{"id":1696,"date":"2009-10-21T13:27:27","date_gmt":"2009-10-21T20:27:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/21\/back-in-the-saddle\/"},"modified":"2009-10-21T13:27:27","modified_gmt":"2009-10-21T20:27:27","slug":"back-in-the-saddle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/21\/back-in-the-saddle\/","title":{"rendered":"Back In the Saddle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Been a while, hasn’t it?\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve been out of the office, been busy with the Baseball Bloggers Alliance<\/a> award work, and there’s not been just a ton of Cardinal news to talk about.\u00c2\u00a0 There are a few stories today, though, that I thought I’d touch on.<\/p>\n

First off, the top story is, of course, that Albert Pujols will need more surgery<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 There was a link out there last night indicating that Pujols would need Tommy John surgery, which would keep him out until June or so.\u00c2\u00a0 (Well, normal people would be out that long.\u00c2\u00a0 We know AP tends to heal faster than regular mortals.)\u00c2\u00a0 Thankfully, that’s not the case.<\/p>\n

In fact, apparently, things went great today in the surgery.\u00c2\u00a0 Here’s the official press release:<\/p>\n

\n

ST. LOUIS<\/span><\/font><\/strong>, October 20, 2009 <\/span><\/font><\/strong>– St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols this morning underwent arthroscopy of the right elbow with debridement of bone spurs and removal of bone chips.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span><\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

During the procedure, doctors determined that Pujols did not require ligament reconstruction.\u00c2\u00a0 The arthroscopy was not related to the previous nerve\u00c2\u00a0transposition surgery that Pujols underwent last year.\u00c2\u00a0 This morning’s procedure was performed in Birmingham, Alabama by Dr. James Andrews.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Pujols will begin his rehabilitation next week in St. Louis. Pujols is expected to fully recover. No timetable for his return has been set. <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So the Cardinals dodge a pretty big bullet there.\u00c2\u00a0 Hopefully this surgery will work out a little better than last year’s, at least in how long the effects last.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s doesn’t seem to be any doubt that it started to mess with him as the season wore on.<\/p>\n

Next up is the fact that David Freese is the leader in the clubhouse<\/a> for the third base slot for the 2010 Redbirds.\u00c2\u00a0 I think this is good news, not only because Mark DeRosa wasn’t the offensive wunderkind that we thought he was going to be when the deal with Cleveland was made but also because it indicates this organization is going to be clear-headed about moves.<\/p>\n

Jess Todd and Chris Perez are sunk costs–they are gone no matter what happens with DeRosa.\u00c2\u00a0 Freese proved he was ready for a shot at the job, and that should help also with the financial aspects of pursuing Matt Holliday.\u00c2\u00a0 Holliday is the one guy this organization really wants to keep, I think.\u00c2\u00a0 All the other free agents can walk (though hopefully after they’ve accepted arbitration).<\/p>\n

Finally, the club is starting to look into the backup catcher slot and try to decide what they want to do with it, since resting Yadier Molina more<\/a> might be a good thing.\u00c2\u00a0 If so, that means Jason LaRue will be gone, since he probably can’t play much more than he’s playing now.\u00c2\u00a0 Will that mean that Bryan Anderson finally gets a shot?\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t think that many people in Cardinal Nation would be that excited about Matt Pagnozzi if the idea is for the backup to play more often.<\/p>\n

It’s a small decision and it doesn’t necessarily indicate anything, but it’s interesting nonetheless.\u00c2\u00a0 At this time of the year, you take what you can get!<\/p>\n

The United Cardinal Bloggers are working on their annual year-end roundtables.\u00c2\u00a0 Whiteyball has the first transcript up<\/a>, looking at the Holliday issue.\u00c2\u00a0 More are on the way throughout the next couple of weeks.<\/p>\n

And be sure to tune in to Josh and Nick tonight on the thirty-minute UCB Radio Hour<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Daniel Shoptaw is the founder of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153C70 At The Bat,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d 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":"

Been a while, hasn’t it?\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve been out of the office, been busy with the Baseball Bloggers Alliance award work, and there’s not been just a ton of Cardinal news to talk about.\u00c2\u00a0 There are a few stories today, though, that I thought I’d touch on.<\/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-1696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1696","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=1696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}