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…
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,…
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…
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…
Baseball has been pretty boring lately. Frankly, I'm impressed that you're still reading these. But apparently you are, and for your service, I shall provide you with what you want (with the possible exception of "a merciful end to the season, replaced by some other activity to occupy your leisure time during the Summer of…
This is Part 2 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, which included the acquisitions…
Those who support and those who dislike the designated hitter rule tend to be engaged in two completely different discussions.
Entering this week's series against the San Diego Padres, St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Jose Martinez was easily the team's best hitter throughout the 2018 season. While he did have a mediocre month or so in the middle of it, Martinez had an OPS+ of 147. For those unfamiliar with the stat OPS+, it is…
This afternoon, the St. Louis Cardinals, a professional baseball team owned in 2018 by Bill DeWitt Jr., played the Cincinnati Reds, a professional baseball team owned in 2018 by the St. Louis Cardinals. Here were the lineups each team fielded. https://twitter.com/Cardinals/status/1005835254853259264 https://twitter.com/Reds/status/1005818343398477825 Billy Hamilton has like a .800 career OBP against the Cardinals (citation needed)…
In the sixth inning of yesterday's game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Miami Marlins, second baseman Starlin Castro hit a relatively lazy, certainly gettable fly ball to right field. Cardinals right fielder Dexter Fowler got to the ball on time and, well, he did this. https://twitter.com/cardinalsgifs/status/1004798873951277057 For those unable to watch the GIF,…
