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1:10 p.m.
RHP Miles Mikolas (3-6, 5.54) vs. RHP Ronel Blanco (5-1, 2.44)
MLB Network // BSM // KMOX
Also BS Southeast and Southwest ExtraAnother series loss – looking to salvage a game.
I’m sure Mo has had a plan for the past 3-4 years but whatever it is it ain’t working.
.500 baseball teams with ancient starting pitchers don’t give me hope for the future.
.500 baseball teams with ancient starting pitchers don’t give me hope for the future.
You forgot to mention ancient and underperforming bronze busts in the middle of the lineup.
Actually the ancient starting pitchers aren’t the problem so far, although they have plenty of time to break down. This is the worst bench I’ve ever seen. The front office had no plan for the predictable loss of one or more of our starting pitchers. Hoping guys who have never had success starting will step in isn’t a plan. How is any of that Olis fault? It’s not. But he’s horrible and costs us games weekly. He can’t be fired soon enough. With all that said, we have some young talent that I really enjoy watching play. Unfortunately, none of it is starting pitching. It’s going to be like getting teeth pulled waiting for Mo and company to move on. I’m appreciative of the good years but it’s past time for new blood. Hopefully it doesn’t drag on another year past this one. I believe with the right moves we can still win with this young core group. But they’ve clearly already wasted all the value any of these oldies might have had.
I really don’t see the 2025 team looking much different than this one. The rotation will be pretty much the same, the bullpen will be pretty much the same minus Gallegos, the lineup will be pretty much the same minus Goldy. There could be a few minor tweaks here and there but nothing major.
Oh and Mo still has another year on his contract after this one and Marmol has two remaining. It will be 2026 at least until we see much change.
The addition of Walker and either Edman or Scott, or both, would give it a different look. Hopefully the bench will be different as well.
The issue is the lack of young starting pitching to go with the young line up players.
Guys like Winn, Gorman, Burleson,
Donovan, and Herrera (and Walker, Saggasse, Prieto) don’t really have any counterparts on the mound that I can see. There is a lack of balance so now you are left having to trade batters for pitchers and ….I guess the Cards can keep cobbling together a pitching staff every year like they have been for awhile now but – how’s that going for them?
They also keep playing the star player retirement record: Puhols, Molina, Wainwright, and now Carpenter.
I agree with Gscottsr there isn’t a lot of reason to think the 2025 team will be much better. There is some hope on both the pitching and hitting sides, but they are hopes. The team really needs Walker to step up to be an above average regular to improve the team. We have a few guys like Prieto, Fermin, and Saggasse and we need one of the to be a quality bench player with one of the others at least being a replacement level player for when injuries strike.
On the pitching side, at least Hence will likely make his debut some time next year and have a chance at being an upside player. With Roby’s injury again, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Cards move him to a late inning RP role, where his stuff would really play up. We have some solid young RP prospects that could be good pieces in a bullpen like Loutos, Granillo. We also have some potential #5 types like Robberse and Graceffo.
There is no way Pallante can be counted on as a starter. And as mentioned our bench is terrible.
I think you have to see what Liberatore can do as a starter. See if his first round tools can translate into a reliable rotation piece.
Right now us and the Pirates look to be going in opposite directions. The Bucs top three starters are Keller, Jones and Skenes. Younger, dynamic arms. We go with Gray and the Graybeards.
Anyway, yesterday was our second straight three homer game, yet a loss. Oh, and today three former Cardinals take the hill. Dak Hudson goes against the Reds in Coors Field, with the two Jordan’s, Hicks and Montgomery on the mound in Phoenix for the Giants-Diamondback tilt.
FA and trade acquisitions will obviously be made, but we will see what Mo does. The SP market is actually really good this year with Burnes, Fried, and Roki Sasaki being ace level top ams. A 2nd tier of top arms with injury history of Bieber, Buehler, Flaherty. Kikuchi is another SP who has really been trending upwards and will be available.
I’ve read the Cards have been one of the teams scouting Sasaki. He has absolutely dominated in Japan, but he will only be 23 next season so he has to go through IAFA and can only get a signing bonus of ~$5ish million from a given teams pool. He is reportedly planning to go that route like Ohtani so he can get a jump on MLB. I definitely see Dewallet being interested in a cheap ace that will be in 3 years of rookie contracts and the 3 arb years. I just don’t see Sasaki having any interest in the Saint Louis as he will likely want to be in a West Coast city
BikeMike, I also would like to see Liberatore get an extended shot while having his arm built up for the innings.
Matz, Libby, Pallante and Thompson combined have allowed RHB’s to record a four digit ops, for the season. Consider Willson is at a .950 ops……
The four above are not starter options if the goal is winning. If we’ve gave up on 24′, then yes, let them start and hopefully improve.
I just think we have been jerking some guys around too much and we haven’t really given them an extended look. Let Liberatore go into next year and start at least 10 games. Either he has it or he doesn’t, but you answer the question and have a better idea for the future. Sometimes the best thing for an org is to just let young guys play as they only improve with regular time. It comes with a risk of having a below .500 year, but that also happened playing so conservative with vets. We keep trying to plug the SP hole with vets, and are kicking the problem down the road. I don’t expect the team to hand over multiple rotation spots to young players, but hand over one to give them a good shot. That does require more depth if things don’t work though, but there are AAAA type SPs out there that you can acquire to fill that depth.
Pallante is probably a AAAA type guy. I’m not saying a AAAA is a good plan for a #5 SP, but it is as least depth to eat innings. Ideally we would like better than a AAAA, but we have jerked Liberatore, Thompson, and Pallante back and forth between SP and RP. We have a history of doing this as well. Give a guy a role, and stick with it so they can have the necessary innings build up / expectations
FA and trade acquisitions will obviously be made, but we will see what Mo does. The SP market is actually really good this year with Burnes, Fried, and Roki Sasaki being ace level top ams. A 2nd tier of top arms with injury history of Bieber, Buehler, Flaherty. Kikuchi is another SP who has really been trending upwards and will be available.
I’ve read the Cards have been one of the teams scouting Sasaki. He has absolutely dominated in Japan, but he will only be 23 next season so he has to go through IAFA and can only get a signing bonus of ~$5ish million from a given teams pool. He is reportedly planning to go that route like Ohtani so he can get a jump on MLB. I definitely see Dewallet being interested in a cheap ace that will be in 3 years of rookie contracts and the 3 arb years. I just don’t see Sasaki having any interest in the Saint Louis as he will likely want to be in a West Coast city
Agreed that the market is pretty good this year. If the Cards had any stomach for it, they could instantly make the rotation pretty darned good with Gray and two more very good arms. Throw in Mikolas and the farm guys competing for #4 and 5 slots and some depth and you’ve got an entirely different look to the team next year. Goldy and Gibson and Lynn would clear a good amount of payroll room. I would not expect it though.
Everyone would have to be scouting Sasaki, I’d think. His stamina is one of the only knocks on him, and he’s showing to be a bit more durable this year. His stats don’t look quite as good, but as we’ve seen with Imanaga and Yamamoto, the transition for pitchers to America is going pretty well. I’m sure they’ll give their pitch and he will sign with the Dodgers or Mariners. Maybe the Giants and Yankees have an outside shot. It’s the unfortunate demographic reality for Midwest teams trying to woo the Japanese and Korean stars. It’s overpay or bust, and when overpay isn’t even an option you’re out of luck.
LF B. Donovan L
RF A. Burleson L
1B P. Goldschmidt R
2B Nolan Gorman L
3B N. Arenado R
DH Ivan Herrera R
SS B. Crawford L
C Pedro Pages R
CF Mike Siani LThanks for the lineup bling, but I’m not so sure they even matter, when allowing 6, 7 or 8 runs a game. Oh boy, it’s Mikolas turn again.
If Winn, Gorman and Arenado could all rest their sore backs more, we might have decent infield defense.
Give Liberatore a shot at starting? My goodness how many chances does he need? The Cardinals have repeatedly tried him as a starter and the results have been mostly awful. He looks much more confident and aggressive as a reliever to me. Let’s go with what works instead of clinging onto hope of winning the Arozarena trade.
For context, Liberatore has started 21 career games, or about 2/3 of a season. His ERA is right at six.
In the role, he has gotten worse with more experience:
2024: 8.10 ERA, three starts
2023: 5.88 ERA, 11 starts
2022: 5.46 ERA, seven startsLiberatore has relieved 30 times in his career. His ERA is 3.82, more than two runs per nine better than when he starts.
How to best use him seems clear.
It was obvious enough after last season. That didn’t stop MoBill from going into this season with Libby as #6 backing Matz and the over the hill gang. I wish I thought that it was just cheapness, but I think they really believed it. But there is no hope in either case.
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