Lineups for Cardinals at Orioles 2-26-09
The Cardinals stranded 15 runners yesterday against the Marlins, and are going with a different lineup today against Baltimore.
Joe Thurston 2B
Joe Mather 3B
Colby Rasmus CF
Ryan Ludwick RF
Chris Duncan 1B
Brian Barton DH
Yadier Molina C
Khalil Greene SS
Kyle Lohse SP
-Brady
Starting Lineups: Marlins @ Cards Game 1
Spring training baseball is underway! The Cardinals are about to start play with the Florida Marlins in Jupiter, and here are the starting lineups (and this is the batting order) for La Russa and Co.
2B Skip Schumaker
LF Colby Rasmus
1B Albert Pujols
CF Rick Ankiel
RF Ryan Ludwick
DH Chris Duncan
SS Khalil Greene
C Jason LaRue
3B Joe Mather
SP Blake Hawksworth
Someone will update today, and if not I’ll be back tonight with an update after I get off work.
-Brady
Ryan hurt
More info will be posted as more info arrives out of Jupiter!
-Brady
Feeling Brave?
If you’re feeling a bit brave, you think you’ve got some vocal talent (or maybe you just want to have some fun) and you’re going to be in or around Memphis for some Memphis Redbirds games this season, get a load of this:
Performers interested in singing the national anthem at a Redbirds game can send a tryout tape, CD, mp3 or DVD to the Redbirds by April 1 and be entered into consideration for the chance to kick off America’s pastime in the most American of ways. If you’re interested, e-mail the Redbirds’ Cory Shedd. The recording has to be a cappella, by the way.
Judging by some of the renditions I’ve heard in the past, you don’t have to be Mariah Carey or Nick Lachey to get the gig.
– Brandon Harris
The Redbird Media Show
Tomorrow night (Saturday night) at 10:00 PM be sure to listen to the first edition of The Redbird Media Show!
As of right now, John and I will be hosting the show, but we’ll try to line up some guests if we find time.
The show can be LISTENED to here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/RedbirdMedia
You can see us LIVE on ustream at this link: http://www.ustream.tv/redbirdmedia
Don’t forget to tune in!
-Brady
La Russa hints at Rasmus, Todd works out
D. Goold over at the Post-Dispatch reported today that Tony La Russa said at Spring Training that IF the young Colby Rasmus makes the roster and starting lineup, he wants him to bat 9th in order to be a “second leadoff hitter.”
In my opinion, the odds that increases the odds of Rasmus making the team by 75% or so.
Secondly, former University of Arkansas standout pitcher Jess Todd put on a show in BP recently, something that should make Cards’ fans and Razorback fans happy. Todd is on the fast track for the big leagues, and will likely get called up this season for the bullpen.
-Brady
2009 Season Outlook: Second Base
The second base job was originally slated to go to Adam Kennedy, but after his surprise release from the Cardinals, second base has become one position that will not be filled until Opening Day.
Brendan Ryan is front-runner heading into spring training as he played in 80 games while hitting .244 with no homeruns and only 10 RBIs. For the games that Ryan did play in, it was usually giving starters like Troy Glaus, Adam Kennedy, or any of the outfielders a day of rest as he was the backup for practically every position on the field.
However, this does show his versatility and that he can be an every day player. He is considerably one of the younger guys on the team, but has shown that he has good fielding ability to off-set his sometimes poor batting.
This season will probably be make or break for Ryan as he competes for the open second base job. If he does not get it, then he will probably play the same role as last season, which was only filling in for guys that were injured or needed rest. If that is the case, then Ryan could be trade bait come next offseason.
Skip Schumaker can’t seem to make enough headlines for the Cardinals this spring. Even though he is almost guaranteed a starting outfield job, he is listed second on the depth chart for second base.
Last year, Schumaker was one of the surprises as he worked his way into the lineup and played in 153 games while hitting .302 with only 8 homeruns and 46 RBIs. His numbers show that he doesn’t hit for power as much as he hits for average. Comparisons could be made to David Eckstein, as he’s able to put the bat on the ball wherever it is thrown.
As I said in the first base post a few days ago, Schumaker is very versatile and it is very rare that he will get injured. There are at least five positions on the diamond that he could potentially play which could be good news for La Russa if he doesn’t feel comfortable placing an unexperienced rookie into the lineup quickly.
Last but not least, there is Joe Thurston. Thurston played for the Boston Red Sox last season, but only played in 4 games with 8 at-bats. He didn’t record any hits, but his on-base percentage was .111, with only one strikeout. This shows that he can put the ball in play and if he has any speed, he might be able to beat out some slow rollers.
– John Thomas
A Couple Of Things
Hey guys, I was browsing the Internet today when I found a couple of
interesting columns from Sports Illustrated’s Joe Posnanski and ESPN’s
Rick Reilly.
Reilly’s column deals with recent MVP awards and
how they should be reshuffled to the players who really deserved the
awards. His biggest point deals with Albert Pujols. He says Pujols got
screwed a couple of times (like losing to Barry Bonds from 2002 to
2004). Ultimately, Reilly says Pujols deserved 5 MVPs … You can read
the column here.
Posnanski’s
column talks about Mark McGwire’s persistence to stay silent through
this whole steroids debacle has probably served him very well. You can
read the column here.
- Nathan Allen
firehoustonnutt
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