BenFred: Six-inning minimum for MLB starting pitchers? Sign me up to save the starter.
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Six-inning minimum?
Sign me up.
Seriously.
This week’s trial balloon floated by Major League Baseball didn’t stir sour memories, like the first time I heard about the still-insane extra innings ghost runner.
It didn’t hit me as something that sounded bad in the moment but actually turned out to be pretty good, like the defensive shift limitations and pickoff parameters that sparked offense and brought back aggressive baserunning.
No, this tentative idea — one we never would have heard about if the game’s tinkerers were not at least giving it some real thought — sounds good off the bat.
Whether we wanted to get used to it or not, we have been conditioned to baseball updating and adapting its rules as often as other sports. As long as that trend is going to continue, making a rule that saves starting pitching should be next up on the to-do list.
“We are interested in increasing the amount of action in the game, restoring the prominence of the starting pitcher and reducing the prevalence of pitching injuries,” an unnamed MLB official told ESPN in that floated some of the potential changes being debated behind closed doors.
One potential option, decreasing the size of pitching staffs, sounds underwhelming. We’ve watched in real time how teams can and will manipulate roster sizes by hustling arms back and forth between the majors and the minor leagues.
One potential option, the double-hook designated hitter, could help. If the DH was connected to the starting pitcher, meaning the ability to use one went away after the starter was lifted, more teams would be interested in pushing starters deeper — and more interested in having starters they could push deeper without losing games because of it. This notion is nothing new, though. Some fans have been calling for it for years.
Another potential option sounds like the best one, although it would also be the most radical mentioned. Keep starting pitchers on the mound for at least six innings. By rule.
That innings number, six, used to be viewed as the bare minimum of what should be expected from a decent starter. It’s fading, though. Fast. The average amount of innings pitched by a starter this season is 5.26, with an even lower average of 4.3 innings taking place in Class AAA, ESPN reports. These are alarming trends if you don’t want to see a future for baseball where every game is started by a to-be announced opener on the mound, before the bullpen baton starts being passed.
There would have to be exceptions, of course. In Jesse Rogers touched on a few. A pitcher could exit before the six-inning mark if he throws 100 pitches; for some reason this pulled-from-nowhere number continues to be viewed as a scary one for pitchers, when the stress level of how those pitches got there seems to matter much more. A pitcher could leave early if he allows four or more earned runs; that means the start would not qualify as a quality start. A pitcher could leave early if he gets injured, obviously, but that occurrence would require said starter to hit the injured list as to avoid manipulation of the rule.
Some will push this campaign as a health-focused initiative. There will be voices who claim starters will get hurt less often if they have to pitch deeper and therefore can’t max out their velocity as often. I’ve got mixed feelings on that. Pitchers get hurt, period. That’s never going to change. But one only needs to see the social media videos young players love to post of their attempts to max out mph readings to have some worries about trend lines. Lots of throwers out there. Fewer and fewer pitchers. If change is coming, it needs to come soon, and it’s going to have to trickle down from MLB to really resonate.
I learned a lesson from the rule changes that were put in place to tame shifts, inspire baserunning and trim dead time.
I didn’t like that the changes had to be made. In a perfect world, the game would adjust itself. But the world is not perfect, and the result of the changes has been mostly good. Games are crisper. Hits that feel like hits more often become them instead of becoming shift-robbed outs. And who doesn’t like more steals? Fans wanted that. Now they have it.
The big problem with the perfect-world way of thinking is that it ignores how modern front offices are built. They are built to prioritize winning, usually in the most efficient and affordable way possible. We are in an era of hedge-fund baseball. Regulation is required. Edges that are exploited have to be adjusted.
Reliable starting pitching is a good way to win. It’s also expensive. Costs a lot to secure. Costs a lot to keep. Costs a lot less to maneuver around it by spreading out innings between more arms, cheaper arms. Add in the advanced analytics case of prioritizing individual matchups and that dreaded third-time-through-the-order ERA bump, and the anti-starter movement grows by the day. And yet, I’ve never heard a fan celebrate a bullpen game. Have you?
Times like this are when a rule change is needed. Owners need to realize their front offices need to operate within updated parameters, for the sake of the game and its consumers. Players need to realize the fade of the starting pitcher is a money-saving move for owners and campaign for the position’s protection. Everybody needs to think about if it’s best for the game to have max-effort, short-burst pitching become the only kind of pitching that exists one day if nothing is done.
Baseball seems not just willing but determined to keep updating its rules. If that’s the case, sign me up for this six-inning minimum yesterday.
Bad break, again: Pitch fractures Willson Contreras’ finger, sends Cardinals catcher to IL
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MINNEAPOLIS — As his finger started to stiffen and the pain intensify, Willson Contreras plunged his right hand into ice Saturday night at Target Field, and still he could not defy what he had predicted the moment he left the batter’s box.
He told the Twins catcher he fractured his finger.
A second bad break to his season but the remainder of it in doubt.
The Cardinals catcher and designated hitter fractured the middle finger on his right hand when struck by a pitch Saturday night. He will go on the injured list as early as Sunday morning when catcher Ivan Herrera is expected to join the team from Class AAA Memphis ahead of the series finale vs. the Twins. It is the second time this season that Contreras has had a fracture put him on the IL.
“I think it’s God’s plan. That’s all I can say,” Contreras said late Saturday night after the team’s 6-0 loss to Minnesota. “I’ve been healthy all year — just two fractures. My body feels good. My hip is not bothering me this year. My legs feel fresh. My upper body feels good. I just think I’m not lucky this year, to be honest. It’s part of baseball. Not having good luck on my side this year.”
Contreras will have another scan taken of the finger Monday to determine the extent of the damage and establish a possible timetable for a return.
With fewer than 40 games remaining, it’s possible the next time he catches a pitch for the Cardinals is during spring training 2025.
“It’s been a tough year,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “He’s been beat up quite a bit. He’s fought through a lot of it. He’s played through some pain.”
While catching Friday night’s win against the Twins, Contreras had to take a break a few pitches into the game when a pitch gave his left hand a buzzing sensation. He’s had that a few times — as catchers often do. It clears and he’s able to hit and catch, and on Friday once he took a few minutes to let it calm he caught the remaining nine innings of a victory. He was instrumental in the 6-1 win with his baserunning as well as his play behind the plate.
A designated hitter on Saturday, Contreras led off the fourth inning and was struck by a 95-mph fastball from Twins right-hander Pablo Lopez. The pitch appeared to pinball off of Contreras’ left hand and into the right hand, but Contreras said later that the pitch drilled straight into the middle finger. As he started walking toward first base, he told Minnesota catcher Christian Vazquez that the finger was broken.
When the inning ended, Contreras knew he would have difficulty gripping a bat and tried to calm the finger with ice.
“Tried to make it feel better, but, not, it got worse,” Contreras said. “It was bad. It was really painful.”
An X-ray taken at the ballpark during the game revealed the fracture.
Earlier this season, a swing dropped a bat on Contreras’ left forearm and fractured a bone. That injury, which required surgery, caused him to miss more than a month. When he went on the IL in May he was leading the team in OPS and likely on his way to an All-Star Game nod for the first time as a Cardinal. Upon his return, he again has been one of the team’s leading hitters during a time the offense has struggled to keep the Cardinals above .500, let alone contending for a playoff spot.
Contreras .849 OPS leads the Cardinals regulars, and his production at the plate has been 36% better than league average. He has added 15 homers and 36 RBIs to a .470 slugging percentage.
“He went down the first time, and he was leading the team in hitting,” Marmol said. “He goes down now and he’s it again. I feel sorry for him because he puts in a town of work. This is a guy who has been so diligent with what he’s trying to do behind the plate. He’s taking huge steps in the right direction. To see him go down right in the middle of this is frustrating. It really is.”
At about the same time Contreras was getting an X-ray on his finger, catcher Pedro Pages was doubled over behind the plate trying to flex his jaw and regain his breath.
A wild pitch skipped off the ground and struck Pages in the exposed neck between his pads and mask. He was able to remain in the game, but the Cardinals had started to make plans if they needed to use an emergency catcher. Brendan Donovan has donned the gear previously this season to prepare for such a call. He was not likely to leave second base Saturday night in the shutout loss. Luken Baker was the most likely option as he had some catching experience as an amateur and was on the bench about to enter the game.
Pending his availability, Pages will see increased starts due to his performance behind the plate and his collaborations with the pitchers.
Herrera, 24, returned to Class AAA Memphis this season to work on his consistency behind the plate and how he restricts opponents’ running game on the bases. He remains a standout prospect at the plate. Herrera had two hits and a home run in a game this past week for the Triple-A Redbirds. In 27 games for Memphis, he’s batting .280 with a .402 on-base percentage and a .473 slugging percentage.
When he arrives, a teammate said he’ll be waiting to help.
“The game is still going on,” Contreras said. “There are a lot of games left. My job now is to recover from my finger and stay present for the guys and be there for them.”
Cardinals invited dads along for BP at Target Field. One pops took them deep: Cardinals Extra
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MINNEAPOLIS — JoJo Romero’s father, Abel, had started making plans to visit the Bronx next week to see the Cardinals against the Yankees when the Cardinals’ lefty called with an alternative.
“Want to come take BP in Minnesota?” the son asked.
Boy did he.
Romero was the talk of dads’ BP on Saturday in the Cardinals’ clubhouse when he switch-hit and took a pitch from Matt Carpenter deep and over the wall — with a wood bat.
“Once he heard about it, he got in the cage back home and started hitting,” Romero said. “And that’s cool for me to see. Usually it’s the other way around. He’s always throwing batting practice to us. Now, I was able to turn that favor around for him.”
For the first time in recent memory, the Cardinals invited fathers and father figures to join them for the entire series in Minnesota. That included a dinner Thursday night with the team, a golf outing Friday, and Saturday’s signature event — batting practice at Target Field with some of the sons pitching. The Cardinals had previously done family trips and spouse or significant other trips during the season, but this was the first time any official could remember that they had an entire trip for fathers and father figures.
Inspired by hockey’s dads-trip tradition and other Father’s Day-related events for their fathers, the weekend was the brainchild of pitchers Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn. They presented it to manager Oliver Marmol, who agreed and invited a few of the players to speak in the clubhouse with their teammates and their guests present.
“That one thing I kept thinking about was it’s easy in good times and bad — but more bad — it’s easy to get wrapped up in the seriousness and the weight of what these games are,” Gibson said. “Especially when you’re struggling, it’s easy to get caught up in that side of it. What I saw with our dads, who are most of the times our biggest fans, was we get to see how much fun they have doing the little things. It’s easy for us to take for granted. We get to play catch on Target Field every day.
“For me, seeing the dads be so excited gave us a break from some of the weight that comes along with it,” Gibson continued. “That’s what I saw from the guys, too. Helps us remind us that it’s a fun game and it was, for a lot of us, our dads that instilled that.”
Gibson’s father, Harold, got to help his son warmup by playing catch with him Saturday before a bullpen. He had watched Gibson warm up for games in the bullpen before starts, but always from the seats near the bullpen. On Saturday, he stood in the bullpen. Lynn’s father joined him to shag fly balls while other fathers hit. Victor Scott II’s father, Victor, switch-hit, too. Twenty fathers or father figures joined the Cardinals on the flight from Ƶ to Minneapolis on Thursday and throughout the weekend.
Carpenter, whose father and Texas High School Hall of Fame baseball coach, Rick, joined him for the weekend, took the first shift of BP for the fathers.
It wasn’t long before fathers faced sons.
Erick Fedde, the Cardinals’ headline acquisition at the trade deadline, pitched to his dad and admitted later that he had to completely rethink his approach to face his dad, Scott.
“I was nervous, honestly,” the right-handed starter said. “I wanted to throw strikes so that he could hit a few of the balls hard. That’s not how I think about pitching, but I wanted to do that for him.”
Several of the fathers had their share of line drives. There may have been a metal bat or two mixed in with the wood bats for the events, and other than how sore they expected their fathers to be, the conversation was about the ball hit out of the park by Abel Romero.
Abel played catcher in college, but his position is not why his sons are pitchers.
“That’s more so how I became a catcher,” JoJo said. “Growing up in travel ball, from 13 to 15, I always got asked to go pitch, and I would every time say, ‘I’m not here to pitch. I’m here to catch.’ I would go catch five, six games (in a tournament) and I would pitch one inning.”
He was there to pitch Saturday to his father.
When Abel Romero batted from the left side, his son JoJo Romero pitched to him. When he hit from the right, JoJo took over video duties. That meant he was ready and recording on his phone when Abel hit the ball over the Target Field wall.
“Nice to have that moment, that minute or two minutes of being out there and him being able hit on the big-league field,” Romero said. “A lot of these dads never had that chance.”
And, if keeping score, his son kept Abel in the yard.
Mathews dominates, etc.
Quinn Mathews, a lefty at Class AA Springfield, added to his minor league-leading strikeout total with 12 on Friday night against Tulsa. In his past two starts, the lefty has struck out 23 batters in 14 2/3 innings. Mathews, 23, is 8-3 with a 2.27 ERA in 22 starts at three different levels for the Cardinals’ system this summer. His 180 strikeouts in 126 2/3 innings lead all pitchers in the overall minors. … Minnesota and the Cardinals are the only teams in the majors with at least seven players who have 10 or more home runs. Brendan Donovan became the seventh Cardinal with his solo shot Friday night. Lars Nootbaar, who has eight homers this season, could make eight. … During the early innings of Andre Pallante’s seven-inning gem Friday night, catcher Willson Contreras noticed the right-hander was breathing heavy and believed it was because of the pace of Target Field’s pitch timer. It was quick to start, and on Saturday, Marmol explained that despite MLB running the pitch clocks all timers are slightly different depending on the ballpark and the day because of the operator. “It is fairly consistent but there are some places where it’s (snap),” Marmol said, snapping his fingers. “Some places as soon as you start, some places you have three seconds before the umpire signals. The ability to slow that down is important.”
Cardinals are looking for a sustained offensive spark to go on a run. Can they steal it?
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MINNEAPOLIS — On almost any pitch he’s able to send hurtling toward the outfield, Willson Contreras leaves the batter’s box thinking about stretching for second base. In the fourth inning of a tie game Friday night at Target Field, Contreras pulled a ball to left field, saw the route of the outfielder, knew the scouting report, and without pause pushed for second base.
That put in motion the winning rally and what yet could be an edge for the Cardinals.
Not all bases swiped are stolen bases.
“I see the ball land in the outfield and I’m thinking two (bases),” Contreras said. “Just playing with energy, to light that fire on the team – for them to feel the energy.”
At the core of the Cardinals’ clinic they put on in a 6-1 victory against Minnesota – arguably their most complete, well-rounded win of the season – were all the bases taken from what the Twins were willing to get. The Cardinals coaches spied an edge they could exploit on steals, and they tied a season-high with four steals, including three that led directly to three runs. They waited out nine walks, including one with the bases loaded. They advanced on two wild pitches, they went first to third to generate another run, and Contreras, whenever he had the chance pushed for that extra 90 feet.
For a club that is craving runs and thirsting for power to put together a last-dash offensive for a playoff spot, the Cardinals extended their winning streak to three games by showing that total bases off the bat is only way to measure total bases for an offense.
“A single with a very smart baserunning play is no different than a double when it comes to where you’re standing at the end of it, right?” manager Oliver Marmol said. “Yeah, if you’re not slugging – being able to take the next 90 feet one way or the other is important. We did that really well today.”
Twins’ right-hander David Festa retired the first seven Cardinals of the game before Matt Carpenter worked a walk. The shape of the game shifted.
Victor Scott II reached base on a force out and put the inning back in gear by stealing second. Masyn Winn delivered the two-out single that easily scored Scott and tied the game, 1-1. An inning later, Contreras took off for second for a leadoff double. Brendan Donovan accepted a walk – those were just starting to collect in the box score – and then both of them completed a double steal. Contreras utilized a tip from a coach on the Twins’ pitcher, and when he saw it, he bolted from second for third. Donovan followed and both had their fourth steals of the season.
They both scored on Lars Nootbaar’s two-run double, and the Cardinals held the lead for good. They added to it with Donovan’s 10th homer of the season and then Scott’s bases-loaded walk and Winn’s second RBI of the game in the eighth.
“Every opportunity that presented itself, it felt like we took advantage of it and executed really, really well,” Marmol said.
“I think it’s a combination of a lot of things,” Donovan said. “There are so many different pieces in this lineup. You have some thump. You have some contact. You have some aggressiveness. You have some passivity. You have a lot of pieces and for us, it’s just getting back to that identity. Taking advantage on the bases. Going first to third. Things like that. I think there was a combination of all of that tonight.”
Donovan was in the middle of most of it.
Sometimes literally.
During one stretch of the methodic win, Andre Pallante and reliever John King combined to retired 16 consecutive Twins. After unsteady first and second innings, Pallante (6-6) gained traction and retired 17 of the final 18 he faced on the way to seven innings. At second base, Donovan had the play on five of Pallante’s final 13 outs. Two that did not go to Donovan were on pitches that broke Royce Lewis bat and instead went to shortstop Winn. Getting a quality pitching performance has not been unusual for the Cardinals. Supporting them with runs has been.
While the Cardinals’ pitchers retired 16 consecutive Twins, they also got 16 baserunners. Luken Baker walked three times after coming off the bench. Contreras reached base three times. And Donovan had the mix that defined the night: he walked on four pitches, he stole a base on one of the next pitches, and he sent a 2-2 pitch into the seats for a home run.
“We’re looking at the smaller details of the game,” Contreras said. “We did a lot of those today. We’re trying to play baseball the right way and play with energy.”
A drag on their standings all season, the Cardinals’ offense has been meek with runners in scoring position and inconsistent elsewhere. It’s a lack of offense that explains the strain placed on the bullpen and all of the slim-margin games they’ve played. They’re in the bottom third for runs scored, bottom half for on-base percentage, and when it comes to slugging they rank 11th-lowest in the majors at .388. They’ve even lagged behind in steals in large part because they’ve played from behind or opportunities have been limited.
The lack of steals leaves them slightly below average on baserunning, according to the metric calculated by . The Cardinals are 3% below average.
When bats are not, one way to create extra bases is with feats of opportunity.
During their first three-game winning streak in two months, they’ve taken 90 feet in more ways than just swinging for it. They have five steals in the three games and they have 22 walks. They’ve taken an extra base to keep an inning moving. Repeatedly over the past week, the Cardinals have described how to get back in the race, they have to get the offense going. They got the record back to .500 on Friday night by putting the go in offense going and revealing one other certainty if they can create a closing kick for the playoffs.
They’re going to have to steal it.
“We’re going to be smart about what we do,” Marmol said. “Right now, that’s where they’re at mentally. Absolutely.”
Photos: Cardinals defeat Twins in series-opener in Minneapolis
Cardinals prospect Quinn Mathews K’s 12 in Class AA perfect game bid: Minor League Report
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Cardinals breakout prospect Quinn Mathews was perfect for 6 1/3 innings on Friday night at Hammons Field. Mathews retired the first 19 Tulsa batters he faced in his start for Class AA Springfield and secured 12 strikeouts in that stretch.
But with one out in the seventh inning, Mathews’ perfect game bid came to an end when Tulsa’s Damon Keith hit a solo home run to left field. Mathews left Springfield’s 3-2 win with 12 strikeouts — the most he’s totaled in nine Class AA starts — and one run allowed on two hits over 7 1/3 innings. Mathews, 23, walked one batter in the start.
Mathews responded to Keith’s home run by retiring the next three batters he faced. His start ended after he allowed a two-out single in the eighth to Bubba Alleyne on his 99th pitch of the night.
The performance raised the 2023 fourth-round pick’s MiLB-leading strikeout total to 180 across 126 2/3 innings. He lowered his Class AA ERA to 2.41 with the 7 1/3 innings of one-run baseball. Mathews, who has silenced hitters in Class Low-A and High-A before arriving in Class AA, lowered his season ERA to 2.27
The outing was Mathews’ fourth quality start in his last six Class AA starts. Since giving up a season-high six runs on July 19, Mathews has sported a 1.26 ERA over his previous six outings. The 23-year-old has logged 35 2/3 innings in that stretch and totaled 54 strikeouts while issuing eight walks. Mathews’ double-digit strikeout performance was his seventh double-digit strikeout game in 2024 and his second since debuting for Springfield.
Here are other performances from across the Cardinals farm system:
Second baseman Nolan Gorman, Class AAA Memphis: In his second minor league game following his demotion from the majors on Wednesday, Gorman went two-for-four with a single and a 349-foot solo home run. Gorman’s home run sailed over the right field wall at AutoZone Park and had a 104.3 mph exit velocity on it, per Statcast. Gorman’s two-hit game in Memphis’s 4-1 win over Charlotte came a night after he went hitless and struck out three times in four at-bats. Gorman struck out swinging and lined out in his other two at-bats on Friday.
Right-handed pitcher Michael McGreevy, Class AAA Memphis: The former first-round pick notched his third quality start of August with six scoreless innings against Charlotte. McGreevy began his outing by striking out the side in the first. He recorded a pair of groundouts to open the second inning before striking out Colson Montgomery, looking, on three pitches. The first batter McGreevy allowed to reach base was Carlos Perez, who singled to open the third inning. McGreevy responded by inducing three consecutive groundouts. On the night, McGreevy allowed four hits — all of which were singles — and induced seven groundouts. He walked two batters in the start. Including his MLB debut on July 31, McGreevy has maintained a 2.72 ERA in his 14 starts since the beginning of June.
Outfielder Chase Davis, Class High-A Peoria: Back in Peoria’s lineup after a three-game absence, Davis went hitless in four at-bats in the Chiefs 6-4 win over the TinCaps. He drove in a run, scored a run, and was credited with an outfield assist. In the sixth inning with Fort Wayne’s Devin Ortiz on second base, Nerwilian Cedeño hit a fly ball to the left-center field gap that Davis fielded after it hopped off the outfield grass. Davis’s throw to the infield was cut off by shortstop Brody Moore. Moore then threw across to second baseman Tre Richardson, who tagged Cedeño out as he tried to extend his single into a double. The outfield assist was Davis’s second in 16 games since debuting for Peoria. Davis reached base on a fielding error during his at-bat in the seventh inning. He scored later that inning on a sacrifice fly. The hitless performance dropped Davis’s average in Class High-A to .286.
Outfielder Matt Koperniak, Class AAA: Koperniak provided Memphis with two of its four runs with his two-for-four performance from the leadoff spot of the Redbirds’ lineup. Koperniak began his offensive showing by belting a solo home run — his 17th of the season — to left field to lead off the bottom of the first inning. Koperniak added to his night with a two-out RBI single on a live drive to right field that scored Thomas Saggese after Saggese was hit by a pitch to begin the fifth inning. The two-hit game was Koperniak’s third consecutive two-hit performance. The 26-year-old former undrafted free agent is batting .333 in 75 at-bats since the start of August. He owns a .313/.374/.515 slash line in 104 Class AAA games this season.
Right-handed pitcher Chen-Wei Lin, Class Low-A Palm Beach: The 6-foot-7 right-hander twirled six scoreless innings and recorded seven strikeouts to aid Palm Beach to a 5-0 win over St. Lucie. Lin, 22, improved to a 9-5 record and lowered his ERA to 2.89 with his ninth quality start of the season. Following a three-game stretch in July during which he went 1-1 with a 6.43 ERA in three starts, Lin has gone 3-0 with a 0.75 ERA in four starts in August. He’s collected 27 strikeouts, walked six batters, and kept his opposition to a .173 batting average across his previous 24 innings.
Center fielder Bryan Torres, Class AA Springfield: The S-Cards’ leadoff hitter provided his club with a game-deciding hit in his last trip to the plate on Friday night. Torres, who served as Springfield’s designated hitter vs. Tulsa, connected on a solo home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to break a 2-2 tie and lift Springfield to a walk-off win. The win was Springfield’s sixth consecutive win. Three of Springfield’s four wins to begin its current six-game series vs. Tulsa have come in walk-off fashion. For Torres, the clutch home run capped a three-for-five night. The 27-year-old outfielder has batted .326 with a .415 on-base percentage in 104 games as the S-Cards' primary leadoff hitter.
Cardinals must solve young hitters 'riddle' for top prospects' sake: Best Podcast in Baseball
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Within the span of only a few hours, the Cardinals demoted two of their top prospects from the past decade, sending in separate moves their top left-handed slugging prospect and one of the top right-handed hitting prospects in all of the minors.
What gives and what does it mean for the Cardinals ongoing, completely confounding "riddle" when it comes to developing young hitters?
To explore this defining question for the current era of Cardinals baseball, the Best Podcast in Baseball turns to a Hall of Famer. BPIB co-founder and former Post-Dispatch sports columnist Bernie Miklasz joins podcast host Derrick Goold to discuss a week that featured Nolan Gorman and Jordan Walker returning to Class AAA Memphis just a few months after they were supposed to emerge as the next core contributors in the Cardinals' lineup. Urgency rules as the Cardinals try to capture magic from a series win against Milwaukee and turn it into a last-gasp run for a playoff spot. But is that same urgency, that same pressure to produce and perform and contend every day also contributing to a cycle the Cardinals cannot escape?
With an upcoming stretch of right-handed starters and a likelihood of diminishing playing time in the majors, the Cardinals optioned Jordan Walker and recalled Luken Baker.
The opportunity gap persists and now two of the most highly prized young prospects the Cardinals have had in the past decade are caught in the conversation on whether they must go elsewhere to thrive.
Young hitters arrive. Some young hitters struggle. Some young hitters are traded. Those young hitters thrive elsewhere. Miklasz describes the conversations he's had with MLB sources about where and how the Cardinals' infrastructure is lacking, and Goold details where the answers might come from the young hitters, like Masyn Winn or Alec Burleson, who have thrived after alterations to their approach or swing encouraged by the Cardinals.
The Best Podcast in Baseball, sponsored by Closets by Design of Ƶ, is a production of the Ƶ, , and Derrick Goold.
Not all bases taken are stolen bases. Cardinals swipe four but take much more in a 6-1 win against Minnesota that shows how offensive help can come in different sizes.
Andre Pallante tightened his grip on the game in the third and retired the final 13 Twins he faced while Cardinals offense seized on anything given in 6-1 victory.
Paul Goldschmidt has a big decision to make after this season. The Cardinals should have an easy one that feels hard.
Cardinals run before they walk away with methodical win vs. Twins, first streak in months
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MINNEAPOLIS — So much of the conversation surrounding the Cardinals has been and will continue to be how they, with their playoff aspirations at stake every night, can make more from their offense.
That should not discount how much they can take, too.
The Cardinals turned four stolen bases and nine walks, including one with the bases loaded, into a runaway 6-1 victory against Minnesota at Target Field on Friday night. On their way to one of the most well-rounded wins of the season, the Cardinals tied the game and broke that tie by scoring their first three runs on rallies spurred by stolen bases as much as hits. It was only later that the Cardinals walked away with the rout — pushing home a run in the eighth with the bases loaded all while starter Andre Pallante & Company kept the Twins grounded.
The win gave the Cardinals their first three-game winning streak in two months and returned them to .500 for the first time since the season slipped along the Ohio River in Cincinnati.
With two starters about to return from the injured list and decisions looming, Pallante strengthened his bid to remain in the rotation — or force the Cardinals to expand it to six pitchers — with his second consecutive seven-inning outing. Pallante’s evening started unsteady before he blitzed through seven innings by retiring 17 of the final 18 batters he faced.
Brendan Donovan personified the mix of offense the Cardinals created and capitalized upon.
He walked and stole second in the fourth inning to help spark the game-turning rally. Two innings later, Donovan led off the sixth with a solo home run that widened the Cardinals’ lead to 4-1. The homer was his 10th of the season, giving the Cardinals seven players with at least double digits in home runs.
Donovan and catcher Willson Contreras each reached base three times. Rookie Luken Baker came off the bench to pinch-hit in the fourth inning and also reached base three times — each one of them by taking the walk offered. In the eighth, Twins reliever Trevor Richards walked Baker just before walking Victor Scott II with the bases loaded. A wild pitch allowed both of them move into scoring position.
While Pallante (6-6) and reliever John King combined to retire 16 consecutive Twins going into the ninth inning, the Cardinals had 16 baserunners in that same span.
Take extra bases, create runs
Before Donovan’s homer produced a run all on its own, the Cardinals generated their comeback for the lead on the bases, by taking more than what they were given.
Contreras helped set the pace.
The Cardinals’ catcher pulled a ball to left field that was going to fall easily for a single in the fourth inning, but as the outfielder gave chase, Contreras decided to push the play. He dashed for second base and — in part because the Twins left fielder threw the ball to the cutoff man — outran the throw for a double where once a single was only promised. All three of the Cardinals first runs involved some taking of an extra base like Contreras did, and three came shortly after a stolen base.
In the third inning, the Cardinals tied the game when Masyn Winn laced a single that scored Victor Scott II from second.
Scott was only at second with two outs because he stole it.
In the fourth inning — the same inning Contreras led off with his double — Nootbaar cracked the 1-1 tie with a double into right field. Contreras scored to break the tie, and Donovan followed him home for a 3-1 lead. They both got into scoring position on a double steal shortly before Nootbaar’s double. By the end of the sixth, the inning that opened with Donovan’s homer, the Cardinals had four steals against the Twins and turned those into three additional at-bats with runners in scoring position and three of the four runs.
Get Ks, gain a groove
Pallante’s first tour of the Twins’ lineup began with a walk and featured and ill-timed one in the second inning that assisted with Minnesota’s run that inning.
That second tour was more of a breeze.
Pallante struck out three of the nine Twins he faced going through their order for a second time, and by the end of the fourth inning the Cardinals’ right-hander had eight swings and misses on his four-seam fastball. Pallante walked the leadoff batter to start the first inning, but quickly slowed that opportunity for the Twins with a strikeout and a vintage double play. In the second, the leadoff hitter again reached. The Twins followed that with another single and a one-out walk to the No. 8 hitter.
Toss in Austin Martin’s high-bounding, short-traveling single that produced Minnesota’s run, and the Twins twice had the bases loaded against Pallante.
Replay helped avoid another run, but not as much as defense.
Paul Goldschmidt whipped a throw home on a grounder that got the lead runner on the force play. The Twins challenged that out, and a review in Manhattan affirmed the call on the field by home-plate umpire James Hoye. Instead of a 2-0 lead, the Cardinals had two outs and Pallante’s grip on the game tightened. He struck out the next batter to end the inning.
Only one Twin would reach base against Pallante from the end of the second through the start of the seventh inning.
Which he started.
Pallante had thrown fewer than 90 pitches to get the first 18 outs, and at one point he retired 13 consecutive Twins. Three of those outs were strikeouts. Only the 13th of those 13 Twins got the ball out of the infield — though No. 9 hitter Austin Martin sure had a chance. But his liner was caught by a leaping Donovan to end the fourth inning.
Run some, lose one
More a walk back to the base than an attempt to take a run away from it caught the Cardinals in the top of the seventh inning and unplugged a potential rally.
The Cardinals had two runners on and one out when Donovan returned to the plate for his next at-bat after the solo homer. He skied the ball to left field for an out that was deep enough for the runner, pinch-runner Tommy Pham, to attempt to score from third. Pham took a few strides off third base and when left fielder Matt Wallner threw the ball in, Pham was off the base. A quick jab of the glove by Twins third baseman Royce Lewis got Wallner’s throw and spun it to third to get the double play before Pham touched the base.
That cost Nolan Arenado a chance with two runners in scoring position.
He led off the next inning with a single.
And that’s when the Cardinals started pulling away for their five-run lead.
This tech headed for MLB helped slugger Luken Baker 'zone in,' get there first: Cardinals Extra
MINNEAPOLIS — As Luken Baker learned to harness more power from his size and swing, he had the aid of a technological teacher that is on its way to the majors.
With its help, he just got there first.
“The ABS the past couple of years and having that in the game — it’s different,” Baker said Friday afternoon of the Automated Balls-Strikes system that is in play at Class AAA. “Really, it’s helped me zone-in my zone. It showed me how big it really isn’t. The (strike) zone isn’t as big as sometimes you think it is. You think you can cover a lot more than you actually can.”
Major League Baseball has used the laboratory of the minors to evaluate various changes to the rules and tools being considered for promotion, like the players testing them, to the highest level. Before there was a pitch timer in the majors, there was a pitch time for years in the minors. Before bigger bases got the call to the majors, they were in play in the minors. The ABS, which could reach exhibition games this spring training and MLB as early as 2026, has made tech advancements that make it more reliable even as it confounds pitchers with its view of the high strike, limiting some pitchers who rely on a fastball-curveball mix at that level.
For some hitters, like Baker, ABS has sharpened their feel for the strike zone with repeated access to it in games, visual demonstrations on scoreboards, and the ability now to challenge the umpire’s call. Baker drew three walks Friday night against the Twins.
“That fastball at the top of the zone that looks pretty good to swing at, oh, it’s that far up?” Baker said. “Overtime, that pitch just looks up. … Early in the count, I don’t have to go after that tough pitch down and away because for two years I’ve been able to see it go and look up at the screen and go, yeah, that was down away. I don’t need to swing at that pitch.”
The Cardinals recalled Baker from Triple-A Memphis this past week to be a right-handed answer against lefties, most often off the bench. In his first at-bat in the majors this season, Baker faced a lefty and with his first swing in the majors connected for a two-run homer. With 32 home runs this season, Baker has hit 65 home runs in his past 192 games at the Triple-A level.
This summer, he’s slugging .720 against lefties.
“The slug against lefties is real, and it’s always been there,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “What you like about his profile is he’s going to make more contact than just-a-power guy, and he’s going to take his walks.”
Baker’s strikeout rate is up this season over last year, but so is his walk rate, which has climbed each of the past two seasons. In 2022, he struck out 129 times and walked 37 in 124 games. To go with those 65 homers the past two seasons, he’s struck out 186 times and walked 126 times. He had a .439 on-base percentage a year ago, and this summer has a .399 OBP against left-handers. He traces that improved feel for the strike zone back to the ABS which has not only defined and illustrated the strike zone for him, but also helped him shrink the strike zone to be pickier with pitches and look for damage.
A year after he struggled in the majors to a .209 average with 31 strikeouts in 99 at-bats, he feels better positioned for a limited role by beginning with a better feel for the strike zone.
“Last year, coming up here, sometimes I expected myself to do more than I was capable of, and it hurt me,” Baker said. “Everything I was doing in Memphis last year when I came up here, and I was changing everything when I got here. I was not getting as many at-bats. I was trying to do more with less. Coming up this time — the at-bats are the same. There are still pitches I like to hunt. There are still pitches I should not swing at. As long as I keep that perspective.”
Gray set to duel friend, teammate, motivator
From walking in together during the introductions at the All-Star Game to pitching 1-2 for the Twins to start the playoffs to each receiving Cy Young Award votes, Sonny Gray and Pablo Lopez spent so much of their breakthrough 2023 seasons paired together as part of the Twins. On Saturday, they’ll pitch opposite each other in Gray’s return to Minnesota.
“I thoroughly, thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed working with him last year,” Gray said. “We both draw so much out of each other. Having another guy like him on the staff that was so dominating made me better. I would like to hope I was able to help him better, but he definitely made me better.”
Lopez went 11-8 with a 3.66 ERA in 2023 and finished seventh in the Cy Young voting while Gray was the runner-up for the honor with a 2.79 ERA. This season, they both have matching 11-8 records and they’ve had their rocky stretches. Lopez has allowed 22 home runs on his way to a 4.47 ERA he recently trimmed with a start of six shutout innings
The Twins presented Gray a qualifying offer this past fall when he reached free agency, but they also made it clear to him that they would not likely offer more. Gray said a few attempts were made to engage the Twins on a return before he turned to offers made from the Cardinals, Reds, and Diamondbacks.
“I knew pretty early on throughout the free-agency process it just wasn’t going to be a place that I came back to as much as I liked it,” said Gray, who signed a three-year, $75 million deal with the Cardinals. “They were very transparent from the get-go: ‘We do not have the resources to give you a contract, as much as we’d like to.’ Ƶ was a place that was on the top of my list.”
Lynn, Matz near decisions
A day before lefty Steven Matz makes his final rehab assignment before the Cardinals must make a call on his role and readiness for the majors, Lance Lynn will take the mound and near another decision for the club.
Lynn threw a between-start bullpen session Friday at Target Field as he preps for a round of live batting practice Monday at Busch Stadium. He’ll aim for around 65 pitches with the goal throwing at least 85 pitches in an outing before returning the majors. The uptick in intensity will be facing hitters in a game-like simulation for the veteran right-hander.
The next day, Matz will start for Class AAA Memphis looking to repeat his most recent outing with around 85 to 90 pitches. The appearance will be his seventh for the Triple-A Redbirds this season and his sixth since going on the injured list with a back injury. After that appearance, the Cardinals will face a choice on how to clear a spot on the 40-person roster for him and also where he’ll fit on the major-league club.
Extra bases
Michael Siani (oblique strain) made strides in the batting cage ahead of this weekend and faced increased velocity off a pitching machine. He’ll hit against Lynn in the Live BP session Monday and, if he feels strong and comfortable after those at-bats, will start a rehab assignment Tuesday with one of the Cardinals’ affiliates. … This is a dad’s trip for the Cardinals, many of whom brought a father or father figure on the charter flight from Ƶ for the three-day weekend series against the Twins. ... A home run this weekend by Paul Goldschmidt will make him the 23rd active player with at least one home run against all 30 teams. The Twins are the only remaining team he’s yet to hit a home run against. Dodgers designated hitter and two-way MVP Shohei Ohtani joined that group this past week with a home run against the Cardinals, the last of his 30 clubs to homer against.