News and Notes Cardinal Post

With spring coming to a close and the excitement of opening day just around the corner here is the situation the red birds find themselves in.

Pitchers:
Tomorrow the Cards will give a physical to right-handed starting pitcher Kyle Lohse. After that they are expected to sign him up and add him to the starting rotation.

The starting rotation is the soar spot for the Cards again this spring. It is the reason they are supposed to finish dead last in the National League this year, but I think if the cards fall just right we might be looking at a pretty stellar starting five. Before we can even dream of that we would need the following to happen:

*Carpenter to get healthy asap. He is ahead of schedule and he said he is feeling great.
*Mulder to get healthy asap. He, once again, is expected to be healthy by May. However, healthy and effective are two different things.
*Clement to get healthy asap. He does not have a return date yet, but his three bullpen sessions have been good. Dave Duncan thinks he has “turned the corner” and will be back sooner than later.
*Pineiro to get healthy asap. He is also coming along nicely and is expected to be ready for the start of the regular season.
*Lohse to do what Lohse does, eat up innings with slightly above average stuff. We’ll take what we can get, I think this could be our new Supan.
*Looper is holding up his end of the bargan as usual this spring. The reliever turned starter has been nothing but a blessing since coming to the Cardinals.
*Wainwright to be the man. If you don’t think he will be you should ask Carlos Beltran what he thinks.

If everyone heals up the way we hope they will, we’ll be just fine. Come July we’ll be ready to make a playoff run with Carpenter and Mulder who will only have a half of a season on their arms.


Lineup:
It is no secret that the Cardinals need to score runs. With the cut and pasted starting rotation that they will have going into the season they need to score and score often. Last season the Cardinals only had 690 RBI. That is the lowest total they’ve had since ’97 and the second lowest in the LaRussa era. They only hit 141 homeruns which ranked 13th in the National league. Tony took over a team that, the pervious year, rank 13th in homers and since then 2007 was the first year they have rank as low.

Don’t look now but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

*Pujols has a tear in a ligament in his elbow the size of my car. He is opting not to have it surgically repaired until the off season. In this injured state he only has 12 hits, 4 homeruns, 7 RBI in 30 at bats which gives him a .400 average and a .933 slugging % this spring. Yes, boys and girls he’s a full grown man!
*Troy Glaus look to be fitting in with the other kids nicely.
*Juan Gonzalez is having a spring that will make people question the Cardinals if he doesn’t break the opening day roster.
*Rick Ankiel is seeing the ball well and I think it’s safe to say that people are excited to see what he’s going to do this year.
*Chris Duncan has only played in 8 games this spring, but is expected to start the year in left field.
That leaves the “down and out” Cards with five players that could have a chance at hitting 30 homeruns this year.

*Skip Schumaker is having a great spring. Look for him to be in the leadoff spot come the 31st.
*My boy Brenden Ryan seems to be getting a look. He’s been in more games than any other SS contender.
*Adam Kennedy looks like he is shaking off his terrible performance of last season.
*Colby Rasmus will play a game at Busch this year, this much we know. When and where is still to be determined, but redbird nation is excited to see what he can bring.

Ludwick, Molina, Barton and a cast of others have been putting up nice springs and they all have a chance to make some noise this season.

See all of the spring stats here


Katie Notes:
*My favorite color is blue.
*I set off the fire alarm in my hotel at 3:30am while I was making quesadillas this week.

Me, You, and Uncle Sam

I don’t hate paying my taxes. Well, maybe that’s not completely true, but I don’t have a problem paying my fair share of what it takes to run this country.

Here is the pluming of this blog; 50% frustration, 40% ignorance, 10% so I don’t kick someone in the teeth.

With that said let me first say that I am not anti-American, I have already done my taxes for this year, and my taxes might be the only thing I’ve never paid late.

Where does my tax money go?

Can anyone tell me?

And please save the streets and parks speech.

I believe that a large part of our government is made up of crooked, maybe even evil, people. This makes it hard to swallow when I see these people making new taxes and then me paying them without so much as a kiss in return.

I was lucky enough to get a performance bonus from my work this year. The month that I received it I was taxed $2400 with 59% of the bonus taken out in taxes. This made me feel as if I was just hit in the place having to do with my Y chromosome.

Today I went and had my taxes done. I worked in Kansas 2/3rds of the year, but lived in Missouri all year. This means technically that I took Kansas’ money and spent it in Missouri. For that Missouri gave me a tax credit and still somehow this is the first year I’ve ever had to pay state tax at the end of the year.No one can tell me how much of a credit I received or how they got to the $50 figure that I owe them.

The best I can figure I paid about $13,835 in tax last year. I don’t have any clue where it went. I wonder how much of it was spent on "Congressional Earmarks".

Fiscal year -- # of earmarks -- $$$
2008 -- 11,780 -- $18.3 billion
2007 -- 10,000 -- 10.4 billion
For those who might of miss read that, it says billion…with a B.

For my 2 cents, or $13,835, I think if we operated under a Fair Tax system we would have a better handle on where our money is going and who is paying taxes. And an added benefit would be that people like Eliot Spitzer who spend $4800 per visit from a prostitute would be paying tax on that money. And people who buy and sell drugs like the, 14 members of congress that have been arrested on drug-related charges, would pay taxes on that money.

As I understand it you would be taxed as you spend your money. Point of sales taxes would go up a lot. We would not be taxed when we get paid money and when we spend money and when we buy something that requires us to pay Personal Property Tax.

Happy Tax Season!!

And yes I feel better.

It's almost here

Today’s back to back to back homeruns by Schumaker, Mather, and Albert got me thinking about March 31st.

Opening Day is 24 Days 18 Hours 13 minutes and 27 seconds away!!

Go Cards!

Katie Notes:
*Kristin is going to learn how to cut my hair next weekend!
*This is a lot harder than I thought to come up with non-baseball material.

No more Mike

Here's an update.

After a valiant effort Mike Huckabee has withdrawn his presidential campaign.

I think Mike fought a good fight and there is always hope for a V.P. bid, right?

Here is part on Mike Huckabee’s e-mail announcing that he was withdrawing form the race.

Throughout my life, I've found that there are sometimes three possible answers to our prayers--"Yes," "No," or "Not Now." I would like to think our prayers were answered with a "Not Now."

Good Luck Mike!!

http://www.mikehuckabee.com/

Introducing……Katie Notes

I love writing about all things baseball, especially my cardinals, and I will never stop writing about the game I love. However, I have noticed a steadily growing movement against my baseball post. I do not want to disappoint you, my faithful blog readers, so I have created “Kaite Notes”. This is the section of my blog that will contain little bits of Casey information. For this day forth every baseball related post will have fun facts about me that you might not have ever known without the “Katie Notes”.

All of you that are excited about this new addition can thank my friend Katie!

Kaite Notes 1:
*I cried on the last day of fifth grade.
*I have a one inch scare on my right cheek and I have no clue how it got there.
*According to my newly constructed family tree I have around 126 cousins.

S.O.C 2

This article was on ESPN.com today. It was about Sam Zell, who is the owner of the Cubs and Wrigley Field.

I liked this part.

No surprise there. Zell is about sell. About profit. About green -- and I don't mean the ivy on the Wrigley Field outfield walls.
But most of all, Zell is about Zell. His Sam I Am Tour of assorted Tribune media properties in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Orlando, among others, hasn't, well, exactly had the feel of a town hall meeting to them.
"F--- you," he told an Orlando Sentinel photographer at one meeting. In another, he described a Trib management type as a "motherf-----," according to people at the meeting. He reminded employees that if the entire venture fails, he'll still be a billionaire but they'll likely be jobless. And when characterizing his ownership role, he said, "I'm your Viagra."
Zell's language is so inappropriate for the setting that even Eminem is offended. Zell prides himself on being the defibrillator paddles of the business world. He's here to shock your senses. Clear!
"My head only looks forward," he said during a visit to L.A.
Zell is more insufferable than another Will Ferrell sports movie (please, Will, more cowbell, less sports). But like it or not, this is the man who will decide whether Wrigley Field remains Wrigley Field. Sadly, his head looks forward only to the highest bidder for those naming rights.
The possibilities are frightening:
• Cialis Field (In the rare event of a Cubs game lasting more than four hours, seek immediate medical help).
• White Sox Park (Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf can't outdraw the Cubs, so he deep-sixes their stadium name).
• F-Bomb Stadium (Zell's personal favorite).

Same Old Cubbies

Let the distractions begin!!

On the first day of spring training games the Cubs have found a way to take the attention off their undefeated record. A record that stands at 1-0 after a 12-6 victory over the San Francisco Giants Thursday.

It seems the owner of the Cubs is planning on selling the naming writes of Wrigley Field. It was built as Weeghman Park in 1914 and renamed Cubs Park in 1920 then again the Field was renamed after then owner William Wrigley Jr. in 1926.

Weeghman Park 5 Years of Cubs baseball, 0 World Series Titles
Cubs Park 6 years, 0 World Series Titles
Wrigley Field 81 years, 0 World Series Titles

Busch Stadium the Third 2 years, 1 World Series Titles