Cards promote Dove to replace Hancock

Relief pitcher Dennis Dove has been promoted from Class AAA Memphis to the
Cardinals after Josh Hancock was killed Sunday in an automobile crash in St.
Louis.

Dove, 25, had an impressive spring in the Cardinals’ camp and was 0-0 with a
3.00 ERA in nine appearances for Memphis.

He will be in a major-league uniform for the first time tonight when the
Cardinals play at Milwaukee.

“To lose a guy like that, it hurts,” Dove told the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
“Josh was a good guy, nice to everybody.”

Of his promotion to the majors, Dove told the newspaper: “I hate that it
happened this way. It’s a dream come true, pretty much. To say it wasn’t, I’d
be lying. It’s awesome. … But it’s also a very sad day for all of us.”

Dove is a 6-foot-4, 205-pound righthander. In 2006, he made 54 appearances
combined in Class A and AA, going 3-6 overall with a 4.11 ERA and 71 strikeouts
in 65 innings.

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-from MLB.com

Hancock pitched for four teams in his Major League career, playing with plenty of acquaintances, friends and teammates. From day one in St. Louis, he seemed to fit in, and he was happy to welcome new teammates into the fold as they arrived.

“He was my card-playing buddy and we hung out quite a bit,” said Mariner and former Cardinal Jeff Weaver, who bonded with Hancock even though the two only played together for four months.

“He was easy to talk to,” Weaver said. “Very sociable. He enjoyed people’s company and hanging out with guys. Baseball was what he was about.”

Weaver received a call on Sunday morning from Cardinals reliever Randy Flores.

“It’s definitely a phone call I’ve never had before,” Weaver said. “You always see it every day, but somebody like that where you’ve enjoyed one of the best experiences of your life with, it kind of sets you back.”

The ’06 world championship team was assembled from a wide range of different places, and Hancock was emblematic of how that club came together. Released by the Reds in Spring Training, he signed with St. Louis and went on to enjoy a fine season as a Cardinal. Weaver, like Hancock, was let go by his previous team — traded by the Angels after being designated for assignment.

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There was a reason the Houston Astros released him last year. We picked him up with hopes he could rekindle some of his earlier playing days. He used to be a really good player. He’s had a sharp dropoff in performance. Not sure why.

I think the Cardinals will have a choice to make when Juan E gets back as far as Wilson is concerned. 1999 – 2003 were great years for him. 2004 he was injured. He hasn’t been the same since 2005 when he had 25 HR’s and 90 RBI’s. For a 32 year old guy, he’s playing like he’s done.

He whiffed in an important of the game. not sure why TLR didn’t use Speizio or Schumaker in that spot. Schu had a great game on Thursday, only to be basically ignored.

Tony screwed up and then went ballistic on Bernie Miklasz. The pressure is there and Tony made several bonehead moves or non-moves. What do you think?
Wainwright vs Zambrano…. gotta  have it!

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Should be fun. 3 game series with the Cubs It’s time to light up Jason Marquis and it is time for Anthony Reyes to show us something. We need to send a message. We are defending champions and the Cubs are cellar dwellers. The hitting has been a bit more productive in the last few games.
Saturday- We face the Big Z..Zambrano. He is volatile but always plays us tough. That game I want badly.
Sunday night, whick I will be in attendance, The Kipster, Kip Wells vs Rich Hill. Hill has been pretty good in all his game this year.

Let’s do it. Cards vs Cubs. 3 game series.

Till next time,

Go Cardinals!

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Cardinals GM not only wants to bring you the best Cardinals commentary, but we strive to do it in style. Most of you have become familiar with our popular video casts that Tom has produced – now we’d like to introduce the very first Cardinals GM Podcast.

This audio segment is done by Tom as well and discusses who’s hot and who’s not around baseball. Thanks for everyones support and enjoy!

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It’s an OFF DAY!                                                                                                               

People are up in arms about Bonds breaking the home run record. Bonds probably has beaten up his girlfriend that he had when he cheated on his wife, may have an income tax evasion and might have used performance enhancing drugs.  But a record 756 home runs probably isn’t going to last much longer than 8 to 10 years. Why? Let’s look at the potential record breakers.

*chart from baseball evolution*

19 players in range to reach 756 homeruns at any point is remarkable, period. Some of these players are past their prime  and will not reach the coveted number (Edmonds, Sosa, Giambi). Others have a legitimate shot at this.  Albert Pujols, Adam Dunn, and Ryan Howard are each currentlty set to hit roughly 800 homeruns before their careers are through. Remember, Juan Gonzalez hit his 400th homerun at the age of 32 – one of the youngest ever to do so – never played another full season, and ended his career with 434 homeruns.
But if things continue as they currently project, in 15 years there will be four or five players to have crossed the 756 home run threshold, and this animosity towards Bonds will fade away.

Oh, did I also mention I think Bonds is a jerk!

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We are 7-10 and in 4th place. Why? Let’s examine our stats to date.

50 runs scored and 65 runs allowed. That is a 2.95 scored and 3.87 allowed per game. Remember, we had 2 Sunday outburst of 10 runs each. Just imagine if we hadn’t done that.

Overall-.227-10 HR-47 RBI
vs. RH-.242-7 HR-32 RBI-331 AB
vs. LH-.208-3 HR-15 RBI-202 AB
Day-.259     Night-.206      OBP-.300      SLG-.326       OPS-.625

 We have 34 extra base hits and in 601 plate appearances and 10 home runs which is one HR per 53 AB’s.

We have struck out 93 times, only have 5 SBs, 6 CS. We have 129 hits, 52 walks (181 combined) and only scored 50 runs

We have 47 RBIs. Pujols is our leading HR (4) and RBI (9) and he is hitting .203.  Seven players hitting above .230 and two of them are pitchers.

          Leading hitters:
          Wells…(.429)
          Wainwright…(.400)
          Bennett (.375)
          Duncan…(.328)

Let’s examine RISP.

Runners on hitting .260
RISP hitting .211
RISP & 2 Outs hitting .173
Bases loaded hitting .133

 PITCHING:
94 K      57 BB       WHIP 1.21      BAA .228    nine home runs allowed.

There it is. In perspective. 4th place 7-10. Not the bright start we all hoped for.

Till next time,

Go Cardinals!

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Weird. That is the only way to describe todays game. Lots of plays that need “further review” by the umpires. You know what? They got them ALL right. I give them credit for that. WEIRD PLAY #1- Even though I am not an Angel Hernandez fan, he got it right but I think for the wrong reason. You see, Angel likes to be noticed when he is umpiring. So what’s he do? Makes a safe sign even though the runner did not touch the base. Wrong mechanics, Angel. Then Albert Pujols tags the runner for trying to advance. That had to be it cause if it was just a missed base, AP had to only step on the bag for the out.  WEIRD PLAY# 2- The triple play. The almost triple play. I admit to applauding loudly in my living room when I thought it was a triple play. Yadier put a good headlock on Blanco. What was Henry doing just standing there? Why didn’t he run? On the replay was the first time I noticed Molina tagged the batter first, therefore, it would/could not be a triple play.

    Piniella. Lou, don’t run out of the dugout. That is not a pretty site. Just quickly walk out there. Anyway, Piniella got to the plate umpire and they got it correct. WEIRD PLAY #3- Ronny Cedeno trying to steal a base on ball four. Ronny, on ball four you can trot, walk, skip but NEVER, I mean NEVER run and slide into the bag. You know what could happen? Yes, you know. I bet Lou told you about it later till your ears turned red. You came off the bag and was called out, Ronny. Now, my question is…is that a play an umpire can really ask for help? What is there to ask? “Hey Angel, did Cedeno come off the base, because I quit watching” What’s your job, man?

Good part is the Cardinals won with another anemic offensive game. My whipping boy, Preston Wilson hit a shot into Waveland Avenue and we win. Looper was magnificent. (I hate to admit it but Lilly was prety good, too.) Let’s get Saturday’s game to insure a won series.

 Saturday- Reyes vs Marquis

         0-2  5.40 ERA                                    1-1   2.65 ERA

Till next time,

Go Cardinals!

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Blog buzz at it’s finest:

• Taxes and Cardinals [Cardinals Diaspora]
• Good News and Bad News [Get Up, Baby!]
• Random Cardinal Thoughts [The FYC]
• Pujols Trying to Steal Home? [Fungoes]
• MADNESS [Rockin' the Red]

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 Lilly 1-1 2.37      Looper 2-1 2.37

I am a staunch Cardinals fan and I am finding their playing full of stench. No life. No hitting. Our man Albert has been unbelievably poor to this point.

Why, oh why, does Taguchi get any AB’s? Same can be said for Preston Wilson to a lesser degree. At least Preston has the ability to drive the ball. Time to re-tool our outfield. Bring Rodriguez from the farm. Make a trade. I am even looking forward to May 1st when Juan Encaracion is expected back.

I am just too sick to type much. I sure DON’T want to hear the Cub fans this weekend. CARDINALS, let’s go!!!!

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