2013 Closer Update: St. Louis Cardinals

St. Louis Cardinals

  Disabled – Jason Motte

  Acting Closer – Mitchell Boggs

Next - Trevor Rosenthal

Super-Sleeper – Fernando Salas

 Closer Jason Motte is likely to open the season on the 15-Day Disabled List due to what is being called a mild elbow strain. An MRI revealed no damage to the ligament but a slight tear to the tendon. General Manager John Mozeliak declared that Mitchell Boggs would be the interim closer with Trevor Rosenthal likely to move into the set-up role.

Motte, who became the Cardinals closer late in 2011, tied for the National League lead with 42 saves last season.

The righty last pitched Thursday. He threw an inning against the Mets. His final pitch of a scoreless inning was 97 mph.

He felt stiffness in his right elbow on the bus ride returning from Port St. Lucie, Fla. Motte described how the elbow felt sore as he reached for his cell phone and that led him to the trainers' room when he got back to the Jupiter complex.

"It tightened up a little bit in my forearm," Motte said. "I felt fine out there (on the mound). It says it's a little muscle strain, it's a little tight. I did all my arm stuff afterward (and) felt fine. I don't know if it was the adrenaline or whatever but I didn't feel anything when I was throwing."

The team has attacked the inflammation in the elbow with the usual treatments, Motte said: ice, stimulation, and some anti-inflammatory medicine.

It had increased by Friday morning, when the team then took him for an MRI of the joint. That was when the tear was discovered. The initial treatment is to tame the inflammation in the joint so that a clearer sense of the damage can be measured.

Jason Motte has been drafted as a top 4-5 closer in many early leagues. He gives his owners more innings than the typical closer thanks to his frequent use in the eighth inning. He throws in the high 90s with excellent control and an improving swinging strike rate and K9 rate. He is as locked into the role as any closer can be these days. His manager seems to have a great deal of faith in him and he has delivered nearly every time. 

Mitchell Boggs is a hard throwing right-hander with a mid-90s fastball. He has an average Swinging Strike Rate and a middling K9 for a potential closer. He has ok control and induces a high rate of groundballs (career 52.4 percent). His career high for saves is four gained during the 2011 season..

2013 Sleeper: Jaime Garcia

The fraying in his shoulder will keep a lot of owners away from Jaime Garcia. It will also drive his price way down, possibly into the lower single digits. That provides you with an opportunity to purchase a very talented pitcher on the cheap. Garcia has a great swinging strike rate with a solid K9 that should improve. He has good control and a nice groundball rate. He plays for a very good Cardinals team with a nice defense.  For what should be a very small investment you could win big. Garcia is already throwing and will face hitters today (Saturday, Feb. 16^th).

Jaime Garcia will face hitters for the first time today since his abortive two-inning playoff performance against the Washington Nationals last October when he throws batting practice to a group of Cardinals position players headed by David Freese.

Today is the first day that pitchers will throw batting practice. Following Garcia, who had shoulder problems much of last season, will be Shelby Miller, who will pitch to a group of hitters including Yadier Molina and Matt Carpenter.

Garcia made nine starts at the end of the 2012 season but was forced out of a playoff game after just two innings against the Washington Nationals after experiencing some shoulder stiffness. Garcia was declared fully healthy in November after several sessions with the Cardinals coaching and medical staffs. He has been throwing regularly since early January without set-backs or problems.

Said pitching coach Derek Lilliquist, "He looks incredibly strong. His arm strength is there and he's in a good frame of mind. We look for good things from Jaime."

"It was one of the toughest things I've had to experience in my career," Garcia said. "But you move forward, you learn from the bad and take the good things and move forward and that's what I did this offseason. I went home and had a good, positive mentality and I did everything asked of me to do and worked as hard as I possibly could and I've been saying this the whole time since the Winter Warm-up but I'm feeling healthy, I'm strong and I just want to take it one day at a time.

"I came into camp like any other pitcher and obviously there's things I have to take care of which are a part of my career, doing my rehab stuff (between starts), but that's just part of it. But checkups with doctors, we're all clear of that. It's been normal the whole time."

St. Louis Cardinals Acquire 3B Pedro Feliz

Pedro Feliz has been awful this season. But the St. Louis Cardinals have reached the point of desperation at third base. Feliz has hit just .221 with four homers and 31 RBIs in 97 games for the Astros. He's been dropped even in deep NL-only leagues. However he should now be in the lineup regularly until the end if the season. He has also batted .288 in his career at Busch Stadium.

Feliz is probably of very little use to fantasy owners. David Carpenter, who was sent to the Astros, is probably far from helping as well. Carpenter was converted from catcher to relief pitcher recently. This year, the 25-year-old right-hander was 5-3 with a 2.36 ERA and 20 saves in 49 games at Class A Palm Beach.

2011 Sleeper Candidate: Kyle McClellan RHP St. Louis Cardinals

Kyle McClellan has come a long way since being drafted in the 25th round of the 2003 Amateur Draft. On July 1st, 2005, McClellan tore a ligament in his elbow during a spot start. This was after being moved to the bullpen because of earlier struggles in the Single-A, Quad City Swing rotation. Most of the 2006 season was spent rehabbing but after returning for just three appearances he needed a second procedure on the elbow.

McClellan was moved to the bullpen when he returned to protect the elbow. He excelled pitching in the Florida State League for Palm Beach. In 29 innings, McClellan had a 1.24 ERA, struck out 24 to just four walks. Promoted to Springfield, he pitched 30.2 innings with 30 strikeouts and only six walks. In 59.2 innings he allowed only two home runs.He was added to the 40-man roster and has been an effective major league reliever ever since.

Three years of solid performance in the Cardinal Bullpen has helped acclimate McClellan to pitching in the Major Leagues. The team has considered moving him into the rotation several times but the lack of experienced options in the bullpen has stymied the effort.

McClellan pitched well as a starter in 2010 Spring Training but the role of fifth starter was given to Jamie Garcia. In part, because Garcia pitched better, but also because the Cardinals needed a reliable set-up man to deliver late-inning leads to closer Ryan Franklin. According to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, McClellan excelled in high leverage situations.

The website Baseball-Reference.com tracks the "leverage" appearances for players, defining a high-leverage situation as one where the game is in peril, such as a tie game with a runner on third and fewer than two outs. Of the 250 plate appearances against Franklin last season, 126 were in high-leverage situations. McClellan pitched in the eighth inning 29 times last season, five fewer than [Jason] Motte. But McClellan has 111 plate appearances against in high-leverage situations vs. Motte's 139 plate appearances that had low leverage.

If something happened to Ryan Franklin, Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa would not hesitate to install McClellan into the closer role. That alone should keep McClellan on the fantasy radar. But with Cardinals looking short a couple of starters for next season, you have to at least consider McClellan a major candidate. With a decent strikeout rate, a variety of solid major league pitches including a groundball-inducing sinker, and very good control McClellan has the tools and skills to succeed. Now, he isn't likely to become the next Josh Johnson or Johan Santana but he just might do a passable C.J. Wilson which is pretty darn good. What makes him an even awesomer (yeah, I made it up) sleeper is you can get him for practically nothing right now. At worst you've picked up a set-up guy that is next in line for saves.

Wishing Mark McGwire Luck

I just wanted to wish Mark McGwire good luck in his new position as the hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals. I have read much praise from the players that he has worked with individually. I think he will do very well in this position and the Cardinals will benefit from what he has to offer. I used to love the A's back in the days of the Bash Brothers, with Ricky Henderson and Dave Stewart. They were incredibly fun to watch play. In those days the A's were one of the best teams in the game and had league-leading payrolls. McGwire was the true star of that bunch, when he was healthy anyway. You should watch the video attached to this article about Tony LaRussa returning to the Cardinals to hear LaRussa discuss McGwire's transformation as a hitter.

Below this great photo I discuss the reaction to McGwire's return by the dumber members of the mainstream media and their parroting groupies.


There is no proof that Mark McGwire ever used any illegal drugs before, during or after his baseball career ended. We know that he used Andro, because he never hid it. My old roommate was using it too before most of us even knew what it was. Most of the people commenting about this still do not know what Andro was. And it is because he did not hide it that much of this PED controversy exists today around the game of baseball. Androstendione was not illegal or even considered an anabolic steroid at the time McGwire was using it. You could have bought some yourself from many different legal sources. It was reclassified in 2004 when the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004 was introduced into the United States Senate.***

***If people in this country were assigned jobs based on their intelligence and focus on what actually matters most of the Senators speaking out in what I call the Steroid Trials (and their media lackeys) would find themselves working for Burger King.

I have read many different articles in the last week or so and hundreds of comments by the readers of those articles that make claims that are just not true or fair. Today I read an article that basically claimed that McGwire was responsible for the suicide of two kids who used steroids. No. No he is not. If a kid is using steroids that responsibility lies with the kid himself, his parents and the people of responsibility around him. I have read the McGwire ruined baseball despite the fact that when he was hitting all those homeruns for the St. Louis Cardinals he was being labeled the savior of baseball. I have read that Mark McGwire now hides from the public scrutiny he deserves because he is so ashamed of his steroid use, and his lies. First, what lies? Can someone please show me when McGwire was proved a liar about anything to do with baseball or him using any form of PED? Second, when has Mark McGwire ever sought out media attention? Remember how when McGwire was hitting all those homeruns and everyone loved him and was anxious to hear his every waking thought, that he avoided the media like the plague. Seems like the kind of guy who avoids public speaking whenever possible.

You do not have to like Mark McGwire. I am certain he has habits that may annoy people. Maybe he clips his nails at the kitchen table or he leaves hair on the bar of soap in the shower. But I think it is wrong to punish the man over something that probably had little impact (if any at all, if he even did anything wrong which is not so certain as it is usually made out to be) on his career as a whole and most certainly did not hurt anybody or cause anybody to hurt themselves.

Sleeper Alert: Joe Mather

The St. Louis Cardinals have sent both David Freese and Brett Wallace (their two best third base prospects) to minor league camp. This leaves Joe Mather, a converted outfielder, as the favorite to begin the season at third base. As I am certain most of you realize that the Cardinals expected third baseman, Troy Glaus, will begin the season on the disabled list and miss at least the first month of the season recovering from shoulder surgery. This will be the winner's chance to shine in the eyes of Tony LaRussa who already seems to have a slight man-crush on Mather.

"But", you might say. It will only be for a month or so and then Glaus will be back and our man will be out of a job. "Well", I would answer, "not exactly."

If Joe Mather impresses Tony LaRussa (and I obviously believe that he will), he is very likely to favor him coming off the bench as an extra infielder and outfielder. This is easily a recipe for finding 350-400 at-bats. I also happen to think Mather is a 30-plus homerun hitter waiting to break out.

Mather was drafted in the third round out of Mountain Pointe high school in Phoenix, Arizona - as a shortstop. He spent way too long in short season leagues and did not develop as quickly as the cards would have liked. But for two years he has been solid (if a little old in AA and AAA). He did not embarass himself in short stents in the major leagues either.

The best news for fantasy owners is that you're likely to get him for just a few bucks in even the deepest leagues. The Cardinals have another guy who began his major league career playing out of position as a temporary replacement for a more established but injury prone player. Damn, I wonder who that was???

Season	Team	AB	PA	2B	HR	R	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	AVG	wOBA
Total	- - -	133	147	7	8	20	18	12	32	1	0	0.241	0.335
2006	Cardinals (A+)	432	482	33	15	63	71	36	89	9	0	0.266	0.359
2007	Cardinals (AA)	234	272	17	18	48	46	29	32	4	0	0.303	0.426
2007	Cardinals (AAA)	249	283	10	12	30	29	22	51	5	0	0.237	0.337
2008	Cardinals (AAA)	211	254	14	17	45	41	32	36	7	2	0.303	0.44
2008	Cardinals	133	147	7	8	20	18	12	32	1	0	0.241	0.335
2009	Bill James	162		9	10	26	24	17	28	3	1	0.253	0.354
2009	CHONE	415		22	19	63	61	41	88	6	2	0.253	0.343
2009	Marcel	245	274	13	10	35	33	24	51	3	1	0.261	0.334
2009	Oliver	360	401	22	19			30	77			0.253	0.343
2009	ZiPS	428		22	18	53	63	34	79	7	1	0.243	0.325

More on Joe Mather:

Sportsnet.com Scouting Report
Future RedBirds Profile
FanGraphs.com Statistics Page
The Baseball Cube Report
WikiPedia Page