indifferent

Not anymore. There's a player's vote on the reserves. Then I think the manager gets to pick the last five or six spots. And in doing that, he has to still make sure each team is represented. He has a lot less leeway than he has had in the past. This applies to reserve position players or pitchers?

I voted for Pujols (go figure), but I would not be upset if Lee was voted in, given my own voting criteria I outlined. Lee has enough of a track record to merit it. My theory in voting for Pujols is solely based on honors he's been passed up for before due to the Bonds factor. I also think he'll close the gap somewhat before the break (although you wouldn't know it looking at Lee's recent performance).

Does the manager for each team really get to pick all the pitchers?

Interesting discussion on how people vote for the All Stars, http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=caple/neel/050513 I especially like Neel and Caple's post its on each others votes. I typically weigh season performance to date more heavily, but if it's close, I give the nod to the overall career performer. I never vote for former all star players that are injured to date (i.e. Bonds), but I also don't vote for up and comers out of nowhere based on half a season (i.e. Barmes).

No offense, but you guys were nuts to let Sisco go. He's just nasty! Just blew through the heart of our order.

Hargrove

Cards stranded 14 against the Brewers; I'd say they were trying.

Way late to this thread, but am I correct in understanding Dusty pinch hit for Dubois with Macias???

Maddux's history of success is also a wee bit deeper than Carpenter's too. The Admin has a point there. In fact last year was the first year that Carpenter was successful and healthy. You are right; however, he was highly regarded when he was with Toronto, if memory serves. Yes indeed he was. Thank you both for bringing that up. He's not a typical flash in the pan journeyman pitcher. Injuries derailed his early promise. I deserve a little ribbing for this post after yesterday (as do those naysayers on our board that virtually think our season is over), but I still stand by it.

Thus, the scrutiny of a "one year wonder" pitcher (as apparently all of our pitchers are). We will see.

But he spread his runs across two games. Their ERA's right now are similar. I'll take one win where the BP could give up three runs vs. one loss and one win that the BP had to take to a crap shoot in the 12th.

This was Carp's worst start as a Cardinal. Not exactly a trend.

Not too much. Hopefully he got that all out of his system in one start. Not sure why TLR left him in so long, it was apparent he didn't have his stuff today. I guess it was because our bullpen had been abused by Suppan's outing yesterday. Not a good start to the season for Cards fans. Although I wouldn't be too optimistic at this point if I were a Cubs fan either. 3-3 vs. the Brewers and D-backs wouldn't leave me jubilant. I'm not backing off my original post though. Carp will do well this year barring injury. His ERA will be laughable for awhile after today, but we'll see. You guys allow Maddux a lot of slack in April.

I was most impressed by Carpenter today. 97 pitches in 7 IP, 1 ER, 2K, 4 hits, 0 BB. Just like last year, very solid, especially early in the season. Oswalt on the other hand went 106 pitches in 6 IP, 6 ER, 2K, 7 hits, 1 BB.

I don't see the problem in Jocketty's moves. Ace pitching is way more expensive and less reliable, more injury prone. The only teams that can afford to pay full market value for ace pitching throughout their rotation are the Yankees and Red Sox. I also don't view Benson and Zambrano as better than most of our starters and certainly not aces. The fault lies in not developing home grown top notch pitching, both at the draft and development level. The Cubs and perhaps Oakland are the only teams that are blessed with this situation. This is why the Cubs are and will be contenders every year. This is also why I would be calling for the head of Hendry or MacPhail for not surrounding that core with more offensive production for years. The Cubs have already conquered the tough part, strong homegrown pitching. The Cubs and Cards have two different approaches to the core of their teams, mostly due to circumstances. My biggest concern about the Cards is whether our middle infield defense will be able to support our staff of heavy groundball pitchers.

Jocketty made a bad call on those two in 2003, no doubt about it. Had he made better pick ups, the chain of events would have unfolded differently. The fact that Borbon and Yan didn't get many innings because they stunk (not leaving Fassero out of this conversation either) taxed the rest of the bullpen. If he had made the right decisions, the players still would have been cheap. I apologize for the Kile mistake. With the exception of possibly RJ, there was no pitching available at the trading deadline. So Walt did the next best thing in shoring up right field and getting rid of the platoon of Lankford/Cedeno. I have no beef regarding the Walker deal. The price was right and Walker definitely helped us down the stretch and in the playoffs. It's a moot point now, because Walt correctly identified the correct weakness this year and picked up Mulder. Hendry on the other hand, did nothing to correct the Cubs biggest problem of a closer and subtracted much needed offense to get your pitchers some run support. I don't fully understand the Burnitz bashing, but perhaps it stems from the belief by most that Sosa will have a better year than Burnitz. Comparing one year to gauge the two players seems disingenuous when Sosa had his worst year by far since 97 and Burnitz had his best year by far since 99. Such is the price for clubhouse harmony.

jj, I knew you were going there next. He uses the bullpen well when he has the chance to, you know 2003 was a complete mess with our starting rotation. I can't even remember how many starters started in 2003 without even getting into the Kile situation. Not to mention, Jocketty's brilliant acquisitions of Borbon and Yan to reinforce our bullpen at the deadline. Just giving you a hard time about the dude comment, I use it too regardless of sex. In all seriousness, do you think the bullpen will be our biggest weakness this year?

I actually am in the same school of thought as Vance in that I think bullpens are fluid from year to year. This is also why I don't discount the Cubs bullpen as much as others. Some of this fluidity I attribute to the manager's situational use of the bullpen of which I think LaRussa does a great job. This is why IMO LaRussa gets some good mileage out of career mediocre relievers. So was it effective use of the bullpen or career years? More red koolaid if you can stomach it. And I'm not a dude.

Actually the difference is we are talking about the 5th and 6th guys out of the pen instead of a starting right fielder. The guys I mentioned did do well last year, journeymen or not. If they don't work out, I would think the Cards could find numerous cheap arms or other "journeymen" to replace them. What stellar 5th and 6th BP guys do the Cubs have that instill such supreme confidence?

Here's what I don't understand with regard to Cubs injuries last year. They didn't do poorly with Wood, Prior, etc. gone early in the year. And they didn't do much better when everyone was back healthy. Similarly, the Cards didn't really separate themselves from the pack until Aug. when the Cubs were back healthy.

I'm actually expecting all three teams' wins to go down. All three have had their offseason losses and IMO MIL, CIN, and PIT have closed the gaps. I expect more parity.

All I was saying in dismissing injuries is that you can't predict them and for that matter, Nomar's is just as big of an injury risk as Walker. As far as Pythagorean numbers go, it seems a way to justify 105 wins. I never bought into the Pythagorean numbers because it lumps runs scored and runs allowed over the course of a whole season while each game is mutually exclusive and intangibles like closing out a one run game aren't factored in. How can you rely on Pythagorean numbers on one hand and discount defensive stats on the other (the alternative being watching the game tells you otherwise)?

Also, I concede that our middle infield defense is weaker this year, but at the end of the season, it won't be any worse than Nomar, Walker, Barrett.

I don't agree re: our offense being weaker. For the purposes of discussion, we're omitting injuries out of the equation. So we have Walker all year, Molina should be better than Matheny, Eckstein should equal Womack's production. Renteria's last season production of .287, .327, .401 should be capably replaced by Grudzielanek (last season of .307, .347, .432). The only thing I don't like is Sanders hitting behind Edmonds instead of Renteria. Regardless of Renteria's production last year, I still think Edmonds got more to hit with Renteria behind him. That's 2 heavy K guys in a row also.

I agree re: Myers, but Cali, Reyes, and Flores did well at the end of the season along with Haren. Also, we'll have Lincoln back probably by May. Morris, recovering from surgery is also looking good so far this spring (including his first appearance in a game today). Who's going to be the Cubs LOOGY?