StL 2024 Game #117 thread – Friday, August 9 at KC

[ZTR]

All but a few teams are still in the race to be 4 games over .500 and ‘in the playoffs’…

[blingboy]

SS Masyn Winn R
DH A. Burleson L
C W. Contreras R
3B N. Arenado R
LF B. Donovan L
1B P. Goldschmidt R
2B Nolan Gorman L
RF Tommy Pham R
CF Victor Scott L

[jj-cf-stl]

So we sit our best hitter, then bat him 8th the next game. Fyi, Pham easily has the best numbers vs Lorenzen on the team, so who knows.

[858booyah]

The mantra of ‘Get in and get hot’ rules the day and in my opinion does not lead to compelling baseball – at least not for the Cardinals.

Year over year churn and turnover of which teams are on top is fine; having the vast majority of teams playing +/- .500 baseball is just blah – at least to me.

People have been saying the playoffs are a crapshoot 20 years ago and that’s when they only had one wild card.

From a business stand point you want as many teams in it as possible late in the season. I thought the one game playoff between the 4-5 seed was enough with just 5 teams but they added a 6th.

It might be blah to you and another way to blast ownership for not spending enough but for some of us it keeps us entertained. Like to see baseball as much as possible and us in it as long as possible. No matter how cheap meh and watered down people think the postseason is. It likely isn’t going to change under this regime in NYC.

[blingboy]

We are 7 games behind the Brewers and only 2.5 out of the basement. That is pretty blah.

First pitch coming up.

[jj-cf-stl]

5-5 last 10 games
9-11 last 20
14-16 last 30

[jj-cf-stl]

Scoring early again.

[blingboy]

There is nowhere in a lineup to hide Gorman. Yeah, I know, he could square up a mistake any time.

[jj-cf-stl]

So lets put Pham behind him so he comes up as a leadoff.

[KeepComingBack]

Royals haven’t been 500 since 2015, when they won the ws. Anyone here rather have that record than the Cardinals? It’s a real question. (I wouldn’t)

[blingboy]

Maybe the idea was Gorman would get better pitches to hit.

[jj-cf-stl]

Who knows.

[jj-cf-stl]

Or Oli doesn’t want Bill to see Goldys salary batting eighth.

[jj-cf-stl]

Contreras line drive HR drives in Winn who walked.
2-0 StL after 2

[1toughdominican]

No, I wouldn’t rather have the Royal’s record KCB, but I’ll take their SS and C.

[bicyclemike]

In this game I would have hit them like this:

Winn
Pham
Burleson
Contreras
Donovan
Arenado
Goldschmidt
Gorman
Scott

Gorman really looks messed up. He is not attacking pitches, but is lunging at them. I am sure his confidence is shot.

I would coach him to focus on contact – just try to hit the ball up the middle. And in BP, I would have start by bunting several pitches to start out, then just hit it up the middle – keep the hands back and shoulder in and hit the ball back to the pitcher.

I had mentioned somewhere I am following a guy’s site where he is posting the corresponding 1964 game to this year. Bill White struggled over much of the first half and he put a note on his locker, “Keep the right shoulder in”. Maybe Gorman needs to put a similar note on his locker.

[jj-cf-stl]

Burly with a solo shot
3-0 StL

3 x-base hits in 3 innings

[bicyclemike]

Mikolas starting to fall apart. Can he regroup?

[KeepComingBack]

I always liked Big Sal, Dom. Thata how they used to build catchers.

[jj-cf-stl]

Ya, it’s tied. Mikolas throwing BP.

[bicyclemike]

Cubs and Crew both with big leads early in their games.

The Brewer team looks like they are not going to let down.

[bicyclemike]

I don’t recall the term “sweeper” used to describe a type of pitch until this year. Seems like it was always a slider. But now it seems to be referred to as a “sweeper”.

[Jnevel]

It’s a cross between a slider and a curve BikeMike. It started a few years ago, but it really became popular last season.

[bicyclemike]

You would think if Paul DeJong is your DH, you are a really bad team. His only value most of his Cardinal career was on defense.

[bicyclemike]

Thanks jnevel. I guess pitchers have further tweaked their pitching as the slider was cross between and fastball and curve. Sounds like now they are putting a bit more break to the slider to create the sweeper.

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