What It Means:

Rosenthal missed the team's weekend series against the San Francisco Giants with Kevin Siegrist filling in to get the save on Sunday.

Despite a slight decrease in his strikeouts, Rosenthal has taken strides in his second year as the Cardinals' closer. He has cut his walks to 3.19 per nine innings from 5.37 last year. This, coupled with a ground-ball rate that has increased to 45.8 percent, has taken his xFIP down to 3.26. Our algorithms project him to have a 2.57 ERA and 6 saves over the rest of the season.