In the event of Rapture all other teams will be Left Behind: the 2015 St. Louis Cardinals

uh you know, maybe you guys hold onto Lohse for a while...*sprints in opposite direction*

Choate with the 1 pitch day of work

The Cardinals' five current rotation members—Lance Lynn ($7 million), Carlos Martinez ($522,000), Michael Wacha ($520,000), John Lackey ($507,500), and Cooney ($507,500)—cost a collective $9.075 million. Garcia and Wainwright constitute $28.875 million worth of starting pitching on the DL.

do you see how you are

oh man

>_>
playing slightly above .500 rest of the way would probably be enough for playoffs

Yeah, I was just thinking that too. It would be nice if the offense could *click* though. i love how everyone was loving the new look lineup when we were wailing on philadelphia, but as soon as we played a decent team the bats went silent.

we have a 2.21 team era but wahhhh the bats are silent wahhhh

mookie you're acting like your team just lost three heartbreaking games in a row or something

for real though, the pitching has been absurdly good but it can't last for too much longer

(actually the pirates' pitching has been really good too -- they're second in era behind the cardinals, albeit half a run behind -- but they've not taken much advantage. mccutchen should never have cut his hair)

jfc, Matheny is on Fresh Air this morning

Baseball’s Mike Matheny on Coaching Kids and Major Leaguers
The show talks with former major league catcher, and former coach of a youth baseball team Mike Matheny. When he began coaching kids he set up rules for parents that included no screaming, no swearing and even no shouts of encouragement during their kids’ games. He’s written a new book, "The Matheny Manifesto," about his approach to sports. He’s now manager of the St. Louis Cardinals.

too bad fresh air isn't a call-in show. it'd be awesome to call in pretending to have question about the rapture or something, but then ambush him with questions about how often he lets his starting pitchers bat in the bottom of the 6th inning with runners on, only to sub in a relief pitcher with one out in the top of the 7th

Our pen has 3 double A guys right now. Feel like one of these Cubs games could see a long man take a beating.

since i enjoy searching for bad news, here is some:

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/yadier-molina-forgot-how-to-frame-a-pitch/

Yadier Molina is falling apart. It’s not his hitting, and it’s not his base running. It’s too early in the season to say much that is meaningful about those skills, which can take months of stats to become reliable.

It’s the Cardinals catcher’s defense that’s a mess. Molina’s pitch framing has collapsed, dropping from third-best in 2013 to 60th in 2015.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/a/26250

<_<

http://www.365rundown.com/fan-rushes-the-field-during-cubs-cardinals-game-successfully-runs-past-security-to-touch-home-platevideo/

the cardinals announcers were so sanctimonious about why running on the field is bad, it was ridiculous

Matt Carpenter: 1st Cardinals player with 20 extra-base hits in the team's first 26 games of a season since Stan Musial in 1954.

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo)

well at least they can't walk off in pittsburgh

21 (or 22) and 7 is pretty damn hardcore, especially after losing one's #1 starter

I wonder if there is an extra motivation wrt to Taveras.

perhaps for carlos martinez, but no

They are on a roll for sure, although they've benefitted from quite a bit of good luck. Still, the path to at least a wild card is clear, barring a major disaster. This might be their last really good year (anticipating decline / regression soon), so hopefully Mozeliek will be able to make a move for a decent SP without giving away Alex Reyes. Or, even better, maybe Marco Gonzalez will make the most of his opportunity and no trade would be necessary in the first place.

Wow, matheny is stupidly bringing in rosenthal right now, just so he can get the Save. Even though he needs a rest.

RIP allen craig :( (sent down to AAA)

hopefully he'll be able to figure it out, or at least heal up.

srsly take him back idk what the hell happened to him, he's healed now and is now having buchholz-esque confidence battles

is he totally healed? i haven't followed his health closely since the trade. it's baffling, though, he was so consistent before the injury, one of those guys who always seems to make solid contact day in and day out.

yea he had that oft-repeated .400-plus BA with runners in scoring position. and from what everyone's saying officially he is completely healthy

currently .135/.237/.192, -0.4 bWAR. in the 2nd half of last year, .128/.234/.191, -0.5

he needs to be sent to a tropical island for 6 months with no baseball anywhere. how ac gets his groove back.

Still, the path to at least a wild card is clear, barring a major disaster.

Will you shaddap? They will win the division by at least 6 games.

a major disaster is always just a pitch away, you never know!

yea morbs otm 2015 is not the year the red birds' pact with the devil expires.

after that, they are prob in a boat similar to the tigers where the party will still be sort of happening but winding down, conversations between remaining attendees are getting kind of dark - and then the hangovers and/or puking begin

i still think an injury to peralta, carpenter, or molina would accelerate the puking. they've already weathered the loss of wainwright, and if holliday went down they'd be alright (with Jay and Bourjos both playing full-time and grichuk as the 4th OF), but they have zero depth in the IF.

the first two yea, but molina missed 52 games last year and they did alright alternating a.j. pukezynski and tony cruz!

no way, that sucked! i don't know what the stats were for AJ and Cruz during that specific period, but i think they hovered around 0.0 WAR. molina's absence was definitely felt.

skinny yadi isn't having such a hot season this year, either. his contact is decent but his power is gone. and his defense is diminished. he's not a bad defender by any means, of course, but i've noticed more people running on him, and his throws are just off so far, off target, and a bit late.

yikes, AJP was -0.6 WAR on STL last year

i guess what i meant was, it didn't lead to any prolonged losing streaks as far as I can tell from the baseball ref 2014 game log - but yea there is virtually no situation of recent vintage in which AJ is a net positive as a defensive catcher, he either doesn't hurt you or he hurts you. although apparently in ATL he can hit things so far.

yeah, AJ was a nightmare last year. He was doing so badly, and yet everyone was bending over backward to talk about how great he was, and how his "personality" was just what the cardinals needed, someone to toughen everyone up and inject some life into the clubhouse, or something.

side note, but where are all the good young catchers? seems to be an outage across the board in baseball, even in the minor leagues. the cardinals have a bunch of guys who all project to hit wRC+ 75 (note that i'm making this up) with average defense. and even in the draft (which i know nothing about tbh) word on the street is that catching looks to be weak this year, again.

on of them is on the red sox and is recovering from TJ, one is also on the red sox and seemingly overmatched by major league pitching on the offensive and defensive end, ummmm, does sal perez on the royals count at only 25?

i dunno shit about draft prospects either lol

josmil pinto on the twins (26) was highly touted, currently in AAA

it's cool how MLB is trying to hype the draft a little more and make it exciting, but it's really tough to get interested in hundreds of players that no one knows and won't see the big leagues until 2020. unless you're a scout or work in the business or having an abnormal interest in college and high school baseball, it's just pointless. i skim through a dozen draft previews and can never remember a single name afterward.

padres called up austin hedges last week; apparently so good behind the plate that it barely matters if he hits at all (which he may not, much)

cubs have kyle schwarber, who's kind of the opposite; same with rangers' jorge alfaro (does have a cannon, tho)

it's tough -- if a guy can really hit, teams don't want to wear him out by making him catch, e.g. wil myers was a catcher at first. the cubs had schwarber working in the outfield some, but i guess they're so loaded that they'd rather stick him behind the plate

https://mlblogsbensbiz.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/0232.jpg

Haha, where'd you find that? Very useful reference imo

it's on the wall at the spring training complex in palm beach (i'm told)

during last night's broadcast mozeliak said that grichuk was on the plane back to STL, would be here for today's game. and langosch just tweeted that Jaime Garcia is at Busch Stadium as well.

you really needed a Mets fan w/ you at that torture tonight, KM

http://deadspin.com/your-racist-uncle-will-love-this-picture-of-the-cardina-1705776536

well, that sucked

lance lynn is listed as TBD for his start on wednesday. he had back pain during his last start and told reporters it was just normal day-to-day soreness but ugh.
garcia is a timebomb.
marco gonzalez is missing his next start in AAA with renewed pain.
wainwright already down
holliday and heyward have both sat with day-to-day injuries over the last few days (although they're both in the lineup today)
jay is eligible to come off the DL soon, but who knows

dudes are banged up

the underrated one

With almost 200 plate appearances in 2015, Holliday is more than a third of the way to a 10th consecutive season of qualifying for the batting title while delivering a park-adjusted offensive line at least 30 percent better than league average. Since World War II, only 13 other hitters have managed such a streak. Six of them are Hall of Famers: Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, and Reggie Jackson. Two more are on the verge of induction: Mike Piazza and Jeff Bagwell. Another two will be elected when eligible: Jim Thome and Albert Pujols. And the final three would be shoo-ins or strong candidates if not for their ties to PEDs: Manny Ramirez, Gary Sheffield, and Alex Rodriguez. That group of 13 hitters includes more than a third of the 500 Home Run Club, and its least prolific power hitter, Piazza, went deep 427 times.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/2015-mlb-matt-holliday-st-louis-cardinals/

never touched the plate

he'll be going for pujols' franchise record of 42 straight games reaching base to start the season, tonight