Catching it...

All I have to say about last nights game is " Yadi freakin' rocks my socks"  That play he had is one that catchers sometimes only Dream about making!! But when it happens, holy crap, that feeling he had afterwards was probably one of the greatest feelings he will ever have (baseball wise).... Who else, besides catchers, can make a play like that on their knees!  *dramatic pause*  ok, maybe that was only amusing in my own head. Anyhow, last night is the reason why Molina is going to be one of the greatest catchers in mlb history. (to me anyways)

GO CARDS!

This Week in Cardinal History

Well I must say, when Keeton has a good idea I try to comply as quickly as possible. So this is the first installment of, "This Week in Cardinal History." An quick look of our glorious past, that very well could give incite to our lustrous future.

The year was 1942, the United States was getting into WWII. The likelihood of losing players to the war was good. The Cardinals were set to open up the season officially against Chicago, April 14th, on the road. First, however, they were set to play a couple of exhibition games against the St. Louis Browns. It's sad. I have looked quite hard, I know the games were played, but no one seems to have an account of them. That is an account posted somewhere online. However the most interesting piece of news that week took place on April 11th, when multiple newspapers across the nation, not just in St. Louis named rookie Stan "the Man" Musial the most promising player of the year. I'll say he was promising, hitting .315 with 10 home runs. With the help of Enos Slaughter winning the pennett for the cardinals, oh and just 106 games along the way.

That, however, is another bit of rowdiness for another day.

Saturday Morn...

Waking up this morning and noticing that I have 20 minutes free time before I go to work is thrilling!! Not because I get to eat breakfast or watch TV for once, but because I FINALLY get to blog about our Cardinals!! Though, since in the last two weeks I've gone through surgery, worked and realized that I don't get the Fox Midwest channel.... and I luckly get updates from ACE at work... my blog today isn't going to be a very detailed writing on the game yesterday. But hey, I do know that they won over the Giants and Albert finally has found his stance again....*yeah!*

So now as I look outside and groan over the snow falling (in freakin' APRIL, mind you).... I see that I have ran outta time once again.  Maybe today I will actually get to watch the Boys at BW3's if Ace and Keeton go. Course, with my luck, they won't want to go today then I will be dragging myself home to watch something stupid on tv instead.... like 'The Girls Next Door' or Big Brother.... *sigh* 

Springfield gets the win

That's right ladies & gentlemen... the Springfield Cardinals have logged their first win for the 2008 season! Last night, the Cards blew the Frisco RoughRiders out of the water with a final score of 12-5 on the Riders' turf in Frisco, TX.
The Cards started the game off early in the first inning with Bryan Anderson scoring the first run of the game, but Frisco answered back with three runs in the bottom of the second. Springfield tied the Riders in the fourth, bringing the score to 3-3.
The sixth inning was when the Cards really locked in the win, pulling ahead with three more runs, only allowing Frisco two more runs in the bottom of the sixth. Then, Mark Hamilton with a grand slam in the top of the eighth inning! With a count of 0-1 and no outs, Hamilton sends a line drive down the right field line, bringing the score to 10-5. After locking in two more runs in the top of ninth, our boys put that final nail in the RoughRiders coffin and sent them home for the night.
Let's just hope they can keep up the wins tonight as we take on Frisco for game two of this series. Right now its the middle of the third with a score of 0-0.

Trading scores for the first two in Houston

After our second game in Houston, we're 1 and 1 with a 3-5 loss on Monday and a 5-3 win on Tuesday. Two people worthy of mention are Reyes, for his three awesome innings thrown as a relief and Glaus for hitting a two out, two run double to bring the score to 5-3 in the eighth. Isringhausen came in to pitch a flawless ninth inning to seal the deal for us. This now leaves us with a record of 6 and 2, second in wins only to Arizona, but they already played today, so they don't really count. Looper is on the mound tonight at the end of the first, two to zip against the last game against Houston to finish up our three game series. God I love this time of year :) More to come later.....

Also, I have all of the links to all of our farm teams now in case you want to see our garden grow!

Catching up with Springfield

To bring you all up to speed, the Springfield Cardinals are currently sitting on a 0-6 standing in the rankings (their worst start since the inital season). The most recent of these games took place at Springfield's Hammons Field facing the Midland RockHounds (double A affiliate for the Oakland Athletics).

Sunday night, the Cards began the three game series against the Hounds with a loss of 7-4. Monday night the Redbirds took on Midland losing with a score of 12-0, their worst loss this season. The Hounds only allowed the Cards five hits in the game, using three pitchers to shut them down.

Tuesday afternoon, Midland continued their three game sweep of our boys, winning 6-3. The Cardinals' centerfielder, Jon Jay, did hit his first home run for the season in the bottom of the fourth inning. A beautiful line drive sent right over the right-center field fence scoring both himself and Jose Martinez (who had been walked with two outs in the inning). This tied the game with a score of 2-2, but Midland bounced back pulling ahead with a run in the fifth inning, a run forced in by a walk in the seventh, and two single home runs in the eighth and ninth, while only allowing the Cards one more run in those remaining innings.

Next Springfield will take on the Frisco RoughRiders (double A affiliate of the Texas Rangers) Thursday night in their first away game of the 2008 season. So far our record against Frisco is 0-3. Let's hope the team fares better away than they did at home. Until then, keep your fingers crossed for the farm boys and take a look at the St Louis game tonight against the Houston Astros!

Joe Mather - shadowed by Rasmus or a player for the Majors!

Is Joe Mather in the shadow of Colby Rasmus, or is it all just hype from the press?

In 2007 Joe Mather hit for 271, 132 hits, 77 RBI's, and 31 dingers. He played a half year with Double A and a half year with Triple A. And yet the talk of the town is Colby Rasmus. Why? One explanation is that Rasmus had a better 2007, with .275 average, 130 hits, 72 RBI's, and 29 dingers. Well, had a better average anyway. Colby spent his whole season in Springfield, would he have done so well with Triple A Memphis?

Mather's numbers are just shy of Rasmus', he has more experience, and is already on the forty-man roster. This season Joe has, according to memphisredbirds.com, led the team to a pair of victories, Rasmus's best game was a Memphis loss. Now, some might say that, "we are trying to develop players, we don't care if they win or lose." I say that we are talking about Triple A ball people, we need to see how these boys will play as a team, how they lead, and how they contribute to get the W. Because if they jump up to the big leagues and they are all developed to the point of it being "me, me, me", then we are not going to get anything done.

I say it's the press that is hyping Colby Rasmus. Don't get me wrong, Colby is a great player and deserves that recognition. Maybe it's not the money, like I posed in my first post, that is keeping STL from bringing him up. Maybe, just maybe, it's a kid by the name of Joe Mather (who is a great leader, player, and asset to the organization). Either way, I know one thing, when both of these guys make it to the show it's going to be something special. Why? Because they both know how to get it done.

Hmmm, maybe I'll start trusting the front office a little more too...

That, however, is another bit of rowdiness for another day.