Game of the Week: April 10: STL @ CHC

[Erick RockiesGM]

St. Louis Cardinals (4-2) @ Chicago Cubs (2-4)


STL: Adam Wainwright (0-0, 9.00)
CHC: Jake Arrieta (1-0, 2.57)


While the Chicago Cubs were looking like everybody's trendy pick to be the best team in baseball this season, it's the St. Louis Cardinals who look like potential champions after the first week. The Cardinals will get a stern test in Chicago though to prove that their fast start is real.

Fueled mainly by facing the Marlins and Reds, the Cardinals have jumped out to a 4-2 start. They're scoring over six runs a game, tops in the NL. They're allowing an even four runs a game, third in the NL. Eight players who have recorded at least 20 at bats are hitting .300, and a ninth has four home runs. The offense, Randall Grichuk not withstanding, is firing on all cylinders with Matt Carpenter serving as the catalyst. Carpenter hit .542 last week with a .633 OBP. After three doubles, a homer, and seven runs, Carpenter leads the NL in batting average, on-base percentage, on-base plus slugging percentage, and Wins Above Replacement and was the NL's Player of the Week last week.

Even when something bad happens to the Cards, it turns out to be a positive. Dexter Fowler went down opening day with Plantar fascitis. Instead of missing a beat, St. Louis inserted Tommy Pham in his place, and all Pham did was lead the NL in home runs and RBI's after the first week, slugging four longballs and knocking in 12.

However, after dealing with the likes of Jeremy Hellickson and Adam Conley, the Cardinals will face off against Jake Arrieta. Arrieta worked 7 strong innings of 2-run ball against the Yankees in his season debut, earning a win. He only struck out five, but with the National League's best defense behind him, balls in play aren't the worst thing. Chicago's +3.5 zone rating leads the NL so far, with Tommy la Stella and Addison Russell looking like a stellar defensive infield.

It's the bats for the Cubs that need to wake up. Jason Heyward has an 0.83 ERA in the early going. Albert Almora has an OBP somehow even worse than his .208 average. Kris Bryant has one extra base hit, and Kyle Schwarber is hitting .080. The team is too talented for the bats to stay dormant for long though. Adam Wainwright gave up seven hits, four walks, and five runs against the Marlins in his debut. If he pitches poorly against the Cubs, the stat line may look even worse.


Questions for the GMs:


For Sean Bain, Tommy Pham looked great against the Marlins and Reds. With Fowler on the shelf for a few weeks, are you going to plug him in as the every day center fielder or do you have another move in mind?

You have a lot of line drive hitters on your team facing off against a great defensive roster. Will you try to get more over the fence power in your lineup for the Cubs?

You have a number of good looking pitching prospects in Triple-A. Are any of them close to the show, and what will it take to get them to the big league rotation?

For Mike Meagher, your defense started off great, but your offense is slumping a little bit. Are you fine with the tradeoff?

You have a lot of flexibility with Ben Zobrist and Javier Baez. How will you deploy them this season?

Miguel Montero wants to be in the starting lineup. How will you handle his personality this year?

[CardsGM_Sean]

For Sean Bain, Tommy Pham looked great against the Marlins and Reds. With Fowler on the shelf for a few weeks, are you going to plug him in as the every day center fielder or do you have another move in mind?
Pham is on pace for 108 HR and 321 RBI, we'll roll with him for the next couple weeks until Fowler returns. After that, he will be a platoon bat with Jose Adolis Garcia.

You have a lot of line drive hitters on your team facing off against a great defensive roster. Will you try to get more over the fence power in your lineup for the Cubs?
We'll be adding OBP, Power, and Defense to our lineup against the Cubs. Primarily with our new addition Paul Goldschmidt. It's too bad Fowler is injured because I'm really going to enjoy seeing Fowler, Carpenter, and Goldschmidt at the top of my lineup everyday followed by Adams and Piscotty.

You have a number of good looking pitching prospects in Triple-A. Are any of them close to the show, and what will it take to get them to the big league rotation?
Garcia gets the first crack at the big league roster, but Carson Kelly, Marco Gonzales, and Alex Reyes are on the verge. The amount of young pitching prospects in our system made it easier to trade Flaherty and Weaver in the Goldschmidt deal. Back to the question though, it will take an injury in the bullpen or rotation for either Gonazales or Reyes to get the call.

[Deleted]

Apr 16, 2017 7:50:53 GMT -8 Erick RockiesGM said:

St. Louis Cardinals (4-2) @ Chicago Cubs (2-4)


STL: Adam Wainwright (0-0, 9.00)
CHC: Jake Arrieta (1-0, 2.57)


While the Chicago Cubs were looking like everybody's trendy pick to be the best team in baseball this season, it's the St. Louis Cardinals who look like potential champions after the first week. The Cardinals will get a stern test in Chicago though to prove that their fast start is real.

Fueled mainly by facing the Marlins and Reds, the Cardinals have jumped out to a 4-2 start. They're scoring over six runs a game, tops in the NL. They're allowing an even four runs a game, third in the NL. Eight players who have recorded at least 20 at bats are hitting .300, and a ninth has four home runs. The offense, Randall Grichuk not withstanding, is firing on all cylinders with Matt Carpenter serving as the catalyst. Carpenter hit .542 last week with a .633 OBP. After three doubles, a homer, and seven runs, Carpenter leads the NL in batting average, on-base percentage, on-base plus slugging percentage, and Wins Above Replacement and was the NL's Player of the Week last week.

Even when something bad happens to the Cards, it turns out to be a positive. Dexter Fowler went down opening day with Plantar fascitis. Instead of missing a beat, St. Louis inserted Tommy Pham in his place, and all Pham did was lead the NL in home runs and RBI's after the first week, slugging four longballs and knocking in 12.

However, after dealing with the likes of Jeremy Hellickson and Adam Conley, the Cardinals will face off against Jake Arrieta. Arrieta worked 7 strong innings of 2-run ball against the Yankees in his season debut, earning a win. He only struck out five, but with the National League's best defense behind him, balls in play aren't the worst thing. Chicago's +3.5 zone rating leads the NL so far, with Tommy la Stella and Addison Russell looking like a stellar defensive infield.

It's the bats for the Cubs that need to wake up. Jason Heyward has an 0.83 ERA in the early going. Albert Almora has an OBP somehow even worse than his .208 average. Kris Bryant has one extra base hit, and Kyle Schwarber is hitting .080. The team is too talented for the bats to stay dormant for long though. Adam Wainwright gave up seven hits, four walks, and five runs against the Marlins in his debut. If he pitches poorly against the Cubs, the stat line may look even worse.


Questions for the GMs:


For Sean Bain, Tommy Pham looked great against the Marlins and Reds. With Fowler on the shelf for a few weeks, are you going to plug him in as the every day center fielder or do you have another move in mind?

You have a lot of line drive hitters on your team facing off against a great defensive roster. Will you try to get more over the fence power in your lineup for the Cubs?

You have a number of good looking pitching prospects in Triple-A. Are any of them close to the show, and what will it take to get them to the big league rotation?

For Mike Meagher, your defense started off great, but your offense is slumping a little bit. Are you fine with the tradeoff? Well, first of all Eric, welcome back. The Yankees gave us fits at their place, they we're ready and crowd was tough as usual.  Severino was just lights out in the opener and that momentum carried into the next day.  We're competing and playing hard every night.  Our timing is just a bit off, but we're in early , in the cages everyday and I think the guys are just finding their timing.  Our defense is something we take tremendous pride in.  I expect us to be exceptional in the Outfield this season. Almora is in another league.  He chases down everything, he can play shallow and make up ground like I've never see.  Hay in right has one of the best arms in the game.  We'll take a bit of a tradeoff for now, but I expect things will balance out soon.


You have a lot of flexibility with Ben Zobrist and Javier Baez. How will you deploy them this season?  We are one of the most fortunate teams to have 2 guys like that, especially with Zorb.  He can play -effectively, 4 different positions and his bat in our lineup is something we will count on all season.  Baez and Zorb will compliment each other at 2B, I think Javier will bat vs Lefties , but we plan on interchanging them .  It's a great luxury to have that versatility.

Miguel Montero wants to be in the starting lineup. How will you handle his personality this year?  Ya know, we have a tremendous amount of respect  for Miguel and we certainly want him here and we want him in the starting lineup every day.  He's a gem defensively and can get the job done at the dish.  Because Wilson (Contreras ) is such a threat at the plate, we'll need to fit him in as well.  We'll count on Miguel for some late inning defense, he'll DH and even play some first, but we'll get him in there.  He's an important part of our organization and we expect him to be in there everyday.

[Erick RockiesGM]

Cubs 3 Cardinals 1

WP: Justin Grimm
LP: Adam Wainwright
SV: Carl Edwards Jr


The supposedly mighty Chicago Cubs offense continued to sputter. Their ace pitcher was done in the first inning. Didn't matter, as several unheralded players stepped up to win the game for them.

The Chicago Cubs got 8 innings of one-run ball from their bullpen, plus a three-run home run from Tommy La Stella, to beat the St. Louis Cardinals in a cold, dreary 3-1 game. Chicago's prospects for winning seemed as bleak as the weather when Jake Arrieta limped off the mound after the first inning. After injuring his ankle in pregame warmups, he tried to give it a go in the first. Though he exited the inning unscathed, he was in obvious discomfort and pulled himself out of the game. Fortunately, Chicago's bullpen was up to the task. Pedro Strop worked 1.2 scoreless innings, giving time for Mike Montgomery to warm up. Montgomery followed by working into the 6th, allowing only one run. Justin Grimm came on with one on and one out in the 6th and immediately gave up a single. However, Paul Goldschmidt, trying to endear himself to his new team, was thrown out aggressively trying to go from first to third on a single. Grimm settled down to strike out Aledmys Diaz to keep the Cubs within a run.

However, Chicago's offense sputtered through most of the game. Despite numerous baserunners, they went 1-8 through the first five innings with runners in scoring position, with the only hit being an infield single. Finally in the sixth inning, Kyle Schwarber was hit by a pitch, Ben Zobrist walked, and Tommy la Stella cranked a three-run home run for all the scoring Chicago would need.

Pedro Strop worked a perfect 7th, and Carl Edwards Jr. worked around a one out work in the 9th to retire six of the seven batters he faced and earn the save. Wade Davis pitched the previous day and went unused. All told, the Cubs allowed only four hits from their six pitchers in a great team pitching performance, one made even more impressive considering their starter and nominal closer pitched only a single inning in the game.

The Cardinals offense, which came into the day blistering hot, got shut down by the Cubs and the elements. Paul Goldschmidt made his Cardinals debut and had a awful game, striking out in the 3rd, getting thrown out on the bases in the 6th, and striking out again in the 8th. All told, Goldschmidt went 1-4 with two strikeouts. Tommy Pham continued his strong start with an RBI double and a walk, but Matt Carpenter cooled off, going 0-4.

Adam Wainwright couldn't seem to control the ball very well in the rain. He walked five Cubs, plus hit a batter, in 5.1 innings, before La Stella's blast knocked him out of the game. All told, a disappointing game for the Cardinals after their furious start to the season.


Questions for the GMs


For Sean Bain, Adam Wainwright really struggled tonight. Do you chalk that up to the elements, a patient opponents, or is he no longer reliable at the front of a rotation?

You gave Jose Adolis Garcia a start in left. Do you feel that he's a good enough player to get consistent at bats for a good team?

While he didn't have a good game, Goldschmidt is one of baseball's premier players. What do you think he'll add to your team?

For Mike Meagher, you pulled out the win, but your lineup struggled again to bring in runs. Do you feel like there's an issue there or are several guys just slumping at the wrong time?

You decided to give Tommy La Stella a rare start and he clubbed a huge home run that essentially won you the game. What went into the decision to start him despite all the offensive prowess on your team?

You must be proud of your bullpen after the game you had, pulling the win out despite not using Wade Davis. Speaking of him, he's only workd in two games thus far. Any reason why he didn't get the call?

[CardsGM_Sean]

EFor Sean Bain, Adam Wainwright really struggled tonight. Do you chalk that up to the elements, a patient opponents, or is he no longer reliable at the front of a rotation?
Wainwright still has gas left in the tank, but its pretty sad when a guy like Tommy LaStella beats you. Especially with all of the other big bats in that lineup.

You gave Jose Adolis Garcia a start in left. Do you feel that he's a good enough player to get consistent at bats for a good team?
Garcia is a guy who needs playing time to continue to develop. He's an elite defender, and an upgrade defensively over Grichuk. If the right opportunity presents itself, we could possibly look for a veteran presence at the deadline. For now, he's going to be our starter in Left until Fowler comes back and then will platoon/spot start.

While he didn't have a good game, Goldschmidt is one of baseball's premier players. What do you think he'll add to your team?
Plus Power, Plus OBP, Plus Contact, Plus Defender...I really could go on and on about Goldy. We're really excited to add him to our team and look forward to him retiring as a Cardinal someday. In St. Louis, instead of "rebuilding" we rebuild. Going into the season, our lineup offensively was still behind Chicago. Adding Goldy makes our team a lot closer talent wise with not only Chicago, but LA and WAS too.