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Do you keep Norris as closer after two blown saves in two games? If not, who do you replace him with? It appears the manager is considering a change.
https://twitter.com/JoeTrezz/status/1036730928763166720Norris: "I came up short today and didn't get the job done, so I'm a little frustrated. But I wanted to get back out there after last night, and I've got the ambition to continue to keep going and fighting, so I won't give up." #STLCards pic.twitter.com/y7qAOv2WAs
— Bally Sports Midwest (@BallySportsMW) September 3, 2018
Do you just hand the baton, and possibly our playoff aspirations with it, to Hicks? Maybe the kid will run with it.
This scenario is about like the Edward Mujica/Trevor Rosenthal situation back in 2013. I believe it was 2013. A guy that had been good the whole year all of a sudden loses it (Mujica) so they go to the hard throwing rookie down the stretch (Rosenthal). Just substitute Norris for Mujica and Hicks for Rosenthal.
Pugs…..”Honks me off” is a good old southern Indiana slang for “Pxxxxx me off!”
r/Rat
I never liked the Norris signing. But he needs to get it together for us to have a chance. Let Martinez close if Norris keeps sucking. He has a 7.11 era in his last seven games back to the Norris I was against signing.
Speaking of blowing it……did anybody see the ending of the Cubs/Brewers game today? Bottom of the 9th, tied 3-3, one out, bases loaded, Yellich hits a grounder towards Bryant at 3rd. He takes 3-4 steps, tags 3rd, fires to first, and misses Yellich by a hair. Winning run scored. Why oh why oh why he didn’t just go home I have no idea???
Shades of Jim Lindeman back in 1989, in Houston. Here’s the boxscore. He tried to tag 1st and then fired home to get the tag play for the 3rd out but, like Bryant, he was too late.
https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1989/B05170HOU1989.htm
r/Rat
I’d try Carlos at closer.
You mean the guy who, after six years in the league, still has a hard time throwing the ball over the plate? The guy that walked two today?
I think Norris is the closest thing we have to being a closer. He has at least had some success. He blew it today. Closers do that. Even Sutter did that.
If Hicks could throw strikes consistently, he might be a candidate. But, he can’t. If Martinez could throw strikes, he might be a closer. But, he also has his bad times.
Gomber throws strikes. But, he’s too valuable as a starter.
But, we win both of the last two games if Martinez doesn’t screw up with the bases loaded and nobody out. We blew these two games because we were playing Non-Cardinal baseball by loading the bases with nobody out, and not scoring the winning runs. Zero. Zilch. In both games, they scored three in regulation. That is acceptable pitching. We failed to do better hitting.
You are right two days in a row of loading the bases and coming up empty was probably the main reason for losing the two games. Martinez and Ozuna failed miserably. But Norris’ knack to give up gopher balls is worrisome.
I’m with Cranny, but I’m also not averse to Brian W.’s suggestion either. If it’s one guy only, then Carlos Martinez is more equipped than Hicks or Hudson, promising though they are.
But I hasten to add that I don’t want Carlos throwing 25 pitches and then being asked to come back 24 hours later and pitch again. So it needs to be Martinez, but with an asterisk — call it a modified closer-by-committee.
Bud Norris could not have hinted more strongly in his postgame comments that he is simply burnt out right now. Worn down mentally, physically, or both. And it shows. He’s walked as many batters in the last 3 1/2 weeks as he did in the first 4 months of the season.
More specifically, through August 5th, Norris registered 57 strikeouts to just 7 walks. Yup, 57-to-7!(To be honest, I have so much lingering antipathy for the guy, I really had no idea he had been THAT dominating, that Kenley-esque sharp.) Since then, it’s 7 K’s and 7 walks. Ugh.
So give him 4 or 5 days off, if not more. That’s the big advantage of roster expansion: you can’t run low on pitchers unless you really screw up. You know, like LaRussa in 2003.
Rats –
Martinez WHIP as a starter –
1.375
His WHIP as a reliever – 0.750And he’s pitched how many innings as a reliever this year???
I’d go with the committee as well. Norris needs a week or so off to get rested and right. Carlos, Hudson or Hicks can fill in for the time being.
Location has been Bud’s strong point, and his lack thereof has been his undoing. No different than any pitcher.
With Wainwright coming back, I wonder if he may be an option? It would be a gamble since he has not pitched all year. But how ironic it could be if he closes (so to speak) his Cardinal career the way it started, as a closer on a championship ball club.
Crap happens tp the best players.Crap happens .It
s baseball.I think you have to dance with the one that brought you there.Cards cant let Norris lose his confidence completely.After all this is the same team that gave Fowler more chances and more chances and more chances……etc;Maybe like Brian said-maybe committee.Brebbia,Cmart,Norris,Hicks,Deleone might be able to hold the fort.Hicks and CMart worry me because they can’t throw strikes. They have both been wild of late. I think the beast lurking down in the pen is Hudson. I’d let him try the 9th.
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