spearfishing

just what a ballclub that has had recent struggles needed: a weekend series with the fish. there were a hell of a lot of great moments during the series this weekend, but here are a few random thoughts about the games in miami.

-scott rolen is a baseball hero. we all knew this, but over the course of 2005, a lot of fans started to lose faith, and the national media completely forgot that he was ever a dominant presence in the infield and at the plate. no more. ten pounds lighter from illness, and he still performs like that?

-soup nearly pitches a complete game... i thought perhaps he'd get the chance, but i'm not complaining. he had a fantastic outing, pitching like the top notch suppan only the cardinals have been able to draw out of him in his career.

-hr #16, rbi #38. we have a baseball god in this town, folks. i'm not the only one who thinks so, but i will add my voice to the throng. (the next in the rbi race is lance berkman. i wonder how many of those rbi come from crawford box cheap homers?)

-100 career wins for mulder is great, but i don't see him getting 300 unless he's still pitching at 49-50. just a feeling i get. feel free to disagree, but in the end, it won't matter to me, because i doubt he'll be a cardinal after this year.

-ponson's elbow. dave duncan says that it would be more likely to go with a four-man rotation than to have a spot start to cover sidney's spot in the rotation, so we go back to my mantra from an earlier post... short rest marquis!

-we seemed to recover some of our offense, even from those who haven't had much this year (read: yadi). encarnacion is working his way back to his lifetime numbers, and jrod (i like to say it with only one syllable... it rhymes with zod) is tearing it up still.

tonight, i'm going to see my second (marquis start) game of the year. today my son is four weeks old, and he will be attending his first cardinals game with me and my wife. i'll post some pictures of jack at the game in the next few days.