The St. Louis Cardinals are a dramatically different team at Busch Stadium vs. on the road.
By Ian Walton
Following a poor 1-2 showing in Pittsburgh and a split with the Nationals halfway through their four game series, much has been made of the Cardinals’ inability to capitalize upon weaker opponents while the Cincinnati Reds slowly increase their divisional lead. With the remainder of the Washington set and a three game series in Houston due up next, I wonder how much of their struggles have been due to a simple case of homesickness?
While only the Florida Marlins have a better record away from their home park than in it this season at the time of this writing, most playoff contending teams don’t have such pronounced trouble as the Cardinals on the road. While enjoying a 41-23 (.641) record at Busch Stadium this season, the Cardinals are only 28-34 (.452) in their travels. In fact, the following table shows that the Cardinals performed nearly equal at home and away as recently as the past couple of years.
St. Louis Cardinals Records Year by Year
| Year | Home Wins | Home Losses | Home Win Pct | Away Wins | Away Losses | Away Win Pct | Home Win Pct – Away Win Pct |
| 2010 | 41 | 23 | 0.641 | 28 | 34 | 0.452 | 0.189 |
| 2009 | 46 | 35 | 0.568 | 45 | 36 | 0.556 | 0.012 |
| 2008 | 46 | 35 | 0.568 | 40 | 41 | 0.494 | 0.074 |
| 2007 | 43 | 38 | 0.531 | 35 | 46 | 0.432 | 0.099 |
| 2006 | 49 | 31 | 0.613 | 34 | 47 | 0.420 | 0.193 |
In 2010, the Cardinals have performed significantly worse on the road in most statistical categories. While batting, their home .778 OPS drops to .723 on the road. In particular, they seem to become much wilder at the plate. At home, their BB/K ratio is a solid 0.69, but away it drops to 0.40! Are they in a hurry to get back to their planes or hotels? Are the opposing crowds rattling them? What would cause them to completely lose sense of their plate discipline on the road?
The following table shows a number of home road/away OPS splits for various Cardinal players of note. For better or worse, two of the players who were most skewed toward strong performances at Busch, Ryan Ludwick and David Freese, are no longer with the team. Unfortunately, two of the three members of the Cardinals’ middle infield platoon, Brendan Ryan and Felipe Lopez, have also struggled mightily on the road. The third, Skip Schumaker, is actually performing .100 points better away from St. Louis. Colby Rasmus’ recent injury woes are untimely to fall during this recent trip, as his .991 away OPS by far leads the team (Pujols is second with .955).
Selected Cardinals Batters Home/Road OPS
| Player | Home OPS | Away OPS | Home OPS – Away OPS |
| Ryan Ludwick | 0.926 | 0.734 | 0.192 |
| David Freese | 0.957 | 0.580 | 0.377 |
| Felipe Lopez | 0.751 | 0.605 | 0.146 |
| Brendan Ryan | 0.686 | 0.472 | 0.214 |
| Skip Schumaker | 0.621 | 0.721 | -0.100 |
| Colby Rasmus | 0.736 | 0.991 | -0.255 |
| Team | 0.778 | 0.723 | 0.055 |
Perhaps more striking than the differences between home and road performance at the plate are those on the mound. As the following table shows, the Cardinals’ team ERA jumps from 2.92 at home to 3.96 on the road. Notably, two of the team’s top three starting pitchers, their setup man, and their closer have performed dramatically better at home than on the road this season.
Selected Cardinals Pitchers Home/Road ERAs
| Player | Home ERA | Away ERA | Home ERA – Away ERA |
| Adam Wainwright | 1.42 | 2.94 | -1.52 |
| Jaime Garcia | 1.55 | 3.15 | -1.60 |
| Kyle McClellan | 0.30 | 4.25 | -3.95 |
| Ryan Franklin | 2.30 | 5.04 | -2.74 |
In summation, many of the Cardinals are struggling to perform on the road this season, though for reasons that I don’t particularly understand. The offense swings away like they have somewhere better to be and many of the team’s key pitchers simply lose their magic. What I do know is that the Cardinals need to regain some focus on the road if they hope to reach the playoffs or beyond this season.
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[...] pointing out some of the worse ones. Maybe someone more insightful than me could provide the whys. Cardinals home-road splits telling | The Cardinal Nation blog __________________ BJHL: GM of the Manhattan Crime Occasional Contributor to The Cardinal [...]
The year with the worst away win percentage was 2006. That’s encouraging.
We got into the playoffs in 2006 with only 83 wins, but that is not going to happen this year.
Complex situation with Lohse. I would think he would be waved tomorrow, for the purpose of flexibility…………..creating options Any activity surrounding his contract would likely cost close to 13 m.
I don’t see management playing to win as I’ve stated many times before, so the question may be moot.. ………He will likely be avoided if possible in the rotation for a time. It may not be possible though…………
Considerations;
There will be varying opinions in baseball concerning Lohse’s current mechanical disposition. Not everyone is a Dave Duncan aficionado. I’m sure there are a few teams looking for problems to solve in the throw away box. Philly’s come to mind.
Many of the current adjustments in his mechanics “appear” to be ineffective. As I watch with a “keen” memory, I would say that some of the adjustments from before the surgery have remained in play……now with adverse effects. Ball is to straight……finger pressure manipulations in an attempt to create motion are covering the lack of natural “aliveness” that was present when he pitched from the middle of the rubber with a more unstable landing.
In short. He should be put away to retain whats left of his player value………… Downside………and this is a good one……what management does may be very revealing to their future projection of coaches who may be dealing with this problem………………………………
In closing…………….. even the best coach can be rendered ineffective if his vision or focus points, become so obsessive, that they obscure natural instincts. The old unstable KL may have had more to offer than the one at present……………who appears from here, to be over coached. He appeared to be holding some location objectives and delivery methods over “just plain common sense”…….and natural aggression.
Brian: From the samples you’ve furnished, it is definitely true that the most striking differences are those shown in the performance of our pitchers; both starters and relievers. Isn’t is ironic (overall), therefore, that our pitching is superior to our batting!? A fair deduction from the data furnished would be that our success is largely owing to what our pitching staff has accomplished at home. On the other hand, our losses are largely due to our offense not supporting the pitching excellence at home and not compensating for the pitching lapses on the road…
The situation with Lohse is simple. Under a big contract for 2011 and 2012, he is not going to be released. It would have been surprising for Kyle to bounce back from an operation and immediately be as solid as in 2008. It may be a gradual road to recovery of his pitching skills.
Mo told the P-D that they talked internally about pursuing Hawpe, but decided against. They may still be thinking about a way to reinforce this roster.
TWO OF THE “DIFFERENCE MAKERS”…
The data furnished on this page has convinced me that our losses are largely due to the offense not supporting the pitching excellence at home and not compensating for the pitching lapses on the road. The sincerity of two statements made by two of our offensive “difference makers” now support my ragged hope (which is hanging on a thread) that our club will surmount the present 4 run deficit:
“I’ll trade the postseason for the Triple Crown in a heartbeat”
- Albert Pujols
“It’s been tough. I don’t like sitting out and not being able to help the team with the unfortunate timing of it, but being able to be back, hopefully I can get back in there and be back for the rest of the year and things will work out for the best for the team”
- Colby Rasmus
What would go far towards winning the Central Division is an average of .325-.330 and 40-45 homers from Albert and an average of .270-.275 and 25-30 homers from Colby!
The Triple Crown (rarer than a perfect game and matching Medwick’s feat) would be frosting on the cake!
http://stlcardinals.scout.com/2/996695.html
Colby is back and rarin’ to go
2b Schumaker
rf Jay
1b Pujols
lf Holliday
3b Feliz
cf Rasmus
c Molina
ss Ryan
p Wainwright
Re: # 4 – From force of habit I had typed, “Brian: From the samples…”. I meant to preface the comment with, “Ian: From the samples…”. The article is superb and, as you can see, I continue to learn from vital information that you provide.
Skip leads off the game in the same way that he led it off yesterday!
I am assuming that Colby was scratched from the lineup, because he was not ready after all…
By helping to set the table for Matt, Albert lifts his average to .322!
Another blown opportunity! My favorite batter needs to hit when it counts and not leave men on base (especially when one is in scoring position)!
If the bottom-half of our order doesn’t rally, then we’ll certainly get ‘em the second time through…
I hope it is not going to be another one of those days when they can’t get runners in.
Negative 57, Colby is ready to play today but just texted me and said Tony decided Mile matched up better.
That you Warrior… Colby’s record shows that he is just as effective against lefties as he is against righties. In my opinion, he needs to be playing every day.
2 K’s on 8 pitches! Adam is sizzling!
Adam is in Cy Young form today. I hope that he not only gets a CG, but also another shut out!
Tony and his match ups annoy the heck out of me.
By not allowing an every day batter to play every day, Tony is doing to Colby what he did to Studwick…
Yadier will finish the season with a respectable .270 or more…
Yep, it is going to be one of those days.
I really hate to see those GIDP…
Sunday home plate umpire is Rob Drake. Wonder if he has a history with Colby?
Our outfield is most effective when we have a PERMANENT centerfielder and a PERMANENT rightfielder… Our lineup has been shown to be most effective when it is not tweaked and fiddled with on a daily basis…
Adam’s pitches are higher than they were last inning…
With the lefty, Adam is managing to consistently locate low and away…
…spoke too soon. That called ball appears on this GameCast to be in and close to the head…
Ah… he struck him out!
With his pitches back down to low, he’s back to getting K’s… The first two batters apparently represented nothing more than a temporary problem…
As soon as he elevates the pitches, he gets bad results…
What in Hell happened to Adam’s control? All of those balls were way up…
I’ve never heard of such a thing, taking out a star player because of undisclosed issues with an umpire!? Apparently, whatever those issues are, Colby is unaware of them…
It is not like Adam to get rattled. I am worried.
Adam is not consistently keeping the pitches down and he’s allowing balls to be hit into the outfield. Something has gone awry… I sure hope that he’s not experiencing burn-out…
“I’ll trade the postseason for the Triple Crown in a heartbeat”
- Albert Pujols
Is this quote accurate? Was it taken out of context? Or more Freudian ticklishness??
Hate to see Waino struggle this way. Almost Lohseian in magnitude.
Our batters really need to start compensating for our Ace’s rough outing!
There can be no doubt that Albert meant that he would forfeit the Triple Crown in exchange for postseason play…
With regard to any question about Albert’s quote being taken out of context, a link has been supplied…
I don’t know if I can watch this game.
Adam MIGHT make it through the 5th inning. If he is experiencing any physical difficulty, I hope that he will be pulled. With two bad outings in a row, I am seriously worried about the possibility of burn-out…
I take it nobody knew who the home plate umpire was going to be until just before game time. Hardy-har-har. That’s a good one.
I hope Matt’s single was not the obigatory “daily hit”, but a precursor for more potents ABs to come in this game (if not, a set-up for a rally this inning)…
RC, you recognize whats going on here. The mild mannered can’t find footing for any competitive aggression. Carp has to invent it, that is why he is the big dog.
Pujols would do anything for the playoffs huh………….except bat forth……………. or lay off 3/0 pitches with no one on base. All are emasculated by the BS.
Oh, how I hate to see those GIDPs!
Well, guys, for the first time this season, I am going to have to turn this one off. I can’t watch this happen today. Hope they turn it around.
Thats my point Bling, just tell him that its a lefty or something to that effect as the reason he is not starting. Not you are not playing because the umpire behind the plate is not a good fit. that is beyond ridiculous.
Many of us harbor strong opinions/beliefs and we are perfectly welcome to them!
“I’ve never heard of such a thing, taking out a star player because of undisclosed issues with an umpire!?”
At 87 pitches, Adam will likely go one more… Hopefully, the next inning will be as harmless as this one was.
Tony probably figures Dave got used to having somebody to sit on his papers so they don’t blow away. But there’s no reason Penny couldn’t do that.
We are certainly unleashing some awesome fly bombs on Lannan’s pitching, but they’re all being caught! Damn it!
Both pitchers have given up 5 hits and Lannan has struck out only 2, but alas…
The guy who you might expect to see in the lineup is Craig in RF. Instead its Skip against a southpaw.
It’s all about hitting when it matters 57. And making routine fielding plays when it matters.
blingboy, tell that to my man, Matt…
Ordinarily, Adam would not have allowed for that fly bomb, but would have induced a DP… Something is terribly wrong…
With that 7th K, Adam is now at 101 pitches
Matt’s job is to help Albert win the triple crown and generally fascilitate the legend. Timely hitting and fielding would be nice, but not his core responsibility. As long as he puts up imposing looking numbers, and answers the bell every day, he’s done what he was hired to do. That’s why we can’t win without a #5 hitter. One who actually plays I mean.
Batting practice evaluation RC?
I will be so happy to see Tony go…
It would have to have been an evaluation from yesterday because the cardinals didn’t hit on the field today WC.
Lannan gave Adam Hell and he just drove-up a 10 pitch AB against Fernando…
It would be nice to see Jon pick up an RBI here…
I’m anxious to hear one of our important contributors editorialize on this topic.
When is a Triple Crown aspirant forced to choose between its pursuit, and his obligation to his teammates? ……………….. as the quote suggests…………
Pujols was yucking it up yesterday while Lohse was going down……………….he was high as a kite. He seems a little more business like today as Waino goes down for the 3rd time in a row. Unless maybe he hits a late inning homer…………. for the Triple Crown stash…………. the teams mood is reflective of a problem……………that apparently isn’t his……….. they are the true barometer.
Huh! Is Colby not strong in the Lord?
Well, it wasn’t a hit, but it was an RBI nevertheless… At least we’re no longer getting skunked…
Now, if only Brendan can stir-up the rally that Yadier has just begun…
The Flubs are certainly battling the Reds (they tied it up 5-5 at the top of the 8th)
Walt has put together a lively team, starting from scratch. I wonder if BDW has any regrets there.
Obviously not strong enough WC. Or maybe he is, considering how Lannan looks maybe the Lord saw fit to come to TLR in a dream and sayeth unto him. Keepeth Colby out of this gameth, because the umpireth sucketh. I don’t know.
Unable to “see” what just happened, did Skip sparkle and shine on that throw-out at second base?
Well, I’ll assume that he did…
He certainly didn’t sparkle and shine on that ground out…
Walt had nothing to do with Bruce, Votto, Arroyo, Cueto. They were on the team or in a good pipeline.
Walt picked up Rolen, at the time a move disrespected by some here. The Reds got good mileage out of Leake, drafted last June. They signed Chapman, who can help them in future years.
Walt added ex-Cards Springer, izzy, Edmonds, and Miguel Cairo, has not gotten much from them.
I seeeth your point RC………………
BB………..this team is playing as designed as far as I can see………………….the pitching just can’t handle the pressure of trying to prevent teams from scoring without some run support. Wainwright was feeling like he couldn’t get an .083 hitter out with the money down. He couldn’t face his own fear of failure………..so he fulfilled it…………… players have no sense of team to blend with………..just soloists……….
Both Triple Crown candidates have gone 1 for 4 today (Albert has sunk to .320 and Votto has sunk to .325)
The Reds just went ahead 7-5 and it looks like they’re fixin’ to draw even more blood before the bottom half of the 8th is done…
For the past 3 innings, both Fernando and Blake have stopped the bloodshed. There really is no reason that we cannot score 3 and at least tie it up…
Tony is icing the pitcher………..
Hopefully, Pedro will give us more than his perfunctory “daily hit”: With Matt’s failure, we need to start a rally…
Yeah, that was slightly more than the perfunctory “daily hit”! Now, Jon and Yadier have both proven to be clutch hitters…
The only thing you can say for Jon today is that he sandwiched his two “Oh…fors” with a two run homer…
Yay, Desmond!
The ump did seem meanly disposed.
We are now 5 games out and fading… If we can’t enjoy being spoilers, we may as well work on individual records. Hopefully, it won’t get so bad that we struggle to remain above .500 and start contending with the surging Brewers for second place…
I wonder if we will get another “I just work here” type comment out of Colby today?
Westie saying Lohse would be waived gave me quite the chuckle. I needed that.
Unable to answer the one who completely contradicted the lengthy bit about Lohse (# 3 and # 5), he projects attention away from that embarrassing matter by coming at me for my high esteem of Albert Pujols’ character…
Incredible statement coming from that far south…………. a Cardinal fan no doubt. That was a good pitch to finish the game. Took some courage to attack the top of the zone with a breaking pitch. That pitch is very easy to miss. Colby had to try to spoil it at least. Tough try.
Good to see some Pedro power in the 9th.
It was tough to watch when Cesar Izturis had an OPS of .630. Brendan is at .579. Ouch.
Half our lineup was sub .700 OPS so Brendan doesn’t stand out out as an offensive liability, especially considering he’s the SS. When you have an outfielder, a third baseman and a catcher under .700, that’s tough to watch.
When you’re glad Miles is up because he’s one of your better hitters, that’s tough too.
I see the team managed 2 runs. My nerves were frayed and I just couldn’t watch Adam lose again. I’ve made my peace with the team not making the playoffs. I have good tickets to the Sept 16 series opener against the Padres and I plan to enjoy myself irregardless of the outccome.
For the handicapped among us. Most high salary players pass through waivers at sometime or another……………..that’s why they are kept secret………….the leaks are all intentional, for advertising purposes. If a team doesn’t enjoin that process, they have no options, no matter what the situation……………………… a no trade is just an impediment to the process. I would wave him. I think the Cardinals would, just as a general business practice.
Waivers
Any player under contract may be placed on waivers (“waived”) at any time. After MLB’s July 31st trade deadline and through to the end of the season, however, a team must place a player on waivers if that player is to be eligible to be traded.
If a player is waived, any team may claim him. If more than one team claims the player from waivers, the team with the weakest record in the player’s league gets preference. If no team in the player’s league claims him, the claiming team with the weakest record in the other league gets preference. In the first month of the season, preference is determined using the previous year’s standings.
If a team claims a player off waivers and has a viable claim as described above, his current team (the “waiving team”) may choose one of the following options:
* arrange a trade with the claiming team for that player within two business days of the claim; or
* rescind the request and keep the player on its major league roster, effectively canceling the waiver; or
* do nothing and allow the claiming team to assume the player’s existing contract, pay the waiving team a waiver fee, and place the player on its active major league roster.
If a player is claimed and the waiving team exercises its rescission option, the waiving team may not use the option again for that player in that season. If no team claims a player off waivers after three business days, the player has cleared waivers and may be assigned to a minor league team, traded (to any team), or released outright.
The waiver “wire” is a secret within the personnel of the Major League Baseball clubs; no announcement of a waiver is made until a transaction actually occurs. Many players are often quietly waived during the August “waiver-required” trading period to gauge trade interest in a particular player. Usually, when the player is claimed, the waiving team will rescind the waiver to avoid losing the player unless a trade can be worked out with the claiming team.
I haven’t been able to watch the postgame interviews. Anything further about the Colby scratch?
This morning on the radio Tony said Flip would be struggling for playing time due to offensive and defensive performance issues. The question that needed to be asked was ‘compared to what?’
I perused the box score. Adam’s ERA is 2.30. Stil in the top 5. Also still in top five in W, SO, and WHIP. Pedro got a HR (I’m sorry I missed that). Albert’s BA .320 still in contention. Yadi’s BA is up to .262, quite a jump from .223 before the ASB. Defense no errors, turned 1 DP. None of which makes up for the L.
I had thought waving him would be a waste of time, given what is owed the next two years, and Mo’s reluctance to use the dry powder. The $13M figure sounded about right, given the high risk but possible upside. It would have to be somebody doing it looking to next year. Seems like something that would never happen, not in a million years.
blngboy, I personally believe that Flip has been over-used and that he has consequently burned-out. I am now very worried that a variety of other factors have served to render our Ace as also burned-out.
57, I am not worried yet about Adam. Jaime had a couple of mediocre starts and everyone was saying he hit the rookie wall, then he came back with the masterpiece against the Giants.
The problem with Lohse is no other team will want him at $11MM/yr. No deal is possible. Its best for the Cards to have Kyle pitch relief in September, have a good spring training, and work at getting back to his peak.
We do not have better pitchers at AAA/AA to displace him. If we do develop some, then Lohse can be jettisoned. Until then, the Cards need to squeeze the best they can out of him.
For the delusional and intellectually challenged among us being placed on waivers is not the same thing as being waived. But why let facts stand in the way of a good story.
Now, as far as placing Lohse on waivers and then trading him and us eating $13 million. That would be a fair ballpark estimate. Of course it kind of conflicts with its the “all about the cash flow” theory.
blingboy & Carioca: Just from what I was able to deduce from Brian’s August waiver tutorial and from what I know about Lohse’s huge contract, I am confident in the belief that the Lohse waiver idea is ridiculous (aye, though he could be placed on waivers, by no means would that mean he would actually be waived). Indeed, the verbosity of #94 (mostly a copy and paste from an article that he, of course, failed to credit), exceeded his #3, yet failed miserably to gainsay #5…
Carioca, I know that Brian had politely asked him to credit the sources whence he draws his information: Didn’t you also take issue with him in the past about plagiarizing?
In 2011, the Cards can audition Walters and Dickson for the 5th starting pitching role. They make the strongest candidates, with Ottavino having a sore shoulder and Hawksworth not having enough pitches to make a ML starter.
Behind them, at Memphis, the rotation can be Lynn, Kopp, Gorgen, Broderick, and one of Dickson/Walters. That would make a nice rotation of trainees.
If Lohse cannot get back to his pre-injury performance during 2011, we can cut him, eat the salary, and give an opportunity to an ambitious kid.
I would be better able to take this lousy season if someone in the clubhouse would have the guts to tell the fans what is happening. I am not buying the “we are trying our best” nonsense. Come on guys, just tell us. You don’t care, you hate Tony, he hates you, we hate each other, etc. Maybe it is all of the above.
BB, as I said, the Phillie’s were in Reno. I doubt it was social. Lohse appears to be healthy. No one in their right mind would claim him, and take on his full salary. He would clear the process, and then they might at least discuss it at that point. Phill’s would take 2.2yrs at 10 million before your hat hit the floor……
The problem is, and it is an obvious one, the Cardinals would be expected to replace him. Much more expensive. I dare say I think we would all like to see it though.
You have to hit him on the nose when he does that to your leg……. choro…..
If any team is willing to cart off Lohse for two years and absorb $10MM, Mo will give them his cell phone number.
At least next season, with Dickson, Walters, and Lynn around, the Cards may not have to shell out big bucks for the next Brad Penny.
Don’t get frustrated CRD. Do you see now why I said Sunday would be a problem? Tony is out of moves………..his pitchers are shot……..carcass……….even the most talentless teams will feed on the carrion………………… Sorry to say that Houston isn’t looking so good either. They could be swept. Buy blowing out, they will better be able to find there anger towards the Reds………because it won’t matter………………….notice AP and Feliz having a lighter moment after his HR………. they were all smiles. Life is good. You got the man where you want him………………personal celebrations are what its all about…………….
Good Night, guys… Methinks the trip to Houston will be quiet and reflective for a grade A team that just suffered a 1-out-of-3 drubbing at the hands of a grade C team. As you are aware, the Astros are a spirited bunch of youngsters who’ve not yet learned the dismal ways of losing, having won most of their games since shedding most of their veterans (and 6 of their last 10). Hopefully, if only for self-serving ends, our Cardinals will make a good showing and come away with 2-out-of-3 (knowing that a sweep is a routine occurrence for pennant contenders only).