St. Louis Cardinals Fan Blog

Albert Pujols scratched from lineup

GameSetMatch — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:55:22 +0000

St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols did not make the cross-state trip for Monday’s game against the Boston Red Sox because of discomfort in his lower back.

The three-time National League MVP did not play Sunday against the Florida Marlins — a scheduled day off — and is not expected to play against the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday, a game also being played in Fort Myers.

“We’ll definitely give him tomorrow,” said Cardinals manager Tony La Russa. “Even if we were home, I don’t think he’d play. We’ll see how he feels on Wednesday.”

Pujols first experienced discomfort in his back on Sunday. Joe Mather will take his place at first base against the Red Sox.

Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com

Selig agonized over McGwire news

GameSetMatch — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:00:39 +0000

Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig admitted at baseball’s quarterly meetings that he agonized over the statement he put out in reference to Mark McGwire’s admission that he took steroids during a good portion of his career.

Selig was unwilling to take his commissioner hat off and give his reaction to McGwire’s statement as a baseball fan.

“Look, I am the commissioner,” Selig said. “My public statement, which I wrote over and over and over, says exactly how I feel on the matter. I just don’t want to add to that. I painstakingly went over it. I went over and over it while I watched the Packers game Sunday night. They gave up so many points and scored so many that I had about five hours to re-write it about 100 times.”

Selig said he found out McGwire was going to speak up about his steroid use before the public did.

“I knew beforehand, but not much,” he said. “I’ve talked a lot about it to [St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa] and [Cardinals owner] Bill DeWitt. We’ve talked about it since they made him their hitting coach.”

Click here to read the full article – By Bruce Levine of ESPNChicago.com

Cards say Bay is not priority

GameSetMatch — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:43:28 +0000

The Cardinals see left fielder Matt Holliday as a unique talent within this year’s free agent pool, and they apparently do not envision themselves as bidders for the market’s presumptive second choice should Holliday defect.

General manager John Mozeliak confirmed Tuesday that the Cardinals’ priority signing would shift away from offense if Holliday proves too pricey for the club to retain.

“We’ll see how the market develops,” Mozeliak said. “Is (Jason Bay) a possibility? Sure. But right now it’s fair to say he’s not one of our top priorities.”

The Cardinals have yet to submit a formal bid to Holliday’s agent, Scott Boras, and are unlikely to do so until free agents can begin accepting bids from all clubs on Saturday. The Cardinals continue to view Holliday as their offseason priority but have also constructed alternatives with starting pitching, not hitting, as a centerpiece.

Click here to read the full article – By Joe Strauss of ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

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2009 Cardinals are a lot like ‘06 world champs

GameSetMatch — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:56:03 +0000

OK, EVERYBODY. TAKE a deep breath. Count to three. Find your happy place. And quit worrying, if only for a minute, about the St. Louis Cardinals’ slip-and-slide slouch toward this postseason. Sure, the Cards were 4-9 the last two weeks of the regular season, giving us pause as they jetted off for their playoff visit to Los Angeles tonight.

Guess what? In 2006, when the Cards were about to win a World Series, their record the last two weeks of the regular season was … wait for it … 4-10. Think about that: 4-9 on the eve of the playoffs this year, 4-10 on the eve of a Series win three years ago.

The last month of this season, the Cards went 14-16. The last month three years ago, the eventual Series champs went 12-17.

And then they went 11-5 in the ‘06 postseason, winning the division series in four games with San Diego, the NLCS in seven games against the New York Mets, and the Series in five games with Detroit.

Click here to read the full article – By of bnd.com

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Glaus returns, but at-bats likely sparse

GameSetMatch — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:48:57 +0000

Troy Glaus rejoined the Cardinals on Tuesday and pronounced himself ready to play, but exactly how much he’ll get to play is in question.

Glaus, who has dealt with one injury after another this year, was most recently sidelined with pain in his left oblique. He was not with the team on the first two stops of its current three-city road trip, instead staying in St. Louis to get treatment. He made improvement, though, so he caught up with his teammates at Great American Ball Park.

“I’ve been hitting for six days,” he said. “Taking grounders, throwing, doing everything.”

Click here to read the full article – By Matthew Leach of MLB.com

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Cards appear built for deep playoff run

GameSetMatch — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:39:50 +0000

Baseball’s two seasons present dramatically different tests for a team. The six-month, every-day regular-season push reveals a club’s depth, requiring clubs to get something from all 25 roster spots. The playoffs, meanwhile, reward something different entirely. The first 10-15 places on the roster become magnified: the front of the rotation, the everyday lineup and the back of the bullpen.

La Russa, like many, tends to look at starting pitching first when assessing his ballclub or another. In that area, no team in the National League is stronger than St. Louis, and the advantage becomes even more pronounced in a short series. The Cardinals rank second in the NL in starters’ ERA, and that likely does the team a disservice, since it did without Chris Carpenter for a stretch early in the year and without Kyle Lohse for two stints.

Click here to read the full article – By Matthew Leach of MLB.com

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With two homers, Pujols continues to roll

GameSetMatch — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:30:51 +0000

Baseball’s signature player may be putting together his signature season. Albert Pujols is doing things that even he has never done before, and he did it again on Wednesday. Pujols’ two home runs paced the Cardinals in a 5-1 win over the Brewers at Miller Park. It was the Cards’ 31st win in 40 games, trimming their magic number for winning the National League Central to 12.

And while it’s been a memorable season for the Cardinals as a team, it’s been a defining one for Pujols, even by his own staggeringly high standards. His two long balls on Wednesday were his 46th and 47th of the season, pulling him within two of his career high. He now has 124 RBIs, 13 away from a personal best, and his .698 slugging percentage is higher than he’s managed in any previous season. All with more than three weeks to play.

Click here to read the full article – By Matthew Leach of MLB.com

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Pujols big favorite among award hopefuls

GameSetMatch — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:48:03 +0000

Give Albert Pujols the National League MVP Award immediately. There’s no need to delay. Let him cherish the award the last month of the season as his St. Louis Cardinals breeze to another Central Division title.

Pujols is so far ahead of other pretenders for the MVP the baseball writers should call it a TKO and get on with the other awards. That’s what I’m doing.

Seriously, the way the Cardinals and Pujols are performing it would take one of the biggest collapses in baseball history for Albert not to win his third MVP. He won it in 2005 and 2008. He and Hall of Famer Stan Musial are the only Cardinals to win the MVP Award more than once. And don’t forget, Pujols is just 29.

Click here to read the full article – By Hal Bodley of MLB.com

St. Louis Cardinals Sports Memorabilia
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Below are links to memorabilia available for Albert Pujols.


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Smoltz to start for Cards on Friday

GameSetMatch — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:53:07 +0000

The Cardinals’ rotation for this weekend’s series against the Nationals became clear on Wednesday when manager Tony La Russa confirmed that rookie Mitchell Boggs would make a start.

La Russa had said that Boggs would make a start on either Friday or Saturday depending on how veteran right-hander John Smoltz felt after a Tuesday bullpen session. The former Cy Young Award winner said everything was fine and he was taking the ball on Friday night.

Smoltz starting on Friday means that Boggs will take the hill on Saturday. The young righty threw a bullpen session on Wednesday afternoon, putting him on track to start Saturday after the typical two days of rest between a bullpen session and start.

Click here to read the full article – By B.J. Rains of MLB.com

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GameSetMatch — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:45:11 +0000

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