Fighting Off the Body Shots

As we close in on the climax of perhaps the best movie ever made1, Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker are batting each other. The Dark Lord has plenty of experience, the young Jedi in training has a few tricks up his sleeve. Vader pushes Luke into the carbon freezing chamber, only to be surprised when Luke leaps out of the pit and continues the fight. Luke even gets a shot in on his own, knocking Vader off of the platform and into the darkness.

However, when they re-engage in the depths of Cloud City, things take a turn. Vader, using his power, starts throwing debris at Luke. Luke is able to defend himself from the first one or two, but soon the cumulative effect wears on him and, eventually, he finds himself sucked out of a window.

The Cardinals, right now, are starting to feel like Luke waving his lightsaber as Vader peels things off the wall. The trade deadline came and went, removing two significant pitching options (and Lars Nootbaar, whose impact had been lessened this year due to injury). The club fended off that blow rather easily, as Alec Burleson had a three home run game right after the deadline and they took the next fire series. (Though it took a little luck and a Dane Myers error to salvage the Cincinnati trip.)

However, even in those series, the bullpen turned into an obstacle of its own, as even formerly reliable arms causing angst. When you almost lose a 10-5 lead with only three outs remaining, that leaves a mark. Then, before the Philadelphia series started, another implement came hurtling the club’s way as Andre Pallante went on the injured list. That night, Hunter Dobbins left his start with a strained forearm, never a good prognosis. A club that had gone more than a year and a half without a starting pitcher injury had two of them hit in the same night.

The club winds up dropping the first two in Philadelphia—one because, in part, Jose Fermin needed to play center field in an extra-inning game and one because Quinn Mathews didn’t have it and the large deficit meant that Ryan Fernandez went for two innings2. Suddenly a team that left Chicago on a serious high now is back to one game over .500 and while reeling is an overstatement, staggering might not be.

This team has shown a significant resiliency all year, of course. When they slipped under .500 a couple of weeks ago, I didn’t necessarily expect them to return to that level or any significant mark above yet. Yet they got to three games up before the Philly series and it would have been more had the Reds series gone the way it should have instead of the way it did. I’m not saying that they are flying out the plate glass window on their way to the depths yet, but another bit of debris might wind up shattering that window and forcing them to try to hang on.

There’s a lot of great things about this team and no matter what happens this has been a successful season. All gas tanks eventually hit E though and it’s possible the warning light is coming on.

So it’s been quite some time since I put anything here and for that I apologize3. We’ll get into a few reasons for that in the personal section at the end, but for the moment I wanted to hit on a couple of things that happened this month. I’ve addressed these topics and more on both Meet Me at Musial and Gateway To Baseball Heaven (available wherever fine podcasts are downloaded), but I’ll hit some of the high points here for those that aren’t regular listeners.

The first big thing was, of course, the trade deadline. The scuffles of the team in July made it easier for Chaim Bloom to do what he was always going to do, trade Dustin May and JoJo Romero. I didn’t necessarily expect them both in the same trade, however! It was an interesting packaging of assets and it produced results, getting two excellent outfield prospects out of the Brewers. I have no issue with Bloom picking the in-division rivals to make this deal. For one, neither May nor Romero is going to help the Brewers in 2027 and beyond, unless of course the Brewers extend them. The Cardinals aren’t catching the Brewers in 2026, so why would we get worked up about them getting better in the short-term? Besides, this could help keep the Cubs from taking the division (it seems nothing can keep them out of the playoffs entirely) and that’s always a good thing. Trading in division with expiring contracts is fine, unless you make it easier for the Cubs to win the World Series. That goes against first principles of being in the Cardinals organization, in my book.

The trade of Lars Nootbaar was a little more interesting, in part because it came so late in the day, just minutes before the deadline. In my last post, I said I didn’t think he’d get moved and I really didn’t, but it made sense in the fact that the club had done without Noot a lot this season and he’s always been more of a theoretical contributor than an actual one. Statcast loves him, baseball card numbers don’t. Noot’s hitting under .200 since the deal (walking eight times, striking out seven, continuing to reinforce the idea he’s become a little too passive at the plate) and, suffice it to say, his eventual replacement has been a bit more productive.

The return on that deal was solid as well for someone with those issues. I was at the Springfield Cardinals game last night in Little Rock and Daniel Eagan looked pretty sharp, taking a no-hitter into the fifth and really just having one iffy inning.4 I didn’t get to see Sandro Santana, the second part of that return, but he’s been pretty smooth5 so far, striking out 11 and walking just one in 5.2 innings.

All in all, Bloom had one of the better trade deadlines that we’ve seen and we could see the dividends starting as early as late next year, I think. Could Josiah Ragsdale start at AAA next year and be knocking on the door by the All-Star Break? I’d think it’s possible (depending, as everything does, on the CBA). The same with Eagan maybe, though I’d guess he’s a Springfield guy to kick off 2027. Santana, though, feels like a fast riser possibility. Hopefully at the end of the season we can have Kyle Reis on one of the shows and we can see how likely that idea is from an expert.

On one of the shows, I made the argument that you could trade May and Nootbaar and either hold serve or perhaps get better by promoting Mathews/Dobbins and Baez to fill those spots. Basically, that’s what the team has done now and while it remains to be seen if they are better, there’s definitely some excitement around the replacements, though after this weekend that’s more on the offensive side.

As we all know, Joshua Baez made some amazing history last Saturday in Chicago. To hit a home run off the first pitch you see in the majors is awesome enough, but then to hit two more, spraying the ball around the yard while also putting it in the stands, was incredible. Add to the fact that it happened in Wrigley against the Cubs and, well, if they ever top that start to a career, I want to see it.

Baez currently has five hits, four of the home run variety, and we’ve seen the strikeout issue we knew was going to rear its head (12 in 32 at bats). However, the power is there—even most of his outs are hit hard—and we’ll likely see some more big moments from him before the year is done. Hey, he’s already gotten two steals so he’s in the 2/2 club. Right there with Pedro Pages and ahead of a lot of guys, including the traded Lars Nootbaar.

As probably all of you know, Bernie Miklasz has started up his Substack. A number of you have found yourselves over here from a link on his page, I believe, and for that I thank him and you. I haven’t done the full subscription thing yet, but I plan to soon. I know Bernie will have a lot of free stuff but not only do you want to have access to all he writes, it’s a way of saying thanks for all he’s done throughout his long St. Louis career.

The podcasts are going well. Besides the regular shows—Allen and I did a Musial this morning and David and I will get a Gateway in tomorrow—I had the chance recently to talk with Michael Clair, author of We Sacrifice Everything To Baseball, currently drastically discounted at Amazon. It was a fun talk about his book on the Czech baseball team, so I recommend giving it a listen!

When my birthday rolled around at the beginning of the month, I kicked off an idea that I’ve come to term #ProjectHailCyclones. Between now and my next birthday (when I turn 52), my goal is to have lunch/dinner/coffee/etc. with at least 52 of those that graduated with me from Russellville High School (home of the Cyclones, to explain the hashtag) in 1993. While I have a great group of guys that I still see regularly, I’m expanding out to those that I didn’t know as well either then or now.

So far I’ve had five of these with at least two more scheduled for next week. It’s been a really interesting experience so far, spending time doing some reminiscing, of course, but also talking about what’s going on now, how things are, and just spending time connecting. I’m finding that it’s needed for a lot of folks these days.