- This topic has 10 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 2 years, 5 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Breaking News! We just signed Matt Carpenter – a guy who hasn’t batted over 200 except for a short 47 game stretch with the Yankees (in 2022) since 2019. I am sure that the Dodgers, Braves, Phillies and all the rest of the competitive teams in the NL are shaking in their boots over this move. Are they only bringing him back for one game to retire his number? This guys is way, way past his prime. What about getting at-bats for Burleson?
There are two points I want to make in response.
First, you accidentally touch on an important aspect. When mentioning “competitive teams in the NL”, you name teams from the NL East and NL West, but not from the Central. This is accurate, so the Cardinals do not have to do what teams in the competitive divisions do.
The other thing you accidentally do is illustrate that there is not an alternative use for the roster slot that makes sense. At bats for Burleson? Why? We saw and know that his defense means he is not playable in a defensive position other than fill in now and then. Nothing we have heard suggests the Cardinals are looking for someone to emerge as an everyday DH, so there is no point to getting Burleson more ABs. There is not presently a compelling alternative use for the roster spot. That being the case, if the brass thinks that additional leadership presence is helpful, I really have no issue with it.
Well the A’s relocation to Las Vegas is going over well with the local folks:
The emcee tries to get the Vegas business folks hyped over the Las Vegas @Athletics and has to check their pulse.
That, my friends, is the sound of a relocation landing like a dud. pic.twitter.com/S2UN4N2qf8
— Matt Ortega (@MattOrtega) January 24, 2024
The Athletics franchise has been mistreated throughout history. Connie Mack did well when the economy was strong, but never brought in investors to help during bad times and always resorted to selling players.
By the time he was in his 80s he had run the club into the ground, due to letting his incompetent sons running the business. They sold out to New Yorker Arnold Johnson, who really wanted to own the Yankees. He moved the club to Kansas City and ran it as a Yankee farm team.
Then Charlie Finley bought the franchise – not exactly an engaging and welcoming personality. Almost from day one he antagonized local business leaders and threatened to move the team again, to either Atlanta or Dallas. He eventually relocated to Oakland, where the Giants were barely holding their own in the area.
He did have good baseball men scouting and drafting, and built a powerhouse in the ‘70s. But still did not have the resources to maintain that success as free agency came and players gained the power to shape their own destiny.
Here we are all these years later and the franchise has never been able to maintain long-term stability, despite some good management personnel.
I have always felt that had Finley worked with the community in Kansas City rather than always thinking the grass was greener elsewhere, that franchise would at least be stable today – possibly in better financial health than the Royals.
Oh, and thinking about those Braves – how much better is that club than ours? I can think of six guys right off that are better than anyone on our roster. In other words, they have six guys you would not trade straight up for anyone on our roster.
Man, I just do not see how management thinks we will be in contention this year. The only rationale is “well, we are in the NL Central so even if we are not good we could get into post season.” And things could go pretty good if we get a few young players taking big strides in their career. If we have more guys who trend like Dylan Carlson though – guys who have a lot of promise but don’t deliver, we are in trouble.
Back around 2019 Mo and the gang got to choose between Carlson and Garcia, and they chose wrong. A couple years later they had no use for Lane Thomas, going with Carlson and O’Neill instead. Thomas outproduced everyone on our roster last year, including the bronze busts, Gorman and Walker. The Nat’s like Thomas so much now they picked up Yepez. Why not. We will see what happens there. Meanwhile, Mo is still touting Carlson, who has already had more chances than we gave all those other guys combined, and has never been able to make anything happen.
So Mo hands him a job a month before ST even starts. Hopefully we only need a 4th outfielder against lefties all year because if we need one vs righties, we’re screwed. No wonder we are door mats.
Given the ages of the top 5, Liby will likely be out there every 5 days at some point. I doubt anyone will be lol-ing then. Same if an outfielder goes down and Carlson is out there every day. I admit if they excel I’ll have nowhere to hide.
Bling – you and your Lane Thomas obsession! He was bad in 2020. Bad again in 2021. Then just barely above replacement level in 2022. Then he hits for a whopping 109 WRC+ (that’s below Gorman, Nootbaar, Goldschmidt, and Contreras) in 2023 while playing terrible defense. He surprisingly becomes a good base runner all of the sudden and plays every day to build up some counting stats and suddenly you now consider him better than everyone on the Cardinals? Your narrative is the Cardinals were so stupid to trade him away. They should have kept him and played him every day to watch him be our worst outfielder in 2021 and 2022 just so we could get an average to a little above average player in 2023? I mean yes, I agree that he would have been far more useful in 2023 than putting Burleson and Yepez out there. But we’d have had to endure several seasons of bad Lane Thomas to reach that point. Carlson was much better than Thomas in 2021 and better than him again in 2022. 2023 was a peak year for Thomas and an injury ridden year for Carlson. So clearly Thomas was far better in 2023. But I don’t feel like that’s evidence to say they chose poorly. I’m perfectly fine with keeping Carlson over Thomas.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.