The meatball factor and super-size problem with Cardinals offense

Best Podcast in Baseball

With apologies to colleague and Post-Dispatch food critic Ian Froeb, we're talking about meatballs in this episode of the Best Podcast in Baseball. Meatballs and super-sizing. Post-Dispatch sports columnist Ben Frederickson joins the Best Podcast in Baseball, and using his column as a map he and Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold explore the truths and falsehoods about the Cardinals' offensive problems. Statement: They're striking out too much. Response: False. Statement: They're swinging a lot. False: They're not swinging enough -- and they're not doing well against meatball pitches, the most delicious pitches to do damage on. Hence, the meatball factor. Statement: They need to stop "worrying" about home runs. Response: False. They need to hit more homers. The Cardinals are last in the majors in home runs and runs off homers, and that is an issue. Plus it goes deeper than just missing meatballs and not driving baseballs through or over the wall. There is the development question. That is where the podcast turns. In a sidebar that super-sizes the episode, Frederickson and Goold discuss on how maybe the focus has been all wrong. While the lens has been trained on the players who got away, the former Cardinals who have gone on to star and slug elsewhere, perhaps it's time to ask why the Cardinals haven't seen the same amplfication of the players they kept. When Tampa Bay acquired Richie Palacios from the Cardinals, the Rays suggested they saw more power in his swing and this season will show how they amplify that. The Cardinals know there is more power in Jordan Walker's swing and more consistent power in Nolan Gorman's swing -- they've seen the latter -- and yet haven't been able to harness that. Walker is back in Class AAA Memphis. Gorman is being passed over for key at-bats. The Cardinals have not been able to scale-up the talent they keep, and that development question is not isolated on the offense. The same can be asked on the pitching side. Where is the amplification? And that leads, finally, to where are the solutions? Which brings us back to Froeb. In his St. Louis 100 rankings of the top restaurants, he has The Gramophone's meatball sub as one of the area's top sandwiches. Maybe it's time to just roll out the feast. Before the Cardinals can crush some meatballs have them crush some meatballs. They've brought an ice cream wagon to spring training. What about a food truck at BP? Gramophone subs all around. And super-size them. The Best Podcast in Baseball, sponsored by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a weekly production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and Derrick Goold.