SWEEEP!!!

Sorry, I took a trip home for an extended weekend so the updates will not be plentiful. I have been watching the games though, and watching the reborn offense do its thing. Ever since I started calling Tino TINA he's been killing the ball. Albert is en route to an MVP, if he's not beaten out by Renteria. This series against Toronto (granted the Jays pitching sucks) shows exactly how powerful this team can be. Let's hope they keep it up this time and don't fall back into the complacency trap.

What a job by Woody last night. He is just the man. I don't know what happened when he came to the Cards, but the argument could be made that when healthy he has been the best righthander in the National League this side of Curt Schiling since his trade in August of 2001. Didn't quite get that fastball in on Hudson enough. And kudos to Tony for taking him out after eight innings. The Wood-man has thrown so many high-pitch outings and that was certainly the right thing to do, even if it meant we had to watch Hermanson pitch. He was just plain bad, and I know it's been a while since he worked, almost two weeks, but there's no excuse for being that bad. I'm sure he'll chalk it up to not getting enough work, since he was complaining about it publicly. I have no idea why they didn't let Calero come in and finish up. Where the hell has he gone. Instead Esteban Yan came in and finished up with three straight groundouts, and Hermy gets charged for five runs without the benefit of an out. Ouch. He just moved his name to the front of the chopping block for when Izzy comes back.

Speaking of Izzy, as I'm sure you all know his first rehab outing at AA Tennessee was a success. One perfect inning with a K. I would expect that he'll throw at least twice more at Tennessee, setting him up to maybe come back for the end of the Red Sox series or the start of the Yankees series.

The Orioles limp into town tonight after getting swept by Houston. No time for mercy, now. This is a perfect opportunity to win some more ball games, let's keep it going boys!

Minor Transaction

The Cards traded C Clint Chauncey, an A-ball nobody whom they needed to get rid of to make space for the 29 catchers they drafted yesterday, to the Cleveland Indians for IF Bill Selby, who is best known for hitting a walk-off grand slam against Mo Rivera last year. Other than that, Selby has about eight lifetime hits. He is about as good of an option as Wilson Delgado so we'll see if he takes his spot on the 25-man roster.

AND ON WE GO......

16. Omar Pena 5'10" 165 Northeastern SS Brother of Tiger 1B Carlos Pena, who also played at Northeastern 6 homers, 26 RBI, .304/.390/.534 this season with 15 doubles and 21 walks in 161 AB's. Like the patience, glove needs some work

17. Kevin House 5'11" 180 Memphis OF Former JUCO All-American found the going a bit tougher in D-I. Finished with 5 homers and 34 RBI, .304/.349/.475 Didn't walk much but plays a good centerfield. Had a .668 slugging percentage with 69 RBI his sophomore season in JUCO. Drafted by Astros in 2001

18. Jose Virgil 6'0" 210 Oklahoma St. OF Third-Generation Major-Leaguer?? Son of Ozzie Jr., the former MLB catcher. Jose is an advanced hitter. Already 22, hit 11 homers with 54 RBI and .381/.453/.632 as a senior. Plays left, switch-hitter, all Big 12 first team. Hey, maybe we did draft some hitters after all. Wonder what level he'll start at.....

19. Jason Motte 6'0" 200 Iona C Threw out forty percent of would-be basestealers. 2nd team all-MAAC. 5 HR, 27 RBI, .279/.335/.461

20. Jordan Pals 6'8" 205 Eastern Illinois RHP I don't think he pitched at all this year, I don't know if he was hurt or what. I saw him play basketball once and he wasn't any good at that so hopefully he was concentrating on his pitching. Went to High School in Effingham and probably grew up a Cards fan so I'm sure he was excited.

CARDS WIN/DRAFT TRACKING

The Blue Jays bullpen was all the Cardinal bats needed to get going. Good games by Edgar, Rolen, Albert, and Tino, and an Edmonds two-run homer. Matty Mo was good enough to win against a Blue Jays lineup that hits fastballs like no team I've seen in awhile. Maybe Simo and Stephenson's un-fast fastballs will keep them off stride. Hoping....

To continue with the draft, here's some more stuff I found on the wonderful widw world of web.

9. Justin Garza 6'0" 185 Seminole State CC in Oklahoma. RHP All I could see was that he played infield and was a decent hitter, but apparently he pitches too.

10. Thomas "Buddy" Blair 6'1" 200 Oklahoma LHP Didn't have a very good ERA but who cares he's a lefty

11. Nathan Kopszywa 6'6" 230 Crichton College, a small Christian college in Memphis. RHP He was the Closer of the Year for his region. Had 73 K's and five saves. Might be a diamond in the rough find. Baseball America guys knew he was. Apparently a gamer

12. Calvin Beamon 6'1" 190 Comm. College of Southern Nevada. OF Was a frosh on National champion or whatever infinitesimal athletic body CCSN plays in.

13. Kainoa Obrey 6'3" 225 BYU 3B Big Hawaiian Dude not much of a fielder but can hit: 11 dingers and 65 rbi, .362/.432/.648

14. Ian Kennedy 5'11" 185 La Quinta HS California?? RHP Couldn't really find anything out about this guy, but MLB.com had really good things to say about his mechanics and polish. Sounds like he could be a sleeper.

15. Anthony Reyes 6'1" 205 USC RHP Was a third-team preseason all-america but has been limited by elbow problems the past two seasons. 2-4 with a 4.38 ERA in 10 starts. Good K/BB ratio of 41/11. ERA's 2000-2002 4.02 in 15 starts, 3.72 in 16 starts, 3.44 in 12 starts. Arm has some mileage on it but he has a ton of potential if he can get healthy. Will be 22 in October and it will be interesting to see what level the organization starts him at. Chances are he'll pitch little if at all this in the minors this season.

CORK

Baseball is about to not be so berry berry good to Scammin' Sammy



In unrelated news, Matty Mo is just killing me right now. Matt, THEY ARE ONLY SWINGING AT YOUR FASTBALLS AND THEY ARE CRUSHING THEM. THROW CURVEBALLS.

Nephew of Tom Pagnozzi per another internet user..........

Picks Four thru Eight

With what little I know about them....

4. Mark Michael 6'4 205 University of Delaware RHP Had an ERA near 7. Hmm... Struck out about a batter an inning

5. Brandon Yarbrough 6'2 175 Richmond Senior HS, which I believe is in Rockingham, NC. Lefthanded Catcher and that's all I could find out

6. Matt Weagle 6'3 200 Franklin Pierce College RHP Division II All-American and first D-II player taken. 9-2 1.99 ERA 103 K 19 BB 2 homers in 99 innings. throws from a 3/4 slot and profiles well as a reliever because of his ability to get out righties

7. Brendan Ryan 6'2 195 Lewis-Clark St. College in Idaho Played 2B and SS for NAIA champs but was sidelined second half of the season, apparently with an injury. Utility guy.

8. Matthew Pagnozzi 6'3 200 Central Arizona College Catcher Obviously I assume but cannot confirm that he is the son of former Cards catcher Tom Pagnozzi. Drafted by Cubs out of high school. Cent. AZ won JUCO National title in 2002. 4 homers, 41 RBI. .348/.476/.488 in 2003.

Pick Number Three

The Cards selected their first college player, Dennis Dove, a 6'4" 205 lb. speedballer from Georgia Southern University. Dove apparently wings it in the upper nineties but doesn't have much of a feel for pitching. He was another guy projected as a possible suplemental first-round or early second round pick because of his great arm. He was 7-2 with a 4.52 ERA in 93 2/3 innings. He showed his good stuff by striking out 118 batters, but he got in trouble with 48 walks, more than one every two innings. Dove will be twenty-two at the end of August. MLB.com said he is long and lean with a tight curve and decnt change too. The guys from Baseball America said he is working on a slider but can't control it. He projects as a closer in the Cards future plans.

In other news, the offensive statistics for our minor-league clubs so far in 2003 must be wrong since we have now taken two pitchers with the first three picks. WTF?

Cards Second Pick

The Cards selected Stuart Pomeranz, a 6'7" 220 lb. right-handed pitcher out of Houston High School in Germantown, Tennessee. Pomeranz statistics are beyond ridiculous, as you might imagine with a guy that size pitching to high school kids.

94 IP, 28 Hits, 13-1 with a 0.54 ERA and 2 saves. He struck out 165 and walked 15, allowing no homers and opponents hit .089 against him. Also, six batters were called out after wetting their pants when stepping into the box. Just kidding. Read more about Stuart and his team, who lost in the Tennessee AAA State Quarterfinals, at www.mustangsbaseball.com

Pomeranz was projected as a first-round supplemental pick by Baseball America, who thought the Braves would take him at #36.
Now the Cards task is to make sure his right arm doesn't fall off before he reaches the big leagues.

....................

Slightly interesting for the Cards to take a catcher first, considering Yadi Molina is only 20 himself. Barton does not turn 18 until late this summer. He was the first catcher taken in the draft. All signs point to Barton having a lot of power. His scouting report on MLB.com says he has plus power potential and a home run swing. 11 dingers in 87 AB's would suppport that theory. I am a big fan of the 22 walks, though I bet a lot of those were intentional. He doesn't have advanced catching skills, but he has a powerful arm with a good throwing motion. He signed to play at Cal St.-Fullerton but he was expected to go anywhere from the late-first to third rounds, as catchers are often hard to slot, so he may have not been expecting the kind of money he's going to be able to now get. It's highly possible that the Cards had a pre-draft agreement with Barton.

MORE INFO!!!

Okay, his name is Daric Barton, and he attends Marina High School in Huntington Beach, CA. He is 5"11 185 lbs., bats left and throws right. He played mostly third base this year but projects as a catcher. His high school team is currently in the Southern Califronia Division I state semi-finals and are playing TONIGHT at 7 PM Pacific time. Talk about a full day for Mr. Barton!

Here are his unofficial stats courtesy of the Orange County Register:

AB R H RBI 2B HR Sac BB K
87 28 31 29 7 11 2 22 11

AVG. =.356 OBA. =.477 .SLG. = .816

This is twenty-nine games. He hit a walk-off homer in the quarterfinal game to give his team a 4-3 victory.

CARDS FIRST PICK

With their first round pick the Cardinals have selected Derrick Barton, a high-school catcher from Marina, California.

More info to come......

RED BIRD DIARIES

It's Draft Day tomorrow, and I plan on keeping you stocked with regular updates and amateur (that's me as the amateur baseball mind, writing about the amateur draftees) commentary. So what's going on until we start drafting (I HOPE) hitters tomorrow around lunchtime?

--As Joe "Special Out Maker" Girardi continues his rehab, Pat Borders has made it back to the big leagues with the M's. Ironically, he replaces former Cardinal/Highly Overvalued Tony LaRussa pet John Mabry on the roster. Dry your eyes Ray.

Mr. Medhead Will Carroll's latest Izzy commentary:

In a season where we've seen the elite closers go down for the year, I think we have to be extremely skeptical with Izzy until he proves his health on the mound, and wouldn't want to count on him in anything resembling a meaningful situation until he showed me about 20 good innings at any level.

Well, Will, we'd all love to not HAVE to count on Izzy, but nobody wants to have to count on the town whore either. Sometimes you have to rely on those who have done it the best and the most in the past, especially when there's so few other options. I'd say it won't be long before Izzy starts getting the high-leverage innings, because the Birds ain't waiting to give them to the Russ "His pitches have lots of" SPRING-er when he comes off the DL.

Speaking of relievers and the like, what's going to happen when Izzy, Painter, and Springer (and Carpenter) come back? Hopefully no one will do something as stupid as putting Springer back on the roster. Where has Kiko Calero gone? One appearance in the last seven games before the reliever that probably has the best stuff in the pen? At least Kline and Fassero appear to be coming aropund temporarily, but now Eldred has started to struggle, Crudale has had a couple of shaky outings, and Calero and Hermy are whereabouts unknown. At least we have Esteban Yan to be our "Record in one-run games improver guy"

Another note, I just joined a Baseball Sim league on whatifsports.com. This stuff is cool as hell if you're a big baseball and stat dork like me. Go to the site if you want to know more as there's no reason for me to get a cramp typing it all. I will say this, in the public open leagues you have $80 million to draft 25 players in their one-season form for any season since 1885 (example--my 2nd Baseman is the 1929 Rogers Hornsby). You get 15 hitters and 10 pitchers and you can pre-set a bunch of strategy. 3 games are simulated each day and its a 162-game season. There are also themed leagues where you can get people together under certain rules, like you can only draft players from the forties, or all the pitchers you draft had to have an ERA above 5.00 in that year. I was thinking we could get an all-Cardinals league together, where only Cardinal players can be taken. Check out the site, it's very cool.

Speeding Towards Mediocrity

The Cards season-long love-affair with the .500 mark continued Sunday as they manged to salvage the last of three from the might Pittsburgh Pirates.

Among the days highlights: Scott Rolen commemorating his bobblehead day with a double, a run scored, and a key key seventh-inning walk that led to Edgar Renteria's two-out, two-strike, two-run single to give the Cards the win. Rolen the iced the game for the Birdos by making a fantastic leaping catch of Reggie Sanders shot down the line for the game's final out, giving Jeff Fassero the save. Also, the Kliner pitched very well, pitching 1 2/3 scoreless innings and picking up the win. And J.D. Drew continued his foray back into the warming hearts of those in the Birdhouse with another home run.

Among the days lowlights: Light-hitting and heavily annoying former Cardinal farmhand Jack Wilson hitting a three-run homer off of Brett Tomko, who served up his usual helpings of nastiness mixed in with Nancy-ness in going six innings and allowing just those three runs to gain a no-decision. Esteban Yan gave up a tater-iffic shot to Amish right fielder Craig Wilson with one out in the ninth. Clearly, the reason for Yan's acquisition was to give the Cards a better record in one-run games. Against the Astros he made a one-run deficit three, thereby insuring the Cards would not lose by one. Yesterday he served up the tater to cut the Cards lead to one and help give them just their third one-run victory of the year. All sarcasm aside, Yan did blow away Randall Simon to get the last out in the eighth after Kline had allowed a two-out single to Aramis Ramirez.

Now what? Interleague play. The smoking, piping, burning, red-hot Blue Jays offense comes to Busch, along with their not-so-good pitching staff. The Cards will face Kelvim Escobar on Tuesday night. Escobar is a one time starter-turned closer-now back to starting. He hasn't pitched five innings in a game yet this year, which is a good thing for the Cards because the Blue Jays pen is very bad. The Birds need to rip into the Bluebirds pen early and often. One factor that will help to chill Toronto's offensive attack is that their DH Josh Phelps has no place to play, and therefor will likely be limited to pinch-hitting duties. Matty Mo will have a challenge in front of him, that is for sure. Maybe the Cards can do something novel this week, like start a winning streak.

By the way kudos to Redbird Nation for their site redesign. You guys are going to have to give me some tips on how to make my boring-ass site much cooler. That picture of Jim Edmonds and Craig Paquette holding hands gives me the wilies. And yes, Mr. Jimmy Jack is back in the lineup, and if nothing else, he is showing good plate discipline, walking twice Saturday and twice yesterday. The whole team showed great discipline in fact. It was three straight two-out walks that led to Renteria's game-deciding hit. That is encouraging even if little else currently is. Even Chris Widger showed that he has some skill in taking pitches. He walked twice! Why they didn't just throw the ball right down the middle every pitch is beyond me. When they did that, he missed it. Hmmm... The whole catcher thing is kiling me. In the Post-Dispatch it said that they're thinking of employing three catchers when Girardi is activated. I swear, I think sometimes Tony just wants to be blasted by every baseball person born after 1960. At least if they keep Widger on the team when Girardi comes back they'll have to get rid of Wilson Delgado or Taguchi. I'd say Delgado based on the fact that Taguchi appears to have at least some patience and took a couple good swings yesterday, even if he does belong in Munchkin Land. (We represent, the Over-Priced Gang, The Over-Priced Gang...)