A New Floor

Right now, if you walked in my house, on my left you would see boxes of floor tiles stacked on a wooden floor and an empty room.  Same if you would look to the right.  Go forward and you enter a room with half wooden, half carpeted area with the DVR stacked on a TV tray table, two couches, and two light stands.

Right now, the family has decided to switch out carpet, which we’ve had for 12 years, for tiled floor.  You remove the carpet, clean out the dust, and place the tiles on the ground.  We are still in the middle of the process.

I compare that the Cardinals right now.  In the offseason they removed the old carpet – Aaron Miles, Randy Winn, Jeff Suppan, Jason LaRue, Pedro Feliz – because they were well past their prime.  Sure the carpet was functional, but it was clear an improvement was needed.

They were able to remove some dust – Matt Pagnozzi, Dennys Reyes, Mike MacDougal, Felipe Lopez – but some of the dust successfully stayed hidden – Nick Stavinoha, PJ Walters, Adam Ottavino.

And we are inserting newer floor to our core of our house to make it better – Eduardo Sanchez, Daniel Descalso, Nick Punto, Ryan Theriot.  Somehow, they stuck some older, yet still effective tiles in the package – Lance Berkman, Miguel Bastista.

Anyway, this post was designed to showcase the new floor.  How effective has the floor been?  Will it work out for the long haul?  Am I going to have to go back the carpet?  Just looking at April is wrong of course.  The small sample size could lead to me changing my whole floor again just because I slipped with socks on.  The floor is just getting settled in and will need some time before we can truly judge it.

Eduardo Sanchez – Sanchez has been surprisingly amazing up to this point.  Even with two earned runs and a near blown save, Sanchez still has a a 2.25 ERA.  He has a ridiculous 14 strikeouts and one walk in eight innings.  He also has a save in one opportunity albeit one where he scared the hearts out of many Cardinals fans.  If April is any indication, we have a stud reliever on our hands here.

Daniel Descalso – Descalso has been bad with the bat and outstanding with the glove.  He has made several web gem plays and has saved 2.2 runs according to UZR so far this year.  He is batting .227 with a .255 on base percentage and a .364 slugging percentage.  Overall it adds up to an OPS of the Aaron Miles quality – .619.  He needs to hit better to become a starter, but he should at least be a capable backup if not.

Kyle McCllelan – Ok well, McCllelan isn’t technically a rookie, but he is a rookie in the starter sense.  So far the experiment has been successfull.  The 26-year-old has a 3.23 ERA, but more importantly, only one bad start and no starts with less than 5 innings.  He’s managed a fairly average strikeout-walk ratio at 17-10, but average is what we hope to get from McCllelan.

The Cardinals have many more players that are in their second year than rookie year so next post I may address as such.  But so far the three “rookies” have definitely been very pleasing so far.  None of them should see Memphis anytime soon.