FanPost

Howl's Corner 4/23/18

Hi VEB'rs. Dr. Howl here. The Cards Fan In Chitown. George Matthew Bowles is my real name. I love Cardinals baseball and the internet. That much is known. Also been known to rock basses, guitars, synthesizers, drums, what have you.

I am stepping down from my Game Recapper role for now. They have regulars. And that's fine. What I would like to do is change focus a bit, and become more unfocused... and just air my thoughts out here. And I have written many a fanpost over the years!

First off, this season already seems more interesting than last season. There is a lot more excitement. Jordan Hicks! Paul DeJong! Tommy Pham! These young guys are making the team a lot more fun... even though some of them were here last season, it is still exciting. And Yadi! On pace for 48 home runs so far. Insanity (and his baserunning score is not negative!).

The Mikolas experiment is working... after a rocky start to the season Carlos Martinez has settled in as the ace for now, as expected. Adam Wainwright isn't getting too exposed, even though we don't know what we have left still. A wide range of relievers have been deployed or dumped out of a bag of toy soldiers, waiting to still find their roles in the battle... but they all have been in action and are deployed.

As usual, baseball is giving me something to do, something to follow, something to believe in year after year. A rather shifty and strange best friend, but they are always there, keeping life interesting (or sometimes even boring, depending when).

As usual the Cardinals have cobbled together a group of players that have the ability to win. The defense has been valuable albeit not elite. The hitting has been well above average... and half the hitters haven't even gotten warmed up yet. These can be seen in the team BABIP score of .291.

Meanwhile the pitching hasn't been as valuable going by fWAR, while they have been getting the job done... they are not doing well by FIP or xFIP. The staff has a somewhat alarming walk rate but probably nothing to get too worked up over. The BABIP is average so if they can reduce the walks and improve a little overall they will be a force to match the position players. The bullpen has the potential to gel into a strength and the upside on the rotation is pretty high.

On an individual level, the Cardinals position player stars have been center fielder Tommy Pham, Yadier Molina and all his home runs, Paul DeJong the dongbombing shortstop, with Jose "Can Hit" Martinez leading the phamtastic 4 to excellence. And Greg Garcia/Jedd Gyorko off the bench is yet another offensive force in the form of supersub utilityman.

And the offense isn't even firing on all cylinders yet... stalwart vets Dexter Fowler, Matt Carpenter, and newcomer Marcell Ozuna aren't really hitting yet. Those are some nice reinforcements.

Anyway, there is no baseball tonight, stupid off day. Gave me time to think about what has happened the past few weeks though. Til next time... listen to some Faust - 'IV' (or at least the track "Jennifer"... it's a trip).