Cardinals

Good morning, gentle denizens of Viva El Birdos. I hope everyone had an enjoyable, or at least satisfactory, Independence Day holiday.

Myself, I had a bit of a mixed day, I must admit. I attended a barbecue at a friend's house, whose birthday also just happens to fall on the fourth of July. That was wonderful; it was the good portion of my day. We shot off fireworks, ate inordinately large amounts of tasty animal flesh, threw a baseball around in the yard, and just generally had a gay old time. The not so fun portion of my day was largely the result of the fourth degree burns I sustained over most of my left arm due to a flareup on the barbecue front.

I beg your pardon?

There's no such thing as fourth degree burns, you say? Well, it was the fourth of July, so I'm classifying these as fourth degree, in honour of our great nation's independence. USA! USA! If you question the severity of my burns, you obviously hate America. You don't hate America, do you? Of course not. What kind of burns do I have? That's right. Glad we're on the same page now. 

Of course, the other unpleasant portion of my Independence Day is what I'm here today to talk to you about.

I'm not sure exactly how many people managed to see the game; judging by the site traffic, a lot of people were otherwise engaged. However, if you did manage to see the game, you saw one of the single most inept performances by an umpire that I've ever been witness to.

I'm generally not one to complain about the umpires. All in all, baseball really has some of the best officials in all of sports. Just take a look sometime at the NBA referees, if you don't believe me. Even the ones who aren't deliberately throwing games are awful. NHL refs aren't much better; no two games are ever officiated quite the same. Football? They're mostly okay, but there always seem to be one or two suspicious calls in any given contest; a phantom hold here or an odd pass interference non call there. Still, not too bad. Baseball, though, generally has very solid officiating. You rarely see massive variation from game to game, inning to inning, and that's really all you can ask for. The umps may not always get the calls exactly right, but they do their best to be consistent.

Combine the generally high level of consistency with the difficulty of calling balls and strikes, and I usually don't get too very down on the umps. I'll complain during the game, mostly out of frustration, but I maintain that, in general, the officiating in baseball is of a pretty high standard. Besides, usually, if your team loses, you can find better things to blame than the officials. If the shortstop hadn't thrown away that routine grounder in the fifth inning, those three unearned runs wouldn't have scored, and the game wouldn't have come down to a call. It's really rare that you can actually point to a given call in a game as the only reason your team lost. Along the way, there were almost surely enough opportunities missed and mistakes made that the losing team probably really didn't deserve to win anyway.

However, I just cannot let what I saw last night go.

First, let me set the scene for you. Early in last night's game, the top of the fourth inning, to be exact, with the Chicago Cubs already leading the game by the score of 1-0, Geovany Soto stood at the plate.  Braden Looper was pitching quite well, having given up only one run to the point, on a solo shot the Kosuke Fukudome in the first inning. The pitch that Fukudome deposited in the right field seats was certainly a mistake, as I'm really not sure a tee ball would have been in better position to whack, but apart from that, Looper had cruised along, supressing a very dangerous lineup.

Looper got ahead of Soto, building a one ball, two strike on the Cub catcher with two fastballs, one each a ball and a strike, and a nasty slider that was waved at and missed. Looper came with another slider, and Soto got just a piece of it, fouling it off to stay alive.

That's when Looper's problems started.

Looper's next pitch was a fastball, a 93 mph heater with nice cutting action to it that appeared to graze just the barest outside edge of the plate. The man in blue behind the plate, though, didn't see it that way, and called it a ball. All of us watching the game groaned a bit; it was a hell of a pitch. Looper just didn't get the call.

Looper fired another fastball, an even better one this time. It came in at 92 mph, cutting over the outside corner again, knee high, about an inch or two closer to the plate than the previous pitch. Fists were pumped in the air, hands were raised for the strikeout celebration, as Looper clearly painted the corner on that one. In fact, as Al Hrabosky so aptly described another pitch during last night's telecast, Looper had truly threaded the needle on that one.

Ball three.

And now the grumblings really began. He's getting squeezed, we all shouted. That's bullshit, many of us said. That's two in a row. Where in the hell were those pitches? You know the drill.

So, from a 1-2 count, it was now 3-2, on two questionable calls. Both were borderline pitches, absolutely, but at least the second one definitely should have been a strike. Still, a good pitch here, and none of that matters.

The next pitch was, unfortunately, not so good. I believe it was supposed to be a splitter, but it did precious little splitting. What it did was exit the park in a rather rapid fashion, and just like that the Cubs had an insurance run.

You know what, though? Stuff like that happens. One of those pitches should have been a strike, but they weren't called that way, and Looper hung a breaking ball to a very good hitter. He got beaten. Nothing we can do about it. The calls sucked, but as long as it's the same strike zone for everyone, that's just the game. No use in complaining about it.

Well, fast forward a little while. During the course of the evening, we had all watched the ball game intermittently in between various games of cards, a trip to procure additional fireworks, and the viewing of a very funny video that featured the animatronic characters from Showbiz Pizza performing the newest Usher single.

Carlos Zambrano, henceforth known as Public Enemy #1 'round these parts, continued to have the Cardinals' collective number. Looper had nearly matched him, pitching quite a fine game in his own right. Russ Springer came in and did his job; sadly, Bob Howry did the same. Albert did reach a nice milestone, hitting home run #300, but, like the Mang himself, individual accomplishments mean little to me when the team is suffering.

And so we came finally to the bottom of the ninth inning. The Cubs were clinging to a one run lead; the Cardinals had one last chance to rain on the Northsiders' parade. Troy Glaus was set to lead off the inning, followed by Chris Duncan and Yadier Molina. Not the most magical of bullets, but you could certainly do much, much worse.

At this point, we had all migrated out into the street to try and set ourselves on fire. I managed to add a singed thumbnail on to the- what kind of burns?- that's right, fourth degree burns I had already sustained on my arm. We all stood out in front of the house, watching all the houses around us put on their pyrotechnic displays, occasionally adding our own to the fray.

A vehicle door was opened; the baseball game was located on the radio. We listened to the reports and whistles, hoping to hear the voice of the Moon Man raised above the fray, exhorting the ball to get up, baby, get up. Instead, what we heard were groans and grumbles coming from the booth, apparently quite a bad strike call had been made.

At this point, being the baseball fan that I am, I immediately took off away from the fireworks, running back into the house to see if the call was as bad as they made it sound on the radio. I arrived back at the television just in time to see Troy Glaus stalking away from it, angrily shouting as he headed back to the dugout.

I quickly grabbed the remote and ran the game back, (oh, the wonders of the DVR) to see what the fuss was all about. Imagine my surprise, then, to see the exact same pitches that had been called balls two and three to Geovany Soto in the fourth inning called for strikes two and three to Troy Glaus in the ninth.

You know what? I could have handled one of the two. Hell, I thought they were strikes before. In fact, I wouldn't have had a problem with either of those pitches being called strikes if it weren't for the fact that we had already established that they were not, in fact, strikes earlier in the game. My biggest problem with the whole thing, though, was the umpire's reaction after Glaus expressed his frustration with the first call. The ump stared at Troy as he stepped out of the batter's box, adjusted his uniform, and took a couple of breaths to steady himself. The umpire continued to stare Troy down as he stepped back into the box and readied himself for Kerry Wood's next pitch. In fact, I'm not entirely sure the umpire wasn't still staring at Troy as he called the third strike, on the same pitch that wasn't a strike in the fourth for Looper, and shouldn't have been a strike for Wood in the ninth.

Of course, after Glaus headed back to the dugout, clearly upset and making no great secret of it, the umpire kept staring over at the Cardinal dugout. Neither Tony nor Duncan appeared to be making any sort of noise over the calls, so I have to wonder why the ump saw the need to keep stealing glances over at the Cardinal bench.

So, was this simply a case of incompetence, of an umpire who couldn't keep the strike zone consistent throughout the game? Or was it a case of an umpire who made a bad call, then decided that the player who had dared to show his frustration with what he thought was a poor call needed to be shown just exactly who was the boss? I have to wonder, which one of those guys do you want to be, blue? Bad at calling balls and strikes or trying to make the game about you? Hmm?

I said earlier that there are enough missed opportunities and mistakes made in any game that you can always make the argument that the game never should have come down to a call by an umpire. And technically, that was probably true of the game last night, but it certainly didn't feel like it. It was a magnificently played game, with quality pitching and defense on both sides. You can complain the Cardinals didn't work the count against a pitcher who was on a pitch count if you want; I certainly did so. But when it comes right down to it, last night's game was a clean, quick duel of two pitchers doing just what they needed to do to win. One was certainly a bit more efficient than the other, but they were both effective.

Unfortunately, the game was ultimately decided by an umpire. If either one of the balls he called on Soto were ruled strikes, #300 ties the game up. If either one of the strikes he called on Glaus, which were the same pitches he called balls earlier, went the other way, the Cardinals have their leadoff hitter on in the ninth inning of a one run game. How might things have gone from there? I have no idea. Unfortunately, we'll never get to find out.

I am not at all in favour of computerized ball and strike calls. I like the fact that we still have a human being behind the plate. Call me old fashioned if you must; I probably am. But MLB needs to do something about the quality of their umpires. It seems the pool of ump talent is becoming more and more diluted every season; we're seeing more  of these kinds of problems all the time. At the very least, there needs to be a concerted effort to teach the correct strike zone to these umpires. Again, all that's really required is consistency. The strike zone is laid out clearly enough in the rules that you would think it could be taught.

There also needs to be something done about the confrontational attitude many of these umpires, especially the younger, less proven ones, take toward the players. How many times in the last four or five years have we seen umpires engage in actively antagonistic behaviour toward players? The old axiom, that the best umpires are the ones you never notice, doesn't seem to have any adherents among this new crop. The arrogance, the animosity, the aggression, all are bad for the game and need to be stamped out.

I understand that an umpire has to maintain control of a game. But umpires are not in contention with anything. The players are the ones competing. They're the ones with their careers on the line if they somehow don't manage to move a runner over from second to third with no outs. The umpires need to understand this, and maintain their distance. No official should ever aggressively pursue a confrontation with a player, no matter how much the player pisses the ump off. The player says one of the magic words, he's gone. He makes physical contact with an official, he's gone, and probably fined. That's all well and good. But players shouldn't have to deal with umpires showboating and posturing, in an attempt to somehow prove they belong in the league.

MLB generally has the very best officials in all of sports. I really do mean that. But the quality has taken a hit the last couple of years, and it's bad for the sport. I don't say this as a Cardinal fan, angry that his team lost a game last night. I say it as a fan of baseball who's angry that I increasingly see poor officiating and, worse, officials making themselves part of the game, when they have no business being part of the contest.

MLB needs to get a firm handle on this. We all know what a joke NBA refs are, and it's killing the sport. It's not at all the same way in baseball yet, but the indications aren't good.

I'll be back with a game thread later. I think I'll try a haiku again; it worked last time. Need to get a game back in this series today.

we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and dominion over the Cubs . . . .

when in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one ballclub to outhit, outpitch, and outfield another . . . .

Zambrano	Looper
8-3, 3.13	9-5, 4.26

happy 4th everybody. it’s a holiday weekend, the cards are playing the cubs, and the teams are fighting each other for first place; jim edmonds is back in town (and welcome back to ya, jed). it doesn’t get much better than this.

i'll be at a barbecue tonight and away from the computer, so overflow threads will be pre-programmed. i don't know whether to expect heavy traffic because it's the cubs, or light traffic because it's the 4th of july. erring on the side of caution, i'm gonna pre-program two overflows --- one will open an hour after game time, and the second will open an hour after that.

historically, card-cub game threads have not brought out the best in the VEB community. most people keep the rivarly in perspective and are able to enjoy the sparring without being obnoxious about it. but there always seem to be a few dicks who show off their most unpleasant, vulgar, and unintelligent characteristics when the cards play the cubs --- indeed, they think it’s cool to act that way when the cards play the cubs. don’t be one of those dicks. have all the fun you want in the game thread; just don’t drive people off my site with repugnant behavior. and if you observe someone else behaving that way, flag the post or write me an e-mail.

i exchanged views this morning with al yellon, my friend over at Bleed Cubbie Blue. his answers to my questions are here; head over there to see my answers to his questions. if you do drop by BCB during the weekend to exchange views w/ the northsiders, remember that you are representing our community ---- be good-humored, fight fair, and refrain from trolling. thanks ev’yone.

1) Jim Edmonds appeared to be toast when he came to the Cubs; he even got called out by Lou Piniella for his lax production after his first week or so in Chicago. How'd he turn it around?
That's a mystery to me, too, but I'm certainly not complaining. In 36 games as a Cub Edmonds is now hitting .294/.391/.587, better than his career numbers, with 8 HR and 24 RBI. He's played a competent CF --- it's clear that he doesn't have the range he used to, but he catches most everything he can get to --- and has contributed to many wins, most notably with his game-tying, last-of-the-9th HR against the Braves on June 12, a game the Cubs won in the 11th on a walkoff HBP. Even some Cubs fans who hated the idea of "that hated Cardinal" in a Cubs uniform are coming around.

To answer your question more directly, Edmonds had an injury in spring training that limited him to six ST at-bats. Clearly, it hadn't totally healed during his time in San Diego and they gave up on him. He's healthy now, and the Cubs have a productive CF platoon (Edmonds and Reed Johnson) at a cost to them of about $1.6 million for the entire season ($1.3M for Johnson, and the minimum for Edmonds, as the Padres are on the hook for the rest of his contract).

2) After half a season of watching Fukudome, do you think the contract he signed is a) a bargain, b) overpriced, or c) fair ?
The contract is fair. Fukudome has been exactly as advertised -- an on-base machine (.395 OBA) who has mid-range power and plays an excellent RF. His best value to the Cubs has been his patience at the plate -- this has rubbed off on his teammates, as they are on pace to break the club record for walks in a season. He is the Cubs' first Japanese-born player and Japanese players are noted for their disciplined approach to the game, something that has been missing from Cub teams for many years. For that alone, he's worth it.

3) What is the secret of Ryan Dempster's success this year? Are you worried he will wake up one day and turn back into the old Ryan Dempster?
Cub fans always worry about just about everything. But Dempster, apart from one disastrous start vs. the White Sox, has been consistent all year. The "secret," which really isn't one, is that Dempster dropped about 30 pounds and spent the winter doing intense workouts, because he realized that returning to starting pitching would require him to get into better shape. Part of his routine was running up and down Camelback Mountain in the Phoenix area before spring training, something that anyone who's hiked those trails would tell you is a tough task. It has paid off. Dempster is also a smart player who understands what it takes to succeed. He'll make the All-Star team and it'll be well-deserved.

4) Matt Murton, Felix Pie, Ronny Cedeno, Eric Patterson, Rich Hill . . . . a lot of highly touted Cub prospects are going stale, rather than establishing themselves as regulars. Does that trend worry you, and what do you think is the reason for it?
Technically, Murton isn't a Cub prospect -- he was acquired from the Red Sox in the Nomar Garciaparra trade. "Highly-touted" is a relative term, too; of the ones you mention, only Pie and Hill had that tag on them, and Hill only in the later stages of his minor league career. Since producing several good-to-very-good position players and pitchers in the 1980's (Shawon Dunston, Mark Grace, Joe Girardi, Greg Maddux among others), the farm system has become fallow in recent years. This I would attribute to bad management and bad drafting more than any other factors. In the last few years under Oneri Fleita and scouting director Tim Wilken, the system has begun to rebuild, and I hope that bears fruit in years to come. Also, keep in mind that although the players you name have had less success than hoped for, the Cub farm system has produced, in the last ten years, Kerry Wood, Carlos Zambrano, Michael Wuertz, Sean Marshall, Sean Gallagher and Carlos Marmol.

5) Which pursuer do Cub fans fear more --- the Cardinals or the Brewers?
Personally, I fear the Brewers more --- and don't take that as an insult, Cardinals fans. I still can't figure out how your team is doing it, and I look forward to Larry's answers to my questions on that topic. Milwaukee has a great offense --- their weakness, as was apparent in their unbelievable meltdown loss to Arizona yesterday, is their bullpen. This weekend series will go a long way toward setting the tone for the rest of the season, just as the September 2003 series in Wrigley Field did for the Cubs that year, and the July 2004 series, also at Wrigley, did for the Cardinals in that season. Let the games begin!

have the cards ever rallied from 0-9? there was that big comeback in cincinnati some years back on mother's day, but i think they only trailed 0-8 . . . . .

Pelfrey	Boggs
5-6, 4.47	3-0, 4.37

according to Fangraphs, boggs has relied almost exclusively on 2 pitches since he joined the cardinals --- his fastball (70 percent of the time), which averages 93 mph; and his curveball (21 percent), which averages 78 mph. those speeds, if they're accurate, would seem to make him fairly difficult to adjust to. so far, however, hitters have made pretty consistent contact --- when they swing the bat, they either put it in play or foul it off 88 percent of the time (the big league average is just 80 percent). if he learns how to change speeds <i>and</i> locate his pitches, he might be a decent hurler. . . . .

pelfrey relies even more heavily than boggs does on the fastball --- throws it 80 percent of the time, per Fangraphs, with the rest of his pitches split between slider and changeup.

that would have been a tough loss to swallow; thankfully, the mets' lefty relief pitcher was as inept as the cards' was. with their 4 hr last night, the cards climbed to 6th place in the national league in that category and now are on pace to whack 170 hr, the same number the pujols-edmonds-rolen-walker-sanders group produced in 2005. they've outhomered their foes 90-75 so far this year, after being badly outhomered each of the last two years.

pineiro got hit pretty hard for the 2nd consecutive start. last night the mets feasted on his fastball. he threw it 32 times (according to gameday), 23 times for strikes; the mets swung at it 16 times and put it into play 10 times, a very high ratio of BIP per swing. (you’d hope to get a higher percentage of foul balls and swing/misses than that.) worse yet, 8 of the balls in play were base hits, 3 for extra bases. . . . . they were getting extremely good looks at his fastball. only one met swung and missed at the pitch --- delgado, who whiffed at it twice in his 5th-inning at-bat. the velocity on pineiro’s fb was normal, right around 89-90 mph, but (understandably) he didn’t throw it nearly as often as he typically does. per fangraphs, he has consistently thrown the #1 about 55 percent of the time over the last four years; last night it accounted for barely over a third of his pitches. in pineiro’s last start, in kansas city (which i witnessed in person), he threw the heater only about 45 percent of the time, although his results with it were decent enough (he did yield a homer and a double off the pitch). pineiro has spent time on the dl this year with shoulder and groin problems; nagging trouble from either injury might rob his fastball of some life --- which, in turn, might explain why he’s backing away from the pitch. i’m just fishing for explanations here; could be way off. but for one reason or another, it’s a fact that he has altered his repertoire the last couple of starts --- he’s not throwing his fastball as much as he usually does. might not mean anything . . . . but still something to look for in his next outing.

moving on to mulder: clearly a mistake to put him into that situation. in addition to all the obvious reasons not to use mulder there, add the fact that carlos delgado (one of the two lefties he was sent in to face) has a .348 / .483 / .565 career line against mulder in 29 plate appearances --- and most of those occurred when mulder was good. i realize the first hit off mulder was another bloop (the 3d cheapie he has yielded in 2 nights), but you can’t really say he was a victim of bad luck last night. he fell behind the first batter 3-1; gave up a solid line drive to delgado; fell behind easley 2-0 before yielding the sac fly (also well hit); and then hit schneider. the bloop was unfortunate, but overall mulder just didn’t make many good pitches; the results were fair. in any case, mulder has never had the ability to throw the ball past hitters since he came to st louis; he has always pitched to contact, counting on the late movement of his pitches to induce weak groundballs. but with his new shoulder and arm angle, mulder can’t keep the ball down nearly as well; instead of topping the ball, hitters (the few we’ve seen so far, anyway) are able to muscle it over the infield. of the 7 balls put in play against him in his two appearances, only 2 have been grounders. that’s not bad luck, it's a reflection of ability --- and, for a pitch-to-contact pitcher, it’s not a formula for success.

how else could tony have played the inning? he could have stayed with mcclellan, who has a very good record vs left-handed hitters (.599 ops against) and at home (.621 ops against). however, kyle needed 17 pitches to get through the first couple of batters of that inning, and he was up to 27 pitches for the game; he has thrown more than 27 in an outing only twice all year. if tony was trying to avoid burning the guy out, it was a good call. but why not villone there for the lefty-lefty matchup? the old geezer has smothered lhb this year, holding them to a .191 average / .298 slugging; over the last 5 years (including 2008) he has faced 561 left-handed hitters and held them to a .208 / .314 / .300 line. villone has only pitched 5 times in the last 3 weeks, facing just 19 batters over that span, and he had a day’s rest under his belt; he ought to have been fresh, no? maybe villone still hasn’t recovered from the beating he absorbed in the 20-2 loss vs philadelphia last month; he threw 66 pitches in that outing, his highest count since 2004 (when he was a starting pitcher), and has appeared in only 5 of the 17 games since. . . . . i also wondered if perhaps tony was saving villone for potential 8th-inning matchups against reyes (a weaker hitter vs left-handers) and chavez --- but if that was his thinking, i disagree w/ it.

hard to know which half of the pitching staff to worry about more at this point, the bullpen or the rotation. i’m still most worried about the latter --- although the starters held it together for a couple of cycles after wainwright and wellemeyer went down, the last two-plus cycles through the rotation haven’t been encouraging. with waino out and wellemeyer ineffective, there’s just not a whole lot to work with; i fear an implosion. re the bullpen --- i’d be all in favor of picking up a left-hander on the cheap, but strongly against yielding one or more big prospects for brian fuentes. as i noted the other day, relievers of his ilk cost a load of talent on the mid-season trade market --- even those heading into free agency. a left-handed specialist just isn’t worth that much to me. HC has mentioned joe beimel as a more affordable target --- that’s the type of guy the cards might get cheap, although i don’t think beimel himself will be dealt (the dodgers are only 1.5 games out of first). but ron mahay might; another possibility is the giants’ jack taschner, although he’s probably due for a regression from his current 2.54 era. the blue jays’ most tradeable lefty, brian tallet, has a wicked reverse split; ditto the mariners’ ryan rowland-smith. i just don’t see a whole lot of options out there on the trade market --- and i’d rather do nothing than overpay for a guy like fuentes, who i’ve watched his entire career out here in denver. i think st louisans would grow to hate him in short order; he’s inconsistent and mistake-prone, capable of losing the strike zone for a week or two at a time.

the cards go for the series win tonight --- tomorrow, the cubs.

lefty relief pitchers not doing their job for either team tonight . . . it's 7-7 heading into the 9th. c'mon boys

(clapping softly for the team)

Martinez                  Pineiro

 2-2, 7.12                  2-4, 4.33

 

Pedro, soon Hall bound

Now fighting onrushing age

Patient bats needed.

 

Tough loss last night. That, unfortunately, was the Todd Wellemeyer that we saw so much of before he got here, the one that has largely been absent this season. Too many pitches, unable to put hitters away, just generally all the things you get from a pitcher who, despite the quality of his stuff, just isn't sharp enough to be successful.

It's not that I fear that Wellemeyer still isn't healthy, but I do still question the Cardinals' decision not to DL him. He looks like he's okay physically, but he doesn't look like he's right. He said it himself after last night's game; he could probably use another extra bullpen session or two to try and get back on track. Unfortunately, that's probably not going to happen. Now, of course, if the Cardinals had just put him on the shelf whenever he experienced the elbow issues, he would have had plenty of time to not only get healthy, but also to get his stuff ironed out before rejoining the rotation. Too late for all of that, I suppose. Don't get me wrong; I understand that the options to replace Welley in the rotation, even temporarily, weren't at all attractive, but watching the Cards give away games because of a pitcher who just isn't right is a less than enjoyable option.

In case you missed it, the Cardinals came to terms with their first round draft pick, Brett Wallace, yesterday. He signed for very slightly more than slot money, with a reported bonus of right around $1.84 million. I'm extremely glad the Cards moved so quickly to get this done early this year, rather than allowing the process to drag on until the signing deadline the way they did last year with Kozma. The sooner they can get Wallace into the system and playing ball, the better.

You know, the way the trade deadline is beginning to shape up this year, we may finally see some real movement this season. Every year, it seems we hear of all the big deals that are going to take place, yet the ESPN trade deadline special always seems to be mostly about a couple of middling relievers and a fourth outfielder or two. This year, though, I think we just may see that magic combination of teams with some excess in the farm system and several big names with reasons to be moved. So, in that spirit, let's take a look around at what some of the latest chatter may be.

Probably the biggest name on the trading block this year is the Indian's big lefty, C.C. Sabathia. It now actually appears that the Brewers (the article is insider only) may be one of the strongest suitors for his services. I must admit, I was shocked when I first heard this little tidbit making the rounds. For one thing, the Brewers' farm system has taken a pretty significant hit the past couple of seasons, with a ton of players graduating to the majors, and several others being moved in deals to help shore up some of the big club's weaknesses. For another, the Brewers already have a ton of money tied up in their rotation, with Ben Sheets and Jeff Suppan both having big, expensive deals. Of course, I thought that before I found out that Ben Sheets has apparently already indicated that he'll opt out of his current deal at the end of the season, and apparently the Brewers aren't willing to commit to him on a longer term basis. (There's an interesting discussion about that topic here.) With all of that in play, Milwaukee actually seems like a fairly sensible destination for Sabathia, though I still question whether or not they would be able to get a long term deal done with him.

Of course, the rumour that concerns us the most is probably the one about the Cards' interest in Matt Holliday and Brian Fuentes. There was a great discussion about it over Future Redbirds yesterday, and the prevailing sentiment over there was mostly that the deal would cost too much to make it worthwhile. I happen to agree with that notion, but I won't go into all the details here as to why. I'm just here to report the facts.

Besides our own Redbirds, the Red Sox and Yankees both appear to be suitors for Fuentes' services. The Sawx are certainly in a great position to make a play for the lefty, with a farm system that could easily take the hit. The Yankee system is a little less robust, but Steinbrenner appears to be pretty much hell bent on doing whatever it takes to build the team he wants, regardless of the cost or the wisdom. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Randy Wolf is an intriguing name, given just how astoundingly awful the Padres have been this season. Strangely enough, though, not a whole lot of teams have been linked to Wolf. The Cubbies appear to at least be somewhat interested, but I'm a little fuzzy on just what they might have to offer.

Even though they're in contention, the Athletics have a couple of players that seem to definitely be on the market. Rich Harden is a name that gets thrown around constantly, pretty much any time trades are the subject. He's as dominant as Sabathia when healthy; unfortunately, that's not really all that often. I'm sure it would take a ridiculous offer in order to pry Billy Beane's fingers off of Harden, but some team in contention could very well make that knockout offer to bring in this level of talent.

Mark Ellis, the A's second baseman, could make an attractive target as well, particularly to someone like the Cardinals. Ellis is relatively young, relatively cheap, and also just happens to be quite a ballplayer. Given those qualities, Ellis would also probably draw a pretty serious package, but he might be just what the doctor ordered. I heard a bit about the Mets or the Indians possibly being interested, but it was just a tiny little blurb somewhere, and I cannot for the life of me find it now.

The Blue Jays are trying like hell to unload A.J. Burnett, their $55 million problem child. He's also planning to opt out of his contract after this season, so he would be strictly a rental most likely. The Brewers, Phillies, Mets, and A's have all reportedly kicked the tires at least, and the Cubs have been rumoured to be interested, although there are quite a few conflicting stories on that front.

Vincente Padilla is being looked at by the Mets and Yankees. No thanks.

The A's are apparently looking at Adrian Beltre, from the Mariners. This one doesn't make much sense at all to me, I have to say. Beltre hasn't had a really good season since his contract year, he's owed $12 million next season, and the A's have a pretty good third baseman already, as far as I know. Actually, I take that back. I just checked Eric Chavez's page; he's been awful this year. I hadn't been paying that much attention to the A's this year, to be honest. Does anybody know what in the world has happened to Chavez?

I've got to run, everybody. Discuss amongst yourselves. I'll have a game thread up this evening.

i guess wellemeyer's elbow still ain't right . . . . . . mets 6, cards 3, bottom 5th.

Armas	Wellemeyer
0-0, 0.00	7-2, 3.46

thanks to those who put the kaibash on the Erin Andrew photos in today's main thread. i had my nose in archives all day, wasn't on the site at all  . . . . i don't think anybody meant any harm in posting the pix, and the images themselves are certainly not in poor taste --- well, ok, the close-up of her ass is not exactly elevating . . . . anyway, it began as a reasonably good-natured appreciation, but i sense that a line has been crossed. a lot of women read VEB, and they don't read it for the fixations on comely sideline reporters. neither, for that matter, do most of the men come here for that type of content . . . . i'm asking Erin's fans to share their tributes to her elsewhere.

tony armas has been at triple A all season long and pitching very well --- 2.54 era, 5:1 k/bb ratio over 17 starts, 102 innings. seems like he has been around for 100 years, but he is only 30 years old --- 4 months older than wellemeyer --- and might still have some years left in the big leagues. he had a 6.03 era last year for the pirates . . . .