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At this point Miller may be nothing more than a LOOGY. I’m not sure we can trust him against RH hitters. His slider isn’t what it used to be. $25M is a lot to pay for a LOOGY though.
C27 if the FO said that its like closing the barn door after the horse had already off. They have made so many mistakes that some fans are laughing at them with tears in their eyes. Too bad Dewitt can’t figure out that the team’s most critical problem has been the boys upstairs. They’ve been spending his dough on a bunch of way overrated players that have been way underachieving.
I doubt anyone ever said NEVER about anything.
As noted by several posters already, good luck finding free agent arms – who by definition already have at least six years (if not more) of MLB experience – who are still on the good side of the aging curve.
This is why the Cards have tried to acquire pitchers other ways, like Leone, Brebbia, Gant, Cabrera, Gallegos and Shreve, to augment the players developed in house. As the latter reminds us, there is no magic answer.
Yet there is a vocal segment of Cards fans on social media to this day wanting them to sign Kimbrel. I am convinced most fans are fine with them signing 30-something free agents – as long as the team gets the ones who perform well. When it doesn’t work out, break out the torches and pitchforks! đ
I get the frustration, but my take is that it is lot easier to be critical over bad decisions made after the fact than to know ahead of time what they should have done instead.
Specifically, most agreed the Cards needed left-handed relief help. Britton and Miller were the two big names available. Word was that Britton wanted to stay on the East Coast, but maybe that was just a rumor. He is 31 and was coming off injury, too. A number of analysts thought Miller was the better sign, and he still could be. Today is April 8.
As I mentioned, I would groom Reyes and Hicks as projected starters in the 2020s. For now, I would use Brebbia to close, with Gant setting up.
I think Mayers could close as well.
Gant can be used in most any role, so you may use Miller or Mayers in the 8th as well. Miller has had problems of his own, but he is what youâve got and has the pedigree, so you gotta give him the opportunities.Â
So which team did a good job signing relievers this past winter?
Eight free agent relievers signed for at least $15M this offseason…they've combined for a 6.21 ERA over 42 innings
— Keith Costas (@keithcostas) April 9, 2019
I love how easy it is to pick who will be injured or start to decline. After all, if we know who they are, the front office should know.
If the front office signs someone over 30 years old, they are signing someone who is over the hill. If they sign someone who gets hurt, they didn’t do their homework with the physical. If they sign someone under 30 who doesn’t perform, they overpaid. Too bad Mo can’t sign people like Mikolas, Norris, Peralta, Oh, Beltran, Lohse and Berkman. It’s also a shame he can’t trade for players like Holliday, Freese, Neshek, Heyward, Lackey, Gyorko, Jose Martinez, Gant, and O’Neill.
“We should have signed Pujols” even though it might have cost us Molina and/or Wainwright and Beltran. Maybe even Carpenter. There are so many possible ways that the team would have been configured differently over the last 8 years. We may still be feeling the effects if he had signed the 9 year extension.
“We should have signed Heyward or Price”. Once again it might have cost us Molina. It would also have meant we wouldn’t have signed Leake to a contract. If we had signed Heyward, we still needed a starting pitcher. If we signed Price, we substitute Price for Leake but Price has not performed up to the contract cost. Other roster moves would have been affected in this scenario, as well.
“We should have signed Harper”. Wacha, Ozuna, Carpenter, and Mikolas would likely all be affected by the signing. They wouldn’t traded for Goldschmidt. Likewise, Carlos Martinez and many others currently with the Cardinals and to be coming up with the Cardinals would all be affected in some way. There is only so much money to go around and some tough decisions would have to be made.
In a vacuum, it is easy to second guess any decision. I think there is a good reason why none of us are GMs.
Spot on forsch31. I have departed several forums when the theme got to be – Kill Mo – or something similar. Couch coaches irritate me to no end when they act like couch potatoes. They never seem to realize that they are using hindsight to mark themselves as experts. Such as it is on baseball forums I guess. Even the PD columns have more than their fair share of Fire the FO commenters. They have no clue what they would get – just move out what they don’t like.
One could not be corrected sensibly if he feels that the FO is responsible for the last three seasons of frustration. Moreover, there are other issues besides the acquisitions that can be placed at that door.
So which team did a good job signing relievers this past winter?
Teams who didn’t sign any big money relievers. That’s one option I don’t see anyone mentioning, but just stop throwing big money at the bullpen, and, especially, old guys in the bullpen.
We have several guys in Memphis who can easily do better than Miller has. Maybe he will turn it around, but would anyone bet on him being worth his contract? I surely wouldn’t.
Just say no. Maybe Nancy Reagan should be our GM.
Minuteman, you weren’t on the forums during the heyday of the Fire Matheny era. It got pretty heated many times during those days. If the Cardinals don’t have a good season and miss the playoffs for a 4th straight season you’re gonna hear a lot more of the Fire Mo crowd. Just putting that out there.
Oh I wasn’t on this forum but I was on the MLB game thread forums and they got really bloody over the fire vs not fire issue as well as the pitching coach and other positions. Several friendships were dissolved as a result and I was not really disappointed when MLB took their comment boards to FB and Twitter. Never missed the hate and discontent.
Brian does a great job in keeping the boards civilized. So there’s no personal insults and no swearing on the forums but there a heated debate about Matheny and Mabry dating back to a few years ago and really picked up last season. I think if the Cardinals miss the playoffs again this season you’ll hear about the same debate about Mo and the FO.
Maybe another ingredient to the “fire Mo” argument is that he might take some of the players he goofed on with him.(he’ll wind up somewhere). That would include his wonder-manager and lacky who continues to follow
orders to run the worst outfield in baseball out there every night. Plus Cecil.Maybe with Mo gone we can reacquire Pham, Grichuk and Matheny.
Maybe with Mo gone we can reacquire Pham, Grichuk and Matheny.
I can agree with some of your sentiments but there is no way I would want those three clowns back.
It was tongue in cheek….. pay attention. However… those three are superior to what we have now. That’s the sad part.
From Derrick Goold’s chat 48 hours ago:
QUESTION/COMMENT: You predicted that even if the Cardinals fail to make the playoffs, John Mozeliak will not be fired. How can that be when he has made some bad free-agency selections, overrated his farm system, declared that it would be too awkward to disrupt the roster to make needed improvements, and in general shown a characteristic lack of boldness and creativity in deal-making?
DG: I didn’t predict that. It wasn’t a prediction. It was a statement. I based my answer on many years of reporting and conversations I’ve had with the people — really, the person — who is going to make that decision. I completely understand that there are people in this chat and on Twitter and even in the stands that won’t like the answer but that’s not going to change their answer.
The PBO and GM execute the strategy defined by the owner (aka “the person” in the quote above). Some refuse to understand this despite it being explained over and over.
If the Cards don’t make the playoffs this year I hope they are prepared for more fan discontent and more empty seats.
The reason there will be fan discontent and empty seats is because the team missed the playoffs. Firing the front office isn’t going to bring them back around – getting better/different players who will theoretically win more games will.
The thought from some that DeWitt wants to spend more money but Mo is stopping him is ridiculous.
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