Quotebook: Final week of camp
I’m excited. It would be cool to get my first win against the Mets.
— Braden Looper
And nothing that would infuriate Met fans more. We’re not quite sure that the general public has appreciated what’s at stake here: The Mets shunned Looper, their closer, after his injury-marred 2005 season, as he became their unofficial pariah. Looper then humbled himself to take what amounts to a backward career move in baseball in reverting to a setup role with the Cardinals. And now, with the Mets looking at a starting rotation that includes the 41-year-old Tom Glavine, the inconsistent Oliver Perez, the unproven John Maine and a raw rookie with all of four ML games under his belt (read: a staff that’s much more precarious than the Cardinals’), Looper can exact some sweet revenge. Not to mention, he’ll help legitimize Dave Duncan as one of the great pitching coaches in the game’s history.
Everybody can get into a workout routine and build themselves up and have good success like I’ve been having the last six years.
— Albert Pujols
So simple, even a caveman could do it!
You could have put Babe Ruth in the same clubhouse and everybody would have paid attention to Jack Nicklaus. Everybody in here plays golf. Everybody wants to get better at golf. … When you hear legends speak it’s (impressive). It was quiet in here and that’s pretty unusual.
– Jim Edmonds
We’re sure that an intimate setting with the Golden Bear would be very thrilling, especially if we played as much golf as major-league baseball players seem to. But Edmonds’s response raises an eyebrow on two levels: One, while improving one’s golf game is an admirable goal, we’re pretty sure that this FOT was brought in to inspire the players to greatness in baseball. Second, you’re talking about Babe Ruth! We suppose 714 home runs doesn’t command the kind of respect it used to.
You want to balance guys getting their work with guys getting in the situations. That’s how you stay awake during the game. There are still some decisions to make. I said there were a couple close calls.
– TLR
The key isn’t staying awake during the game, it’s staying awake afterward. Talk about a close call! (Okay, we promise: no more TLRDUI jokes … for the rest of the week.)
Our guys handle the bat well and it keeps the bunt defense honest. So we do it.
— TLR on Chris Carpenter’s hit-and-run single yesterday
It’s probably a good spring strategy to have pitchers swing away, hit-and-run, etc. If it dupes teams into "keeping their bunt defense honest" during the regular season, it’s to the Cardinals’ advantage. After all, when Carpenter has a .080 lifetime GPA, teams would be wise to cheat all they can in bunt situations. If Carpenter flukes a hit in Spring Training, all the more convincing. But we’ll see if he’s involved in any hit-and-runs come April 1.
We’ve just got to go out there and prove to people that not everybody is using steroids.
— Albert Pujols
It’s been 314 days since Pujols said that Major League Baseball could test him for illegal drugs "every day if they want." Instead of offering hollow platitudes, one way that Pujols could silence critics is to make good on his pledge.
There are guys who are having problems at the plate. Albert is not one of them. The wind is (dadgum) kicking the ball down.
— TLR
Among those guys who are having problems: Preston Wilson, So Taguchi, Adam Kennedy, Aaron Miles, Jolbert Cabrera. By the way, we love Derrick Goold’s choice for the deleted expletive — straight from the Whitey Herzog style manual.
There’s that one day I’m locked in all day long, but on the other days I’ve got my work to do and I can relax a little more — unless I’m going to pinch hit.
– Looper
In case you were wondering, here is a comprehensive list of Looper’s major-league pinch-hitting appearances: .
If he does appear as a pinch hitter this season, we’re sure TLR will deploy him in a situation that gives him the best chance of success: With no runners on base and a lead of at least five runs, in which situations Looper has a .236 and .238 GPA, respectively, in a non-PH role. Talk about clutch!
March 29th, 2007 at 10:27 am
With regard to your mention of struggling players this spring, I just returned yesterday from south Florida, and while taking in four games in three days, I did note that your list had a gaping omission: Chris Duncan. He looked absolutely terrible at the dish, save for maybe Adam Kennedy who appeared to be fooled by almost every off-speed or breaking pitch. While Duncan may have fared better earlier in the Spring, I’m hoping that a “book” hasn’t been started on him which will allow pitchers to exploit some weaknesses that were apparent in the three games in which I watched him play (the fourth game was the Dodgers-Mets game in Port St. Lucie on Monday night.)
March 29th, 2007 at 10:36 am
Thanks for the report, Hoish. Do you remember who was pitching (lefty, righty?) or how they pitched him? It’s probably better to finish strong than the other way around, but it’s possible that in the relatively small sample of three games Duncan was just off his game. Maybe?
March 29th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
I do remember the starters that he faced, in order: Sunday was Jaret Wright, Monday was Sergio Mitre, and Tuesday was Brett Tomko, all right-handers. Obviously, the stats overall can be a bit misleading when you see that he’s performed much better as a pinch-hitter than a starter, but again we have to realize (hopefully) that this is nothing more than spring training and you have to place about as much faith in those statistics as you do in my opportunity to make the big-leagues… haha!
Incidentally, I almost ran over Tommy Lasorda on Tuesday when I came up some stairs and around a corner and he was standing there… nice guy, very accommodating to any/everyone, although he did sleep through most of the game when he finally did sit down. Gotta cut the guy some slack, though, as he is nearing 70! Maybe he was digesting a big pasta lunch from before the game…
Pujols’ first inning homer was a thing of beauty against Tomko, though… one of those monsters that didn’t seem to have an end to its flight. More impressive, by “el hombre” though, was his line drive single to center field later in the game, which had a memorable “CRACK” to it that conjured up memories of Jack Clark in his days w/the Cardinals.