That’s small sample size bias - the offense isn’t very good either.

it's a hell of a lot better than the pitching.

If Noot is healthy and Walker has developed a little more (to at least get back to the .800 OPS sort of hitter he appeared to be even as a rookie) then it's a pretty deep lineup.

Lineup depth will score you more runs that a couple big hitters in the middle. And it grinds pitchers up.

But our pitching is just ass. And it was always going to be. There was no upside in this rotation at all - it was obvious from day 1. At best you get slightly below average from this roster. In all probability, you won't get that.

I can readily admit I was wrong about Schildt even though I still don't defend his pitching change in that playoff game.

Mozeliak and Bill DeWitt have completely ruined the franchise undoubtedly. I don't remember defending Mo at any point. I mean saying Schildt should have been fired for an idiotic move isn't saying Mo shouldn't have been beat to death with a torpedo bat as well.

I've got $ on Mikolas being DFA'd before the ASB.

The Cardinals won't DFA guys with multiple years left on their deal.

They WILL DFA a guy with about 4 months left on his deal, though.

Yeah -- ASB seems about right. Might get the axe in June if McGreevy can force the issue.

Maybe sooner than that if Mikolas won't shut his ****ing mouth. Stop acting like you're hot shit, Miles - you suck and have sucked the overwhelming majority of your career.

From Josh Jacob’s twitter;

Since 2023, Miles Mikolas boasts the second-worst ERA in MLB, worst K%, and ranks in the top 5 worst starters in FIP, BAA, and WHIP

And yet, he leads MLB in starts over that time.

Why? Sunk cost fallacy. And the #STLCards need to put an end to it

What's worse? The SP or thr pen?

Good grief. It might end up being a longer season than I thought.

Raycroft walks two guys and falls behind 2-0 with the bases loaded and nobody out to McCutchen - who promptly bails him out and gets himself out.

So of course Raycroft dicks around, and runs the count full to Bart so he has to throw him an absolute cock-shot. Bart, predictably, hits it hard and the game is over.

And Raycroft won't be charged with a single earned run. In a fair world that's the top of the 10th and he gives up 5. He was complete dogshit.

Baseball America has the Cardinals going college middle infielder again in the amateur draft in its latest mock draft.

5. Cardinals — Marek Houston, SS, Wake Forest

We’ll talk about “profiles” a lot in today’s mock draft. In lieu of hitters teams are enamored with, there might be a flight to historically-safe profiles like no-doubt up-the-middle defensive players with contact skills. Houston fits that to a tee. He’s being viewed as one of the safest profiles in the class. While he might not have the typical upside associated with a first overall pick, his reliable shortstop defense and track record of making a ton of contact should get him off the board inside the first 10 picks. If he does, that’ll be three straight years for Wake Forest producing a top 10 pick. The Cardinals also seem to prize hitters who make tons of contact in the zone in recent drafts.

No pitching help on the horizon either.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Quinn Mathews in seven Triple-A starts between last season and this season...<br><br>27 IP, 6.33 ERA, 2.15 WHIP, 29 BB, 29 K (21.6% BB and K)<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ForTheLou?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ForTheLou</a></p>&mdash; Eric Cross (@EricCrossMLB) <a href="https://twitter.com/EricCrossMLB/status/1911793856988787025?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 14, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Yeah - that's mental.

Mathews isn't a guy with bad command. Him just walking EVERYONE says he's either scared in AAA and needs to take some lumps to get his feet under him or it says he's gone all Ankiel and is ****ing toast.

A guy doesn't walk 15 guys in 52 innings in AA then go out there and walk 29 through 26 innings in AAA if it's not something mental. Especially not when it's broken up over two (partial) seasons.

Either his mechanics got really out of whack or his brain broke. Either could resolve themselves pretty quickly.

He's 24 years old -- AA ain't in the cards for you, kid. You really don't need to be pitching in AA in your mid-20s. If you're a big leaguer, it's time to un**** yourself in Memphis.

Citing the recent history of a team that essentially fired its entire player development team into the sun doesn't mean a lot to me.

I mean maybe they take him -- sure. But just because they've gone for high hit tool guys over the last few seasons, that doesn't mean the new regime is going to focus on those same things.

I think they'd love to get Jamie Arnold but could see them taking Bremner instead. Seth Hernandez is a possibility, but the HS arm thing just feels a long way away -- I think they want to see someone that can contribute in 2-3 years.

Hard to get too amped up whatever direction they choose, though. This system needs a MASSIVE infusion of talent and any one draft just isn't going to accomplish that. They are just so far behind most of the NL including everyone in their own division.

Chase Davis breaking out will help if it's legit, but they need to find another 2 or 3 top 100 guys out of this system to really start to find some hope. I'm not seein' it...

What happened to Tink? He was a stud in Springfield last year or at least that is what it appeared to be on Springfield news.

WTF is going on in St. Louis, two straight days of the Cardinals putting on ass whoopings.

TINSTAAPP

Pitchers break. If you have 5 of them that are considered top of the rotation (1-3 starters) you'll be lucky to get a #2 and a #5 out of it.

More probably you get a 4 and a reliever.

With Hence, they were worried that his delivery was causing too much stress and would ultimately keep him from starting. So they've spent a year or so trying to recreate it and low and behold, THAT broke him. Some odd rib-cage thing.

I'd just write him off at this point. Anything he provides is a happy accident.

If the Cardinals are extremely lucky, Hence will have thrown 300 innings over 5 seasons by the end of this year. He's just lost too much development time and too many things they've done to compensate for injury risk on one spot have just created injuries in another.

No reason to believe he'll hold up to a starters workload and he's already lost so much time that its hard to believe he'll ever develop a full starters arsenal anyway.