Optimistic Musings of A Redbird Fan: Issue 1-2012

The St. Louis Cardinals, after losing a series to Milwaukee, opened with a win at home against the Chicago Cubs. Kyle Lohse was good and got his 10^th win while, Jason Motte got his 21^st save. And this is what the Redbirds must do as they march towards the post season; beat the teams they are supposed to beat. They failed against Milwaukee but, plenty of time left to win the division and defend their World Series Championship.

Chris Carpenter had successful surgery and will start rehab after 2-3 months of recovery. He should be ready for spring after an unusual surgery that leaves him with one less rib bone on his right to relieve pressure on nerves running from his neck to upper arm. Time will tell but, let’s hope we’ll see Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter back together in the Cardinal starting rotation next year.

Jaime Garcia should return to the Cardinals soon as he threw off the mound this past week. He has been sidelined with shoulder discomfort. Not sure what the Cardinals will do with Joe Kelly but, I’m hoping he’ll be moved to the bullpen. Our bullpen is still somewhat shaky and I like Kelly’s arm. I’m not convinced yet the Marc Rzepczynski has recovered from the funk he has been in; although he has pitched better recently.

Can we stop with the speculation of the St. Louis Cardinals being sellers please? How ridiculous does that sound for a team 3 ½ games out of first place to even think they would be looking to unload players. It really annoys me what the national and local media come up with for sports headlines. Stop the madness please; it’s much more likely they will obtain a pitcher or position player. I’m sure there’s a team that will be willing to deal for Tyler Greene or Rzepczynski.

I’m starting to feel a little sorry for Tyler Greene. He is 0-13, with one walk in pinch hitting duty lately. I really believe Tyler has the potential to be a very good player. I just think the pressure has gotten to him in St. Louis and now that he isn’t playing every day, it’s taking a toll on him as a player. The Redbirds could do him a favor and try to deal him to another team.

Brian Fuentes, the LH reliever the Cardinals signed recently to a minor league contract pitched one scoreless inning in his debut for the Gulf Coast League Cardinals. He will report to Springfield next and the Redbirds have until July 31 to promote him to the major leagues or he can opt out of his contract. We could use another LH reliever and if Rzepczynski continues his recent success, they would be quite a tandem in the bullpen.

So, in the 1^st game of the series against the Cubs, Manager Mike Matheny moved Furcal down to 8^th in the batting order and Skip Schumaker hit lead off. Why??? Well, Schumaker had a .423 batting average against Cub pitcher Ryan Dempster and Furcal had a .143 batting average. As it turned out, Schumaker went 0-3 against Dempster and Furcal 1-3. Just goes to show you…stats aren’t everything.

Thanks for reading. Go Cards!