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Shildt Wednesday postgame:
Whitley is in late inning mix, not necessarily ninth.
On steals, guys taking advantage of what they saw. Good job tonight.
Edman made nice swings, again taking good ABs from both sides of plate. Able to find bigger hole against shift tonight. Very encouraging. One you show ability to use whole field, they (opponents) have to honor it. Lead off is a spot we like him in. It is fair to read from him starting there every day that he will be the leadoff man.
Hicks getting back into competition. It was a fantastic outing. Lot of soft contact. Expect a little acclimation after not playing for almost two years.
On spring W/L record, fans and media recognize that lots of opportunities are being created. Very pleased with how camp is going to prepare for season. Would like to be above .500, but no one wins the championship by winning the Grapefruit League.
Still 10 games remaining but liking the look of Goldy at no. 2.
More of the same from Waino. Got some work out of the stretch. Thought he was crisp again. Takes a lot of pride in batting.
Yea edman has been solid. Definitely has leadoff sewed up for now. Gonna have to do better on bases. Goldy arenado will be fine. The rest of the guys I don’t know. We need two more to really step up. I don’t mind goldy at the two spot but in that case who hits third. Having arenado there would give him more at bats but would also more than likely be pitched around more if Dejong or someone else can’t step up. Putting arenado batting 4th should give whoever is batting third better pitches. I kind of like that idea. Still it’s interesting.
Parsons very quietly put up 8 1/3 scoreless innings. Reminds me of when Britt Reames came out of nowhere at age 25 despite few innings over A ball to make the team. Ok, probably not going to happen here.
It seems clear that DeJong and Bader will be opening day starters even if they continue stinking up the joint right on through the end of ST. Carlson also, even if he is seriously outplayed by Thomas. And also that Carp will make the opening day active roster. It seems that all that about how the bat will be the tell was just ST spew. Or maybe it only applied to the far end of the bench.
As of now there is no one who can provide protection behind Goldy/Arenado. Nobody that the opposition won’t pitch around them to get to. Yesterday the opponent walked two guys to load the bases to get to Yadi, so I think that idea is a non starter. Nobody is going to be afraid of DeJong, O’Neill or any of our outfield fly swatters. Hopefully Arenado doesn’t sour on the organization right off the bat if he is constantly pitched around.
It’s hard to know what a player might be working on in spring training that will benefit them in the long run but may cause them to look bad in the interim. I’m hopeful for all of our players as the season draws nigh, but understand that it’s likely that some of them won’t perform up to snuff. What is not likely is a season like 2020, where guys were almost across the board way down from their career averages and even the projections. That tells me that something else was amiss (COVID and the grueling schedule), and that we could expect improvement from last year just based on that.
Of course, the hope is that 2 of the 3 OF can provide above average offense and the third (Bader) will be good enough with the glove to offset his weaker bat. We shall see in a couple weeks.
2020 camp OPSes:
Fowler .280
Nogo .533
Molina .550
Knizner .580
Edman .624
etc…Pick any small sample and it is easy to make broader conclusions that may mean nothing.
Agree with a lot of that, Blingboy.
At least O’Neill is starting to come around a bit. He’s our best hope right now in the 5 hole. If Yadi doesn’t hit and DeJong, Bader, and Carlson don’t come around, though, 50% of our lineup is going to be compromised of fly swatters. Here’s where we rank as a team so far this Spring Training –BA – 23rd
OBP – 26th
Slg. % – 27th
OPS – 25th
Doubles – 25th
Home Runs – 30thSure it’s only Spring Training, but it would be nice if they picked it up a little bit in the next 10 days to create a little offensive momentum going into the regular season.
cranny it seems inescapable that the other teams have bigger sample size than us. They probably also don’t have guys working on stuff.
Edman has posted strong stretches but relies heavily on batted ball luck.
(This sounds like something we might read here from one of the top guys.) Geez… can you really take this guy seriously. “batted ball luck”…. what a smuck for writing that.
Greg Bodnar (VEB) included this sentence from the story below:
Projection systems are down on the Cardinals pitching
n you imagine
Whereas my biggest concern is the offense, it’s the Cardinals run prevention where projection systems see the biggest fall-off from recent years.Now here he makes some sense. A lot of Cardinal fans are so concerned about the offense that they may be skipping over my main worry…. the starting rotation. At this point there’s more questions here to be answered. Number one being…. do we even have a starting rotation? or just a bunch of mediocre arms.?
As they say about the minors, work on things at the lower levels but start showing results at AA and AAA. It may be the same thing with ST. Work on things during the first part, but start to kick it into high gear toward the end. We’ll see if they do this. They’ve been in the bottom half of the majors in OPS and runs per game both in 2019 and 2020. Hope that doesn’t continue.
14 – maybe we have good arms that have just been waiting for the opportunity to start. Gant, Reyes. Ponce. Woodford. Oviedo.
bc… I hear you. I’m always for giving our guys the opportunity to succeed at the MLB level but that’s always a question mark also. I would consider Gant as being ready for a rotation spot but we may have more than one spot to fill. (Reyes is out… will be in the BP.) After Gant who do you consider the next up if things get dicey. Does Flaherty-Wainwright-Kim-Mikolas-CMartinez sound like a steady and reliable quintet?
bb, protection for Arenado isn’t always about who bats behind him. Runner(s) on when Arenado comes to bat also protects his pitches to see. Pitching around him at that point risks a crooked number.
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“…but liking the look of Goldy at no. 2”
My preference also, but there is a good case to be made for DeJong or another at #2 to get them started with expected quality pitches. When he’s on, DeJong does provide the “damage” Shildt is looking for early in the lineup. I’d like to see DeJong finish camp batting second.
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Edman is currently benching Carpenter, in a no DH game, no contest.Run prevention should not be assumed to be equivalent to starting pitching as is seemingly suggested above. Defense is also a major factor, as is relief pitching.
14 – I believe behind Gant – Ponce and Woodford could be helpful. Ponce has 20 major league starts under his belt. He has an overall 3.79 ML ERA. Only given up 83 hits in 114 innings and stuck out 128.
Needs to work on control, but that might come knowing he’s in the rhythm of starting every 5 days. My personal opinion is that Woodford is a little underrated by some and could give us some productive innings as a starter.Shildt Thursday pre-game:
He will get vaccinated when given the opportunity.
KK threw an aggressive side yesterday. More intensity than expected. Reports favorable. Sim game may be next. Can’t declare if he will be ready for Opening Day. Will build best schedule for him.
Mikolas felt good after first day of catch yesterday. Will catch again Friday.
Ponce has been effective, but has used his bullets. Tonights target is 5 innings/75-80 pitches. Resilient arm, low-maintenance delivery.
Other pitchers tonight: Webb, Cabrera, Reyes, Zack Thompson.
Carlos is starting Friday. Doesn’t have Flaherty’s schedule with him. Will check.
When season starts, will keep starting rotation in sequence through early off days, giving them all extra rest. How deep they go into games depends on if they are hitting spots, repeating pitches and matchups ahead. Will let guys pitch. No absolutes.
In offseason, Knizner went extra, unusual step in mental planning, game prep by getting video and breaking it down. Kudos to him.
Probably covered and I missed it but what is the Cardinals argument for Williams to ger another option year?
Was last season a partial year or a full one? Of course, it was both. The question is not specific to Williams only.
Shildt Friday post-game comments
CMart’s sinker was on and off plate. Had some life. Wants it to be a little more consistent, control counts better. Just needs to get out and pitch. Can use changeup and slider, too. A light pen will be next.
Not going to declare backup catcher yet, but you can read between the lines as to how Knizner is being used.
One of rare days defense was not crisp. Wasn’t as clean as we’d like.
Gant starting Saturday.
On Bader/Carlson play in OF. Wind conditions. Glad they got to ball aggressively. Not sure if HB was over aggressive and if DC called for it. Will have to review it.
Gorman had a hot corner play at second (on Mendoza’s high throw from third). Will look to see if Gorman extended too soon. Mendoza was aggressive play. We move on.
They probably also don’t have guys working on stuff.
And what if our hitters who are doing poorly are facing pitchers who are working on stuff. Then we’re in really deep doodoo.
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