What is it with pitchers over 40? According to conventional wisdom, Greg Maddux should be in the twilight of his career… not coming into is prime. Apparently the St. Louis Cardinals’ hitters don’t agree with that line of thinking. Maddux pitched seven shut out innings as the Chicago Cubs avoided the sweep winning 7-3. “Mad Dog” is off to the best start of his career with a record of 4-0 and a tiny ERA of 0.99. While I’m not ready to hand Maddux the Cy Young award just yet, its impossible to ignore the old man’s performance today.

It seems that Albert Pujols does everything with flair. Not only did he tie Todd Helton for the second quickest player to 1,000 hits, he did it by hitting his MLB leading 11th home run of the season. Yeah, he’s pretty good. Pujols’ first inning homer staked the Cards to a two run lead and set the stage for what quickly became a trouncing. In the second, four different Cardinals combined to drive in 5 runs as Pujols drove in his third and fourth run of the game and MLB leading 24th of the season. Did I mention he’s good? The seven run lead was good enough for Mulder as he coasted to his way to his second win of the season. As if that weren’t good enough, the win came against the Cubs who had seemed to have the Cardinals’ number recently, continuing the troubling trend from last year. Here’s to hoping that’s all behind us now.

Other notes from the game…

So the Brit went to the game tonight, much to my dismay. I asked him for his take on tonight’s game. Here’s what he said (cut him some slack, he’s British and you shouldn’t expect too much).

Albert’s a machine this year. I mean everyone in the place felt he was going to hit it out every time he stepped to the plate.

Mulder was interesting. He’s basically throwing junk. 86MPH fastball and a 65MPH knuckle curve by the looks of things.
But… the differential in speed is causing hitters nightmares.

The HR [Mulder gave up] was an overthrown 89MPH fastball that he left up in the zone… not a good thing to do to Michael Barrett. [You taking notes Izzy?]

It’s early but we look a much better ballclub with J-Rod batting in the 2 slot and Juan Encarnacion in the 6 slot [or maybe on the bench? Just a suggestion].

Well Brit, I’m crazy jealous that you were there but if your gonna rub it in, thanks for at least giving us your take on things.

Cubs’ DL now on DL
What’s the worst news a Cubs fan could hear? Ok other than having to repeat the last 97 years over again in some sort of sick twisted baseball oriented Groundhog’s Day, I would have to guess it would be losing Derrek Lee for 8-10 weeks to a broken bone. Well Cubs fans… as much as I hate to see a player hurt, I love seeing you disappointed more… and just in case you’ve been living under a rock recently… Derrek Lee broke his wrist in last night’s game against the Dodgers. Not just one bone, but two. As my buddy the Brit said… “The Cubs were just served an excuse for the entire season on a golden platter.” He pretty much hit the nail on the head… I mean seriously… could you imagine losing Pujols? I will now chop of my hands for having typed that.

Lee is pretty much the heart and soul of the Cubs lineup as well as a Gold Glover at first. The only bright side to this injury is that it happened at the beginning of the season and will not put Lee out for the year. The Cubs are currently only half a game out of first but the rest of the lineup will need to step up and fill the void if the Cubs are going to avoid falling behind the rest of the division (well ok maybe not the Pirates but come on).

Catching Up

Keeping with the Derrek Lee news, the Cubs locked up their now injured slugger for an extra 5 years for a total of $65 million. As a Cardinal fan, I wish Lee had ended up with another team (maybe an outfielder for the Cards?) but this is the best move the Cubs have made since trading for Lee back in ’04. Oh, and for anyone who worried before the season about the Cubs keeping Todd Walker… he’s batting a cool .406 and has an OPS of 1.065 (Both team leading totals) so I guess that was a decent move or lack there of huh?

Well, for the second game in a row, the Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals. Excuse me for a moment as I bang my head against the wall….

Now, I have never managed a Major League team, nor would I want to question Tony LaRusa’s expertise… well no, actually that’s exactly what I want to do. WHY!?! Why are Cardinal pitchers throwing to Lee? Anyone? I didn’t think so. In today’s game Derrek Lee came up with the bases empty in the eighth inning of a tie ballgame. He then proceeded to crank out his second home run in as many days against Cardinal pitching.

Benjamin Franklin once said that “the definition if insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Ben gets it, why cant Tony?

Let’s hope someone in the Cardinals dugout figures it out in time for the Cards to salvage tomorrows game and avoid the sweep. With the Cubs sending a starting pitcher to the mound who spent most of last year in AA-ball, I would hope the Cards would be able to score some runs and avoid any more Derrek Lee-inflicted losses.

Other odds and ends: The Cubs have extended General Manager Jim Hendry’s contract for another two years. To be honest, this comes as somewhat of a surprise to me. Hendry has done a great job with the lineup (getting Lee, Pierre, Ramirez, etc) but many Cub fans were upset with Hendry’s lack of action this winter in regards to the club’s starting pitching. As mentioned earlier, with Wood, Miller, and Prior on the shelf, the Cubs are sending a rookie who hasn’t pitched above the Double A level to the mound in tomorrow’s game. Most Cubs fans aren’t exactly thrilled with that prospect and many felt that Hendry should have made a move to shore up the injury plagued rotation.

With Hendry’s extension done, Dusty Baker’s status becomes the next focal point for the organization. If ownership is satisfied with the club’s performance enough to give Hendry and extension, I’m guessing Baker is probably off the hot seat barring a worse than usual Cub-like collapse during the course of the season.
 

Wow… what a way to start off the season. Both the Cards and Cubs started things off right with big wins. The Cardinals pounded the Phillies 13 to 5 while the Cubs hammered the Reds 16 to 7. Of course the Cubs started last year with a 16 run effort and still ended up missing the playoffs. Opening day had plenty of good signs for both teams. The Cards got homeruns from Albert (two of them) and Scott Rolen. Rolen’s shot (a grand slam) certainly helped to calm some of the fears about his lingering health problems. As has been said here before, Scotty Ballgame could be the key to the Cardinals’ success this year. It certainly looks good to see him jump off to a good start.

Another big question mark in the Cardinals lineup entering the season was second base. Those questions may have been answered in a single game. Aaron Miles went 4 for 5 with two RBI’s starting at second base while previously projected starter, Junior Spivey, was optioned to Memphis. Whether Miles retains the job or Spivey ends up returning, let’s hope the offensive production continues.

The Cardinals weren’t the only ones who got a great performance from players who were question marks a week ago. New leadoff hitter Juan Pierre went 3 for 6 with an RBI and scored three times. Todd Walker, the subject of recent trade speculation, drove in 3 runs on 3 hits and scored twice himself.

As my pops said, “One game does not a season make” but hey… every marathon starts with a single step right?

Wow…. where does the time go? I can’t believe I went this long without blogging. Well to make up for it I will do a fast-forward version of recent events (forgive me if they are out of order… this is more of a stream of consciousness type thing). Here we go:

• Mark Prior, Kerry Wood and Wade Miller are all starting the season on the DL. (Saying I told you so would be overkill here I think…. I told you so!)
• The Cubs’ projected opening day starter is from DOUBLE A. You may now laugh and point.
• Pujols hit three home runs against the Mets this past week. One against Pedro and two against Victor Zambrano… back to back MVP? I think so.
• It looks like Hector Luna might not even make the ball club. That would be a shame what with his incredible skill and natural ability.
• Aaron Miles seems to have won the starting second base job at least for now. At least thats what Stltoday says. (click the picture on the right for the full story)
• Sidney Ponson will be the Cardinals 5th starter and Reyes has been optioned back down to Tripple A. This will allow Reyes to continue get the innings in he needs to progress. (as mentioned earlier on this blog, I’d be surprised if we don’t see Jockety deal from our depth at starting pitching.)
• Adam Wainright will pitch out of the bullpen as a long reliever. I have no idea whether that means he gets the first shot as a backup starter or not. I kind of doubt it but hey, at least Wainright is healthy enough to make the club. (I think AW would be one of the first names mentioned in any significant trade made by the Cardinals. Keeping him in the majors most likely ups his value.)
• John Rodriquez looked to have the starting LF job sewn up until injuring his shoulder yesterday. No word yet on who will start opening day. (again, click the picture on the left for the full story).
• There appears to be little truth to the rumor that the Cardinals were trying to trade for former Redbird, Miquel Cairo.
• All of ESPN.com’s experts are predicting the Cardinals will win the Central this year… I’m not sure I like that.
• Both Jim Hendry and Dusty Baker are entering the last year on their contracts. Somehow I don’t think having Wood, Prior and Miller on the shelf to start will help either of them much.
• I predict there are exactly 153 days until Carlos Zambrano’s arm falls off while he is standing on the mound. It will replay on Sports Center rought 4,305 times and each time roughly 3 million Cubs fans will curse the name of Dusty Baker.
• Bud Selig has started an independent investigation into the steroids problem. This book was apparently the straw that broke the camel’s back…. I guess the other 3,478 pieces of evidence could have all been a coincidence but this… this must be legit… we should investigate. (Bud continues to miss the point and only respond when the fans are outraged enough to force his hand. Keep protecting that legacy, Bud, its not like the game will suffer.)