St. Louis Cardinals: Why John Brebbia was the right choice

The St. Louis Cardinals released their unofficial roster on Sunday, and John Brebbia, who was fighting for the final roster spot with Tyler Webb, was on the list.

I think this point is important because it shows that St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Shildt is putting his money where his mouth is, and walking the walk, so to speak.

A few weeks back, I wrote something up on Shildt saying that having pitchers that fill individual roles isn’t as important as simply having the best and most talented pitchers on the team.

This motto was put to the test when the St. Louis Cardinals were deciding between John Brebbia and Tyler Webb to fill their final roster spot. Looking at the numbers and watching the games, it’s obvious who is better in just about every way, yet it became a question simply because Brebbia throws right handed and Webb throws left handed.

The fact that this was even a discussion was infuriating to me. Brebbia is without a doubt better than Webb, and it isn’t hard to see.

Brebbia and Webb are just a year apart in terms of age, and both have two years in the league. The reason that Brebbia has pitched 102.1 innings and Webb just 28.1 is because Webb isn’t good enough to be more than a lefty specialist, while Brebbia has been a serviceable reliever with a much better sample size.

With these numbers, there’s no real reason Brebbia shouldn’t have won this spot. He’s not only a better pitcher overall, but he has been more successful against left handed batters than Webb, which essentially makes taking Webb over Brebbia objectively wrong.

As I mentioned in my other article,  I am entirely against taking a below average lefty over an average to above average righty simply to fill a lefty “need”, and this move along with the release of Chasen Shreve is showing that the St. Louis Cardinals might in fact be moving away from that line of thinking which has seen them rostering some pretty poor performers over the years.

While this should have been a no brainer, reports made it seem like the St. Louis Cardinals were having trouble choosing, with reporter Derrick Goold making it seem like Brebbia and Webb were actually competing for the last roster spot, as see.n in the wording of the tweet quoted above. The fact Goold believed that it was “Brebbia vs Webb”, the Cardinals may have just been waiting to keep the two pitchers focused. Or, old habits die hard, I guess.

Whatever the case may be, this move has shown me to have faith that Shildt’s words will actually being put into practice with the St. Louis Cardinals roster. With a solid roster and a manager that is practicing what he preaches and putting the team in a position where they can succeed, this is as confident as I have been in the St. Louis Cardinals in a long time.