Results tagged ‘ St. Louis Cardinals ’
Turning to Turner
Jacob Turner will be making his 2012 season debut for the Detroit Tigers this afternoon, when they play the St. Louis Cardinals in the series finale.
Turner has been considered one of the top prospects in baseball ever since the Tigers drafted him in the 2009 amateur draft. Entering the 2012 season, Baseball America ranked Turner the 22nd best prospect. This won’t be Turner’s major league debut, as he had three appearances in 2011.
His numbers weren’t exactly pretty, and to be fair, a lot of that had to do with the fact that he wasn’t pitching on regular rest. In fact, he had a stretch of 21 days where he didn’t pitch. Turner has pitched effectively in the minor leagues this year. If you combine his numbers between Toledo and Lakeland, he has a record of 3-3, with an ERA of 2.83.
The Tigers have said they only intend this to be a spot start for Turner, who would likely return to Toledo once Drew Smyly returns from his current stint on the disabled list.
With the trade deadline coming near, I can’t help but wonder if the Tigers are looking to showcase Turner, just in case they can use him as a trade piece. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to see the Tigers trade him for a Single-A prospect, but it wouldn’t shock me if a lot of teams want Detroit to include Turner and Nick Castellanos in a lot of their trade proposals.
The champs are here!
Starting tomorrow, the Tigers will host a the reigning World Series champions, the St. Louis Cardinals, for a three game series at Comerica Park.
Expectations were high for both teams entering the season, but both find themselves in third place of their respective divisions. The Tigers and Cardinals have quite a historic past, meeting in the World Series on three different occasions, the most recent being in 2006. For what it’s worth, the Cardinals have won two of those three World Series meetings.
The best match up of the series is likely to take place tomorrow, where Justin Verlander will face off against Lance Lynn. For as good as Verlander has been (6-4 2.66 ERA), Lynn has been better (10-2 2.42 ERA).
Another exciting thing to watch for this series, is when Jacob Turner makes his 2012 season debut for the Tigers on Thursday. Turner is considered to be one of the top prospects in all of baseball, and was likely the favorite to be the Tigers fifth starter to begin the season, but tendinitis on the shoulder prevented that from happening.
Perhaps the Tigers are trying to showcase Turner, in hopes that they can include him as part of an upcoming trade. There are plenty of teams who will be seeking pitching when the trade deadline rolls around, so there would be no shortage of suitors for him. I don’t know if that’s what the Tigers are thinking, but you can’t help but wonder if it’s in the back of their minds.
As far as interleague play goes, this will be the toughest challenge that the Tigers will have had for the year. Detroit has looked well as of late, winning three straight series. In their last ten games, the Cardinals have gone 5-5.
History in the making
Johan Santana pitched the first no-hitter in the history of the New York Mets tonight, as they defeated the St. Louis Cardinals by a final score of 8-0.
Santana was by no means perfect, walking five batters en route to the no-no, but he did do an excellent job of keeping a very potent Cardinals team off balance for the entire game. But as is the case with almost all no-hitters, Santana got some much needed help to get there.
The first assist came courtesy of third-base umpire Adrian Johnson, who incorrectly ruled that a line drive off the bat of Carlos Beltran was foul. Replays show that the ball did in fact hit the chalk down the left-field line, and it should have been ruled fair.
But perhaps equally crucial, was a spectacular running catch made by the Mets left fielder, Mike Baxter. On a shot hit to deep left-center, Baxter ran full speed into the wall, and still managed to hold onto the ball. After the play, he was replaced by Andres Torres.
It was the first career no-hitter for Johan Santana, who missed the entire 2011 season after getting surgery on his shoulder. Whether or not Santana can return to the form he once had remains to be seen, but he’s looked excellent so far this year.
It’s in the Cards
Tonight marked the opening of Marlins Park, the new home for the Miami Marlins. I’m sure their fans were hoping to open it with a win, but it just wasn’t in the cards, as they lost by a final score of 4-1.
The Cardinals looked dominant in almost all aspects of the game. From Kyle Lohse being perfect through six innings (to all St. Louis fans, I’ll be happy to give you the name and address of the fan who jinxed it for you), to David Freese picking up where he left in October. There’s a reason why the Cardinals won the World Series last year, and you shouldn’t sleep on them to be serious contenders in 2012.
All hope is certainly not lost for the Marlins, as they still have plenty to be excited about. Josh Johnson struggled in the first inning, but settled down in the next few innings. Johnson is definitely a huge catalyst for Miami’s rotation, as he could single handedly make them be contenders. When he’s healthy, he’s that good.
It’s an exciting year for both teams. The Cardinals find themselves ready to show they can still compete despite losing Albert Pujols, whereas the Marlins want to prove that they’re good enough now to compete with the elite teams in baseball.
Plenty of baseball left, so we’ll see what happens next. Until then, three games down, 497 to go.
Brad Jeffers
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