Lindbergh Reference or ABA Reference?
Chris Carpenter's injury problems are typically formidable enough to resist predictions, but Jenifer Langosch is reporting that Carpenter could begin throwing in June, with a return date sometime after the All-Star Break. Carpenter's been shut down since Spring Training after suffering nerve problems that caused a weakening in his right shoulder.
Carp, who hasn't thrown since, led the National League in regular-season innings, with 237, and threw a Major League-leading 36 more in the 2011 postseason. That would be quite a workload for anybody, let alone a starter who's missed nearly three full seasons in his career with arm injuries. Carpenter, who made one start in 2007 and three more in 2008, was 17-4 in 2009 and 16-9 in 2010 before poor run support in 2011 dropped him to 11-9.
He's 95-42 as a Cardinal, to go with a 9-2 postseason record since joining the team—and then missing the entire year—back in 2003.
After an outstanding Jennings Trophy winning season, there's little else that Brian Elliott can do to endear himself to fans of the game (I'll pretend that round two of the playoffs didn't happen). Elliott has appeared in Patrick and Brian Burke's You Can Play Project's newest video with Jordan Eberle. The You Can Play Project is raising awareness for LGBT athletes and their acceptance in the locker room and on the ice. As their slogan goes, "If you can play, you can play."
Matt Holliday's yearly slump and the seemingly inevitable worries about his contract and his ability to play When It Counts seem like they're going to be St. Louis Cardinals perennials so long as he's around, which is a little unfortunate. The good news is that I wouldn't have to change the yearly "He's okay, you guys," post all that much. With that in mind: He's okay, you guys.
After going 2-4 with two doubles and two RBI in Thursday's win over the Arizona Diamondbacks Holliday is now hitting .266/.338/.461 on the season, which is above average if not nearly what we expect of him. If you're a He Can't Play When It Counts guy, you might also be happy to see he's ninth in the National League in RBI, with a full-season pace of 115.
In May he's hitting .400/.488/.686, which is probably going to work just fine.
After several missteps it looks like the Minnesota Vikings' stadium plan is nearing approval, and it's a big one: Nearly $1 billion, as the Minnesota senate passed it, with a little less than half funded by the public. That leaves the St. Louis Rams with the biggest stadium controversy in the NFL, and it continues to confuse observers; the latest news is that the Rams have proposed an enormously costly retractable roof in addition to the measures the CVC suggested in its own $124 million renovation plan.
That leaves us questioning how serious the Rams are about staying in St. Louis. Of course, we're already deeply opposed to funding stadiums with public money in the first place, but a retractable roof on a stadium that wasn't built for it? That could rapidly bring the tab up to what it would cost to build a brand new stadium, which leads me to believe that might be the Rams' intent in the first place.
This sort of sports-team extortion is increasingly common and incredibly frustrating, and as much as I like watching the Rams I think St. Louis should tell them to stick it, if it comes to that. Minnesota's stadium is probably going to be nice, but I can think of other things to do with $400 million.
Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina was diagnosed with a bruised hand. Here is how he got the news.
From 1904 until 1960 Simmy Murch (6'2", 220 LBS) wore the title of "heaviest middle infielder in MLB history." It was a little snug around the waist, but he wore it proudly, like a fat Cardinals fan with a mesh Vince Coleman BP jersey. And then, in 1960, Pancho Herrera (6'3, 220) would tie Murch's record and also break the fat guy at middle infield color barrier.
Herrera's title would last seventeen years, when on July 1st, 1977 Pirates right fielder Dave Parker (6'5", 230) historically and bizarrely moved to second base in an extra innings game. Parker's 230 pounds was eventually tied by Cecil Fielder (6'3", 230 *WiNk WiNk*) who -- WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE -- played second base (TWICE) for the Blue Jays in 1988.
Then, the 2000's happened. The following 230 pound gents have since roamed the middle infield: Wes Helms, Matt Tuiasosopo, Hanley Ramirez, Albert Pujols, Ty Wiggington, and Ryan Zimmerman.
Taking things to the next level, both Erick Almonte and Mike Morse have checked into the middle infield at 245 pounds, though they are listed at 6'2" and 6'5", respectively, and neither had long careers at the positions.
But since 2001, 6'0", 240 pound Juan Uribe has heavily covered the middle infield (though he is at the more comfortable fat guy position of third base now, where he is terrible), making him easily the fattest every day middle infielder in Major League Baseball history.
Congratulations on your very prestigious award, Juan!
Josh Hamilton's four-home-run game Tuesday night was remarkable for a number of reasons—mostly his seasonal line after the game, which is an absurd .406/.458/840, with 14 home runs (that's a 76-homer pace) and 36 RBI (194.) But fans of the beleaguered pre-La-Russa St. Louis Cardinals can breathe a sigh of relief over at least one fact: Hamilton did not top the 12 RBI Hard Hittin' Mark Whiten managed in his own four-home-run game, back in 1993. That means the only players in baseball history with 12 RBI in a single game remain Whiten and fellow Cardinal Sunny Jim Bottomley, another member of the St. Louis Nickname Hall of Fame.
So take that, Josh Hamilton: You may be one of the great stories in baseball, a once-in-a-lifetime talent, a Disney-caliber redemption story, and the best hitter in baseball right now, but Mark Whiten, Jim Bottomley, and the Cardinals still own the single-game RBI record. Don't even try to take it away.
Actually, seriously, don't try to take it away, Josh Hamilton. Because you might do it, and fans of the 1993 St. Louis Cardinals really don't have anything else to enjoy.
The Minnesota Vikings' stadium plan got a little closer to fruition Tuesday, when the Minnesota House passed a vote in favor of building the Vikings a new stadium over the poor, sunken roof of the Metrodome. I hope they call this one the Hubert H. Humphrey Enormous Taxpayer Boondoggle! All this new drama comes as the St. Louis Rams and the CVC's own stadium hijinks continue. The latest news: The Rams' counter-proposal will be made public in the next week or so, giving Rams fans a chance to decide whether the team is being forthright in its attempts to stay away from Los Angeles.
The Vikings' latest dalliance with their home state leaves one less competitor for the Los Angeles Football Team Sweepstakes, but this is really going to come down to what, exactly, the Rams' idea of a reasonable counter-proposal is. By next week we could have a fairly good idea of just how serious the Rams are about staying in St. Louis—which means that by next year we could be locked in a legislative stadium quagmire like the one the Vikings and their fans just got out of. (It's less exciting now that I put it that way.)
This just in: Albert Pujols, despite finally hitting a home run, is still not hitting especially well. After going 1-5 Monday, in the Los Angeles Angels's 8-3 win over the Minnesota Twins, Pujols is now hitting .197/.236/.291, with eight doubles, the one home run, and nine RBI.
That's one home run out of 446 in his career, which is why I'm not especially worried, even still. If his next 100 at-bats also feature a .526 OPS and one home run, let me know—then I might be kind of nervous.
The fascinating thing right now, in his straight-extrapolation ESPN projections, is his strikeout-to-walk ratio. Even last year, in his least-Pujolsian season ever, Pujols walked (61) more times than he struck out (58.) Right now he's on pace for 32 walks, about half as many as his current low, and 86 strikeouts, his most since his rookie season. Lots of people have suggested he's pressing, and if you'd like to be one of those people, that's where I'd start...
Sunday morning, Tyler Greene was hitting .200/.304/.300 and looked, to some eyes, to be a few bad games from the St. Louis Cardinals cutting their losses and waiving their 2005 first-rounder. Monday morning, he's hitting .256/.360/.512, and—well, people aren't nearly so keen to dump him when Lance Berkman needs a roster spot.
The main lesson of this, of course, is that it's a bad idea to make a decision about a player after 18 poorly spaced appearances, and probably also after 19 poorly spaced appearances. Maybe even 20 poorly spaced appearances—who knows? But this could also have some bearing on the Cardinals' still-open second base position.
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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