Red Pinstripes: Washed out of Queens
Plus: The Cardinals come to Philadelphia, Jackie Robinson Day, more rule changes, and good pitching performances
Good morning,
Welcome to Red Pinstripes, a baseball newsletter focused on the Phillies and the league at large. Today, I’m writing about the suddenly moribund Phillies, who seemingly couldn’t do anything right over the course of three games in Queens.
Then, it’s time to look at the team’s next opponent, the St. Louis Cardinals, against whom the Phillies will try to turn things around.
Plus, there were a lot of good stories around the league the last couple of days, including stories about Jackie Robinson Day, young pitchers, and more potential rule changes.
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Good luck, Adam
It’s no secret that Adam Haseley has had a rough start to the season. He’s looked lost at the plate and has had some poorly-timed defensive miscues. Now, he’s left the team.
The Phillies announced Wednesday that Haseley had been placed on the restricted list — meaning he won’t draw a salary or accrue service time — for personal reasons. We don’t know what’s going on with Haseley and we don’t have a right to know, but I just hope that whatever is going on he’s doing okay and is with people who love him.
With Haseley out, the Phillies brought up Mickey Moniak to play center field. Moniak didn’t get serious consideration for the job during spring training, but he’ll have a shot now to show he’s grown as a player.
Well that sucked
The Phillies finally didn’t lose a game in Queens this week. All it took was rain postponing an appointment with Jacob deGrom. I think the weather probably wins the Phillies' MVP for the series, and it’s not close.
This series was really bad, particularly for the Phillies position players. In the field, defensive miscues helped the Mets score some extra runs. At the plate, the bats were cold, if they could even make contact. They struck out 31 teams in three games, two of which were 7-inning games.
The starting pitching didn’t look great. Aaron Nola, Chase Anderson and Zack Wheeler all struggled a little without their best stuff. But they pitched well enough that the team could have won any of the games against the Mets if the offense had shown up at all.
Obviously, this cold start to the season by the offense is concerning. But it should also be the team’s strongest asset as the season goes on. So as the Phillies sit in second place with mediocre turns through the order by the starting pitching and an ice-cold offense, I think I’ll take it.
Here come the birds
The St. Louis Cardinals will come to Philadelphia, the first time the two teams have played each other since 2019. The pandemic season meant the Phillies only played teams in the AL and NL East divisions and missed some traditional rivals like the Cardinals, the Pirates and the Reds.
The Cardinals are 6-6 and coming off of a series loss to the Nationals. They have a 22.4% chance of making the playoffs, according to FanGraphs.
The Phillies will miss Cardinals ace Jack Flaherty this weekend. But they will have to face Kwang-Hyun Kim in his first start of the season. Kim was the Cardinals’ best starter last season after coming over from Korea.
The big Cardinals news this week was Yadier Molina catching his 2,000th game with the franchise, the most ever caught by one catcher for one team. I cannot fathom catching 2,000 games. My knees hurt just thinking about it.
For years Molina has defined the type of player you would love to have on your team but love to hate because he’s not. From the outside, it’s hard to see why he’s so acclaimed. He only hits OK. His defense has been fine, but he’s old now. But for the Cardinals, his tenure with the team has been defined by his leadership during multiple championship runs.
Whenever Molina retires, there will be a vigorous debate about his Hall of Fame credentials. I’m not ready to have that debate now. Instead, we should take this time to celebrate one of his generation’s great players.
I might love to hate you, Yadier. But congratulations on everything you’ve accomplished during your career.
Probable starters
Friday, 7:05 PM
Carlos Martínez (6.30 ERA, ) at Zach Eflin(3.45 ERA)
Saturday, 4:05 PM
Kwang-Hyun Kim at Matt Moore (7.56 ERA)
Sunday, 1:05 PM
John Gant (3.00 ERA) at Aaron Nola (3.46 ERA)
Probable lineups
From Roster Resource
Cardinals:
RF, Tommy Edman (117 wRC+)
1B, Paul Goldschmidt (75 wRC+)
3B, Nolan Arenado (156 wRC+)
C, Yadier Molina (159 wRC+)
CF, Dylan Carlson (138 wRC+)
SS, Paul DeJong (67 wRC+)
2B, Matt Carpenter* (35 wRC+)
LF, Justin Williams* (32 wRC+)
*Austin Dean (129 wRC+) and Lane Thomas (57 wRC+) enter the lineup vs. LHP
Phillies:
LF, Andrew McCutchen (62 wRC+)
1B, Rhys Hoskins (113 wRC+)
RF, Bryce Harper (118 wRC+)
C, J.T. Realmuto (123 wRC+)
3B, Alec Bohm (71 wRC+)
SS, Didi Gregorius (104 wRC+)
2B, Jean Segura (82 wRC+)
CF, Mickey Moniak
NL East standings
Phillies playoff odds
PECOTA: 42.6% chance to make playoffs, 16.5% chance to win the division, 85.2-76.8 projected record
FanGraphs: 15.7% chance to make playoffs, 3.9% chance to win division, 79.6-82.4 projected record
Jackie Robinson Day
Yesterday and today Major League Baseball is celebrating Jackie Robinson Day. Here are some Jackie Robinson Day stories.
Every pro team's Jackie Robinson (The Undefeated)
Wright had the talent, but couldn't follow Robinson (The Undefeated)
How Griffey inspired wearing No. 42 on JRD (MLB.com)
LINKS
The new ball is confusing (FanGraphs)
One of the most-watched stories in baseball this year is how the baseball reacts. The league supposedly changed the ball this year to limit home runs, but so far results have been mixed.
Cutter in Hand, Corbin Burnes Is the Hottest Pitcher on the Planet (FanGraphs)
Brewers' Burnes (30 Ks, no walks) sees huge gains from a little tweak (ESPN)
One of the better pitching stories of the year is how the Brewers’ Corbin Burnes has continued his steady progression and now might be one of the best pitchers in baseball. It’s funny how a team that made the postseason just two years ago with almost no starting pitching now has two aces. And those aces, Burnes and Brandon Woodruff, were on that 2019 team.
Speaking of great pitching stories, Carlos Rodón is a great story. He was drafted third overall by the White Sox out of North Carolina State as one of the greatest college pitchers ever. Great things were expected of him. But injuries and a lack of control have affected his career to the point where the White Sox non-tendered Rodón this offseason, before bringing him back as a free agent to compete for the fifth starter spot.
It’s only been two starts, but Rodón is looking a lot better this year. In this game, he was nearly perfect. The only blemish on his record Wednesday night was a backfoot slider that just barely caught Roberto Pérez’s foot.
Which Pitcher Will Be the Next Shane Bieber—and Where Will They Come From? (The Ringer)
Michael Baumann of The Ringer has a theory on how and why teams should be developing starting pitching: draft college pitchers who know how to pitch and teach them how to improve their stuff. It’s worked for Cleveland with Shane Bieber and now Burnes and the Diamondbacks’ Zac Gallen look to follow in his footsteps.
The college baseball season is at its halfway point and it’s a good time to check in on draft prospects. Vanderbilt’s Jack Leiter remains the best player on Keith Law’s rankings, and his teammate Kumar Rocker is not far behind, though his recently diminished velocity might be a concern.
The Atlantic League will experiment with a couple of rules this season as part of Major League Baseball’s efforts to bring more action into the game. One rule change -- moving the mound back a foot -- could be a change we see fairly soon. It seems like there’s a lot of momentum for the idea, especially when you look at how many pitchers are throwing in the high 90s right now. It’s probably the number one factor in the current state of the game.
Altuve, Bregman among 5 Astros out for protocol (ESPN)
Twins' Simmons positive after declining vaccine (ESPN)
COVID continues to rear its ugly head in baseball. The Astros might have an outbreak. And the Twins’ Andrelton Simmons, who very publicly came out against taking the vaccine during spring training, caught COVID.
Jacob deGrom is one of the unluckiest aces in baseball history (The Washington Post)
Jacob deGrom is amazing. He’s also amazingly unlucky.
Highlights!
Ronald Acuña Jr. is from another planet.
Here’s every out from Rodón’s no-hitter.
The day before that, Shane Bieber and Lucas Giolito had a great pitcher’s duel. (It was ruined by the extra innings rule.)