(Get) A Sporting Life

I have a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel. Damn. Another great start by Piniero and Ankiel seems to be out of his rut the past two games. 5-10 with 3 runs, 3 RBI, 3 doubles, a long ball, 11 TB and 0 Ks is music to my ears. Mind you, I'm not holding my breath over this club, but they are certainly more fun to follow than last year's version. If they keep this up for another few weeks I'm going to need that cunning plan to convince Mrs. Southlandish to let me purchase the MLB Extra innings package.

Jeff Gordon is not approaching the Cardinals season with an air of impending doom. Why the Cards may not be as bad as feared 1. Against all odds, the temporary rotation is shaping up . Adam Wainwright appears prepared for the lead role leaving Jupiter. Free agent pick-up Kyle Lohse showed up ready to pitch, which was a pleasant surprise. Most mid-camp additions would need a couple of extra weeks to get ready. Lohse already has impressed his new team. Braden Looper just threw an encouraging 5 1/3 innings, relocating his sinking stuff while getting eight groundball outs. Prior to that, he got hammered. I'll believe nothing until the season has cycled through the rotation a couple of times. As I read them we have a number 2 starter in Wainwright as our stopper, and four other guys who are all #4 or #5 starters in every other role. It is the sort of situation every team can go through because of injuries, and you certainly hope you can get by until reinforcements arrive, but try as I m...

I'm already tired of the moralizing asses I'm reading in the papers or seeing on ESPN telling me what a bad person Rick Ankiel is for using HGH to recover from arm surgery. "Wait a second?? Arm surgery?? I thought HGH was helping Ankiel hit home runs? That is what every sports writer has said." Well, every sports writer is wrong. HGH won't help you develop power hitting ability, although it might help with the healing process after surgery. "But Ankiel was a pitcher! He couldn't hit the ball far before! He must have done something shady!" You mean like when he was in high school and hitting 450 foot home runs, and smacking balls into the upper decks of professional stadiums? The truth is Ankiel always had the power he is displaying nowadays, it wasn't cultivated since the HGH use. Also, the HGH use only occurred while Ankiel was trying to be a pitcher. There is no evidence that he ever used anything unusual since he gave up pitching. What I cann...

Do I really care about the revelations about Rick Ankiel and his possible use of HGH before MLB banned the substance? No. But I will enjoy watching the media that lionized Barry Bonds try to rip Ankiel apart. Ah...good times.

No, I am not talking about batting the pitcher in the eight spot. There is no way to argue that we haven't been winning while we've been doing that. What I want to see an end to is the all right-hand hitting lineups La Russa throws out against left handed pitching. Our right handed hitting does not take enough advantage of LHP to make it worthwhile. Look at the numbers so far this season: RHB v. RHP AB: 1706 Hits: 471 HR: 48 Slg: .413 RHB v. LHP AB: 1002 Hits: 281 HR: 19 Slg: .395 These number are pretty dreadful. While batting average goes up slightly (.276 v. .280), the power numbers drop right into the toilet. While a full 10% of the hits off of RHP go for home runs, RHB only manage to hit homers at a 6.7% clip against lefties. This is only marginally better the our LHB does against LHP (2 HR's out of 40 hits, or 5%.) Sure Duncan is only hitting .225 against LHP, but he has only had 71 AB's against them, and it is still better than Ludwick or Rolen's average agai...

It is only the 7h inning of Ankiel's third game as a full time major league outfielder and he has three home runs and is batting over .400 and has 6 RBI. Not that we could have used this back in June. Nah.

Get Up, Baby! has Rick Ankiel's night in pictures. Pretty cool.

Jim Edmonds gets sent to the DL today , and as a result the Cardinals have to bring up someone to play in the outfield. They need someone who has the pop in their bat to hit in the 5 or 6 spot in the lineup. Right? Wouldn't Rick Ankiel fit that role perfectly? Why, yes, of course he would. This is especially true as both Taguchi and Encarnacion have played in center field before. So of course the Cardinals bring up the warning track power of Skip Schumaker. Oh, for fucks sake.

From the PD : Outfielder Rick Ankiel hit three home runs Saturday night for the Class AAA Memphis Redbirds in a game against the Iowa Cubs in Des Moines. Ankiel hit solo home runs in the first, fourth and eighth innings and also had a single in a 7-5 victory. He has 19 home runs and 52 RBIs and is hitting .282. Given Preston Wilson's season ending surgery how can you keep Ankiel down on the farm?

Alright, it cannot measure up to the Chicago Cubs beating the crap out of each other in the club house, but things are a bit testy down Cardinals way. From the PD : Former Cardinals catcher Eli Marrero on Friday blasted Tony La Russa for the manager's recent comments about how Marrero blew his chance to remain with the organization. "I don't know what this guy thinks," Marrero said. "I have no more respect for this guy whatsoever. I can't believe what this guy put out there." The Cardinals released Marrero, 34, from Class AAA Memphis on May 21 after he caught one complete game for the Redbirds on May 18. Marrero, 34, said Friday he never received an explanation from Redbirds manager Chris Maloney but held no animosity toward the club or La Russa until recently reading his explanation. "I go up there. I catch nine innings, get my four at-bats and my two hits. Then they release me. That's their decision. I left. I'm done with the Cardinals,...