Tag Archives: Sam Freeman

Kevin Siegist To Disabled List

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Never good news when any pitcher has arm trouble, but such is the case with Kevin Siegrist.

nurse-e1397756375763He’s been placed on the disabled list with a left forearm strain, according to the Cardinals Twitter account. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch first reported on the concern with Siegrist a couple hours ago.

Sam Freeman has been recalled by the Cardinals to take Siegrist’s roster spot. He was sent back to Memphis last Sunday when tonight starter, Jaime Garcia, was activated from the DL.

Here’s hoping for the best for Siegrist, even though a forearm strain on a pitching arm rarely ends with good news.

Game time tonight is 6:15 p.m. Central Time, with Garcia facing Tony Cingrani in Cincinnati.

Is It Time To Worry About The Cardinals Bullpen?

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Spring training games don’t count, but spring performances are what determine the final St. Louis Cardinals roster that will take the field on Opening Day in Cincinnati March 31. And some spring pitching performances have been awfully unpleasant.

collage318Now it’s true that pitchers sometimes work on specific pitches and take risks they wouldn’t otherwise do when the games count — Adam Wainwright focused just on his curveball in Sunday’s game against the Mets, for example. But is it time to get concerned about the bullpen — or at least some components of it?

Looking at all 30 MLB teams this spring, the Cardinals team ERA through yesterday is 6.27 — tied for last in baseball with the Texas Rangers. Cardinals pitchers have given up 105 earned runs (108 runs total) in 150 2/3 spring innings.

Break that down to starters vs. relievers and the picture changes considerably. The ERA for Cards starters is 3.63, which is fourth-best in the National League and ninth-best in MLB. And for the relievers, it’s 7.66 — not surprisingly last, but more than a full run worse than the team directly ahead of them, the Rangers at 6.18, and two runs worse than the NL team ahead of them, the Padres at 5.42.

Since we need a little good news after that, let’s look at those who are excelling — beginning with closer Trevor Rosenthal. Nothing to worry about with him. After being slowed by a strained groin in late February that kept him from appearing in a game until March 8, he’s now pitched five total innings and allowed one earned run on a homer while striking out five and walking three for an ERA of 1.80. No saves, but no save opportunities yet either.

Having nearly identical stats — same number of games, innings, earned run on a homer, ERA and strikeouts — although with two saves in two opportunities is Kevin Siegrist. No worries there.

Randy Choate has pitched 5 2/3 innings over six games and allowed just two hits while striking out six and walking two. Hard to improve on an ERA of 0.00.

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What Could Keep The Cardinals From Winning The NL Central?

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It’s a good week ahead, right? Spring training games begin on Friday — just the final step before real baseball games — and the outlook is good for the talented and deep 2014 St. Louis Cardinals.

united-cardinal-bloggers-lgYet yesterday morning, I couldn’t help but feel pessimistic as I thought about what to ask my fellow United Cardinal Bloggers members for our spring training roundtables. Blame it on Monday, blame it on the post I’d just finished at the time, blame it on the rain (for those of you who’ve even heard of Milli Vanilli …)

My question to them: what could keep the Cardinals from winning the NL Central in 2014?

Here are the responses.

Daniel Shoptaw, C70 At The Bat

Your post this morning pointed out the main possibility — Yadier Molina missing a significant portion of the season. Most anything else I think the Cards can survive, but Molina going down would be rough.

Bill Ivie, I-70 Baseball

I’m taking two shots … Health and inexperience …

The Cardinals have depth, but it is young and unproven at a lot of spots. An injury to a key player with little depth behind him could disrupt this team fairly quickly. An injury to a veteran starter and the young arms that have yet to pitch a full season are suddenly going to have to shoulder (pun intended) a lot of the inning load.

The team has the depth in various places to sustain an injury. But young players will have to play up to expectations for the Cards to be able to chug along without a key component. The pitching looks great on paper, but I wonder how hard they will push the young bucks. Time will tell.

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Day 3 At The Winter Warm-Up

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photo (9)The final day saw a much more calming presence at the 2014 Winter Warmup.  The frenzy was dialed down but the passion was there.  Players like Peter Bourjos, Sam Freeman, Michael Wacha and Mike Matheny spent time with the media while fans flocked to them for signatures, small moments and a picture or two.

Part of my job here is separating the fan side of my personality from the professional side and being contingent on getting enough quotes from them for a good story and catching a glimpse into the way their minds work.  The balance isn’t always easy and one time I was totally swept up in fan zone mania with….Seth Maness.  After his session I asked him about his ability to quickly induce double play balls making the other bullpen guys jealous.  He may have been on the verge of telling me a huge secret when suddenly I wouldn’t shut up.   My rookie status stays quiet for only so long.

Here are some images, bits of info, quotes and other things from Day 3 of the Winter Warmup.

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Sam Freeman expects to come into camp ready to compete for a spot in the bullpen.  “Executing pitches one pitch at a time and letting everything fall into place.   Control everything I have control over and keep it as simple as possible.  The competition is something Freeman hasn’t thought about.  “Go out there and perform to the best of my abilities.”  Freeman does have things he wants to improve on.  “Putting batters away.  There were times where I had two strikes and let the batter back into the count.”  When asked if he lets the situation of moving between Memphis and St. Louis creep into his pitching, Freeman simply said no.  “I just let it fly man.  Every time.”

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Wacha is a confident kid and he gives that aura off every time he speaks, even though he appears very humble.  Has he sat back and surveyed the world wind experience? “Yes. It was a heck of a run and gets me itching for it to get going again.”  In his mind, the goal is to go out and be perfect, not giving up any hits or runs.  Does he feel the pressure to top last year? “I wouldn’t say that.  I can’t pay much attention to that.  I have my own expectations for myself.  The main goal is try not to do too much. Same mentality going into this year.”

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That’s A Sweep! And A 1 1/2 Game Lead!

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The best way to get over a 2-5 road trip against your top two division competitors? A sweep upon arriving home, of course!

And that’s exactly what the St. Louis Cardinals did, moving from 1 1/2 games behind the Pittsburgh Pirates going into Friday’s game to now having a 1 1/2 game lead thanks to Sunday’s rather easy 9-2 win.

9-9-4Yesterday’s game also completed The 17 Biggest Cardinals Games in the History of The World. End result? A 10-7 record, moving from 1 game back to 1 1/2 games in front and now only 19 regular season games remaining.

Things are looking up.

The win was a great cap to a so-far-perfect homes stand also. While it was definitely a complete team win yesterday — every Cardinals starter but one had an RBI — Michael Wacha stands out, and not just for his pitching.

Although that was pretty incredible, as he threw seven scoreless innings and allowed just two hits while also striking out and walking two each. He has a scoreless innings streak that’s now 19 2/3 innings. Yet he also had a bases-loaded single in the fifth inning that drove in David Freese and Matt Adams.

When it’s your day, it’s your day.

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Cards Battle Back For Wild, Walk-Off Winner

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Last night’s 14-inning marathon between division rivals was everything you hope for in baseball … and everything you hope you never see again. It was messy. It was complicated. There were more “What in the world?” moments than “That was awesome!” moments. There were misses, followed by extra chances.

Also, there was a final inning lineup that included Sam Freeman, Adron Chambers, Pete Kozma, Rob Johnson, and Daniel Descalso. So, yeah …

Cardinals beat writer Jenifer Langosch condensed it nicely:

The ace pitcher the Cardinals had pushed back to set the tone in a key division matchup sunk his club into a hole early. A routine catch not made gave St. Louis an extra breath late. The Pirates stalled rallies by moving an infielder to the outfield and later adding an outfielder to the infield. And a Cardinals middle reliever would twice find himself batting with the winning run 90 feet from home.

…

In all, the Cardinals used 20 of their 25 players, threw 227 pitches, stranded 17 on base and finished 4-for-14 with runners in scoring position.

Roughly eight hours later, and the baseball world is still trying to make sense of it all.

Cards win in walk-off style, 5-4 over the Pirates in 14 innings!

Cards win in walk-off style, 4-3 over the Pirates in 14 innings!

One thing everyone can agree on — this win was big. Dare I say, huge. The Cardinals played with more heart, with more “never say die” intensity than we’ve seen this year. Dubbed the “Comeback Cardinals” the last two seasons, they seemed to have lost that edge. I guess winning so many games in the first half with relative ease buried the killer instinct a little deeper than anyone realized. But, if there was a time for it to return, it was last night. Continue reading →