Although Brewers left fielder Christian Yelich hasn’t appeared in a game since Sunday, the team doesn’t seem overly concerned about his ailing back. Manager Craig Counsell said Yelich began baseball activities Thursday and is “making progress,” per Tom Haudricourt and Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Counsell likened Yelich’s current back ailment to the ones that he dealt with in previous seasons, noting that the former MVP didn’t require an IL stint in those cases and was able to return within a few days.
- Cardinals center fielder Harrison Bader is 10 to 14 days from being a “full go,” manager Mike Shildt told reporters (including Katie Woo of The Athletic) on Friday. The Cardinals have been without Bader since he suffered a forearm injury in late March, mostly leaving center to Dylan Carlson thus far. Meanwhile, right-hander Miles Mikolas threw a second “aggressive” bullpen and is making favorable progress, according to Shildt. Mikolas didn’t pitch at all last season as he recovered from surgery on his flexor tendon, and he suffered a shoulder injury in the first half of March that has stopped him from taking the mound this year. A healthy Mikolas would be a welcome addition for the Cardinals, whose rotation has begun 2021 in dreadful fashion. Their starters rank last in the majors with a 6.33 ERA.
- Braves center fielder Ender Inciarte appears ticketed for a trip to the 10-day IL after suffering a strained hamstring Friday, David O’Brien of The Athletic writes. Inciarte would be the second Braves center fielder to hit the IL this week, joining starter Cristian Pache. Behind Inciarte, Guillermo Heredia has the most center field experience of anyone on Atlanta’s roster. Superstar Ronald Acuna Jr. played 100 games there in 2019 and spent the majority of last season there, but the Braves are reluctant to move him out of right field, per O’Brien, who names Phil Ervin and Abraham Almonte as call-up possibilities. Ervin and Almonte aren’t on the Braves’ 40-man roster, which does have an open spot at the moment.
- Nationals left-hander Jon Lester got through a three-inning, 49-pitch sim game on Friday without any issues, Jessica Camerato of MLB.com relays. Manager Dave Martinez believes Lester would be able to toss up to four innings right now, but the Nationals want to stretch him out further before he joins their rotation. There still isn’t a timetable for his 2021 debut, Martinez added. Multiple health issues have hampered Lester since the Nationals signed him to a one-year, $5MM guarantee in free agency. He underwent surgery to remove his thyroid gland at the beginning of March and has been in COVID-19 protocols for most of this month.
Expect Ervin or Almonte to light the world on fire.
Time for Waters. Let the kid play.
How often have you seen him play in the minors?
Almonte is the bottom of the barrel. Was hoping it wouldn’t get to this point so early in the season.
I really didn’t expect cards starters to be this bad. Mikolas and Kim should help, but man is cmart tough to watch. I really wish they would have shipped him out this off-season and brought in odorizzi or Paxton (hindsight tells me maybe not Paxton)
I wish they would have acquired Lance Lynn, but in Cmart’s defense he had 4 nice innings tonight, and while he didn’t help himself much in the 2nd, better defense on 2 plays (Carpenter and Carlson) would have prevented all 6 runs.
Don’t forget DJong slipped Amon a ground ball and didn’t make a throw. That was out 1 nobody on, then carp who is probably the only 2nd baseman in both leagues who can’t make that play, then the pop fly to center hat was lost in the lights. Inning over and no runs scored. Then C-Mart just blew up and hit their pitcher. Lost his focus and gave up 6 runs.
I mean we can look at the play-by-play and find reasons to defend cmart. Bottom line is I’ve been watching this dude implode on himself every 5th day for the last 6 or so years. He’s got nasty stuff and has shown flashes of being a front line starter, which is why I haven’t had an issue with him having a rotation spot. But now, with the rotation struggling, cmart needs to step up and be a solid #2 behind flaherty. He hasn’t been able to do that, and his track record doesn’t suggest he will going forward. The dude is not the solution, and as of right now, he’s a huge part of the problem.
Spot on. He needs a psychologist. A psychologist in another city preferably. Maybe he’ll take Andrew Miller with him. I’ve seen enough.
How is it in one breath he’s not good enough for a rotation spot yet in the same breath you say he needs to be a number 2 starter?
This is the silliness of Cardinal fans. That’s called delusional.
I think what the op is saying is the Cardinals need him to step up and be the #2, not that he is currently a #2 pitcher.
Good god man. What I meant isn’t too hard to figure out. He needs to be better and pitch to his potential now more so than ever is the basic premise of what I’m saying. That’s the silliness of Joel Peterson. That’s called stupidity.
Waino pitched great last outing until he was yanked after 6 when he had just retired the last 9 and struck out 7 of them.
C-Mart gave up 1 run and again it shouldn’t have been a run with better defense. Flaherty needs to be more efficient with his pitches as he is usually near 100 by the 5th or 6th inning.
There is hope on the horizon for the Cardinal pitching. The hitting? Well, so long as they keep playing Carpenter and his under .100 batting average and .300 OPS along with Dejong’s under.200 average and hitting 4th or 5th they will struggle. Thank God for Tommy Edman.
It’s early yet, long season. Watched baseball too many years to get worried after 20 games. But I’m a Brewer fan so I’m enjoying watching them suffer a little!
at this point i’d rather the cards and pull a 40+ drunk out of the stands than see cmart pitch anymore. the guy has all the talent in the world but no drive or desire to be one of the best. at this point i’d rather dfa him or trade him for a case of flat man sodas and see what we have in libitore even if might be a lil early to call him up.
Another long day for the bullpen today. Hopefully all the starters get stronger as the weather gets warmer.
Not concerned about Yelich’s ailing back, but he’s yet to hit a home run? Kind of a big deal when it comes to back problems.
Do you freak out every time a player goes 9 games without hitting a home run?
Braun had these same issues through the later part of his career. They get pretty good at catching it before it leads to a IL stint, but you need those guys in there for long stretches so they get settled in and comfortable with the routine.
Jim Thome had back issues throughout his career, and he managed to make the HOF. Back problems don’t go away. Yelich might consider ordering the Quick Start from Relief Factor for just $19.95
yelich issues may be the result of his swing, now i never made it pas hs bb but i believe my left shoulder hurts all the time because as a kid i copied griffey’s swing. now i know this is all conjecture and theory but this might be something yelich might just have to figure out how to deal with. i’m worried that if they change his swing he isn’t going to be the same hitter, even though i’m a cards fan i wish the best for yelich because the mil/stl rivalry just isn’t the same if mil best player isn’t on the field. If the cards top the brew i want to see the birds beat a brew team at its peak not injuried
Braves are going down like flies.
Spot on. He needs a psychologist. A psychologist in another city preferably. Maybe he’ll take Andrew Miller with him. I’ve seen enough.
Not sure why this posted twice. My apologies.
I don’t understand the amateur psychologists who seem to *know* when the player needs a psychologist.
Not hard to understand. Fans are always going to ponder a player’s state of mind and how it might affect his play.
I get the overall idea. It’s just when they seem to *know* it’s a mental issue – like they can get inside a player’s head by watching what he does on the field a tiny percentage of his life – that I think it’s taken too far. None of us really know any of these players to any significant degree.
Sometimes we can tell when it’s a mental issue. When Knoblauch can’t throw to first base without hitting someone’s mom, or when Bard can’t throw a pitch without hitting the batter or backstop, or when Piersall steps to the plate wearing a Beatles wig and playing air guitar, there is no question they could use a psychologist.
You can ponder all you want. But when you open your mouth expect people to tell you that you are being a fool.
“You can ponder all you want. But when you open your mouth expect people to tell you that you are being a fool.”
That goes for you too, you know, although they might use different descriptors.
OK, my bad. I don’t actually *know* that C-Mart needs a psychologist. I “think” that he struggles to contain his emotions on the mound and frequently looses focus which contributes to his inability to perform consistently. Just my amateur opinion based on years of watching him play. I’m truly sorry for overstating my qualifications in the mental health field. It wasn’t meant to be that serious.
And I still hope he and Andrew Miller catch a bus out of town. No apologies for that.
@DonOsbourne
That’s funny but C-Mart has value still.
It is a pretty easy call to say C-Mart needs help with his mentality on the mound. If something doesn’t go his way he tends to have a “blow up” inning. It has kinda always been his problem. He did well his last start with Kisner catching so maybe he tries to hard for Yadi? Personal catcher time. Yadi needs a break anyway.
Braves starting lineup starting to look like the replacements. The ones still there aren’t hitting except for Acuna … it’s been tough to watch
Swanson/Riley are quite frustrating. With Swanson going to FA in 2 years – really hope ATL looks long and hard at quite possibly the best SS free agency class ever next offseason, even if they’re not shopping top-shelf.
@ bravesfan;
I wrote something like what you wrote under another article yesterday, and a guy said I didn’t know what I was talking about.
The good news – It’s April. The air is cold and lacking humidity. Plus teams can run out their better pitchers.
The bad news – The weather will warm shortly. Due to the endless foul balls and Pitchers constantly being pulled after hitting a pitch count, offensive stats will start improving in a month. There simply are not enough decent Pitchers to fill 30 ML rosters, So a teams season now comes down to who can beat up the crummy pitchers the most, run up their individual stats, and outhit the crummy teams. This is why teams that stress defense always outperform – they make the plays that get pitchers through an inning faster.
The endless fouls balls have to stop. It’s killing the sport both on the field as well as viewing it from the stands and via media devices. But MLB will not do that. Instead they will shorten games to 7 innings. Which is apropos as more and more teams play like Little Leaguers.
I feel bad for Ender. He was just starting to hit a little.
3 of the 5 Cardinal starters would struggle starting for other teams. This is now the Cardinal Way.
Bottom line….Mozalik, year over year, continues to rely on starters (and outfielders) with poor or unproven skill sets.
Bring back Walt.
Yeah if only Walt was back…..MAGA……
Bring back Walt lol. Clown show comment.
i love walt but walt has the old school philosophy of trading tomorrow for today which isn’t a substantial model. yes mo is very frustrating at times but he dose but a winning team year after year, and doesn’t handcuff the team with a lot of bad contracts. by no means i’m saying mo gets a free pass but at least he has kept the birds watchable and kept hope alive which is a lot more than most teams are doing.