Cardinals chat with columnist Jeff Gordon
Bring your Cardinals and postsason questions and comments, and talk to columnist Jeff Gordon in a live chat starting at 11 a.m. Monday.
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Well, in his last regular season appearance he faced the minimum three batters while protecting a 9-0 lead. Somehow he withstood the pressure there. He had a span of eight August/September appearances when he faced the minimum seven times, in outings ranging from 1/3 of an inning to 1 1/3 innings.
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The internal late-inning relief candidates include Junior Fernandez and Ryan Helsley, who could both make next year's bullpen. But they don't seem anywhere near ready for the closer's role. So right now Martinez is it. The closer market is volatile, both in trades and free agency. The Cardinals are painfully aware of that. So this will be an interesting question for the organization moving forward.
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Jeff, if Carlos Martinez is allowed to throw another pitch this year Shildt should be fired. I made the comment on one of the chat’s last week that he’s been pitching just good enough (still giving up runs) to get the victory but it was just a matter of time till he blew it. If your closer has an ERA of 20.20 going into Sundays pivotal game with the Braves, is the really the guy you want to trot out there with the game on the line? I don’t care what he did in August and September, this is a game of “what have you done for me lately”.
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I get that, but . . . there aren't a lot of great options in that bullpen right now. Andrew Miller has been hit or miss. Giovanny Gallegos gave up a couple of long balls late in the regular season. John Brebbia has gotten hammered lately. So has Helsley. I suppose Gallegos is the Plan B closer right now, but Mike Shildt likes him in the set-up role to get toward the ninth inning.
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The Astros haven’t skipped a beat without Jeff Albert on their bench. The Astros are so good even John Mabry could be the hitting coach. You guys are closer to the team than most of us so maybe you’ve got a better read on Albert. I’m not seeing much progress. Obviously nobody has bought into his philosophy, and if they have then his philosophy sucks.
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There is buy-in, but there not consistent execution. This is definitely worth watching since the Cardinals fired the assistant hitting coach and a long-time minor league hitting coach to that everybody was hearing the same message up and down the line. That is an "all-in" bet on Albert and it's tough to get excited about the overall results to this point.
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In BenFred’s column this morning Shildt talks about Martinez effectiveness, “it would be hard to go out there and grab the ball from a guy in a tie game that’s virtually been lights out all year”. I admire the guy for wanting to support his players but at the cost of losing an important game in which Waino pitched his guts out? Shildt did Waino a tremendous disservice yesterday by bringing in Martinez. Shildt needs to quit worrying about wanting to be everybody’s buddy and start managing the series to win it.
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Shildt is not buddies with Martinez. It's not like Carlos comes over for game night at Mike's place. Shildt's approach all season is stay loyal to his guys and long as they deliver. Martinez's last month was a big reason why the team won the division. And like I noted earlier, other relievers have failed left and right. So it's not like he has an amazing set of bullpen options right now.
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Whatever happened to small ball ? With nobody out and runner on first and second, you have a batter who has struggled in the second half, why is he not bunting to advance the runners ? Very poor decision making by the coach !! And what is Bader doing ? I think those two decision will haunt for a long time . I think Carlos can be trusted to close. He folds under pressure, especially once he gives up a hit. Time for someone else otherwise season is over. Ofcourse your top hitters have not done much except Ozuna. Your thoughts plse
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On not bunting with DeJong, Shildt just addressed that at some length:"Gave it consideration, for sure. So Paulie walks more against lefties. High walk rate against lefties, you got a guy that just walked twice. I don't know how many years ago guys would have probably bunted. Paul hadn't done it all year. I can take responsibility for that. He's also got 30 homers and has hit in the middle of our lineup pretty much all year.
"And also 10 years ago if you would have got a guy in a 2-0 count that had hit 30 homers, I don't know how many guys would have bunting with 30 homers 10 years ago, 30 homers maybe not equal to what happened. That's another discussion.
"But you got a guy like that in a 2-0 count, he's not bunting, more than likely. He's swinging the bat. So I can appreciate the question. Again, we had some thoughts about what we could be able to do on the bases.
"Also Paulie's a high-walk guy against lefties, a guy that's walked two guys in a row. Paulie is a fly-ball hitter, so not really risking a double play. If he hits a deeper fly ball, you have two guys that can tag, especially in Harrison. And we feel like we could have done something on the bases and didn't mind our matchups after that.
"So really there was about seven things that were pro letting him hit, and it didn't work out. As simple as that. But there was definitely some solid logic behind it." -
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Jeff, looking towards 2020 I think the Cards have some important decisions to make. First, adios Ozuna. I think you need to give Arozarena a crack at left field. I think CMart has worn out his welcome and needs a change of scenery. Perhaps Miami would shake loose some of their young talent for an established closer? JMart needs to be in the AL as a DH. He quit hitting at the end of the year and his defense speaks for itself. I understand he’s got a club friendly contract but so does Arozarena, Thomas and Garcia, and they are much more athletic.
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Jose Martinez is a handy part-time hitter, as he underscored again Sunday. So there is no rush to get him out the door. It's hard to find good part-timers. Arozarena isn't much of a power hitter and the team will need power in left field, especially if Edman is the third baseman -- another position that is normally a power spot. And if the Cardinals trade away pitching -- Carlos or anybody else -- they better get proven pitching in return. It's not like this organization has a ton of near-term pitching ready to rise up.
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I am not concerned with our overall pitching but the sporadic offense is driving me nuts. this team has wasted so many good and sometimes great pitching performances this season, with Flaherty and Wainos yesterday most significant. The off again on again offense, to what might it be attributable and what perhaps can be done to correct it. The obvious is to find hitter who have consistency instead of so any streaky hitters but where will they come from and who might they be?
Thank you for your time and I have to say I hope the Cards can win today if for no other reason than not wanting to watch another win the round in our park. -
The Cardinals hope that Dylan Carlson will develop into a consistent offensive weapon. But this is a dilemma, since the franchise has a lot of time and money invested in the everyday lineup. How much change is needed and which of the regulars go? Complicating matters is Matt Carpenter's contract, of course, which pretty much guarantees him another crack at the lineup.
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There’s an old saying - if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
With Cmart’s 6 earned runs allowed in 2 1/3 innings in his 2 appearances in this postseason and an ERA of 23+ there is a lot to be fixed. I do not understand why Schildt would even consider putting Carlos into today’s 9th inning. I know he has 24 saves this season, but I have been very wary about him as a closer since the afternoon game in LA in August where he was put into the 9th inning of a 1-0 game, proceeded to walk the first batter and shortly thereafter lost the game 2-1.i would try somebody else today. -
It will be interesting to see what happens today. Shildt has slim bullpen pickings and he has to get to the ninth inning with a lead before the closer issue arises. So that will help dictate his decision-making. If you folks can find a reliever who has been consistently lights-out on this team in recent weeks, please point him out for me.
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Carlos deserves a lot of the blame for yesterday's loss, half of the blame has to go to the offense that for the second game in a row fail to plate a run. No excuse for that. I say go get a bat this winter, and that will do more to help out our pitching staff than anything.
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I didn't have a problem with Martinez closing yesterday, he is their guy and really the only option. What baffled me was the pitch selection. When you've got consistent 98-99 with movement, but you start every hitter with that lame-*** 88 mph back-up slider right over the heart of the plate, then you deserved to get hammered. He's not starting and trying to give you 8 innings, he's closing and he needs to pitch like it. Also, thought at the time that intentionally loading the bases to pitch to a guy that was on fire all game was kinda dumb.
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There was a lot of chatter about the Cardinals wanting to get to Swanson and here's why: The guy hit .204 after the All-Star break and overall he was a .187 hitter with runners in scoring position this season. He is down in the batting order for a reason. If a pitcher can't get him out, he can't get him out -- but fans would squawk if the Cardinals allowed a more accomplished hitter to beat them.
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I understand Bader brings little offense, but he has shown more this series than Fowler's .083 and is one of the best defenders on the planet. I'd even prefer the defensively gifted O'Neill. He may strike out 3 times, but could very well come through with the big hit to win it. Who would you run out if you were managing?
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I've been a big Schildt fan until yesterday. In the bottom of the 8th Shildt needed to sac both runners over. For some reason Dejong has stopped hitting. We needed insurance runs and better managing would have gotten at least one. Don't buy the argument that Dejong hasn't bunted all year so he can't do it. Regarding pitching to Dansby ... forget the limited stats the kid has been swinging a good bat. Of course if the Cards hit the ball better these managerial issues are moot.
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Echoing what Cbow just wrote, CM seems to be afraid to let loose and relies way too much on the slider. That said, it goes hand in hand with the pitch called for by Yadi, perhaps neither of them are confident in his heat ? Seems like he throws one fastball an inning if that much. Maybe I'm wrong but it seems that way to this casual observer.
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