Observations in the wake of another ugly tuneup for the playoffs:

• We’d like to commend the Cardinal fans today for not booing their own team on Joe Thurston’s inning-ending double play or Troy Glaus’s pinch strikeout. Guess they weren’t upset about it!
• Albert Pujols tied the major-league record for assists by a first baseman. Is that good? Well, the record he tied belongs to Bill Buckner, a good but not great fielder. Albert may break the record tomorrow, but for our money, Keith Hernandez was the better fielder.
• Why Hernandez? Partly because of his fielding judgment, which Pujols occasionally lacks. Take for example the play in the sixth inning that allowed the eventual winning run to score. The ball was hit to the right side, and Pujols initially broke to his right instead of to the bag. That was enough to lose the footrace with Alices Escobar, and Julio Lugo threw in a panic toward the base, where neither Pujols nor Blake Hawksworth was in a position to catch it. Pujols’s reaction is like an outfielder who initially breaks in, then is burned. Plus, he needs to remember who’s running; Escobar is quick. The error was charged to Lugo, but Pujols caused it.
• Speaking of bad judgment, Brendan Ryan makes some bad moves on the bases, but at least he’s entertaining in the rundowns.
• Hawksworth and LaRue did a splendid job shutting down the Brewers’ running game, notably when they nabbed Escobar trying to steal.
• TLR thought they "had a better chance with Rasmus vs. Vargas" when he pinch hit for Ryan, who had five total bases and had yet to make an out. Rasmus had two walks in three PAs; Ryan was 0-for-1. Rasmus flew out. Small sample sizes kill.
• With three strikeouts, Rick Ankiel tied his career pitching mark of 269 strikeouts. It would be a curious bit of trivia if his Cardinal career ends that way.
• With three errors today and two last night, the Cardinals aren’t helping their unearned run average.
• Two cheers for Larue, who ran out his popup bunt and prevented David Weathers’s game attempt at a double play. With the runner heading back to first on the popup, Weathers faked a catch then let it drop. But he threw clumsily to second, and Larue hustled to first. Then on David Freese’s broken-bat single to right, Cowboy hustled all the way to third.
• Add Mark DeRosa to the list of players who unnecessarily slide into first base. That at-bat music is really messing him up.

This entry was posted by Pip on Saturday, October 3rd, 2009 at 3:57 pm and is filed under analysis. 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.