Nothing against Rodrigo Lopez, but I have to admit that the right-handed pitcher inspired this article. Saturday’s starter for the Philadelphia Phillies went six innings on three earned runs for the win.
While Lopez has a surprising 3.09 ERA this season, it is in just 23 1/3 Major League innings. Simply put, Lopez is a journeyman who failed as a starter in Baltimore, for Pete’s sake, and has a 4.76 career ERA. He has spent most of the last two seasons in the minor leagues.
Lopez joins a list of seven other veteran below-average pitchers who have dominated the St. Louis Cardinals in 2009. Each of the following seven has a season ERA of basically five or more, averaging 5.81. In aggregate, including their seven wins over the Cardinals, the group has a 33-41 record.
Take away their Cards wins and the “Magnificent Seven” are 26-41 (.388). As a point of reference, 29 of the 30 MLB teams have a better win percentage than .388. Only the hideous Washington Nationals are worse.
Given the Cardinals’ ongoing challenges against left-handed pitching, it is not surprising that four of the seven are lefties. Perhaps the club’s addition of right-handed bats Julio Lugo, Matt Holliday and Mark DeRosa will change matters, but they did not on Saturday against the righty Lopez.
| Date | Team | Pitcher | L-R | Score | Inn | ER | 09 ERA | 09 W-L | Comments |
| 5/2 | WAS | Shairon Martis | R | 6-1 | 9 | 1 | 5.25 | 5-3 | Sent to AAA in June |
| 5/17 | MIL | Manny Parra | L | 8-2 | 6 | 2 | 6.42 | 4-8 | In AAA from 6/14-7/9 |
| 6/5 | COL | Jorge De La Rosa | L | 11-4 | 6 2/3 | 3 | 4.95 | 7-7 | 3 games in ’09 w/7 ER each |
| 6/12 | CLE | David Huff | L | 7-3 | 7 1/3 | 3 | 6.39 | 5-4 | Came up on 5/17 |
| 6/22 | NYM | Tim Redding | R | 6-4 | 7 | 4 | 7.16 | 1-4 | May be released |
| 6/28 | MIN | Francisco Liriano | L | 6-2 | 7 | 2 | 5.56 | 4-10 | Double-digit losses already |
| 7/20 | HOU | Brian Moehler | R | 3-2 | 6 1/3 | 2 | 4.92 | 7-5 | Career 82-96, 4.74 |
| 5.81 | 33-41 |
Good point Brian. That should be over now that Hal has been render useless. None of these guys would even listen to that “step in crap”. I think we can beat the Philly’s and the Cubs now. We should start dominating weaker teams gaining a little swagger. Albert is what is fascinating me. They are pitching to him and he hasn’t dealt with it yet. We had a weak team with good pitching. Now we have some run support. Pitching will focus. Dodgers will tell us.
It is an old saying but I think somebody should scream it at the Cardinals Management:
“Good pitching stops good hitting” . It did it when Dizzy Dean and Bob Gibson were pitching and it’s doing it now.
While it is certainly true that mediocre starters were dominating the Cardinals BEFORE July 24th, we’ve been repeatedly victimized by one of our own starters and two of our own relievers whose performances do not rise to the level of mediocrity (clowns who really have no business donning a major league uniform at the present time)! Cardinal management is to be greatly commended for assembling a veritable “murderers row” in our offensive line-up, but by trotting-out the aforementioned Pitchers, methinks Tony is sending a clarion call to the management, to shore-up our pitching. If we are to go to the World Series this year, “Card.fan.since.1967″ couldn’t have said it better: “Good pitching stops good hitting”!
Welcome, guys. I can’t wait to see if CardsFanSince1947 shows up next!
Edit: CFS57, I will note that Rodrigo Lopez beat the Cards on Saturday the 25th, post-Holliday trade.
No, Rodrigo Lopez did NOT beat the Cards on Saturday the 25th: He merely pitched in that game and was statistically credited. ‘Twas Motte and Kinney who beat their own team. After Trever Miller had pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings of relief, we were still winning by the score of 4 to 3. It wasn’t until he was lifted for Motte with one out in the sixth, that the bases became loaded on two walks and a single. Aye, Motte’s charming 1/3 of an inning had resulted in 5 earned runs. Kinney later added insult to injury, with 2/3s of an inning of 4 hits, a walk and 6 earned runs! The E.R.A’s of those two were already beyond tolerance, but now they are inflated to 5.70 and 10.95 respectively. On the following day, Todd Wellemeyer did his usual damage; demoralizing his team with 5 2/3s innings of 11 hits, a walk and 5 earned runs. His E.R.A speaks for itself (5.79).
Clearly, the bullpen let the team down on Saturday, but the high-powered new offense needs to punch out mediocre starters like Lopez, too. Now and then, they are going to need to be able to win some 7-6 type games.
Hopefully Mo is out looking for a right-handed setup man, and I don’t mean Wellemeyer!
Jumbo, is that you as a pirate?
Brian, I was born in ’47 when the Cards were defending World Series champs so I’ll fill the gap here for you. I also started seriously rooting for the team in 1957.
I remember a few things about the ’56 team but 1957 was a good year to sink your teeth into Cardinal fandom. We had the McDaniel brothers, Musial, Boyer, Dark, Moon, Jackson, Ennis, the Blazer and a good pennant chase until Henry Aaron put us away.
This is a classic case of how we can trail-off from the subject-at-hand (e.g.; “Mediocre starters dominating Cardinals”), but I cannot resist… I was born in ’48 and was mesmerized by Lindy and Von during that magical Summer of ’57. I remember the shivers that ran up-and-down my nine-year-old spine every time I would hear (on KMOX AM) that Stan The Man was coming to the plate. My year for getting even with all the Yankee fans, however, was 1964 (after my idol had retired), when we boasted the All-Star infield of Ken Boyer, Dick Groat, Julian Javier and BIll White.
CFS57, you can veer the discussion off. No problem. With only few posts per day, there isn’t a fresh area here to discuss every possible Cards-related topic.
Feel free to post away!
As an aside, I became a Cardinals fan due to a combination of factors. The first was the presence of the Cardinals’ Triple-A team in Omaha. Another was the KMOX network broadcasts carried by a local radio station. Then there was that hometown product who became a pretty good pitcher as I recall, Bob Gibson.
CFS57,
It’s nice to know I have a contemporary on board here. One correction, though, our infield started the 1963 All-Star game, with Javier replacing an injured Mazeroski.
Julain Javier was a favorite of mine from the time they got him from the Pirates in exchange for future Congressman Vinegar Bend Mizell. He could flat out mash against lefties but was pretty weak against right-handers.
Remember how Ole Diz used to butcher his name. It cam out Joo Leon Jab Ee Are. Pee Wee Reese was a little better It came out You Leon Jav Ee Are. My dad also pronounced it to rhyme with Caviar.
I stand (or rather, sit) corrected: You’re right; it was the ’63 All-Star infield!
I will never forget the giant headline on the front page of the Houston Post sports section, following one of Julian Javier’s rare home runs: JAVIER JITS A JOMER!
I was going to mention the classic battles between Julian javier and Hoey Hay, er, Joey Jay.
I looked up the first time Javier faced Jay. It was July 1, 1960 in the bottom of the tenth inning in game one of a double-header. Javier led off with a double and later scored the winning run on a hit by John Glenn. Not that John Glenn.
The injection of DeRosa-Lugo-Holliday means that we are no longer subject to be dominated by mediocre starters, as proven by our romp of the first rate Dodgers. While it is true that two superior pitchers (theirs and ours) held both clubs to a low score for 15 innings, our 6 runs on Monday and 10 runs on Tuesday serve as proof that we can now contend against the very best that the National League can throw at us!
DD17 – I had completely forgotten about the Braves’ “Hoey Hay”! Thank you for resurrecting the great memory!
Brian – When I was stationed at Little Rock AFB during 1978-80, I saw more than a few Arkansas Travelers games (the Cardinals’ AA affiliate at the time) and met both Tom Herr and Ken Boyer’s son.
CFS57, I ran a series back in March about the Cards recent history at each level. I touched on Arkansas in the Double-A article. Take a look.
Well said 57, the dead spots in our lineup gave 2nd and 3rd tier pitchers all the help they needed, but great pitching still trumps good hitting. Its been mentioned on recent broadcasts that our solid lineup top to bottom can wear down an ace over time, make him hittable, and get into the bullpen.
Brian, I really enjoyed the stroll down Memory Lane and will return to that richly detailed series again and again. Thank you!
blingboy, I spend a lot of time cursing Wellemeyer and bemoaning our need for middle relief development, so it is refreshing to see performances such as Blake Hawksworth on Wednesday night. Not only do I fervently hope that he will keep it up and maintain an E.R.A under 4.00, but I also hope that Mitchell Boggs will impress the socks off of everyone tonight. Since, as you correctly maintain, “great pitching still trumps good hitting”, our line-up which is definitely sufficient to “wear down an ace over time, make him hittable, and get into the bullpen”, may not be enough at times. Tonight, however, we are facing mediocre pitching from the Astros and we WILL prevail!