My take on the Reyes signing is that is a very good one. At least as far as value vs risk. I like the Reyes signing regardless of prior moves. The Cards now have 2 decent lefties in the pen
The Cards got a decent reliever and they got him cheap for not just this season but the next. Isn’t that value?
Ring is around if someone gets hurt.
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Nice work Colby Rasmus!
LaRussa was impressed. That , in itself, is a story.
For his “little things”, he pointed to one moment in yesterday’s victory against the Dominican Republic.
He said it was Colby Rasmus’ lead from first base on the second pitch of an at-bat. That changed the game.
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With Schumaker up — a lefthanded hitter — and speed on base in Rasmus, the levers La Russa likes to pull all lined up, so he signalled: Hit & Run.
This is the lead that La Russa lauded this morning. Having received the sign, Rasmus takes his lead from first. The Dominican team has fixated on him, watching him for any hint that he’s going on this pitch. If he settles in a half stride further away from the bag. If his hands are fidgeting, if he’s bouncing on his feet — anything that any number of young players do once they get a sign to do something. They are reading Rasmus to see if there is a play called and what that play might mean.
According to La Russa, Rasmus did exactly what he did on the pitch before. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Team Dominicana doesn’t do a pitch out, doesn’t do anything to shoo Rasmus back to the bag and, La Russa assumes the next day, believed that Rasmus was just doing on that pitch what he had done on the previous pitch. He didn’t “do anything different,” La Russa said. Rasmus sold status quo with his lead. And then, with the pitch, he was off …
Schumaker scalded a grounder through the hole opened on the right side of the infield. Rasmus sped around second and reached third, and then scored the go-ahead run on a groundout. The Cardinals scored two runs in the inning, pulling away for good.
“He took the exact same lead, Skip finds a hole for (his base hit),” La Russa said. “Runners on first and third leads to us being two runs up, with wind blowing in and good pitching.”
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Cardinalsgm writer (find me as Tom Knuppel) is now in the 2009 Facebook. I hope to make a video blog soon on this account.
Next up is my twitter account.
