Notes on Sunday’s Scorecard: Perez Impresses
Good evening from Busch… just a few notes before I pack up the laptop and head home.
Rookie closer Chris Perez wiped out the Rays in the ninth, disposing three hitters on five pitches. He got three harmless fly balls and picked up his first big-league win when the Cardinals scored in the bottom of the ninth. Perez throws fastballs in the middle-upper 90s. He has a slider that he can deliver at two different speeds; the slower one serves as a wicked changeup. And he’s a big guy who has an imposing demeanor on the mound. “He’s nasty,” Tampa outfielder Carl Crawford said.
Manager Tony La Russa is quickly becoming a fan. “If he can repeat what he’s done for the last couple of days for the rest of his career, he’s going to be special,” TLR said. “He’s come in against a very good team, and he’s made pitches. The ball hasn’t been thrown all over the place. It’s been at or near the catcher’s mitt, with good stuff. I mean, that’s a tie game in the ninth and he handled it very well.”
Here’s another cool thing about the Perez outing on Sunday: He fired his first warm-up pitch over the head of catcher Jason LaRue and to the backstop. You don’t think the Rays noticed that? It won’t be comfortable for hitters to step in against this kid. He’s effectively wild.
And it’s a matter of time before La Russa pronounces Perez as ready for ninth-inning save situations. Until then? We’ll, frankly, it’s kind of silly. My pal Brian Stull of KFNS asked Ryan Franklin about pitching the ninth inning with a save on the line, which is a new role. And Franklin said: “I’m just going to pretend it’s the seventh or eighth inning.” And Stull asked Perez about pitching the seventh or the eighth, which he isn’t used to. And Perez said: “I’ll just pretend that it’s the ninth so it feels the same.” So you have Frankling pretending it’s the 8th inning when he pitches the 9th, and Perez pretending it’s the 9th inning when he pitches the 7th. I suppose one option would be to let them pitch where they usually pitch so they don’t have to do all of this pretending, eh? Just kidding, TLR …
Speaking of closers… when Perez moved up to STL, setup man Jason Motte became the closer at Triple A Memphis. Sunday, in a 1-0 Memphis victory over Oklahoma City, Motte saved it by striking out the side in the ninth, and hitting 97 on the gun. And the starter of that game, Mitchell Boggs, struck out 10 in seven shutout innings. The Cardinals are already getting positive results from three rookies at the big-league level (Perez, Kyle McClellan, Mike Parisi) and Motte, Boggs, Jaime Garcia and others are on the come. The Cardinals haven’t had such an abundance of ascending pitching in their system for many years…
More on Memphis: Big Joe Mather had two hits and a homer Sunday … he’s walloping the baseball. He can play all three OF positions. He runs like an athletic NBA power forward. He should be up soon. In fact, the Cardinals would be stupid to wait too much longer with Rick Ankiel’s sore right shoulder. There is no good reason to take a chance with Ankiel when he can just go on the DL for 15 days to fully recover. And that’s especially true when there’s an attractive option in Mather. He’s batting .316 and has 8 homers in 95 at-bats …
The Cardinals head to San Diego and will see a Padres team that has lost 23 of the last 31 … and they will not see Jake Peavy, who has been scratched from his scheduled Monday start due to a sore elbow… during this 8-23 stretch the Padres’ starting pitchers have a 5.20 ERA and the batters are hitting .219 and scoring an average of 3.3 runs per game… then it’s onto LA; the Dodgers have lost 7 of 10 and had a 5.90 ERA during those 10 games…
Cardinals hitters with RISP, Month o’ May:
- Schumaker, 5 for 18
- Glaus, 3 for 13
- Ludwick, 4 for 14
- Molina, 5 for 14
- Kennedy, 3 for 10
- Duncan, 2 for 10
- Pujols, 2 for 15
- Miles, 2 for 11
- Izturis, 2 for 12
- Ankiel, 2 for 18
- Ryan, 1 for 9
- Barton, 0-2
- La Rue, 0-2
A couple of notes on that: Glaus has six walks with RISP this month; his May OBP with RISP is .474 … Molina has five walks with RISP; his May OBP with RISP is .526. Kennedy’s OBP this month with RISP is .417…
And finally …
Since May 11, Glaus is 13 for 30 (.433) with a .541 OBP and a .667 SLG…
Since April 28, Cesar Izturis is 18 for 54 (.333) with a .400 OBP … and in the field, Izturis has a revised zone rating of .874; in the NL only Atlanta’s Yunel Escobar has a better RZR among full-time shortstops.
Thanks for reading …
-B
great stuff bernie…joe mather has been devastating since coming back from the dl with a back injury.. his last 2 homeruns were game winners and both crushed..really can’t wait to see him make the majors ..boggs was very impressive today with his 10 k’s and garcia has been dominating…motte, well more than dominating..that memphis team is fun to watch(didn’t even mention brian anderson)
the big league stuff..hopefully the cardinals can sweep the padres..have to beat up on the lesser teams…it was very impressive that they took 2 out of 3 against a very good, young team in the rays
with risp and your stats, it looks like our power hitters are not doing the job, especially albert. however, i think it just reflects the fact that teams are pitching around our big guys way too often. as long as yadi, skip etc can keep driving in runs we will win and teams will suddenly start giving albert a few more hittable pitches. i like miles or kennedy hitting second and ludwick cleanup. i don’t mind flipping glauss and yadi according to which bat is hot, if both then ankiel fifth, glauss sixth and yadi seventh. as long as izturis hits reasonably well, his defense looks really good at times. i still think ryan needs to start, though. it’s time to see if he is the long term solution. you gotta be excited watching this bunch of kids and knowing there are more to come is like really good icing on the cake. though it is strange to not be hearing much about rasmus.
I could not have been prouder as a Cardinal fan watching the tribute to Stan Musial. He’s been a St. Louis treasure for years and our best ambassador for baseball for years. I saw him frequently having lunch at the Hilton some years ago and other than nod and saw hello never had a conversation. I would sit and watch him saying hello’s to others who stopped by his table. Always cordial and never seemed annoyed at the interruption.
This is probably my last chance to see a Cardinal season (cancer)and if so I can’t think of a more interesting team to watch. I saw a major part of our past courtesy of “The Man” and a look into the future watching all of the young players display their talents. I didn’t pick my last season to watch the Cards but had I the choice this would be as good as it gets.
Ed Jamison from New Hope
Great stuff by Bernie, as usual. Kind of a combined weird/happy feeling knowing the Birds have such glowing pitching prospects on the horizon. Way too early to say, but Perez looks “big time” to me.
Ineresting data on Izturis. Didn’t much care for this signing intially, but Cesar has grown on me. He’s been very good in the field and plays hard. Showing good patience at the plate and has exceeded my expectations. Good move by Mo, after all.
Thanks for the artcile Bernie!
BERNIE !!! It is “MIGHTY JOE” MATHER…. not “big joe.” Allan Spickard
When I watch Albet in big situations he seems like he is pressing. He knows that pitchers will pitch around him,so Albert swings at pitches out of the strike zone.He will be fine.
When Izzy went to the DL,I hoped that he’d fix his problems and return. Now that Perez is throwing heat and showing signs of dominance in ST.Louis…. I have changed my mind….TRADE IZZY!
Ank is just taking up roster space. DL him and call up “Mighty Joe” Mather.
Is this more than just a slow start for Colby Rasmus? Is something wrong physically or what? Time to turn it on Ras!
The Cards farm club must be deep with a whole column without mentioning Colby Rasmus. I checked the stats today and he’s hitting .182 ! What happened?
I vote for packaging up Anthony Reyes, Chris Duncan, and Jason Isringhausen and trade them for a power hitting outfielder. Also bring up Joe Mather. If I have to watch Chris Duncan trip over himself one more time in the outfield I am going to go crazy folks!
Rejanssen63021,
The Birds are already deep at the outfield spot. Schumacker,Lud,and Barton are all viable candidates for starting positions in the outfield. I didn’t even mention “Mighty Joe” Mather and maybe Rasmus. I agree though,Dunc is frustrating in the outfield. He strikes out to much at the dish and he is not a natural left fielder. Dunc has to go.He is a natural first basemen and I dont think any one is in favor of moving “El Hombre”.
We need to trade Izzy while his value is still …..sort of high.Reyes might be attractive to other clubs. He had pitched well prior to his demotion to Memphis.
I’m on the West Coast so I don’t get a chance to see the games much but what I did see of Perez on Sports Center impressed me. He looks like big, mean, imposing dude and that’s all good. So what happens to Izzy? Does he get waived? I’ve got no problem with that. Every player’s career comes to an end. I bet Izzy didn’t figure it would happen in mid-season but, oh, well…