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Life After Albert
With Albert Pujols gone, the Cardinals need a new face of the MLB franchise.
They have no shortage of candidates. Native son David Freese has been the club’s most visible player since his postseason for the ages but he’s never even played 100 games in a season. Lance Berkman has the career credentials and leadership skills but he turns 36 next month and is on a one-year contract. Age also works against starter Chris Carpenter, who is 36. Adam Wainwright has the personality and the pedigree but he is returning from Tommy John surgery and has a comeback to deal with. Yadier Molina has been with the club longer than any position player and is coming off his best season but the club can’t even get him to show up to its winter fanfest.
Matt Holliday is a five-time MLB All-Star. (AP Photo)
There are, however, no such excuses for Matt Holliday’s candidacy. He has the game: His .315 career batting average since arriving in the majors in 2004 is second only to Pujols among active N.L. players. He has the experience, having established himself as a superstar with the Rockies. And he has the salary: Entering year three of a seven-year, $120 million contract, he remains the Cardinals’ highest-paid player.
No less a Cardinals great than batting coach Mark McGwire believes Holliday is the man. At the St. Louis baseball writers dinner honoring the club Sunday night, McGwire put “Big Matt Holliday” on the spot when, lamenting Pujols’ loss, predicted a big year from his 32-year-old left fielder.
There’s only hitch with Holliday: He’d rather not, thank you very much.
On the field is no problem. Despite a run of unusual (A moth flying into an ear, for example) injuries last year, Holliday typically is good for All-Star production for 155 games.
In the clubhouse isn’t, either, though Holliday is not known as a big-time leader. “A lot of that is perception,” he says. “I interact with my teammates a little differently than some of you might think. I’m not a yeller but I’m not afraid to talk to young guys about certain things.”
Slow Start? What Slow Start?
OK, time to stop the MLB nonsense about whether the Indians are for real.
They’re as real as Justin Masterson’s sinker, Shin-Soo Choo’s right arm, Carlos Santana’s batting eye, Orlando Cabrera’s experience and Asdrubal Cabrera’s talent.
Try this for real: The Indians own a majors-best 66 run differential and an MLB best 18-4 home record. They’ve scored the second-most runs in the A.L. and have the fourth-best ERA. They’re 7-2 against the A.L. East with the revived Red Sox returning to Cleveland looking for revenge after that three-game sweep they absorbed in the season’s first week.
Ron Washington knows they’re for real. Asked if he knew the Indians would be in first place when in spring training he asked Manny Acta to be an MLB All-Star coach, the Rangers managed replied, “I knew the Indians would be tough. They have some talent.”
Washington might have been one of the few to believe that two months ago. But he’s no longer alone. The Indians sit atop the MLB Power Poll for the fourth consecutive week. The Poll is convinced.
1. Indians (1). You can ask the Reds if the Tribe is for real. The Indians’ weekend sweep was first over Reds since 2004.
2. Cardinals (14). When talking about N.L. MVP candidates, Matt Holliday would be the place to start. Unless you started with Lance Berkman.
3. Red Sox (13). About that 2-10 start, perhaps the Red Sox just wanted to play fair and give the rest of the league a head start.
Adrian Gonzalez has provided the offensive punch the Red Sox were hoping for when they traded for him this offseason. (AP Photo)
4. Giants (6). Latest wrist injury to Mark DeRosa could be the end, making his the saddest in a season that has seen more than its share of injuries.
5. Phillies (4). Chase Utley is back in time for rematch of last year’s divisional series against the Reds. Time for the rest of the Phillies’ offense to return, too.
6. Yankees (15). What a debut: Right-hander Hector Noesi gives Yankees four scoreless innings to win 15-inning marathon in Baltimore, providing the difference between a so-so and a good week for the club.
Who Can Save Them Now?
Every time a closer loses a lead, Ron Washington looks a little smarter. When the Texas Rangers were considering making their MLB All-Star closer, Neftali Feliz, a starter, Washington said not so fast. If Feliz was to switch roles, the skipper wanted a proven replacement.
With none in sight, the decision to keep Feliz in the bullpen became simple. And the Rangers have yet to blow a ninth-inning lead, a claim that barely half the teams can make just two-plus weeks into the season. As Joe Nathan, one of the best closers of the past decade told reporters, “That’s a tough gig when you’re healthy.”
Nathan clearly isn’t 100 percent in his recovery from Tommy John surgery and actually asked his manager to remove him from the closer role after he blew his second consecutive save chance Saturday. Because the Minnesota Twins’ bullpen has the experienced Matt Capps, the switch was simple.
Not so clear is the situation with the St. Louis’ Cardinals’ Ryan Franklin. The Cardinals could have gone 9-1 on a just-completed West Coast road trip if not for three blown saves by Franklin, all coming in rather spectacular fashion (one could have been prevented if center fielder Colby Rasmus had held on to a fly ball).
With an 11.57 ERA through his first six outings, the decision to give Franklin a break seems obvious. But what might seem obvious to most often isn’t to Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, who stuck with Jason Isringhausen through a hip injury that eventually would end his 2006 season after 10 blown saves.
Two years ago, La Russa refused to name a closer during spring training, even as all signs pointed to young Jason Motte. Sure enough, Motte got the ninth-inning call on opening day and promptly blew a two-run lead by allowing four runs. A week later, Franklin closed out a 2-1 victory and took off. He converted 21 of 22 chances with a 0.79 ERA in the first half, made the All-Star team and scored a contract extension.
In A-Rod’s $hadow
Baseball has two superstars whose identities have become inseparable from their MLB team’s identity.
And this offseason, both Albert Pujols and Derek Jeter went through contract negotiations with their franchises that left everyone, player and team, taking criticism.
We can blame the Steinbrenner brothers for both.
Hank and Hal are the ones who gave Alex Rodriguez — at age 32, after their general manager said he would not re-sign A-Rod if he opted out and he opted out anyway — a 10-year, $275 million deal.
Jeter, rightfully, could feel he had done more for the Yankees than A-Rod and thus deserved to be richly rewarded.
Pujols, rightfully, could feel he is, right now, a better player than A-Rod and deserves a richer contract.
The Cardinals on Wednesday announced they could not reach a deal for a contract extension with Pujols, and at Pujols’ request will cease “negotiations” — we put that in quotes because the Cardinals acknowledged having made just one offer, about six weeks ago — until after the season.
It’s an unsatisfactory position for the team, its fans and perhaps their favorite player. Cardinal Nation is left to choose sides, feeling either Pujols is greedy or the Cards aren’t taking care of their icon.
In a statement, agent Dan Lozano said, “While both parties were hopeful that an agreement could be reached, a difference of opinion in determining Albert’s value simply could not be resolved. Albert’s production over the last 10 years is nothing short of historic. He is not only the best player in baseball, and on his way to having a Hall of Fame career, but an iconic figure in sports. The expiration of today’s deadline does not eliminate the possibility of Albert returning to the Cardinals in 2012, but simply delays negotiations until the conclusion of the Cardinals’ season.”
Asked to compare the Pujols talks with Jeter’s, St. Louis general manager John Mozeliak said they have similar status in their cities but, “We’re not looking to position this in any way or start trying to negotiate points or sides via the media, so there’s a stark difference.”
Yes, at least this saga didn’t include a smear campaign by the team against the player, as the Yankees did with Jeter. But one element of the ugly back-and-forth between Jeter and the Yankees seems to apply here too: a taunt to test the open market.
Back in late November, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, knowing Jeter’s market value as a 36-year-old shortstop, told ESPNNewYork.com, “We’ve encouraged him to test the market and see if there’s something he would prefer other than this. If he can, fine. That’s the way it works.”
Pujols is closer to his prime, and St. Louis management has been more subtle.
Albert Pujols Hits 400th Career Homer
Albert Pujols hit his 400th career home run Thursday night, becoming the 47th major league player to reach that milestone.
The St. Louis Cardinals first baseman cranked a 0-1 pitch from Nationals starter Jordan Zimmermann over the center field fence at Nationals Park in the top of the fourth inning for his 34th homer of the season. The 30-year-old hit the milestone in his 1,523rd major league game, breaking a tie with Al Kaline and Andres Galarraga on the all-time list. Both of those sluggers retired sitting on 399 homers.
Pujols’ total ranks eighth among active players, with Andruw Jones next at 405. Every player ahead of Pujols on that list is at least three years older, so he should have plenty of time to keep chipping away at the statistical landmarks still to be conquered.
Perhaps most impressive about Pujols’ power to date in his career is the command of the strike zone that has always accompanied it. He is one of just 16 players in baseball history to have accumulated at least 400 homers while walking more times than he has struck out. Cardinals legend Stan Musial is also on that list.
Roy Oswalt St. Louis Cardinals Sights Thrown For a Loop
In 1969 when the Rolling Stones said, “You can’t always get what you want, and if you try sometime you might find you get what you need”, Roy Oswalt wasn’t even born but the timely lyrics are speaking directly to him today.
With only eight days remaining before the trade deadline, it’s looking more likely that this next week could be the last one Roy Oswalt spends pitching in a Houston Astros uniform. The Phillies have engaged in talks with the Astros about trading for the pitcher, and Oswalt would be willing to waive his no-trade clause to move north to Philadelphia.
Though it seems the Phillies aren’t his preferred destination. Oswalt has a definite preference, and that it appears to be the St. Louis Cardinals. Read More >>
Tweet your way into a Lawsuit
With social media being such a huge media focus it comes as no surprise that one of the now most popular viral platforms twitter is at the forefront of a lawsuit and inadvertantly the MLB.
The charade involves St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa which odley enough settled with a donation to his Animal Rescue Foundation – donations must pay better. The lawsuit came about because of postings to the ‘what are you up to’ philosophy of twitter under La Russa’s name and was filed last month in the Superior Court of California in San Francisco.
“With due respect to the man and his notable work, Mr. La Russa’s lawsuit was an unnecessary waste of judicial resources bordering on frivolous, ” Twitter co-founder Biz Stone wrote in a post Saturday. “Twitter’s Terms of Service are fair and we believe will be upheld in a court that will ultimately dismiss Mr. La Russa’s lawsuit.”
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