I took the night off in terms of writing about the St. Louis Cardinals’ disappointing 2009 Opening Day. I may be alone as talk radio, message board and blogger second-guessers are all over the revamped bullpen and sort-of, but not ordained closer Jason Motte.
Though it seems unnecessary, I will recap Monday’s events for context and completeness.
Given his first save situation in the initial game of the regular season, Motte failed, surrendering four hits, including three doubles and hitting another batter. The big blow was a bases-clearing two-base hit that came on an 0-2 pitch to Pittsburgh shortstop Jack Wilson.
The Cardinals’ two-run lead quickly turned into a two-run deficit in the top of the ninth. The game ended in a frustrating 6-4 home defeat to the Pirates.
Actually, there were two blown save opportunities on Monday as earlier, veteran left-hander Trever Miller yielded a two-run, game-tying single to Bucs outfielder Nyjer Morgan in the sixth inning.
In all fairness, Cardinals fans have reason to be wary. Last season’s relief crew blew as many saves, 31, as any other club and added 31 losses. Yet this is a different group of players and shouldn’t be prematurely judged by what the 2008 pen did, or didn’t do.
The former catcher Motte is among the new additions since the start of 2008. He had a strong big league introduction in September and a dominating spring, but he is still a 26-year-old rookie with just 13 major league appearances who has been pitching for less than three years.
Chris Perez, who earned seven saves for the Cardinals last season, lost a couple of weeks of spring training due to shoulder soreness and didn’t make the club, at least initially. The 23-year-old must be dying to get on the mound for a Triple-A Memphis club that does not open the season until Thursday.
As I have said all along, when adversity hits is the time to start to make judgments about Motte, though I honestly didn’t think it would happen this quickly – in game one.
I studied the post-game comments by Tony La Russa, who appeared to be very careful in choosing his appropriately non-committal words and was actually fairly civil considering the tough defeat.
More importantly, I watched and listened to Motte. From all impressions, he seemed to carry himself in a proper manner. He was disappointed, but not despondent. He seemed to clearly understand what happened.
“I didn’t get it up and out enough,” Motte said after the game. “I got behind guys in potential fastball counts, and they’re a good fastball-hitting team.”
The real questions that should be asked are around what will happen next. The specific answers to each will likely not be obvious to any of us – only the downstream results will.
- What happened when Motte sat down with pitching coach Dave Duncan to discuss what transpired and what needs to be done?
- Did Motte take the information and how will he use it?
- Can Motte find a way to beat good fastball-hitting teams? In other words, can his slider become more than a “show me” offering?
- If a save opportunity presents itself on Tuesday or Wednesday, will Ryan Franklin get the call?
- If so, will Motte understand why and deal with it appropriately?
- And the most important question of all, how will Motte perform his next time out, and the next one after that?
Time will tell.
Given that Motte threw 29 pitches in his one inning yesterday, I would think he would have today off, regardless of the situation.
Let’s hope for a blowout win today and I’d like to see him get another chance pretty soon. He didn’t put up his Grapefruit League numbers with smoke and mirrors. It was just smoke.
Agree with Dizzy that Jason should be at rest today, after a high pitchcount yesterday.
TLR has not annointed Motte as closer. This was prudent, because this only sets somebody up for being labelled a failure or having unneeded additional pressure.
Esteban Yan threw gas back in 2003 and was mind-blowingly terrible. Jorge Sosa was nearly as bad in 2006. Velocity alone is not going to ML hitters out. There has to be pretty good movement, pretty good control, and it would be very helpful to have an off-speed pitch Motte can get over the plate. Sider and fastball complement one another delightfully, each makes the other more effective.
Pitching in September can be misleading, because a lot vets are winding down. What Motte did in September was no big deal. This spring Brian Fuentes did not do much, but he got a save last night. Cesar Izturis belted a 2 run bomb in his first game for the Os. When the bell goes off, all the spring training stats mean zippo and the vets wakeup. Its a new game. Motte was introduced to it last night. It was not a pretty outcome.
The optimistic outlook is Motte is no fancy pants bonus baby. He was a tough catcher and now he has taken his freaky arm out to the mound and will fire bee-bees. He’s a tough guy who will go right after them, every time. Motte’s morale is not a worry. But Motte needs to pitch smart and throw three sliders off the plate when he has somebody 0-2.
TLR will be smart and give Franklin and Kinney closing chances too. Divide up the responsibility, credit, blame. Its a team game. We do not have an established closer, so right now it should be by committee.
Ludwick got right back to clearing the fences. Chris Duncan doubled off a lefty. McClellan pitched better. Plenty to build upon. A bunch of things went well yesterday, save a walk to a pitcher by Kinney and the Pirates smacking Motte around. Those seem things to work on.
FWIW, Neil Allen blew the first two games of the season in 1985 – and the Cards won 101 games (out of 159) the rest of the way.
In 2004, the Cards lost on Opening Day and still won 105 games.
I wish people would remember this isn’t the NFL. One game doesn’t mean anything.
Neil Allen was awful in 1985. The Cards dealt him to the Yanks, not a second too soon.
I am feeling much more hopeful about Motte.
The Cards didn’t have to trade Keith Hernandez to get Motte either…
Right. As long as Motte doesn’t develop Izzy syndrome, he should be fine.
The new closer for the Mariners is Brandon Morrow. He is now sporting a record of 0-1 with an ERA of 40.
Strange things can happen, year to year. Last year, Indians southpaw Lee wins the Cy Young, the best in the AL. In spring training and on opening day, Lee was smacked around. Even though its the same guy, in the same uniform, he isn’t pitching with the same effectiveness.
Tony will likely give Motte an inning other than the ninth, tonight I would think. The chance of him being put into a Chris Carpenter game is slim and none at this point. If he waits till Houston, danger danger. Cold weather is tough on a young slider. Wet feet in a less dramatic sitution is what the doctor orderd.