St. Louis Cardinals 2022

#326      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky

Rick Hummel
The Cardinals’ shortstop is ... Brendan Donovan. At least on Tuesday night it was as the rookie made his first big-league start at that position.
Heretofore, Paul DeJong and Edmundo Sosa had made all 28 of the Cardinals’ starts at shortstop. As of Tuesday night, both were in the minor leagues.
Sosa, who had been on the COVID injured list, had two hits in a rehab game for Class AA Springfield and is slated to play for Springfield again Wednesday morning and could be back with the big-league club by Thursday.
Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol, asked if Sosa had a chance to win the job back that he won last September, answered, emphatically, “A real shot.

“He doesn’t back down. He doesn’t scare. He takes good at-bats. He plays good defense and brings a certain energy to the club that it’s hard to deny.”
DeJong, hitting .130 in 24 games, meanwhile, was packing his bags to join Class AAA Memphis in Norfolk, Virginia, where the team will be playing this week.
Summoning memories of regular third baseman Todd Zeile being optioned to Louisville some 30 years ago — DeJong, who was within a few weeks of not being able to be optioned as a player approaching five years’ of service, indeed, was optioned to Memphis. Zeile was hitting .251, by the way when he was sent out.
 
#327      
“We’re going to find out together,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said before the game. He was referring to Naughton, not the Orioles, who never had played at Busch III and hadn’t played here at all since June, 2003. Naughton gave the Cardinals 3 1/3 decent innings but the Orioles won for the first time in St. Louis in 19 years when Kyle Bradish also won for the first time — in his big-league career.
Right-hander Bradish, making his third major-league start, bamboozled the Cardinals with his fastball-slider combination, striking out 11 and walking no one over seven innings in a 5-3 Baltimore victory.
Perhaps I am being too sensitive but it seems like it happens all the time. St Lou can't figure out the rookie pitcher while the other team consistently finds a way to beat our young pitchers. (Not necessarily in head to head match ups like last night.) It doesn't matter which Cardinal team it is. It's happened for as long as I can remember.
 
#328      
Didn't have time to post this yesterday. Found it interesting.
Bernie On the Cardinals: A Closer Look At The Paul DeJong Conundrum. It’s Exhausting.

This was added later:
Note from Bernie: The Cardinals optioned Paul DeJong to Triple A Memphis on Tuesday afternoon to give him a chance to reboot offensively. This column was written a few hours before today’s news. To take DeJong’s roster spot the Cardinals promoted rookie infielder Kramer Robertson, who had a .380 onbase percentage at Memphis. Tommy Edman may be part of a shortstop rotation but he’s in the lineup at second base tonight.

Original post:
How long will the Cardinals wait to confront the increasingly untenable situation with Paul DeJong?

They’re in no rush. Payroll politics are in play, and no one should be surprised by that. We watched the front office keep Matt Carpenter around in 2021 because they were paying him $18.5 million in the final year of a dreadful contract extension. And while it’s true that the Cardinals ate the final year of Dexter Fowler’s contract by trading him to the Angels – and absorbing all but a small percentage of his $16.5 million salary – the club wanted to ensure starter-status playing time for three young outfielders, and Fowler had to go. This was a special case – not the beginning of a trend.

If you’re getting paid, you stay, and you play. Period. If you can’t hit, it doesn’t matter. If you are hurting the team, it doesn’t matter. If you are below average overall, it doesn’t matter. The contract is almost always the priority.

DeJong is being paid a guaranteed $6.166 million this season. He will be paid a guaranteed $9.167 million in 2023. Obviously Bill DeWitt and John Mozeliak will delay any hardcore decision on DeJong – if they make any decision at all – because of the team’s investment.

I'd love to post the whole thing but I try to be respectful to Dan and his website. I don't want anyone complaining of copyright infringement.
Bernie continues on and speaks about PDJ's defense.

Some more excerpts:

Here’s my question to the front office: what exactly is the basis for the belief that he’ll come around? We’re still in the small-sample range of the season, but I don’t think that applies to DeJong. He hasn’t had an above-average season since mustering a 102 OPS+ in 2018. (A 100 OPS+ is league average.) And he’s gotten progressively worse over time, with his OPS+ dropping each season. He’s 22 percent below league average offensively since the start of the 2020 season.

If DeJong can’t reassemble his crashed offensive profile, then the Cardinals will have multiple choices:
– Go with his defense and stay the course.
– Turn to Edmundo for a large share of starts at shortstop
– Pacify the mob by optioning him to Memphis
– Trade DeJong,
– Acquire a shortstop for the short term.

The DeJong conundrum isn’t never-ending. But it sure is exhausting.

"PACIFY THE MOB?" What?
 
#329      

IlliniFan85

Colorado Springs, CO
This teams hitting is so mediocre (except for Arenado, who has cooled off some this month, and Edmon who has been what we wanted from a leadoff hitter for the most part). And our big off-season acquisition for pitching is... um... I'm at a loss for words.

I am finding myself watching less and less baseball over the last few years. It just isn't fun watching this iteration of baseball.
 
#330      
I'm getting a little exhausted with the circular logic around pitching and defense on the Cardinals. The logic goes:

1. We have a great defense, let's get pitchers that pitch to contact to utilize it.
2. We have pitchers that create a lot of contact, particularly ground balls, so we have to have great defense, even if it comes at the expense of offense.

I think pitch to contact pitchers can be great and we should have some of them. But teams that win titles also have strikeout pitchers and batters that mash, even if their defense is a little below average. The best pitcher on the staff this season has been Helsley, and it's not because he induces ground balls. It's because he strikes almost everyone out. 31 batters faced, 20 strikeouts. Strikeouts play everywhere, in every park, no matter what your defense behind you looks like.

I like Harrison Bader because he's a great defender, and also can hold his own with the bat. Same with Edman. DeJong is a very good defender but what he does with the bat negates any gains from his defense. I think Sosa is a plus defender, but has just one season as essentially an average batter on his resume and has not started this season well at all (OPS+ of 26, and for those concerned about Gorman's K%, Sosa's is 42.9% so far this season!), so I'd prefer him in a utility role rather than an every day SS. I think with all this great defense we can afford to take a slight hit in one position (yes, I'm alluding to the defense concerns with Gorman at 2nd).
 
#331      

Illwinsagain

Cary, IL
I like Harrison Bader because he's a great defender, and also can hold his own with the bat. Same with Edman. DeJong is a very good defender but what he does with the bat negates any gains from his defense. I think Sosa is a plus defender, but has just one season as essentially an average batter on his resume and has not started this season well at all (OPS+ of 26, and for those concerned about Gorman's K%, Sosa's is 42.9% so far this season!), so I'd prefer him in a utility role rather than an every day SS. I think with all this great defense we can afford to take a slight hit in one position (yes, I'm alluding to the defense concerns with Gorman at 2nd).
Regarding the defense concerns, is Gorman bad? below average? average? I have no idea. I just know that he switched from 3rd.
 
#332      

IlliniFan85

Colorado Springs, CO
From a Yahoo article:

The Cardinals demoted Paul DeJong on Tuesday, but it wasn’t to give Nolan Gorman a shot. Instead, Kramer Robertson was promoted for what figures to be a short stint with Edmundo Sosa due to return from the COVID-19 IL later this week. It seemed like the right time to try Gorman, but he has cooled off recently, hitting .222/.276/.370 in his first seven games this month (he came in at .338/.390/.811 with 11 homers in April). Once he heats back up again, the Cardinals are going to have to take a look at his bat. In the meantime, Sosa, who outplayed DeJong last year, figures to be installed at shortstop. It isn’t slated to happen, but it’d be interesting to see what Brendan Donovan could do against righties. Donovan probably doesn’t possess mixed-league upside, but he has a nice all-around offensive game and likely would be of use in deeper formats if he could secure a platoon role.
 
#333      
Regarding the defense concerns, is Gorman bad? below average? average? I have no idea. I just know that he switched from 3rd.
I've read positive reports but my understanding is it's a work in progress. If I had to guess, he's probably a serviceable but below average 2B right now. Looking at baseball reference, his fielding% is 0.980, with 2 errors in 98 chances. Last season at 2B he was 0.947 at AA and 0.989 after promotion to AAA. So that indicates to me he is improving. For reference, Edman's fielding% is 0.986 and the league average at 2B right now is 0.983.
 
#334      

Illwinsagain

Cary, IL
I've read positive reports but my understanding is it's a work in progress. If I had to guess, he's probably a serviceable but below average 2B right now. Looking at baseball reference, his fielding% is 0.980, with 2 errors in 98 chances. Last season at 2B he was 0.947 at AA and 0.989 after promotion to AAA. So that indicates to me he is improving. For reference, Edman's fielding% is 0.986 and the league average at 2B right now is 0.983.
Thank you!
 
#335      
I have read that mangement is concerned about the rate of strikeouts when considering a promotion of Gorman to the major league roster.
 
#336      
I have read that mangement is concerned about the rate of strikeouts when considering a promotion of Gorman to the major league roster.
This is certainly the management line, but can you really take that at face value when they're going to plug in Sosa, who has a strikeout rate of 42.9% so far this season, as the starting SS (instead of moving Edman over to make room for Gorman at 2B)? Management will never say service time is the reason or even a reason.
 
#337      

the national

the Front Range
Was originally from Nokomis but actually went to Glenwood his senior year when his mom moved to the area because of work. He was the Angels 1st round pick out of Louisville back in 2020. Youngest Angel to throw a no-no in franchise history.
Very cool, I hadn’t realized he attended Glenwood for a stretch (Jayson Werth’s old stomping grounds). I know Glenwood well as I graduated from there many many years
 
#338      
Great to see Donovan with a couple more extra base hits tonight. Was crazy to read he’s now only one shy of Paul DeJongs total for the whole season. Shows how rough Pauly has been.
 
#339      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky

Rick Hummel
Once it became apparent that Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright, on the COVID injured list, could not start Tuesday in the opener of a three-game set here with Baltimore, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol had the option of using Miles Mikolas, his best starter this season, on regular four days’ rest because of an off day the Cardinals had on Monday.
Marmol took the “long-game” approach and elected to give Mikolas and the rest of the rotation an extra day of rest between starts this week so that dividends might accrue later in the season. The Cardinals used a succession of relievers unsuccessfully in a loss on Tuesday but Mikolas, strong as he could be, held the Orioles to four hits and one run over seven innings in a 10-1 victory on Wednesday night at Busch Stadium.

Would Mikolas have done that on Tuesday? We won’t know, but what we do know is that he has allowed only five runs in his past 38 2/3 innings for an ERA of 1.16. Of the 21 outs Mikolas recorded Wednesday, 14 were on the ground as he handled the Orioles with his slider as much as anything else.
Mikolas gave credit to Yadier Molina for his “proficient pitch calling,” and to his defense. “Keep the ball down and let the defense do their thing,” he said.
“This is a very, very good version of Mikolas,” said Marmol. “You can tell he’s in absolute control of every at-bat and it looks really good.”
 
#340      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky

Rick Hummel
Cardinals left fielder Tyler O’Neill was a loser in the salary arbitration verdict handed down Wednesday although “losing” at $3.4 million (the Cardinals’ offer), compared to his asking price of $4.15 million, is relative.
O’Neill sighed Wednesday afternoon and said, “I feel glad that it’s done.”
Because of the 99-day owners’ lockout, arbitration cases were held during the season rather than in February, with O’Neill’s conducted Friday before a game in San Francisco. After a nothing-for-four night on Tuesday, O’Neill’s average dipped to .198 with just three hits and 10 strikeouts in his past 16 at-bats. This season’s statistics, however, had no bearing on the arbiter’s decision. But O’Neill’s recent skid had a bearing on Wednesday’s lineup.

He wasn’t in it.
“Trying to break the cycle of some of his at-bats and get him in the right frame of mind,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “He’d tell you that his at-bats aren’t what he wants them to be, right now. I would agree.”
O’Neill instead took extra batting practice in the afternoon and then hit more with his regular group later as he sought to recapture his timing.
“I’m not a ‘rest’ guy,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of energy. I’m lively and I’m young (26) and need to get my work in.”
 
#344      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky

Derrick Goold
The Cardinals must cling to a notion they’re as good at predicting the eventual arrival of the lineup they promise as they have been at forecasting the starter Jordan Hicks could become.
With Hicks’ career-long appearance as a starter and assertive possibility for the rotation as a subplot Friday, the narrative thread about the offense continued, frayed as it continues to be. The Cardinals’ stalled too long to gain ground on the Giants before the game came unraveled spectacularly in the eighth inning. The Giants drubbed lefty reliever T. J. McFarland for three RBI base hits, including a two-run homer, to turn a two-run lead into an 8-2 rout. Not that the Cardinals offense showed much gumption to bridge that two-run gulch.

For the 16th time in 32 games, the Cardinals scored three or fewer runs. They’ve lost 11 of their 13 games when they’ve failed to get that fourth run, and they’ve lost five of their past season games. Only once in those five losses have they scored more than three.
“I’m still confident our offense is going to be a good offense,” manager Oliver Marmol said early Friday afternoon. “Right now, it’s not that. … Once it starts to click, I do think we have depth. Right now, it doesn’t seem like there’s enough there to have a good offense.”
So thin has the offense been that the Cardinals took the first lead of Friday’s game without needing a hit.

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missed catches by outfielders and an anemic offense has made the Cardinals , to me , not an inspiring team to watch right now............I still don't feel 100 % yet from my stomach bug and watching this team stumble along is just about as painful as the bug is.................................JMHO...........
 
#345      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky

Derrick Goold

When Adam Wainwright received word that he had tested positive again for COVID-19 and would be confined to his hotel room again for several days, it all felt familiar.
“It was a moment of — I think I’ve been here before,” the veteran starter said. “If COVID taught us anything it’s how to handle situations like that and how to get past it.”
Back in isolation, at least he packed for it.
Going back to the Cardinals’ outbreak during the 2020 season that lodged them in a Milwaukee hotel for a week and put them in quarantine for more than two weeks, Wainwright traveled with a bag of exercise gear so that he could, if necessary, work out in his room and keep his arm and body ready to start. That bag, which he had with him in San Francisco, and that individual work will allow him an expedited return after missing a start.

Wainwright could start as early as Sunday against San Francisco.
That would allow him, on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball national broadcast, to pair with catcher Yadier Molina for their 311st start together and their first chance to set a major-league record. The Cardinals’ next win in a game they start will be the 203rd, setting a new mark.
“That’s the most important stat there is,” Wainwright said. “That’s one of the coolest things we’ll be able to do together, win the most games together as a battery.”
He had a far different experience in late January when he tested positive for coronavirus and experienced three days of flu-like symptoms and two days of exhaustion, he described.
Wainwright’s sense of smell has yet to return.
 
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#346      
Really hoping for Gorman soon but still - even if he excels - there are so ma y problems on offense. Carlson and TO continue to hit around .200 and they can’t get anything going. Yepez is coming back down to earth a bit but hoping he is a .300 hitter that can last. Still wish this FO would actually spend a $ to help the boys out!
 
#347      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky

Derrick Goold
Working consistently without a net and a lingering inability to string any steady offense together demands precision from the Cardinals’ strengths in order to win.
With a game tottering, a victory in the balance Saturday, the Cardinals leaned on the reliever who has been as close to flawless as they come.
Ryan Helsley took the ball with the bases loaded, one out, and a slim two-run lead to protect in the seventh inning. A wild pitch and that lead cleaves in half. A base hit and it’s vaporized. The runs provided by rookie Brendan Donovan’s double and Tommy Edman’s solo home run offered the narrowest margin for error. Perfect spot for Helsley. The right-hander got a double play from the first batter he faced and escorted the Cardinals down the tightrope toward what became a 4-0 victory against San Francisco at Busch Stadium.

Helsley’s cool in the seventh climaxed a game shaped by Yadier Molina’s instincts, Dakota Hudson’s persistence, and the golden sheen of Edman’s glove.
All of the things the Cardinals count on when the offense doesn’t add up.
“If we’re going to go through this stretch where we’ve talked about our offense quite a bit, you’re going to have to win ballgames the way we just did,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “We pitch well. We play good defense. We make good decisions. And score three, four runs. There will be a stretch where we hit. You still have to win games when you’re not feeling great. That’s what we did.”
 
#348      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky

Ben Frederickson
He’s getting there.
When Yadier Molina arrived late to Cardinals spring training, the future Hall of Famer told the truth.
He was not in his usual preseason shape. He was going to need some patience after an offseason impacted by personal matters. He was going to share more of the catching workload with Andrew Knizner than he had in the past.
But Molina would get there, he insisted. Just watch. We would see.
We saw Saturday, didn’t we?
Whether you were watching from Busch Stadium or from home while on the COVID IL (like yours truly) you saw Molina guide his Cardinals pitchers to another shutout win.

You saw him smack the first extra-base hit of the game for an offense desperate for power production.
You saw him steal a precious out from the Giants by reading 2021 National League manager of the year Gabe Kapler’s mind.
It was another good day at the office for No. 4, and another good sign his spring-training prediction is going to come true.
On Saturday against the Giants, Molina was a giant.
 
#349      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky

Derrick Goold
The “real shot” the Cardinals intend to give Edmundo Sosa to win the everyday job at shortstop began Saturday and will continue Sunday with his first starts at the position in weeks, but something happened for the Cardinals on the way to queueing up games for Sosa’s audition.
Rookie Brendan Donovan kept hitting, kept providing what the Cardinals kept lacking.
Donovan doubled home the Cardinals’ first run in their 4-0 victory Saturday, and the left-handed hitting infielder has reached base in nine of his past 13 plate appearances. His performance since his promotion has rewritten several lineups, including shortstop, where he started most of the past week. Manager Oliver Marmol agreed he’s playing the “hot hand.”

“I think so,” Marmol said. “I try to be concerned more with how guys are feeling than just their results. … How guys are feeling, their confident level, (more) than just they’ve gotten a hit or not and playing the hot hand that way.”
Marmol gave the example of Dylan Carlson and his recent prominence in the lineup based on the improvement the team sees in his swing.
Donovan, batting .320 through his first 15 big-league games, turned his success at the plate into an extended look at shortstop even after Sosa’s return from a positive COVID test. Donovan’s first big-league homer carried over right field — with the exact swing and lift to the pull side the Cardinals wanted to see him unlock in spring. A couple hits one day yielded a start ahead of Sosa the next, and so on. On Saturday, the wish to keep Donovan in the lineup allowed Marmol to slide Nolan Arenado to the designated hitter spot for a break from the field. Donovan started at third, opening shortstop for Sosa.
 
#350      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky

Rick Hummel
Four different players have appeared at shortstop for the Cardinals in the six games they have played so far this week.
Paul DeJong, the first, played the position last Sunday and then got sent to Memphis after going nothing for three that day and pretty much 0 for the season.
Utilityman Brendan Donovan, hitting well and making all the plays he needed to make and a couple of others, took the next four turns at shortstop, relieved for an inning by Kramer Robertson, who made a throwing error and then also was sent to Memphis after the game, not that he wasn’t going back anyway.
Edmundo Sosa, just up from a rehab option at Springfield, ran a long way to catch a popup Saturday when third baseman Donovan lost it in the sun with a runner at first base in the third. And, in the eighth, Sosa snatched a foul fly from behind left fielder Corey Dickerson somehow without bowling over the flyhawk. “I guess we were both smooth, right there,” said Dickerson.

Sosa also legged out an infield hit to ignite a two-run seventh inning that helped put away a 4-0 Cardinals win over the San Francisco Giants.
The shortstop in waiting still might be Tommy Edman. But in the first couple of innings Saturday, the Gold Glove second baseman put on a clinic as to why he might be served best where he is.
With a runner at first and two out in the first, Edman, already playing on the outfield grass for Mike Yastrzemski, dived to his left for a smash, righted himself and threw out Yastrzemski to end the inning. “That,” said first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, “was a great play.”
To start the next inning, Edman flashed to his left for a leaping grab of Evan Longoria’s liner.