The Cardinals traveled to Atlanta this week after winning five of their last six, hoping to stay atop the National League standings.  Heading in, the club was 13-6, and led the league in several pitching and offensive categories.
Although the Cardinals defense has been suspect, leading the NL with 21 errors on the young season, one player enjoyed a highlight reel series.
Utility infielder Brendan Ryan spent his time in Atlanta making some of the season’s best defensive plays. He’s done it at both second base and shortstop.
The Cardinals’ starting shortstop, Khalil Greene, was scratched tonight’s lineup after experiencing some tightness in [...]

What started out as a well pitched and well played game, got a little sloppy towards the end of the game. Adam Wainwright pitched 7 solid innings striking out 7 and giving up 3 runs, 2 were unearned. Ryan Dempster was able to baffle the Cardinals until the 5 th inning when Joe Thurston doubled home Yadier Molina and Khalil Greene. After advancing to 3rd base on the throw home to get Greene, he was knocked in by a Skip Schumaker line drive to the outfield. Adam Wainwright kept the baby bears in check until the 7th. His defense behind [...]

Here’s a real tongue twister:
Brian Barton to Braves for Blaine Boyer to boster bullpen.
That’s right.  In somewhat of a surprise move today, the Cardinals traded outfielder Brian Barton to Atlanta for right-handed reliever Blaine Boyer.
During their most recent road trip, the Cards found themselves long on innings, but short on arms.  The club shuffled pitchers on and off the 25 man roster to help eat some of those innings in games where the starters didn’t throw their share.  The final game of the Chicago series was the perfect time for a rain out, and thanks to today’s off day, the [...]

The Cardinals former ace and 2005 Cy Young Award winner Chris Carpenter enjoyed an offseason that could almost be called “normal”.  Cardinal fans were hoping for a strong return from the pitcher this year, but most were playing the safe bet that his health would keep him from taking the ball every fifth day.
After a very solid month of Grapefruit League play, Carpenter started to sway our opinions. What if he could continue his spring pace in the regular season?  How good would the Cardinal rotation be?
On April 9, against Pittsburgh, Carp threw a one-hit gem through seven innings, striking [...]

It was just another day at the office for the best hitter in baseball, but for the fans in St. Louis, seeing Albert Pujols doing yard work and single handedly dismantling Roy Oswalt and the Astros was a real treat.
With a grand slam off Oswalt in the fifth, and another three run shot off Wesley Wright in the seventh, Pujols collected 7 RBI on the way to an 11-2 Cardinal victory.
Albert didn’t particularly have a great spring, but he definitely has come out of the gate swinging to start the regular season.  In 21 at-bats, he’s collected 9 hits, including [...]

Cardinal fans everywhere rejoice!  A healthy Chris Carpenter took the mound for St. Louis in today’s series finale against Pittsburgh, and looked a lot like the Cy Young Award winning version we saw back in ‘05.
Before today, the last time Carpenter received a win was in Game 3 of the 2006 World Series against Detroit.  It’s been a long road back for the pitcher, and at least for today, we can all breath a sigh of relief.
If Carp can stay healthy the entire year, the season outlook is a lot brighter.  He’s capable of pitching deep into games, giving the [...]

After my trip to St. Louis for another exciting (but dissappointing) Opening Day, and being on an airplane during last night’s game, I was pretty excited to watch my first Cardinal telecast tonight. More on my trip in a minute.
The Cards were hoping to get a solid performance from tonight’s starter Todd Wellemeyer en route to a win over Pittsburgh, and at least, an opening series tie.  Instead, the Colonel was roughed up for 5 runs on 12 hits.  He also walked a pair, and needed 93 pitches to get through 5 innings.
Even though he didn’t particularly have a good [...]

A new opening day… same old result! Opening Day is the only time that all 32 Major League teams and their fans think that they have a shot at the playoffs. So like always, I had it planned out in my head how the Birds were going to make their run into the playoffs. Solid starting pitching, the MVP of the league, and a young crop of arms in the pen to shut the door when the game is on the line. These 3 things working together on a daily basis would surely get the Cardinals to the 90-95 wins [...]

After the Cardinals beat the Marlins 6-3 today in their final Grapefruit League game of the spring, the club optioned outfielder Joe Mather to Triple-A Memphis.  The remaining twenty-five players will be your 2009 Cardinals on Opening Day.
Surviving the cut, and making the big league roster are top prospect Colby Rasmus, third base stand-in David Freese, and utility infielders Brendan Ryan, Joe Thurston, and Brian Barden.
I can’t remember a Cardinal team filled with so many versatile players.  Of the five outfielders (counting Skip Schumaker), four are capable of playing all three outfield positions, and of course Skip is the starting [...]