TOWER GROVE — On the last day of the first half of the Major League Baseball season, the St. Louis Cardinals put the band back together and celebrated two returns — one actual, one implied.
With Kyle Lohse off the disabled list in time to make a start Sunday, that mustachioed mafia of starters had its five arms back in the rotation, ready and healthy for the second-half. With Ryan Ludwick reanimated on that road-trip finish to the first half, the Cardinal had their cleanup hitter cranking and quietly surging toward a second consecutive 100-RBI season despite his recurring struggles through the first 90 games of the season. The Cardinals lead the National League Central and yet, with the trade deadline two weeks away, ’tis the season of the rumor and two of the most intriguing names out there happen to be at the positions mentioned above — starter and thumper.
The two names linked most often to the Cardinals — either by the Cardinals themselves or by others — is a good place to start the 10@10 as it returns from the All-Star break (video killed the blogging star?) for the sprint to the July 31st trade deadline …
1. The Cardinals have explored what it would take to trade for Toronto ace Roy Halladay, arguably the best righthanded pitcher in the game, just as the Cardinals have found the asking price for Oakland outfielder Matt Holliday distasteful for the moment. Time may be on the Cardinals’ side. Unlike the market that cooked for Mark DeRosa and featured more teams entering and bidding as days passed, the markets for Halladay and Holliday may drift back to the Cardinals as the deadline approaches. Two reasons:
- The asking prices have been high and teams have balked at the demand.
- Some contenders for their services could fade (i.e., Cincinnati).
The thought for the past two seasons, especially expressed by manager Tony La Russa, has been that the Cardinals need an additional bat to beef-up the middle of their order, and a high-average hitter like Holliday would be a good fit in the cleanup spot as protection for Pujols. The thought now has shifted to the rare chance to land a bona fide ace, reuniting Halladay with his buddy Carpenter and creating a four-headed monster that would, as several pundits said, effectively end the NL Central race. If the Cardinals are able to enter either trade conversation in good faith, know that the risk would giving up at least one of the organization’s few elite prospects (Brett Wallace or Daryl Jones, for example) for a rental or for a pitcher (Remember the Mulder!).
2. That said, it’s you call. Tomato. Tomahto. Potato. Potahto. Who do you think is the better addition?
3. Barring the addition of a bat (and, arguably, even with the addition of another bat), the Cardinals offense is likely to go where … Ryan Ludwick takes it. In the National League (nee Cardinals) dugout before Tuesday’s All-Star Game, La Russa said with 90+ games in the pockets his team was exhausted entering the break. Every one of the players, he said, relished the chance to get away from the ballpark for a few days — except Ludwick. The Cardinals’ right fielder capped the last week of the first half with the NL player of the week award, and he became the first Cardinal player ever to have two multi-homer games at Wrigley Field in the same season. Ludwick hits the second half with 56 RBIs in 71 games. On the 10-game road trip the Cardinals finished, Ludwick batted .405, slugged .838, hit four home runs and drove in 15 runs. In his previous 15 games, Ludwick batted .400, slugged .764, had those four homers, scored 10 runs and drove in 18. The key for Ludwick, however, isn’t just strong stretches of games — but strong situation hitting. As the Cardinals’ cleanup hitter, Ludwick is certain to have more at-bats with runners on base (i.e., Albert Pujols) than other NLers. More than half of Ludwick’s hits this season have come with runners on base — though less than half of his at-bats have — and here’s how his production with runners on base compares with with overall numbers:
OVERALL … .264 BA, .333 OBP, .496 SLG … 15 HR … 56 RBI … 46 K … 246 AB
ON-BASE … .310 BA, .382 OBP, .593 SLG … 10 HR … 51 RBI … 20 K … 113 AB
4. Even with the extra day off during the All-Star break, former Cardinals farmhand and Arizona ace Dan Haren decided to stay put in St. Louis this week. He was joined by teammate and fellow All-Star Justin Upton, the Diamondbacks’ young standout outfielder. Haren said he and his family just decided to spend the extra day in the St. Louis hotel room relaxing rather than jetting back to the Pacific Time Zone just to return for this weekend’s series. Haren and Upton had a workout together Thursday at Busch Stadium while their teammates converged in Phoenix for a quick workout before their charter flight.
5. An article this morning in Sporting News Today is a faceoff between two writers, one arguing that batting .400 is more difficult to do and the other saying the Triple Crown is the more impressive feat. Pujols’ pursuit of the latter is only going to get more attention as July races to a close. To win a batting title in the National League — the only jewel in the crown that Pujols already has — it has taken a batting average better than .320 in every season since 1991, when Terry Pendleton won the batting title with a .319 average. In the past 15 years, the lowest power numbers to lead the NL were 40 home runs (Dante Bichette in the shortened 1995) and 128 RBIs (three times, last Andruw Jones in 2005). According to Elias, Pujols is only the fifth player in the past six decades to have the outirght lead in homers and RBIs while also batting .330 or higher. The other four players to do so are: Mickey Mantle (1956), Hank Aaron (1957), Tony Perez (1970) and Barry Bonds (1993). The only one of the four to win the Triple Crown was Mantle. Pujols, however, has a history of getting better in the second half:
Career pre-break … .327 BA … .427 OBP … .593 SLG
Post pre-break … .344 BA … .433 OBP … .641 SLG
6. A host of multi-media goodies came out of the All-Star Game coverage here at StlToday.com, starting with the tremendous video about the Culture of being a Cardinals Fan – a video production that sets out to capture a day in the life of being a Cardinal, being a Cardinal fan and being in the city that orbits around its baseball team and its baseball genes. … Fixed the video glitch on an earlier entry so that now you can see New York Mets third baseman David Wright talk about how Pujols has extended the gap between him and the other elite players in the game. … A look at every home run Pujols has hit so far this season. … And, of course, the tour of old pro ballparks in St. Louis.
7. Cardinals third baseman Troy Glaus (shoulder surgery) started at first base for High-A Palm Beach, could see some time in the outfield and will shortly be on the move to Triple-A Memphis as he continues his rehab assignment. He’s got about two weeks remaining of games before the Cardinals have to make a move. He went 1-for-4 on Thursday with an RBI single. He’s hitting .176 in four games with two singles and a double so far. The arm remains a problem as Glaus is not yet comfortable airing out the throw with his surgically repaired right shoulder, and that will make playing third base difficult. Still, the Cardinals are looking for ways to get his bat ready for the lineup and then get his bat into the lineup. Here is a picture from Chris Tunno of Glaus from last night’s game in Palm Beach:
8. FARMNIK REPORT: Brian Barden, just back in Class AAA after his latest demotion, started at first base for Memphis and went 4-for-5 with four RBIs and two doubles. The Redbirds won, 11-6, and Barden was one of six Memphis players with at least two hits. Allen Craig, starting in left field, went 3-for-5 with three runs scored and a triple. … In Class AA Springfield, Tyler Henley hit his eighth home run in his 1-for-3 day for the S-Cards. Henley is batting .332 this season and .395 in his previous 10 games. … Catcher Audry Perez had a pinch-hit, two-run walk-off home run for the Cardinals rookie-level affiliate in Johnson City, Tenn. Perez popped his second home run of the season in the ninth inning, upending Greeneville’s one-run lead.
9. Don’t be surprised when you tune in tonight for the Cardinals game or when you arrive at Busch Stadium for your first visit since the Cardinals were last home: The “I” has been repaired in “BIG MAC LAND”. The Cardinals apparently left it up to McDonald’s when the sign would be fixed and it just so happens that the bulbs popped by Pujols’ home run were replaced with bright, new, shiny yellow tubes just in time for the, oh, Home Run Derby and All-Star Game. La Russa and other Cardinals officials had championed the idea that the “I” should remain dark throughout this season — and for awhile as a signature of the ballpark, like the green seat at old Mile High Stadium or the Ted Williams 502 seat at Fenway Park.
10. Before Tuesday’s All-Star Game, Seattle leadoff hitter and single-season hit king Ichiro Suzuki spoke with Denver Post baseball writer Troy Renck and others about how difficult it would be to hit .400. Suzuki, whose slash swing and speed seems built to be the best bet to hit .400, said baseball “wouldn’t be fun for me” if he took a run at .400. Ichiro sported fancy new kicks for the All-Star Game. They were sleek, light-weight, soccer-like cleats emblazoned with “All-Star 2009″ and made with Ichiro’s “image” in mind. He was quick to point out to reporters that they weren’t silver, they were “platinum.” And finally, on the Ichiro beat, bossman Reid Laymance put up one of the best under-the-radar stories of the All-Star Game yesterday in Cardinal Beat, but it deserves to be repeated: While in St. Louis, Ichiro made “a pilgrimage of sorts,” stopping by George Sisler’s grave to pay respect to the player whose record he broke, wrote baseball writer Larry Stone.
… Phew … got rusty over the break. …
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