Keeton's Cards

Matt Carpenter Minor League Player of the Year

2010-11-21T20:08:00.000-08:00

I am about 9 days behind this release and getting an interview done with Matt but just wanted to put in a Big Congrats here. Matt received the Cardinals Organization Minor League Player of the Year award for the 2010 season. Since then he has been a very busy guy with interviews and whatnot but I promise to have my interview with him posted here as soon as I get it done. Hopefully this week if our schedules mesh. Until then, it's back to work.

Has it really been two years?

2010-08-07T21:44:00.000-07:00

I had almost forgot this thing even existed. Who blogs anymore anyway? Well I I guess I do, again, and I'll try to do better this time. I may have to find some new columnists but I'll try and tie it all together. All of that and I still haven't said a word about baseball. How about a great baseball book. I just finished and highly recommend The Bullpen Gospels by Dirk Hayhurst. It truly is the best baseball book I have ever read. Beside that I just started reading The Baseball Codes by Jason Turbow, but I just started, so no book review yet.

Our Springfield Cardinals have won their past two against Tulsa and have been a +500 ball club pretty much all year and are sitting at 60-52 tonight.

The Memphis Redbirds are also having a good season 62-53 but lost today to the Las Vegas 51's.

And last but of course not least, The Big Birds are 61-49 and 1.5 games out of first. They lost today in 10 after taking the lead in the 9th. Westbrook was the starting pitcher and tied a career record 9 strike outs. Franklin pitched the 9th and 10th and was the losing pitcher in the end.

That's all for now, I'll try to write a bit more often than every two years now...

Catching it...

2008-05-05T04:43:00.000-07:00

All I have to say about last nights game is " Yadi freakin' rocks my socks" That play he had is one that catchers sometimes only Dream about making!! But when it happens, holy crap, that feeling he had afterwards was probably one of the greatest feelings he will ever have (baseball wise).... Who else, besides catchers, can make a play like that on their knees! *dramatic pause* ok, maybe that was only amusing in my own head. Anyhow, last night is the reason why Molina is going to be one of the greatest catchers in mlb history. (to me anyways)

GO CARDS!

This Week in Cardinal History

2008-04-12T11:23:00.000-07:00

Well I must say, when Keeton has a good idea I try to comply as quickly as possible. So this is the first installment of, "This Week in Cardinal History." An quick look of our glorious past, that very well could give incite to our lustrous future.

The year was 1942, the United States was getting into WWII. The likelihood of losing players to the war was good. The Cardinals were set to open up the season officially against Chicago, April 14th, on the road. First, however, they were set to play a couple of exhibition games against the St. Louis Browns. It's sad. I have looked quite hard, I know the games were played, but no one seems to have an account of them. That is an account posted somewhere online. However the most interesting piece of news that week took place on April 11th, when multiple newspapers across the nation, not just in St. Louis named rookie Stan "the Man" Musial the most promising player of the year. I'll say he was promising, hitting .315 with 10 home runs. With the help of Enos Slaughter winning the pennett for the cardinals, oh and just 106 games along the way.

That, however, is another bit of rowdiness for another day.

Saturday Morn...

2008-04-12T06:09:00.000-07:00

Waking up this morning and noticing that I have 20 minutes free time before I go to work is thrilling!! Not because I get to eat breakfast or watch TV for once, but because I FINALLY get to blog about our Cardinals!! Though, since in the last two weeks I've gone through surgery, worked and realized that I don't get the Fox Midwest channel.... and I luckly get updates from ACE at work... my blog today isn't going to be a very detailed writing on the game yesterday. But hey, I do know that they won over the Giants and Albert finally has found his stance again....*yeah!*

So now as I look outside and groan over the snow falling (in freakin' APRIL, mind you).... I see that I have ran outta time once again. Maybe today I will actually get to watch the Boys at BW3's if Ace and Keeton go. Course, with my luck, they won't want to go today then I will be dragging myself home to watch something stupid on tv instead.... like 'The Girls Next Door' or Big Brother.... *sigh*

Springfield gets the win

2008-04-11T17:57:00.000-07:00

That's right ladies & gentlemen... the Springfield Cardinals have logged their first win for the 2008 season! Last night, the Cards blew the Frisco RoughRiders out of the water with a final score of 12-5 on the Riders' turf in Frisco, TX.
The Cards started the game off early in the first inning with Bryan Anderson scoring the first run of the game, but Frisco answered back with three runs in the bottom of the second. Springfield tied the Riders in the fourth, bringing the score to 3-3.
The sixth inning was when the Cards really locked in the win, pulling ahead with three more runs, only allowing Frisco two more runs in the bottom of the sixth. Then, Mark Hamilton with a grand slam in the top of the eighth inning! With a count of 0-1 and no outs, Hamilton sends a line drive down the right field line, bringing the score to 10-5. After locking in two more runs in the top of ninth, our boys put that final nail in the RoughRiders coffin and sent them home for the night.
Let's just hope they can keep up the wins tonight as we take on Frisco for game two of this series. Right now its the middle of the third with a score of 0-0.

Trading scores for the first two in Houston

2008-04-09T17:44:00.000-07:00

After our second game in Houston, we're 1 and 1 with a 3-5 loss on Monday and a 5-3 win on Tuesday. Two people worthy of mention are Reyes, for his three awesome innings thrown as a relief and Glaus for hitting a two out, two run double to bring the score to 5-3 in the eighth. Isringhausen came in to pitch a flawless ninth inning to seal the deal for us. This now leaves us with a record of 6 and 2, second in wins only to Arizona, but they already played today, so they don't really count. Looper is on the mound tonight at the end of the first, two to zip against the last game against Houston to finish up our three game series. God I love this time of year :) More to come later.....

Also, I have all of the links to all of our farm teams now in case you want to see our garden grow!

Catching up with Springfield

2008-04-09T13:17:00.000-07:00

To bring you all up to speed, the Springfield Cardinals are currently sitting on a 0-6 standing in the rankings (their worst start since the inital season). The most recent of these games took place at Springfield's Hammons Field facing the Midland RockHounds (double A affiliate for the Oakland Athletics).

Sunday night, the Cards began the three game series against the Hounds with a loss of 7-4. Monday night the Redbirds took on Midland losing with a score of 12-0, their worst loss this season. The Hounds only allowed the Cards five hits in the game, using three pitchers to shut them down.

Tuesday afternoon, Midland continued their three game sweep of our boys, winning 6-3. The Cardinals' centerfielder, Jon Jay, did hit his first home run for the season in the bottom of the fourth inning. A beautiful line drive sent right over the right-center field fence scoring both himself and Jose Martinez (who had been walked with two outs in the inning). This tied the game with a score of 2-2, but Midland bounced back pulling ahead with a run in the fifth inning, a run forced in by a walk in the seventh, and two single home runs in the eighth and ninth, while only allowing the Cards one more run in those remaining innings.

Next Springfield will take on the Frisco RoughRiders (double A affiliate of the Texas Rangers) Thursday night in their first away game of the 2008 season. So far our record against Frisco is 0-3. Let's hope the team fares better away than they did at home. Until then, keep your fingers crossed for the farm boys and take a look at the St Louis game tonight against the Houston Astros!

Joe Mather - shadowed by Rasmus or a player for the Majors!

2008-04-08T16:52:00.001-07:00

Is Joe Mather in the shadow of Colby Rasmus, or is it all just hype from the press?

In 2007 Joe Mather hit for 271, 132 hits, 77 RBI's, and 31 dingers. He played a half year with Double A and a half year with Triple A. And yet the talk of the town is Colby Rasmus. Why? One explanation is that Rasmus had a better 2007, with .275 average, 130 hits, 72 RBI's, and 29 dingers. Well, had a better average anyway. Colby spent his whole season in Springfield, would he have done so well with Triple A Memphis?

Mather's numbers are just shy of Rasmus', he has more experience, and is already on the forty-man roster. This season Joe has, according to memphisredbirds.com, led the team to a pair of victories, Rasmus's best game was a Memphis loss. Now, some might say that, "we are trying to develop players, we don't care if they win or lose." I say that we are talking about Triple A ball people, we need to see how these boys will play as a team, how they lead, and how they contribute to get the W. Because if they jump up to the big leagues and they are all developed to the point of it being "me, me, me", then we are not going to get anything done.

I say it's the press that is hyping Colby Rasmus. Don't get me wrong, Colby is a great player and deserves that recognition. Maybe it's not the money, like I posed in my first post, that is keeping STL from bringing him up. Maybe, just maybe, it's a kid by the name of Joe Mather (who is a great leader, player, and asset to the organization). Either way, I know one thing, when both of these guys make it to the show it's going to be something special. Why? Because they both know how to get it done.

Hmmm, maybe I'll start trusting the front office a little more too...

That, however, is another bit of rowdiness for another day.

I missed a day

2008-04-08T08:32:00.000-07:00

OK, we lost last night and I'm behind, We're 5 and 2 now, still not that shabby... I'll pick back up on this tonight.

I missed it, but we're 5 and 1

2008-04-06T18:04:00.000-07:00

I missed the game today to play some softball, but we won again, making a five game winning streak. If you want to know how I feel about this, see my 4 and 1 post from yesterday. We're on a roll and Ba-Da-Ba-Ba-Ba.... I'm lovin it! (McDonald's, please don't sue me.) Anyhow, Ankiel yet again came through today, along with Molina, and I can't say enough about Barton. Three to nothing to end it up. Tomorrow we head south to Houston to take on the Astros (2-5) for three games, then out to San Fran for the Giants (1-5) before we get a day off to come home and get ready for the Brewers (5-1, the only other team matching our record). In Triple A we won 7 to 1 today and in Springfield we're down by one in the 7th 4 to 3. That's about all for today, thanks for stopping by.

Thanks

2008-04-05T19:59:00.000-07:00

We're only into our second day of this blog and already I can't thank the readers that have sent me messages enough. And especially my other two authors and my good friend, the official editor, Ace, all of whom are helping me keep this thing alive. More good things to come, just you wait and see....

Keeton

A look at the Springfield Cards

2008-04-05T18:36:00.000-07:00

Alright, first a confession: I haven't really gotten the chance to learn all of the new players for the Springfield Cardinals, but I'm going to try to recap today's game as best as I can remember. I had to work today, so I didn't get to the field until the middle of the 4th inning, but when I arrived, the score was already 1-0, Frisco. Springfield was in the field with 2 outs, no one on base. The ball was a hit deep into centerfield, caught by Jay for the final out. The game progressed with the Cards scoring 2 runs in the 5th inning, tying the game. Nothing too major happened until the top of the 7th inning when the Rough Riders rallied back, tying the game 4-4 (much to our disappointment). The game continued into 11 innings with the Rough Riders taking it in the 11th with a final score of 6-4. So far the Springfield Cards are 0-3 for the season, but its only the beginning. Just checked on the Memphis team and as of right now, they are down by 7 at the top of the 7th.

(Side note: Keeton just informed me our friend Mary just told us that the Rockies are down by 3, to the Diamondbacks in Colorado... don't know why you would want to know that, but there it is).

UMMM can anyone say 4 and 1

2008-04-05T15:58:00.000-07:00

Ok, I get it. Every one of my friends has been saying all day, "you're not even through the first week of the season, 4 and 1 doesn't mean anything..." to them I say NAY. The so-called experts had us picked as last for the season and so far I've see nothing but good things from the organization. All the players that we expected to show up have, and the young blood that we brought up have proven that they were a good farm investment. I'm not saying just because we are 4 and 1 that we have the season in the bag, I'm just happy to see the team come out strong and for them to show that they aren't a roll-over team like everyone expected they would be. And in other news, the two teams these "experts" picked to go all the way this year: the Cubs are 2 and 3 and the Detroit Tigers are 0 and 5...

Today's game was won 5 to 4 (the same as last night) but got a little scary in the 9th when Reyes almost gave up the lead as our closer until Flores came in to throw one pitch with two outs to seal the game.

This is one of the best infield plays I've seen in a long time, by Adam Kennedy. You couldn't duplicate this play if you tried. That's all I have for now, WAY TO GO CARDS

So at the end of April 4th

2008-04-04T20:52:00.000-07:00

Here's what we end up with

Double A 1-2 loss

Triple A 10-6 win

Majors 5-4 win

Talk to again soon...

Bottom of the eighth, up by one

2008-04-04T20:07:00.000-07:00

SO.... here we are at BW3's, up by one, Skip up to bat, Izzy warming up, and Skip's out.Top of the ninth... this is becoming the game that never ends. Isringhausen was the latest jersey that I bought, just because he's a bad-ass closer. Ankiel has continued to dominate the plays throughout the game. I have to take a small pause for one of the sponsors of the game, Anheuser-Busch, St Louis, Missouri (say it in a deep voice and it's just like watching the TV). Two on, one out, with Belliard on with a 2-2 count and Belliard is out with a reaching swing and a miss! Let us take another pause for... just kidding. The count is now 2-0 against Lopez, 3-0, 3-1, I don't type that fast, 3-2, one more and done, and We're done... Crazy game, talk to you all tomorrow. So that now makes us 3 and 1, not too shabby for a team picked to finish last in the league. I know it's early but all I'm saying is "experts"?? What???

A new season - a new location.

2008-04-04T19:21:00.000-07:00

So I'm sitting here at Buffalo Wild Wings (where I've only been one other time before - last Wednesday), watching the Cardinals blow the Washington Nationals out of the water leading 5-1 while enjoy a beer and yet, the boys aren't my only source of entertainment in this atmosphere. I'm also sitting here with Keeton & a slightly tipsy Rowdy Redbird, who within the past three minutes has lit an entire matchbook on fire and has begun discussing with Keeton the fact that "there are rules to this shit". Granted, these two are slightly farther along in the drinking that I am, but all the same - highly entertaining. You could honestly turn the sound down on the game and just listen to them commentate. Not only would you hear about the game, you also hear about all the randomness they discuss when alcohol is in their system...

That's pretty much all I've got for now - just thought I'd check in and say hi to all, I'm sure I'll have more to say when this game is over...

A .167 Hitter

2008-04-04T18:43:00.000-07:00

I was extremely happy when we trade Rolen for Glaus. I felt that is was the best thing for us, especially when Rolen was put on the DL once again before the season started. However, I sit here tonight and watch my Cardinals up by 3 and can't understand why you pitch at swing when it's in the dirt. Glaus was a good hitter in Toronto, I could look up his numbers but really who wants to do that. I just want to rant, well I guess I should get my lingo right, "swing at a pitch." (I'm also four beers and a shot in) We curse out Glaus, who has a horrible temper, we talk about bits and bites which is not a Purina dog food, and we are singing Buttercup. Back to the subject at hand. Glaus is hitting .167 this year and I think I know why. He doesn't know how to watch a pitch go by that's in the dirt. If he doesn't get better lets just start Rico Washington and trade Glaus to get another pitcher. And Ludwick just got a double. Okay I'm going to continue my drinking...

That, however, is another bit of rowdiness for another day.

Is Rasmus the Boost Memphis Needs

2008-04-04T14:52:00.000-07:00

The Triple A Memphis Redbirds opened the season last night with a loss to the OKC Redhawks. Since 2006, the Redbirds are 1-16 when opening the season on the road. So I ask you, what is going to turn this team around? Colby Rasmus. Last night Rasmus went 3 for 5 with a double the first pitch of the game. Then, in the tenth, with the game tied 3-3 he fired a fastball from the outfield, straight to the catcher, that made the umpire hesitate to call the run safe. This kid is a phenom and there is no other way to put it. In 2007, for the Springfield Cardinals, Rasmus was batting .275 with 29 homers and 72 RBI's, that's a slugging percentage of .551. There is no doubt that he is a huge advantage to the Redbird staff. The question at hand, is Colby Rasmus ready for the Big Show right now? I say that he is. At 21 years old Rasmus has shown poise both on and off the field, so why is St. Louis holding him back? Folks, just like everything else in the world, you have to wonder if it comes down to money. If he is held back and added later in the year, the Cardinals would not have to pay him nearly as much as if he had start the season on baseball's highest level. Good, bad, or indifferent, I want to see the STL Cardinals win another pennant and Colby Rasmus is going to be a huge part of that whether they have him join the team now and they have a chance this year or he joins later and we have to wait.
That, however, is another bit of rowdiness for another day.

I'm running behind already

2008-04-04T14:13:00.000-07:00

So here we are on the fourth game of the season and I'm just getting started, I'll do better in the future I promise. Well, for anyone out there that hasn't been paying attention to anything going on so far and has run across my brand new blog (their only source of Cardinals information), here's a quick catch up:

Monday's game against the Colorado Rockies only made it into the 3rd inning before it got rained out. We were ahead 5-2.

Tuesday - Lost to the Rockies 1-2

Wednesday - we won 8-3

Thursday's day game, we won 3-0, winning the series 2-1. Which just also happens to be our record so far :)

Tonight we go up against the Washington Nationals 3-1 at 7:15 in the PM. It will be Looper VS Perez to start off the night (neither pitcher has a start in this season yet). The big story on this game is Pujols' success against Perez. Pujols is 13 for 20 against Perez, which if you do the math that's an amazing .650 batting average, .741 on base average, and a 1.500 slugging average. Regardless, it'll be fun to watch. I'm sure I'll have a Blurb to throw in here later, but until then...

It is what it is

2008-04-04T13:50:00.000-07:00

I've been telling myself that I would get this blog started and running for about two years now, which ironically, is about the same amount of time that I've told myself I needed to start working out again. At least I'm starting one of them today. Well, to give you a little more about me, I'm a die-hard Cardinals fan that loves talking about and discussing the sport. I chose this as my medium. I live in Springfield MO, home of the Cardinals Double A affiliate, the Springfield Cardinals. I try to keep up with our Triple A team also but you'll mainly see Double A and St Louis postings here. Well I think that's about all for post # 1, wish me luck.