51ºÚÁÏ

For my August 11th columnÌý—ÌýCardinals’ Jordan Walker, now ‘100% bought in,' is saving his careerÌý— Cardinals skipper Oli Marmol said: “I would say that he is more committed to the plan than I’ve ever seen. And that’s a really good thing, because I feel like, and I’m being very honest, I think there was a little bit of hesitancy in — (him) committed to it, not committed to it, committed to it. And we saw the inconsistency in play. And now there’s a full buy-in on what he needs to do in order to get to where he’s capable of.â€�

At that point, Walker had 70 at-bats since returning from the injured list, and his batting average was fitting for 51ºÚÁÏ â€” .314. His OPS in that stretch was .803.

As I wrote in the column: “He’s resuscitating his promise. He’s saving his career.

“It’s too early to say he’s definitely a Cardinals starter in 2026 (which would’ve been a laughable sentence to hear during the sunny days of, say, 2023). But he’s playing his way into the outfield competition right now.�

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Since that day, he’s gone SEVEN FOR FIFTY-FIVE.

That’s a .127 average in 55 at-bats. And he struck out 22 times. Walked just four times. On Sunday, he struck out four times. And in that 55 at-bat stretch, he tallied just one extra-base hit (a double against the Yankees).

Did I jinx him with the column? I’m being silly, but goodness gracious, what happened? What’s confounding is Marmol’s quotes. In that column, he went on and on about Walker’s positive swing changes and attitude. Yet from that day, Walker fell apart.

For the 2025 season, with 304 at-bats, Walker is hitting .220 with a .587 OPS. His OPS+ is an absurdly low 65 (100 is league average).

He’s still only 23 years old. He was, a few years back, one of the top hitting prospects in all of baseball (entering 2023, Baseball Prospectus had Walker at No. 2). But this latest turn has been gobsmacking — especially when you consider that even though the games don’t mean much (for the standings), they mean everything for Walker’s chances to prove himself.

Regarding strikeouts, His K rate in 2023 was 22.4%. In 2024, it was 28.1%. This year, it’s 31.7%. Just how bad is that?

Well, look at it this way. He has 328 plate appearances. Of all players in Major League Baseball with at least 300, Walker’s 31.7% strikeout-rate is tied for fourth-worst. And he’s not balancing it with slugging. Three of those guys have nice home run totals — Oneil Cruz (19), Logan O’Hoppe (19) and Ryan McMahon (18). Walker, has just five (incidentally, the Cards’ Nolan Gorman is right behind Walker on the dubious strikeout rate list with 31.3%, though he has 13 homers and an excellent 13.0% walk rate).

Walker’s homer to fly ball ratio is just 6.5%. That’s 33rd-worst — and right in the neighborhood of Nolan Arenado and Victor Scott II.

And on Baseball Savant, as always, Walker rates extremely high for strength and swing metrics. He’s in the 99th percentile for bat speed, 90th percentile for exit velocity and 85th percentile for hard-hit rate. But he counters it with a high ground ball rate and, check this outÌý— he’s in the second percentile for both strikeouts and whiff rate. He’s also in the 13th percentile for chase rate (he particularly struggles against sliders and sweepers). And he’s literally in the lowest percentile (first percentile) for squared up rate.

Per the site’s glossary: “A swing’s squared-up rate tells us how much of the highest possible exit velocity available (based on the physics related to the swing speed and pitch speed) a batter was able to obtainÌý— it is, at its simplest, how much exit velocity did you get as a share of how much exit velocity was possible based on your swing speed and the speed of the pitch. A swing that is 60% squared up, for example, tells you that the batter attained 60% of the maximum possible exit velocity available to him, again based on the speed of the swing and pitch.

“Data observation has told us that it’s only possible to attain that maximum possible exit velocity when a ball hits the sweet spot of the bat, approximately 4 to 9 inches from the head of the bat. Therefore, comparing the exit velocity observed with the exit velocity theoretically possible can tell us a great deal about how well the batter squared the ball up. Any particular swing can range from 0% squared up to 100% squared up.

“For Statcast purposes, any swing that is at least 80% squared up is considered to have been 'a squared-up swing.'�

So, yeah.

I thought that the July and August stretch of good hitting would become who Jordan Walker is. Turns out what we’ve seen the majority of the year is who Jordan Walker is.

Your call, Chaim Bloom.

“Guys are not up there looking to walk,� Gray said later. “They’re looking to swing and looking to swing early because I think for them ... (they) don’t want to get to two strikes. So go ahead and swing. Which is fair. Makes sense. I get it.�

He got even more of it Monday.

The major league club that’s most eager to ambush early pitches did so often Labor Day afternoon at Busch Stadium against the Cardinals right-hander. The Athletics’ three home runs off Gray came on the first or second pitch of an at-bat as they trounced the Cardinals 11-3.

On Nikki Glaser Day at the ballpark, the Athletics did the roasting. The Cardinals celebrated the comedian and 51ºÚÁÏ native, who hosted the Golden Globe Awards and stole the show at Comedy Central’s televised roast of Tom Brady, with a bobblehead and a first pitch. The Cardinals then put together a performance easy to skewer.

The defense committed three errors. The lineup struck out a dozen times for the second time in 28 hours. And seven of the 10 hits Gray allowed came on the first or second pitch of an at-bat.

Athletics outfielder JJ Bleday hit two home runs off fellow Vanderbilt alumnus Gray.

Both came on the first pitch.

“Not just Sonny, but our staff in general — we don’t have a ton of swing-and-miss in the zone, and you’re facing a team that is probably — no, not probably — the most aggressive team as far as swing rate,� manager Oli Marmol said. “A lot of contact happened within the first two pitches of the at-bat. He left pitches over the plate, and they hit them a long way.�

Ivan Herrera planted a solo homer in Big Mac Land to momentarily make a game of it in the fourth inning, but the A’s, currently subleasing in Sacramento, scored eight runs in the final four innings. They pulled away to win the last holiday game at Busch Stadium until at least 2027. No home games are scheduled on holidays in 2026.

The absences of everyday batters Alec Burleson, Brendan Donovan and Nolan Arenado have caught up with the Cardinals, especially when it comes to inconsistent fronts of offense and a consistent breeze of strikeouts. The Cardinals struck out 15 times in their loss Sunday at Cincinnati, and through his first four innings Monday, A’s starter Luis Morales had struck six of the first 14 Cardinals he faced. Morales (3-0) finished with eight in 5 2/3 innings.

The Cardinals struck out in order in the eighth inning and finished Monday with 27 strikeouts in the past two games. Put another way: That’s a full nine innings worth of strikeouts in 18 innings of baseball.

“We’ve got young dudes, man,� Marmol said Sunday.

He elaborated Monday: “You look at the punch-outs over the past two days and they’re through the roof. When you remove Donovan, who doesn’t punch out; Burleson, who doesn’t punch out; and Nado doesn’t punch out, and you replace (them) with guys who do, then you have exactly what happened yesterday. You have what happened today. You have a bunch of guys proving if they belong in the big leagues.

“So you continue to give them opportunity and allow them to do exactly that.�

No team in the majors has ended more at-bats on the first pitch than the Athletics and their city-to-be-named-later. Entering Monday’s game, the Athletics had 735 at-bats end on one pitch, 18 more than the next-closest American League and 81 more than any National League team. On the first pitch of an at-bat, the A’s were batting .363 with a 1.027 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS). Their 267 hits when pouncing on the first pitch are the most in baseball by 22 — and that was before they added seven more Monday.

If they can, teams try that approach against Gray to avoid getting into a two-strike count, where he’s one of the best in the majors — with one of the top finishing pitches in the game. Gray got a first-pitch strike on 29 of the 30 Athletics he faced.

“Usually, that’s a good thing,� Marmol said. “A team like this — they do a nice job of making you pay for it.�

Gray (12-8) gave a succinct explanation for why he was able to exploit the Pirates’ eagerness a week ago and could not do the same against the Athletics.

“You stay out of the middle of the plate,� he said.

A diving catch by rookie Nathan Church in center field kept the A’s from turning two walks from Gray in the first inning into a run. The aggressiveness unfolded from there. Bleday jumped a first-pitch curveball for a two-run homer in the fourth inning. Two pitches later, Zack Gelof followed with a solo homer to push the A’s out to a 3-0 lead. Gelof started the game with a .128 batting average raised it to .173 with three hits, including two for extra bases.

In the sixth, Bleday hit a first-pitch fastball from Gray for a solo homer that traveled an estimated 428 feet. His first homer began and his second homer continued a streak of six consecutive hits against Gray on the first, second or third pitch of an at-bat.

“Stay out of the middle of the plate, and I definitely didn’t do that,� Gray said. “Early in the count, I stayed across the middle of the plate, and then they didn’t miss. Stay out of the middle of the plate. Maybe just too many strikes in the middle of the plate.�

Bleday also reached base in the eighth on a fielding error by Saggese. It was the only error of the Cardinals’ three that contributed directly to a run.

Saggese’s error in the fifth got a runner on base who was left there, and Gray’s errant pickoff throw in the fourth inning proved less of an issue when Bleday hit the home run that would have scored a teammate from any base. Saggese moved to shortstop for the ninth inning and handled a sharp-hop grounder for an out.

In his post-game news conference, Marmol spoke a few times about how a young roster — one currently younger than they planned as a result of multiple injuries — needs a coaching staff that “continues to give opportunity� to grow, to learn, to improve, to ultimately show who to count on in the coming years.

“This is a guy who is going to have to continue to play good defense and take gritty at-bats and be a well-rounded player,� Marmol said. “We need to keep working. That’s all we can do. We need to do everything we can to continue to make progress there.�

He was talking specifically about Saggese.

But the same could apply to most of the current roster.

“We need to get better,� the manager said. “Bottom line.�

MONDAY’S BOX SCORE

Athletics 11, Cardinals 3

Athletics AB R H BI BB SO Avg.

Butler cf 3 2 1 1 2 0 .232

Wilson ss 4 2 3 0 0 0 .318

Rooker dh 5 0 1 1 0 1 .270

Soderstrom 1b 5 0 2 3 0 1 .271

Hernaiz 3b 4 2 2 0 1 0 .252

Thomas lf 5 0 1 1 0 0 .234

Bleday rf 5 3 2 3 0 1 .210

Gelof 2b 5 2 3 1 0 2 .173

MacIver c 4 0 0 1 0 1 .200

Totals 40 11 15 11 3 6

51ºÚÁÏ AB R H BI BB SO Avg.

Nootbaar lf 4 1 3 0 0 0 .244

Hampson lf 1 0 0 0 0 0 .107

Herrera dh 3 1 1 1 1 0 .286

Contreras 1b 4 0 0 0 0 2 .251

Gorman 3b 4 0 0 0 0 3 .214

Winn ss 3 0 1 1 0 1 .256

Prieto ph-2b 1 0 0 0 0 1 .167

Saggese 2b-ss 4 1 1 0 0 2 .254

Pagés c 3 0 1 0 0 1 .229

Fermín ph 1 0 1 1 0 0 .346

Walker rf 4 0 0 0 0 2 .220

Church cf 3 0 0 0 0 0 .108

Totals 35 3 8 3 1 12

Athletics 000 302 240 — 11 15 0

51ºÚÁÏ 000 101 001 — 3 8 3

E: Gray (1), Saggese 2 (8). LOB: 6, 51ºÚÁÏ 7. 2B: Hernaiz (4), Rooker (35), Gelof (2), Wilson (20), Soderstrom (28), Saggese (12). HR: Bleday 2 (12), off Gray; Gelof (2), off Gray; Herrera (12), off Morales. RBIs: Bleday 3 (32), Gelof (6), Thomas (14), Rooker (80), Soderstrom 3 (81), MacIver (8), Butler (54), Herrera (51), Winn (51), Fermín (3). CS: Gelof (2). S: Wilson. DP: 51ºÚÁÏ 1.

Athletics IP H R ER BB SO ERA

Morales, W, 3-0 52/3 5 2 2 1 8 1.59

Sterner, H, 12 11/3 1 0 0 0 1 3.64

McGough 2 2 1 1 0 3 4.50

51ºÚÁÏ IP H R ER BB SO ERA

Gray, L, 12-8 6 10 7 7 3 5 4.43

Fernandez 11/3 3 3 1 0 0 7.59

Roycroft 12/3 2 1 1 0 1 6.75

Inherited runners-scored: Sterner 2-0, Fernandez 2-1, Roycroft 1-1. HBP: Sterner (Church). WP: Morales. T: 2:39. Att.: 22,670.

His name was George Harrison.

Five months later, in February of 1964, he made a second trip to America. This time, he came with three friends.

But really, the most incredible thing that happened around here still happens. Every day. So often, in fact, that it’s just become part of the community’s flow. It’s simply, albeit beautifully, Greg being Greg.

A lifelong 51ºÚÁÏ Cardinals fan, 41-year-old Greg Poole has accumulated a massive baseball card and memorabilia collection. He runs a popular shop called Can’s Can — online, too — and even sells specialized card packs at the Cardinals team store in Busch Stadium.

Over the years, Poole has raised $700,000 through the store.

And he donated all $700,000 to his community.

“My 10-year-old daughter says it’s the worst business plan ever,� Poole said with a light laugh. “She tells people, ‘He makes no money!’�

Poole is not a rich man. In this Southern Illinois town, 100 miles from 51ºÚÁÏ, he works as a network manager for a special education co-op, while his wife, Courtney, is special education teacher. But he is driven to serve — enthusiastically, constantly and sometimes secretly, like he’s Santa Claus (except his bushy beard is reddish-brown).

“What makes Greg’s efforts so special is how rare it is for one person to give so much, simply out of generosity,� said Jenna Janello, a kindergarten teacher in Benton. “He shows a spirit of charity. And it truly makes a lasting difference.�

So in what ways does Poole pour the money into Benton and the region, which is mostly rural and expands 120 miles?

Well, in a room next to his shop, he has a center for school supplies, which he gives to teachers for free. For students of all grades, there are backpacks and books, headphones and hygiene products (and, of course, a bunch of baseball card packs because “that was what I loved growing up,� Poole said).

Really, it looks like a mini-Target in there, except — again — it’s all free. Teachers arrive on scheduled days. And he’s donated to 700 classrooms in 60 school districts.

In another room, he has resources for underserved community members, “from birth to 103, that’s our oldest,� Poole said. “In our area, there’s just not a whole lot of social service things anymore.�

So Poole took it upon himself to provide everything from diapers and toys and winter coats for kids, and for an older crowd, everything from blankets to laundry detergent to Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, “our No. 1 requested snack from seniors.�

Poole also discovered that many seniors in a local assisted living home had to provide their own toilet paper, so he prioritized that.

All for free. Everything is free.

He has also purchased beds for foster children, delivered meals to the hungry and created Christmas experiences for all ages.

“Our goal,� Poole said, “is to never say ‘no.’ And no matter who we’re serving, we want it to be, we want them to retain their dignity. Yeah. And so, I mean, I don’t sneak in chimneys or break into houses like Santa, but we do try to serve them without making a big deal about it.�

Sometimes, if a certain kid needs a bicycle, Poole will buy a bike, give it to a teacher and have the teacher pick the predetermined kid’s name out of a bowl of names.

Or when Poole sees someone eating alone at a restaurant, Poole will tell the waiter he’d like to pay that person’s bill.

“I reached out to him about a kiddo that just was walking down the hall in these shoes that are literally falling apart,� said Julie Patrick, a high school teacher, who first heard of Poole as the acclaimed cupcake baker for a particular fundraiser. “And he’s like, ‘Yep, I can do that.’ He had shoes shipped directly to my high school with my name on it — and got those shoes to that kid.�

The card packs sold at Busch Stadium are organized and packaged by his wife’s students with special needs — it teaches them job and life skills, he said. Each pack contains one card with either an autograph or authentic game-used relic.

With the energetic help of the Cardinals’ Linda Johnson, Poole’s packs were put on sale in the stadium. Thirty bucks each. And $17.50 goes right into Poole’s pool of money to buy goods and resources.

He hoped to sell 500 packs this season — he did so by the All-Star break.

It’s just nonstop charitable efforts.

Poole devotes his life to helping people.

Which makes it overwhelming to think he once tried to end his life.

As a boy, Poole always loved cards and the Cards. Willie McGee was his favorite player. Loved Ozzie, too. And even the heart of Bo Hart. Poole also played a bunch of ball as a boy. He’s one of those people who just “gets� baseball — its history, its culture, its complexity and its simplicity.

“I mean, you can’t not be romantic about baseball,� he said, while surrounded by memorabilia in the back of his shop.

But his childhood was compromised.

“Sexually abused,� Poole said. “From about 6 to 15. ... By a family friend. Growing up, a lot of trauma. ... Baseball and collectibles really were an escape.�

Poole turned 16 in 2000.

“Suicide became an option,� Poole said. “(Sexual abuse) messes with your wiring. And so, yeah, it was a way out. It sounds cold when you say like that. But at that point, it was the only way I knew. ... Like, you just don’t talk about (sexual abuse). It’s really hard to approach your parents, especially as a boy. And 25 years ago, a different world, things aren’t as open. It (felt like) a shameful thing.�

At the time, the high schooler Poole was involved in a “Meals on Wheels� program. He even sold baseball cards to make money to purchase some charitable meals. It was one of the last things he did before attempting to kill himself.

“After it didn’t succeed,� Poole said, “I started anew in October 2000. So it’s about to be the 25th anniversary.�

Instead of an epitaph, there was an epiphany.

He realized his childhood card collection could lead to more food and goods for others.

“I still had boxes of cards left,� he said. “I looked at them and thought: That’s a reason that I’m here, to try to do as much good as I could while I was here.�

While sharing his story, he referred to a different Christmas character — Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey in “It’s A Wonderful Life.�

The first big, charitable purchase Poole made in 2000 was a set of tires for an elderly woman in town. He hasn’t stopped giving.

“This has been a journey for me,� said Poole, who had positive experiences with counseling and speaking with others. “And part of discussing what we do to help others means sharing our stories. We’re guys, and so, like, there’s a stigma. And a lot of people have reached out since. They’re like, ‘Hey, same thing (happened to me).’ Like, it’s not an exclusive club. But nobody talks about it. And so part of what we do is using that platform.�

He is a survivor and an inspiration.

Generosity is in his genes.

Seven hundred thousand dollars. All to his community.

It’s incredible.

“I hate to say ‘I,’� Poole said, while pointing out the altruistic help from his family and his wife’s family. “And we never try to, like, beat our own drum.�

Well, allow me to be Ringo Starr this time.

Yet neither joined the big club.

You could almost hear the cries of angst and discontent from the various corners of Cardinals Nation where fans have camped out — because they’re clearly not at the ballpark — when the news reached them.

Of course, those growls and grumbles from Cardinals followers aren’t really about Wetherholt or Mathews. They’re about a club that entered the homestand two games below .500 and appears poised to miss the playoffs for a third consecutive season.

Dropping the series opener to the Nomadic Athletics at Busch Stadium on Monday afternoon couldn’t have helped.

It’s really not surprising the Cardinals chose to allow Wetherholt and Mathews to play out the season with Triple-A Memphis. And that’s not even meant to convey it’s not surprising in a sarcastic “typical Cardinals� tone.

Public relations aside, the Cardinals made the correct decision.

Practically speaking, the position player side of the roster doesn’t have a lot of room for many true decisions. Victor Scott II came off the injured list (ankle sprain) and filled one open roster spot.

For that matter, the Cardinals currently have Brendan Donovan, Alec Burleson and Nolan Arenado on the IL and Yohel Pozo on the seven-day concussion list. Assuming some of those players will come back this season, the Cardinals don’t have room for the position players who have already pushed their way to the majors.

As it stands now, highly regarded catcher and last season’s Cardinals minor league player of the year could be an interesting case in the final month.

Crooks joined the club when Pozo went on the IL, but Cardinals manager Oli Marmol acknowledged that Crooks would’ve been in consideration for a promotion when rosters expanded regardless of the Pozo injury.

Marmol declined to comment on the decisions to keep Wetherholt and Mathews in the minors.

Crooks, who had spent this entire season at Triple-A, could have an impact on the Cardinals’ catching situation next season. With Ivan Herrera’s viability behind the plate a topic the club will revisit this offseason, Crooks’ readiness for the big leagues should factor into the front office’s offseason decisions.

Crooks being on the roster serves the purpose of exposing him to the big leagues, the coaching staff, the preparation and getting his feet wet in major league games. It also allows the staff to make some assessments about his aptitude for catching at the MLB level.

That’s not the same scenario with Wetherholt. Why?

Because Wetherholt’s potential fit into the future plans still comes with some moving parts. His position likely depends on how the Cardinals sort through an overflow of second base and third base options that currently includes Thomas Saggese, Nolan Gorman, Donovan and Arenado. That’s not including Jose Fermin or Cesar Prieto, who don’t appear contenders for everyday jobs.

Of course, Donovan can be a candidate to play in the outfield, but then that’s another area where the Cardinals need to make decisions about a group that includes Lars Nootbaar, Jordan Walker, Nathan Church, Herrera, Scott and Burleson.

Clearing up roster redundancy in the offseason should add a greater level of clarity to Wetherholt’s future, and that can be sorted through without Wetherholt stepping foot on a big league diamond this season.

The Cardinals tapped right-handed reliever Chris Roycroft to fill the other roster spot and bolster the bullpen.

Mathews, a left-hander, took the minors by storm last year when he advanced from Low-A to High-A to Double-A and finished the season at Triple-A on his way to earning Baseball America’s minor league pitcher of the year honors.

However, this season has been a bit of a speed bump for Mathews. A shoulder injury forced him on the IL in April and limited him to eight starts in the first half of the minor league season.

Mathews has bounced back, but one longtime scout from another organization recently shared that he thought Mathews was exerting a lot of effort in order to generate velocity this season.

Mathews has battled walk issues since he reached Memphis. Last season in his Triple-A outings, he walked 7.56 batters per nine innings. This season, he has walked 6.86 per nine innings.

That said, Mathews last pitched on Saturday. If he were an option to join the big club, he wouldn’t be on turn to pitch until later this week.

Perhaps that door remains cracked open, but he might benefit from a healthy offseason and a fresh start in big league camp in February.

Neither Wetherholt nor Mathews needs to be added to the 40-man roster this winter, so the club maintains some roster flexibility for the transition to the Chaim Bloom regime this winter.

Neither the decision to keep Wetherholt and Mathews in the minors nor the disappointment from some Cardinals fans is really unexpected at this point.

Happy September!