The Cardinals kick off a four-game series against the Giants tonight. Each team finds itself in third place in a surprising dogfight for its respective division; the Giants are 45-43, good for a .511 record and 3.5 games out of their division lead, while the Cardinals (44-41) have been slightly better on a rate basis…
Mike Matheny is not a players’ manager
When the St. Louis Cardinals hired Mike Matheny in November 2011 to replace the legendary Tony LaRussa, the widespread perception was that, in contrast to his predecessor, Mike Matheny was young enough that he would be willing to adapt to new-school, analytically-driven managerial styles. Less than a month after his hiring, David Laurila referred to…
Holiday game starts later than normal because reasons–a 7/4 recap
Happy Independence Day, fine St. Louis Bullpen readers! It is a federal holiday and most of you probably got the day off work today, and as such, Major League Baseball scheduled a ton of games during the day. It's like a Sunday, so games were played earlier than normal. Excecpt, for some reason, in Arizona,…
*Yaaaawwwwn* Cardinals fall to the Diamondbacks – a 7/3 recap
Jack Flaherty versus Zach Greinke tonight in the desert in what should be a battle of the pitchers. Jose Martinez is in right field tonight which is an interesting move but one that probably needs to be made. Should be a fun night of Cardinals baseball from Phoenix! https://twitter.com/Cardinals/status/1014290221834428416 https://twitter.com/Dbacks/status/1014252309763665920 Matt Carpenter leads off the…
7.2.2018 Recap: Yadi powers offensive onslaught as Cards snap losing streak
In her excellent series preview, noted Diamondbacks fan I.H. Boog highlighted the fact that coming into last night's game, the DBacks were precariously perched atop the NL West, while we lowly redbirds find ourselves in third place in the Central and on the outside looking in at the second wild card berth. There's still a…
John Mozeliak’s comments on Dexter Fowler are both candid and utterly tone-deaf
John Mozeliak called into question Dexter Fowler's work ethic in public. In doing so, Mozeliak ignored a glaring role he has had in this year's struggles.
Duel in the Desert: A Series Preview
The Arizona Diamondbacks are celebrating their 20th season in the league this year. 20 years doesn’t seem like all that much time, and while the Diamondbacks have often been criticized for their pallid fan base, it is somewhat understandable given how young the franchise truly is. On the other hand, the Dbacks have done well…
It’s okay if you don’t feel like watching the Cardinals right now
One of my favorite twenty-first century St. Louis Cardinals teams was the 2003 team. This may seem a bit odd. There is no objective reason for me to hold a candle for the 2003 Cardinals--they were a pretty good team, finishing 85-77, and they were buoyed by typically excellent seasons from Jim Edmonds, Edgar Renteria,…
7/1 recap: Cardinals lose to Braves by less than Friday or Saturday so hey there’s that
Come on, guys, win a game. Just one stupid game. Recapping games is more fun when I'm not just writing "hey, the Cardinals struck out again" over and over. Or maybe it's more fun for you guys when I just lose my mind over mid-season baseball games, I'm not sure, but it's not as fun…
Stupid baseball game enjoyed by Braves fans, presumably–a 6/30 recap
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…
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