Wow. Look at the starting pitchers we face

[OldRed]

About 30 Quality Starts amongst this group of pitchers we are soon to face. About ten of them rank in top 50 in strikeouts.

It should be interesting.

[sikeston bulldog2]

About 30 Quality Starts amongst this group of pitchers we are soon to face. About ten of them rank in top 50 in strikeouts.

It should be interesting.

I think we see exactly who we are on offense.

[sikeston bulldog2]

So we start this second block of 18 games at 10-8. We beat TB 11-7, Cleveland 9-9, Nats 9-10, Mets 7-12, and lost to Detroit 8-10, and Sox 7-12.

TB has best record in AL, Cleveland one game out, Detroit 1.5 games out, Nats 1.5 games out.

We soon play at Astros, 2-8 last ten games. Then Seattle, 8-10, Pitt 11-7, LAD 14-4, Brewers 11-7.

The pitching we will face is the best in baseball. The pitchers listed have already thrown 30 QS and 10 of them are top 50 in strikeouts. In addition, more than half of them have ERA under 4.

[sikeston bulldog2]

And after this stretch, we go to SD for 4 games, who are currently 13-5. Then Oakland.

[sikeston bulldog2]

The board d is heavy with arguments. Not debates.

I feel we glossed over this 30 games we are about to encounter. Survive this stretch, we may have something.

Miami. No Sandy. Great opportunity to win two.
Seattle- Woo Hitchcock Castillo Gilbert- choose your poison.
At Pittsburgh x 4 - Skenes Chandler Keller
LAD- Ohtani Sheehan Yama
Milwaukee- Miz Woodruff
Oakland- Springs Civale
KC - Lugo Wacha Bubic
Pittsburgh- see above
Cincinnati- lowdwr Burns
Cubs- Imanaga

21 studs in 31 games.

[Melville]

Good morning.

Check this out. Houston has no stud. Their leading ERA starter has a 6.85 era. Seriously. BUT…..

After that, the next 16 games we face the following-

Miami- Sandy -Meyer
Seattle- Woo-Hitchcock-Gilbert-Castillo
Pitt- Skenes-Keller-Chandler
lAD - Ohtani- Yama- Glasgow-Sheehan
brewers- Miz-Patrick-Woodruff.

A possible 16 games against league level Aces. This will tell us exactly where the offense is.

There’s an old expression, SB - “The bigger they are, the harder they fall”.

Meyer 4.12 ERA / 1.32 WHIP
Woo 2.96 / .092
Hancock 2.27 / .076
Gilbert 4.03 / 1.17
Castillo 5.40 / 1.80
Skenes 4.00 / .094
Keller 2.86 / 1.23
Chandler 3.15 / 1.30
Ohtani 0.50 / .072
Yamamoto 2.10 / .082
Glasgow 3.24 / .084
Sheehan 6.60 / 1.47
Misiorowski 3.32 / 1.02
Patrick 0.95 / 1.16
Woodruff 4.32 / 1.08
Pretty good challenge ahead?
Yes.
All ace level?
No.
No reason STL can't play around .500.

[sikeston bulldog2]

Good morning.

Check this out. Houston has no stud. Their leading ERA starter has a 6.85 era. Seriously. BUT…..

After that, the next 16 games we face the following-

Miami- Sandy -Meyer
Seattle- Woo-Hitchcock-Gilbert-Castillo
Pitt- Skenes-Keller-Chandler
lAD - Ohtani- Yama- Glasgow-Sheehan
brewers- Miz-Patrick-Woodruff.

A possible 16 games against league level Aces. This will tell us exactly where the offense is.

There’s an old expression, SB - “The bigger they are, the harder they fall”.

Meyer 4.12 ERA / 1.32 WHIP
Woo 2.96 / .092
Hancock 2.27 / .076
Gilbert 4.03 / 1.17
Castillo 5.40 / 1.80
Skenes 4.00 / .094
Keller 2.86 / 1.23
Chandler 3.15 / 1.30
Ohtani 0.50 / .072
Yamamoto 2.10 / .082
Glasgow 3.24 / .084
Sheehan 6.60 / 1.47
Misiorowski 3.32 / 1.02
Patrick 0.95 / 1.16
Woodruff 4.32 / 1.08
Pretty good challenge ahead?
Yes.
All ace level?
No.
No reason STL can't play around .500.

You miss okay an important fact- these games are all consecutive. Majorcwear down. Good news- mostly right handers.

[Melville]

Good morning.

Check this out. Houston has no stud. Their leading ERA starter has a 6.85 era. Seriously. BUT…..

After that, the next 16 games we face the following-

Miami- Sandy -Meyer
Seattle- Woo-Hitchcock-Gilbert-Castillo
Pitt- Skenes-Keller-Chandler
lAD - Ohtani- Yama- Glasgow-Sheehan
brewers- Miz-Patrick-Woodruff.

A possible 16 games against league level Aces. This will tell us exactly where the offense is.

There’s an old expression, SB - “The bigger they are, the harder they fall”.

Meyer 4.12 ERA / 1.32 WHIP
Woo 2.96 / .092
Hancock 2.27 / .076
Gilbert 4.03 / 1.17
Castillo 5.40 / 1.80
Skenes 4.00 / .094
Keller 2.86 / 1.23
Chandler 3.15 / 1.30
Ohtani 0.50 / .072
Yamamoto 2.10 / .082
Glasgow 3.24 / .084
Sheehan 6.60 / 1.47
Misiorowski 3.32 / 1.02
Patrick 0.95 / 1.16
Woodruff 4.32 / 1.08
Pretty good challenge ahead?
Yes.
All ace level?
No.
No reason STL can't play around .500.

You miss okay an important fact- these games are all consecutive. Majorcwear down. Good news- mostly right handers.

Fully aware of your point that this is a potential consecutive game scenario.
That being true, no reason STL cannot play around .500 over that stretch.

[sikeston bulldog2]

Good morning.

Check this out. Houston has no stud. Their leading ERA starter has a 6.85 era. Seriously. BUT…..

After that, the next 16 games we face the following-

Miami- Sandy -Meyer
Seattle- Woo-Hitchcock-Gilbert-Castillo
Pitt- Skenes-Keller-Chandler
lAD - Ohtani- Yama- Glasgow-Sheehan
brewers- Miz-Patrick-Woodruff.

A possible 16 games against league level Aces. This will tell us exactly where the offense is.

There’s an old expression, SB - “The bigger they are, the harder they fall”.

Meyer 4.12 ERA / 1.32 WHIP
Woo 2.96 / .092
Hancock 2.27 / .076
Gilbert 4.03 / 1.17
Castillo 5.40 / 1.80
Skenes 4.00 / .094
Keller 2.86 / 1.23
Chandler 3.15 / 1.30
Ohtani 0.50 / .072
Yamamoto 2.10 / .082
Glasgow 3.24 / .084
Sheehan 6.60 / 1.47
Misiorowski 3.32 / 1.02
Patrick 0.95 / 1.16
Woodruff 4.32 / 1.08
Pretty good challenge ahead?
Yes.
All ace level?
No.
No reason STL can't play around .500.

You miss okay an important fact- these games are all consecutive. Majorcwear down. Good news- mostly right handers.

Fully aware of your point that this is a potential consecutive game scenario.
That being true, no reason STL cannot play around .500 over that stretch.

Good morning. By the way nice roll up on the pitcher stats.

Now add in two from KC, two from Oakland, and to top this off- we end this stretch with 4 in SD.

I really tough stretch. We weather this, we may have something.

[Melville]

Good morning.

Check this out. Houston has no stud. Their leading ERA starter has a 6.85 era. Seriously. BUT…..

After that, the next 16 games we face the following-

Miami- Sandy -Meyer
Seattle- Woo-Hitchcock-Gilbert-Castillo
Pitt- Skenes-Keller-Chandler
lAD - Ohtani- Yama- Glasgow-Sheehan
brewers- Miz-Patrick-Woodruff.

A possible 16 games against league level Aces. This will tell us exactly where the offense is.

There’s an old expression, SB - “The bigger they are, the harder they fall”.

Meyer 4.12 ERA / 1.32 WHIP
Woo 2.96 / .092
Hancock 2.27 / .076
Gilbert 4.03 / 1.17
Castillo 5.40 / 1.80
Skenes 4.00 / .094
Keller 2.86 / 1.23
Chandler 3.15 / 1.30
Ohtani 0.50 / .072
Yamamoto 2.10 / .082
Glasgow 3.24 / .084
Sheehan 6.60 / 1.47
Misiorowski 3.32 / 1.02
Patrick 0.95 / 1.16
Woodruff 4.32 / 1.08
Pretty good challenge ahead?
Yes.
All ace level?
No.
No reason STL can't play around .500.

You miss okay an important fact- these games are all consecutive. Majorcwear down. Good news- mostly right handers.

Fully aware of your point that this is a potential consecutive game scenario.
That being true, no reason STL cannot play around .500 over that stretch.

Good morning. By the way nice roll up on the pitcher stats.

Now add in two from KC, two from Oakland, and to top this off- we end this stretch with 4 in SD.

I really tough stretch. We weather this, we may have something.

You are making an outstanding point.
That stretch will indeed be very revealing on a number of levels.
And could pay huge dividends if the clubhouse comes out of it confident that it can compete with anyone.
And legendary Knicks coach famously said, "having momentum is better than getting a 6'11" first round draft pick".
Could help the team avoid the late season collapse under The Marmot the past 2 seasons.
Now, as to whether the ownership would reach the same conclusion and decide to invest in the roster come July, that would be a very interesting question to monitor.

[sikeston bulldog2]

Good morning.

Check this out. Houston has no stud. Their leading ERA starter has a 6.85 era. Seriously. BUT…..

After that, the next 16 games we face the following-

Miami- Sandy -Meyer
Seattle- Woo-Hitchcock-Gilbert-Castillo
Pitt- Skenes-Keller-Chandler
lAD - Ohtani- Yama- Glasgow-Sheehan
brewers- Miz-Patrick-Woodruff.

A possible 16 games against league level Aces. This will tell us exactly where the offense is.

There’s an old expression, SB - “The bigger they are, the harder they fall”.

Meyer 4.12 ERA / 1.32 WHIP
Woo 2.96 / .092
Hancock 2.27 / .076
Gilbert 4.03 / 1.17
Castillo 5.40 / 1.80
Skenes 4.00 / .094
Keller 2.86 / 1.23
Chandler 3.15 / 1.30
Ohtani 0.50 / .072
Yamamoto 2.10 / .082
Glasgow 3.24 / .084
Sheehan 6.60 / 1.47
Misiorowski 3.32 / 1.02
Patrick 0.95 / 1.16
Woodruff 4.32 / 1.08
Pretty good challenge ahead?
Yes.
All ace level?
No.
No reason STL can't play around .500.

You miss okay an important fact- these games are all consecutive. Majorcwear down. Good news- mostly right handers.

Fully aware of your point that this is a potential consecutive game scenario.
That being true, no reason STL cannot play around .500 over that stretch.

Good morning. By the way nice roll up on the pitcher stats.

Now add in two from KC, two from Oakland, and to top this off- we end this stretch with 4 in SD.

I really tough stretch. We weather this, we may have something.

You are making an outstanding point.
That stretch will indeed be very revealing on a number of levels.
And could pay huge dividends if the clubhouse comes out of it confident that it can compete with anyone.
And legendary Knicks coach famously said, "having momentum is better than getting a 6'11" first round draft pick".
Could help the team avoid the late season collapse under The Marmot the past 2 seasons.
Now, as to whether the ownership would reach the same conclusion and decide to invest in the roster come July, that would be a very interesting question to monitor.

If they invest in roster in July that means a trade or two. One won’t do. Need arm and bat. Have room.

But we have no real ammo to trade away for two such animals.

[ramfandan]

Sure the aces most likely will hold the scoring down but the key is winning a low scoring game. Play good defense, try to avoid the mental errors,
and scrape out a couple runs later in the last inning or two when the starter may be out of the game.
You can win some games against the big boys 1-0, 2-1 , 3-2 if you play good ball and limit their offense .


Plus if we lose many of those games vs. the aces we also know our division competitors somewhere this season will probably lose games to those same pitchers so it's a wash . We lose and they do too.

[sikeston bulldog2]

Sure the aces most likely will hold the scoring down but the key is winning a low scoring game. Play good defense, try to avoid the mental errors,
and scrape out a couple runs later in the last inning or two when the starter may be out of the game.
You can win some games against the big boys 1-0, 2-1 , 3-2 if you play good ball and limit their offense .

Hey good morning. You are correct. Good defense will help the young hurler/ so will getting an early lead.

Our pen allows a scoring inning once every 3 ish innings. They have done that in 26 innings. 15 of those scoring innings was a multi run inning. That will blow up a one or two run game.

My take is we play fairly even thru six ish.

[TXCardsFanX]

Sure the aces most likely will hold the scoring down but the key is winning a low scoring game. Play good defense, try to avoid the mental errors,
and scrape out a couple runs later in the last inning or two when the starter may be out of the game.
You can win some games against the big boys 1-0, 2-1 , 3-2 if you play good ball and limit their offense .

Exactly!
Even if those teams have some strong pitching, those teams are still 60-49. Pretty good, but that's a 55% winning percentage against the rest of MLB so far. If the Cardinals are a playoff team, we should be playing at least 0.500 here.

[sikeston bulldog2]

Sure the aces most likely will hold the scoring down but the key is winning a low scoring game. Play good defense, try to avoid the mental errors,
and scrape out a couple runs later in the last inning or two when the starter may be out of the game.
You can win some games against the big boys 1-0, 2-1 , 3-2 if you play good ball and limit their offense .

Exactly!
Even if those teams have some strong pitching, those teams are still 60-49. Pretty good, but that's a 55% winning percentage against the rest of MLB so far. If the Cardinals are a playoff team, we should be playing at least 0.500 here.

That’s the over arching point. If we hold service these 30 ish games, against this level pitching, we have something.

A nice benchmark.

[Melville]

Good morning.

Check this out. Houston has no stud. Their leading ERA starter has a 6.85 era. Seriously. BUT…..

After that, the next 16 games we face the following-

Miami- Sandy -Meyer
Seattle- Woo-Hitchcock-Gilbert-Castillo
Pitt- Skenes-Keller-Chandler
lAD - Ohtani- Yama- Glasgow-Sheehan
brewers- Miz-Patrick-Woodruff.

A possible 16 games against league level Aces. This will tell us exactly where the offense is.

There’s an old expression, SB - “The bigger they are, the harder they fall”.

Meyer 4.12 ERA / 1.32 WHIP
Woo 2.96 / .092
Hancock 2.27 / .076
Gilbert 4.03 / 1.17
Castillo 5.40 / 1.80
Skenes 4.00 / .094
Keller 2.86 / 1.23
Chandler 3.15 / 1.30
Ohtani 0.50 / .072
Yamamoto 2.10 / .082
Glasgow 3.24 / .084
Sheehan 6.60 / 1.47
Misiorowski 3.32 / 1.02
Patrick 0.95 / 1.16
Woodruff 4.32 / 1.08
Pretty good challenge ahead?
Yes.
All ace level?
No.
No reason STL can't play around .500.

You miss okay an important fact- these games are all consecutive. Majorcwear down. Good news- mostly right handers.

Fully aware of your point that this is a potential consecutive game scenario.
That being true, no reason STL cannot play around .500 over that stretch.

Good morning. By the way nice roll up on the pitcher stats.

Now add in two from KC, two from Oakland, and to top this off- we end this stretch with 4 in SD.

I really tough stretch. We weather this, we may have something.

You are making an outstanding point.
That stretch will indeed be very revealing on a number of levels.
And could pay huge dividends if the clubhouse comes out of it confident that it can compete with anyone.
And legendary Knicks coach famously said, "having momentum is better than getting a 6'11" first round draft pick".
Could help the team avoid the late season collapse under The Marmot the past 2 seasons.
Now, as to whether the ownership would reach the same conclusion and decide to invest in the roster come July, that would be a very interesting question to monitor.

If they invest in roster in July that means a trade or two. One won’t do. Need arm and bat. Have room.

But we have no real ammo to trade away for two such animals.

As you know, my biggest criticism of Bloom (who made some good moves in the offseason) was his complete failure to address the lineup in the off-season.
As stated before, he should have retained Contreras or acquired a quality RH bat in the Donovan deal (which is already proving to be the bad move I said it would prove to be).
Huge strategic mistake in Bloom's part.
As for the pitching, the rotation talent is better than a year ago but is undermined by a manager who is among the worst I have ever seen in directing a starting staff.
No trade can fix that.
That all said, I don't fully agree that the team has no remaining trade ammo.
Pretty clear the team wants to trade Pallante - it is why he is in the rotation.
The same is likely true of May.
They can trade a catcher.
Mootbaar of course - provided he recovers well enough to check out of assisted living.
Mathews and Hence both should have been traded already (I was the only person on the planet who recognized their high-water mark and correctly analyze that they should have been leveraged as trade chips at that moment - and though their value has diminished, it is not too late entirely).
There are other pieces as well.
Again, if DeWitt is willing to take on salary, there will be teams wanting to trade the balance of some contracts and STL has the financial and tradeable assets to make a couple of additions.