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I didn’t see a thread for this so here goes. Mods, feel free to delete or move this to wherever you think is appropriate.
I am just wondering what we do with Matt Carpenter if he struggles this year and tries to blame it on not hitting leadoff. Are we going down that road again with him? Have we ran out of patience with his perceived limitations? And who replaces him? Tommy Edman?
And how long of a rope do we give him this year? Memorial Day has always seemed to be a good indicator of what a player or a team is capable of. Not always, of course, as you can use Washington last year as the exception.
Thoughts posters?
r/Esteemed Rat
He had plenty of opportunity to lead off and do something and he didn’t. So I don’t want to hear it! He hit better when he was in the lower part of the order.
He might want figure out his mojo on the road because he flat out didn’t have it last year away from busch 3. Also he might want to find his gap stroke again because that was lacking as well.
I think Shildt will put him in positions to succeed but he needs to change some of his approach. Old habits die hard.
Carpenter’s leash will probably be shorter because we already know Shildt believes Edman can replace him if needed. However, for the Cards to match last year’s success with the current roster, I believe they’ll need Carp to bounce back, plus have Edman also produce somewhere in the lineup.
Not specific to Carpenter, but on a related note, Shildt might be one of the league leaders in varying his lineup this year. Due to a few too many question marks, I think it’s likely he’ll need to try different combinations and change up the order more than you’d like during the year.
I talked to a Cardinal scout this weekend that agreed with me that the Cardinals would not have won the Central without Edmans. He also said that all of the scouts were surprised Edmans was that effective. He said that Edmans has gotten a lot faster since he got in the system. They didn’t think he was that fast.
I would love to see the a Matt Carpenter perform at a level similar to what we saw from 2014-2016. This type of performance would be around his career averages for BA, OBP, SLG and OPS. However, I realize there are concerns given the late season drop off in 2018 and his 2019 performance.
I would suggest that the Front Office will give him every chance to succeed in 2020 given his contract. In 2018 he had a disappointing April followed by a strong May. Given this, it would seem to me that Memorial day would be the decision date. However, this could be amended if the start is disastrous.
What does the Front Office do if Carp’s first half production is well below his career averages? They can have Carp play the role he did in the latter half of 2019. They then have the option to retain him as a asset off the bench or attempt to create greater value for the franchise by trading him away. The questions then become what can they get in return and how much salary will the Cardinals need to eat. My guess is that they will opt to retain Carp as a role player unless some other club presents an offer that absolutely blows the Front Office and Ownership away.
He’s been adding strength and working to find his mojo during the offseason. I expect him to bounce back. Also, he needs 550 AB’s in 2020 and 2021 in order to vest another $18M for 2022. That should motivate the heck out of him. If he performs up to his ability this year, the talk will be about Carp finishing his career as a Cardinal, and that would be best for all concerned.
Just hope he’s left displaying overt anguish over the home plate umpire’s pitch calls in his rear view mirror.
I’ve got a feeling that Carp will have a very solid 2020. Perhaps not quite at his 2018 level, but I think he’ll have stats similar to his 2017 campaign.
I think he will have a lot of 6 pitch at bats, ground out to the right side a lot, and hit .197. Whine about strike calls, and shot put a few balls to 1B. He’s 34, and I like him a lot for what he is done. Was a bad contract and you have lived with it long enough. Eat the salary and trade for what you can get.
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