High & Inside: NL Notes
Spring training hasn't been all that fun for the St. Louis Cardinals. On the heels of the team's being unable to come to terms on a contract extension with Albert Pujols by Pujols' self-imposed deadline last week, now it looks as if the Redbirds will be without one of their two aces this season.
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Wainwright may be gone for season
Spring training hasn't been all that fun for the St. Louis Cardinals. On the heels of the team's being unable to come to terms on a contract extension with Albert Pujols by Pujols' self-imposed deadline last week, now it looks as if the Redbirds will be without one of their two aces this season.
Adam Wainwright, the 29-year-old with the 2.53 ERA and 1.13 WHIP over 4631/3 innings the last two seasons, has been shut down with an elbow injury, and the writing is on the wall: Tommy John surgery.
The injury means a dynamic shift in the balance of power in the NL Central, where Wainwright and Chris Carpenter were expected to make the Cards favorites to win the division.
As you might imagine, the defending division champion Cincinnati Reds, who got into a memorable brawl with the Cardinals last year, were interested in the news.
Hal McCoy, blogging for the Dayton Daily News, said second baseman Jonny Gomes walked into the Reds' clubhouse Wednesday morning joyously singing "Wainwright's gone!" Gomes later told MLB.com's Mark Sheldon that he had been singing Joe Esposito's "You're the Best Around" from The Karate Kid, then started asking others in the locker room, "Is Wainwright gone?"
Either way, Gomes should be ashamed to show his face in public: He was either cheering an opponent's injury, or he was singing an incredibly lousy song from the '80s.
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Some nerve
In other hinge-joint news, former Phil Vicente Padilla is scheduled for surgery on his right elbow Thursday. The Dodgers' righty could be out for a few weeks or a few months.
Padilla has a nerve in his elbow that's been trapped by a muscle. Until the Dodgers know what the muscle's demands are for the safe return of the nerve, they won't know how long Padilla will be out.
Manager Don Mattingly said Padilla was slated for a bullpen job with Los Angeles this season. Considering the Phillies' rotation this season, it seems like a lifetime ago that Padilla was an anchor of the Fightin's staff. (You may interpret anchor - as something that stabilizes or as something that holds down - any way you like.)
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Mexicuted
Joakim Soria is looking for a new nickname. The one chosen for him by voters on the Kansas City Royals' website in 2008, "The Mexicutioner," hits a little too close to home for Soria's liking.
With all of the drug-related violence that has plagued Mexico in recent years, the closer told reporters he no longer wants to go by the moniker.
The Royals will probably hold another contest to find a nickname, but that hardly seems fair. Let's face facts: What use do the Royals have for a topflight closer? They'll win 70 games with Soria closing instead of 64 with a rookie. The fans of the team that takes Soria off Kansas City's hands in July should get that honor.
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'Blue' no more
Major League Baseball officially announced the retirement of Jerry Crawford, a big-league umpire since 1977. The St. Petersburg Times originally reported Crawford's decision two weeks ago.
Crawford, a Philadelphia-area native who graduated from Monsignor Bonner in 1965, worked the World Series in 1988, 1992, 1998, 2000, and 2002. He was baseball's longest-tenured ump.
Crawford's brother, Joe Crawford, is a longtime referee in the NBA and his father, Henry "Shag" Crawford, was a major-league ump from 1956 to '75.
MLB also announced that umpires Mike Reilly and Chuck Meriwether had retired.