Tag Archives: Shelby Miller

Cardinals Acquire Jason Heyward, Jordan Walden From Braves

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Addressing the need that unfortunately now exists for a right fielder, Cardinals made a trade with the Braves today and acquired Jason Heyward and Jordan Walden for Shelby Miller and Tyrell Jenkins.

More after the official press release from the Cardinals …

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The St. Louis Cardinals announced today that they have agreed with the Atlanta Braves on a four-player trade that will bring outfielder Jason Heyward and right-handed pitcher Jordan Walden to the Cardinals in exchange for pitchers Shelby Miller and Tyrell Jenkins.

Heyward, 25, is a two-time (2012 and 2014) National League Rawlings Gold Glove selection who has posted a .262 career batting mark with 84 home runs and 292 RBI to go along with 63 stolen bases since debuting with the Braves as an All-Star in 2010 (.277 BA, 18 HR, 72 RBI) and finishing 2nd that year to the Giants Buster Posey in the N.L. Rookie of the Year balloting. The left-handed hitting Heyward batted .271 this past season with 11 HRs and 58 RBI while stealing 20 bases and he finished as a finalist to Yadier Molina in the Rawlings Platinum Glove voting for the best defensive player in the National League.

The 6-5, 245-pound Heyward was the Braves 1st round draft selection (14th player overall) in 2007. He led N.L. right fielders in putouts and assists in both 2012 and 2014 and hit a career-high 27 home runs in 2012. The Georgia native has shown his lineup versatility by having started over 100 games each in the lead-off, number two and number three batting order positions during his career.

Walden, who celebrated his 27th birthday yesterday, is a hard-throwing right-hander who in 2011 led the Los Angeles Angels in saves with 32 and was named an American League All-Star that same season when he finished 5th in the junior circuit in saves and complied a 2.98 ERA. The 6-5, 250-pound Texas native struck out 62 batters in 50.0 innings pitched this past season and he had a 2.88 ERA to go along with three saves. Continue reading →

Once Again, The Cardinals Shine In September

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It’s September. Here come the Cardinals!

SeptemberYes, September has become the St. Louis Cardinals month in recent years. That, of course, has led them right into October baseball for the past three seasons. And, at this stage, it would take something beyond extraordinary for that streak to not reach four straight years — the magic number for playing in the postseason is now just one. [UPDATE: Thanks to the Pirates beating the Brewers this afternoon 1-0, the Cards are officially in!]

Last night’s 8-4 Cardinals victory over the Reds was their 14th win this month, to go with just five losses. Speaking of five, that’s the magic number for clinching the NL Central — and it’s the magic number that means something, since it guarantees playing in the division series. Only seven games remain in September, yet the Cards still have just a 3 1/2 game lead over the second-place Pirates. They’ve had a good September as well, going 12-6 thus far, which is why the Cards’ magic number isn’t decreasing as quickly as it could.

Still, this month has been the Cardinals’ time to shine going back to the “September to remember” in 2011. Continue reading →

How Much Do The Cardinals Miss Yadier Molina?

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When Yadier Molina tore a ligament in his right thumb sliding into third base on July 9, the St. Louis Cardinals were 50-42 following their victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates that night. The Cardinals were in second place in the NL Central, two games behind the Milwaukee Brewers. They’d scored 340 runs on the season, while allowing 318.

yadiLast night, the Cardinals lost to the Miami Marlins 6-5. Since Yadi went on the DL, the team has gone 12-13 and is now 62-55. At the moment, they’re in third place in the Central — three games behind the Brewers and a half-game behind the second-place Pirates. They’ve jockeyed back and forth with the Pirates for second place since July 29.

That run differential looks a little different now too, as they’ve scored 436 runs this season while allowing 444. Although losses of 12-1, 12-2 and 10-3 in that span will definitely change the look of things …

Now, granted, 2014 Yadi wasn’t quite hitting like 2012/2013 MVP finalist Yadi either. On July 9, his stats were .287/.341/.409 with seven home runs and 30 RBI. Decreased offensive production this season, however, certainly hasn’t been limited to Yadi alone.

Who’s stepped up the most in the past 30 days? Interestingly enough, according to the stats on the Cards website, the guy leading the team in hitting in that span is someone who’s only been on the team since July 26: A.J. Pierzynski. In his 11 games as a Cardinal, AJP is hitting .308/.357/.410 with a double, a homer and five RBI. He drove in the first run last night, just before Jon Jay homered to momentarily tie the game at 3-3. Continue reading →

Cardinals Haiku Friday: A Familiar Sort Of Loss

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Howard

We’ve seen this too many times before … (Photo: St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

A loss on Wednesday
After five straight wins: okay.
These things will happen.

Last night, Phillies here.
Unfamiliar guy starting.
You know what that means.

Lack of offense back.
We liked all the hits and runs
And the winning too.

But only four hits
Not many scoring chances
And just one run scored.

One GIDP
One hit with RISP
Plus four LOB.

Continue reading →

When Cards Starters Are Good, They Can Be Very Good

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The one thing that’s been fairly consistent through the mediocrity of the Cardinals going 31-31 has been the starting pitching. Yes, there have been those occasional clunker game from each of them — those things happen on occasion.

ShelbyBut when the starters have been good, they’ve often been very good. The Cardinals are tied with the Rangers for the MLB lead in shutouts with 11 (which is three more than the teams tied for second) and, as of yesterday, now has the big league lead in shutouts with four.

That’s thanks to Shelby Miller, who joined Adam Wainwright with two and Lance Lynn on that 2014 Cards shutout list. And, as Jenifer Langosch writes at Cardinals.com, his performance might have been even more impressive than last year’s leadoff-single-then-27-straight-retired performance last year: “While Miller may have relied on an overpowering fastball to mow down 27 Colorado hitters in a row in a start last May, this time he toyed with Toronto purely by pitching.”

It was pretty spectacular to watch.

Continue reading →

Hey Cardinals, Are You There? Do You Even Care?

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Quick, what’s the first word that comes to mind when thinking of the 2014 Cardinals? Underachieving? Frustrating? What-the-hell-is-up-with-these-guys?

faceAll are accurate, but I’m going with frustrating. That’s the exact word used by my Giants fan pal at work when he saw me yesterday: “It must be frustrating to be a Cardinals fan these days,” he said as a form of greeting after his team took three of four.

Yep, it is frustrating.

And, yep, pity from a Giants fan.

Ugh.

Beyond that, though, it’s now been 19 innings since the Cardinals last scored a run, during the seventh inning of Oscar Day on Saturday. Of course, even the excitement of Oscar’s arrival and debut game home run seem long gone by now, with the malaise of back-to-back shutouts by the Giants and the Royals and an offense of seven total hits, 12 strikeouts and 11 left on base combined from those games.

Ho hum.

Hey, Cardinals, are you there? Do you guys even care?

I’ve been wondering that, both in watching these past two games and in reading a post from Scott Wuerz on his Cheap Seats Blog at the Belleville News-Democrat website, which begins like this:

I’m probably wrong. In fact, I hope I am wrong. But it just seems, from the outside looking in, that the St. Louis Cardinals have a bunch of guys on the roster who don’t really get all that excited about playing baseball.

I hadn’t really paid attention until the Arrival of Oscar Taveras, who smiled throughout his debut and seemed to be aware of the fact that he’s the life of the party. They go about their business and I’m not saying that they don’t work hard. But for too many of the Cardinals players it seems like it’s only business, no passion.

Accurate? Seems like it to me, just as a fan watching on TV. Wuerz probably has more insight, given he covers the team so is privy to more than what we see on television or from the stands at Busch. Continue reading →

Since A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words …

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Since we know the old saying “a picture is worth 1,000 words,” here’s a photograph to sum up last night’s Yankees 7-4 win over the Cardinals.

Photo: STLToday.com

Photo: STLToday.com

Shelby Miller allowed all 7 runs on 9 hits with 2 walks and a strikeout.

And he was sad.

For the Cardinals on offense, they had 13 hits — one more than the Yankees. They also left 13 on base and were 3 for 15 with runners in scoring position. Kolten Wong did go 4 for 5, however, and drove in a run in the 8th.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Cards had a chance as Allen Craig singled and Yadier Molina was walked by Yankees closer David Robertson. But then Jon Jay, pinch-hitter Matt Adams and Daniel Descalso each struck out. Yet, according to Mike Matheny in this article from Jenifer Langosch, that was all just fine.

“That’s really the story I want to leave this room with — these guys kept fighting,” Matheny said. “We had an opportunity there. I really admire the fact that these guys kept playing the game, kept taking good at-bats.”

Yay! Good at-bats — with three K’s in a row! Juice boxes for everyone!

The San Francisco Giants are in town tonight to start a four-game series at 7:15 p.m. If it seems like it’s been a while since the Cards played them, it has — their last games were almost exactly a year ago, with a doubleheader on June 1, 2013, that the Cardinals swept and a loss the next day in which Yadi had a memorable outburst.

A coworker is a Giants fan and he gave me this scouting report on the series: “It will be a split. The Giants are terrible on the road, but they have the best record in the majors.”

Yuck.

But, yes, the Giants are 34-19 and obviously in first place in the NL West. As for their road record, it’s 15-10 … so not exactly terrible. At least the Cards home record is now 15-9. Tonight’s pitching match-up is Ryan Vogelsong vs. Jaime Garcia.

Look! In The Field! At The Plate! It’s Peter Bourjos!

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It’s been a curious season for Peter Bourjos, hasn’t it?

Bourjos8He entered spring training and began the year as the Cardinals starting centerfielder, which was all part of the plan when he was acquired from the Angels. But he struggled at the plate to begin the season, lost his starting job to Jon Jay and Randal Grichuk, and then subsequently was somehow supposed to break out of his offensive slump by pinch-hitting every few days.

When I read yesterday morning in Daniel’s post at C70 At The Bat that Bourjos was four for 10 against Aaron Harang — and with three of those hits being a double, triple and homer — I was hopeful he would actually start again for the first time since April 26. Just seemed to make sense, despite the lack of playing time Mike Matheny had been giving him. Plus Matheny had remembered Sunday night that Pete has a glove, inserting him as a defensive replacement in the eighth inning.

Yesterday afternoon, I read this from Joe Sheehan and found myself nodding my head throughout the entire piece — especially the section on Bourjos. While it didn’t make me feel any better about the way Matheny has been managing the 2014 Cardinals so far, it certainly helped me realize just how crazy his use of Bourjos (and Kolten Wong) has been … just in case I needed further clarification.

Then came the game in Atlanta. Continue reading →

Can Shelby Miller Break His Pirates’ Curse?

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A quiet St. Louis Cardinals offense, a 3-5 road trip that included losing three of four to the New York Mets (ouch), back to Busch Stadium to begin a six-game home stand with Shelby Miller facing the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Shelby-MillerWelcome home?

Maybe, hopefully, tonight will be the time Miller manages to shut down the Pirates and find success. He’s 0-5 in his career against the Pirates with a 5.93 ERA and has allowed 20 earned runs in 27 1/3 innings along with 9 home runs.

He started against them three weeks ago tonight and pitched 5 1/3 innings while giving up 5 runs on 6 hits (3 of those hits were homers) and walked 3 while only striking out 2.

The bright side — yes, there is one after all that — is the Pirates are struggling lately too. They are 9-14 at the moment and just completed a 2-6 home stand, losing 3 of 4 to both the Brewers and the Reds. (The Brewers still have the best record in MLB, by the way, at 16-6 and have a 4 1/2 game lead in the NL Central over the Cardinals.) Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →