Cardinals ***Official 2020 STL Cardinals Thread***

DJ's left nut · 08-21-2020, 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

No days off either. I get it’s a weird year. Games don’t seem to really count. Why not give him a day off though?

I’m assuming there’s a lesson learned going on here. Playing the long game. Maybe he’s had success at every level he’s been at. Labeled best prospect since Pujols. Show him it’s different here? Adjustments need to be made all the time?
Must be some kind Jedi mind trick to get him to take quality AB’s by the start of next year when hopefully some kind of normalcy returns.

The hell of it was that he ran into a perfect storm of suck.

The league adjusted to him FAST. He was getting pitches to hit early and it took maybe 3 games for teams to stop doing that.

And the worst part of it was that during those first few games when he was getting pitches to hit, he was hitting into awful luck. He was roping lasers right at guys and had an obvious bomb killed by the wind.

Most young hitters come up, get 15-20 games of 'rookie' pitching where they get to feast on fastballs, pitchers adjust and they have a tough little adjustment period where they have to come up with a new plan. The good news is in that first 15-20 games they padded their stats so they look at the scoreboard and don't get down on themselves because things look fine on their statline.

But Carlson got no padding in his 'rookie' period and his rookie period was SUPER short. So his line looks like ass, pitchers are pitching to him like he's an 8 year vet and things are just wearing on him.

I'm really not sure what you can do about it because you don't have an Albert Pujols in the lineup to put him in front of and ensure he gets fastballs like the old days. There's just not a truly scary bat here that can take pressure of him and get him pitches to hit.

When all you have to do once you get past him is pick on Fowler, Weiters, Carpenter, Bader, etc.... you realize that there's just no reason to let him beat you. The guys behind him aren't gonna if you pitch him tough and lose him.