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I have a few questions about all of our injuries.
1) Do they happen to St. Louis all the time? Or does it just seem that way?
2) Why do we have three big time injury issues and it’s not even mid-March? Gray, Edman, Nootbaar.
3) Is there something wrong with the training staff? Their workout and/or off-season regimens?
4) What other possible injuries are we looking at before Opening Day?
5) Do other teams have the same injury issues that St. Louis has?
r/Esteemed Rat
Nootbaar got injured in the outfield making a catch. He has missed some time previously.
Edman is recovering from off-season wrist surgery.
Grey strained the same hammy in 2022.
Rats – most teams deal with these same injuries. Honestly, we’ve been lucky that none are that serious. Several teams are already losing guys for months. Edman is the most concerning to me. Wrists can really affect hitting. Lars should be good by close to opening day and Sonny will probably be back just after. So it’s really not bad. But . . . there’s still 3 weeks of ST with lots of injury possibilities left.
Every team has injuries. The Cardinals are not unique.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a series of articles for subscribers looking at the Cardinals history of spring injuries. Since 2011, they’ve averaged 3.6 players on the IL to open the season.
Using the Past to Predict Cardinals Spring Training Injuries
We don’t have any more injuries than other teams. My question is are other teams more accurate with their reporting of injuries? It’s become kind of comical. This organization has some really predictable isms.
I get that we want to know everything all the time, and bad or no news can frustrate people, but in the bigger picture, it doesn’t matter in terms of players getting healthy and back into games.
My sense is that it is important not to get off to a bad start like last season. More veterans or not, the team vibe doesn’t reek of resiliency. It would not be inaccurate to say we took a 71 win squad and added some over the hill guys. Injuries and lack of depth are concerning. The rotation is concerning. It seems like we’ve got one foot on thin ice and the other on a banana peel. This team could get pancaked by the end of April.
I still figure this team – as constructed – as a 78-83 win team. Coming home from the ooening road trip at .500 is probably the best we should expect and hope for better.
Moves made at the deadline should be able to add a handful more wins assuming they are buyers.
Another obvious path to a better season is to have some over performers – say Matz turns into a stud and he a Gray make 25+ starts each & Winn has a much better season at the plate than projected.
A question was asked above about other teams dealing with injuries. Here’s a quick recap of the players in the NL Central that are out with injuries (or suspension). I’m only including players on the 40 man roster or those who were non-roster invites who had a chance to make the team.
Brewers:
Brandon Woodruff SP
Easton McGee SP (NRI)Cubs:
Caleb Kilian SP
David Peralta OF (NRI)Reds:
Nick Lodolo SP
Ian Gibaut RP
Sam Moll RP
Noelvi Marte 3B
Reiver Sanmartin RP (NRI)Pirates:
Endy Rodriguez C
JT Brubaker SP
Mike Burrows SP
Johan Oviedo SP
Dauri Moreta RPSome of these are out for a long time or for the whole season. Others are more like Gray/Nootbaar where they’ll likely be back in action within a few weeks.
Yeah, I think over time injuries are fairly random and would be evenly distributed across all teams. In a short space of time one club could be hit at a higher frequency, but over time things tend to even out.
I also think the 78-83 win area is about right for the club if we have everyone mostly available. The thing with our team is we could go quite a lot higher, as we have some young studs that might very well make big strides this year. But we have a lot of older players who are more likely to be a little less productive than their career norms, which if combined with young guys that do not play to the level we expect or hope to see, could make last year’s team look downright good.
The whole “clubhouse leadership” thing as a driver of team improvement is a red flag to me. By that I mean I anytime you make player transactions based on something other than on-field performance, you open yourself up to a bad move. But we will see how this plays out.
Notice the trend above on pitchers. Every team in the NL Central has at least one of their starting rotation pitchers who are hurt. There’s also several relievers on the list too. Pitchers break easily. That’s why the smart money is usually on not buying them in free agency. But we failed to develop them so we don’t get a choice. We had to either do trades or free agents. Let’s hope we chose wisely on who we bought and how that money was spent.
Unavailable two games in a row is a little suspicious. Hopefully not like Noot. Contusion one day and broken bones the next.
This is developing into an ideal situation for Johnny and his little sidekick manager…If the Redbirds don’t win a solitary game in April the built in excuse will be infirmities.
Relax TD, they won’t go Ofer April. Last year after play on April 30 they stood at 10-19 and 10 games out. I doubt anyone is going to start out 20-10 like the Pirates did last year, so things should be less bleak this year even if we stink just as bad.
We don’t have any more injuries than other teams. My question is are other teams more accurate with their reporting of injuries? It’s become kind of comical. This organization has some really predictable isms.
I agree.
I get that we want to know everything all the time, and bad or no news can frustrate people, but in the bigger picture, it doesn’t matter in terms of players getting healthy and back into games.
True but the Cardinals have a history of either misdiagnosing injuries or being overly secretive with the information. It leaves an impression of incompetence and gives the fans the opportunity to jump to the wrong conclusions. Surely they could be a little more candid without violating Hippa laws.
Yeah, after beginning last season at 10-19 the catch phrase was not to panic. Simply be patient. “This team is much better than they’ve played”…”This will help the team in Sept”…Turns out last season was effectively over well before the start of June. I can forsee another lousy start and instead of a change in leadership, they’ll turn over the injury card and ask that everyone be patient until the team is full strength instead of doing something that could actually alter a course destined for failure.
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