"Cardinals fans won't have 40-year-old reliever Miguel Batista to kick around anymore. Post-Dispatch baseball writer Joe Strauss reports that Batista was released today by the Cardinals, who promoted starting pitcher Lance Lynn from Class AAA Memphis in a corresponding move."

That's right, Strauss. Blame the ignorant fan base for picking on poor Miggy. The Cardinals didn't release Batista because the fans were giving him a hard time. He was released because he couldn't get people out. The lede should have read "The 15 other teams in the National League won't have Miguel Batista to kick around anymore."

I don't think it was Strauss who wrote the part about the fans "kicking" Batista.  Strauss was doing his live chat when the news of Batista's release broke.

Last edited by forsberg_us (6/22/2011 5:17 pm)

BTW, did you see what El Diablo asked Pujols that pissed him off so much?

artie_fufkin wrote:

forsberg_us wrote:

I don't think it was Strauss who wrote the part about the fans "kicking" Batista.  Strauss was doing his live chat when the news of Batista's release broke.

The "Joe Strauss reports ..." part must have thrown me off.

"Cardinals fans won't have 40-year-old reliever Miguel Batista to kick around anymore. Post-Dispatch baseball writer Joe Strauss reports that Batista was released today by the Cardinals, who promoted starting pitcher Lance Lynn from Class AAA Memphis in a corresponding move."

Maybe I'm wrong, but the way I read that paragraph is that Strauss reported the information in the second sentence. The first sentence came from whoever authored the story which didn't carry Strauss' name.

forsberg_us wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

BTW, did you see what El Diablo asked Pujols that pissed him off so much?

He apparently asked Pujols if he thought the injury would affect his future and Pujols became indignant and told Strauss it was a stupid question.

So it was a stupid question because Pujols didn't want to answer it?

Well, I was wrong about Batista.  I thought they would dump Franklin first, which is what they should have done based upon performance.  But maybe this is a way to ratchet up tension on Franklin to retire, if he sees a more worthy pitcher get cut, maybe he will start feeling guilty.

"But maybe this is a way to ratchet up tension on Franklin to retire, if he sees a more worthy pitcher get cut, maybe he will start feeling guilty."

I don't know how you've formed the idea Franklin is going to retire, Max. He clearly still thinks he can pitch, and even if he has come to same assumption the rest of us have that he's done, the probability of him walking away from a multi-million dollar contract when the other options are selling life insurance or giving private pitching lessons to some fourth grader from Podunk for $75 an hour is pretty remote.
He's either going to have to get better, or the Cardinals are going to have to DFA him.

"It's more likely that they let him save face and just ride it out. La Russa is fiercely loyal,"

I'm all for loyalty, but the St. Louis Cardinals aren't a college fraternity, they're a professional baseball team. Their success and failure is measured every night. If LaRussa wants to be loyal, let him show it to the other 24 guys in the clubhouse and especially the rest of the pitching staff by bringing in someone in his spot who has a fighting chance.
One of the reasons the Patriots have been successful is because Bill Belichick can recognize when a player's skills have diminished. I'm not saying I want LaRussa to turn into Bela Lugosi in a gray hoodie overnight, but for heaven's sake I've had enough of him hanging on to the Ryan Franklins and the Aaron Mileses and the Randy Winns of the baseball world because they've accrued what you so aptly refer to as LaRussa Bucks.

Max wrote:

but cutting Batista is kind of an obvious sign that the better man lost.

Not really. Not defending Franklin, but let's not confuse Batista with an effective pitcher. As Miklasz pointed out, Batista was averaging 6 walks per 9 innings and 15.5 baserunners per 9 innings.

Calling Batista the "better man" is like picking the attractive woman in one of AP's fatty pictures.

True, I have not been able to watch much lately.