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St. Louis Cardinals 2022
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<blockquote data-quote="the juiceman cometh" data-source="post: 1767366" data-attributes="member: 747321"><p>I'm getting a little exhausted with the circular logic around pitching and defense on the Cardinals. The logic goes: </p><p></p><p>1. We have a great defense, let's get pitchers that pitch to contact to utilize it. </p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="the juiceman cometh, post: 1767366, member: 747321"] 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). [/QUOTE]
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