artie_fufkin wrote:

"i saw the slide by descalso and thought from the angle i had that his slide was a bit lazy: feet first, tag with hand, never went all the way to the dirt."

Are you suggesting he should have crashed the catcher?

i figured some wise ass would say something like that.

i think that if he was going to slide feet first he should have tried to tag the plate with his feet.  also, he never really got lower than a sitting position on his butt.  so, he should have gotten his jersey dirty and lay flat back.  maybe the core problem was that he did not expect it to be close and did not plan his slide right, because his slid feet first but it didn't seem like he had much of a chance to put a foot on the plate, given the angle he was coming in at.

I'd have to go back and look at the past few games, but I think Rasmus got the hint that he should start swinging at pitches that are actually in the strike zone.

tkihshbt wrote:

I'd have to go back and look at the past few games, but I think Rasmus got the hint that he should start swinging at pitches that are actually in the strike zone.

dunno.  just four games before this one he drew 5 walks and his dry spell went back at least a few games before that.

tkihshbt wrote:

Some Twitter chatter from Miklasz via Matthew Leach: the Cards are intrigued by Craig as a second baseman but want to ease him into it. Count me as intrigued by the intrigue.

I am interested as well.  I was going to post that he has seen more time at the position.  He has started 6 games a 2B and had 11 chances.  At third he has started 2 games and had 2 chances.  He has yet to make an error in the infield or outfield.  The ball isnt getting hit to him alot so it is hard to pass judgement.  I personally think he isnt near as bad in the field as we were lead to believe. 

After moving Skip to second and dealing with poor defense at the position I understand them being cautious.  However the two players are not the same.  Craig has played the infield (thirdbase) as recent as 2 years ago in the minors.  When he did play third I believe they were worried about his arm more then his hands.  Playing second doesnt requirer much throwing.  I believe being right handed naturally makes turning a double play easier.  Proof that left handed people naturally screw up more.   

The Cardinals look to be setting themselfs up nicely to fill positions from within.  Second base will likely be manned next year by Craig and Descalso.  Greene hasnt showed the ablity yet but he has the potential to be a good utility man.  Freese seems to be a major league third baseman if he could stay healthy and Carpenter has caught interest.  With Miller and Martinez having high major league ceilings the rotation might see a surpluse in a few years.  Salas and Sanchez have been great out of the bullpen so far.

I know that is getting ahead of things but it is hard not to get excited when these younger guys have made such an impact already.  In the past when the team needed a boost or help because of injury they looked to the waiver wire.  Is this the first look at the "new direction" the Cardinals claimed to be headed in a couple years ago when they stepped away from the "Walt Jocketty Mold"?  I think put these younger guys like Salas, Sanchez and Delscalso in a winning enviroment will really help there careers.

APRTW wrote:

tkihshbt wrote:

Some Twitter chatter from Miklasz via Matthew Leach: the Cards are intrigued by Craig as a second baseman but want to ease him into it. Count me as intrigued by the intrigue.

I am interested as well.  I was going to post that he has seen more time at the position.  He has started 6 games a 2B and had 11 chances.  At third he has started 2 games and had 2 chances.  He has yet to make an error in the infield or outfield.  The ball isnt getting hit to him alot so it is hard to pass judgement.  I personally think he isnt near as bad in the field as we were lead to believe.

Who knows, maybe Craig's girl friend didn't let Luhnow sleep with her?  Maybe that is the key to the Cardinals bizarre internal system of ranking prospects?  Seriously (almost), I don't recall any hype at all about Garcia until spring training a year ago.  Almost like he came out of nowhere--"oh yeah, and by the way, there's this guy Garcia who will probably be one of the most dominant starters in the game.  We might see him this year."  On the other hand, we get guys like Bryan Anderson who are hyped to the limit, but don't even make enough noise to fizzle.  It makes me sad for whatever poor young lady was dating Bryan Anderson a couple years ago.

Last edited by Max (5/28/2011 8:48 pm)

Garcia wasn't a complete unknown. He had come up briefly in 2008. But, as Artie said, he went under the knife, so I think the plan was to ease him back at AAA. Garcia blew up the plan by pitching so well.