Welcome to The Write Fielder – a weekly newsletter on baseball and the ѿý Cardinals from the Post-Dispatch. Every Friday, lead baseball writer Derrick Goold delivers behind the seams stories straight to your inbox that builds upon the baseball coverage in a city celebrated for its deep roots and deepest fondness for the game.
THE BRANT BROWN DICTIONARY
ST. LOUIS — As he stood on deck before going to the plate to face Minnesota Twins reliever Justin Topa in the eighth inning, Brendan Donovan got a quick scouting report in the lingo all Cardinals hitters now speak.
Hitting coach Brant Brown told him Topa “likes to play a game.”
Brown then rattled off the pitches that Donovan was likely to see as Topa seesawed between cutter, changeup, cutter, changeup, and then if the at-bat got that far he’d try a front-hip sinker. Donovan recalled Brown’s description at his locker at Fenway Park and then reached for his phone, saying it would be easier to show what happened. Donovan dialed up the video of his at-bat against Topa and said: “Watch.”
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First pitch: cutter, 91.9 mph (called strike)
Second pitch: changeup, 86 mph (ball)
Third pitch: cutter, 92.5 mph (foul)
Fourth pitch: changeup, 85.8 mph (ball)
Fifth pitch:
“It’s the sinker, and he wanted it front hip,” Donovan said, “just as Brownie said – and fly ball for a sacrifice fly. Like who knows it that well? He gave me all the info in a few words.”
Donovan added the Cardinals’ fifth and final run in that 5-1 victory against Minnesota in part because Brown made sure he was ready for Topa’s “game” and conveyed that information quickly, in phrases and sharp pacing that connects with hitters like they do with beeline fastballs. Since spring training, these phrases have infiltrated quotes from hitters to the manager, and many of them stem from the hitting coach’s descriptions of situations or pitches. Call them …
Brownie-isms?
Browniesque?
Brownotones?
The coach would probably have a pithier nickname.
“I feel like they can understand it better when you use words that are catchy and fun and easy to understand,” Brown told me in the dugout at Fenway Park before batting practice. “That’s the biggest thing about it. Here in Boston, their lefties always have a higher batting average and a higher on-base percentage because they play pepper with the wall. So, it’s like, saying. When you come to this park that offers an advantage, use the advantage. How do I convey that?”
I canvassed the clubhouse for examples of phrases that Brown drops into conversation with hitters and scouting reports about pitchers, and some are tricky to recreate in print, but there are a handful that show how the new hitting coach is communicating with his hitters – and how his catchphrases are catching on.
• “There’s time to slug, and a time to hit.” – a phrase about knowing the situation, whether it’s an advantage count for the hitter (slug) or the team needs a runner to move over (hit).
• “Hit collector” – this is what Brown calls batters like batting champ Luis Arraez, and he’s urged Victor Scott II to think of himself this way. Accumulate hits. Get them however he can. He wants hits by the bulk, not bulked-up swings.
• “Nibbler” – one of the descriptions Brown has for pitchers that is self-explanatory.
• “Take care of the point” – when there is a runner at third and less than two outs, this is how Brown stresses to the Cardinals that it is essential to “get that run in,” Nolan Gorman said.
• “Bunting is like real estate. Location. Location. Location.” – ‘nuff said.
• “This all matters in the tournament.” – when talking about the details or situational hitting, Brown will use this phrase to underscore how what they’re doing now helps win in “the tournament,” his word for the playoffs.
Gorman was one of the first Cardinals to meet Brown, and he probably saw him the most this offseason because their homes are close together.
“I remember he had a lot of energy when I pulled up to his house – definitely more than I had,” Gorman said, smiling. “It’s good energy. It’s all positive energy.”
It’s not unusual energy. Brown isn’t the first hitting coach to sweep through the ѿý dugout with a cache of catchphrases. (The previous hitting coach, Turner Ward, would shout after a batter bounced into the shift, “Charts! We’ve got charts too!”) Brown just coins an abundance of them, and they can be hard to miss as the hitters repeat them or some variation of them in post-game comments.
That, Brown said, is an example of when they work best.
When they’re memorable or when they work, like they did for Donovan.
“I just come out with them,” Brown said. “I’ll think of others.”
ѿý Cardinals batting coach Brant Brown talks with infielder Brendan Donovan on Monday, March 31, 2025, in a game against the Los Angeles Angels at Busch Stadium.
DOTEL: OCTOBER INNOVATOR
There have been many tributes to the late Octavio Dotel, who was ahead of his time out of the bullpen and a beloved teammate for so many clubhouses that had him. All of those odes are deserved. Dotel was killed this past week when a roof collapsed at a nightclub in the Dominican Republic. He was 51.
In his 15-year, 13-team career, Dotel spent only a sliver of time with the Cardinals, but in that time he was part of an innovative use of relievers that won the 2011 National League pennant on the way to a World Series championship. Before “bullpenning” was “bullpenning,” Dotel arrived via a transformative trade that allowed manager Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan to essential invent “bullpenning.” The Cardinals’ relievers pitched more innings than the starters in the NLCS against Milwaukee, and a pivotal part of that plan was Dotel.
He was the Ryan Braun right-on-right neutralizer.
In Braun’s career, he went 2 for 8 in the regular season against Dotel, but all six outs were strikeouts. In the 2011 NLCS, Dotel faced Braun three times and struck him out all three times. Dotel got the win in Game 5 with 1 1/3 scoreless innings. Holding on to a 4-1 lead, Dotel struck out Braun with two on in the fifth.
“I feel like I saved the game,” he said.
He was part of the group that saved that season for a title run.
FILM SESSION
There are scenes in the new baseball movie “Eephus” that look and feel like Wes Anderson finally made a baseball movie. Only Bill Murray doesn’t stroll in to pitch an inning. Would you believe Bill “Spaceman” Lee does? The film, which I was able to see , captures the final game between two small-town New England senior men’s teams on a ballfield condemned to be steamrolled and replaced by a school. This is the last game for many of them, if not all. And there’s much more beneath the box score, which is dutifully and artfully (and accurately!) kept by Franny. The baseball isn’t great – the first out of the game drew a quick laugh and the middle-aged knees stiffen from there – but the celebration of it is. There is no pitch timer, so the game winds from morning to lining up the car headlights to play at night, and about the time the pace and the players and the movie really start to slow, the real Spaceman emerges from the October-hued woods like he’s looking for Shoeless Joe and the fellas. He’s even dressed in white save for a Rickwood Field tee. (Kudos for that detail.) Lee imparts some baseball meditations, flips a few of the pitches in the movie’s name, and then departs. When the score is tied, Franny remarks on the beauty of the moment, saying, what “did happen and didn’t happen doesn’t matter.” This movie is romantic about grassroots, community baseball and as a result there are several times that it is more relatable, more poignant about the love of the game than “For the Love of the Game.” (Four stars on Letterboxd.)
FROM THE ‘PEN
The Cardinals’ next three opponents rank 1, 2, and 3 in strikeout rate by their rotations: 1. Phillies, 11.23 K/9; 2. Mets, 10.77 K/9; 3. Astros 9.37 K/9. … The Cardinals’ rotation has the fourth-lowest strikeout rate per nine, at 7.12. … The Philadelphia Phillies did not leave Atlanta for ѿý this morning until at least 1 a.m. ѿý time. The Phillies lost, 4-2, in 11 innings to Atlanta, and the game took 5 hours, 39 minutes to play. … According to historian Tom Orf, 19 of the first 68 RBIs for the Cardinals this season came from the catchers, and that percentage (25%) is the most through the first 11 games in club history. That eclipses the total Joe Torre had on his own in 1970, and the previous group to combine for 10 in the first 11 games was the trio of Mike Matheny, Mike DiFelice, and Eli Marrero in 2002. … Entering play Thursday, former Cardinals utility fielder Tommy Edman led the majors with 26 “hard hits” that left his bat at 95 mph or faster. Brendan Donovan leads the Cardinals with 24. … Lars Nootbaar has 21. … Jordan Walker ranks second in the majors with an 84.9% fast swing rate – that is bat speed of 75 mph or swifter. Only Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero has a higher rate, at 86.2%. Walker also ranks second in average bat speed, at 78.5 mph. … Here are a few other Cardinals: 13. Willson Contreras (76.1 mph); 54. Nootbaar (73.8 mph); 112. Nolan Arenado (72.2 mph). … That 72.2 mph bat speed for Arenado is up from 70.8 mph a year ago. For perspective, consider 31.4% (314!) of his swings have been hard hits. A year ago, he had 148 competitive swings that would qualify at hard hit. If he had this year’s rate and last year’s total swings, that number would be 331. In other words, he’s on pace to more than double his hard swings. … Sonny Gray is 14-0 when the Cardinals score three or more runs in his starts. They’ve done it in 20 of his starts since joining the Cardinals, and overall the team is 18-2 in those games. … On Monday, Class AA outfielder and former first-round pick Chase Davis had his first multi-homer game as a pro. He slugged two for the Springfield Cardinals and finished the game with five RBIs. … Max Rajcic, the Cardinals’ organization pitcher of the year in 2023, was named the Texas League’s Pitcher of the Week for the first week of the season. In five scoreless innings, he held Wichita to one hit, struck out four, and nine of his 15 outs came on the ground. … Former Cardinals infielder Mark DeRosa will return as manager for Team USA in next year’s World Baseball Classic. DeRosa skippered the 2023 team to the championship game against Japan, and he did so while also managing the demands placed on his pitching coaches by the major-league clubs concerned about their players in the international tournament. … Adam Wainwright has expressed past interest in being a pitching coach for Team USA. … Mizzou quarterback Brady Cook, who is prepping for the NFL Draft, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch Friday night. … John Mozeliak, the Cardinals’ president of baseball operations, will be the guest for Friday Night Live! at Loews, the postgame show hosted by Mike Claiborne and Ricky Horton and open to the public at Ballpark Village hotel’s The Bullock. … Below, check out the details that are possible from Statcast that illustrate how pitches behave and show, as in the case of Cardinals reliever Chris Roycroft, how they can be different from year to year and help a pitcher or a team discover and correct mechanical issues. look specifically at the different locations of Roycroft’s sinker and limited sweeper use.
Cardinals reliever Chris Roycroft's pitch 'clock' illustration using Statcast data from Baseball Savant for 2025, showing the break on his different pitches. (Photo from Baseball Savant.)
Cardinals reliever Chris Roycroft's pitch 'clock' illustration using Statcast data from Baseball Savant for 2024, showing the break on his different pitches. (Photo from Baseball Savant.)
#JOIN4JOE, YEAR 10
During Sunday’s game, at the Budweiser Terrace, there will be representatives from the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) and the ѿý chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) gathering information from potential donors as part of the 10th annual #Join4Joe Drive to honor the late Joe Strauss, respected baseball writer and Post-Dispatch sports columnist. The process is simple – when I was eligible, I did it between halves of an inning.
The drive is part of Cancer Awareness Day at Busch Stadium, and there will be an in-game moment where fans are asked to hold up signs that they fill out saying who they are “Striking Out Cancer for.”
Strauss, who I spent many years covering postseason baseball alongside, died of leukemia in December 2015. He was only 54.
The booth for the drive will open at 11:15 a.m. ѿý time, and the goal is to have many people join the registry so that they may find a match and save a life. If you’re unable to attend the game, you can still request a kit at .
PAPERCLIPS
• Really interesting conversation and comments here from a mental skills specialist with Post-Dispatch sports columnist Lynn Worthy, who uses Matthew Liberatore's approach and experience as the thread for discussion.
• Yohel Pozo’s return to MLB offers ‘special’ moment with Cardinals, and Daniel Guerrero has all the details of a return to the majors that was never a given for the catcher.
• Got a chance to talk to Cardinals center fielder Victor Scott II about the classic hitters he studied to improve his "rhythm" and approach with bunts. He went into a YouTube freefall to study some of the best to ever bunt.
• 'Little things' add up as Cardinals again get best of Pittsburgh Pirates phenom Paul Skenes. Guerrero's game story from PNC Park.
• Longtime New York Times baseball columnist and current national writer for the The Athletic, .
• Yes, there's a new podcast this week, relevance with players and fans in Japan.
COVERING HOME
Post-Dispatch restaurant critic and author of the newsletter The First Dish, Ian Froeb revealed his STL 100 this past week and ranked the best ѿý restaurants. Froeb’s massive, yearly undertaking is now a decade-old tradition and consider it the road map to your next year of exploring ѿý. He’s got a new No. 1 this year. And it’s a short walk from where I’m typing this today. No spoilers. So, here are a few other places ranked from the corner of the city I call home:
• No. 3 Little Fox
• No. 10 Indo
• No. 13 Sydney Street Cafe
Also mentioned: Union Loafers, the great Blues City Deli (adjective mine), Damn Fine Hand Pies, Grace Meat + Three, Lona’s Lil Eats, No Ordinary Rabbit, Songbird (which has roots in Tower Grove Park), SweetArt, Tiny Chef (which is fantastically tucked into a pinball parlor), and the grand return of Byrd & Barrel, which isn’t exactly in my neighborhood, but it’s too good not to mention and too fantastic that it’s back.
Every February, my family would go for dinner at Byrd & Barrel the night before I left for spring training and nearly two months away from home. It was a tradition until the Byrd closed – and now renewed.
ON DECK
The Cardinals host a National League team for the first time this season when the Philadelphia Phillies visit Busch Stadium for a three-game weekend series. Then it’s back into interleague play when the Houston Astros visit. The annual Jackie Robinson Day is on Tuesday.
After the Astros, it’s back on the road for a four-game series in Queens.
The Cardinals’ next 13 consecutive games are against aspiring contenders, and their next 23 consecutive games are against potential playoff teams.
Write back to you next week.
— Derrick Goold, Post-Dispatch lead baseball writer
Replies to this email will not reach me. If you would like to offer feedback or suggestions for The Write Fielder, please contact me at dgoold@post-dispatch.com.
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