spring training spill

i determined as i waited for blogger to load that i would post a blog to whichever blog i had neglected for longer, then i realized i have a lot more to say about baseball right now. here goes.

spring training has me all excited. i can't wait for grapefruit league games, hearing who is tearing it up in "live" bp, who has learned to throw a cutter in the off season. i watched more pro football this off season than i ever have before, but it's no substitute for baseball. i think that this year my be the watershed year in which i become capable of following at least the whole national league, if not both leagues. as a still relatively new baseball fan who has been absorbing concepts for the last few years, it took me a while just to follow the entire nl central. no more. every day when i get home from work, i give my wife the details of what went on in baseball today, and i think that will be expanded in 07.

at what price belliard? we could have had jabba as a backup 2nd baseman for less than gollum. not that brass could have forseen it, but it is still something of a loss. hell, i'd almost consider jabba to be a backup right fielder, as deep as he plays 2nd. i guess it worked out for the best, what with management's hope to make the whole team of albert and former angels.

i have made an ankiel category. i don't know how to feel about the guy. his meltdown was before my time, so i don't have that bad taste in my mouth. i guess i'd like to see him succeed as an outfielder, but not just because tony feels guilty. if he's not a major waste of organizational resources, fine. if his bat is real, fine. if he is doomed to be a career minor league guy, let someone else try with him.

i have a strong feeling about trades in the works. we have a lot of rp's and of's. some of them are relative bargains, too. i'm expecting the proverbial "impact bat" by the all star break.

god, i love baseball.

stop the jinx

it seems that every time i write a post, we end a streak. since our streak is at one for the time being, it's an off-day, and we're going off to face the hardest nl competition available on tuesday, i fugured i should post (going by the theory that if we do lose tomorrow, it will be due to other factors).

some thoughts:

anthony reyes demotion is probably purely a business thing, but it doesn't sit too well with cardinal nation. i for one am not confident that mulder is going to be any better than he was before the dl stint, and if we find ourselves unable to make moves without clearing waivers on possibly important (next year: ie weaver) pitchers, i will be pissed off. however, that said, reyes is the only starter we can safely send to the minors without waivers, so i'm sure that's the thinking. if mulder gets shelled on his return, i will be calling for his head.

fat sidney isn't a yankee anymore. turns out, sometimes, one man's trash is another man's litter.

baby dunc. i still don't believe it's the real deal, but he's damn sure trying to prove me wrong. in this past series, he even looked pretty good in left field.

gollum has played some pretty decent (though fairly routine) short, and after watching yesterday, i actually think he might have a better arm that eck; either that, or eck intentionally throws to the dirt in front of first. i hope that they give eck ample time to rest and recover, possibly even dl him so our bench isn't entirely made up of injured guys.

we've won three of our last four series. i can live with that. if we keep playing at that level, there's no telling. especially if glavine and pedro are injured for the rest of the year, we might even make it to the series, though i don't think it will be a fruitful one if we do.

t-shirt idea:
cuck the fubs
muck the fets
ass the fucktros

m(iles) precious....

aaron miles (who i'm still going to call gollum; look at the eyes and teeth and try to deny it) gets a free pass for the rest of the month. so does josh hancock, though i was never that bothered by him. true, he's had his issues, but fewer problems than the bulk of the rotation, and there have been a few times this season that he's pitched like an absolute champ.
izzy blew another save, but i'll let him slide on this one as well. the error shouldn't have been; even our gold glove caliber first baseman can have troubles, and we have to protect that oblique. if craig biggio wants a sac fly, it's pretty hard to keep him from getting one, short of walking him.

all star break time is great for the team, but hard for me. hell, during baseball season, days the cardinals have off are hard for me. i guess i'll watch the baseball circus of the stars tomorrow, though i hate that it determines home field advantage (can't we just give it to the struggling nl for a few years? please?).

we needed that series. we really needed that series. hell yeah, gollum.