St. Louis Cardinals: The curious case of Brett Cecil

It is said, as the weather heats up, so does Brett Cecil. St. Louis Cardinals fans are getting a first hand look at that now.

The St. Louis Cardinals bullpen blew another game last night, but one reliever continued to be extremely effective. Brett Cecil spun a scoreless inning in relief of Carlos Martinez last night in the Cardinals 6-5 extra innings loss. It was Cecil’s ninth straight scoreless appearance.

When the Cardinals signed Cecil this past off-season, there were many critics. The amount of money given to Cecil was a huge commitment to a pitcher who was known as inconsistent. Cardinals’ GM, John Mozeliak, knew the team needed bullpen help. Offering a larger contract made it more likely they would get their man.

Cecil, who is under contract through 2020 at a rate of 7.75 million dollars a year, hasn’t exactly inspired fans with his pitching. However, June is a completely different story. In June, Cecil has made 12 appearances; in those 12 appearances he has only allowed four runs. The four runs allowed all came in the same game on June 7th against the Cincinnati Reds.

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Eleven of Cecil’s 11.2 innings have been scoreless. Those are the kind of numbers the Cardinals were hoping to receive when they invested 30 million dollars in the left-hander.

Unfortunately, Cecil lived up to his reputation of being a slow starter. Even with such June’s success, Cecil’s ERA is sitting barely under four at 3.94.

Cecil dug himself quite the hole in his first few months with the team by constantly letting guys get on base.

In the month of May, Cecil had a WHIP of 2.00, but so far in June, his WHIP sits at .77. That is quite the change in success for a guy who had labored his way through the season.

Next: Cardinal nation must face reality

None of this comes as a surprise. In the last two seasons, Cecil saw his numbers drastically improve in the second half of the season. The Cardinals hope to keep seeing success come from Cecil, but the team will need him to find success in the first half of a season before the deal is considered worth it.