Good afternoon friends(or good evening or night, depending on how you roll),

 

Everybody works different shifts and leads a different set of hours.   That’s why we get worried when certain people don’t say a word for weeks or a month.  Dumb selfish people put together a scenario where that one friend is hiding in a corner laughing at the torment he or she is dishing this particular person.  In fact, none of it is probably true(unless you have haters in your life).   This is the way I take it.  Life is busy.  Time flies.  People forget.  I get it.  If you ever think I am wondering about a response to one of these self centered bitching sessions, think again.   I do love feedback of any kind.  Until that reply button is touched, let’s a few quick things said.  

This might rock your facial features or just come off as regular prose.  A stream of consciousness with no particular order.

 

 

The Blues only remedy was to change the goaltender.  Bring up the kid. They Did.  This is the first step.  Believe me.  With 26 games remaining, the best thing this team can do is make a quick dramatic change in a position that affects the entire team.   You defense can’t vastly improve its skills inside a season.  They are who they are.   The goaltender gives the entire team confidence if he can make a save percentage shine better than 16 saves out of 21 shots.  Talking to you Mr. Halak.  Bring up Jake Allen, who showed in a handful of games the future looks bright in net for the team.  A small sample size for sure but this is a short season so you have to go with your strongest weapon.   Brian Elliot is a scared man right now with zero confidence.  He needs a fresh start.   Put him on waivers and let Allen share starts with Jaro, who I have never been convinced is a #1 starter anyway.   Do this or rupture the entire season.  Remember when Manny Legace was put on waivers and Chris Mason’s iron man work for 32 games pushed Blues into playoffs.  This team needs that kind of jolt.  Allen starts tonight.  He played well when Elliot freaked out weeks ago and Halak went down.  The situation is similar now.  Facing the Coyotes tonight, the youngest kid on the ice needs to take the entire game over or at least make a save percentage better than the Blues league worst 83 percent.  That’s it.

 

 

I wouldn’t be surprised if TJ Oshie or David Perron didn’t end the season as a Blue.  They aren’t kids anymore and not that cheap.  Grow up or get out kids.  Oshie takes games off and Perron takes horrible penalties and tries to deke the entire team.  If I had to choose,  Oshie goes.

 

Rafael Furcal is out for the season with a torn ligament.  It’s official after 4 doctors.  He will require Tommy John surgery and miss the entire 2013 season.   Now, show me your shocked face.  I am not shocked at all.  I knew this back in September.  He went down with a partially torn ligament and is a long throw making shortstop so damage can reoccur here.   In November, after three months of rest, the ligament was showing improvement.   Of course it did, coming from the unofficial doctor in the room here.   When you don’t work a muscle or put stress on a ligament, magic happens and it improves.   However, when you test it, bad things can happen.  When Furcal tested it this month, he tore it completely.  I believe that.  It makes sense.  At least I want to believe it and digest the fact that the Cards gambled and lost big time here.  Look, I took a flame thrower to them the other night.  Here, let me recount the temptation of the front office when Furcal’s elbow showed improvement in November.   You are paying an aging ballplayer another 7 million dollars to hopefully play in 2013.  You gamble and hope he comes to camp, makes throws, starts games and does well.   The Cardinals seemed to come to camp with few questions and little worry.  That, my die hard fans or casual lookers, was a false impression.  Trouble has surfaced and is sticking around.   This is an unfortunate situation.   The gamble backfired and Furcal tested the elbow and it blew up Wainwright style.   Bye bye 7 million.   I get mad about them doing nothing in the winter and I think, well, who was out there?  Stephen Drew.  Really?  For 9 million dollars, you want to bring him on board.  16 million dollars to a past his prime decent guy and an aging former All Star.   No way.  Trade for the Indians young shortstop or the Rangers solid shortstop.  Sure, if you want to give up at least two young pitching prospects.   Mo didn’t break and stayed with his gamble, all his chips on red.   It didn’t work out.  Now he is stuck with Pete Kozma and some guy I want to call Roger who is really former cub Ronny Cedeno.  Two weeks into camp, and even Mo said on the radio today that the older Ex-Cub isn’t doing well.  Cue the Kozma uprising.  Pete homered today.   Pete is the shortstop.  Remember what he did against the Nationals.   Good.  Remember what he did against the Giants.  Yeah, I know.  Scramble those two together and that is what you get.  A person who needs to overachieve.  Back to the bad gamble.   Along with Furcal going down, Chris Carpenter walks in and says he is done.  Crying while he speaks over the phone.  Toughest man in the world(who has Chuck Norris’ rib in his shoulder somewhere) is breaking down.   This happened a month ago.   You are watching two guys now sit on the bench making a combined 19 million dollars.   Stop, think, slice up the Benjamins and eat up.   Your other ace, Wainwright, is discussing a long term deal with the team that is going up and down depending on the day.  It’s a lot of money and years because other teams went crazy with their ace and your guy is coming off TJ surgery himself.   If you wait and he has an explosive 2013, you are paying him 24 million dollars in 2014.  Sign him now and it may only be 18-20.  What do you do?  Albert 2.0 or a more Yadi Molina type ending?   Also, Carlos Beltran, your 12 million dollar balky kneed outfielder is playing in the World Baseball Classic.  That’s like letting another country borrow a bunch of diamonds for an exhibition and hoping to get them back.   You also have a key piece of your bullpen, Mitchell Boggs, throwing for the USA in the same tournament.  Lots of key pieces around the table.  You have a rotation that will be dominated for young unproven men.  You have a player with 85 year old ankles playing third base.  A guy who fucks up his legs every year at first base.  A center fielder who crashes into walls.  A left fielder who likes to deadlift 500 pounds in season and hurt his back.  A catcher who doesn’t mind collisions at home plate.  A bench that is dominated by young unproven men.  A closer who….has a big beard and pitched very well in 2012(had nothing on my boy Motte there).    Anyway, a supposedly smooth spring has turned into a typical St. Louis Cardinals spring.   Let’s all say it.  FUCK!  Enjoy the rest of the fake games and take your meds now.

 

Keep this in mind.   Trevor Rosenthal is better suited for bullpen.   Imagine a Rosenthal-Boggs-Motte end of game door slam crew.   Deadly for teams.   Our team has pitching to spare and pushing a cannon arm like RosenGAS to 5-6 innings hurts the rotation. Keeping him as a late inning bullet means the starter just needs to give 6 quality innings every night.  Think about it.  Shelby Miller and Joe Kelly are more suited for the rotation than Rosenthal, who carries a deadly offspeed pitch and a 101 mph propane heater that has a little movement to it.  

 

What else?

 

101.1’s The Fast Lane is a decent guilty pleasure radio show.   Randy Karraker is a know it all fossil, Chris Duncan knows his baseball and D’ Marco Farr needs to go off and be fat somewhere else.  He can barely talk football without a huge bias streak entering the room and knows little about baseball or hockey.   He annoys the hell out of me, yet I listen to these three guys every day after work.  Why not give Steve Savard a football show, Duncan a baseball show and Kelly Chase and Tony Twist a hockey show.  All these guys know their sport and aren’t overly bias and are fun to listen to.   Two thugs, a tryout football player and a failed left fielder who owns a ring.  Go with it.

 

The Rams don’t have to resign running back Steven Jackson, but have to either select an impact back in the draft or make a run at Michael Turner.  Sam Bradford can’t take over this offense by himself yet. He isn’t that type of quarterback and the offense isn’t designed around him.   

 

Danny Amendola deserves to get paid.  That man has went from little known slot receiver to the the best slot receiver in the NFC and a reliable if fragile football player.   He is good, tough and the Rams need to figure out a fair balance in a long term deal.  He gets hurt a lot but he is worth the cash.  Without him in the lineup, our offense looked one note and lost.  He is too valuable to let go.  YES, the Rams could use another wide receiver.  A big name.   Will it happen?  NO.  I would like to see Brian Quick given a bigger role along with Chris Givens.  Brendon Gibson is too inconsistent.  Tight end anyone?

 

Dead Man Down is worth seeing for its cast, director and gritty crime thriller story.  This critic hasn’t seen a film in 16 days.   That’s what having a small yet reliable staff can do.  Save you time.   

 

Banshee is awesome and has two hours left on its season.    Doom and gloom will be coming into this week’s episode with the pasts of its two central characters, career criminals turned noble role players, starting to lose their grip on their second lives.   My twitter feed is exploding with material about this show because I can’t stop thinking about it.   

 

Let me frank here.  Justified is still the best show on television.   In it’s fourth season, the lawman series continues to break boundaries and maintain its story and versatility in character development.  Timothy Olyphant and Walter Goggins are the heart and soul.  

 

What else???  Losing my ideas here.  Let’s play 5.

 

Warm weather is making a cameo.  

Baseball games for real start in less than a month. 

The Cardinals can STILL hang with the Reds in my opinion.   Remember.  Pitching is huge in a 162 game season.

The Movies are dead right now.  No REAL killer film yet in 2013.  Normal.  Is Dead Man Down that killer film?  Tomorrow I will know.

This man is starting a new job next on March 18th. Details to come.  

 

Goodnight and good luck,

 

D. Buffa