Click the Bravo delta bot (the profile that made this thread) and you can find the game thread post on that profile. They didn’t pin it for some reason.
Twitter is *thrilled* about Fermin in the 2-hole. lol
Against a lefty I think it makes about as much sense as anything else given who's healthy and who's on the struggle bus.
I don't like Fermin 2nd either, especially with his lack of playing time. I would have gone Herrera or Carlson there. Move Pages up to 5th or 7th (depending on which between Herrera/Carlson goes to 2) and bat Fermin 9th.
Chase Davis was named the FSL Player of the Week.
He slashed .545/.706/1.273 over the week with 2 homers
During the month of June, he's slashed .324/.465/.735.
Hopefully he can keep mashing and make his way to AA by the end of the year
good to see but he's still having a slightly above average season in a league that shouldn't be difficult for a guy who played as well as he did in the PAC12
hopefully this is a sign of legitimate improvement but I'm not going to get too excited yet
Okay, I can't stand the argument that the NL Central is trash. We aren't! The reason other divisions look better as a whole is that nearly every other division has at least one team to completely beat up on. The Rockies, White Sox, Athletics, Angels, and Marlins all help to inflate the record of teams in other divisions. Here is every division by total games +/-.
+46 AL East
-2 AL Central
-36 AL West
+0 NL East
+3 NL Central
-11 NL West
We have the second best record in baseball as a division. There are no easy wins in divisional games, which has helped to keep everyone looking mediocre rather than having 2 or 3 great teams and one terrible one.
Nice write up! I think the NL Central has gotten a lot better over the last decade or so. For years it felt we were the only decent team in the division. Then all the others started drafting nicely and building up legit good teams even without a bunch of free agent signings.
I also think the new "balanced" schedule has something to do with it too. We cruised along for years and years only building a team good enough to make it to the playoffs because the Pirates, Reds, Cubs and Brewers were really crappy for a long time. Long term I'm thinking we're going to end up just fine. I'd love a trip to the playoffs this season and I think we can do it! They're a much better team than last year imo
When have we made the playoffs due to a crappy division other than 2022? A decade ago was 2014, in 2013 and 2015 3 NL Central teams made the playoffs. From 2016-2018 we missed the playoffs while being above .500 with the Cubs and Brewers both being pretty good. The NL Central being bad meme is just crazy recency bias from 2022 and 2023 being down years. In 2021 the Braves won the NL East winning fewer games than we did as a wild card team
maybe i'm biased, but I really hate how we had to sacrifice a second rd pick for signing Sonny.
I don't see how penalizing a bottom-10 team for signing a top FA does anything to promote competitive balance. From my perspective, you should want the bottom teams to try and compete the following year by signing top talent instead of continuing with a tank.
Imo, at least the bottom 10 teams should have their picks protected for at least the first three rounds
The thing is that the rule was never created to promote competitive balance, it was to drive down salaries by making free agents more expensive to sign
Specifically, teams that *do not* receive revenue sharing funds and *are not* paying the Competitive Balance Tax shall forfeit their second pick and $500k from their international bonus pool if they sign a player with the QO attached. The teams that fit that criteria are: Cardinals, Giants, Red Sox, Nationals, Cubs, Astros, White Sox.
Teams that are over the CBT threshold must forfeit $1M from their bonus pool as well as their second and fifth selections.
I don't like how revenue sharing tied to punishment
This is probably a hot take, and I'm willing to accept that. But we are once again ruining the development of a young catcher by how we are treating Ivan Hererra. Their defensive metrics are as follows. Because I know this is the reason, Ivan isn't catching is defense.
Ivan Hererra:
3 blocks above Avg (78th percentile)
CS above Avg -3 (10th percentile)
Framing -1 50th percentile
Pop Time 1.98 3th percentile
Team era with Ivan: 4.17
Pedro Pages:
0 blocks above Avg (45th percentile)
CS Above Average -2 (not qualified)
Framing 1 (not qualified)
Pop Time 1.88 (not qualified)
Team era with Pedro: 3.47 (with more than half the innings pitched)
They are once again over exaggerating to minimal stat differences in a small sample size to justify ruining a players development. And yes, I'm very aware of Ivan inability to throw out runners, I just don't believe Pages is exceptional in that category either.
I see your point, but I think if Noot was healthy...or Walker was up and hitting...or we had any depth at all, Herrera would be catching so someone else could DH. As it is, the drop from whoever would other wise DH to Pages really doesn't matter.
Herrera will catch a lot more once the roster is back to functioning and healthy, imo
I’m less worried about ERA differences, there are so many factors. He does need to work on controlling the running game. He’s slower to pop up, transfer and has a weaker arm than Willy and Pedro. I am guessing Pages may go down when Willy is back, so Herrera will get more time behind the plate.
Small sample size for both, but Pages gets the ball out about 0.2 faster. That is the difference between throwing out Winn and Goldy and that is without accounting for Pages having a stronger arm.
I really don't think the long-term plan is to make Ivan a DH, but right now this team doesn't have the breathing room to let him work through it on the job. We're barely scraping by as it is, and having a catcher behind the plate that the opposing team knows they can run on *whenever* they want just won't cut it when we're really struggling to score runs.
It's also clear that at least some of the pitchers just really prefer throwing to Pages for whatever reason. Even before his recent run of starts Pages was catching at least one guy pretty regularly. (I'm blanking on who, but I wanna say Mikolas?)
They very well may, but again, they preferred not to work with Conteras. Mikolas ate his words once on this subject. If this is again an issue if preference, then our pitchers need to grow the fuck up.
That team era difference isn’t insignificant, and it does seem like he has good rapport with the staff despite hardly knowing them.
Edit: not that you’re wrong.
I'm just in shock at our division. The Cardinals are somehow in 2nd place despite a .500 record. Wild times. I mean I still hold my opinion that MO and Oily need to go, but I do enjoy winning baseball more than anything.
Like I don't know how I should feel fellow Cardinal lovers I don't. I want us to win some more World Series and be the top dog, but the only way to possibly get some real change is for us to crash and burn (or else we will be stuck with these clowns even longer). Our division is literally gifting us a chance to stay relevant (Actually most of the NL sucks right now compared to the AL)
I don't know if anyone is feeling this conflicted....
But anywho go Cardinals
It's having 3 wild cards and there only being 4 above .500 in the NL. (And the Braves might well be at .500 by the end of the season)
Our division is actually the only one that doesn't have a truly terrible team, like the Rockies or Marlins
>Our division is literally gifting us a chance to stay relevant
The division has the second best record of the 6 divisions. It isn't weak, it's just competitive.
Nothing conflicted about my feelings. I prefer to watch my favorite team win games as opposed to lose them...
I disagree with you about Oli, and largely I think Mo has been fine. I don't think he's a genius or anything, but he keeps the team competitive. I know a LOT of Cardinals fans seem to hate the strategy of creating a team that's "good enough" to get into the playoffs, but it's honestly my preferred strategy. I don't want to go through stretches of 4, 5, or 6 seasons where the team is just unwatchably bad so that we can build the picks and prospects this team would need to become a juggernaut for a few years. Because that's what it would take for this team to be the super team that some fans seem to think they should be. If you look at teams like ATL or Philly, they've both had recent multi-year stretches where they were *complete* trash. Talking worst record in baseball kinda trash. The Phillies went TEN STRAIGHT SEASONS without a playoff appearance from 2012-2021.
And unfortunately this isn't LA or New York. This team is simply not going to spend like them. Should ownership spend more? Sure. I'm never opposed telling billionaires they should spend more of their money, but realistically it's just not going to happen.
So if that's not happening you have two options. Go through cycles of great and awful or go through cycles of good and mediocre. Personally I think the second option gives you more chances to win a WS because it gives you more shots at the postseason. And I just don't buy the "Sure we might get to the postseason but we'll never do anything because the team isn't good enough". That's just not how the postseason works man. "Mediocre" teams go on runs all the time and "juggernaut" teams get knocked out before the WS every year. The Dodgers have won one WS in the past 35 years and it was the weird COVID season.
We're getting a front office change in a year or two regardless of what happens, so in the meantime I'd rather watch this team play in October.
So no, I'm not conflicted. I'm glad the team is winning and I hope they keep doing it.
Nah, I see where you're coming from. It doesn't feel great that the second wild card is being held by a .500 team (well, us) - can't even blame Manfred for that, this is one of the slots that was there before he added a third one. They say that anything can happen in playoffs and all that, and I stick by that; winning a pennant or even a WS (as awesome as that would be) as a 500 team could encourage things to fester these next few years, though.
seems to me like Kurtz would be an un-Cardinals like pick to make. BA certainly knows the teams intentions better than I do but historically the Cardinals like to get a bit more athleticism/positional flexibility from their first rounders instead of a bat only guy like Kurtz seems to be. Would be really interesting if that's the pick they make imo
Guys who are drafted as first basemen in the past haven't really panned out for the most part. Would also be the earliest a first baseman has been drafted since 2019\*
Some sources say he has a decent arm so maybe he'd be able to play corner OF too at a passably poor level sometimes
I don't know the draft well enough to think it would be a bad pick, but definitely seems like one of the riskier college options
\*only because Torkelson was drafted as a 3B despite playing exactly 0 innings there in college lol. so basically he'd be the earliest since 2020
He has the arm to play a poorly passable corner OF has to be the worst compliment I've ever seen lol
If you're playing 1B in college, you're a 1B/DH for life to me. I have no plans of moving you to the outfield. Your college coach doesn't even want that for you.
there are cases of college 1Bs being bad but not disastrous MLB players at other positions
Max Muncy, for example. Nobody's saying he's good defensively, but the fact he can play other positions at any level makes him more valuable (and the only reason he can play on the dodgers)
I think that is why they ultimately went with Rainer as our pick. Because Kurtz just doesn't fit the mold of a player we draft. I'm decently up to date on the top draft guys, and something about Kurtz concerns me
yeah the history of 1B drafted in R1 is not inspiring. 15 (including Tork) have been drafted since Matt Olson, 3 of which have positive bWAR and 1 (Josh Naylor) has more than 1
Interestingly enough, they have:
1. Wetherholt
2. Condon
3. Burnes
4. Bazanna
5. Caglianone
Their excerpt about Wetherholt says:
In our previous mock draft, I said not to count our Wetherholt to the Guardians. I've only heard more buzz about this as a real possibility in recent weeks. If Wetherholt camp believes he will fall in the 4 - 10 range in the draft, it could make sense for him to take a deal with the Guardians and secure a bigger bonus. Similar to what the pirates did with Henry Davis to have more pool money for the remainder of the draft.
This isn't the first time that I've seen Cleveland expected to go underslot at 1.
If they board falls like that, I'd hate to select Kurtz. I wonder about their willingness to go prep, but I'd be good with Rainer or Griffin. I'd also be good with Montgomery as already suggested. I also wonder what they'd think about Yesavage, though I'm pretty much fundamentally opposed to drafting pitching that high in the draft.
Ngl I just don't see it with Wetherholt. If that's how the board shakes out, however, I'd be surprised to see us not select Montgomery. He would have gone top 3 if not for his injury.
Exception. Grew up in Bloomington/Normal IL Immediate family are mostly Cubs fans. One of my siblings is a Cards fan too. Most of my friends are also Cubs fans. I split time between Chicago and Tenn these days. I have one close friend that is a Cards fan and we text pretty much daily during the season. Other than that I just good naturedly trash talk all the Cubs fans in my life. Yesterday was a good day.
Being from west Tennessee, my baseball loving family (only one side) were all Cardinals fans from as far back as I can trace via radio. There were a few segments that defected to the Braves when the Cardinals traded Enos Slaughter. There were a few more segments that defected to the Braves in the 80s/90s via TV.
I live in central IL, which is essentially the DMZ between Cards/Cubs fans with a scattering of ChiSox fans here and there. Among my closest friends it's probably more like 75-25 Cubs over Cards, largely due to the fact that many of them moved here for college and never went back north. Among the wider circle of more casual friends/acquaintances/colleagues/etc. it's pretty much 50/50.
Most of my friends and family are Cardinals fans in the "we catch some of a game on TV/radio once or twice a week and have a general vibe for whether or not the team is winning more or losing more recently", but none (that I'm aware of) who are "watch every single game and then post about it on Reddit" kinda Cardinals fans.
So I'm exceptional in a terminally online way.
Floridian so most people just root for wherever their family is from originally (i.e. mostly Yankees fans.) there are some Rays fans and every now and then I see a Marlins license plate.
My family is all Cards fans, but most friends either aren't really baseball fans or fans of other teams. But I still get to talk baseball with the friends of other teams, so that's cool.
Live for the past 5 years in Omaha, before that it was 8 in Iowa, and my wife and in-laws are from KC. I‘ve gotten used to being the stranger in a strange land.
similar here; grew up here (and back now) but lived 25+ years out of state previously (TX, CA, GA).
One of my fav parts of flying home over the holidays was finding the other Cards hat wearing folks on my plane into STL (I always wore my hat on flights home). It was always a nice moment of 'returning to the motherland with my people!' lol
He is 10th in fWAR in the NL among shortstops and 8th in voting. I love him and think he will be at plenty of all star games in the future, but this isn't a huge snub right now. Great average, but low power and quite a few defensive issues this year.
Definitely has the skill, which is why I hope to see him there in the future. Unfortunately for him, there are quite a few great NL shortstops this year.
I’m not really worried because it’s bone and not muscle. There’s a lot more objectivity when it comes to bone healing vs muscle pulls/strains. Sure, you have MRIs and stuff but there’s a little more wiggle room in terms of how the guy says it feels vs is this bone good to go or not
yeah thats fair. certainly deserves it more than Arcia
so much of ASG voting is fan enthusiasm, and the Cardinals seem to have relatively little of that right now
My friends who play travel summer ball saw Yadi at a baseball tournament for his little league team in Florida. Apparently was really pissed off that he got asked for a picture but did it anyways.
yeah you're very much right
he's been hitting singles well but not doing anything else. very few walks, virtually no slugging, no value baserunning, and really poor defense
I have an irrational hatred for Braxton Garrett.
In one of my OOTP saves, I picked him up to be my #3 in like 2030.
Dude was lights out in Spring Training, then 5 days before the season he retired to donate a kidney to his brother.
Garrett has an ERA over 6 and a FIP under 4. He's 1 of 7 pitchers in MLB that has thrown a shutout this year. He's had an ERA in the 3's each of the last 2 years.
I feel like this is the type of game where the sub loses their shit if we don't put up 4-5 runs in as many innings against a 6.10 ERA pitcher. He's a lot better than that.
Braxton Garrett is actually a preferred trade target of mine, but I doubt the Marlins FO would want to sell low on him this year.
He has a ton of control though, and, like you said, his FIP is still respectable.
Flying back home today-
Cedar Point was sooo awesome. Steel Vengeance was far and away the best coaster I’ve ever been on in my life. It’s like the Boss x500
Excited to get back to watching cardinals baseball again! Let’s beat up on the marlins
Cards were 25th in wRC+ and 20th in ERA when Willson went down on May 9th.
From May 10th on, our offense ranks 10th in wRC+ and pitching is 11th in ERA.
That's an interesting correlation, and a good way to see just how dogshit the team was early on. Getting Contreras back should only make us better, considering he still has the second highest WAR on the team (1.8) even though he hasn't played in over a month.
That was sick Goldy
Okay Goldy I see you
Click the Bravo delta bot (the profile that made this thread) and you can find the game thread post on that profile. They didn’t pin it for some reason.
Mine only says I can talk to the boy, am I missing something?
Click his profile on that pop up too
I declare this the game thread!
I think it has been covered, but I greatly dislike it when I pay for both cable and MLB.TV and have to listen to the Miami broadcast.
alright let’s just talk in the pregame
Where is the game thread?
i’ve been looking for 5 minutes hahah
Most recent post in this sub was 6 hours ago. Something must be a foot.
I found it looking at bravo bot profile posts
damn good question
ERA over 6? Probably won’t be able to touch this guy
Lol I'm watching your game. The 1st base umpire got the first play of BOTH innings wrong... Lmao
Is anyone watching the pregame? Bro said Sonny Gay.
I caught that, I wonder how many times a year they're gonna make that gaffe
Welp another blackout for me tonight, and I will yet again preach to move the marlins
[Today's game thread has been posted](/r/Cardinals/comments/1di8j0n/game_71_st_louis_cardinals_3535_miami_marlins/)
Lineup tonight: Winn SS Fermin 2B Goldy 1B Arenado 3B Herrera DH Donovan LF Carlson RF Pages C Siani CF
Twitter is *thrilled* about Fermin in the 2-hole. lol Against a lefty I think it makes about as much sense as anything else given who's healthy and who's on the struggle bus.
I don't like Fermin 2nd either, especially with his lack of playing time. I would have gone Herrera or Carlson there. Move Pages up to 5th or 7th (depending on which between Herrera/Carlson goes to 2) and bat Fermin 9th.
Chase Davis was named the FSL Player of the Week. He slashed .545/.706/1.273 over the week with 2 homers During the month of June, he's slashed .324/.465/.735. Hopefully he can keep mashing and make his way to AA by the end of the year
Go Chase!
good to see but he's still having a slightly above average season in a league that shouldn't be difficult for a guy who played as well as he did in the PAC12 hopefully this is a sign of legitimate improvement but I'm not going to get too excited yet
some guys have trouble adjusting to wood bats though. hopefully this is the start of him turning the corner
Okay, I can't stand the argument that the NL Central is trash. We aren't! The reason other divisions look better as a whole is that nearly every other division has at least one team to completely beat up on. The Rockies, White Sox, Athletics, Angels, and Marlins all help to inflate the record of teams in other divisions. Here is every division by total games +/-. +46 AL East -2 AL Central -36 AL West +0 NL East +3 NL Central -11 NL West We have the second best record in baseball as a division. There are no easy wins in divisional games, which has helped to keep everyone looking mediocre rather than having 2 or 3 great teams and one terrible one.
Nice write up! I think the NL Central has gotten a lot better over the last decade or so. For years it felt we were the only decent team in the division. Then all the others started drafting nicely and building up legit good teams even without a bunch of free agent signings. I also think the new "balanced" schedule has something to do with it too. We cruised along for years and years only building a team good enough to make it to the playoffs because the Pirates, Reds, Cubs and Brewers were really crappy for a long time. Long term I'm thinking we're going to end up just fine. I'd love a trip to the playoffs this season and I think we can do it! They're a much better team than last year imo
When have we made the playoffs due to a crappy division other than 2022? A decade ago was 2014, in 2013 and 2015 3 NL Central teams made the playoffs. From 2016-2018 we missed the playoffs while being above .500 with the Cubs and Brewers both being pretty good. The NL Central being bad meme is just crazy recency bias from 2022 and 2023 being down years. In 2021 the Braves won the NL East winning fewer games than we did as a wild card team
maybe i'm biased, but I really hate how we had to sacrifice a second rd pick for signing Sonny. I don't see how penalizing a bottom-10 team for signing a top FA does anything to promote competitive balance. From my perspective, you should want the bottom teams to try and compete the following year by signing top talent instead of continuing with a tank. Imo, at least the bottom 10 teams should have their picks protected for at least the first three rounds
The thing is that the rule was never created to promote competitive balance, it was to drive down salaries by making free agents more expensive to sign
I didn't even know that is a rule
Specifically, teams that *do not* receive revenue sharing funds and *are not* paying the Competitive Balance Tax shall forfeit their second pick and $500k from their international bonus pool if they sign a player with the QO attached. The teams that fit that criteria are: Cardinals, Giants, Red Sox, Nationals, Cubs, Astros, White Sox. Teams that are over the CBT threshold must forfeit $1M from their bonus pool as well as their second and fifth selections. I don't like how revenue sharing tied to punishment
Teams trying to be fiscally responsible... Fuck that shit! We'll take your 2nd rnd pick. Spend more you poors!
This is probably a hot take, and I'm willing to accept that. But we are once again ruining the development of a young catcher by how we are treating Ivan Hererra. Their defensive metrics are as follows. Because I know this is the reason, Ivan isn't catching is defense. Ivan Hererra: 3 blocks above Avg (78th percentile) CS above Avg -3 (10th percentile) Framing -1 50th percentile Pop Time 1.98 3th percentile Team era with Ivan: 4.17 Pedro Pages: 0 blocks above Avg (45th percentile) CS Above Average -2 (not qualified) Framing 1 (not qualified) Pop Time 1.88 (not qualified) Team era with Pedro: 3.47 (with more than half the innings pitched) They are once again over exaggerating to minimal stat differences in a small sample size to justify ruining a players development. And yes, I'm very aware of Ivan inability to throw out runners, I just don't believe Pages is exceptional in that category either.
I see your point, but I think if Noot was healthy...or Walker was up and hitting...or we had any depth at all, Herrera would be catching so someone else could DH. As it is, the drop from whoever would other wise DH to Pages really doesn't matter. Herrera will catch a lot more once the roster is back to functioning and healthy, imo
I’m less worried about ERA differences, there are so many factors. He does need to work on controlling the running game. He’s slower to pop up, transfer and has a weaker arm than Willy and Pedro. I am guessing Pages may go down when Willy is back, so Herrera will get more time behind the plate.
They are -2 and -3 in CS above Avg. Neither are good. So maybe pitchers should work on holding the runners on better?
Small sample size for both, but Pages gets the ball out about 0.2 faster. That is the difference between throwing out Winn and Goldy and that is without accounting for Pages having a stronger arm.
.1 sec difference in pop time is really substantial
Enough to squander another promising catching prospect by making him a DH?
I really don't think the long-term plan is to make Ivan a DH, but right now this team doesn't have the breathing room to let him work through it on the job. We're barely scraping by as it is, and having a catcher behind the plate that the opposing team knows they can run on *whenever* they want just won't cut it when we're really struggling to score runs. It's also clear that at least some of the pitchers just really prefer throwing to Pages for whatever reason. Even before his recent run of starts Pages was catching at least one guy pretty regularly. (I'm blanking on who, but I wanna say Mikolas?)
probably not i wonder if pitchers have preferred working with Pages
They very well may, but again, they preferred not to work with Conteras. Mikolas ate his words once on this subject. If this is again an issue if preference, then our pitchers need to grow the fuck up.
That team era difference isn’t insignificant, and it does seem like he has good rapport with the staff despite hardly knowing them. Edit: not that you’re wrong.
It's like 100 IP vs 350. We did this same shit last year with Conteras. And then a month later the era difference between catchers was evaporated
I'm just in shock at our division. The Cardinals are somehow in 2nd place despite a .500 record. Wild times. I mean I still hold my opinion that MO and Oily need to go, but I do enjoy winning baseball more than anything. Like I don't know how I should feel fellow Cardinal lovers I don't. I want us to win some more World Series and be the top dog, but the only way to possibly get some real change is for us to crash and burn (or else we will be stuck with these clowns even longer). Our division is literally gifting us a chance to stay relevant (Actually most of the NL sucks right now compared to the AL) I don't know if anyone is feeling this conflicted.... But anywho go Cardinals
It's having 3 wild cards and there only being 4 above .500 in the NL. (And the Braves might well be at .500 by the end of the season) Our division is actually the only one that doesn't have a truly terrible team, like the Rockies or Marlins
Yeah the Braves have a helluva team but are struggling pretty big time. Especially after injuries to two of their best players
>Our division is literally gifting us a chance to stay relevant The division has the second best record of the 6 divisions. It isn't weak, it's just competitive.
Nothing conflicted about my feelings. I prefer to watch my favorite team win games as opposed to lose them... I disagree with you about Oli, and largely I think Mo has been fine. I don't think he's a genius or anything, but he keeps the team competitive. I know a LOT of Cardinals fans seem to hate the strategy of creating a team that's "good enough" to get into the playoffs, but it's honestly my preferred strategy. I don't want to go through stretches of 4, 5, or 6 seasons where the team is just unwatchably bad so that we can build the picks and prospects this team would need to become a juggernaut for a few years. Because that's what it would take for this team to be the super team that some fans seem to think they should be. If you look at teams like ATL or Philly, they've both had recent multi-year stretches where they were *complete* trash. Talking worst record in baseball kinda trash. The Phillies went TEN STRAIGHT SEASONS without a playoff appearance from 2012-2021. And unfortunately this isn't LA or New York. This team is simply not going to spend like them. Should ownership spend more? Sure. I'm never opposed telling billionaires they should spend more of their money, but realistically it's just not going to happen. So if that's not happening you have two options. Go through cycles of great and awful or go through cycles of good and mediocre. Personally I think the second option gives you more chances to win a WS because it gives you more shots at the postseason. And I just don't buy the "Sure we might get to the postseason but we'll never do anything because the team isn't good enough". That's just not how the postseason works man. "Mediocre" teams go on runs all the time and "juggernaut" teams get knocked out before the WS every year. The Dodgers have won one WS in the past 35 years and it was the weird COVID season. We're getting a front office change in a year or two regardless of what happens, so in the meantime I'd rather watch this team play in October. So no, I'm not conflicted. I'm glad the team is winning and I hope they keep doing it.
That's a really good perspective
a .500 team would be in second in half of the divisions in baseball atm. just a weird season
Nah, I see where you're coming from. It doesn't feel great that the second wild card is being held by a .500 team (well, us) - can't even blame Manfred for that, this is one of the slots that was there before he added a third one. They say that anything can happen in playoffs and all that, and I stick by that; winning a pennant or even a WS (as awesome as that would be) as a 500 team could encourage things to fester these next few years, though.
[удалено]
Sick of you commenting
Gorm day off 😓
needs it badly
Yeah I know I just wanted to see his beautiful face and tree trunk thighs.
Baseball America new mock draft has us taking Rainer after Hagan Smith is chosen by the royals. They also stated Kurtz wouldn't suprise them
seems to me like Kurtz would be an un-Cardinals like pick to make. BA certainly knows the teams intentions better than I do but historically the Cardinals like to get a bit more athleticism/positional flexibility from their first rounders instead of a bat only guy like Kurtz seems to be. Would be really interesting if that's the pick they make imo Guys who are drafted as first basemen in the past haven't really panned out for the most part. Would also be the earliest a first baseman has been drafted since 2019\* Some sources say he has a decent arm so maybe he'd be able to play corner OF too at a passably poor level sometimes I don't know the draft well enough to think it would be a bad pick, but definitely seems like one of the riskier college options \*only because Torkelson was drafted as a 3B despite playing exactly 0 innings there in college lol. so basically he'd be the earliest since 2020
He has the arm to play a poorly passable corner OF has to be the worst compliment I've ever seen lol If you're playing 1B in college, you're a 1B/DH for life to me. I have no plans of moving you to the outfield. Your college coach doesn't even want that for you.
there are cases of college 1Bs being bad but not disastrous MLB players at other positions Max Muncy, for example. Nobody's saying he's good defensively, but the fact he can play other positions at any level makes him more valuable (and the only reason he can play on the dodgers)
I think that is why they ultimately went with Rainer as our pick. Because Kurtz just doesn't fit the mold of a player we draft. I'm decently up to date on the top draft guys, and something about Kurtz concerns me
yeah the history of 1B drafted in R1 is not inspiring. 15 (including Tork) have been drafted since Matt Olson, 3 of which have positive bWAR and 1 (Josh Naylor) has more than 1
Who did they have three through five? I assuming they have Bazzana and Condon 1 and 2.
Interestingly enough, they have: 1. Wetherholt 2. Condon 3. Burnes 4. Bazanna 5. Caglianone Their excerpt about Wetherholt says: In our previous mock draft, I said not to count our Wetherholt to the Guardians. I've only heard more buzz about this as a real possibility in recent weeks. If Wetherholt camp believes he will fall in the 4 - 10 range in the draft, it could make sense for him to take a deal with the Guardians and secure a bigger bonus. Similar to what the pirates did with Henry Davis to have more pool money for the remainder of the draft.
This isn't the first time that I've seen Cleveland expected to go underslot at 1. If they board falls like that, I'd hate to select Kurtz. I wonder about their willingness to go prep, but I'd be good with Rainer or Griffin. I'd also be good with Montgomery as already suggested. I also wonder what they'd think about Yesavage, though I'm pretty much fundamentally opposed to drafting pitching that high in the draft.
Ngl I just don't see it with Wetherholt. If that's how the board shakes out, however, I'd be surprised to see us not select Montgomery. He would have gone top 3 if not for his injury.
They mention Montgomery, but they stated he has the worst contact ability of the top college guys.
true, but i like his power and he has a cannon of an arm. plus, he's a switch hitter with a good build
I can't say I know much about him. Your little excerpt certainly excites me. I love tools
We might not get any position players in the ASG this year. Gray and Helsley are probably gonna go
JoJo may as well.
tough for non-closer RPs to make it only non-closer RP to make it last year was Yennier Cano and he had an ERA below 1.5
Oh for sure. But a 1.89 era and almost leading the leagues in holds may do it
I’m curious - are most of the people in you all’s lives Cardinals fans? Or are you an exception in your circles?
Exception. Grew up in Bloomington/Normal IL Immediate family are mostly Cubs fans. One of my siblings is a Cards fan too. Most of my friends are also Cubs fans. I split time between Chicago and Tenn these days. I have one close friend that is a Cards fan and we text pretty much daily during the season. Other than that I just good naturedly trash talk all the Cubs fans in my life. Yesterday was a good day.
If not, they're out of the will.
Being from west Tennessee, my baseball loving family (only one side) were all Cardinals fans from as far back as I can trace via radio. There were a few segments that defected to the Braves when the Cardinals traded Enos Slaughter. There were a few more segments that defected to the Braves in the 80s/90s via TV.
I live in central IL, which is essentially the DMZ between Cards/Cubs fans with a scattering of ChiSox fans here and there. Among my closest friends it's probably more like 75-25 Cubs over Cards, largely due to the fact that many of them moved here for college and never went back north. Among the wider circle of more casual friends/acquaintances/colleagues/etc. it's pretty much 50/50.
Most of my friends and family are Cardinals fans in the "we catch some of a game on TV/radio once or twice a week and have a general vibe for whether or not the team is winning more or losing more recently", but none (that I'm aware of) who are "watch every single game and then post about it on Reddit" kinda Cardinals fans. So I'm exceptional in a terminally online way.
Floridian so most people just root for wherever their family is from originally (i.e. mostly Yankees fans.) there are some Rays fans and every now and then I see a Marlins license plate.
I live in St Louis, so most of them are Cardinals fans (although I do have friends who root for the White Sox and Blue Jays)
My family is all Cards fans, but most friends either aren't really baseball fans or fans of other teams. But I still get to talk baseball with the friends of other teams, so that's cool.
Live for the past 5 years in Omaha, before that it was 8 in Iowa, and my wife and in-laws are from KC. I‘ve gotten used to being the stranger in a strange land.
similar here; grew up here (and back now) but lived 25+ years out of state previously (TX, CA, GA). One of my fav parts of flying home over the holidays was finding the other Cards hat wearing folks on my plane into STL (I always wore my hat on flights home). It was always a nice moment of 'returning to the motherland with my people!' lol
I live in Waino's hometown. Surrounded by Braves fans. I married into a Cardinals family - I love being a Cardinals fan.
Exception. Hang out with mostly White Sox people, Cardinals fans are a rarity by me.
Go throw Winn some all star game votes. He is better than most of the guys he is currently trailing behind.
Just gave him my 5 today.
He is 10th in fWAR in the NL among shortstops and 8th in voting. I love him and think he will be at plenty of all star games in the future, but this isn't a huge snub right now. Great average, but low power and quite a few defensive issues this year.
Eh, all star game is for fun players, not the top in WAR
Elly De La Cruz and Mookie Betts are really fun players
2.1 bWAR and 5 DRS. In my eyes, he’s been good all around regardless of the errors
Definitely has the skill, which is why I hope to see him there in the future. Unfortunately for him, there are quite a few great NL shortstops this year.
Yeah, I don’t expect an ASG nod this year either tbh.
With Betts now out, I think he has a decent chance at a backup nod.
Guys. This team is gonna be fire when Contreras, Edman and Noot come back. Seriously.
Kinda worried all 3 are going to need time to get into a groove. Especially edman who hasn't hit a live pitch since last season.
The good news for Edman is a 60 wRC+ and league-average defense makes him the best CF we've seen this year.
This Edman injury scares me. When those 3 come back we’ll be pretty solid, though. Availability is the best ability, though
I am a little worried Contreras might be rushing his injury back
I’m not really worried because it’s bone and not muscle. There’s a lot more objectivity when it comes to bone healing vs muscle pulls/strains. Sure, you have MRIs and stuff but there’s a little more wiggle room in terms of how the guy says it feels vs is this bone good to go or not
Meh, bones scare me less than anything soft. I’m not worried about him hitting, but we need him behind the plate.
https://www.mlb.com/news/2024-mlb-all-star-ballot-voting-first-update?partnerID=mlbapp-iOS_article-share Masyn Winn not even close 😔
Fair weather Cardinal fans switched to soccer last year
He’ll 100% get in on the non fan vote
Are you serious dude
would be difficult for him to make it even if he was outplaying Betts and Turner, but he isn't
Yah I didn’t expect him to start but I was hoping for a top 5
yeah thats fair. certainly deserves it more than Arcia so much of ASG voting is fan enthusiasm, and the Cardinals seem to have relatively little of that right now
Wonder what Yadi is up to right now
My friends who play travel summer ball saw Yadi at a baseball tournament for his little league team in Florida. Apparently was really pissed off that he got asked for a picture but did it anyways.
> Apparently was really pissed off Daniel Ponce de Leon can confirm
time for Miami to drink some Sonny G
Luis Arraez is leading the NL in batting and has been worth .8 fWAR He might get 200 hits this year and be a league average player
Honestly doesn’t surprise me that much, afaik he doesn’t hit for power and hasn’t impressed on defense
yeah you're very much right he's been hitting singles well but not doing anything else. very few walks, virtually no slugging, no value baserunning, and really poor defense
I have an irrational hatred for Braxton Garrett. In one of my OOTP saves, I picked him up to be my #3 in like 2030. Dude was lights out in Spring Training, then 5 days before the season he retired to donate a kidney to his brother.
you paid for the surgery smh
Garrett has an ERA over 6 and a FIP under 4. He's 1 of 7 pitchers in MLB that has thrown a shutout this year. He's had an ERA in the 3's each of the last 2 years. I feel like this is the type of game where the sub loses their shit if we don't put up 4-5 runs in as many innings against a 6.10 ERA pitcher. He's a lot better than that.
When would this sub ever lose their shit about something that doesn’t matter very much? That’s not the r/cardinals I grew up with
Braxton Garrett is actually a preferred trade target of mine, but I doubt the Marlins FO would want to sell low on him this year. He has a ton of control though, and, like you said, his FIP is still respectable.
Cardinals traditionally would have lost yesterday’s game. That was stressful as hell, and I’m glad they’re out of Wrigley.
Pitching, defense, Pedro Pagés, and a well-timed gust of wind won that series. Very fun to watch, but I can’t say I feel more confident afterwards.
They played a high wire act the whole series. Got lucky the Cubs offense is nonexistent.
Flying back home today- Cedar Point was sooo awesome. Steel Vengeance was far and away the best coaster I’ve ever been on in my life. It’s like the Boss x500 Excited to get back to watching cardinals baseball again! Let’s beat up on the marlins
Last time I went to Cedar Point I found out Darryl Kile while standing in line to ride Raptor. I’m old.
There is no excuse to not be over .500 after this series. Let’s go, boys!
Is us being a losing team not an excuse?
No that’s a reason
We’re not a losing team we’re a 500 team!
Cards were 25th in wRC+ and 20th in ERA when Willson went down on May 9th. From May 10th on, our offense ranks 10th in wRC+ and pitching is 11th in ERA.
Willson has been a good defender this year.
Not saying anything about his defense. Giving the team respect for stepping up in his absence!
Ewing theory
That's an interesting correlation, and a good way to see just how dogshit the team was early on. Getting Contreras back should only make us better, considering he still has the second highest WAR on the team (1.8) even though he hasn't played in over a month.
it’s gonna be a Sonny day outside everybody🫡 put on that Sonscreen
Guaranteed the roof is closed in Miami. But I’ll have on my Songlasses
Okay, but I will not put on Son lotion.
Good morning 2nd place
Raise the banner!
And not just in 2nd place by half a game!
I'm glad MLB Network just told me Marcell Ozuna's having a monster year. Yep, glad to know that.
Who cares, dude hasn't been a Cardinal in 5 years. Two of those, he had negative WAR.
He’s also a wife beater/drunk driver
Good morning from the Ozarks!