Watched: Memphis Redbirds at Iowa Cubs - 5/30/08

I attended the Memphis Redbirds at Iowa Cubs game in Des Moines, Iowa on May 30th. A full breakdown of the game will be posted on Future Redbirds next Monday, but I wanted to share a photo sequence I took at the game that didn't make the cut for the FR post. The Iowa Cubs have multiple players (Felix Pie, Eric Patterson and Matt Murton are the first that come to mind) that could start for about half of the teams in the major leagues. Those players dominated the game that I watched. This picture sequence is of Felix Pie sliding headfirst into third base after hitting a triple [as always, you can see a larger version by clicking on the picture]:

Watched: Twins @ Royals

Using "Watched" might be a little strong in this case. "Shivered through" is probably more appropriate. I attended the Twins @ Royals game this evening, but the temperature hovered around forty degrees and there were snowflakes in the air throughout the day. The Royals wore their throwback, powder-blue jerseys, which were pretty cool (although they wore them with white pants that looked ridiculous):

I really can't break down much of what happened during the game because 1) it was too cold to take notes, mental or otherwise; and 2) everyone's performance is a bit skewed because of the conditions (for example, both starting pitchers, Brett Tomko and Boof Bonser, pitched very well - which in and of itself should prove that the results are unreliable).

So, in lieu of any analysis, here is a picture of Royals legend Frank White throwing out the first pitch:

Spring Training Photo Dump

I finally got around to going through the rest of my pictures from Spring Training. Here are the best of what's left.

The first one has a story - I have a bet going into this season with a friend of mine regarding who will have a better season, my breakout pick, Corey Hart, or Baltimore's Nik Markakis. Since I got to see Baltimore play while I was in Florida, I took a bunch of pictures of Markakis and emailed the following awkward looking one to my friend, offering to let him out of the bet, if he wanted:

The next one has no story, I just think it is a nice looking picture (Chris Duncan singled to rightfield on this pitch):

The next pair of pictures concerns me as a Cardinals fan. I hope that this isn't the extent of the video crew that the club is using for internal purposes.

Here is a closeup of the guy:

Finally, rookie Adam Jones (who the Orioles acquired from Seattle as part of the Erik Bedard trade) had a nice spring and I expect him to be a very good all around ballplayer for years to come. Here is a picture of him just prior to contact.

Spring Training Recap

I recently got back from a week in Florida for Spring Training. Most of my time was spent in Jupiter, focusing on the Cardinals prospects (check out Future Redbirds for my take on that subject), but several other things caught my eye (and camera lens) as well. Here is is my journal of Spring Training along with pictures.

The first game I saw was the March 13th game between the Cardinals and the Mets, which is when I took the picture of Gammons and David Wright that I posted previously. The Mets top prospect, outfielder Fernando Martinez got into the game and looked great. At one point he was facing Cardinals prospect Jason Motte, who basically throws nothing but 98mph heat, and Martinez turned on one and pulled it down the rightfield line into the corner. The bat speed to get around on the pitch was impressive, but Martinez' speed around the bases (he ended up with a triple) might have been more impressive.

The game ended in a tie, but not before Cardinals prospect Colby Rasmus threw out a runner trying at the plate trying to score the go ahead run in the ninth. Here are a couple of pictures of the play at the plate (which would have been better, but the throw was slightly up the line and so Molina blocked my angle at getting really good pictures):

We did not travel to Vero Beach on the 14th to see the Cardinals take on the Dodgers, but we did travel to Port St. Lucie to see the Mets (again) on the 15th. This time we got to see the $200 million dollar man, Johan Santana start. He got beat up a bit as the Cardinals won 10-3, but I did get a couple of nice pictures of his motion:

I also got an action sequence of Angel Pagan stealing second base off of Yadier Molina:

After the Mets, I saw two games against the Braves. The most notable news out of those games was that Mike Hampton performed very well. It has been so long since Hampton was effective in the major leagues that the statline that was quoted on the scoreboard before the game was from '05.

The final game that I attended was against the Baltimore Orioles, in Ft. Lauderdale. The fireworks started early for the Cardinals against Adam Loewen, who is struggling with an arm injury. Albert Pujols started off the scoring with a two run homer in the first inning:

Later, I got a nice action sequence of Pujols scoring just ahead of a throw to the plate:

I am still sifting through the 330 pictures that I took during the trip and I may post a few more if I find any to be worthy.

Scene from the Grapefruit League

I took this picture of David Wright and Peter Gammons late last week during batting practice before a Mets-Cardinals game in Jupiter, Florida.