May 24 Chat Session - Eric Berger

BleacherBum593 · May 25th, 2008, 09:40 AM

Following is the edited chat room session of Saturday, May 24th, 2008. The guest was Mr. Eric Berger from the Media Relations Department of the, Memphis Redbirds, the triple A farm club of the St Louis Cardinals. The chat on Saturday is part of a series of regularly scheduled chat sessions with members of the Memphis Redbirds organization. The chats will be held on Saturday’s at 10AM at FanHome.com and is sponsored by Rockin’ the Red.

Rockin' the Red is a blog based on the St. Louis Cardinals baseball franchise and was created as a place to discuss and debate Cardinals baseball. Rockin’ the Red is an Official Sponsor of the Cardinal Board at Fanhome.com

All of this is prior to Friday’s game against Nashville…

The Redbirds finished off one of their most successful weeks of the season with a resounding 10-2 victory over the Nashville Sounds Thursday night, giving the Redbird three of four against their cross-state rivals and five of their last seven. Leading the charge for the Redbirds has been the hot hitting of Joe Mather, Nick Stavinoha and Brian Barden. Mather, seemingly having made a full recovery from his back problems, has connected for seven home runs and 10 RBI in his last 10 games. Stavinoha has continued his hot hitting batting .368 over his last ten games. With Rasmus’ continued struggles, Barden has found himself manning the leadoff spot more often and has handled it well, hitting .422 and collecting 19 hits over his last 10 games.

On the mound, the rotation has been bolstered by the promotion of PJ Walters and Jaime Garcia from Springfield (AA) and the demotion of Anthony Reyes from Saint Louis. In what was his longest outing as a Redbird this season, Reyes threw five innings and allowed one run on three hits to get the win against Nashville. Garcia had his first sub-par outing as a Redbird, allowing five runs on eight hits and one walk in five innings to receive the loss.

The Redbirds will continue their eight game stretch against Nashville with a four game series starting Friday night at AutoZone Park. The Redbirds then hit the road for a series against the Iowa Cubbies.

You can get tickets for all Redbird home games at the the Memphis Redbirds website or by calling (901) 721-6000. Hope to see you there!

Now, on to the Chat Session……

Eric Berger Hey there. I’m here and ready to go

Mike Hobson Good Morning Eric!

Coop Good morning guys!

Mike Hobson How's it feel to wake up this morning and you can say I'm here from the first place Memphis Redbirds? It hasn't happened very often in the last few years.

Mike Hobson Memphis now stands at 26-23; 2 games in front of the 2nd place Iowa Cubbies.

Eric Berger Yes, it's definitely nice. I just hope we can keep the ball rolling

Mike Hobson Memphis has won 4 in a row and take on the Nashville Sounds tonight (Saturday). One of our top prospects, Jaime Garcia, gets the start

Eric Berger I'm interested to see what Jaime can do, this will be his first start at home and he’s been pitching very well so I’m excited

Mike Hobson Hopefully, a big crowd will turn out tonight to see Garcia. He's 1-1, with a 3.00 ERA in 3 starts. 18 IP, 17 K's and a 1.22 WHIP. I've been excited about him ever since Kyle McClellan told me about him, when Jaime was first starting out at Quad Cities. Kyle was right on the mark about him.

Coop I haven't seen Jaime. I'm anxious. After chat I plan to go and buy a ticket.

Mike Hobson Most people think we need a lefty in St Louis' starting rotation. And they keep pointing to Mark Mulder. However, I for one, think Garcia will be that man before the end of the season. We'll see.

Eric Berger It'll be interesting to see if Mulder can regain his old form, at this point I'm not sure he can

Mike Hobson I agree on your view of Mulder. Shoulder injuries, especially after a couple of surgeries are very difficult to come back from.

Mike Hobson In other Memphis news - I see that Amaury Cazana-Marti was shipped off again this year (loaned out, I presume) to the Mexican League. Any word on that from the STL front office (or Memphis officials)?

Eric Berger Right now theirs just a surplus of outfielders in Memphis and someone had to go and it turned out to be Marti

Mike Hobson Two of Memphis OF'ers are doing very well - Nick Stavinoha (.374/.402/.948) and Joe Mather (.302/.404/1.051). However, top prospect Colby Rasmus continues to struggle with a .188 average. Is there a light at the end of the tunnel for him?

Eric Berger Like I've said, he’s struggled mightly but he still shows good plated discipline and does the small stuff well, like last night bunting for a base hit. So yes, I would say he'll eventually turn it around

Mike Hobson I hope so too. It's been a long, hard struggle for him the first 2 months of the season. IMHO, he had a heck a good camp. I wonder if his not making the big team had an effect on him - causing a lack of confidence/concentration - based on a big letdown at not making the big club.

Coop I'd like Colby to try a couple weeks at Springfield for familiar surroundings. Remember hitting

Mike Hobson Might not be a bad ideal Coop. Sometimes players are "pushed" too hard and they need to take a step back and regroup.

Mike Hobson In addition to Colby's slow start, his family created a "stir" this week on the internet. Supposedly one of Colby's brothers posted some unflattering remarks about the Cards. This according to Joe Strauss at the Post. Has any of those comments been reported in Memphis, Eric?

Eric Berger I have not caught wind of anything like that

Mike Hobson Strauss didn't report which board it was. But, I did some checking after reading Joe's article at breakfast and it looks like it was on the Cards board at Scout.com. If you haven't seen it, you might want to check it out. Mr. Rasmus has deleted the statements attributed to his account. But, you can pick up bits and pieces of it if you read the "quoted" remarks on other posters comments.

Coop It seems Strauss is having a segment with Selby on the Redbirds broadcast each week. I enjoy those

Mike Hobson After we finish up here, I'll go over and get you a link to the Scout.com thread that it was posted on. Plus the link to Strauss' article. It'll make for some interesting reading

Mike Hobson And email it to you

Eric Berger appreciate it

Coop Good morning, Ewt. Eric, have you heard any news that has not been generally reported, but is not secret, this week?

EwtTexas Quick question.. Am I dreaming or has Hawk turned it around in his last couple of starts?

Eric Berger yea can't say I've heard anything of note. Hawksworth has looked better in his past two starts and his velocity has returned so well see if he can keep it up

Coop I don't think Barden has an opening in St. Louis. I like him a lot. I hope we keep him at Memphis. I think he plays winning baseball

EwtTexas Barden is good insurance in case an IF’er goes down.

Mike Hobson Barden is currently hitting .328/.405/.865. Pretty decent numbers for him.

Coop There are meetings about the Memphis-Cardinals affiliation. It seems now Memphis is getting a good team after 2 nightmare years

Mike Hobson It was reported in St Louis, that GM John Mozeliak and Bill DeWitt were in Memphis to meet with the team about the affiliation on Friday. Any word on how the talks went?

Eric Berger not really sure

Mike Hobson Have any further talks been scheduled?

EwtTexas One more. Why hasn't Haerther gotten more playing time?

Eric Berger well Rasmus is going to get more playing time because of his standing as a prospect and Mather and Stavinoha have been raking so that doesn’t leave much room for Haerther

EwtTexas It's time for them to remember that Cody is an infielder. He was converted when they felt that he was blocked by Rolen.

Coop Maloney could do some mix and match with this roster. Not everybody thinks Hoffpauir is progressing as expected. Could Cody try that? I like Freese at 3B.

Mike Hobson Coop - In what ways is Hoffpauir not progressing?

EwtTexas When I spoke to Cody, he said that even though he played 3rd, he was most comfortable at 2nd.

EwtTexas I believe that he also played SS in high school.

Coop In just reading the different sites, I think some people are saying he isn't fielding good. He did good the games I saw.

EwtTexas I read the same thing about him being a defensive liability.

Mike Hobson I think some people are just repeating things that they have read about Hoffpauir. He got a label placed on him early in his pro career. But, the times that I've seen him play, he's shown good range plus an above average arm. I would take everything that I read on the internet with a grain of salt

Mike Hobson Most of the people posting have never been to a minor league game, so they really have no knowledge about the players

Mike Hobson My times up for today. I've got to put on my chef's hat and do some bar-b-queing. Hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend!

EwtTexas If I remember correctly (lots of luck), those reports came from posters who are supposed to have inside info.

Mike Hobson Well, then I totally disagree with their assessment of him.

EwtTexas Have a great weekend, Bleacher.

Coop Eric, do you know about an injury to Mark Johnson? Anderson sure is doing good!

Coop Thank you guys!

EwtTexas Take care, Coop. Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend.

EwtTexas Eric. Thanks for joining us. As always, it is appreciated.

Coop I bet Bleacher's ribs are good wet ones. We didn't like the dry ribs.

EwtTexas One comment off topic. I was really impressed by Franklin last night.

Coop He sure came in to do the job!

EwtTexas It was more than that. From what I read the field was sloppy after the long rain delay. The game shouldn't have been continued. He was clearly struggling to throw strike after the delay and still K’d the side. Very simply, he gutted it out. Great job.

Coop Yeah, I thought the same thing

EwtTexas Time to go. Thanks to all and have a rib for me.

Coop Back next Saturday

EwtTexas See ya later

If you have any follow-up questions from today’s chat session, please post them on this thread and I’ll contact the Memphis Redbirds to get the answer. Thanks for reading today’s chat transcript.

Stay tuned. The Cards board will be chatting with members of the Memphis Redbirds every Saturday at 10 AM throughout the 2008 season. Stop by and join in the fun!

Links to previous chat sessions:

2008 Season:

- May 17 Chat Session with Chad Renning
- May 3 Chat Session with Chad Renning & Eric Berger
- April 26 Chat Session with Chad Renning
- April 12 Chat Session with Chad Renning & Eric Berger

2007 Season:

– John Vuch
- John Vuch (followup questions)
– Cody Haerther
- Mike Lindskog
- Kyle McClellan
- Dave Chase
- David Kelly
- Steve Selby

Current Memphis Leaders (thru Friday, May 23rd)
Batting Average: Nick Stavinoha (.374)(61 hits in 163 AB's)
On-Base %: Brian Barden (.405)
Slugging %:Joe Mather (.647)
OPS: Joe Mather (1.051)
2B's: Tied w/10 (Nick Stavinoha, Josh Phelps, Jarrett Hoffpauir)
3B's: Brian Barden (3)
HR's: Joe Mather (10)
RBI's: Nick Stavinoha (30)
R's: Tied w/25 (Stavinoha, Barden, Mather, Phelps, Colby Rasmus)
Hits: Nick Stavinoha (61)
W's: Tied w/ 4 (Mitchell Boggs, 4-1; John Wasdin, 4-4)
S's: Chris Perez (8)
ERA: Kelvin Jimenez (1.96)(23.0 IP)
IP: Mitchell Boggs (56.1)
WHIP: Ron Flores (1.12)(26.0 IP)
K's/9: Jason Motte (15.14)

Copyright © 2008 FanHome.com LLC. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. All rights reserved.

May 25th, 2008, 09:40 AM	#1 (permalink)
BleacherBum593 Moderator Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: St Louis (LF Bleachers) Posts: 1,903	May 24 Chat Session - Eric Berger Following is the edited chat room session of Saturday, May 24th, 2008. The guest was Mr. Eric Berger from the Media Relations Department of the, Memphis Redbirds, the triple A farm club of the St Louis Cardinals. The chat on Saturday is part of a series of regularly scheduled chat sessions with members of the Memphis Redbirds organization. The chats will be held on Saturday’s at 10AM at FanHome.com and is sponsored by Rockin’ the Red. Rockin' the Red is a blog based on the St. Louis Cardinals baseball franchise and was created as a place to discuss and debate Cardinals baseball. Rockin’ the Red is an Official Sponsor of the Cardinal Board at Fanhome.com All of this is prior to Friday’s game against Nashville… The Redbirds finished off one of their most successful weeks of the season with a resounding 10-2 victory over the Nashville Sounds Thursday night, giving the Redbird three of four against their cross-state rivals and five of their last seven. Leading the charge for the Redbirds has been the hot hitting of Joe Mather, Nick Stavinoha and Brian Barden. Mather, seemingly having made a full recovery from his back problems, has connected for seven home runs and 10 RBI in his last 10 games. Stavinoha has continued his hot hitting batting .368 over his last ten games. With Rasmus’ continued struggles, Barden has found himself manning the leadoff spot more often and has handled it well, hitting .422 and collecting 19 hits over his last 10 games. On the mound, the rotation has been bolstered by the promotion of PJ Walters and Jaime Garcia from Springfield (AA) and the demotion of Anthony Reyes from Saint Louis. In what was his longest outing as a Redbird this season, Reyes threw five innings and allowed one run on three hits to get the win against Nashville. Garcia had his first sub-par outing as a Redbird, allowing five runs on eight hits and one walk in five innings to receive the loss. The Redbirds will continue their eight game stretch against Nashville with a four game series starting Friday night at AutoZone Park. The Redbirds then hit the road for a series against the Iowa Cubbies. You can get tickets for all Redbird home games at the the Memphis Redbirds website or by calling (901) 721-6000. Hope to see you there! Now, on to the Chat Session…… Eric Berger Hey there. I’m here and ready to go Mike Hobson Good Morning Eric! Coop Good morning guys! Mike Hobson How's it feel to wake up this morning and you can say I'm here from the first place Memphis Redbirds? It hasn't happened very often in the last few years. Mike Hobson Memphis now stands at 26-23; 2 games in front of the 2nd place Iowa Cubbies. Eric Berger Yes, it's definitely nice. I just hope we can keep the ball rolling Mike Hobson Memphis has won 4 in a row and take on the Nashville Sounds tonight (Saturday). One of our top prospects, Jaime Garcia, gets the start Eric Berger I'm interested to see what Jaime can do, this will be his first start at home and he’s been pitching very well so I’m excited Mike Hobson Hopefully, a big crowd will turn out tonight to see Garcia. He's 1-1, with a 3.00 ERA in 3 starts. 18 IP, 17 K's and a 1.22 WHIP. I've been excited about him ever since Kyle McClellan told me about him, when Jaime was first starting out at Quad Cities. Kyle was right on the mark about him. Coop I haven't seen Jaime. I'm anxious. After chat I plan to go and buy a ticket. Mike Hobson Most people think we need a lefty in St Louis' starting rotation. And they keep pointing to Mark Mulder. However, I for one, think Garcia will be that man before the end of the season. We'll see. Eric Berger It'll be interesting to see if Mulder can regain his old form, at this point I'm not sure he can Mike Hobson I agree on your view of Mulder. Shoulder injuries, especially after a couple of surgeries are very difficult to come back from. Mike Hobson In other Memphis news - I see that Amaury Cazana-Marti was shipped off again this year (loaned out, I presume) to the Mexican League. Any word on that from the STL front office (or Memphis officials)? Eric Berger Right now theirs just a surplus of outfielders in Memphis and someone had to go and it turned out to be Marti Mike Hobson Two of Memphis OF'ers are doing very well - Nick Stavinoha (.374/.402/.948) and Joe Mather (.302/.404/1.051). However, top prospect Colby Rasmus continues to struggle with a .188 average. Is there a light at the end of the tunnel for him? Eric Berger Like I've said, he’s struggled mightly but he still shows good plated discipline and does the small stuff well, like last night bunting for a base hit. So yes, I would say he'll eventually turn it around Mike Hobson I hope so too. It's been a long, hard struggle for him the first 2 months of the season. IMHO, he had a heck a good camp. I wonder if his not making the big team had an effect on him - causing a lack of confidence/concentration - based on a big letdown at not making the big club. Coop I'd like Colby to try a couple weeks at Springfield for familiar surroundings. Remember hitting Mike Hobson Might not be a bad ideal Coop. Sometimes players are "pushed" too hard and they need to take a step back and regroup. Mike Hobson In addition to Colby's slow start, his family created a "stir" this week on the internet. Supposedly one of Colby's brothers posted some unflattering remarks about the Cards. This according to Joe Strauss at the Post. Has any of those comments been reported in Memphis, Eric? Eric Berger I have not caught wind of anything like that Mike Hobson Strauss didn't report which board it was. But, I did some checking after reading Joe's article at breakfast and it looks like it was on the Cards board at Scout.com. If you haven't seen it, you might want to check it out. Mr. Rasmus has deleted the statements attributed to his account. But, you can pick up bits and pieces of it if you read the "quoted" remarks on other posters comments. Coop It seems Strauss is having a segment with Selby on the Redbirds broadcast each week. I enjoy those Mike Hobson After we finish up here, I'll go over and get you a link to the Scout.com thread that it was posted on. Plus the link to Strauss' article. It'll make for some interesting reading Mike Hobson And email it to you Eric Berger appreciate it Coop Good morning, Ewt. Eric, have you heard any news that has not been generally reported, but is not secret, this week? EwtTexas Quick question.. Am I dreaming or has Hawk turned it around in his last couple of starts? Eric Berger yea can't say I've heard anything of note. Hawksworth has looked better in his past two starts and his velocity has returned so well see if he can keep it up Coop I don't think Barden has an opening in St. Louis. I like him a lot. I hope we keep him at Memphis. I think he plays winning baseball EwtTexas Barden is good insurance in case an IF’er goes down. Mike Hobson Barden is currently hitting .328/.405/.865. Pretty decent numbers for him. Coop There are meetings about the Memphis-Cardinals affiliation. It seems now Memphis is getting a good team after 2 nightmare years Mike Hobson It was reported in St Louis, that GM John Mozeliak and Bill DeWitt were in Memphis to meet with the team about the affiliation on Friday. Any word on how the talks went? Eric Berger not really sure Mike Hobson Have any further talks been scheduled? EwtTexas One more. Why hasn't Haerther gotten more playing time? Eric Berger well Rasmus is going to get more playing time because of his standing as a prospect and Mather and Stavinoha have been raking so that doesn’t leave much room for Haerther EwtTexas It's time for them to remember that Cody is an infielder. He was converted when they felt that he was blocked by Rolen. Coop Maloney could do some mix and match with this roster. Not everybody thinks Hoffpauir is progressing as expected. Could Cody try that? I like Freese at 3B. Mike Hobson Coop - In what ways is Hoffpauir not progressing? EwtTexas When I spoke to Cody, he said that even though he played 3rd, he was most comfortable at 2nd. EwtTexas I believe that he also played SS in high school. Coop In just reading the different sites, I think some people are saying he isn't fielding good. He did good the games I saw. EwtTexas I read the same thing about him being a defensive liability. Mike Hobson I think some people are just repeating things that they have read about Hoffpauir. He got a label placed on him early in his pro career. But, the times that I've seen him play, he's shown good range plus an above average arm. I would take everything that I read on the internet with a grain of salt Mike Hobson Most of the people posting have never been to a minor league game, so they really have no knowledge about the players Mike Hobson My times up for today. I've got to put on my chef's hat and do some bar-b-queing. Hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend! EwtTexas If I remember correctly (lots of luck), those reports came from posters who are supposed to have inside info. Mike Hobson Well, then I totally disagree with their assessment of him. EwtTexas Have a great weekend, Bleacher. Coop Eric, do you know about an injury to Mark Johnson? Anderson sure is doing good! Coop Thank you guys! EwtTexas Take care, Coop. Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend. EwtTexas Eric. Thanks for joining us. As always, it is appreciated. Coop I bet Bleacher's ribs are good wet ones. We didn't like the dry ribs. EwtTexas One comment off topic. I was really impressed by Franklin last night. Coop He sure came in to do the job! EwtTexas It was more than that. From what I read the field was sloppy after the long rain delay. The game shouldn't have been continued. He was clearly struggling to throw strike after the delay and still K’d the side. Very simply, he gutted it out. Great job. Coop Yeah, I thought the same thing EwtTexas Time to go. Thanks to all and have a rib for me. Coop Back next Saturday EwtTexas See ya later If you have any follow-up questions from today’s chat session, please post them on this thread and I’ll contact the Memphis Redbirds to get the answer. Thanks for reading today’s chat transcript. Stay tuned. The Cards board will be chatting with members of the Memphis Redbirds every Saturday at 10 AM throughout the 2008 season. Stop by and join in the fun! Links to previous chat sessions: 2008 Season: - May 17 Chat Session with Chad Renning - May 3 Chat Session with Chad Renning & Eric Berger - April 26 Chat Session with Chad Renning - April 12 Chat Session with Chad Renning & Eric Berger 2007 Season: – John Vuch - John Vuch (followup questions) – Cody Haerther - Mike Lindskog - Kyle McClellan - Dave Chase - David Kelly - Steve Selby Current Memphis Leaders (thru Friday, May 23rd) Batting Average: Nick Stavinoha (.374)(61 hits in 163 AB's) On-Base %: Brian Barden (.405) Slugging %:Joe Mather (.647) OPS: Joe Mather (1.051) 2B's: Tied w/10 (Nick Stavinoha, Josh Phelps, Jarrett Hoffpauir) 3B's: Brian Barden (3) HR's: Joe Mather (10) RBI's: Nick Stavinoha (30) R's: Tied w/25 (Stavinoha, Barden, Mather, Phelps, Colby Rasmus) Hits: Nick Stavinoha (61) W's: Tied w/ 4 (Mitchell Boggs, 4-1; John Wasdin, 4-4) S's: Chris Perez (8) ERA: Kelvin Jimenez (1.96)(23.0 IP) IP: Mitchell Boggs (56.1) WHIP: Ron Flores (1.12)(26.0 IP) K's/9: Jason Motte (15.14) Copyright © 2008 FanHome.com LLC. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. All rights reserved. __________________ "Build it and they will come"