Facing a run of 17 games in 17 days, the Cardinals will move to a six-man rotation for the time being, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Young righty Johan Oviedo will make at least a pair of starts to afford the remainder of the Cardinals’ rotation five days of rest between outings. Pitching coach Mike Maddux says the team is focused on “keeping guys fresher for September and we hope October” with a shift to a larger starting staff. Right-hander Miles Mikolas, who has yet to pitch this season due to shoulder troubles (after missing the 2020 season because of flexor tendon surgery), is still a few weeks away from being a viable rotation option, per Goold. As such, the Cards will rely on Jack Flaherty, Adam Wainwright, Kwang Hyun Kim, John Gant, Carlos Martinez and Oviedo to make starts for the foreseeable future.
A few more notes from the division…
- Brewers star Christian Yelich won’t be activated from the injured list when he is first eligible Saturday, manager Craig Counsell tells reporters (Twitter link via Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). Counsell didn’t offer a potential return date for Yelich, who hasn’t played since April 11 because of a back ailment. Billy McKinney has been the Brewers’ main left field fill-in since Yelich went down, and though he hasn’t gotten on base much, his .275/.293/.550 line through 41 plate appearances is 25 percent above the league-average mark, according to FanGraphs’ wRC+ metric.
- McKinney hit his third homer of the season Friday, but the Brewers still took a 15-2 beating at the hands of the division-rival Cubs. The game started inauspiciously for Milwaukee, which saw starter Brett Anderson exit with an injury in the first inning after facing four batters and surrendering three earned runs on three hits. Anderson said after the game that he’s dealing with a hamstring issue and will undergo an MRI, Adam McCalvy of MLB.com tweets. The Brewers will know Saturday whether the 33-year-old southpaw will require an IL stint.
- Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes suffered a setback in his left injured wrist earlier this week, but he’s “doing better” now, manager Derek Shelton said (via Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic, on Twitter). Shelton added that the Pirates will know more on Hayes’ status when their road trip ends Sunday. Hayes was a popular NL Rookie of the Year pick entering the season, but he has only played in two games so far, and there’s no clear timetable for his return.
Sorry Steve and Connor, “Imma let you finish” (as the hip kids say on the streets these days), but I just wanted to bring it to everybody’s attention that WILLIANS ASTUDILLO HAS ONLY STRUCK OUT 97 TIMES IN HIS ENTIRE PROFESSIONAL CAREER DATING BACK TO 2009!
Bill James really has to adjust the algorithms and sabermetrics he uses to add at least 2 or 3 WAR for Astudillo for that statistic alone! Under 100 career strikeouts in what is his now-13th pro season.
OK, back to your regularly scheduled post.
Bill James has nothing to do with any version of WAR I’ve ever heard of. And while not striking out has its benefits, what a player achieves when putting the ball in play is very important. Astudillo doesn’t hit for a lot of power, doesn’t walk much, and he’s not a strong baserunner.
His style of play, physique, and joyful disposition are quite endearing and enjoyable to watch, but ultimately results matter, and Astudillo thus far has shown limited overall ability at the major league level. If he gets better, that would be great. But we’ll have to see. He can’t just get by on being a low-strikeout hitter.
He thinks making comments about, ” algorithms and sabermetrics”, is clever, but often just displays his own ignorance.
any true baseball fan knows this smh fake fan
Woah I had to look it up to make sure but that is absolutely crazy in almost 3000 ABs he has struck out less than 100 times in his life…
Would be interesting to see the calculation of whether Brett Anderson has spent more time active or on the injured list in his MLB career. I bet it is close.
Fortunately his teams don’t lose a lot of production when he does go on the IL. I’d also like to see a study on who has a higher career WAR…..Anderson or the pitchers who have replaced him when he’s been injured.
Hopefully when Mikolas does return he’s a viable option. As 2 of the 5, soon to be 6 rotation arms have done decent. Maybe Oviedo helps out, but when you got guys going out with there 5+ Era’s it’s a bit worrisome.
The NL Central race should be the closest and most competitive of all divisions. Any team short of Pittsburg has a chance to win it this year and even Pittsburg has started the season well. It’s going to be a war of attrition most likely and the healthiest of the 4 teams should probably win it. Get your popcorn ready!
Pittsburgh
Dorothy_Mantoot.
There was a time around the early 1900’s when the city dropped the “h” at the end and it was in fact Pittsburg for a few years. Don’t quite remember why though. Maybe the original commenter is 130ish years old. Also the NL Central is pretty much the textbook definition of mediocre so the Pirates still have a shot at the division too.
Will any of the top four teams trade quality future talent to try to win the division? If the executives aren’t competing, is it competitive?
Pretty sure St.L traded for Arenado prior to season start.
I was just surprised Brett Anderson is still in the league
moreso that he’s only 33.
Where is MLB1225? =)
Or any other Pirate fan, I was wondering what you guys think of Hays’ arrival right now? He’s obviously showing up early for the next Pirates winning team but is he too early? I just perused your prospects and you have some coming up that look good, if not interesting. I mean Cruz, a 6’7 shortstop? Sure seem’s destined for the outfield. I digress.
Do you guys think Hays is to soon and should consider trading him in the next year or two or do you guys think he’s your version of Freddie Freeman?
Should have explained a little. Is Hays your version of Freddie Freeman in that for the Braves, Freeman showed up well before the Braves became contenders?
The FO is still relatively new so there’s not much precedent set as far as long term contracts given out under Cherrington, but it’s hard to believe the owner will change from his MO of trading players a year or so before they hit free agency.
If Hayes isn’t around for at least two/three years of the next good Buccos team then something has gone horribly wrong.
By that I mean the Pirates have enough top level prospects to hopefully be fielding a very competitive team by 2023/24.
Hayes won’t be a free agent until after the 2026 season… so will likely be traded at the end of 2025 unless he signs a deal that bypasses his arb years with an additional year or two like Cutch, Marte & Polanco.
Hayes
In my opinion it depends of if the team invests in starting pitching over the next two offseasons either in free agency or by trades. There’s some help on the farm in the near future on the position player side with Cruz, Gonzales, Oliva, Swaggerty, Mason Martin and maybe Cole Tucker if he figures out how to hit to supplement Reynolds, Hayes and to a lesser extent Moran. The pitching prospects have really high potential ceilings (Priester, Thomas, Mlodzinski, Malone, etc) but they are all further away from the big leagues. If the front office can bridge the pitching gap or put a respectable offer to keep Hayes around then he’ll definitely be part of a playoff caliber team in Pittsburgh. Also the front office already proposed an extension to Hayes prior to his MLB debut so there’s certainly interest in keeping him beyond his rookie contract though terms were never publicly disclosed and it was quickly dismissed by Hayes so it was probably a low ball offer.
At least a year too early. Not winning championship this year. Maybe next year Gonzales and less likely but possibly Peguero shows up. If so and they hit the ground running things could happen. Pirates have a bunch of mid to backend starters but the elite pitching prospects look like 2023. Cruz isn’t much of a ss and unless he learns to hit won’t be a outfielder. Swaggerty needs to learn to hit or wait on head in 2023 to fill cf. Hopefully an active deadline and couple more drafts picking high.
Hayes
Kind of makes you look stupid when you post it twice like that. =)
Kinda makes you look stupid when the website corrected their own double posting error and eliminated one of them. Now that the comment only appears once, yours isn’t making a whole lot of sense to anybody
He just corrected you for every time you mispelled Hayes. He actually owes you 1 more.