Hello, fellow Sleep Refusers. John here to take you through tonight's (probably last night's, by the time this ends) game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers. Let's take a look at the lineups. https://twitter.com/Cardinals/status/1031696161806143493 https://twitter.com/Dodgers/status/1031662524624584704 So on the surface, the Dodgers have the pitching edge tonight. Austin Gomber has pitched well, but…
Every series is terrifying now–a Cardinals/Dodgers preview
I attended the final game of the Mike Matheny era, and it was one of the most defeating games I've ever attended. Granted, there were rain delays and it was against the Reds and blaming Mike Matheny directly for the loss would be more than a bit unfair, but there was absolutely no energy. And…
Harrison Bader is a valid Rookie of the Year candidate
The rookie campaign of St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Harrison Bader is as bewildering and unexpected as any Cardinals debutante since, well, I guess Paul DeJong last year. And Aledmys Diaz the year before that. And most people weren't expecting young Allen Craig or Matt Carpenter to be such certifiable Professional Hitters as relatively old rookies.…
Brewers hold off Cardinals sweep attempt, win 2-1
Having already clinched their seventh consecutive series victory on Saturday night, the St. Louis Cardinals arrived back at Busch Stadium this afternoon with a chance to sweep the Milwaukee Brewers and create a game-and-a-half gap between the two NL Central and Wild Card contenders. In years past, this meant the notorious "Sunday lineup". But now…
8/18 Recap: Cards Clinch 7th Straight Series win
The Cardinals are on a hot streak, going 9-1 in their last 10 games. The only loss during this stretch was a 5-4 loss to the Nationals on Thursday night. They’ve scored at least four runs in every game since the August 7 contest at Miami. The Brewers, meanwhile, are 3-7 in their last 10…
Hey, this is important: A Cardinals/Brewers series preview
The Cardinals and Brewers start a three-game series today. This is the most important series for the Cardinals thus far, a designation that will be usurped by every subsequent series until the end of the season. Such is life when you're 1 1/2 games out of a playoff spot with around 40 games to play.…
8/16/18 Recap: Defensive Miscues Overshadow Rally, Nats Win 5-4
The Cardinals look for the four game sweep of the Nationals, who today are a below .500 team. Luke Weaver will face off against TanNer rOark. I'll be reporting live from the game, which I've never done, so we'll see how it goes his toes. First Inning Things started off well for Weaver as he…
A brief history of multi-hit Cardinals debuts
Enos Slaughter did it. So did Stan Musial. So did Terry Pendleton and Ray Lankford and Brian Jordan. Throwing Stan Musial into any statistical grouping of St. Louis Cardinals players is going to skew the sample considerably, but there is an obvious logic to believing that a player who begins his Major League career with…
8/15/18 Recap: Bader Leads Cardinals to Eighth Straight Win
When the St. Louis Cardinals fired Mike Matheny on July 14, they were 47-46, 7.5 games out of first place in the NL Central and 4.5 games out of the wild card. The team looked lost, lackluster, and headed for another October out of the playoffs. Fast forward to tonight's 4-2 win over the Washington…
Mike Shildt is the right choice to manage the St. Louis Cardinals
On Sunday afternoon, in the waning moments of the St. Louis Cardinals' 8-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals to complete a sweep of their intrastate rivals, Cardinals reliever Tyler Webb hit Royals right fielder Jorge Bonifacio with a pitch on a 1-2 count with two outs, both of which came via Webb strikeouts. It…
Wong, Gant (yes Gant) power Cardinals to seventh straight victory- an 8/14 recap
The Cardinals are absolutely ROLLING right now. They are hitting on all cylinders. After a walk-off victory last night, John Gant takes the mound for the Birds against Gio Gonzalex and the Washington Nationals. If they can pull out a victory tonight, it will be there seventh in a row. Let's keep things rolling. Lineups…
Paul DeJong is stabilizing the Cardinals lineup
When the St. Louis Cardinals promoted Paul DeJong to the big league squad last May, I didn't think too terribly much of it. Unless you're a relative of Paul DeJong's, you probably didn't either. It was a fine, defensible move given the circumstances of the team, but it wasn't exactly Kris Bryant or Ronald Acuna…
8/13/18 Recap: Cards walk off Nats in dramatic opener
The Cardinals pop the cork on a 4-game home series with fellow wild card contenders, the Washington Nationals, tonight. Our surprise virtuoso/stalwart rotation head Miles Mikolas takes on Nats, uh... Guy, Tommy Milone. Milone, 31, has been uninspiring throughout an 8-year career in the majors, putting up -0.4 bWAR in 754 innings, working almost exclusively…
Now the hard part: A Cards-Nats series preview
On this day four weeks ago, the St. Louis Cardinals entered the All-Star break with a sense of renewed hope with newly-crowned (interim) manager Mike Shildt at the helm even if the season already felt sort of hopeless. The team was 48-46, and to conceivably slip in to the Wild Card Game by reaching the…
Cardinals sweep Royals, Ross and Wisdom shine in their Cardinals debuts
The Kansas City Royals, who are very bad, lost the first two games of this weekend's latest installment of the I-70 series pretty handily to the St. Louis Cardinals, who...might be good? They certainly aren't as bad. And with the team's fifth consecutive series victory already in hand, the Cardinals took to the field with a…
Cardinals Win Fifth Straight Series with 8-3 Victory over Royals
The Game The Cardinals played the second of a three-game set against the Kansas City Royals Saturday night. Coming off a 7-0 victory on Friday, the boys in red were looking to deal another loss to their cross-state rival. Indeed, if this team has any hope of making the post-season, they absolutely have to pummel…
Okay Cardinals if you can’t sweep the ROYALS–a series preview
This weekend, the St. Louis Cardinals will face the Kansas City Royals in a three-game set at Kauffman Stadium to resolve an age-old question--who is better at baseball, the 35-79 team or the team whose record isn't abysmal? This may feel like an obvious answer, but Cardinals/Royals is a rivalry which can bring out the…
Exploring potential landing spots for Cardinals DH Jose Martinez
As has been explained on probably close to a weekly basis on this website and others, the St. Louis Cardinals have a problem. Well, kind of. It's actually a great problem to have, in and of itself--they have a surplus of good hitters such that first baseman/occasional corner outfielder Jose Martinez, who has been the team's second-best…
8/8/18 Recap: Cardinals Shut Down Marlins in 7-1 Win
Matt Carpenter continued to dominate everything in sight, Yadier Molina drove in three runs, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Miami Marlins 7-1 on Wednesday night for yet another series win. Mike Shildt's insistence on batting Yadi second paid off in the first inning when Molina hit a solo home run to left field…
The Cardinals are good enough to win Matt Carpenter an MVP
As longtime (three month) readers of St. Louis Bullpen may remember, I attended three St. Louis Cardinals games in San Diego from May 10-12 (I even recapped one of them from the stadium after sucking down some cheaper-than-at-Busch-Stadium Bud Lights). One of the friends with whom I attended games brought with him a Matt Carpenter…
MATT. CARPENTER. – an 8/7 recap
Miles Mikolas is going for his 12th win of the 2018 campaign tonight in Miami. The Cardinals nearly came back in last night's loss to the Marlins and are looking to get back on track with the Lizard King on the bump. Lineups https://twitter.com/Cardinals/status/1026936064030777345 https://twitter.com/DailyMLBLineup/status/1026920240117166081 Game Notes Marlins get a leadoff base hit by Dietrich…
Matt Carpenter is an MVP Candidate. Can He Win?
Since the All-Star break, the St. Louis Cardinals have experienced a small resurgence, chalking up three consecutive series wins against contending teams. The team has embraced the youth movement and retooled the bullpen, and they've made a change at manager. You can make an argument for all of these things helping get the Cardinals back…
8/6/2018 Recap: The One Where Wei-Yin Chin 1-hits Us
https://twitter.com/Cardinals/status/1026567359346208768 https://twitter.com/Marlins/status/1026574150448635905 Wei-Yin Chen is the sort of player that is around not because he is skilled, or because he holds a particular place in the hearts of his team and fans, but because he is owed a lot of money on a multi-year contract. He's 33, doesn't strike batters out, doesn't manage contact, and…
We owe the Miami Marlins an apology–a series preview
Before anyone gets mad about the title of this post, let me very clear about something--we do not owe the owners of the Miami Marlins nor their front office personnel an apology. The swindle perpetrated by the ownership group, most famously including Derek Jeter (while it is probably unfair to blame him for the sins…
Tyson Ross is a worthwhile lottery ticket for the Cardinals
The drawbacks of Tyson Ross, whom the St. Louis Cardinals claimed yesterday off waivers from the San Diego Padres, are apparent from a quick glance at his Baseball Reference page. In twenty-two starts this season, Ross has mediocre overall numbers--in 123 1/3 innings, he has a mediocre 4.45 ERA and a mediocre 4.55 FIP. In…
Cardinals squeeze by Pirates 2-1, Jack Flaherty and Matt Carpenter are my religion
Round Four of Jack Flaherty vs. Trevor Williams happened this afternoon while I was also simultaneously trying to write some words about Tyson Ross. I work hard for you people! So if I end up screwing up my tabs, my bad. If I blank out on a significant inning, check out the site tomorrow. Here…
8.4.18 Recap: Bullpen Leads Cards to Victory Once Again
Guys, my air conditioning went out tonight. It's 109 degrees outside, so that's not so great. In dealing with that bullshit, I did not get much time to watch the game, but I did see that ... [SPOILER ALERT] the Cardinals won! Here is some stuff that happened: The Cardinals started the game with two…
Cardinals rock Chris Archer, still lose to Pirates—an 8/3 recap
Well, folks, the St. Louis Cardinals won three of four games against a very good Colorado Rockies team, and I'm ready to trick myself into believing that the playoffs are a possibility. Here's what happened in the first game of my period of delusion. First, the lineups. https://twitter.com/Cardinals/status/1025481455101730817 https://twitter.com/Pirates/status/1025508740181749761 Oh great, the Pirates are using…
Chris Archer is part of Cardinals/Pirates now–a series preview
Say you know a big St. Louis Cardinals fan who spent the last week completely out of the loop of Cardinals news. He or she knows the sport fairly well but hasn't been around the latest trade deadline news. Obviously, the explaining about Tommy Pham being traded is going to be a big headline, but…
On Tommy Pham and Cardinals Fandom
Let’s start with one of my favorite hypotheticals: your team (any sport) can field two rosters for the coming season: Roster A: all the guys you know and love/love to hate. They’re familiar. You know them. They’ll put together a competent year. They won’t win a championship. Roster B: a bunch of strangers. Didn’t come…
8/2/18 Recap: Cardinals Win 3-2 Via 9th Inning Heroics/Antics
Alright friends, the Cardinals are playing the Rockies. Both teams are vying for playoff spots here so this game will be competitive, I promise you that. This should be a great finale, I expect great things after two rather bleak games that I last recapped. First Inning I am immediately rejuvenated at this early morning…
Joe Girardi would not be another Mike Matheny
Last Thursday, Jon Heyman of Fancred sports reported that Joe Girardi is interested in the St. Louis Cardinals managerial position, currently occupied by interim manager Mike Shildt. Heyman's sources were Girardi's unnamed "friends," but Girardi is on record as wanting to manage again, and given that the Cardinals gig is one of the better jobs…
8/1/18 Recap: Bullpen Carries Cardinals Past Rockies 6-3
We've officially reached August in the rich pageant that is the 2018 St. Louis Cardinals season. Tuesday's act included one of the team's best and most likable players being traded for a really underwhelming return, along with video from last Friday's game showing a firework flying into the stands. There's a metaphor somewhere in that…
Every baseball player should be more like Tommy Pham
If I woke up tomorrow and were suddenly a Major League Baseball player, I think I'd play a lot like Tommy Pham. Now, the reason for this is pretty simple--I'm a terrible baseball player, even by the standards of a beer league player, and I would have no choice but to play like Tommy Pham,…
Blackmon, Gonzalez power Rockies over Cardinals- a 7/31 recap
The trade deadline has come and gone. It's time to get into the dog days of summer baseball. Last night's game ended with an absolute rocket off the bat of Marcell Ozuna after a four run comeback by the Redbirds. Let's see if they can keep rolling tonight with Jack Flaherty on the mound. Lineups…
The Cardinals should inquire about Josh Donaldson
My stance on the St. Louis Cardinals, as those who read my post earlier today could probably tell, is that they should not be buyers at this trade deadline. Their chances of making the postseason are slim--not only are they several games behind a playoff spot, but there are several other teams chasing the playoff…
Let’s get crazy about a potential Cardinals/Yankees blockbuster
This is probably going to be a boring trade deadline for the St. Louis Cardinals (unless this sentence is already out of date by the time this article actually publishes, which is entirely possible). The Cardinals aren't good enough to buy and they don't have enough obvious short-term assets to acquire splashy, high-end prospects without…
7/30/18 Recap: CARDINALS WALK OFF ROCKIES
Tonight, the Cardinals open a 3-game set hosting the Rockies. The Rox are in the mix for the NL West title this year, and the Cardinals are at a decision point with the non-waiver trade deadline looming. Fun fact: the Rockies just signed old friend Matt Holliday, 38, to a minor league contract. Yay Matt!…
Cardinals finally play Rockies–a series preview
A bunch of these series previews become redundant because the St. Louis Cardinals keep playing the same teams over and over. Particularly in the division, this is the case. Most of you know the basic construction of the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds and don't really need to be reminded, "Hey, this Joey Votto character?…
On “Boring” Trades and Bullpen Construction
At this point, I'm starting to consider myself the Dominic Leone of STLBullpen. Early in the season I did some good things and some less good things. Point is, I was brought in from the outside (Cardinals blog-o-sphere wise), was just starting to find my groove, and then just vanished for awhile. For Leone, this has been…
Cubs beat Cardinals in a boring, boring game–a 7/29 recap
As a personal affront to me, the Cardinals and Cubs not only played a night game on Sunday, but also it was delayed by weather. But before this become an obnoxious diatribe about how games start too late these days, here were the starting lineups. https://twitter.com/Cubs/status/1023656086694506503 https://twitter.com/Cardinals/status/1023699712774430721 8:23--John Gant throws the first pitch. Okay then!…
Baseball is fun again! Cards beat Cubs in game one of weekend series at Busch – a 7/27 recap
Cubs vs. Cardinals. Always a fun time when these two teams get together, right? Well, I guess it's only fun if you win. The Cardinals are five-hundred, the least they can do is steal a few games from the Cubbies. Let's do this. Luke Weaver on the bump. Lineups https://twitter.com/Cubs/status/1022927287983984640 https://twitter.com/Cardinals/status/1022952292595757056 Game Notes Luke Weaver…
Let’s just enjoy baseball for its own sake: a Cardinals/Cubs preview
The last several years of watching St. Louis Cardinals baseball have been built around the postseason. When you're right in the thick of a postseason run (and, in most cases, eventually reaching it to October baseball), this only makes sense. But on July 27, postseason baseball seems like a long shot. If the Cardinals sweep…
A very brief history of Cardinals mediocrity
Who is your favorite St. Louis Cardinals player of the 2010s, one of the more successful decades in the history of one of baseball's most successful franchises? Mine is Jon Jay. Jon Jay was the most ordinary player I can fathom. In six seasons in St. Louis, Jay had a 107 wRC+, making him 7%…
7/25/18 Recap: Cards Lose Series Finale to Reds 7-3
Cardinals Baseball since the all-star break has often been exciting and even more so heart breaking. This week has been no different, with the loss Monday at the hands of Bud Norris and the lackluster offense, and the win yesterday with the fire alarm tactics of the Reds, and Fowler's big right-handed bomb. It's Flaherty's…
Daniel Poncedeleon, Austin Gomber, and the greatest first starts in Cardinals history
Thirty-three times in St. Louis Cardinals history, a pitcher making his first career start in the Major Leagues posted a Game Score of 65 or better. The third most recent time occurred on May 30, 2013, courtesy of Michael Wacha (if you don't remember this particular game--Wacha was awesome, Mitchell Boggs blew a one-run lead…
DEX GON GIVE IT TO YA- a 7/24 recap
Welp, last night was a roller coaster of emotions. Let's hope for better tonight in Cincy. Lefty Austin Gomber takes the mound for the Redbirds tonight, let's see if he has similar success to Poncdeleon. Let's ride. Lineups Peraza- SS Gennett- 2B Votto- 1B Suarez- 3B Duvall- LF Ervin- RF Casali- C Bailey- P Hamilton-…
Was Mike Shildt right to prioritize winning over memories?
Although I gave glowing reviews to Mike Shildt's first foray into Major League managing, the weekend series against the Chicago Cubs exposed the new St. Louis Cardinals manager as susceptible to the managerial shortcomings which are common, even in the hyper-intellectual environment of 2018 Major League Baseball. Which isn't to say that I think Mike…
7/23 Recap: Cardinals summarize season to date
Remember Dan Poncedeleon? He's a 26-year-old Cardinals AAA pitcher who has made national sports headlines precisely once in the past two seasons. Last May, Dan took a scorching comebacker off his noggin that nearly killed him and put him in the hospital for an extended stay with a traumatic brain injury. His progress back has…
