Brad Penny was quite impressive today in the Cardinals' 6-4 win over the Nationals.   He was given four innings of work and only gave up one hit.  He was facing a Ryan Zimmerman-less Nationals' squad, but that doesn't mean we can't be happy about this performance.  Penny is an integral part of this team's questionable improvement over last season's team.  Will he be better than Joel Pineiro?  He certainly has the talent to top Pineiro's performance as the Cardinals' third starter last season.  Penny had a rough go with the Red Sox last season with an ERA over five and a sub-500 record (7-8).

Check the boxscore if you want.  You will notice a familiar name on the Nationals' side.  That "Duncan" is the very same whipping boy of many Cardinals fans for the past couple of seasons, especially last season.  I bet former members of the anit-Duncan mob are licking their chops for when the Cardinals' play the Nats in the regular season.  I bet they can't wait for Cardinals' pitching to feast on one of the least favorite players of the past decade among Cardinal Nation.  It will be a dream come true.  Lil Dunc will be dropping balls and striking out for the opposing team this time.  That is, if he makes the Nats' major league roster, which isn't set in stone yet from what I know.  And if he doesn't make the Nats' major league roster, he'll be ridiculed even more for not making the cut for the worst team in baseball.

To be serious, I will always stand by a more sympathetic view of the Chris Duncan drama.  Lil Dunc had alot to overcome during his time here.  Of course, being on a team where your father is the pitching coach on is never easy.  As expected, fans had the ever popular "The only reason he's on the team is because his dad is the pitching coach" excuse to hide behind, not to mention hide behind their anonymity on the interwebs.  Once he became notorious for his shaky fielding, Duncan became an easy target for ridicule.  Thankfully, he had a saving grace for a couple of seasons to keep him from becoming the complete punching bag of the fans he eventually became by the 2008 and 2009 seasons.  He had some pop and hit 43 home runs through the 2006 and 2007 seasons.  I also want to point out a very crucial base hit Duncan had in the 2006 World Series.

With two outs in the third inning in Game 1 of the World Series, Duncan hit a two-out RBI double that gave the Cardinals a 2-1 lead at the time.  After the RBI double, on the very next pitch, Albert Pujols hit a two run home run that extended the lead to 4-1.  That inning, in my opinion, set the tone for the rest of that game, giving the young Antony Reyes a lead, and possibly allowed the rookie to pitch with confidence and ultimately craft a gem.  Of course, the Cardinals won that game and won the whole Series.

But I bet fans would rather remember the negative.  They would rather remember the drop Duncan made in Game 5 that lead to a two run home run by Sean Casey that gave the Tigers a lead at the time.  

I'm not trying to say Chris Duncan was the reason the Cardinals won the World Series, not even close.  I'm just trying to point out that fans love to rag on players and will always remember the negatives more than the positves.  When the negatives pile up, as they did with Duncan, then that player will become an easy target for ridicule.  But that's the way it is in sports.  I'm not trying to tell you that you were wrong to ridicule Chris Duncan if you did.  I'm just telling it like it is.

Let's all move on.  Peace.