Corey Noles, staff writer for The Daily Statesman and Editor of The North Stoddard Countian, is the author of a regular baseball/St. Louis Cardinals column and also uses his blog to sound off on various happenings in sports. He also operates a weekly baseball mailbag column.

First Quarter Grades for the St. Louis Cardinals

Posted Friday, May 17, 2013, at 11:00 PM

The St. Louis Cardinals entered the quarter-season mark of 2013 with the best record in baseball.

To say that exceeds the expectations of some is quite the understatement. Many, arguably most, baseball writers had the Cincinnati Reds picked as clear favorites to win the National League Central Division.

With the Cardinals estimated to end the season in the 85 win range, the fact that the team has amassed 25 wins by May 15 puts them well above expectations.

While it is extremely early to be thinking about the end of the season, the Cardinals are currently on pace to win 100 games.

Will they keep up this pace? That remains to be seen.

Every team has its slumps and streaks--the 2013 Cardinals will be no exception. Remember, even a team with an amazing 102 win record still loses 60 games a year.

With that said, the Cardinals have a lot of things on their side in 2013--most notably, their depth.

That depth has made all of the difference in where the Cardinals find themselves in the standings in mid-May.

Following is a breakdown grading the Cardinals on each aspect of their game.

Coaching

Grade: A-

Quite often coaches are the first ones blamed when a team struggles and the last one to receive credit when a team looks good.

By that train of thought, coaching matters when you lose, but not when you win. That's not the rational way to look at it.

Give credit where it's due and right now, the Cardinals coaching staff is due some serious credit.

Mike Matheny, while only in his sophomore year, has done a good job of putting together the right lineups on the right days. Matheny knows the game and he knows his players.

He respects them and they respect him. It's hard to argue against a manager's record when at this point his team has the second best record in all of baseball.

Another coach that shouldn't be forgotten is Derek Lilliquist. When he came on to the staff he had big shoes to fill. So far, he's done an admirable job of picking up where Dave Duncan left off.

There have been some bullpen issues, but by and large they seem to have been worked out. The starting rotation? Lilliquist deserves some credit for managing to keep these young pitchers focused and on task throughout the beginning of their careers.

John Mabry was going to have his hands full as well, coming in as the replacement for Mark McGwire who left the Cardinals in the offseason to be closer to his family in California.

While the Cardinals home run totals are low at this point, they have had some of the best situational hitting in all of MLB. Coincidentally, that mirrors the way Mabry functioned as a player.

He's still new to the job, so we'll revisit Mabry later in the season.

Bench

Grade: B-

The strength of the Cardinals bench depends solely on who is in the day's starting lineup (as it does for most teams.) There are a lot of dynamics that play into this.

At least for the moment, the Cardinals have arguably the most powerful pinch-hitter in baseball with Matt Adams on their bench. Adams is 3-for-6 (.500) on the season as a pinch hitter with a home run, three RBI, a walk and a run scored.

Despite having only six pinch hit appearances, Adams is slugging 1.000 with a .571 OBP. A stint on the DL, however, has kept his sample size quite small. Honestly, he is the reason I'm giving the bench a B-.

Daniel Descalso and Tony Cruz are each batting .250 off of the bench with Ty Wiggington a few steps behind at .214.

At least for now, the Cardinals bench is not their shining star. Of course, they haven't needed it much either with their main starters remaining healthy through the quarter-mark of the season.

Bullpen

Grade: C

The bullpen is difficult to wrap up with only one letter grade.

If we were grading the first three weeks, they would have a solid F. But they really turned things around over the second three week stint to where they were worthy of about an A-/B+.

When the dust settled and the bullpen roster changed, so did its success. Edward Mujica has surprised the baseball world with how well he's done as closer. To date, Mujica is 11-for-11 in save appearances.

With his 1.59 ERA, Mujica has held batters in the ninth inning or later to only two runs on five hits. He's quickly earning the title of closer.

Trevor Rosenthal managed to get a grip on his problems of early in the season. Rookie phenom Carlos Martinez, yet another of the Cardinals many top pitching prospects, has put on a good show in his brief stint in the bullpen as well.

As things seem to be finally coming together and roles continue to become more defined, so does the success of the bullpen. As a result, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and averaging out the two shades of bullpen we've seen so far. Hence the C.

Starting Rotation

Grade: A+

Not a lot needs to be said here, because the box scores say plenty.

Following is a brief list of stats in which the Cardinals rotation leads all of MLB:

ERA 2.38

Wins 23

IP 261

Least HR Allowed 13

WHIP 1.12

Groundouts 309

Complete games 4

Shutouts 4

Winning percentage .719

Believe it or not, there are more. That sampling says plenty about this rotation.

When your number five pitcher is crossing 100 pitches consistently and putting up big strikeout totals, things are going right.

Offense

Grade: B+

The Cardinals offense has been an interesting animal this season.

The team ranks 26th in MLB in HR (32), but continue to score runs. While the numbers aren't that impressive, the results have been. Why?

Situational hitting.

With runners in scoring position and two outs, the Cardinals lead all of MLB in batting average (.331), OBP (.425), RBI (68), hits (53) and runs scored (73).

For whatever reason, this team hits considerably better under pressure than they do with the bases empty. For example, here are their rankings with the bases empty for each of the statistics we just discussed: batting average (27th), OBP (26th), RBI (26th), hits (28th) and runs scored (26).

It's difficult to understand, but I doubt the Cardinals front office is complaining too much.

While the starting rotation is getting all of the much deserved attention, the disparity in these numbers details an intriguing approach to success. Regardless, this team is quickly showing that they have what it takes to win consistently.

Corey Noles is a Cardinals Writer and Columnist for The Daily Statesman. Contact him at cnoles@dailystatesman.com or on Twitter @coreynoles.

Comments

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Its easy to get greedy when things are going nice. I just realized though our starters haven't had a quality start in the last 4-5 games.

-- Posted by Jolly Dump on Sat, May 18, 2013, at 8:30 PM
MLB.com on Descalso's last AB: "That's easily the worst the at bat I've seen all year! He swings at 3 breaking balls in the dirt!"

Seriously. How does he come up to the plate swinging at pitches in the dirt especially when he had just walked Craig and Molina to load the bases? Can we bring Jackson up already and send DD down to Memphis?

-- Posted by Jolly Dump on Sat, May 18, 2013, at 9:48 PM
Its nice knowing we have a long reliever just in case we go to extra innings....oh wait, its Joe Kelly. UGH! Why is still on the 25 man roster? He has now proven he is the worst pitcher on the team right now. Time for his demotion.

-- Posted by Jolly Dump on Sat, May 18, 2013, at 10:04 PM
The Cardinals now have two of its five starting pitchers - Jake Westbrook and Jaime Garcia - on the DL.

-- Posted by Dustin Ward on Sat, May 18, 2013, at 10:27 PM
Pity Party! They are the best kind of party right Jolly and DW

-- Posted by Bunk on Sat, May 18, 2013, at 10:43 PM
Bunk, admit it...Joe Kelly sucks!! Even you have to admit that. And yes its a pity part. 2/5 starters now on the DL isn't good. Sure we have Wacha we can bring up and that also screws us on how many years we control his contract.

-- Posted by Jolly Dump on Sat, May 18, 2013, at 11:10 PM
And I believe most people were betting Garcia would be on the DL before June. Guess what...its not June yet and he's on the DL. Big shock there.

-- Posted by Jolly Dump on Sat, May 18, 2013, at 11:12 PM
So all the good quality innings he gave us mean nothing? We have built a little bit of nest egg for the second half at least in terms of a wild card. Also no Joe Kelly doesn't suck he is a young sinkerballer who is in a nice long slump and not enough innings to work his way out of it. You know it seems crazy that they gave us 16 starts last year and no one minded him.

Guess what guys it is baseball and the staff isn't going to pitch at a historically all time great level the whole year. The offense will get their power back and the front office will the pitching depth to get us through

-- Posted by Bunk on Sat, May 18, 2013, at 11:28 PM
Stop living in the past Bunk. Its not about what he did last year...its what he is doing now...and right now Joe Kelly isn't worth keeping on the 25 man roster. But maybe you like his 7+ ERA and lack of pitching control .

Garcia is most likely going to have surgery to fix his shoulder. They tried rehab and it only got us so far. It was barely hanging on last year and our "fantastic" medical staff decided rehab would work, like the rehab for Furcal worked.

-- Posted by Jolly Dump on Sat, May 18, 2013, at 11:45 PM
Dump makes some good points.

-- Posted by Dustin Ward on Sat, May 18, 2013, at 11:48 PM
I still think the Reds will win the division.

-- Posted by Dustin Ward on Sat, May 18, 2013, at 11:49 PM
So your telling me that every player who has had a slump deserves to be cut? Freese should be DFA'd today then. We lose two games in a row and you guys panic!!!!! Seriously it's like you have never watched baseball before. We will lose games and it will be ok.

-- Posted by Bunk on Sun, May 19, 2013, at 12:33 PM
I said demoted Bunk. Go back and re-read my posts. It is not that hard to understand. Why are you lacking in your reading comprehension today? And they didn't lose 2 games in a row. Where did you get that? They went L-W-L. And it is absurd you are defending a very terrible Joe Kelly and his 7+ ERA. It is utterly ridiculous that you are defending him when all he has done this year is stink. Continue living in the past.

-- Posted by Jolly Dump on Sun, May 19, 2013, at 1:31 PM
I feel like there is a lot of emotion in this thread. Kelly has been bad this year so far but by no means does that mean he needs to be written off for the future. I feel like the biggest problem is that he isn't consistently pitching enough to get things figured out. He would be able to do that in AAA without it being a detriment to the big club kind of like Boggs (hopefully) did. The issue with that is the question of who would be brought up to replace him. Wacha needs to be getting the consistent innings of a starter and needs to stay on rotation so he's out. If you went with a position player, you could go with a Ryan Jackson who has been especially hot but he is being blocked from getting consistent plate appearances in the majors to use his hot bat by players who are playing well enough not to be taken out like Kozma, Carpenter (who has been excellent), and bench guys eating up additional at-bats like Dirty Dan and the Wig. He and most other position players are out. It is a pickle to be in for sure but just sending Kelly down to AAA when there isn't anyone in particular that can be brought up doesn't completely work.

-- Posted by sideline starter on Sun, May 19, 2013, at 1:42 PM
I'm not saying you can't send Kelly to AAA but to say he stinks and that taking into consideration his performance is living in the past are way to broad and over simplified to be taken seriously. It just seems like your using Kelly as a scapegoat but I feel that if anything Kelly is a small part of the problem due to the frequency he pitches.

-- Posted by Bunk on Sun, May 19, 2013, at 2:03 PM
sideline starter makes some good points.

-- Posted by Dustin Ward on Sun, May 19, 2013, at 2:19 PM
I don't need to make him a scapegoat. His 7+ ERA and batting practice pitches speak for itself. And now with Garcia getting injured the team can still send Kelly down to Memphis, bring up Wacha and use him as a starter while keeping Martinez and Boggs in the Bullpen.

-- Posted by Jolly Dump on Sun, May 19, 2013, at 2:36 PM
I wonder who gets the nod with Garcia being out indefinitely? I know Jolly will be voting for Kelly to get the starts ;) He was obviously pretty effective with a good sample size of starts last year but this bullpen role hasn't worked out so well thus far. It does make me wonder what some consistent innings might do for him. Having more of a rhythm could make a huge difference with everything from planning for a start to release points along with physical, mental, emotional aspects. There is a possibility he's one of these guys that's just more suited to be a starter.

-- Posted by Grussman on Sun, May 19, 2013, at 2:37 PM
Mo isn't ready to put Wacha in the majors yet because he doesn't think he's had enough innings yet. At this time last year, he was preparing to play my Ole Miss Rebels in the NCAA Regionals. Kind of tough to move him all the way up to the majors in less than year. Tyler Lyons already moved up and will replace Jaime for this next start. Moving Kelly down would require bringing another player up.

-- Posted by sideline starter on Sun, May 19, 2013, at 2:39 PM
Sideline that's where Boggs comes into play. He has been pitching alot better since getting demoted. Kelly now needs a demotion.

-- Posted by Jolly Dump on Sun, May 19, 2013, at 4:59 PM
I just realized that Tyler Lyons hasn't been brought up to the 25-man active roster yet so maybe Kelly will be the one to go down to bring Lyons up. If he gets things figured out, maybe he comes back up to be a reliever and Lyons goes back down if the Cards come to a point where they are ready for Carlos Martinez to start or Jake Westbrook comes back. I was under the impression the Lyons had already been called up but he has not so it works out.

-- Posted by sideline starter on Sun, May 19, 2013, at 5:26 PM
The Cardinals chances of making the playoffs / finishing ahead of the Reds will improve greatly if veteran Chris Carpenter comes back healthy for the final three months of the season.

-- Posted by Dustin Ward on Sun, May 19, 2013, at 6:42 PM
A playoff rotation of Wainwright, Miller, Carpenter and Lynn would be good enough to have a chance.

-- Posted by Dustin Ward on Sun, May 19, 2013, at 6:46 PM
Not if he isn't fully healthy. I wouldn't put much expectation on him being 100% if he comes back. We are doing fine right now with young pitching anyway.

-- Posted by sideline starter on Sun, May 19, 2013, at 7:06 PM
Does anyone ever remember a time in the last 20 years when the Cardinals had more of their payroll on the DL than right now?

Furcal, Westbrook, Garcia, Motte and Chris Carpenter; That's a big chunk of cash;

-- Posted by Dustin Ward on Sun, May 19, 2013, at 8:17 PM
Anyone could see this happening with Furcal and Garcia. I blame the medical staff on both situations. I really thought that surgery last year straightened out Carpenter. Motte's and Westbrook's injury was surprise.

-- Posted by Jolly Dump on Sun, May 19, 2013, at 9:33 PM

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