Willie McGee is part of the 2018 St Louis Cardinals

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

Cardinals record thus far...

26-27 against rest of MLB
9-0 vs. Reds

sounds about right. it's the sign of a middling team - beat up on the worst teams (sorry reds), split series against the WC-caliber teams, and consistently lose series against the teams that are actually good. to be fair, i guess that's pretty much how baseball goes for most teams. but it doesn't do much to inspire confidence in any sort of postseason run.

xposts mikolas will only get cy votes if a) he keeps this up all year, b) he ends up with the most wins in the NL, and c) the cardinals make the playoffs. he's really interesting because he is the pretty much the polar opposite of the modern elite pitcher - pitch to contact, very few strikeouts. fWAR is never going to like him because of his low strikeouts (and his xFIP is always going to be worse than his ERA because of his low HR%), but he's wonderful. really reminds me a bit of the way guys like bob tewksbury used to pitch. plus he even looks like he's straight out of 1989

Looks like Rick Reuschel.

http://www.tradingcarddb.com/Images/Cards/Baseball/8590/8590-15Fr.jpg

poncedeleon up!

gotta love poncedeleon.

meanwhile, somehow greg holland is doing even worse in AAA than in STL. dude is just broken

loved him on the Giants

willie mcgee made his major league debut 44 years ago today <3

Today I found out about JJ Wetherholt and his historic rookie defense:

https://www.mlb.com/news/jj-wetherholt-is-on-a-historic-rookie-pace

Suggested nickname: Hunsecker.

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