Oct 14th 2008 5:30PM by Matt Watson (author feed)
Believe it or not, Albert Pujols played all season with a bum elbow — considering he hit .357 with a 190 OPS+ while playing hurt, it’s a little scary to think about what he would have done completely healthy.

There were rumors that he’d ultimately require Tommy John surgery (which isn’t quite as scary for non-pitchers but is still a major operation) but he dodged that bullet during an operation on Monday. Instead of replacing his injured ligament, he underwent an operation to simply move a nerve that was being irritated. From Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
“I would not describe it as a big-deal procedure,” Paletta said during a teleconference Monday.

The procedure transferred the ulnar nerve from a groove running along the inside of Pujols’ elbow to in front of the joint’s bony prominence. Paletta called the nerve “clearly irritated and inflamed.” Before surgery, the nerve popped from its groove whenever Pujols tried to straighten the elbow, according to Paletta. The condition caused tingling and numbness in Pujols’ right pinky and ring finger.
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Sep 23rd 2008 9:01PM by Pat Lackey (author feed)
It’s always a little sad to watch a great pitcher struggle with arm troubles. That means that Chris Carpenter’s career has been a Shakespearean tragedy. He’s missed major amounts of time with arm trouble and just when he seemed to be hitting his stride after a Cy Young Award in 2005 and a solid year in 2006, he needed Tommy John surgery and the complications forced him to miss all of 2007 and almost all of 2008. Now, things appear to be even worse.

Further examination into his arm after his slow recovery from the TJ has shown that there is scarring on the nerves in his right shoulder and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says a source close to the pitcher calls it “a big deal,” acknowledging that he might not ever pitch again. Currently, doctors are debating a way to alleviate the pain that the scarring is causing, possibly by surgery.

The root of the nerve problem here is also what caused Carpenter’s problems in 2004 and it seems to be a fairly unique condition. No one’s saying anything yet about Carp’s future, but surgery’s no bet to alleviate the problem and even if it does, he’d have a long road back to rehab from yet another arm surgery.

Sep 19th 2008 6:26PM by Matt Watson (author feed)
Adam Kennedy isn’t happy. He’s about to enter the final year of his contract, but considering he’s lost his starting job and doubts he’ll have a chance to earn it back, he’s getting a little nervous about the rest of his career. He took those concerns to Tony La Russa this week and asked for a trade. From the :
Kennedy said he recently approached La Russa regarding his status and was told by the manager that he no longer rated regular playing time. Kennedy emphasized that he appreciated La Russa’s honesty but believes it wrong to hold his career hostage.

“I think if anything, I know how he feels about me,” Kennedy said. “We sat down and he told me, ‘I’m honestly not going to play you because [Felipe Lopez] can do the job better.’ He’s been truthful with me. He hasn’t lied to me. I respect him for it. I think our relationship is pretty good. Like I said, he makes the moves.”
Now, some players would be content to leave it at that and then go sulk in the corner, but not Kennedy. Given a rare start in right field this afternoon, he put an exclamation mark on his request by blasting a grand slam in the first inning, ultimately finishing the game batting 4-for-5 with five RBI. If he hit like this all the time he wouldn’t be in the position he is now, but seriously, his timing is impeccable.

Sep 16th 2008 1:00PM by Matt Snyder (author feed)

We’ve been discussing the MVP award frequently here at FanHouse recently … like what the definition should actually be, and someone tried to push Aramis Ramirez as a candidate before he joined the rest of his teammates in a slump and removed himself from contention.

Some good points were made, and we’ve even discussed a MOP (Most Outstanding Player) award as an alternative, which would just be given to the best player. My immediate thought was that Albert Pujols would win the NL MOP every single year. I digressed into the thought that MVP voting is never consistent because people like variety. Sure, Barry Bonds won a ton, but it would have been outlandish to give some of his to other people. The BBWAA actually did hand one to Jeff Kent that Bonds deserved, so even then they craved change. It would appear the same thing is happening this year with Pujols. Again. Can you believe he only has one MVP?Continue Reading

Sep 16th 2008 6:32PM by Matt Watson (author feed)
The Cardinals lead the majors with 30 blown saves and have had to rely on no fewer than eight different pitchers to close out a game. Needless to say, it’s not hard to see why they’re rumored to have interest in free-agent-to-be Francisco Rodriguez. Sure, K-Rod would be expensive, but the Cards will have an extra $8.5 million to re-invest into their bullpen, thanks to Jason Isringhausen’s expiring contract.

But do the Cardinals need to spend big to find stability? Maybe not. Rookie Chris Perez has quietly excelled in the closer role since taking over in August, saving seven games and allowing four earned runs in 16 innings (2.25 ERA). Plus, he has the prototypical power arm you like to see in the ninth inning with a strikeout rate (8.87 K/9) that ranks second on the team among pitchers with more the five innings.

So what’s the hold up? As effective as Perez’s fastball is, they want to see more polish on the rest of his pitches. From the :
They believe his slider needs to be more reliable. He has dusted off his curve to give himself a third, slower pitch. Overall improvement of his command is needed, coaches said. But if the Cardinals consider him close to ready, it would mean not delving into the pricey free-agent closer market.

“Going into spring, hopefully I’m considered for that spot (the closer),” Perez said. “That will drive me all offseason.”
Perez still needs work, but he’s close enough not to spend $15 million a year (or more) paying K-Rod. For that price, the Cards could sign a couple of relievers to fortify the rest of the bullpen and still have enough left over to replace the blackhole at short that is Cesar Izturis.

Sep 11th 2008 11:59AM by Eamonn Brennan (author feed)
In 2007, Ted Lilly was surprisingly effective. In 2008, Lilly is a bit more what the Cubs expected when they signed him — a pretty mediocre third-wheel lefty that can eat innings and occasionally throw a lights-out effort. The unexpected part happened last night, as you’ll see below:

Yes, that was Ted Lilly. Yes, that was Yadier Molina. Yes, that was Ted Lilly sending Yadier Molina to la-la-land with the mere shrug of one much-stronger-than-it-looks left shoulder. Where has Lilly been hiding this athleticism? Or are we to assume that Yadier Molina is actually that weak?

The mind boggles.

(HT: The Sporting Blog)

Sep 9th 2008 12:31PM by Pat Lackey (author feed)
A quick glance at Albert Pujols’ stats makes it easy to forget he’s been playing hurt all year. His .369/.466/.649 is a big improvement on his “down” year last year and it’s given him a career high OPS+ of 191 to date. The fact that he’s got an tear in his ulnar collateral ligament seems like an afterthought with numbers like that. Still, it’s there and Pujols is considering off-season surgery to fix the problem.
“I’m thinking about it; I’m thinking really hard,” the first baseman told the local station. “There’s just a lot of things next year going on, the All-Star Game (in St. Louis), the (World Baseball) Classic, you know. But I think in the long run the sooner that I get it done the better it’s going to be for me because I’m going to heal quicker than if I wait two or three more years. But it needs to be done.”
The Post-Dispatch is careful not to say this, but reconstructive surgery on a torn ulnar collateral ligament is Tommy John surgery. Since he’s a first baseman, he likely wouldn’t miss the full year that the surgery costs pitchers, but he’d almost certainly miss some significant time at the beginning of next season if he has the procedure. Indications in the article are that there’s going to be a bit of a fight over this. The team doesn’t think surgery’s necessary but Pujols seems to be pretty serious about it. Teams fighting stars … that never goes well.

Sep 8th 2008 7:05PM by Pat Lackey (author feed)
Mark McGwire hasn’t played baseball since 2001, when he could only muster a .187 batting average before his bad legs gave out. Since then, he’s become quite the pariah in baseball for his refusal to talk about “the past,” and he’s disappeared from the limelight. Now, with the tenth anniversary of his breaking of Roger Maris’s record coming today, he’s been talking about the past quite a bit in St. Louis. While talking about the anniversary with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch today, though, he did some talking about the future:
Today, McGwire says, he works out twice a day and still weighs 245 pounds. “I can still hit, if somebody wants me,” he said. “Now, wouldn’t that be a shocker?”
He’s probably kidding. I mean, he’s got to be kidding. He’ll be 45 on October 1st and he hasn’t played competitive ball in eight years. A comeback would probably be disastrous for him. Then again … can you imagine the rage from Barry Bonds if someone signed Mark McGwire but not him? It’d almost be worth it just to see that.

Naaah. It’s not going to happen. If you read that article, Mac comes off as way to normal and well-adjusted to want to put himself through the public wringer that would come from his return to baseball. It’s still fun to think about, though.

Sep 6th 2008 1:57PM by Tom Fornelli (author feed)
Just not anything in the past we care to talk about.

Mark McGwire has basically kept himself out of the limelight ever since leaving baseball in 2001, with his infamous appearance at the Congressional hearings on steroids being the lone exception. Well this coming Monday will be the ten year anniversary of the night that Big Mac hit his 62nd home run of the 1998 season, and broke Roger Maris’ longstanding home run record.

So, with that in mind, the man who wasn’t here to talk about the past talked about the past with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.”That day, Sept. 8,” he said, “I had a real calmness about me. It was a very eerie feeling that I didn’t ever experience again or hadn’t experienced before. I remember driving to the ballpark and, even with all the hoopla going on, it probably was the only day I felt so peaceful. It was a premonition that ‘tonight is going to be the night.’

“The whole year was so spiritual, so universal, with so many things that happened,” he said. “I don’t know if people believe this stuff, but I think that when the stars are aligned right, things happen.Continue Reading

Sep 6th 2008 8:10PM by B (author feed)
A week away has sent us into the past. Unfortunately, we are not employed by FanHouse to talk about the past. Well, Mark McGwire is ready to talk about the past, so the least we could do is the first true sequel to a pre-FanHouse Dugout from the past where we talked about talking about the future.

Prerequisite reading from 2006:
Mark McGwire Is Here To Talk About The Future

And I don’t want to talk about the past, but if you were waiting for the mystical protectorate of baseball’s innocence to show up for real and full time, well… you’ll be happy enough with the first block of this strip.

Part 1 of tonight’s Dugout is after the jump. Part 2 will follow shortly.Continue Reading