- This topic has 875 replies, 44 voices, and was last updated 3 years, 7 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Very fair request, gscottar. I feel they have already taken it up a notch by getting Goldy, Arenado, and
Contreras. Now the youngsters have to kick into high gear. Especially O’Neill, Gorman, Carlson, Nootbaar, Yepez, Burleson, Gomez, and of course Walker. Pitching? Let’s see how they do first, and trade from position depth to get a top starter in the summer if need be.Brian – I admit that I’m somewhat biased. I grew up in a time when ball players had jobs outside of baseball in the off season to make ends meet.
It was the same in the NFL. The track coach at our high school was a starting wide receiver for the St. Louis Football Cardinals. I don’t propose going back to that, of course, but it would be nice if baseball had a reasonable salary cap and some of that ridiculous money paid to the Scherzer and Price types could go to minor leaguers to even things out. Over $1,000,000 a start? Over $10,000 a pitch? That’s out of whack.It is great that you want baseball to create a more equitable salary system, but that isn’t happening anytime soon. The CBA is set for the players to secure a percentage of revenues. And there is no way that owners would cut prices to fans in an idyllic world where player salaries are restrained further.
So my very realistic fear in your model is that owners get richer while players get less and fans are charged more. There is a reason the owners don’t share their financials. They don’t have to. They can pretty much do what they want, which is why minor league salaries have been so low for decades. There are no checks and balances on owners, but player salaries are public record so are easy targets for criticism.
In the meantime, down on the ground, the 2023 team that reports to camp in two weeks appears to be short of the pieces needed to be a serious World Series contender. All this other talk just draws attention away from that.
Brian – I’m of the school that thinks we’re strong enough to win the Central, and need to see how things progress before making any additional moves. The IF and catcher are set. The OF is a work in progress but has some intriguing depth. Especially if you bring Walker into the picture. I think Bill and Mo want to keep some dry powder to see how the pitching staff develops. The obvious worry is the rotation. We’re plenty deep but maybe short at the top. They want to see if Flaherty can pitch like an ace. If Mikolas can return to his original form. If Montgomery can pitch like he did when he first came over from the Yankees. Once they see all of that, if necessary, they’ll make a major move via trade before the deadline for for a top starter. Probably a guy in his arbitration years on a low budget club. Just my thoughts.
There’s a comment back in this thread that suggests lowering ticket prices. It got me to thinking about the lowest price of admission that I can remember and I seem to recall paying $2.50 for a general admission ticket, which was normally the amount I was willing to part with. In those days a fan was allowed entry to the ballpark as early as 3 hours prior to first pitch, so we’d simultaneously enjoy watching BP while also carefully scouting out various seating sections that seemed unlikely to fill as we roamed the ballpark unfettered by the stubs of our low priced tickets. Normally by the 2nd or 3rd inning we were shamelessly situated in unoccupied seats located in sections reserved for the ballpark elite…We were required to move on more than a few occasions, but we didn’t care. We’d simply flash the Uecker look of astonishment and move on. Sometimes to an even better seat…Haha! I’d be interested to know the lowest price anyone else can recall paying for admission. Lady’s Days and Businessman’s Specials don’t count. I seem to recall those were a buck fifty.
Very fair request, gscottar. I feel they have already taken it up a notch by getting Goldy, Arenado, and Contreras. Now the youngsters have to kick into high gear.
Goldy and Arenado have helped us get to the playoffs but we haven’t done much advancing with them. Those two horses need reinforcements. Contreras is a good start. Also, Goldy and Arenado finished 1st and 3rd in the MVP race last year. That is unlikely to be repeated. We will have to overcome some regression there.
I agree that a 1st and 3rd is unlikely to be repeated. Consecutive MVP awards are normally reserved for the all timers. Dale Murphy is the only consecutive MVP winner who’s not a member of the HOF. However, it wouldn’t at all surprise me if both Goldy and Nado finished in the top 10 in the voting for the NL MVP in ’23. The two of them have placed in the top 10 of the NL MVP voting a total of 12 times. And I’d also say it isn’t too much of a stretch that one of them could take home an MVP award for next season. In fact, I’d have to say that both of them would be two of several favorites in the NL.
I just now noticed that Nado is one shy of 300 HR’s entering the age 32 season of his career. I’d say he has an outside chance at 500 HR’s.
Goldy, Arenado, and Contreras will surely do a fine job in 2023 as will Edman and Donovan. Sooner or later the 1st round draft picks have to kick it into high gear if it’s going to be a special team that can go deep into October. You simply can’t have the big 3 above types at every position. Let’s root for –
Carlson – 33rd in the 1st round (inc. supp.)
Flaherty – 34th in the 1st rou8nd (inc. supp.)
Gorman – 19th in the 1st round
Walker – 21st in the 1st round
Hudson – 34th in the 1st round (inc. supp.)
Liberatore – 16th in the 1st round
Thompson – 19th in the 1st round
Woodford – 39th in the 1st round (inc. supp)bccran. I think you nailed it with your last 2 posts. Woodford and Thompson need to have much bigger roles out of camp. Libby needs more work in AAA with Walker and Gorman. Carlson must stay healthy along with Jack, if they don’t they are a liability.
Hudson…..I just don’t have anything here..??Yeah, someone from the OF is going to have contribute above average offensive production along with either Flaherty or Hudson featuring a nice season to bolster the rotation for the ’23 edition to be an elite team. However, if neither of those things happen I still expect the Cardinals to qualify for the post-season in ’23.
Probably bccran, but it’s still hard to tell on the last day of January. For all we know, by the start of July the most pressing need may be in the BP like it was in ’11. In any event, I recall in ’04 when the Redbirds were running rough shod over the rest of the field in the NL and they still remained aggressive and traded for Larry Walker. I recall that other teams were accusing the Cardinals of being the Yankees of the NL…Haha!
There may well have been, bccran, but I remember thinking that with the addition of Walker the Cardinals had a team that was a genuine buzz saw. Then they ran into one in the ’04 WS…Haha! At any rate, that ’04 team was a good one.
gscottar…Yeah, Walt had the Reds contending for a while too. He was pretty good at building a winner, but simply didn’t possess nearly the expertise as does Johnny in the area of double talk.
By the way…..In my 2021 Strat-O-Matic replay Tyler O’Neill just slugged three homeruns in a game at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati. Redbirds won the game 10-5. Mikolas went five innings for the win.
Three homeruns in a game doesn’t happen that often.
r/Esteemed Rat
TO’s probably hitting all those taters on that Strat-O-Matic because he’s staying out of the weight room and doing more baseball related reps this winter…Incidentally, I think Mrs. 1TD uses one of those Strat-O-Matics on the carrots, celery and taters that she adds to the pot roast…I wish I knew how to operate one of those things. She had a mishap about a month ago carrying a load of laundry up the steps from the basement and had to have her left knee scoped, so I’ve had to do all the cooking. I’m pretty good at it, however my culinary skills are limited to canned soup and grilled cheese with the occasional can of Kipper Snacks and crackers…I wish I had some pot roast!
With two weeks left until report day, it is time to check the one true authority on the player pecking order in the eyes of the organization. I refer to the official Depth Chart on the very official mlb.com/cardinals web site. Last year when I brought it up, around this time, Brian tried to convince me that the depth chart was put together by the cleaning lady down there, and means nothing. That’s a good one. So lets get serious and see what we can find out.
All of the projected rotations I have seen read Waino, Mikolas, Montgomery, Flaherty and Metz, or Metz and Flaherty. They also usually have Liberatore and Hudson added on as 6th and 7th. The cleaning lady, ahem, has Flaherty ahead of Montgomery, and in a stunning development, Hudson is not listed among the pitchers at all. A whiff. Hmmm. There are a handful of pitchers listed under ‘active roster’ and who do not appear anywhere on the depth chart. Cabrera, Naughton, Pacheco, Romero, Walsh, Thomas and Hudson. So he’s in the outside looking in group.
Maybe its because he was moved to the Memphis roster right at the end of the year. But he does appear on the active roster list. And besides, James Naile was on the Memphis roster at the end and he is on the depth chart as a pen guy, but Hudson is not.
Another guy in that same boat with Hudson is Gorman. While Donovan is all over the depth chart, at 6 positions, Gorman is a no show. They don’t merit a slot on the depth chart I guess. Good to know.
So, was this supposed to convince us that their depth charts are credible? They have Liberatore as the fifth starter, for Pete’s sake!
Maybe it is Oli who fills them out in his spare time and is sending us smoke signals. Then again, that couldn’t be since Woodford is listed… 😉
Common sense tells us that there are 10 Million reasons why Matz and his 5.25 ERA should be among the 5 starters rather than Liberatore and his 5.97 ERA. But Liby has always been dripping with hype, at least I hope that’s what it is. I could live with Matz breaking camp as a depth piece. Somebody will go down early anyway.
I would give the nod to Hudson instead of Liberatore. Last year was Hudson’s first year back from Tommy John. When is the last time anybody mentioned that? It is not unusual at all for a guy’s first year back to be so-so. He could go 25-30 starts this year and be a mainstay. Maybe he can pitch his way onto the depth chart by the end of ST.
I did notice that the cleaning lady’s depth chart does not include the DH slot. Bless her heart.
I agree. I think Hudson could be the biggest surprise this year. 2nd year back for TJ and he admits that he gets too much into his own head thinking things out on the mound. Was much better in AAA with the pitch clock and I think that helps him in the bigs now.
I’d say Hudson is the frontrunner to plug the gap if any one of the projected 5 man either experiences arm trouble or displays a lackluster performance early in the season. Heck, there’s an outside chance that he could work his way into the rotation in FL.
Mikolos and Montgomery are the only ‘sure things’, to the extent any starter is a sure thing. Wainwright had performance/health issues at the end of the season, but will have every chance to shine if he can. Matz has not reestablished himself yet, but will have an advantage due to his contract. After that is probably Flaherty, Hudson and Liberatore. Some people give one or the other an edge. If there is an edge, I would say Flaherty and Hudson have it for now, since Liberatore has time on his side and the other two do not. It could be that those two will battle it out during ST and both may come north in the rotation if somebody else can’t answer the bell. Once ST games get underway, assignments will tell us something of the org’s thinking and where guys stand.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.