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3:10 p.m.
LHP Steven Matz (0-4, 5.70) vs. LHP Chris Sale (3-2, 6.37)
FS1 // BSM // KMOX
(and Bally Sports South/Southwest Extra)What did you folks think of the homeplate umpire last night? I thought his balls and strikes were very bad.
There were a lot of misses Rats. I think we had 3 strikeout looking on balls and 2 of those balls weren’t that close. I think we also got one of theirs looking as well on a ball that went for strike 3.
Matz has gotten slammed pretty hard by message board posters, including me, but actually, that is not really fair.
He’d been in MLB for 6 years and 2021 was the only season he was more than a marginal starter, struggling to be a .500 pitcher. The Mets and BJs decided not to invest in him, and he became a FA after his last arb year. Mo decided to gamble that Matz would repeat that one good season and we’d get a bargain at $10M per year. The gamble hasn’t paid off, and we’re slamming Matz for not being what Mo hoped and prayed for, with his fingers crossed for luck.
I’m not so sure it was a bad gamble, with what pitching costs, and Matz did have a good 2021. But it is obvious now that the gamble did not pay off. Matz is not going to be better going forward in his 30s than he was all through his 20s, other than that one year. And a year of injury trouble has pretty well cut him off from that good year.
The problem is that Mo and the Cardinals org are slow to eat a mistake. There is no willingness to go to a plan B. Just stick with a failed move, a gamble that went south. That’s not really on Matz. We’ve seen this happen a few times. To be successful, we need to either not make the missteps, and when we do, clear them out and move on, rather than suffering through it, hoping and praying. The same can be said for other guys who have demonstrated that they can’t stay on the field and/or be effective other than in fits and starts. We end up suffering through too many failed hopes and unanswered prayers. The pitching side of the roster is clogged with them.
I’m not so sure it was a bad gamble, with what pitching costs, and Matz did have a good 2021
Matz was paid to be a #4/5 starter. Unfortunately for Matz, his career issue of blowing up for innings or games at a time has not gone away. This year has been particularly bad, yet his last start showed some promise. Hopefully we can get good Matz for a bit, although we know that bad Matz is always waiting just around the corner.
Yes, Matz’s last start was better. Before that, he looked good in his 1 game in between injuries last year. So yeah, there is hope for a good outing. It is better than no hope.
Sometimes when I’m watching Cabrera out there I get a feeling of deja vu. Its like it was with Carlos Martinez sometimes, especially later on in his stint with us. That live arm can be pretty unhittable when he’s on, but sometimes he will just be unable to throw strikes, however critical it is to do so. You never know when that’s going to happen, so its a total roll of the dice when he goes out there. I don’t think anyone realistically thinks that is going to change.
A winning team doesn’t put itself in a position where they have to roll the dice in a critical situation. They will have a better option than that. We mostly roll the dice sending our starter out there, then if its close late we roll the dice again. That sucks, to put it bluntly.
I am hoping to be home in time for the first pitch. Or at least be home by the 2nd or 3rd innings. I am going to the Forest Park Rangers at Jasper Wildcats game today at Ruxer Field. It’s a big Dubois County rivalry game. Both teams are really good this year. Jasper is, however, the favorite on their home field.
Din-din today will be a couple of cheeseburgers and a Mt. Dew at the game. Later tonight I’ll have a bowl of Hungry Man’s soup after the Cards polish off the Red Sox again.
I am calling this one 7-3 with a long dong by Arenado as the big blow.
r/Esteemed Rat
The gamble hasn’t paid off, and we’re slamming Matz for not being what Mo hoped and prayed for, with his fingers crossed for luck.
I’m not so sure it was a bad gamble, with what pitching costs, and Matz did have a good 2021.
No we are slamming Mo for making such a terrible signing, at least I am. I don’t blame Matz for taking $44M but Mo should have known better. It was not worth the gamble. It was a bad signing from day 1. Brett Cecil 2.0.
Alluding to last night’s HPU, I thought the singlemost appalling call came in the 4th inning on a full count, knee buckling, breaking ball that froze Turner and was adjudged to be ball 4. That call led directly to 2 Red Sox runs that tied the game at 2-2. Not only was that Wainwright curveball obviously one that fell in there for what should have been a punchout, but much more marginal offerings almost always seem to go in the favor of quality veteran SP’ers when a count has been run full. My only conclusion is that the pitch was so good that it fooled the HPU. If the Redbirds would have lost last night’s game, I would have been convinced that the outcome had been influenced by that solitary pitch more than had any other during the entire game.
1. Tommy Edman (S) 2B
2. Paul Goldschmidt (R) 1B
3. Willson Contreras (R) DH
4. Nolan Arenado (R) 3B
5. Juan Yepez (R) LF
6. Dylan Carlson (S) CF
7. Paul DeJong (R) SS
8. Lars Nootbaar (L) RF
9. Andrew Knizner (R) COver the last two years Gorman is a .154 hitter against LH pitchers, albeit a very small sample size. At some point they are going to have to take the training wheels off but at this point I guess they feel better with Edman, DeJong, and Contreras taking the hacks against the lefties.
Matz either needs to pitch well or hit the road (DFA or a bus to Memphis)…so far the only thing he has done this year is eat some innings
I’m seeing Gorman with 9 PA’s vs. LHP’s. I’m also seeing he’s leadig his team in both HR’s and RBI’s. I’m guessing he’s a better hitter than Matt Adams. I could be wrong about that, but the only way to find out is to let him rip vs. lefties.
Gorman hit vs righties and lefties all year in 2021, his last year in the minors. He hit .300 vs righties and .200 vs lefties. Its not like the organization needs to find out if he can hit lefties, they already know.
I made it home in time for 1st pitch. Time to fire up a couple of big cigars for this one.
Oh, and Jasper downed Forest Park 2-1. Three questionable calls all went against Forest Park. Including a hotly disputed call in the top of the 7th that required the two umpires to talk it over.
r/Esteemed Rat
At this juncture it certainly doesn’t look like any Redbird SP’er will get close to working 200 IP’ed this season. However that milestone is quickly becoming a rare commodity in the Big Leagues. As recently as 10 seasons ago there were a total of 32 pitchers who labored through 200 or more innings. Last season there was a grand total of 8.
Drink of the day is a cosmopolitan. https://photos.app.goo.gl/57qaEGj6E9gCufsM7
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