..:Official 2008 NL Central Thread:..Congratulations Chicago Cubs...:

[h1][/h1]
[h1]Pujols considering having torn elbow ligament fixed[/h1]
ESPN.com news services

Updated: September 9, 2008, 9:22 AM ET


Albert Pujols told a St. Louis television station that he's considering offseason surgery to repair a damaged ligament in his right elbow, a procedure that could cost him the start of next season.

Pujols, who was hosting his annual charity golf tournament on Monday, told KSDK-TV that he's thinking about surgery to correct the ligament damage, which was diagnosed last winter. Pujols chose to play this season instead of having surgery and is leading the National League with a .359 batting average entering Tuesday's games. He has 166 hits with 38 doubles and 32 home runs and 95 RBIs.

But the St. Louis Cardinals and Pujols have both said that surgery on the elbow will eventually be necessary. He's been playing with the injury since 2003.

"I'm thinking about it; I'm thinking really hard," he said. "There's just a lot of things next year going on, the All-Star Game [in St. Louis], the [World Baseball] Classic, you know. But I think in the long run, the sooner that I get it done, the better it's going to be for me, because I'm going to heal quicker than if I wait two or three more years. But it needs to be done."

Recovery time for the surgery is estimated at seven to nine months, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. So even if Pujols elects to have surgery immediately after the season ends, he might still miss the opening months of the 2009 season.

Pujols is five RBIs shy of his eighth consecutive season with at least a .300 average, 30 home runs and 100 RBIs. He has six home runs and 13 RBIs in his past 13 games.

He recently said that that the swelling and soreness he experienced in the elbow last season has not been a problem this season, according to the Post-Dispatch.

"Last year was a little bit up and down, [and I couldn't find myself at the plate where I am right now," he said over the weekend, according to the newspaper. "I struggle a little bit through that. These last six weeks I'm driving the ball the other way. ... That's why I struggled last year. I couldn't find myself for even a game at the plate."


[h1][/h1]
[h1]La Russa 'looking forward to giving' closing job to Carpenter[/h1]
Associated Press


Updated: September 8, 2008, 3:56 PM ET




ST. LOUIS -- With Chris Carpenter limited to relief duty the rest of the season, the St. Louis Cardinals may be calling on their ace to get the final outs.

Whenever he's available, perhaps once a series, manager Tony La Russa said the 2005 NL Cy Young winner will be his first choice as the closer.

"I'm looking forward to giving it to Carp," La Russa said Sunday, echoing remarks from the previous day. "We'd have some fun."

The Cardinals have been leaning on 22-year-old rookie Chris Perez since demoting Jason Isringhausen for the second time this year. Perez had six straight saves before blowing two straight, although he got the last two outs for his seventh save in 10 opportunities overall in Sunday's 3-1 victory over the Marlins.

Lately, another fireballing rookie, Jason Motte, has been used in late-inning situations. It's a matter of necessity after Isringhausen twice failed to hold the closer role and Ryan Franklin also faltered after some initial success.

"It would be great to be able to use Chris and Jason in the sixth, seventh and eighth," La Russa said. "That's the way it should work this year."

The Cardinals lead the major leagues with 30 bullpen losses and 30 blown saves, a major reason they're five games behind the Brewers in the NL wild-card standings entering a three-game series against the NL Central-leading Cubs on Tuesday. They're not quite ready to give up.

"This game is too crazy to give up on something, especially the way we've played all year," Adam Wainwright said after beating the Marlins on Sunday. "There's no quit in this team, there's no quit in me."

The same goes for Perez, who can't recall blowing saves in consecutive games at any level in his career.

"That's one of the good things about the game, you get more chances," Perez said. "I was happy to be put out there again."

The next time a game is on the line, it figures to be Carpenter -- if he's available. That's a big if, because the former 21-game winner must be handled with care. He wasn't available on Sunday, after experiencing difficulty warming up on Friday.

Carpenter injured his shoulder in his third start of the season coming off reconstructive elbow surgery that limited him to one start in 2007, and the Cardinals decided to use the right-hander in the bullpen last week rather than wait for him to feel perfect with the season winding down.

Carpenter is 0-1 with a 1.76 ERA in 15 1/3 innings and has been used only once since coming off the DL on Sept. 1, working around two hits in a scoreless inning at Arizona last Tuesday. That was Carpenter's first appearance since Aug. 10, when he left in the sixth inning of a start against the Cubs, and his first relief outing since Oct. 1, 2000, at Cleveland, when he was with the Blue Jays. He has no career saves or save chances.

With Carpenter, the Cardinals are attempting to duplicate their success with Wainwright, but in reverse. Wainwright was the stand-in closer for the Cardinals' 2006 World Series run after Isringhausen had hip surgery in September, won 14 games in '07 and is an impressive 9-3 with a 2.85 ERA this year although he missed two months with a tendon injury to the middle finger on his pitching hand.

La Russa minimized the risk with Perez on Sunday, starting the ninth with left-hander Randy Flores against Mike Jacobs, who homered off Perez on Friday in the Marlins' 4-1 11-inning win. Flores ended up retiring pinch-hitter Wes Helms.

Rookie Kyle McClellan, normally a middle reliever, began warming up after Dan Uggla greeted Perez with a single. Perez said he never noticed while getting two routine outs to end it.

"I look back to see the lineup sometimes, see who's coming up, but I don't look at the bullpen," Perez said. "If they want to make a change, they want to make a change and it's out of my hands."

Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press
Click to expand...

2 interesting stories, it might be too late once Carp returns. It looks like our season is finshed.
Click to expand...
 
Lets go Dempster tonight! We need this W....

Maybe Derrek Lee should lace these up....

2196ltt.jpg
 
Man, Fukudome must really be struggling. He's never in the lineup anymore.
eek.gif


I hope he gets some things going soon, at the very least his D in right is pretty good. His arm probably keeps a few guys from trying to score here and there.
 
Encarnacion and Bruce just went back-to-back...chasing Suppan. 4-1 Reds in Milwaukee, 6th inning.
 
Originally Posted by AM 1 FIEND

Should be an easy sweep for the Cubs.
Click to expand...
Don't say that......Cards are gonna win this first game after Dempster blew the lead. offense needs to get back its timely hitting. Lot ofrunners left on base....as usual.
 
Damn it ! Thats why you dont have players who dont bunt, bunt. Freakin terribly....double play off a bunt and just like that the inning is over. god dman thisfreakin team, i'm tired of the offense being crap, get in freakin gear butt munchers.
 
Damnit cubs... The stros could use some help over here. Maybe the reds can pull out a win against milwaukee, even though they couldve just blown theiropportunity, bases were loaded with one out.
 
wow. we are losing games now like no other baseball team. we looked so good for the first 5 innings, and then we left the stadium. maybe we aren't goodenough. I know this is a slump, but it seems like this slump is in greater scale, compared to other teams. Cubs= we lose games like no other team and we losegames like no other team.

We gotta find a way to fix this quick. Or else we might not only lose the division, but the wildcard as well. Houston is red hot. If so, this will be worsethan 1969.

Forget about this, and this is definetly a heartbreaker, and get em back tomorrow. That's all I can say.
 
my co-worker said it best. This is not a slump, we're just choking ourselves. Three games, and if we won these three games through this span, then we'dbe in better shape.

Tuesday vs the Astros. bottom 7th. D-Lee is up with the bases loaded, one out. Pitcher(don't know his name) is throwing nothing but balls. Lee swings atthe second pitch and DP. We took assist in the lost.

Sunday vs the Reds, Ronny Cedeno. Nuff said, cuz he's a certified bum. DP or at least getting one out, letting the runner from third score, we're stillup by one, with two outs.

And then today. Not playing fundamentally sound ball.

Who knows what would've happened if these outcomes happened differently, but if we'd win these 3 games, instead of losses. We'd be in better shape,and this talk of a slump/choke wouldn't be discussed.

I need tomorrow to come quickly. I hate today.
 
Before this horrible stretch, the Cubs took advantage of their scoring opportunities. They were clutch, and put teams away late.

Now, they leave a ton of runners on base, they don't score late, and they let teams come back on them often.

It's over......
 
Originally Posted by aRog27

Before this horrible stretch, the Cubs took advantage of their scoring opportunities. They were clutch, and put teams away late.

Now, they leave a ton of runners on base, they don't score late, and they let teams come back on them often.

It's over......
Click to expand...
It's not over yet. It seems like we're headed towards that downward spiral of collapse, but we're not over, yet. If we do stink thisup, it will be more of us beating ourselves. I don't know what else. I'm stunned, and shocked. I'm sure this team is the same. The chemistry andtalent looked so good from April from August. Who would've thunk it? To play so badly like we are in September. Yeah, every team goes through these, butI'd rather not at all, or early in the season, than now.

It does not get any easier. Shall we tell 1969 to move over, make some room?
tired.gif
 
We've lost what......8 out of our last 9???? .......maybe when it's 14 out of 15 they'll get the message. I'm tired of it.
 
well if there's any good thing out of it, we're still in good shape. The moment of truth is when we play Milwaukee next tuesday, and/or if our leadshrinks before then.

I hear you, and I'm about to get a tall cold one once I get out of here. It's frustrating. Double that, when we lose to our rivals. Triple that, whenit's in their place. Quadruple that, when Pujols, kills us........uh, that's it.


Just bounce back tomorrow. Oh *$*$, Ted Lilly is pitching for us. Fk. I'm praying to God tonight that he doesn't stink it up.

EDIT: And milwaukee keeps losing and keeps helping us. Thank you, Brew Crew and thank you Dusty's boys. Hey, right now, how I feel, I'll take anythingpositive.
 
i can just imagine the anger of cubs fans when cedeno committed that error...
but you gotta remember that pinch hit 3 run jack by daryle ward against florida
pimp.gif
 
Where's the almighty Brew Crew? I would rejoice to the baseball God's if they miss the postseason.

As for Cubs/Card, what do we have? Wednesday, Looper vs. Lilly and Thursday Wellemeyer vs. Harden. With those matchups, I think either team could take theselast two. That being said, Cards take both.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

eracism
Texas ranked worst state for quality of life
5 6 7
Replies
165
Views
9K
Mark Antony
M

Latest News

View All News

The ultimate sneaker enthusiast community.

Site contents may not be incorporated into AI training data or any other derivative works without prior express written consent.

Links to participating merchants may generate referral or affiliate commissions that help support our community. See our policies for details. NikeTalk is NOT affiliated with Nike Inc. in any way, shape, or form. All opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of Nike, Inc.

© 1999-2024 NikeTalk.com

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom