know if I've seen a pitcher look more helpless on the hill than Mulder did in the third inning. You remember the disturbing image of Tim Robbins pitching while basically naked in "Bull Durham"? This kind of game has got to be the source for that kind of angst-driven nightmare. Mulder embarrassed himself in front of everybody, in his hometown no less. His 82-84 mph fastball left him standing vulnerable on that hill for all to see. It was a sickening sight, an ugly replay of his 2004 meltdown.

This single performance on its own has upset me. On the other hand, tonight seems to be the harmonic convergence of so many other issues over the last few years. Perhaps it's fitting that this was the 20th anniversary of LaRussa's dismissal from the White Sox. So much of the bad side of the generally good Jocketty/LaRussa Era could be compressed to this one night. In reverse chronological order:

(1) The trade itself, a healthy young pitcher for a veteran question mark.
(2) The unwillingness to sit the stars, at least until it's painfully obvious that something isn't right.
(3) The 2004 World Series, as this was our answer to Curt Schilling and Roy Oswalt.
(4) The 2003 pitching implosion.
(5) Rick Ankiel. Mulder's only hope was a 66 mph curveball.

Even though I couldn't trust him, I've tried to like Mulder and tried to root for him. I really wanted to believe. In spite of my best efforts, tonight's performance has compelled me to give up. I don't know if his problem is physical, mental or mechanical, and I don't care. Baseball's supposed to be fun and Mark Mulder's pitching is too ugly to be fun.

Review: Petco Park

Most of us in the Eastern and Central time zones don't get to see a whole lot of baseball that's played on the West coast. Games typically start at 10:00 on the East coast, which means the highlights don't get caught on the first Sportscenter before we're all going to bed. So, there's a number of ballparks out there that most of us don't get to see a whole lot of on television, much less in person given the amount of travel involved. Since 1998, four of the six teams in the Pacific time zone (including Arizona, which is on Pacific time during baseball season) have opened new ballparks, and all four have qualified for the postseason since. However, only the Giants and Diomondbacks have played in a World Series, thus keeping the slightly smaller market Mariners and Padres a little further from the spotlight. That's a shame, because Seattle and San Diego play in two of baseball's hidden gems, Safeco Field and Petco Park. The Cardinals finished up their West coast trip two weekends ago at Petco, and didn't fare so well. But it was a lovely Memorial Day weekend in "America's Finest City", and between that and the ballpark it kept this tourist happy during an ugly weekend of baseball.

I've been to a lot of ballparks, including some considered among the best in the business (Camden Yards, PNC, Kaufmann, Wrigley). But I am now of the opinion that Petco Park is the best of the post-1990 ballparks I've seen, just a notch above the Yards because of its fresh look. It's everything that many of the newer ballparks have strived for - a baseball and fan-friendly facility located in an area of town booming with energy and redevelopment. That, and it's an architectural gem.

First off, the concourse areas are like nothing I've ever seen at a ballpark. Obviously, being in a climate like San Diego's helps to create an atmosphere like this, but the combination of the plants and the sandstone facade is striking. Here's some pictures:

Another architectural feature of the ballpark that I enjoyed was the integration of the old Western Metal Supply office building into the outfield wall. The building dates to 1909, which may not seem old by our standards, but the 1910 census estimated the population of the city of San Diego at 39,578. By comparison, the population of the city of St. Louis was estimated at 687,029 by the same census, making it the fourth-largest city in the United States. So 1909 makes it one of the older buildings in the area. Thus, the structure was retained as part of the ballpark in a similar fashion to the B&O Warehouses in Baltimore. The WMS building, however, was used in a little more fan-friendly way, creating luxury suites as well as a San Diego baseball museum (yes, it was small) in addition to a rooftop party suite complete with bleacher seats similar to the rooftops adjacent to Wrigley Field. Here's a look:

The view from the top isn't bad, either (it shows the light towers, which are another striking feature of the ballpark):

Beyond centerfield, there's a little park area that is a popular spot for families and others to sit on towels and watch the game. Adjacent to that is a youth field that's similar to ones I've seen in Milwaukee and Kansas City (and I'm sure there are others elsewhere). In addition, as you can see, there's plenty of construction going on beyond the outfield walls:

Other intangibles: the Andoullie sausage I had Sunday afternoon was among the best ballpark food I've ever had. Also, the Nacho Libre mask giveway on Saturday was definitely the coolest giveaway day prize I've ever seen.

The only thing I didn't like about the ballpark really didn't have a whole lot to do with the ballpark itself, and perhaps is just a result of circumstance. San Diego's baseball tradition is pretty non-existent, although none of the class of '69 (Padres, Pilots/Brewers, Royals, Expos/Nationals) has done a whole lot, with one world championship and only five pennants between the four teams in 37 seasons. So there's not a whole lot to root for, and the laid-back SoCal attitude doesn't help things, but I was pretty surprised at how uninterested the San Diego fans seemed. A weekend series against the best team in the league drew 110,942 fans, or just under 37,000 a game. They're averaging 30,651 a game, 13th in MLB, despite the great new ballpark. In addition, the fans just kind of sat there during the game. There was a distinct delayed crowd reaction when anything happened, and unlike the fans at the Big A (where I went Saturday night after the Cards game), it took the stadium graphics proclaiming "MAKE NOISE" to get anyone to do anything unless the Padres scored a run. Perhaps some explanation of the lack of interest is that San Diego, like Phoenix, is one of those transplant cities where a large percentage of the population is originally from somewhere else. And there's a large military contingent, which was out in force on Sunday afternoon:

All in all, I greatly enjoyed the weekend at Petco, despite the ugly baseball that the Cards played. Hopefully for the citizens of San Diego, the Padres will get good someday and baseball fans everywhere will recognize what a gem of a ballpark they have out there.

The Sky Is Falling?

In case you've been in a cave for the past two days (or vacationing in the cell phone-free mountains of northern Pennsylvania), the big news is that Albert Pujols injured himself Saturday afternoon. It's a strained or pulled oblique muscle (I've seen conflicting reports), which according to the WebMD block on the ESPN.com sidebar requires this sort of treatment:

For the first 48 hours after the injury, ice and anti-inflammatory medications -- ibuprofen or aspirin -- are recommended to decrease the pain and speed recovery. Massage and heat can also help. But rest is best. After two days -- depending on the severity of the injury -- the athlete can start a gentle stretching program. Otherwise, it's important to avoid movements that cause pain or could aggravate the injury.

Anyone got a straitjacket and some sedatives we can borrow for the next, say, 48 hours?

In all seriousness, however, this is an extremely hurtful blow to our team. Obviously you can't replace a guy like Albert's production and leadership, but La Russa's Cardinal teams in the 2000s have proven they can face adversity and succeed. Albert should be back within the next two months - just in time for the stretch drive. The Cardinal training staff should in no way rush Albert back. The team may lose a few games in the meantime, especially with Houston's recent re-acquisition of Roger Clemens, but logic and history suggest there won't be a Cubs-like swoon -- Jimmy Edmonds, Scott Spiezio, Chris Duncan, and maybe even a little Hector Luna playing 1B (as long as it's not Timo Perez) are good enough to keep the Cards at the top. The Cards'll be there when Albert gets back, so let's make sure he's good for October.

And for those of you awaiting my Petco Park post-op, I'll post it within the next couple of days.