How about some Bird Bytes on this pleasant Friday afternoon and early evening?
1. Offense, anyone? Starting with a three-game series this weekend at Milwaukee, the Cardinals have 15 games remaining on their regular season schedule.
2. Haunted house? I don’t know if the Cardinals still stay at the classic Pfister Hotel while enjoying Milwaukee. But according to legend, this stately auberge has ghosts swirling about. I never encountered any unusual spirits during my many trips there while on assignment to write about baseball. And no, I’m not talking about the kind of spirits that are poured at the hotel bar.
3. But if there are any baseball ghosts hanging around, maybe they’re representing the spirit of Cardinals past. You know, back in the days when the St. Louis baseball team had a lively, prolific offense.
4. On that note, perhaps the Cardinals will be jolted out of their sleep by the voices of Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds, Matt Holliday, Matt Carpenter, Scott Rolen, Yadier Molina and David Freese. I’m thinking that these phantasms could offer a pep talk, encouraging the Cardinal hitters to fill American Family Field with doubles and homers and big hits. Just to give the people back home in St. Louis some offense to enjoy. And it might be fun to defeat the Brewers or something.
5. OK, my lame attempt at humor aside … have you watched the Cardinals try to score runs? It’s a painful sight. It’s sad. And it’s really boring.
6. Since the All-Star break, here’s where the Cardinals rank among the 15 National League teams in the meaningful offensive categories.
7. OK, here goes … 15th in runs, 15th in batting average, 15th in on-base percentage, 15th in slugging, 15th in OPS, 15th in Isolated Power, 15th in wRC+, 15th in doubles, 14th in homers, 14th in walk rate, 14th in performance with runners in scoring position and 12th in home runs. Whew. That’s a whole lot of nothing.
8. Since the All-Star break, pitchers on opposing teams have held the Cardinals to 3.35 ERA overall that includes a 3.29 ERA from their starters. Easy work!
9. The Cardinals’ road record, 31-41, is the 9th worst in the majors this season. STL is 9-15 in road games since the All-Star break – and have lost six of their last eight road games as they enter the series in Milwaukee. Since sweeping a series at Cleveland in late June, the Cardinals are 3-7 in their last 10 series away from Busch Stadium.
10. Losing season? The Cards wobbled to 72-74 after getting swept at Seattle, and FanGraphs projects a final 2025 record of 79-83 for the St. Louis baseball men. If the Cardinals finish with a losing season, it would be their second time below .500 since the start of the 2023 season.
11. A look-in on Jesus Baez, the infielder acquired from the Mets in the Ryan Helsley. After adjusting to his new environs and getting settled in at the Cardinals’ High-A affiliate in Peoria, the 20-year old had a .303 average, .530 slugging percentage, .859 OPS, four homers, three doubles and 14 RBIs in his last 16 games through Thursday.
12. A look-in on the slugging prospect Blaze Jordan, acquired by the Cardinals from Boston in the trade for Steven Matz. After a very slow start at Triple A Memphis, the big man is making some noise. He recently had a two-homer game, and in his last six games he’s slugged .625 with a .958 OPS through Thursday.
13. A look-in on Brycen Mautz, the underrated Cardinals pitching prospect who continues to impress. He’s having a very good season at Double A Springfield, with a 3.04 ERA in 24 starts. But the lefty keeps getting better. He’s had only one bumpy start since June 24. Other than that, Mautz has a 1.42 ERA in 63 innings, with a 28 percent strikeout rate and a low homers-allowed rate of 0.82 per nine innings.
14. A look-in on highly regarded STL pitching prospect Quin Matthews, who has made 21 starts for Triple A Memphis this season. Mathews is still struggling with command issues – which is evidenced by his inflated 16.5 percent walk rate this season. In his most recent start Mathews walked four, gave up five hits (including a HR) and permitted three runs in five innings. In his last four starts Mathews’ strikeout rate was just 21.8 percent, well below his season standard. More bothersome about the last four starts were his 15 walks in 20 innings.
15. A look-in on Rainiel Rodriguez, the Cardinals’ most exciting prospect. The 18-year old catcher has just moved up another level in the Cards system, graduating from Low-A Palm Beach to High-A Peoria. Rodriguez started the season at the rookie Florida Complex League before the Cardinals promoted him to Palm Beach.
16. More on RR here in the RR: This season – combining his performances in Palm Beach and Peoria – Rodriguez has a .276 average, .400 on-base percentage, .555 slugging percentage and a wRC+ that’s 67 percent above league average offensively.
17. More than half of Rod-Man’s hits – 43 out of 83 – have been smashed for extra bases. In just 300 at-bats at the Class A level this season, Rodriguez has cranked 22 doubles, 20 homers and a triple in just 300 at-bats. The other beautiful thing about his offensive profile is his walks … lots of walks … combined with a low strikeout total. In his combined 84 Class A games this season, Rodriguez has a 14.7% walk rate and a 17.7% strikeout rate. Pitchers have plunked him 10 times, but Rodriquez doesn’t flinch.
18. There is only one thing that Chaim Bloom could do this coming offseason to tick me off: trade Raniel Rodriguez … but that ain’t going to happen.
19. The Cardinals do have a potential catching logjam, especially if the club permits Ivan Herrera to return to catching in 2026. As of now, the collection of notable catchers or catching prospects includes Pedro Pages, Yohel Pozo, Jimmy Crooks, Leonardo Bernal and Mr. Rodriguez. I don’t know if Pozo figures into the plans for 2026 because Crooks has already been promoted to the big club. Bernal will move up to Triple A Memphis next season. Rodriguez will likely make the climb to Double A Springfield next year (at some point.) I suppose this is the proverbial nice problem to have.
20. Things I’d like to see from the Cardinals in the Milwaukee series:
– Anything positive from Jordan Walker.
– A couple of home runs – and a low strikeout total – from Nolan Gorman. He seems to like hitting in Milwaukee’s yard; in 14 games and 53 career plate appearances at American Family Field, Gorman has four home runs, two doubles, a .302 average, .434 OBP, .628 slug, and 1.062 OPS. Since the start of last season, Gorman has a .318 average and .682 slug when visiting Milwaukee.
– A strong start from Sonny Gray, who is scheduled to start Saturday’s game. As a Cardinal, Gray has started three games at Milwaukee’s park and has a 7.16 ERA in 16 and ⅓ innings – having gotten clobbered for four home runs, three doubles, three triples and a .606 slugging percentage.
– More pop from Lars Nootbaar. He’s hitting .291 in his last 13 games going into the series … but with only a .364 slugging percentage and one RBI. And Nootbaar is 1 for his last 13 when batting with runners in scoring position.
– A lot fewer strikeouts … and more walks … by St. Louis hitters. As a team the Cardinals have the third-worst strikeout rate (25.4%) and the third-worst walk rate in the majors (6.4%) since the start of August. Not surprisingly their team onbase percentage (.291) is horrible over that time.
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend …
–Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STLSportsCentral, catch him weekdays on the “Gashouse Gang” or “Redbird Rush Hour” on KMOX, and Bernie does a weekly “Seeing Red” podcast on the Cardinals with his longtime pal Will Leitch. Bernie joins Katie Woo on the “Cardinal Territory” video-podcast each week, and you can catch a weekly “reunion” segment here at STL Sports with Bernie’s appearance on the Randy Karraker Show every Friday morning at 10:30 am.