Bernie’s Redbird Review: Tommy Pham, Michael McGreevy And The Power Of Instant Impact For The Cardinals.

I was curious to see how rookie starting pitcher Michael McGreevy would do in his big-league debut, getting the assignment for Wednesday’s game against the Rangers.

McGreevy, the 18th overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft, is still only 24 but it seemingly took him forever – OK, a long time – to reach the majors. McGreevy didn’t consistently wow anyone during his trek through the minors, and had a 4.45 ERA in 20 starts for Triple A Memphis this season.

If the Cardinals thought highly of him McGreevy would have received a big-league opportunity before now. I say that because this club has tried to address an obvious need for starting pitching. I wondered if St. Louis erred in drafting McGreevy in the first round, but it was fair to give them the benefit of the doubt. McGreevy has ability or the Cardinals wouldn’t have chosen him so early in the ‘21 draft. He’s not a high-velo, blow-away-the-hitters style of pitcher, and joined the organization at a time when the Cardinals were shifting to a more strikeout-oriented philosophy. To succeed, McGreevy must have precise control and impeccable location. He can’t get away with as many mistakes as a guy who throws 95+ miles per hour.

McGreevy has improved for Memphis in recent weeks, shaping a 2.94 ERA in his last nine starts. Rangers manager Bruce Bochy had four left-handed batters in his lineup to face McGreevy Wednesday, and that was no surprise. This season LH batters at Triple A had pummeled McGreevy for a .280 batting average, .359 onbase percentage and .480 slug.

I cannot lie. I didn’t have much confidence in McGreevy today. It was hard for me to look past his high Triple A earned-run average, average of 7.9 strikeouts per nine innings, and the number of bruises that left-handed bats put on him during his time in the minors.

Well … I’m pleased to repudiate my own doubts.

McGreevy had a wonderful debut, allowing one run and five hits in seven innings. The Cardinals busted the game open scoring eight runs with McGreevy in the game. The generous run support supplied a comfy cushion for the rookie, but McGreevy didn’t need it.

McGreevy retired 15 of 17 batters faced through five scoreless innings, allowing one hit and a walk. And he kept the Rangers down to earth with a 61.5% ground ball rate through five. The Rangers finally broke through for three hits and a run in the sixth, but McGreevy returned for the seventh inning to put a positive finishing touch on his first day in the bigs.

McGreevy had excellent command, got 12 ground-ball outs, and brought his best form from Memphis to St. Louis. The Cardinals can only be encouraged – thrilled – by what they witnessed. And the decision to give him the ball for Wednesday’s start was a good call. The Cardinals are in a chaotic stretch of schedule and needed something like this by McGreevy. He came through in a sterling fashion to exceed expectations.

McGreevy’s first big-league start was a Quality Start. He posted a Bill James Game Score of 65 – 15 points above average. The 65 game score put McGreevy in the top 20 for the best starts made by a Cardinal this season. Hey, what took the Cardinals so long to give McGreevy a chance? I’m just kidding. He accepted the challenge on Wednesday and displayed no nervousness. The apple-cheeked rookie was superb in every way.

“Surreal,” McGreevy said in a postgame, on-field interview with Jim Hayes of Bally Sports Midwest.

BIRD BYTES

1) Wednesday’s 10-1 romp gave the Cardinals their second straight victory and a 2-to-1 series win over the defending World Series champion Rangers. The two consecutive wins cut first-place Milwaukee’s lead to five games in the NL Central.

2) Tommy Pham’s outrageous grand-slam homer in Tuesday’s 8-1 triumph over Texas was the top individual highlight of the Cardinals’ season. For me, anyway. What an awesome return home for Pham, who was dealt away by the Cardinals in 2018 after he’d spent 13 eventful and challenging years in the St. Louis organization. It was a sad day when Pham left Busch Stadium, his first major-league baseball house. The Cardinals have never given a uniform to a player that has more heart and passion than T. Pham.

3) The crowd at Busch Stadium went bananas. The scene in the dugout was wired and alive. Filled with rambunctious, smiling, happy people. The affection was unreserved and generous. I’ve never seen the mostly stoic Paul Goldschmidt go bonkers the way he did in joining teammates in celebrating with Pham after the prodigal son circled the bases. This team – including the players – really wanted Pham to come here and aired their feelings to manager Oli Marmol and the front office. Dudes who were members of the same team as Pham here in St. Louis – Matt Carpenter, Miles Mikolas, Lance Lynn and (coach) Marmol – led the lobbying effort. And Cardinal fans always had a soft spot for Pham. They still do. You could see that, and feel that, as Busch Stadium rocked after his Pham slam.

“It was different because of the ovation and that’s probably my best moment here and one of the top moments of my career,” Pham told the media after the game. “There were guys pulling for one another. When a team comes together with that kind of togetherness, it’s a dangerous team.”

4) Pham’s roots in the organization extended through time. His first year in the St. Louis system was rookie-league ball in 2006. He played at the Triple A level for the Cardinals as late as 2017. And here he is, back again. You talk about a long and winding road.

5) Pham was a minor-league player teammate of Marmol for multiple years. Pham was also a minor-league teammate of current Cardinals coaches Daniel Descalso and Dean Kiekhefer.

6) I’m going to give you a lot of names here, but only because I think you’ll enjoy seeing them all and will appreciate Pham’s many connections. During his marathon-course expedition through the minors as a young and aspiring Cardinal, Pham’s teammates included the following logbook of players:

Lance Lynn, Matt Carpenter, Kyle McClellan, Tony Cruz, Colby Rasmus, Brendan Ryan, Pete Kozma, Adron Chambers, Xavier Scruggs, Matt Adams, Joe Kelly, Allen Craig, Shelby Miller, Oscar Taveras, Shane Robinson, Greg Garcia, Seth Maness, Carlos Martinez and Tyler Lyons.

Plus … Trevor Rosenthal, Michael Wacha, Kolten Wong, Stephen Piscotty, Randal Grichuk, Marco Gonzales, Harrison Bader, Jon Jay, Aledmys Diaz, John Brebbia, Carson Kelly, Jose Martinez, Alex Reyes, Luke Weaver, Paul DeJong, Jack Flaherty, Adolis Garcia, Zac Gallen, Ryan Helsley, Dakota Hudson, Daniel Ponce de Leon, Luke Voit, Patrick Wisdom, Edmundo Sosa, Mitch Harris and Austin Gomber.

7) Whew. Incredible. How about all of those names? Tommy Pham isn’t just a guy who has played for the Cardinals – he’s like a living history museum. He could probably tell you about more Cardinal players with his vast first-hand knowledge than some of the longtime baseball execs and minor-league supervisors and staff.

8) Pham’s new teammate, rookie shortstop Masyn Winn, was a lad of four years old when Pham made his minor-league debut with the Cardinals’ rookie-league affiliate Johnson City in 2006. Nolan Gorman and Michael Siani were six years old. Love it.

9) With one swing of the bat Tuesday, Pham instantaneously produced four RBIs off a lefty pitcher. That’s more RBIs than what Willson Contreras had this month against lefties, the same number of RBIs that Winn had this month against lefties, and only one fewer RBI against lefties than Nolan Arenado this month.

10) Pham followed Tuesday’s thunderbolt with three hits, two RBIs and two runs in Wednesday’s. That made him 4 for 5 with six RBIs in his first two days as a reborn Cardinal. It’s going to be a lot of fun to watch Pham do his thing and fire up the fans and teammates. The Cardinals have scored 18 runs in two games with Pham wearing the Birds on the Bat again.

11) How about Mr. Michael Siani? After going 1 for 3 with a run scored Tuesday, he was back at it on Wednesday with two hits in three at-bats, two RBIs, a run scored and a sac bunt that plated a run. Siani extended his hitting streak to seven games and has at least one hit in 10 of his last 11 contests. The increased offense has raised Siani’s season batting average to .253. He’s been climbing the metaphorical mountain. Siani had a .128 average at the end of April, a .206 average at the end of May, and a .234 average at the close of June.

12) Siani is 18 for 51 (.353) since July 5. He’s 32 for 100 (.320) since June 12. Marmol’s decision to prioritize defense by staying with Siani as his center-field starter against right-handed pitching is now paying off for the Cardinals offensively. Marmol knew what he was doing and deserves praise.

13) Given the intense pain he pitched through in Tuesday’s start, Lance Lynn did an admirable job of holding the Rangers to three hits, a walk and one run in his five innings of hard work on a balky right knee. Lynn certainly earned the win, and the Cardinals are 13-8 in his 21 starts.

14) The knee inflammation prompted the Cardinals to shut Lynn down and give him time to mend on the Injured List. Lynn has a 1.69 ERA in his last three starts in a positive stretch that’s reduced his season ERA to 4.09. A remix in pitching approach has worked nicely. Lynn has thrown 30 total changeups in his last two starts; before that he’d thrown 26 changeups in his previous eight starts.

15) It was unfortunate to see Lynn limp to the IL, but two things about that: (a) this will give him a chance to refresh, and (b) the Cardinals can turn to Andre Pallante to take the ball during Lynn’s absence. And that’s a plus. Pallante has been good in his 10 starts for the Cardinals this season.

16) Using the Baseball Reference version of Wins Above Replacement (bWAR), new St. Louis starter Erick Fedde had the second best bWAR (4.8) among MLB starters through Tuesday. The only pitcher to top that is Detroit’s Tarik Skubal (5.2 bWAR.) Fedde also had the best bWAR among starting pitchers that were traded this month. Second on the traded list was Jack Flaherty with 2.8 bWAR.

17) Our friend Ben Clemens, analyst at FanGraphs, put the Cardinals on the “Winners” List for trade-deadline moves.

“Tommy Edman surely has more value to the Dodgers than to the Cardinals, but he hasn’t played all year, hasn’t looked healthy in his rehab assignment, and is more of a nice complementary player than an All-Star,” Clemens wrote. “He’s kind of the hitting version of Fedde, only he’s not producing right now. He’s even hitting free agency at the same time and on a similar contract. The Cardinals needed pitching more than they needed hitting. And oh by the way, they even got a one-year outfield boost in old friend Tommy Pham, who clobbered a pinch-hit grand slam last night in his first game back with St. Louis.

“That would already put the Cards in the winners column – they needed pitching and got it, and they managed to do so without digging into their prospect war chest,” Clemens continued. “That’s lucky, because that’s basically all they did at the deadline. Their other move, Dylan Carlson for Shawn Armstrong, doesn’t really move the needle for me, though I understand the intent: They needed a fresh arm for their overworked bullpen. But even with trade deadline returns climbing back from the prospect-hugging lows, the Cardinals managed to get one of the best arms available on the market without breaking the bank.”

Thanks for reading …

–Bernie

A 2023 inductee into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, Bernie has provided informed opinions and perspective on St. Louis sports through his columns, radio shows and podcasts since 1985.

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Stats used in my baseball columns are sourced from FanGraphs, Baseball Reference, StatHead, Baseball Savant, Baseball Prospectus, Brooks Baseball Net, and Sports Info Solutions and Cots Contracts unless otherwise noted.