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This team can’t win for losing! It is definitely getting late early! A 4th place finish in this division isn’t out of the question!
We didn’t get the win but there should be no doubt that our best defensive OF is Carlson and he should be in CF everyday. That is a no brainer. Most of this month our OF defense has looked like something from a beer league softball team. Walker, Burleson, and Yepez are terrible defensively. O’Neill and Noot aren’t CF’s. Play Carlson!
This is as bad as a Cardinal team has looked in probably 15 years or so.
The 2007 team was 9 games back on May 7th and as much as 10.5 games back by the end of June. However they managed to claw to 1 GB before getting swept in Arizona the weekend after Labor Day and free falling to as much as 11 games back before settling in at 78-84 and 7 games out.
That 2007 team had no business being that close and this team has no business being this bad but weird things happen. Lol
One difference in 2007 and 2023, Tony LaRussa. Who’d you rather have leading the ballclub, LaRussa or Marmol? I think we all know the answer.
.357 win pct equates to 58-104.
It would take an 8 game winning streak to get us to .500. Something like that is quite doable. That is the positive. The negative is that a .500 win pct right now would only mean we are 4th in the Division rather than 5th. That wouldn’t qualify as competitive no matter how self serving the definition. The inability to blame injuries will, and maybe already does, have Mo in an uncomfortable position.
The outfield D did look good, but I am not sure this outfield is a realistic option. Day in, day out, it is just going to be too offense impaired to be playable. O’Neill looks hopeless. Carlson is going to be hopeless vs RHP, which is most of the time. Noot is not on fire, and he is a contributor to rallies rather than a powerhouse, so even if he heats up, it only does so much. Your outfield corners have to do more than catch and throw.
Similarly, DeJong and Edman make for solid defense up the middle, but there is not going to be much offense there. Some get on base from Edman is about all.
booyah…When I think of that ’07 team, Kip Wells comes to mind. When he took his turn, it was as if he was throwing kipper snacks to a group of hungry sea lions.
With two outs in the ninth and a runner on and with lefties Gorman and Burleson available off the bench, Marmol instead let Carlson hit against the RHR Graterol. He grounded out to short, but hey, it was a confidence builder or something…
Carlson was a difference maker during the game on defense, but he just shouldn’t have been hitting in that spot.
Going into the game last night Kershaw’s era was 2.38, I believe. That means that the rest of the league is getting almost two runs off of him over seven innings.
But we get zero. So even with a spectacular start from Montgomery we still have little to no chance of winning
Stuff happens. Sometimes change is necessary. The players we have isn’t going to change much for the rest of the season. 2-3 from AAA and maybe a couple of trades so – 4 to 5 guys tops that aren’t already in the mix.
At some point before this season spirals much further out of control maybe give the team to Stubby for the rest of the year and make a change at pitching coach.
No matter who’s fault it is or isn’t or why the results are what they are: sometimes you’ve got to make a change. Maybe at the beginning of June if team isn’t climbing by then?
Further to the above post, how many times last season did Mikolas lose or get a no decision in games we lost 1-0, 2-1, or 3-2?
It only took until the 2nd or 3rd inning to conclude that the Cardinals weren’t going to have much of a chance against Kershaw. The CG is pretty much a thing of the past, but he looked like he’d have no trouble going the distance when Roberts went out and got him at only 88 pitches. When he’s working like he was last night, he’d burn a path through a line-up of 9 all stars. That’s why he’s 202-88 with a career W/L pct. of .697…Haha!
Carlson was a difference maker during the game on defense, but he just shouldn’t have been hitting in that spot.
So far, the search for intelligent life in the dugout hasn’t turned up much. But to be honest, Oli wasn’t hired after an exhaustive search for a knowledgeable and skilled field manager. If due diligence were expected in hiring a field manager, there wouldn’t be much evidence of it. Maximize cooperation and minimize push back was probably the driver.
But the team under Oli won 93 games last year despite a lot of injury trouble. So laying too much at his feet seems off the mark. He’s not helping though, we can probably all agree on that.
Sure Marmol could have pinch hit for Carlson but it isn’t like Burleson is looking like Ted Williams this year. He is hitting .224. I guess Gorman was available then he could have moved Donovan to LF.
Then again, did the Dodgers have a lefty warming in the bullpen? If so that wouldn’t be good for Gorman. He is 0 for 6 against lefties this year. Maybe we could have sent Motter up there.
I originally posted about the fact that DC should have been pinch hit for and while I still think that would have been the right move, our odds of getting a hit with Burleson or Gorman probably only increase by 5% (roughly .240 for DC to .290 for NG). So I’m not upset about it. Besides, Dylan had made 2 great catches to help save the game from getting out of hand and he had one of our 3 hits to that point so having faith in him continuing to have a good game isn’t a bad move. Sometimes you just have to go with the hot hand (or let’s be honest, lukewarm hand with our offense last night) even if the computer tells you not to. I think I would still have pinch hit, but I don’t blame Ollie for this particular call. Having a gut feeling and going with it takes courage and I like to see that from time to time in today’s world of paint by numbers (not that I’m at all against stats and numbers – I’m just against using them universally).
Our pitching was great last night though. And the defense looked good. I was super impressed by Hicks in particular. And Kershaw definitely brought his A game. It’s still frustrating that we could only muster 3 hits. But I do think things are starting to come together and normalize. I just hope Woodford can battle hard enough today to give up less than 2-3 runs in 4-5 innings. That should give us a good chance if that happens.
I feel the same way jnevel. If the pitching continues to improve and we play our best defenders that gives us the best chance of winning. When you are routinely down 5-0 after three inning you have almost no chance of winning.
If you guys want to argue that Kershaw is virtually unbeatable, and I won’t argue the point, than we have no business wasting our most consistent starter with the only goal of keeping it close.
Better to juggle the rotation and save Montgomery for a winnable game. Olí would have to go to Mo for permission to do that, but why not do it when your current strategy is on track for 100 losses?Today’s game against the Angels, on 5/4/23, which we lost 11 – 7, reinforces my prior point on this thread. We’re down a ton, so there is very little pressure. So we get 5 innings of almost perfect relief.
And even Woodford, who has been terrible as a starter, was okay in relief.
So those of you who are arguing that it is physical ability that is our problem, you might be wrong. It might just be a mental thing
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