Cardinals Capsules, Vol.9: Rick Ankiel Makes Two Insane Throws, Homers To Pace Cardinals Past Rockies, 2008

Welcome back to Cards Capsules, the series in which we take a look back at memorable Cardinals games from the last 20 years in St. Louis baseball history. Without any baseball to watch in the present due to the spread of coronavirus, what better way to fill the time, eh?

KMOV

Cardinals Have Had Some Memorable Openers

Whenever the time comes this year, I will have covered 42 consecutive Cardinals opening-day games. The Cardinals’ record in the first 41 has been a modest 21-20.

Post-Dispatch

Cardinals Announce Minor League Field Staffs & Player Development Assignments For 2020

The St. Louis Cardinals announced today their 2020 minor league coaching staffs for their affiliate teams in addition to their player development and medical personnel for the upcoming season.
St. Louis Official Site

Seven of the Cardinals’ nine minor-league managers in 2019 will return to their same stands this year, with the only exceptions being Joe Hawkins taking over for Josh Lopez with the Gulf Coast Cardinals rookie team and Estuar Ruiz managing the Dominican Summer League Red team.
Post-Dispatch

Bernie's Daily Redbird Review 8-15-19: Behind Masterful Pitching, Cardinals Win Fifth In a Row, Roll Into Cincinnati

Here’s your Daily Redbird Review:

101 ESPN

Andrew Miller & His First Big-League Start Vs. Cardinals

Andrew Miller made his first major-league start for the Tigers against the Cardinals, impressed Jim Leyland and Tony La Russa and helped his club achieve a measure of redemption against the defending World Series champions.

RetroSimba

How Cardinals Got Edgar Renteria Instead Of Barry Larkin

After making a pitch for Barry Larkin of the Reds, the Cardinals, shopping for a shortstop, turned to a younger, less expensive model, Edgar Renteria of the Marlins.

RetroSimba

Miles Mikolas Is Turning Back The Clock

It’s not exactly Earth-shattering news to report that strikeouts in the game are up. Here at Birds on the Black, we’ve written about it in many different ways just over the course of this baseball season. In 2018, baseball’s K rate is up more than a percent over 2017. In the last 3 ½ seasons, baseball’s K rate is up more than 2%. Baseball’s K rate has increased every season since 2003. Strikeouts now are much more a part of the game than they ever have been in baseball’s history. All this makes what Miles Mikolas is doing so incredible. He looks a lot more like what a successful starting pitcher looked like 10 years ago than what a successful starter looks like in 2018.

Birds On The Black

Cardinals Select Nolan Gorman In The First Round Of 2018 First-Year Player Draft

The St. Louis Cardinals, armed with three selections during the first night of the 2018 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, selected a high school infielder, college pitcher, and college first baseman.

St. Louis Official Site

Jordan Hicks Makes Memorable Debut

In the 40 consecutive Cardinals season openers I’ve covered, there have been many notable moments involving players who were starting their first full season with the club.

Post-Dispatch

Cardinals March Forward To Another Early Start

The Cardinals in 2018 will open a season in March for the fifth time. The March 29 game against the Mets at New York will be the earliest date for a Cardinals regular-season opener.

RetroSimba

How Cardinals Hit The Jackpot With Kyle Lohse

Forced into action out of desperation, the Cardinals went looking for a starting pitcher three weeks before the opening of the 2008 season and, in a stroke of good luck, found someone who would become the staff ace.

RetroSimba

You Don't Have To Like It, But The Cardinals Have A Plan For Pitching

I’ve repeatedly expressed my concerns about the strength and depth of the Cardinals’ starting rotation for 2018. The word I keep coming back to is “vulnerable.”

101 ESPN

Cardinals Instructional Camp News 1-12-18

Friday, January 12 was a day of transition for many of us. For St. Louis Cardinals minor league coaches, a new group had come in to Instructional Camp to replace others who had finished their one-week stint. For others, including farm director Gary LaRocque and me, the time was approaching to board airplanes to leave sunny Florida for the cold of St. Louis and the warmth of Winter Warm-Up.

The Cardinal Nation

Cardinals Counted On Matt Clement To Start For Them

Though he hadn’t pitched in the major leagues since having shoulder surgery, the Cardinals signed Matt Clement with the expectation he would be on their Opening Day roster and ready to contribute as part of their 2008 starting rotation.

RetroSimba

For Cardinals, Crossroads Comes Every Ten Years

For the Bill DeWitt Jr. and the St. Louis Cardinals, sustained success is the name of the game. Since the DeWitt family took over in 1996, the Cardinals have had just three losing seasons. Since their last losing season (2007), the club has added four division titles, two pennants, and a World Series title. Most impressive, perhaps, is the five consecutive playoff appearances between 2011-2015. Cardinals fans can rattle those achievements off. It’s quite possible, however, that two of the losing years (1997 and 2007) shaped the organization far more than the winning ones.

Redbird Daily

Ryan Helsley Tells What It's Like To Throw 100

On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to talk with Cardinals prospect Ryan Helsley. Earlier this offseason, we rated Helsley as the 14th best prospect in the Cardinals system. After striking out 109 batters against just 19 walks in 95 innings in Low-A Peoria, Helsley told me he would begin this year in Palm Beach. The bulk of our conversation is below.

Viva El Birdos

The 2017 Cardinals & PECOTA Panic: Distribute The Oxygen Masks

Our dear baseball town was put into a tizzy the other day, when the august Baseball Prospectus rolled out its preseason PECOTA projections, which presented games-won forecasts for 2017. Based on the advanced calculations, the St. Louis baseball Cardinals will be a scrawny non-threat in the upcoming campaign … a sad little team that will stagger its way to 77 wins for the franchise’s lowest victory total since 1999.

101 ESPN

Ryan Franklin: From Cardinals Pitcher To Advisor

Acquired by the Cardinals to be a starting pitcher, Ryan Franklin appeared in 285 regular-season games for them and never made a start. Instead, Franklin established himself as a reliable setup reliever, then a closer and, when his playing career ended, a key member of the front-office staff.

RetroSimba

Cardinals See Good News In Labor Agreement; Rule 5 Concerns; Braden Looper Shadowing

One of the series of meetings Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak had with his peers Wednesday was debriefing on the new collective bargaining agreement, which will be finalized and ratified in the coming weeks. The discussions could get complicated about compensation draft picks, qualifying offers and caps, but the upshot from new international rules is simple.

Post-Dispatch

Rotation Evaluation: Cardinals Aren't Planning Major Move; Do They Have Enough To Compete?

There isn’t a singular cause to blame for the Cardinals’ absence from the postseason. Inconsistent fielding, poor baserunning and a feast or famine offense certainly played a part, but for fans who remember 2015’s 100 win season, was there any facet of the club’s production more disappointing than its pitching?

KMOV