There was some great news out of yesterday's ball game. Too bad it was overshadowed, at least in part, by the news that came out afterwards.
The Cardinals announced that Chris Perez was having arm troubles. Now, when you hear "injury" and "Cardinals" in the same sentence, the normal reaction is to break out in cold sweats. When you add "pitcher" to that list, you start wondering if the poor guy will still have an arm after it is all said and done.
Right now, the Cardinals and Perez both are downplaying the severity of the discomfort, with Perez even saying he probably could pitch. Hopefully, all of that is true and, since there are still over two weeks until the season starts, there's still time for him to be healthy by opening day.
That said, even if he is healthy, I think that there's a dent put in his chances of going north. Derrick Goold has said it sounds like Brad Thompson is a lock to go with the big club.
Especially with the very few days off in the first month, his ability to eat innings will be useful. So the final decision in the bullpen was likely to come down to Perez and Josh Kinney. With the time on the sidelines, I think Perez might be losing that battle.
At least there was positive news on the ball field yesterday.
Chris Carpenter was definitely in midseason form yesterday, becoming the first St. Louis hurler to go six innings this spring. Carpenter threw just 64 pitches to get that deep into the game, not allowing a ball in the air until the end of the fifth.
As I said yesterday on the UCB Radio Hour, knock on all the wood you can find, but I think you have to just start thinking about Carp as a pitcher who's going to be out there regularly rather than a rehab project.
Carpenter's outing underscored the need for solid defense in the infield. As we discussed on the show last night, it seems like Skip Schumaker is coming along in that regard.
I don't believe Skip has made an error since last week's suggestion that the experiment wasn't working. So far, so good, I guess. It'll be interesting to see just how long of a leash he has on this.
The Cardinals didn't do a lot offensively, only putting together six hits and three runs, though with Carp on the mound that was enough. Skip got a hit and a walk and is proving to be a great option at the top of the lineup. I didn't realize exactly how little Joe Mather was hitting.
All the focus has been on Schumaker's fielding and Colby Rasmus's hitting, but Mather's average is right there with Rasmus, even though he does have one homer to Colby's zero.
After yesterday's article about the payroll, John Mozeliak hit the radio airwaves to talk about that and various other things. You can read the full recap at Pitchers Hit Eighth, but I think the most important thing financially to come out of that was the fact that it's possible the Cards will have money around July's trading deadline if necessary.
It'll depend on attendance and other factors, of course, but it's nice to think that it's at least a possibility.
Yadier Molina didn't quite pass Albert Pujols in the approval ratings, but got very close with his 93.4 percent. I think Yadi's approval was more broad, because there were few that didn't rank him out of the 90 range. AP got a few low scores and a ton of 100s.
Today's subject is Colby Rasmus. This one could be difficult since he has yet to play in the bigs. Do you grade for potential? Do you look at his minor league career? The factors are up to you, just post your percentage in the comments!
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