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Royals Sign Brian O'Keefe To Minor League Deal https://t.co/wW68NrurWo pic.twitter.com/8jfymqZova
— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) April 1, 2024
APRIL FOOLS!
BREAKING: The #STLCards have signed UTIL Taylor Motter to a 10 year, $701 million contract. This morning Mozeliak told reporters, "He really wanted to be here and it was important to re-sign such a massive part of our winning culture." #STLCards #ForTheLou pic.twitter.com/c8I5Sq4jTh
— Dealin' the Cards Podcast (@DealinTheCards) April 1, 2024
I watched some of the opening series between Boston and Seattle. O’Neill looked good. In one AB he took an outside pitch the other way for a single to right, instead of swinging over it like he did here a lot.
No doubt he has MVP tools. He just gets hurt so often, and then last year Ollie showed his immaturity by dissing O’Neill to the press rather than privately talking to him. Things just went all wrong.
If he stays healthy, he can be an all-star in Beantown.
I wonder if he was one of the bad apples in the clubhouse Ollie referred to. And if so if it will be different for him somewhere else.
Not being around the club we don’t know, but that stuff about weeding out guys who were apparently not committed to winning sounds like another Marmol excuse. He seems to make excuses for not winning rather than owning up to the fact that he and the team just were not good last year.
He has not been around a big league clubhouse all that much, and is still figuring things out. I think he is real insecure about his job, and thus deflects a lot.
The handling of O’Neill’s supposed lack of hustle on that play was something anyone with reasonable leadership skills would know to keep it private.
Just speculation…. But Oli probably did talk with O’Neill privately, and probably on more than one occasion. The problem is that O’Neill was being managed by Boras, not by the Cardinal manager, IMHO. He was definitely pulling up on balls to avoid injury rather than going all out to win ballgames. It’s notable that O’Neill didn’t attract much interest from potential trade partners.
The sample is the sample (read: incredibly small) but the tweaks the Giants have made with Jordan Hicks seem to have really opened the door. Average sinker velocity down 3 MPH, usage of it down 20%, vertical movement up more than an inch. Totally different shape to his 4-seamer.
— Jeff Jones (@jmjones) April 6, 2024
Two starts in, he's already at about 20% of his 2023 innings total. We'll see what it looks like around Memorial Day, I suppose. Looks awfully good for SF right now.
— Jeff Jones (@jmjones) April 6, 2024
Jordan has looked really good when he’s healthy before, so I am not sure what the hype is all about. It seems like he might have made changes that will cut down the walks, we’ll see.
When he had the chance to start here in 2022, he made it 7 starts before shutting down on the IL for a month with a forearm strain. He’d been shut down the year before with elbow trouble, and those two injuries often go hand in hand, forearm and elbow.
It’s not a question of if he can be good when healthy, that is not news. If he stays healthy while carrying a starters load, that will be news. I wish him well, but it seems like we know what is probably going to happen.
I posted that in hopes we won’t have the same discussion after every start Hicks makes. As he stirred up the hornets nest on social media, even Jones suggests we wait until Memorial Day. (He won’t wait, though…)
As already discussed, there isn’t a poster here who disagreed with the Cardinals trading Hicks. And as I recall, people were quite surprised at the money and years SF gave him. So now it is just sour grapes.
When Luke Voit had that one great year with the Yankees, we had pages and pages of complaining. Ever since, he can’t keep a job while Gallegos is still plugging away. It takes time to evaluate trades. In this case, we have to see how Robberse and Kloffenstein pan out.
So, let’s talk Tyler O’Neill… But make it quick before he is hurt again… 😉 More media pot-stirring.
Tyler O’Neill has four home runs and a 1.491 OPS on the young season. It’s good to be a former #STLCards outfielder.
— Mark Saxon (@markasaxon) April 6, 2024
Yeah I thought Hicks was pretty unhappy here and needed to go. O’Neil couldn’t stay on the field for sure.
However, if both those guys stabilize and have productive careers after leaving StL it will be a fairly negative statement about the process and culture of the StL organization.
If they flash a little then return more or less to the form they had here then the decision StL made to move on from these two will look like solid gold.
I have zero regrets for trading Hicks and not bringing him back. I never thought he was that good here even when healthy. If he shines in SF then to me that is more of a reflection of their coaching staff and front office being able to get the best out of him when ours couldn’t. Sometimes a change of scenery really does make a difference.
I said often while Hicks was here that I wished he would have been groomed as a starter, left in the minor leagues longer, and taught to ease up and pace himself. The fastball was there – now learn when to use it and when to go off speed and how to build endurance.
Instead he was thrust into high leverage situations at a young age and encouraged to let loose on most every pitch. It looked like Trevor Rosenthal all over again – burn a guy out and then hopefully find another one.
Looks like Tyler O’Neill is on pace for about 160 runs scored this season, lol. Of course it is a tad early to project that far out. Regardless, that is pretty good for a guy that Oli and Mo say doesn’t know how to run the bases.
If he can rip 26 more taters in April, he’ll have 30 HR’s before he gets hurt.
If he misses no more than 1/3 of the season he will likely score more runs than anyone on the Cardinals. I have high hopes for all these rookies with birds on the bat, but it looks like they are being rushed too much.
O’Neill, OTOH, is this year’s Andy Van Slyke. Difference is, we got an All-Star catcher for Van Slyke, not a couple of career minor leaguers.
He’s off to a scorching hot start. He tatered up again today to give him 5 on the season. I’m pretty sure that leads the AL in HR’s.
Can’t wait to see all the people pop up complaining about O’Neill being traded. Of course, by the end of the time he was here, there wasn’t a person who wanted to keep him… He’d worn out his welcome with most if not all.
Regarding what they got for him in trade, they had no reason or motivation to take less than market value for him. Sadly, that seemed to be his value.
You won’t have to wait long if he hits like this for another week and stays healthy….
But – neither of those 2 things is likely to happen. He’s more likely to keep hitting than he is to stay healthy.
According to reports, during this prior off-season, Skip asked for Miami’s team option on his contract for 2025 to be voided. That way, he can move to another team after this season.
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