Jonny Gomes happily being pummeled at home plate. Jason Motte walking off the mound in a dazed state. The Cards lost and if that wasn’t enough to keep you up all night, the Cubs finally won a game.
Hopefully the nightmares weren’t too bad last night. It is very early in the season, but every game does count. And the Cards bullpen already leaves many questions that must be answered this summer. For everyone’s sake, it would be nice if the answers (or improvement) came sooner rather than later. Before you know it, we’ll be in Anaheim for the 2010 All-Star [...]

Today was more of what Brad Penny hoped for when he signed with his childhood team. After getting rocked in his spring debut, Penny came out sharp in his rebound game. He threw four shutout innings and allowed just one hit to help the Cards beat the Nationals 6-4.
His performance on the mound was complemented by an equally impressive day at the plate for rookie Allen Craig. Craig made his spring debut after missing every game to this point due to injury. The rookie did not disappoint. He showed the power that makes him a big league level talent, and [...]

With Spring Training underway for the Cards, a few storylines have developed. Besides McGwire’s recent talks and the hovering cloud over the rookie hitting coach, the Cards made some staff additions and the competition for the fifth spot in the rotation is becoming clearer. Here’s what we have learned in the first few days of “Spring” (It’s still cold and snowy up here at the ‘Cuse).
-Mike Matheny will take on a more prominent role in the organization. The former catcher has enjoyed Spring Training as an instructor the past few years, but has now agreed to a more involved position. [...]

A hot topic this offseason for Cardinals fans has been the changes in the rotation. The top two are rock solid, probably the best in the bigs. After that, there are plenty of questions to be answered. Hot Stove posed one of these questions to me yesterday: “Did you agree with the Cardinals’ decision to allow Joel Pineiro to leave via free agency, coming off of a career year, and in essence, replace him with Brad Penny, who’s coming off very shaky 2009?”
My simple answer is yes. “While it may look like a downgrade from Pineiro to Penny, the Cardinals got a very similar [...]

When Lohse returns, who is the #5 Starter? The two candidates, Brad Thompson and Todd Wellemeyer, have been pretty aware that they are fighting for this rotation spot in their last couple starts. They’ve both been working with Dave Duncan, and appear to be approaching each start the same way: Warm up, pitch poorly, repeat.