facing the Cardinals. His “discussion” with Pujols may have been a factor in yesterday’s bench clearing episode involving Ausmus. Backe is ultra-competitive and you have to wonder how that episode, as well as Backe’s stated dislike for Pujols, will affect the game. I hope that Backe can channel his competitiveness constructively. Hopefully he won’t allow his emotions to distract him from concentrating on the no. 1 task, getting hitters outs. I wouldn’t be surprised if LaRussa tries to create another incident in order to fan the flames and try to get Backe off his game.

Caught some of it on Baseball Tonight. Maybe you guys can be the enemy instead of us.

Everybody knows about the Tony v Ned last year. This year everybody says it over but… there was a Card plunked a couple games ago (unintentionally it appeared) and then Gagne hit their SS in the forearm and injured him. There was no glaring or accusations, but Tony impresses me as someone who always gets even.

In case you didn’t know..

If he’s not leading off, he should be batting 7th or 8th.. that’s just my opinion though :)

Tejada got good wood, but Schumaker made a good play on him to end the inning.

before we leave today :p

ran faster than Miles expected.

WOW HE IS FAST!!!

Okay, not really, but he hit it deep enough up the center and slow enough to make Miles work for it.. and Miles was offline with the throw.

Getting it done

For anyone who cares.

Link

I forgot to put Wang in my rotation today. That’s like 25+ points I’m going to miss out on today. :(

were hit pretty well off Backe

The 3rd basemen was playing really shallow.. I know Backe is a pitcher and all, but I figured he’d be back further than that..

Backe on 1st.. oddly enough, him and Pujols aren’t chatting

Backe & Pujols @ 1st base. Let’s throwdown.

you can talk all you want about Pujols being a lot bigger than Backe, but I wouldn’t count him out so quick.

Some nice strikeout pitches this inning

intentional “walk” here

not surprising given how horrible he’s been, but that’s a lot of money to eat.

at Minor League Baseball blog has us selecting a RHP named Tanner Scheppers w/ the 10th pick in the draft this year. I have no idea who or what this kid can do, but I’m for it based solely on the name.

http://www.minorleagueball.com/2008/4/27/461596/milb-mock-draft-pick-17-to

he needs to do that more

got started late today, but Coop seems to have inherited Phil Garner’s love of shuffling the batting order

via Baseball Musings post: will Wainwright be suspended for throwing behind Ausmus yesterday? If so, is suspending a starting pitcher for 3 days any kind of punishment at all?

c.f. Kyle Farnsworth earlier this year
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/al/yankees/2008-04-19-farnsworth_N.htm

bad thing w/ walks against cards is that you give fat albert more chances to bat. not to mention that walks in and of themselves are bad.

WHERE ARE THE BATS?

ill-advised.

How much faith can we have in him?
Did Quintero clear waivers?

esp. since he apparently ran thru a stop sign

Backe feels like he isn’t long for the game anyway..

Batting average below .200 now.

Let’s hope nobody gets hurt today.

prob going to be the story of this season. some offense fuelded wins but plenty of dry spells

is becoming Public Enemy #1 of the Cardinals. Which is pretty cool.

Tomorrow’s headline

??? (Surprised)

Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a way to link directly to it (this goes to today’s Gameday and you can click the link for Videos http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2008_04_27_houmlb_slnmlb_1&mode=gameday)

In my opinion it was a typical up and in pitch that wouldn’t be anything in the normal course of baseball, but b/c of the situation it is blown up. Definitely

Cards announcers on the video said Backe should have been thrown out for clearly throwing at Molina’s head. Sure. They also referenced the time out on the previous pitch.

Towles and Molina almost got into it which would have been funny.

Molina is their catcher, which of course is obvious, but it makes it fun to speculate. Was the timing just serendipity? I love this stuff.

If we get to the eight still trailing by three, let’s say screw the game and bring in Brocail and have him bean pujols. Let’s see if Fat Albert is so chippy when he doesn’t have 50 pounds on the guy.

I miss Danny Darwin at times like this.

Chances are good Izzy is going to have to face Tejada, Berkman and Lee for the save. :)

Hasn’t pitched since last season. Expect some rustiness.

making it hard for Astros brass to decide who release since they both suck.

After the comeback win in game 1 of the series.

“Do I have to have a rationale? I don’t have one,” Cooper said. “I just pick ‘em out of a hat. I don’t have one. There is no rationale.”

it’s clear it was said in jest, but sometimes you wonder.

http://blogs.chron.com/baseballblog/archives/2008/04/kazuo_leads_off.html

he made berkman’s fly out to center sound like it was gone at first.

at least we get to play the cards a bunch more times this year. that should be fun. their pitchers are not going to keep this up and one series we’re bound to catch them when the bats are going and we’ll pound them.

that’s no fun

for enjoying the drama of bench clearing.

i dont want anyone to get hurt- but that part of me wants to punch molina in the face for being a sensitive weinerface.

p.s. i am really proud of backe this season. in fact, i am proud of our starting rotation.