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DeJong was also the guy who couldn’t score from first on a double off the wall even though he was running with the pitch the other night against the Royals. What is his deal with running the bases?
Come on, Forsch. The team ranks in the bottom half of MLB in OPS and OPS+. And their defense and base running have been less than stellar. Those aren’t opinions.
Those are facts.Gut wrenching loss and depleted our bullpen in the process. Yadi needs a day off. Long way to go, but we need to stop the bleeding very soon.
“In the post-game, Shildt said Molina is …”
And that’s why I avoid pre and post game interviews. Shildt can lie to himself all he wants, but “not offering more” is garbage. Yadi just caught 12-ish innings and is slower than Knizner.
Yadi’s baserunning smarts didn’t impress me today. He looked like he got caught halfway and quit competing.
Lost in the disappointment is Reyes performance. Yes, he got the loss but
if DeJong gets to 3rd as he should have maybe they win the game. No walks,
3 K’s. The hit that put the Indians ahead was actually a pretty good pitch.
Naquin did a nice job of going down to get it. His ERA is a respectable 4.32
but if O’Neil catches the ball as he should have on the 26th against KC Reyes
ERA would be 2.16. I know….that’s baseball….just trying to find something
positive. If Alex can consistently throw strikes like he did yesterday it’s
going to be a huge step forward which hopefully finds him in the rotation
next year.Bccran, you like to take “facts” and point out the negative. When someone points out positive “facts”, you ignore those or choose to try to act like you have superior stats.
I have never said we are hitting great because we aren’t. However, it is not as dire as you make it out to be. We have won World Series with similar offenses. It’s also still small sample size.
I will wait until the postseason for the hitters to get hot. They have the ability.
Forsch, normally I would agree with trying to maintain a balanced perspective on things. However, I see their struggles offensively this year as a continuation of the offensive struggles last year. In looking at it that way, I would argue we’re not dealing with a small sample size anymore but instead think we have a lot of hitters who are flawed in a similar way (inability to hit breaking balls and off speed pitches). If it were just one or two batters, it wouldn’t be a problem. But it seems to be most of the lineup that struggles with this. I was hoping Jeff Albert would be able to help with this but it seems like he largely hasn’t been able to. That is cause for concern as our front office has limited flexibility to address this issue this offseason or next due to bad contracts on the books and a lack of elite prospects to replace the flawed hitters in the near term. I’m optimistic about Carlson and have been impressed with him so far but he by himself will not solve the problems with our offense. I suspect we will just have to wait for the bad contracts to come off the books for an infusion of talent to help our offense.
Most of the angst about the offense is about the younger players. Yet, most posters seem to be willing to give Carlson a break. That he will figure it out. However, other than Bader, most of the other young players haven’t been given that opportunity to “figure it out” in the majors. They have hit well enough in the minors but have only been given brief opportunities in the majors. Sooner or later, we need to give them an opportunity to adjust.
For now, we are stuck with Carpenter, Wong, DeJong and Fowler. Also, a lot of people thought Edman was going to repeat last year. That has not happened, so far.
However, other than Bader, most of the other young players haven’t been given that opportunity to “figure it out” in the majors.
O’Neill has 77 PA’s, Carlson 66 and Bader 52…
How many career plate appearances do each of them have? How many regular starts do each of them have in the majors?
How many career plate appearances do each of them have? How many regular starts do each of them have in the majors?
Those are biased questions, because they have more to do with time in the majors (Bader) and injuries (O’Neill) than anything else.
If you are looking at a season when performance should dictate playing time, Carlson should have the least amount of PAs this year – by far…Instead, since he was called up, he is playing everyday at the expense of O’Neill and Bader – the two who were supposedly auditioning to be part of the future of the club this year…And then you have situations like yesterday, where they pinch hit Carlson for Bader…
But do you really think Bader was given a chance to figure it out last year? He had 400 PA’s. Everybody wants to run him out of town because of hos miserable his sophomore season was at the plate, yet’ he was still on track to hit 18 HR over 600 PA’s and his OBP wasn’t significantly different than the prior year. The only thing that was down was his slugging %, which was driven by a lack of doubles…
I would argue neither Bader nor O’Neill have been given the opportunity that Carlson has been given this year. Usually, it is because of veterans blocking them. Now, it’s because the Cardinals want to speed the development of their next big thing at the expense of players who should be more major-league ready.
LA,I would agree with that completely. My point has more to do with the fact that there are some young players who have not had a chance to work through the growing pains in the majors, yet. But posters are willing to say Carlson is fine but the others aren’t.
Posters are giving Carlson the benefit of the doubt because of his pedigree. Most of us are not scouts therefore we rely on the information provided from others. Carlson was a first round draft pick and has been ranked first in our prospect rankings for quite some time now. If he had been a fifth rounder and ranked 30th I doubt most fans would be so patient with him.
LACardFan said:
I would argue neither Bader nor O’Neill have been given the opportunity that Carlson has been given this year.
I know your point is over the longer term, but for this season only, here are their comparative plate appearances:
O’Neill 77
Carlson 66
Bader 52Remember that Carlson came up for Game no. 7 of the season.
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