Posts by stltickets:
Oh Wagner, what have we done?
September 23rd, 2009You may recall reading whiteyball blogger Michael Riehn’s posting of his top Cardinals prospects a few days ago. Below was his write up on number 5 prospect, Dominican native Wagner Mateo.
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Wagner Mateo
5. Wagner Mateo, International Signing, 3B/OF, 16: Picked by many scouting services as one of the top 3 international prospects in 2009, the Cardinals shelled out over 3.1 million dollars to sign the 16 year old Dominican prospect. He will have time and room to grow in the Cardinals system, but it will be a while before we see him in Cardinal red (or AA ball for that matter).
The ceiling for Mateo may be the highest in the organization, so many prospect gurus will have him rated higher, but he was born in 1993 so I believe you must temper your expectations. (See Shelby Miller and subtract 2 more years as to why this can be bad.)
Projections get more sketchy the farther out you go, but he has shown a nice ability to hit, with a compact left handed swing and is a scout’s 5 tool dream.
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Unfortunately for the Cardinals Wagner did not pass his physical and the Cardinals have voided his contract. There is speculation of a vision issue and another unknown ailment that caused the Cardinals to back out of the contract that was to pay Mateo a nice signing bonus of over $3 million. Could this money possibly go into the Holliday/Pujols funds. Nobody knows.
What I’m affraid of is the harm this could do to the Cardinals presence in the Dominican. They have a good set up with their new baseball academy in the Dominican and having Albert Pujols, but let’s hope the handling of the Mateo contract doesn’t hurt future relationships. International signings are more like college recruiting rather than professional drafts we are used to seeing in the US. Teams build their Internationals Baseball Academy’s in order to recruit the best talent and hope to strike gold with the next great baseball star. If Dominican baseball players look at the Cardinals voiding Mateo’s contract in a negative light, then this could cause future players to avoid the Cardinals academy.
I understand the Cardinals had to do what was right for their organization, but I hope the rest of the Dominican athletes feel the same way about how the Mateo situation was handled.
On a side note, tickets for the NLDS and NLCS went on sale today. I’ve purchased some tickets to sell and try to make a profit on to cover my own playoff ticket expense, so if you’re interested in any playoff tickets, post a reply and I’ll get you my inventory for the NLDS and NLCS. You’ll definitely save money over buying on stubhub or ebay.
All Star Game Excites, Cards Drop The Ball
July 15th, 2009I’m pretty exhausted after spending over 40 hours over the past 4 days attending All Star Game festivities, but wanted to get my message out about how disappointed I was in one thing.
I don’t know if health reasons or other unknow circumstances caused the Stan Musial tribute/ceremony to be unceramonious, but what was that.
Everything I heard leading up to the event was that the Cardinals were going to try and give Stan the Man the same recognition Ted Williams received in 1999 with a moving ceremony/tribute. That, in my opinion, did not even come close to happening.
During the All Star Game pregame ceremonies I was enjoying from the left field bleachers, I see the wagon gate open in right field and a piece of grounds crew equipment brings Musial out from the right field corner down the first base line. He stops and waves. They introduce the President, he comes out, shakes Musial’s hand and takes the ball from him to throw out the first pitch. After this, everything dies down. Musial does stop as Joe Torre comes out of the National League dugout to spend a couple of minutes with Stan, but then retreats to let Stan cart down the right field line again and out the right field wagon gate.
I know with Stan’s health, there probably wasn’t much on the field they could have done, but they didn’t even have a video tribute to not only one of the games finest players, but one of the finest baseball ambassadors ever known.
More to come on the rest of my All Star weekend experience, which overall was pretty amazing.
Matt Wilson
What to do? What to do?
July 1st, 2009What’s up with the Redbirds lately. The offense was expected to improve with the addition of DeRosa, but he has provided little spark since arriving on Sunday. I know it’s just 3 games into his tenure in St. Louis, but things aren’t off to a good start.
Wainwright really needs to step up tonight and outshine Matt Cain, which will not be an easy task. Wainwright has the ability, but hasn’t shown the consistency this year to be the stopper we are in need of. I know the pitching, both starting and bullpen haven’t been lights out lately, but you have to wonder what is going through the pitchers mind. If he gives up a run or two, the offense is not picking up the pitchers at all. And the offense revolves all around the outfield.
You are getting more than expected from Pujols. The man can’t hardly be any better than he has this year. Schumaker adn his .352 obp and Yadier Molina are giving you what you expected along with whatever you get out of the shortstop position, which you shouldn’t have expected much from. You have to hope that DeRosa will give you something from the 3B spot, because that has been lacking since hot starts in April by Thurston and Barden, which you knew wouldn’t hold up.
On the flip side, there is the outfield, or lack their of. Duncan, Ludwick, and Ankiel are all failing to meet expectations. Colby Rasmus has played well, but is very streaky, which is understandable from a yound player, but he shouldn’t be your most productive outfielder withe 3 other guys who have put up 20 plus homer seasons in the past. I think you just have to leave Ludwick in and hope he can get himself out of the funk, but with Duncan and Ankiel, I just don’t know what to do. For a power hitter, Duncan has one of the weakest swings I’ve seen, and Ankiel can only hit a fast ball or a hanging breaking pitch. Don’t throw one of those two pitches and he’s most likely down without a fight.
With the half way point of the season two games away, if we sweep the last two with the Giants to even the series, we’ll be 5 games over .500, which would equal out to 10 games over .500 for a record of 87-75. Not going to get you into the playoffs this year, so Redbirds, right the ship or possibly turn from buyers in the trade market to sellers in less than a month.
Matt Wilson
UCB Radio Hour Heating Up
June 19th, 2009If you didn’t catch the interview last Tuesday with Ozzie Smith by Daniel Shoptow, please go take a listen by clicking here. It’s worth your time. Not only did Daniel get the chance to interview one of his childhood heroes on Tuesday, next Tuesday 6/23, another UCB member will be interviewing a Cardinal hero from the past.
Mike Metzger from Stan Musial’s Stance will get a chance to interview Cardinal Hall of Famer Bruce Sutter. The interview should be at about 10:30 central time on Tuesday morning. Check it out by clicking here.
I know I haven’t been posting much lately. Busy work and busy life with 2 kids is taking up all of my time. I also have been trying to prepare for the 5k so I don’t completely get smoked by Dustin (Mr. 10 mile) or Michael (Mr. I work out 3 times a week). If anyone wants to join our www.whiteyball.com team for the All Star Game 5k run on Sunday morning July 12th, put a comment up for this post and I’ll shoot you an email invite to join team www.whiteyball.com for the All Star Game 5K.
UCB Progressive Game Log – 6th Inning
May 26th, 2009It’s the 6th innning of the May 23rd game against the Kansas City Royals and the Cards pitching is on fire. The staff was solid April and then really struggled in early May only to bounce back with performances that Tony LaRussa called the best stretch of starting pitching that he has ever seen. Those are big words from a manager with so many wins in his career.
The 5th inning was covered nicely over at Redbird Chatter. Game was flying by at this time. The Cards had a 3-0 lead, but with the way Kyle Lohse was pitching, it seemed like a 8-0 lead.
Lohse had the top of the lineup coming up in the top of the 6th. Crisp and DeJesus were quickly retired with groundouts to second and short respectively. In the third spot, Billy Butler, singled to left and Lohse hit Guillen with the pitch. This put men on first and second, but Lohse got Teahen to ground out to short to end the small threat.
With another scoreless inning, the Cardinals have not given up a run to the Royals yet in this series, and only given up a total of 3 runs in the last 5 games. What a stretch!
Duncan, Stavinoha, and Molina are scheduled to come up in the bottom of the sixth. Duncan has really been struggling lately so I didn’t expect much. Stavinoha already produced a 2 run single earlier in the game. You really haven’t seen any multi hit games from Stavinoha, even though he has come up with some big hits to drive in runs recently. Molina hasn’t been tearing the cover off the ball, but he’s still hitting around .280.
The inning went as I expected it to. Duncan struck out looking. Stavinoha grounded out to short. Molina singled to right and Brian Barden followed up by lining out to center fielder, and former Cardinals prospect, Coco Crisp.
Not much excitement in the sixth. Lohse is throwing well and the bats did almost as expected this inning. The Cardinals pitching staff is exciting Cards fans around the country. How many more innings or games can they keep this streak going. Hopefully many more, but you just never know in this game.
Head over to The Cardinal Virtue to check out their perspective on the 7th inning.
Matt Wilson
Ludwick out, Stavinoha up, www.whiteyball.com All Star 5K team set
May 13th, 2009
Nick Stavinoha (Photo by Dustin Mattison)
It appears Cards outfielder Ryan Ludwick strained his right hamstring while diving after a flyball to right center by Nyjer Morgan in last night’s game. Nyjer Morgan was already pesky enough and was driving me crazy leading off for Pittsburg and now he’s semi-responsible for injuring our best outfielder. Anybody think Nyjer Morgan should take one right in the rib cage when he leads off tonight? Hopefully the Cardinals can right the ship against the Pirates and try to win this series over the next couple days.
Stavinoha isn’t exactly raking in Memphis, but his .264 average, 4 homers, and 25 RBI’s is the best we have to bring up from Memphis. It’s amazing that we had a plethora of outfield depth back in spring training and now the Cards are scrambling to bring up Robinson and Stavinoha.
Joe Mather during BP, August 2007 (Photo by Dustin Mattison)
The outfield corp in Memphis has not been that strong so far this year. Besides Shane Robinson, who was batting .345 when called up to the big club last week, the remaining outfielders besides Stavinoha were all batting less than .230. Joe Mather is hitting .129 with no homers after 85 at bats so far this season. Where have you gone Joey Bombs? I wonder where the player that came up and looked like a legit Major League ballplayer last summer has gone. John Jay has cooled off considerably and is hitting under .250 and not getting on base nearly enough.
With the outfield not hitting, would bringing up David Freese and having a platoon situation between Freese, Thurston, and Barden at 3rd and 2nd be a good idea, while moving Skip back to the outfield till Ankiel gets back. Freese is starting to hit a little better in Memphis, which might be why they want to keep him down, but I just think having Robinson and Stavinoha on the team is having two players that should be your last pinch hitters on most nights.
Anyone think Jim Edmonds should be getting a phone call? Not likely to come back, but wouldn’t that be fun. I’d like to see how he and Tony would co-exist in the locker room or dugout.
On a side note, www.whiteyball.com has set up a team in the ALL STAR GAME 5K run that will be on Sunday July 12th. If you are interested in joining team www.whiteyball.com, just post a comment with your email address and I’ll send you an invitation via email to join team www.whiteyball.com.
ALL STAR CHARITY 5K presented by Sports Authority and Nike
Manny being Manny
May 7th, 2009
Manny Ramirez - Fox Sports Photo
Fox Sports is reporting that Manny Ramirez will be suspended 50 games for a positive PED test.
For all of those who thought Manny would look great batting behind Pujols in 2009, I’m sure glad that never materialized. I hope the Dodgers have a clause in the 1 year contract to cover something like this. A one year $25 million contract, and he will be suspended for about 1/3 of the season.
I wonder how this will affect the Dodgers, who currently sit with Major League Baseball’s best winning percentage. Only time, well 50 games, will tell.
Matt Wilson
Mizzou takes Wood Bat Classic at TR Hughes Ballpark
May 5th, 2009
TR Hughes Ballpark
On my first run since my knee surgery back in October, things were going as expected. After about 1 mile, I hit TR Hughes and noticed the game was going on. I went ahead and stopped in and Mizzou was up in the 7th inning by the score of 7-4. I watched Mizzou close out the victory over an overmatched Eastern Illinois squad from the Ohio Valley Conference.
I don’t know if it was the wood bats, but both squads seemed to have difficulty driving the ball. It was a cold night, so that might have had something to do with it as well. The thing that really caught my eye was the pitching both teams had in the last couple of innings. I watch many Frontier League games at TR Hughes, and each pitcher that trotted out to the mound for Mizzou or Eastern Illinois were throwing harder than the majority of Frontier League pitchers. They were all throwing gas. I wish I would have had my radar gun to see what the actual velocity was, but they all seemed to be hitting in the 90’s with their fastballs.
The one thing that really shocked me was the bad field conditions at TR Hughes. It’s been raining buckets, so you would think the field would be in great shape, but I guess the grounds crew is not working too hard at this time. Rascals start the season later this month and are hosting a celebrity softball game between former Cardinals and Blues players on Saturday May 9th. You would think they would want to have the field in better shape at this time.
The celebrity softball game should be fun and tickets are just $10 if purchased beforehand or $15 on the day of the game. The former players will be signing autographs before the game as well.
Heading to a bunch of baseball this week. I’ll be catching the Cards against the Phillies tonight and tomorrow and the Pirates on Thursday afternoon. Hopefully a good story will come from the experiences.
Matt Wilson
Out of the Loop
April 24th, 2009I’m out of the loop on posting, but I’m still in the loop on baseball.
I have a few big projects at work, that have made my work week around 60 hours a week lately, but I’m still keeping up.
Not posting, but keeping up with the Cards and checking in with my Frontier League connections. The Frontier Leaugue open tryouts are coming up soon. The Gateway Grizzlies have their open camp on Saturday. If you meet the Frontier League requirements, and want to try and make a professional baseball team, live your dream.
More Frontier League coverage to come as my work load dies down and the Frontier League kicks off Wednesday May 20th.
Look for more to come on Jacob Turner as well. I’m trying to work with the Westminster AD and coach, but I’m sure I’m the least of their worries with 30 scouts wanting info every other day.
Gotta love the baseball season, no matter how hectic it makes life!
Matt
Opening Day 2009
April 6th, 2009It’s finally here, 2009 Cardinals Opening Day.
I’ll be leaving work in about 5 minutes to head downtown with my son to the game.
Wish us luck. Well, wish us warmth.
My 2009 win loss prediction. Let’s check back in a few months on this.
2009 Cardinals – 94 wins – 68 losses
Prospect and Opening Day
April 5th, 2009Looking forward to pulling out the long johns and winter coat tomorrow for opening day. We’ve had some pretty nice weather over the past few weeks and now everything just turns. Even when it snowed in St. Louis last Saturday night/Sunday morning, the snow was melted by noon and it was 60 degrees by 3:00. Not tomorrow. Windy and a high of 39 is what I’ve seen. I’ll still be there, freezing my rear end off with my son. I don’t think my daughter is going to be able to make her first opening day. Hopefully she won’t be mad at me in the future.
The Cards looked good in their final tune up games against Memphis. The offense looked strong and the pitching was solid. It’s good to see Pineiro go seven innings. If we can get strong performances from our fifth starter, things will be good. I don’t know why, but I’m starting to have a good feeling about this club. If the club stays healthy, I think this team contends for the division and the wild card.
On the prospect front, Jacob Turner has looked good so far this spring. I’m trying to keep in contact with the Westminster AD and head coach to update this page to let you know when Turner will start. There’s really not much of a chance to see Turner drop to the Cards in the draft, but seeing this type of talent is always something fun to watch.
Jacob Turner is definitely king of the hill with Westminster Academy. Jacob started his season off in fine fashion down in Florida. Turner picked up the win, pitched 5 innings, striking out 14, walking none and didn’t allow a hit. Jacob took a loss, but had 4 errors behind him on 3/30. He pitched six innings, struck out 10 and walked only one.
Let’s hope that Turner continues to shine and becomes a top ten draft pick.
Let’s also hope that the weather is a little better than expect tomorrow and we have a nice opening day and the Cardinals can bring home a winner.
Catch Cards and Carp Today
March 29th, 2009Catch the Cards today at 12:00 on Fox Sports Midwest.
Chris Carpenter is scheduled to be on the mound today, weather permitting.
Matt Wilson
Don’t Call it a Comeback
March 28th, 2009Is it time for Steve Spagnuolo to take the Rams to the promise land? It seems like success is in the air for teams located in Missouri. All the major sport teams in the Missouri region are picking up steam and putting on a show for our state.
St. Louis Cardinals
St. Louis Blues
Missouri Tigers
So between the Cards successful spring, the Blues march towards the playoffs, and the Tigers electric elite 8 run, we are pretty lucky sports fans in the St. Louis region to once again have a meaningful March.
Flashback
March 25th, 2009
Japan Wins World Baseball Classic
While watching the recent World Baseball Classic, I couldn’t help but be reminded of some teams that led to this sites name. Whiteyball? Whiteyball is why I love the game of baseball so much today. Whiteyball is defined by urbandictionary.com as “baseball played by the St. Louis Cardinals and their manager Whitey Herzog. It was characterized by speedy base running, defensive fundamentals, a penchant for pinch hitting, a very intricate use of middle relievers and lack of power hitting. The team was built for speed instead of power because of the enormous size of the playing field at the old Busch Memorial stadium. The team won one World Series and three penants under Whitey Herzog. The team was always at the top of the statistics for stolen bases, earned run average, runs batted in and saves, but were at the bottom for home runs. The object was to manufacture runs by speed and sacrifices then hold the lead for their closing pitchers, Bruce Sutter or Todd Worrell.”. Japan’s performance in the World Baseball Classic reminded me of this style of play and made me question the current state of Major League Baseball. I know the USA roster for the WBC was not the best of the best, but it was a pretty darn good roster. The pitching didn’t hold up as most thought, but it was still an all star team of US talent. Is it possible that “whiteyball” can still win out over the “harvey wallbanger” style of baseball in 2009 as it did in 1982.
Major League Baseball has the greatest players in the world, but can those great players make the best team. The US has put out all star caliber lineups in both WBC’s and do not have a championship. The Japan teams continues to field a fundamentally sound, lightning quick ball club with a couple good starting pitchers and a phenomenal bullpen. Sound familiar?
Japan’s success in the WBC made me think about how small market teams could overhaul their rosters to try and be more successful. The players getting the big name contracts are the big boppers. If you can hit 40 homers every year, you are going to get $10 million per season. If you can steal 50 bases every year you probably will be looking for a place to play year after year (Juan Pierre and Willy Taveras). Could a major league club put together a fundamentally sound, speedy team to compete with the big mashers? I think a team could compete, but the pitching staff would have to hold up. Thinking back to some Cards teams in the 80’s, the starting pitchers were Joaquin Andujar, Bob Forsch, John Stuper, and Dave LaPoint in ‘82, Andujar, John Tudor, Forsch, and Danny Cox in ‘85, and Tudor, Forsch, Cox, Greg Mathews, and Joe Magrane in ‘87. I don’t know about you, but none of these pitchers were hall of famers. All of them had their best years of their careers in St. Louis. Was this due to the sensational defense behind them? Could a team today put out a ordinary pitching staff behind a great defense and be successful? Would an offensive created to manufacture runs, sustain enough offense to win 90 games? Would fans flock to the park to see a team play fundamentally sound defense, steal some bases and win baseball games 2-1, 3-2, or 4-3?
These are all questions that I thought about after watching Japan win the WBC with a team that in my mind was not too much different than the ‘82, ‘85, or ‘87 Cardinals. Let’s see if any clubs take a page from the Japan book on baseball and field a club that costs 1/4 of many current major league payrolls and competes on the field, just with a different style of play.
Matt Wilson
Photo from Yahoo Sports
Going to the Game
March 21st, 2009
Clydesdales On Opening Day
Opening day is just around the corner, and there is no better day of the year in my opinion. Busch Stadium will be back in full swing with over 40,000 visitors opening her back up for the new season.
Growing up in southeast Missouri it was always such a treat to go to a ballgame. We would only go to four or five games a year. Two or three of those would usually come during one weekend. It was always such a treat. Getting to the game an hour and a half early to try and get autographs along with watching everyone take batting practice. It was always such a highlight walking up to Busch Stadium to see what Ozzie or Willie might do that day. I was able to catch a few games on TV, but for the most part, going to a game was the only way to catch the entire game.
With every game being on TV now, I feel like the feeling of going to the game has changed for me. It’s so easy to watch a game at home and catch all the action. Going to a game, with the parking and walking and dealing with all the people can be tiring. I still love going to a game and taking my family. It seems like being a season ticket holder and attending as many games as I do has taken away some of the luster. I usually attend one Cards and Cubs game at Wrigley every year and never go in late and always stay through the last pitch. I think I enjoy going to this game so much every year because it reminds me of how I attended games as a kid. Going early and staying the entire time, completely glued to the action from innings one through 9.
It seems now as a season ticket holder, there are more and more times when I get to my seats in the middle of the first inning. Many games, especicially ones that are blowouts, I leave after the sixth or seventh inning. I know I have tickets either the next day or the next week and what’s the big deal in missing an inning here and there.
I’m kind of concerned of what I’m going to pass this along to my son and daughter. Will they take it for granted that we have season tickets and not appreciate the games? I hope I can keep things exciting enough so they think it is a treat to go to a baseball game, not just another form of entertainment.
I wonder if I give up my season tickets and just pick 5 games a year to go to, if that would make the experience more of a special occassion for me and my family so I don’t take for granted how lucky I am to be a Cardinal fan and a full season Cardinal ticket holder.
Matt Wilson
Pictures from Matt Wilson
View From My Seats In Section 595
New Addition
March 11th, 2009Is this article about that robust lefty Denny Reyes or could this blog have the inside scoop on a free agent signing or possible trade.
Well, neither.
I’ll be heading to the hospital with my wife at about 11:30 tonight, where she will be induced. We will welcome our second child, a daughter, to go along with our 4 year old son, at some point on Thursday. One more member to add to Cardinal Nation.
My family growing up consisted of me and my brother. Between the two of us and my father, we pretty much did what we wanted and mom came along for the ride. She came to the baseball games, basketball games and any other sporting event we attended. She got us to all of our practices and attended every single game we ever played and seemed to enjoy it. This is what I’m used to and really not much has changed in my world. My son and I go to sporting events and my wife comes along with us. I don’t think she really enjoys going to the games, but I think she enjoys spending time with us and sacrifices her happiness so my son and I can enjoy the games.
How is this going to change? A little girl is going to grace us with her presence Thursday afternoon, and I really don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t think I’ve been around a newborn baby girl in at least 5 or 6 years. I’ve never had a baby girl in my life for any extended period of time. How is this going to be different from when my son was born? What type of bond am I going to have with her? Am I going to be wrapped around her little finger the second she comes out? Will daddy’s big boy get different treatment than daddy’s little girl? These are all things that go through my mind and I obviously won’t have any answers until the time comes sometime on Thursday, March 12.
Here is what I do know. I know that I’m excited to welcome a new addition to our family. I know that I will love this little girl unconditionally. I know that nothing is more important to me than my family. And lastly, I know that my family tradition of going to opening day will increase from 3, which have participated since 2005, up to 4 participants on April 6, 2009. I know that Michael Riehn shared one of his most sacred tradition’s “A Catch” in a post late last week, and I hope that my tradition of spending opening day at Busch Stadium as a family will continue for as many years as it can with my wife, my son, my soon to be arriving daughter, and any future children we welcome into our family.
Matt Wilson
Tickets, Tickets, Tickets
March 8th, 2009
Busch Stadium Seating Chart
My second job is kicking off pretty slowly this year. The past two years, I’ve been able to go to every Cardinals game I’ve been to for free. Heck, I’ve even done well enough so that all the games my parents went to were free as well. This year, that task is going to be harder than ever.
There was no way I was giving up my season tickets this year. With the All Star Game in the STL later this summer, this is really the only way to get a half way affordable ticket to the game. Getting rid of or using all 81 games is going to be more difficult than past seasons. Selling some Cubs games for a profit along with a few Saturday dates will be no problems, but will these 15 games, bring enough profit to cover the costs of 66 other games. If you are going to buy a bleacher seat at Busch Stadium, you will pay $22 for most games, $27 for some Saturday’s and $32 for all Cubs games. I’ll be lucky to get $10 for any ticket that the Cardinals get $22 for. With all the season ticket holders and the ease of selling over the internet, getting Cardinals tickets at a great discount is easy. Here are some options if you are looking for discounted tickets this season.
You can always go through the Cardinals and buy some tickets. Here are the best deals I’ve found. The Pujols packs are the best deals I’ve seen from the Cardinals in many years. Pujols plan #7 has 10 games for the price of 5. For as low as $109 per ticket, you can get 10 outfield reserve tickets for select Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday games thoughout the season. The Cardinals have other Pujols plans that have 7 games for the price of 5. The Family Pack or Promotion Pack are also good deals if you enjoy getting some of the cool freebies like bobbleheads, figurines, calendars, and good kid items like a Ryan Ludwicks bat and the 4th annual Build a Bear giveaway. Pujols packs range from $109 to $709, depending on the section you go for. The Cards have also announced they will be having some half price nights and have $7 kids tickets for many games. This should make things a little easier for fans in these tough economic times.
If you want to get a better deal, you can always go through ebay.com, stubhub.com and craigslist.org. If you keep your eye on tickets, you can get to games for practically nothing. I’ve purchased tickets to weeknight games before for less than $5 through all three of these sights. I’ve also sold weeknight games for as low as $5. Ebay can have some good deals, so just watching the bidding and checking the shipping price are important. Season tickets holders can transfer their tickets via email for $2, so if they are charging much more to electronically transfer tickets via email, they are making a profit. Stubhub adds a 15% convenience fee plus about a $12 – $15 shipping fee, but you can still get a heck of a deal. For the third game of the year against the Pirates, you can get 4 upper deck tickets for around $32 total, including all fees. Much cheaper than the Cards box office price. The site craigslist is where you can sometimes find the best deals. It’s a little riskier however, because the listing is a classified and you really have nothing backing your purchase. I’ve sold hundreds of tickets on craigslist.org and have a good track record, but have heard the stories of people getting ripped off. I personally have not, but you just never know.
I know the Cards are worried about the attendance numbers this year and I know I’m worried about eating a lot of tickets. Hopefully the team gets off to a good start and the econonmy starts to turn the corner. This could be the first year I won’t make enough money selling tickets to cover the cost of the tickets. If I don’t, the All Star game experience will be worth whatever cash has to come out of my pocket to cover my 2009 ticket costs.
Busch Stadium Seating Chart – www.stlcardinals.com
Matt Wilson
Josh Kinney’s Long Road Traveled
February 28th, 2009
Josh Kinney - St. Louis Cardinals
So this leads us to Josh Kinney and his role on that team. His NLCS line was: 3 games, an ERA of 0.00, 1-0, 3.3 innings, 3 hits, 1 walk and 4 K’s. His World Series line was: 2 games, an ERA of 0.00, 0-0, 1 inning, no hits, 2 walks and a K.
His Regular Season line was:
Player W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
Josh Kinney 0-0 25 3.24 1.00 22 0
All numbers impressive for a reliever who was little known. Kinney attended a small Division II school, Quincy University. I’ve seen Quincy University play Webster University at GCS Ballpark in front of about 15 people, when I was working for the Gateway Grizzlies. Not a very big school, and not rich with Major League talent.
Kinney was undrafted out of college and signed with the River City Rascals of the independent Frontier League as a free agent in 2001. I don’t know how much people know about the live of an independent league baseball player, but here is a quick rundown. You get paid between $500 and $900 per month in the Frontier League, depending on your experience. This is only during the months you are playing. Affording housing on this salary, is almost impossible, so players are taken in by local members of the community where the team plays, and given a room or the basement. Players are given about $15 meal money per day they are on the road, but nothing when at home. Road trips are all by bus, and the trip between O’Fallon, MO and Washington, PA is about 600 mile over 9 hour drive. The teams usually take the left over hot dogs and pretzels and anything that can’t be re-served out to the clubhouse after a home game, which is usually the players dinner. I know Kinney wasn’t in this lifestyle for very long, but any amount of time couldn’t be that great of a lifestyle.
The Cardinals signed Kinney and he floated around in their farm system until mid summer 2006. That is when Kinney came in and pitched well and earned the spot on the post season roster, where he really shined.
Kinney injured his elbow in the spring of 2007 and had to have Tommy John surgery. A fractured elbow during his Tommy John rehab set him back even further and Kinney did not return to the Cards bullpen until September 2008. Kinney made only 7 appearances in 2008, but did not allow a run, struck out 8, walked one, and only gave up 3 hits. This small sampling does have me optimistic of Kinney returning to his 2006 success.
So far this spring, Kinney’s pitched a scoreless inning against the Mets, while walking 3 and striking out 2. Not great, with the three walks, but effective, not allowing any runs.
If things work out and the Cardinals can have a solid 7th inning combination of Kinney from the right side and Miller from the left side, followed by Franklin or Motte setting up Chris Perez, this bullpen reminds me of the 2006 World Series bullpen, that was one of the key components for winning the championship.
Josh Kinney photo – Yahoo Sports Player Page
Matt Wilson
Cards kickoff Grapefruit League action today
February 25th, 2009
Blake Hawksworth, St. Louis Cardinals
The Cardinals open exhibition play today against the Florida Marlins at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter at 12:05 p.m. CT. Blake Hawksworth will get the start and try to continue the success he had at the end of the 2008 season, posting a 2.89 ERA with 23 K’s and 11 walks in his last 5 starts. Hawksworth was the clubs number 1 rated prospect after the 2004 season. Let’s hope he can get off to a good start and maybe live up to the potential the Cardinals saw in him earlier this decade.
The Cards lineup will have Ludwick, Ankiel, and Rasmus covering the outfield, and outfielders Skip Schumaker manning second base, Joe Mather manning third base, and Chris Duncan as the DH. Excluding the DH, there is a real possibility this could be a likely lineup during the first month of the season. The think I like most about this is the defensive alignment in the outfield. You have three guys who can all cover ground and all have above average arms.
I’m excited about keeping an eye on the spring training activities and how all the question marks in the Cardinals camp playout.
I’ve become pretty addicted to the new MLB Network since coming onto Directv on January 1st. Some must see TV I have my Tivo set for is the 30 Clubs in 30 Days show on the Cardinals which will air for the first time on 2/26 at 7:00 pm CT. They usually replay the show 2 or 3 times as well. The network is also carrying spring training games and your first chance to watch the Cardinals will be on Friday 2/27 when they visit Port St. Lucie to take on the Mets.
30 Clubs in 30 Days - MLB Network
I received my season tickets on my door step yesterday and the return of baseball season is really starting to get to me. Let’s hope the Redbirds can stay healthy this spring and bring a solid squad to St. Louis in April.
If any readers are interested in tickets, I usually end having extra tickets that I sell for season ticket holder cost. I have full season tickets in section 595 of the bleachers and a 27 game weekend plan in section 509 of the bleachers. Just leave me a comment and I’ll add you to an email list that I send to when I have extra tickets available for sale.
Blake Hawksworth photo – stlcardinals.com
30 Clubs in 30 Days – mlb.com
Matt Wilson
St. Louis area spring baseball options in ‘09
February 22nd, 2009With the economy in the shape it is, finding baseball alternatives in 2009 might help out your budget this year. I know baseball is a very important part of my entertainment budget. I’m a Cardinal season ticket holder and try to get to as many games as possible. However, for me to go to a game, it’s usually going to set me back $35, minimum. This is just my ticket, transportation/parking, 1 beer, and something to eat. I’m not giving up my season tickets any time soon and will still get to about 15 games this year. That’s going to be a drop from the 20 – 30 I’ve attended at Busch Stadium the past 2 or 3 years. I’m going to get my baseball fix in 2009, and here are some of the other games I will be trying to attend in the St. Louis area.
With the Cardinals not getting to St. Louis until April 6th, there is a lot of other baseball taking place in the region. In less than 2 hours, you can get to Taylor Stadium in Columbia, MO to watch a top 25 college baseball team in the Mizzou Tigers. Mizzou is led by top college prospect Kyle Gibson. Gibson is a top 10 college prospect according to most sources. There are other options for baseball in the St. Louis area that don’t include a trip to Columbia, MO. You can catch Mizzou in the St. Louis area a couple of times this spring.
Kyle Gibson - Mizzou Pitcher
One of the best places to catch baseball this spring is at GCS Ballpark, the home of the Gateway Grizzlies, in Sauget, IL. The Grizzlies have posted their extra events schedule on their website. Games start on February 28th with a college baseball tournament hosted by Webster University. Webster University plays many of their home games at GCS Ballpark, but the stadium also will host collegiate games between Saint Louis University and SIU-Edwardsville, University of Indianapolis and SIU-Edwardsville, and the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament. Not only does GCS host all these college games, they have 22 high school games, including many border war contests with Illinois high school teams matching up against Missouri high school teams. The great thing about these games is that the max cost of attending is only $5 and many are free.
The schedules for local colleges are loaded this spring, so catching a good game in your area won’t be to difficult.
Missouri Tigers
Saint Louis University
Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville
Southeast Missouri State University
SEMO actually just defeated the 16th ranked Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday. You can catch some good baseball all over the area this spring.
One more game you may may want to catch would be a Westminster Christian Academy game started by high school pitching phenon Jacob Turner. Turner is projecting to be a top ten pick in this years amateur baseball draft. I’ll try and keep this site updated with dates he will be pitching this spring.
Jacob Turner - Westminster Academy
I was going to include the Gateway Grizzlies and River City Rascals as other St. Louis area baseball options, but I’ll save these for another post. The Grizzlies and Rascals don’t kick off their Frontier League season’s until late May. I’ll have a full Frontier League preview in a few weeks.
Until then, go out an enjoy some good baseball this spring, while we wait for the Cardinals to leave Jupiter and head back to St. Louis.
Matt Wilson
Kyle Gibson Photo – Baseball America Top Prospecs
Jacob Turner Photo – AFLAC All America Team
