My softball team played our best game yet last night. I caught the game and hit two bloop doubles to the same spot in shallow right field in my first two at-bats. In the fourth, with two outs and two runners on, the right fielder played me a bit shallower than before. I aimed to actually put the barrel of the bat on the ball and stroke it over his head. Unfortunately, it didn’t go as planned as I popped it fair six feet up the first base line. When it landed on the ground, I realized that I should have been three quarters of the way to first by then. The pitcher threw me out by a few steps to end the inning with my team up 11-7. Stupid mistake, but I don’t think it would have done us any good if I’d gotten on anyways. Our opponents, one of the better teams in the league, saw their bats come alive in the bottom of the inning and we ended up losing by a shameful margin. It was a fun game, though. I played catcher in the game. Didn’t have any plays at the plate, but came very close to catching a pop-up foul and halfway to third. Got it with the tip of the glove, but couldn’t hang on. If we play as well next week as we did today, we’ll likely win our first game. (With only one more game to play on the season and a game that I’ll miss.)

The non-waiver trading deadline came and went with no action from the Cardinals except for the baffling move to trade Rich Scalamandre for the recently DFA’d Brave Jorge Sosa, a lousy pitcher who’s out of options. Apparently, he’s to replace Josh Kinney in the Cal Eldred role or possibly replace Wainwright in the Al Reyes role so Wainwright can be tested out in the rotation.

The Pirates made a flurry of moves with teams outside the NL Central. Most saddening to me was the Xavier Nady for RHRP Roberto Hernandez and LHSP Oliver Perez. I fully expect Perez to turn things around next season—with the Mets I won’t be surprised if he puts together a nice string of starts to emerge as a potent left-handed weapon by the time the playoffs roll around. Of course, he may continue to give up buku home runs and be cast off in the offseason. Roberto Hernandez’ numbers are misleading. He’s got a 2.93 ERA, but has allowed 10 unearned runs. Include all those unearned runs and his ERA jumps to 5.02—discuss amongst yourselves whether or not that’s fair criticism. Both Hernandez’ and Nady’s contracts run out this season—the Mets must agree that Perez has a lot left to his career.

To say the least, Joe Intarweb Fan isn’t happy about the lack of activity from the Cardinals today. Some have clearly lost their marbles. Look on the bright side, kids: we didn’t make any stupid moves.

I neglected to say in that last post what I think of the Belliard for Luna trade. The verdict at Viva el Birdos appears to be uniform horror and disgust.

I like the trade. Hector Luna’s been an exciting player in St. Louis for almost three years now. I’ve been more than happy with what he’s done in his limited use and am completely convinced that he would be a lousy player if sent out everyday. I expect he’ll go the way of Abraham O. Nunez, although with less money. I expect that—if Luna proves me wrong and turns into the next Ronnie Belliard, I’ll admit to being wrong and will do fifty pushups. Hell, I’ll do 100. I mentioned in the post two ago that trading Luna means losing the backup shortstop, and that’s a fairly serious problem seeing as Belliard and Miles have collectively played short twice in their careers with only one start between them. We have no replacement level shortstops available in the high minors, either. Roll the dice, baby. Blow on ‘em. He’s a good player. We rode Aaron Miles to contention on the cheap and picked up a better player at the deadline. Looks like a crafty plan to me, assuming Belliard is healthy enough to rip through the senior circuit the rest of the way.

There’s also talk about trading Marquis to the Mets for Aaron Heilman. If there’s anything to that, I’d pull the trigger fo sho. (Of course, I’d rather pick up [[Roberto Gonzalez or Damasco Marte] and Oliver Perez]).

Enough BS’n: The Redbirds won a 16 inning game in which Skip went 2-7. Nice to see Spivey make his post-suspension debut and go 2-3 with a double. He could still go on a tear, as unlikely as that may be.

The Springfield Cardinals also won. Amaury Marti went 2-4 with a solo shot. I’m tempted to pay a friend of mine who lives there to go film a game for me just so I can see him play with my own eyeballs.

The Cardinals traded Hector Luna for Ronnie Belliard after today’s game. John Rodriguez sprained his ankle and fans immediately began speculating who would be called up in the event his injury is determined to be serious enough to place him on the fifteen-day DL. Skip Schumaker would be a logical choice, seeing as he’s been hitting well lately and even drawing a few walks after working counts to little avail all season. Some suggested Amaury Marti be given a shot to make the jump up from AA. That would be quite impressive for a player to be drafted and called up to the big show within two months. It would make him eligible for the post-season roster, although that’s really a moot point—as Christina Karl pointed out, a loophole exists such that you can bring up as many players from anywhere in the organization as you have players on the 60-day DL as of August 31st. (If there are any rules actually governing postseason rosters—Christina says there are none.) Expect Ricardo Rincon and Rick Ankiel to be moved to the 60-day list tomorrow in any case.

I’d be very excited to see Marti on the team for two weeks or so while Rodriguez’ ankle mends. The Springfield News-Leader has a very nice article about Marti today. Selected Marti quotation: “I just want to play, play, play. All I want to do is play baseball. If you want to see me happy, just give me a baseball. Morning, noon, night. He also taught himself to speak English by watching cartoons: “I see so many cartoons. They’re for the little guys. But it’s easy and slow.” Also described are his workout routines, which sound a little like Adam Archuleta’s famous (in StL at least) plyometric workouts. You can’t help but love this player.

Bobby Abreu and Corey Lidle are sent to the Yankees in a twenty megabuck salary dump. The Phillies get four low-level prospects in return.

The same article mentions that the Phillies still intend to move right-handed starter Jon Lieber and lefty relief pitcher Arthur Rhodes. I really hope that doesn’t go down. Damasco Marte is a significantly better left-hander than Rhodes, and after Oliver Perez’ awful, awful start last night (0.1IP 5H 3BB 8ER) I can’t imagine a better time to inquire about him. Here’s how it went down:

• Kevin Thompson walks.
• With Andy Cannizaro batting, wild pitch by Oliver Perez, Kevin Thompson to 2nd.
• Andy Cannizaro walks.
• Coaching visit to mound.
• Carlos Pena pops out to shortstop J. Furmaniak.
• Mitch Jones walks. Kevin Thompson to 3rd. Andy Cannizaro to 2nd.
• Terrence Long singles on a soft fly ball to right fielder Adam Boeve. Kevin Thompson scores. Andy Cannizaro to 3rd. Mitch Jones to 2nd.
• Wil Nieves doubles on a fly ball to center fielder Chris Duffy. Andy Cannizaro scores. Mitch Jones scores. Terrence Long scores. Wil Nieves scores. Missed catch error by center fielder Chris Duffy. Throwing error by shortstop J. Furmaniak.
• Bronson Sardinha singles on a line drive to left fielder Rajai Davis.
• Danny Garcia doubles on a fly ball to left fielder Rajai Davis. Bronson Sardinha scores.
• JT Stotts singles on a ground ball to center fielder Chris Duffy. Danny Garcia scores.

Today’s Cardinal game looks terrible with the Cards down 5-0 and a bad call already made by the home plate umpire. Ed Montague’s crew usually does a good job. Not so the past two days.

Rosenthal says the Cards are dealing Hector Luna for Ronnie Belliard. The story says Belliard’ll be traded if he makes it through the game without injuring himself. Belliard went 2-4 today for the Indians, so it looks like he’ll be a Cardinal if that story pans out. Luna seems like a lot to give up for a two month rental. Belliard has played 1 game at short in his major league career, as has Aaron Miles, who will presumably take Luna’s spot as utility middle infielder.

Oh wow, Cards scored a run.

Talking to Cardinals’ fans around town and reading the stuff around the intarwebs, it’s pretty clear that the fans are being less creative than I hope Walt Jocketty is being. We want Bobby Abreu, we want Dontrelle Willis, we want Barry Zito. (A dude proposed a Pujols for Zito trade tonight!) To say the least, it’s getting ridiculous.

Bernie Micklasz posted a list of players that he believes the Cards are looking at. I’m sold on the Jeff Conine as right-handed left field platooner. Bernie mentions the slim possibility of a deal for Mark Loretta. Seeing as the Red Sox are in a battle for either the AL East division or the AL wild card, it’s hard to believe that they’d part with such a quality player. Then again, they’ve got quite a talented hitter waiting in the wings in 2004 draftee Dustin Pedroia. (Yes, that’s correct—a 41:24 BB:K ratio. Only five errors, too.) Any deal with Boston involving Wily Mo Pena would be intriguing, for certain.

Micklasz also mentions some Pirates that the Cards have inquired about, but none of them my ideal deal—Oliver Perez and Damasco Marte. I don’t have a clue what it would take to get these deals done, but I imagine it would be a lot.

I expect something will happen. I’ll still be content enough if nothing does. At the very least, we’ll be back to talking baseball instead of spouting nonsense.

And is it just me, or is the potty-mouthing getting to be a bit much over in the VeB comment threads? At least the illiterate perverts haven’t migrated over yet. For that, we give thanks.

With a 2:05 start today, I left work early to watch the game with a colleague. With DVR, I was able to meet with a client at 2 and only miss the first inning.

We bought a couple of pizzas from the Pizza Hut and I thought I’d pass along the amusing horseshit adorning the pizza boxes. You see, the overlords at YUM! have decided that family life has deteriorated so precipitously that their help is needed. Their help coms in the form of dinner-table conversation suggestions printed on the pizza box. Here’s the full text:

Hey, Parents. Ask your Kids these questions!

What embarrasses you?

If you could have only one possession, what would it be?

What character from a book would you like to be?

Hey, Kids. Ask your parents these questions!

Did you ever win a trophy or an award?

Who was your favorite teacher?

What were your favorite games when you were a kid?

That’s a lame attempt to reach your audience—much worse than the Alltel commercial that’s been amusing the commenters at VeB lately. That one is at least consciously absurd.

The Cards held the Rockies to 17 consecutive scoreless IP at Coors Field today until Soup gave up a no-doubt home run in the seventh today. Adam Wainwright threw a Morris-esque curveball there today to strike out Garret Atkins in the 8th. Jeff Weaver aims to pitch into the 8th Thursday night against the Cubs. Amaury Marti went 3-4 and hit his third home run in his 13 games since being promoted to AA. Aaron Miles hit his first home run as a Cardinal tonight, as well. When he hit it, I thought it was his first long ball since a grand slam against Florida last season. Turns out he’d hit one off the Dodgers later that year. The starter for the Rox that night? Aaron Cook.

Since ESPN’s webpage has become almost completely worthless recently due to the creeping Insider wall, I’ve grown to like the Fox sports website. Check out their Cardinals page. They still offer free scouting analysis from Stats Inc., something that ESPN moved into the Insider area during the offseason. The team pages have all the information you need up front, too. The most annoying thing about the ESPN website has to be all the stupid javascript that causes the page to navigate poorly. I tend to move through webpages pretty fast, and the javascript all over the page loads at different times. I’ll go to click a link and a new piece of javashit will appear where I wanted to click. Instead of going to the stats pages, for example, I’ll end up at the Nascar front page since the site navigation toolbar is the last thing on the page to load up since it’s a bloated monstrosity. That’s really annoying.

Solid minor league coverage, too, due to Fox Sports’ relationship with Scout-dot-com.

I still consider Fox Sports Radio to be the worst use of a transmitter this side of Satellite Sisters, though.

(Ken Rosenthal does a great job, too.)

Little Blog on the Prairie points out Money magazine’s list of the 25 skinniest cities in America, of which Champaign is ranked twelfth. In truth, we’re the 12th skinniest of the 201 qualifying cities in America. But we won’t need to put that on the t-shirts. Also tenth in most singles. Surprisingly to some, New Jersey cities dominate the list of safest cities.

A commenter at Viva el Birdos offers a rough synopsis of a segment from a KFNS morning show here:

This morning on a local St. Louis radio station (KFNS), Jim Hayes had some interesting info that he had gotten from WJ in Los Angeles. As some of you might already know, Jim is the Cardinals pre-game broadcaster on FSN. Anyway, he stated earlier this morning that he’d had a conversation with WJ and straight up asked him if a big deal was going to happen. The response was a smile and, “We will just wait and see.” He then followed that question with, “Is it someone that we will expect?” Walt then answered with a resounding, “NOPE.”

Let’s make the questionable assumptions that this is an accurate summary of the segment, and further that Walt Jocketty does in fact have a stealth trade in mind—one that we wouldn’t expect. I’ll assume that the deal wouldn’t be for Dontrelle Willis, believing the sources in Miami that he’s not available—that his presence on their roster is a requirement for the Marlins securing a new stadium.

My first guess was that the Cards have a package in mind for Jake Westbrook of the Indians, who would thrive with the Cardinals and who has a reasonable ($5.6 million) 2007 club option. The Indians did just trade their closer for an A-ball catcher, after all. The Indians’ beat writer at MLB.com, Anthony Castrovince, lumped talk of Westbrook to Arizona in with the 90% of trade talk that is “baloney,” concluding with:

If you ask me, Westbrook, a ground-ball pitcher, is having a better season than his numbers would tend to indicate, because his infield defense has been, all too often, atrocious. We saw evidence of that Sunday.

If the Indians were overwhelmed by an offer for Westbrook, I suppose anything is possible, but I just don’t see it happening.

I don’t see us overwhelming them with anything.

I could see the Dodgers unloading Derek Lowe and his overpriced contract on the Cardinals for as little as Jeff Weaver and Chris Duncan.

There just aren’t many starting pitchers of any value out there who would be available. Except possibly this one, who was most recently offered for Kevin Mench, supposedly. (The Rangers were uninterested.)

Carlos Quentin hit three home runs in his first 14 Major League at-bats. I think he’s there to stay, so you’d have to think that Luis Gonzalez would be available—and that the Snakes would be willing to pick up some of his 2007 salary on the option that would likely be required to be exercised in exchange for waiving his no-trade clause. I’d expect that would be a post-deadline waiver deal. Having a 39-year old left fielder next season wouldn’t be in line with the stated goal of getting younger in the outfield, either.

Bigbie’s rehab assignment may be put on hold.

Junior Spivey was suspended after a dispute with the Redbirds’ manager. Tough season for the man.

Although the awful American Idol Chevrolet Ford commercial is still airing during Cardinal games*, I noted a few that are very funny. The best commercial I’ve seen in a while is the Geico “Burt Bacharach” one on this page.

Fortunately, Bud Light appears to have dropped this ill-conceived character for the much funnier Zagar. (Clip here).

* Jeff points out in the comments that it’s a Ford commercial, and links to this commentary. Spot on!

The Springfield Cardinals have a glut of outfielders right now. Six of ‘em. There’s Ried Gorecki, Cody Haerther, and Nick Stavinoha. Then former infielder Shaun Boyd was demoted from Memphis. Now Amaury Marti and Larry Bigbie have promoted themselves to the AA level as they march, inevitably, to the big team. In limited duty, Marti’s put up beautiful numbers in making the jump to AA, reputedly the hardest jump to make in baseball. As a designated hitter (*spit*), our man Amaury went 3-5 tonight and hit his second home run in his eleventh game at that level. I don’t expect he’s long for that level and may promote to AAA along with Bigbie to ease the logjam. (Bigbie, by the way, sat again tonight with recurrent soreness.) The Springfield Cardinals are currently hosting Arkansas, the team that Terry Evans was traded to for Jeff Weaver. He went 1-5 in tonight’s game.

More Marti news, I saw this article at Scout.com. To excerpt the relevant passage:

But, who impresses me the most? That’s easy; it’s Amaury Marti, the 32 year-old Cuban who is playing in his first year of professional baseball. I can’t remember the last time I saw a guy who looked as good in the uniform and seemed so at home on the base paths. He reminds me of a Latin version of Lou Brock. So far, he has appeared in six games in Springfield, with 16 at bats, he has five hits, scored two runs, one RBI and one walk.

What impresses me most about this new player is his defense in the outfield. He is one of those players who seem to have balls hit right to him each time. I know better. I would be running left, then right, then back, then forward, and back again, and left again, and—well you get the idea. He just stands there waiting to catch the ball (the same one I would have circled the field for—and missed) and snatches it out of the air like magic. From a spectator?s point of view, he is what I buy a ticket for. Win or lose—Marti puts on a show that is first-class baseball every game he is in. And, isn’t that what the Cardinals always give their fans—in all leagues?

If that’s not exciting, I don’t know what is. High praise. I suppose they’ve been using Marti as a DH since he’s got nothing to prove in the field, eh? Thanks to John Brayfield for writing that article.

In other news, my preferred high-risk pitching trade acquisition target, Oliver Perez, pitched his first start since his demotion to AAA without allowing a home run. Would the Pirates cut bait with him after that decent performance? I doubt it changes anything. In a typically insightful Fungoes post from the other day, Pip posted his wish list for the trade deadline. Included was Mike Gonzalez, the closer for the Pittsburgh Pirates, as a LOOGY candidate, although his right-left platoon splits aren’t all that pronounced—dude’s just a good pitcher. I imagine it would take quite a bit to convince the Pirates that they’re better off without their league-minimum closer, but put together a solid package and ask for Perez, too.

MLB.com has set up a trade deadline index, by the way. Pretty handy for the next week.

One more thing: 40YearCardFan notes that Chris Narveson is being skipped in the Memphis rotation, speculating that Narveson is either headed to the big show or may be traded away. Again.

So after a week with no posting, I’ll try to get caught back up while watching tonight’s ugly Cards v. Rockies game. Ugly on the Cardinals’ side at least—the Rockies starter Jeff Francis has a shutout going through 8.

Last Monday afternoon, three friends of mine who are natives of Atlanta and I headed down to St. Louis to catch the Braves v. Cardinals series. Monday’s game was a laugher in which Jeff Weaver had plenty of rust to shake off from his three weeks without pitching. Tuesday’s game was another blowout at the hands of the Braves. I don’t have much to say about those games.

We went to the zoo on Tuesday afternoon and had a good time before and after the game at the Maj. Wednesday, I took one of the guests by Wal-Mart so he could buy a broom for the game. I knew he wouldn’t have a chance to use it since Carpenter was starting. After that, we took a ride to the top of the Gateway Arch before swinging by Anheuser-Busch to take their famously enjoyable brewery tour. Afterwards, I had two complementary Budweisers tainted with lime Spykes. Since we were in the neighborhood, we stopped by Venice Cafe to put away another beer and admire the basement terrarium. Dinner and more drinks at Maj, and off we were to the Metrolink station to get to the game.

Walking along, it was a beautiful day—blue skies, sun shining. As we got closer, one of us noticed that the sky to the North was awfully dark.

“It’ll blow over. Wind’s coming out of the Southwest,” I said confidently.

I bought a train pass and as I was walking down the stairs to the platform, I noticed that I no longer needed my sunglasses, so I took them off. When I looked up, it appeared to be raining on the platform. Or something. Turns out that a sustained fifty mile-per-hour wind was blowing up the tracks. Blowing dust up the tracks. I made it down the stairs, blinded and with grit in my teeth. Amazing weather to say the least, but this was the beginning. We stood on the platform with some nurses from the BJC hospital and marvelled at the sky. Directly above us, low floating clouds were blowing North while the clouds some distance above them were blowing South. Insane. Soon rain began falling and thunder roared. The power went off to the hospital and the massive diesel generators in the power-plant, located in the building to the South of the platform, all kicked in at once. A train eventually came and we gratefully boarded. The rain became heavier and lightning tore the sky open. The train would come to a stop before each intersection, and it became obvious why once we left the first one. The guard arms that come down to keep car traffic off the tracks had been blown apart—broken in half and hanging over the tracks. Approaching one station, we saw burning shipping pallettes lying along the tracks. It looked like a warzone. By the time we got to Busch stadium, the rain was pouring down and the fans were huddled under the concourses. The scene may have been rather frightening if I hadn’t have had a six pack of brew in me already. Here’s a taste of what it was like: a video of a trash can plowing somebody over at high speed. [Update: Changed the link to a youtube clip at Deadspin.]

I stepped out into the stadium to witness the carnage. The rain was falling so hard and thick (THICK RAIN!) that I couldn’t see the ultra-bright scoreboard and could only see the lighting standards as bright spots in the sheet of water falling on the field. More remarkably, the tarp on the field tore off and had to be driven back down with a gator cart. The dirt around the batter’s box was ruined from the storm and had to be dug up and replaced. My pal Jeff tried to text-message “Grounds Crew Rocks!” to the U.S. Cellular board once they finished repairing the field, but they weren’t displaying any messages there for some reason. (Still charged him $2.99, though.) After the rain stopped, I was standing on the patio area behind center field and looked up to see the sky had turned blood red, nicely framing the Civil Courts Building, the place where Gozer the Gozerian will return to our dimension. (More storm in Busch pictures here.)

The game went as expected, Carp got the win on seven solid innings of work. I made it home a little before six the next morning and had an unpleasant day at the office.

Looks like Francis is about to pitch a complete game, his first of the big leagues.

All due to two errors by Todd Walker in the Cubs-Mets game. I guess he doesn’t want to be traded to the Giants.

If they need a first baseman, I think San Francisco would be better off dealing for Ryan Shealy, who could be a steal.

Stephen Drew, younger brother of J.D. Drew, made his major league debut today against the Brewers and he went 0-3 with a walk. To counter, the Brewers will call up Tony Gwynn Jr. to play tomorrow.

After checking out the forums tonight, I’ve decided to crack in the teeth anyone who utters the words, “impact bat,” while discussing the Cardinals and their options in the trade market.

One of the high points of the almost five years of writing this webpage, aside from being able to keep in contact with family without needing to have the same telephone conversations over and over again, was when a fellow in Kentucky recently sent me a picture of the road sign for Monkey’s Eyebrow in response to my writing a post bemoaning that a shout-out from Birthday Boy Mike Shannon to the people of that place was strange or funny in some way. (“We’d like to say hello to all those folks listening in Monkey’s Eyebrow, Kentucky.” That’s not anywhere near in the same class as, for example, “The wind has switched 360 degrees” or any of the others listed in the “shout-out” link above.)

I started writing a bit about Josh Kinney as a potential relief addition once Brad Thompson started to struggle earlier in the season and Kinney’s AAA numbers were astonishingly good, suggesting he be added to the 40-man and be brought up for the Cubs series in early June. Bernie Micklasz later dropped his name a few times as possible help as well. Eventually Memphis’ pitching coach, Dyar Miller, declared Kinney’s stuff to be major league ready and he was brought up. His first pitch at the major league level was hit for a home run by Ryan Langerhans, but he worked the next three innings without giving up a run to finish the game. He’s made three appearances since, the most impressive of which was in relief of Sidney Ponson’s last game. Kinney entered the game with no outs and runners on first and second. Former Cardinal Orlando Palmeiro bunted into a fielder’s choice at third and Kinney induced Craig Biggio to ground into a double play to end the inning.

Then one day, I noticed in an aside that the hometown for Josh Kinney listed at the official Cardinals website—Coudersport, PA—may be pronounced such that it sounds like a salacious euphemism. After all the nice things I’d said about Josh Kinney, that’s the post that’s found my someone who knows him. His since-retired high school science teacher was kind enough to send me an email with some information about Josh’s background and also that of another former student,Brian Stavisky, who struggled in Oakland’s organization in adjusting to AAA pitching early this season. He’s hit AA pitching well since being sent back down, showing good plate discipline and also hasn’t committed an error at either level all season. He’s used as a corner outfielder and DH. He should get another shot at AAA pitching before the season’s over. In any case, Kinney’s not from Coudersport, but from Port Allegany, PA. (It took me three times to spell it correctly just now—Allegheny -> Allagheny -> Allaghany -> Allegany).

Here’s the email from the two young professional baseball players’ former teacher, reprinted here with his permission:

Josh Kinney’s hometown is actually Port Allegany, PA.

He graduated from PAHS in 1997. Josh played HS baseball for another school because Port Allegany did not offer the sport (likewise, other schools sent football players to Port to play if they didn’t offer that sport). It’s what’s done in poor rural areas.

Port Allegany is located in Pennsylvania’s so-called “donut hole”, a very rural region in the northcentral mountains near the headwaters of the Allegheny River (yes, they are spelled differently). In one of those night-time lights images of the northeast offered up by NASA, Port is in a noticeable dark area between bright megalopolises (NY, Pittsburgh, Erie/Cleveland, Buffalo NY). Hence, the Donut Hole moniker.

Port is a small town of only 2500 residents. And despite having no HS baseball, it has recently produced two baseball standouts: Josh of course, and Brian Stavisky, a minor leaguer with the Oakland As franchise. He plays outfield for the Midland (TX) Rockhounds.

I am a retired HS chemistry/science teacher at Port (I did have both Brian and Josh in classes). I retired in ’97 the year Josh graduated. He kidded me then that we were “graduating” in the same class. Both of these guys are topnotch individuals and it’s great to see how far they’ve come. I wish them much success.

Terry McCormick

PS: Couderspot is actually pronounced “Cowdersport” or as it was known in Port, just plain “Coudy” (Cowdee).

I’d thought at the time the city was pronounced so as to rhyme with “loader-sport” (and joked that it’d rhyme with “shooter-sport”). Apparently it would rhyme with “powder-sport”. The point’s moot, though. Josh Kinney commuted to a neighboring high school to play baseball. He was undrafted out of Quincy College in 2001 and drove down to St. Louis to try out with the St. Charles River Rascals. He made the team and three starts later, he’d been signed into the Cardinals organization. The man’s come a long way, and he’s certainly excited about it. I’m with Dyar Miller in thinking he’s got the stuff to stick around.

Terry also sent me this satellite picture demonstrating the relative lack of man-made illumination in the area at night time:

I’d written about this picture from NASA many years ago back when I wrote mostly about politics and warfare—remarking at the time about how remarkably distinct the 38th parallel is on the Korean peninsula. The “donut hole” is not particularly noticeable on the image I’d seen, although the scale is far different.

We start with rookie league Johnson City, who lost 5-1. Of note, sweet-hitting high school 2006 draftee SS Tommy Pham started the game in right field for the JC Cardinals. He’d committed 7 errors in nine games at short. His 8th came in right tonight.

Low A State College won 8-1. Power hitting 2006 1b draftee Mark Hamilton jacked a two run shot in a 1-3 night to raise his average to .316 with seven home runs.

Full-season A-ball Quad Cities won 8-5. In his first rehab start, Larry Bigbie went 1-2 with a walk as a (spit)designated hitter spit). He was lifted late for Chad Gabriel, who hit a two-run homer, his second of the season. Jon Jay was 2-5 with a double and Tyler Greene hit his fifth home run in twice as many games (with a sparkling .357 BA) since being demoted from Palm Beach. Catcher Bryan Anderson went 2-5 with a double.

High A Palm Beach had a double header, winning both: 11-9, 1-0. Our 2006 first round pick, Colby Rasmus, went 2-7 with a double and a home run. Mike Sillman picked up his 20th save closing out the first game.

AA Springfield also had a double header. The Cardinals lost the first game 6-5. Amaury Marti went 1-4 and Mike Parisi showed some control problems, giving up four earned runs on five walks and five hits in five innings. The second game is still in progress, tied 1-1, as I write this. Marti has gone 1-2 with a base on balls. Carmen Cali started the game, lasting four shutout innings.

Check out the new outfielder for the Swing of the Quad Cities, the Cardinals’ mid-A affiliate. (It’s Larry Bigbie.)

I did some serious grocery shopping last night. One of the things I’d bought was a jar of pickled okra that I felt like snacking on after the All-Star game. For the life of me, I couldn’t get the jar open, though. I ended up using a pair of oil filter wrenches to get the thing open. And damn was that okra tasty.

Anybody notice this list of possible 2007 free agents at Cot’s Baseball Contracts? Very nice work, although incomplete. Larry Bigbie’s not on there.

Neither is one of my preferred candidates for the 2007 fifth-starter innings eater (or League Average Innings Muncher) role, Carlos Silva, doesn’t appear to have sustained any serious damage in his last start before the All-Star break. I can’t imagine it would take much in a trade to add him. The Twins need a 3B with some extra-base ability, so perhaps they’d go for Spiezio. Silva’s got a $4 mil option with a $100,000 buyout for next season. If anything could be done to get them to part with LF Jason Kubel—well, that would be mighty exciting. With the Astros’ trade for Aubrey Huff, solid hitting third basemen become a slightly more highly valued asset. Not that it’s going to happen.

There’s a lot of stupid offal out there like this already and there’s only going to be more of it coming down the pike.

I was just thinking to myself while waiting for some jobs to finish up and for the double header at AA Springfield to begin that I haven’t heard a damned thing out of Andy Schutzenhofer this season. Following a fine career at the University of Illinois, he signed with St. Louis in 2003 and made it as high as AA last season as a high average, low slugging first baseman. But I haven’t seen his name on any rosters all season. It turns out that he retired after Spring Training when he was assigned back to High A Palm Beach.

here‘s an article about his dad, a recently retired Belleville East chemistry teacher, not to mention BP pitcher to the Cardinals.

According to this article, the rotation should work out like this after the all-star break:

July 13th vs. Dodgers: Jason Marquis v. Chad Billingsley
July 14th vs. Dodgers: Chris Carpenter v. Derek Lowe
July 15th vs. Dodgers: Jeff Suppan v. Mark Hendrickson
July 16th vs. Dodgers: Anthony Reyes v. Brad Penny
July 17th vs. Braves: Jeff Weaver v. John Thomson
July 18th vs. Braves: Jason Marquis v. Chuck James
July 19th vs. Braves: Chris Carpenter v. Tim Hudson

I was kinda hoping to see Reyes pitch, but you bet I’ll take Carp any day. I was hoping to see Smoltz pitch too, but will be plenty happy to miss his turn in the rotation.

My softball team ended up losing both games of our double header on Sunday. I played left center in the second game and went 0-2 with a popout to the pitcher and a fly ball to left. I felt real good batting right-handed in the cages before the game so stuck with it—that may have been a mistake. It was also the first game using my new bat that I got on a heavy discount this weekend. (Still more than I’d usually spend on something like that.) I didn’t do any damage with it, but hopefully some more breaking in at the cages will make me more effective with it next weekend.

The Dirty Harry flick The Dead Pool is on the television right now. There’s a scene in the movie where the former Guns n’ f’n Roses guitarist shoots a harpoon through the window of a boat. Jim Carrey is also credited in the movie. The famous car chase scene is about to begin.

Chris Narveson pitches for the Redbirds today against the Albuquerque Isotopes. He’s pitched four shutout innings as of this writing. John Gall hit a solo shot in the first to give Memphis a 1-0 lead. Skip Schumaker has the day off although his bat has been hot lately.

I’ve got tickets for each game of the Braves series next week. I’ve been trying to figure out the rotation so I’ll know which starters will be pitching on that homestand. Marquis is listed as the starter for the first game after the break and Weaver’s first start is scheduled for the 17th, so here’s what I’ve got figured out:

July 13th vs. Dodgers: Jason Marquis
July 14th vs. Dodgers: Anthony Reyes
July 15th vs. Dodgers: Chris Carpenter
July 16th vs. Dodgers: Jeff Suppan
July 17th vs. Braves: Jeff Weaver
July 18th vs. Braves: Jason Marquis
July 19th vs. Braves: Anthony Reyes

If that’s how things’ll shake out, I’ll see Weaver’s debut as a Cardinal just like I was there for Larry Walker’s—not bad for an out-of-town fan. I’ll see another Jason Marquis start after watching him pitch a good game last Sunday against the Royals. And I get to see Anthony Reyes on Wednesday. That should be a great series, especially if John Smoltz ends up pitching one of those game. If the Braves don’t do anything funky with their rotation, Weaver’ll face off against Smoltz for the Monday game followed by John Thomson (barring injury) and Chuck James.

My softball team’s got a double header today. I’ve got a good feeling that we’ll pick up our first win this time around.