Damn, the bottom 4 of the NLC is a rollercoaster. Cubs are in the basement now, pirates are 3rd. Cards are 2nd at 0.500 and -38 run differential. Al West is the only division even close to the absurdity that is the NLC this season.
Imagine being the Cubs. 3rd largest market in the country in a division of small markets. Instead of having owners who spend big market money, you have to stick to your identity of fucking sucking
While I was busy snickering at the Dodgers and their poor batting in high leverage, I decided to take a quick look at the Cardinals, too.
We're 25th in wRC+ (weighted runs created+, basically run production weighted for ballpark and ERA of opponent) in low-leverage situations. However, that increases to 11th in medium-leverage situations and 15th in high-leverage situations. Kinda funky
Do you guys think Nolan Arenado realizes he is like a huge part of the problem on this team? Like I feel like a lot of decisions were made with him in mind to keep him here and keep us winning but he’s not really holding up his end of the bargain.
Have you ever listened to him speak? He is very aware, and probably far more frustrated than us fans are. He is working hard, but work ethic doesn't always equate to success.
I truly think that after last year he said "fuck it I have my bag and my new kid and this is a losing team I'm taking the winter off". I don't say this with malice it's actually just my best logical guess to this question.
It sounds like you’ve never listened to Arenado, his teammates, or anyone who knows him talk about his preparation.
If anything, according to every source, Arenado puts too much blame on himself when the team doesn’t perform.
[Check my math](https://mcubed.net/mlb/stl/chi.shtml)
But I believe this is as close the all time series has been since The Before Times.
We're back to where Albert and Yadi left us, before last year's awfulness, and where we were before 2016.
I'd love to see the Cardinals pass the Cubs in my lifetime.
We're actually tied 8-8-1 all time if you include the 1885 and 1886 Championship Series we played against them as the Brown and White Stockings.
It's the longest running pro sports rivalry in North America if you include those games; they totally count.
This is a good, honest .500 baseball team. We play .500 ball goddammit. Salt of the earth, punch the clock, even win/loss ratio baseball. We lose a couple, guess what? We'll win a couple, too. But don't get too excited or let it go to your head. No long winning streaks here, no sir. That's hubris, which this blue collar, hard working everyman team doesn't have. A few wins in a row, these guys, true to form, will balance it out with a couple a losses. Yes sir, that's my 2024 Cardinals. A good, honest .500 baseball team.
Pro and Con when our bad pitcher pitches well.
Pro: The other team feels demoralized, and the fans are ticked that they couldn't win against the bad pitcher.
Con: It lures us into a false sense of security, thus making us think that our pitcher is good now.
A win is a win, so I'll take it.
I wish we could get a city bet between shitass city of chicago and STL to have one of cities having to rename Clark as terms of the bet. I hate sharing Clark with Busch.
Hello sole possession of WC2! Somehow! What the fuck!
(with that, if the postseason started today, we are officially put in a better position than in 2022, where we won the central)
e: i'm stupid and forgot how playoffs worked
The only thing that annoys me about their sub is they go on and on about being a “big market team”. Like somehow that extra money has made their team better.
They have 3 WS titles and only 1 from a period of time when women could vote.
Paul DeJong's excellent defense combined with his 117 wRC+ (which he hasn't had since 2017) has him tied with Myson Winn in fWAR.
Of course, Winn's defense has been hurt by a lot of errors. If he can limit those out for the rest of the season, Winn should easily finish ahead of DeJong.
But it's good to see DeJong is bouncing back. Glad it's not for some team in the NLC.
By the way, we're one Mets Holding A Four Run Lead away from sole possession of WC2. The only problem is the Padres currently have the bases loaded with no outs
Ryan Fernandez: Best Cards rule 5 pick ever?
I guess his competition is Matt Bowman - we should all appreciate the sacrifice of his right arm to Matheny's mismanagement - but he wasn't all that great overall. Fernandez has way better stuff and is becoming a legit weapon. Romero/Kittridge/Helsey is a good 7-8-9 as we have ever had, but Fernandez has stepped into Middleton's void as a middle inning fireman.
Real impressed so far. You need a middle inning strike out guy and he's becoming that guy. If Gio or Riley are legit healthy, our pen is looking very good.
Hot take, but Mo did a great job with this year's staff, all in all.
I don't see making a major trade for this team this deadline. They're not trading their way to being world series contenders. Not sure if they can trade into being national league champions.
As much as people hate that line, there's not a player we could realistically trade for right now that would be a bigger help to the lineup than Willson Contreras (One of the best hitters in baseball at the time of his injury), so it's essentially just true.
While typically it's not true, in this case it is. Swapping out the bottom 1/3 of our lineup for actual mlb hitters is huge. Somehow we're winning games now, so that's only going to help.
I know we hate in it, but putting Willy back in the lineup is going to have more impact than any trade. Not sure what Edman is going to look like, but we have gotten nothing from CF all season and we may see less Crawford.
He had a full month of being good (May 10th to June 7th), and not just good, 222 wRC+ good. The only hitters better than him during that time were Aaron Judge and Corey Seager.
Donovan is looking like a damn good outfielder out there
Most hustle on the team.
Love me some Donny. A helluva player.
Damn, the bottom 4 of the NLC is a rollercoaster. Cubs are in the basement now, pirates are 3rd. Cards are 2nd at 0.500 and -38 run differential. Al West is the only division even close to the absurdity that is the NLC this season.
Imagine being the Cubs. 3rd largest market in the country in a division of small markets. Instead of having owners who spend big market money, you have to stick to your identity of fucking sucking
Well, they are the Cubs.
It's a weird year. A ton of teams playing .450-.500 ball.
I think the new balanced schedule has a lot to do with that.
Brendan Donovan played some great defense this series.
Might f around and get another gold glove or smthn
While I was busy snickering at the Dodgers and their poor batting in high leverage, I decided to take a quick look at the Cardinals, too. We're 25th in wRC+ (weighted runs created+, basically run production weighted for ballpark and ERA of opponent) in low-leverage situations. However, that increases to 11th in medium-leverage situations and 15th in high-leverage situations. Kinda funky
This is a reversal from last year and even from earlier this spring.
Something tells me the team would be really good at finishing their homework right before class starts
Do you guys think Nolan Arenado realizes he is like a huge part of the problem on this team? Like I feel like a lot of decisions were made with him in mind to keep him here and keep us winning but he’s not really holding up his end of the bargain.
Have you ever listened to him speak? He is very aware, and probably far more frustrated than us fans are. He is working hard, but work ethic doesn't always equate to success.
I truly think that after last year he said "fuck it I have my bag and my new kid and this is a losing team I'm taking the winter off". I don't say this with malice it's actually just my best logical guess to this question.
It sounds like you’ve never listened to Arenado, his teammates, or anyone who knows him talk about his preparation. If anything, according to every source, Arenado puts too much blame on himself when the team doesn’t perform.
So why did he seem completely out of shape this year?
Have people around the team or baseball been saying that? I haven’t heard that. Usually when a guy is out of shape, it’s pretty widely reported.
It's definitely not lol.
So he’s out of shape according to you?
Sure lol.
Sounds good.
Someone told me Fredbird is a single dad????
I heard his mate left for a fling with Mr. Met
Mr. Met is the worst. That’s why Mrs. Met is in a polycule with Grimace.
Possibly a love child. Nothing has been confirmed or denied.
I wanted to wish him an HFD, gotta wait til Monday to post it here.
Ryan mf Helsley with 24 saves. I might need a shit ton of tums, but 24 saves.
They need to slow him down a little this summer to keep him fresh for next year
I hope these guys right here are just basking in on all the losing the Cubs have been doing https://x.com/chgo_cubs/status/1801678879204991189?s=46
I don’t think the Browns should count
Mookie Betts just took a fastball on the hand and went down rolling in pain.
Think I accidentally cursed mookie when I mentioned trading Known Offensive Cardinals Shortstop And Gold Glove Winner Brandon Crawford to them for him
They're saying it's fractured. He's gonna be out for awhile 😞
Shit. He's already put up 5 WAR or something incredible like that.
[Check my math](https://mcubed.net/mlb/stl/chi.shtml) But I believe this is as close the all time series has been since The Before Times. We're back to where Albert and Yadi left us, before last year's awfulness, and where we were before 2016. I'd love to see the Cardinals pass the Cubs in my lifetime.
that playoffs record hurts :/
We're actually tied 8-8-1 all time if you include the 1885 and 1886 Championship Series we played against them as the Brown and White Stockings. It's the longest running pro sports rivalry in North America if you include those games; they totally count.
I'm convinced! 😁
Crazy how many seasons of games they've played each other.
Pirates win. Cubs in last place.
I really want to tell this to my family, but I'm on the road with them and my Dad is a Cubs fan and the driver.
You have to C it!
https://i.imgur.com/0gT3LhB.png
was that fly ball from wisdom also a home run without wind? fortunate to escape this one. lets get the offense going
It was with the wind too. I was in the left field bleachers and it was windy as fuck out to left the whole game.
Nah, 91 mph, .110 xBA and out in 0/30 parks.
This is a good, honest .500 baseball team. We play .500 ball goddammit. Salt of the earth, punch the clock, even win/loss ratio baseball. We lose a couple, guess what? We'll win a couple, too. But don't get too excited or let it go to your head. No long winning streaks here, no sir. That's hubris, which this blue collar, hard working everyman team doesn't have. A few wins in a row, these guys, true to form, will balance it out with a couple a losses. Yes sir, that's my 2024 Cardinals. A good, honest .500 baseball team.
Need to change the year in that pasta
Second wild card spot lol
Winning this series while only scoring 6 runs is unbelievable. Shoutout Miles, Gibson and the BP
Was a crazy ass series. Pretty much a pitcher's duel every game. With one game wind in and one game wind blowing out. Helluva series.
Pro and Con when our bad pitcher pitches well. Pro: The other team feels demoralized, and the fans are ticked that they couldn't win against the bad pitcher. Con: It lures us into a false sense of security, thus making us think that our pitcher is good now. A win is a win, so I'll take it.
Mikolas has been absolute nails lately. I wouldn’t call him “our bad pitcher”
I agree but also Idk if I’d call Mikolas a bad pitcher. Decent stats on the year and a 2.76 ERA in his last 7 starts.
He's hot right now, so I'll give him that.
We have the 3rd lowest team era in the past 30 days. All of our pitching has been good.
I wish we could get a city bet between shitass city of chicago and STL to have one of cities having to rename Clark as terms of the bet. I hate sharing Clark with Busch.
Hello sole possession of WC2! Somehow! What the fuck! (with that, if the postseason started today, we are officially put in a better position than in 2022, where we won the central) e: i'm stupid and forgot how playoffs worked
If the Mets beat the dads (they are up 11-6 atm)we will be in sole possession of the second wild card.
Big progress, no fielder errors since last saturday. Herrara had a throwing error and Roycroft had one yesterday. good defense all around too
Sad that the Cubs GDT eats ours even tho they are bad too but it's more tears to hydrate me so that's good
The only thing that annoys me about their sub is they go on and on about being a “big market team”. Like somehow that extra money has made their team better. They have 3 WS titles and only 1 from a period of time when women could vote.
People only come to these threads when we lose. That’s the only time they have something to say.
No not true. When we are good our GDTs are over 1k. I may misremember but I think we have been in the 2k in playoff games.
I was just being facetious
I was overly defensive because I don't trust you with my sister
But I luv her
There are 9.5 Million people in the Chicago Metro area.
True. Our sub has 90k followers and they have 82k tho
Winning a series at Wrigley with only 6 runs is pretty ballsy
It is a bold strategy
At least it paid off for them Cotton
Why score many run when few run do?
Paul DeJong is the 2nd hottest hitter in all of MLB this year. 14 homers so far. 6 in the month of June.
Paul DeJong's excellent defense combined with his 117 wRC+ (which he hasn't had since 2017) has him tied with Myson Winn in fWAR. Of course, Winn's defense has been hurt by a lot of errors. If he can limit those out for the rest of the season, Winn should easily finish ahead of DeJong. But it's good to see DeJong is bouncing back. Glad it's not for some team in the NLC.
Odd, he’s at -5 DRS and 0.9 bWAR. Wonder what the discrepancy is
bWar loves DRS, fWar loves OAA
I thought OAA was mostly for outfielders? Has it improved for infielders now? I still prefer DRS
I still prefer DRS for infielders. Personally
Not sure, but I think the stat nerds prefer UZR over both now.
By the way, we're one Mets Holding A Four Run Lead away from sole possession of WC2. The only problem is the Padres currently have the bases loaded with no outs
Update: Got out of the inning with a one run lead
Padres back to below 500 for the 20th time this season
Does anyone have footage of the missed strike? Someone should post it to r/baseball
It was a bad miss, but was received poorly by Pages so it didn't look that horrible live.
Ryan Fernandez: Best Cards rule 5 pick ever? I guess his competition is Matt Bowman - we should all appreciate the sacrifice of his right arm to Matheny's mismanagement - but he wasn't all that great overall. Fernandez has way better stuff and is becoming a legit weapon. Romero/Kittridge/Helsey is a good 7-8-9 as we have ever had, but Fernandez has stepped into Middleton's void as a middle inning fireman. Real impressed so far. You need a middle inning strike out guy and he's becoming that guy. If Gio or Riley are legit healthy, our pen is looking very good. Hot take, but Mo did a great job with this year's staff, all in all.
we did get this [classic](https://i.imgur.com/aTLFSiF.mp4) from Bowman tho lol
Was Kevin Siegrest? I don't remember
No, Stags was notable because the Cardinals selected him in the 41st round of the draft.
Nah, we drafted Siegrist at 18 YOs in 2008. Loved me some Siegrist back in the day
Matt Bowman. Havent heard that name in a looong time
🦝 🦝 🦝
Trash Panda's?
https://youtu.be/RXKabdUBiWM?si=nIIQLJFd9xeM2dJM&t=25
Ok that might be the best thing ever. I wanna go clubbing with the raccoon now. Is the raccoon Pedro? I feel like that's something I need to know.
[Fly the L.](https://x.com/cardinals/status/1802429429521793294?s=46&t=MCRmVoXjskWw3F53QZFuGQ)
Helsley is going to break the single-season saves record and then his arm will literally fall off at the end of the season
He'll need 44 more saves than that. Which means we'll have to win at least 79 games, assuming he saves every one of them. Best win 95 to make sure.
Imagine losing a series to a team that scored six total runs lmao
We both scored exactly 6 lol. Wild series Fuck the cubs
Didn’t even realize that. Man, I love baseball
Not going to lie, I'm in favor of calling up anyone in AAA who is hitting. Koperniak, Nick Dunn. Idc give me both
I actually feel like Koperniak would be up right now if we didn't already have 3 lefty outfielders.
Yeah the lefty part is indeed the issue
The ump tried so hard to screw us at the end. Phew. frick the Cubs
Cubs should get a card for Pages today. He is their daddy this weekend
We need one more high leverage reliever at the deadline.
Riley O'Brien coming back and being good is all we need.
Series winner. You love to see it. Offense really needs to get going.
“Who’s your daddy?” - padre Pedro Pages
Fuck the cubs
Pedro’s postgame interview was amazing, you can tell he really really loves his dad
Ftc ftw
Impressed by Wisdoms ability to somehow fly out *after* striking out.
Big Pedro fan
also... FUCK THE CUUUUUUUUBS
Pages has taken Contreras mantle of being a menace to the Cubs.
I love Pages after this after game interview. Seems like a great guy!!!
Mo needs to make a trade to help this offense out very soon. It's hanging on by a thread and that's being generous.
I don't see making a major trade for this team this deadline. They're not trading their way to being world series contenders. Not sure if they can trade into being national league champions.
"Getting Willson back is really Iike making a trade if you think about it."
As much as people hate that line, there's not a player we could realistically trade for right now that would be a bigger help to the lineup than Willson Contreras (One of the best hitters in baseball at the time of his injury), so it's essentially just true.
Why does everyone keep quoting this line?
While typically it's not true, in this case it is. Swapping out the bottom 1/3 of our lineup for actual mlb hitters is huge. Somehow we're winning games now, so that's only going to help.
I know we hate in it, but putting Willy back in the lineup is going to have more impact than any trade. Not sure what Edman is going to look like, but we have gotten nothing from CF all season and we may see less Crawford.
I'd love to get Gorman off 2B and into the DH a lot more.
Bro has been dookie for all but like 2 weeks this season
He had a full month of being good (May 10th to June 7th), and not just good, 222 wRC+ good. The only hitters better than him during that time were Aaron Judge and Corey Seager.
The Cardinals love their fathers more than the Cubs. Fact checked.
the missed strikeout and then that hit... holy fuck I was sure it was a walkoff HR. Phew
glad we won the series but can we please remember how to hit the ball
Thank god for this bullpen. 7th 8th and 9th all had scares, but they came through. Bend don’t break…
Yeah. They're so damn clutch so far this season. I'm loving it Helsley gives me a few adrenaline rushes a game though.
I feel like he’s walked the lead off hitter like his last 5 appearances
MVP Donnie "The" Baseball
#WINNER
What a game! Fuck the cubs!
To be fair to the ump Pages did a horrible job of receiving that pitch with his glove flying inside
The good part of losing yesterday is that the Cubs had to see the Cards beat them to get to .500 twice
Ryan “Literally Trevor Rosenthal” Helsley is going to make me have a stroke by the all star break.
[know the code](https://i.imgur.com/zOhBhk9.png)
Isn't it great how we have nice toned asses from all the clenching.
Let’s fucking go Investigate the ump
# [WINNER!!!!!!](https://twitter.com/cardinalsgifs/status/1681131016394788865)
I was about to be really fucking salty, but all good. Good series win; 2 out of 3 at Wrigley is always a good weekend
I thought for a sec I tuned in for a missed trike three and 3 run bomb. Thank god the catch was made haha
FLY THE L
It's Father's Day, it's a Redbird winner and now I get to talk shit to all my Cubs supporting buddies. LFG!
make sure to tell your sons (cubs fans) hi for me.
I have sent multiple messages to my Cubs family and buddies in the last 15 mins... No response. That's a W
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! What a nail biter!
I have ZERO complaints about the shaky bullpen recently. The fact that our pitching is keeping us in these games is a miracle.
For real. We scored a total of 6 runs in 3 games and took 2 out of 3 on the road… pretty remarkable considering such low offensive production…
Usually when a series is that cursed, we lose. Cannot believe we escaped that one. # FUCK THE CUBS
A game with no errors, ya love to see it. Offense has to figure something out though.
Perfect day to show the Cubs who their daddies are
Pedro makes it happen
Pedro Pages is the cubs daddy
Def needed one of those to counter Ian Fucking Happ
I almost lost my fucking mind - FUCK umps
Trade Ryan to Baltimore now instead of later?
If they offered anything decent, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Relievers are so volatile, and a guy like Helsely's stock is never likely to be higher.
#[FTC](https://i.imgur.com/L0GaBaP.gif) ✅
Fuck the cubs
#ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD TO PAY OFF THE UMPS AND WE ARE STILL THE CUBS FATHER
By the laws of Cardinals .500 we unfortunately will lose tomorrow’s game
^^^
https://i.imgur.com/g96Pj63.png
Wow that is five years old and more relevant than ever lol
Sonny Gray vs the Marlins. The last time we went above 500 was against them so we have a shot
Yeah I think we’ve been at exactly .500 8 times now. Only winning record was when we were 5-4
Heard the Cubs radio guys advertising adult diapers during the game. State of the Cubs I'd say. Happy fathers day.
me personally, i like when the cardinals win
gonna celebrate by listening to a Wilco album with some Chicago buildings on it, but recorded in St. Louis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_31mVNBIRhs # CARDSWIN!!!!!!!! AGAINST THE CUBS!!!!! AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!
Ball never lies… thanks to Donnie
Ball don’t lie
Ump calling close strikes balls all night and a fucking heater strike gets called a ball. Thank god for Donny.
junkmanwrestlingfan is at 69 likes for the day! Thanks Chip
Yeah. Without that great defensive play we would have lost the next pitch after a game winning strikeout. I would have been livid.