• There. I fixed it. The website. LINK HERE
• Yahoo picked up this story mid-week, so it may be stale. LINK HERE
• Watch this kid kick so much ass on the guitar. LINK HERE
• Cool bat tricks by a minor league player. LINK HERE
• The last true moonwalker left on earth. LINK HERE

Francisco Rodriguez blew the save, his third in 10 days.  Nothing new here.  Frankie has averaged 5.5 blown saves per season since becoming a full time closer, which is about the norm. 

This is what I worried about with Kevin Correia.  His fastball velocity was back a little yesterday, but not where it was during is hot streak.  You can see from the chart below (via fangraphs.com) the upward trend in Correia's average velocity and how it dropped significantly his last outing.  Yesterday's outing is represented with the red dot, which indicates an average fastball velocity of just over 91 mph.

A.J. Happ is becoming an interesting starter to watch.  Since converting to a full time starter he has shown a nice progression in K/BB rate.  Also, Happ's velocity is showing signs of progression as well.  He's currently owned in only 37% of Yahoo! Leagues.  

Franklin Gutierrez stays hot.  He hit .304 with 4 homers and 3 stolen bases in June. 

Pitchers are not giving anything to Albert Pujols and he'll take his walks all day long.  The beneficiary?  Ryan Ludwick.  It's been a struggle this season with healthy and a prolonged slump, but he has 7 hits in his last 5 games and 3 RBI in his last 2 games with Pujols getting on in front of him.

Derrek Lee didn't just hit 2 homeruns last night.  He hit 2 pure bombs last night.  One was a grand slam and Lee collected 7 RBI on the night.  Lee hit .333 and slugged .973 in June. 

Will there be a place for Jake Fox to play once A-Ram returns from the DL?

I think I'm done betting against Mark Buehrle.

LINK HERE

Cody Ross hit his 14th bomb of the season of newly acquired Sean Burnett.  Ross is slugging .633 vs. left handed pitching this season. 

Josh Johnson left the game after only 3.1 innings.  No injury, just a rain delay and 4 walks to go with a rising pitch count.

Ricky Romero continues to impress.  He's stranding over 85% of runners and his FIP is a run higher than his ERA before his start yesterday.  Walks and the AL East are my concerns, but he's definitely a guy worth rostering right now.  He's only owned in 33% of Yahoo! leagues.

Brad Bergesen impressed against the Red Sox.  He's not going to strikeout a ton of guys, but he's keeping the ball on the ground and keeping the walks to a minimum.  His next start comes against the Mariners.  If you need a spot start, he's worth another go.

Yovani Gallardo struck out a career high 12 in 7 IP against the Mets.  If Gallardo can reduce his walk rate, he's basically Lincecum light.

Gil Meche, coming off a "dead arm" period, threw 121 pitches in only 6 innings.  His arm looked fine with a fastball sitting in the mid 90's, but minor injuries have been an issue this season.  If I'm A Meche owner (or a Royals fan) I'm not happy about the pitch count at all. 

Billy Butler, 4-4, continues to outperform James Loney, but it seems no one is paying attention. 

Jason Hammel has been pitching well for the Rockies lately.  He's not quite the ground ball pitcher Aaron Cooks is, but he is getting enough groundballs and limiting walks to be an NL-only add.

Troy Tulowitzki got cold just as fast as he got hot two weeks ago.  I think he'll finish with an AVG around .270.

Jimmy Rollins took another o'fer, but so did most of the Phillies against Jair Jurjjens who only allowed 1 hit. 

Justin Verlander was touched up last night.  That makes two less than spectacular starts in a row.  I'm not reading much into it.

Jose Contreras has struck out 8 batters in 3 of his last 4 starts.

Randy Wells pitched well again and got his third straight win.  I'd start him again at home vs the Braves in his next start. 

Johnny Cueto brought back the strikeout last night against the D-Backs.  Of course the D-Backs are second only to the Marlins in team strikeouts. 

Kevin Millwood and Jered Weaver squared off in a battle of the "sell highs".  Neither faired particularly well and neither are likely to repeat their first half numbers in the second half.

Nelson Cruz left with a back injury.  It didn't sound serious, but I never like to hear about back problems.  Keep an eye on the situation.

Albert Pujols did not hit a homerun, but he did go 2-2 with a stolen base.  Can he go 60/20!!?  Not likely, but this is just amazing to watch.

Matt Cain continues to strand runners like crazy.  8 Cardinals left on base and only 3 strikeouts. 

Adam Wainwright struck out a career high 12 in 9 innings.  He's throwing a curveball or slider on nearly 40% of his pitches.  That combined with only 132 innings pitched last season raises a bit of a red flag for potential time missed later this season. 

Shirley Wang discussed this issue in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal.

It's good to see baseball acknowledging its players can suffer from psychological illness. That's a step in the right direction to getting treatment for players who suffer such illnesses. It's better to have it out there than to have a player suffer in silence and lose his career. These men aren't superhuman simply because they can do things many of us can't with a piece of lumber or a baseball. Knowing that baseball players can suffer psychological illness may help a regular person seek treatment if they know the same issue has befallen a baseball player.

This entry comes from long time and loyal reader Mark G and should keep you satisfied for at least 3 minutes. Enjoy.

The more and more I watch the 2009 Cardinals play baseball, the more I realize that I am watching a humanized version of the Cardinal team from Tengen's RBI Baseball for everyone's favorite classic Nintendo Entertainment System. For those unfa miliar with RBI Baseball the game takes place with the top 8 teams from 1986-7. There are 4 NL (Hou, NYM, ST, SF) & 4 AL (Bos, Cal, Det, Min) + 2 All-Star Teams (AL/NL) of players not represented on the previous 8 teams. This is when the major leagues consisted of nothing but fat, white, faceless blobs. Diving and jumping had not been invented which made defense tough. Plus, back then balls hit down the line could go through the wall for a homerun.

Now for those of you with experience playing the game, I am not suggesting that the Cardinals v. 2009 is like playing against the CPU where it is easy to score multiple runs per inning, strike out the batters at will and watch the CPU move all of the players on the field at once inevitable leading to an inside-the-park home run. No, I am talking about playing as the Cardinals and playing someone who in fact does know their ass from a hole in the wall. (Many of my friends do not qualify here). Let's get down to the comparisons:

1) Team consists of fat white guys
I assume Nick Stavinoha grew up playing this game using it as a model on how to get to the big leagues. A major difference between the game and real life is in the game the RBI Cardinals do not play like a bunch of fat, white guys. You have to win by stealing bases, advancing runners and getting timely hits with runners in scoring position. The 2009 Cardinals are a bunch of slow white guys. They are slow on defense, do not run the bases well (see Thurston, Joe) & rarely execute the little things like stealing, sacrificing & and hitting with RISP to win games. This is more of an symbolic comparison than anything.

2) Rotation & pitching philosophy:
In RBI Baseball you have your choice of John Tudor or Danny Cox toeing the rubber for you. (My choice is always Cox) If you want your pitcher to make it out of the 4th inning still being able to throw over 60 MPH, then you have to pitch to contact. Sound familiar? In RBI you cannot expect to strike put every batter and have your pitcher last past the 5th inning. The bullpen can then get over exposed and realistically you only have 2 good starters on the team. Does anyone have faith in a 2009 pitcher outside of Carp and Wainwright? If it were up to me, I would talk Tudor out of retirement to pitch instead of Wellemeyer or Thompson. He's left-handed. That has to count for something. The amazing lack of depth of a 4 man staff in RBI is strikingly similar to the amazing lack of depth of a 13 pitcher staff the 2009 Cardinals employ:

3) You only have to worry about one hitter hurting you:
This is what brought me to the metaphor. If you play as the Cardinals in RBI as often as I do, you know that every at bat Jack Clark has is crucial. Most of the time you will play against some jackass who won't throw him a strike and you are left depending on Willie McGee and Terry Pendleton to hit a single to score Clark (who is one of the slowest runners in the game). Your opponent knows if he can avoid Jack hitting a dinger, than the rest of the lineup should be of no concern. Sure Tony Pena or even Jim Lindeman can occasionally sneak one into the bleachers, but lets be serious and realize the hopes and dreams of a 3-run homer lie solely on Jack's shoulders. If you want a good chance to connect, there have to be guys on base. Otherwise he will likely walk or strike out swinging at a pitch outside of the zone. Now replace Jack Clark's name with Pujols and you have your 2009 Cardinals.

Its hard to fathom how depressing this team would be to watch without Pujols considering how depressing it is to watch with him. A lot of times you will hear people ask where would this team be without Pujols. If you play RBI Baseball, sub Jack Clark for Jose Oquendo and see what your chances of winning are like. I assume that can give you some context of how the Cardinals would be without St. Louis's favorite cyborg/man-child/god. People always talk about the video game age, and how Pujols has ridiculous video game stats. It is sad to think that the current version of our beloved Cardinals is similarly constructed to that of a 1988 Nintendo game. If you get beat by Jack Clark in RBI or Albert Pujols in 2009, its your fault. Its my fault for picking a team whose only chance to win involves hitting a home run with the only player who could hurt you.

(Author's note: I have great affection for the '87 Cardinals and in no way does my analysis of their skills in RBI Baseball reflect their true talent playing baseball)

DeRosa removed himself from the line-up last night after the 5th inning when he felt his wrist 'tweak' after an at bat.

Stellar.

LINK HERE

Watch as 24 grown men suckle at the teet of another man, unwilling to produce their own milk. See the incredible awe that turns their mighty wooden bats into limp noodles when the bases are loaded. Gaze into the wonderment that is the waste of maybe the best season by a Cardinal. Ever. 

Playing nightly at St. Louis' biggest funeral home- Busch Stadium.

For christsake, didn't we agree that going to see a slugger belt home runs while the suck asses around him played ball with two hands around their necks wasn't all that satisfying? I could have swore that didn't end well for anybody. Yet here we are. 10 years later. Doing the same shit. Headed out to watch Pujols crush home runs while everybody else grabs a big handful of dong and starts honking for 9 innings. It's pathetic, really.

Maybe when Mark DeRosa finally arrives from Cleveland this offense will take off.

Yesterday on PTI, both Bob Ryan and Mike Wilbon agreed that Pujols has a better shot than a horse at the Triple Crown. No joke. They're comparing Albert to a horse because their isn't anyone human that can compare to this monster. But the Cardinals, even getting 2 HR's, a walk and 3 RBI's can't figure out a way to give him ANY support?

I'm embarrassed. I feel like the Cardinals are holding this guy back.

I can't ever say that I want him to go. But he's so good; I don't think it does him any good to be here- wasting away. Maybe he would be better off with the Yankees or Red Sox or somebody that could actually use 30 jacks and 76 RBI's before July.

Sports Illustrated correspondents in every city interviewed 380 players in May for the poll, though many players declined to answer that particular question, even while knowing they would remain anonymous. SI did not break down the exact vote totals, but listed Piniella first with 26 percent of the vote, followed by Guillen at 21 percent. St. Louis' La Russa (10 percent), the Dodgers' Joe Torre (4 percent), and Cleveland's Eric Wedge (4 percent) rounded out the top five. Players could not vote for managers from their own team.

Lou Piniella, .521, one World Series titles and six division titles
Ozzie Guillen, .531, one World Series titles and two division titles
Tony La Russa, .536, two World Series titles, five pennants and 11 division titles
Joe Torre, .540, four World Series titles, six pennants and 12 division titles
Eric Wedge, 502, one division title