MLB st louis Cardinals

Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.

A week ago Sunday night, Mariano Rivera earned his 500th save. Which should make us realize a few things about closers:

• The truly great ones are the those who can sustain it for a long time. Getting 40 saves a year for 12 years would still leave one short of 500.

• Even getting to the second tier isn't easy. Only 18 players have had as many as six 30-save seasons: Rivera, Trevor Hoffman, Lee Smith, Billy Wagner, Troy Percival, John Wetteland, Dennis Eckersley, John Franco, Jason Isringhausen, Robb Nen, Jeff Reardon, Todd Jones, Jose Mesa, Roberto Hernandez, Randy Myers, Rick Aguilera, Tom Henke and Todd Worrell.

In other words, the shelf life for a typical closer is a short one. They can burst onto the scene – and flame out quickly (right, Mr. Gagne?)

• But it also means that teams can find short-term solutions for the ninth inning any number of ways.

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That the milestones keep coming for Albert Pujols. He went into the record book in grand fashion Friday night, belting his 31st home run of the season. The drive was his fourth grand slam of the season and 10th of his career, both Cardinals' franchise records. The latter mark nudges him past Stan Musial on the club list.

"He broke Stan Musial's career record?" manager Tony La Russa asked. "I'll go bow to his feet here in a second. That's a serious point to make."

Pujols is on pace to finish 2009 with 61 home runs. And just in case that's not enough for you, it came in the eighth inning with the Cardinals down 3-0 to the Reds. St. Louis went on to beat Cincinnati 7-4.

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Things went pretty well for Jack Clark during his three years as a St. Louis Cardinal in the mid-1980s. He hit 66 homers and the Cardinals went to the World Series in 1985 and 1987. Sure, they dropped each of those series in seven games and the '86 Cardinals finished 28 1/2 games behind the Mets, but you'd think 20-plus years of perspective might make any leftover pain go away.

You'd think wrong.

Clark still harbors a honey of a grudge against that Mets club and aired his grievances well ahead of the Festivus season.

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That the Red Sox probably did not sleep well Tuesday night.

Boston held a nine-run lead in Baltimore with nine outs to go. Then the Orioles exploded for five runs on seven hits in the seventh inning and five runs on six hits in the eighth, handing Jonathan Papelbon his second blown save of the season. When George Sherrill struck out Jason Bay with two on in the top of the ninth, it finished off a wild 11-10 victory for the O's.

[Said Orioles manager Dave Trembley:] "It was the shootout at the OK Corral except it was Camden Yards."

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It hasn't been the greatest week for Cubs manager Lou Piniella. Not only is he feeling the heat of the Chicago media with the Cubs scuffling, but he's also gotten into an argument with Milton Bradley in which he called his right fielder a "piece of [expletive]." Regardless of whether the exchange should have ever left the clubhouse or not, it's not exactly the type of thing you want the world to know about.

All of this was done after a recent poll by Sports Illustrated in which Major League players were asked anonymously which manager in baseball they would least like to play for, and which one they'd most like to play for. Guess which one Sweet Lou emerged "victorious" in.

Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.

"This concludes our test of the emergency attendance enhancement system. We now return to the regularly scheduled season."

Yes, the 13th season of interleague play wraps up Sunday, except for a Cubs-White Sox makeup game. We have survived six San Diego-Seattle games (that's more zeroes than an A-Rod paycheck).

We didn't learn much we didn't already know: the system has inherent flaws and the American League rules.

For the sixth straight year, the AL has had** the better record in interleague play – 129-108 going into today.

Take out Cleveland and Oakland, and the AL is 119-84.

"It probably is" as big a gap between leagues as in past years, one AL team official said, "until you get to the World Series. Then it doesn't matter."

One of the more interesting injury-related developments this season has been the spate of anxiety, stress and other emotional/mental issues cited as reasons for sending players to the disabled list. Dontrelle Willis, Joey Votto and Khalil Greene, who missed two games after a previous stint on the DL, have all been struck with these ailments, which has generated two general schools of response.

The first is sympathetic. Many people in this country have suffered from such problems, or have close friends or family members who have suffered, and they know that being a talented athlete doesn't make you immune. The other camp feels that these are just excuses for teams to stash away players performing poorly.

The Cardinals, in need of offense, have traded with the Indians for infielder/outfielder Mark DeRosa. St. Louis sent right-hander Chris Perez to Cleveland, along with a player to be named.

DeRosa, acquired from the Cubs in the offseason, had hit .270 for the Indians, with 47 runs scored, 13 doubles, 13 homers and 50 RBI in 71 games. He provides the kind of versatility Cards manager Tony La Russa uses well.

Perez was 1-1 with a save and a 4.18 ERA in 29 appearances. He began the 2009 season at Triple-A Memphis, going 1-0 with two saves and a 0.00 ERA in three appearances before being recalled to St. Louis on April 15th. He has held big-league hitters to a .195 average. He will report to the Indians in the next few days, the team said.

With the Cubs imploding and the Brewers still in desperate need of pitching, the road to a playoff return for the St. Louis Cardinals is looking more and more wide open. The Cardinals see this opportunity themselves.

As such, they have begun keeping tabs on A's slugger Matt Holliday should Oakland decide to move him before the trade deadline, a major league source told FanHouse's Jeff Fletcher. St. Louis is cautious because of the size of Holliday's paycheck -- $13.5 million this year -- and his sagging performance in his first season away from Coors Field, but the team is interested in getting perennial MVP candidate Albert Pujols some help in the middle of the order.

Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch also reported that the team is stepping up its efforts to bring Holliday back to the National League for a stretch run.

A few weeks ago there was quite a bit of controversy surrounding Phillies outfielder Raul Ibanez, steroids and a blog. More specifically, a media firestorm started when a blogger named JRod wrote a post on MidwestSportsFans.com that looked at the possibility of Ibanez using steroids because of the way he'd been playing in the 2009 season.

The Philadelphia Inquirer then picked up on the story, brought it to Ibanez, Raul responded and then the next thing we knew Jerod Morris, JRod, was showing up on ESPN's Outside the Lines and was berated by Ken Rosenthal and John Gonzalez. Morris was shown off as the latest example of all things wrong with blogging and had to be reprimanded for his seemingly innocuous deed.