{"id":1515,"date":"2009-08-13T08:14:15","date_gmt":"2009-08-13T15:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/08\/13\/playing-the-ace\/"},"modified":"2009-08-13T08:14:15","modified_gmt":"2009-08-13T15:14:15","slug":"playing-the-ace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/08\/13\/playing-the-ace\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing the Ace"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is there anything better in Cardinal Nation than having Chris Carpenter <\/strong>on the mound and dealing?\u00c2\u00a0 What, you want an Albert Pujols home run as well?\u00c2\u00a0 Sure<\/a>!<\/p>\n

How great has it been this year to see Carpenter at the top of his game after so many frustrating years of injury?\u00c2\u00a0 To pair him up with an equally-as-effective Adam Wainwright at the top of the rotation?\u00c2\u00a0 Losing streaks are almost guaranteed not to be lengthy with those two able to shut out the opposition at any time.<\/p>\n

The lineup split evenly between being effective and ineffective last night<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 The first five hitters combined to go 10 for 19 with a home run and all five runs scored.\u00c2\u00a0 The last four hitters (including pinch-hitters) were 0 for 14.\u00c2\u00a0 If the whole team can get clicking at the same time, this four game lead over the Cubs will grow quickly.\u00c2\u00a0 Mark DeRosa<\/strong> really looked bad last night, striking out three times and leaving four on base.<\/p>\n

Right now, this is really a fun team to watch.\u00c2\u00a0 As we discussed last night on the UCB Radio Hour<\/a>, there’s no one in the lineup (Rick Ankiel usually excepted) that you really wish wouldn’t come up with runners on when the team needs a tally.\u00c2\u00a0 With Todd Wellemeyer on the disabled list, you expect that just about everyone can give you a good outing on the mound and, if Jason Motte isn’t pitching, most everyone in the bullpen can do their job of shutting the opposition down.<\/p>\n

This team isn’t perfect, obviously, but the gaping holes that existed earlier in the season have shrunk to hole-punch size.\u00c2\u00a0 Looking at this team, especially comparing the pitching staff<\/a> to staffs of the past, you can see a Series win within reason.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not projecting that, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not a crazy thought.\u00c2\u00a0 (BTW, magic number now 45.)<\/p>\n

Like I said, though, they aren’t perfect.\u00c2\u00a0 Getting another right-handed guy into the bullpen would seem to be the greatest need, at least if you are listening to Tony LaRussa<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 I have to say the whole John Smoltz talk was not that interesting in me, really believing that Smoltz was probably washed up.\u00c2\u00a0 But when you look at his splits and think about him as a middle reliever instead of a starter, it might not be the worst of ideas.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s going to be tough to get a quality guy in here that doesn’t involve some risk.<\/p>\n

Troy Glaus is going back to rehab, saying that he feels a lot better and even is throwing better now.\u00c2\u00a0 While I don’t necessarily expect to see him in many games in St. Louis, if he could make it up by the end of the month (thereby being eligible for the postseason) and get some good at-bats in September, he could be an interesting option for a power bat off the bench come October.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that I’m holding my breath on that, of course, because we all know how injuries and the Cardinals work, but it’s something interesting to consider.<\/p>\n

Shaq and Pujols get it on today<\/a>, which should be the most interesting thing to come out of the off day unless John Mozeliak gets that reliever.\u00c2\u00a0 The Padres come to town this weekend, though the Cards may not add a lot to their Central lead since Pittsburgh is visiting Chicago.\u00c2\u00a0 Could gain a half-game tonight, though, since the Cubbies have to finish up with Philadelphia first.<\/p>\n

Daniel Shoptaw is the founder of “C70 At The Bat,” where he regularly writes about his beloved St. Louis Cardinals.\u00c2\u00a0 You can find more of his work here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is there anything better in Cardinal Nation than having Chris Carpenter on the mound and dealing?\u00c2\u00a0 What, you want an Albert Pujols home run as well?\u00c2\u00a0 Sure!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":347,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/347"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}