Friday Notes
Friday notes?some left-handers and Fernando Salas.
Busch Stadium – St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals are having internal discussions about trading pitcher Rich Hill to the Philadelphia Phillies for Roy Halladay, according to sportswriter extraordinaire, Evan Bruschini .
The Cardinals may be thin at the back of the rotation, but what remains is mostly replacement level?better to see if Kyle McClellan (or Jaime Garcia, or Rich Hill, for that matter) is a plausible multi-year option in the rotation than counting on the difference between any of them and Braden Looper over 25 starts. If that turns out to be a problem, there are others.
The St. Louis Cardinals seem to be practicing the old fantasy baseball strategy of “Studs and Duds.”
Immediate shock waves rippled through Philadelphia and Saint Louis on Sunday when Buster Olney of ESPN.com wrote that the Phillies have “kicked around” the notion of trading slugger Ryan Howard for regular MVP contender Albert Pujols.
For Chris Carpenter, it was an afternoon to get his work in and build up his pitch count. Otherwise, it was a forgetful afternoon for the former Cy Young winner, as the Cardinals lost, 7-6, to the Marlins.
Tyler Greene and Allen Craig hit solo home runs in the first inning, but the Nationals erupted for 10 runs off Cards relievers in a 13-5 loss on Friday.