The Cardinal Way- Crops, Clydesdales and Championships

[royals19]

Spoiler

[royals19]

Quote: Originally Posted by Willie Singleton

Now look Johnny, I love this Romo kid as much as the next guy but I'm telling you that Herrera is who we need to pick at #19, the dude is 6'5, 198 with A+ potential. The kid is also from the northeast and word on the block is not a lot of teams are in on him. Look fellas, we might be sitting on the next Mike Trout here...

Suddenly, Willie's weekly meeting with his scouts were interrupted by his secretary.

Quote: Originally Posted by Helen

Mr. Singleton, Mr. Mozeliak needs to speak with you; he says that it's urgent.

Quote: Originally Posted by Willie

Excuse me gentlemen, I'll be right back.

Willie walked out the door and went right down the hallway towards the GM's office and was ushered in by Helen.

Quote: Originally Posted by Willie

You wanted to see me John?

Quote: Originally Posted by John

We just got word from the trainers, Carlos went down with a shoulder tear on our last road trip. I need to replace him quick, what names you got?

John pulled out a legal pad and a pen and started writing down the names of the players.

Quote: Originally Posted by Willie

Taveras isn't ready yet, we need to see his power translate to the AAA level but as far as names go I like Chambers, Romak, Gotay... that's all that we really have that could even come close to replacing Beltran's defense; it's a given we can't replace his bat.

Quote: Originally Posted by John

Alright, so here's what we'll do, we'' put Jay in right, play Chambers in Center and call up Romak to come off the bench. What's Romak hitting right now?

Quote: Originally Posted by Willie

Romak's got 13 or 14 dingers with a .380 average down in Memphis his OBP is sitting at .464 if I remember correctly.

John picked up his phone and called down to manager Mike Matheny.

Quote: Originally Posted by John

Mike, this is John. I got you your Beltran replacement. We're calling up Jamie Romak to come off the bench. I want you to play Jay in right and put Chambers in Center. If Chambers can't get it done move Jay to Center and put Romak in right. Oh yeah, and I got you a new Shortstop.

John puts his hand over the phone and whispers to Willie:

Quote: Originally Posted by John

Ruben Gotay plays short down in AA right?

Willie shakes his head yes.

Quote: Originally Posted by John

Alright, we're sending Petey to AAA and calling up Ruben Gotay to play short. Let me tell you, this kid is a great defender at short. Start Descalso and if he can't handle it put in Gotay. Uhh... No Mike, I'm just telling you who I think you should play... Yes, I no it's your lineup... Yes I understand we're trying to win games... Alright.

John hung up the phone and turned to Willie

Quote: Originally Posted by John

Alright, I've got to go talk to the scouts and talk to the groundskeeper about our pre-draft workout coming up. Go tell me Petey he's going to Memphis.

John patted Willie on the shoulder as he walked out... Willie had never sent a player down before... He was the scouting director for crying out loud!

[royals19]

May 19th 2013
Cardinals Clubhouse

Quote: Originally Posted by Pete Kozma

So your cutting me? After all I've done for this ball club your cutting me!?

Quote: Originally Posted by Willie Singleton

Uhh... No, we're just sending you back to AAA Pete.

Kozma sat back in his chair extremely frustrated

Quote: Originally Posted by Pete Kozma

After all I've done for this club... Leading them through October last year... playing Short when there wasn't a shortstop... This is how I get repaid.

Quote: Originally Posted by Willie Singleton

Look Pete, I don't like it either. I tried to go to bat for you but I'm sure this isn't personnel. After losing Carlos things are looking mighty bleak... we need to mix things up and Pete... to be honest, you just weren't cutting it.

Quote: Originally Posted by Pete Kozma

Alright, I understand... What am I supposed to work on down in Memphis?

Quote: Originally Posted by Willie Singleton

Pete you gotta work on getting on base man. A .305 OBP isn't going to cut it up here man.

Willie handed Pete a manila folder.

Quote: Originally Posted by Willie Singleton

Alright Pete, there's your plan ticket and corresponding paper work... Good Luck

And with that, Willie walked out of the clubhouse remarking about how easy that was... "Looks like I ain't in Boston any more." He thought.

[royals19]

So while the front office scurries around trying to find ways to patch up the team and get it back into the divisional race, we go down to field where the Cardinals are desperately trying to right the ship behind rookie Shelby Miller.

And in a crucial series... things started off awful... as usual.



Troy Tulowitzski hit a sharp groundball to Allen Craig. It should've been a routine play... a simple flip from the 1st baseman to the pitcher. Something we work on countless times during PFP sessions in Spring Training...

But this time, Craig throws the dang ball over Shelby Miller... in effect making in turn a not routine play.

From here, it was all down hill.



Chacin shut us down and made us look like absolute fools in 5-0 route of your St. Louis Cardinals. I was flabbergasted at the end of the game, Chacin would hit us with the curve then throw 96 and then finish us off with a cool 86 MPH change up.

The real kicker was that he allowed only 3 hits and no walks in 6.1 innings of work. I was left scratching my head wondering why he exited so early but I was glad to see him go in hopes that we could get something started.

But no, we couldn't get anything started and they started to pour on... Behind CarGo



A monster dinger accompanied by a monster bat flip drew the ire of many Cardinals... suffice to say, CarGo is in for a nasty surprise next time we go toe to toe with Colorado.

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May 23rd
Conference Room 2

Willie sat in Conference Room 2, hosting the weekly meeting with his scouts about the various prospects that they had seen within the week. With the Draft coming up within 3 or 4 weeks, scouting was starting to pick up as teams put their draft boards together.

Quote: Originally Posted by Willie Singleton

I think we really need to hit Left Handed pitching hard this next week. We've got Gast, Gonzalez and Kaminsky as internal options but Gast is likely a bullpen guy and Gonzalez and Kaminsky are 2 or 3 years away at least. I say we try to find that high impact lefty that can fly through the system.

Quote: Originally Posted by John Santana

Are we talkin' High School, Junior College, 4 year guys?

Quote: Originally Posted by Willie Singleton

I like this year's College crop a lot. The top lefty in the high school class projects as a top 10 pick so I think we can see one of those top college arms fall to us. Now as far as names...

Helen flew open the door and cut Willie off.

Quote: Originally Posted by Helen

Mr. Singleton, the Farm Director is on line one... he said something about Wacha.

Willie picked up the phone in the conference room and put it to his ear.

Quote: Originally Posted by Willie Sinlgeton

Alright, whadda ya got?

Quote: Originally Posted by Farm Director

Looks like Wacha's out for 1 or 2 months with a Broken Forearm. He took a comebacker right off his right arm today during his start.

Quote: Originally Posted by Willie Singleton

You gotta be bleepin' me... first we lose Carlos and now we lose our top pitching prospect... psh...

[xboxxerx]

New Title for your Dynasty - The Cardinal Way - Crops, Clydesdales, Championships, and Injuries. Holy cow man. I have never seen so many injuries all at once.

[royals19]

Quote: Originally Posted by xboxxerx

New Title for your Dynasty - The Cardinal Way - Crops, Clydesdales, Championships, and Injuries. Holy cow man. I have never seen so many injuries all at once.

Losing Beltran who's the key to my lineup was one thing... but losing my top pitching prospect is another. By losing out on 1-2 months, that all but guarantees that Wacha won't be making the big leagues this year.

Hopefully we get Beltran back before things get too out of hand.

******

So while Wacha joins the masses headed to the DL, the real St. Louis Cardinals square off in yet another crucial matchup against the brew crew. It's almost like we're having a crucial matchup every time I update this but it's true... a series against the Brewers here, series against some other random contender there...

And to make matters worse, we're going against Brewer's ace Yovani "Boss man" Gallardo.



And who do we have to oppose him? the intriguing gentleman and known connoisseur of Burmese coffee grounds, Jaime Garcia.

Just looking at the matchup, I would've thrown the towel in on this one but just for kicks I decided to play it out. Maybe the Brewers would goof up today and we would somehow luck out and get the W.

But by about the 6th inning, it became apparent that the Brewers wouldn't go down without a fight. Every time Garcia hit 'em with that Curve ball, it wound up sitting in the center field seats. It seemed like every inning he was letting up a leadoff knock up the middle and we were into damage control mode.

Eventually, Mike Matheny and Derek Lilliquist had seen enough and brought in Joe "Ferrari" Kelly.



Ahh... Yes, the long man. You know what they say, the long man is everybody's favorite player on the team... or maybe that's the backup quarterback.

Regardless this kid is gonna be something special. If we didn't have to good around with contract obligations and expectations Kelly would find himself holding down Garcia's rotation spot. But unfortunately, it's a political game so Kelly is coming out of the pen.

So wait where were we?

Oh yeah, so we bring Kelly into the game and he shuts Milwaukee down with a little bit of that icey cool Octane; sitting at 98 and touching 100 a couple of times. Looks like Kelly is the only guy we can trust in the pen but that's a different topic for a different day.



Somehow, some way, things did go in our way and we found ourselves cruising back in .500 territory behind the Brewer's five errors. It's sad that we have to rely on other teams to mess up in order for us to win ball games but you know what they say Jack, a win's a win.

The above image depicts the tying run in the 8th inning with Daniel Descalso scoring on a pass ball... for whatever reason, it's the stuff that you don't see everyday that contributes to our wins. Go figure man.

[royals19]

If you wander around St. Louis, you'll hear stories about the old days: Stan Musial, Red Schoendienst, Bob Gibson heck, you'll probably hear the occasional Albert Pujols story. However, there's always one story that draws the eire of many a Cardinal's fan; the 1985 World Series.

Back in the 80s, the Cardinals were a powerhouse behind the managing expertise of Hall of Fame Manager Whitey Herzog and fielding wizardry of Ozzie Smith. Having not won the World Series since 1967, they were thirsty for another ring or two. In 1982, the Cardinals got their wish and won their 9th World Series.

Despite quinching their thirst, they were hungry for more.

Enter 1985 and another hungry team: The Kansas City Royals.

Another powerhouse in the 1980s, they were always good. But never quite good enough. In 1985 however, things went their way and the Royals, lead by George Brett and Frank White, found themselves squaring off against Darrell Porter and Ozzie Smith.

The series turned out to be an epic one with teams exchanging blows for much of the series... then came along Game 6 with the Cardinals on the verge on winning their 10th World Series; a matter of outs away.

And then came, "The Call"



It should've been there, the series should've ended there... but it didn't the umpire missed the call and the Royals won the game sending it to Game 7 where the Royals whipped the Cardinals and won their first world series in organization history.

The Cardinals never forgot the disservice they had been done in 1985 and now; everytime they square up against the Royals, the painful memory of '85 comes back and cuts them deeper each time.

2013 would be no different.