Worldwide Sports News

Larry Dierker as a player and manager guided the Astros franchise to a combined 574 wins.  His number 49 is rightfully retired, and he joins us as our Legends Series continues with our sixth entry.    

Let’s start at the beginning.  You struck out Willie Mays in your first ever start.  Incredible.  What do you most remember about that?

I was in Cocoa Florida, and I had been averaging almost two strike outs per inning because the general manager Paul Richards taught me how to throw a sinker and a slider which I didn’t know how to throw.  If all you have is a fastball, you’re not going to last very long.   

I was confident, but they didn’t exactly put me out there against an easy team, they had Harvey Kuenn, McCovey, Cepeda and of course, Willie.  I had one strike in the count, and I threw him a change up, and he hit it about 450 feet, but it went 10-foot foul, and that was strike two.  So, then I threw him a slider that started inside, and the ball broke over the inside corner.  It’s now called a backdoor slider of course, and I kind of threw it by accident and it really worked.    

It’s coming up on 50 years since you threw your no-hitter in July of 1976.  Did you know you had it going that day?   

I was at the end of my career.  We were way out of the race.  They had brought up a bunch of younger guys, so it was clear that the team was looking to rebuild.    

On that day, I decided to just mix it up, and not try to impress anyone that I still knew how to throw.  I was cruising along and then once it got into the 8th inning, I decided that I was just going to throw fast balls because we had a 6-0 lead in the dome, and I didn’t have to give in to anybody.   

My fastball was awesome that day.  In 1969, I had a possible no-hitter in Atlanta with two outs when Felix Millan got an infield hit.  I wasn’t going to let that happen again, so I’m in the dome, there’s these fences to protect me, my ball had pop on it.    

It was kind of like the game when Lance McCullers threw the Yankees 23 straight curve balls.  I just kept throwing fastballs and they couldn’t hit them, and I had a no hitter.  

I often wonder about what would’ve happened if you had gotten to the series and faced the Yankees in 1998.  How good was that Astros team in 1998?

The Padres were a really good team.  Give them credit.  Kevin Brown outpitched Randy.    Remember, Bob Gibson one year had an ERA of 1.12 and lost a game to me.  If your team doesn’t score any runs, you can’t win.   

I’m not sure if that was the best team that the Astros ever had in their history, but it was the best team I personally ever had as a manager.  When we got Randy and he went 10-1 that summer, he was just overpowering, and the months of August and September were so exciting.  I really thought we were going to the World Series.    

Do you have any innings left in that arm of yours?  The Astros staff has been compromised to say the least.

I think the problem with the Astros pitchers and pitchers all throughout baseball is not necessarily the pitchers themselves or the coaches, it’s the doctors.    

If a guy has a little thing in his shoulder, they’ll poke around and find something.  In my day, we put hot patches on it, took some painkillers, and went out there.  All they could do back then was take X-rays and that only showed inflammation or tendons or anything else.    

We couldn’t afford not to pitch because everyone mostly had one-year contracts and you were only paid the next season based upon what you did the season before.  Guys didn’t want to miss a start.  

You look at some of those guys in the Hall Of Fame who threw 4000 or 5000 innings,  are you going to tell me that those guys didn’t have tweaks in their arms, that things didn’t hurt?  I took so many cortisone shots, sometimes even from the opposing team doctors from the other club.  I was always focused on the next start.  That’s just the way it was back then.     

It seems the secret to Sunday success for the Braves is to play Sunday Night Baseball. For the second straight week, the Braves were successful via the new version of Sunday Night Baseball on Peacock. They come from behind to beat the Phillies 4-2 and completed a splendid weekend sweep of their division rival. After dropping the first game of the week to the Marlins, the Braves have now won five straight games. They also continue to strengthen their lead in the NL East with a 5 game lead overall.

With another week of facing NL East opponents ahead, the Braves are playing of their best baseball in recent memory.

Braves News

The big off the field news of the Day for the Braves organization was Didier Fuentes being a late scratch for Gwinnett. Fortunately, it was not health related, as Mark Bowman of MLB.com speculates the Braves are keeping Fuentes fresh to be available if needed this week with the big league club.

Mark Bowman looks at how the lineup fueled the Braves success against the Phillies.

The Braves are up to number 2 in the MLB.com Power Rankings.

JR Ritchie once again looked great over the weekend in the minors.

MLB News

The Yankees power output continued to look impressive over the weekend.

After being swept by the Cubs over the weekend, the Mets have now lost 11 straight games.

For the Astros, starting pitchers Hunter Brown and Cristian Javier are expected to return in around 6 weeks.

The Feed

Finally, both Spencer Strider and Sean Murphy will take another step closer to their season debuts as they arrive in AAA with the Stripers this week.

Some news and notes on a Monday morning after the Dodgers’ first losing streak of the season.

Roki Sasaki struggled through another start on Sunday at Coors Field, allowing three runs in 4 2/3 innings, and in his four starts has a 6.11 ERA and 15.9-percent walk rate in 17 2/3 innings. With River Ryan on the injured list in Triple-A, and Blake Snell not expected back until late May or so, there are no current alternatives for the Dodgers in the rotation, which means Sasaki’s learning curve will have to come in the majors for the time being.

Fabian Ardaya at The Athletic wrote about the confidence or lack thereof in and from Sasaki after Sunday’s start:

“I’m trying to make adjustments all the time,” Sasaki said through interpreter Kensuke Okudo. “In the long run, I have to do the things I need to work on.”

Edwin Díaz pitched Sunday for the first time in nine days, after being day-to-day with concerns about his velocity. Things did not go well against the Colorado Rockies, allowing three hits and a walk to his four batters faced, and three runs in the eighth inning of a game the Dodgers lost by three.

From Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register:

“Today was a tough evaluation. I mean, it really was,” Roberts said. “Because I know what it’s supposed to look like, and when it doesn’t look like that, it gets a little concerning, really. And so, I’ll have a conversation with him. I know our training staff, and pitching guys will, and make sure that there is nothing to it, because the radar gun has been consistent, and his velocity been consistent in that, and it wasn’t there today.

“I gotta know more.”

The San Diego Padres (5-1) and Arizona Diamondbacks (4-2) had strong weeks to keep pace in the National League West, but the big news of the week was the Padres about to be sold for the staggering price of $3.9 billion.

The sale price shatters the previous record of $2.475 billion, which is what Steve Cohen paid for the New York Mets in 2020. The timing of the sale expected to happen this year, before the collective bargaining agreement expires on December 1. The Padres selling for $3.9 billion is going to make it much harder for owners to posture about the health of the sport being imperiled.

“You see there’s owners that want to win and want to put a great product on the field because they’ve seen the benefits of it,” said Padres second baseman Jake Cronenworth, who is also a member of the MLB Players Association’s executive subcommittee. “I think today is a perfect example of what the benefit is.”

Okay, one more note within the division, and it’s also Padres-related: Closer Mason Miller has yet to allow a run in his 11 1/3 innings this season, and has struck out an absurd 27 of his 38 batters faced (71.1 percent) this season. Sheesh.

NL West standings

Dodgers 15-6, – –
Padres 15-7, 0.5 GB
D-backs 13-9, 2.5 GB
Giants 9-13, 6.5 GB
Rockies 9-13, 6.5 GB

The week ahead

• Dodgers: at Rockies (1 game), at Giants, vs. Cubs
• D-backs: vs. White Sox, vs. Padres (2 games)
• Padres: at Rockies, at D-backs (2 games)
• Rockies: vs. Dodgers (1 game), vs. Padres, at Mets
• Giants: vs. Dodgers, vs. Marlins

Good morning, baseball fans!

It’s a new week of San Francisco Giants baseball, so let’s take a look at what’s on deck for the week.

The Giants are off today, but they’re heading back home to Oracle Park for both series this week.

First up, the Los Angeles Dodgers are coming to town tomorrow for a three-game series. After that, it will be a three-game series against the Miami Marlins over the weekend.

Any other week, I would pick the Dodgers series as the one I am most interested in for the week. But I’m actually going to be attending a game this weekend, so I’m going to have to say the Marlins series. Not only because I will be in attendance, but because they might actually stand a chance of winning some of those. Maybe. The Marlins are fairly good so far this year. But I’ll take them over the Dodgers, I guess.

Which series are you most interested in this week?

For most folks, the start of their career means the end of school. It doesn’t matter if you work in finance, healthcare, the arts or athletics. However, that is not the case for all athletes. The Colorado Rockies provide continuing player education, helping their Latino players learn English language and get acquainted with US culture.

It’s an essential part of player development for future Rockies who are not from the United States. After all, learning a new language and becoming comfortable with a new culture provide off-the-field challenges, and all of this happens while players are continuing to develop their baseball skills.

In this multi-part series, I will be taking you behind the scenes of the Rockies Cultural Education & Development Program.

First up, how it came about.

A brief history of the program

The Rockies Cultural Education & Development Program was first established in 2012 by Josh Rosenthal – brother of former Rockies assistant general manager, Zack Rosenthal. Josh was a former Peace Corps volunteer and felt the need for the players to do more than be able to speak English. He pitched the program to Vice President of International Operations Rolando Fernández, and the rest is history.

Within the year, they hired Angel Amparo – a former systems and structural engineer – as the Cultural Education & Development Coordinator. 

“We pretty much started from scratch with this,” Amparo said. “We were like, ‘What do you want this to look like?’ So we decided on a curriculum in terms of what we needed and a syllabus that we thought was beneficial for our players. This was with a lot of feedback from the coaches, the player development staff and the front office. So we wrote this – I don’t think we knew what we were doing for the first couple of years. They were pretty touch and go, learning and trial by error. But as the years went by and we got more into it… I was focused primarily on just the kids in the Dominican Republic, and Josh could focus on the kids in the States.”

After eight years, Rosenthal left the Rockies organization, and Amparo and a team of four teachers have continued to administer the program from the Dominican Summer League all the way through Double-A: 

• Julio Medina – Lead Teacher (Dominican Summer League)
• Steven Baumann – English Teacher (Arizona Complex League)
• Dr. Yulonn Harris – English Teacher (Fresno & Hartford)
• Paul Worley – English Teacher (Spokane)

The Rockies originally had a formal program for players in Triple-A and the major leagues, but found it to be challenging due to the constant roster turnover. 

“I still communicate with them and we still do a lot of virtual teaching,” Amparo said. “We still offer them any type of English language learning programs that we use and they have access to it. But since they’re at that level and they’re older and more mature – not that we’re babysitting them – we give them the option. We want to tailor to what [they] need.

“So what I do with the Triple-A and major league kids is ask ‘What do you want? What would help you this season?’ And based on what they tell me in their feedback, I design something specific for them that can help them.”

Teacher hiring process

The interview process for teachers is extensive.

“I look for someone who has some experience with either inquiry-based learning, project-based learning or Socratic teaching,” Amparo said. “Knowledge of baseball isn’t a game changer. It’s nice if they have it, but Yulonn (Harris) didn’t know anything about baseball when she was first hired, but she was so qualified and she’s learned so much over the years about the team. I look for unorthodox-type teachers, very outside-the-box teachers.

“I have them create a lesson plan for me, and then I have them do a mock class with their affiliate,” Amparo continued. “I’ll be there and I want to observe. And based on that, I make my decisions. But I’m picky. When I hired Steven (Baumann), we interviewed 74 candidates. And I ask the players who they like afterwards because obviously they work together for the whole season, or multiple seasons, so I want to make sure they have a good connection with this person.”

Term structure

Classes are provided to all signed Latin players, approximately 120-140 players per season. Classes are offered in a hybrid format with both in-person and virtual components for the duration of the season, starting in April and running until September. In the DSL, players take classes every day from 4-7 pm after their morning games. Once players get stateside, the teachers are given more flexibility based on game schedules, but they are still required to meet at least three times per week with two days of asynchronous content. Additionally, the DSL teachers hold office hours for 30 minutes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

In addition to their own internal team, the Rockies also collaborate with other teams across Major League Baseball.

“We have monthly meetings with MLB and all of the other education coordinators,” Amparo said. “We have Zoom meetings, and we always get together at the Winter Meetings as well. I have my little clique with the Twins, the Phillies, the Guardians, the Marlins and the Orioles, so we always get together monthly and we meet at one of our academies. We just brainstorm some ideas because the whole purpose of this is to build better men.”

The main focus of the department is its structured curriculum and syllabus for English-language acquisition through intentional, progressive lessons that are tailored to the realities of a career in professional baseball. There is a standard curriculum, but the teachers are given autonomy to change things as long as it’s beneficial to the players.

“We collaborate on it,” Amparo said. “We have our Rockies Evaluation Matrix with these ‘can do’ statements for different levels. It goes from white, which is rookie, to purple, which is more advanced. So even though we have this as a guideline, I give them the autonomy on lesson plans and projects. One thing that I encourage for the affiliates is to do more interactions with the media and talking with more native speakers. In Arizona, we’ve done presentations to local high schools there. We meet monthly and [the teachers] always come to me with a project or idea that they want to do and as long as it aligns with our matrix of what we’re trying to do, I give them autonomy to do it.”

Other lessons the Rockies have implemented include a spelling bee competition, an egg drop competition, play-by-play commentary, mock commercials, and chess tournaments. Additionally, the players take workshops on financial literacy, contract negotiations and general communications. They also learn vocational skills such as graphic design and PC repair.

Closing thoughts

The Rockies were ahead of the game when it came to helping their Latino players acclimate to working, living, and playing baseball in the United States.

Next week, I’ll discuss the intricacies of the curriculum itself.

On the farm

Triple-A: Albuquerque Isotopes 17, Oklahoma City Comets 4

Just like the big league club, the Triple-A Rockies beat the Triple-A Dodgers. And while the Rockies made things close at the end, the Isotopes jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first inning and never looked back, including a six-run seventh. They scored in every inning except for the second and eighth, and there was scoring by at least one team in every inning. Every single Isotopes starter had at least one hit except for Charlie Condon (No. 1 PuRP), but he went 0-for-3 with two walks, two runs scored and two strikeouts. Sterlin Thompson (No. 13 PuRP) was the belle of the ball, going 4-for-5 with four RBI and two runs scored. Adael Amador, Cole Carrigg (No. 4 PuRP) and Braxton Fulford each had three hits, and Blaine Crim had two.

On the pitching side, starter Sean Sullivan (No. 8 PuRP) tossed five innings and allowed three runs on four hits with four walks and four strikeouts.

Double-A: CANCELLED: Hartford Yard Goats vs. Richmond Flying Squirrels

Sunday’s Yard Goats game against the Richmond Flying Squirrels (San Francisco Giants) was cancelled due to inclement weather and will not be rescheduled since Richmond doesn’t return to Hartford this season. The Yard Goats will begin a six-game road trip to Portland, Maine against the Sea Dogs (Boston Red Sox) on Tuesday.

High-A: Vancouver Canadians 5, Spokane Indians 2

The Indians struggled against the Canadians again on Sunday afternoon. The pitching staff performed well, with starter Brody Brecht (No. 3 PuRP) throwing three innings without allowing a hit nor a run while walking two and striking out five. Nathan Blasick pitched 0.2 scoreless innings with two hits, a walk and two strikeouts, but Stu Flesland III struggled in his 3.1 innings of work. The left-hander allowed three runs on four hits with three walks and three strikeouts. Lefty Justin Loer came in for the final two innings, and allowed two more runs on a home run with two hits and a strikeout.

On the hitting side, only three prospects recorded hits: LF Jacob Humphrey (2-for-4, R, BB), SS Kelvin Hidalgo (3-for-4, RBI, K) and 3B Jacob Hinderleider (1-for-4, R, RBI, K).

Single-A: Ontario Tower Buzzers 23, Fresno Grizzlies 7

While the Triple-A Rockies piled it on the Triple-A Rockies, unfortunately the Single-A Rockies were piled on by the Single-A Dodgers. On the pitching side, the only pitcher to have a clean outing was RHP Manuel Olivares, who allowed two hits with a strikeout in just 0.1 innings of work. Of the six pitchers used, LHP Brady Parker got the worst of it — allowing six runs on six hits with three walks and five strikeouts. Interestingly, he was one of three that didn’t allow a home run, but was still saddled with the loss.

On the hitting side, Roldy Brito (No. 11 PuRP), Derek Bernard and Tanner Thatch each recorded two hits. Jeremy Ciriasco recorded one, but the rest of the lineup was silent. That said, they only racked up nine strikeouts as a team.

‘Seeing her is a piece of history’: Ohtani, Roberts meet 100-year-old Nagasaki survivor | MLB.com

Ahead of the Rockies game on Saturday, 100-year-old Momoyo Nakamoto Kelley was in attendance and was able to meet her favorite Japanese players — Shohei Ohtani, Roki Sasaki, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tomoyuki Sugano — and Dave Roberts, who was born in Japan. After surviving the atomic bomb at 19, Kelley and her husband emigrated to the US in the 1950’s and now reside in Salt Lake City.

1 early-season development each team can believe in | MLB.com

The Rockies have been tinkering with their pitching strategy. Thomas Harding specifically cites Chase Dollander, Antonio Senzatela and Zach Agnos as positive developments in the bullpen, as the Rockies attempt to not burn it out too early in the season.

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks!

• Former Angels great Garret Anderson passed away on Friday at age 53. Anderson holds several career records for the Angels and was a three-time All-Star. Our condolences go out to his family, friends, former teammates and the Angels organization.
• The Angels will honor Anderson with a patch and other tributes.
• Sam Blum was at Friday night’s game in Anaheim which was an emotional affair as GA’s teammates remembered and paid tribute to him. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• The Padres have agreed to a sale for $3.9 billion to Clearlake Capital co-founder José E. Feliciano and his wife Kwanza Jones. That’s a record sale for a baseball team.
• Brittany Ghiroli gets reaction to the record sale from around MLB, (The Athletic sub. req.) including how it is going to be tough for MLB owners to cry poverty in the upcoming collective bargaining talks after this sale price for a non-major market team.
• You probably know this already, but the Mets lost their 11th straight game on Sunday, their longest losing streak since 2004.
• Jay Jaffe looks at what’s going wrong with the Mets in an article that was written after they’d only lost nine-straight. Mostly, it’s the bats.
• Francisco Lindor came to the defense of Mets manager Carlos Mendoza.

• Royals legend Salvador Perez and manager Matt Quatraro got into it a bit after Quatraro suggested that Perez needed a “mental breather” and Perez said he no didn’t. They metaphorically kissed and made up later. At least I assume it was metaphorical.
• Mike Axisa notes that the Dodgers have been the best team in baseball despite not getting much of anything from their big offseason signings.
• Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing said the Rockies approach at the plate was “a little fishy” in Saturday’s Colorado win. (The Athletic sub. req.) His manager Dave Roberts said that it wasn’t.
• One thing the Rockies are doing this year is “suggesting” pitches from the dugout. (The Athletic sub. req.) The Marlins are outright calling pitches from the dugout, but the Rockies are taking a softer stance to the same thing, saying that their pitchers and catchers are free to ignore the suggestions. But they say they mostly don’t.
• One early-season development for each team that they can believe in.
• Chad Jennings has which teams are overachieving and which are underachieving so far this year. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Jesse Rogers reports that the Pirates have been impressed with the maturity of their young rookie Konnor Griffin.
• Of course, Griffin signed a long-term extension with the Pirates. Michael Baumann thinks that who benefits from all these deals and whether it is good for the game is very complicated.
• Julian McWilliams looks at the development of Cardinals slugger Jordan Walker and how the Cardinals needed more than just “patience” to allow the former elite prospect finally bloom. Cardinals hitting coach Brant Brown is extensively quoted and I can’t help but hear Ron Santo scream “NOOOOOOOOOOOO!” in my head whenever I hear his name.
• Ryan Blake has a look at when players retire.
• The Reds won a game in extra innings on Sunday after former Cubs catcher P.J. Higgins successfully called for an Automatic Ball/Strike challenge to end the game.
• Jordan Schusterman and Jake Mintz explain what we’ve learned about the ABS system so far.
• First female umpire Jen Pawol was behind the plate for her first ever major league game with the ABS system on Friday. She went 2 for 4 on pitches that were challenged. Giants catcher Daniel Susac praised Pawol behind the plate. Gabe Lacques reports.
• Padres closer Mason Miller now has a scoreless streak of 32.2 innings, just one inning shy of a team record.
• Bryan Horowitz reports on the band Korn sending Miller a whole bunch of swag and inviting him to a concert after they found out that their song “Blind” was Miller’s walk-out music. Of course, the Padres picked the song for Miller since he was born after the song was popular, but he still appreciates it.
• Casey Drottar reports that Taiwanese fans continue to support Guardians minor league outfielder Stuart Fairchild after he played for Chinese Taipei in the WBC. Fairchild has never been to Taiwan, but he hopes to go this upcoming offseason and he wants to take his mother, who left the island for America when she was 12 and hasn’t been back.
• Manny Randhawa reports on Shohei Ohtani, Roki Sasaki and other Japanese players meeting with a 100-year-old Nagasaki survivor at Coors Field this weekend.
• Guardians catcher Austin Hedges proposed to his girlfriend on the field after a game on Sunday. She said yes.
• A college team won a 21-inning marathon on a walk-off balk. Shanthi Sepe-Chepuru with the story.
• The Reno Aces did an entire lineup introduction in a Mickey Mouse voice.

And finally, Matthew Leach has the story of Twins reliever Kody Funderburk, whose wife Alicia is both pregnant and was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Through treatment, the doctors believe that both Alicia and baby will be fine.

I think it is fair to say that the Cardinals have been a surprise. Certainly to everybody else, but even among more optimistic Cardinals fans, I think their start has been unexpected. Now, it is baseball. Bad teams can have good 20-game stretches and the Cardinals do have a -8 run differential. On the surface, if you had told me the Cardinals would be 13-8 with a -8 run differential, I don’t think it would be THAT surprising.

What is perhaps more surprising is that it looks a little more real than one might assume. Sure, the Cardinals aren’t going to go 100-62 (what 13-8 is on pace for), and I question the sustainability of them playing this well of course. But I genuinely think they look like kind of a good team, with the exception of the bullpen. The bullpen is why the run differential is negative.

They are lucky to be 13-8, because they keep winning the close games, but they’re also close games because the bullpen keeps making them close games. From a long-term standpoint, this is best case scenario. When the Cardinals are officially in “We’re trying to win” territory, there’s a good chance none of the members of this bullpen will be here. That’s the nature of bullpens.

Basically, regardless of how this season ends up turning out, it has stopped feeling like a rebuild for me. Unlike the bullpen, the vast majority of their current lineup will still be here when the Cardinals are trying to win officially. You’re not supposed to have that part figured out already.

“It doesn’t really feel like a rebuild,” Masyn Winn said.  “Obviously we got rid of some of our big names, but I mean we still have a good young core of guys.  Those are guys we can build around.  I’m hoping I can be here long enough to see the benefits of this transition.  There’s four or five guys that could come out and just have a crazy year.  They do that, other guys do what they’re supposed to do, and we’re right there.  It’s not like we were 20 games under .500 last year, we were close.”

And this is something Chaim Bloom has been very clear about in interviews. They’re not writing this year off. Things could happen to speed this up. They simply are putting the long-term first, second, and third. Which means we won’t see bullpen help except internally.

“There is on some level even understanding – and I’ve tried to be very clear about this – that we are not prioritizing short term success over what needs to happen in long-term,” Bloom said.  “Even with that, my mindset is such that you’re never going to stop trying to win and there is some way by which you will always assess where you are by the standings.”

Having a young team and no expectations can be a huge benefit. There’s probably no egos, they understand the Cardinals will give them a legit shot, and they’re all fighting for their career.

“There are a lot of young guys who are hungry trying to make a name for themselves but also to bring a bunch of winning games back to St. Louis, like that’s what we’re trying to do,” JJ Wetherholt said.  “You can feel that as a young guy.”

It’s also helpful that everyone in the starting lineup is between 23 and 27 years old. In the starting rotation, everyone is between 25 and 28.

“I think everyone being the same age is honestly helpful,” Thomas Saggese said.  “We’re all in similar stages of our lives and we have a similar goal.  That’s what’s going to bring us together and propel us to being successful, just having that chemistry.  I think it might be easier to build that chemistry.” 

It’s the kind of youth that makes 27-year-old Alec Burleson the equivalent of the grizzled veteran on the team, even though he’s only had two full seasons under his belt. But he was given a similar chance to what a good number of young guys will get, so they will probably listen.

“I’m still trying to make adjustments in this league, so any of my experience that I can give to these guys and kind of show them the way or make their adjustment a little easier and seamless, that’s what I want to do,” Burleson said.

The Cardinals have some sort of given themselves a scrappy underdog status, and it’s not totally undeserved. But they were not expecting to blow teams away.

“We’re not going to be the long ball team,” Winn said.  “We all know that.  We’re going to go out there and be scrappy.  I’m actually excited.”

They’re actually tied for 8th in homers, so I’m guessing they’ve hit more homers so far than Winn expected. Although I’m also sure he expected to have a homer by now too I would assume. But the players had some expectation of winning, certainly competing in most games and not being an easy win for anyone.

“If there’s a standard set early and we can all abide by it – it’s not like rules or anything – there’s a certain way Cardinals play baseball and if we can all do it, it’ll work itself out,” Burleson said.  “I think that’s the way you kind of get these guys together.  You set a standard and you all kind of buy into it.”

You can tell communication in the organization is better, because Burleson says something like this before Bloom says this.

“Most players, especially young players, come into this hoping to establish themselves and hoping to be a part of something for a long time,” Bloom said. “I think it’s healthy, especially in an organization like this, when people are really looking at ‘what is that standard I’m expected to meet?’ in order to be a part of this.”

That can’t possibly be a coincidence. The message is getting passed down. You lay down what you think a player can do, you give them the tools and importantly the space to be able to do it, stick to the process, and things should work in your favor. And in keeping with that theme, the process on a broader scale dictates to stick to the plan. Okay the season is going better than expected – so far – but it’s not time to change the plans.

As weird as it sounds, there’s a bigger goal than doing well this particular season. Yes, it’s going to fun if this season does go well, but winning as many games as possible this year is not actually the goal.

“With respect to that bigger goal, regardless of the standings, regardless of what the win total, you want to see that core continue to take shape, continue to progress,” Bloom said.  “I would like to be able to look up at the end of the 2026 season and feel like that picture of what that group looks like and what it will continue to look like, whether that’s stuff that happens here at the major league, stuff that happens throughout the system, even stuff behind the curtain in the organization that’s going to be necessary for us to succeed over time and make really good acquisitions and really smart baseball decisions over time that is further ahead than where it was.”

The best part about the Cardinals being 13-8 is not that they’re 13-8. But that so far, the core does appear to be taking shape. Jordan Walker has catapulted himself into the core. Ivan Herrera somehow has disappointed with a .378 OBP, but his expected stats are waay better. Alec Burleson has more walks than strikeouts, which I would never think possible in a 95-game sample. After yesterday’s game, Masyn Winn is completely back with a 98 wRC+ and a lower BABIP.

Sure, the rest of the outfield not named Walker could be going better, and sure Nolan Gorman has been a mixed bag. Only Gorman really has the potential to be core though among this group and I’m not convinced he’s a part of the future plans even if he does bounce back. But things seem to be moving in the right direction.

“Honestly, I think the fans should be pretty excited,” Winn said.  “It might take a year, might take two, might be this year, but we’re heading in the right direction.”

And that’s what this year is about. Moving in the right direction. Identifying the future and then most likely shed the pieces that aren’t a part of that future for prospects, in other words, you’re trading for the future.

The buzz is there. Just in my personal life, the attitude among the fanbase has certainly shifted. I don’t think the vibes have been this good since the 2022 season. The record very obviously helps. But they were 33-25 at one point last year. It was nothing like this. So far, it hasn’t translated to attendance, although there hasn’t been a drop.

“If we’re doing our job and we’re doing it well, I think fans are going to show up,” Winn said.

I would love to find out.