Have the Cardinals chosen to have a strikeout problem?

A former minor-leaguer's tweet suggests the pitching problem runs deep

Get grounders and let that best-in-class infield defense turn them into outs — for as long as we can easily remember this has been the modus operandi of Cardinal moundsmen, and it’s hard to argue with the success of it heretofore. However, things, like nethergarments, must change. And so they have.

The Cardinal defense as a whole has under-performed thus far in 2023, and new rulebook restrictions on infield shifts have made grounders, particularly those smote by left-handed hitters, more perilous than they have been in the past.

Inducing ground balls naturally comes at a cost of strikeouts; that’s just the nature of emphasizing location and de-emphasizing four-seam fastball usage. The working assumption, however, is that you’re happy to have the strikeout when it comes your way. The strikeout necessarily means no ball in play and, absent the rare dropped third strike that scoots too far away from the catcher, no opportunity for the randomness and mayhem that batted balls can create. Perhaps, though, that working assumption is incorrect, and the Cardinals have been directing their pitchers to avoid strike three.