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We have now played two division leaders a tot of seven games. Our record in those seven is 1-6, and we have been outscored 39-20.
Obviously we are not in the same class as the better teams early on. Let’s see, that puts us 8-6 against the other teams. We are holding our own as long as we don’t play a good team. Looks a lot like another 70-75 win season. The thing that could change this is if someone comes out of nowhere and plays lights out – a position player gets hot and puts up around a 1.000 OPS the rest of the year. Does that guy exist on our club?
Doubt it Mike. Willson had a good 2nd half at about .960, but limited with under 200 PA’s. Off to a good start even tho dinged up.
This team is a disgrace to the uniform. That Marmol got an extension was a slap in the face to every Cardinal fan. How many years do we have to come in last place before we decide changes need to be made.
We just have way way too many automatic outs in this lineup. Goldy, Gorman, Walker, Siani, and even Donovan are just pathetic at the plate. None of them deserve to be starting right now but we really don’t have any good alternatives. What a sad state of affairs. Opposing pitchers’ eyes must light up when they see us on the schedule. They know their ERA is about to drop.
We were thinking that both Walker and Gorman would be “the real deal”. And maybe they will, but we were hoping they would be sort of like Mike Trout where they hit the ground running.
Carlson was another one we hoped would come up and light things up early on. As 1TD has said, we were hoping those guys would be like Albert Pujols and hit from day one, but none of them have done so.
It’s deja vu all over again…Exactly 1 year ago on April 21st of ’23 the Cardinals were in last place at 6 games off the pace in the NLC. Fear not Redbird fans…”In time, we think it’s going to work out.”
Yeah, as I mentioned in another thread, the farm system hasn’t produced a consistent all-star-caliber player (whom they’ve retained) in a while. The last homegrown Cardinal to have multiple all-star-level seasons (>= 4 WAR) with the team was Matt Carpenter, and the last pitcher to do so was Wainwright 10+ years ago. They have graduated some players who’ve had single seasons that were all-star-caliber since then (e.g., Edman), but no one with sustained all-star-level performance. Of course, this doesn’t include the homegrown players they traded away . . .
To be clear, I’m not saying it’s easy for a farm system to produce all-stars, but it’s really hard for a mid-market team to win consistently if its farm system doesn’t.
Still 0-fer in the series finales. Gotta be a mental glitch at this point. Unfortunately, by the time they can straighten it out it may be just enough to get out of last place is all. Could be a second straight deadline of selling.
Agree with Gscottr. The lack of offense is killing this team. It is amazing they have won as many as they have while scoring so little. Team pitching and defense are much better than last season.
RBK – one can argue the Cards minor league system has produced some quality players. They are just in different uni’s (Gallen, Alcantara, Arozarena, Garcia).
@Shady wrote:must admit, Burleson wasn’t very impressive today. But he has plenty of company in the offensive struggles area.
Both sides of your statement are true. But not together.
You’ve been overpimping Burly for a long time. To excuse his constant lack of production by comparing it to the lack of production of others isn’t logically even. Many slumping starters on the roster have produced at an MLB level. He hasn’t.
That said, the team collectively is underperforming. One has to look to at leadership now to determine the problem. Either leadership poorly constructed the team, or is unable to help or motivate it’s players.
So it looks like Thompson is no longer the SP6 and will remain in the active roster pen. Thompson is quickly losing his “stretched out” status just from inactivity.
This game pushed me off the ledge of positivity. Drastic times call for drastic measures. To sit and do nothing ….to wait matters out, would be ridiculous. At this stage, I’m all in on pushing the panic button. Jettison Burly, Pallante, Goldy and Gorman out of town as quickly as possible. And Walker needs to be sent immediately down to Memphis until further notice. Then there’s the Mo & Oli show……canceled….gone! With the exception of Goldy’s golden glove over at 1st base, all of the above can easily be replaced……for the betterment of the club this season and certainly for years to come. Changes have to be made.
jj – Thompson did make an appearance on Saturday. It did not go well. Gave up 3 runs in 2/3 of an inning.
Pugs – there is no replacement for any of the outfielders in Memphis.
Gorman could be sent down for a few weeks, I guess. And call up Fermin.
Burleson should have been traded this past offseason, if not the year prior. Though I am guessing his terrible season last year limited trade interest.
Can’t trade Goldy the way he is playing. Our hope has to be he restores some trade value by the deadline.
Nothing good happens until BDW looks in his hand and understands the magic beans he’s been sold are just a handful of beans.
It is starting to look like 2022 was a fluke. Phat Albert returned to the Cards for a final hurah, and played well at the same time as Goldy and Arenado.
Now it is bad luck that both Goldy and Arenado have lost 100% of their power output at the same time, but if you had some up and coming studs in the lineup the fallout would be mitigated.
And the complete absence of any reliable middle and setup relief pitching is starting to take it’s toll. Let’s review the Brewers’ series. Two very high quality starts converted into losses. The other start, while not good, left us trailing by exactly one run, which was promptly converted into a blowout loss.
And this is with LL and Gibson pitching about as well as anybody could have reasonably expected. What is going to happen if/when they tail of a little?
Bullpen 3.51 ERA, 11th best in MLB
Rotation 4.21 ERA, 20th in MLBRuns scored 3.45/game, 26th in MLB
I don’t think relief pitching is the main problem.
I appreciate your comment, Brian. I just don’t see that much upside from the starting pitchers. If true, we either have to score more runs or give up fewer during innings 6 – 9.
On second thought, there are two ways to lower starting pitcher ERA. One is pray that Gray doesn’t get hurt. His brilliant pitching isn’t yet having that big of an impact on staqff ERA due to small sample size.
The other is to move Liberatore back to the rotation. But that would take one of our most reliable relief pitchers out of the pen. So no net gain there.
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