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As for Hicks I don’t know if he has any options left but he really needs to be in Memphis. Surely there is someone in the Memphis bullpen who could do better.
Yes, Hicks has options they could use. But unless they want to lose someone off the roster again, the options are Cabrera, JoJo, or Jake Walsh (or a starter, but I don’t think they would do that right now due to timing). Walsh didn’t look that great this spring and is coming off an injury and the other two are both so-so right now and need some tune-ups. So I think they’ll give Hicks a few days off, maybe have him throw on the side once or twice, and try to get him straightened out until they fully see what they have at Memphis. But yeah, he doesn’t need to be coming in for a high leverage situation again for a bit.
On the plus side, VerHagen looked good and Helsley mostly did too. And Pallante was solid Pallante. I’m still convinced we are going to be really good this year and we will win the division by at least 10 games. It’s the best looking team we’ve had in a number of years. We just need to keep Contreras healthy.
As for Hicks I don’t know if he has any options left but he really needs to be in Memphis.
He has 5 years service time, so no, at least not without consent. I think.
I wasn’t sure, but thought that he might. But that’s okay. Johnny can advertise that “swing and miss stuff” AKA as “lay off and take the BB” that he has and hoodwink some other team with a well timed trade for a pitcher who has the ability to record an out or two.
Jnevel mentioned that VerHagen’s looked good thus far and he’s right. I was real sceptical after looking him up when he first became a Cardinal and it went downhill from there. I’d like nothing better than for Drew to once again prove me wrong and turn in some nice work this season. Sometimes these sorts of veteran pitchers learn how to record outs after they’ve been around for a while and feature the ability to serve as a reliable arm for a manager to count on in the middle innings of a game. I hope that’s the case with VerHagen.
Yeah jj, Gorman leads the team with a .667 OBP. He keeps that up and I’d guess he’s got a chance at some sort of record…
I just saw the mustachioed and beardless Matt Carpenter get a 2-run double in the Padres-Rockies game. I guess he prefers the cleaner look after his stint with the Yanks. He got the hit off Jose Urena, which made me think of another ex-Card. Remember when Urena beaned Jeremy Hazelbaker in a Memphis game? Hazelbaker charged the mound and both benches and pens emptied for a good old fashion donnybrook.
I overestimated M. Carpenter early in his career, Euro. I really envisioned him as a LH’ed hitter who would put up numbers similar to someone like Mark Grace. Carpenter was good and certainly had his moments while he was a Redbird, but I always thought he fell way short of the type of hitter I wrongly guessed he’d be. To illustrate my diappointment, my most vivid memory of him is when Helton hoodwinked him with old hidden ball trick…Haha!
Has there there been any prospect with less development than Hicks? How about getting him to develop another pitch? A forkball, a change up, a cutter? The Cardinals do very well making the most of prospects. Not the case here.
The 100 MPH lights up the computer. Hicks last posted an ERA+ of over 100 four years ago, but he still throws 100 so he’s a late inning guy? He somehow doesn’t have to earn that through results? Ollie may well have enough common sense to short circuit that nonsense, but he saw what happened to Shildt. So if the computer says the 100 mph guy is a late inning guy, he’s a late inning guy.
Hicks and Reyes are similar in that they both throw hard and are injury prone, but that’s where it all ends. Reyes, when healthy, has always been effective. The career 2.86 ERA attests to that. Hicks was good for one year a couple months and after that he’s been injured or bad. At this point, he’s a liability. Throwing 103 only helps if you can get it within a foot of the plate.
Hicks probably crossed up Contreras and busted his knee in game 1. How long will our $87M catcher be out and how long till his knee is 100%?
Reyes has been a big leaguer for 7 years. During that time he had a good but brief stint in 2016 and a half of a good year in 2021. That is it. That is his career. Saying he is good when healthy is technically true but the sample size is so small it is not all that valuable.
Hicks has been a big leaguer for 5 years and has been able to stay on the field for two of them, 2018 and 2022. He has been slightly more durable than Reyes albeit less effective. Both have been a bust IMO.
I get the lack of confidence in Hicks, but I’m still not giving up on him. The pitcher that I’m worried about is Flaherty. Sure, five innings and no hits. Big deal. He gave up seven BB’s. Is there anybody that thinks he’s ever going to get away with seven walks in five innings again? My hope is that Waino gets back soon, that Woodford consistently turns in good work, that Liberatore’s marked improvement in spring training is not a mirage, and that Flaherty finally talks honestly to the trainers about his arm. The Cardinals allegedly wanted to extend Jack Flaherty at one time. But, no, Flaherty wanted to become a free agent so he could extract the most money possible from those greedy billionaire MLB owners. BTW, just speculation, but I have a feeling that Shildt also embraced this sort of ‘philosophical difference’ and that is what got him fired.
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