Lost 2 of 3 to the Pirates. Blew a 5-1 lead. Izzy and Villone can't get anyone out. Whoo, boy; doesn't bode well for the home team.
Izzy seemed so despondent in his post-game comments, I wonder if he's mentally tough enough to pitch at all in pressure situations anymore. He also seemed to indicate he expected the Cardinals to make a move regarding his status on the roster.
Boy I hope they offer to send him down to Memphis vice releasing him outright. Somehow, I don't think designating him for assignment is the right answer. It (one more time) also seemed he would be willing to spend some time at AAA to clear his head.
That's one problem. What do we do with Villone? He's one more team away from tying Mike Morgan's 'most city stickers on your bag' record for a reason. I say we punt him outright and bring someone else up. I don't care who accompanies Chris Perez to the majors, whom I would expect to be called up if they make a roster move with Izzy.
Reyes' line from tonight: 3 2/3inn, 6 H, 2 ER, 2BB, 3K, ND (Memphis won in 12). Recap didn't say why he was pulled in the fourth; his pitch count might have been high, or they're working on lengthening him out to pitch more innings per appearance.
Yep, apparently Edmonds was in the Padre lineup, was substituted for, but still wanted to play today, so he went over to the Cubs side and is now in CF hitting sixth.
They better run a breath-a-lyzer on the guy covering this game.
It sucks when you fight back from an initial 2-0 deficit to tie the game in the eighth, then lose in extra innings. I didn't realize that Villone was the guy tagged for 4 ER in the 10th until seeing the highlights (lowlights?) on ESPN.
Let me pull out my old moniker (The AngryRant, for those of you new to the site) to discuss Anthony Reyes for a moment.
As you know, Reyes was sent back to AAA Memphis on 4 May. He wasn't happy about it, and I don't blame him; I don't think his performance was so bad it merited his being demoted. But let's look at the data to see what it tells us.
In his first 6 appearances, he pitched very well. He did have a hiccup in his second, against the Nationals; he gave up a 1 out 2 run HR to Flores, Washington's catcher. He got the next guy out and was replaced by LaRussa, getting credit for a hold.
For his first 6 games, his line looked like this:
9 2/3 IP, 3R (all earned), 8 H, 1 BB, 8 K, 2 holds, 1 save, 1-0 overall record, 2.79 ERA, WHIP 0.93.
Pretty darn good.
LaRussa at least evinced some faith in him then, using him in tight, close games. You get holds only if you come into the game in a save situation; his save was in the 10th inning against the Giants, who the Cardinals had trouble with (they went 4-3 against St Louis this season). Reyes was pitching about every 3 days to start the season. Since he had gone through spring training as a starter, I thought that was a reasonable approach to a kid now shifted to the bullpen, as you work him into working on consecutive days.
Reyes' 6th appearance was as the long man out of the pen, spelling Looper after Loop gave up 6 runs in the third to those same Giants. He pitched as he had in the previous 5, but he was working on 4 days rest.
It's his next appearance that apparently did him in. Entering in the 8th, against Pittsburgh's 4-5-6 hitters, he gave up 4 hits, one loud flyball, and a groundout. The damage might have been worse had Schumaker not cut down Mientkiewiez at second trying to stretch a single into a double.
After that, he pitched at the back end of 2 blowouts, and got sent down.
Why would a poor outing after 6 good ones get him reassigned? Putting on my JFK "there was a second shooter on the grassy knoll" conspiracy hat, doesn't this ooze something nefarious?
It's almost as if LaRussa and Duncan gave Reyes just enough rope to hang himself. It's no secret neither one of them trust Reyes, otherwise why would he have spent the better part of 2 seasons wearing out the road between St Louis and Memphis? If they really bought into Reyes as a top-flight pitching prospect, why did they not let him work out his problems in 2006 and 2007 at the big league level, like other teams have done with Edwin Jackson, Cole Hamels, John Danks, Gavin Floyd, and several other young pitchers over the past 4 years?
But they didn't; they turned him into a yo-yo, and in the process sapped his confidence to the point he was a wreck last season.
And this year was even crueller. The kid worked his butt off in spring training but would have been sent down anyway if not for the intervention of Mozeliak at the start of the season. So LaRussa and Duncan (seemingly, I have no proof of this) went into a dark room and decided to let the kid pitch out of the bullpen until he made enough of a mistake to justify sending him down.
Which he did in that game against the Pirates.
1-1, 2 holds, 1 save, 1 really bad inning, and back to Memphis you go. Obviously I think he got the shaft...again.
He's pitched only once since returning to Memphis - 3 shutout innings in an abbreviated start on 9 May (4 hits, 3 walks, 3 K). He should start again Thursday (Memphis is off tomorrow) at home against Oklahoma City.
Clearly I want him to have a chance to succeed at the Major League level for the Cardinals. I think he's good enough and the team was foolish for cycling him between St Louis and Memphis last year (yes I know he was 2-14 in 20 starts over 107+ innings). But it may well be time to trade him away, especially if he continues to have this to look forward to as long as LaRussa and Duncan are in charge in St Louis.
Too bad it follows a lack luster effort at Milwaukee. It's tough to go 3-5 on a road trip when you won the first 2 games.
And as a reward, they come home and get the Pirates, winners of 7 of their last 8.
It doesn't get any easier.
Padres are in Chicago this week, so I get a close-up look at our rival (courtesy of local TV). They exploded for 6 runs in the 5th and 5 in the 6th enroute to crushing San Diego 12-3.
Kyle Lohse tries to stop the bleeding, both personal and team, against Phil Dumatrait of the Pirates. Dumatrait is 0-1 with a 9.45 ERA lifetime against the Cardinals. Lohse is slightly better (2-0, 1.78) lifetime against Pittsburgh.
My thanks to USS Mariner for mentioning this item and providing the original link.
You may remember from reading this blog that Paul DePodesta, former GM of the LA Dodgers, is now a consultant for the San Diego Padres. He spoke to the local SD SABR chapter; a synopsis of that presentation can be found here, and here, and here.
Paul has started his own blog, to provide 'some unfiltered access to [the Padres'] internal conversations and feelings.' If the blog approaches the quality of Mr. DePodesta's presentation to SABR, it should be well worth the read.
There's a permanent link to his site in the margin.
That's what I get for posting before finishing my morning round of sports websites.
Here's a link to the story about it.
Wow. My respect for Izzy just went through the roof. How many guys wouldn't have the guts to tell their manager, "Hey I need a break," instead going out there day after day with a hole in their bat, or their glove, or throwing meatballs?
Looks like it's just a re-shuffle of responsibilities. No word on if there will be a call-up from AAA (Chris Perez?) yet.
Stay tuned.
Yesterday the biggest news locally was the release of Jim Edmonds. Normally on the drive home I have the radio tuned to XX 1090, which covers the Padres; they either have Padres pre-game programming on the air or, as has been true over the past week with the Padres on the East Coast, the game in progress. Because the Padres are at home this weekend, they were doing pre-game stuff, so the Edmonds release was a hot topic.
Edmonds was bitten by two things - a slow start to the season (hitting .180), and becoming an unexpected liability in the outfield. As the Padres continued to struggle (losing 18 of their last 22 after last night's 4-2 decision to Colorado), the discussion became more and more animated out here that something needed to be done; and local fans focused on Edmonds.
He's the new guy, he's making a lot of money, and they jumped on him.
For argument's sake, here's what the other Padre regulars are hitting (minimum 81 AB; that's within 10% of Edmonds' total before he was released): Giles .269; Gonzalez .303; Bard .204; Greene .205; Hariston .208; Iguchi .252; Kouzmanoff .279. Edmonds certainly wasn't the only one struggling at the plate. Also, he wasn't the only one kicking the ball around in the outfield; witness Giles' 2 errors in one inning last week in Miami that torpedoed that game for Maddux, as an example.
I think most of us will agree Edmonds hasn't been the same player he was since the concussions he suffered in mid-2006, but I also think he got a raw deal from the Padres. And I'm sad to see him go; I didn't get a chance to see him in person at the ballpark, which I was really looking forward to doing, seeing as St. Louis comes through the week after next.
I doubt Jimmy will latch on somewhere else; he's probably finished as a major leaguer.
**********
Speaking of players who look finished, Izzy blew his fifth save of the year last night against Milwaukee. What makes it even more painful is he had 2 outs when the rally started. Viva El Birdos had a graphic up this week detailing how Izzy's swing and miss percentage is way off this year; if I remember the article correctly, historically he's missed bats at a 11% rate, but this season it's closer to 6%. If he can't throw it by you anymore, given his recent (as in since 2006) trouble getting his curve ball over for strikes on a consistent basis, he's going to have trouble getting guys out.
This is also the third game already this season that the Brewers have rallied to score runs off him; he's lost 2 of those games, and in the third the Cardinals prevailed in extra innings.
Alarms should be going off in the Cardinal front office. They need to take a close look at Izzy and, frankly, Franklin; neither is pitching as effectively as they did last season. We cannot expect the starters to be as good over the whole season as they have been for the first 6 weeks, which means LaRussa needs a reliable option at the back of the game. Yes, Izzy has 11 saves so far, but the recent trend (1 save, 3 blown saves, runs given up in 3 of his last 4 outings) is disturbing to say the least.
I hope their record going into Wednesday's game at Coors wasn't the high water mark for the season; they've lost 3 in a row since, and two of those games they led in the eighth.
Yikes.
Until next time. Links to it from your site are always welcome.
To either of Ankiel's two throws last night, please email me or post a comment. I can't find one, and I really, really want to see them.
Boy what must it have been like to be at the last 2 games at Coors? First Pujols' mad dash, then the Rick Ankiel Show. Wow.
I hope they're still playing that well when they hit the West Coast in 2 weeks.
I'd have that look too if I had the game he just did (AP Photo/David Zalubowksi)
[Update 1124: I found the video on MLB.com, but it WON'T PLAY ON MY WORK COMPUTER! AARGH!!]
