***Official 2016 STL Cardinals Thread***

[BigRedChief]

• 2011 World Series Championship
• 2012 NLCS. One win from another WS appearance.
• 2013 World Series. Two wins from another World Series Championship
• 2014 NLCS. Three wins from another WS appearance
• 2015 Central Division title. Won 100 games. Lost in the NLDS.
• Made the postseason 11 times in the last 15 seasons.
• 67 post season wins since 2004. 24+ wins more than any other team.

SI article on our off season, Gives us a "A". ??:
http://www.si.com/mlb/2016/02/12/win...ouis-cardinals

2015 III thread:
http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=295296
2015 II thread:
http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=293412
2015 I thread:
http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=289085

[BigRedChief]

This is such a cool story. Rooting for the guy not just because we need offense from any place we can find it. I hope he makes it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/benjamin-hochman/hochman-hazelbaker-is-talk-of-his-hometown/article_f0201501-1861-5cac-9fcf-770d81eec9a5.html

The pulse of this city is a pantry.
“All the locals go in there,” explained Phil Hazelbaker, by phone from Selma, Ind.


According to the lone comment on its Facebook page, it employs “very nice people.” And per a recent article in The Star Press, the pantry passed recent sanitation inspections without any violations.


“It’s a little pantry here called The Corner Cupboard, and say I would walk in there now, everybody’s all talking about the game,” Phil Hazelbaker said. “Everybody’s talking about him.”


Jeremy Hazelbaker is the talk of his town. In Selma, where the population is in triple digits, the Cardinals outfielder is “all over the local Facebook in the area, and in the school, and everybody’s just buzzing about it,” his father said. “There are wives and kids who never watched baseball, and all of a sudden, they’re watching the game, they’re all interested. It’s just been fun for everybody in our whole area, for a local guy, actually sticking with it, working hard and finally reaching his dream. And now it’s kind of turned into everybody’s dream.”


You think the Jeremy Hazelbaker story is exciting? Imagine how they feel in his small-town hometown. I love that line: “turned into everybody’s dream.” So cool.


It’s hard to predict how this Hazelbaker dream is going to end. A 28-year-old rookie, previously cut by the Dodgers organization, while picked up by the Cardinals basically just to fill a Class AA void (not because they saw something other teams didn’t, in a “Cardinals Way” sort of way). Then, he can’t stop hitting. Makes the big club on the last day of spring training. And it’s mid-April, and he can’t stop hitting.
OK, but is he Bo Hart?


Or perhaps, say, a Ryan Ludwick in the making?


Hazelbaker’s age, and the trend of his minor league strikeout rate, makes it easier to think he’ll come back to earth. Still, if “back to earth” is a role on a good team’s 25-man roster, that’s still pretty incredible for the journeyman whose journey began in Selma, Ind.


“It’s been a dream come true for us as parents,” Phil said. “And grandparents, all the family and friends in the neighborhood.”


Asked to describe Selma, Phil said, “Well, there’s only four to five little places here in town. We’ve got a little post office here, a little Pizza King. We have an American Legion and they’re all just kind of on the main drag here. We’ve got our ball diamonds. So anywhere in that area, when we run across people, they’re talking about it. And everybody at work is fired up about it.”


Jeremy has made it, but he hasn’t “made it.” His parents still work. Dad is a new tooling manager at Mursix Corporation, in nearby Yorktown. Been there 32 years. And Jeremy’s mom, Becky, works at Gibson Arena, a roller rink. It’s been in her family for 75 years. She’s worked there all her life, helping her parents out, who are aging now. I can picture teenage Jeremy Hazelbaker — tall, lanky high school baseball star — swooping around the rink while the girls swoon.




Jeremy was the 18,656th player ever to reach the major leagues, and the first from Wapahani High School. He was an all-state player there, playing on the same team his dad did, years ago. Growing up in Selma, sure enough, “We were always St. Louis fans, as a matter of fact,” Phil explained. “Ozzie Smith, he was my guy. I followed the Cards, so since I did, he did too, so that was kind of our team when Jeremy was little.”
On the day Jeremy was born — August 14, 1987 — the first-place Cards beat the Phillies, 8-4. Ozzie turned two double plays. Willie hit a homer.
And of course, in the first year of little Jeremy’s life, the Cardinals won the pennant.
Before he was a Cardinal, he was, well, a Cardinal. Jeremy attended Ball State, where he starred for the Cardinals there, in Muncie, 10 miles down the road from Selma. At Ball State, he emerged. Left after his junior year, when the Red Sox drafted him in the fourth round in 2009.


Seven years later, he made the Cardinals. I’ll never forget that image in the clubhouse in Tampa. The Cards were there, playing the Yankees. And there was Hazelbaker after the game, crying at his locker, hugging his official new teammates.


His parents were in Pittsburgh for the season opener. And they also made the 311-mile drive from Selma to St. Louis for the home opener. Phil and Becky drove their Chevy Equinox.


“It’s about 30 miles a gallon on the highway,” Phil said.
And in Hazelbaker’s first game at Busch, he went four for four, including a double and a triple.


In his St. Louis hotel room, the Cardinals outfielder presented his parents with two plastic bags. Inside one was the ball in which he made his first major league hit. In the other was his first homer.
“We were really surprised when he had that ball,” Phil said. “Because we didn’t know he had it.”


With each hit and sliding steal and diving catch, Hazelbaker is making memories. But none, his dad assures, will top the phone call. Would Jeremy make the Cardinals or get sent back to the minors, yet again? Phil was at work at Mursix. It was March 31, the day of the game in Tampa.
Phil closely followed the day game on his phone, which soon lost battery power.


“That was probably the first time in months it had died, and that was the one day I was going to be expecting a phone call,” he said with a laugh “I called his mom earlier and said, ‘If Jeremy calls, and someone’s trying to get in touch with me, call my shop phone.’ So I was in my office at my desk when he called. At the time it was just Jeremy, and he said, ‘I’m going to put mom on here for a three-way, just hold for a minute.’ And then, I could hear his mom click on.”

[BigRedChief]

Hazelbaker sits again. 2 straight days. This time so Fat Adams can get going. That will teach Hazelbaker to not go hitless in a game. Doesn't matter how many times Fat Adams was went hitless in games, he hasn't learned that lesson.

Holiday, Molina and Wong sit. Looks like Matheny is punting today getting ready for the Cubs series starting tomorrow.

[bdj23]

But we're so lucky to have him!!!

[rico]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

This is such a cool story. Rooting for the guy not just because we need offense from any place we can find it. I hope he makes it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/benjamin-hochman/hochman-hazelbaker-is-talk-of-his-hometown/article_f0201501-1861-5cac-9fcf-770d81eec9a5.html

The pulse of this city is a pantry.
“All the locals go in there,” explained Phil Hazelbaker, by phone from Selma, Ind.


According to the lone comment on its Facebook page, it employs “very nice people.” And per a recent article in The Star Press, the pantry passed recent sanitation inspections without any violations.


“It’s a little pantry here called The Corner Cupboard, and say I would walk in there now, everybody’s all talking about the game,” Phil Hazelbaker said. “Everybody’s talking about him.”


Jeremy Hazelbaker is the talk of his town. In Selma, where the population is in triple digits, the Cardinals outfielder is “all over the local Facebook in the area, and in the school, and everybody’s just buzzing about it,” his father said. “There are wives and kids who never watched baseball, and all of a sudden, they’re watching the game, they’re all interested. It’s just been fun for everybody in our whole area, for a local guy, actually sticking with it, working hard and finally reaching his dream. And now it’s kind of turned into everybody’s dream.”


You think the Jeremy Hazelbaker story is exciting? Imagine how they feel in his small-town hometown. I love that line: “turned into everybody’s dream.” So cool.


It’s hard to predict how this Hazelbaker dream is going to end. A 28-year-old rookie, previously cut by the Dodgers organization, while picked up by the Cardinals basically just to fill a Class AA void (not because they saw something other teams didn’t, in a “Cardinals Way” sort of way). Then, he can’t stop hitting. Makes the big club on the last day of spring training. And it’s mid-April, and he can’t stop hitting.
OK, but is he Bo Hart?


Or perhaps, say, a Ryan Ludwick in the making?


Hazelbaker’s age, and the trend of his minor league strikeout rate, makes it easier to think he’ll come back to earth. Still, if “back to earth” is a role on a good team’s 25-man roster, that’s still pretty incredible for the journeyman whose journey began in Selma, Ind.


“It’s been a dream come true for us as parents,” Phil said. “And grandparents, all the family and friends in the neighborhood.”


Asked to describe Selma, Phil said, “Well, there’s only four to five little places here in town. We’ve got a little post office here, a little Pizza King. We have an American Legion and they’re all just kind of on the main drag here. We’ve got our ball diamonds. So anywhere in that area, when we run across people, they’re talking about it. And everybody at work is fired up about it.”


Jeremy has made it, but he hasn’t “made it.” His parents still work. Dad is a new tooling manager at Mursix Corporation, in nearby Yorktown. Been there 32 years. And Jeremy’s mom, Becky, works at Gibson Arena, a roller rink. It’s been in her family for 75 years. She’s worked there all her life, helping her parents out, who are aging now. I can picture teenage Jeremy Hazelbaker — tall, lanky high school baseball star — swooping around the rink while the girls swoon.




Jeremy was the 18,656th player ever to reach the major leagues, and the first from Wapahani High School. He was an all-state player there, playing on the same team his dad did, years ago. Growing up in Selma, sure enough, “We were always St. Louis fans, as a matter of fact,” Phil explained. “Ozzie Smith, he was my guy. I followed the Cards, so since I did, he did too, so that was kind of our team when Jeremy was little.”
On the day Jeremy was born — August 14, 1987 — the first-place Cards beat the Phillies, 8-4. Ozzie turned two double plays. Willie hit a homer.
And of course, in the first year of little Jeremy’s life, the Cardinals won the pennant.
Before he was a Cardinal, he was, well, a Cardinal. Jeremy attended Ball State, where he starred for the Cardinals there, in Muncie, 10 miles down the road from Selma. At Ball State, he emerged. Left after his junior year, when the Red Sox drafted him in the fourth round in 2009.


Seven years later, he made the Cardinals. I’ll never forget that image in the clubhouse in Tampa. The Cards were there, playing the Yankees. And there was Hazelbaker after the game, crying at his locker, hugging his official new teammates.


His parents were in Pittsburgh for the season opener. And they also made the 311-mile drive from Selma to St. Louis for the home opener. Phil and Becky drove their Chevy Equinox.


“It’s about 30 miles a gallon on the highway,” Phil said.
And in Hazelbaker’s first game at Busch, he went four for four, including a double and a triple.


In his St. Louis hotel room, the Cardinals outfielder presented his parents with two plastic bags. Inside one was the ball in which he made his first major league hit. In the other was his first homer.
“We were really surprised when he had that ball,” Phil said. “Because we didn’t know he had it.”


With each hit and sliding steal and diving catch, Hazelbaker is making memories. But none, his dad assures, will top the phone call. Would Jeremy make the Cardinals or get sent back to the minors, yet again? Phil was at work at Mursix. It was March 31, the day of the game in Tampa.
Phil closely followed the day game on his phone, which soon lost battery power.


“That was probably the first time in months it had died, and that was the one day I was going to be expecting a phone call,” he said with a laugh “I called his mom earlier and said, ‘If Jeremy calls, and someone’s trying to get in touch with me, call my shop phone.’ So I was in my office at my desk when he called. At the time it was just Jeremy, and he said, ‘I’m going to put mom on here for a three-way, just hold for a minute.’ And then, I could hear his mom click on.”

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by BDj23

But we're so lucky to have him!!!

And he promptly hits a weak grounder off the end of the bat in his first AB.

[bdj23]

This ****ing team is awful

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by BDj23

This ****ing team is awful

looked pretty good to me today.....new guys stepping up again. Rosie and Seigriest looked dominant.

[bdj23]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

looked pretty good to me today.....new guys stepping up again. Rosie and Seigriest looked dominant.

Granted, this was after that wacha/adams error. I should have said this D sucks, sorry, I've been drinking.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by BDj23

Granted, this was after that wacha/adams error. I should have said this D sucks, sorry, I've been drinking.

welllll if Wacha just lets that ball go through they get an easy double play and no runs are scored.

We all have concerns about the team. There is no way we can keep up this offense. I hope that it at least stays on course for the next 3 days.

Lackey pitching tomorrow at Bush. Hayward comes back to Bush. Fans usually treat former players pretty good. I would expect this to not be the case tommorrow and loud boos will greet those two.

[Toby Waller]

I'll say this at least. The Cardinals have the best front jersey logo ever!
It's large,it's busy, but it flows,it works

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Boo Heyturd off the field please

[BigRedChief]

Greg Garcia found how tough the major leagues can be on Monday. The Cardinals infielder was optioned to Class AAA Memphis despite hitting .600 (six for 10) with a .733 on-base percentage and a 1.100 slugging average.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't get this move at all. Tejada was a backup plan. $1.5 million and a veteran. What do we owe him? Diaz is the SS unless he cools off. He cools off then call up Tejada, You just took one of your best pinch hitters off the bench. What was gained?

[Jewish Rabbi]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

Greg Garcia found how tough the major leagues can be on Monday. The Cardinals infielder was optioned to Class AAA Memphis despite hitting .600 (six for 10) with a .733 on-base percentage and a 1.100 slugging average.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't get this move at all. Tejada was a backup plan. $1.5 million and a veteran. What do we owe him? Diaz is the SS unless he cools off. He cools off then call up Tejada, You just took one of your best pinch hitters off the bench. What was gained?

I imagine Tejada is better defensively than either one (Hamas?), but I question that myself. Would we have been better off sticking with Garcia?

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by Jewish Rabbi

I imagine Tejada is better defensively than either one (Hamas?), but I question that myself. Would we have been better off sticking with Garcia?

Even if he is better defensively, we need offense on this team. So we ship a .600 hitter to the minors.

[Jewish Rabbi]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

Even if he is better defensively, we need offense on this team. So we ship a .600 hitter to the minors.

Don't forget the small sample size. Bo Hart started out hitting .375 too