How Cardinals Hit The Jackpot With Kyle Lohse

Forced into action out of desperation, the Cardinals went looking for a starting pitcher three weeks before the opening of the 2008 season and, in a stroke of good luck, found someone who would become the staff ace.

RetroSimba

Cardinals Counted On Matt Clement To Start For Them

Though he hadn’t pitched in the major leagues since having shoulder surgery, the Cardinals signed Matt Clement with the expectation he would be on their Opening Day roster and ready to contribute as part of their 2008 starting rotation.

RetroSimba

Michael Wacha Reports To Florida 'Ready To Go'

In springs past, Cardinals veteran pitchers coming back from injury became so tired of fielding the constant questions about their strength, their recovery, and their feelings that Chris Carpenter suggested he would post his answer at his locker for reporters to read.

Cardinal Beat

Red Sox Ace May Come From Up Sleeve

Here’s the thing about No. 1 starters: Most of them weren’t always No. 1 starters.

Boston Herald

Cardinals-Cubs Rivalry In Need Of Shot In The Arm...From Chicago

I can remember a Cubs-Cards matchup that happened early in September 2003. It was beautiful day for an afternoon game at Wrigley Field, and an airtight playoff race coupled with the fact that it was the last of a five-game series had caused tension to rise to monumental proportions.

KSDK

Inside The Tony LaRussa-Dusty Baker Rivalry

The big numbers — and the little ones — speak to Cardinals manager Tony La Russa's success as a major-league manager.

STL Today

Probablistic Model Steals, Pitchers

Last week I introduced the idea of a Probabilistic Model of Steals. In that post, I looked at how the stage of the game, represented by the inning, changed the probability of attempting a steal, and the success rate on those attempts. Subsequent posts examined outs, the score difference and the combination of all three. This posts looks at running against pitchers, comparing actual stolen base attempts against the expected number of attempts based on the model.

Baseball Musings

Rich Hill: Pitching With Conviction

A believer in the "big power in positive thinking" with an appetite for self-help books, lefthanded pitcher Rich Hill conceded even he had to prepare for the worst going into surgery last fall.

STL Today

The Most Important Stat Of Spring

Leaving the ballpark Thursday, hours after the first official workout of spring training, St. Louis Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak revealed the most important statistic so far of camp for his club: Zero.

Birdland

Pitchers & Catchers & Reporting

Now it's time to read the tea leaves, although I doubt the newspapers would appreciate you calling them that. What does Derrick Goold know that we don't? (N.B.: An A paper will parse this for tense, name location, and Dave Duncan's use of the em-dash.)

Viva El Birdos

Back From Injury, Rich Hill Has "Life To His Arm"

Two years ago, during one of the early and unofficial workouts, St. Louis Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan saw the early signs of what became a lost season for a new pitcher who was trying to come back from injury. Matt Clement had difficulty getting loose and when he did his arm didn’t have what Duncan would later describe as “life”.

Cardinal Beat

What Can We Expect From Rich Hill?

The news is a bit old now, but the Cardinals have given former Chicago Cub and Baltimore Oriole Rich Hill a minor-league contract that carries a non-roster invitation to their big-league training camp.

Pitchers Hit Eighth

Rich Hill, Cardinals, Cubs...

The Rich Hill signing: why not? This amounts to a low-cost (almost no-cost) look at a lefty starting pitcher who had success as recently as 2007 before experiencing control issues and shoulder problems.

Bernie's Five Minutes

Knuckelballer Charlie Zink Inks With Cardinals

The Cardinals have added some depth to their Minor League rotation with an intriguing signing. Knuckleballing right-hander Charlie Zink has agreed to a Minor League deal with St. Louis.
Cardinals Official Site

St. Louis Cardinals add Triple-A depth by signing 30-year-old knuckleballer Charlie Zink to a minor league deal for 2010.
The Cardinal Nation

Matt Holliday's Mystery Suitor: Baltimore Orioles

Nothing says Lukewarm Stove season like a rebuilding team making bids on the biggest remaining free agent contract of the offseason. I don't want to start doubting Scott Boras now, because he's given me no reason to in the past, but if the Orioles are being floated as the other team this late in the game—well, the Yankees and Mets are presumably way under the radar on this one.

Viva El Birdos

Market For Matt Holliday Diminishes Somewhat

The Cardinals' prime free-agent target this winter, outfielder Matt Holliday, was able to begin talking contract with all 30 clubs late Thursday night, and yet two of the teams expected to court Holliday talked only about how they wouldn't.

STL Today

Path To The Pros: Adam Dunn

It was a towering, 400-foot home run in the summer of 2001 that, appropriately, introduced Adam Dunn to much of the baseball world.

MiLB

Cardinals Must Show They Are Committed To Winning In Order To Keep Albert Pujols

“I think the big thing for the Cardinals is they have to convince Albert to do the deal and also convince him that they’ll continue to do things to win championships by going after top players like Matt Holliday who can help them achieve that,’’ said the official.

Boston Globe

10 Year Veterans In Search Of Their First World Series Ring

The Sully Baseball “Who Might Get A Ring” obsession continues with a look at which veterans have a shot at a ring after 10+ seasons.

Sully Baseball

DG's 10@10: The People's Team

It was only last year, barely more than 13 months ago, that the St. Louis Cardinals were changing Mark Mulder’s arm slot and still waiting to see if Matt Clement could pitch his way to the majors. General manager John Mozeliak called Clement “a lottery ticket”, and really the description applied to Mulder as well.

Birdland