Good afternoon. With the Cardinals ready to open a three-game series at Kansas City, here’s hoping that the heavy traffic for the World Cup games in KC will not cause the Redbirds to strand too many runners on bases – and they’ll find a way home instead. You don’t want to leave them behind. Drive them in.
That was pretty lame.
Anyway…
Notes On My Scorecard…
1ST NOTE, on Jordan Walker. I’m anticipating a bountiful weekend of offense from the big man. I was checking on some numbers, because this is what I do. And here’s a few things that caught my attention:
— Walker has made 67 plate appearances in June, and none have resulted in a walk. That’s right. No walks this month. Unusual. Time to change that.
— In the words of Wilbert Harrison: "Well, I might take a plane, I may take a train, but if I have to walk, I'm going just the same."
— After all, Walker is in Kansas City. Kansas City, here he comes. Walking in. He is, of course, a Walker.
— Because he stopped walking, Walker has a .284 on-base percentage in June. His OBP was .357 over the first two months.
— What else has changed? After striking out only 15.4 percent of the time in May, Walker has a 28.5% strikeout rate in June.
— Walker has a chase rate of 41.3% this month. Way too high. It was also on the high side in May. Last month Walker had a combined swinging/called strike rate of 11.4 percent. In June his combined swing/called strike rate is 34.3%. That’s a huge increase. Walker’s overall contact rate for June (70%) is down from 76% in May. His contact rate on strikes, 87.3% in May, is 82% in June.
— After homering every 14.2 at-bats during the first two months, Walker has homered every 22.3 at-bats in June. One factor: his fly-ball rate, 42.7% in the first two months, is much lower (31.3%) in June.
— Per wRC+, Walker performed 53% above average offensively over the first two months. He is 13 percent above average in June. And that’s despite having very good batted-ball luck as indicated by a .356 average on balls in play.
2ND NOTE, on Rainiel Rodriguez, the 19-year old catching prospect. It took him a while to adjust to Double A pitching after being promoted from High A on May 12. Oh, he’s adjusted. In his last six games for Springfield, through Wednesday, Rodriguez has 13 hits in 25 at-bats (.520) with three home runs, three walks, three hit by pitches, four RBIs, two stolen bases and eight runs scored.
With JJ Wetherholt graduating to the big club, Rodriguez is Baseball America’s choice as the Cardinals’ top prospect. And he may be pushing for the starting job in St. Louis after the 2027 All-Star break.
3RD NOTE, on the catching conundrum: The Cardinals will have to sort out the catcher position and make some hard choices before the start of the 2027 season. Defensively, the best of the lot is Leo Bernal, putting in his developmental time at Triple A Memphis.
Jimmy Crooks is with the big club, getting his chance to make a good impression and earn a role for 2027.
The top hitter, without question, is Rodriguez. I say that because Ivan Herrera has made 77 percent of his total plate appearances at DH since the start of the 2025 season – and has been the DH for 63.3% of his plate appearances this season.
4TH NOTE, on the state of the National League. Despite going 3-4 in their last seven games, the Cardinals remained at No. 6 overall, and fourth in the NL, for best winning percentage. One of the reasons for this is so many teams stalling out around the Cardinals – instead of moving ahead of the Cards. St. Louis still holds the No. 1 wild-card spot and none of these teams seem to be in a rush to take it from them. Take a look at the NL wild-card seekers who can’t pull themselves together:
Phillies, 4-4 in the last eight
Padres, 7-15 in the last 22
Nationals, 10-9 in the last 19
Cubs: have lost 24 of last 36
Dbacks, 7-12 in last 19
Pirates, 4-8 in last 12
Reds: have lost 13 of 19
Mets, 4-5 in last nine
Heck, the hottest team in the wild-card derby are the Marlins who are 11-4 in June. After the Cards take care of their appointment in KC they’ll come home to have a seven-game wild-card skirmish against Arizona (4) and Miami (3).
That’s the start of an increasingly heavy schedule for the Redbirds. After the seven-game homestand the fellas will be tested during a 17-game stretch that has six against the Braves, five vs. the Brewers, three with the Cubs, and three against the Dbacks.
5TH NOTE, on the mission in Kansas City. The Cardinals can’t stumble and trip. Can’t fall down to the Royals’ level. Can't waste an opportunity to win a series from an opponent that’s 30-45 and tied for 28th in the majors with a .400 winning percentage. The Royals are 11-24 in their last 25 games. They are 25-40 in the last 65. KC hasn’t been at .500 since April 6.
The Royals pitching staff has been shattered by injuries. They’ve had 11 pitchers miss a total of 325 in-season days (and counting) on the Injured List in 2026. Six of their pitchers are on the IL right now including Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo, Kris Bubic, Nick Mears, Alec Marsh and James McArthur. And a key piece of the bullpen, Carlos Esteves, was recently transferred to the 60-day IL.
The Kansas City lineup won’t have first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino, who is out with a fractured right hamate. He was having a poor year before getting injured. Last season Pasquantino, Salvador Perez and Makiel Garcia combined for 78 home runs. This season, they’ve collectively hit only 18 home runs. The KC offense is 24th in homers, 24th in slugging, 23rd in OPS and 27th in Win Probability Added (WPA)
The disastrous Kansas City bullpen is arguably the worst in the majors right now – or at least the poorest in the American League. The Royal relievers rank 26th with a 4.85 ERA, and are 29th with a 5.12 fielding independent ERA. The crew has been hammered for an MLB-worst 1.47 home runs per nine innings, and only three bullpens have walked more hitters per nine.
If the Cardinals are on top of their game they should sweep a torn-apart Royal squad that’s lost 11 of its last 14 home games. And Kansas City has won only three of their last 11 series since mid-April. Don’t embarrass yourselves, Cardinals.
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.