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Oh, interesting, Brian! I’ve wondered if Hence’s days on the roster are numbered. I figured they would give him till the end of the year. I’ve not had a chance to listen yet, but plan to tonight. Love the podcasts! I agree with Mautz and Fernandez. I bet Mautz is given an extended run in the bullpen starting tomorrow, replacing Dobbins. So that would leave Fernandez to replace Mathews, if Mathews has a one start initial run in the big leagues, and Fernandez has really not inspired of late!
The last couple days, I feel like Bart Simpson writing on the board “This season was all about development” a hundred times.
Blewett being DFA’d is interesting. We have two successful two inning relief stints from Mautz. I bet they add him to the roster tomorrow to replace Dobbins. That also leaves them with a 40-man spot. Will we finally see a Mathews start later in this stretch of 20 games? Of course, if you add Mathews, you have to send down a reliever, and then you replace Mathews with a different reliever, but there’s no one on the 40-man you’d want for that role. The options would just be Hence, Fernandez, and Hjerpe.
Pizza tonight–Pepperoni, mushroom, and spinach. Running late and didn’t want to take the time to cook….
Gonna be a late night game here on the east coast. I’m guessing I’ll watch about the first hour.
Looking at fangraphs, I’m trying to figure out how they have such a bad record. We face their best three starting pitchers. Their wrc+ is only a tiny bit behind ours. Hope they don’t get ambushed out there.
They seem to be about $1.3 million below slot on the signings so far. Hopefully that, plus the ability go 5% over (another $800K) is enough to get Maniscalco and Randall done.
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That’s my guess, too. But could be Mathews joining the MLB rotation and Mautz spending a couple weeks in the AAA pen before any Romero trade. But maybe they give Hansen the shot at the bullpen instead?
6 AAA starters–Mathews, Cijintje, Dobbins, Molina, Mautz, Hansen. Which one moves to the pen? I’d think it would come down to Mautz or Hansen. My first thought was Hansen, but I’d think both Dobbins and Mathews would be in front of Mautz already if they big leagues needed someone. And Molina and Cijintje could get there quickly, perhaps even Henderson. If Romero gets traded they will need a lefty reliever. Maybe it’s time to shift Mautz to the pen? He hasn’t gone 6 innings since May 13. His last two outings are only 2.0 and 3.1 ip.
I don’t know that I’ve ever watched the derby before, but I did last night to see how Walker would do. That was surprisingly and incredibly fun. I was standing at the end, as I do rarely when at home watching baseball stuff. Game 6 of 2011. Times like that.
I’m with the group thinking this might help Walker. Mostly I think it reflects his development rather than predicts it. He’s found a different headspace this season, so perhaps this experience won’t help with that space. But I could imagine him gaining confidence. I think to Albert’s 2022–6 HR through the all-star break, then 18 the rest of the way.
I wonder if he benefited from batting second in the first round. Contreras set something of a standard. Walker would have known 13 was a reasonable target. But only one slot was (possibly) taken by Contreras. Once two guys had 13, there was perhaps extra pressure on the later hitters who might have thought they needed 14. Then since he came in second in the first round, he could hit after the other player. Saved him some work in the second round. Gave him his clear target for the last. Dunno. Probably not. But dunno.
Brian’s point about watching how he handles the extra fame is a good one.
Cijntje’s gone at least 6 ip 4 times this year, but in three of his last four starts. In those three he’s gone 18 ip, 10 h, 3 r, 3 er, 6 bb, 23 k, 1.50 ERA. Now three starts ago he had a clunker, but hopefully the other three are the signal here. He’d walked 34 in his other 62.1 ip.
6-6 in this stretch of 12 games. Win one of the next two and they have run the gauntlet at .500.
Cards’ record against NL teams with at least .500 records:
Dodgers 2-1
Brewers 2-8
Atlanta 3-1
Cubs 4-2
Phillies 0-0
Miami 2-4
Washington 2-1
Pirates 5-2
Dbacks 1-2
overall: 21-21, even with the awful record against the BrewersIf you want some good news for the night, Mathews’ line is 7 ip, 2 h, 0 r, 2 bb, 7 K, 91 pitches. First time he’s gotten outs in the 7th this year.
Over his last 7 outings, he’s gone 39.1 ip, 16 h, 8 r, 8 er, 15 bb, 45 K. 1.83 ERA.
Somebody else has probably flagged this, but Crooks has only 10 AB from June 25 onward. Pages has 16.
5-5 in the first 10 of this 14 game run. Very nice to see them bounce back instead of having it snowball on them. And good to see Gastelum navigate that first outing.
Bikemike-
I’m much with Brian’s take here. How do the Cards change in the next two? Does May continue and pitch in the playoffs as he has at his best? Does Mathews get the callup and how successful is he? Does McGreevy continue to taunt folks with his pitches? Do they hang on to O’Brien? Odds would be against them, but things happen in short series that wouldn’t happen in the long run. I see these next days as affecting the possibility of a May deal. The more the Cards are in the race, the more I’d think they would need to be offered to deal May.
Putting this differently…Before this stretch of 14 games began, I had a target for us of going 7-7. Right now, we are at 4-5. If we go 3-2 in the next five, we’ll have hit that target, and winning 3 of 5 seems well within the realm of possibilities.
We’re only two games back of Miami for the last wildcard, though there are four teams (Pittsburgh, San Diego, Arizona, and Washington are within 2.5 games of us). We still have the same strengths (strong beginning of the lineup, good D, decent if not overpowering rotation, closer) as we had 5 days ago. I could still see us on a run for that last wildcard spot. But if we lose, say, 4 of the next 5, I might feel quite different. Win, say, 4 of the next 5, and that might limit the sell-off and increase the chances of a playoff run. Lose, say, 4 of the next 5, and I would bet they trade away a bunch of currently effective pieces.
Zimmerman dfa’d, Shuster added to 40-man for game 2. Interesting move. Why not Mautz, who they limited to two innings in his last appearance so he could provide depth if needed? I assume Shuster gets dfa’d tomorrow and Gastelum gets added.
Misiorowski has given up two homers in back to back games. He had only given up two homers in 3 of 35 starts before these two.
This makes me nervous re McGreevy. What’s going on physically that they want him to have the extra day? Also, if he started today, we would be on 4 days’ rest to pitch Sunday. Starting Wednesday means just one more start before the break.
Interesting that Zimmerman is up for bulk. Will he be sent down/released after the first game if he pitches heavy innings with Mautz or Gastelum taking his place?
agreed with stlcard25 re last night. Win last night and all you have to do is win 1 of the next 4 to come out a respectable 2-3. Gulp. Big game for Dobbins tonight.
Oh my, did the Cards get the weight off their back in that 7th inning last night? At least 11 runs in back to back games. They had a total of 19 runs in the 8 games before that. I’ve wondered at times if being on the road helps them loosen up.
Bikemike-
Gorman went to the lab for awhile. He now has 27 AB at Memphis, .185/.333/.444 slashline. He’s walked 6 times, but 13 Ks.
My inclination to move Leahy out of the rotation might have been premature. Last three outings:
17.1 ip, 12 h, 4 r, 4 er, 6 bb, 15 k. Libby is really the weak performer relative to the others in the rotation. By bWAR, it’s McGreevy (2.3), Pallante (1.3), Leahy (0.8), May (0.6), Libby (-0.7). By fWAR it’s May (1.8), Pallante (1.3), McGreevy (0.9), Leahy (0.7), Libby (-0.1).At the halfway point, the Cards are on place for 86 wins. Walker, Burly, Weatherholt, and Herrera are all on pace for 20 HR. O’Brien is on pace for 40 saves. All the rotation but Libby are on pace for at least 162 ip. Pallante on pace for 18 wins.
Memphis holds on to win the first half, 10-8. They gave up 3 in the top of the 9th, and with two out the batter got a 3-0 count, one ball away from the tying run being at the plate. After a strike, Saggese made a diving stop at shortstop and threw the runner out.
Toledo beats Rochester 9-6. Memphis’ magic number is now 1, with 1 game to go, Memphis leading 10-4 in the top of the 7th. Their bullpen got some heavy use yesterday, so it ain’t over yet. Shuster gave up 2 in the 6th and Blewett has given up 1 with 2 out in the top of the 7th, runner on first.
bling–Yup re Mathews and walks. I wasn’t watching pitch by pitch, so dunno what was up, but seems like regression after those two top not starts.
