I felt more in line with what I’m out there trying to do. Mentally, I think that was my best one so far.

– Kyle Lohse

It was Lohse’s best game mentally, as well as statistically, if you’re using FIGS, anyway. In allowing no home runs or walks in 27 plate appearances, Lohse turned in the team’s fourth-best start on the season (for reference, Adam Wainwright has the top two, at 71 and 68). For his career, Lohse still has some better performances:

Lohse is at once making a case for best return on investment among last winter’s free agents and validating the Cardinals’ approach to hiring free-agent pitchers.

You look at his spray chart and that’s not where it’s supposed to go. Typically, he’s pull, pull, pull.

– Skip Schumaker on Prince Fielder

Interestingly enough, the spray chart at MLB.com (in particular, the one for Miller Park, Fielder’s most common host facility) betrays no such proclivity to pull, at least fly balls. Fielder does have a propensity to pull the ball on ground outs, like most hitters. Even his home runs are relatively equitably distributed across the field. At any rate, Fielder’s double was more a good bit of luck than a good bit of hitting (that came on his subsequent at-bat).

I was just trying to get one back door, down, and it ended up being right in his wheelhouse. That’s a left-handed hitter’s dream pitch right there, something you can drop the head on. He did it. Obviously, not where I wanted to put that pitch. It came in on him. He’s a good hitter and put a good swing on it.

– Brad Thompson

One question: If you bring in Randy Flores to pitch to the lefty Fielder in the eighth inning with the tying run on second, why would you not bring in Ron Villone (who actually once faced Cecil Fielder) to pitch to Fielder with the go-ahead run on first in the 10th instead of Thompson, against whom Fielder had a .636 OBP before the game?

He made a good effort, but I guess luck was on our side.

– Prince Fielder of Schumaker’s attempt on his pop double

Technically, if anything, "luck" was on the Cardinals’ side Thursday. Their BABIP was .321, while the Brewers’ was .300. Cold comfort, we know.

Maybe I’m turning into the guy people thought I could be, or maybe I’m just focused and driven.

– Ryan Ludwick

We wondered what exactly people thought Ludwick could be, so we poked around and found this tidbit from USAToday’s Rob Beaton, writing his minor league farm report back in the summer of 2000:

Remember RHP Eric Ludwick, famous for being traded to Oakland in a package for Mark McGwire? His brother, OF Ryan Ludwick, will be famous, too. The second-round pick last year has hit 24 homers with 73 RBI, including 47 in his last 35 games in Class A for the A’s.

When you hit home runs in your first two pro at-bats, you’re bound to raise some expectations for yourself. Back in 2001 at age 22, Ludwick impressed then-manager of the A’s Art Howe as a non-roster invitee to spring training:

"I like the way the kid swings the bat," A’s manager Art Howe said. "He’s got power and a nice stroke."

And what kind of player did Ludwick himself expect to be back in 2001?

"I realized that you have to be patient," he said. "I try not to set goals for myself because my time will come soon enough. I know I have to work myself through the system. It’s only my second full year coming up."

Little, perhaps, did Ludwick know just how patient he’d have to be. Glad to see he’s finally getting a chance to make the most of his time in the bigs.

He just nicked the guy. If you look at that whole game … and you think that’s a pivotal play, I couldn’t disagree with you more.

– TLR on Flores hitting Weeks with a pitch in the eighth

Of the 88 total plays in the game, the Weeks hit-by-pitch ranked as the eighth-biggest play by WPA. Disagree if you like, Tony!

This entry was posted by Pip on Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 11:36 pm and is filed under quotebook. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.