St. Louis Cardinals: Look for historical performance by Flaherty today

Jack Flaherty is about to channel his inner Chris Carpenter and give St. Louis Cardinals fans a home opener to remember. The St. Louis Cardinals give the home opener to the future and we should all expect big things.

The St. Louis Cardinals made a bold choice in early spring training when they announced that wunderkind starter Jack Flaherty would start the home opener. Flaherty reacted in the most millennial way possible by saying it would be “freakin’ cool” just before his status as home opener starter was announced.

Well St. Louis Cardinals fans, to echo Jack’s sentiment: it is going to be really freakin’ cool to watch what Flaherty does tomorrow. But don’t take my word for it, check out Flaherty’s hype video:

If that video does not get you pumped to watch Jack Flaherty start the home opener for the St. Louis Cardinals, then I suggest you check your baseball pulse. From what we’ve seen so far, Jack is a big game pitcher who makes tough pitches when he needs to. Unfortunately, we did not see the same dominance he showed last year in his first start. When Flaherty faced the defending NL Central champions, he went 4.1 innings and gave up four earned runs.

But Flaherty’s first start had several positive takeaways. First, Flaherty only walked one batter in that start.  His velocity was good and steady throughout his start, and he only threw 89 pitches that game. Combine his low pitch count with the fact that his first start was seven days ago, and you know that Jack will be fresh. Oh, and did I mention that the Padres are not the Brewers (small sample size and early Padres record aside)?

What should we expect from Flaherty today?

Last year Flaherty was the co-ace of the St. Louis Cardinals last season when he put up 182 strikeouts over 151 innings to the tune of a 3.34 ERA. More importantly, Flaherty frequently showed an ability to rebound after starts where he gave up four or more runs. In fact, when you check Jack’s game log from last season, you will see that Flaherty had only 7 starts where he gave up four or more runs.

Flaherty more often rebounded with starts in which he gave up three or fewer runs after a non-quality start. For example, after giving up four runs to Colorado in 5.1 innings, Flaherty turned around and pitched six shutout innings against the Pirates and picked up a 2-1 win. After giving up six runs to the Marlins last year, Flaherty rebounded to pitch 6.1 innings of one-run ball and picked up the win against the Padres.

Look for Jack Flaherty to rebound and have a historic performance in the home opener for the St. Louis Cardinals today.

Flaherty reminds me of a young Matt Morris (throwing out the first pitch) on the mound, and his performance in big games reminds me of Chris Carpenter. Jack Flaherty is a big-time pitcher poised to breakout.  I expect today’s start to be his statement game that he is one of the best young pitchers in baseball.  Oh, and one more time:

Get excited everyone…

As far as how Jack will perform against the Padres, I expect Jack to pitch into the seventh inning, and earn a quality start – leading his team to victory in the home opener.  Get hyped because Jack is about to show the world what he can do.