Kuzul

When you see random and out of nowhere reports on a day like today, your first reaction is that it’s a bunch of malarkey. After all, today is April Fools Day, which by far and away is the dumbest of all the gimmick days in a year.

When the highly respected Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported that St. Louis Cardinals’ OF Matt Holliday would be out four-to-six weeks following appendectomy surgery, I thought it was a cruel April Fools Day joke.

Unfortunately for Cardinal fans, his report was 100 percent true. Holliday will undergo appendectomy surgery today and will miss the next four-to-six weeks of the season.

I am beginning to think that 2011 won’t be the Cardinals’ season.

This is just as big a blow to the Cardinals as losing Adam Wainwright. Why would any team pitch to Albert Pujols now?

Until Holliday comes back, look for Tony LaRussa to use a combination of John Jay and Allen Craig in left.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg

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ST. LOUIS, MO—Mere hours after hitting a solo home run in the home and season opener for the St. Louis Cardinals, Matt Holliday will undergo emergency surgery to remove his appendix.

He began feeling severe pain upon returning home after the Cards lost 5-3 in extra innings to the San Diego Padres.

Club GM John Mozeliak was unsure of how long the slugger will be out of the lineup and could only say that they will wait for the results of the surgery before making any roster moves. “It could be something like six or seven days, it could be more,” Mozeliak said. “We don’t know at this point. We certainly will know more later.”

Holliday now admits to feeling soreness as early as Thursday that persisted and became stronger through Friday morning. He was examined by a doctor Friday morning, but the cause of the soreness was still undetermined.

Doctors will be able to remove the appendix before it ruptures, which bodes well for his recovery time. However, the Cardinals are now down to four outfielders in his absence, most notably Colby Rasmus and Lance Berkman.

More information will be made available as the story develops and after his surgery is complete.

Quotes courtesy of stltoday.com.

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St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Matt Holliday is out indefinitely following an appendectomy on Friday.

The team has not yet set a timetable for his return, but the St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes it usually takes four to six weeks before a player can begin “strenuous activity.”

Holliday’s absence will create a giant hole in the Cardinals and fantasy lineups alike. The St. Louis cleanup hitter went 3-for-4 with a home run and two RBI on Opening Day.

In the meantime, Jon Jay and Allen Craig will fill in for him in left field. From a fantasy perspective, they offer some value in deep and N.L.-only leagues.

Jay, a left-handed hitter, compiled a .301 average over 1,564 career minor league at-bats before his first taste of big league action last season.

The 26-year-old offers a high average, but limited power/speed potential, as made evident by his 2010 line with St. Louis: 47 runs, four home runs, two steals and a .300 average in 287 at-bats, mostly from the No. 2 hole.

Craig, also 26, offers much better power potential. In 1,906 career minor league at-bats, Craig hit 90 HRs with a .308 batting clip. In his first taste of big league action in 2010, he hit .246 with four HRs in 114 at-bats.

The Cardinals have an off day today, but will resume action tomorrow at home against Padres southpaw Clayton Richard. For what it’s worth, Jay (a lefty) hit southpaws to the tune of .308 last season. Craig struggled against lefties, batting just .208.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: FANTASY BASEBALL INSIDERS

Fantasy Baseball Insiders’ 2011 Big Board

• 2011 Big Board: The Top 100 Players

2011 Position Rankings

• Catcher
• First Base
• Second Base
• Third Base
• Shortstop
• Outfield
• Starting Pitcher

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Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

I gotta’ say…it must SUCK to be a Cardinals fan right now.

After dominating for the last decade (seven playoff appearances in 10 years), the Cards started the ‘10s out with a thud. And, while losing never feels good, St. Louis’ pain was heightened by being ousted by the Cincinnati Reds, a bitter rival.

Still, heading into the 2010 offseason, there was hope in St. Louis. National pundits were quick to write the Reds’ success off as a fluke, and Cardinals fans took comfort in the belief that a top-heavy roster led by Albert Pujols would bring them quickly back to the top of the mountain.

Then began the Pujols circus, a four-month negotiation disaster that got the Cardinals no closer to signing their star to a new deal (Pujols now enters the last year of his contract). As of February 23, the Pujols camp put a moratorium on contract negotiations, as the future Hall of Famer was intent upon focusing on his Spring Training preparations.

Finally, as if angst levels weren’t already at a record high in St. Louis, it was announced Friday that club ace Adam Wainwright would be shelved for the season due to injury (perhaps you heard). Wainwright will undergo Tommy John Surgery, a procedure that takes more than a year to come back from.

Indeed, these days St. Louis is a miserable place to be, and no amount of Budweiser will change that. If baseball in St. Louis was ever in need of a savior, it is now.

Now, more than ever, heads turn back to Pujols. Not only is Pujols’ 2011 performance now more important than ever (though, unless he can pitch, he won’t come close to replacing the value of Wainwright), but the Cardinals organization must really be feeling the heat to get something done to keep their stud in town for the long haul.

Last week, I identified 10 things that needed to happen if the Cardinals were to trade Pujols. Now, I will outline the five things the Cardinals could (and should) do, if they are serious about re-signing their star.

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Shhh…do you hear that?

If you’re a baseball fan, a sports enthusiast, or if you simply happen to hail from the Greater St. Louis area, I’m sure you are hearing the same thing I am.

Silence.

That’s right, for the first time in recent memory, the day’s sporting headlines have not been dominated by Albert Pujols chatter and, I must say, the silence is deafening.

I was truly surprised to visit the ESPN website today and not see ONE update on the Pujols contract saga. Soon after, I was downright SHOCKED to see that Pujols’ name was absent from the home page of MLB.com as well. It looks like, at least for the time, Pujols is staying true to his word and ceasing contract negotiations after his self-imposed Wednesday afternoon deadline.

To say the Pujols’ story has been well-documented would be like saying 12 year-old girls like Justin Bieber; both are vast, vast understatements. Yet, while the obligatory “what if Pujols were traded to my team” articles and blogs have surfaced, most of the Pujols coverage has been dedicated to dissecting the extension he is demanding from the Cardinals, or the kind of deal he could get if he were to enter free agency in 2012.

The media’s focus on Pujols agreeing to an extension with St. Louis is not unfounded, however. Pujols has made it clear that he wants to retire a Cardinal, and that he will block any trade on the strength of his 10-5 no-trade clause (10 years in the Majors, five with one team).

However, one has to believe that, especially in a situation that has gotten as sticky as Pujols’ (Pujols and the Cards are way off on their numbers), nothing is outside of the realm of possibility.

Straight out of the “stranger things have happened” file, here are the ten things that must go down in order for Albert the Great to be traded.

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As the winter meetings get under way and the hot stove starts to heat up, now seems like an appropriate time to look back at last year’s free agent class and see how all of the off season signings panned out for each team.

So here is the first part of what will be a two part series, grading each team’s free agent signings from last off season.

Grading was based on the assumption that a “C” indicated that the signings were neutral and then were based on the positive or negative impact of the player’s performance or their contracts.

For each team, I named what I feel was their best move and their worst move.

We will start with the National League, be on the lookout for the American League version sometime later this week.

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After Albert Pujols won a Gold Glove quite handily, some might have thought he’d be done collecting awards this offseason.

Not so for Pujols, who, along with teammate Matt Holliday, claimed a Silver Slugger on Thursday.

Pujols claimed the first baseman’s award after leading the league with 42 homers and 118 RBI. His .312 batting average was good for sixth in the league. Holliday was one double shy of league-leader Jayson Werth.

For Holliday, the award does mean something. It’s his fourth, and if he wants to improve on his borderline Hall of Fame chances, piling up these awards will look good in the eyes of the voters. He missed out on the 2007 MVP award to Jimmy Rollins, so he’ll need to stack up as many accolades as he can.

But for Albert, the award may have a much more immediate impact.

The one thing that Pujols’s award does is gives us a clearer image of the MVP race. Pujols’s main competitors for his third straight MVP are Rockies outfielder Carlos Gonzalez, who also took home a Silver Slugger of his own, and Reds first baseman Joey Votto, who Pujols beat out for the Silver Slugger.

While these awards don’t guarantee Pujols the Most Valuable Player crown, or even make him the favorite, it stills shows that he is a force to be reckoned with. Prior to the Silver Slugger announcement, most people had anointed Votto as the favorite for the MVP.

Now, after sweeping the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger at first base, the coaches and managers who vote on the awards have shown that they believe Albert is unequivocally the best first baseman in the league.

Don’t get me wrong. I know that the votes are locked in, and I know that Albert’s still not the favorite. But for those who banked on Votto (myself included), this has to paint a different picture. Albert’s been anointed as the best all-around first baseman in the game once again, and I don’t know how you can be the best player in the league if there’s a decidedly superior player, offensively and defensively, at the same position.

The winners were Brewers pitcher Yovani Gallardo, Braves catcher Brian McCann, Pujols, Marlins second baseman Dan Uggla, Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, and Holliday, Gonzalez, and the Brewers’ Ryan Braun in the outfield.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

For baseball fans, the pinnacle of the six-month grind awaits on the horizon.

With only a few weeks left in the regular season, it’s hard not to let the mind drift to October baseball, playoff drama, and the crowning of a new World Series champion.

Currently, three divisions stand all but settled.

The Minnesota Twins have a six-game lead in the American League Central, the Cincinnati Reds have a seven-game lead in the National League Central, and the Texas Rangers sit eight games up in the A.L. West.

That leaves us with three divisions up for grabs.

The New York Yankees are a half-game back of the Tampa Bay Rays in the A.L. East after losing their fourth straight.

The Philadelphia Phillies hold a one-game lead over the Atlanta Braves in the N.L. East.

And the San Diego Padres are a half-game up on the San Francisco Giants with the Colorado Rockies only two-and-a-half games back in the N.L. West.

If there’s a God, we will get to enjoy the best thing other than Game 7 of a World Series: a one-game playoff to decide the division. A 163^rd game, if you will. 

In anticipation of our wish, we are ranking the top “tiebreakers” of all time. 

There’s only been 13 of these gems ever.

Keep in mind, one-game playoffs are only used to decide divisions and wild cards today. But prior to 1969—the year the League Championship Series debuted—these tiebreakers also decided league pennants.

Here’s the best eight tiebreakers ever played.

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After nearly wasting Jeff Suppan’s first effective outing of the year, the St. Louis Cardinals needed a late rally and an admirable performance from rookie Allen Craig on his 26th birthday to move back into first place in the National League’s Central division.

After leaving seven men on through the first seven frames and trailing by four, the Cardinals finally struck in the eighth, when Craig, who was filling in for star first baseman Albert Pujols, doubled home both Brendan Ryan and Jon Jay. Two batters later, Randy Winn’s two-out single brought home Craig to make the score 4-3.

With two out and one on in the ninth, Albert Pujols stepped up as a pinch-hitter. After running the count full, Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton got the three-time MVP to ground out to short.

After Cardinals’ fireman Ryan Franklin locked down Los Angeles in the top of the ninth, the Cardinals rallied for the win in the bottom of the inning.

It started with Yadier Molina’s pinch-hit single, which came on a sixth-pitch slider out of the zone from Broxton. Then shortstop Brendan Ryan, not known for his offense, sacrificed Molina over to second. Felipe Lopez, who got the start at third base, flew out to right, bringing the Cardinals down to their final out.

Jon Jay, who has impressed St. Louis with his hitting abilities, showed good plate discipline by running the count full and then coaxing out a free pass.

Allen Craig then singled to center, tying the game at 4-4 and bringing sweet swinging left fielder Matt Holliday to the plate. At this point, Holliday had left four men on base. It was his single to deep right that scored Molina from second and won the game for the Cardinals, giving them their first four-game sweep of Los Angeles since taking consecutive doubleheaders July 7-8, 1987.

Ryan Franklin received the win, and combined with Cincinnati’s loss at the hands of Colorado, the Cardinals moved back into the top spot in the NL Central standings. Broxton threw 44 pitches in his first loss of the season.

Suppan pitches six innings of one-run ball, allowing five hits and walking one to receive his first quality start of the year, but not did not factor in the decision.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The players are swinging for the fences tonight and the big sticks are getting broken out.

The only things fans aren’t real happy about is the fact that besides Matt Holliday, David Ortiz, and Miguel Cabrera, there aren’t those big names participating that can put on a show for the fans in Anaheim.

Guys like Chris Young, Vernon Wells, Corey Hart, and Hanley Ramirez don’t really make the every day Home Run Derby fan stand up and take notice.

So, in case you didn’t get a chance to catch it on television, here’s a round-by-round breakdown of how things went tonight and the standout performers.

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