Gerald Laird Injured By Pitch, Will Miss 4-6 Weeks; Tony Cruz Called Up
St. Louis Cardinals injuries and roster moves piled up all at one over the weekend. Exit Gerald Laird and Mitchell Boggs; enter Skip Schumaker, Tony Cruz, and Brian Broderick.
Gerald Laird Injured By Pitch, Will Miss 4-6 Weeks; Tony Cruz Called Up
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MLB Standings Update: St. Louis Cardinals Extend NL Central Despite Nagging Injuries
The St. Louis Cardinals continue to suffer from nagging injuries—Matt Holliday is expected to miss a few games, Skip Schumaker returned only to see Mitchell Boggs sent down to AAA—and Albert Pujols's general ineffectiveness, but you wouldn't know it from their strong performance in the NL Central standings, where they've gone to 10 games over .500 and taken a three-and-a-half game lead over the Cincinnati Reds. They're just the third team to get that far over .500 across the MLB standings—the Cleveland Indians and the Philadelphia Phillies are already at the milestone.
The Reds seemed to have righted the ship after their slow end to April, winning 11 out of 13 and sweeping the Cardinals to regain control over the central division, but after that they proceeded to lose six consecutive games, first to the Pittsburgh Pirates and then to those other two way-over-.500 clubs. The Brewers also remain well within range of the Cardinals, thanks to strong performances from Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, and—Jonathan Lucroy.
For a full set of NL Central standings and daily dispatches on the Cardinals and the rest of the NL Central, visit Viva El Birdos.
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Mitchell Boggs Sent To Minor Leagues, Possibly To Become A Starter
Mitchell Boggs, the first man to take the St. Louis Cardinals’ closer’s role in the wake of Ryan Franklin’s meltdown, was sent down to the minor leagues to make room for a returning Skip Schumaker Sunday night, and his route their was complicated by news he would join the Memphis Redbirds’ starting rotation.
Boggs, a starter through the minors, struggled with his control on his first exposure to the Major Leagues before rejoining the club as a hard-throwing reliever who touched 97 on a fastball that once sat around 93. His fastball-slider repertoire seemed perfect for the role, but he’s never seemed to fully earn Tony La Russa’s trust as a reliever, and Dave Duncan has never met a hard-thrower with low strikeout rates he didn’t want to move into the rotation.
His demotion is likely a temporary one, part of a roster crunch that saw the young right-handed relievers squeezed on one side by Brian Tallet’s return from a broken hand and on another by Ryan Franklin and Miguel Batista’s guaranteed-contract ineptitude, but it remains unclear just how far this stint in the starting rotation will be taken.
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Washington Nationals Return Brian Broderick To St. Louis Cardinals Following Rule 5 Audition
Minor league starter Brian Broderick, a surprise Rule 5 pick by the Washington Nationals after a solid season at the St. Louis Cardinals’ AA affiliate, was returned Monday after two months of sparing use in the Nats’ bullpen. Broderick appeared in 11 games and finished with an ERA of 6.57; his groundball tendencies were out in full force, but he had trouble getting his high-80s fastball past Major League hitters.
Broderick was nowhere near the Cardinals’ Major League picture despite both matching Dave Duncan’s standing eHarmony personal ad for heavy-fastball pitchers and going 11-2 with a 2.77 ERA in his first exposure to the high minors. With a strikeout-per-nine of just 4.9 in Springfield he simply doesn’t miss enough bats yet, at least as a starter.
The Nationals fans at Federal Baseball did not seem especially concerned by the news, at first glance. With Mitchell Boggs being moved to the Memphis rotation on the same day it’s not immediately clear in what role Broderick will pitch; left-handed equivalent Nick Additon, who was recently promoted from Springfield, might be headed back down.
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Gerald Laird Injured By Pitch, Will Miss 4-6 Weeks; Tony Cruz Called Up
St. Louis Cardinals backup catcher Gerald Laird suffered a broken finger when he was hit by a pitch while trying to bunt; he'll miss 4-6 weeks. Tony Cruz has been called up to take his place, the third Memphis Redbirds catcher in two years to take on the role of backup to Yadier Molina; Bryan Anderson, still in AAA, and Matt Pagnozzi, now in the Colorado Rockies' system, replaced Jason LaRue after his career-ending concussion late in 2010.
Cruz had a breakout season in 2010 between high-A Palm Beach and AA Springfield, hitting .282/.352/.433 across 90 games; he's struggled thus far in a AAA timeshare with Anderson, hitting 232/.289/.395, but his defense is much better-regarded and he was seen by some as a dark-horse candidate to take the backup catching job in 2011 before Laird was signed.
Cruz was a 26th-round pick in the 2007 draft; he joins that year's first-rounder, Pete Kozma, in the Major Leagues for the first time.
