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5:40 p.m.
Sonny Gray (8-4, 3.01) vs. LHP Braxton Garrett (2-2, 6.10)
BSM // KMOX
Also BS Southeast and Southwest ExtraFYI here,
Things aren’t going so well out in Dodger Land. Tojo Yamamoto is now on the IL with a triceps issue. And now Mookie Betts has a broken wrist after being hit by a pitch. Hard telling how long he will be out.
When do we play the Dodgers again, anyway?
Unless we see more series’ vs Baltimore, I really don’t see many sweeps in the Cardinals future here in 2024. Just keep winning 2-3 often and all will be good. Very sweet taking 4-5 from our arch rivals so far.
* LA comes to town August 16, 17 & 18, Rat.
The Cardinals head into today’s action with the fifth best record in the National League.
Saying it another way, of 15 teams, 10 have a worse record than the Cards.
If we can convince Pedro to hit 2 game winning hr’s a week and our pitching holds up, we win the divisIn.
I’m going to 100% put the cart before the horse here . . . but the Cardinals are scheduled to get back a lot of players off the IL soon. Who gets moved out when that happens? Here is who is coming back and approximately when:
Contreras: Saturday
Nootbaar: Maybe next week
Matz: Probably next week
O’Brien: Around end of the month
Robertson: Around end of the month
Gallegos: Anytime really. He just needs to show improvement.
Edman: About a month from now, maybe a little less.With Contreras, while I’d love to just keep 3 catchers because you know I’m a Pages lover, it just doesn’t make sense with Carpenter and Crawford on the bench (again, Carpenter is just in the way all the time – I like Matt, but he just does not fit on this team). So I think Pages has to be sent down. But I guess it’s possible they would choose Herrera especially with Noot’s bat coming back soon lengthening the lineup.
With Nootbaar, Fermin is likely gone. I’d love for it to be Carpenter because Fermin fits better as he’s RH and plays multiple positions. But I don’t think that’s happening.
With Matz, Pallante is likely to go back to AAA. However, if Pallante has a stellar outing against the Giants in his next assignment, it is entirely possible that Matz comes back as the long reliever to piggyback with Andre and Leahy gets sent down.
For Gallegos . . . honestly at this point I’m kind of hoping they DFA Gallegos. He’s just bad now due to his fastball now being bad. It’s unfortunate. But I don’t see him improving. He’s been a complete dumpster fire at AAA. If he does come back, then he replaces Leahy or Roycroft depending on how they treat the Matz/Pallante situation and he only pitches in garbage situations. To me, that makes the bullpen worse. Leahy and Roycroft are serviceable.
With O’Brien and Robertson, I’m guessing both go to AAA to see how they are performing and just be on the list to call up. O’Brien looked great in ST. But that is ST. Otherwise, he’s just thrown one inning against the Dodgers and allowed a run (but he did strikeout Ohtani, so he has that going for him).
Edman becomes the really tricky one when he comes back. I’m thinking it will have to be either Carlson or Siani moving down. But it could also be Burleson just because he is so redundant with Carpenter once the outfield core is all back. My preference though would be Carlson even though he has nothing to prove at AAA. I’d like to get him everyday reps to see if he can improve his left handed hitting and get hot prior to a future call-up. Siani is always valuable as a late-game pinch runner or defensive replacement so I’d rather have him at the end of the bench in this situation over Carlson. Carlson is the better player of the 2, but Siani has 2 standout skills that are useful as a bench player where we can put him in to improve something in a certain situation. Carlson really has no standout skills – he’s just solid all the way around. I guess he’s a good RH pinch hitter against a lefty pitcher. But who would he pinch hit for of the regulars that would make sense? No one is the answer you’re looking for other than maybe Gorman with the game on the line and a runner on third to tie it against a lefty high strikeout pitcher. That’s just too specific of an instance to keep a guy around.
Jnevel-Team looks 100% better with a catcher who can play defense and a cf who can hit. Carlson looking much better. Almost hit it out lh late yesterday. Take it from there. I like Herreras bat. You can’t send any of those guys down. Siani and Carpenter are first 2 go. You have to be kidding about sending down Burleson, right? You must continue playing Carlson. I can’t stress that enough. He is already hitting much better. Tommy may not even play this year. That’s my prediction.
They aren’t paying Matz to pitch out of the pen.
You have to figure we won’t ever be full strength. Guys come back, other guys go out. Too many guys want to lounge on the IL whenever they get skint.
Yeah, who in their right mind would want to come off the IL if there was even the slightest prospect of a rehab assignment? Can you imagine having to once again endure something as insufferable as a commercial flight? My goodness…
For those of you who follow the minor league prospects closer than I do you probably already knew everything there was to know about Pages but I did not. I obviously knew who he was but not a lot of details. I scan the stat sheets from Memphis, Springfield, Peoria, and Palm Beach about once a week to see who is doing what but that mostly just gives you hitting and pitching stats but not much on defense.
From what I can tell Pages is a very good defensive catcher. He calls a good game, has a good rapport with the pitching staff, and has a pretty good arm. I am a big believer in team defense. If it were up to me guys like Pages and Siani would always have a place on our 26 man roster even if just as a backup. I don’t know what this means for Herrera. He has had a nice year offensively but you just can’t have a guy behind the plate who can’t throw runners out. I don’t know if the Cardinals will send Herrera back to Memphis or not but if they don’t I could see him becoming traid bait. It is obvious that the big league coaching staff prefers Pages behind the plate over Herrra but the front office will get the final say.
I love defense. But ad poor as our scoring is we just can’t afford an outfielder who absolutely can’t produce anything.
I don’t think you sacrifice anything substantial with Carlson in CF, but Herrera at C is an entirely different propositon regarding defense. As someone else mentioned, you simply can’t have opposing baserunners looting bases at will. It’s anarchy on the basepaths anytime Herrera’s situated behind HP.
Some tough decisions. I love Pages as a defense-first catcher. He fits with Contreras really well, but then Herrera is a decent bat.
I wish we would DFA Carpenter, as he brings nothing on defense and is not enough of an offensive threat to help. Crawford is slightly more valuable due to being able to play shortstop reasonably well.
So for me, with Noot I DFA Carpenter but management is not going to do that and instead will send Fermin back down. With Contreras I would prefer sending Herrera down, but that is a tough one. My guess is management sends Pages back down.
As for Matz, I’m guessing Roycroft goes and Pallante goes back to the ‘pen. I am okay with that, but Matz has to show something in his first couple of starts or he will be in the bullpen.
With Gray taking his turn this evening this game will be without question the best opportunity the Cardinals have had to climb above the .500 mark for the first time in quite awhile. If the Redbirds are going to establish any sort of credibility as a winning team, they’re going to have to demonstrate that they have the ability to run roughshod over a team that’s currently situated at 25 games below sea level. And it’s my view that anything less than placing 2 of these 3 games in the W column would be a colossal failure for any team that aspires to assert themselves as a good ballclub.
I think Cardinals need to find at bats for Herrera at another position. Dh. Longterm (2025) Pages full time catcher Herrera DH Contreras 1st. Contreras fills backup spot.
SS Masyn Winn R
2B Jose Fermin R
1B P. Goldschmidt R
3B N. Arenado R
DH Ivan Herrera R
LF B. Donovan L
RF D. Carlson S
C Pedro Pages R
CF Mike Siani LAgree 1TD. We were fortunate to win 2 of 3 over the weekend scoring only 6 runs total. But anything less than 2 of 3 in south Florida will be back to treading water like the last year plus. Take 2 of 3, or especially sweep, and you get the sense this is a good club. Lose 2 of 3 or get swept, and you look like the same old story – some flashes of good play mixed with a lot of poor and mediocre results.
Facing a lot of lefties is getting Pages some steady work. I like it. Always a fan of giving guys that have talent some steady work to see what they can do. Playing once or twice a week, you never really know if a guy can truly be a good player or not.
That is a good defensive unit to put behind Sonny. Seems like the little guy running the team on the field is learning some things.
Well, I don’t know anything about the MIA BP, but it looks like the Cardinals will have plenty of LH’ed hitting options off the bench if they can chase the Marlin’s SP’er.
Edit…I just looked at the MIA roster and it looks like Skippy has a couple of lefty options in the BP. Oh well, lefty or righty, the Cardinals ought to be able to win against this team.
Yeah Rats, the Dodgers are loaded, but losing Betts is definitely a genuine setback. He’s one of the best players in the Big Leagues and was having an MVP season.
Yeah Bikemike, in order to lay claim to being an above average ballclub they have to trample on teams like the Marlins. They were embarrassed at home earlier in the season by the White Sox. These 3 games are not only an opportunity for redemption, but also a chance to display that they are indeed a somewhat superior team. If they play poorly against these guys, they are one of these guys…Haha!
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