Why not pair up a couple of St. Louis Cardinals’ five-inning starters every fifth day?
Ever since Kyle Lohse joined the St. Louis Cardinals in 2008, I have thought of him and now-teammate Jeff Suppan in a similar way along the following basic formula.
- Starting pitcher who was below average elsewhere.
- Pitched very well for St. Louis.
- Received four-year contract in excess of $40 million.
- Returned to previous form.
Of course, the major difference is that Suppan received his mega-deal from Milwaukee while Lohse remained a Cardinal. In terms of contract time-frames, Suppan is two years ahead of Lohse.
In the table below, note the similarity of their pre-Cardinals histories. They then each lowered their ERAs by a full run under Dave Duncan before reaching new lows following their big contracts.
| Pre-StL | Initial StL | Post-$ | |||||||
| Record | Pct. | ERA | Record | Pct. | ERA | Record | Pct. | ERA | |
| Lohse | 63-74 | 0.460 | 4.82 | 15-6 | 0.714 | 3.78 | 8-17 | 0.320 | 5.60 |
| Suppan | 62-75 | 0.453 | 4.90 | 44-26 | 0.629 | 3.95 | 30-41 | 0.423 | 5.04 |
This season as Cardinals starters, the two have combined to go 3-12 while averaging just five innings per start. In their 22 starts, the team is just 8-14.
Lohse has been named the defacto fifth starter for the remainder of the season and gets the ball Sunday night against Atlanta.
| Pitcher | Starts | QS | W-L | Tm W-L | Avg IP | K/9 IP |
| Lohse | 13 | 4 | 2-7 | 5-8 | 5.0 | 5.3 |
| Suppan | 9 | 1 | 1-5 | 3-6 | 5.0 | 3.7 |
| Team | 139 | 84 | 57-48 | 73-66 | 6.0 | 6.9 |
Though it would likely be no better than applying salve on a gaping wound, I’ve wondered why the Cardinals don’t just pair the two up as they do with minor leaguers in a piggyback or tandem arrangement.
I suggest this only half-jokingly, considering they are five-inning pitchers at best and like many pitchers, fare poorer the more looks opposing hitters get at them. Here are the opposing hitters’ OPS by times through the batting order this season.
| OPS vs. | 1st PA | 2nd PA | 3rd PA | 4th+ PA |
| Lohse | .774 | .969 | .919 | 1.167 |
| Suppan | .816 | .955 | 1.092 | 1.200 |
Consider matchups to determine which of the two should start, likely Lohse in most cases. Then plan to get Suppan up in the fourth or fifth inning and have him take over in relief so later than the sixth.
Of course, it would be unrealistic to reverse that 3-12 record, but still, a nine-game swing would have cured much of what ails the Cardinals’ bottom line.
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The OPS chart shows that after the first pass through the lineup they get pummeled. In other words, they aren’t starters. That being said, and since there is little choice, and unless you want to bring up that 16K guy, why not go 3 innings apiece? It would be like getting 6 out of your #5 starter, which is fine. No shortage of relievers in September.
As an aside, over at the main TCN site, the voters think the guy who struck out 16 in the AAA PCL playoffs is roadkill compared to the guy who usually looks good against low-A hitters and has had a sore arm. But don’t say anything, they don’t like it.
Suppan and Hawksworth sort’ve informally ended up with this type of usage earlier in the year, did they not? It sounds reasonable to me.
Suppan has made 407 starts in the Bigs, nearing 2,500 innings, including 9 years above 188 innings pitched in a year. A pro’s pro. No big surgeries. Impressive. Doing more than Mark Mulder.
Lohse 263 starts, around 1,500 innings in the majors. One of the more successful Native American baseball players. Three years younger than Suppan. The Cards are looking for Kyle to bounce back from the bad luck of his freak injury last year that has marred 2009-10 for him.
Suppan could have retired, once the Brewers let him go. He has lots of money in the bank. But he instead chose to help out the Cards.
While I’m glad that Suppan showed up to help fill a gap for the team, unless he wanted to retire and give up hope on any future earnings, I’m sure that there was some personal motivation to go out and display his ability to earn a future contract.
If Smoltz couldn’t find a job . . . . . .
Anybody seen the lineup yet?
Schumaker 2b
Jay rf
Pujols 1b
Holliday lf
Rasmus cf
Molina c
Feliz 3b
Garcia p
Ryan ss
I’m sure that Smoltz could find a job. Just not the one he wanted.
Arroyo has given up back to back HRs in the 2nd inninng/
Reds have come back with 2 HRs.
Now that Brendan is back to his old self at short, he’s a real pleasure to watch. And looks good in the stirrups. Been hitting better too. Surely he won’t start off next year being a basket case.
It might be worth putting Greene at second batting leadoff pretty regular from here on out. Might as well find out if he can do what he will have to do if we can use him. Skip can play second now and then against righties and give Matt a day off here and there. Let Colby, Jay and Brendan play everyday. Let Salas try a couple save ops.
bb, did you notice Ryan’s stirrups don’t have any blue stripes? I am not sure when/why he changed, but may need to get to the bottom of it!
Skip rang up his 16th error tonight.
Greene has been pathetic at the plate.
I must admit I didn’t notice the new fashion statement.
Greene has been worse than pathetic at the plate, so most nights he’d fit right in. Let him play eight games in a row and see if he settles in. He hits OK at Memphis.
We were already behind 2-0, an insurmountable lead by the Cubs, so Skips error was superfluous.