Lineup 3.14: Farewell to Dodgertown
DODGERTOWN — For what is the Cardinals’ final visit to Dodgertown — before it becomes Orioletown or O-Town or, gasp, Bird Land — manager Tony La Russa is turning to a new leadoff hitter. Fittingly, it’s a former Dodger.
Shortstop Cesar Izturis, who won a Gold Glove in his career year of 2004 with the Dodgers, brings his .103 average and .161 on-base percentage to the job.
Where Thursday’s lineup hinted at what a regular-season lineup could look like for the Cardinals this season, Friday’s reveals who is still in the competition for jobs. And it may give an interesting prospect his first turn in a big-league game.
Sometime, that is, after two of the team’s best pitching prospects throw their innings.
Old meets new, as young arms wave so long to retiring Dodgertown.
THE CARDINALS
- Cesar Izturis, SS
- Brian Barton, LF
- Rick Ankiel, CF
- Joe Mather, RF
- Chris Duncan, 1B
- Adam Kennedy, 2B
- Jason LaRue, C
- Clayton Mortensen, RHP
- Brendan Ryan, 3B
Also scheduled to pitch: RHP Kyle Lohse … oh, wait, that’s happening right now back in Jupiter, Fla. Sorry, here in Vero Beach, it’s LHP Jaime Garcia, LHP Randy Flores, LHP Ron Villone, RHP Russ Springer, with a couple minor leaguers as backup.
The bench: C Bryan Anderson, C Gabe Johnson, OF Colby Rasmus, OF Skip Schumaker, 1B Josh Phelps, OF Amaury Marti, INF D’Angelo Jimenez, INF Aaron Miles and, the aforementioned prospect, INF Jose Martinez.
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
DG….let us know how local (well, fairly local….Sikeston, MO) guy Blake DeWitt does at 3B for the Dodgers. He won’t be on the ML team this year, but he’s getting a great look and taking advantage of it so far. I assume he’ll still play despite 3 lefties scheduled to go for the Cards.
Thanks
Thanks for the updates DG. Question—I realize Izturis has been awful…but how does he LOOK out there? Clueless? Hitting into bad luck? Weak outs? How about defensively?
Thanks for all the work.
Mather is in the lineup again; sweet. He could bring a lot to the Cards, especially if he can field well enough at third base to take a turn now and then.
I saw Mather at the Cardinals Caravan stop in Bloomington, IL, and he has turned into one well-built athlete. I hope he succeeds.
DG…..Keep an eye out for Bob Zimmermann, the former DeSmet High star, as word is he will be with the big league club today for the Cardinals
Brad,
He is here. Izturis does not look lost. He has had some strong defensive plays, and some days of strong defensive play. A few times he’s been back on his heels and that’s when he’s made the errors. I haven’t seen the kind of mistakes that make his defense a doubt. To borrow a phrase that has been floating around the clubhouse for a few days, Izturis offense … “it is what it is.” It’s closer to his career numbers than his 2004 numbers.
dg
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DG… I love your articles but what’s with all the grammatical errors lately? You’re a professional writer. Again… I love what I see from you most of the time. Let’s just try and be more thorough.
DG’s editor: you’re fired.
I agree with Chris. I “aint” no English major, but I couldn’t get pass the first 4 words without scratching my head. I find such grammar error prevalent in today’s journalism. What’s the deal? If I submitted such sloppy memos, report, or white-papers like that in my math-based job, I’d be fired.
First “Sentence” Quote:
“The begin what will be the Cardinals final visit to Dodgertown…”
WTF!?? That doesn’t even make sense. I refuse to read past the word “Dodgertown”. May be a great post but I will never know.
A minor nitpick I could live with: Isn’t Cardinals possessive here and require an apostrophe?
Sheesh–it’s a blog not an actual article in the newspaper. I’m guessing DG typed by the seat of his pants. The information is great. That’s all I look for. I understood what was said.
Again, do people get the difference between a blog and an article?
Sometimes, it makes people feel better to correct others. losers. go DG, thanks for all the great inside information!!!
Maybe if the newspaper reporters weren’t underpaid and understaffed we wouldn’t have this problem. If you are that big of a freak then go elsewhere for your news. Anyway, onto baseball…
Although Eckstein wasn’t a powerhouse, we could always depend on him hitting around .300. The Cardinals were stupid for not re-signing him. They could have signed him for relatively cheap and he would have hit over .100. The Cardinals’ line-up looks ridiculous and once again, our pitching staff looks horrible.
Leading up to every season, the Cardinals’ always say that have ample pitching and every season it is horrible. Stop pinching pennies and get some pitchers that will put butts in the seats.