Schafer forgot to champion Anthony Reyes like he has in every other thing he's written about the Cardinals in 2008.

Four questions:

What is the story here? Did LaRussa rip this guy or stiff him on an interview or something? Does Schafer run a dogfighting ring?Is there any merit to this? Is it a pretty serious insinuation.

Is there any merit to this?

Thats the important question here. Those ARE rather odd lineups. Why is he doing it ?

The RFT is not really the place for serious baseball journalism. I do live right down the street from them, though.

i'm reserving judgment until cardsfanboy pipes up. but those guys in the outfield is kind of frustrating, and izzy was given way too many opportunities. that's just my impression.

Sure, on the face of it, Felipe Lopez in left field looks a bit weird. but...

1. Lopez has played eight games for the Cardinals in left, and played eight games in left earlier this season when he was with the Nationals. LaRussa didn't just put him out there without experience. He had played the position earlier this season with another club.

2. Lopez has hit .354/.397/.492 since he joined the Cardinals. His defense in the infield has been shaky for years. Perhaps he would hit better than he has if he played a less demanding position. Obviously he won't continue to post those numbers, but what's wrong with getting a hot bat into the lineup?

3. LaRussa has always loved players who can play multiple positions. Putting Lopez in the outfield just follows in that tradition.

Well, he does have a point about Ludwick. After showing last year that he could hurt right-handed pitching, and after getting off to a torrid start no matter what type of pitching he was facing, Ludwick did start in only about 75% of the games through July---that's 25-30 games that a guy with a more or less season-long 1.000 OPS didn't start, even though he's actually had a reverse platoon split the last couple years...

And Tony is just the type of guy to do something asinine to prove a point, no matter how misguided or insignificant it may be.

In many ways he's a great manager, but the fact that he and Bobby Knight are good friends is probably not just a coincidence. As much as I like to win, if I'm playing a game, I'd rather lose with class and dignity than win while being an a$$hole.

I didn't know the Riverfront Times still existed. I'd say the guy is basically correct. Adam Kennedy in RF, with Lopez at 2B early this week makes no sense at all, except that Tony is being obstinate for some reason.

Ludwick... reverse platoon split

Ordinarily I'd maintain that La Russa has been doing the right thing ignoring the reverse split for a right-handed batter, but he's got Izturis hitting leadoff again.

yeah, but Ludwick did have an OPS over .900 vs. RHP in 2007, in 200 plate appearances. That's not exactly a tiny sample size, and when he began 2008 even hotter than that, why not ride it out for a while?

For what it's worth, Ludwick's "reverse-split" in 2008 has him at a .967 OPS vs RHP in almost 400 plate appearances. And he's doing OK vs. lefties---he's over .900 OPS after his 3-run bomb vs. Randy Johnson tonight...

The line up may have been pulled out of a hat, but at least it is hitting today, including Ludwick's 35 HR, a 3-run shot off Randy Johnson.

yeah, but Ludwick did have an OPS over .900 vs. RHP in 2007, in 200 plate appearances. That's not exactly a tiny sample size

For RHB splits that is a tiny sample size.

Screw the Cardinals, screw the fans, screw the game.

Actually, the message tonight was more Screw Randy Johnson and screw the Diamondbacks.

Screw the Cardinals, screw the fans, screw the game.

Actually, the message tonight was more Screw Randy Johnson and screw the Diamondbacks.

I kind of almost called this over at DBBP

Link

He's trying to tell all of us that this is the sort of team that we can all look forward to seeing unless he gets what he wants.

I understand Larussa's plan, but why did he tell Schafer about it?

jeezus ####### christ, another retard with a website talking about TLR.... the greatest manager in the past 50 years in baseball, and clearly the only ####### manager with a small ego to manage the cardinals in the past 30 years.

I agree about the infielders in the outfield, but to pull it to the point of claiming sabotage? really, sabotage is having a self centered idiot flat out tell the team that one bad call in game 6 of a world series, which still required failure for another couple of plays, is proof that the league is out to get the team. then tanking game 7 of a world series. and the funny part is getting the average 85 inbred iq of st louis to believe that somehow you lost a world series because of one bad call, then following that up with tanking another world series by claiming a team is cheating with the air conditioner....serisously i'm not making this up, we lost the 87 world series because the twins '######' with the air conditioner. That is sabotage.


TLR isn't sabotaging the team, he is doing what he has to. I'm not a fan of the out of position players, but again our gm is so absorbed with refusing to trade anyone that he has a remote hand in acquring for the team, that it takes pretty drastic measures to send a message.... HEY ####### IDIOT.... Trade a god damn prospect for something. We have three near ml ready third baseman and no shortstops, second baseman, centerfielders(rasmus isn't yet ready) and yet the gm still refuses to make a move. We have 7+ outfielders, all hit from the right side, none of which is projected to be better than a 3rd/4th best outfielder on a major league team, but we'll keep them while sliding out of contention as our bullpen falters for lack of talent.

to blame tlr is assinine in a major way. this guys solution is to run Barton out there everyday.....282 .364 .415 106 seasonal numbers... not too shabby, when you consider that he is a sub par defender... for the record, Barton has shown zero ability to be better than Kennedy in the outfield.


god, I really love my home town idiots. they are so predictable.

1. everything bad to the cardinals is tlr's fault.

2.. see rule 1. regardless of evidence.

i'm reserving judgment until cardsfanboy pipes up. but those guys in the outfield is kind of frustrating, and izzy was given way too many opportunities. that's just my impression.

ok, my opinion.

1. issy was inconsistently healthy and hurt, they were attempting to judge him based upon healthy appearances and it took a while to make that decision on whether he could perform. (I'm willing to make a bet that next season Issy is a very productive setup guy and wins a closers job or will get 30+ saves next season from the get go.. when healthy he had bad luck, when not healthy he was poor)

2. we have a #### load of outfielders and most of them are injured, Barton is an idiot (yes I know he is 'smart') but on the bases and in the field he is an idiot, it's why Brendan Ryan isn't getting another chance while Kennedy keeps getting chances.

3. the season is over. sorry I thought I was the last to acknowledge this, Kennedy has demanded a trade, and to be honest he has zero trade value, playing him multiple positions could help us out there (mind you, if I'm the Cards gm, I tell kennedy---find me a team willing to take your contract for a bag of snickers and we have a deal) in trying to trade the massive gaping hole on the 40 man roster that is kennedy.

3. Izturis is on fire, don't bag on him.

4. Barton??? seriously, this article was written mostly because Barton wasn't getting playing time. Really? Barton? I mean I could see if it was you know, someone actually good, but we are talking a guy who will more than likely spend 100+ games in the minors next year, and will probably be out of baseball in five, because to but it bluntly, is somewhere around 7? 8? on the cardinals depth chart for outfielders... let me count. 1. ludwick, 2. ankiel, 3. Duncan(and yes Duncan is clearly a better player than Barton) 4. Schumaker, 5. Rasmus, 6. Out of position Josh Phelps, 7. Stavinoha 8. Jay ....seriously it's Barton we are talking about.

5. Lopez is auditioning for the starting second base job next season(see this season is over people, we need to know if it's worth keeping Lopez next season, afterall kennedy is demanding a trade and we know that he'll be in big demand.)

again, I love the low iq people that seem to think they, at some point in their life, will approach tlr in baseball intelligence bagging on him, especially when it comes to a ####### lost season (oh, sure if this was 1990, this idiot would be complaining that we didn't do enough for whitey...you know the only ####### manager in cardinals history to lead the team to a last place finish since the Cubs lost the world series to the red sox---look it up)

(oh, sure if this was 1990, this idiot would be complaining that we didn't do enough for whitey...you know the only ####### manager in cardinals history to lead the team to a last place finish since the Cubs lost the world series to the red sox---look it up)

Whitey managed 80 games that season. (He did manage more games than the other two managers -- though not more than they managed combined -- and his record was worse than either of them... barely, since Torre's winning percentage was .414 instead of Herzog's .413). No real point to make, but you told me to look it up and I did.

Christ. I dunno what's worse, this Schafer guy's crazy rant on TLR, or knowing that it would provide cardsfanboy with the excuse to go smugbugfukky for the eleventy-billionth time about how dreamy Tony is and how horrible Whitey Herzog was.

I think they deserve each other. But at least I don't have to see Schafer's crap in every ####### cardinals thread on the site. Advantage, Schafer.