I was 22 years old for Game 6 of the 2011 World Series, a few months out of college in an era that will inevitably cultivate cultural nostalgia but for which I feel little warmth. We were still in the throes of the Great Recession, I was working lousy hours in a call center because…
Pastime
Last night, the St. Louis Cardinals earned one of the more thrilling victories that they will notch in 2025. Once trailing by three, they tacked on five runs in the fifth inning. After surrendering that lead, with Riley O'Brien giving up a game-tying double to Ronny Simon in the top of the ninth inning, the…
An alternate history: What if the Cardinals hadn’t made the Marcell Ozuna trade?
In terms of pure results, steeped entirely in hindsight, the worst trade that the St. Louis Cardinals have made in the twenty-first century, by a mile, was on December 13, 2017, when the Cardinals acquired outfielder Marcell Ozuna from the Miami Marlins in exchange for four prospects. The prospects, at the time, felt minor--the one…
Hopelessness
I know for a fact that a nonzero number of St. Louis Cardinals employees have read, and presumably will read, St. Louis Bullpen posts. I say this not as a way of congratulating myself but as a bland statement of how sports blogging community works--this website does not generally generate the level of interest of…
So, um, what is the plan for the Cardinals?
Last off-season, everything that the St. Louis Cardinals did fell into place relatively quickly. They signed Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn by Thanksgiving and then added Sonny Gray the next Monday. They traded Tyler O'Neill two-and-a-half weeks before Christmas. Even the Matt Carpenter signing, which felt like a checkout aisle impulse buy, happened on January…
How the Cardinals should spend their money this offseason (and how they should spend the money they won’t spend)
They could spend a lot of money, but there are some better options than others if they aren't going to do that.
Meet the 2025 Cardinals. Same as (or worse than) the 2024 Cardinals.
You could make a case, despite a few decidedly mediocre seasons in the back half of the decade, that the St. Louis Cardinals were the Team Of The 2010s. The San Francisco Giants won the most titles, but were nondescript otherwise. The Boston Red Sox got a pair themselves but also had some downright lousy…
Cardinals recreate the Harrison Bader-Jordan Montgomery trade, acquire Erick Fedde for Tommy Edman; also get a replacement Tommy (Pham)
On one side stands the St. Louis Cardinals holding onto a center fielder who had come to the Majors and surpassed his level of hype tenfold but had gone through a recent spat of injuries and had just one more year after the current one of remaining club control. On another side stands a starting…
It is time for the St. Louis Cardinals to part ways with John Mozeliak
John Mozeliak has been very successful as general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals. He deserves a lot of credit for his past. This doesn't mean he should be a part of the organization's future.
The grift that keeps on taking
As hopelessly addicted to watching sports as I am, I can sometimes overlook the fact that there are thousands of people in St. Louis and the St. Louis area that do not care about sports or the local sports teams in particular. There are some exhausting types who might ask if there is a sportsball…
St. Louis Bullpen 