2019 St. Louis Cardinals

#401      
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#402      
So the Reds are starting a relief pitcher in centerfield tonight. Good to see they’re are putting forth the effort to try and win or compete. With all the call ups, they don’t have an outfielder to play?

Yeah, Lorenzen is a hybrid player for them basically. When he's not used a reliever, they'll use him as a pinch hitter late in games.
 
#405      
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Enos Slaughter's "Mad Dash" in game 7 of the 1946 WS is why my Dad became a Cardinal fan. He said, "Anyone/team who hustled that much is the team I want to follow." I followed years later. Mainly to have a father/son activity. My son joined us and my grandson has his first Cardinals baseball cap even tough it is too large for now.

Over the years I would talk to Dad about Slaughter a lot.

I think he knew this:

When Slaughter was a minor leaguer in Columbus, Georgia, he went running towards the dugout from his position in the outfield, slowed down near the infield, and began walking the rest of the way. Manager Eddie Dyer told him, "Son, if you're tired, we'll try to get you some help". During the remainder of his major-league career, Slaughter ran everywhere he went on a baseball field.
Wiki
 
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#408      
Over the years there have not been a lot of 8's for St Lou. Terry Moore is the only player that had the number for 5 years or longer. Gary Gaetti is the most recent player to have much success with StL and that was the late 90's.
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#409      

BillyBob1

Champaign
Great results today! Was hoping for an 18 inning game for the Cubs tonight, with a loss!
 
#410      
Pretty big momentum shift today. A lot of pressure was just relieved. Being able to lose 3 of 4 in Chicago and still be a game up is a nice luxury.
 
#412      
Probable pitching match-ups for the huge series this weekend at Wrigley:

Thursday: Flaherty (10-8, 3.05) vs. Hendricks (11-9, 3.26)
Friday: Wacha (6-7, 4.76) vs. Quintana (13-8, 4.37)
Saturday: Hudson (16-7, 3.35) vs. Hamels (7-7, 3.92)
Sunday: Mikolas (9-14, 4.29) vs. Darvish (6-7, 4.02)
 
#414      
Probable pitching match-ups for the huge series this weekend at Wrigley:

Thursday: Flaherty (10-8, 3.05) ERA+ 140 FIP 3.64 vs. Hendricks (11-9, 3.26) ERA+ 137 FIP 3.73
Friday: Wacha (6-7, 4.76) ERA+ 89 FIP 5.69 vs. Quintana (13-8, 4.37) ERA+ 102 FIP 3.87
Saturday: Hudson (16-7, 3.35) ERA+ 127 FIP 4.99 vs. Hamels (7-7, 3.92) ERA+ 114 FIP 4.21
Sunday: Mikolas (9-14, 4.29) ERA+ 99 FIP 4.26 vs. Darvish (6-7, 4.02) ERA+ 111 FIP 4.29

I don't know if it matters at all but I added ERA+ and FIP to the pitching match-ups just out of curiosity. I really don't understand much about the new stats that are used these days.
 
#415      
I don't know if it matters at all but I added ERA+ and FIP to the pitching match-ups just out of curiosity. I really don't understand much about the new stats that are used these days.

ERA+ is just adjusted to a league average of 100 so you can compare across years (a 4 something ERA today is not equal to a 4 something ERA from "year of the pitcher" 2013, or steroid fueled years of late 90s/ early 2000s).

FIP is the best one to look it. It just tries to assign pitcher value to the ones doing the work. So Hudson has a poor FIP and better ERA, because he induces a bunch of groundballs of which the very good Cardinal infield defense takes care of and doesn't really strike anybody out. That's why Fangraphs WAR uses FIP instead of ERA (baseball reference uses ERA), it gives Kolton Wong/ Paul Dejong that value on defense instead of giving it to Hudson, since they did the work.

As far as pitching matchups, tonight should be fun. Flaherty and Hudson are like two top 5 pitchers in the 2nd half. Wacha in a Wrigley day game could be a nightmare.
 
#416      
I like Flaherty to get us out of the gate. It has really been fun to watch this pitching staff get going late in this year. Really love what Waino did with Sherzer last night. I'll take our chances if it comes down to he and Lester in the last game.

Think we need to split the series in Chicago to feel good. After that we will be on the road in AZ and they might not yet be mathematically eliminated from the wild card. The scrubs will be at Pittsburgh, but they will have mailed it in. I'd say the chances are good we will lose a game in that three game series. If we lose two games in the Chicago series, and another in the AZ series, sets up a very interesting final series. Then again, maybe it will distract us from Illini football.
 
#417      
FIP is the best one to look it. It just tries to assign pitcher value to the ones doing the work. So Hudson has a poor FIP and better ERA, because he induces a bunch of groundballs of which the very good Cardinal infield defense takes care of and doesn't really strike anybody out. That's why Fangraphs WAR uses FIP instead of ERA (baseball reference uses ERA), it gives Kolton Wong/ Paul Dejong that value on defense instead of giving it to Hudson, since they did the work.

Just to add on to what Tisdale was saying, FIP stands for “fielding independent pitching” and tracks how pitchers do when the ball doesn’t go into play. Which means strikeouts, walks and home runs.

Studies have shown that over a pitcher’s career the swings in FIP are far less than in ERA, which should make sense since a huge chunk of variables are taken out.

FIP is indexed to the season ERA. In other words, league average FIP will be the same as league average ERA.

Generally, the difference between FIP and ERA can be used to see who gets more or less help from his fielders and/or who’s had a lot of good or bad luck. To distinguish between fielders affecting the pitcher or luck, you usually have to look at the other pitchers in the staff. If everyone has a much better ERA than FIP, you can generally assume they’re being helped by really good fielders.

Guys who induce a ton of soft contact will usually have a much lower ERA than FIP over their career. Kyle Hendricks is a great example... 3.10 career ERA vs 3.55 career FIP. Hendricks is also a good example of how FIP tends to deviate less than ERA over the course of a career. The difference between his career high and low for FIP is .68. That difference is 1.82 for ERA.
 
#418      
Heard Hamels is out tomorrow, shoulder soreness, never heard of his replacement.
 
#419      
Heard Hamels is out tomorrow, shoulder soreness, never heard of his replacement.

Alec Mills. Former Royals prospect. Been ok in a few spot starts this year. Probably only good for 5 innings at most.

Frankly, as bad as Hamels has been since coming off the IL (6.39 era) at the beginning of August, this probably improves the Cubs’ chances a bit. Or at least it doesn’t hurt it much.
 
#423      

the national

the Front Range
Whoa! I’m pretty bummed Jack got robbed of a wonderful start. Carlos was just being Carlos. I wish Shildt had pulled him earlier. The cubs live off of those emotional swings. Thank goodness Miller is clam in those situations, especially as of late.

Edit: we won’t win many of those types of emotional games against the cubs. They always seem to have our number. Maybe I’m still feeling the burn of the playoff loss in 2015...
 
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#424      
Whoa! I’m pretty bummed Jack got robbed of a wonderful start. Carlos was just being Carlos. I wish Shildt had pulled him earlier. The cubs live off of those emotional swings. Thank goodness Miller is clam in those situations, especially as of late.

He reminds me a little of Carlos Zambrano. A very effective pitcher who can dominate until the switch gets flipped then his emotions take over.
 
#425      

BillyBob1

Champaign
Tired of Martinez. Need to trade him at the end of the year. Came into spring training not ready to pitch. Headcase.