Here’s a follow-up on something I wrote about in Wednesday’s column. It’s about the importance of team defense and what it means to pitchers. As I pointed out in yesterday’s column, the 2023 Cardinals had their poorest season defensively since 1930. That’s based on...
THE REDBIRD REVIEW Please allow me to introduce myself. I’m the loon who keeps attaching the word “optimism” to the 2024 Cardinals. For this condition I blame my intense dedication to homework and a stubborn attitude derived from an old-fashioned concept known as...
THE REDBIRD REVIEW Here’s my second pile of performance-based report cards for individual Cardinals in 2023. Today, it’s all about the pitchers. Starting pitchers. Relief pitchers. Unknown pitchers. Traded pitchers. And, unfortunately, a lot of disappointing pitchers....
The Cardinals are turning to Adam Wainwright to make Monday’s start at Arizona. Several weeks from his 42nd birthday, Waino will be pitching only 20 days after being shut down by a shoulder strain. A couple of cortisone injections, two bullpen sessions, no injury...
THE REDBIRD REVIEW Hello, friends. It’s once again time to process my thoughts into written words. Today, it’s Part II of my three first-half report cards for the 2023 Cardinals. Next up: the pitchers. — This area has been the No. 1 problem for the 2023...
THE REDBIRD REVIEW Though it’s wise to remain cautious and put tight restrictions on your optimism, those cuckoo Cardinals are threatening to become a better baseball team. Tuesday’s 4-2 homecoming victory over the Houston Astros was an encouraging way to begin their...
THE REDBIRD REVIEW The Cardinals had a starting-pitching problem to solve last offseason, and they had a starting-pitching problem early in the 2023 regular season, and they still have a starting-pitching problem in late June, and they almost certainly will have a...
“April is the cruelest month.” — T. S. Eliot The Cardinals spent the month of April in a free fall, unable to defeat gravity or most of the teams on their schedule. They reinvented the so-called “Cardinal Way” and reversed it by losing games in every...
THE REDBIRD REVIEW Bad starting pitching, bad defense, bad bullpen, bad offense, bad baserunning, an overwhelmed manager and an underwhelming front office. They don’t get out to many leads, but they do let many leads slip away. And during Wednesday’s postgame show on...
