APIAD wrote:

Worst opening day starting rotation since 2007. Correct?

Sidney Ponson is back?
I haven't really been paying too much attention to Spring Training. 
I worry that we're never going to see a healthy Flaherty again.
And I'm about to give up on Reyes.
 

"The St. Louis rotation was ranked 23rd among the 30. By the way: the Reds ranked ahead of the Cardinals with a preseason rotation ranking of No. 18. This may seem harsh, but the STL rotation has more questions than certainties."

Jordan hicks is the 5th starter I guess.  Likely a bullpen game.  Talk about poor roster set up.

forsberg_us wrote:

APIAD wrote:

Jordan hicks is the 5th starter I guess.  Likely a bullpen game.  Talk about poor roster set up.

I won’t write it off yet. With the expanded rosters in April, they can probably make an occasional bullpen game work. Tampa and Milwaukee have done it pretty successfully the past few years.

What is hicks going to give you?  2 innings?  I think the Brad Thompson bullpen games.  A semi starter.

I think it works.  In the short term.  However you are adding alot of innings onto your pen.  You better have some breathing room in the minors if you are going to give the bullpen 30 starts a year.

APIAD wrote:

I think it works. In the short term. However you are adding alot of innings onto your pen. You better have some breathing room in the minors if you are going to give the bullpen 30 starts a year.

I don't think the plan is to do it for the entire year.  But during April, rosters are increased to 28 players, and the Cardinals are carrying 15 pitchers.  

APIAD wrote:

forsberg_us wrote:

APIAD wrote:

I think it works. In the short term. However you are adding alot of innings onto your pen. You better have some breathing room in the minors if you are going to give the bullpen 30 starts a year.

I don't think the plan is to do it for the entire year.  But during April, rosters are increased to 28 players, and the Cardinals are carrying 15 pitchers.  

I knew rosters expanded but I thought it was 26 not 28. Hell I can't keep up.

I admitted it isn't the worst thing in the world and might be the best option right now. Maybe they will even work hicks into a larger inning role. Idk. I question their rotation. It looks weak to me. If you are going to be weak at the top I think you should at least be strong at the back end. They are neither.

They should have went after another starter.  San Diego got Sean Manaea for virtually nothing, and they're likely still willing to move Frankie Montas.  The Cardinals are also about $25-30M below last year's salary, so they could have gone after a free agent also.

Going into the season, the rotation was 40-year old Wainwright, Flaherty (returning from injury), Hudson (returning from injury), Mikolas (returning from injury) and Matz (who almost always has an injury each year).  They wanted the fans to believe that with Reyes, Liberatore, Oviedo and Woodford they had depth.  Anyone with a brain knew that wasn't the case.

You and I are on the same page that they should have done more to address it before spring training ever began.  They've already lost Flaherty (and I'll bet anyone right now he doesn't make 10 starts this season).  They were fooling themselves that Reyes could become a starter, and it seems very foolish to assume Mikolas, Hudson and Matz will make 30 starts each.  You see a number of teams now going to 6-man rotations.  The Cardinals would have been smart to have done the same thing, that way they could have gone back to 5 when someone (inevitably) got hurt.  But starters cost less than the Drew VerHagens of the world, so we get a bunch of retread relievers.

The 28 man roster is only for April because of the shortened spring training.  It drops to 26 in May.
 

Last edited by forsberg_us (4/07/2022 5:00 pm)

Not a bad game but the pirates suck

In a shortened spring training it was nice of mlb to schedule a warm up series for the Cardinals. 

Pujols hit the ball sharp a few times.  He didn't look matt carpenter lost.  Still he didn't manage a hit vs the pirates who he used to own. 

It was good to see O'Neil drive in runs and waino look steady. This team can be good if they have confidence.  We saw that last year.  It's a long season but I think a good start is key.