Lindbergh Reference or ABA Reference?
Albert Pujols Slump Watch has gone well into its second month, and the time for concern is—well, coming closer than I and presumably most St. Louis fans ever expected it to. So, Tuesday's good news: He went 3-4 with two RBI! Tuesday's bad news: Those hits were infield singles, and Albert Pujols is not Ichiro! The Los Angeles Angels took this strange moment to announce that they'd fired longtime hitting coach and controversy-generator Mickey Hatcher, which seems appropriate—though unless they plan on hiring Dee Dee Pujols, I'm not sure Albert will listen to the new guy any more than the old guy.
Those slap-hits brings his seasonal line up to .212/.248/.288—fittingly for someone who just nabbed two infield singles, he's somehow stuck on an empty .212. He's got a lot of work still to do, but given his high line drive rate to date—it's at 22%, a little above his career average—he's owed a few of these three-singles-in-four-chances nights.
If Albert Pujols's goal was to slump badly enough to slough off most of St. Louis's disgust toward his post-contract behavior... it's worked for me, at least.
So: The St. Louis Cardinals' star catcher, Yadier Molina, is already delivering on his big five-year contract extension—he's hitting .301 with a truly startling .504 slugging percentage—and Tuesday he hit a walk-off single to sneak the Cardinals past the Hated Chicago Cubs by a score of 7-6. How could his afternoon get any better? Well, he could infuriate Cubs fans by trading his usual haircut for a broad, distinctly un-faux mohawk. Early returns on the Yadier Molina mohawk Twittersphere:
Yadier Molina has a mohawk now? I didn't know he could get any douchier...
— Joe West (@sjwest86) May 15, 2012
In this Cubs fan's defense, anybody with a visible neck tattoo is kind of asking for it. (Anyone with an invisible neck tattoo probably wears a lot of turtlenecks, which, depending on your opinion of Steve Jobs, might mean he's also asking for it.)
Here's a photo, courtesy Jeff Curry of US Presswire:
But if you'd like to learn the full story about Yadier Molina's mohawk, I'd suggest clicking that link for the latest episode of Legopiece Theater: Dugout Abbey, in which he's sent to kangaroo court—the Hon. Afro'd Judge Jon Jay, presiding.
The St. Louis Rams' stadium proposal—or counterproposal, if you remember the CVC's rejected initial proposal, which involved a $124 million package of Edward Jones Dome add-ons—is on the internet, and that means we have pictures of the proposed renovations, which are almost entirely indistinguishable from photos of the erstwhile TWA Dome. Sorry, I meant completely distinguishable. Take a look at these (and click for a full-size view.)
That's the existing north facade, if you can believe it. You'll notice the Edward Jones Dome is, in this mockup, the Edward Jones Building With A Bunch Of Roofs At Neat Angles. One more after the jump:
John Axford is the Milwaukee Brewers' closer. He had 46 saves last year, he has a cool mustache, he was briefly out of baseball entirely, and now he's your favorite member of the Hated Brewers, for sending this note to the media after leaving Miller Park early following the end of his 49-save streak, due to his pregnant wife going into labor.
"I put my wife into contractions with my performance tonight... The streak is over so now you can talk about it. The luck I've had in the past didn't show up tonight! All I can do is begin another streak and keep my head up! Cliché…cliché…another cliché. Gotta go! L♥ve, Ax."
Yeah, the heart's in the original, and it's great. I liked Axford already, but this kind of self-awareness and gentle ribbing of beat reporters is right in my wheelhouse, even if my favorite Milwaukee Brewers player, due to my unapologetic love of Japanese baseball, will have to remain Norichika Aoki until they trade him to some team who could actually use him.
This Monday morning, Carlos Beltran is hitting .298/.406/.653 for the St. Louis Cardinals. He's on pace, if you're a fan of extrapolating a month-and-a-half into a full season, for 62 home runs and 152 RBI (and 24 stolen bases), which would probably make year one of the Cardinals' two-year gamble for his services a success.
Question: When was the last time Carlos Beltran had a 30-game stretch quite this good? Answer: Early 2009, the last time he seemed to be healthy. Back then he was hitting .370/.467/.583 33 games into the year, with seven doubles, six home runs, and four stolen bases.
Here's the takeaway, and I'll start with the negative: Carlos Beltran is very fragile. The positive: When he's feeling good enough to steal bases, he is a remarkably formidable talent, able to do nearly everything that needs doing on a baseball diamond. With Allen Craig available, thanks to Lance Berkman's return, to back him up a little more frequently, the Cardinals should do everything they can to make sure they get the healthy Beltran as long as possible.
I realize I've been shirking a duty, here at SB Nation St. Louis, in my Cardinals coverage: I haven't thought enough of the fantasy baseball sleeper-hunters who, catching Lance Lynn's scorching start to the season, picked him up just in time to see him take his first loss of the season Sunday against the Atlanta Braves. I offer this, by way of condolences: He still looks great, new fantasy baseball owners, and he had to have an average day eventually.
And average is the word—he pitched a "quality start," and did it while striking out seven batters in those six innings and not allowing a home run, so his peripherals are better than the already acceptable line score would suggest.
Speaking as someone who's watched Lynn for actual-baseball reasons, allow me to reassure: I was as surprised by his hot start as anyone, and he probably isn't an ace, but he looks great. His fastball is outstanding—which is important, since he throws it more than twice out of every three pitches—and his other pitches are just good enough that he doesn't look like a life-long reliever.
And he's still 6-1 with an ERA of 1.81 and a strikeout an inning. If he were any better, my fantasy baseball friend, nobody would have been sleeping on him anyway.
Bernie Miklasz has a nice piece up at the Post-Dispatch about the farewell tour of Chipper Jones, who rolled into the Atlanta Braves' already successful weekend series against the St. Louis Cardinals with some of his best numbers since he hit .364 back in 2008. As of Sunday morning he's hitting .305/.363/.524 this season, and on his way past 460 home runs, 2700 hits, and 1600 RBI for his no-doubt Hall of Fame career.
Jones has been baseball's greatest third baseman since Wade Boggs retired back in 1999, and he leaves the game—should he find himself able to retire after what might be a great bounceback year—without such a clear successor in place. Scott Rolen might have been Jones's equal by now if it weren't for the intercession of all those injuries starting in 2004; now he's still got a solid case for the Hall of Fame, but he's been hobbling so long that it might prove hard for the voters to remember.
David Wright, hitting .387 now after several years of stagnating at Citifield, might be who we remember as the next in this line of great third basemen by the time his own career is done.
Those of you out there starving for St. Louis Rams news can't be appreciating one of the less hyped effects of the new NFL collective bargaining agreement: Rookie minicamp is more mini than ever, but not really a camp. Jim Thomas of the Post-Dispatch notes that the new event is more properly called an "orientation," and it sounds just about like every orientation I've ever been to for school and work: A tour of the facilities, some boring speakers, a "community relations" seminar, and a chance to meet their new bosses, Jeff Fisher and company.
And after all that, two minor practices. Or mini-practices, I guess.
Fisher does a good job of sounding magnanimous about the changes, though he doesn't seem the type to be especially happy about them; he goes the counterfactual route of suggesting that, since they aren't in shape already like the veterans, they shouldn't be practiced as though they're already in shape.
Which makes a certain sense. But if you were hoping to hear about Brian Quick being in the best shape of his life or Michael Brockers steamrolling Jason Smith... well, it'll have to wait a while longer. I'm sorry.
After last night's loss Adam Wainwright is now 2-4 with an ERA over 6, and a year after an elbow injury and Tommy John surgery it's easy to become concerned about the St. Louis Cardinals' erstwhile ace. I like to consider myself an especially level-headed Cardinals fan, but when do we worry, exactly?
It still doesn't feel like it should be right now, as bad as he's appeared to pitch. Right now his strikeout and walk rates are better than ever—his K%, at 24%, is a career high, and his BB%, even after his wild first inning Saturday night, is a career low. He's allowed a ton of home runs, which might be a real problem though we have no way of knowing yet, and a ton of hits, which is almost certainly not a real problem.
We maybe expected too much from a rejuvenated Wainwright going into the 2012 season, but there's little reason to be worried he's permanently lost it quite yet.
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Edited by Dan Moore
Dan Moore has been writing about baseball on the internet since that was a novel thing to do. A graduate of the University of Missouri, he lives in Springfield, Illinois. See my profile
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