THE REDBIRD REVIEW
Hey, the Cardinals are weird. Not so much the people, but the players and pitchers. Some of their performance stats don’t make a whole lot of sense. And that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Why? Because in my opinion the overall wackiness and whimsical nature of the early-bird 2025 Cardinals is part of the appeal that makes them so entertaining. Well, most of the time, anyway.
It’s an unpredictable lot of ballplayers. Just when you think the Cardinals are easy to figure out, they head in the opposite direction. Just when you think a team identity has solidified, the Redbirds change shape and look like something else.
One day they look like the fearsome 1927 Yankees. Twenty four hours later, they’re impersonating the cockamamie 1962 Mets. The Cards have a Coors Field offense for a few days, and then morph into a Death Valley offense that starves.
Starting pitchers? Depending on the latest turn of the Cardinal rotation, they’re either Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright and Matt Morris … or Omar Olivares, Allen Watson and Vicente Palacios.
These Cardinals? They move in mysterious ways. Just for the record, Bono of U2 sang that lyric – not Pozo, the newest St. Louis catcher to put on the gear.
I’ll give you a list of examples:
1. The Cardinals have won games started by pitchers Paul Skenes, Zack Wheeler, Pablo Lopez and Aaron Nolan. And the Cards have lost games started by Carmen Mlodzinski, Hunter Dobbins, Sean Newcomb and Yusei Kikuchi.
What? It’s true. How in the world does this make sense?
The Cardinals scored 15 runs in a combined 22 innings of at-bats against Skenes, Lopez, Nola and Wheeler – some of the finest starting pitchers in baseball. But the Cards scored only seven runs during a combined 22 and ⅔ innings pitched by Mlodzinski, Dobbins, Newcomb and Kikuchi. Don’t ask me how something like this transpires, because I don’t know. Like I said: it’s a weird team and a weird season.
2. The Phillies were at Busch Stadium over the weekend, and I wonder how many gamblers had this parlay: Andre Pallante out-pitching Aaron Nola, and Matthew Liberatore out-pitching Zack Wheeler? Yes, that really happened. Pallante and Liberatore combined for 13 scoreless innings and gave up seven hits and three walks. Combined, Nola and Wheeler allowed six earned runs, 12 hits and five walks in 11 innings for a 4.90 ERA.
3. The Cardinals are 0-4 in extra innings games, but have a 7-4 mark in the competitions that were completed in nine innings. This is a gimmicky stat, and pretty meaningless, but I like this anyway.
Here’s what the NL Central team winning percentages would have looked like Monday morning based on games that didn’t go to extra innings:
Cards, .636
Cubs, .611
Reds, .533
Brewers, .467
Pirates, .273
4. In 62 plate appearances for the Cardinals this season, the group of men that have served as designated hitters have combined for … one RBI. Wait a minute. How can a team that ranks second in the National League in runs per game (5.5) do that with only one RBI from a designated hitter?
That’s looney-tunes stuff. The Cardinals have 78 RBIs as a team and 77 of them have come from guys who didn’t swing as a DH. What’s the point of “designating” someone as a hitter … if they can’t hit? You got me there. But one option is to use catcher Ivan Herrera at DH more frequently when he returns from the Injured List.
5. The Cardinals won two of three from the Phillies with Herrera on the IL and shortstop Masyn Winn playing only one inning (out of 27) because of back spasms.
6. The Cardinals beat the Phillies on Friday with a catcher, Pedro Pages, playing second base for five innings after Winn left the game. The starter at second base, Thomas Sagesse, moved to shortstop to replace Winn. Pages, who never played second base as a pro, cleanly fielded two ground balls and got the outs without incident. What, is Pages trying to pull a Craig Biggio here?
7. What is a Yohel Pozo? You mean, the catcher who hadn’t played in the majors since having a short stay with the Rangers? The dude that (sadly) had to live in his car for a while? The guy who I thought had the name of “Bozo?” I intend no disrespect there. But when I first heard his name announced I thought the broadcaster said Bozo. Well, I’m the Bozo. And Pozo has been damn good. More on him later.
8. Speaking of the St. Louis catchers … are these guys channeling Ted Simmons? What’s going on here? From 2019 through 2022, St. Louis catchers ranked 25th among the 30 MLB catching groups in slugging and OPS and were fourth in onbase percentage.
Through the first 15 games of 2025, three Cards catchers have combined for a .350 average, .746 slugging percentage, 1.134 OPS, six homers, five doubles and 20 RBIs.
No team’s cast of catchers has hit for a higher batting average, shaped a higher OPS, hit more home runs, or slugged more robustly than the St. Louis firm of Herrera-Pages-Pozo. And only one set of catchers elsewhere in the majors has knocked in one run.
Herrera has been sidelined for a week and he still leads big-league catchers in batting average and slugging percentage – and is second with 11 RBIs. Herrera’s four home runs are twice as many as any other Cardinal.
Through Sunday, Pages had driven in more runs (7) than fellow catchers Adley Rutschman (6), Salvador Perez (6), Will Smith (6) and Sean Murphy.
Our man Pozo, has one home run – but what the heck, that’s more than J.T. Realmuto, Patrick Bailey, Yainer Diaz and Miguel Amaya can say.
This is bananas.
9. Remember when the Cardinals had such a pathetic, putrid, boring offense? Me too. But through the first 15 games, among Cardinals that have at least 12 plate appearances so far, 11 have turned in an above-average offensive performance based on OPS+. They are: Brendan Donovan, Lars Nootbaar, Victor Scott II, Nolan Arenado, Nolan Gorman, Luken Baker, Jordan Walker, Herrera, Pozo, Pages and Saggese. Long way to go and all of that. But there’s been some terrific action offensively.
CARDS RECORD: 7-8. It isn’t what Cardinals fans want the record to be, but … that 7-8 is the same as Houston and Tampa Bay and better than that of Baltimore and Atlanta. Only eight MLB teams are higher than two games above .500. And 14 teams are between one under .500 and two over .500. Appropriately, the Cardinals exist in the Mozeliak Middle.
CARDINALS VIBE CHECK: After snatching two of three from the Phillies and dancing and cavorting in the dugout Sunday, I would say the Vibe is “Coachella.”
AS THE ROTATION TURNS: The Cardinals have completed the first three cycles of their starting rotation, and the rotation is like the rest of the team. You never quite know what to expect from the five-man group consisting of Sonny Gray, Erick Fedde, Andre Pallante, Miles Mikolas and Mathew Liberatore.
1st turn: 3.29 ERA
2nd turn: 10.48 ERA
3rd turn: 1.24 ERA
In the latest cycle – two games vs. the Pirates and three against the Phillies – Gray, Fedde, Pallante, Mikolas and Liberatore held hitters to a .116 batting average, .192 onbase percentage, .168 slugging percentage and one home run.
Over the last five starts, the rotation yielded only four earned runs in 29 innings. Three of the runs were scored in five innings thrown by Mikolas – which means the other four starters collectively were scratched for just one earned run in 24 innings. Not bad! The Cardinals are about to add Steven Matz to the band as they switch to a virtual six-man rotation.
LIBBY LANDING: The tall left-hander was outstanding in his six shutout innings against the Phillies, allowing only three hits and a walk with seven strikeouts. He struck out 31.8 percent of the Phils that came to the plate.
The Phillies had to deal with an excellent pitching mix thrown at them by Liberatore. The visitors went 0 for 6 with three strikeouts against his four-seam fastball, 0 for 5 against changeup, 1 for 6 with three strikeouts against his slider, and were 0 for 1 against his sinker and his curve.
Liberatore vanquished Philadelphia’s left-handed batters; they went 1 for 7 against him and struck out five times. He did a good job against the Phils’ right-handed batters, holding them to two hits (singles) in 14 at-bats.
That was meaningful because RH batters were 14 for 41 (.341) against Liberatore in his first two starts this season. But in Sunday’s assignment Liberatore neutralized the RH bats in Philly’s lineup with 19 fastballs, 13 offspeed pitches and 17 breaking balls. Well done.
Libby has a 3.93 ERA in his first three starts, but he’s actually been better than the number indicates. In 18 and ⅓ innings he has struck out 18 hitters, walked only one, and was popped for just one home run in 71 plate appearances. Libby’s Fielding Independent ERA (1.91) is more representative of his quality work early in 2025.
The decision to truly commit to Liberatore as a starter for the first time in his career was overdue. But at least the Cardinals have finally realized that this was the right time to give Libby this opportunity. (Thanks, Chaim Bloom.) Liberatore is still only 25 years old and has a good chance to prove the Cardinals weren’t wacko to trade young outfielder Randy Arozarena to Tampa Bay for Libby on Jan. 9, 2020.
TWO OTHER LIBBY NOTES: (1) Liberatore’s average of 6.1 innings per start is tied for 11th in the majors by lefty starters that have made at least three starts so far. And his 6.1 average is fourth among National League starters behind Cincinnati’s Hunter Greene (6.9), Atlanta’s Spencer Schwellenbach (6.7) and Cincy’s Nick Lodolo (6.2) And, second, Liberatore’s 1.91 fielding independent ERA is the third best by a left-handed MLB starting pitcher that have made at least three starts. The only lefties with a better FIP are Jesus Lazardo (Philadelphia) and Cole Ragans (Kansas City.)
YO, POZO! As STL’s No. 3 catcher, and he’s been pretty dang amazing. After getting the call to join the Cardinals after Herrera suffered a knee injury on April 6, Pozo returned to the majors for the first time since playing 21 games for Texas back in 2021.
Before his promotion, Pozo had gone 3 for 7 with two homers and six RBIs for Triple A Memphis.
Since stepping in and up for the Cardinals, Pozo has 5 hits in 12 at-bats (.417) with two doubles, a home run and three RBIs. He banged a solo homer in his first start (at Pittsburgh) on April 7. In Friday’s 2-0 win over the Phillies, Pozo doubled in the Cards first run and later walked and scored the second run in. Then in Sunday’s 7-0 beatdown Pozo ripped a ground-rule double and scored a run.
Pozo is having a helluva good time, and keeps smiling – even after getting run over by the charging first baseman Willson Contreras the other day in a madcap pursuit of a foul pop-up.
Pozo has been an organizational depth piece for the Rangers, the A’s and now the Cardinals. This fella can hit. In 329 games at the Triple A level Pozo has a .321 average with a .545 slugging percentage. And at least for the time being, Pozo has brought some instant wallop to the Cardinals. What a pleasant surprise. Another interesting character in an interesting season.
The decision to go with Pozo and resist the temptation to promote catching prospect Jimmy Crooks was the right call, and a smart call, by the Cardinals. I tell ya what, this guy Mozeliak is a sharp operator.
DESIGNATED DOLDRUMS: The Cardinals have used five Cardinals at DH this season: Alec Burleson, Willson Contreras, Luken Baker, Nolan Gorman and Brendan Donovan.
Most of the plate appearances at DH have been made by Burleson (21), Contreras (19) and Baker (14.) But the same team that’s getting an explosion of offense from the catcher position isn’t getting much – at all – from their designated hitters.
As I mentioned earlier, through their first 15 games the Redbirds have ONLY ONE DADGUM run batted in from a DH. (That would be Burly). And the five Cardinals deployed at DH have combined for a .232 average, .286 slug and .592 OPS.
STATE OF THE STL OFFENSE: Before erupting for seven runs on Sunday, the Cardinals batted .230 with a .303 slugging percentage in their previous five contests, averaging only 2.6 runs per game. But the tired attack was revived against Wheeler and two Philly relievers. The bottom line for this offense through 15 games is positive. Only the Cubs and Yankees have averaged more runs per game than St. Louis (5.47). And the Cardinals lead the majors with a .350 OBP and are ranked among the top five overall in batting average (.280) slugging (.436), and OPS (.833.)
NOTES ON MY SCORECARD
– Lars Nootbaar has three hits (singles) in 29 at-bats for a .103 batting average in his last seven games. But at least Noot walked six times and swiped two bases in the seven games.
– The Cardinals are 0-3 in one run games. Last season they were 29-22 in one-run affairs.
– The Phillies had a combined 14 hits against STL pitching in three games. Per the astute STL baseball writer Rob Rains, that was Philly’s fewest number of hits against St. Louis in a three-game series since 1982
– Since his insertion into the team’s rotation on May 29 of last season, Pallante’s 3.38 ERA ranks 10th among 25 National League starting pitchers that have thrown at least 120 innings over that time.
– Rookie infielder Thomas Saggese is 8 for 17 (.471) with a home run and four RBIs in six games since being promoted from Memphis.
– After going 2 for 21 in his previous six games Nolan Arenado rebounded with two hits, including an RBI double, in Sunday’s tilt.
– In his first two games since Marmol wisely moved him out of the No. 2 lineup spot, Willson Contreras went 4 for 8 (.500) with a home run and double for three RBIs.
– Brendan Donovan ranks third in the NL with 21 hits, is fourth with a .350 batting average, and 15th in OPS at .901. Per wRC+, Donovan is 56 percent above league average offensively so far.
– Jordan Walker emerged from a downturn Sunday by going 2 for 4 with a two-run homer. Before that, Walker had only three hits in 21 at-bats (with eight strikeouts) in his previous six games.
– Reliever Kyle Leahy pitched another scoreless inning Sunday and hasn’t allowed a run since Opening Day. Overall for the young season Leahy has allowed one hit and one run in 8 and ⅔ innings while striking out 30 percent of his batters faced.
– With Sunday’s decisive victory, the Cardinals won their first regular-season series against the Phillies since 2017. In losing 12 consecutive series to Philadelphia since the start of 2018 – including a wild-card round sweep in the 2022 postseason – the Cardinals were 14-27.
– The Cardinals scored 82 runs in their first 15 games and had 18 homers, a .280 average and an .833 OPS. In their first 15 games of 2024, the Cards scored 61 runs, hit 13 home runs and had a .236 average and .680 OPS. But in both seasons STL was 7-8 after 15 games.
– Liberatore’s starting-pitcher Game Score of 72 on Sunday was the third best of his career. His two top Game Scores were an 85 against Tampa Bay in 2023, and a 75 vs. Atlanta in 2024. Just for context, the average Game Score is 50.
That’s all for now!
Thanks for reading …
–Bernie
Bernie was a 2023 inductee into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame and has won multiple national awards for column writing. You can access all of his writing and videos here on SportsHubSTL, catch him weekdays on the “Gashouse Gang” on KMOX (1120-AM, 104.1-FM) and watch him discuss baseball with Katie Woo of The Athletic twice a week on the “Cardinal Territory” YouTube channel.