Sports Illustrated cover jinxes the Cards rotation

by on May 22, 2013 · 3 comments

The Cardinals’ starting pitching rotation is on this week’s cover of Sports Illustrated.

Well, what WAS the Cardinals’ starting pitching rotation.

Image courtesy sicovers.com

Image courtesy sicovers.com

Two-fifths of that photo are now on the disabled list. One for the season (Jaime Garcia) and one indefinitely or until the medical staff runs out of elbow injections (Jake Westbrook).

Damn you Sports Illustrated, and your nefarious cover jinx.  I bet your editors are the types of people who openly talk about a no-hitter while it’s in progress too, right?  *ducks*

All kidding aside, it’s a great photo, excellent recognition for what these five guys have accomplished to date, and I’m sure the cover piece is wonderful as well.  Now, about getting that elbow fixed…

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Cardinals proving Road Warriors

by on May 6, 2013 · 0 comments

As the Redbirds prepare to begin another road series, this one their first trip to Wrigley Field in 2013, they bring with them a 2013 MLB best seven-game road winning streak. By virtue of a three-game sweep in the nation’s capital and four games worth in Milwaukee, the Cards head into Chicago with an opportunity to set themselves apart with the longest road winning streak in the league this season, a distinction currently shared with the Atlanta Braves.

While the Cards obviously hold the longest current streak, you’ll note that the Detroit Tigers are lurking right behind, albeit having taken four off of the Houston Astros.  Yes, albeit.  As in, hapless.  Not to be confused with J.A. Happ-less.

I digress.  The goods on 2013 road winning streaks from B-Ref:

[click to continue…]

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Posted in: 2013 Cardinals Game Notes,Current Cardinals,Stat Tools

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2013 UCB Progressive Game Blog – Cards vs Brewers – Third Inning

by on May 4, 2013 · 0 comments

Pitchers Hit Eighth has the distinct honor of calling the third inning action in the United Cardinal Bloggers’ 2013 Progressive Game Blog.  If you’ve not seen one of these things before, here is the gist of it, from the UCB site:

If you’ve never read one of our Progressive Game Blogs before, you are in for a treat.  The PGB is a unique way to look at a game–you’ll not find anything like it elsewhere–and is always a lot of fun.  Nine blogs will each analyze a different inning, linking to each other in a seamless line.  When you are done, you’ll have read a number of points of view and seen the one game through many different eyes.

We pick up the action in the top of the third inning, with the Cardinals leading the Brewers 3-2.

Top of Third (Cardinals batting versus Yovani Gallardo)

Matt Carpenter

One of the Cards showing the most patience at the plate this season, Matty Carp conversely quickly lines out to center field on a 0-1 pitch.

Carlos Beltran

Fox broadcast talking to Kyle Lohse about facing the Cardinals again.  Lohse wistful about winning a World Series, Cardinals “not wanting anything to do with (him)” coming off of the year he had.  Meanwhile, Beltran runs the count to 3-1 before taking a fastball for strike two.  Full count tapper back to Gallardo makes for the second out.  Lohse has an outstanding golf handicap.

Matt Holliday

Holliday shows Lohse what a real golf swing looks like for strike one.  Gallardo loses an 0-2 pitch up around Holliday’s noggin.  A 1-2 fastball that likely should’ve rung Holliday up is called inside, Lohse thought it was a strike.  Ground ball to shortstop Jean Segura ends the inning quite innocently.

What seemed like a great inning for the Cardinals to continue to batter Milwaukee starter Gallardo (the Cardinals have straight OWNED Yo in recent seasons) falls by the wayside with little to show from the top three in the Cards’ lineup.

Bottom of Third (Brewers batting versus Adam Wainwright)

Ryan Braun

First pitch swinging, Braun almost kills Wainwright with a broken bat, ground ball to Allen Craig ranging to his right, Waino barely beats Braun to the bag for the first out.

Yuniesky Betancourt

I would just like to take this opportunity to make it clear to everyone reading that Yuni Betancourt is batting clean up for the Brewers.  That is not a typo.  Betancourt lifts a 1-1 pitch to center field, the home crowd gets excited, and it is a routine F8.

Rickie Weeks

Weeks lines a 0-1 pitch into left field, causing Matt Holliday to dance around a bit before finally charging on to make the catch.

Uneventful inning for Wainwright as well, with very few pitches.  A welcome sight.

—–

Well folks, sorry there wasn’t much to see here for our third inning.  To catch the rest of the action, check out the following sites for their inning recaps for the UCB Progressive Game Blog!

First inning: Aaron Miles’ Fastball
Second inning: Stl Cards ‘N Stuff
Third inning: Pitchers Hit Eighth
Fourth inning: I70 Baseball
Fifth inning: On The Outside Corner
Sixth inning: Keene On MLB
Seventh inning: Fungoes
Eighth inning: ManFridge Baseball
Ninth inning: Cards Tied For First
Extras/Postgame: C70 At The Bat

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Posted in: 2013 Cardinals Game Notes,Current Cardinals,Non-Cardinals,United Cardinal Bloggers

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Please stop booing Brandon Phillips

by on May 3, 2013 · 0 comments

Dearest Cardinals fans,

I am before you today, a humble basement blogger, asking – nay, pleading – that you stop your incessant booing of Brandon Phillips when he plays at Busch III.

Exhibit A:

Split G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BA OBP SLG OPS
STL-Busch Stad 3 6 26 23 3 8 2 0 2 5 .348 .385 .696 1.080
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/3/2013.

No, I am not convinced that there is some snake-oil in your boos that fuels Dat Dude.  However, there’s simply no reason to any longer provide him the crooked, misplaced fuel that he so desires.  The guy clearly gets off on your disdain.

May I suggest an alternative?  (I’m assuming you said yes.)

Just do nothing.  Absolute silence when he’s at the plate.  It might not work, but it certainly can’t be any worse than the OPS-fluffing boos.

That is all.

Sincerely,
Nick

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UCB Weekend: Mo Knows Drama

by on May 1, 2013 · 0 comments

For the third straight season, the United Cardinal Bloggers were guests in St. Louis and in my opinion, the team may even invite us back! It is the least we can do since the win streak was snapped by Pittsburgh. Christi and I made the trip up Saturday to attend the dinner and brought with us the unseasonal Winter Warm-up weather instead. Those festivities will be covered later in the week, as tonight’s offering is strictly about the insider knowledge the Cardinals bestowed before the chilly battle with the Pirates.

UCB Weekend

Those pictures are courtesy of Lindsey Weber, who again gets all of the credit as well as Ron and Paige for putting up with us. We are willing guinea pigs for the new food offerings, and my personal opinion is that every ballpark should have a pasta station! Bill DeWitt III and John Mozeliak again were gracious with their time, and everything from Ballpark Village to Lil’ Pedro was fair game. Since the loyal readership (up to 4 now!) has to be curious, PH8 again picked Mo’s brain to dig up some dirt.

Two weekends in a row will feature Cards’ baseball, but the upcoming trip to Springfield may offer a glimpse at more than just Carlos Martinez. Today brought news that site favorite Matt Adams will be making a rehab trip back to the Texas League just in time to hand out the shiny replica rings. That could double the interest for this scribe, as Mo made it clear that Martinez will not be enjoying AA hitters for very much longer.

PH8: Mo, what are the chances of being able to catch Carlos Martinez in the near…

Mo: You better hurry up big boy.

I am a quick study, so that gave me all the insight needed heading into Saturday’s scheduled affair. And as the weather could inadvertently work to our advantage, Martinez now appears to be on tap for the start against Tulsa. That is unless he gets called up prior to that! And where might the hard thrower end up first? My money is on the Rosenthal plan that could very well involve skipping Memphis altogether.

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Re-reviewing Mitchell Boggs’ Mechanics (they seem bad)

by on April 24, 2013 · 4 comments

[ED. note - I am not a pro-fesh-un-ul scout nor do I pretend to be one.  I am far from qualified to be giving advice to big-league pitchers.  That said, here are some things I would consider, were I in a position to communicate things to the staff in charge of said advice and/or improvement amongst Major League Baseball Cardinals.]

In the spring of 2012, Pitchers Hit Eighth completed a pretty thorough (at least we’d like to claim so) review of the hot new middle relief band Mitchell Boggs and the Consistent Delivery.

Boggs had adopted a more over-the-top approach, noticeably.

Mitchell Boggs sometime 2011:

boggs_11

Keeping in mind that Boggs’ 2011 had some, well, ups and downs, let’s take another look at his 2012 delivery:

boggs_12

As noted in the previous post reviewing these approaches from Boggs…

You can see a less-pronounced angle in his front (drive) leg toward the first-base line, far less (and seriously, watching this live he looks like he’s standing up on his front leg) hinge at the waist, and the arm angle is much higher.

Having looked at this closely last spring, I obviously had to go to the tape this season to see where Boggs is winding up at release.

I’m still no scout or pitching coach, but look at this release:

Screen Shot 2013-04-23 at 11.27.39 PM

I see a lot more of 2011 Mitchell Boggs in this frame than 2012.  To wit:

  1. Falling off to the first base side (even more!) again.
  2. Left shoulder falling out of delivery more than even the 2011 release.
  3. Drive leg back into compromised angle instead of driving over top of it.
  4. Arm slot back into three-quarter release instead of coming over top.

Tell me I’m crazy (please!), because these are the sorts of things that keep me up at night thinking bad bullpen thoughts.  Tell me Mitchell Boggs found some foul talisman under his in-season mattress that removal of said foul item will restore order to the Cardinal bullpen (how’s that for a reach? you still with me, loyal four?).

I’m no expert.  I see things that interest me.  Mitchell Boggs had a tough go in 2011 with a three-quarter release and falling toward first base.  Boggs’ 2012 was successful when he “stood up” on his release and came at hitters over the top.  2013 (at least from the video I can poach from MLB.com) shows Boggs maybe falling back into three-quarter fall-out…

Lilli?

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Posted in: Cardinals Coaches,Current Cardinals

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Miller, Wainwright Allow Matheny to Reset Bullpen

by Nick April 23, 2013

Shelby Miller: 6.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K Adam Wainwright: 8.1 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K Three total innings of relief in two games. This is an opportunity for the much-maligned Cardinals bullpen and their manager to reboot. Reset expectations. Survive and advance [...]

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Ty Wigginton Spray Chart – 04.19.2013 at Phillies

by Nick April 21, 2013

Oh, you thought it was going to be of hits?

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Want a Shot at $50k Playing Fantasy Baseball?

by Nick April 1, 2013

[Ed. Note - the following post is sponsored by PH8 Partner DraftKings.com - we encourage you to visit their site and participate in this fantastic contest that offers our wonderful readers the opportunity to win $50,000!  Thanks for reading.] Baseball season is here and that means one thing—fantasy baseball is upon us! We know you’ve [...]

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Win a Cardinals egraph from EGraphs.com!

by Nick February 19, 2013

Have you ever wanted a personalized message from a big-league ballplayer?  From one who plays for the Cardinals, at that? Nevermind asking a Cardinal to write a treatise to how cool you are on their latest baseball card or a fresh horsehide from the team store – now you can get a personalized voice message [...]

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