Its good top put a whoopin on the Reds today. Monday made me want to throw my TV out the window.

Holy shit - Westbrook with a CG shutout??? :eek:

WOW

He's presently sporting a 91% GB rate. Yeah...that's decent.

A hell of an outing from Jake today. I'll never be a fan of the guy because I'm absolutely convinced he'll come apart when we need him most, but I'll give him credit where he earns it and he absolutely earned it today.

Yup.

He came up big in game 6 after we had exhausted every other arm we had. He will never be top of the rotation, but he has learned to use what he has and for the most part can keep you in a game.

Damn - as of close of business yesterday, Brett Wallace was 1-21 with 17 strikeouts.

Seventeen!. The guy could have a BABIP of 1.000 and his batting average would still be below the Mendoza line.

That's gotta be close to the worst start in history, doesn't it?

I bet frazod probably wishes we had him instead of Holliday, though :evil:

Yeah, we pretty much crushed that trade.

It didn't balance the scales on Haren/Mulder or anything, but we gave up absolutely nothing to get Holliday after the A's gave up Carlos Gonzalez and Houston Street to get him.

Those that worship at the altar of Billy Beane often forget the times that he gives up Andre Ethier for Milton Bradly, Aaron Harang for Jose Guillien and Tim Hudson for scrap.

Beane effectively undid all gains he made in the Haren trade by taking the 2 best players he got when he re-traded Haren, flipped them for Holliday and then lost Holliday for nada.

Beane's cosmic scorecard on the Mulder for Haren deal is little more than a couple of nice seasons by a starting pitcher on a losing team. He hurt the Cardinals far more than he helped the A's.

The Rasmus trade also got us a World Series Championship. Regardless of how Rasmus turns out, that is a helluva deal.

Damn Shelby Miller looked like an All-Star, Cy Young candidate pitcher in the making. He was in control. He kept all the hitters off balance. Not a single hitter centered the ball and hit it hard. 1 lousy hit that they just stuck out their bat and kind of guided the ball.

Problem is that he strikes out a lot of hitters and because they can't center the ball get a lot of fouls balls. Even though he was cruising he threw 113 pitches in 7 innings, almost 80% were strikes. What can they do about that style so he can make it deeper into games?

Improve his secondary pitches, especially the change. If he has two swing and miss off-speed pitches he'll be nearly unhittable.

Welp, here comes Semtex Boggs.

Apparently Boggs' control with a beard trimmer is as adroit as his control on the mound.

I'm afraid to even turn the TV on.

Right down the ****ing middle. Jesus, this guy is straight ass.

Cliffs Notes: 20 straight retired. Boggs gets the first guy out, then walks the next hitter on five pitches all over the world, gets the next guy 1-2, then putts a meatball right down the middle for another hit. Now Braun is up as the go-ahead run.

Boggs just threw a belt high slider on 1-2 that Braun mistimed and fouled off.

Spikes the 1-2 pitch in the dirt.

We escape. Thank ****.

Definitely not turning the TV on.

****ing Braun is so far off the plate he may as well be in the dugout.

Braun gifted him a K

Whew. Good game. 1 run in the last 3 starts by the starters. :clap:

Now I'll turn on the TV.

The new Saturday home unis look nice. Wainright dealing, both on the mound and at the plate.

Is that some sort of throwback, or just designed to look like one?

Like the big 6 in the outfield, too. :thumb:

Nice Web Gem by Descalso to end the inning, too.

It's a combo, the piping down the side is from their 50's uniforms and St Louis across the front is from the 40's I think. The cream color is also a throwback.

They've never had St. Louis with the Birds on the bat. I don't like the new uniforms, but it appears I'm in the minority.

Nice change of pace, IMO. I wouldn't like the change on the regular uniform, but once a week it's okay.

They had St Louis on the front in the early 30's.

Once a week, I can deal with the Saturday alternates; I feel what's really important is tha Cardinal pitching has pitched 3 consecutive shutouts, and Westbrook, Miller & Wainright all completely dominant.

Oh, and Taveras had 4 hits Friday night for Memphis.

Oscar Taveras for Jurickson Profar rumors persist. Does it make sense?
It seems like a day cannot go by without someone bringing up the possibility of a Oscar Taveras for Jurickson Profar trade. The latest coming from former GM Jim Bowden on ESPN Insider (subscription required), who labels it as a "challenge" trade--one that could define the GM's careers.

Of the face of it, the trade seems to make sense. Profar is generally consider the top prospect in baseball, but is blocked at the major league level by Elvis Andrus. Taveras is considered the 3rd best prospect in baseball, but is blocked by a loaded Cardinals outfield.

The Cardinals need a long-term solution at short, where shortstop Pete Kozma has done admirably in his short tenure, but there is skepticism as to whether he can keep it up. On the other hand, the Rangers need a replacement for Nelson Cruz, who will be a free agent after this season.

One concern for the Cardinals is that Carlos Beltran will be a free agent after this season and Taveras is seen as the heir apparent in right field. But they have other options there as well, such as putting Matt Adams at first and shifting Allen Craig back to right field.

For Texas, the Rangers could move Profar to second and shift Ian Kinsler to first to make room for their talented prospect. But that would still leave a hole in the outfield should Cruz walk.

So, a trade of Profar for Taveras makes perfect sense. Except there's one problem: Bowden thinks that Taveras is the better prospect and that the trade would be a win for the Rangers.

By all appearances, the Rangers are setting up Profar as trade bait. They just signed Andrus to a 8-year, $120 million extension and despite this, they keep playing Profar at short. Why would they do this if they do not intend to play him there at the major league level? Simple answer, to make him more attractive to other teams.

In addition, many people, including Bowden, project Taveras to be a consistent .300 hitter with 20-30 HR power in the majors. He has a career minor league line of .323/.382/.525. While some scouts feel that Profar can develop into a .300 hitter with 30 HR power, he has yet to show it in the minors, with a career line of .276/.368/.447 in the minors and a season high of just 14 homers.

So, if I was Cardinals GM John Mozeliak and Rangers GM Jon Daniels called to offer me Profar for Taveras. I politely tell him no and go about my business.

http://network.yardbarker.com/mlb/ar...sense/13393024

Although the author ignores the surplus value of a good hitting shortstop vs. a good hitting outfielder, I do agree with his conclusion.

I'd rather have Oscar.

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/colum...TocMAE.twitter

"the Cardinals aren’t going to trade outfield prospect Oscar Taveras to Texas for shortstop prospect Jurickson Profar, so let’s all settle down."

Agreed

Scoreless inning streak comes to an end. Roidboy Braun breaks it up with a 2 run homer in the 8th.

And Boggs promptly pisses down his leg in the 9th, now a tie game, no outs, winning run in scoring position.

And Yadi gambles and loses and misplays a bunt.

****.

Boggs is such a worthless ****.

That blown call by Tishner is really going to **** us in the ass now.

Great ****ing play by Mujica. What a wonderful surprise he's been.

Goddamn Roidboy up again.

Thank God.

I know Mujica doesn't have the annihilator's repertoire, but that performance should have just won him the closer's role.

Let's just hope it doesn't take Matheny as long to pull the plug on Boggs as it did LaRussa to dump Franklin. I've seen more than enough of that turd. And Salas, too.

Great. Extra innings game right in front of a 10 day, 10 game roadtrip.

It won't last long. Salas is pitching.

Right on cue.....

DIE IN FIRE SALAS :#

And there you have it. Lucroy goes deep on Salas. 4-3.

Middle-in, belt-high 92 mph fastball. What the **** could go wrong?

Roenneke could not be doing more to lose this game. Now he puts the winning run on with two outs.

....and the piece of shit Salas gives up the lead. JFC *Behind a bit

At least that **** Salas gets the loss. 4321

Was no one else available????

**** it, I vote Salas Douche of the Year

They might as well DFA Salas. He's been worthless since the 2011 post season.

Boggsringhausen strikes again.

so who is going to end up being closer for you guys?

Who do I need to pick up for my fantasy team?

Our bullpen sucks ass right now. I'd stay away from all of them.

I picked up Rosenthal. He's got to get the next chance, right?

Maybe. But he's a gas can at this point as well.

I still like Rosenthal because of the upside. He just didn't get that fastball outside far enough. He's a rookie, its going to happen. but, look what he did after giving up that dinger? Pitched like a lights out closer. Mixed up his pitches, good placement. Yadi should get him mixing up his pitches better.

Take the hit for the mistakes now for getting a reliable closer later in the season.

I would give it to Mujica before Rosenthal. Rosenthal has looked like shit in the majority of his last several outings. Mujica doesn't blow anyone away but he is solid and he avoids belt high middle of the plate fastballs.

Cardinals manager Mike Matheny indicated Sunday that Edward Mujica might be tried at closer.

Mitchell Boggs has been awful in place of the injured Jason Motte (elbow) and Trevor Rosenthal hasn't been much better in a setup role. "Right now, Mujica’s making good pitches and getting the big outs when we need them," Matheny told reporters on Sunday evening. The right-hander is worth adding right now in most fantasy leagues.

Pick up Salas. What could possibly go wrong!!!

The closer spot is going to **** this team out of a postseason birth this year. Next turd in line!!

We seem to say that every year, but this time, I think we're going to be right.

Seems like we have a bullpen full of Ricky Vaughans. Guys that throw rockets, but with no control.

At 10-1, I think they've Boggs-proofed this one. Hopefully.

Or not. 10-4.

I'm still not comfortable with Boggs up 4.

I wouldn't be comfortable with Boggs up by 14.

This is frustrating to watch.

Got bailed out to some extent by a double play.

But then another base hit. Ugh.

Winner. But still, **** you Boggs.

The closer job is up for someone to grab now. I still think we let Rosenthal learn on the job because of his huge upside.

Disagree. You give the job to Mujica because he's earned it. If Rosenthal starts blowing people away then you can move him into that spot, but he hasn't done that this year, and the last thing the organization needs to do is obliterate his confidence.

Rosenthal's huge upside remains as a starting pitcher and he's not going to develop the 3rd pitch he needs trying to get high leverage outs as a closer. You keep trying to shoehorn him into a job that he's done absolutely nothing to earn while continually spitting the bit this year when asked to get key outs.

I still think he should be in AAA learning to throw his breaking ball in fastball counts and developing his secondary offerings. I don't want the kid pigeonholed as a reliever just because he excelled in the role last September. He's been a starter his whole career - continue to develop him as one.

The more I look at Mujica, the more I can't understand why I was against him in the 9th and why others are as well. What are the two most damaging thing a closer can do in the 9th? Walks and HRs - does anyone disagree with me there?

Mujica doesn't walk anyone and he rarely gives up HRs. Moreover, Boggs is killing us because he has no command within the strike zone - he's centering everything. Well Mujica's also outstanding at hitting his spots. If you started with a guy that virtually eliminates the 2 things that you can't have a closer doing (free passes and HRs) and said nothing else about Mujica's arsenal, you'd be doing cartwheels at the possibility of him closing.

People are a little anti-Edward because of the scouting reports; most notably his velocity. But does anyone else realize that Mujica throws 92 mph on his average fastball? No, it's not rocketfuel, but there's some giddyup there. And I'm pretty sure it was Hamas that said it, but when you watch Mujica come in after Kelly or even Rosenthal, it's like someone sets the difficulty mode to difficult with him. Everything he throws moves like crazy. If you're dialied up to catch up to high heat and in comes Mujica throwing 92 with whiffle-ball movement, you're going to screw yourself into the ground trying to hit him.

Meanwhile, Boggs and Rosenthal are similar enough pitchers that you're going to have a better feel for that kind of guy.

I'm a huge believer in promotion on merit in major league baseball and all Mujica has ever done in St. Louis is attack the strike zone, keep the ball in the yard and get key outs for us in tight spots. He's a savvy veteran that's easily been the best pitcher in the 'pen this year. He's earned a crack at it.

Give Mujica a shot. I think he'll run with it and we'll get a year extremely similar to the year we got out of Ryan Franklin in 2009. He'll do a great job for a year or two, IMO. If Rosenthal still hasn't been able to transition to a starter's role at that point, then you put him at the back of the bullpen and tell him to fire away.

And by the way, Mujica was warming last night when Boggs put the runner at 2b. Had there been another single and that run scored, Mujica was due to come in...with a 3 run lead....in the 9th.

That's a save-opp, kiddos. Sure looks like Matheny has made the switch to Mujica, at least for the time being.

About time....

I wouldn't be surprised if he had success.

Only the Cards could acquire a turd like Mujica and have him end up locking down games.

Eh, Mujica was never a turd, really.

His 2011 season was actually an excellent year; getting a 1.8 WAR out of a setup man is damn fine work. He also had a couple of decent years in SD before that.

At his worst, he was an average relief pitcher but a guy that has clearly improved as he's aged a bit and developed that funky split-finger that people are really struggling with.

Game postponed by weather. Which is good, since we were down by 2 early and had committed 2 errors.

I'm okay with Mujica getting a shot first. But, does anyone think he can still be the closer all season and into the playoffs? Rosenthal could pull that off.

He has said publicly that the job is not Bogg's alone anymore.