How much can a sports fan take? Well, it started with a sweep in the World Series when a certain Yellow eyed idiot grounded out weakly to the second baseman to end the game. This said man also left the great city of St. Louis for a small amount of money and to a place he thought would let him not bat in the 2-hole. Well guess what he was forced to bat there in Boston and when he went into one of his constant slumps, he was booed right out of Bean town. He got booed to Atlanta where again he found himself in the two hole of the lineup. The aforementioned yellow eye is none other than Edgar Rentaria, he will also be welcome in St. Louis by many of the fans as shown the following season when we cheered as he came on the field. I was at the game he came and I booed. I hate him.
Now we find ourselves with many problems as a baseball team. We have lost a potential gold glove catcher that can?t hit his weight in batting average for a clutch hitter that seemed to just get it done in Gary Bennet. Amist the trouble of injuries a more severe blow was the loss of David Eckstein, his departure hurt not only our defense, but also hurt us at the lead off spot. He is generally a 4 or 5 pitch at bat if not more. Now we are forced to fill that void with bench players and from outside of the organization. I am not sold on Jose or Tino being the end all solution to our infield problem, but I have started to come around for Aaron Miles and Ronnie Belliard, while I think that he needs to cut his hair I think that he can still play a solid defense and be a bat in the bottom of the lineup that will give a good opposite field threat. The outfield has been battered with the loss of keys such as Walker and sanders over the past years, but this year has been devastated by the loss of Jim Edmonds trying to tough it out and eventually hurting himself worse. Preston and Juan have done an excellent job in filling in, but are no Jim Edmond?s. I sure as hell hope that we change our view and put Jim on the open market because his carreer is tailing and is not worth 10 Million a year which is what his contract is set for. If he would restructure his contract it may be worth it.
My greatest problem I have with the Cards management is pitching and the way we have handled ourselves. While Izzy has blown more saves this year than any other year in his career I still feel safer while he is in the game than anyone else that we have right now that isn?t a starter. Perhaps Reyes could be a 2 inning closer. I have been saying the cubs should be doing that with Kerry Wood. I don?t think it is too far reaching to have a closer be in for 2 innings. Most of the batters in the lineup will only see him once in two innings and if they see him twice he hasn?t done his job. Why we moved Mulder back from AAA and Reyes down confuses me, but I understand that Reyes can get starts down and we have to see if Mulder is ready to go for the post season or if he is done. As far as everyone else besides Carpenter, they are all probably aces on a AAA team and a 4 or 5 on most teams in the majors. With the exception of Marquis if he pitches to the gameplan.
Well enough for now, I?ll post again soon.