Two years ago, I wrote a post on this blog about the increasingly obvious culture problem within the St. Louis Cardinals. At the time, the Cardinals were an organization that seemed lost in every sense of the word. They weren’t a particularly exciting team, they were coming off of three straight Octobers without postseason baseball…
Yesterday, Baseball Reference rolled out arguably its most ambitious project since, well, the very first day the website included statistics for every player in the history of the National and American Leagues. It was a project that at once feels long overdue but also like such a research challenge that demanding such a free and…
Last night, for the first time since October 12, 2019, the St. Louis Cardinals played a home baseball game played at its full stadium capacity. With 45,494 seats at Busch Stadium, plus the potential for a few thousand more via Standing Room Only spots, the June 14 tilt against the Miami Marlins had the potential…
Max Scherzer, 36, is scheduled to become a free agent at the conclusion of the 2021 Major League Baseball season. His team, the Washington Nationals, is currently in last place in the National League East, 7.5 games behind the New York Mets and with, per Baseball Prospectus's PECOTA standings, just a 5% chance at reaching…
There was quite a bit of hype, some of it substantiated and some of it a bit overdone, around several units on the St. Louis Cardinals entering the 2021 season. The corner infield duo of Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt were to fortify the team's offense and defense by themselves. The starting rotation had a…
On Friday night, Seattle Mariners catcher José Godoy made history when he became the 20,000th player in Major League Baseball history. The former St. Louis Cardinals farmhand drew a walk in his second plate appearance, in a game which was not particularly notable beyond the history being made. It does seem weird to give Godoy…
Hall of Fame cases are a lot easier to make when you think about the lesser Hall of Famers.
After plenty of conjecture and very little tangible evidence, rumors of Albert Pujols reuniting with the St. Louis Cardinals following a nine-plus year stint with the Los Angeles Angels were formally put to bed today when the Los Angeles Dodgers officially announced the signing of the greatest living St. Louis Cardinal to serve, presumably, in…
One of the strangest runs in St. Louis Cardinals history may continue beyond this season
Albert Pujols did not break Brad Lidge. And that makes his home run even better.
Thursday's news that Albert Pujols, the greatest living St. Louis Cardinal, was designated for assignment by the Los Angeles Angels invited a whole host of emotions. Pujols, in the final year of a ten-year contract which lured the long-time Cardinal to Anaheim in the Fall of 2011, is by any measure a shell of his…
Even if beanballs weren't dangerous, they are an inherently losing baseball move
Over the last several years, Major League Baseball has worked hard to expedite its games, and in and of itself, I'm glad they're doing this. Baseball games do take too long, and unlike the spikes in game time which happened at the turn of last century, it's not because there's this sudden offensive explosion. This…
Following his go-ahead home run in the eighth inning of his first game at Busch Stadium, Nolan Arenado was annointed as a superhero. Sure, St. Louis Cardinals fans would have been excited had John Nogowski or whoever else hit the home run, but because it came off the bat of Nolan Arenado, a player deemed…
Last night, Matt Carpenter hit his first home run of the 2021 season for the St. Louis Cardinals, and admittedly, it was a pretty weird experience. It wasn't an especially game-significant home run--besides the offensive explosion of the fifth inning rendering it moot, it only bumped up the Cardinals' win probability from 77% to 89%.…
On Thursday, Nolan Arenado hit a go-ahead two-run home run in his first home game as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals. As often happens at Busch Stadium, the roaring crowd demanded that Arenado, following his return to the Cardinals' dugout, hop back out and salute the crowd. He did, the crowd got excited…
Today is Opening Day in Major League Baseball, a day which the league will happily tell you should be a holiday, and a day which I will happily tell Major League Baseball should be on a weekend if they want us all to watch baseball all day. The good news is that, unlike last season,…
Despite the Cardinals acquiring the bigger name, the Milwaukee Brewers had the best off-season in the National League Central
A look ahead to a season in which we inevitably look back.
For eleven glorious seasons, the Cardinals got to experience one of the three greatest first basemen who ever lived.
The "Yadier Molina can't hit well enough to stick around in the Major Leagues" takes are now old enough to drive
Before Jim Edmonds, the Cardinals were a sideshow for Mark McGwire. Once Jim Edmonds arrived, they were a serious contender.
A look at Adam Wainwright, from postseason hero reliever to staff ace to innings-eating veteran
This doesn't even seem possible. The St. Louis Cardinals should easily have a better team in 2021 than the total sum of their former players. It would be one thing if the Cardinals had spent the last several years trading away their best players for prospects who may never come to fruition. But the Cardinals…
You may not think the guy who used Limp Bizkit as his walk-up song because it repeatedly said a homophone of his name is "subtle", but Rolen was one of his generation's great quiet stars.
According to Dan Szymborski's ZiPS projection system, which projects the performance of every player and team in Major League Baseball, there are 411 players designated as "outfielders"--this is, if you do some basic back-of-the-napkin math, obviously far more players than there are spots, but this incorporates tons of lifelong minor leaguers and players who aren't…
Matt Carpenter had one of the strangest origin stories of any superstar in franchise history
You just had to be there.
For a rehab project from Toronto whose best-case scenario was decent back of the rotation starter, the Chris Carpenter experiment worked out pretty well for the Cardinals
Matt Holliday was never the best player on the Cardinals, but he was a consistent number two for some of the most potent lineups in franchise history
A look back at Matt Morris, who was probably better than you remember.
The Cardinal of the 1990s remained a star well into the Tony LaRussa era
Even if Edgar Renteria's World Series accomplishments with other teams are his most iconic moments, the shortstop's best seasons came in St. Louis
A look at Brian Jordan, the two-sport star who became one of the most well-rounded Cardinals in recent memory
J.D. Drew may end up being viewed as the 21st century Ernie Broglio, but like Broglio, Drew was also a heck of a Cardinal
The Cardinals acquired Woody Williams to be a future Remember Some Guys guy, but instead, they were delighted when he became A Guy.
For his first eight seasons, he has turned out to be the opposite of whatever you thought he was going to be
The recently-departed now-Milwaukee Brewers second baseman crafted an exhilerating eight-season career in St. Louis.
Ryan Ludwick wasn't a great Cardinal, but he filled a very necessary void for the team at a very necessary time
It is impossible to discuss Darryl Kile without discussing his death, but it is malpractice to discuss Darryl Kile without discussing his life.
Tommy Pham, by sheer force of will, had one of the highest peaks for the last quarter-century of the Cardinals
Although not regarded as an ascending prospect, Paul DeJong became a defining example of the last quarter-century of Cardinals Devil Magic.
He was never the team's ace, but Lance Lynn was a rock-solid member of the starting rotation for some of the best teams in recent memory
A look at Andy Benes, a player who became a star elsewhere but truly came into his own in St. Louis
A look back at the unlikely, inconceivable success story of David Freese
While not especially flashy, Todd Stottlemyre was dependable and the ace of a team that broke a nine-year playoff drought for the Cardinals
A look at some of the next-best Cardinals of the last quarter-century
In October 1995, the St. Louis Cardinals hired recently-former Oakland Athletics manager Tony LaRussa. Coming off an eighth consecutive year without a playoff appearance, the Cardinals were hoping to start a new era of dominance. And the very next season, the Cardinals were one game away from the World Series. After building a 3-1 lead…
PECOTA says they won't, but PECOTA is also always wrong
The St. Louis Cardinals' signing of Dexter Fowler in the 2016-17 off-season will not exactly go down as one of the most prudent free agent signings of all-time, but at the end of the day, Dexter Fowler did fill a role for the Cardinals. Maybe not a $16.5 million per season role, but a role…
