- This topic has 60 replies, 25 voices, and was last updated 2 years, 3 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
With the season nigh upon us, it’s time to revive a thread where folks can go crazy and make the picks they’d never dream of laying a wager on…yet will look like a genius if they prove right. It’s BOLD pick time!
Last year was a tough one and the negative picks likely made the most sense, but it’s a new year and a roster of new faces. So make your BOLD picks for the 2024 season…and maybe in October we can look back and see who proved the BOLD and brightest!
As a matter of rule, know that your picks must be BOLD to count here. They can be positive or negative, but don’t be boring. Nothing probable, such as “Gorman hits 20 plus HRs” or even likely, like “Gray leads the rotation in wins.”
Let’s see those BOLD picks!
After last year’s debacle of Bold Predictions, I’m almost afraid to try this again. Let’s try this again. Here are my Bold Predictions:
1) Jordan Walker will be an above average defender. Maybe not by much, but more defensive runs saved than allowed.
2) Andre Granillo will be the team’s closer or primary setup man by season’s end.
3) Dylan Carlson will accumulate the most WAR in the Cards outfield.
All my other thoughts don’t really qualify as bold so I’ll just stick with these 3.
1. The Cardinals have three starters with 180 IP.
2. Zach Thompson establishes himself as a solid number 4 starter and cements his status for 2025.
3. Masyn Winn is sent back to Memphis in late April and Brandon Crawford gives us a solid three months of .750 OPS before Winn returns in late July.
4. The Cardinals finish 82-80 thus missing the playoffs for the second year in a row. Mo is given a two year contract extension citing that he has unfinished work to do before leaving.
OK so no one wants to be first.
1) Cardinals MVP- Dylan Carlson ( I could regret this rather quickly)
That’s bold.
1. Cardinals finish in last place in the central after rotation implodes due to injury, age, and poor performance
2. Cardinals assumed starting 5 pitchers do not finish April intact (or May if you want to take out the first month shifting)
3. Winn hits below Mendoza line
4. Goldschmidt hits less than 20 HRs
5. Helsley is the sole All Star representative
Arenado wins the MVP award with a season of .307/35/116 along with the Gold Glove again.
And to celebrate, he goes out and has a big catfish fiddler dinner!
“25” asked for bold predictions.
Time to be the bold police. Shady, I’m not sure your post meets the criteria of this thread. Jager, all of your predictions feel very possible and not so bold. Maybe the team finishing in the cellar is marginally bold, but they were in the cellar last year so that waters it down. Gscottar – I also take issue with one of yours. Thompson becoming a #4 starter is hardly bold. It almost seems likely or at least very possible at this point. But the rest of what you have works!
Shady Typed : “It seems like Prieto could be comparable to Donovan as a hitter.”
give specific examples, please. Besides the obvious : “bats left handed”
Despite another last place NLC finish, NL MOY goes to the current Redbird manager as a result of his team playing better in the last month of the season and winning every game in Sept…As a reward Johnny signs him to a Mike Scioscia type 10 year contract extension…This could get very ugly…”I’ll tell you that!”
Prieto is blocked, right now, from being with the Cardinals. To say Prieto, who I don’t think has ever played in an official MLB game, is comparable to a consistent MLB hitter, Donovan, is bold. Considering Prieto is destined for considerable AAA time this season. Some posters just see things that don’t need statistical validation. If you don’t “buy it”. Ignore it.
1toughdominican typed ~ “Not sure if this requires statistical validation, but Prieto rhymes with Nieto… ”
Would you say “Render unto Brendan?” That’s where Brendan and Cesar are different.
This is always one of my favorite threads of the year. Because I usually expect our club to be pretty good, my bold predictions are normally “the wheels have fallen off” type. Since I expect us to be not much more than .500 this year, if that, I will go wildly optimistic this time around. Here we go:
– Sonny Gray’s early absence puts the burden of “ace” on veteran Miles Mikolas. “The Miler” answers the bell to the tune of a 17-7 season to go with a glittering 2.92 ERA, and some hardware in the Cy Young award.
– A bad April spawns rumors of dealing Paul Goldschmidt while we can. A brief benching in favor of Alec Burleson sees Burly go down with an injury after a week, and Goldy is given the job back.He responds with a rousing final four months ending the season with a 133 OPS+, 28 home runs, 87 RBI and a .313 batting average. He’s given a 3 year extension in September with an AAV of $30M, causing many in The Cardinal Nation to think this will be “Matt Carpenter” all over again.
– And speaking of Carpenter, he becomes the primary left handed DH and responds with a respectable season, .273 batting mark, 18 homers and a .797 OPS.
– JoJo Romero becomes the closer in June and ends up with 28 saves and a glittering 1.85 ERA. He develops a cult-like following with the stadium sound system playing the Beatles “Get Back” when he enters a game, and after he records the final out fans shout in unison, “Get back Jo Jo!!”
– The Cardinals final record is second best in the National League, but unfortunately the best record belongs to division rival Chicago. No matter, the Redbirds sweep through the post season with relative ease, losing only two games to cap their 24th pennant (I think that is the right number if you included the 1880s teams).
Johnny Mo resigns midway through the season (ala White Rat 1990) as the Cards once again flounder out of the gate and his starting pitching acquisitions are hammered on a nightly basis. He is replaced, of course, by Chaim Bloom who begins to clean house immediately both on and off the field.
I’m liking many of these! A few are not too BOLD, though.
Here are mine:
1. The Cards go first to worst to first, winning 93 games. Marmol is named manager of the year and the Mo looks like a genius.
2. Struggling Matt Carpenter is given the option to have a Matt Holliday style sendoff around the All Star break by the front office. He responds with game winning pinch hit HRs in two games in a row. He then proceededs to hit .350/.450/.600 in the second half and slugs 18 of his 20 HRs after the ultimatum, including the division clinching shot with 10 days to go in the season. He ultimately retires a Redbird after the season.
3. Tommy Edman is traded at the deadline for Shane Bieber, who throws 2 shutouts with St Louis and the team wins 11 of his 13 starts.
4. Victor Scott steals 30 bases. Doesn’t sound too impressive except that he isn’t called up until August and he steals that many in only 55 games played.
5. Nolan Gorman leads the NL in HRs, edging Pete Alonso with 3 blasts on the season’s final day (he hits 44).
Bonus #6. The rotation holds up surprisingly well all year and with the addition of Bieber is voted the top NL staff heading into the playoffs. Their star rookie setup man, Tink Hence, takes on the role of stopper in October and strikes out 23 in 11 IP in the playoffs. The Cards beat the Phillies in 3 and the Dodgers in 5 before losing to the Braves in 7 games.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.