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JJ – Fernandez’s slider was pretty terrible in April. It took him around 45-60 days after that to sort it out. Then, he became good in Memphis which eventually led to his promotion back to the majors.
This thing with Walker and the coaches frustrations with his lack of progress on making changes has really blown up. I am not a Marmol fan, but really can’t fault him and Brown for stating their honest opinions when asked about Walker. We all are frustrated with Walker. He has the physical tools similar to Aaron Judge, but just can’t translate that into squaring up pitches. And if he is not working on the things the coaches recommend, then what are they supposed to do? I think being transparent in this situation is fine. Sometimes you keep things in the confines of the locker room, and sometimes you air it out.
When nothing is working airing in public is a tactic that can be tried, except for one thing. If i can’t hear both sides of something i don’t want to hear just one side. There is nothing fair or reasonable about one side airing criticism and the other side has to keep his mouth shut or face serious repercussions. Management may think the problem is entirely with the player and they may want us to think it too, but i reserve judgement until i have heard both sides. That is not likely to happen if Jordan knows what is good for him
One angle that I had not considered is this. If as an organization I had given up on a player but I was concerned about fan backlash when I trade him away, this would be a way to try to diminish some of that concern. Just by the act of going public, it suggests they may be nearing the end of their rope with him.
It doesn’t matter imo. If you go public and say he wouldn’t listen and you trade him, and he goes elsewhere and does well, than they will say you just didn’t know how to reach him. It’s a lose lose. That’s why it’s just smarter to keep your dirty laundry internal. I guess we will find out soon enough how the new boss sees it.
Completely different tone in this week’s WWW. Admission that it’s going to take awhile for the system alone to produce a winner. With assumption that money won’t be spent to bring in help from outside. Kind of discouraging.
Dewallet is undoubtedly still making plenty of money off of the team this year, but when 5 to 10,000 people actually go through the turnstiles, you’re missing out on a lot of $15 beers and $10 shitty hotdogs. Maybe if you spent some money and tried to put product on the field that was fun and interesting to watch you’d have an extra 30,000 people in the seats, times 50 bucks (food, drinks, parking, BPV, jerseys, hats, etc) make up spending a few bucks on free agents, and not be destroying the franchise.
I’m in my mid 40s and this is the first year that I haven’t been to a game in St. Louis since I was probably one. I have absolutely no desire to go watch that product.I don’t have a problem with a coach or manager being blunt about a player in public on occassion because a huge majority of the time they cover for the player and give us the sunshine pumper spin even though the player hasn’t done anything positive. It is actually refreshing to hear reality on occasion.
As for the question of are the Cardinals throwing Walker under the bus so they can trade him? What would that accomplish? If he goes to a new team and goes into Randy Arozarena or Adolis Garcia mode then the Cardinals are going to look bad no matter what they say now. If he goes to a new team and stink then no one will say anything.
It is my opinion that Walker should be sent to Memphis and left there until he can produce some decent numbers. He has not earned a job in STL and he has no trade value so I don’t see any other logical choice but let him figure things out in AAA and if that doesn’t work then trade him for peanuts and move on. He has one option year left so use it.
I do think he’s heading to Memphis to start next season. It burns his last option so sending him this season would be pointless now because then he’d have to make the team in the Spring or lose him.
I think it was a slip of the tongue driven around some frustration from Brandt Brown. I doubt he meant to say it that way, but he’s frustrated with the hitting overall and likely particularly frustrated with Walker. I guess it’s possible that it was intentional and meant to motivate Walker. Different people react differently and I’m not sure what drives Walker. In the end, it does serve the purpose of helping people understand more when Walker heads to Memphis after next Spring.
No. It would have been his last option had it happened. No reason to use it up without a long runway. Next season gives him up to a full year’s runway to improve.
Yep, makes sense. If Walker is not included in a trade this off season, he either earns a spot on the big league roster in Spring Training or starts the season at Memphis.
I def think walker needs to start next season down in minors. Unless of course they get a great trade for him but i dont see it. Just maybe walker isnt mlb material. Time will prove it out.
bccran said:
Completely different tone in this week’s WWW. Admission that it’s going to take awhile for the system alone to produce a winner. With assumption that money won’t be spent to bring in help from outside. Kind of discouraging.
Don’t know what you are comparing, but I haven’t changed my view. The Cards are not going to spend their way back into contention soon. Just the opposite. Dropping payroll feels more likely as revenue is taking a major hit.
The farm system doesn’t have nearly enough close to the majors to pull the Cards out of their current situation. It might have been different on the pitching side had Roby, Hence, Hjerpe and the others not been injured. And even Mathews is far less of a sure thing than he was 12 months ago. I thought he was going to be on a 2025 schedule like McGreevy followed. Instead, he is trying to get back to where he was before.
Yes, it can appear discouraging, but that is my current assessment.
Like everything else in life, if you want to be better in anything, be it a skill, financially, or a better baseball team, you have to first invest – money, time, effort.
The Cardinals will need to spend money to make money. They do not feel adding established big leaguers is prudent, and are going to spend on player development. I assume that includes scouting and analytics as well as adding more coaches and teachers at the lower levels. Probably a more sustainable approach, but also one that may take awhile to see results.
I wonder if Contreras, Gray and Arenado will be open to a change of scenery next year, or will they be content to stay here knowing their value will likely be more as a mentor and example of how a major leaguer goes about his business, rather than contributing to a playoff team.
Thanks for your response, Brian. It would be interesting to somehow get some inside information on the teaching changes in the system, now that more traveling coaches are on board and the acquired equipment is more sophisticated. Especially as it relates to specific players like Davis, the Baezes, Henderson, Mautz, etc.
And as far as being discouraged, I refuse to be discouraged until I see what moves Bloom makes over the off season.
We have too many catchers and too many second basemen in the system, so trades could be interesting.Lot of mixed messages with the modern game of baseball… to me anyway. We keep hearing how Jordan Walker needs to elevate the ball more because major league defenses get to most ground balls even if they are hit at 110mph. This makes sense to me. Then we hear that the cardinal pitching staff needs to move from pitch to contact to high velocity high strike out pitchers. The cardinal defense is good, better than most teams but still they need more strike out pitchers. I look at the high velocity pitchers and when they are pitching, it does seem to work better. However, the injury rate of the high velocity pitchers seems to be higher. LA Dodgers could be a good example of this. We look at the Memphis staff and the high velocity pitchers are all injured and nobody is ready for the major leagues. You look at the cardinal major league staff of pitch to contact pitchers and there has been very few injuries. How many high velocity pitchers do you have to have on a staff as compared to pitch to contact pitchers in order to make it through a season? What is the cost of accumulating high velocity pitchers versus pitch to contact pitchers. What actually works better for small market team? With an elite defense, it seems like pitch to contact should work. What am I missing?
It’s a good question on the “mix” of a rotation. Seems necessary to rely on the innings totals of some contact pitchers, enter Pallante. Ideally, a staff leaning heavy towards K pitchers, if they stay healthy enough.
I’d like to see a staff with it’s BB% under control, especially the contact pitchers. Their avenue of escape is limited to BAbip luck of a DP.Thank you for that post menk. One of the better thought out posts I have seen in awhile. You pose a legitimate question. I suppose the answer is to say you need both. It would be nice to have a couple of high K pitchers to lead your rotation into the postseasopn but you are going to need some innings eaters to get you through 162 games. As you alluded to the Dodgers strategy of having 20 pitchers on the IL won’t work for most teams.
Tonight at 6 for The Pressbox on the @BigSportsShow with @Frank_Cusumano he will be sitting down with NFL Expert @HBalzer721 CardinalNation @B_Walton plus former Mizzou great and attorney Pete Woods #ktrs #radio #sports #talkofstl pic.twitter.com/wVzOQn4gnQ
— The Big 550 KTRS (@KTRS550) September 9, 2025
Another busy pod as @kyler416 and I cover Liam Doyle’s pro debut. More late-season promotions were discussed, including Doyle to Springfield and Rainiel Rodriguez to Peoria. Also covered were Quinn Mathews, the Pitcher of the Month, Springfield’s record-breaking season and a look… pic.twitter.com/NaqyPat8SE
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) September 10, 2025
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