Cardinals

[jstraw]

That's a shame.

[chshdsck]

Wainwright gave up 9 ER in 1 2/3 IP today. Second time in three starts he's given up 9 ER.

He's done

[chshdsck]

On 8/25 St. Louis is having a Pride Night. Needless to say that's not going over too well with our Trump loving friends down there. Baseball's Best Fans are rare form on twitter this morning.

 

I know I shouldn't care what's going on down there, but this is too entertaining.

[Butcher]

On 8/25 St. Louis is having a Pride Night. Needless to say that's not going over too well with our Trump loving friends down there. Baseball's Best Fans are rare form on twitter this morning.

 

I know I shouldn't care what's going on down there, but this is too entertaining.

 

OMG that is going to be an absolute debacle. I love it.

 

I hope that game will be nationally televised. Their intolerance for anyone different than them would be on display for everyone to see.

[rok]

A small sampling of Redbird nation's reaction to this.


https://twitter.com/dwytch25/status/878259706401243137


https://twitter.com/carsonr42547264/stat...8932446208

[rok]

https://twitter.com/bestfansstlouis/stat...5601817601

[Butcher]

Um. Every night is straight white American night.

 

How can people be so hateful? What does it benefit anyone?

[Clapp]

They're now 6 games under .500. It's getting near that territory, given they don't really have the roster to go on a tear (I know we always say that about them, but it looks to really be the case this time). 

[Kid]

I know it's been discussed elsewhere, but the Cubs are so extremely fortunate to play in this division this year. 

[Clapp]

I know it's been discussed elsewhere, but the Cubs are so extremely fortunate to play in this division this year. 

Oh god yeah. 

[Kid]

It's not just that they would be far enough behind in either of the other divisions that it would be extremely difficult to catch up, but it's also that it seems like they're going to get the time needed to actually get things on track.

 

(Yes this assumes they ultimately get things on track, but if they don't, it really doesn't matter if they make the playoffs since the team to this point wouldn't do anything in the playoffs anyways.)

[Clapp]

Basically the recipe for it is pretty clear. 

 

1. Get healthy. Hopefully not only are Zobrist and Hendricks "100%", but they're closer to their 2016 selves than their 2017 selves (Hendricks especially; it will be interesting to see if he has a velocity spike).

 

2. Make a trade for starting pitching, ideally a No. 1-No. 3 that is cost-controlled.  You then have a real playoff rotation too, especially if Hendricks is better. Lester/Hendricks/Arrieta/_ guy in whaetver order (ideally the pitcher would be our second-best starter). 

 

3. Keep Montgomery in the rotation as long as need be, over Butler or Lackey (or both if there are trades). I love Montgomery as the piggyback guy in the bullpen, but he sure seems like a better starting pitcher right now than Lackey and Butler (Hell, over Jake too right now), and that outweighs your ideal role for him. They need the starting pitching improved.

 

4. Start hitting with more consistency. Tonight sucked, but they entered the day with an .821 OPS in June.  They've been more normal lately, and get Zobrist back soon.  Contreras and Russell are finally not automatic outs, Rizzo and Bryant have their usual production going, etc. They're also no longer leading off the game with a sub-.300 OBP. I'm just not very worried about the lineup over the full season, even if Schwarber is a zero (and I have a feeling he will return and be productive, because he's not actually a bad hitter). 

 

5. Get to August 14th within like 3 or 4 games of first place (ideally up a few games, of course), and then pummel this schedule: http://www.espn.com/mlb/team/schedule/_/name/chc/half/2

 

 

Whatever the case, you want to get in and take your shot, even if things stay like this. The talent level of this team is extremely high and we see it on an individual basis in stretches. Imagine if Rizzo and Bryant actually got hot at the same time for once, for example. Maybe Lester has a Bumgarner-like run. Maybe Arrieta finally turns it on (he did in the World Series after struggling the entire second half). There is the talent on this team to make a run as long as they get in the dumb tournament. You wouldn't feel good about those chances though, of course, so hopefully they finally turn it the hell on soon. 

[Clapp]

The Cardinals just keep looking worse. I think they're definitely better than *this*,  but they really  look like asshole now and are gonna be 7 under .500. 

[jstraw]

What do you think it would take to get Matheny fired?

[Clapp]

What do you think it would take to get Matheny fired?

 

It's probably getting near that point. This is mainly a roster problem, but they should at least be above .500 and competing for this division. And rarely is the front office gonna say, "This is all our fault."

 

So I bet it's pretty close. If they were to get 10 games under, that may be the number. They'll probably start playing better than this and maybe make a run, but they have series coming up against the Diamondbacks and Nats, so it's easy to see how things may stay shitty.