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Since it appears there is a decent chance that Arenado will be moved and Gorman will be our 3rdbaseman next year I am just wondering about something.
What is Gorman doing this off-season to work on cutting down the strikeouts and putting the ball in play?
Assuming that he is working on this I hope and pray it’s not the same thing he’s been working on for the last 2-3 years. That obviously hasn’t worked.
r/Esteemed Rat
Brant Brown knows success as a 1st-year hitting coach for the #STLCards might come down to getting Nolan Gorman and Jordan Walker back on track.
That’s why Brown has already spent time with Gorman, his AZ neighbor, and made plans to see Walker in Florida.https://t.co/EKnNDPrz29
— John Denton (@JohnDenton555) November 18, 2024
Let’s hope to see some improvement, but Brown K’d 114 times in 371 trips to the plate during his ’99 season. The picture of contact he ain’t.
There are countless millions of people who can’t hit major league pitching, and only several hundred who can. So what reason is there to think Brown can turn one of the millions who can’t into one of the hundreds who can?
Thank You, Blingboy for injecting a little common sense into things. Some guys, even great athletes, who can hit AAA pitching simply cannot hit major league pitching. I wish some on this forum and the Front Office could see that and stop trying to make chicken salad out of chicken s—.
Haha…Maybe because Brown was also one of the millions who couldn’t. He couldn’t glove it very well either…Take a look at Cubs/Brewers on 9-23-98. Oven mitts and nerf bats…
https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1998/B09230MIL1998.htm
1td,
Above is the boxscore from that game. What on earth did Brown do? Commit an error with two outs in the last of the 9th that allowed three Brewers to score and lose the game???Ability to play and ability to teach are two separate things. Knowing what to do is different from physically being able to do it.
I suspect that everyone here knows this already, but some seem to make a faulty correlation.
Maybe so, but it’s always humorous to picture Mario Mendoza lending instruction to Pete Rose regarding the finer points of swinging a bat…
Yeah Rats, he was charged with a colossal Das Boot that had a profound effect on the final standings and the post-season qualifiers of that ’98 season.
Gorman will always strikeout at a high rate. That is part of his DNA. But a 40% clip is unacceptable. Wherever the bar of acceptability is placed in the modern game, it is going to be below 40%.
I wonder why more guys don’t take the old school approach like Anthony Rizzo, and choke up with two strikes? It’s a lost art. I understand the whole mantra these days that home runs are the best outcome and worth giving up more strikeout results, but with two strikes that thinking should be altered – especially if the situation is runners on. You want to move them over.
No one is saying that Gorman is going to become the next Rod Carew or Tony Gwynn. He is who he is. I doubt if the Cardinals really think he will be an everyday player longterm but they want to find out for sure in 2025 before cutting bait.
What some folks either are forgetting or either in denial over is that the Cardinals are really just punting on 2025. They can’t say it publicy because they want to sell tickets and Mo is apparently getting cold feet since he doesn’t want to go out overseeing a last place team but let’s call a spade a spade. If they were REALLY trying to win in 2025 they wouldn’t be jettisoning Goldy, Gibson, Lynn, Kitty, and perhaps Arenado and Helsley. Instead they would be keeping most of those guys plus trying to add more players.
There is no need to worry about Gorman or Walker or Herrera or whoever else they throw out there because when you get down to it the Cardinals really don’t give a da** about 2025 except for cutting expenses and getting younger.
If they were REALLY trying to win in 2025 they wouldn’t be jettisoning Goldy, Gibson, Lynn, Kitty, and perhaps Arenado and Helsley.
Probably, which is why they need new management. There is no point coming back with the same guys you’ve been losing with, but lately, that’s The Cardinal Way.
I think a 40% strikeout rate is perfectly acceptable . . . If you’re hitting for extra bases half of your other at bats. Heck, a 70% strikeout rate might be acceptable if the other 30% of the time you’re hitting a home run. Those outcomes don’t seem plausible today, but they may in tomorrow’s game.
The team is not “punting” on 2025 per se. They are in limbo. They have an owner who is probably getting too old to be doing day-to-day decisions and an outgoing GM who is concerned about his legacy. They don’t know what to do so they’re doing the indecisive thing and watching to see what happens. See what they have because they can’t seem to internally evaluate what they have correctly. They might be pretty good. They might be pretty bad. They will probably be in the middle. I’m not sure this approach helps 2026 in any meaningful way. It just kicks the can. As a fan, I’m not very pleased.
We can debate semantics but the end result is the same, which is the Cardinals are not going out of their way to build a winning team for 2025. If they get every possible break to go their way and they end up as a contender then fine. Otherwise it will be a shoulder shrug. Our 2025 payroll may end up being $50M less than 2024. That doesn’t sound like a team trying to win in the near term.
That is why I don’t understand all of the hand wringing about playing certain younger guys. They have stated numerous times since the end of the season that they are going to focus on younger players yet we have folks who seem to be shocked that it might actually happen.
I regards to K’s, I was just now reminded that Adam Dunn never played in a solitary Big League playoff game despite playing in an era in which 8 teams qualified for the post-season. Dunn ripped 462 HR’s in his career to go along with a little shy of 2400 K’s in 6900 AB’s. Teams would be drooling and falling all over themselves to sign a player like the “Big Donkey” in today’s game. I find it a little sad that Dunn never got a glimpse of a playoff game in his 14 year career. Dunn is one of only 14 players in Big League history to have played in 2000 or more games and never play in the post-season.
What would really be interesting is if the Cardinals traded both Arenado AND Gorman this offseason. Hey it could happen. The A’s need to add salary to avoid a grievance by the MLBA. They might take Matz if the Cards throw someone like Gorman in the deal.
There is nothing to be gained by having Donovan be the everyday starter anywhere. Might as well see if somebody can play. Heck, there is no point having Noot start everyday, to be honest. Unless he gets a lot better, he will get offed as soon as he gets far enough into arb to be getting expensive. Before we are likely to be going anywhere. Go ahead and play Gorman at 3rd if NA is gone. Make sure everyone knows he’s not a ML 3rd baseman and he can’t hit ML pitching. Then give him away. We are just killing time for a year so Mo can think he’s going out on his terms. Bloom will be starting out 2026 with next to nothing on the ML roster whatever they do this winter.
Gorman has almost no trade value unless he’s packaged. My guess is he’s going to be given one last shot. If we get the 2023 Gorman then great. If we get somewhere in between the 2022 and 2023 Gorman we have a platoon version of Paul DeJong playing 3rd. 2024 and he’s finished.
He has got to cut down on the K’s. That is pretty much the story. As we all know old habits die hard.
Remember you trade NA then your infield defense is worse especially with Goldschmidt being gone. We could be awful at the corners. Shall we trade some defense for offense? My guess is no one around here would be satisfied not matter what.
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