Former Cardinals Watch

[Joe Shlabotnik]

I guess I do care about laundry. Seinfeld was right. It just strikes me as odd for Cardinal fans to still be following Albert and talking about his home runs on a message board. No big deal.

Bigot

[dan_yall]

I have to say the way Pujols has bounced back this season has rekindled my admiration for the guy. Unless he has another prolonged slump, I think he easily puts up another 30 hr, .300, 100 rbi, .900+ OPS season, which is really amazing considering how bad he looked to start the year.

I rooted for the AZ Cardinals when Kurt Warner took them back to the Super Bowl, and I'll be rooting for the Angels to come out of the AL this year.

That said, how are the Angels only seven games over .500? I know they had a rough start, but they have to be the biggest underachievers in baseball this year, especially with the kind of season Trout's having.

[Radbird]

I'm an Albert fan and always will be. But I don't want to see the Angels win - just for him to do well.

As I've said before, I think his leaving was best for the Cards. Being handicapped financially for 10 years could have crippled this franchise.

[Felix The Cat]

That said, how are the Angels only seven games over .500? I know they had a rough start, but they have to be the biggest underachievers in baseball this year, especially with the kind of season Trout's having.

Their starting pitching hasn't been as good as people expected them to be: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.ph ... -expected/

The Grienke addition should boost that part of their team, his last start notwithstanding.

[greenback44]

I kinda stopped paying attention to Chris Perez after he posted an ugly line in 2011. Closers have a weird habit of outperforming their peripherals, but a 5.9 K/9 next to a 3.9 BB/9 is pretty hard to overcome. It's another sign of the power of the holy save stat that he's getting paid $4.5 million in 2012, his second year in arbitration (he was a super-2 in 2011).

But this year he has been fantastic. He's got a K-rate above 10 K/9 and he's halved his walk rate from his career numbers to 1.8 K/9. If anything, the per-nine ratios understate his improvement. It's a nice turnaround for a guy who looked like he was headed for toast at the end of 2011. With all of the problems the Indians have, I wonder why they didn't trade him.

[Swirls]

I kinda stopped paying attention to Chris Perez after he posted an ugly line in 2011. Closers have a weird habit of outperforming their peripherals, but a 5.9 K/9 next to a 3.9 BB/9 is pretty hard to overcome. It's another sign of the power of the holy save stat that he's getting paid $4.5 million in 2012, his second year in arbitration (he was a super-2 in 2011).

But this year he has been fantastic. He's got a K-rate above 10 K/9 and he's halved his walk rate from his career numbers to 1.8 K/9. If anything, the per-nine ratios understate his improvement. It's a nice turnaround for a guy who looked like he was headed for toast at the end of 2011. With all of the problems the Indians have, I wonder why they didn't trade him.

Oy, you just had to say something yesterday and jinx him for me, didn't you?

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

People still follow Pujols because he's been the best player in the game for 10 years or so, was a huge part of a decade of winning that brought 3 pennants and 2 WS banners.

I guess for the same reason people enjoyed seeing him post a sub .200 BA early on, I like to see if he'll have any shot of breaking the all time HR record among other milestones...

[Hungary Jack]

I kinda stopped paying attention to Chris Perez after he posted an ugly line in 2011. Closers have a weird habit of outperforming their peripherals, but a 5.9 K/9 next to a 3.9 BB/9 is pretty hard to overcome. It's another sign of the power of the holy save stat that he's getting paid $4.5 million in 2012, his second year in arbitration (he was a super-2 in 2011).

But this year he has been fantastic. He's got a K-rate above 10 K/9 and he's halved his walk rate from his career numbers to 1.8 K/9. If anything, the per-nine ratios understate his improvement. It's a nice turnaround for a guy who looked like he was headed for toast at the end of 2011. With all of the problems the Indians have, I wonder why they didn't trade him.

Oy, you just had to say something yesterday and jinx him for me, didn't you?

Right on cue, a 5-run 10th to blow an 8-5 lead vs. Detroit. Yuck.

[sighyoung]

In other news, Cesar Izturis was claimed off waivers by the Nationals, while Mark DeRosa has been placed on the 15-day DL.
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/08/n ... turis.html

[Hungary Jack]

I heard DeRose was considering motocross surgery.