Willie McGee is part of the 2018 St Louis Cardinals

dan mclaughlin has been talking about Kingham's perfect game chances since the 4th inning

Jose Martinez compared Carlos Martinez’s slow home run trot around the bases to Yoenis Cespedes, a comparison that’s strikingly accurate.

According to Statcast, it takes Cespedes 27.4 seconds, on average, to circle the bases.

Carlos took 27.9 seconds.

— Joe Trezza (@JoeTrezz) May 2, 2018

mike matheny just used carlos martinez as a pinch hitter in the 6th inning. jedd gyorko is still on the bench.

well, yadi's balls exploded, he's out for 4+ weeks. i've always wondered how carson kelly would do with playing time, guess we're about to find out.

damn, the gif of that is hard to watch and hard to stop watching. his junk ripples

doesn't help that it was a foul tip off of a ~100 mph jordan hicks fastball

doesn't help that he wasn't wearing a cup either, lolwtf

that's what i thought, too! has it been confirmed? i mean, it looks like he wasn't. but...shit, i wore a cup when i played catcher in my 10-12 year old league and no one could throw over 70 mph

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/K4oOcnB4ABEAADFvkLx-e_o56d8=/0x0:1286x744/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1286x744):format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/10791379/Q6pTsmk.png

that was fun, but mostly terrible.

not loading...?

hmm, it's working for me, but it's just the Fangraphs win expectancy graph from last night's game: https://www.fangraphs.com/wins.aspx?date=2018-05-06&team=Cardinals&dh=0&season=2018

piscotty's mom died.

at least he got to spend more time with her near the end. that's sad. just last night ESPN rag a segment about her, after the game

alex reyes will pitch for palm beach tonight

Alex Reyes (SP): 3.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K’s

curious about his velocity, which according to earlier reports is "good"

also, Jack Flaherty had a day in AAA: 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 13 K’s

the 2019 rotation is very promising

reyes reportedly hit 99 twice

i like these reports

reyes is pitching in peoria tonight if you feel like a road trip

i would have loved to have seen him, but i had to work (for once). that's a good heads up, though! i might try to catch him there another time, if i can, before he heads to STL.

dexter fowler is on pace for -3.2 fWAR over 600 PAs

it's hard to be frustrated with him because he's such a fun ballplayer, has an excellent twitter, he's funny and lighthearted, etc. but even his defense in RF has been awful, to the extent that it makes his protests about being moved from CF (in favor of Pham, Bader, or a number of other better defenders) seem absurd

also, wainwright might be done. done done. both flaherty and reyes are clearly better options in the starting rotation. hell, john gant and a few others are probably better options at this point. after that last awful start, he's kind of in DL purgatory again, resting his arm and waiting for the 2000s to come back. it doesn't look good.

i still hold out hope that he'll take a role in the bullpen and be effective in short outings and get the save in the final game of the world series for the cardinals.

I still can't believe that the Cardinals' manager in 2014 made Michael Wacha pitch with the season on the line after not pitching for a month. No wonder he couldn't find another managing job.

— Grant Brisbee (@GrantBrisbee) May 17, 2018

GREG HOLLAND IS A PROVEN CLOSER

also carson kelly to the 10-day DL with a hamstring injury. Adam Wainwright to retirement the 60-day.

Nope. Out of every pitcher who’s thrown at least 20 innings, Hicks has the second-lowest strikeout rate, ahead of only Alex Claudio. And out of the same pool, Hicks has the single lowest K-BB%. Over the past five years, when position players have taken the mound, they’ve posted a collective K-BB% of -4.3%. Hicks is at -7.4%. Out of 95 batters faced, he’s struck out nine of them, while walking 16. He’s also hit another three. The saving grace here is that Hicks has a top-ten rate of ground balls. He hasn’t allowed a homer. But his xFIP is 53% worse than the average. Jordan Hicks is perplexing.

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/baseballs-hardest-thrower-gets-the-second-fewest-strikeouts/

that's crazy, i assume his pitches have little movement?

besides his fastball which i assume has next to none

yeah, plus he currently lacks an effective second pitch

he still has a ton of promise, of course. he never pitched above A ball last year, and then was promoted to the big leagues after spring training, so he missed out on the kind of development time that will hopefully lead to a better arsenal at some point

i think reyes is ready

http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2018_05_24_okcaaa_mrbaaa_1&t=g_box&sid=milb

first pitcher in the 115-year history of the pacific coast league to fan nine in a row

Apparently one of the innings was 9 pitches, all swinging strikes.

the only reason he’s not up already is because of Greg Holland. I know their fates aren’t tied together now but it would be so satisfying to DFA Holland (and fire Matheny) on the same day Reyes gets brought up

Joe Sheehan was being interviewed on the EW podcast last week and when asked if the spread of analytics-derived strategy gave him less to write about now, he answered with several variations of "There's always Matheny."

Carson Kelly and Lyons back from the DL, Holland finally placed on the DL with some injury so that he can go suck in the minors

TS: right hip impingement vs 9.45 ERA

uuuuugh, the long-awaited return of reyes tomorrow is a FACEBOOK GAME

uuuuugh, the long-awaited return of reyes tomorrow is a FACEBOOK GAME

Is he still in the majors?

alex reyes! hopefully he'll be in the majors for another 15 years. his season debut was not so great, but he'll be a perennial all-star if he comes anywhere close to his potential

He's headed to the DL according to the twitters:

Today, the #STLCards recalled LHP Austin Gomber, RHP Mike Mayers and 1B Luke Voit from Memphis (AAA). RHP Alex Reyes has been placed on the 10-day disabled list with a right lat strain, while OF Tyler O'Neill and RHP John Gant have been optioned to the triple-A Redbirds. pic.twitter.com/aoaKZjGUPL

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) May 31, 2018

grooooooooooooan

Cardinals GM Mike Girsch said Thursday that Alex Reyes has a "significant" right lat strain and will miss more than a couple starts.

boo

ooooof

i mean, it's a selfish whiny oof, the team has good depth and this temporarily solves the "problem" of who should get the 4th and 5th rotation spots between flaherty, weaver, and reyes. but dangit i was really hoping this would be the summer of alex reyes

he's still young and good and everything but it's worrisome that he's never thrown more than ~110 IP in a season

don’t see too many pitchers wearing single digits

kolten wong is so bad clutch

some weird mathenaging in that he let weaver hit in the bottom of the fifth -- and he drew a walk and scored the go-ahead run -- and then replaced him anyway. i love it when a plan comes together

that's not even weird mathenaging, that's just how he rolls. letting the pitcher hit and then replacing him two batters into the following inning is SOP at this point. there's no point even trying to fix it

the daily standing ovations for freese are starting to get crepey

Alex Reyes underwent surgery to reattach a tendon in his right lat today. He is expected to miss the rest of the season. #STLCards

— Joe Trezza (@JoeTrezz) June 6, 2018

WAR/SABR hates him, but when does the conversation about Mikolas getting Cy votes begin?

when scherzer and degrom keel over dead

(If I were John Schneider, I'd just say Holtzy.)

what is going on in STL besides darkhorse central?

i sacrificed a clydesdale under the blood moon

alex reyes is In The Best Shape Of His Life and his replacement arm from Dr Andrews should arrive in the mail around early May. he might end up replacing wainwright, whose best case scenario is making a heroic relief pitching appearance in the playoffs and then retiring. carlos martinez continues to be the best thing about the team.

it’s fun (for me) revisit all the hilarious and tragic ways in which in my 2018 op predictions played out

jimmy crooks is a great baseball name!

it really is!

pop warner, oli marmol, and of course canadian baseball hall of famer stubby clapp as well

i have been listening to games on the radio this season, with only a few times checking youtube highlights to see what certain plays looked like. it’s interesting to try to figure out how certain things are happening without seeing them!

- ivan herrera has been hit by a pitch for the 17th time, for example. it’s amazing to imagine it, each time. i don’t even know, he’s probably crowding the plate. he’s probably using protective gear on his arms and legs, while batting (he also plays cather, sometimes). who knows. the announcers never mention if he’s crowding the plate, or his gear. i remember reading about ron hunt being a legend of being hbp, and if memory serves (i’m channeling the intro of japanese iron chef here instead of just googling) he was hit 50 times in a season. not sure if that’s still the record - i read about hunt’s feat in a mid-90s book and have missed entire decades of baseball since.

i think it’s still the record. also, willson “son of will” contreras, recent cardinals catcher, is 2nd in mlb with 13 hbp’s.

- another thing is jj wetherholt being 99th percentile fielder (via baseball savant, Fielding Run Value), with a 100th percentile range despite a 59th percentile sprint speed. i figured, with the excellent range, that he must be able to use his speed to reach balls others can’t, but it must be his jump/insticts instead. the announcers only talk about masyn winn’s defense (which makes sense because he rules) because he’s won a gold glove and they don’t talk about statcast heroes. it’s wild though because i think the prospect profile on wetherholt was that he was above-average defender but i didn’t expect him to be setting the pace leaguewide!
- jj wetherholt,

…

- jj wetherholt,

herrera hit for the second time (18th on season)