St. Louis Cardinals: Mike Mayers Gets the Start

Thanks to the need for a spot starter, the St. Louis Cardinals turn to pitcher Mike Mayers for Sunday’s start.

With an open starting spot thanks in large part to the rain-out, two-games-in-one-day, and an extremely long game this week, the St. Louis Cardinals were faced with the challenge of an open starting spot or having someone go on short rest.  The organization has announced that they will fill this spot with Mike Mayers.

As has been noted by other sport sites including the Memphis Redbirds’ site, Mayers finally arrived in Memphis early Saturday morning due to travel issues for the team to the news of his being called up to the Bigs.  Mayers was slated to pitch for the Redbirds on Saturday in one of their doubleheader games.

Mayers comes to the St. Louis Cardinals carrying a 2.62 ERA in 106.2 innings this season in the minors.  For Memphis, Mayers has appeared in nine games and holds a 3-3 record across 52 innings.  His AAA ERA is 2.94 this season.

Mayers, a 24 year-old right-handed pitcher, hails from the University of Mississippi (similar to now-teammate Lance Lynn) and was selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the third round of the 2013 draft.

Here are a few more quick stats (from the AAA level) on Mayers before tonight’s ESPN game:

• Mayers holds a 1.86 ERA in home games.
• Mayers pitches better in the day (1.69 ERA) than the night (3.09 ERA) which could become problematic tonight.
• Mayers pitches better against right-handed batters (2.79 ERA) than against left-handed batters (3.13 ERA).

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• Mayers pitches better with the bases empty (1.27 ERA) and with only one runner on first (2.03 ERA) than when runners appear at first and second (16.87 ERA) or with runners at first and third (6.75 ERA).
• Mayers and the St. Louis Cardinals need to prevent runners from reaching scoring position as he holds an 8.71 ERA when runners are eligible to score.
• Finally, Mayers needs to throw strikes and get ahead in counts as he holds a 2.01 ERA when these situations hold as opposed to him having to come from behind a batter wherein he holds a 3.86 ERA.

Want to see him at work?  Here is a highlight video to watch and a radio interview before the game tonight.  Apologies for the video sizes.

While it might have been a bigger splash had

Alex Reyes

started or even if

Luke Weaver

had started, but Mayers might be the best option in all likelihood as choosing to not start Reyes or Weaver saves their major league clock from starting.  This start might also add value to a player who could easily become a good trade piece.

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What do you think?  Excited for this start?  I’m sure that Mayers is excited and let’s all hope our St. Louis Cardinals can win tonight and make it 2-1 against the Dodgers in this series.