The St. Louis Cardinals have 97 home runs on the season.
Randal Grichuk (15), Matt Holliday (4), Matt Adams (4) and Jon Jay (1) have combined for 24 of those 97 or 24.7% of the team total.
All four players are now on the DL.
The #STLCards announce they have placed OF Randal Grichuk on the 15-day DL w/right elbow strain & recalled OF Tommy Pham from Triple-A
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) August 17, 2015
This, my friends, is not good news.
In fact, it’s bad.
With Brandon Moss sporting a .147/.216/.176 line with 1 EBH constituting the ‘power’ that the Cardinals picked up at the trading deadline, it’s not hyperbole to say this DL stint for Grichuk is eliminating the biggest serious HR threat the Cardinals have.
Grichuk was averaging a HR every 19.2 ABs in 2015. For comparison, Matt Carpenter (team leader) is averaging a HR every 22.7 ABs. Jhonny Peralta is at 27.3 ABs/HR.
Other players can (and will) hit HRs over the next 2+ weeks. But none will scare the opposing pitching staff into pure panic.
Ugh.
Looks like the Cardinals are going to have to keep grinding out runs any which way they can. But if you thought that the Birds were bereft of big bats prior to this weekend… you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Photo: Hardball Talk
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