Willson Contreras, Designated Hitter

[Jopal78]

3 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

The Cardinals are almost surely better than their record - and their pythag indicates that is the case - but in my opinion, they're probably not good enough to dig out of this hole, either. The team is old, their pitching is suspect, and they've put themselves at a huge disadvantage. To just scrape into the playoffs, they likely need to be ~18 games over .500 from today through the end of the season. It's unlikely a team projected to be an 85 win team going into the season, a team that vastly underperformed for six weeks, is going to be able to pull that off.

Especially given how dysfunctional the clubhouse seems to be right now.

Despite the Cardinals struggles,  the Brewers (or the Pirates!) haven’t hit the gas pedal and buried them. The Brewers went out West against two inferior clubs and dropped five out of six missing an opportunity to really damage St. Louis’s chances. 
 

The point is, it’s still early. With a leaky bullpen and weak back end of the rotation I don’t expect the Brewers to run away with the Division like in ‘21. Nor do I expect the Pirates and Cubs to have the requisite staying power. Therefore, the more time the rest of the Division gives the Cardinals, the more likely it is they right the ship and play to their expectations. 

[jerichoholicninja]

19 hours ago, owbc said:

Did Yadi ever make a single boneheaded play like this over the course of his entire career?
 

I would classify spitting on an umpire and starting perhaps hundreds of pointless fights with other teams boneheaded but I get what you're saying.

[nate82]

1 hour ago, jerichoholicninja said:

I would classify spitting on an umpire and starting perhaps hundreds of pointless fights with other teams boneheaded but I get what you're saying.

or when he took off all his catching gear at home plate after arguing with an umpire?

[MrTPlush]

21 hours ago, owbc said:

 

Did Yadi ever make a single boneheaded play like this over the course of his entire career? 

 

I am more concerned about the LFer that barely got the ball back into the infield...let alone to the plate. lol

[owbc]

14 minutes ago, MrTPlush said:

I am more concerned about the LFer that barely got the ball back into the infield...let alone to the plate. lol

The Cards are failing the eye test badly which is why I'm convinced the slow start is for real. They probably have enough bats to make a run at .500, but the only way they make the playoffs is if they are gifted an 85 win division title. 

[Jake McKibbin]

17 minutes ago, MrTPlush said:

I am more concerned about the LFer that barely got the ball back into the infield...let alone to the plate. lol

Yelich's Noodles are better than that

[82brewcrew82]

1 hour ago, MrTPlush said:

I am more concerned about the LFer that barely got the ball back into the infield...let alone to the plate. lol

The Cardinals spiral is far more stunning than any depth Yelich can reach at this point.

[MrTPlush]

1 hour ago, owbc said:

The Cards are failing the eye test badly which is why I'm convinced the slow start is for real. They probably have enough bats to make a run at .500, but the only way they make the playoffs is if they are gifted an 85 win division title. 

The pitching staff just isn't good enough and I don't think they have any relevant depth if (and when) injuries happen. 

A bunch of old guys they were hoping to be decent that have had shaky/injury riddled seasons recently. There was some hope they could pitch well, but there was little room for guys flopping and/or getting injured. They only have one starter actually doing anything decent...the rest aren't even managing #5 status so far. 

[nate82]

Cardinals starting pitching:

 

Brewers starting pitching:

Other than Montgomery I don't see a decent starter on their team.  Wainwright has pitched one game and it went poorly so far.  Matz is completely unreliable and is looking like a bad Lauer right now.  Flaherty is closer to Junk than he is to Rea.  Woodford is basically Rea on the Brewers.  Mikolas is also pitching like Rea so far.  The Cardinals have a bunch of #4, 5, 6 and 7 starters in the 2-5 spots in their rotation. 

If Wainwright falters even a little bit and at 41 years old that is extremely possible that team has only Montgomery holding their starting rotation together.  If the Cardinals do not get better results from their starting pitchers their season is done.  It won't matter if their offense improves if their starting pitching also does not improve. 

[Jopal78]

15 minutes ago, nate82 said:

Cardinals starting pitching:

 

Brewers starting pitching:

Other than Montgomery I don't see a decent starter on their team.  Wainwright has pitched one game and it went poorly so far.  Matz is completely unreliable and is looking like a bad Lauer right now.  Flaherty is closer to Junk than he is to Rea.  Woodford is basically Rea on the Brewers.  Mikolas is also pitching like Rea so far.  The Cardinals have a bunch of #4, 5, 6 and 7 starters in the 2-5 spots in their rotation. 

If Wainwright falters even a little bit and at 41 years old that is extremely possible that team has only Montgomery holding their starting rotation together.  If the Cardinals do not get better results from their starting pitchers their season is done.  It won't matter if their offense improves if their starting pitching also does not improve. 

That’s the beauty of stats; Wade Miley has been the most consistent starter in ‘23 and his xFIP is worse than anyone who has started for the Cardinals. (Cue the poster to say xFIP is a BS stat).

Mikloas and Wainwright have been consistent long enough it’s unlikely they both “lost it” overnight.  

With the overall mediocrity of the NL Central, a  hot streak or two and the Cardinals will be right back in it. 

[wiguy94]

13 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

That’s the beauty of stats; Wade Miley has been the most consistent starter in ‘23 and his xFIP is worse than anyone who has started for the Cardinals. (Cue the poster to say xFIP is a BS stat).

Mikloas and Wainwright have been consistent long enough it’s unlikely they both “lost it” overnight.  

With the overall mediocrity of the NL Central, a  hot streak or two and the Cardinals will be right back in it. 

Mikolas and Wainwright are 34 and 41 respectively. It's probably more likely than not that both of them are worse than they were last year just because of their ages.

Here are the xERA for the Cardinals current starters vs ours.

Brewers

Burnes - 3.75

Peralta - 3.59

Miley - 4.00

Lauer - 5.82

Rea - 3.62

Houser - 2.44

 

Cardinals

Montgomery - 3.52

Mikolas - 6.05

Flaherty - 5.38

Matz - 4.74

Wainwright - 3.78

Woodford - 7.09

 

Brewers SP hasn't even been that great this year but our starters look like world beaters compared to that Cardinals rotation.

[Thurston Fluff]

30 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

That’s the beauty of stats; Wade Miley has been the most consistent starter in ‘23 and his xFIP is worse than anyone who has started for the Cardinals. (Cue the poster to say xFIP is a BS stat).

Mikloas and Wainwright have been consistent long enough it’s unlikely they both “lost it” overnight.  

With the overall mediocrity of the NL Central, a  hot streak or two and the Cardinals will be right back in it. 

Dude, just let us drink from the tears of our enemy.

[Brewcrew82]

38 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

That’s the beauty of stats; Wade Miley has been the most consistent starter in ‘23 and his xFIP is worse than anyone who has started for the Cardinals. (Cue the poster to say xFIP is a BS stat).

Mikloas and Wainwright have been consistent long enough it’s unlikely they both “lost it” overnight.  

With the overall mediocrity of the NL Central, a  hot streak or two and the Cardinals will be right back in it. 

You don’t think it’s more than possible Wainwright, at the age of 41, has “lost it”, particularly with how bad he was in September/October of last season? 41 year olds tend to ‘lose it overnight’…

[Jopal78]

You’ve seen Game of Thrones, this is like Oberyn Martel celebrating before the Mountain was truly vanquished. 
 

[Jopal78]

1 minute ago, Brewcrew82 said:

You don’t think it’s more than possible Wainwright, at the age of 41, has “lost it”, particularly with how bad he was in September/October of last season? 41 year olds tend to ‘lose it overnight’…

What you say might be true. Then again Wainwright has made ONE start, let’s check back in July before drawing a conclusion based on the ultimate small sample .

[RobDeer 45]

On 5/7/2023 at 11:20 PM, Jopal78 said:

Well, their Pythagorean has them better than their actual record AND they haven’t had a losing season in 15 years AND have 2 Division titles and four Playoff appearances since 2019. I’ll wait until September to mock them. 

I've been thinking about your statement all weekend and in to this week now.  Way too early to mock the cards.  I feel like this thread was the reason we got pounded two days ago!  I'm not superstitious but I'm a little stitious. 

[SF70]

Looking at the rosters of Milwaukee and St. Louis, I have no idea how MKE can hold-off the Cardinals let alone make it to the deadline in contention of a playoff spot. 

Outside of the bullpen, as is, this is not a good team. Too many major injuries and too much ineffectiveness. Maybe if Lauer AND Burnes can both pitch like they did in the first half of last season they might hang-in there until Woodruff is back, but that’s not likely to happen and what if they get yet another injury or injuries?

The Cardinals pitching, with MKE’s injured rotation is every bit as good, maybe even better and their offense is leaps and bounds better. That vast disparity of talent will eventually move st. Louis ahead in the standings.