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Another case of the veteran star getting the calls and the rookie pitcher getting squeezed. That umpire had made several strike calls on 3 of the balls to Votto. You can bet those same pitches would have been called strikes on a rookie hitter vs a vet star pitcher.
Why can’t the umpires just call the game by the rules rather than having their own styles and prejudices on what the strike zone should look like.
Lyon’s job is to get lefthanded batters out and he failed to do that against Votto and Gennett. He has done that earlier this year. Had Matheny gone to a right hander against Votto and Gennett and he got torched the same people would be calling a bad decision. Being a major league manager is a no win situation. Immediately on getting the job a number of fans will not like him because they didn’t want him to get the job. If you make a move that doesn’t work you get blasted and if it does you hear nothing. Negative people almost always make the most noise. If you don’t believe that just check out the length of a thread after a loss vs after a win. That is true of almost every team.
I personally don’t have a lot of confidence in Lyons but as a Cardinal fan will always love him for that magnificent game against Pittsburgh a couple of years ago to get us into the playoffs. But he like Bowman has to have his command to be effective.
Memphis wins again. 9-1 start. Poncedeleon 12 K’s in 5 innings of one run ball. Mercado and Arozarena running wild on the bases.
There was no consistency from this umpire. Even if the square is not accurate there were far too many pitches that were balls one time and strikes in exactly the same spot later.
Good game by Weaver. The thing for him is to throw fewer pitches per inning. A guy with his command should pitch more innings. In time he should learn to pitch to contact more.
I’m not worried about Ozuna. He will hit. Strikes out quite a lot but nothing new for him.
Good to see Munoz whack it. Would be good for him to platoon with Wong until Wong gets it together. He has been pretty worthless so far.
I checked the other 29 major league teams with at least one game still playing.
The Cardinals have had two pitchers (Hicks, Bowman) with five appearances; 3 (Leone, Lyons, Norris) with 4 appearances.
The other 29 teams have had 85 pitchers with 4 appearances, 40 pitchers with 5 appearances and 2 pitchers with 6 appearances.
17 relief pitchers other than Mayers have only one appearance.
these numbers are for relief pitchers only. A number of starters have also had only one appearance.
Looking back, the only game that we were somewhat out of was the opener against the Mets in which Mayers pitched and did not look nearly as overpowering as he did in the spring games. The only other game that we won or lost with more than a 4 run spread was the near complete game by Martinez.
Not sure there is an early case of overusing anyone or dumping on Mayers. You can look at that way if it is what you want to see but I think it is early to draw those conclusions.
Not a bad start to the year. 4-4 against teams with a 17-5 record coming into today’s game. DeJong totally out of sync. Ozuna money and for for the first time since Albert you feel we could put up a crooked number evey time he comes to the plate.
Schrock 4 hits
O’Neill 3 hits, double, 2 homers
Garcia 3 hits incl tripleSchrock and Garcia homered last night.
this Memphis team could be better than last year which won 91 games and finished 41 games over .500
Hope Waino isn’t coming back too soon. Very encouraged with Martinez tonight. Most intense I have seen him for some time. Looks like he trusted his stuff and knew he could dominate a tough lineup. He wasn’t playing around the edges of the zone like he has been doing. But for the Munoz error he could have had a shutout.
Part of our problem as fans is we tend to think only in terms of the latest game(s) played. What manager in thier right mind would have played a rookie who was striking out 40% of the time over a major league vet who had just come off a strong month and a decent full year.
Oh but he had always hit in the minors. The record books are full of minor league hotshots who ended up with only a cup of coffee at the major league level. Bottom line; Pham was awful in 2016. Turned it around in 17 at Memphis but was called up within a month. Again we tend to want to make a change every time a player goes 0 for 4. You give a player who has performed at a major league level more than just a few games to get it going.
Pham should have been able to do better than just a renewed contract this year. Based on the Cardinal history I suspect they were willing to give him a decent raise. They are typically not going to go full value for a player under control. No one does. Those guys are paying the price for the huge salaries paid to players not under control. Not really a fair system but it is what it is.
As for Wong I keep hoping but am wondering if he will ever get it together. He recovered nicely at the plate last year but still made a lot of bad plays in the field. Now he is having a hard time getting the ball out of the infield this year. Still early, but he needs to get it going. Very fortunate that Gyorko was injured or that Munoz didn’t come out of the gate going 4 for 5 instead of 1 for 5. Otherwise even with Gyorko out he could have been platooning with Munoz.
Only time will tell but I do hope Pham and Wong have a long and productive career with the Cardinals.
Leake was also good for us the first half last year. Still a 50/50 pitcher in the long run.
We signed Norris because we had no assurance that we would get Holland. With 20/20 hindsight I would have waited too. But most of those free agents at the time all believed that they would get long lucrative contracts and the Cardinals usually don’t go for those.
The home run Pina hit was on a very good pitch. Just out of the lower outside of the zone with velocity and movement. Credit Pina. The second homer was a hanging curve and I didn’t see the homer hit by Thames. I suppose he will punish us agian this year while hitting .200 against the rest of the league.
Early but I wonder how many still fear that DeJong will have the “Diaz Disease”. So far the extended deal looks pretty good. He still swings at too many low breaking pitches.
Glad to see Munoz get his first hit. They pulled the old throw another ball into the stands trick when his game ball was tossed to the dugout. Think he was trying to do too much in earlier games.
Too bad to see Gyorko going down. Wong will be the one helped the most with his absence.
Too bad that Hicks didn’t get his first save. Looks like his velocity was down 1-2 mpr but his low sinking fastball and curve are devastating. Will he stay up when Holland reports. He is making it hard. If Flaherty is lights out tomorrow it will make for hard decisions when Waino is back. Good problem to have.
What a moment for Montreal fans. The son of one of their all time favorites hitting a walk off homer to win the game.
I for one was very happy when Yadi was extended. It hadn’t been that long after Pujols walked away from the team and I was very concerned that he would follow Albert to Anahiem. And we had nada catching prospects at the time.
20/20 hindsight is great but Knizner did not emerge as a prospect until the second half of last year and while Kelly was given high marks defensively he didn’t really show a lot of offense until 2016.
Add to that he has been one of our best clutch hitters since signing that extension. Yes he has slowed a bit in blocking pitches in the dirt but otherwise is still solid defensively. I think he is underrated as a catcher because little attention seems to be played to how well pitchers perform with him behind the plate.
I can agree that Kelly is better defensively but am not sure he is up to the Molina level in the mental part of the game.
A Garcia, Mejia and Munoz could have great springs and not make the team. Garcia because he is not on the 40 man roster and the other two because Greg Garcia has two solid utilityman seasons in the bank. And we still have to see Schrock. Greg Garcia is going to have to produce in the regular season.
Valera looks headed for a outright from the roster. If they cut him does he have the option to elect free agency?
How many Cardinal players would beat out that grounder that Garcia beat out? Guy has some serious wheels. He has several infield hits last year in the minors that he beat out just like that.
Great catch by Mercado in the 9th. Guy can really cover the ground.
Brebbia looked good but may start in Memphis as well.
Where is the evidence that the front office is forcing MM to play players he does not think will be effective?
I have yet to see any hard info about who is making what decisions not that there is not any available but I haven’t seen it.
I also see a lot of angst about Matheny’s handling of the bullpen but rarely if ever any specifics of what he has done wrong except for overworking some relievers. I know some advocate bringing in the closer earlier than the four or five out save but I don’t see many major league teams doing that. Madden did that with Chapman in the 16 world series and Chapman has not been the same since.
You can make about any point you want with some stats but more important to me is that in 2017 Oh, Broxton, Socolovich, and Siegrist melted down and Cecil and Bowman were mediocre at best. Rosy got off to a poor start and just as he got going the arm went. Mayers was ineffective again and while Sherriff, Tuivailala, Lyons and Brebbia finished pretty well they also had their rough spots. Now what kind of performance would you expect in that scenario.
I really prefer to hope that the coaching staff does great and that the Cardinals win their division, the pennant and the world series. I am more into enjoying the game than second guessing professionals. However, I will still want to get that guy out of the game before he blows it or wonder why this lineup. And I will be wrong more than I am right. Maybe the difference between me and some is that I know I will be wrong.
On another topic I wonder how much our new General Manager had to do with the offseason deals. I like a lot of them. Thought they did real well with the Ozuna deal and also with what we got for Piscotty and Grichek. Wish both of them well but we can fill in behind them. Leone could well be the 2018 closer.
I don’t think Bader is a sure thing and maybe even Garcia. I have less concern about Garcia because there is really only Valera who the Cardinals seem to have little regard for. Maybe Munoz later in the year but he needs more innings at AAA and I am not sure that the Cardinals would want him confined to the bench.
And we could also pick up a free agent utility infielder or even in a trade.
Also probably at least one of the pitchers will come down with a sore arm or other injury. Hope not but odds are pretty good.
Cardinals 13th overall
No top 100 but ranked by position
Cardinals ranked
catcher – Kelly #3, Knizer #10
2b – Schrock #9
corner of – O’Neill #10
rhp – Reyes #5, Flaherty #19Got my 2018 Prospect Handbook today
Top 31 Cardinal prospects;
1 Reyes
2 Flaherty
3 Kelly
4 O’Neill
5 Hicks
6 Bader
7 Hudson
8 Helsley
9 Adolis Garcia
10 Knizer
11 Arozarena
12 Delvin Perez
13 Mercado
14 Gomber
15 Machado
16 Voit
17 Yairo Munoz
18 Woodford
19 Schrock
20 Fernandez
21 Seijas
22 Jones
23 Oviedo
24 Carlson
25 Hurst
26 Infante
27 Derian Gonzalez
28 Victor Garcia
29 Edman
30 Sosa
31 Ivan HerreraMy high suprises
Voit, V Garcia, EdmanMy low suprises
Munoz, Schrock, SosaMissing
MendozaI have sat and thought too long on an appropriate response to this topic. So I will just throw out a few thoughts.
We probably range from those who think a player should be a free agent every year after they sign their first professional contract to those who are more inclined to the years when owners had almost absolute control. And unfortunately too many of us are totally resistant to any other ideas than our own.
The draft was created to prevent the big money people from dominating the game. Now there are teams accused of devious tanking to take advantage of the draft. Probably true in some cases but if you evaluate the cumulative WAR between players drafted, free agent signings and trades you will find that the draft contributed the least cumulated WAR to the success of the Cubs and Astros of the three categories. Also particularly the Cubs had a long history of low draft choices and generally blew them, leading to their long stretch of losses. In contrast players acquired as free agents and in trades had very little impact on the Cardinals performance.
I am against a four year free agency. The better players usually can increase their salaries with long term contracts and through arbitration but admittedly they still are probably not paid enough for the value they provide. There are also a lot of players who are not tendered when they reach arbitration. Probably many underpaid but some due to the minimum, overpaid. Hard to devise a system that would pay everyone fairly and people can usually game any system developed.
It is hard to reach good systems. Too many are the result of the pendulum swinging too far one way and the over correction the other way. And over time smart people find the flaws in the system and exploit them.
I know this drivel is too long with too little value. I suspect that this issue is a hint that we may be looking at a player strike the next contract.
I like the trade. Ozuna was a center fielder so he should do well in left. I think he may be more durable than Stanton and I thought he looked like a very tough out in the games we played against Miami. Don’t know what his production really was but that was my impression.
Alcantara will probably be a good major league pitcher, maybe even next year. He almost had to be included in this kind of deal. Sierra good defensively but did not move Mercado out of center field at Springfield and has less power.
Bader, Adolis Garcia and O’Neill give us plenty of insurance in the outfield. I expect them to start at Memphis in 18 and Jose Martinez probably starts the season in St. Louis. They need to move Mercado up to Memphis but probably doable with the number of DH games.
Why is everyone wanting to dump DeJong. You have a guy that made the majors in his second full season, hit 25 homers in a partial major league season and 38 overall and is at this point average or slightly better defensively in his first full year at shortstop. Just because Diaz flamed out not everyone is going down the same path.
I much prefer Machado to Donaldson if we are talking about a one year rental. but if we get either we have to clear out some of our infield surpluss particularly on the corners. I think Machado is a potential superstar.
