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Brandon Phillips escalated the Cardinals/Reds feud when he said this about the Cardinals:

“I’d play against these guys with one leg. We have to beat these guys. I hate the Cardinals. All they do is b—- and moan about everything, all of them, they’re little b——, all of ‘em. I really hate the Cardinals. Compared to the Cardinals, I love the Chicago Cubs. Let me make this clear: I hate the Cardinals.”

The comments led to the eventual brawl between the two clubs last night. Some have argued that Brandon Phillips may have been out of line, but here are the top 10 Reasons The Cardinals Are the Whiniest Team in MLB.

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Emotions got the best of both the St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night.

Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips made comments a few days earlier about the Cards that didn’t sit well with St. Louis catcher Yadier Molina.

Before the bottom of the first inning, the pair got into a heated argument and the benches cleared.

Managers Tony La Russa and Dusty Baker got involved. So did starting pitchers and former allies.

With a playoff chase on the line and bad blood, this rivalry won’t be going away anytime soon.

Here are five reasons why St. Louis and Cincinnati just made the race atop the NL Central division that much more interesting.

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The doctors call it a UCLR (ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction). Baseball players and fans call it Tommy John surgery—named after the pitcher who was the first to have the surgery in 1974. Fans of the Cardinals call it the surgery that saved former left-handed reliever Ken Dayley’s career, and also gave him spotlight from the way he recovered from it. Dayley recovered in an astonishing seven months where most pitchers take up to 14 months recovering from the operation. 

Ken Dayley was a left-handed reliever who used a snappy curve and fastball to become the Cardinals’ top left-handed reliever during his tenure with the team. He recovered from Tommy John surgery in 1986 to win a personal-best nine games in ’87.

In 1989, he set career highs with 71 appearances and 12 saves. He was particularly effective in the postseason, tossing 10 scoreless innings in two League Championship Series and allowing just one run in 10 2/3 World Series innings, including a relief win in Game 2 of the 1985 Fall Classic.

In short, Dayley was key cog in the Cardinals’ bullpen during his stint with the team.

Dayley is also the only known player to recover so quickly from the operation, but he shares the secret to his success in this article. 

As Dayley puts it in a New York Times article from 1989, “Dr. Frank Jobe told me to do what my arm would allow me to do, and I was proceeding at that pace (in reference to a 12-month recovery).

“But then on Dec. 19, 1986, the Cardinals told me they weren’t going to offer me a contract. Probably out of personal pride, which I shouldn’t have let get in the way, I said I’m going to do what I have to do.

“Without a contract, I was free to do what I wanted to do. I had been playing racquetball right-handed and I started playing left-handed. I started throwing before I was supposed to. If I was going to get a contract from somebody, I had to show I could pitch again.”

Former Cardinals reliever Rick Horton stated in a recent Cardinals telecast, “He was incredible. He came back in seven months and threw harder with more control, which is almost unheard of after seven months. Usually pitchers take close to two years to regain solid control of their pitches, but Dayley had better break and control after a short time, which is almost unheard of.”

Dayley’s speedy recovery has provoked major league ball players to question if they can return in such a short time, but doctors have advised not to rush the process. 

Rick Horton added, “The doctors made him sound as if he were a medical miracle.”

It would be something to marvel at if players such as Chris Carpenter, Billy Wagner, A.J. Burnett, Brian Wilson, and others to had comeback from their injuries in such a short time like Daly, but due to their situations they did not.

Perhaps Dayley is the medical miracle that he was made out to be, and he is an interesting story to revisit during a new era of products of the Tommy John surgery.

Maybe in the future a player will recover quickly like Dayley out of the same necessity, but until then, Ken Dayley is still the only Tommy John-produced medical miracle.  

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Brandon Phillips of the Cincinnati Reds has had his fill of the St. Louis Cardinals.  When asked about his health after fouling a ball off his leg, Phillips had this to say.

“I’d play against these guys on one leg.  We have to beat these guys. All they do is b—- and moan about everything, all of them. They’re little b——s, all of them. I really hate the Cardinals. Compared to the Cardinals, I love the Chicago Cubs. Let me make this clear: I hate the Cardinals.”

Many baseball fans share these sentiments.  Here are just 10 of literally dozens of reasons why it is so easy to hate the St. Louis Cardinals.

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It’s no secret that Mark Prior has talent.

That’s never been a problem for the one-time ace. It’s been injuries that have plagued the Southern California native.

So, why would any team be interested in the former flamethrower?

If you’re St. Louis Cardinals GM John Mozeliak, you should. Not because the Cardinals lack starting pitching. Far from it.

St. Louis currently has one of the most solid starting rotations in the National League, headed by aces Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter, and complimented by strong rookie pitcher Jaime Garcia and workhorse Jake Westbrook.

Instead, the Cardinals should attempt the most radical move of this season—making Mark Prior a relief pitcher.

When I first contemplated this idea, I thought I was crazy, as you probably do now. The Cardinals’ biggest need is at third base, and Prior isn’t going to help them there.

But the more I thought about it, the less crazy I seemed. At least to myself.

Didn’t Kerry Wood also have an injury history? And what did the Cubs do? They moved him to the bullpen, and in 2008, Wood was an All-Star closer.

Could Mark Prior do the same? I think so.

If Prior is willing to accept the league minimum to pitch out of the ‘pen for a playoff contender, I could see him returning to the major leagues. If he’s willing to grow a beard, he could pitch out of the ‘pen for the Cardinals.

Experts seem to agree that Prior’s injuries stemmed from mechanical flaws, part of a delivery that resembles those of Kris Benson and Stephen Strasburg. With Dave Duncan, the best pitching coach around, kinks in pitching mechanics can be worked out.

After losing Jason Motte to the 15-day DL, the Cardinals are now relying on Mike MacDougal’s fastball for strikeouts in big situations. When it comes to the big situations in the midst of a close race, or the playoffs, can you afford to trust MacDougal?

Prior is just signed on to pitch for the Orange County Flyers of the Golden Baseball League, a long way from St. Louis. Will he be able to pitch in big situations? Who knows?

I’m not saying they should insert him into the closer’s role. Sign him to a minor-league deal, and work him in to games slowly. If it works out, St. Louis has a good relief pitcher and Prior fulfills his dream of returning to the bigs. If not, no big deal, the Cardinals lose $40,000, and Prior heads home to SoCal.

In a recent workout at his alma-mater USC, a veteran major league scout said Prior was “just all right.”

Call me crazy, but for a bullpen that currently boasts Fernando Salas, “just all right” could be just what they need.

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The Cardinals head into Cincinnati on Monday looking to make up two games in the standings on their rivals, the Reds. For most of the season, the two teams have been locked in a to-the-death battle for first place in the National League Central. Who wins this three game series could likely have a major impact on the pennant race going forward.

With three of the National League’s best starters taking the mound for St. Louis, they have the early edge in this series.

The Cardinals will send Chris Carpenter, Jaime Garcia, and Adam Wainwright to the hill to face a solid but inexperienced Reds pitching staff. This season, the Cardinals’ first three starters have accounted for 32 of their 61 wins, second most in baseball, and by far the most among NL teams.

Monday, August 9, 7:10 PM ET, Great American Ball Park

Monday’s game will be a treat for Cardinals fans living outside of the Central Time Zone, as it will be broadcast nationally on ESPN.

The pitching matchup will pit longtime ace Chris Carpenter against rookie Mike Leake. Carpenter will serve as a trendsetter for the whole series. If he pitches well the Cardinals will have the early momentum.

He’s coming off a strong start against Houston, whom he held to two runs in 7.1 innings.

He also spun a gem against the Reds in his last meeting with Cincinnati, giving up just one run and four hits in eight innings. He’s won eight consecutive starts against the Reds, posting a 1.09 ERA, and beaten them three times this season.

He’s also been red-hot of late, posting a 1.64 ERA in his last five starts, all St. Louis wins.

If Carpenter can continue his dominance against the division leaders, the Cardinals could inch closer by the end of the night.

Mike Leake, who broke camp with the Reds without ever pitching in the minors, looks to rebound from his last start, where he was plagued by the big inning. In the second, Leake hit Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen in the back of the neck, and was visibly shaken. He threw 33 pitches that inning alone, facing 10 batters and allowing six hits.

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The St. Louis Cardinals’ run at an 18th National League pennant took a serious hit Tuesday, when the team learned that rookie third baseman David Freese re-injured a sore right ankle in a rehab start with Double-A Springfield, and will miss the rest of the 2010 season.

After injuring the ankle on June 27, Freese was expected to help rejuvenate a limping Cardinals offense sometime this month. Instead, it appears St. Louis will have to do without him.

But without adding another bat, another National League Central crown seems unlikely.

Right now, the plan going forward is to have rookie Allen Craig, who is hitting just .139/.200/.250, and has spent most of this time in the outfield.

Why in the world would a contending St. Louis squad make him the starting third baseman?

With weak bats at shortstop and second base already, the Cardinals cannot afford to have three-quarters of their infield and a third of their lineup below the offensive norm.

Although Craig projects as a strong major-league hitter going forward, right now he’s a “Quadruple-A” type who dominates the minors, but can’t seem to figure out MLB pitching. He’d be a relatively cheap option, but if St. Louis wants to show Albert Pujols that they are committed to winning now , they need to pursue a strong bat at the hot corner.

However, now that the 2010 trade deadline has passed, the Cardinals must try to improve their third base position through some other option.

Look no further than Joe Crede.

As a former White Sox and Twins third baseman, Crede has battled injuries in the past, but when he’s healthy, he’s one of the best hitting third basemen around, and one of the top fielders to boot. It still baffles me that no team made an effort to sign him.

But why should St. Louis take a chance on the oft-injured third sacker?

For starters, his glove would be an improvement over even Freese’s. Coming into the season, Bill Dewan ranked his as the third best glove available at the hot corner, behind only Adrian Beltre and Pedro Feliz. He also ranked third among free agent third basemen in UZR/150 last season, behind Beltre and Chone Figgins.

Beltre and Figgins snapped up multi-year deals, and Feliz caught on with Houston, making Crede the best defensive third baseman available.

Crede has pop at the plate, too. Although he’s been limited to less than 400 at-bats for the past three seasons, when healthy, he can slug it with the best of them.

In 2006, with a career high of 586 at-bats, he won a Silver Slugger Award, while also setting highs in batting average (.286), on-base percentage (.323), slugging percentage (.506), home runs (30), RBI (94),  total bases (275), and WAR (3.6), along with tying a career high with 31 doubles.

Now, was Crede’s 2006 season a fluke, or was he the real deal?

His AB/HR ratio that season was 18.13, not much less than his career ratio of 22.15. I’m not saying Crede can duplicate the power numbers he displayed in 2006, but he can give the Cardinals a home run threat that their lineup is currently missing.

So, would Crede, who could be had relatively cheaply (his salary in 2009 was $2.5 million), be a good signing for St. Louis?

In my opinion, if St. Louis doesn’t move on Crede, easily the best third baseman available on both the free agent market and on the waiver wire, their shot at the 2010 Central Division title could be shot.

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As a diehard Cubs fan, I know firsthand how good Albert Pujols is.

Every summer, King Albert punishes the Cubs and every other NL Central team. He is arguably the most consistent player in baseball today. He has been an All-Star in all but one of his years in the majors. He has finished top five in MVP voting in all but one of his years as a pro, winning it three times.

The damage caused by the steroid era is unfixable. Records and numbers were inflated drastically as players began cheating left and right. Everyone was a victim, from old-timers, to clean players, and last but not least, the fans.

The biggest victim of all is the King himself, Albert Pujols.    

It all started his rookie year. In 2001, Albert won the Rookie of the Year honors while batting .329, hitting 37 home runs, and driving in 130 runs all as a 20 year old. He finished fourth in the MVP ballot. The winner that year was Barry Bonds, who, as it’s widely assumed, took steroids.

The second man on the MVP ballot was Slammin Sammy, who has been linked to performance enhancing drugs.

The third man was Luis Gonzalez. Gonzalez had an interesting year, hitting 57 home runs and driving in 142 runs. With the exception of that season, Gonzalez had one season in his whole career where he hit more than 30 home runs, and he hit 31 that year. To me, that’s very suspicious.

In 2002 and 2003, King Albert finished second in the MVP voting, both years to Barry Bonds. In 2004 Albert finished third in the MVP voting, the winner being Barry Bonds.

Adrian Beltre was second in the voting, but he had a very suspicious season, comparable to Luis Gonzalez’s 2001 year.

In 2004, Beltre hit 48 home runs and had a batting average of .334. Not including 2004, Beltre has only gone above 25 home runs once, in 2007, when he hit 26. Also, not including 2004, Beltre has only one season where he has batted above .280, and that was in 2000(he is batting .333 so far this year). To me, that raises lots of question marks.

Finally, in 2005, justice was served, and King Albert won his first MVP. In 2006 Albert was second in the MVP voting to Ryan Howard. Howard has been consistent with his numbers and has not been linked to performance enhancing drugs, so he won fair and square.   In 2007, Albert had an off year and finished ninth in the voting. In 2008 and 2009, Albert won back to back MVP awards, and in 2010, he is working toward a three-peat.

In my opinion Albert Pujols should have seven, yes seven, MVP awards, which would make him the all-time leader in MVPs (Barry Bonds has seven). However, to assume Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Luis Gonzalez, and Adrian Beltre all used performance enhancing drugs might be unfair. Just because Luis Gonzalez and Adrian Beltre had one great year and were never able to duplicate it doesn’t mean they used performance enhancing drugs.

In addition, you can’t go back and take away MVP awards, but, hypothetically speaking, let’s say we can. I’ll let you be the judge. How many MVPs should Albert Pujols have?

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The St. Louis Cardinals, San Diego Padres, and Cleveland Indians all made a trade at the deadline Saturday.  San Diego and St. Louis, two teams making playoff pushes, made moves that filled a hole that they had on each of their respective rosters.

St. Louis acquired right-handed starting pitcher Jake Westbrook, Single A left-handed pitcher Nick Greenwood, and cash, while trading outfielder Ryan Ludwick to San Diego.

For the Cardinals this is a risky move.  The injuries to Brad Penny and Kyle Lohse have been a blow to the team, but it still maintains the second best ERA in the league.  The loss of Ludwick depletes an offense that ranks 9^th in the league in team batting average and 17^th in the league in runs scored.

This trade has two sides to it.  In order to determine if the Cardinals are winners or losers in this trade, the state of the team must be assessed. 

Currently the Cardinals continue to falter offensively and remain inconsistent.  Therefore, trading away a former All Star and prominent hitter in the lineup is a risky move.  Ludwick was also known to be a positive influence in the clubhouse.    

On the other side the Cardinals acquired a very serviceable starter in Jake Westbrook.  A pitcher of his caliber, with a groundball mindset that could be further enhanced under the tutelage of Dave Duncan, can improve a Cardinals rotation that has been inconsistent at the back end. 

Nick Greenwood will be able to bolster a minor league system that was depleted during the trade deadline of 2009.  He is something that the Cardinals do not have much of in their system, a left-handed pitcher.  Although he does not appear to be a premier impact prospect, he still could help replenish a farm system in need of an overhaul.

The last aspect of this trade, which I think is very essential to this deal taking place, is that Ludwick is due for a raise next season and the Cardinals have recently signed Matt Holliday to a rich contract with Pujols’ free agency looming.  It appears that the Cardinals are looking to the future and realizing that they cannot afford Ludwick for the 2011 season.

This move paves that way for John Jay, who is having a superb 2010 season thus far.  By making this move the Cardinals have basically said that we are confident in John Jay’s ability to play every day and that Brad Penny is most likely not going to pitch again this season.

This trade is hard to assess, but with Jake Westbrook’s track record and ground ball mindset, ultimately I think that the Cardinals have added a pitcher that could potentially give them one of the deepest rotations in the National League and enable them to surpass the Reds down the stretch during their push for the playoffs.

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So far this season, the St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds have been engaged in a dogfight among the top of the National League Central. With St. Louis recently solidifying their starting rotation, that may be about to change.

St. Louis pulled off a three-team deal with the San Diego Padres and Cleveland Indians, acquiring Indians starter Jake Westbrook while shipping right fielder Ryan Ludwick to San Diego. Meanwhile, the Reds, who have been in need of bullpen help all season, made no moves leading up to the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline.

“There were a couple yesterday that we had been working on for a while that fell apart at the end,” Cincinnati GM Walt Jocketty said after the 4:00 PM EST deadline had passed. “The players we were pursuing were not traded. They probably were not real serious.”

So, while quality arms like Octavio Dotel, Kyle Farnsworth, Kerry Wood, and Chad Qualls will all wear new uniforms in the coming days, none of them will suit up in Cin City.

Instead, the Reds look to build from within, with Russ Springer, former Cardinal Jason Isringhausen, and young Cuban fireballer Aroldis Chapman waiting in the minor leagues.

Meanwhile, St. Louis has bolstered their starting rotation with a quality fourth starter in Jake Westbrook. Ryan Ludwick, who was batting .281/.343/.484 with 11 home runs, 43 RBI, and 44 runs scored in 77 games, was sent to the NL West-leading Padres. St. Louis also receives Padres left-handed prospect Nick Greenwood and an undisclosed amount of cash from Cleveland.

“I think they gave up a pretty good hitter to get him,” Jocketty said of the Westbrook-
Ludwick deal. “Offense has been one of their struggles of late. He’s a good addition for them but they also lost a very good offensive player.”

But although they traded Ludwick, the Cardinals are faithful that rookie Jon Jay, who has batted .396 and slugged .604 while filling in for an injured Ludwick, can fill the void admirably.

The 21-year-old has impressed the Cardinals organization, obviously enough to turn the reins over to him in right field, where he started Saturday’s game against the Pirates. He also plays a good center field, although that position is currently held by Colby Rasmus. He is fourth among NL center fielders in Total Zone Runs this year.

“In fairness, our offense was inconsistent with him,” Cards GM John Mozeliak said. “Will it be inconsistent without him? I don’t know. But we have had some success when we’ve had players out of the lineup. We still have a chance to get [David] Freese back in the next 10 days or so, and if that happens, that should be a jolt offensively for the club. But overall, I just felt like the way things were going offensively, it made sense.”

Ludwick, who has been a fan favorite during his four years in St. Louis, had mixed feelings about the deal.

“I’m excited,” the newest Padre said. “Sad, excited, nervous, a lot of things…[Coming to St. Louis] jump-started my career. That’s why I’m sad to leave. Management, coaching staff, players, I got along with everyone. I’m sad leaving the fans. They treated me great.”

Westbrook, who has not been to the playoffs since 2007, carried a much merrier tone.

“I’m excited to go to a club contending for a playoff spot and pitch in some meaningful ballgames,” he said. “That’s why you play the game, for a chance to get into the playoffs, and I’m looking forward to doing that.”

The righty, who had pitched over 210 innings per season from 2004-06 before undergoing Tommy John surgery and missing all of the 2009 campaign, has been slowly returning to form over the course of this season. Although he is 6-7 with a 4.65 ERA over the course of the season, he has seen a return to form lately, averaging 6.4 innings over his last 15 games.

Although St. Louis may miss Ludwick’s bat while Jay transitions to a starting job, receiving some dependability from someone outside of Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, and Jaime Garcia will help over the long stretch, and gives the Cardinals a serviceable options other than their top three starters come October.

If Cincinnati doesn’t find some way to strengthen their bullpen, they may be looking up at St. Louis come playoff time.

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