Ooh! That was a bad end to the game Sunday afternoon.
The Pirates won in the 10th inning of Sunday’s series finale in walk-off fashion.
Colby Rasmus
A sloppy 10th inning is what sealed the loss. The Pirates Xavier Paul moved to second on a steal attempt. Cards back-up catcher Gerald Laird threw to Ryan Theriot to tag out Paul, but Theriot missed the throw and allowed it to go into center and Paul moved up to third.
Chase d’Amaud hit a sac fly to Colby Rasmus. He threw toward home to try to get Paul out but, alas, the throw was a few feet off and Paul scored the winning run.
This wasn’t the only thing to seal the Cardinals loss …
As a team the Cardinals left 11 on base. They were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
That would make this seem like a team issue, right?
Well, having become familiar with some members of Cardinals fan base, blaming the team isn’t good enough. It has to be someone’s fault.
So lets take a look at the blame game for a moment …
There were three errors including a fielding error by Skip Schumaker, a missed catch by Ryan Theriot and a throwing error by Gerald Laird. The error was Theriot’s 16th of the season.
Brendan Ryan hit a grand slam for the Mariners in their 12-8 loss, a 15th straight loss by the way, to the Red Sox. So, anything Theriot did Sunday, including a nice little base hit, just wasn’t going to be good enough for a segment of the Cardinals fan base.
With an ailing finger, Kyle Lohse only pitched five innings, giving up two earned runs on four hits while striking out four. Lance Lynn received his first blown save of the year with two innings pitched. He struck out two but also gave up one run on two hits. Mitchell Boggs pitched two good innings. Jason Motte ended up with the loss, though, in his two-thirds of an inning of work.
Colby Rasmus had a crazy throw at the end of the game. And he’s Colby Rasmus. It doesn’t matter that he went 2 for 4. He had a home run and one RBI? No, Colby is the latest piece of trade bait and that’s all anyone wants to talk about now.
While the Cardinals say they are wanting to improve without trading Colby or Shelby Miller or Carlos Martinez, Post-Dispatch writer Joe Strauss has Colby on the next bus to Chicago’s South Side. It almost makes you wonder what Rasmus has or hasn’t done for Strauss. Sour grapes, Straussy?
The deal Strauss has cited doesn’t make a bit of sense. Colby for Edwin Jackson and lefty reliever Matt Thornton?
This season, Edwin Jackson is 7-7 in 19 games with a 3.92 ERA and 97 strikeouts. And Thornton? He is 0-4 with three saves in 37 games. He has a 3.41 ERA and 33 strikeouts.
While Thornton’s numbers read like some folks we already have, Jackson’s numbers look decent. But he is a free agent after this season. I don’t want Colby to be traded for a rental. With Albert’s contract looming, could Carpenter, Berkman and Jackson, etc., all remain with the team?
If a deal such as this is made, it suggests the Cardinals are lying and they are actually just wanting to get rid of Colby to get rid of him.
What do you think of Rasmus for Jackson and Thronton? Is that a deal you would make? Why? If not, who would you trade Raz for? Or do you think Rasmus should remain a Cardinal and get his head straight?
With the non-waiver trade deadline on Sunday and after this weekend’s series with the Pirates, what do the Cardinals need to do now? What trade would you like to see?
Miranda Remaklus is lead St. Louis Cardinal contributor to Aaron Miles’ Fastball. Follow her on Twitter @missmiranda
Aaron Miles' Fastball 
We won’t ever really know for sure due to numerous errors in the initial “detailed article online” that Strauss wrote and later amended after comments on VEB. However, it appears these talks are for
Jackson OR Thornton – not both Sox pitchers.
Also PLEASE keep up the good work and PLEASE see todays VEB post on the microcosm of 2011 which was yesterdays game.
http://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2011/7/25/2291389/ryan-theriot-is-the-st-louis-cardinals-weakest-link
Let’s really throw a bucket of water on the Edwin Jackson deal, his agent is Scott Boras.
I would be against Jackson and Thornton, so trading Rasmus for either would be lunacy. Rasmus is an elite player under team control, and is not the first one that’s ever had a bit of a head problem. Any deal involving Rasmus needs to bring an elite piece to the team, or the investment in Rasmus has been wasted.
The Cardinals biggest weakness at the moment, that they cannot fill from within, is left handed relief pitching. It’s a scarce commodity, but it is a glaring problem, unless Trever Miller can find his ’10 self again, or Brian Tallet returns a new and improved LOOGY.
I’d rather the Cardinals focus on the port side than trying to get another starter that is basically Kyle McClellan with a pedigree. We have right handers that are doing quite well now, and some depth in Memphis.
The second priority needs to be dealing with the woeful play of our middle infield. We can plug one side, but not both. We need a big league shortstop that can make the routine plays and we need to let Daniel Descalso go back to the right side of the infield where is a plus defender.
Bob, I wonder if there would actually be anything done with the middle infield at all. It has nothing to do with what the personnel there can/cannot do, but instead with who they are and how they got those positions. Just my opinion, obviously, but I can’t see anything being done with Theriot — he was acquired knowing full well what he is and isn’t capable of defensively. Wasn’t it stated that his offense was more important than his defense?
As for second base, isn’t Skip the scrappiest of the scrappy — a guy who willingly changed positions at the major league level? That scored him points for years and years. He’s going to get the playing time, get the favored treatment.
Just seems like personnel decisions with the Cardinals are handled just like personnel decisions in any business. Those who are well-liked by those high up are favored, no matter how much sense it seems to make to others.
Your points are valid, and to some degree you have to nod and accept the decisions the front office made. In the case of Ryan Theriot, his offense (at least OBP) are much better than we expected, but the defense has turned out to be far far worse. I know I sound like a broken record, but it’s not just the balls he misplays, it’s the ones he doesn’t even get to.
Like in business, if your initial marketing plan isn’t working, you have to change something.
I love Skip Schumaker, and while we didn’t have a legitimate second baseman in sight, was OK with him playing there. But we have one now, and a kid that has shown a .260 or so, with a lot of late inning heroics.
In my mind, I keep going back to how they won in ’06 with far far less of a team, and hope they can recreate that late season miracle. It just gets frustrating with the middle of the field is so poorly defended and guys like Chris Carpenter, Jake Westbrook and Jaime Garcia have lots of 4 out innings to pitch.
Where to begin?
First off, the portion of the fan base who thinks that B. Ryan should still be a Cardinal bugs me. Was he a spectacular defensive SS? Yes. Would he have been the solution to our problems this year? I doubt it. Let’s recall really quickly that he made those stupid-difficult plays look remarkably easy, yet somehow the everyday grounders made him look like he had jumped into the majors from little league. Not to mention that I wouldn’t even be surprised if half the people who miss him now weren’t the same people lamenting having him at the plate all year last year. He would have been adding to the GIDP issue we’ve had this year. Yes, they traded down defensively, that’s obvious, but as far as I’m concerned, the Cards KNEW what they were doing. They got rid of a toxic clubhouse personality, and took a step back on defense at multiple positions to try to make the team atmosphere better. Even though I’m still not on the LBFanClub bandwagon, I will absolutely acknowledge the effect he’s had on the team. B. Ryan couldn’t do that, not matter how “cute, quirky, and funny” he was. There’s no sense in lamenting what could have been when it’s not reality.
When it comes to that many guys LOB, every single person is to blame. Every single one of them. I’ll admit, I didn’t watch the game yesterday, but the box score is remarkably like those from last year, when the bats just didn’t show up. It’s a TEAM sport, EVERYONE is to blame. Trying to say that one Theriot error was the cause for the loss is blindly ignorant, at best.
As far as pitching goes, clearly our bullpen needs help. Our bullpen has needed help since 2007, and I don’t care what stats say, the lefty-specialist role is complete and utter bullshit. In today’s game, a pitcher’s job is to get the hitter out, regardless of which side of the plate he’s hitting from. It’s that simple. Get people out, keep your job. Give up hits, swelter in the bullpen all by your onesie.
Now. Colby. I’ve ranted about this to different people at games, and I’ll try to keep this brief. Something is up with Colby, that much is obvious. Is it enough to trade him away? Not even a little bit. He reminds me at times of Alfonso Soriano. He is so unbelievable, innately talented that when he’s in the field, he doesn’t even have to try. He can make the plays standing up that others had to absolutely sprawl to get. Because of that, he looks like he’s a lazy outfielder. When he does try, the kid’s damn near unstoppable. That kind of talent, the investment that’s already been made in him, and the depth that we have in the outfield, well, I’d be sad to see that go. But the thing is, Colby can’t rest on that sheer talent for the rest of his career. He has to try, and I think that’s the message TLR is sending him by starting Jay. Try in the OF and start. Don’t try and sit. He has to come to the ballpark every single day ready to bust his ass for the team. He needs to realize that him sitting instead of starting is of his own doing, and he’ll receive the same treatment on any other club, even without the micro-managing ways of TLR.
And b/c I can’t stand Joe Strauss, I’ll just say that he’s an idiot and move on. I’m not going to even give his article more time than I have. If the club announces something, ok then, but right now I’ll buy trade rumors surrounding Colby as much as I’ll believe purchase rumors surrounding my Blues. Until it happens, it’s just heresy.
/end rant
Thank you Ann for handling the Brendan Ryan situation. I couldn’t have said it better. We still need to talk about Lance Berkman, but we are in complete agreement about Ryan.
Same for Chris Perez.
If we don’t fix the port side of SS Redbird, I think the ship will list over until it sinks.