St. Louis Cardinals' pitcher Jack Flaherty was once regarded as one of the best hurlers in the game. Flaherty, however, has dealt with injury concerns over the past few years, limiting his all-around playing time. He's healthy heading into the 2023 campaign, though, and recently shared a Joker-inspired hype video before making his season debut versus the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday, per Flaherty's Twitter.
the people’s champ must be everything the people can’t be
🃏 pic.twitter.com/SylBrSSNkP— Jack Flaherty (@Jack9Flaherty) April 1, 2023
“the people’s champ must be everything the people can’t be,” Flaherty wrote.
Jack Flaherty is clearly using criticism he's received as motivation. The video starts out by sharing audio of sports pundits talking about Flaherty and the Cardinals.
“I think this team has all the tools except for the pitching,” a pundit says in the video. “It really comes down to this. There's nobody that I'm throwing out there game one in a playoff series and saying, yeah, we're going to win this game.”
More audio in reference to Jack Flaherty's return follows.
The last time Flaherty made more than 20 starts in a single season came in 2019. He ultimately pitched to the tune of a sparkling 2.75 ERA that year, while leading the league with a 0.968 WHIP and striking out 231 batters.
He struggled over nine starts during the 2020 campaign. Jack Flaherty then posted a respectable 3.22 ERA in 2021, but was limited to only 15 starts (17 appearances). In 2022, Flaherty made eight starts (nine appearances) and finished with a 4.25 ERA.
The Cardinals' right-hander is aiming to remain healthy in 2023 and return to his 2019 ways. Flaherty can begin the process of silencing his critics with a strong performance against the Blue Jays on Saturday.
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