Over the last 20 years, the Cardinals have been a very good baseball team while the Pittsburgh Pirates generally have not. This once well-known sports fact has sort of faded from consciousness because the Pirates strung together several very good seasons and a few trips to the postseason, but they finished below .500 for 20…
More information is almost always better than less and thus the introduction of Statcast data a few seasons ago was a good thing. There was nothing groundbreaking about it per se. A high exit velocity is pretty much the same thing as making good contact, a concept which has been around forever. A good sprint…
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.…
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…
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…
Only seven percent (18) of the 255 players in the Baseball Hall of Fame are catchers, a number that exceeds only that of third baseman (17). It's not entirely clear why so few third baseman have made the Hall but that's not the case when it comes to catchers. For non-pitchers, the most efficient path…
Thursday night's game was the pits. You can handle, almost laugh at, the team looking completely inept for an evening but it's much harder when it happens during a stretch in which the team is already playing bad ball. Enter Friday, where the Cardinals attempted to regain their dignity. Starters were Jack Flaherty and Junior…
(Author's note: For whatever reason, I thought this series was at Wrigley, and I wrote this preview accordingly. Take the title, for instance. I am a fool. That said, what follows is still mostly applicable to a series at Busch and I hope you enjoy it anyway.) The Chicago Cubs organization doesn't need much in…
On Monday, the Cardinals muscled their way to a 5-2 victory over the San Diego Padres by way of three home runs launched by José Martínez, Marcell Ozuna, and Jedd Gyorko. All five Cardinals runs scored as a result of one of these homers, which has become somewhat customary for the Birdos this season. In…
This gets said a lot but I'm saying it again: It's not easy being a Miami Marlins fan. They've endured real loss, horrible owners, and the exodus of nearly every young and exciting player. It's not easy finding a Marlins fan either. On episode 1,148 of the great Effectively Wild podcast, hosts Ben Lindbergh and…
St. Louis Bullpen 