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The #stlcards system was 1-1 on Monday. The Cardinal Nation’s Player of the Day, Cristofer Lebrón, hit a game-tying home run for the FCL Cardinals. Other standouts: Yeferson Portolatin, Rafaeli Moronta, Misael Sánchez and Jhon Franganten. https://t.co/KafEKHnqjc pic.twitter.com/VtX9KwqiTi
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) July 14, 2026
The #stlcards system was 0-2 on Tuesday. The Cardinal Nation’s Player of the Day, C Hector Cabrera, drove in two runs in the DSL Cardinals loss. Other standouts include Earle Zulueta, Jhon Franganten, Jesús Pérez and Paulo Asprilla. https://t.co/PJoMBPiSlF pic.twitter.com/GSxVJBEa9k
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) July 15, 2026
Saturday, July 18’s Springfield Cardinals vs. Amarillo Sod Poodles (Arizona) game will air nationally on MLB Network starting at 6:30 PM in addition to all other regularly scheduled outlets. This is the first time that a Springfield game will air on national television as a part of their MLB Pipeline Prospect Showcase series, featuring the MLB stars of tomorrow while they continue their journey through the Minors.
The #stlcards system was 0-2 on Thursday. The Cardinal Nation’s Player of the Day, FCL Cardinals LHP Hendrick Caña, pitched three scoreless relief innings with five strikeouts. Other standouts: Andru Arthur, Facundo Velásquez, Beiker Rodríguez and Misael Sánchez.… pic.twitter.com/QCbaZj367K
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) July 17, 2026
The #stlcards system was 4-2 on Friday. The Cardinal Nation’s Player of the Day, Memphis LF Joshua Báez, walked and hit a grand slam. Other standouts: César Prieto, Ramon Mendoza, Blake Aita, Jesús Báez, Kenly Hunter, Lucas Takahashi and Christopher Vargas.… pic.twitter.com/RVuyjsVM4S
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) July 18, 2026
For the @memphisredbirds tonight, switch-pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje is scheduled to make his Triple-A debut. The 23-year-old is The Cardinal Nation's eighth-ranked #stlcards prospect. pic.twitter.com/CiZFhFLC5D
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) July 18, 2026
A late change to the rotation. Quinn Mathews was moved up to tonight, with Cijntje's Memphis debut tomorrow.
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) July 18, 2026
Mathews has a good night again. Throwing plenty of strikes and good results to go with it. Am I the only one who thinks he is ready?
It looks like they are committing to Mautz in the pen with the other promotions to Memphis taking the rotation spots
The Cardinals have another long stretch without a day off. Maybe they are lining Mathews up for next weekend.
Brandon Clarke hit 103 in his outing at Palm Beach last night. He is still not too effective, so it doesn’t matter much, but it’s one of those fun oddities.
The #stlcards system was 2-2 on Saturday. TCN’s Player of the Day, Palm Beach RH Andrew Dutkanych IV, threw a career-high five IP of one-run ball with three Ks. Other standouts: Quinn Mathews, Rainiel Rodriguez, Brandt Thompson, Brandon Clarke, Sebastian Dos Santos and Brayden… pic.twitter.com/dDGUjuRJRu
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) July 19, 2026
You are definitely not the only one Albert. I posted about how good I think Matthews really is when everyone got down on him and right before his current run of successful starts. I was astounded that people were starting to rate him in the teens or even as our 20th best prospect. Since then, he’s rattled off 5 or 6 great starts in a row. I absolutely think he’s ready. And, I think he might even be our best starter in the Majors today – depending on which version of Dustin May shows up.
@Jnevel – nobody believed your narrative that Mathews could turn it on and off at will, because why would anyone turn it off when they are trying to make the majors and increase their income by 10X?
May is our best starter? He has the fourth best ERA among starters, leading only Liberatore.
I wish Brandon Clarke well but I don’t get too excited about 103. The main thing is he getting outs or not. I remember when everyone was hyperventilating about Jordan Hicks and his velocity. He had some good moments but he is now with is fifth organization at age 29.
LA – I understand you don’t believe it. As I tried to explain before, it’s because he didn’t have a path to the Majors early in the season. Therefore, he took the time to tinker with his pitches which led to lots of walks, but helped him hone in the movement of those pitches. It was never the case that he suddenly became wild and couldn’t control his pitches. He had the ability to turn all that back on. He was just searching for better, more effective versions of his pitches that would help him achieve better long-term results rather than short term gains of just looking good. Now that things have changed and he has a legitimate shot of being called up, he is turning it on.
Either I’m a really lucky guesser who just happened to pick the perfect moment to post some crazy theory or I was right all along. The truth is a little in between. I watch Quinn pitch and often listen to his comments and I made my best inferences from that.
We hope Mathews is good as new and will get a chance to settle this year and be a rotation leader next year. I also hope Jnevel’s theory is correct, but there is another theory which I have expressed previously, and we should at least have it in mind. Like Jnevel’s theory which came from him following Mathews, mine comes from having followed many pitchers who experienced shoulder trouble serious enough to have them on the shelf for a good while and then working back for a good while. As is the case with Jnevel’s theory, what we are seeing from Mathews is also consistent with my theory. It is that a pitcher coming back from a shoulder issue will try to do something a bit different, since his arm did not tolerate what he was doing before. If he tries and tries, but results are not satisfactory, he will eventually slide back into doing what he was doing before, and lo and behold, the results are the same as before and he looks good as new. But now he is back to doing what his arm did not tolerate before and this time his arm carries the residue of the previous injury/inflammation. It is a ticking bomb. We can hope this is not the case, but there is no way to know.
Since June 1st, Quinn has a 1.79 ERA with a great 29.5 K%, workable 9.6 BB%, and a 0.77 WHIP (mostly from .151 BABIP).
I was really excited to see Padilla returned to action today and had a grand slam. I’m honestly surprised more people aren’t on the Padilla train with. He has hit, hit, hit since being a professional and is very athletic with a frame suggesting he will get much stronger to add power. He already has good raw power for a guy his age.
The #stlcards system was 0-4 on Sunday, outscored 41-12. All four full-season clubs lost their weekend series. TCN’s Player of the Day, Palm Beach’s Yairo Padilla, hit a grand slam. Other standouts: Chase Davis, Andy Yerzy, Jon Jon Gazdar, Rainiel Rodriguez and Gabriel… pic.twitter.com/v0E90tBIFr
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) July 20, 2026
After acquiring so many pitchers in trades and bringing in a development staff to coach them up, our Minor league pitching performance is quite concerning. That’s not the case on the offensive side where oddly enough the team really didn’t acquire much of anyone via trade aside from Jesus Baez and part of a season this year of Blaze Jordan. If we want the MLB team to get better over the long haul, then we really need to see some of those results show up in the Minors. In fairness, many of our prospect pitchers started the season on the IL with many of them coming back in the past 30 or so days. That may change how this looks by season’s end, but right now, it isn’t pretty.
By ERA, here is the team’s position in their respective leagues:
Memphis: 9 of 20
Springfield: 8 of 10
Peoria: 10 of 12
Palm Beach 7 of 10
FCL: 8 of 15
DSL: 44 of 51As you can see, the DSL team has been truly disastrous on the pitching side. I was actually surprised there were any teams that were worse. Their ERA is 7.58 collectively. Ugh.
On the hitting side, things are much rosier:
Memphis: 6 of 20
Springfield: 5 of 10
Peoria: 4 of 12
Palm Beach: 3 of 10
FCL: 13 of 15
DSL: 7 of 51The hitting side is more “good” than “great”, but we’ll take it.
Any other thoughts on why the pitching has been subpar? I know our starters have been significantly better than our relievers.
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