The Cardinals are 1-5 since winning on Opening Night, April 2nd. I know it’s a “small sample size”, however the Cardinals aren’t scoring, and aren’t pitching well out of the bullpen. Bad baseball trumps “small sample size”. They seem to be playing the beginning of the season like a team who has nothing to play for. I understand the Cubs are probably going to run away with the division, and on paper are a much better team than the Cardinals. I understand how a bad team like the Reds look like contenders a handful of games into the season. I don’t care about the Cubs and Reds. I care about the Cardinals starting to play baseball how they’re capable. Small sample sizes are all we have to go off of right now. If the Cardinals continue to play like they have shown so far, they won’t be able to sniff the N.L. Wildcard race.
Negatives / A few things I think Cardinal fans need to get used to. (When you go through a list of negatives and you don’t even hit on Matt Adams playing LF you know it’s bad.)
- Adam Wainwright isn’t the pitcher we saw 2009-2014. He is no longer a top starter. Waino should be thought of as an average #3 starter or a good #4 starter.
- Fowler, Diaz, & Carpenter are collectively batting .205. They aren’t going to be this bad all season long. I’m VERY UNSURE if Matt Carpenter can his in a spot other than 1st – however once the top third of the lineup gets going the rest of the hitters should have more opportunities/less pressure.
- Fowler & Grichuk have struck out in 33% of their at bats. Peralta has struck out in 41% of his bat bats, and Adams has K’d in 45% of his at bats. It’s hard to reach base if you can’t even put the ball in play.
- There’s no way the bullpen can be as bad as they’ve been. The relievers ERA’s look like years. Broxton 16.88, Cecil 15.00, Siegrist 19.29, Oh 13.50. Some of the problems have been soft hits, some of it has been defensive issues; however a .375 batting average against with 5 home runs given up in 10 and ⅔ innings combined is something that has to stop.
- The bullpen collectively has an ERA of 8.86 – worst in the majors by MORE than a whole run.
- Finally – the Chicago Cubs are really good and super young. All the fans who think otherwise really need to stop throwing around 11 is greater than 3, even a blind squirrel finds a nut every 108 years, etc. etc. They’re good and they’re only going to get better.
Positives from the first week’s worth of games.
- Yadier Molina is batting .318 and seems to have picked up right where he left off after his red hot 2nd half and solid World Baseball Classic showing.
- Even after a few bad starts the last 2 games the starting pitching ERA is 3.54 good for 6th in the N.L.
- Trevor Rosenthal looked AMAZING in his season debut showing a fastball that was consistently in the upper 90’s and hit 100 while also showing pinpoint control. He struck out all 3 batters he faced including the final one on a well spotted curveball. A dominant Rosie could surely help a shaky bullpen.
- Matt Bowman is unscored upon in his first 4 outings of the season. He has shown to be a guy who is fearless, and has become an important part of the Cardinals bullpen after being a Rule V player last season.
I’m not going to press the panic button yet – however the panic button has been located and is ready in case the 2017 Cardinals don’t consistently figure out how to hit, and pitch.
Agree or Disagree – Feel free to comment and let me know!
