Hello, and welcome to my new feature here at STL Sports Central: Breakfast with Bernie, which I’ll write early in the morning on most weekdays. I’ll serve up observations, opinions, notes, facts, stats, praise, cheap shots, randomness, and some weirdness as I have my first cuppa or two of the day. We’ll (mostly) go “Buffet” style to give you a chance to graze before I write a different column that I’ll post later in the day. On most days during the week, I’ll lead off with a Cards recap/review or something similar.
Let’s get started …
The Cardinals lost to the Rangers, 2-1, on Monday at Busch Stadium. Here’s why:
1. The Redbirds were absolutely pathetic offensively, Part I: Only five hits in nine innings. A season-high 14 strikeouts with just one walk. The Cards put two runners on base in the first inning, two runners on base in the second inning, and two runners on base in the fourth inning but wasted those run-scoring opportunities by going 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position.
Texas starter Jacob deGrom pitched five shutout innings. No surprise there. But in the first four innings the Cardinals had four hits (including a double) plus a walk against deGrom but did nothing with it.
2. The Redbirds were absolutely pathetic offensively, Part II: Masyn Winn hit a solo homer with two outs in the 6th. But excluding Winn’s one payoff swing, the final 16 Cardinals who came to the plate failed to reach base, struck out eight times, and hit only one ball out of the infield.
3. The Redbirds were absolutely pathetic offensively, Part III: The Rangers retired the last 10 St. Louis hitters of the game, striking out five of them. It’s one thing to be blanked by deGrom, a two-time Cy Young award winner. But four Rangers relievers took care of the final four innings, and even though Peyton Gray yielded Winn’s home run, the Texas bullpen struck out six of their 13 batters faced for a strikeout rate of 46.2 percent. Sad.
4. The Redbirds were absolutely pathetic on offense, Part IV: I’d be remiss if I failed to mention one of the most glaring aspects of this STL lineup clunker. In Monday’s game, Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman had a combined seven at-bats and all seven at-bats were terminated by strikeouts. Walker and Gorman were hardly alone; 41.2 percent of the Cards’ plate appearances in this game resulted in a strikeout. Good grief.
5. The Redbirds were absolutely pathetic on offense, Part V: Since May 3 the Cardinals have scored two runs or less in 14 of their 27 games. Their record in those 14 games is 1-13. Only the Angels have been worse, scoring no more than two runs in 15 of their last 27 games.
The Buffet awaits …
— About Jordan Walker: Since the start of the Milwaukee series, a span of seven games, Walker is 4 for 27 (.154) and all four hits have been singles. He’s had one walk and seven strikeouts over the seven games.
— Two problems for Walker over the last seven games: (1) an excessive 41.7 percent chase rate on pitches out of the strike zone, and (2) his 52.6% ground-ball rate. While Walker has connected with authority – a 57.9% hard-hit rate – he hasn’t barreled a single pitch over the last seven games.
— I can’t stand the phrase “full stop,” which is written/ used to express finality, with the speaker making it clear that no further discussion or disagreement will be considered. Extremely annoying. It should be reserved for a meaningful purpose. Example: “Roger Goodell is a jerk. Full stop.”
— Way back in the day, when I listened to a lot of ska, the English Beat song “Ranking Full Stop” was a banger.
— Nobody asked me but … here’s my personal ranking of the best ska bands from the 2-tone era in the late 1970s, early 1980s: The Specials, Madness, English Beat, The Selecter, and Bad Manners.
— I’m glad I got that essential information to you. You certainly came here looking for my take on ska music. Full stop.
— Nolan Arenado is happy in his new existence with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Chase Field, Arenado’s new home ballpark, has revived his offense in dramatic fashion.
— This season Arenado has a .326 average, .558 slugging percentage and 170 wRC+ at home. That makes him 70 percent above league average offensively when he’s swinging at Chase Field.
— And when ‘Nado is away from Chase Field? On the road ‘Nado has a .217 average, .380 slug, and a wRC+ that’s 11 percent below league average offensively. That’s a massive difference of 81 percent between his home-road performance.
— The Stanley Cup Final gets underway Tuesday night, with the Carolina Hurricanes installed as a minus 155 favorite, which implies a 61% win probability.
— Carolina got here with one of the most dominant postseason runs in NHL history, winning 12 of 13 games while outscoring Ottawa, Philadelphia and Montreal by a collective score of 45-20.
– St. Louis Blues and STL connections are thick in this matchup. Carolina is coached by the former Blue Rod Brind’Amour, and a former Blues draft pick William Carrier is a depth forward for the Hurricanes. The ex-Blue factor is prominent on the Vegas roster including two members of the 2019 Stanley Cup champion team: defenseman Alex Pietrangelo and forward Ivan Barbashev. Former Blues forward Brandon Saad is a Golden Knight.
— Carolina in 7. I hope.
— I’m not saying that World Cup ticket prices are extravagant or anything, but I had to pass when FIFA suggested that I liquidate my 401(k) savings when I asked if they accepted credit cards.
— If I have to listen to MLB Players Association executive director Bruce Meyer spend the next 10, 11 months whining about collective-bargaining proposals from baseball’s owners, it may actually kill my interest in the sport. Meyer is possibly the only living person who makes MLB commissioner Rob Manfred seem like a good guy. Some see Meyer as a puppet for player agent Scott Boras and his elite clients, and when I see or hear Meyer speaking I assume Boras is in the background, pulling strings.
— By the way: if you think the Cardinals are having a challenging time in motivating fans to come back to Busch Stadium, just wait until this insufferable Meyer vs. Manfred Show goes on and on, nonstop. The Cardinals won’t be able to give tickets away.
— Here’s a fresh view of Cards power-hitting prospect Joshua Baez from Eli Ben-Porat of Baseball America:
“Báez is looking very much like the player he was forecasted to be out of high school,” Ben-Porat wrote. “He’s posting exit velocities that would easily be plus-plus with game power that will come close or exceed that, as he’s a launch angle monster. He’s mashing against all pitch types, suggesting his swing can do damage no matter what’s thrown his way.
“Having a steep, launch angle-oriented swing typically comes with swing-and-miss risk, and Báez is no exception to that. The biggest flag is likely the chase rate, which he’ll need to cut down dramatically to succeed in the majors.
“It’s taken five years for Báez to fulfill his draft profile, but he is now looking like a 35-homer bat who will need to make more contact and draw more walks to succeed in the majors.”
Thanks for reading …
–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. Before that Bernie spent a year at the Dallas Morning News, covering the Dallas Cowboys during Tom Landry’s final season (1988) plus the sale of the team to Jerry Jones and the hiring of Jimmy Johnson as coach. Bernie has covered several Baseball Hall of Fame managers during his media career including Tony La Russa, Whitey Herzog, Earl Weaver, Joe Torre and (as an interim) Red Schoendienst. In his career as a beatwriter and columnist, Bernie covered Pro Football Hall of Fame coaches Joe Gibbs, Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson and Dick Vermeil on a daily basis.
Bernie has covered and written about many great St. Louis sports team athletes including Albert Pujols, Kurt Warner, Brett Hull, Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, Jim Edmonds, Marshall Faulk, Scott Rolen, Mark McGwire, Orlando Pace, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Al MacInnis, Brian Sutter, Bernie Federko, Chris Pronger, Dan Dierdorf, Jackie Smith and Aeneas Williams. Bernie covered every baseball Cardinals’ postseason game from 1996 through 2014 and was there to chronicle teams that won four NL pennants and two World Series. He provided extensive coverage on the “Greatest Show” St. Louis Rams and has written extensively on the St. Louis Blues, Saint Louis U, and Mizzou football and basketball. Bernie was/is a longtime voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Heisman Trophy and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STL Sports Central, catch him regularly on KMOX (AM or FM) as part of the Gashouse Gang, Sports Rush Hour, Sports Open Line or Sports On a Sunday Morning shows. And you can catch weekly “reunion” segments here at STL Sports Central featuring Bernie and his longtime friend Randy Karraker.