St.louis

This isn't the link roundup, it's just a link roundup. A little diversion on a Wednesday morning. -- Not many have been hyperventilating over Zach Petrick yet. Brendan Meyer over at stltoday.com tells us why we might want to keep a paper bag handy. As a starter in college, Petrick featured a fastball that sat at 90 mph, but now it reaches 93-94 mph consistently. His secondary pitches are improving with every outing, and his confidence is as strong as ever. Fortunately for the Cardinals, Petrick slipped their way. Coaches see him more as a reliever in the short term, but as his secondary pitches continue to progress, a starting role is not out of the question. -- The Cardinals surprised fans this week by installing a new water feature. -- Jeffrey Kittel's blog about St. Louis baseball in the 19th century, This Game Of Games, has moved to new digs. It's now at http://www.thisgameofgames.com/ . Jeff always has interesting info about baseball's earliest of early days. -- Grant at Baseball Nation is running a series of articles about organizational droughts. He defines this as how long it has been since each organization has drafted a player that has produced 4+ bWAR for that team (or 5+ bWAR for pitchers). TL;DR Cardinals: P - John Denny (5.2, 1978) Which was the stinger to the pitching article. 1B- Albert Pujols (5.4, 2011) duh 2B- Tom Herr (5.6, 1985) SS- Brendan Ryan (4.5, 2009) BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOG 3B- Placido Polanco (4.5, 2001) Yep. Really. C - Yadier Molina (6.9, 2012) LF- Albert Pujols (8.6, 2003) CF- Ray Lankford (6.2, 1998) DanUp rejoyce! RF- still to come -- Daniel Solzman from Redbird Rants interviews Cardinals scouting director Dan Kantrovitz and talks a little draft. -- That's it for now. Stay tuned for the red baron, coming up next! This isn't the link roundup, it's just a link roundup. A little diversion on a Wednesday morning. -- Not many have been hyperventilating over Zach Petrick yet. Brendan Meyer over at stltoday.com tells us why we might want to keep a paper bag handy. As a starter in college, Petrick featured a fastball that sat at 90 mph, but now it reaches 93-94 mph consistently. His secondary pitches are improving with every outing, and his confidence is as strong as ever. Fortunately for the Cardinals, Petrick slipped their way. Coaches see him more as a reliever in the short term, but as his secondary pitches continue to progress, a starting role is not out of the question. -- The Cardinals surprised fans this week by installing a new water feature. -- Jeffrey Kittel's blog about St. Louis baseball in the 19th century, This Game Of Games, has moved to new digs. It's now at http://www.thisgameofgames.com/ . Jeff always has interesting info about baseball's earliest of early days. -- Grant at Baseball Nation is running a series of articles about organizational droughts. He defines this as how long it has been since each organization has drafted a player that has produced 4+ bWAR for that team (or 5+ bWAR for pitchers). TL;DR Cardinals: P - John Denny (5.2, 1978) Which was the stinger to the pitching article. 1B- Albert Pujols (5.4, 2011) duh 2B- Tom Herr (5.6, 1985) SS- Brendan Ryan (4.5, 2009) BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOG 3B- Placido Polanco (4.5, 2001) Yep. Really. C - Yadier Molina (6.9, 2012) LF- Albert Pujols (8.6, 2003) CF- Ray Lankford (6.2, 1998) DanUp rejoyce! RF- still to come -- Daniel Solzman from Redbird Rants interviews Cardinals scouting director Dan Kantrovitz and talks a little draft. -- That's it for now. Stay tuned for the red baron, coming up next!

Current Rams wide receiver, Nick Johnson, spends his off season coaching a local High School track team.

Brian Quick is fourth on the St. Louis Rams depth chart at wide receiver. It doesn't matter. Why? Mostly because it's June. The Rams are more than six weeks away from putting on pads for the first time this year. When contact starts happening, that's when you can start making accurate assessments about the team's depth chart. Quick's struggles last season, following a very loud hype tour from the leadership, surprised everyone. He struggled to pick up the playbook and learn the subtle and not-so-subtle differences between playing college football at Appalachian State and the NFL. Bigger, faster, stronger, more complex and all that. I don't think he ever made it to fourth on the depth chart in 2012. Maybe that week when Chris Givens got benched. Right now, Tavon Austin, Chris Givens and Austin Pettis are ahead of Quick on the depth chart. Austin was the eighth pick in the draft that the Rams traded up to get; no surprise that he's up there already. And rookies rarely make an appearance in the starting lineup in OTAs. Givens was the team's top receiver last year. Again, no surprise. Pettis is entering his third season with the Rams, a time when many believe that receivers finally figure it out. A little bit of a surprise that he's in the top three, but not entirely shocking. Of the four receivers, only Austin possesses more overall natural talent than Quick. And that's not meant to take anything away from the other two. Quick is big, athletic and has the kind of skill set that can make him a threat all over the field. All Quick has to do is prove himself. A month of OTAs isn't enough to erase a season worth of rookie struggles. The final depth chart might not matter all that much at receiver anyway, not with Brian Schottenheimer's promise to use a more wide open, spread-like offense. Regardless, the battle in training camp to sort out the receiving corps ought to be one of the more exciting plots to follow. When was the last time the Rams had this many talented receivers competing for playing time?

The Blues and defenseman Taylor Chorney have agreed to terms on a new one-year, two-way contract. Over the course of the past two seasons, Chorney, 26, has played in two games with the Blues. In 61 career NHL games, he has recorded one goal and...

St. Louis Cardinals Scouting Director Dan Kantrovitz recently spoke with Redbird Rants. (more…)

For St. Louis area kids dreaming of one day wearing the horns for the Rams or kids just looking to learn a little more about football while staying active, there’s a place they can go to get a lit...

Performing well during OTAs doesn't mean that a player will do the same when they are fully padded, or on game day. In fact, It's important to take everything with a grain of salt, at least until the end of the preseason. Even then, being cautious about players and teams performance is important even though it's hard. It is interesting though that the player that has been getting the most hype from OTAs, besides rookie wide receiver Tavon Austin, is third year vet Austin Pettis. Offensive Coordinator Brian Schottenheimer had some interesting comments about Pettis during OTAs: I think if you guys watch him, he does a great job of coaching these young guys. He's a professional. Quite honestly, he's probably having the best camp of all the skill players. He's just a tireless worker. Very competitive. He can play all the spots, which helps. He's having a tremendous spring. High praise from the coach, but this doesn't seem like "coaches speech". It really seems as if the Rams like what they have seen from Pettis. That could be seen as a surprise with the new weapons and returning targets on the team. He most likely won't have a 1,000 yard season for the Rams this year, but he should play an important role and could end up surprising people in getting more playing time than many people will believe. How Pettis used last season Last season Pettis was mainly used in the slot, playing backup to Danny Amendola who is now a member of the most hated team in the NFL, the New England Patriots. Last year, Pettis caught 30 passes for 261 yards and 4 touchdowns. His statistics were about the same as his rookie year, but the 4 touchdowns last season stand out as a big improvement. Looking deeper into the stats, Pettis' role last season becomes clearer. In the red zone, Pettis caught 5 passes for all four of his touchdowns and 19 yards. Moreover, 18 of Pettis catches came when the Rams were behind. In the 4th quarter is where Pettis played his best, grabbing 11 passes, gaining 95 yards, and having 2 touchdowns. In December, Pettis caught 16 passes for 129 yards, caught 2 touchdowns, and got 8 first downs out of 16 in that month. What does all this mean? It certainly means he's a red zone threat for the Rams. He's useful in moving the chains, and the team can depend on him the make a catch in the 4th quarter. Pettis can make tough catches. Pictures tell a thousand words, but you can find excitement in tweets. Austin Pettis' catch on fourth-and-1 so impressive. Wet conditions, ball behind him, body going the other way. No win without it. — Mike Sando, ESPN.com (@espn_nfcwest) December 9, 2012 Bradford pass tipped but WR Austin Pettis makes excellent catch on the rebound. #Rams take 6-3 lead. — St. Louis Rams (@STLouisRams) December 30, 2012 Austin Pettis very good red zone threat for Rams. TD grab makes it 7-3 Rams. 49ers also out front now with Crabtree TD. — Mike Sando, ESPN.com (@espn_nfcwest) December 30, 2012 Pettis' playing style Pettis is a good route runner with good hands. He's adept at adjusting to the ball when it's in the air. A smart receiver that shines in short yardage situations, he makes some difficult catches. Pettis does a good job at fighting for the first down marker. Also one of the biggest strengths for Pettis is the fact that he has taken some big hits in his career, and on a majority of the catches where he got pummeled, he still maintained possession of the ball. Pettis isn't perfect by any means. He doesn't get much separation, and he won't gain much YAC when the ball is in his hands. He doesn't run vertical routes well and won't gain much separation if he's running deep in man coverage. He's more of a working the middle of the field player. (video via Rams on Demand) Where does he fall on the Rams depth chart? It's really early, but Pettis will most likely backup the slot and the X receiver (Brian Quick position). By all accounts, it sounds as though Pe

Give business-book writers enough time, and every possible angle will be taken on any given success story. We St. Louis Cardinals watchers have already taken care of the low-hanging business-book fruit—Jeff Luhnow's prospect , the efficient development pipeline, even the decision to not sign Albert Pujols, around which Malcolm Gladwell is presently anchoring an extended meditation on neuroplasticity. The guys unfortunate enough to miss the rush—the poor MBAs who arrive after the team has been picked clean of lessons about management and innovation—will find themselves with one last Weird Thing to observe: This team hits a lot of singles and doubles, and not many home runs at all. (I call it Brink: The Power Of Almost Hitting Home Runs Without Hitting Home Runs. Talk to my agent.) Right now the Cardinals are on pace to hit 138 home runs. The last time they hit so few? 1995, the year before La Russaball. The team leaderboard that year looked like this: # Name HR 1 Ray Lankford 25 2 Brian Jordan 22 3 Bernard Gilkey 17 4 John Mabry 5 Tripp Cromer These Cardinals, projected through the end of the season, have at least managed to push Tripp Cromer off the list: # Name HR 1 Carlos Beltran 37 2 Matt Holliday 23 3 Allen Craig 14 4 Matt Carpenter 12 5 TIE 9 Despite that, these Cardinals have the fourth-highest slugging percentage in the National League (.409.) Having Carlos Beltran helps—he's basically the difference, home-run-wise, between the 1995 Cardinals and the current model. More important, though, is that the Cardinals are hitting 30 points better than the Cromer model. You're probably right to be skeptical of Yadier Molina's .355 batting average, among other things, but right this instant the Cardinals are one conspicuous stolen base threat away from having the kind of zero-fraud offense that sportswriters dream about, when they allow themselves to dream. The verdict: It's kind of nice! And if you absolutely had to write a business book on the subject, and this was all you had left, you could probably get somewhere with it. It's not the doubles—it's the journalist-trend lurking along the infield. The Cardinals' second, third, and fifth-highest batting averages this season are coming from Matt Carpenter, Allen Craig, and David Freese. All three were, at various points, tweener prospects whose lack of show-stoppingly obvious power at third base (which for whatever reason remains a stereotypical power position) left them underrated. (Freese, oddly, reached the majors before he turned into this kind of hitter.) Jon Jay—the Jon Jay that doesn't hit .245, I mean—was the same kind of prospect; Stephen Piscotty, one of last year's first-rounders, looks like a member of the same species. The Cardinals not only pushed them methodically through the minor leagues, they found increasingly unlikely places for them to stand between at-bats, so that all of them could play at once. The Cardinals' pitching pipeline is much easier to see in action, since so many young pitchers can fit on the same staff. But their willingness to draft and stick with players like Carpenter and Craig hasn't just reshaped the offense in 1992's image; it's reshaped the team around its own player development strengths.

November 20, 2011; St. Louis, MO, USA; Seattle Seahawks outside linebacker Leroy Hill (56) sacks St. Louis Rams quarterback Sam Bradford (8) in the second half at the Edward Jones Dome. Seattle defeated St. Louis 24-7. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports For the most part, the St. Louis Rams roster has been filled out. From the end of February to the start of summer, the team has added a healthy combination of veteran and “young” talent, including hitting on several “big name” players in free agency. With training camp and preseason still left on the schedule before any meaningful football is played, there are still a lot of decisions to be made. As of August 27th, all teams must cut their current roster to a maximum of 75 players. Then, by 6:00 PM EST on August 31st, they will have to reduce that number again, rounding out the “final” 53-man roster. It is unlikely that there will be too much shifting for the Rams at this point. There will likely be a handful of undrafted free agents released, and several rookie or sophomore players cut and moved to the eight-man practice squad. However, it would not be unfathomable to see the Rams snag a handful of veteran to come in and complete for a spot on the roster. On Friday, the team signed veteran safety Matt Giordano. Who else is left out there that St. Louis might consider bringing in? Desmond Bishop, ILB The Packers’ cut Bishop yesterday in a surprise move, leaving the seven-year veteran searching for a new home for 2013. Bishop was sidelined for all of 2012 with a hamstring injury, after posting huge numbers in 2011. As a 3-4 inside linebacker, the man racked up over 100 tackles, 23 pressures in the pass rush (including 5 sacks), and 47 defensive stops. To put that in perspective, those numbers were all superior to Patrick Willis’ that same year. Bishop would give the Rams some added veteran depth at middle linebacker, and could even shift to the outside on obvious run downs or on the goalline. He was due $3.46 million for 2013, which might be a little steep for a “depth” player. However, coming off an injury in a relatively stagnant free agent pool, Bishop might be willing to sign on for somewhere in the $1.5 to $2.25 million range. Leroy Hill, OLB In 2012, Hill was ranked by Pro Football Focus as the 10th best 4-3 outside linebacker in the league. Hill is an all-around backer, who specializes as a run stuffer, but was also excellent in coverage, allowing a mere 60.0% catch rate and only one receiving touchdown when throw at last season. If signed, this would be his 9th season in the league, and would easily fit within the Rams’ tight budget. Last season, he signed a one-year, $1.6 million contract with Seattle. Prior to that, he was under contract for a mere $685,000 in 2011, the league minimum. Not only would Hill add depth to a severely limited outside linebacker pool, he could provide vital intel about the Seattle Seahawks. It would be similar to the Craig Dahl situation with the San Francisco 49ers, with the added benefit of actually being able to play the game of football. Wayne Hunter, OT I know, shocking! Wayne Hunter might not be the sexiest pick up for the Rams, but on the offensive line, consistency is the name of the game. With Jake Long and Rodger Saffold both falling prey to a laundry list of injuries over the past two seasons, quality depth on the outside will be essential if the St. Louis Rams plan to be competitive for all of 2013. In Wayne Hunter’s three “healthy” starts last season (Chicago, Seattle, Arizona) he played all 182 offensive snaps on the blindside, and allowed only 1 sack and 2 hits on Sam Bradford. Hunter got yanked after allowing 3 sacks against the Miami Dolphins, but likely should not have started the game to begin with, having sat out the entire week of practice with a knee injury. As a backup, Hunter would essentially be the filler at right t

Editing. It's important. Especially if you're going to print things, be it in the newspaper or on the internet. You should strive to speak clearly, eloquently and presentably. I had one get through the crack (pun sort of intended) on Monday in this piece about the St. Louis Rams Training Academy. It read: Decked out with state of the art training equipment, video capability, weights and, of course, a turd field. Obviously, it should have read "turf." Someone knew hilarity would ensue when they put the 'd' and the 'f' keys right next to each other. It's not just Apple iOS devices that discriminate against stubby fingers. I should have caught that. Fortunately, someone did rather quickly and sent me a note. I appreciate that. Again, my apologies. We'll try not to get too BUMMED about SHITTY editing for now. Don't laugh. There really is a turd field. In Oakland. Turnover is kind of like a turd field, in that it at least takes some of the turds off the field. But who am I kidding, ever iteration of the Rams roster is perfect, right? Mike Sando has a look at where the Rams have new faces in a new places ... and it's the right places. St. Louis is blessed with some fine 1980s-style sports columnists. And nobody knows hot sports takes like Joe Strauss. He totally pulled one over on unsuspecting Nationals fans last night. (I bet there's a social media "expert" in the newsroom at the PD now, telling its staff about the importance of Klout Scores ... because Lee Enterprises wants those perks, baby!) Anyway, first-class trolling by Strauss here. Maybe this dinosaur does know something about the internets after all. The official Rams site caught up with former Ram Ray Agnew, part of the 1999 Super Bowl championship team.