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This bullpen is complete trash. Romero and O’Brien are the only guys worth keeping at this point. I thought the offense would be this teams downfall, but no its the trash heap of a tire burning bullpen.
TD, if you want to say Ollie mishandled a bunch of relievers who stink, I won’t disagree. But we lost because they stink, not because he mishandled them.
Ooof that was a tough one.
Maybe May and Svanson can share a ride to Memphis?
Hopefully they will rotate bullpen pieces until they find what they need.
Not sure I have a lot to add from the park. It really was an amazingly small crowd, and I bet 40% were Cards fans. Tomorrow is supposed to be colder. I was fine with just my Cards sweatshirt till the 5th, then needed a jacket. Tomorrow it’ll be a parka. And I’ll change caps for luck. The encouraging things…
Walker as so many have noted. Two hard hit balls the other way after fanning the first two ABs. Lots has been said above on the thread about his swing decisions. I’m wondering how much he’s learning that if things go bad for a bit they don’t need to spiral. That could be huge.
I know Gorman’s BA is not so high, but I thought for sure that one to RF was out of the park. And he hung in against that left in the 9th, even if he eventually grounded out. Wetherholt, Urias, and Saggese all got on base three times tonight, and iirc Saggese scorched one just foul. I think Saggese is now your LF. He won’t be a long term solution, but could he develop into a good bench man?
It is a pleasure to watch Scott play D.
Pallante rallied after that awful first.
I didn’t notice anything about Winn that suggested he was hurt too bad.
Then there is the bad….Beyond not having enough trustworthy relievers, I didn’t get the decision to run Stanek back out there when you just grabbed the lead and he’s going 2nd night in a row. Why not Graceffo there with O’Brien closing? Brian flags the lack of 40-man options. I wonder if Shuster and Fernandez get cut and they add Blewett and Naughton, sending Svanson to AAA to figure it out. I know that this is a development year, but I’d think you’d want to keep the kids’ spirits up by being able to bring home a three run lead in the 8th.
Looked like they were getting great jumps on Pallante.
Herrera looked more lost while batting than I expected given the last game. It was interesting to see how far to RF the Nats shifted their CF for him the first couple times out, whereas they played Walker pretty straight up.
I didn’t see it, Bling. Mercifully, I was spared. It looks like the one they call Bloom may have provided his little general with weaponry that routinely jams up or misfires…That’s a dang shame.
May and Svanson share a ride to Memphis, ZTR? They may both face forced deportation to Chad before Memorial Day…
“Ollie has Romero and O’Brien plus an ok Graceffo. Everyone else has been bad….Dump Bruihl for Naughton possibly.”
You said a mouthful, there, JNevel.
Justin Bruihl as an MLB reliever: 4.87 ERA in 97 games
Packy Naughton as MLB reliever: 2.55 ERA across 35 innings
Packy Naughton as MLB starter: 8.51 ERA in 8 startsKyle Leahy as an MLB reliever last year: 3.18 ERA over 85 innings
Step one, swap Bruihl for Naughton. Step two, return Leahy to the bullpen where he flourished last year, and call up one of the boringly mediocre #4/5 starter Red Sox acquisitions to take his place in the rotation. Send Svanson down and release Stanek, since he should’ve never been acquired in the first place (last good season, 2022).
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This is all pretty straightforward, and it takes a comedy combo like Marmol & Bloom to foul it up as profoundly as they have. Not that Svanson specifically was a foul-up, of course. He obviously was excellent last year and thus earned his spot in the pen, to start the season.
Maybe May and Svanson can share a ride to Memphis?
Svanson sure. A little harder to do to May due to his service time and price. DL maybe? Hes sure pitched like he’s hurt the first 2 games.
Bruihl has been Bruihltal.
Wow, saw the score was 6-3 in the eighth, and felt good about this one. Checked maybe an hour later and saw we lost 9-6. Just looked at the box and the Stanek/Svanson arson squad were brought in. Sheesh…
CiF – it’ll take all year and I’d say it’s going about like expected.
I think they going to sift through all their players this year and see (among the younger ones) who to keep and who to flush.
So next year (if there is baseball) they will take a pared down roster, promote a few more players from within, and probably add a few 1 year FA reclamation projects and boil it all down again.
My guess is that 2028 will be the year when they are ready to try to win and contend again – but all of the above is purely speculation on my part.
Just to echo ZTR, they are 5-5 and in fourth place. I don’t know what others expected but if they could play .500 ball all season, it would exceed my expectations. But the reality is that 10 games aren’t enough to draw any real conclusions.
CIF – That’s a good question. Honestly, it’s going great so far. I know that’s not the answer you were looking for but I believe it’s 100% accurate. The Major League team has holes. But let’s look at those holes and examine what is happening with them . . .
The Outfield was terrible at offense in ‘25 except Burleson who really isn’t an outfielder. The team needs to get Nootbaar healthy and productive again, Walker to hit, and Scott to hit at least better or find replacements. Well, Scott is doing a little better. Walker has caught fire on us. And Joshua Baez looks suddenly like the real deal and just needs some time. Noot is still pending.
The bullpen is suddenly a disaster. However, most of the bullpen is clearly meant to be placeholders until all our young talent we have acquired is ready. There are 5 bullpen guys who are not in the plan for next year. The only guys that matter long term are O’Brien, Svanson, and Graceffo. And none of those is critical because we literally have tons of guys who may be quality relief pitchers by this time next season thanks to all the acquisitions.
Starters were not very good in 2025. Well, aside from the embarrassing performance from Dustin May who is already not in the long-term plan, the other starters all look fine. Hopefully, with this next round being their 3rd outing, we see more 6 inning performances than 5 but otherwise the development on all 4 has been positive. In addition, Fitts looks like he’s good to go in case someone gets hurt and Matthews may not be too far behind. Plus Dobbins if someone falters.
Catcher hitting was bad in ‘25. Well, Herrera is going to try to take more innings behind the plate. In addition, Crooks and Bernal are off to strong starts. Crooks could be getting 50% of the catcher load by June.
Those are the issues. All of them look solvable. Maybe not for 2026. But by 2027, this team should compete well.
And Brian is right – despite the terrible bullpen this team is 5-5.
As far as the bullpen-thats easily fixed when they’re ready to spend $ on wins. That’s not what the rebuild is about. We are finding out what we have here now that we can use when that time comes. And I’m convinced it will.
Jnevel
Starters were not very good in 2025. Well, aside from the embarrassing performance from Dustin May who is already not in the long-term plan, the other starters all look fine
I realize Pallante and Liberatore have good ERAs, but both were quite lucky according to FIP. Pallante is walking more than he is striking out and is definitely going to regress. I expect Liberatore to pitch better over the year though and start pitching a like at least a kid rotation SP.
McGreevy has been good and I definitely like him going forward but he is more of a 4 type long term in my opinion who you can count on for bulk innings.
I was on board with Leahy as a SP experiment but so far it hasn’t looked good. I would give him another shot or 2 and see how he does but if not we’ll and Dobbins or Fitts are ready let them take his spot and move Leahy back to the pen.
Nah has been a disaster. I don’t think he can stay that bad though and it doesn’t really hurt to keep giving him starts and see what he has to improve to maybe build some value at the deadline.
For the long term, I only see Libby as a kid rotation piece, McGreevy as a 4, and a dew 5 types. Rotation definitely needs help for the top but hopefully some prospects can grow into that.
Liberatore, McGreevey, and Pallante are the 3 to focus on. Can they be improved over their 2025 versions? I guess Leahy is a possibility, but I’m still more inclined to return him to the pen or trade him at the deadline to a team desperate for a starter. All I’m concerned with right now is are these 3 getting better? Are Walker and Scott getting better? Is Crooks and/or Bernal getting better? Is a strong outfield option like Baez getting better? And are we developing pitchers to fill in all the gaps that need filling? Are we developing additional depth in case of injury? That is what this rebuild is all about. We can supplement some of the relief or bench roles through free agency quite easily as KCB points out if most of the rebuild is successful.
jnevel wrote: “And are we developing pitchers to fill in all the gaps that need filling?” That’s a reminder that a lot of the rebuild is happening on the farm. One could imagine a rotation in a couple years that is Doyle, Cijntje, Franklin, Matthews, and Roby, in which case all the current rotation is less than key. That said, it seems unlikely all 5 of those guys will work out, so I find myself hoping two or three of Liberatore, McGreevy, Pallante, Leahy, Fitts, and Dobbins work out as 3-5 starters and that they get two or three top end starters from the 5 I mentioned above (or a surprise like Dohm or Molina). The first outings for Cijntje and Franklin were encouraging, but they are single starts.
I agree with jnevel about the developments among position players. Walker is at .7 fWar, Wetherholt .5. Figure that Herrera and Gorman are going to hit and Winn will hit well enough given his D, and that is 5 roster spaces, with Crooks, Baez, and Jordan at AAA to fill in some more.
Brian is def right about them exceeding expectations right now at least those that are realistic. The only surprise to me is that our starting pitching is better than i expected right now. See if it keeps up. But i think you can still critique guys regardless. To me even with the bullpen issues, it was a fun game to watch.
Of course I understand it’s only 10 games in and nobody should expect miracles. It’s fun watching some of these young guys, especially those who like to run. Right now the bullpen is on the scary side, in fact the whole pitching dept pretty much gives me a rash. Walker is an early bright spot after his long struggles. We can only hope he has finally arrived. And JJ cheers one up immensely, but let’s check back in mid-summer. But if mediocrity is our rebuild goal for 2026 success may be on the horizon.
Good to see us get some offense.
Thought Ollie left Stanek out there too long. And why Svanson who has struggled every game instead of Grafesso who has had two good outings or even O’Brien who could possibly go mor than one inning. Ollie has a habit of using questionable pitchers late in close games. Pitchers making their major league debut, pitchers who are struggling, pitchers who are just not that good. Maybe he is afraid of being considered old school.
Walker looks pretty genuine to me. With proper handling he could have been this good some time ago. His defense looks better as well. I think we will be better offensively than we expected. Scoring runs and neirther Herrera or Burleson have hit as well ad expected.
If he has options left I would send Svanson to Memphis and bring up Fitts. Fitts has major league experience so there is no need for more AAA.
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