St. Louis Cardinals 2022

#426      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky

Derrick Goold
Atipping point in the Cardinals’ experimental program to build Jordan Hicks into a starter arrived Tuesday night, and with it came a great reckoning on a big role.
In the days leading up to Hicks’ start against Toronto, manager Oliver Marmol pinpointed it as the game in which decisions would shift from how many pitches Hicks needed to throw for increased stamina to, rightly, how Hicks pitched. He had started games, but this would be the first game in which he’d be treated as a starter — pitching as deep into the game as his performance earned.
He faced four batters in the fourth inning and did not get an out.
Hicks’ shift from former closer to budding starter hit a speedbump when he had fewer swings and misses than walks allowed in the Cardinals’ 8-1 loss to the Blue Jays at Busch Stadium. A compelling show featuring Toronto right-hander Kevin Gausman’s six shutout innings became a farce late when the Cardinals compounded a deficit with misplays. The Cardinals walked eight batters. Hicks allowed four runs, three on a homer off the left-field foul pole, and he complicated his evening with five walks. He spent most of the outing with more balls thrown than strikes and, measure for measure, that’s no way to start.

On Shakespeare Night at Busch, fans had T-shirts featuring a quote from the Bard and Hicks had the stage all to himself — no innings cap, no pitch limits — and a lackluster performance invited a classic dilemma.

To start or not to start — that is now the question.
 
#427      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky


Rick Hummel
It has become clear that this Jordan Hicks thing—where he starts instead of relieves—isn’t working. The pitch count is OK. He doesn’t have much trouble getting close to 80. The problem is that about half of them are balls and there isn't much rhythm to his game.
Hicks, presumably healthy after barely having pitched the past three seasons, passed a career-five in three official innings Tuesday night in a 8-1 shellacking here by the Toronto Blue Jays. In seven starts by their former closer, the Cardinals have won just two. Hicks hasn’t made it past the fifth in any of them, walking 18 in 24 2/3 innings as a starter.
In 43 games, slightly more than one-fourth of the season, the Cardinals have had 24 starts of five innings or fewer. Between them, Hicks and Dakota Hudson have walked 39 hitters 68 2/3 innings.

So the problem is evident. What are possible solutions?
Drew VerHagen, the former Japanese League pitcher who was being groomed as a starter in the spring, hurt his hip and then was waylaid by COVID. Upon his return, he had a strong 2 1/3 inning relief stint on Saturday in Pittsburgh and was awarded the win.
On Tuesday, not so much. Two long homers, of 438 feet by Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and 427 by Danny Jansen in two innings.
And also two walks in two innings.
 
#428      
Corey Dickerson has been worth -0.8 bWAR and -0.6 fWAR through the first 43 games. That would put him roughly on track for -3.0 bWAR and -2.3 fWAR over the course of a full season. His wRC+ is 33 and ops+ is 35 (league average is 100).

For sake of comparison the much maligned Matt Carpenter was worth -1.1 bWAR and -0.3 fWAR all last season. His wRC+ was 70 and ops+ was 63.

And for those concerned about outfield depth, Alec Burleson is slashing .310/.355/.570 at Memphis right now.
 
#429      
Corey Dickerson has been worth -0.8 bWAR and -0.6 fWAR through the first 43 games. That would put him roughly on track for -3.0 bWAR and -2.3 fWAR over the course of a full season. His wRC+ is 33 and ops+ is 35 (league average is 100).

For sake of comparison the much maligned Matt Carpenter was worth -1.1 bWAR and -0.3 fWAR all last season. His wRC+ was 70 and ops+ was 63.

And for those concerned about outfield depth, Alec Burleson is slashing .310/.355/.570 at Memphis right now.
At least give Nootbar a chance to play a bit with TON and DC unavailable. Dickerson currently playing every night and not doing much.
 
#430      
I've not been a fan of Hicks as a starter. His performance so far hasn't changed my mind.
 
#431      
I've not been a fan of Hicks as a starter. His performance so far hasn't changed my mind.
I think it was worth a try but I agree the experiment seems to have failed. He's got the stamina to put up starter's pitch counts, but he hasn't found the control, so those pitch counts unfortunately don't get him very deep into games.
 
#432      
I think it was worth a try but I agree the experiment seems to have failed. He's got the stamina to put up starter's pitch counts, but he hasn't found the control, so those pitch counts unfortunately don't get him very deep into games.
Hicks has not rally pitched since June 2019. I would have preferred he go back to the bullpen this year to reestablish himself. IF he put up good numbers this season THEN and only then give him a chance next year. He would have had all the off season to work on developing arm strength. He would have had the whole offseason to develop a plan to pace himself for 6-7 innings. Due to the lockout he had no preseason and a decent spring training. He seemed to be trying things on the fly. It was a failure.
 
#433      
Hicks has not rally pitched since June 2019. I would have preferred he go back to the bullpen this year to reestablish himself. IF he put up good numbers this season THEN and only then give him a chance next year. He would have had all the off season to work on developing arm strength. He would have had the whole offseason to develop a plan to pace himself for 6-7 innings. Due to the lockout he had no preseason and a decent spring training. He seemed to be trying things on the fly. It was a failure.
Yeah, I think the only issue I have with that is Hicks is already 25, and he keeps getting injured in that bullpen role. It could be he's just injury prone, or it could be he's injury prone in that role. If it's the latter, then you risk another lost season, and a lost opportunity to develop a starter.

The Cardinals have a reputation for moving promising starting prospects to the bullpen on a ostensibly temporary basis, and then having them get stuck there due to early success. Hicks is one example, as are Genesis Cabrera, and Alex Reyes. Pallante, who has been dominant in the pen, was pretty much exclusively a starter last season at Memphis and looked very good in that role. It'll be interesting to see if he gets another look at starting. He's obviously valuable in the bullpen, but even mid-rotation starters provide so much more value over the course of a season, it would be a shame to not see if he can develop into an MLB level starter.

Back to Hicks, I'd be in favor of sending him down to Memphis (if he has minor league options left) to see if he can develop as a starter there.
 
#434      
Yeah, I think the only issue I have with that is Hicks is already 25, and he keeps getting injured in that bullpen role. It could be he's just injury prone, or it could be he's injury prone in that role. If it's the latter, then you risk another lost season, and a lost opportunity to develop a starter.

The Cardinals have a reputation for moving promising starting prospects to the bullpen on a ostensibly temporary basis, and then having them get stuck there due to early success. Hicks is one example, as are Genesis Cabrera, and Alex Reyes. Pallante, who has been dominant in the pen, was pretty much exclusively a starter last season at Memphis and looked very good in that role. It'll be interesting to see if he gets another look at starting. He's obviously valuable in the bullpen, but even mid-rotation starters provide so much more value over the course of a season, it would be a shame to not see if he can develop into an MLB level starter.



Back to Hicks, I'd be in favor of sending him down to Memphis (if he has minor league options left) to see if he can develop as a starter there.Back to Hicks, I'd be in favor of sending him down to Memphis (if he has minor league options left) to see if he can develop as a starter there.

Waino is the other side of the reliever to starter role. He's the one I think of when I want a young starter to get his feet wet in relief.
Might be a good idea. Might be a fantastic idea.True. We don't know.

Edit. Boy did I mess up this quote/post.
 
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#435      
Waino is the other side of the reliever to starter role. He's the one I think of when I want a young starter to get his feet wet in relief.

Might be a good idea. Might be a fantastic idea.True. We don't know.


Might be a good idea. Might be a fantastic idea.True. We don't know.
The thing to remember about Waino is he spent just one season (2006, age 24) in that bullpen role and was a starter from day one the next season, and ever since. I think it can work if you limit it to that, but once you're getting into multiple seasons as a reliever I worry it's harmful to development as a starting pitcher.
 
#436      
The thing to remember about Waino is he spent just one season (2006, age 24) in that bullpen role and was a starter from day one the next season, and ever since. I think it can work if you limit it to that, but once you're getting into multiple seasons as a reliever I worry it's harmful to development as a starting pitcher.
Yes he was.
It might. I have to trust smarter people than me to know.
 
#437      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky

Normally, when Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina hook up as a battery, some sort of record is broken or, at least being challenged. On Thursday night at Busch Stadium, the pair made their 313th start together, three games behind the second-place Milwaukee Braves duo of Warren Spahn and Del Crandall.
Molina put his name in the 2022 books by drawing his first two walks of the season after 92 at-bats without one. But Wainwright, falling to the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3, reached a plateau that he hadn’t reached in his previous 50 starts — and didn’t want to reach.
The 40-year-old, seeking his fourth consecutive win, allowed double-figure hits (10) for the first time since his final start of the 2019 season when he surrendered 12 hits to the Chicago Cubs.

Only three of the four runs Wainwright allowed were earned as shortstop Edmundo Sosa had an uneven night in the field, but Wainwright’s record dropped to 5-4.
“It seemed like a lot of hits,” said Wainwright. “Nothing but runners on. Ducks on the pond the whole time. But, sometimes, it’s like that.”
His strike-ball ratio was good, 70-30. The issue was that he averaged precisely 20 pitches an inning as he endured only five.
“They’ve got a really good approach off me,” said Wainwright. “I need to switch it up a little bit.”
 
#438      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky


Rick Hummel
The question of what to do with Jordan Hicks was answered in two-fold fashion Thursday.
After the Cardinals right-hander had undergone an ultrasound exam and after Hicks had emerged from a meeting involving president of baseball operations John Mozeliak and manager Oliver Marmol, Hicks announced — and the club soon confirmed — that he has a right forearm flexor strain.
“A little forearm tightness,” said Hicks.
That injury placed him on the 15-day injury list and, whenever Hicks comes off that list — which could be longer than 15 days — he is likely to be sent out on a minor league rehabilitation outing to try to work out his command and pace issues that have led to his 1-4 record.

“We’re not ultra concerned,” said Marmol, “but with his (injury) history, there’s no reason to push through it.” And Hicks also said he deemed the ailment a “minor thing.”
Marmol made it clear, though, that Hicks, once the forearm issue was determined, wouldn’t have made his next scheduled start here next Monday even if he had been “dealing” on Tuesday when he lost to Toronto 8-1.
Hicks said he had felt some soreness after his starts but that it had been reduced the closer he got to making his next one. “That’s why there hasn’t been really too much concern for me,” he said.
 
#439      
Carlos Martinez: Handed 80-game ban
Major League Baseball suspended Martinez for 80 games Friday for violating the league's policy on performance-enhancing substances, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports.

The veteran right-hander was at spring training with the Giants before latching on with the Red Sox, but he was cut by Boston after giving up 10 runs over two appearances at the Triple-A level. Martinez will be eligible to return late in 2022 but seems unlikely to receive another big-league opportunity this season.

wow
 
#441      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky

Rick Hummel
There was good news — and a snippet of old news for Cardinals right-hander Dakota Hudson on Friday night.
On the plus side, Hudson worked at a brisker pace, in part, because he and catcher Andrew Knizner employed the new PitchCom method of signals between the battery men. The sinkerballer also recorded eight ground ball outs in the first four innings, including throwing a key double-play ball with the bases loaded and one out in the third inning.
However ...
Hudson walked four hitters for the third time in nine starts this season. He didn’t allow a run in 4 2/3 innings but it took him 97 pitches to get that far. The Cardinals’ bullpen and Paul Goldschmidt and Edmundo Sosa did the rest, though, in a 4-2 win over the Brewers at Busch Stadium.

Goldschmidt, extending his hitting streak to 18 games, smacked a two-run homer in the third. Sosa tripled home a run as a pinch-hitter in the seventh and then dashed home to score another run on a fielder’s choice grounder.
Relievers Drew VerHagen, Genesis Cabrera, Kodi Whitley and Ryan Helsley shut down the Brewers on three hits over the final 4 1/3 innings, although one of the Brewers’ hits was a two-run homer by Keston Hiura off Whitley in the ninth. Helsley’s save was his third and he still has given up only two hits in 16 1/3 innings, with first baseman Goldschmidt contributing a sliding stop to his left on the final play of the game.
 
#442      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky


Rick Hummel
Outfielder Matt Holliday starred for eight seasons for the Cardinals, from 2009-2016, and helped them get to two World Series, winning in 2011. Julian Javier was the Cardinals’ starting second baseman for 12 seasons, from 1960-71, and helped them to three World Series, winning two.
Holliday, a fans’ choice, and Javier, selected as a veteran player by the Cardinals’ Red Ribbon voting committee, were two of the players named to the eighth class of the Cardinals’ Hall of Fame, announced Friday night.
The other was the late Charlie Comiskey, a first-baseman/manager for the original St. Louis Browns, forerunners of the Cardinals, in the 1880s. Comiskey was a choice of the Cardinals’ ownership group.

The three will be inducted on Aug. 27 at Ballpark Village.
Holliday batted .293 with 156 homers and 616 runs batted in for 982 games as a Cardinal. He was a four-time All-Star with the club.
He polled more fan votes than Steve Carlton, George Hendrick, Matt Morris and Edgar Renteria, who also were on the ballot.
When Holliday is inducted, several members of the 2011 World Series champions will be on hand, including three who are still playing in Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright. Bench coach Skip Schumaker, also was on that team.
 
#445      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky

Rick Hummel
The Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers, the two favorites in the National League Central Division and playoff teams last season, have played two series of four games each this season. Little has been settled.
The Cardinals won two of four in Milwaukee in April and the Brewers, by virtue of their 8-0 win at Busch Stadium Sunday, captured two games in this four-game set. Milwaukee came to town 3½ games ahead of the second-place Cardinals, which is the same margin with which they left town.
But Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol wasn’t happy that his team had only held serve during the eight games in which the Cardinals have outscored Milwaukee 33-30. He is only too aware that the Cardinals led both series two games to one before losing the finale.

“Our goal is to go out there and beat them every time,” Marmol said.
With Monday’s game against San Diego basically a bullpen game, Marmol wanted to ride 2022 ace Miles Mikolas as long as he could Sunday.
“We needed to cover six (innings) today,” Marmol said.
In the process, that required a career-high 115 pitches for Mikolas, though he walked just one in 5 2/3 innings.
“(The Brewers) had a really good game plan against him,” Marmol said. “They had a clear game plan.”

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Goldie extends his hitting streak to 20 games with a single in the bottom of the 9th and also extends his on base safely streak to 34 games ......

I've been watching baseball for many years and Goldie is as hot at the olate as anyone I can remember.........

Should be no doubts about him winning NL Player of the Month for May.............................JMHO
 
#446      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky

Rick Hummel
Highlights were few for the Cardinals on Sunday in their 8-0 dusting by the Milwaukee Brewers. Well, there was one.
Paul Goldschmidt shot a single to right field in the ninth inning, capitalizing on his final shot to extend his hitting streak.
That streak now is 20, running concurrently with a 34-game on-base streak.
The hitting streak, one behind Los Angeles’ Trea Turner, who went to 21 on Sunday, is the longest by a Cardinal since David Freese had a 20-gamer in 2013. Goldschmidt is 36 for 79 (.456) during the spree and has 30 runs batted in for May, most by a Card since Carlos Beltran had 31 in 2012.

Goldschmidt’s hit came off left-hander Brent Sutter. Against Milwaukee starter Corbin Burnes, Goldschmidt fanned twice and hit a liner snared by diving third baseman Jace Peterson. He had been eight for 18 (.444) against Burnes.
“Not today,” said Goldschmidt. “I was 0 for 3.
“He threw well today. I’ve seen him throw a no-hitter, too (Burnes and Josh Hader no-hit Cleveland last year). We just couldn’t get anything going.”

Naughton to make second start Left-hander Packy Naughton, who made his first Cardinals start three weeks ago against Baltimore, will be recalled from Class AAA Memphis to make Monday afternoon’s start here against San Diego.
 
#447      
Too bad the boys couldn’t get 3/4 from Milwaukee. Could have been 1.5 back. Nice to see Goldy extend hit streak - believe it’s at 20 games now

Haha just saw Pruman beat me to it. 😃👍🏻
 
#449      

IlliniFan85

Colorado Springs, CO
Be nice if umpires would explain plays like what happened in top of 7th. I mean I am happy we catch a break, but at same time, I want to know what the call is.