Quotebook: Cardinals 5, Pirates 1
Obviously, I know the situation and I’m just going to continue to do my thing. I have no control over it, absolutely no control over it.
– Todd Wellemeyer
Wellemeyer continues to "do his thing," and do it well. Contrary to some claims that it was the Colonel’s longest outing of his career, Wellemeyer actually fell a batter short of equalling his best mark of 27 batters faced, set twice already this season (4/23, 4/28). To give an idea of how well he’s pitched this year, last night’s start (63 FIGS) was "only" his third-best of the season.
There’s a lot that goes into it. I would always want to be more efficient. But I’m going to stick with the basics. Just go out there and play the game. I’m not going to look too much into it and try to turn into a Greg Maddux.
– Wellemeyer
We’re not sure if by turning into "a Greg Maddux," the Colonel means becoming "a cerebral, thinking-man’s pitcher," or simply "a finesse" pitcher. We’re only able to comment on the latter, and it’s fairly evident that Wellemeyer is the bizzarro Maddux: Here’s a look at Wellemeyer’s career Power-Finesse Ratio (PFR) compared with Maddux’s, along with the 2008 numbers for the NL and the Cardinals (as a reminder, above 1.00 is considered a "power" pitcher):
A little Jim Edmonds-esque out there. I thought I timed it perfect.
– Rick Ankiel
Ankiel would seem to have both Edmonds’s skill behind the pitcher and the erstwhile Cardinal centerfielder’s cockiness behind the microphone. As many accolades as Ankiel has gotten for his hitting, his defense may be the best part of his game. He’s getting a lot of play for his throws, a few of which aren’t merely sophomoric, gaudy shows of strength, and his catch last night will surely earn him some cred with fellow ballplayers. With a major-league leading .963 RZR and the requisite highlight-film plays to go with it, is it too hard to imagine that Ankiel would win a Gold Glove?
If a guy gets on I’m not really worried about it because I know I can get a sinker and get a weak pop-up. There were probably three or four hits that didn’t even make it out of the infield and a couple that just blooped over … If I’d come out and not thrown really well, then I’d try and figure out what was going on. But I felt confident that I was going to get every pitch over for strikes. For me, it was a positive, but I’d much rather have the win and the team have the win.
— Paul Maholm
Extra points for Maholm for tacking on the "rather have the team win," but this guy has the right idea about pitching. Many of the Cardinals’ 11 hits off the Pirate starter were clunkers that happened to fall (with all due respect to Rick Ankiel, Yadier Molina and Cesar Izturis, they weren’t exactly knocking the cover off the ball). Maholm sensed what the stats show: Behind him, the Pirate defense converted only .522 of the Cardinals’ balls in play into outs. Partly it was due to some shoddy fielding (shortstop Luis Rivas comes to mind), but bad "luck" had something to do with it, too.
Compare Maholm’s DER of .522 to Wellemeyer’s above-average .833 and their respective hit totals lose their impact. Indeed, Maholm actually outpitched Wellemeyer, with a 67 FIGS to the Colonel’s 63. Oh, and speaking of DER, Jason Isringhausen finally got some breaks last night, as three fly outs all stayed in the park.
By the way, kudos to home-plate ump Eric Cooper, whose animated pre-inning signals to the press box to indicate lineup changes are worthy of Marcel Marceau. For people in the ballpark keeping score (for whom it’s important to know where each player in a double switch is batting in the lineup), the umpire is the only way to know. In our book, Cooper is the Ronald Reagan ("The Great Communicator") of umpires.