Return

Hey Guys,

It's been a while. Things at school have been pretty crazy, but the semester is over in twenty days and I promise I'll be a more regular contributor then. Now onto the info...

For those of you that didn't get a chance to catch the Cards on Sunday Night Baseball last night, the question was posed to Tony La Russa on why Chris Carpenter has already allowed five home runs already this season (he only allowed seven all of last year) and he gave an interesting response: "Chris just hasn't been getting away with anything. He's made mistakes and he hasn't gotten away with anything"

I think this is pretty accurate, he hasn't gotten away with much (especially in Cincinnati) but he pitched up in the zone a lot yesterday. Oral Hershiser also made an interesting comment: "Sometimes pitchers struggle in their second or third start of the year because they deal with "dead arm". Pitchers never really sell out in spring training, and sometimes when they empty out the tank in their first start, they don't really have anything left in their second or third start." So make of that what you will.

Felipe Lopez swung the bat well last night. I see him playing close to every day if he can hit .280 or .290 with some power. Right now, he's also a defensive upgrade at second over Skip Schumaker and probably a defensive upgrade at third over Freese.

On David Freese, give him some time. He's made three errors so far this season, but he's always been a pretty average defensive player. If he becomes a fixture in the Cardinals lineup, it will be because of his bat. Also, remember that baseball is a game of averages. Early in the season, it's easy to get too high or too low on a player based on twenty games of statistics. At years end, virtually eveyone will be near their career average. I once read that George Steinbrenner used to call Bernie Williams "Mr. May" because he was such a hot starter but always slowed down toward the end of the season. On the contrary, staying with the Yankees, Mark Texiera is a notoriously slow starter, yet he always seems to end up around .290 and forty homeruns.

That's all for now. I promise I'll be more regular in the coming days. Today's anthem is "A Little More Country Than That" by Easton Corbin. Enjoy the home opener.