I don't guess they will be horrible, but they are probably going to be mediocre. Theriot/Schumaker are going to brutalize this pitching staff, not just with their terrible range but with their stupid, boneheaded plays. Once Rasmus, Pujols, Holliday, Berkman and Freese get going and none of their evolutionary baggage explodes, they'll hit. But I'm just not feeling good about the infield defense or the bullpen.

"call your mother-in-law and ask her to explain why Isreal can't keep its nose out of Middle Eastern affairs."

We quit our membership at the Jewish Community Center because after Zach got out of pre-school, we were pretty much paying $1,000 a year to the JCC for me to play old fart basketball. Last year, we wanted to send Zach to a YMCA summer camp, and there was like a 25 percent discount on the camp fee if he was a YMCA member, so we signed him up for a youth membership, which is something like $11/month. We ended up saving about $200, but it's been so much more valuable in so many ways. That my MIL wigs at least once a week about her grandson being a member of a "Christian" organization - especially one as religiously-oriented and proselytizing as the YMCA - is just one of those side benefits you really can't put a value on.
Oh, and of course with my MIL there's an element of hypocrisy involved, as well. She's not a member of the JCC either. Apparently, she's all in favor of religious homogeny, as long as she doesn't have to foot the bill.

I'm more optimistic for Mr. Girly Ankles this year.

artie_fufkin wrote:

"call your mother-in-law and ask her to explain why Isreal can't keep its nose out of Middle Eastern affairs."

We quit our membership at the Jewish Community Center because after Zach got out of pre-school, we were pretty much paying $1,000 a year to the JCC for me to play old fart basketball. Last year, we wanted to send Zach to a YMCA summer camp, and there was like a 25 percent discount on the camp fee if he was a YMCA member, so we signed him up for a youth membership, which is something like $11/month. We ended up saving about $200, but it's been so much more valuable in so many ways. That my MIL wigs at least once a week about her grandson being a member of a "Christian" organization - especially one as religiously-oriented and proselytizing as the YMCA - is just one of those side benefits you really can't put a value on.
Oh, and of course with my MIL there's an element of hypocrisy involved, as well. She's not a member of the JCC either. Apparently, she's all in favor of religious homogeny, as long as she doesn't have to foot the bill.

I call foul, perpetuation of negative stereotypes.  I sentence to you three Hail Mary's.

tkihshbt wrote:

I'm more optimistic for Mr. Girly Ankles this year.

Far more so. If Drew Frees can get in 140 games, he'll put up decent numbers. Fudgie is old and can't play anymore.

"I call foul, perpetuation of negative stereotypes.  I sentence to you three Hail Mary's."

I would, but I don't know the words. Anyone who has any lingering vision of the stereotype about Jews being cheap ought to hang out with my wife on a Saturday and watch her spend an entire paycheck in about six hours.

artie_fufkin wrote:

Max wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

"Once Rasmus, Pujols, Holliday, Berkman and Freese get going"

You can pretty much pencil in at least .280/20/80 for Corby and .300/30/100 for Albert and Holliday, but I'm not sure if the other two "get going" before they get hurt.

With production like that you'd think that a high percentage, plate-disciplined player would be a priority for the #1 and 2 holes, or at least leadoff.

To paraphrase Rick Pitino, David Eckstein isn't walking through the door to the Cardinals' clubhouse anytime soon. The best they can do with the current roster is make a choice right now to go with either Jay or Craig in RF. If it's Jay, I'll bat him leadoff and go with Raz/Albert/Holliday/Freese as my 2-5 every day. If it's Craig, you just swap him with Berkman and have him bat fifth. That gives them at least five righthanded hitters in a row, which Tone will never do, so it's probably not even worth discussing. Pork Chop is going to stay in the lineup until he gets hurt.

I am a huge, unreconstructed critic of the Berkman signing, but so far he's done what's been expected.  The problem in my mind is that unless Schu can return to 2008-2009 form, neither 2B nor SS provide anything close to kind of leadoff hitter that would really benefit this team.  This team has a few players who are prime: Pujols, Molina, Holliday, Wainwright (oops), but otherwise they are well-done or under-cooked. 

Hey, that would be a fun game, let's see how many years each player has to turn back the clock in order to be good enough to give this team a chance to succeed:

Schu: 2009
Theriot: 2008
Berkman: 2004 (as an outfielder)

I don't even want to think about the pitchers.

Last edited by Max (4/04/2011 2:03 pm)

The bullpen has been a disaster waiting to happen, a situation that got noticeably worse when Wainwright went down and McClellan got sent to the starting rotation.  Moz spent the whole wad on Berkman and Westbrook and had only nickles and dimes left over to fix all the other holes.  The chickens of DeWitt's budget tightening over the past few years coming home to roost, so to speak.

This was a tough year to go after bullpen help. 8th inning guys were getting $5 million a year.