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I do yes. I think Mo has been in Jakes corner since day 1. But not Ollie or Maddux.
Mad is gone, maybe he will get more of an opportunity this year…? If not he should be traded to a team that will give him the opportunity, and I’m sure there are plenty that would. All the Cards are doing
is holding him back from advancing his career.!I’ve been a Woodford fan ever since he was the starter for the PCL in the AAA All Star Game. The pitching philosophy of the Cardinals has changed over the past several years. They’re looking for more swing and miss guys than pitch to contact ground ball guys.
My take is it doesn’t really matter who the Cardinal manager is because it has devolved into mostly a babysitter role. Keep the guys in the clubhouse happy, make a few in game decisions, and give a good postgame interview. The real decisions are made upstairs. The roster is set from upstairs. Lineup suggestions are recommended from upstairs. There is a reason that Matheny and Shildt are no longer here despite having a very good winning percentage. I imagine Ollie is smart enough to play along with the bosses. We won 93 games last year so something is working.
That may indeed be the case. Anyone who was paying attention back in the late fall of 2011 was well aware that the notion of TLR “retiring” was utter nonsense. The reality was that he possessed far too much self esteem to entertain the idea of taking on the role of a “babysitter.” That’s a job that’s more well suited to a teenaged girl than to a genuine Big League field manager.
He’s willing to go along with the analytics, even when his gut tells him something else. That’s what they want. The Mikes didn’t go along 100% with that program.
And the answer to the question I posed is that in 2022, the Cardinals staff ranked 30th out of 30 teams in Ks produced by our pitchers.
Not so much for 2023, but for 2024, I’d like to see them do a more out-of-the-box trade for someone like John Means of Baltimore. He won’t be back until the second half and then would be eligible for his final arbitration year in 2024. That would give them a possible #2-3 for 2024 without breaking the bank and have an option for the second half of this year. He also wouldn’t cost much of anything prospect-wise.
Same thing with Buehler from the Dodgers or Skubal and Mize out of Detroit (Skubal would cost much more in a trade)
I agree the strike out rate is very low, and Woodfords is low… But, I guess I’m of the old school thought that if the guy is getting outs, hitters are not squaring him up very much and runs are very limited. Isn’t keeping runs off the board the objective..not how many guys you can strike out?
Well said, Cardsfan. Limiting runs is the name of the game, and I think some people must have forgotten this as they are so focused on strike outs. Strike outs certainly have a place, but are not the only factor in a good pitcher. A strike out takes a min. of 3 pitches, while a ground ball can be done in 1.
Woodfords runs allowed in one of the lowest on the squad, along with Hels and Zack. period.Yeah, the best I can tell is that the presence or absence of runs is still somewhat important in the game of baseball. When the umpires call in the final score to NY at the end of a game, they make no mention of the total number of K’s for either team…
I wonder how having 24 less divisional games will affect the record in 2023. I haven’t look at the schedule in detail so I have no idea.
There’s no telling how it will affect W/L records until the games are played, but it will undoubtedly have a detrimental effect on long standing division and league rivalries in the ovbious form of less games between those teams. It will also eliminate plenty of opportunities to gain ground in the standings with the best method to do so, which has always been face to face matchups.
It won’t determine who wins the NLC because all of the NLC teams are going to have to face a balanced schedule but it could reduce the overall win total. Regardless it appears that the Cardinal brass is happy with a division title then roll the dice in the postseason.
Imagine a scenario in which a game or two separates the Cardinals/Cubs on the last week of any season and those two teams face each other at Wrigley Field for a 3 or 4 game series in a battle for the NLC title. Sounds like high drama to me. Now, imagine the same scenario in regards to the standings and time of year with the Cardinals playing the last place A’s in Oakland, while the Cubs face off against the mighty D-Backs in Phoenix. I can hardly wait for this to materialize…Where do they get these whiz-kids?
1tough, very true on the limited opportunities to make up game in a division when the games played vs each other has been reduced. The new schedule has pros and cons. Will be nice to see teams who normally don’t play each other during the season square off.!
I suppose it will, Lee. I just checked the schedule and it’s not quite as bad as I thought it could be. Best I can tell, the Cardinals have eight games against the Cubs during the second half of the season. However, they do go through two separate stretches of almost an entire month without facing a single NLC opponent, which I think is silly. I also would have never imagined an opening day match-up consisting of my favorite team facing the Toronto, Blue Jays. Oh well, no one asked for my authorization…Haha!
Should be a fun season. Here are the games as I count them –
Cubs – 14
Reds – 13
Pirates – 13
Brewers – 12
Dodgers – 9
Giants – 7
Mets – 7
Marlins – 7
Braves – 6
DBacks – 6
Padres – 6
Phillies – 6
Rockies – 6
Nationals – 6
Royals – 4
Blue Jays – 3
Mariners – 3
Tigers – 3
Red Sox – 3
Guardians – 3
Rangers – 3
Astros – 3
Yankees – 3
White Sox – 3
Twins – 3
Rays – 3
As – 3
Orioles – 3I was led to believe that the new scheduling format would serve to place some order and balance into the scheme of things. Well, with a combined 16 games vs. the Dodgers and Giants and 6 apiece with the Rockies and D-Backs, it looks to retain about the same level of “balance” as the nation’s budget. Since when did the boys and girls from the Congressional Budget Office get involved with MLB?
I was led to believe that the new scheduling format would serve to place some order and balance into the scheme of things.
It’s good to see the list cranny put together, but there are a few errors that are causing you to see it worse than it is.
1. Each team plays its division opponents 13 times each, so the Cards play the Cubs and Brewers 13 times each instead of 14 and 12.
2. Each team plays one home series and one away series against each inter-division team in its league, so either 6 or 7 games since some of the series are 4 games. Cards play the Dodgers and Giants 7 times each.
3. Each team plays every opposite league team 3 times, except 4 times against its natural rival (Royals for the Cards). Cranny’s list omitted the Angels.
Was never a Woodford fan as I thought his minor league peripheal numbers would not translate well. But he hás proven me wrong and I hope hd continues tô make me eat crow.
Woody got one start in 2022 so I thought I would look back and see how it went. It was the second game of a DH in Chicago on August 23. He went 5.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 K, 76 pitches and got credited with the win. the 1 K stands out and probably got flagged by the “this guy stinks” algo. 14.9 pitches per inning, neither good nor bad. Pretty typical. At that pace 100 would get him through 7. He was sailing along, up 7-0 when he started off the 6th with his only walk. That was followed by a double down the LF line and it was 7-1. Then a fly out that is reported as a line drive to deep CF. Then he got pulled in favor of Stratton and we on to win 13-3.
So basically he went 5 strong his only start, and seems to have run out of gas in the 6th. The 76 pitches was his high for the year. He has previously thrown 60 in early May and 51 in early June. Given that, going 5 strong scoreless innings seems quite impressive, not yielding a walk or run until trying to go in the 6th.
In looking at his game log, I noticed he took a win in a relief appearance on September 7, giving him a 4-0 record, and then got bombed his next time out on the 9th. After getting bombed, his last 8 appearances were all mop ups. For those games he went 11 innings and gave up 9 hits, a total of one walk the whole time and zero runs. That’s called getting up off the mat.
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