Whenever the World Baseball Classic rolls around, questions abound about who will participate in the tournament and whether or not that compromises their preparation, and later success, in the regular Major League Baseball season.

The St. Louis Cardinals will have those questions about their four players who were selected to World Baseball Classic rosters, which were announced Thursday, but the biggest news came from the Cardinals player who isn’t on a WBC roster.

Mitchell Boggs will pitch for Team USA, and Carlos Beltran and Yadier Molina will both play for Team Puerto Rico. Fernando Salas will pitch for Team Mexico, but his Cardinals teammate Jaime Garcia won’t join him.

Garcia had been on a preliminary roster for Mexico earlier in the offseason, but his participation was contingent on the health of his injured left shoulder that caused him to miss much of the second half of the 2012 season.

It would be unfair to jump off a ledge and say Garcia won’t pitch for Mexico because his shoulder isn’t healing fast enough. We don’t know that. Garcia and the Cardinals could simply be playing it safe to make sure he is as prepared as possible for the upcoming season. Hopefully that’s the case.

Garcia reportedly wanted to pitch for his native country pretty bad, and the Cardinals were playing a role similar to a parent who doesn’t let their child play on the monkey bars because it is dangerous. Sure, it limits the amount of fun, and pitching in the WBC would’ve undoubtedly been fun for Garcia. However, the smart move for the Cardinals is to keep him on his normal rehabilitation schedule.

Garcia is going to be an important part of the Cardinals’ starting rotation this season. If Garcia can pitch well as the No. 3 or No. 4 starter, the Cardinals can use more of their young pitchers in the bullpen instead of having to push them into the rotation and face the uncertainty that comes when a young pitcher is regularly exposed to full lineups rather than three or four hitters each night.

Lance Lynn and Joe Kelly did a great job filling in for injured starters in 2012, and they are big reasons the Cardinals were even in contention for a wild-card spot late in the season. But a full season from Garcia could play a large role in if the Cardinals can compete with the Cincinnati Reds for a division title, not just a wild-card spot.

With Garcia healthy and pitching well, the Cardinals could feature a rotation with Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, Garcia, Jake Westbrook and either Kelly or Lynn. The loser of that fifth-spot battle would move to the bullpen and provide strong middle relief, along with Shelby Miller and Trevor Rosenthal, for what could be a very good bullpen.

If Garcia continues to have shoulder issues, the Cardinals would be OK because they have available pitchers who can fill a rotation spot, but his presence would put the Cardinals in a real position of strength in terms of their pitching staff.

Now even if Garcia is healthy, that doesn’t guarantee success. Garcia has some of the filthiest stuff of any pitcher on the Cardinals roster and is one of the most likely candidates to someday throw a no-hitter. But he has been frustratingly inconsistent in his three seasons with the Cardinals. He owns a 3.43 career earned-run average, and his ERA has climbed from 2.70 in 2010 to 3.92 last season.

The Cardinals would likely be satisfied with an ERA in the neighborhood of 3.43 from Garcia this season, but the key is consistency, which could be as much of a mental issue as any physical problem. For example, Garcia has always struggled on the road when he doesn’t have the normal routine of a home game. His career road ERA is 5.02 compared to 2.82 at home.

Hopefully Garcia is fully on board with the decision to not pitch in the WBC, and that disappointment doesn’t affect his performance for the Cardinals in 2013.

But those types of questions are what always make the World Baseball Classic a conundrum in the world of Major League Baseball.

Kansas City, MO (November 6, 2012) – The Kansas City Royals have announced that right-handed reliever Greg Holland has been named the 2012 Bruce Rice Pitcher of the Year.  The award was voted on by the Kansas City Chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA).

Holland, who will turn 27 on November 20, made 67 appearances for the Royals, finishing 7-4 with a 2.96 ERA, 16 saves and 91 strikeouts in 67.0 innings.  The North Carolina native overcame early season struggles and a stint on the disabled list by posting a 2.08 ERA over his final 60 outings.  He recorded 16 saves in 18 chances after taking over the closer’s role on July 31, including 13 straight conversions from August 1 to September 9.  Holland finished third among American League relievers in strikeouts, trailing teammate Tim Collins (93) and Steve Delabar, who notched 92 with Seattle and Toronto.  The 91 strikeouts rank sixth in single-season franchise history among relievers.  Holland held opponents to two home runs over 67.0 innings for a ratio of 0.27 per nine innings, second-best in the American League among pitchers who threw at least 65.0 innings.  He became the first Kansas City reliever with seven or more wins in a season since 2000.

Yesterday, the Royals announced that shortstop Alcides Escobar won the 2012 Joe Burke Special Achievement award.

It has been 10 years since we were all shocked to find out that Darryl Kile had passed away, in his sleep, in a hotel in Chicago.  The St. Louis Cardinals lost another member of the “family”, players lost a teammate, and the world lost an amazing man and father.

All of this is well documented and I do not feel I can bring more to the subject.  I admired him.  I enjoyed his career.  I mourned his loss.  I, much like other fans and pundits, have moved on.  Sooner or later you simply run out of words.

About a month ago, I was co-hosting a radio program on my network, pinch hitting for a host that could not make it.   The show featured former Cardinal reliever Dave Veres, a guy I had watched as I grew up and I was excited to interview.  Before the interview was over, the subject of Darryl Kile was raised, and I could tell there was a bond.

When the United Cardinal Bloggers decided that the June project this year should be to look back at Jack Buck and the man many of us now know as “DK57″, I was not sure what to write.  I sent a few emails and some requests but ultimately was denied or met the common “I’m not sure what more I can say”.  My email to Dave Veres, however, was answered kindly.

 I did reach out to former Cardinal beat reporter, Matthew Leach, for his thoughts.  He told me that he would be running them on his blog, but he did not have a “favorite memory” of Darryl Kile.  Leach has said many times that Kile was “hard to cover” and explained why.  He did come up with a memory, and you can read that story over at Obviously, You’re Not A Golfer.

I asked Veres two questions: 1 – what is your favorite memory, on or off the field, of Darryl Kile and 2 – What can you tell me about that fateful day ten years ago.  What I got back but funny, beautiful, inspiring and sad.

On his favorite memories of Darryl Kile, Dave Veres shared the following
As you have most likely heard about Darryl and his on the field accomplishments and how he was such a great teammate and competitor. My favorite memories of Darryl were more off the field since we spent more time in the winter together with our wives and kids being so close.

One was when we were in AAA with Tucson and I think we were playing Tacoma and we would go fishing in the mornings. So one morning we are out and being in the Northwest they had plenty of rain, so we were hiking back to get to a fishing hole and instead of going through a couple inches of water I decided to go across a muddy area instead because I didn’t want to get my shoes wet. Well, needless to say, what looked like a little bit of mud turned out to be about a 4 foot mud hole. I remember as I was sinking and was asking Darryl to help. He basically said “I’m not going in there”.  Luckily, for my sake, I finally hit the bottom. Then he held out his fishing pole for me to grab onto. Of course then it was funny and, needless to say, I went into the water anyway to rinse of the mud.

So, now we are in the big leagues and both live in Houston and Darryl and I would golf or play “mortal combat” and the wives would go shop or whatever. Of course it was only fitting that they were both pregnant at the same time, too. So on Jan 15th 1997 my wife and I are going to the dentist and I get a call from Darryl and he says he and Flynn are going to the hospital and wants me to go by the store and pick up a camcorder so they can record it. Nothing like going into your best friend’s wife’s room and setting up a video as she’s getting ready to give birth to twins. Thank goodness since it was twins and a high risk delivery there were plenty of doctors in there.  I could set up without having to “see” anything. Later that evening we are at home and my wife is feeling some labor pains, I think it’s just because she watched Flynn deliver. Well about 8 hours after their twins were born we had our daughter. And when Darryl signed with the Rockies the next year they traded for me a few weeks later and we all moved to Denver. So we spent nearly every Christmas and birthday’s together for the 4 years.

On June 22, 2002 – The day Darryl Kile was found in his hotel room
Well, I can say that morning may be the worst day I have ever been through. Since Darryl and I usually lockered by each other and he was always one of the first guys at the clubhouse, it was pretty clear when I arrived at the ball park he wasn’t there yet. So I tried calling him and, when I couldn’t reach him, I called my wife to go to his room and try and wake him up. I knew his brother came to town and just figured he over slept. So she banged on his door and there was no answer.  So she asked one of the maids to open the door since he was late for the game. Luckily for my wife’s sake he had the security latch on,otherwise she would have found him. But, that’s when we knew he was in his room. So they had to get security and I think they called the Cardinals and let them know something was up. As we were out at BP the clubhouse guys came and got me and said there was a “family emergency”.  It was my wife on the phone and told me that Darryl had passed away in his sleep. I didn’t know what to do or say,I just kind of went numb or in a daze. A little while later Tony came in with the team and that’s when they told everyone else.

Those next few days were so exhausting. The emotional drain on us, if anyone watched the game the next day against the cubs on ESPN it was like a bunch of zombies. I’m not really sure why they aired that game. I think being a father my first thoughts went out to Flynn and the kids,I couldn’t imagine them not having their father any longer.

I still think about him pretty much daily, usually a DK or 57 will pop up or a story will remind me of him. We ran into Flynn and the kids last year in Anaheim at a volleyball tournament that our girls were playing in. Even though we don’t talk as much it was still we hadn’t missed a beat when we saw them,except there was no Darryl in person.

We appreciate Dave sharing such personal stories with us.  After the stories, he included one quote that stuck with me:

He was truly one of the nicest and genuine people you could have ever had the privilege to know. Also one of the greatest competitors, I don’t think he missed a start in 10 years,so that why when Tony got us together and we realized that Sunday night game would have been Darryl’s start,we needed to play it in his honor.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball
He is the host of I-70 Radio, hosted every week on BlogTalkRadio.
Follow him on Twitter here.

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.

Edwin Jackson has made four stats for the Cardinals. Given that he was acquired on 27 July, and started his first game for his new club two days later, he will make at most 11 starts for St Louis in 2011. Having already started a third of those, how do his numbers compare to his career norms?

First, his career numbers in some selected categories: 4.53 ERA, 1.483 WHIP, 1.81 strikeout-to-walk (SO/BB) ratio, 4.39 xFIP. While with the Chicago White Sox earlier this season, he posted better-than-his-career-norm numbers in ERA (3.92), WHIP (1.422), SO/BB (2.49), and xFIP (3.48). Since joining the Cardinals, however, he appears to have regressed (4.62, 1.697, 2.00, 4.00). Is that a fair assessment?

Actually, no it is not. Jackson was left on the mound to take a beating at Milwaukee’s hands on 3 August, because the bullpen had been completely expended the previous night in an extra inning win. Jackson went seven innings and allowed 10 runs (8 earned) that night. His other 3 starts? Five earned runs total in 18.1 innings pitched (ERA: 2.45). That first August game accounts for 61% of the earned runs he has allowed since the trade. Looking solely at the same categories as above, and removing that 3 August start, his ERA lowers to the aforementioned 2.45, his WHIP to 1.581, his xFIP to 1.64, and his SO/BB ratio rises to 1.43. Those are much better numbers. His WHIP is still high, but his WHIP has always been high. Jackson’s SO/BB ratio is below his career norm, but will likely continue to improve. His ERA and xFIP are sterling.

Edwin Jackson has pitched very well so far in his time with the Cardinals, and he’s also done the consummate teammate thing and ‘taken one for the team’. He has been a fine pick-up.

Many of us, this writer included, believe the Cardinals gave up too much to get him. For the record, through Wednesday’s games Colby Rasmus had a .225/.243/.394 slash line, not far different from the .226/.342/.420 line he posted with the Cardinals this season. It clearly is too early to accurately evaluate that trade, and a couple of seasons will have to pass before it can be done objectively. In the near term, St Louis acquired Edwin Jackson for 11 starts in 2011 so he could solidify the back end of their rotation and help propel them into the post-season. Through the first third of those starts, he has pitched better than reasonable people could have expected.

Jackson’s next start is Saturday at Wrigley, against former teammate Matt Garza. Hopefully the hamstring tightness that forced him from his last start is completely gone, allowing him to continue pitching very effectively.

Mike Metzger is a San Diego Padres blogger and life-long Cardinal fan.

There are few names that cause a hush to fall over a group of long-time Cardinal fans the way this one does. Eyes glaze over momentarily. Conversation comes to a pause. Thoughts turn to memories of that day. Eventually someone murmurs that they never would have seen it coming.

No one did.

June 22, 2002. The Cardinals were in Chicago to play the Cubs in a matchup of division rivals. As gametime approached, the stadium was buzzing with confusion. Warmups were not going as planned. Whispers throughout the stadium wondered what was happening.

Then, a microphone appeared. Various members of the Cubs took the field. The Cubs’ players association representative, Joe Girardi, walked solemnly to the mic with tears in his eyes.

“I thank you for your patience. We regret to inform you because of a tragedy in the Cardinal family, that the commissioner has canceled the game today. Please be respectful. You will find out eventually what has happened, and I ask that you say a prayer for the St. Louis Cardinals’ family.”

Players left the field. Fans quietly filed out of the stadium. No one knew what had truly happened. No one could understand. Slowly news spread. Even slower came reasons. The answers never came for the question on everyone’s mind.

Why?

In 1987 the Houston Astros selected Darryl Kile in the 30th round. While obviously a low-end pick, Kile nevertheless fought his way up the ranks, breaking into the majors in early 1991. During his first career start he had a no-hitter through six innings before being pulled. His career in Houston was bright, making his first All-Star team in 1993 and pitching a no-hitter against the Mets in September of the same year. A few years later in 1997 Kile went 19-7, again making the All-Star team, and making the postseason with the Astros.

After that ’97 postseason appearance, Kile signed as a free agent with the Colorado Rockies. As many pitchers found out, pitches in Colorado don’t do the same things they do in other parks (pre-humidor, that is). Kile’s pitching suffered dramatically, and his two years in Colorado produced ERA’s of 5.20 and 6.61. His career was spiraling, until he was traded to the Cardinals.

As one of many that felt the apparent healing powers of pitching coach Dave Duncan, Kile’s career felt a resurgence wearing the birds on the bat. In 2000, his first year in St. Louis, Kile was the first 20 game winner for the Cardinals since John Tudor and Joaquin Andujar in 1985. Over the next few years he emerged as the team ace, shepherding several of the younger Cardinal pitchers and being a strong leader both on the field and in the clubhouse.

Darryl’s wife Flynn, twins Sierra and Kannon, and youngest Ryker, were all fixtures at the ballpark, from Family Day on the field to a little catch pregame in the clubhouse with father and son. His family was important to him, and they were held in high esteem by the Cardinals community. The Kile’s were close friends with Matt Morris and his family, among others.

On June 18, 2002, Darryl Kile strode off the mound in Busch Stadium to a standing ovation. He had pitched 8 strong innings, giving up only one run against the Anaheim Angels. The Cardinals won the game 7-2, and with that win, took over sole possession of first place in the National League Central. Sadly for the Cardinals, the joy of victory was short in lasting, as news spread that night about Hall of Fame broadcaster and longtime voice of the Cardinals Jack Buck’s passing away. The team all wore patches for the rest of the season bearing the initials JFB (as seen on Kile’s sleeve in the above picture).

It was a great victory for the team, a sad loss for Cardinal Nation, and the last victory of Darryl Kile’s career. Four days later, Kile did not show up to Wrigley Field on time for the day’s game. Teammates began to wonder. Messages were sent. Calls were made. The news finally broke – Darryl Kile had passed away in his sleep of a heart attack.

The game that Girardi had tearfully informed the Wrigley faithful about being cancelled was made up over two months later, on August 31. Jason Simontacchi was the starter, and looked visibly emotional throughout the game. Kile had been a teammate, a supporter, and a friend. The team added a second patch to their jerseys, and a matching symbol on the wall in the bullpen of Busch Stadium.

The Cardinals seemed to be a team of destiny. They overcame so much, dealt with emotional trauma, and yet responded with resiliency. After their fallen ace pitched them into first place, they never looked back, and the team finished as the winners of the Central Division. As the team ran onto the field to celebrate their division clinching win, rookie outfielder and third baseman Albert Pujols grabbed a hanger from inside the dugout to take with him into the celebration. He eventually handed it off to teammate and best friend of Kile, Matt Morris.

Kile’s jersey never left the dugout throughout the rest of 2002, and his locker remained untouched for years. The Cardinals did not want to forget their teammate and friend. His fans never will.

To find my memories of this story, head over to Diamond Diaries.

Angela Weinhold is an executive editor and covers the Cardinals for i70baseball.com. She also writes writes for her own site Cardinal Diamond Diaries. You may follow her on Twitter here or follow Cardinal Diamond Diaries here.

Haven’t heard much complaining about Cardinals’ demoted reliever Ryan Franklin in a while? There’s a reason for that. No, he hasn’t been leading a remarkable resurgence on the mound. In fact, he hasn’t taken the mound at all since May 1^st.

Two weeks ago, I raised the question, “Will Tony La Russa do the right thing when it comes to his personnel options in the bullpen?” Basically I questioned whether the Cardinals’ skipper would keep Ryan Franklin on the team despite his 8.86 ERA and send a promising young arm like Eduardo Sanchez or Fernando Salas back to AAA when Brian Tallet and/or Brian Augenstein came off the disabled list.

While we haven’t gotten an “official” answer to that question yet, it seems pretty clear now what La Russa’s answer will be. It’s been a good run, Mr. Franklin. By all accounts, Ryan Franklin is a great person and teammate and no one likes to see a good guy end his career like this. But the bottom line is he just can’t be trusted to get hitters out anymore. Disagree? The Cardinals’ manager doesn’t. Ryan Franklin hasn’t been trusted to take the mound since giving up the winning run in the bottom of the 9^th in Atlanta a week and a half ago. Interestingly enough, every game since then has been decided by 3 runs or less (the lone exception was a 4-0 loss to the Brewers, but that game was 1-0 heading into the 9^th).

In the past 2 ½ weeks, Franklin has taken the mound twice: Once with a 6-0 lead in the 8^th where he gave up 2 hits on just 4 pitches and was yanked, and again in the aforementioned game in Atlanta where he was essentially La Russa’s only remaining option.

Pretty soon Brian Tallet will be coming off the disabled list, and when he does, look for Ryan Franklin to be designated for assignment. What other choice does the Cardinals’ management have now? Every other active reliever has an ERA below 3.25…and Franklin’s ERA is more than 2 ½ times higher. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what went wrong this season. Franklin followed up an All-Star appearance in 2009 by saving all but 2 of his save opportunities in 2010. I suppose a reasonable guess is that Mother Nature, and consequently every hitter in the National League, has caught up with the 38 year old right-hander.

When the obituary of Ryan Franklin’s baseball career is written… it will highlight the fact that before his downfall in 2011, he managed to save 65 of 72 games in the previous two seasons. Not bad for a 5^th starter turned middle reliever in his mid 30s.

Mr. Franklin, Cardinals Nation wishes you well on all your future endeavors. When the dust settles, most fans will look back on your career fondly.

It’s tough to talk about the Royals this week. Usually a daily topic among my friends and I, even in the winter, we’ve found it hard to talk about the Royals this week. There’s simply nothing else to discuss. A precipitous falling back to earth has occurred. There is a myriad of topics that if they were the proverbial horse and we beat them anymore, PETA would be in front of www.I70baseball.com Headquarters protesting the cruelty to said horse.

Streakers can be entertaining

But I made a promise to write something every week. So this week I’m going to talk about streaking. Not the type of streaking that happens in less civilized Major League Stadiums. The type of streaking the Royals as a team, and Royals players have been doing. Alex Gordon went on a 19 game hitting streak. Certainly the longest of Gordon’s career, and one of the longest in recent memory for any Royals player. Last September Gordon declared to the Kansas City Star that he expected “to dominate next year”. Since then my friends and I have been calling him The Dominator. At first it was in jest, mocking Gordon’s domination of the American League. Now we call him The Dominator because he is actually dominating. Of Course, it’s only one month of domination. We reserve the right to switch at any time.

Not to be out done: Jeff Francoeur, at the time of this writing has at least a 17 game hitting streak. It’s the longest of Francoeur’s career. Francoeur and Gordon’s hitting streaks are the second time since 1900 teammates have had hitting streaks of longer than 15 games in April. Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez did in April 2007. Even if Francoeur’s streak ends, hopefully he continues on his hitting tear, and let’s a teammate become the Fan’s whipping boy this season.

Despite the awesome streaks from individual players. The Royals are on a six game losing streak. Another American League team had a six game losing streak to begin the season and you would have thought the sky was falling. Royals fans go through a six game losing streak and just assume that it’s supposed to happen. Certainly any baseball team can go on a six game losing streak and still have a nice season. Most of us understand the expectations were low for this season anyway. However, it’s frustrating to see a team give everything back in one road trip, and as of this writing the streak has not ended.

Like I wrote last week. This team is going to be a roller coaster. Right now we’re on the first big drop. But do not fear. Coasters usually go back up….at some point. They way the starting rotation is going, come June I expect the young arms in Omaha to ditch their Nexrad Radars and mesonets for crowns and scepters. At least I hope so. If not, the next time I go to Kauffman Stadium I’m going to root for a real streaker.

Recently, during the first inning of a game with the Iowa Cubs on April 16, two Memphis outfielders collided while chasing a shallow fly ball. The collision was graphic, violent, and injured both of the young players involved.

I-70 Baseball broke down the events of this play with a link to the video associate and you can read that by clicking here.

Photo Courtesy of Erika Lynn

Today during a conversation with a Memphis Redbirds official, I received an update on the young outfielders and what their future may hold. The future, at least at this moment, is due to arrive much sooner for Andrew Brown.

Andrew Brown’s injuries from the collision were not as severe as those sustained by teammate Shane Robinson. The night of the injury Brown was released from the hospital with a concussion and returned to the team hotel. According to the team, the diagnosis for Brown is still a concussion and the team expects him to recover on the original time table.

As reported earlier, however, Shane Robinson suffered fractures to bones in his face as well as bones in his left hand. Robinson remained at the hospital that night as doctors continued to monitor his injuries. According to team officials, he will require surgery to repair both of the fractures and, to this date, neither surgery has taken place. The team chose not to disclose any more information concerning Robinson, even denying any questions concerning why he has not had surgery at this point.

I-70 Baseball will continue to monitor the situation and update our fans as the information is presented to us. Everyone continues to hope for a speedy recovery for both young men.

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.

One of my favorite projects that I have the pleasure of putting together on a regular basis, Baseball Digest Classic Discussions takes on some of the hard hitting and more personal issues surrounding the game. At the end of August last season, the Discussion series took on the subject role models and higher standards for athletes.

In the series, I suggested that parents and fans take time to learn more about the players that they take their kids to see. Take a look at how the player interacts with fans, the charity work that is done off the field, and the projects that he involves himself in. Today, in the midst of a season ending injury and one of the most disappointing moments in his career, Adam Wainwright moved himself into Role Model status in my mind. In an open letter on a blog site set aside for discussions of fellowship, Wainwright addressed the 2011 season.

I truly believe I was better prepared to play ball this year than ever before. This was supposed to be my year. Everyone I know, and don’t know, was telling me this was my year to win the Cy Young. I had thrown 7 bullpen sessions in preparation to face hitters for the first time, and everything was going great. I honestly can’t remember a time where my delivery and overall confidence in my stuff was even close to where it is now. But, God had different plans than all that for me this year. While facing hitters the first time I felt a twinge in my elbow, and long story short I am scheduled to have Tommy John surgery on monday morning.

Strong in his faith, the result was a heart tugging, inspiring, and emotional. He takes his reader through the thought process of a teammate, an athlete, a husband and a Christian. During one point of his open letter, he stated:

I believe I can still greatly impact God’s Kingdom from this disabled list. And if any of you people who I just bragged about catch me slippin….please slap me around.

Not many people can admit the challenge they face is minor in the grand scheme of things. Very few athletes take the time to thank God for an injury instead of a strikeout. Not many athletes would take the time, just days after a season ending diagnosis, to reach out with a very personal letter to his fans.

The Cardinals have an ace on their staff and in the clubhouse. It is not because of his 20-win seasons or climbing strikeout rates. It is not because of his bull dog attitude or ability to command respect. It is because he is a teammate, a friend, a hard worker, and a man strong in his faith.

You can read the entire transcript here.

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.