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Post by Commissioner Erick on Apr 13, 2024 10:24:51 GMT -5
St. Louis Cardinals (36-17) @ Los Angeles Dodgers (29-24)
STL: ?? (?-?, ?.??)
LAD: Dale Messina (5-3, 5.02)
The Cardinals continue to lay waste to the National League, with the best run prevention in the league and an outstanding offense. Nine pitchers have pitched 23.1 innings for St. Louis—none of them have an ERA above 3.86, and six have an ERA of 2.36 and under. Offensively, Joe Mills has broken out. The Second Baseman is batting .307 with 22 homers, leading the league in OPS by an infielder. He’s a little tired, so he may sit today, but the Cardinals’ offense is deep with three other players already with double digit homers.
They’ll take on a Dodgers team that hasn’t found a way for their starting pitching to get things together. Tonight’s starter, Dale Messina, is an example of that. Messina is controlling the strike zone, limiting homers, and shutting down the running game. However, due to a .387 BABIP, Messina has a 5.02 ERA. Injuries cut short his 2031, but he won 17 games in 2030, and has shown he can be an excellent pitcher. Shutting down St. Louis will be a tall order, but the Dodgers will need Messina to be up to the task tonight.
Questions for the GMs:
For Tim Lentz, Rich Whitt, and Ryan Cain have healed up. Will we see them active for today?
Eric Walker’s rehab assignment will end this week, Will he be called up today?
You have a few fatigued players. Will we see some backups in the lineup today?
For Ben Vincent, Dale Messina’s being killed by BABIP, despite your defense being excellent. Do you have any theories as to why?
You’ve gone with Nick Allen leading off, with Eric Drouet moved down to seventh. Why go with that order?
How have you felt about Nomar Mazara’s return to Los Angeles this year?
TRIVIA: Who is the only Cardinals pitcher to win 15 or more games in a season?
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Post by Ben_Dodgers on Apr 13, 2024 11:49:31 GMT -5
Yes, they're hitting it in the gaps between our defenders. If I had a better explanation, I'd make changes to address it. His FIP is 3.72, so defense does seem to be a factor.
Drouet was scuffling a bit against RHP, so I switched the order up last week. It seems to have lit a fire under Drouet, so he's back in the leadoff spot today.
His performance has been poor. .199/.296/.384 against RHP is not what I signed him for. I could have used that money on Seth Beer instead. Fortunately he finally seems to be heating up a bit (.648 OPS in April, .891 OPS in May), but I need him to hit better than .250 for the rest of the year. Mazara and Saunderson are swapping spots in the order this week to see if that helps at all.
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Post by Commissioner Erick on Apr 14, 2024 8:21:35 GMT -5
Cardinals 1 - Dodgers - 0
WP: R. Cain (1-1)
LP: D. Messina (6-4)
SV: J. Ferland (2)
Dale Messina pitched well, but his team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, still dropped a 1-0 decision to the St. Louis Cardinals at Dodger Stadium. St. Louis raised its record to 37-17 with the win.
St. Louis used a timely hit from Matt Sanchez to get the win. The pinch hitter stroked a run-scoring double in the top of the eighth inning to put the Cardinals ahead, 1-0. It was his only hit in 1 at-bat, but it made an impact.
"The effort we put into this one paid off," Sanchez said.
Questions for the GMs:
For Tim Lentz, only two Dodgers hit a ball above 100 mph, Rattlesnake Drouet with a grounder up the middle for a single in the sixth, and Nomar Mazara with a screamer in the hole in the sixth for a double play. How proud are you of your pitching staff for such a stellar performance?
Despite the lack of hard hit balls, your club committed three errors. How concerned are you over your team's defense?
Your team didn't have picks in the first two rounds, but walked away with pitcher Brent Yelton in the third round. What did you think of your team's draft?
For Ben Vincent, frustrating game, but Dale Messina seemed to have solved his BABIP woes, allowing the Cardinals to go only 2-17 off him on balls in play. Do you know if there was any factor behind that?
Did you agree with Zach Flores pinch hitting for Jeren Kendall in the fourth inning?
Steve Stapelton allowed an inherited runner to score, and now has a 5.04 ERA, a year after a bad 2031. Do you need to upgrade on him in the bullpen?
How do you feel your team made out in the recent draft?
TRIVIA: Who has the most career wins for St. Louis under Tim Lentz?
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stlgm
Junior Member
Posts: 92
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Post by stlgm on Apr 14, 2024 9:02:35 GMT -5
Part one - I tried to answer in the Slack chat before the game since I didn't have access to respond on here at the time.
For Tim Lentz, Rich Whitt, and Ryan Cain have healed up. Will we see them active for today?
-Whitt will be active and gets the start today. We would prefer to send him to Memphis for a couple rehab outings, but we're in the stretch run of 17 games in 17 days and my staff is exhausted. We need some fresh arms. Cain also will be activated for tonight and be available from the pen. Stanich and Hagey are being optioned to Memphis to make room.
Eric Walker’s rehab assignment will end this week, Will he be called up today?
-No. Benavidez and Hausman have been holding their own in Walker's absence so we don't see the need to rush Walker.
You have a few fatigued players. Will we see some backups in the lineup today?
-17 games in 17 days will do that to you. Mills will play tonight as the DH with Nonie manning 2B and probably get tomorrow off. Jung-Hoo Lee will start in place of Sanchez, but Sanchez will be available off the bench as a pinch hitter.
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stlgm
Junior Member
Posts: 92
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Post by stlgm on Apr 14, 2024 9:21:57 GMT -5
For Tim Lentz, only two Dodgers hit a ball above 100 mph, Rattlesnake Drouet with a grounder up the middle for a single in the sixth, and Nomar Mazara with a screamer in the hole in the sixth for a double play. How proud are you of your pitching staff for such a stellar performance?-I can't say enough about this pitching staff. The injuries have been constant, but you wouldn't know that from their performance. Rookie Chris Hill and wiley vet Hans Crouse are the latest examples of guys that get the call to the majors and step right into key roles and perform. Today Rich Whitt really stepped up for us today. He missed five weeks of action, yet didn't miss a beat throwing three innings of scoreless baseball with five strikeouts in his return from the IL. Despite the lack of hard hit balls, your club committed three errors. How concerned are you over your team's defense?
-We are and we aren't. We're committing more errors than we like, but we also have a range-y team that gets to more balls than most, which will lead to more errors. In the NL, we ranked #2 in defensive efficiency, #2 in zone rating, but #10 in errors. Still, it's an area we need to clean up. There also seems to be something about Mondays...eight of our 28 errors have occurred on Mondays. That'll be something for our team psychiatrist to focus on for the next few weeks. Your team didn't have picks in the first two rounds, but walked away with pitcher Brent Yelton in the third round. What did you think of your team's draft?
-Considering our lack of draft capital, we're very happy with our draft class. Welton projects to be our type of pitcher that will strike out a third of the guys he faces and keep the ball in the park. We're going to have to focus on his pitch placement as he goes through the minors. Our Scouting Director loves Thomas Stevens. He's a little behind on the development curve for his age, but if we can get him on track, he could be Gary Ford's eventual replacement. Gerardo Troche and Brian Shelton we view as MR types that fit our strategy and given their age and development, could find their way to the bigs by the end of 2033. After that we landed quite a few guys that have similar potential, or strong defensive players that could help the pitchers in the farm get accustomed to the kind of defense they will have when he make it to St. Louis. |
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Post by Ben_Dodgers on Apr 14, 2024 10:54:10 GMT -5
No
No.
Yes
What's with all the yes or no questions?
Look, it was a 1-0 game. We'd love to win them all but sometimes the other team plays well too. It's not indicative of major flaws. It's one ball that drops in and one that doesn't. I don't like pinch hitting for Kendall but I wasn't in the dugout.
Very well. This was the deepest draft class in a long time, and we got several exciting prospects.
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Post by Commissioner Erick on Apr 22, 2024 14:31:08 GMT -5
TRIVIA 2: Jay correctly guessed Aaron Wallace
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Post by Commissioner Erick on May 11, 2024 10:27:10 GMT -5
TRIVIA 1: Zigmo correctly guessed Adam Wainwright
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