June 13: Another No-Name Tames the Cardinals
Good day…
I have just three items for you this morning …
1. ANOTHER ROOKIE PITCHER WIPES OUT THE CARDINALS: Friday night in Cleveland, Indians starter David Huff became the latest rookie starter to turn into Warren Spahn for the day while mastering the Cardinals. It has become laughable, watching the Cardinals predictably flail away, clueless and hopeless, against a no-name pitcher that they are seeing for the first time. This has happened with alarming regularity.
I went back to the start of the 2004 season, and here are the names of rookie starting pitchers who have gone at least 5 innings and allowed no more than 2 runs in a start against the Cardinals. Yes, a few of these fellows are quality pitchers; some of them (like Cole Hamels) have become stars. But most of them are just, well, guys.
Take a look: Matt Albers (three times), Brian Bannister, Sean Burnett, Matt Chico, Jeff Francis, Justin Germano, Brad Hennessey (twice), Paul Maholm, Andrew Miller, Mike O’Connor (twice), Chris Saenz, Carlos Villanueva, David Barone, Matt Belisle, Brandon Claussen, Chris Capuano, Gavin Floyd, Cole Hamels, Rich Hill, Kyle Kendrick, Clayton Kershaw, Shairon Martis, Scott Olsen, Manny Parra, Jo-Joe Reyes, Rick VandenHurk, Taylor Buchholz (twice), Jorge Campillo, Mike Gosslin, J.A. Happ, Ben Hendrickson, Josh Hancock and Luke Hudson.
And this is an unofficial list; I may have missed a few. Again: some of the names on that list are talented pitchers. And there’s no disgrace in getting shut down by them. But what’s up with losing to the nobodies? Not only losing to them — but looking so helpless? The Cardinals don’t use advance scouts; they rely on video scouting. Maybe the video is blurry; I have no idea. Whatever the reason, they have been unpreprared and flat-footed in too many of these encounters against the mystery rookie pitchers.
Huff entered Friday’s start with an 8.71 ERA in five starts, and opponents were hitting .341 against him — but naturally, against the Cardinals he morphed into Sandy Koufax.
It’s really quite remarkable.
2. YADIER MOLINA REGRESSES AT THE PLATE: The Cardinals’ catcher is one of our favorite players, and last season when he batted .304 with a fine .349 OBP, it appeared that he had turned the corner in his development as a hitter. Molina was getting better all of the time, and starting to become a nice weapon at the plate. He’s such an excellent catcher, a Gold Glove catcher, that the offense is a bonus. And he got off to a hot start this season, with his batting average climbing to .353 on April 28. But since April 29, Yadi is batting .203 (24 for 118) and he’s hit into five DPs. He has a .288 OBP and .263 SLG during this stretch. Last season Molina batted .323 with a .390 OBP and .469 SLG vs. LH pitching, but the lefties are handling him now. His batting average against LHP since April 29 is .217.
But here’s the good news: Molina has three, two-hit games since June 5. And even though he took an 0-for on Friday in Cleveland, I think we can expect him to warm up and raise that batting average.
Does the STATS LLC data tell us anything? A little. Last season against RHP, Molina pounded their sliders (.378 BA) and changeups (.438 BA). This year — small sample size — the RHP have had more success against him with those pitches. Molina is batting .270 against sliders and .250 vs. the changeups.
3. HOW DID THAT TURN OUT, MARIAN HOSSA? Some comments on Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final … I didn’t think the Pittsburgh Penguins could do it and I’m glad I was wrong as the Evil Empire went down in Game 7 at home … The Red Wings play at Joe Louis Arena and had Muhammad Ali in the house for Game 7; then they went out and turned into Leon Spinks … karma can be a real kick to the groin; just ask Hossa. He rejected Pittsburgh’s multi-year contract offer last summer and bailed out on the up-and-coming Penguins. Hossa wanted to sign a 1-year deal with the Red Wings to feed his hunger to win a Stanley Cup. But in the seven games against the team he spurned, Hossa was mostly invisible, with three assists and 23 shots and no goals in 173 shifts. Hossa was a minus 1, and had three shots, in Game 7 … for the Penguins, a spectacular flower grew in Games 6 and 7: Marc-Andre Fleury … after his turnovers led to two Pittsburgh goals, I’m thinking that Red Wings defenseman Brad Stuart is about as popular in Detroit today as a Japanese auto executive, Matt Millen or perhaps U.S. Senator Bob Corker (R-Tennessee; he’s been critical of the Michigan auto industry) … making this victory even more remarkable: the Penguins even though captain and star Sidney Crosby didn’t score a goal in the four games played in Detroit, and despite being a non-factor because of n early second-period injury in Game 7 … the Red Wings had won four Stanley Cups in the previous 11 seasons, and perhaps now this loss will lead to a downshifting of the franchise. That’s wishful thinking if you’re a Blues fan, but the Red Wings, to their credit, continue to retool through outstanding scouting, drafting and player development. The pizza-tycoon owner throws the money around, too. But the Red Wings have a signficant population of players in their mid-30s or older — the list includes Nicklas Lidstrom, Brian Rafalski, Chris Osgood, Mikael Samuelsson, Tomas Holmstrom and Kris Draper — so they could be more vulnerable next season. And the young Blues, Blackhawks and the Blue Jackets are on the rise in the NHL’s Central. Can the Blues close the gap on the Red Wings, and, if so, how long will it take? And can the Blues get past the talented and young Blackhawks, who advanced to the Western Conference Final this season?
I can’t wait for the start of the 2009-2010 season, to see the Blues get after it.
Thanks for reading …
-Bernie
Yes FLAIL is absolutely the right word. Takes me back to Thursday game against the Marlins. I know Ankiel had a great series down in Miami but he had an at bat where he was outright flailing. The lefty Miller threw him 4 straight off speed junk pitches that traveled 57 feet, bouncing in front of the plate. Pitch #5, what’s coming Dick? The same thing…and Rick swung out of his shoes on another breaking ball that traveled less than 60 feet. I’m not sure what he thought was coming but it was quite obvious that he didn’t have a clue.
From 10 games over to 4 games over .500 in the blink of an eye. They’ve lost 7 of 10. The future is looking dim. DeRosa looked pretty good last night. Be nice if the Cardinals left Cleveland with him in tow.
Wow you would think that kissing your lucky charm around your neck would be all that is needed to become a better hitter in MLB. Maybe Yadi needs to go back to what worked last year rather than kissing a necklace between pitches.
No mystery here. Just take a quick glance at their line-up. Anymore, once you pitch around AP, it’s a walk-in-the-park, so to speak. And then one of the ones who s/b starting is warming the bench..Colby, while Mr. Duncan plays. Befuddling.
Bernie, I read a couple years ago that Duncan keeps detailed reports on pitchers and that the Cardinals hitters use these to see the tendencies. Obviously he will not have these reports on rookies. Could it be that the hitters rely too much on the Duncan charts and not enough on their baseball acumen? Do we need better video scouts? Forget slumps, this seems to me to be a disturbing trend like misdiagnosing season ending injuries.
Runninlate: “No mystery here”: you don’t know what you are talking about- pay attention before attacking the manager. Rasmus was out because of a heel injury. Jesus……
Young pitchers vs. young hitters…..pitchers win alot of the time. Its just the nature of the game. Young pitchers vs. old hitters in slumps normally serve up homers and slowly help them out of slumps.
Bernie, I could not agree with you more. If a team wants to give a pitcher a first start, pitch him against the CARDS. We have a first starter today. ERA is .540 in relief pitching. He’ll probably have a good day. As you have said, this has been hapenning year in and year out. I hope today we can eat our words. One good thing, the pitcher is a right hander, not that it really matters. We do fare a little better against right handers. Tomorrow we face Lee. Good ERA, but 3-6, and of course, former Cy Young, and a left hander. Thank God, we have CARP. GO CARDS…
I’m wondering if fatigue is a factor in Molina’s slide. As we all know, Tony doesn’t subscribe to the old baseball adage of resting your starting catcher in a day game following a night game, and he just generally runs Molina out there the great majority of the time. I think the guy could use a few more days off.
In defense of Molina, he’s hit some rocket line drives right at people over the past few weeks. Last night in the 8th inning with the bases loaded, he hit a smash right at the shortstop for an out. If that ball is 3 feet in either direction, the game would have been tied.
Overall, I think the entire team has been hitting into bad luck quite a lot over the past month. And I’m not saying that’s the only reason they’re slumping, but it’s certainly been a huge part of it. Hopefully, the breaks will start evening out soon.