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I’d assumed Hudson would get the Monday start, but after appearing in the Saturday game, that seems…unlikely. And a bullpen start when folks are on fumes seems dicey. If they don’t activate Waino early or trade, then I’d think they would bring up a starter from AAA. I looked to see who would line up to start for Memphis and spotted Logan Gragg. On June 4 he was in AA with an ERA of 7.54. He then put together 4 starts of 6 or 6.2 innings with 2,1,1, and 1 earned runs. This earned a promotion to Memphis where his ERA is 0.82 after 11 innings.
Does anyone know if something suddenly changed for him? He was TCN prospect 39 in 2022, but then fell off the list.
The problem I see with putting Gragg on the 40 man is the quite possible eventual need to take him back off. Maybe give the start to someone even less likely to be claimed upon removal from the 40 man, or whose loss would not matter. But I agree the Monday start could lead to an interesting turn of the worm.
The 40-man is gonna be a challenge. That said, if Gragg has figured something out, he’ll have to be on in October, so earlier isn’t necessarily bad. For the 40-man guys on the Memphis roster, Liberatore pitched on Saturday. Naile and Leahy have been optioned within the last 10 days. Thomas, Walsh, and Zuniga are all on the DL. I suppose if, say, Contreras goes on the DL they could bring Naile back up, but he’s not been very inspiring! I’d think that Walsh, who just turned 28, could be dropped off the 40-man without a lot of consequence.
If there is any sense of logic left in the universe we will at least go back to 13 pitchers. Having one of the worst pitching staffs in MLB try to operate with one less pitcher than is available is comical even for Mo’s standards.
His 40-man spot was used … on Motter!
Brian, I think you have mentioned in the past that a player is not normally added to the 40 until it is necessary. So why might putting Motter on now be necessary?
DH B. Donovan L
RF L. Nootbaar L
3B N. Arenado R
LF T. O’Neill R
1B A. Burleson L
C Ivan Herrera R
CF D. Carlson S
2B T. Motter R
SS Paul DeJong Rbling asked:
Brian, I think you have mentioned in the past that a player is not normally added to the 40 until it is necessary. So why might putting Motter on now be necessary?
Only one word is off in your post. Substitute “prospect” for “player” and you have it. Motter is a player. Winn is a prospect. The reality is that Motter has some kind of special super powers that override human logic.
Thanks for the heads up gscottar.
So Motter is up to sub for Gorman who has a sore back which Ollie has zero concern about. check.
Thanks, Bling! Mystery resolved. As of 2:05 eastern, the Memphis starter for today is TBD. Curious if it will be Gragg. As others have noted, they could use another arm!
I say give Gragg a chance in our rotation if he has a few more good starts. Unlike a top prospect, why not give him a chance given how bad some of our pitchers have been.
We may find out relatively soon. I don’t think Motter will make it the rest of this season in the majors with the Cardinals.
Taylor Motter is going to be the answer to an obscure baseball trivia question several years down the road.
Gragg had great results again last night with Memphis. I’ve never really been a big fan of his because his pitches just seem so . . . ordinary. His slider is maybe a little better than average but that’s it. He’s kind of ok at everything, but not great. Really, to me, he had some control issues last night that his opponents were helping him out with by swinging. But he has been on a really good run so there’s that. His ERA is minuscule in a small sample size at AAA.
I was actually more excited last night watching Alex Cornwell pitch at AA. He’s made a lot of improvements. He looks drastically better than last year. Will he be an effective major league starter? Probably not. But at least now there’s a chance. He looked like he had almost no chance last year.
So that’s two guys we can add to the 2024 starting pitching possibles. The list is fairly long and I don’t have much confidence in any one person, but heh, if you got a whole lot of coins in a jar, maybe one of them will be worth a lot more than you expected? That jar now has Liberatore, Pereira, Graceffo, McGreevey, Hudson, Woodford, Paniagua, Gragg, Pallante, Thomas, Hence, and Cornwell in it. The others (Hjerpe, Rajcic, Bedell, Baker, and Hansen) likely wouldn’t be ready until at least mid to end of next season.
his pitches just seem so . . . ordinary. His slider is maybe a little better than average but that’s it. He’s kind of ok at everything, but not great.
You could be describing Liberatore, but Gragg is still working his way up. Watch out for a Graceffo trajectory though. If a guy can dominate AAA hitters, then you’ve got something. Before that its hoping and praying.
BlingBoy – Of the options for next year’s rotation, Graceffo is indeed the one I’m highest on. He just needs to stay healthy and continue to refine a few things. So we agree there. I don’t really agree that Liberatore is “ordinary”. He has several really good pitches. But he’s lost the velocity uptick he had early on so his fastball is now in the ordinary realm (maybe even bad realm) and his control is still a work in process. He does have some good pitches to build on though. Gragg I’m not so sure about. I am happy he’s getting a chance though. Just don’t let his 0.50 ERA at AAA fool you.
Hitters have told the Liberatore tale. The last time he dominated was in A level ball in 2019. Since then he’s been fighting to break even, not very successfully. I saw enough a year ago. Obstinately persisting with failed pitchers, whether because of a contract or unwillingness to let go of the hype, is a big problem for the Cardinals. My guess is we will do the Liberatore thing yet again next year.
I watched Logan’s recent June 18th start on milb.tv replay. My opinion.
Thought his curve was definitely loopy. Changeup needs grip and/or arm slot improvement.
Did like that FB, slider and sinker arm slot was similar.
They seemed to have just enough movement to keep away from solid contact.
I thought sinker action was best of the three pitches.
Didn’t seem to use the curve much and changeup even less.
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