Can Albert Pujols and the Cardinals turn things around this week?

Another week in the books, another look ahead to the next one. The rivalry weekends are done for now, so we get classic blood feuds like Nationals-Padres and Angels-Rockies – feel the heat.

Series of the Week – Monday through Wednesday

St. Louis Cardinals at Milwaukee Brewers

That’s right – the Brewers are featured here again. Why? Because, once again, we have another series which will show if they are legit contenders in the National League Central or not – the Cubs and the Astros would certainly attest to the Brewers certainly being legit. With a record of 15-9 and sitting atop the National League Central, the Brewers kick off the series with former Cardinal Jeff Suppan, who has been reborn since getting to Milwaukee. 12-7 with a 4.12 ERA last year, Suppan is 3-2 with a 2.97 ERA this year, with a strikeout-to-walk ratio barely below 3:1 after only have a K/BB ratio over 2:1 once in his career, and that was way back in 2003. Pitching coach Mike Maddux has a way with pitchers – after all, look what he did for Doug Davis - and Suppan is definitely benefiting from his tutelage.

The most important starter in the series for the Cardinals is going to be on Tuesday, when they send Braden Looper to the mound. Looper has been surprisingly effective at 3-1 with a 1.91 ERA, but the results do not tell the full story. In his five starts, Looper has struck out just 18, while also walking 10, and that lack of dominance from a starter is scary. Opponents are only hitting .200 against Looper, but how long will that last when his career batting average against is .261, and was over .270 each of the last two seasons? It’s very doubtful that it will last long at all.

The hitter to watch this series for the Cardinals is Chris Duncan, who had a seven game hitting streak broken on Saturday, and has had a hit in 12 of his last 14 games, and he is hitting .333 with two homers and four RBI in that stretch. Duncan is out to prove that last year’s success was not a fluke, and so far so good in that regard. For the Brewers, we are still waiting to see if Bill Hall can get on track. Hall is coming off of a great 2006 season, but he has failed to follow up on that success thus far this year. Hall has not picked up an RBI in the last six games and just two in the last ten games – not at all what they were looking for in their power-hitting former shortstop.

Series of the Week – Weekend Edition

Colorado Rockies at Cincinnati Reds

Why this series of all series? The Friday match-up is going to be one for all to check out as Jason Hirsh takes the mound for the Rockies while Matt Belisle gets the start for the Reds. All off-season, wherever I could, whenever I could, I insulted the intelligence of the Astros for arguably the most moronic move of the off-season, which was their trading of Hirsh, Taylor Buchholz, and Willy Taveras to the Rockies for Jason Jennings. Even if Jennings was not injured, this would be a horrifically bad trade, as they traded for one year of a grossly-overrated pitcher in Jennings for six years of the top pitching prospect in their system, plus included a young arm that had been the key part of the Billy Wagner trade, and tossed in an outfielder, albeit an overrated one, just for the heck of it. Well, the Rockies are certainly benefiting from a team other than them looking ignorant for a change, and Hirsh is showing that a pitcher can succeed in Coors Field after all. Through five starts, Hirsh is 2-2 with a 3.41 ERA. Four of his five starts have been quality starts, and he has an impeccable strikeout-to-walk ratio, right now at 25:11.

Matt Belisle has been a revelation so far for the Reds, and he is coming off of his best game yet this season, a complete game one run win over the Pirates. In it, Belisle allowed just five hits while striking out five and walking none. Belisle’s K/BB ratio right now stands at 22:5. His one issue has been stamina, as this last start was his first where he was able to make it past the sixth inning, and his two starts prior to this were both cut short before six complete innings, and he has just three quality starts out of a possible five as a result. Of course, Belisle had been used almost exclusively out of the pen prior to this season, with just seven major league starts in 96 appearances prior to this year, so a little stretching out being necessary was to be expected.

It was all bombs way for the first week and a half, but has been swing-and-a-miss since then for Adam Dunn.

The hitter to watch for the Reds is Adam Dunn, who is hot again, at least in the homer department, after going almost two weeks without a home run. His batting average had dropped dramatically as well during that homerless streak. On April 10^th, Dunn’s batting average was at .353; it dropped all the way to .259 on April 28^th. Over his last three games, Dunn has gone just 2-for-10, but both hits were home runs, and he picked up three RBI and a stolen base. For the Rockies, it’s all about Todd Helton. Helton is hitting, and one certainly cannot argue with a .390 batting average, but his lack of power is alarming – just one home run so far, and none since April 15^th. Will he ever hit for power again, or has he turned into a modern day Tony Gwynn?