St.louis

Memphis 5, Tacoma 6 Brock Peterson was 2-for-4 with a homerun. Jamie Romak was 2-for-4 with a double. Maikel Cleto struck out 5 in 5 innings of work. He allowed 5 runs on 5 hits and 3 walks. Cleto was notably bit by the home run ball, which accounted for 3 of the 5 runs. Eduardo Sanchez allowed 1 hit in a scoreless frame. Eric Fornataro struck out 1 and allowed 1 hit. Jorge Rondon took the loss allowing a walk off solo home run to Carlos Trunifel. Springfield 3, Arkansas 5 Mike O'Neill was 2-for-4. O'Neill is batting a ridiculous .348/.476/.422 on the season. It would appear that Arkansas's catcher doesn't have much of an arm. The Cardinals stole 5 bases off of Mark Fleury across two different pitchers. Seth Blair had a great outing striking out 6 in 6 innings. He allowed 3 runs on 6 hits. Palm Beach 0, Jupiter 1 Jonathan Rodriguez was 3-for-4 with a double. Jonathan Cornelius struck out 1 and walked 1 across 7 innings. He allowed 2 hits. Heath Wyatt was the unlucky loser. He pitched 2 innings allowing one unearned run (on his own error). Wyatt walked 1, struck out 1 and allowed 2 hits. Peoria 2, Clinton 5 Jacob Wilson was 2-for-4. Patrick Wisdom was 0-for-2 with a pair of walks. Gerwuins Velazco was 0-for-1 with a pair of walks. Josh Lucas allowed 10 hits and 5 runs in 6.1 innings. He struck out 3 and walked 1. Mike Aldrete allowed 1 hit and struck out 2 in 2.2 innings.

I am officially Registered! YAY!!! Any way If you are interested in playing with me or in the league in general call the Brentwood Ice rink and register for the Saturday Night Novice League. I have been put on team 1 aka the Bruins... gotta love that... will be using the #BluesForBruins tag even more now! whoot! lol I am going to post the schedule on Facebook so if anyone wants to come out and watch me make a fool of myself come on out it will be fun! I am officially Registered! YAY!!! Any way If you are interested in playing with me or in the league in general call the Brentwood Ice rink and register for the Saturday Night Novice League. I have been put on team 1 aka the Bruins... gotta love that... will be using the #BluesForBruins tag even more now! whoot! lol I am going to post the schedule on Facebook so if anyone wants to come out and watch me make a fool of myself come on out it will be fun!

Sam Bradford is entering his fourth NFL season. And for the first time in his career fans aren't saying "I hope Sam doesn't get killed this year." But instead saying "If everyone stays healthy, this offensive line could be very good." Fans are saying this because the current coaching staff and front office have tried to turn a weakness into a strength. In Bradford's inaugural season in 2010, the St. Louis Rams starting offensive linemen were, from left to right, Rodger Saffold, Jacob Bell, Jason Brown, Adam Goldberg, and Jason Smith. That season, the Rams offensive line gave up 34 sacks and gave up the eleventh most QB hits in the league, with 79. On that 2010 offensive line, only 2 of those guys are still in the NFL. Those two being Saffold and Smith. Smith was signed by the Bengals pretty recently, but he will struggle to find a spot on the final roster because he is not very good. Speaking of not very good, how about the 2011 offensive line? In Sam's sophomore season, the Rams allowed a league-high 55 sacks. And they gave up 114 QB hits, the most in the NFL as well. Sam Bradford played in only 10 of the 16 games that year, and the Rams went 2-14. The week one starters in the trenches in 2011 were: Rodger Saffold, Jacob Bell, Jason Brown, Harvey Dahl, and Jason Smith. 3 of the 5 starters on this line are still in the league. Over 50 percent! Woo! All jokes aside, there were a lot of injuries that year, but still, only 2 of the 5 week one starters are legit offensive line starters in the NFL, being Saffold and Dahl. In 2012, the Rams offensive line improved from 2011, which wasn't hard to do. The week one starters were: Saffold, Rok Watkins, Scott Wells, Dahl, and Barry Richardson. However, Saffold was hurt for a few games, Watkins played in just one game, and Scott Wells missed a lot of games due to injury. Last year, the Rams gave up 35 sacks and 81 QB hits. If it wasn't for the injuries those numbers would have gone down. Finally moving on to this upcoming season, 2013. The Rams offensive line looks as good as it has with Bradford under center. My projected starters coming into this year are Jake Long, Rok Watkins, Scott Wells, Harvey Dahl, and Rodger Saffold. Beyond that, guys like Barrett Jones, Joe Barksdale, and Shelly Smith provide great offensive line depth for this upcoming year. That is exciting. Barring any injuries, this offensive line will be very good. When is the last time we have been able to say that? Most people that follow the Rams will agree that the 2013 offensive line will be the best that Sam Bradford has worked with.The Rams have replaced draft bust Jason Smith with all pro Jake Long. And have moved on from the washed up Jason Brown to previous Pro Bowler Scott Wells. The improvement of the offensive line since 2011 is indicative of the direction the St. Louis Rams, as a whole, are headed under Les Snead and Jeff Fisher. Sam Bradford is entering his fourth NFL season. And for the first time in his career fans aren't saying "I hope Sam doesn't get killed this year." But instead saying "If everyone stays healthy, this offensive line could be very good." Fans are saying this because the current coaching staff and front office have tried to turn a weakness into a strength. In Bradford's inaugural season in 2010, the St. Louis Rams starting offensive linemen were, from left to right, Rodger Saffold, Jacob Bell, Jason Brown, Adam Goldberg, and Jason Smith. That season, the Rams offensive line gave up 34 sacks and gave up the eleventh most QB hits in the league, with 79. On that 2010 offensive line, only 2 of those guys are still in the NFL. Those two being Saffold and Smith. Smith was signed by the Bengals pretty recently, but he will struggle to find a spot on the final roster because he is not very good. Speaking of not very good, how about the 2011 offensive line? In Sam's sophomore season, the Rams allowed a league-high 55 sacks. And they gave up 114 QB hits, the most in the NFL as well. Sam B

I missed this column from Bernie Miklasz but it's frustrating to see such a disservice done to Tyler Lyons. It's an abuse of stats in the most mundane of ways and, given other articles he's written, something that feels disingenuous in it's obvious mistakes. To start Miklasz sites some of the least predictive statistics to make the case agaisnt Lyons: But Lyons had a 4.47 ERA in Triple A, for goodness sake. In his last four starts he's allowed 14 earned runs in 21.2 innings. He's been struck for a .306 batting average this season. I'm not seeing Joe Magrane II here. Lyons had a .372 BABIP against. Lyons has a nearly 48% groundball rate which is better than the PCL average. His line drive rate is in line with averages for the league as well. So there's compelling evidence that Lyons is getting unlucky. It's also important to remember that ERA can be useful as a descriptive tool in terms of what happened but it's limited in it's usefulness as a predictive tool because it incorporates all kinds of luck components and team defense aspects that the pitcher has no control over. The better tool to use is a fielding independent pitching metric like FIP. Tyler Lyons is sitting at a 3.20 FIP right now which is, again, better than the PCL average. This is largely because Lyons continues to display excellent control with a K:BB rate nearly at 4:1. This is in line with his performance at lower levels as well. Meanwhile, Michael Wacha is clearly the sexy pick of late. After being drafted and pitching as a reliever, he was dominant. He struck out 40 in 21 innings, was a dominant groundball pitcher and only walked 4. That's undeniably impressive. It's also been something he hasn't replicated as a starter this season. Wacha's groundball rate has been 32%, his strikeout rate is no better than Lyons and his walk rate is higher than Lyons. Two statistics that are better predictors of future ERA than present ERA are SIERA and FIP. In both instances, those statistics favor Lyons by a wide margin. There's a compelling argument for Michael Wacha but it revolves around a less objective and quantifiable aspect of scouting. Wacha's ceiling is considered to be higher than Lyons. Wacha has a bright future but the future is not now. Wacha is clearly the best pitcher down there, clearly the one with the brightest future, clearly the one that figures to be in the STL rotation for a long time. But this is the second time the Cardinals have bypassed him in favor of another option to start a game or games. That's simply not an argument backed up by the stats right now. Michael Wacha has seen the best results during his starts but with a miniscule BABIP, there's been a huge portion of that success which is difficult to attribute to Wacha directly. There is not a strong objective case that Michael Wacha projects better at this point in the season than Tyler Lyons. And that's part of what makes the service time scaremongering that Miklasz engages in towards the end of his article so perplexing. Even the briefest look beyond the surface level statistics will indicate that Tyler Lyons has had the better process this season even if he hasn't seen the same results. Maybe Miklasz is right. Maybe the Cardinals don't want to start Michael Wacha's service time yet. If that's true, it certainly isn't because Wacha has outpitched Tyler Lyons this season because there's no compelling basis for that claim. Good on Mozeliak for pushing back too: It’s managing our decisions for what’s best for the club and what’s best for the individuals in their own silo of development. There's no reason to pillory the club for making what is a smart decision both for today and tomorrow. And there's no reason to act like Tyler Lyons hasn't earned this. He has and good for him that he's getting this opportunity. I missed this column from Bernie Miklasz but it's frustrating to see such a disservice done to Tyler Lyons. It's an abuse of stats in

There’s been a fair amount of talk around whether the Rams can be a contender in 2013. I’ve thought for a while that the Rams aren’t really there yet, but we probably should be getting there quite soon, and we might be able to stay there for a good while. So I decided to have a look at the roster, and see whether the composition of our squad backs this up. First off, the method: I’ve gone through the current roster and identified guys who I think are, or can easily project to be, starters or key contributors, either right now or in years to come. I’ve come up with 17 on offense (Bradford; Pead, Richardson, Stacy; Givens, Quick, Austin, Bailey, Pettis; Cook, Kendricks; Long, Watkins, Wells, Dahl, Saffold, Jones) and 13 on defense (Quinn, Brockers, Langford, Long, Hayes; Laurinaitis, Dunbar, Ogletree; Finnegan, Jenkins, Johnson; McDonald, Stewart)*. That basically comprises a decent projection of the starting lineups this year, and guys who you can easily project to be contributors going forward. With each of these guys, I’ve grabbed their ages (as they will be at the start of the 2013 season), and which year of NFL experience 2013 will be for them (so Austin is 1, Brockers is 2, Quinn is 3 etc.). I’ve then plotted this information forward until the 2020 season. What I’ve then done is looked at these guys’ career paths, in terms of how they will grow, peak, decline and retire together. Research (from Football Outsiders and Pro Football Reference) suggests that players tend to decline at different ages based on their positions. Their research ambiguously refers to ages for declines as "after x", so where they’ve said a QB tends to decline after 32, I’ve started the decline as 33. The ages their research shows decline tends to start are listed below. Position Start of decline QB 33 RB 29 WR/TE 31 OL 31 DE 30 DT 32 LB 31 DB 30 *I couldn’t find anything on the decline of kickers and punters, so I’ve had to leave Zuerlien and Hekker out of this. Sorry guys! I’ve fairly arbitrarily decided that once a player hits that age, they have a three year period of "decline" (orange in the table). While that’s plucked out of thin air, it does feel about right. They can still contribute, but will be going downhill. After that three year decline, they are labelled as "done" (red). After that, I went to the other end of players’ careers. Again, fairly arbitrarily, I gave each player a three year period of "growth" (blue). It does seem fair to think that by a player’s fourth year he should be pretty much developed into the player he’s going to become. And then every year from the end of growth to the start of decline is the player’s "peak" (green). This then gives us the following snapshot of the core of the Rams roster, from here until 2020 (with each player’s age each season, with their years of NFL experience next to it): via dl.dropboxusercontent.com . Look at all those pretty colours! Once you get past that, the first thing that should be pretty obvious is the amount of blue, and lack of orange and red, especially on the offensive side of the ball. That just confirms what we all know: we’ve got a while until the offense peaks, and a long time until it starts going downhill. The exceptions are pretty obvious: Scott Wells and Harvey Dahl, but again, we knew this. And on the defensive side of the ball, we’re still relatively young (no one into their decline yet), and won’t really have any key contributors hitting the end of the decline until 2015 (and that’s Cortland Finnegan, who profiles well into the role that kept Charles Woodson as an elite defender deep into his 30s). And due to the particularly young age of guys like Brockers, Quinn and Ogletree when

Earlier today we posted an article about the three offensive players that need to step up this season in order for the Rams to break through this season. Everybody know the Rams are now built around their defense, and in order for the team to be successful, the defense needs to be successful. Here are the three defensive players that need to step up. Darian Stewart Darina Stewart is in his 4th season and he is the veteran safety on the team. Stewart doesn’t have a lot of starting experience and yet he will be one of the Rams starting safeties this season. It has been said that the Rams have one of the weaker safety groups in the league, and although that may be true, Stewart needs to step up and prove otherwise. Stewart needs to be able to be reliable in coverage and not be afraid of coming up to the line to make a tackle. Steware may be the key to the Rams secondary this season. Alec Ogletree Ogletree will only be a rookie, but his role on the defense is important. With the Seahawks and 49ers having speedy quarterbacks that are willing to run the ball, and having running backs that are capable of making plays on the outside, Ogletree needs to be able to put a stop to it, and be a difference maker on defense. Ogletree has had a history of off the field issues, so he needs to be able to step up and stay out of trouble as well as silence his critics in that regard. Ogletree could turn out to be one of the Rams premier defensive players. Trumaine Johnson The Rams got rid of Bradley Fletcher in free agency who was underrated and was a solid CB for the Rams the last couple of seasons. Now that Fletcher is gone, Johnson will be expected to take over that nickleback spot. Johnson played there a lot last season, but Johnson still has something to prove. Johnson also needs to come out strong because of his off the field issues this summer. Johnson has been suspended for receiving a DUI earlier, Johnson needs to put that behind him and come out strong. Honorable Mention T.J. McDonald is a rookie that the Rams have put a lot of faith in. The Rams are empty at the safety position and have put McDonald and Steward in charge of it. McDonald will have to get up to NFL speed quick in order to not be a liability to the defense. The Rams defense is pretty solid to say the least and there aren’t a lot of players that need to step up in order for the Rams to be successful as there was on offense. You can expect Brockers, Laurenaitis, Long, Quinn, Jenkins, and Finnegan will all play well anyway and don’t have to step up so to speak. These are the players that need to step up in order for the Rams to take the next step.

With bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning and two outs, Daniel Descalso struck out swinging in a tie game. (more…)

With Jaime Garcia’s shoulder pushing him onto the disabled list, the St. Louis Cardinals do not have a starting pitcher for their series finale in San Diego on Wednesday night, May 22. With its top-ranked farm system strongest in pitching in and close to the majors, the problem is located in the organization’s most optimal area to try to address. While there are various options potentially available to the Cardinals, none is completely obvious. Let’s consider them. Jake Westbrook. The veteran right-hander is on the disabled list with right elbow problems that have required two injections to try to calm down. Even if his mandatory 15 days on the DL had passed by Wednesday, which they will not, Westbrook has not begun to throw again, so would not be ready. The bigger question with Westbrook is how long he will remain out – and therefore how long John Gast would be needed to replace him instead of potentially covering for Garcia in the rotation. Chris Carpenter. When the starting five seemed in such good shape just a few days ago, there seemed no place for the warrior to fit. Still, Carpenter has been preparing for his return as a starter. In bullpens, his pitch counts have been as high as 70, but his next checkpoint is not until the Cardinals return to St. Louis on May 28. On the 60-day disabled list since March 22, my calculations have Carp becoming eligible for activation on May 22. Hmmm. Still, without any rehab action, an accelerated move with the 38-year-old would seem to be high risk. No one has even suggested this, to my knowledge. Yet because it does not seem impossible and it is Carpenter we are talking about, I will include it among the options. Michael Wacha. Putting aside Carpenter, the talk of major league spring training camp is perhaps the sentimental favorite to step in for Garcia. The tall right-hander has strong basic numbers with a 4-0 record and a 1.89 ERA in his first eight Triple-A starts. The 21-year-old has improved after yielding four of his 10 earned runs in his first two outings, including two of five home runs. Digging a bit deeper, though, provides potential clues to why Carlos Martinez, Seth Maness and Gast were selected to be elevated to the majors ahead of him. There are those five long balls and a so-so 32:14 strikeout to walk ratio in 47 2/3 innings. His FIP of 4.10 summarizes a view that the basic nums are not fully indicative and that more seasoning was required. In addition, Wacha is not yet on the 40-man roster. It may be too early to move Garcia to the 60-day DL to create an opening. This could be addressed by removal of another, but it would seem to me that the Cardinals would prefer to make the Wacha moves if a longer-term starting need is presented (see Westbrook uncertainty above). Seth Maness. The good-luck charm as a reliever has logged all three St. Louis bullpen wins this season. Having carried a full starter’s workload until recently, including four Triple-A starts, Maness would seem to be the most likely interim rotation replacement, in my opinion. The right-hander most recently tossed 1 2/3 frames of scoreless ball on Friday night, getting a hold against the Brewers. The return of reliever Mitchell Boggs from Memphis in the corresponding roster move with Garcia’s placement on the DL is a potential indicator that Wednesday’s starter might come from the current St. Louis pen. Even if not, it at least gives the club another relief arm during the impending three games. Carlos Martinez. Speaking of starters currently among the relievers, we have hard-throwing Carlos Martinez. While holding his own in the majors, Martinez had a late start this season due to a visa problem. His workload with St. Louis has been relatively sparse and he pitched in relief Saturday night. Martinez could be a factor, but there seems risk in starting the 21-year-old in the majors now. Trevor Rosenthal. After some bumpy outings early on, Rosenthal has been the most reliable set-up man on the

The Rams are on a verge of having a breakout season at making some unexpected noise in the NFL. However, in order for the Rams to succeed there are some players that need to step up on both sides of the ball. This will be the first of two segments and this part will be focused on players on offense that need to step up in order for the Rams to have success this season. Roger Saffold Roger Saffold is entering the last year of his rookie contract this season. It has been rumored that Saffold is not pleased with the signing of Jake Long who will be taking over at left tackle. The Rams have the best offensive line that they have had in years, and it is important that Saffold play well to help keep Sam Bradford upright. Saffold also needs to prove that he can stay healthy. After starting every game his rookie season, Saffold played nine games in 2011 and ten games last season. A good offensive line has continuity, and if Saffold is on and off the field due to injury, that continuity would be lost. Saffold is also entering the last year of his contract, therefore if he wants to make a lot of money next season, he needs to perform well. Saffold has been a solid player so far in his career. Last season Saffold only had eight penalties for 50 yards. He had four false starts and two holding penalties. Saffold also only gave up 2.5 sacks last season for a loss of 5.5 yards total. Sam Bradford This one is pretty obvious. In order for the Rams to succeed, Bradford needs to play on top of his game. With the departure of Steven Jackson, this is now Sam Bradford’s team, and the team will only go as far as Sam Bradford takes them. Sam Bradford doesn’t necessarily have to throw for 4,000+ yards and 30TD, even though that would be nice, but Sam does need to come up big in big moments and be the leader of this team. There were too many times last season when the offense couldn’t generate anything for a sustainable amount of time, the offense needs to help out the defense and sustain longer drives and come up with points. Sam Bradford now has decent weapons in Givens, Austin, Cook, and Quick, it is time that Bradford produces. Bradford may just be the quarterback with the most pressure this season. Brian Quick Brian Quick is a third player that needs to step up this season. The Rams lost two of their best receivers last season in Amendola and Gibson. The Rams front office has put a lot of faith in Givens and Quick to carry the load at wide receiver. Quick needs to prove that he has developed, and can be the Rams number two or maybe even number one receiver. Everybody knows Quick has the capability of doing something special and he can make plays, it is time for Quick to go out and prove it. Honorable Mentions  Greg Zurlein is more special teams than offense, but he scores points, so we’ll put him in the offense category. Zurlein  needs to step up this season.He had a good rookie season going 23/31 and making seven 50+ yard field goals. However, while Zurlein went 14/17 on turf, he went 8/14  on grass/outdoor stadiums. The Rams play a lot of close games, and they are bound to play a lot of close ones this season. Zurlein could play a major key in the Rams success. Tavon Austin also needs to play well. This is putting a lot on a rookie, but the Rams have been searching for a weapon for a long time, and they see Austin as being that. The Rams lost Danny Amendola in free agency, and although Amendola was hurt a lot, the Rams had a better record with him on the field. Austin needs to prove his critics wrong and prove his size is a non issue and be Sam’s security blanket underneath. Last but not least, Jared Cook needs to play well. Cook is another weapon the Rams went to get. Cook needs to be a Rob Gronkowski/ Aaron Hernandez for the Rams. Cook has to make plays down the field for the Rams in order to open things up for Tavon Austin. Cook could play a major role in the Rams success this season. Daryl Richardson/Isa

I'm watching Edward Mujica in the 9th inning. He's recorded two outs and allowed a single that should have been an out had Allen Craig not been so concerned that fist base was going to walk off of its own accord. I was not particularly enamored of Mujica when the Cardinals acquired him from the Marlins. A control artist with solid strikeout rates, he seemed a good solution for the problem of the 7th inning that had been particularly plaguing in 2012. But a solution to the particularly plaguing 9th inning for the Cardinals in 2013? That seems to be a bit more of a stretch. And yet, here we are. I'm inclined to quote poet-philosopher Ryan Theriot when he said, "It is what it is." But it isn't what it was. More specifically, Edward Mujica is having a different season then he's had previously and there appears to be a measurable change in approach. Take a look at pitch selection from 2012 compared to 2013: 2012 2013 Fastball 45.3% 35.4% Slider 9.5% 0.5% Split Finger 45.2% 64.2% Mujica has ditched the slider entirely and scaled back. For all intents and purposes, he's doubled down on the split finger and it has paid off. Mujica has seen his strikeout rate tick up and is also benefiting from even better than usual control. To wit: 2012 2013 Strikeout% 18.2% 26.7% Walk% 4.7% 1.7% There's good reason to wonder if these are sustainable rates. It would be the best strikeout rate of his career (equaled in 2010 with the Padres) and the lowest walk rate since he broke into the majors in 2006. Mujica's stuff, especially given the fireballers currently in the pen like Trevor Rosenthal and Carlos Martinez, is unlikely to become known as a "stuff" guy. His fastball sits in the low nineties (averaging around 92mph) and, despite the impressive results of his split finger, he lacks the eyeball popping breaking ball like an Adam Wainwright curve or a Mitchell Boggs slider. But it would be a mistake to conflate Mujica with the most recent Cardinals closer by default, Ryan Franklin. In a similar way, Franklin earned the role after others failed their way out of it. He was reliable in the sense that you knew what you were getting from Franklin even if what you were getting wasn't very good. Franklin was like a microwaved salmon patty from the store: arguably nutritious, hinting at flavor and suffering from a systemic case of freezer burn. And yet, still filling. Franklin never eclipsed a 20% strikeout rate. His best walk rate was twice what Edward Mujica's current walk rate is. The question of sustainability is a prudent one to keep asking when a reliever overperforms expectations in a small sample size but Mujica's process looks different than in past and his results look better. This isn't smoke and mirrors. There's legitimate fire in the Edward Mujica as closer role. * * * You twist your ankle doing your typical day job activities one day. Your options are to take some time off and try to rest it or to have surgery. Tests indicate that there appears to be a significant problem to your foot but doctors reasonably caution you that tests of this nature (e.g. MRIs) are not full proof. Rather than undergo surgery, which has a host of inherent risks unrelated to your specific injury, you opt for rest and rehab. Things go reasonably well until they ... well, stop going reasonably well. There's going to be a lot of second guessing of bot Jaime Garcia and the St. Louis Cardinals in the wake of his trip to the DL and what sounds an awful lot like portents of season ending surgery. The Cardinals earned some of this with past incidents involving Mark Mulder and Scott Rolen. The reality is more nuanced than any one event and a conservative approach to injuries is warranted in general. It's worth noting that Jaime Garcia was really fucking good over the last few weeks. He had a 3.69 FIP with a 63% groundball rate. Perhaps a more interesting question about Jaime Garcia is