Taking hacks to determine if Cardinals' frostbit offense is a warning sign or small sample size

Best Podcast in Baseball

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Sports, Baseball

4.8 • 673 Ratings

🗓️ 12 April 2024

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As the Cardinals head west for the second time in the first month of the regular season, they do so lugging the baggage from one of the least productive lineups in the majors. The Cardinals' rank in the bottom five for many significant offensive categories. Four of the team's home runs have come from the catcher position, none from third baseman Nolan Arenado. He and Paul Goldschmidt, only one full season removed from finishing No. 1 and No. 3 in the MVP voting, have struggled to start the season. So, can it be easily dismissed as small sample sizes? Or, is it right to consider how last season ended and the struggles of spring to search for early warning signs for the Cardinals and their offensive production? KMOX/1120 AM's Kevin Wheeler joins the Best Podcast in Baseball to discussion with Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold the difference between small sample sizes, track records, and warning signs. Consider the JoJo Romero question about the offense. The Cardinals' lefty reliever, off to an impressive start to the season along with the rest of the bullpen, had a strong finish to last season and a strong spring, and that amplifies the April success he's had in limited innings. If that's true for Romero, then isn't the opposite also true? Hitters who struggled toward the end of last season, struggled through spring, and are struggling now cannot be so easily dismissed as small sample sizes. Or can they? This episode of the Best Podcast in Baseball uses a discussion hinged on the lineup to also explore Lars Nootbaar's return from injury, Wheeler's question about the transaction that brings Nootbaar back, how long the Cardinals can run with Victor Scott II in center field, and the power of the left-handed bats on the Cardinals roster to limit what's asked of the pillars, Goldschmidt and Arenado. Also, a point is made about how it's not possible to embrace Dave Duncan's groundball approach for limiting hitters and not see that the pursuit of line drives and balls in the air for hitters is the same idea, just the opposite side of it for enhancing hitters. It's 13 games in and the Cardinals have reached the first true litmus test of their commitment to defense. BPIB is there to explore what comes next. The Best Podcast in Baseball, sponsored by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and Derrick Goold.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The best podcast in baseball is brought to you by Closets by Design.
0:05.6	Update your closet, garage, office, pantry, and more.
0:09.0	Imagine your home totally organized with closets by design.
0:12.6	Call 1,800 by design.
0:14.4	That's 1,800 by design.
0:16.9	Coming into the Arizona series, bottom five in the National League in everything offensively.
0:23.4	And for that to be the case and still be six and seven is the surprising part to me because I thought the lineup was going to have to hit.
0:31.5	And it is going to have to hit, right?
0:32.9	Derek, I mean, if they're going to win the division, if they're going to be a postseason team,
0:36.1	the lineup has to be at least good. It doesn't have to be number one in the national league.
0:40.9	That was, I thought, the easy strength of the team coming into the year.
0:48.3	Hello, everybody, and welcome to the best podcast in baseball, brought to you by Claude
0:51.4	by design of St. Louis. I'm St. Louis Post-Disp post dispatch baseball writer derrick gould joined today and i'm thrilled to have them as always perhaps the most regular
1:01.3	guest on bp well not regular like you're not regular but i mean well i'm not normal that's for sure
1:07.9	yeah no you're not i mean you, you're, you're super regular.
1:13.6	Your replacement level co-host. Is that? No, no, no, that's not even a compliment. Sorry about that.
1:21.1	It's a $10 million a year player. Oh, there you go. Okay. Yeah. No, I think I think you're, you're a wins above average guy.
1:30.5	I think that's what you're, you're a co-host above average.
1:33.0	All right. Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. You're a strong. I'm a two win guest.
1:38.5	Oh my gosh. You're more than that. You're definitely like a three two.
1:42.9	Oh, three to win guest.
1:44.7	Yeah, that's strong.
	...

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