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A big part of the demise of the Cardinals in 2023 was the bullpen. Injuries and underperformance.
Seems like the guys who may be in play in 2024, not including any additions, may be –
Helsley
Gallegos
Romero
King
Liberatore
Thompson
Hudson
PallanteWe need additions, but should it be leverage guys or middle relief guys?
We seem to have left arms covered but short of effective guys from the right side.We absolutely need leverage guys. Helsley is probably headed for serious down time related to the ‘forearm strain’ that had him out 10 weeks. 10 weeks means it was significant. Being out that long with it likely means it is either elbow related or a flexor tendon similar to Donovan’s injury. Whatever, rest allows the inflamation to subside, but the underlying cause is still there and will only cause the problem again. Back in 2021 he had a serious elbow injury that had him out a good while. It was called a stress reaction, which is basically the mildest form of a stress fracture. Typically pitchers will have that happen to the bone that is the point of the elbow and is right near where the UCL attaches. So there is history going on with him, and it would be stupid not to have a very strong alternative.
The backup is Gallegos, and after him I guess it is Romero. If you are OK with those two, then I guess we don’t need leverage guys. It would not surprise me if Mo thinks we’re fine.
We aren’t fine Bling. Our middle innings relief should be much better if we get decent starting pitching. But we need one or two back end guys. I don’t trust anybody but Helsley and I don’t trust his health. If you don’t want his arm to fall off you can only pitch him every other day for ONE inning. Everything else could wind up fine and the bullpen bite us. This is where Mo has to be smart. It’s doable if they are clever with their other moves. You have to leave some pieces to trade for these guys. A Burleson or a Knizner type or some combination should bring a decent back end guy from one of the lower spenders looking to fill out their rosters with cheaper talent.
Yuki Matsui
Josh Hader
Both only cost $
Hader had a qualifying offer but since SD went over the luxury tax, it’s a 4th rounder.Rom I see on the Pallante failed starter to min wage middle relief guy trac. He has a number of pitches that are OKish but none real good. There is no way for him to survive multiple times through the lineup as a starter, so he gravitates to cheap middle relief. But nothing is good enough to be an out pitch. A decent big league hitter will fould them off until he either walks or gets something to hit. The more guys see him, the fewer bats he misses.
Its a favorite tactic of Mo’s, and it doesn’t work in the real world. A legit reliever has a different profile. He has one really good out pitch and a pretty good second pitch he can get over or be close with on any count to keep them guessing. Not enough to live as a starter, but good for relief work. The maddening thing is those guys can be had every winter, but it doesn’t matter if you’ve got your pen sketched out with failed starters you just hope might figure things out some day.
Pads, yes Liberatore is along that trac, but I name Pallante as the type specimen since he is fully evolved, having made no starts this season.
I’m not sure that Pallante was a failed starter Bling. He was successful at it for one season in the minors, then looked good in Spring training and they put him in the mlb bullpen (skipping AAA). He was stretched out in that Spring training so he was the long relief guy who had to make some starts to fill in gaps. He did pretty well as a fill-in starter (especially considering he was never really in AAA). But then they left him in the bullpen out of necessity. I don’t see how he’s a failed starter though.
Most of the relievers in MLB today are former starters. That’s the way the development game works as the pyramid narrows approaching the top. IMO, indiscriminately slapping the “failed” label on them is just another way to be negative.
Pallante is the 4th round version of Dakota Hudson. Some are hand fed opportunities, some aren’t. They are very similar pitchers.
Other than a carefully curated window where criticism is currently fashionable, it is like a ticker tape parade of free passes around here. It reminds me of Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon where all of the children are above average.
Pallante has a vs rhb problem. He’s a loogy with a high GB%. Shouldn’t be a candidate to start, by handedness splits alone.
Even with Hudsons effectiveness vs rhb’s diminishing, he is still the better candidate of the two to start games.
Pallante’s 2023 season was objectively rather dismal. The much maligned VerHagen had better numbers but the player who came up through the system tends to get the benefit of the doubt amongst the majority of posters.
Not just the benefit of doubt among posters, but it also seemed to be the case with Marmol. I haven’t checked the data, but it seems to me that Pallante was often the first to be called upon when the starter was pulled with runners on base.
I just looked at the data. Here are the inherited runners stats. Remember these runners did not count against these pitchers’ ERAs. Pallante and VerHagen were #1 and #2 in terms of most inherited runners in the 2023 pen. VerHagen performed much better in this view, which is not evident without digging a bit.
Pallante 19 of 43 scored (44%)
VerHagen 10 of 31 scored (32%)32% was also the team average for 2023, so Pallante was considerably above the norm (where “above” is bad).
More stats between the two:
Pallante- 4.76 era, 1.56 whip, .286 avg against
VerHagen- 3.98 era, 1.28 whip, .226 avg againstThe three batter rule is not the friend of relievers who have a bad handedness split.
We’d prefer good vs both sides, or at least good vs the larger sample (rhb’s), but with Pallante that leaves a limited scope of work he can be effective at, until he fixes vs righties.
Treat him like Woodford. Memphis and fix it.
The last ML appearance by Woodford was a mess. But I wouldn’t give up on him yet.
I think the increasing focus on swing and miss might spell the end for Woody. He’s obviously not going to develop into a power pitcher, so retaining him doesn’t have any end game. A AAA depth role maybe.
Looks like the Cards have already made an offer for Yuki Matsui! Don’t know about the officiality of the report.
I think there are questions as to nuances of language in the translation from the Japanese language report. Not that the Cards have or haven’t, but I’d like to see how that story ages over a couple days.
Here is the report if anyone wants to take a crack at it.
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/0fe82718a98a3be8e3242f39832bc32342b23383
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