Cardinals Game Notes 3/3/07

Jmodene · Post by **Jmodene** » March 3 07, 10:25 am

This signing of Salas is intriguing. I'm presuming Cate, his winter league teammate, must have given him a good recommendation.

Wonder if he'll be at major league camp for a ltitle while, or whether he goes straight to minor-league camp when it opens next week.

Jocephus · Post by **Jocephus** » March 3 07, 3:20 pm

Code: Select all

                       1  2  3   4  5  6   7  8  9   R  H  E
                       -  -  -   -  -  -   -  -  -   -  -  -
  FLORIDA              0  0  0   0  0  0   1  0  0   1  4  1
  ST LOUIS             0  0  0   4  0  3   0  1  x   8 12  2   FINAL

                  WP - TROY CATE (1-0)
                  LP - GABBY HERNANDEZ (0-1)

          TIME: 2:31                   ATT: 6,977

i believe kip went 2 innings...wonder how "well" he did

Leroy · Post by **Leroy** » March 3 07, 3:26 pm

a-link-a-dink

Pooleydog · Post by **Pooleydog** » March 3 07, 3:51 pm

It's nice to see Rasmus get in there and get a knock.

Jocephus · Post by **Jocephus** » March 3 07, 4:40 pm

CARDINALS 8, MARLINS 1
at Jupiter, Fla.
Saturday, March 3

Marlins at the plate: Jason Wood's sacrifice fly in the seventh got the Marlins on the board. Dan Uggla singled in two at-bats. Alejandro De Aza singled and scored in the seventh.

Cardinals at the plate: Skip Schumaker was at the heart of both Cardinals rallies. He had an RBI single and scored in a four-run fourth, and an infield single and a run in the three-run sixth. Schumaker also walked. Yadier Molina's RBI single gave St. Louis the go-ahead run in the fourth.

Marlins on the mound: Starter Anibal Sanchez struggled with his control, walking four while recording just four outs, but didn't permit a run. Kevin Gregg allowed a hit in 1 1/3 shutout innings of relief, and Felix Rodriguez recorded five outs with just one hit.

Cardinals on the mound: Three Cards pitchers each tossed two shutout innings. Starter Kip Wells allowed a hit and a walk, striking out two. Troy Cate faced six batters and retired them all, while Randy Keisler allowed a hit with no walks or strikeouts.

Grapefruit League records: Marlins 1-3; Cardinals 2-2.

Up next: The same two teams face off at the same ballpark on Sunday, but with a different home team. Florida will be considered the home squad for a 1:05 p.m. ET contest at Roger Dean Stadium. Anthony Reyes will start for St. Louis, with Scott Olsen on the mound for the Marlins.

http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/news/a ... p&c_id=stl

Jocephus · Post by **Jocephus** » March 3 07, 5:10 pm

UPITER, Fla. — The three Cardinals’ starters that preceded him into games this spring gave lessons in economic pitching. Adam Wainwright set the target with a seven-pitch first inning. Chris Carpenter followed with a 12-pitch first inning, and, on Friday, Braden Looper needed just eight to get through his first inning.

Kip Wells would like to be so frugal.

In his Cardinals’ debut, the newly acquired righthander threw two scoreless innings, striking out two (both watching) and walking one Saturday in an 8-1 victory against Florida. Wells (1-0) used 33 pitches to get through seven batters. His 14-pitch first was followed by an 19-pitch second that dragged through four batters and included the walk.

“I’m relatively content with it,” Wells said. “Maybe throw a few less pitches. It’s a satisfactory first outing. I need to improve on stuff. I’ll take it to get out of the gates with a couple zeroes.”

Efficiency of innings is of particular interest to Wells because it will allow him to go deeper into games and be stronger for the middle innings if he can get some 10-pitch innings. Efficiency of innings is of particular interest to the Cardinals because of the revamped (read: unproven) nature of most of the starting staff.

Innings are gold.

The Cardinals’ pitching staff threw 1,429 1/3 innings last season and 941 1/3 of those innings came from their starters. That was in a year that involved several stammers and many false starts for the rotation. In the 100-win seasons of yore, the regularity and consistency of the starting staff was paramount — and they had the proven 200-inning arms to rely on. This season’s staff, as it spins right now, brings the following career highs to the mound:

1. Chris Carpenter … 241 2/3 (2005)
2. Kip Wells … 198 1/3 (2002)
3. Adam Wainwright … 182 (2005, Triple-A PCL leader)
4. Anthony Reyes … 169 1/3 (2006, combined)
5. Braden Looper … n/a

That’s good for a total of 791 1/3, leaving 150 uncovered for Looper if every pitcher throws to his career max. Wells has had just three seasons of more than 180 innings and Carpenter shoulder 220 last season. Reyes had never thrown that many before and Wainwright is coming off an entire season in the bullpen. (Should be noted that Ryan Franklin has three seasons of 190 innings or more in his career.)

Innings are at a premium, and low-pitch innings are premium.

“At this stage of my career, you recognize the value of innings and you recognize the value of having quick innings,” Wells said. “What it does for arm strength and what it does for your ability to pitch deep into games.”

http://www.stltoday.com/blogs/sports-bi ... -get-well/