Show-Me Kings

Judging by the meltdown in message board land, Cardinals fans haven’t been this upset since Don Denkinger was a World Series umpire. To play or not to play Albert Pujols was the question. Manager Tony La Russa’s answer was no.

In an All-Star game featuring a St. Louis manager, the only St. Louis player watched the entire affair from the dugout. (more)

Today’s New York Daily News pays tribute to Charley Lau, probably the most influential hitting coach in baseball history. As the article points out, hitters like Albert Pujols, Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez can trace their swings to the Lau influence.

In the early 1970’s, Lau went to work for the Kansas City Royals and transformed the swing of a young third baseman. George Brett went on to a Hall of Fame career.

“All these guys that are being successful now, and all that success that’s bringing them fame and fortune, don’t know that they should attribute it, in a very large part, to Charley,” St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa told the paper. (more)

After the Cardinals game last night, I could have sworn I heard Al Hrabosky make a comment to the effect that it was only the second time all year that the team had won a game by the score of 3-2 (or maybe it was win a game scoring three runs or less). Either way, I was curious to see if he was right. He couldn’t have been more wrong. (more)

The St. Louis Cardinals have now completed 81 games, or one-half, of their 2007 schedule. With a record of 38-43, it’s the worst performance of the Tony La Russa era. You have to go back to 1995, the last year of Anheuser-Busch ownership, to find a Cardinals team with a worse first half performance. (For some fun with the standings, check out BaseballRace.com).

There’s something else different about this team. For only the second time since the calendar rolled over to Y2K, the Cardinals find themselves looking up in the standings at the midway point. (more)

This seems timely given recent rumors and rumblings of trouble in the Cardinals front office. If Walt Jocketty does depart, what about this guy — Paul DePodesta? (more)

The Mets broadcast filled the rain delay between New York and St. Louis tonight with a ‘Mets classic’ - the first game back at Shea Stadium after the attack on the Twin Towers.You forget the raw emotion of those days immediately following 9/11. Flags are everywhere in the stands, the fans chanting ‘U-S-A! U-S-A!’, and tears streaming down the faces of more than a few people. (more)

In his column today, Bryan Burwell says the “chatter around the league” is that the Cardinals have offered Anthony Reyes, John Rodriguez and a minor league prospect to the White Sox for pitcher Mark Buehrle. Burwell throws out the name of Double-A catcher Bryan Anderson and says if that’s indeed the trio, the deal is worth it. Assuming the White Sox would do that deal, does it make sense for the Cardinals? Long term, I’m not so sure. (more)

Until July 5th of 2006, Terry Evans was a farmhand in the St. Louis Cardinals system. On that day, the team that drafted him dealt to the Angels for pitcher Jeff Weaver. The Cardinals went on to win a World Series with Weaver pitching the clinching game. Evans was just another minor league outfielder with a dream of getting to the big leagues.

That dream turned into reality this week when outfielder Garrett Anderson hit the disabled list and Evans got the call. (more)

xactly four weeks ago tonight, I watched from a Busch Stadium seat pitcher Kip Wells get 50% of his 2007 win total. In picking up victory number two, Wells went seven innings and allowed only five hits. As poorly as things have gone for Kip since that night — only a Braden Looper injury may have spared his banishment to the bullpen — the Cardinals have lost zero ground to the Milwaukee Brewers over that time.

After Wells’ victory, the Cardinals were six games back on the loss side to the Milwaukee Brewers. St. Louis enters tonight’s rubber game against Kansas City an identical six back in the loss column to the front-running Milwaukee squad.

So if nothing’s changed, why does it feel so different? (more)

It’s draft day for Major League Baseball teams. Head over to the Baseball Analysts where they’ll be live blogging all day long. Something they point out in this post I didn’t realize is that the rules have changed for signing picks. No more waiting until just days before the next year’s draft to put pen to paper (e.g. Max Scherzer). Instead, players and teams have only until August 15th to work out a contract. If no deal is struck by then, players return to the draft pool. (more)