Brendan Ryan

Chris Carpenter's Five Best On-Field Obscenities

In honor of the (possible), end of Chris Carpenter's time in St. Louis -- not to mention a potentially career-ending situation -- we here at the Riverfront Times thought it was high time we took a look back at all the biggest moments from his tenure here.No, not his tenure as the staff ace for one o ... More >>

Cards Bringing Furcal Back for 2012

commons.wikimedia.orgFurcal in 2010 with the Dodgers. ​Thanks to their sudden (and unwanted), financial windfall, the Cardinals' find themselves in a position of having a big pile of Albert Pujols cash sitting around and missing a big pile of Albert Pujols production. John Mozeliak and Co. st ... More >>

5 Lessons From the Cardinals' First Three Games

All right, listen up, kids. This moderately attractive and no doubt long-dead teacher from Pleasantville is gonna learn you up reeeaal nice. ​One series in the can, god only knows how many more to go in the baseball season. Unfortunately, 2011 hasn't exactly begun in stellar fashion for the Redbir ... More >>

Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em: Think of the 2011 Redbirds as your emphysemic, three-pack-a-day uncle

Gerald Laird? Really? Cardinals Make Another Less-Than-Impressive Off-Season Move

Goodbye, Brendan Ryan. Hello, Gerald Laird. commons.wikimedia.orgGoodbye, high socks, goodbye, fun. ​So this is what building a winner looks like? This is what a championship-caliber team feels like? Interesting. I always thought winning would feel good. I always kind of pictured the fee ... More >>

Cardinals Acquire Ryan Theriot; Columnist Scrambles for Non-Abusive Commentary

Get it? 'Cause it's the Riot? Hahahahaha! ​The Cardinals have completed a trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers for infielder Ryan Theriot, sending Blake Hawksworth to LA in return. Blake takes with him a wickedly awesome name and much less wickedly awesome pitching skills. Theriot brings versatility ... More >>

Another Japanese Option for the Cards' Middle Infield?

commons.wikimedia.org​A while back I wrote about a shortstop playing in the NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball, the equivalent of our Major Leagues), named Hiroyuki Nakajima. One of the top hitters in Japan, he was hoping to be posted by his team, the Saitama Seibu Lions, and sign with an American ... More >>

Cardinals Stuck in Routine: Rehire McGwire and Duncan for 2011

Will leftover buns score runs next season? Ehh.​Meet the new bosses, same as the old bosses. So it shall be in the Cardinal clubhouse again in 2011, as the club has agreed on contracts with pretty much the entire coaching staff, including Dave Duncan and Mark McGwire, the only two anyone real ... More >>

Jaime's Bad Night and an Award's Race Update

The Fonz expresses his displeasure with Jaime's performance last night. ​So Jaime Garcia had a really, really bad night yesterday. I mean really bad. The type of bad we hadn't seen up until this point in his career. Seven runs in just four innings. Not at all the result we've come to expect from t ... More >>

Tyler Florence and Bunches of Grapes Visit Busch Stadium

Ian Froeb​An odd scene unfolded at Busch Stadium Tuesday evening. No, not the Cardinals dropping another game to a sub-.500 team. Sadly, Cardinal fans are growing accustomed to that. This scene began before the first pitch. Food Network star Tyler Florence, host of such shows as Ultimate Tyler and ... More >>

Five Cardinals You Don't Ever Want to Piss Off

​So the great fracas that was the Reds/Cardinals series is over, with our boys in red roundly thumping their boys in red and taking over sole possession of first place in the National League Central. The series was an outstanding one, full of drama and heartbreak and brilliance on both the offensi ... More >>

Skip Schumaker Nominated as Worst Player in Baseball

commons.wikimedia.orgSchumaker, almost assuredly grounding out to the right side. ​Joe Posnanski, who every year hands out a Least Valuable Player award to the player who exemplifies the principles of failing to help their team in any measurable way, shape, or form, has unofficially nominated ten ... More >>

Cardinal Trade Targets From the Department of Dumb Ideas

A bad idea, but way more fun than these others. ​Okay, so I know things aren't great around here in Cardinal country just right now. The team is scuffling, the injuries are piling up, and we're all still a little peeved over Ryan Ludwick being traded. And I also know, given the time of year, that ... More >>

Five Keys to the Cardinals' Second Half

Hey, it's a key, it works. (Also a forgotten classic of power pop you should totally pick up if you ever see it like at a yard sale or something.) ​The second "half" of the baseball season kicks off for the Cardinals tonight (and I put "half" in quotes because technically we passed the halfw ... More >>

Albert Pujols: The Weight of Being The Mang

Remember that pose?​Another series, another bad loss trying to go for a sweep. It would be funny if it weren't so frustrating. The deciding moment of the game yesterday was a telling one, a moment that for me summed up nearly everything that's been wrong with this season. It was the bottom of ... More >>

Happy Birthday Citygarden!

Nikon 66 via the RFT Flickr Pool "Eros Bendato" by Igor Mitorag at the Citygarden​You, oh elegant downtown sculpture park, were opened to the public one year ago today. You haven't grown much since then (frankly, you were already pretty big to start with) but still, we've been through a lot togeth ... More >>

A Seriously Comprehensive Draft Review, Part 2

In part one, I took a look at the first five rounds of the Cards' draft, as well as the overall breakdown of player by type. This time I'll cover the middlish rounds of the draft, 6-20, and then next time tease out any interesting players who happened to be picked up in the late rounds. ​Afte ... More >>

A Brief Interlude of Niceness For Jason Motte

​The Cardinals haven't been playing very well lately, plain and simple. The offense has been wildly inconsistent, the defense has been ragged, the pitching is beginning to show definite signs of stress. And to top it all off, the few nights all three of those potential stumbling blocks are avoided ... More >>

No Extra Credit for the Pomegranate Concrete at Ted Drewes Frozen Custard

Ian FroebJohn Rooney lied to you.​Welcome to When Bad Dishes Happen to Good Restaurants, a new feature in which Gut Check writers, their hearts heavy, note when favorite local establishments have gone astray.If you listen to Cardinals broadcasts on KTRS, the Big 550, you've probably heard Mike Sha ... More >>

St. Louis Cardinals Twitter Accounts You Should Follow

​Keep up on the latest 140-character bursts of news, humor and statistics related to the St. Louis Cardinals on Twitter with this list of accounts you should follow, curated by the RFT staff. The tweeters below are all real people with opinions and we've excluded those Twitter accounts that simply ... More >>

Is McGwire to Blame for Cardinals' Lack of Offensive? The Numbers Don't Suggest It

So a little over a month into the season, the Cardinals' pitching, particularly the starting pitching, has been absolutely exquisite, while the offense has been, um, let's see...what's the opposite of exquisite? Maybe not the opposite, actually; how about something that's well short of exquisite but ... More >>

The Philadelphia Story: A Progress Report One Month In

​It was supposed to be the Cardinals' measuring stick for the young season, this trip to Philadelphia. Up until now the Cards had looked like the 700-pound red gorilla of old, stomping on opponents left and right and running up a big lead over the rest of a mediocre division. Going to Philly, thou ... More >>

Julio Lugo Traded

​Farewell to the glare. We hardly knew ye or your crazy eyes. The Cardinals have agreed to deal utility infielder Julio Lugo to the Baltimore Orioles for either a player to be named later or cash considerations. The deal is still awaiting final approval from the commissioner's office, indicat ... More >>

The Redbird Relief Race Heading Into the Home Stretch

Coming into spring training, the Cardinals only had a few real holes to fill. Well, perhaps not holes to fill, really, but at least decisions to make on how best to utilize their resources. Ryan Franklin and his awful beard will once again be closing games for the Cardinals this season. The res ... More >>

Losing Faith in the Future of the Cardinals

Colby Rasmus and Brendan Ryan are really good baseball players. thedirty.com​I just have to keep telling myself that. Brendan Ryan is one of the best defensive shortstops in the game, and I once saw Colby Rasmus save a group of orphans who were out Christmas caroling when a terrorist fired a ... More >>

(City)Garden Spot: Downtown's new cultural gem gets a restaurant to match

Brendan Ryan, Sully Sullenberger, Eric Holder Among Finalists for Mustache Award

Brendan Ryan reacts to news that he's a finalist.​The St. Louis-based American Mustache Institute has just released the finalists for its annual Robert Goulet Memorial Award, honoring the man (or woman) who's done the most this year to promote and uphold the mustache as a lifestyle/fashion stateme ... More >>

Game Notes: Brewers 4, Cardinals 3 03/09/09 -- Opportunity, Missed.

-- I really, really hate Casey McGehee. I don't know how else to say it, so there it is. No real personal beef with the guy, mind you, but when you pick up nine RBIs in a single series against the Cardinals, you're just going to have to deal with me not liking you. It's really only fitting the Brewe ... More >>

The Robert 'Kip' Wells Appreciation Thread

I would like to tell you all a story. It isn't a great story; hell, it's barely worth telling at all, but this here is my blog, and so I'ma gonna tell it. One of the many benefits of being a professional blogger (along with the lack of sunlight from hiding in the basement all day), is the exaggerate ... More >>

Game Notes: Cardinals 10, Dodgers 0 - A Vintage Ass Kicking

-- Chad Billingsley is really, really good. It isn't often you see a pitcher with that kind of ability, that combination of velocity, movement, and location. Personally, I think Billingsley needs to learn to use both sides of the plate more effectively, as he essentially stays in the same area all g ... More >>

Circling the Drain

Does anybody want to tell me when this whole thing just went to hell? Remember when the Cardinals were a first-class organization, one that made smart moves, fielded competitive teams, and had everyone pulling in the same direction? Well, guess what, folks, the party, as they say, is over. ... More >>

The Cardinals Second Half Preview

First, and most importantly, you'll have to forgive the lack of a clever title. I thought and thought, then thought some more, and really just didn't like any of the options I came up with. Some were too obscure, some not obscure enough, some didn't make much sense, still others lacked any tie to th ... More >>

Game Notes 22nd June- Mets 6, Cards 4: Colonel Pumpkin, I Presume?

-This stuff of pinch-hitting for Colby Rasmus late in the game really needs to stop. Not because he's the Cardinals' best outfielder, or even because he needs to see left-handed pitching in order to learn how to hit it. No, it needs to stop because if Colby gets pinch-hit for, it means that we have ... More >>

Postgame Thoughts, 18th June: Double You. Tee. Eff.

-Okay, so Jo-El Pineiro crapped the bed quite mightily in the first inning, but he certainly had some help from the defense. Just an ugly inning all around, the sort that we really haven't seen too many of from the Cards lately. Typing that, I find myself a bit surprised, to be quite honest. It ... More >>

Tigers at Cardinals: Anatomy of a Beatdown

Sunday night, the Cardinals played the Cleveland Indians on ESPN and were dominated. Not just beaten, but absolutely humiliated by the sinister wizardry of one Clifford Lee. Last night, that same Cardinal squad blew Justin Verlander right off the field, with five runs in a mere four innings. I think ... More >>

Roster Problems

Yesterday afternoon, we saw what was, in my ever so humble opinion, the best start so far this year from a Cardinal go to waste. Chris Carpenter deserves some apologies, and a better outcome next time out. The question, of course, is how do you get him a better outcome next time? 

Brendan Ryan? Over Ryan Ludwick? Really?

So I'll go ahead and ask it. The question that has to be on the mind of every single Cardinal fan in the city this morning, after last night's loss to Arizona.Brendan Ryan? Over Ryan Ludwick? Really? Brendan Ryan with the Springfield Redbirds.I was watching the game last night, listening to Dan ... More >>

Top 10 Stories about the 2009 St. Louis Cardinals

Spring training is officially underway, with real, no-foolin' games being played and everything. The beginning of a long, twisty road that leads through summer and into autumn, hopefully ending late in October with a nice, new piece of hardware to add to the trophy case at Busch Stadium.At the very ... More >>

Bargain Shopping, the Cardinal Way

Ah, January. Bringer of frigid temperatures, NFL playoff games, and suicides by the bucketful. The holiday season is officially over. Christmas has come and gone, and the New Year has been rung. Truly, these are the darkest days of all for the retail industry. Thus, one other thing always comes ... More >>

We Try to Figure Out the Role of a Bench Coach

Faster Than a Speeding Rocket Scientist: Cards rookie Brian Barton chooses baseball over aerospace engineering — for the time being.

Izturis' Triple Tells Us of the '08 Cardinals

Ludwick Leading Cardinal Offense, Really