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Brandt Thompson with a great start again tonight. 9 k’s through 4 2/3 on about 80 pitches. He’s the other guy (besides Uegueto) who I was surprised not to see make Kyle & Brian’s list who made mine. His stuff is far from exciting but he continues to get excellent results at each level. He’s kind of a little guy with not much of a FB.
I thought he had the GS too. Or at least a double off the wall. Nice play by Mangum to keep the shutout going.
Ugly start to the 6th as the Pirates get back to back to back base hits to load the bases. Bruihl coming in. This one could get ugly here.
Pop up to shallow CF, sac fly to medium right that Jordan throws at bit wild home (that’s been a trend with him lately), and then an easy ground out to 2B ends the inning. 3-0 bad guys now.
I was a bit surprised by that too. You could argue Prieto was more successful at AAA than Church and maybe that’s why, but Prieto has been dreadful in a limited number of MLB ABs.
2 tappers to 3B that a better third baseman than Prieto may have made lead to a 2nd run off McGreevey through 4 innings. He really struggled throwing first or second pitch strikes that inning. Not typical McGreevey. I’m worried he may be tiring early.
Church looks so much bigger and stronger than he once looked in his early minor league days. An 11th rounder that never got much attention. But the Cardinals kept promoting him ahead of Iadisernia who was drafted several spots ahead of him. Iadisernia would end up on prospect lists despite that. A few seasons later Iadisernia is gone and Church is a starting left fielder – well at least until Noot gets back. He’s really a pretty amazing story. He used to have zero power and wasn’t really much of a hitter in general.
Horowitz hits a one backer that is gone in 2 seconds. Otherwise a pretty nice 2nd for McGreevey. Lots of ground balls.
We won the pitch count battle in the first FWIW. Really good AB by Weatherholt to lead off and super easy inning for McGreevey. Keep it going.
Good stuff on our 2 rising stars Gags. They are clearly difference makers.
I’m not a fan of extensions in general. I don’t mind buying out arbitration years, but extensions are another ballgame. I have a couple reasons:
1) Extensions typically end with a winner and loser (player or team) and the loser inevitably feels jaded. That feeling erodes trust and has a lot of small implications down the line that typically hurt performance.
2) Players who are extended are potentially discouraged (or at least not encouraged) to try their best with max effort towards improvement. There are lots and lots of examples of this.
I have no issues with signing a new contract within the final year of a previous contract or buying out arbitration years. Those are mutually beneficial to both parties. But I don’t like extensions. It’s like buying insurance for your home. You’re betting it’s going to be damaged for more value than you are paying in and the insurance company is betting it won’t. Either way, someone wins and someone loses and in the end, insurance companies don’t like to lose and many people grow to dislike insurance companies.
In my opinion, let Wetherholt play out his seasons with the Cardinals and then make a decision in his final year to offer a new contract or not. I don’t want to try to win against our own player.
Pulling this comment over from a poster on VEB:
My favorite stat from this absolute bonkers season:
STL record when Ryne Stanek pitches: 19-4
STL record when Ryne Stanek gives up at least 2 baserunners: 10-1Crooks is the most likely to be traded of the catchers. He’s ready now for the most part and the tandem we have today is doing just fine. We can afford to wait a year on Bernal and get a better idea of what we have in Raniel by then.
My guess would be if the team is in contention at the deadline, then the main thing they do is not trade away May, Romero, and Stanek. That, and they see what they can get for Crooks plus someone else (Leahy or Pallante maybe) for a starting pitcher who might fit longer term (not a 1/2 season rental). They may also get a veteran bullpen guy for a lower prospect, but I don’t think they will need that with the arms that could come from Memphis.
BikeMike – I’m not sure. It could small sample size. I do know that Pozo swings at a lot of terrible pitches so I think if he were more of a regular, that would be exposed. But that said, he also gets some hits off a lot of terrible pitches so you never know.
I do think Pages wound up as the slightly better hitter last season of the two and was the far superior defender. I can see why Pozo gets so much love though. He’s come through in a lot of big situations at the plate and he’s got the rags to riches backstory.
Hello Pugs . . . And 1TD. I’m often checking in here just to either find out the weather in SW Indiana or hear the “Das Boot” call!
Really working JJ up and in. That seems to be a general trend lately for him. He tends to swing at high pitches inside or out over the middle.
I think part of it is guys returning from IL. For example, Noot returning pushes Antico out. Broderson returning pushes Showalter out. Raniel promotion means they needed to lose one of 3 other catchers. Showalter has been mostly terrible and Antico has barely played. Linarez is actually semi interesting, but is squeezed out by boatloads of catching talent.
I assume they can collect unemployment depending on the state laws of the state they are living in. That would make sense. Some will likely play elsewhere.
I’m completely speechless at this thread! Just shaking my head.
Let’s start a new thread and complain about Ohtani’s sinker being very pedestrian and how a sinker is critical to being a great pitcher and how he’s just not that good of player otherwise.
This list is similar enough to my own so it’s hard to quibble. Maybe Elissalt at 34 seems a bit high. I took him out of my top 50 following his injury, but he may come back strong. I think Uegueto has made enough improvements where he certainly deserves an honorable mention or a spot in the top 50. I think that’s the only “miss” here. I missed ranking Emanuel Luna. Just completely forgot him!
I didn’t rank Hence, but he’s still in my top 70. I’ve typically been the low person on him for years (other than Bling!). I also put Clarke in the 50-70 range too because I don’t trust he can stay on the field. His injury history is just too long.
Well, if nothing else, at least we got Miller to throw enough pitches where he probably isn’t available tomorrow.
