Hi folks. For a while I was considering going down to Busch Stadium for tonight's game between the Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals because of the following factors: The Carlos Martinez mystery hair bobblehead. I ended up not attending because of the following factors: The heat index when the game started was well…
What if the 2018 St. Louis Cardinals had gone all-in? Part 3
After a bye week, this is Part 3 of a series about an alternate timeline in which the St. Louis Cardinals decide to function solely to succeed in 2018, abandoning all interest in long-term player development and instead hoping to win this one title. You can read Part 1, about the first day of trades,…
How Greg Holland’s resurgence displays the flaws in signing him
That Greg Holland, who was signed on Opening Day to a one-year, $14 million contract which also cost the St. Louis Cardinals a second-round draft pick, has improved from his start to the season is about as predictable of a baseball event as one can find. Through May 25, after which Greg Holland found himself…
Let’s change the name of the St. Louis Cardinals (now hear me out)
Yesterday, I wrote a preview of the series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Cleveland Indians in which I did not once use the latter team's actual nickname, because the team's nickname isn't as good as what it could be. In the Dead Ball era, the formal nickname of Cleveland's American League baseball team…
Cardinals to face Cleveland Lindors in three-game set at Busch Stadium
Tonight, the St. Louis Cardinals will open a three-game series at home against one of baseball's most successful teams of the last few seasons, the Cleveland Lindors. Cleveland has yet to win a World Series since 1948, but they have had some magnificent teams intermittently. They are not a great franchise, per se, but they…
Mike Trout is so good that it is making my head hurt
In the first round of the 2009 MLB Draft, the St. Louis Cardinals selected Texas high school pitcher Shelby Miller with the 19th overall pick. By most standards, Miller was a very good pick--he's already the seventh-best #19 pick in history (if this sounds like a familiar topic, it is) and he has a very…
The Cardinals are going to play the Brewers for four games–a series preview
If the St. Louis Cardinals do not win the National League Central this year, I hope the Milwaukee Brewers do. Perhaps this is not a particularly shocking assessment, as the chief contender outside of these two teams is the primary rival of them, the Chicago Cubs. But even so, the Brewers are a perfectly likable…
How Mike Matheny’s bullpen management in a win led to a loss
The primary metrics by which coaches and managers in professional sports are measured are wins and losses. Wins and losses exist for players, particularly for baseball starting pitchers, but there are more descriptive statistics which are in the mainstream (earned-run average, to use the most famous example). For coaches, one's record is what we have,…
Cardinals strike out a billion times, Phillies win in the stupidest possible fashion
Hey guys, John again. Last night's game was fun so hopefully I can carry the extremely short hot streak into a new series, this time against the Philadelphia Phillies. Here were the lineups. https://twitter.com/Cardinals/status/1008809098903683073 https://twitter.com/Phillies/status/1008803343274213376 Here's the bullet points of what happened. Hey, did you know Tim McCarver used to be on the Phillies? Of…
Jordan Hicks and modern young Cardinals
There are two things that stand out immediately about St. Louis Cardinals rookie relief pitcher Jordan Hicks--he throws preposterously hard and he is very young. There really isn't much to say about the former--"Aroldis Chapman is the only person in the same stratosphere of velocity" and call it a day from there. That Hicks has…
St. Louis Bullpen 