Walkers raw power has NEVER been in question. I saw him hit a 118 mph double last season.

The issue is that 118 mph shouldn't be a double.

There's a ton to work with here. That kind of raw power and plate discipline is a spectacular foundation. And then a plus hit tool to boot. Everything is there to be a star.

But he's gotta unlock that swing to turn raw power into game power.

Yeah, this kind of lineup depth is damn near immune to slumps. You'll still have bad days but you shouldn't have a series where your guys get shut down. There are just too many guys on the roster capable of hitting the ball hard and going 9 deep in the lineup makes life hell on a pitcher.

It'll grind SPs into powder all season and if you can do that early in a series and start taxing/exposing that bullpen on G1, it's going to snowball for teams.

But they're drawing dead in the post-season as this pitching staff presently stands. And frankly, they're not just one arm away. They probably need 3, be it via promotion (on or off the present 26 man) or acquisition.

If they're serious about doing damage in October, they should be stretching Thompson out to see if his stuff will play in a starting role. With a 97 mph fastball from the left side, solid command an a hammer curve, he's a starting pitcher if he has the stamina to throw 90+ pitches.

Maybe Liberatore or Graceffo can force their way onto the roster as well.

But as it stands there are 2 guys who project as plus SPs over 160+ IP on this roster - Mikolas and Mongomery. Matz won't answer the bell that many times, Flaherty/Wainwright are toast, Woodford doesn't have the pitch mix.

And that's before you get into September/October attrition when you figure Mikolas will be wearing down anyway.

It's a real problem.

Maybe I missed it in the offseason but I was surprised they didn’t bring in some more dumpster diving type vets or given all of the question marks in the rotation. Even on paper, where were all of the innings going to come from?

There was just no way something like Wano getting hurt before the season wasn’t going to happen with that group.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Lars Nootbaar, after testing his grip/hand during BP today, is going on the IL. <br><br>Juan Yepez has been recalled from Class AAA.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/sltcards?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#sltcards</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cardinals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cardinals</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MLB?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MLB</a></p>&mdash; Derrick Goold (@dgoold) <a href="https://twitter.com/dgoold/status/1643029684769239041?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 3, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

This team can't pitch for shit.

And this was expected.

That's a damn shame too. Everyone who watches this team knew it would be like this. Woodford totally got his shit pushed in today. Social Justice Jack pitched awful and lucked into a W. This is not a contending team unless they get some arms to compete.

You mean to tell me a team that relies on multiple pitchers that have injury issues and are inconsistent for starts using having shit results?

I’m stunned!

Contending for what? Mo’s goal is to contend for the division. This team can do that, first round playoff exit be damned. Same as it ever was.

My wife asked me if I wanted to watch the game with her. I told her that it's hard to care about a team that doesn't give two ****s about winning anything when your other team is the Chiefs.

Is this something that can be taught without ****ing him Up?

He’s hitting 107 MPH grounders routinely. Get some lift and those are home runs. Can it be done? He’s only 20, so maybe he’s not so set in his ways.

Yeah - takes time and patience, but absolutely.

We'll see if it takes with Donovan but he's been working on it. And a name that won't make sense to you but is a perfect example is Stephen Piscotty. He was maaaaaybe going to make it out of AA until he learned to lift the ball and get rid of that god-awful slap hitter nonsense they teach at Stanford.

He's an example of what marginal talent can do when they develop. He went from a minor league washout to a major league player with a reasonably long career.

Now take a guy with superstar talent and the impact will be even more apparent.

So...Jordan Montgomery is the only pitcher on the staff that isn't a broke dick?

Matz is lobbing them up there

BUT HE HAD SUCH A GOOD SPRING TRAINING

I'm about to turn this shit off Matz is pitching BP

This team can't pitch.

And someone tell me how a squad with an offense this deep is EVER rostering, let alone starting, Taylor ****ing Motter.

Unreal.

I'll say this again - a teams offense determines it's ceiling but it's pitching determines it's floor.

Fix this staff or these guys can genuinely lose 90 games.

This is wholly unacceptable for a team with the fan support the Cardinals have. It's just a slap in the face of the fanbase.

Hold my beer.

Braves are also the best team in the NL. But yes the Cardinals need pitching. They have plenty of offense assets that could be moved easy for pitching.

Lots of meatballs. :shake:

Our prospects are viewed as museum quality Faberge eggs by our idiot GM. We can’t deal those players even for Scherzer.

We have way too many talented outfielders/3B players. We are sitting players who should be starting because there is no spot on defense for them. Some are worth quality pitching to teams. But we have an idiot GM, so…. It’s not happening.

You know the meme about the AFC West spending a half billion to beat Mahomes and they don't. I think you will be seeing that with the Braves and Mets.

Matzballs?

{rimshot}

Motter being on the roster and playing is so weird it’s actually kinda funny.

We have plenty of 2B (Donovan, Edmond, Gorman). He’s on his 9th org. He’s old. Sitting Gorman or Donovan for him? What am I missing?

Since the talk is on pitching, look what happened tonight in Miami
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sandy Alcantara was DEALIN&#39;‼️ <br><br>He threw a complete game shutout vs. the Twins in under two hours, the shortest game of the <a href="https://twitter.com/MLB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MLB</a> season so far. <a href="https://t.co/umGCc0UhIT">pic.twitter.com/umGCc0UhIT</a></p>&mdash; SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) <a href="https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1643420015272624128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 5, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Ollie is a ****ing reeruned puppet.

**** may as well run out Jim Edmans at 2B instead of the Motts applesauce guy

LMAO:mad:

Passive-Agressive post. Well played sir, well played.

It popped up when fired up ole Twitter machine. Thought it was fitting.

I thought O’Neill was dogging it but they didn’t show the replay of him running the bases, only the play at the plate. I guess Ollie called out O’Neill for his lack of effort on that play in his presser.

Why would he not be hustling? Worried about pulling a hamstring? If you can’t do that play, you need to change your body or go be a weightlifter.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7MG6Iif6kXY" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I like the pace the pitch clock has put in but if you are going to put this shit in place and the allow the batters to have 1 TO and they call it before a violation has taken place then you better ****ing give them the TO.

I dont really care about Machado but he is one of the premier players in the game and throwing him out because your dumbass doesn't know where the 8 second mark is on a countdown (hint: its not when the clock goes from 9 to 8) is just reeruned. I hate umps that get this ego trip and seemingly want to make the game about themselves, but yet MLB seems to think the speed of the bat boys needs to be addressed.

It did appear to me he wasn't running the same. I noticed it running to first as in an earlier game when he was thrown out by a full step on a grounder he normally would have made it a bang bang play.

It makes sense that he may have a little doubt in his head regarding when you can push those hamstrings again. Much easier to do it in the outfield than running the bases.

According to O'Neill he intentionally slowed down so he could tighten his turn. He wasn't dogging it. He was working all offseason on techniques for durability and thought that by tightening his turn he could circle just as quickly with diminshed risk of injury. And you can see him, after he straightens back out when he comes around third, accelerate again.

It's a completely reasonable explanation. And it's evidently one he actually GAVE to Marmol after the game during a meeting with him. O'Neill believed the matter to be closed. Maybe O'Neill's thought process was flawed (maybe it wasn't) but he certainly put thought into it and it wasn't something that deserved a flogging for jaking his baserunning.

And Marmol STILL went out there and publicly blasted him for lack of hustle DESPITE O'Neill giving him his explanation behind closed doors. Effectively calling O'Neill both a dog and a liar. And O'Neill doesn't find this out from Marmol - he hears it from Jim ****ing Hayes.

**** Ollie Marmol, man. That guy is so overmatched. He's way out over his skiis here and this kindof pouty red-assed bullshit is just another example of it.

He's a god-awful manager. Fortunately for him this organization doesn't hold anyone accountable for anything so as long as he's a good (read: quiet) solider, he'll get to keep cashin' those checks.

This organization is rotten from the top down.

Just saw the O’Neill video on Twitter. For me, that was a brutal send by the 3B coach. O’Neill looked like a player surprised to have been sent in that situation.

"Why wasn't he going balls out at the 3b bag!!?!?!?"

Because if you get a late stop sign and you haven't slowed to round then you try to throw the brakes on, you're gonna bust your ass and make the 3rd out at 3b trying to get back.

It's just such bullshit from Marmol. O'Neill was wholly reasonable and gets publicly eviscerated then benched today.

Marmol is completely out of his depth.

I don’t know enough about Marmol to have an opinion on him, but it’s a pretty weird play to be making an example of O’Neill over. Good way to get the entire clubhouse to hate him.

Warner shouldn't have sent O'Neil at all. I also don't think O'Neil was half-assing running (he was trying to tighten up his route).

Why the **** would you send an OF who had hamstring issues last year on a ball that perfectly bounced to shallow right field with a clear path to be thrown out at home?

He did the same shit with Bader (granted, it was more appropriate and deserved) last season.

It's a great way to lose the clubhouse. All those things should be handled in the family, not in public.

You have to have such a good handle on your players to pull that shit. And a nearly perfect feel for what motivates them.

LaRussa was actually great at that, but even he had his missteps. He could go out there and pull that stuff with Edmonds and it fired Edmonds up to go out there and kick ass. Edmonds never took it personally and LaRussa absolutely transformed his career.

He tried it once with Rolen and it backfired spectacularly.

He never did it with Molina or Pujols and some folks would say because he had favorites - I think it was because he know how prideful those guys are and that it would simply go very poorly for him. He'd have never done it with Carpenter even if warrented; he might have with Wainwright, though. I never saw it as playing favorites as much as I think it is a simple case of utilizing different approaches for different people.

Your feel for the individual players on the team has to be virtually spotless and frankly you have to have a TON more cache than an organizational puppet like Marmol will ever have. Regarding his feel for the players, O'Neill's reaction made it quite clear that Marmol didn't read the room correctly there.

It was just monumentally ****ing dumb.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This is either going to propel Tyler O’Neill to a monster season or it’s going to create a super awkward vibe in the Cardinals clubhouse. No in between. <a href="https://t.co/YQcPC3mUPZ">pic.twitter.com/YQcPC3mUPZ</a></p>&mdash; Jared Carrabis (@Jared_Carrabis) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jared_Carrabis/status/1643669589358780423?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 5, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Yeah, he hates the guy.

Marmol keeps O’Neill out of the lineup today. Says publicly it’s for last nights error.

This is weird. Must be a back story or previous clash between them.

Or there is no previous story and Ollie is just a petulant prick who is trying to compensate for being a shitty manager by being a shittier person.

****ing Tyler O'Neill giving up 5 runs in the first 4...

Another out at home. Got the stones to bench Goldschmidt, Ollie - feckless ****.

He's going to love Contreras' base running.

Nah - he'll ignore it.

This is the typical Mozeliak prelude to a trade. Shit on the guys value then dump him for Rich Hill.

TON for Rich Hill is an exaggeration, but probably not too far from the truth.

Would Moe see it as acknowledging a mistake if he traded him back for Marco Gonzalez?

Because you know he's getting dealt for some past his prime LHSP. Probably one that's making too much money but still not THAT much money.

Mike Minor is a free agent but if he were on a roster somewhere making $10 million, Mozeliak would be chomping at the bit to get a team to absorb $2 million of that and deal him at a 'discount' for O'Neill.

Dallas Keuchel come on down!

I've got it! Alex Wood.

The Giants have Kyle Harrison in the minors to step into Wood's rotation role. They're always looking for power bats that can drive a ball through that bay air.

Just go ahead and mark it down - O'Neill for Alex Wood. The Giants take on $3 million of the $12.5 million he's owed this year and they throw in a 24 year old relief pitcher in A ball who throws 94 with no command.

Nice high finish on that bomb from Walker. Saw the inside pitch, dropped the bat head and whacked the shit out of it. Good swing on that pitch, though the lack of velocity made it a bit easier.

And man, Edman hasn't had his top and bottom half synced up all year. His top half keeps saying oppo while his bottom half is opening for pull. He's taking some nasty looking swings up there. Just way out of whack.

So right now the first line in Jordan Walker's advanced scouting report needs to be "Don't come inside on him at less than 95 mph"

Because if you come in there at 93, he's gonna get that front foot opened up, flip those hips and drive it. I think higher velocity will still jam him or have him pulling tanks foul, because his hands are a little long to the hitting zone (so he can't get inside that ball and drive it while keeping it fair), but brotha, if you come inside you'd better come inside real hard or not get any of the plate with it. Because he's gonna hit something at 110 mph and if you're lucky it's just a double.

Tommy Edman - still a trainwreck.

This video popped up on my youtube algorithm and I'm only posting it because its the only time I've seen O'Neill's entire run from 2nd to home.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BvdgtfHo6Tw?start=183" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I dunno. If you are going to say he was dogging it around 3rd you are going to have to say he was dogging it the whole time because I dont see any real speed change the entire time.

Pop ****ed up by sending him, Marmol is just totally ****ing this whole thing up. There's nothing good going on in that clubhouse right now.

I'm sure they have stats on his average 2nd to home times so the pretty easy determination would be to compare that time to his average and see if there's a major discrepancy.

Either way, acting like Marmol is probably the easiest way to destroy a clubhouse.

**** it. I'll take O'Neill. Not like I have anything better to watch.

Not to play the telephone game too much, but a friend of a friend works for Bally and they were sitting by Izzy a few weeks ago at a bar. He called Marmol a, "one who sucks the penis" who is terrible with the media, so he may be losing friends quickly.

I have no idea why he is calling out a player publicly. No way that makes things better or improves his attitude.

This is who he is.

Did the same this with Knizner last year. Put the ****ing major league minimum backup C on blast for not hitting when he was being asked to fill in for Yafo's tubby ass when he was chilling in Puerto Rico.

He's an asshole. He's always been an asshole. And he's awful at his job.

But the only thing you can do to lose your job in STL is cross Mozeliak and it's clear there are no 'philosophical differences' between this lot so Marmol will be fine.

O'Neill wasn't even benched in the game!

Of course the Post-Dispatch is carrying the water for Ollie. They're putting O'Neill in a bad light. This won't end well for him or the team.

https://www.stltoday.com/sports/colu...55a5dada0.html

Yeah - he's getting traded for 50 cents on the dollar.

Here's the thing - they should've traded him last offseason. Or Carlson. They needed to move some OF depth for SP depth but Mozeliak is a pussy so they didn't.

But now he's a pussy with his hands tied so he'll do something. More critically, he's a pussy with an excuse to **** up again. Since he has the PD running cover for him, in the event it blows up in his face (as virtually all his moves do) he can say it was because O'Neill wasn't a Cardinal Way Player and the BFIB will lap that shit up.

Why do you think they dealt Bader after he was benched? Had Montgomery imploded and Bader been fantastic for NY, Mozeliak would've cited that benching as justification for the deal.

Everything -EVERYTHING - this organization does is with an eye on PR and the bottom line. It's all they care about anymore. Winning doesn't mean shit to Bill DeWitt and it's trickled down through the organizational structure.

This is simply a poorly run shop at this point.

Pieces of shit

And of course Hochman buried the lede:

No shit, Benjamin - why do you THINK Marmol got marching orders to go scorched earth on this one? It's absolutely a flap designed to take column inches away from the shitshow that starting pitching is and should've been expected to be.

And it worked. It literally got one line in the very last paragraph of your column. A column that should be about how John Mozeliak has spent the better part of the last decade squandering organizational equity that took decades to build. This isn't a destination franchise anymore. The 'Cardinal Way' died with Mike Matheny and when you had a chance to revive it under Shildt, you decided to just set the corpse on fire instead.

The Cardinals are just another baseball team now. With just another of those owners who cares more about profits than pennants.

That's your ****ing story, Hochman.

But you keep on dancing to your Cardinal overlords - the checks will keep getting deposited every other Friday.

O'Neil probably wasn't running as hard as he could have, you still don't throw that out in the press, you just say we handle those type things internally if asked about it.

https://twitter.com/CJNitkowski/stat...rc=twsrc%5Etfw
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Over the past 3 seasons Tyler O&#39;Neill had gone 2B to home on a base hit 23 times. His average time was 7.52 seconds. He time was 7.31 on Tuesday...and then he was publicly called out and benched. New Loud Outs pod dropping on the real missteps in St. Louis later today.</p>&mdash; CJ (@CJNitkowski) <a href="https://twitter.com/CJNitkowski/status/1644010418262736896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 6, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

WTF? We deserve a real answer as to why O’Neill was called out so publicly. Calling out players publicly fails to motivate that one player but also hurts the clubhouse chemistry.

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I already told you why.

Marmol needs to distract from his bosses failings. So he did.

More people are talking about O'Neill's lack of hustle than Mikolas pitching like he belongs in AA with a new $40 million extension in his pocket, aren't they?

They're running cover and throwing a player under the bus to get it done. A player they don't intend to pay when he hits FA anyway so it's no skin off their ass if they blast him publicly.

Everything DJ said is correct. The organization has a habit of showing us something shiny with one hand while slapping us with the other. It really is just that simple.

He’s only got 25 players on the roster. He’s going to trash a different guy each week to cover for Mo?

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">“I like Tyler O’Neill. I think he’s one of the most talented players in that clubhouse. There is a next step to Tyler in his career, and my job is to get him there,” Marmol said today. Agreed that it was important for O’Neill to be back in the lineup. <br><br>L’affair de hustle: over.</p>&mdash; Jeff Jones (@jmjones) <a href="https://twitter.com/jmjones/status/1644451718560620544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 7, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It's over with one tiny exception....no one in that clubhouse will ever trust Ollie not to air out their dirty laundry in the press. Any benefit of the doubt he had previously earned is shot in the ass.

Guess Marmol is going to call out the players publicly all year.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Marmol on Flaherty&#39;s start: &quot;He had the ability to minimize damage. It&#39;s the pitch count and not being able to go further in the game. We&#39;ve been using the &#39;pen quite a bit. It&#39;s not just pitching out of trouble, it&#39;s being able to go a little deeper.&quot; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/STLCards?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#STLCards</a> <a href="https://t.co/ldhmHc4HK3">pic.twitter.com/ldhmHc4HK3</a></p>&mdash; Bally Sports Midwest (@BallySportsMW) <a href="https://twitter.com/BallySportsMW/status/1644544237973676033?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 8, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

One week in and this team is a ****ing dumpster fire.

A+ work Mo, really earning that extension.

he can do it the normal way and not alienate the locker room. So why choose that way. This is the way to handle 2022 athlete's.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This is better from Marmol. This is probably what he should have said in the beginning.<br><br>As I was saying yesterday, the culture he wants to build is a strong one. But it is not easy to communicate and build that relationally into a diverse group of people. <a href="https://t.co/PV4Mz4PXLb">https://t.co/PV4Mz4PXLb</a></p>&mdash; Jason Hill (@JPHill_Cards) <a href="https://twitter.com/JPHill_Cards/status/1644463078166208512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 7, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

"It's a long season. Yes, Jack wasn't at his best tonight, but I have faith he'll get it turned around shortly. He's proven he can be a top flight starter. "

That's literally all you have to say.

Meh, if it's still like this in June, then sure it's a dumpster fire. Not there yet, though.

Also, Mozeliak pretty much does exactly what DeWitt wants him to do, so I'm not sure he's bad at his job if his boss agrees with what he's doing.

Sounds like DeWitt could save a nice chunk of change by just doing it himself like Jerry Jones.