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Our pitching is very average as a whole
From yahoo sports:
“Kurtz clobbered a slider that didn’t slide, sending it over the fence in center field for a grand slam to take the lead:”Not only did it not slide, it was out over the plate with the bases jammed.
. I still think a sly manager if he could convince some players that have the ability to be really great avg hitters to do it against maybe their own personel interest
Remember Felix Jose? He played his best two seasons in the big leagues for the Cards in 1990 and 1991. As I recall, they tried to convince him to hit more for power than average, and his power output actually went up as a result.
This club continues to impress me with the ability score runs without all that many hits. You can see this in the MLB team batting stats, where t hey are much higher ranking in runs scored than BA.
Speaking of Walker, cbssports has an article in the mlb section called ‘ 10 most pleasant MLB surprises after the first month of 2026, from Mike Trout’s renaissance to a Rockies ace’.
In that list of 10 notable surprises this season is Jordan Walker
I used to be an Olí disliker, lol, but facts are facts. We have given 137 runs and only scored 123, yet we have a winning record. You have give Olí some credit for that
Here’s how I look at it, Pinball. The difference between a starter going 5 1/3 innings and 6 innings is only 2/3 of an inning. However, that extra 2/3 of an inning of relief means you will use four relievers in the game instead of three.
Like you said, some of our relievers are better than others. And by the time you trot four of them out there, one of them is likely to cough up some runs.
Also, as the season progresses, some of these relievers will be getting overworked and will lose effectiveness.
Baseball-reference dot com hasn’t updated to include today’s game yet, but using my best estimate, Liberatore is close to his five year (career) average in era (4.56) and innings pitched per start(5 and a small fraction).
Since this is a rebuilding year, I’m all for looking a lot of up and coming young relievers and starters. But you can’t have as an operating philosophy the use of four innings of relief work per game.
Maybe they are overachieving in results?
Not sure. They are definitely getting a lot of clutch hits.
To underscore the importance of pitching, look at the 6 – 10 Astros. Near the top of mlb in hitting, and near the bottom in pitching. Theoretically, small sample size not withstanding, they should be playing .500 ball, not below.
I get it that we are in rebuilding mode and we want to get a good look at what might be up and coming talent. But if we are going to compete for a championship in a few years, you can’t have a bunch of #4 and #5 caliber starters in your rotation. However, I was glad to see May turn in a quality start recently.
According to espn.com, we are 22nd in mlb batting average, and 28th in pitching (era). Our w/l record is 8 – 7. This is unsustainable. One of three things will happen:
We will start hitting better
We will start pitching better
Our w – l record will turn negative and stay thereBench – Pozo, Fermin, Urias, Torres
How is Pozo’s defense? Remember the 2002 club? Matheny was the starting catcher, but Difelice started about a third of the games. This arrangement didn’t seem to hurt the club, as they won 97 games and the nl central.
If we can do that with a contending team, what do we have to lose with a rebuilding squad? Especially if we have a logjam of catchers.
Pallante is a lot like Leberatore, no consistency from start to start. One good outing followed by a poor one. Also, they are both entering their fifth seasons.
I think McGreevy has a lot more upside. He doesn’t walk many batters. Also, he averaged over 2/3 of an inning per start more than Pallante or Liberatore.’ll guess the opening day lineup.
Winn-SS
Wetherholt-2b
Burleson-1b
Herrera-DH
Gorman-3b
Velazquez-Lf
Church-Rf
Pages-C
Scott-CfLiberatore-P
I don’t understand why so many think Liberatore is going to save us. Now I’ll grant you that S. Koufax was league average for 5 or 6 seasons before breaking out, but that was one in a million. I’ll also grant that Liberatore has sequentially improved across many metrics, over four seasons, into a decent pitcher.
But this is his fifth season. I expect him to be somewhat better than he was last year. But not THAT much better. (I hope I’m wrong, lol)
Remember the 2005 club, with Carpenter, Mulder, Marquis, Suppan, and Morris in the starting rotation? Would any of the present guys even be starting on that club?I understand that rebuilding periods are the new norm for small market clubs. However, consider this:
“AI Overview
The average career length for a Major League Baseball (MLB) player is roughly 5.6 years, though this figure is often skewed by players with long careers.(think Phat Albert at 22 years) Many, if not most, players have much shorter careers, with median figures frequently cited closer to 2.7 to 3 years. Nearly 20% of position players have a career of only a single year.
Key Aspects of MLB Career Lengths:
Median vs. Average: While the average is over 5 years, the median is much lower, meaning over half of all players have shorter careers.”Therefore, if you have a guy entering his third or fourth mlb season, it could very well be his last. What’s the point of going through a painful rebuild if you are not going to look at a lot of guys at the big league level? This is the year to take some chances, even though it could sacrifice some space in the standings.
I think we will be bad, but I wouldn’t put it past someone else in the Division to be worse.
Aren’t most of the other clubs in the division trying to win?
Yahoo Sports, Scott Piaza “……despite most outlets choosing the St. Louis Cardinals to finish last in the NL Central,”
I know we won’t be world beaters this season, but I didn’t realize that there was this much doom and gloom out there………..Not to belabor the point, Brian, but during that same era when Torre was winning all those championships, the Atlanta Braves made the playoffs 11 years in a row, 1995 to 2005, but only won one championship. And that was with Glavin, Smoltz, and Maddux, arguably the greatest threesome starting group in history. Give Torre his due.
But that just drives home the point how far we are from making a championship run. 2006 was a complete fluke that might not be duplicated this century. To have a reasonable shot at a championship, you need a lot of above average players. The 2025 national league average BA was .247, That’s the average. We need guys BETTER than that. Ditto pitching.
It’s almost like we’re grooming Yadi to be someone else’s manager. I’m not convinced he would be a great manager, but I wouldn’t bet against him.
Remember when we groomed Joe Torre to be one of the most successful managers in MLB history, unfortunately for the Bronx Bombers.
Why all the agonizing about Noot (who I like due to his decent OBP) being ready for opening day? Our goal this season is develop young players, and finish one or more games above whoever is in the cellar.
If Noot isn’t ready, they can give one of these other guys some MLB game experience. I was big on the Scott and Walker koolaid drinking binge, same as everybody else, but I would like to give other guys an equal shot. I am confident that someone will emerge, but neither I nor Bloom have a clue who it is.
1. Nootbaar – LF (L) – if healthy and ready
2. Winn – SS (R)
3. Burleson – 1B (L)
4. Herrera – DH (R) – still would like to see him catch some
5. Gorman – 3B (L)
6. Pages – C (R)
7. Wetherholt – 2B (L) – I don’t see him not making the team, lead-off man quickly?
8. Walker – RF (R) – Hopefully the adjustments make a difference a moves his way up the order
9. Scott – CF (L)Lol. If, after all this time, Walker and Scott are batting 8 and 9, respectively, isn’t it time to give some other guys some MLB at-bats? Likewise, Gorman. It’s official, we’re not trying to win, but rather, rebuilding. I’m not saying we should give up on these guys, but if they don’t come out of the gate looking like Musial, or at least Brock or Flood, we should cycle some other guys through the lineup.
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/prospect-watch-15-national-league-minor-league-players-off-to-stellar-starts-in-2025-mlb-season/
St. Louis Cardinals: C Josh Kross
The Cardinals nabbed Kross in the sixth round last summer by way of Cincinnati, where he had homered 19 times and posted a 1.076 OPS despite a concerning strikeout-to-walk ratio. It’s too early to know if he’ll go down as a steal, but he’s hitting .288/.377/.671 with six home runs (and eight other extra-base hits) in his first 19 games in the FSL. More than half his batted balls have featured an exit velocity north of 95 mph, and he’s connected on nearly three-quarters of his swing despite a swing-happy approach. Stay tuned.CBS sports recently ran a piece of Arenado. The gist of it was that if he keeps playing well, and the Cards keep losing, he will probably get traded at the deadline. If we lose that glove and bat, what will happen to our winning percentage in Aug and Sept?
Scoring runs in garbage time is not the same as scoring runs in tight games, including extra inning games.
Running up the score against the opponents’ 13th pitcher might pad the averages and rbi totals, but it doesn’t win games. You win extra inning games by getting the ghost runner home from second with nobody out more often than your opponents. We haven’t been near as good as our opponents at that.We have some pitchers who should probably be playing in AAA (or lower, lol). If an opposing batter homers off them, are they a stud, lol?
I know it’s the Twins, lol, but the Braves appear to be back to their winning ways. That doesn’t mean we can’t beat them, but I doubt there will be any margin for error, pun intended.
Well last year we way outplayed our pythagorean record so it seems to balance out.
We outplayed our pythagorean record by seven wins last year, over a 162 game schedule, with the most consistent closer in MLB, and quality setup man work to boot. That is about what one would expect. Pretty hard for a manager to screw up the sentence “put Helsley in there for the 9th”.
I’m not sure about Helsley, but the overall bullpen performance looks worse this season. I’m guessing this is the setup where a top notch manager could make a difference. It would go unnoticed, however, since it is the difference between winning 65 games and 75.
I saw this at baseball reference:
Pythagorean W-L: 11-10, 99 Runs, 96 Runs AllowedSince our actual record is 9 – 12, that tells you what you already know, that you are losing most of the close games. Would a better manager make any difference? Over the course of a 162 game season, maybe five more wins and five less losses. Maybe 6?
Think how much in player salary a WAR of 5.0 would cost you, and 6.0, don’t ask, lol!!
