A couple of weeks ago, the Royals were in their worst funk of the season. After losing seven games in a row by May 29 and with a 21-29 record, the Royals made a change and reassigned hitting coaches Jack Maloof and Andre David to the Minor Leagues. In their place, the Royals hired interim hitting coach George Brett. Yes, the Royals legend George Brett.

At the time, it appeared to be a move done by the Royals to show they’re trying to do something and placate a cynical fan base. Hiring the Hall of Famer and the all-time Royals hits leader on an interim basis could either be a brilliant move that sparks the team into winning or become another flop that’s plagued the Royals for almost two decades.

So what happened on Brett’s first day of his job? The Royals beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-2, snapping the losing streak. Then the Royals went on to an 8-4 run with a six-game winning streak thrown in. Sure, the majority of the winning streak was against the Minnesota Twins and Houston Astros, teams they should beat. But a win streak is a win streak and they did take two out of their last three games with the A.L. Central leading Detroit Tigers.

So with the addition of George Brett, the Royals should be hitting for higher average, hitting more home runs and scoring more runs per game, right? Well, not exactly. When Brett joined the Royals, the team had a .261/.314/.375 average. Now they have a .256/.310/.365 average. They’re still last in the A.L. with 33 home runs, with just two home runs hit in June. Since Brett was hired, the Royals average 3.3 runs a game. They averaged 4.0 runs before Brett was hired. And if that’s not enough, Mike Moustakas has a .184/.250/.286 average, Chris Getz is at .211/.247/.319 and Alcides Escobar is at .238/.263/.313. The Royals won’t win many games if these team and individual stats don’t improve.

So does Brett bring any value to the Royals? I believe he does. Just his presence in the dugout should inspire confidence among the players to play better and the coaches and manager Ned Yost to perform better. When Brett talks about hitting, offense and baseball, I’m sure the players will listen. And while the stats don’t reflect it, the bottom line is the team is getting timely hits and winning games. It doesn’t hurt the pitching staff has an A.L. leading 3.45 ERA either.

George Brett didn’t need this job. He had a good life as a retired Royals legend. He could do what he wanted when he wanted. His legacy as a Royal was secure. Brett knows he’s risking his legacy and perhaps reputation by taking this job, even if it’s only an interim basis. As the hitting coach, Brett will work long hours and spend a lot of time on the road, making players less than half his age listen to him concerning hitting, offense and baseball. But at 60 years old, Brett still has that competitive fire and still looks for a challenge. And it’s obvious Brett has a passion for the Royals to succeed or else he wouldn’t take the job.

The Royals have made it clear Brett will decide at the end of the month if he stays with the team or lets someone else be the hitting coach. And if the Royals keep playing well, Brett might have a real hard decision to make.

The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-1 Friday, but they had to survive another bad performance from reliever Mitchell Boggs while Joe Kelly once again proved he should be used more often.

Cardinals manager Mike Matheny didn’t give Boggs a chance to completely blow the 5-1 lead he had when he entered the game to start the eighth inning, but he did load the bases while recording just one out.

Left-handed specialist Randy Choate bailed him out by forcing Pirates third baseman Pedro Alvarez to hit into an inning-ending double play, but the Cardinals could have avoided the entire situation if they’d used Joe Kelly to start the inning.

In fact, the Cardinals might not have had to suffer through nearly as many lousy bullpen outings if they had used Kelly more in the first three weeks of the season. Matheny has instead used him in situations such as Friday’s ninth inning when the Cardinals had already opened an eight-run lead.

The bullpen has been the Achilles’ heel of the team so far this season. It had a collective 4.84 earned-run average through 22 games and blew four leads for a starting rotation that has a 2.12 ERA and has kept the team in all but one game so far this season.

Part of the problem is the Cardinals lost their regular closer, Jason Motte, to an elbow injury during spring training and had to scramble to fill his spot right before the regular season started.

Boggs was a logical choice to open the season as the Cardinals’ closer after a great 2012 season when he was the eighth-inning setup reliever. He had career-best 2.21 ERA while pitching in 78 games and earning 34 holds.

But he was a completely different pitcher as the closer. He has allowed 12 runs with eight walks and two blown saves in 11 appearances through the team’s first 22 games. Meanwhile, Kelly has pitched in seven games and allowed four runs with no walks. However, he hasn’t pitched in many high-leverage situations.

Now, that’s not to say Kelly should be the Cardinals closer. Edward Mujica stepped into that role nicely by earning two saves each on recent road series in Philadelphia and Washington.

That move has settled the bullpen, for now, but Kelly must have a larger role in the late innings if the Cardinals are going to consistently keep teams from completing late-inning comebacks.

Matheny recently referred to Kelly as “a Ferrari” that is a nice luxury to have in the bullpen, but that resource is nearly useless if it only sits in the garage.

Instead, Boggs and rookie reliever Trevor Rosenthal have come out of the bullpen seemingly every single day. Rosenthal has pitched in 12 games already, the most of any pitcher on the team despite also being the youngest.

That’s a lot of pressure to put on a young pitcher and his arm so early into his first full big-league season. Yes, Rosenthal throws really hard and can be an effective weapon out of the bullpen, but flamethrowers don’t always last that long.

For example, the Detroit Tigers had a bullpen that included 100 mph-plus throwers Joel Zumaya Fernando Rodney, but both suffered injuries within two years.

The Cardinals have excellent pitching depth in the minor leagues, but Rosenthal is a prized possession and should be treated as such. Kelly also throws really hard and has enormous potential, but he pitched in the starting rotation much of 2012 and is more accustomed to the demands of a Major League Baseball season.

However, Matheny continues to bring in Rosenthal nearly every night, and Boggs pitches in game after game as the team waits for him to fix his motion while Kelly sits out in the bullpen.

And that type of bullpen management could continue to cost the Cardinals ballgames before Mujica ever reaches the mound until Kelly receives a larger role in the late innings.

The St. Louis Cardinals finished second in the National League in hitting last season, but they also had plenty of stretches when the lineup didn’t score more than two runs, even when the pitching staff threw a great game.

And that trend has already continued into 2013.

The San Francisco Giants scored just one unearned run Friday off of Cardinals starter Jake Westbrook, who threw a very solid 6.2 innings and pitched well enough to earn a win, but the Cardinals couldn’t score any runs off of Giants starter Barry Zito and lost the game 1-0.

Yes, Zito is the same lefthanded pitcher who shut the Cardinals down in Game Five of the 2012 National League Championship Series, but the Cardinals have already shown signs of a team that will go through weeks when it struggles mightily to score a run, while other weeks it hits homers at an incredible rate.

In just the first four games of the season, the Cardinals scored 15 of their 17 runs in two games. They were held to two runs by Arizona Diamondbacks starter Ian Kennedy in the season opener, and then Zito and the Giants shut them out Friday.

This pattern is certain to cause frustration among fans who see starts such as Westbrook’s Friday outing wasted because the offense can’t score.

It’s also not a prototypical pattern of success. In fact, it was one of the biggest reasons the Giants beat the Cardinals in seven games in last year’s NLCS. No pitching staff is going to be able to carry an offense that scores one run in the final three games of that series.

The Cardinals actually scored 52 runs combined in their seven playoff wins last season, but they scored just five runs in their six losses.

And that one day hot, one day not syndrome carried into 2013. The Cardinals even showed inconsistency at the plate during the month of spring training games. They scored seven or more runs in nine of their 16 wins and scored three or fewer runs in 12 of their 15 losses.

Those numbers show the offense might be the most important factor for the Cardinals this season. Sure, the pitching staff has to pitch quality games more often than not, but the numbers say the Cardinals win-loss record is primarily defined by how well the offense hits.

When the Cardinals hit the ball well, they win. When they don’t, they lose.

That’s a pretty simple formula, but it’s also a scary one since the Cardinals have injury-prone hitters such as Carlos Beltran, Allen Craig and David Freese as important pieces of their lineup.

Beltran is playing through a fractured toe and has had trouble moving in the first week, Craig nearly injured his knee again by sliding into a wall in Arizona and Freese started the season on the disabled list with a back injury.

Those issues have surely played a part in the offense’s early struggles, and none of those figure to be major problems for the Cardinals throughout the season. Freese’s return by, hopefully, Monday’s home opener against the Cincinnati Reds will help, but the entire offense is going to have to be more consistent throughout the course of the season.

That means they’ll likely have to score more runs by playing small ball and moving a runner along the bases without getting a hit. Craig and Matt Holliday did a great job of manufacturing a run in the fourth inning of Tuesday’s 6-1 win over the Diamondbacks, which also happened to be the Cardinals only win of the season heading into play Saturday.

Centerfielder Jon Jay led off the inning with a double, Holliday then grounded out to second base to advance Jay to third and Craig followed with another groundout to score Jay.

The big homeruns and innings filled with bunches of runs might be fun to watch, just as a roller-coaster is fun to ride, but the steady, consistent innings that produce a run or two every day will more likely determine the Cardinals final record.

It’s that time of year, interleague play, where some National League fans are annoyed having to play American League teams during the regular season. American League teams don’t let their pitchers hit. And they have this “player” called a designated hitter to bat for the pitcher. A baseball blasphemy! Ok, maybe only a few National League fans think this way. But some N.L. fans do get worked up over not having an automatic out when the pitcher is up to bat.

Last month, the Kansas City Royals played the Arizona Diamondbacks at Kauffman Stadium and lost two out of three games. Tomorrow night, the Royals have five three game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Milwaukee Brewers, a home and away series with the St. Louis Cardinals and the Houston Astros, all National League Central teams.

Last year, the Royals went 5-13 in interleague play against the Cardinals, Diamondbacks, Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies. How will the Royals fare this year?

At the Pittsburgh Pirates, June 8-10: The National League version of the Royals aren’t playing like this year’s Royals. The Pirates are 28-27 and three games back of the N.L. Central leading Cincinnati Reds. With star center fielder Andrew McCutchen and a starting rotation headed by James McDonald and A.J. Burnett, the Pirates are a better team than in years past.

The Pirates won’t be pushovers and with Luke Hochevar on the mound Friday night, who knows what will happen. I’m hoping the Royals take two out of three games, but they could as easily get swept or only win one game against the Pirates.

At home against the Milwaukee Brewers, June 12-14: The Royals go back home for a three game set with the 24-31 Brewers, who are fourth in the N.L. Central. There’s a chance the Royals will see former Royal Zack Greinke, who leads the team with six wins. With the loss of Prince Fielder, the Brewers aren’t playing up to expectations. But this series could go either way. I look for two out of three wins for the Royals.

At the St. Louis Cardinals (June 15-17) and at Kauffman Stadium (June 22-24): It’s time for Cardinal fans to remember there is a Major League team on the west side of the state. As of Wednesday, the Cardinals were 28-28, third in the N.L. Central behind the Pirates. The Redbirds are going through a rough stretch, going 3-7 in their last 10 games. They’ve had injuries to key players and the bullpen isn’t pitching well. But the Cardinals offense is being led by the good play of Carlos Beltran, Matt Holliday and David Freese. The Royals play the Cardinals six times, three at St. Louis and three at home. I’m predicting a 3-3 record against the Cardinals.

At the Houston Astros, June 18-20: The Royals conclude interleague play against the Astros, who as of Wednesday were 24-31 and fourth place in the N.L. Central. The Astros are playing better than expected, but they’re still in rebuilding mode. The Royals should sweep, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Royals win only one out of three games either.

In the National League ballparks, the Royals will have Jeff Franceour in center, Eric Hosmer in right field and Billy Butler at first. Hosmer has practiced in right field and it will be interesting to see how he plays in the outfield. But Butler’s bat is too hot and valuable to keep on the bench, so the Royals will go with Hosmer in right. And with the possible loss of Felipe Paulino due to a groin injury, the Royals already shaky starting rotation will be severely tested the next couple of weeks. The good news? The Royals will have have more opportunities to make sacrifice bunts. I’m sure National League fans will appreciate that.

Photo Courtesy of Minda Haas

Triple-A
The Omaha Storm Chasers (Pacific Coast League) went 4-2 over the past six days making them 21-10 trailing only the Fresno Grizzlies who are 23-8 on the campaign in the race for the best record in the Pacific Coast League.  The Storm Chasers have remained hot despite sending several more players up to the Royals including Nate Adock and most recently Irving Falu.

Who’s Hot
The offense has continued to carry the Storm Chasers to wins providing walk-off victories on two consecutive nights thanks to home runs by Cody Clark and Johnny Giavotella.  Giavotella has been on fire since the calendar turned over to may hitting .458 (11-for-24) in the first six games of the month.  He has also hit two home runs and knocked in eight, while working six walks over that span.  On the mound for the Storm Chasers a pair of pitchers who returned from the Kansas City Royals have been on.  Everett Teafordtossed five and two thirds innings in his first start of the season in Triple-A.  Louis Coleman has allowed just three hits and one run over five and a third innings of work.

Who’s Not
Sean O’Sullivan looked to have found it working and inning and a third scoreless innings in his last appearance against Oklahoma City, but prior to that he allowed nine hits and five runs over five and a third innings in his previous two relief outings.  Jason Bourgeois has struggled at the plate since being demoted to Triple-A.  He is hitting .200 (6-for-30) in his first seven games of the season, but has hit a home run.

Double-A
The Northwest Arkansas Naturals (Texas League) are back to .500 after at 15-15 and have won the first two games of a four game homestand against the Tulsa Drillers to pull within five games of the Drillers for the North Division lead.  The Naturals have been brilliant at Arvest Ballpark this season going 12-4 at home.

Who’s Hot
Wil Myers who was named the Texas League Player of the week (April 23-29) has continued to be the best player on the field nearly every night.  Myers has homered in three of his last four games and is hitting a healthy .336 on the season to lead the Texas League.  He is also tops on the Naturals with 22 RBI, knocking home seven runs in his last four games.  On the mounc Jake Odorizzi has been just as good as advertised winning the Texas League Pitcher of the week (April 30-May 6) and turning in a seven and a third inning eleven strikeout performance his last time out on the mound.

Who’s Not
Julio Rodriguez is still trying to find his rhythm at the plate going 7-for-36 in his first ten games of the season.  He has delivered some key hits knocking in three runs in ten games on the season.  On the mound for the Naturals Chris Dwyer is coming off his worst start of the season and will look to rebound later in the week.  Last time out Dwyer went three innings allowing five hits and ten runs, seven of which were earned, while walking a season high six.

Class-A Advanced
The Wilmington Blue Rocks (Carolina League) went just 2-4 last week and after getting back and are now 12-17 on the season sitting in third place in the Carolina League’s Northern Division trailing the Potomac Nationals by just one game for second.

Who’s Hot
Brian Fletcher has been giving opposing pitchers nightmares so far in the month of May.  The former Auburn Tiger is hitting .348 in the month of May lifting his average to .314 on the season.  Nick Rogers turned in what has become a run of the mill performance out of the bullpen on Saturday going two innings allowing just one hit and fanning three.  Rogers has yet to allow and run this season and have fanned 12 in 11 innings of work.

Who’s Not
Catcher Kenny Swab is still trying to find himself at the plate this season in limited playing time.  The backstop has appeared in ten games for the Blue Rocks and is hitting .094 (3-for-32) on the season.  Sam Runion had a couple of tough appearances in the last week allowing four runs in five and a third innings of work, but for the season he has now allowed just five runs over 13 innings.

Class-A
The Kane County Cougars went 3-2 over the past week and they now sit at 14-16 on the season.  The Cougars are sitting in fifth place in the Midwest League’s Western division, but are just 4.5 games behind the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers for the division lead.

Who’s Hot
Outfielder Lane Adams has continued to be one of the focal points of the Cougar offense.  He is hitting a cool .330 with a home run and 18 RBI on the campaign.  On the mound for the Cougars, Santiago Garrido is undefeated on the season, going 3-0 with a 0.68 ERA over 26.1 innings of work.

Who’s Not
First baseman Murray Watts is still trying to hit for a better average, but his power swing has definitely been there.  Despite hitting just .191 on the season Watts has popped five home runs and driven home 13.  Aaron Brooks is coming off of a pair of rough starts allowing seven runs in his last 11 innings of work to go along with 15 hits.

Alumni Report (Former Naturals outside the Kansas City organization)

Who’s Hot
Corey Smith turned in a great week for Double-A Birmingham posting a .407 batting average, to go along with four doubles and four RBI.  Blake Johnson made three scoreless appearances for Double-A Chattanooga in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization.  He logged two and a third innings surrendering just one hit and striking out two.

Jeff Bianchi posted a .300 average for the week while with Double-A Huntsville in the Milwaukee Brewers organization, and earned his first career promotion to Triple-A on Saturday.

Who’s Not
Dusty Hughes got knocked around this past week working a third of an inning allowing two hits, walking two, and surrendering three runs.  Hughes had been one of the hottest pitcher for the Atlanta Braves Triple-A affiliate prior to that outing.  Jordan Parraz, also with the Gwinnett Braves had a rough week at the plate going 0-for-16 with six strikeouts.

Josh Johnson who is now with Triple-A Syracuse in the Washington Nationals organization is 1-for-16 with a walk and three strikeouts.

The Northwest Arkansas Naturals are the Double-A Texas League affiliate of the Kansas City Royals and play at state-of-the-art Arvest Ballpark, located in Springdale.  Visit our website, nwanaturals.com, for information on season tickets and ticket plans.

Salem, VA – On frigid night with penetrating winds that shattered the warmest of layered clothing, the cherry on top had the Wilmington Blue Rocks (8-8) facing a rehabbing big leaguer in Daisuke Matsuzaka.  What appeared to be a recipe for offensive anemia instead cooked up a healthy helping of 12 hits and three home runs, both season-high marks, in a 7-2 defeat of the Salem Red Sox (7-8) on Monday night.  Wilmington’s third straight win, its fifth in seven games, lifted it to .500 for the first time on the young season.

Whit Merrifield found himself down 0-2 in the count against the two-time World Baseball Classic MVP to begin the game.  He then found himself rounding the bases, as he sent a ball over the 25-foot high wall in left for his first home run of the season.  Two batters later, Cheslor Cuthbert doubled and Brian Fletcher followed with a lengthy at-bat.  He fouled off pitch after pitch before sending a single to left that scored Cuthbert for an early 2-0 lead.

Geulin Beltre got in on the act when he slammed Matsuzaka’s first pitch of the second over the left-field fence for his first homer and a 3-0 margin.  Matsuzaka (0-1) gave up three runs on six hits over four innings in his first rehab outing since undergoing Tommy John surgery last June.

Wilmington starter Jason Adam saw an infield hit, a soft single and a walk all come with two outs to load the bases in the second.  But the 20-year-old induced a fly-out to center from Jackie Bradley, Jr. to leave the bases loaded and cruised to his first win as a Blue Rock.  Adam (1-1) tossed five scoreless frames, struck out five and lowered his league-leading ERA to 0.40.

Cuthbert provided run-scoring hits in the fifth, seventh and ninth.  They combined with Brett Eibner’s first Wilmington homer in the eighth to make it 7-0.  Cuthbert, a highly-touted 19-year-old third baseman, went 4-for-5 with two doubles and three RBIs in his best game as a Rock.

After Sam Runion held the Sox scoreless in the sixth and seventh, Jon Keck did the same in the eighth.  In the ninth, Chase Boruff had two outs and two strikes on the board when he gave up a two-run double to Brandon Jacobs that spoiled the shutout.  He struck out Travis Shaw thereafter to end the game.

Yordano Ventura (0-1, 3.86) looks for his first win as a Blue Rock when the series continues at 7:05 p.m. on Tuesday night.  He will face fellow right-hander Keith Couch (2-1, 3.38).  Broadcast coverage begins at 6:35 p.m. as studio hostRob Cunningham brings fans the Rocks Report Pre-game Show, presented by Wawa, on 89.7 WGLS-FM and online at wgls.rowan.edu. 

PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:
According to the National Weather Service, winds gusted in excess of 30 mph during the course of the night.  The flags showed the wind flowing toward left field most of the game, where two of the Rocks’ three homers cleared the fence. Brett Eibner’s blow went into the wind in right-center field.

Whit Merrifield’s leadoff homer was the third of his two-year tenure with the Blue Rocks.  He fell a triple short of the cycle and scored four runs.

Sam Runion’s two scoreless innings lowered his ERA to 1.17.  The former starter has allowed just one run in four relief appearances and 7.2 innings.

Over their first 13 games of the year, the Blue Rocks scored a total of 36 runs.  In their last three they have plated 22.

While the stats from Sunday’s suspended game will not count until the game is completed and official on June 8, consider this.  A Wilmington club that entered the weekend as one of baseball’s two teams sans home run now has seven over the last three days.

The Kansas City Royals are a week into their 2012 campaign. Seven games is not a large sample size. However, there are some things you can infer from the Royals past behavior during previous seasons under the current administration. I’m going to make an attempt at discerning what we know about the Royals already, and what I’m not sure about.

Since Luke Hochevar got the start yesterday afternoon for the Royals home opener I’m going to use his favorite phrase; “ummm..You know?” to help facilitate this process. In honor of Luke Hochevar I’m going to list things I know about the Royals under the heading “You know”, and things I’m not sure about under the heading “Ummm”.

Ummm

Before yesterday the Royals’ starting pitching has an ERA of 1.85. When your sample size is six games there are a lot of “yeah, buts”. You could say that the low ERA has more to do with Royals opponents than their pitchers. That holds up with the Athletics who might score the fewest runs in the AL this season. It doesn’t hold up with the Angels who are projected to score a lot of runs.

I don’t think the starting pitching is as bad as Hochevar’s Mazzaroesque 1st inning yesterday. Of course, the real answer is always somewhere in between. I think the starting staff will be better than we expected, but not as good as they’ve been outside of this guy….

You Know

I almost went off on this tangent last season. If you read between the lines of anything I wrote last season you might have picked up on it. Luke Hochevar is my least favorite Royal. There, I got that out there. I think it started with his holdout coming out of the amateur draft. It wasn’t the holdout specifically; lots of players do what Hochevar did, including teammate Aaron Crow. However, maybe it was the holdout and then his accompanying suckage at the Major League level. I’ve been waiting, and waiting, and waiting for Hochaver to turn a corner. Even though Dayton Moore’s people didn’t draft him, he continues to be treated like he was. I don’t know what it is.

Hochevar was starting to grow on me during the latter part of last season. He was finally becoming the ace pitcher that he was supposed to be, and the ace pitcher the Royals need him to be. Then yesterday’s bottom of the 1st happened re-enforcing my belief that Hochevar is a 1st round draft pick bust. Maybe I’m still mad about one bad inning in April, but Hochaver’s body of work doesn’t contain much for me to change my mind. I know the trade mark Luke Hochevar Inning will be something Royals fans will have to deal with as long as Hochaver is on the team.

Ummm

Coming into the season we thought the Royals offense would be potent. However, that has not transpired. The Royals have been shut-out twice in seven games. For comparison, last year the Royals were not shut-out until May 14th, and did not get shutout again until May 21st. The players we thought would be producers have gotten off to slow starts. Two of those players, Lorenzo Cain and Salvador Perez are on the disabled list. I’m confident these slumps will not continue. Just like I expect the starting pitching to come back to earth, I expect the offense to get going.

You Know

I hate starting out on this tangent but this team’s base running is bothering more than anything. Ned Yost claims they’re just being “aggressive”. I think Ned’s reaction is just a front for the media. Getting picked-off is not aggressive, not watching the runner in front of you is not aggressive, it’s not paying attention. Even if the Royals running out of innings is a product of being aggressive, it’s troublesome that this organization believes that aggressive base running is a proper strategy.

I’m far from a Sabrematrician, in fact I’ll argue with some of their major tenants. However, one aspect I believe from their research is that stealing bases is the most over-rated offensive statistic in baseball. Stealing bases doesn’t lead to more wins, it doesn’t even lead to more runs. In fact, I’m sure stealing bases prevents your team from scoring runs. I wrote about this last season when I got tired of the Royals tooting their horn about leading the league in stolen bases. The Royals need to stop falling asleep on the base paths. They need to stop running themselves out of innings, and they need to stop being aggressive. But one thing I know is that the Royals base running continues to be terrible.

What do we know about the Royals? Aside from what I’ve discussed, not much. After the Angels series I was confident that this year was going to live up to expectations and we were going to enjoy it. Right now I feel like the Royals are going down the path of the 106 loss 2005 team filled with moments of historical suckage and comedy. I’m probably right on both accounts. Most experts expected the Royals to hang around .500. Right now they’re one game below .500. If this were a football season the Royals would have just finished the 3rd quarter during Week 1 and they’re down by a field goal. As fans that’s something we need to remember.

If teams thought the St Louis Cardinals would flop without Albert Pujols, they should think again.

The scheduler did this team no favors.  Opening Day in Miami, ushering in a new era in Florida and a new ballpark.  Then a 1300 mile flight to Milwaukee, the team’s biggest rival, for their home opener.  Finally a 300 mile drive to Cincinnati, the Cardinals’ OTHER big NL Central rival.  Seven games in 3 cities over a little more than a week.  Lots of teams would limp back home under .500.  Or worse.

With last night’s win the Cardinals will open at home over .500 no matter how the last two games in Cincinnati go. They have done it with solid pitching and torrid hitting.  St Louis currently leads the NL in hits, runs, doubles, home runs, average, OPS, and total bases.  After a horrible spring training Rafael Furcal reached base 11 times in his first 20 plate appearances.  Carlos Beltran, David Freese, Matt Holliday, and Yadier Molina all have 2 HR so far, and the Cardinals have blown out their opponent in 3 of their first 4 wins, scoring at least 7 runs in those games.   They have been equal opportunity assassins, bludgeoning both aces (Josh Johnson, Yovanni Gallardo) and back of the rotation guys (Randy Wolf, Homer Bailey).

The pitching has been good – 3.86 ERA, 0.886 WHIP, 34K against 4 walks and 2 HBP. Kyle Lohse set the tone with six no-hit innings in that opener near South Beach.  Jamie Garcia survived a 2-run first inning to work 6 effective innings, Lance Lynn shut down the Brewers while striking out 8, and Jake Westbrook had his own no-hitter for 4 2/3 innings in Cincinnati.  Heck, when the starter who had the worst line the first time through was Adam Wainwright you know the team’s going well.  And Wainwright, just back from Tommy John surgery, will continue to round back into form the first month of this season.

Some prognosticators predicted this Cardinal team would be at least as dangerous as last year’s World Champs.  If the first time through is any indication that was an accurate prediction.  With 27 of their first 28 games against NL Central opponents, St Louis can make a real statement in this year’s divisional race, putting some distance between themselves and the rest of the field.  Three wins in their first 4 intra-divisional games is the start of a major statement, and should rightly put a shudder through the rest of the division.

St Louis is on pace to win 130 games, which of course is unrealistic.  Or is it?

Mike Metzger is a freelance writer based in San Diego.  He blogs about the Padres.  Follow him on Twitter @metzgermg.

Ask a Cardinal fan about Carlos Beltran and one of two things usually come to mind. His 2004 NLCS performance, when he hit 4 home runs in seven games, or his 2006 NLCS-ending strikeout at the hands of Adam Wainwright‘s curveball. With Allen Craig possibly out for the first month of the season, St Louis appears to be in the market for another outfielder, and Beltran’s name keeps popping up. Would he be a fit in St Louis?

With Matt Holliday in left and Jon Jay in center, the Cardinals would slot Beltran in right. Beltran has spent the majority of his professional career patrolling center field, sliding over to right only last season. Whether he was a competent corner defender is somewhat ambiguous. He saved 1 run on the Dewan plus/minus scale, ranking 13th amongst right fielders, making him average. By UZR/150, on the other hand, he posted a -9.2, which would be below average. By way of comparison, Lance Berkman cost the Cardinals 10 runs in right per Dewan, and was -10.2 by UZR/150.

So should the Cardinals bring Beltran in they would get a defender not much better than Berkman was last season.

At this point of his career, however, St Louis would not be signing Beltran for his defense, but rather for his bat. Beltran is still an elite offensive player. He has not posted an OPS+ less than 100 since 2005. Last year he posted an OPS+ of 152 while splitting the season between pitcher-friendly Citi Field and pitcher-friendly AT&T Park. He’s hit the ball particularly well in limited action at Neo-Busch. Beltran has appeared in 12 games since the stadium opened in 2006, posting a .340/.407/.681 line. Granted, he wouldn’t have the luxury of facing Cardinal pitching anymore, but regardless he seems comfortable hitting in the ballpark.

Beltran probably won’t command $19 million like he did his last 3 seasons in New York, but it’s not unreasonable to think he’d at least command Rafael Furcal money ($6 or $7 million for next season). For that kind of salary, one has to wonder if the Cardinals would cede the starting RF position to him and relegate Craig back to the bench. That in and of itself would be a tragedy; for if Craig proved anything in the post-season, its that he is ready for a full-time job in the Majors.

So does Carlos Beltran fit on the Cardinals team? Probably not; not for the money it will take to sign him. No GM in their right mind is going to pay someone $7 million to be a bench player.

Mike Metzger is an I-70 contributing writer. He tries to blog about the San Diego Padres. Follow him on Twitter.

The year 1982 marked the first of three 1980′s appearances in the World Series for the St. Louis Cardinals. It also marks the one and only time that the Milwaukee Brewers reached the World Series.

With the two teams, now in the same league, prepared to face off for the National League Pennant, i70baseball brings you a look back to that series in 1982. A monumental series that took all seven games to decide a winner. A series that would see would see both teams win a game by a double digit margin as well as each team winning a game by two or fewer runs.

You can read more about Game One by clicking here.
You can read more about Game Two by clicking here.
You can read more about Game Three by clicking here.
You can read more about Game Four by clicking here.
You can read more about Game Five by clicking here.

Milwaukee had taken care of business at home and now traveled to St. Louis having to only win one game to upset the Cardinals and claim a world championship for the city. St. Louis found themselves taken by surprise with the upstart Brewers and suddenly had their backs against the wall, needing to win both games at home in order to advance.

Game Six: Tuesday, October 19, 1982
The weather would be one of the top stories of game six as the St. Louis area was tortured by storms throughout the day. Fans at Busch Stadium would be required to suffer through over two and a half hours of rain delays in order to see this game play through to completion. The game would be completed that night and the Cardinal faithful would not be disappointed.

It was a rematch of game two in this series as the Brewers sent veteran Don Sutton to the mound to oppose the Cardinals’ rookie hurler John Stuper. Game two required a come from behind victory for the Cardinals as Stuper found himself in trouble quite often. The offense for St. Louis wanted to make sure that would not have to happen again.

It was the bottom of the second when the Cardinals offense, coupled with the Brewers defensive gaffs, would jump on the board. Dane Iorg would drive a two out double ahead of Willie McGee. McGee would reach base on an error by Brewers’ shortstop Robin Yount, allowing Iorg to score. A double from the bat of Tom Herr would follow, and the Cardinals jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead.

George Hendrick would lead off the bottom of the fourth inning with a base hit and advance to second on a rare balk by Don Sutton. Darrel Porter would then drive a pitch out of the park to right field and the Cardinals’ bats were providing some entertainment for the fans. Iorg would then triple down the right field line and score on Herr’s sacrifice bunt. The Cardinals were now ahead 5-0 and sending a statement to the Brewers.

The Cardinals would benefit, uncharacteristically, from the long ball in this game. Keith Hernandez would hit a home run in to the right field power alley after Lonnie Smith‘s leadoff single in the fifth, tacking on two more runs and putting the Cardinals ahead 7-0. Hernandez’s home run would also push Sutton out of the game.

Milwaukee reliever Jim Slaton would retire the final two hitters of the fifth inning and yield to Doc Medich in the sixth. Iorg would lead off that inning with a double, advancing to third on Medich’s wild pitch. McGee would step in and drive a base hit into right field, scoring Iorg. Herr would follow with a single of his own and both runners would advance to second and third on Medich’s second wild pitch of the inning. Medich would get Ozzie Smith to ground out to first without surrendering the run before walking David Green, who took over for Lonnie Smith in left field, to load the bases. Kent Oberkfell would hit a ground ball to Brewer first baseman Cecil Cooper, which would result in McGee being thrown out at home as Milwaukee looked to get out of the jam with two outs now. Hernandez would then drive a base hit into right field, scoring both Herr and Green and allowing Oberkfell to advance to third. With runners at the corners, Hendrick would single and advance to second on the unsuccessful attempt to throw out Hernandez advancing to third, scoring Oberkfell in the process. Jim Gantner‘s error at second base on Darrel Porter’s ground ball would allow two more runners, Hernandez and Hendrick, to score. Iorg would lineout to left to put an end to the disastrous, six run inning for the Brewers, the Cardinals now leading 13-0.

Stuper would go the distance for the Cardinals, surrendering a run scored to Gantner on a wild pitch in the ninth inning, otherwise scattering four hits and two walks over the nine inning, rain soaked affair.

The series was tied and a deciding game seven would be played at Bush Stadium the following day. The conclusion of the 1982 World Series would come in a dramatic final game.

Stay tuned as i70baseball brings you game recaps for all seven games of the 1982 World Series on game days of the 2011 National League Championship Series.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball as well as the Assignment Editor for BaseballDigest.com.
He is the host of I-70 Radio, hosted every week on BlogTalkRadio.com.
Follow him on Twitter here.