Hall of Famer critiques Cardinals' pitching strategy during rebuild season

There was plenty of optimism among fans after the trade deadline ended with emotional swaps for future talent, but one high-profile voice is not totally sold on the St. Louis Cardinals just yet. Joe Buck, Hall of Fame announcer and son of Cardinal great Jack Buck, was not satisfied with how Oliver Marmol handled Michael McGreevy during his start against the New York Yankees.

After seeing Nootbaar's tear-filled goodbye to fans and wishing Dustin May and JoJo Romero the best in their future endeavors, the Cardinals still had a game to play on Monday. With the bats known as the Bronx Bombers in the thick of a playoff race, it was reasonable to expect the Cardinals to be powered out of New York. The homers definitely showed up, but it was St. Louis striking first to give starter Michael McGreevy a big six-run cushion heading into the middle innings. Then it got ugly. Again.

Oliver Marmol will have to loosen the reins on Cardinals starting pitchers for the rest of the season

McGreevy was coasting through the first four innings and was working with a big league before trouble struck in the fifth. The starter opened the inning with a pitch count in the high 70s, so it looked like five innings was probable with a possibility to work into the sixth. McGreevy would allow a leadoff single before getting a strikeout but then gave up a two-run blast to the slumping Austin Wells. With his pitcher now up to 91 pitches and lefties coming up, Marmol decided he had seen enough and wanted to keep the score where it was.

The revamped Justin Bruihl came on and immediately surrendered a homer to lefty Trent Grisham to make the score 6-3, but he was able to end the fifth and sixth innings without allowing any more runs. The lead looked safe, but with this Cardinals bullpen, anything is possible. Four runs came across in the seventh against not traded Ryne Stanek and George Soriano, but thankfully Alec Burleson's three-homer game saved the day and allowed most of us to forget about the early hook for McGreevy.

Hindsight is 20/20, but Buck has a point to be frustrated for this move in a Cardinals season that is not going anywhere in October and has a bullpen that has been a struggle all season. The St. Louis rotation now features Andre Pallante as the longest-tenured Cardinal and Kyle Leahy as the oldest of the group. That inexperience may frighten Marmol later in games, but with development being the number one priority through September, it is time to see what type of grit the starters have.

Of course, the modern-day thinking is to get starters out before they face the toughest part of the lineup a third time. However, with the playoffs slipping away each day, unfortunately the wins are not the most important part of the season. What is important is seeing which arms are going to stick around through this rebuild and potentially be a big part of the next great Cardinals team. If none of the guys can fight through a little middle-inning adversity, then the St. Louis pitching staff is further away from contending than it may look.

There were likely plenty of factors going into Marmol's early decision to pull McGreevy on Monday, but the overall strategy should be to see what he and the other starters are able to do in big spots. The bullpen is not likely to get any major reinforcements over the last 50+ games, so asking the starters to push deeper into games would do well for their development and the team's overall success.

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