by |The MLB postseason tournament begins today with four games in the wild-card round. These are best-of-three affairs, and the pressure is on. Lose the first game and you’re dangling on the edge of elimination, staring at the offseason.With baseball switching to a new 12-team playoff format in 2022, introducing this perilous opening round for the first time, we don’t have much to go on.But last season all four teams that won the opening game advanced to the division series. The Cardinals, Blue Jays and Rays were punched out in two games. Only one team, the Mets, managed to survive a...…by |The MLB postseason tournament begins today with four games in the wild-card round. These are best-of-three affairs, and the pressure is on. Lose the first game and you’re dangling on the edge of elimination, staring at the offseason.With baseball switching to a new 12-team playoff format in 2022, introducing this perilous opening round for the first time, we don’t have much to go on.But last season all four teams that won the opening game advanced to the division series. The Cardinals, Blue Jays and Rays were punched out in two games. Only one team, the Mets, managed to survive a...WW…

by |We know that the Cardinals need starting pitching. Not just arms, either. They need highly effective, reliable starters. The Redbirds need to make a substantial upgrade for the weakest, most vulnerable area of the 2023 team that finished with the third-worst winning percentage (.438) for the franchise in a full season since the 1946 Cardinals of Stan Musial, Red Schoendienst, Enos Slaughter, Marty Marion, Whitey Kurowski, Terry Moore, Joe Garagiola, Howie Pollet and Harry Brecheen won a third World Series in five years.And I could have included the names of several other standout...…by |We know that the Cardinals need starting pitching. Not just arms, either. They need highly effective, reliable starters. The Redbirds need to make a substantial upgrade for the weakest, most vulnerable area of the 2023 team that finished with the third-worst winning percentage (.438) for the franchise in a full season since the 1946 Cardinals of Stan Musial, Red Schoendienst, Enos Slaughter, Marty Marion, Whitey Kurowski, Terry Moore, Joe Garagiola, Howie Pollet and Harry Brecheen won a third World Series in five years.And I could have included the names of several other standout...WW…

by |THE REDBIRD REVIEW It’s report-card day. Let’s review individual Cardinals and their performance in the 2023 season. I’ll write one paragraph on each player and issue a letter grade.This team had a historically terrible season, but there were some good performances on the position-player side. From the start of the schedule through the end of July, St. Louis ranked third in the NL in park-and-league adjusted runs created, third in onbase percentage, third in slugging, third in OPS, third in Isolated Power, third in homers, fourth in batting average and fifth in runs per game....…by |THE REDBIRD REVIEW It’s report-card day. Let’s review individual Cardinals and their performance in the 2023 season. I’ll write one paragraph on each player and issue a letter grade.This team had a historically terrible season, but there were some good performances on the position-player side. From the start of the schedule through the end of July, St. Louis ranked third in the NL in park-and-league adjusted runs created, third in onbase percentage, third in slugging, third in OPS, third in Isolated Power, third in homers, fourth in batting average and fifth in runs per game....WW…

by |THE REDBIRD REVIEWHere’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.In 2023 the Cardinals had a 5.08 starting-pitching ERA that ranked 26th among the 30 MLB teams. And in the 28 seasons that Bill DeWitt Jr. has controlled the franchise, that 5.08 ERA was the worst turned in by a group of St. Louis starting pitchers.The 2023 Cardinal starters ranked 27th among the 28 DeWitt Era teams in Win...…by |THE REDBIRD REVIEWHere’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.In 2023 the Cardinals had a 5.08 starting-pitching ERA that ranked 26th among the 30 MLB teams. And in the 28 seasons that Bill DeWitt Jr. has controlled the franchise, that 5.08 ERA was the worst turned in by a group of St. Louis starting pitchers.The 2023 Cardinal starters ranked 27th among the 28 DeWitt Era teams in Win...WW…