"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.

Home Opener Pics & Stadium Notes

If I took a boatload at the exhibition game, then my Home Opener haul was about 2 boatloads. My Flickr account is near it's monthly upload limit already, so I created a photobucket account and put my favorites up there. Some are illustrative of the points I make in the extended entry.

http://s68.photobucket.com/albums/i4/jvonbokel/Cards%20Home%20Opener/

My notes on the stadium are after the jump.

1 - Bringing back the Clydesdales again was a nice touch. I wonder if that's the rebirth of the tradition, or just a one-time thing for the christening of the ballpark.

2 - Overall the sabermetrician in me is really happy with the new stats boards and whatnot. The current-batter-stats show OBP and SLG, but leave out the big 3: AVG, HR, RBI. Surely that's an oversight. I love the in-game updated ERA, and the B/S/Total Pitches board (although I couldn't see it from my seat yesterday). That was the big thing I've been looking forward to ever since seeing it on June 12th, 2003 (Oh, what a game! Well worth the trip).

3 - The sound system was not as bad as I expected. It was really loud early on in the exhibition game, but it appears they adjusted that to a reasonable level. I didn't like the borrowed-from-Houston "Day-Oh!", or whatever cheesy song with the word "Walk" in the title whenever a BB was issued to a Cards player, but I suppose that's inevitable.

4 - The High-Def video board is awesome.

5 - US Cellular's text board is kind of a cool idea. I could see myself texting stuff there on special occasions. I hope this doesn't mean the free birthday recognition on the main board is gone though.

6 - Sometimes the "Vision Challenge" is more like the "Vision Joke".

7 - I'm a bit torn on the "Welcome to Baseball Heaven" thing. It's nice, but it's also very pompous. Hopefully that'll only be there for the inaugural season at most.

8 - I know I need new contacts, but the red text on the Loge deck video board was really tough to read.

9 - Can't stop after 8 ("Play a Hard Nine", get it?), so I'll include a 9th item even though it actually has nothing to do with my own experience of the game or the stadium. I recently decided that John Kruk is my favorite BBTN guy, because all the former player commentators are basically idiots, but he's the only one who acknowledges it. And in last night's show, he certainly cemented that position by going on and on about how classy the Cardinals organization is, and how Busch II was always his favorite place to play because of the fans.

Barton update

Amidst all the spring training discussion and news, I think one tidbit of note to Cards fans has gone un-noticed. Daric Barton was sent down March 17th after hitting .182/.400/.182 this spring. Granted, this was only 2-for-11, so one more hit would've made for a passable .272 average (small sample size and all). Plus, the A's said even before camp opened that they didn't expect him to be on the roster on Opening Day, if even at all this year. And yeah, he's still near the top of many prospect lists (I'm assuming... he was #41 on one list I saw). But I think we can atleast take some solace in the fact that he's not sticking with the major league club quite as soon as some projected. He could still be an excellent MLB hitter in 2007 or beyond, but I think he's still got a ways to go. Despite putting up great numbers last year in the minors, he spent more time in Single-A than AA, and none at all at AAA yet. And lastly, it looks like he's officially been converted to 1B, dropping his value quite a bit IMHO.

Who Knew? Everybody

If you haven't read any of the "ESPN The Magazine Special Report: Who Knew?" yet, go check it out. I'm not quite done with it myself, but there's some really interesting stuff in there. One part in particular reminded me of this post, in the comments of which I used Dave Pinto's Day By Day Database to show the transformation of Bonds' stats starting in the year 2000. It made me think... what about Big Mac? I looked him up and calculated his AB/HR by year (thank you baseball-reference), and sure enough, there is a sort of turning point around '93/94 when he apparently went through some injuries. From '86 to '92 (age 22 to 28), Big Mac hit a homer every 14.2 AB's. From '95 to '01 (age 31 to 37), that figure was down to 8.4.

GWRBI

They say that the Game Winning Run Batted In is a pointless stat, but tonight's game proves that there are instances in which it can be very important. Yadier Molina got off to a rough start on the season to say the least, and although he's already shown significant improvement, driving in Sanders from 2nd in the 12th after having been 0-5 on the night is a big deal for him. Seeing that ball squeak into LF and Sanders rounding third promted me to make a victorious fist pump in the air, but seeing the team rush the field and crowd around Molina at 1st put a huge smile on my face.

In general, you could say the Cardinals struggled tonight, getting outhit 11-6 as Marquis struggled to get in 5 innings on 112 pitches, and Wells held the Cards to 4 hits in 7.1 innings, but there were a handful of bright spots as well. For one, Molina had already put on a show defensively prior to his GWRBI by throwing out 3 baserunners, including the final outs in both the 7th and 11th innings. Also, the Cards bullpen combined to pitch 7 innings and only allowed 4 hits and 1 walk while striking out 3. Tavarez and Reyes both brought their ERAs down below the 3.00 mark, and Thompson brought his below 1.00. On top of all that, Izzy didn't even pitch, so he's available tomorrow night while the Cards go for thier 5th sweep of the season and their 13th straight win over the Pirates.

Goin' to Kansas City

Ok, so I already went to Kansas City over the weekend, but the whole way there I could barely get that Fats Domino tune out of my head.

My uncle and I made the road trip from St. Louis on Saturday afternoon. We saw a dozen or so other Cards fans making the trip along the way, so we were pretty sure we'd see a handful of Cards fans in the stadium. Talk about an understatement. There were probably close to 60% Cards fans amongst a near-capacity crowd at Kauffman, which we could tell was not the norm there. The Royals fan that gave us the tickets and went with us to the game was complaining about the traffic and the parking on the way there, which only made me smile because I knew it meant Cards fans were coming out in full force. The home-away-from-home-field advantage paid off on Saturday night as the Cards managed a 6-5 win, in part due to a horrendous play by former Cardinal farmhand Emil Brown in the 5th which essentially allowed Larry Walker to get an inside the park homerun, although of course it was ruled a double. Then of course Larry got a real homer in the 7th, this time with 2 on, to cap the Cards offense for the night. All the while, the Royals showed highlights of the 1985 World Series, as this year marks the 20th anniversary of the only World Championship in Royals history. Note to Brewers fans: This year also marks the 20th anniversay of the last time your team played in October.

Continuing to rub it in to all the visiting Cards fans, Sunday was '85 World Series "Retro" Pennant Day. Apparently Eckstein was particularly distracted by them, as he booted 2 balls in the first, leading to 6 unearned runs, and another in the 2nd inning. The Royals went on to a 9-2 victory, ending a 7 game losing streak agains the Cards.

As for the stadium, I actually liked Kauffman quite a bit. They had a nice statue of George Brett outside that perhaps looks even nicer than the Musial statue we all meet at before games on a regular basis. Maybe it was just that it was actually close enough to the ground that you can see it up close, or even get a picture taken *with* it, instead of under it.

One thing I couldn't help but wonder was, "Where do all the homerun balls go?"

Finally, while perusing a program during the Sunday game, I came across a poll that asked fans what their favorite part of the stadium was, and the most popular response by a landslide was the fountains.

Sure the fountains are nice, but I can see a nice fountain for free at Forest Park. I pay money to go to Busch so I can see a good team play baseball.

3 Nights in the Theater

According to the Post-Dispatch, Kevin Pollack wants to turn Buzz Bissinger's "3 Nights in August" into a movie.

Actor Kevin Pollak came by Busch Stadium on Monday to meet La Russa - through a mutual friend - and discuss a little business. Pollak, through his production company Calm Down Productions, Inc., is interested in turning the book, "3 Nights in August," into a movie.

Brian Gunn, it's time to update "Redbirds: The Movie".

Old News

Another post I meant to make about a week ago is this one, a link to an article in the Belleville News-Democrat. It talks about some of the amazing things we've already seen in first month or so of Busch II's final year.

Waiting in the Wings

I think I originally went to the Memphis Redbirds stat page to see how Scott Seabol was doing when Rolen went down (so for thos of you that know your calendars, that means I've been putting this post off for a while), but what I found was a little unexpected. Check out what Adam Wainwright and Anthony Reyes have been up to at the AAA level:

Name          W L  ERA GS CG   IP  H  R ER HR BB SO
A Wainwright  4 1 1.82  8  0 54.1 49 12 11  2  6 45
A Reyes       4 1 2.91  7  1 46.1 34 16 15  5  9 42

Those numbers look great, especially the K/BB ratios. But the most interesting thing that comes to mind when I look at those stats is that considering Matty Mo is the only starter not signed through '06, I have a feeling he's going to be leaving via free agency this off-season. Or perhaps, one of our current starters could become trade bait to bring in a young OF to replace either Walker or Sanders, both of whom have contracts ending this year.

Bullpen Chatter

There's been a lot of talk lately about our bullpen, and I thought we could use a reminder of how bad it could be. John Brattain has a good article over at THT about Don Fehr and how he's misrepresented the general population of the players, opting instead to work for the top 10% of his constituents. At the end of the article, he mentions the Reds bullpen meltdown that worked in our favor last week, and summarizes a handful of the worst bullpen meltdowns in history.

Dead Red

Who would have thought that after coming from behind to win last night's game, we'd come that close to giving up a lead in the 9th of tonight's middle game of this Reds series.

Marquis had an excellent outing, despite the early walks, finishing just 3 outs away from a shutout. The Reds certainly made it interesting in the 9th, as did Tony LaRussa, using 5 pitchers (Marquis, King, Tavarez, Flores, and Reyes) to finish the 9th.

I haven't realized how decimated our bullpen is due to injuries to Eldred and Pulsipher, not to mention Izzy, and remember "Honest Mike" Lincoln? I guess the strength of our rotation has helped hide those problems. Before the game, Iron Throne said, "The starting pitching is going to even out soon, and the bats need to be there to pick up the slack." I think the bullpen is going to have to be there to pick up some slack too.

Speaking of the bullpen, does anybody else think Tony seems to be losing faith in King? There was that quick hook on Saturday after just one out, and then tonight he didn't even stay long enough to get an out, winding up saddled with the humiliating one-day ERA that always makes me think of Mike Myers hawking toilets with the aid of a magic marker and a giant pane of glass. Maybe I'm just jumping the gun though. After all, in between those two outings was a solid full-inning outing in the 8th of Sunday's tie game. However, in case you want something to worry about, take a look at King's GB/FB ratio (Warning: small sample sizes ahead). After tonight, it's at 1.17, compared to his career average of 1.97. But even more troubling than that (yeah, this one's for all you pessimists out there), in his last 8 games (3 2/3 innings), it's just 0.38.

Also, Molina struggled yet again at the plate, but threw out 2 baserunners - Dunn leading off 1st, and Freel trying to steal 2nd.

On the bright side, the Cards extended their lead to 5 games in the NL Central, with the Brewers and Cubs tied for 2nd, and Houston a full 6 games back. And what about the Reds? Tonight's loss leaves them just a half game ahead of the Pirates in the "race" to avoid dead last. By the way, the next largest lead amongst division leaders: 2 games, by the California Angels and the Baltimore Orioles.

Also of note, Reggie Sanders got his 300th double and his 1500th hit, at the same time no less. Way to go Reggie!

Mulder makes good

The game we've been waiting for this season finally came last night, when Mark Mulder went 8 innings and only gave up one run (unearned) for his first win in a Cardinal uni. It also ended a personal 9-game losing streak for Mulder, dating back to his unexplicably disasterous second half last year. I missed most of the game, but the box score alone was a beautiful sight. Mulder might have been able to go out for the 9th too, had it been needed, but the Cards offense 9 runs in the 9th inning. I often wonder what goes though a player's mind when he strolls to the plate in the top of the 9th, already up by a comfortable margin. Maybe So Taguchi and Roger Cedeno just wanted to make sure that Tony wouldn't be tempted to go to his worn out closer, so they combined for 6 RBI's in the 9th to ice the Pirates for LaRussa Insurance.

Also of note, Molina raised his average from .032 to .118 thanks to going 3-for-5. Some say that Yadier is going to turn out just like Matheny: all glove, no hit. But Matheny always seemed to do well in April, and I think it's safe to say that Molina is doing terrible this April. So maybe that means he'll do well the other 5 months of the season? Here's to hoping.

Today's oddity: the Cards scored 11 runs without a hit from either Pujols or Rolen. They did both walk and come around to score once a piece though. Maybe this is a better oddity: Pujols/Rolen 0-for-8 with 0 RBI, Cedeno/Taguchi 4-for-6 with 6 RBI

Carpenter signs

It was announced last night that Chris Carpenter has signed a contract extension with the Cardinals through 2007, which a team option for 2008. The terms weren't released, but the Post Dispatch said, "The deal is believed to pay Carpenter about $6 million per season should the third season vest." There are significant appearance incentives not available to the public, so the final value of the contract is up in the air, but it sounds like a sweet deal for the Cards. Worst case, if he suffers from continual injuries, the Cardinals are probably only out about $10-12 million. On the other end of the spectrum, if Carpenter avoids injury, and pitches like he did in '04, we've got a bonafide ace on our hands for below market value.

Here are some of Carpenter's comments from the P-D article:

"It's very exciting for me and my family. It's exciting to be part of the Cardinals team for several more years," Carpenter said before Friday's game against the Milwaukee Brewers. "It's good to know the players, the manager and the general manager who are going to be around. It plays into wanting to be part of this team."

"Basically my other option was to pitch the season and then look into the free agent market, or get it done now and know that for the next three years I was going to be where I wanted to play," he said. "There's a lot of stability in this organization. Everybody here is pretty solid in the direction they're going. There is no transition. I wasn't going to go somewhere just for the money and take the chance of being miserable."

You'd think as Cardinal fans we'd be used to hearing these kinds of things from guys who forego a bit of salary in order to stay in St. Louis when free agency nears, but it never gets old, does it? I wonder if Kline's recent comments helped him realize the importance of being somewhere you want to be?

Carpenter through '08?

Despite a refusal to comment by Jocketty, the Post-Dispatch has a source that says Carpenter is close to signing a 3-yr extension.

Financial parameters of the contract are close to set, according to a source, with the contract heavily laden with appearance incentives. Though terms were not provided, they are classified as below market value for a pitcher who last season amassed a 15-5 record and 3.46 earned-run average.

The guaranteed part of the deal is believed less than the $21 million to $23 million packages awarded free agents Kris Benson, Jaret Wright and Eric Milton last winter.

So it sounds like he'd be gauranteed something like $6.5-7.5 million a year, but with incentives, the value could go up to somewhere around $10mil/yr. I'd say that's a good deal for the Cards. If Carp can perform like he did last year, that's ace material, and worth atleast $10mil/yr on the open market these days, if not more. And although he's had injury troubles in the past, I don't think he's a significant risk at this point. The flukiness of his bicep injury last year does give me pause, but I'm sure the Cards have investigated it and are fairly confident it won't recur.

The article also points out that if Walt were to sign Carp long term, it would give us control of 4/5 of our current rotation going into '06. Mulder and Suppan both have options that are likely to be picked up barring injury or meltdown, and Marquis won't be eligible for free agency until '07 if I understand my rules correctly (it's very possible I don't - they're complex rules). That just leaves Morris, who is somewhat of a question mark right now. He's playing on an incentive based contract, so he's out to prove he can return to his '01 form. If he does it, I doubt the Cards can afford to keep him, and I don't see him taking less money to stay either. Plus, some might say that Wainright and/or Anthony Reyes will be ready to step into the big league rotation by next year. So all in all, I'd say if this story pans out, it's very good news for the Cards. We may very well lose Walker at the end of the season, but if we can bring back 4 of 5 starters in the rotation, plus our closer, and our "MV3" of Albert, Scotty, and Jimmy, that alone will give us a solid core yet again in '06. And to be able to say that this early is big. That means Jocketty can spend more time working on minor trades to tweak the roster or compensate for injuries, and less time worrying about re-signing impending free agents in the offseason.

Ankiel

Several sources are now reporting that Ankiel has cleared waivers and has signed a minor-league contract with the Cards. He's expected to stay in extended Spring Training for a few more days and then head to Springfield to play for the Cardinals new AA affiliate.

ESPN.com on Roids

There's a handful of new articles relating to steroids on the ESPN.com Baseball page today.

Alan Schwarz writes about how the records have been affected, and compares them to other records that were perhaps set with a little help from the conditions of their eras as well. Buster Olney tells us what to expect from the 2005 season. Jayson Stark says it will take time for the new age to dawn in Baseball. There's also a SportsNation poll about what we as fans expect to see in Baseball as a result of the latest steroid testing policy. Lastly, I feel sorry for whatever issues are being put on the back burner in North Dakota while one of their Senators is busy arguing that Roger Maris' should get his record back.

Schwarz makes a great point that hadn't occurred to me. I don't have any children of my own, but I have a nephew I can't wait to take to his first full game this year (he only lasted about 3 innings last year), and I suddenly find myself dreading the conversation about all-time homerun leaders. See, despite Bonds' recent complaints to the media, I think he'll still probably pass Hank Aaron's total. I'm not sure how I'll explain to my nephew that one guy is the leader, but he might have cheated.

The Olney prediction I'm looking forward to coming true the most is the first one, which says that all this steroid talk will simmer down once the season starts and we're all too busy watching the games to think about these issues.

Stark's article is long, but interesting. The section that seemed the most interesting to me was at the end of page 3, where Stark says:

In the 10 seasons from 1993 through 2002, hitters reached or passed 50 home runs 18 times. Which equaled the number of 50-homer seasons in the 118 previous major-league seasons put together. In the last two seasons (since the launching of major-league steroid testing): Zero.

I think many people within baseball, and some fans, are starting to realize that this steroid problem took a long time to get out in the open. Seems to me that's an all too common issue with MLB.

In the poll, I take issue with question #3, which asks "Which would you rather see in baseball?" "Lots of home runs, suspicions of steroid use." (or) "Significantly fewer home runs, cleaner reputation." First of all, I don't think anybody wants to see suspicions of steroid use. And I don't think eradicating steroids will give way to a significant decrease in home runs. I think it's been shown that early claims by guys like Ken Caminiti and Jose Canseco were greatly exaggerated, and steroid use was never even that rampant in baseball. Plus, many believe that as many pitchers may have been juicing as hitters.

Don't get me wrong about the Maris thing. I feel for Maris' family and his fans. It's hard not to believe he deserves the record. But the fact is that Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Barry Bonds have all hit more than 61 homeruns in a season. The only way we'll ever know for sure if any of them used steroids is if they admit to it, which is highly unlikely. On top of that, supposing one of them admits to it, how many homers should be deducted from their totals for that season? Who's to say they wouldn't have still hit 62 or 65 instead of 70 or 73? Maris is down to 7th place on the HR list, and there's no moving up, unless he mounts the single most amazing comeback of all time.

Mike on Mac

I was reading an article on the Post's website about some comments Mark Prior made about his former USC teammate, Anthony Reyes, when I came across some comments from Mike Matheny about Mark McGwire.

Over the years I've heard tales of local St. Louisans having personal encounters with various players, outside the stadium. Some have been good, and some have been bad, but the most impressive story I ever heard was about Mike Matheny, and that combined with the overwhelmingly positive comments people involved in the game (teammates, coaches, writers, etc.) have had about him, I think of him as a really upstanding, trustworthy person. So naturally, I was very interested to see what he had to say on this subject. He starts out with this:

"I hate that. It's tough to watch," Matheny said. "I'm a big fan of Mark's. I know how hard he worked to achieve what he accomplished and now only one person is trying to destroy all of it. With what Canseco says, it casts all players in a bad light. My home runs shouldn't be in question, but now, all of us are being looked at as to whether or not what we did is, and that's not right."

Sounds pretty good so far. I hope he was joking about anybody questioning his home runs, but he still makes a good point. Because of a bad apple or two (or 20, we'll probably never know), many others face unwarranted scrutiny. However, the most interesting of his comments to me was this:

Asked whether he thought McGwire ever took steroids in his career, Matheny, his teammate in 2000-2001 with the Cardinals, said, "That's none of my business. All I can say is I know how hard Mark worked. I was privileged to be his teammate."

Now, I know he could just be respecting his former teammate's privacy - McGwire barely came out of seclusion even to deny Canseco's claims, so he's obviously a man who appreciates his privacy. But why wouldn't Matheny jump at this opportunity to officially put his legendary reputation behind Big Mac? The first thing that comes to my mind is that he doesn't want to jeopardize his stature by saying something that may or may not be accurate. This could be interpreted a number of ways. It could mean that Matheny doesn't know, one way or the other, whether Mark used steroids or not, which is probably true, considering they were only teammates for 2 years. Or it could mean that he has his own suspicions, but doesn't dare make any claims without solid evidence. It could even mean that he is fully aware of steroid use in McGwire's past, and saying that it's none of his business and pointing out that Mark worked hard is an easy way to offer support without being untruthful. After all, it is none of his business, right?

Actually, doesn't every player deserve to know? I think Matheny made that very case when he pointed out that this issue "casts all players in a bad light". If there are players out there that have information about which players have used steroids in the past, wouldn't it be in their best interest to bring it to light? Unfortunately, that would likely do nothing more than start a giant finger-pointing session that would ruin even more reputations than have already been called into question. So where do we go from here? What is the best course of action for players and fans amidst this controversy? I think the best thing that can be done is that which already has been done - put a tougher steroid policy in place. It could be better, but at least it has mandatory punishments and publicly available results. Beyond that, there's not much we can do. We can't go back in time and test certain players who we may suspect of steroid use. We can't strike certain lines from the record books based on suspicions and speculation. All we can do is make sure nothing like this happens again, so that we never have to question players’ statistics and reputations like this again.

Izzy Re-ups

According to the front page of the official Cards homepage, Isringhausen and the team have agreed to a new contract extension. Before this, he was signed through this season ($9.25mil) with an option for '06 ($8mil vs. a $1.1mil buyout). Now he's locked in until '07, with an option for '08. The latest news on the Cardinals site doesn't specify contract terms, but an earlier article about an imminent contract quotes $7mil for '05, $8.75mil for '06 and '07, and $8mil for the '08 option, with a $1.25mil buyout. If these figures are correct, this appears to be a great deal for the Cardinals. Let's compare Izzy's numbers over the last few years to some other closers.

Now, when you think of elite closers, the first two that come to mind these days are Mariano Rivera and Eric Gagne.

Gagne  ($8mil in '05, $10mil in '06)
YEAR  G   SV  IP    H   BB   SO   ERA  H/9   BR/9  SO/9  BB/9  SO/BB
2002  77  52  82.1  55  16  114  1.97  6.01  7.98 12.46  1.75  7.13 
2003  77  55  82.1  37  20  137  1.20  4.04  6.56 14.98  2.19  6.85 
2004  70  45  82.1  53  22  114  2.19  5.79  8.74 12.46  2.40  5.18 

Rivera  ($10.5mil in '05 & '06, $10.5mil option for '07)
YEAR  G   SV  IP    H   BB   SO   ERA  H/9   BR/9  SO/9  BB/9  SO/BB
2002  45  28  46    35  11   41  2.74  6.85  9.39  8.02  2.15  3.73 
2003  64  40  70.2  61  10   63  1.66  7.77  9.55  8.02  1.27  6.30 
2004  74  53  78.2  65  20   66  1.94  7.44 10.30  7.55  2.29  3.30 

Isringhausen ($7mil in '05, $8.75 in '06 & '07)
YEAR  G   SV  IP    H   BB   SO   ERA  H/9   BR/9  SO/9  BB/9  SO/BB
2002  60  32  65.1  46  18   68  2.48  6.34  8.95  9.37  2.48  3.78 
2003  40  22  42    31  18   41  2.36  6.64 10.50  8.79  3.86  2.28 
2004  74  47  75.1  55  23   71  2.87  6.57  9.56  8.48  2.75  3.09 

The first thing I notice when I look at these numbers is just how amazing Eric Gagne is. I think in a few more years as he nears free agency, he will easily become the highest paid closer out there. Second, you can see that many of Isringhausen's numbers compare favorably to Rivera over the last few years. He gives up a few more walks, but his K/BB rate is still solid. I also notice that Jason has been surprisingly consistent in terms of his rate stats since coming to the Cards in '02. Many will claim that his velocity has diminished, and that injuries have been a problem, but when it comes down to it, he's a solid bargain in today's market.

The other beauty of this deal is that it gives Walt (ok, us fans) one less thing to worry about the next few years. Plus, this year alone, the deal cuts $2.25mil out of the budget, and only ups what he would've likely already made next year by $750k. Looks like just as Edgar was chasing the dollar signs, Isringhausen was figuring how how much of a hometown discount to give. Sometimes, when you get into statistics, you find yourself amazed at how much of your opinion about a player is based on things that have nothing to do with stats.

Pujols Day at BaseballChannel.tv

I usually ignore any link about video on mlb.com and it's sub-sites, because most of it requires a subscription or a pay-per-view fee. This one however, is actually free. Apparently they've got 2 24hr video loops, one called BaseballChannel.tv (Beyond Games), and the other called Cooperstown.tv (Classic Games). The schedule only goes a couple days out, but check out Thursday's lineup.

Starting at 10AM they're airing a Cards/Pirates game from June 1, 2004, where Pujols went 5-for-5. At 1:15, it's the aptly named (by RedbirdNation) "Pujols Game", in which Albert was also 5-for-5, this time with 3HR, 4R, and 5RBI, as the Cards came back from a 7-1 defecit in the 2nd inning to win the game by a final score of 11-8. Then, at 5:15, we're taken to Cincy in mid-August of last year, where Pujols is tied with Sean Casey for the league lead in homeruns, but not for long. His 37th longball of the season leads the Cards to their 12th victory in 14 tries vs. the Reds. Finally, at 8:45, we get to see a late September game in which Pujols notches his 500th career RBI, helping Marquis become the 4th Cardinal pitcher to get to 15 victories on the season, the first time that's happened since 1944.

Shortstop Shuffle

ESPN posted an article today about the three-way shortstop "trade" of Boston, Anaheim, and St. Louis this offseason. Unfortunately for me, I don't subscribe, so I couldn't read the whole article, but in the preview of the article, Karabell says "Did they end up with the best one? Nope. They ended up with Eckstein, by far the best bargain." He makes a good point. Obviously we're sad to see Edgar go - He's a great hitter and a gold-glover. But he's not 3 times as good as Eckstein.

Now, MO Boiler already wrote an excellent, detailed review of this roster move. But I thought with Spring Training now just around the corner, it didn't hurt to be reminded of that fact. In general, this has been a quiet off-season for the Cardinals, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a good one. Salary data isn't so easy to find these days, but I think despite a handful of raises due to key players this year, Walt's managed to stick a few bucks in his back pocket for a rainy day, which can't be underestimated. Remember in '03 when ownership said there was no money, and then finally opened up for Mike DeJean (1-1, 4.00) and Sterling Hitchcock (5-1, 3.79) at the last minute? It was apparently already too late by then, and we missed our only playoffs in the last 5 years. But in those other 4 seasons we always had a significant mid-season pickup. In 2000 it was Will Clark (345/426/655) and Mike Timlin (3-1, 3.34) coming over in July. In 2001 we got Woody Williams in August (7-1, 2.28). 2002 brought us a boatload: Scott Rolen (278/354/561) and Chuck Finley (7-4, 3.80) in July, plus Jeff Fassero (3-0, 3.00) and Jamey Wright (2-0, 4.80) in August. And of course last year, we scored Larry Walker (280/393/560) in August. It goes to show that some of Walt's best work is done in July and August, not November and December.

Introduction: Still Learning

I've been putting off my intro until I post my first article, but that's taking longer than I'd hoped, so now I'm just gonna go ahead and get this part ouf of the way. I'm 25, and for those Shannon fans out there, I was "originally born" in Southern Illinois (Effingham to be precise), but I moved to/from St. Louis a few times while growing up, and now live in Belleville, just about 20 minutes from Busch. During the times I spent in St. Louis as a child, I only went to one game a year (on my birthday), and caught just a few more on the radio/TV. While living out of town, I barely followed the team at all. But since finishing school and coming home to roost in the St. Louis area in 2001, my fanaticism has been reborn, and I've gone to about 20 games a year, give or take. I'm also slowly becoming a stathead, but I've still got my training wheels on, so bear with me. As for that first article, I'm told that my Baseball Encyclopedia is in the mail...

Welcome to the Birdwatch

birdwatch (v) - To watch and study birds in their natural habitat

By birds, we mean redbirds, or Cardinals, and of course by natural habitat, we mean a baseball diamond. More specifically, we are a group of Cardinal fans who love to watch the games, analyze the moves and the stats, and just plain love the game. We've all been faithful readers of other Cardinals blogs, and some of us have even written for them, but now we're combining our efforts to maximize the value for you, the reader. So welcome fellow birdwatchers. We hope to be your guides through the ups and downs of the baseball season (and off-season). Enjoy the ride.