Reading Time 5 Minutes:
* Albert Pujols did well on David Letterman's show Monday night, but I'm not sure why Pujols needed to have a co-star, Denis Leary, forced on him during the little BP session. I'd think that by now Pujols would have enough star power on his own, without Red Sox Fan Boy taking up space.
* To be truthful, I know a lot of folks were geeked up about Pujols' performance on Letterman, but I was more concerned about Kyle Lohse's performance at Memphis. Lohse's first rehab start was encouraging. I hope the Cardinals don't rush him back too soon, though. But Lohse has taken on elevated importance, given GM John Mozeliak's difficulties in trying to acquire a starting pitcher. The Cardinals may need Lohse to come up big for them. Now that he's healthy, can he return to 2008 form? I think he can. The forearm injury, which was a fluke, changed everything. Before the injury, Lohse was 19-9 with a 3.82 ERA. After the injury: 3-11, 5.61.
* Terrell Owens? Yada yada yada, blah blah blah. OLD NEWS ... let's turn the page ... It's a lot more important for the Rams to add Stan Kroenke.
* Kelly Johnson: buyer beware. Like many of you, I was thinking that Johnson, the Arizona 2B, would be a good late-season addition for the Cardinals. After all, he's batting .279 with 16 homers and 49 RBIs. But I looked at the numbers inside the numbers. And this jumped out: KJ has a huge disparity in home and road performance. Arizona's home yard, Chase Field, is a notorious bombing site for hitters. And Johnson's numbers reflect that. A quick look:
Batting Avg: .316 home, .238 road.
Onbase Pct: .411 home, .317 road.
Slugging Pct: .670 home, .375 road.
Homers: 11 home, 5 road.
Busch Stadium is not a hitter-friendly park and Johnson has had only 10 at bats there. But you have to wonder if he can hit for impact away from Chase.
* A little help from Jimmy Edmonds: I watched the final three innings of Reds @ Brewers game Monday night. Great scene in the bottom of the 8th. Former Cardinals great Jim Edmonds came up to pinch hit. The Reds' Bronson Arroyo threw Jimmy Baseball a high fastball, and Edmonds turned on it to launch what appeared to be an unbelievably long home run -- a straight pull shot to right field. But the drive soon swerved foul. But the very next pitch, another fastball, this one in a bit ... boom. Edmonds cranked the identical swing and kept it fair this time, the blast landing in right-center to give the Brewers a 3-2 lead and the victory. Last week Edmonds, 40, told Milwaukee reporters that he'd probably retire after the season. And he is limping around with assorted injuries; the latest is an Achilles' tendon strain that's kept him out of the starting lineup. And you could see Edmonds limping during his home-run trot Monday. But when he can play, he still can hit. In 74 plate appearances since June 22, Edmonds is batting .338 with a .378 OBP and .662 SLG. He has 4 homers in his last six games, including Monday's winner. "He's been unbelievable," Brewers manager Ken Macha said. "He's a tremendous asset. He has mentioned he's thinking about retirement, but he has a lot of gas left in the tank."
Edmonds helped his ol' pals with the Cardinals by taking the Reds down. The Brewers, by the way, are playing some good ball. They've won 5 in a row and 11 out of 15 and are 8 games out of first in the NL Central.
* Year of the Pitcher, updated: Even though St. Louisan Max Scherzer took the loss for Detroit, it was fun to watch Tampa Bay's Matt Garza throw the season's 5th no-hitter last night. MLB pitchers threw 7 no-nos in 1990 and again in 1991, so once again we're seeing evidence of pitchers taking the game back in the aftermath of the full-blown setroids era. This season's MLB average of 8.89 runs per game is the lowest since the 8.62 runs in 1991. The average of 1.9 homers per game is the lowest since 1.78 homers p/g in 1992. This year's MLB slugging percentage of .407 is the lowest since .403 in1993. Even the batting average (.260) and onbase percentage (.328) are down at levels we haven't seen since 1990, when hitters had a .258 BA and .325 OBP. This season's combined sugging and onbase percentage (OPS) of .735 is lowest in the majors since .710 in 1990. And the pitchers' current strikeout rate of 7.02 per nine innings is the highest since the mound was lowered in response to the hurler-dominant 1968 season.
* Scouting the Mets: 50-49, 4th place NL East, 7.5 games out ... the Mets obviously are looking forward to being at home after going 2-9 on a trip through Arizona, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The Mets batted .196 and averaged 2.1 runs over the 11 games. They're 3-12 in their last 15 games and haven't played at home since July 7 ...the offense has sputtered for much of the season. The Mets are 13th in the 16-team NL in runs per game (4.23), 13th in home runs per game, 14th in onbase percentage and 15th in slugging. Batting coach Howard Johnson was said to be close to losing his job but the Mets are staying with him for now. Manager Jerry Manuel will likely get the chance to finish out the year but is hardly secure for next season ... the the Mets lead the NL in steals with 90 and are 2nd in stolen-base success rate, 77.6 ... Angel Pagan has 22 steals; Jose Reyes has 20... Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina will be tested; the Mets are especially effective in stealing bases at Citi Field, swiping 49 of 55 (89.1 %) .... even though Citi Field is a large yard that suppresses power, the Mets are better offensively at home, ranking 9th in the NL with 4.5 runs per home game. That's because they're more aggressive in running and making things happen at Citi Field. And the Mets have hit 18 triples there... Citi Field is not a home-run haven. The Mets have hit only 34 homers in 46 home games, and Mets pitchers have allowed only 26 homers in 46 home games... the Mets homer once every 43.8 ABs at Citi Field; opponents homer once every 59.2 ABs there.... Mets pitchers have a 2.84 ERA at home this season, the third-lowest in the NL behind St. Louis and San Francisco... Mets LF Jason Bay has only 6 homers after signing the big free-agent contract last offseason; he has only 3 HRs at Citi Field in 152 ABs and has drawn boos from Mets fans ... three Mets are hitting very well at home this season: CF Angel Pagan (.329 BA, .376 OBP, .513 SLG), 1B Ike Davis (6 homers, .298 BA, .387 OPB, .496 SLG), and 3B David Wright (.318 BA, .422 OBP, .503 SLG) ... CF Carlos Beltran, recently returned after being on the DL all season and is off to a slow start, batting .167 in 10 games ... the Mets have an underrated rotation that's been given a boost by knuckleball specialist R.A. Dickey; he has a 2.55 ERA in 13 starts. Here are the other ERAs for Mets starters: Johan Santana (2.79), Mike Pelfrey (4.00), Jonathan Niese (3.54) and Hisanori Takahashi (4.52) ... according to the rankings at Baseball Prospectus, the Mets are 16th in the majors in defensive efficiency. But they are an exceptional base-running team, ranking 2nd in the majors with a + 8.2 in EqBRR (equivalent base running runs.)
* Citi Field, Part II: It will be especially important for Cardinals hitters to have smart, quality at-bats over the next three games in NY. There are no cheap homers at Citi. Trying to jerk the ball out of the yard accomplishes little or nothing. Mets pitchers have exploited the approach of visiting-team hitters who refuse to adjust their approach to hitting in a ballpark that greatly reduces home runs. It's best to try and hit the ball up the middle, which usually leads to a sound swing. Scoring runs at Citi Field generally requires stringing together hits and walks. There aren't as many doubles or HRs hit here compared to the other parks.
* OK, if you were a pigeon and had to be subjected to Kings of Leon, what would you do? I mean, does anyone really blame the pigeon? You gotta use somebody ... (sorry about that.)
As always.... thanks for reading.
-Bernie
