Talking to former Cardinals prospect Paul Schwendel about team's pitching philosophy

The current state of Cardinals' pitching is a result of what Paul Schwendel pointed too, and recent shifts from the organization seem to indicate they realize their prior mistakes too

The story that Schwendel first responded to on Twitter was co-written by Sarris and The Athletics' Cardinals beat writer Katie Woo, who foresaw major issues for the Cardinals' pitching coming with the new rule changes and how the game has emphasized strikeout stuff.

Derrick Goold has some excellent reporting on this as well, indicating that a major reason why the club promoted Dusty Blake to be their pitching coach was how he could help them move into being an organization that thinks in the ways that Schwendel said was sorely lacking, especially from the player development department.

Schwendel was able to give us day-to-day insight and experiences as a player with the organizations pitching philosophy, and how honestly, the issues they are facing today are from years of development that were behind the times. Even if the Cardinals' have begun to make shifts here, it will likely take some time for the fruit to truly flourish on their big league staff.

Continue to watch this narrative throughout the season, but especially as the club looks to address the way they build their 2024 rotation and bullpen. The Cardinals' rotation already has Miles Mikolas and Steven Matz under contract right now, and unless someone like Matz moves to the bullpen, they'll be at a crossroads with the playing time of pitching prospects and bringing in external arms.

Matthew Liberatore, Zack Thompson, Gordon Graceffo, and Michael McGreevy will all likely factor into the conversation next spring, with guys like Tink Hence and Cooper Hjerpe possibly not far behind. The Cardinals do what they did with their young bats this year and say "We like our internal options", but that will be a very tough sell when former players, industry leaders, local reporters, and frankly, their play on the field, indicate that they need significant changes are needing to their pitching staff.