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Card4ever, to my knowledge no one outside of this board has reported that Arenado is disgruntled. It was just a hypothetical scenario.
But I maintain that if it ever did come to that we could slide Gorman to 3B and use the $35M per year on some pitching and be a better club.
I can’t imagine even Mo making a platoon player his everyday third baseman. But I guess if there was the chance to land a true ace for a period of years he might.
I’m not saying Winn wiil be a solid big leaguer and I’m not saying he won’t. But we only need a bridge to him if we think we are contenders before he is fully ready. Otherwise, bring him on if we have a chance to get some good stuff for PDJ and Edman.
Yes
They won’t do a complete tear down, so no need to worry about Arenado or any other veteran being unhappy. And if they did do a tear down, those vets would be the ones sent away.
So that is a non-issue.
I’m just curious as to when Mo will actually pull the plug on this season and start to do something productive that will help with next year….
I can’t imagine even Mo making a platoon player his everyday third baseman. But I guess if there was the chance to land a true ace for a period of years he might.
So far this year Arenado has produced 1.4 WAR at a cost of $35M. Gorman has produced 1.4 WAR at a cost of less than $1M. That extra $34M might fetch a good pitcher or two.
CBS sports had a fairly lengthy piece recently on what the Cards might do at the trade deadline. They went through some tear down scenarios. Barring that, however, they said that if Hicks continues to pitch well, he would be the one to trade at that time.
Since that article came out, he’s had a couple more good outings………they said that if Hicks continues to pitch well, he would be the one to trade at that time.
Hard to argue with that. If we are going to get something good at the deadline, we are going to have to part with something that a contender is badly in need of. A late innings guy would be something a contender might need. Obviously, they would prefer one with a history of reliability, but failing that, Hicks could be a target.
A problem is that we don’t have anything in the system to replace Hicks. But we don’t have anything in the system to replace anything, except maybe DeJong. It is a profoundly sorry state we are in, and not just at the ML level.
It’s honestly going to take firing Mo first. It has to be obvious at this point to DeWitt that Mo yes men don’t make good managers.
I watched the Redbirds in Indianapolis on Friday night, pretty blah night of baseball. Gomez is less athletic than Yepez. Yepez is COMPLETELY LOST at the plate. Winn was very patient at the plate, but then chased breaking balls down. Made a very nice play at SS and defensively looked good. Querecuto is almost 31 and was signed for AAA depth, but he made an absolute gem of a play at 2B on the SS side of the bag. Koperniak doesn’t do anything to “wow” you but can tell is a solid baseball player. O’Neill played CF for a few innings before being replaced. He seemed to be moving OK and should be tradable 🤞
It was a night of Suarez, Loutos, and Roach on the mound, so nothing to really comment on for pitching.I saw a headline on the P-D site What Matz Learned in the Pen and Why it is Crucial. All I could do was sigh and move on. He made exactly one start since going to the pen because he stunk. I’m glad he did a good job, but it tells us exactly nothing about anything, except that he’s not hurt somehow.
It brought to mind a previous headline when Gorman, a known streaky guy who, overall, was unimpressive enough all last year to end up logging a lot of pine time, had been riding a hot streak for a month. The Cardinals Have Finally Developed The Power Bat They’ve been Hoping For Since Pujols 20 years Ago, or something very much like that. In other words, he’s Babe Ruth. After a month of success following a year of non-success.
Have these local sports media guys just started following baseball this year? I wish they would stop insulting our intelligence.
The Matz “figuring it out in the bullpen” comment sounds a lot like Wainwright and the stride issue. Matz did have a good start in Chicago, but it will take a lot more of those before we know if he actually figured something.
Until Mo is gone nothing will change. Flores needs promoted. He obviously knows how to evaluate talent.
sounds a lot like Wainwright and the stride issue.
When Wainwright came back from his Achilles injury years ago he did have a massive stride and upright issue. I haven’t seen it this year. I’ve just seen a 41 year old with nothing left on his fastball and a curveball that isn’t as sharp.
That mechanics story last year was absurd anyway. Everybody standing right there and nobody saw anything. Like maybe Maddux left because he went blind. At least come up with something plausible.
Lots of possible trade chips – Flaherty, Monty, Hicks, Carlson, Burleson, Yepez, Gomez, etc.
Let’s see how aggressive Mo gets.Mo and his team have not been good at making deals for young talented players. They tend to deal young players for more established guys.
But this year we need to move on from a few established players and get the younger guys that will be productive in the coming years. This has not been Johnny’s strong suit, and it will be interesting to see what he does and how it works out in the near future.
I think the pitching and defense model is boring, yet it wins games. A minimal number of guys who are DH types or blocked is going to be key. Our best defensive alignment probably will be:
C Herrera/Contreras
1B Goldy
2B Edman/Donovan
SS Winn
3B Arenado
RF Nootbaar
CF Carlson
LF O’NeillOf that group, I think O’Neill is as good as gone, so Walker probably takes over LF. Carlson is a solid player but probably not much more. I’d be ok with moving on there too. Sign a defensive CF or acquire one via trade.
That leaves Gorman, Dejong, Burleson, Yepez to wheel or deal. Gorman could possibly bring value as the backup 2B/3B/DH so maybe you move Donovan instead.
On pitching, we need 4 starters for 2024. One trade now (Donovan or Gorman for…?), one bigger FA, one trade or smaller FA signing, and maybe backfill with Libby, Matz, Graceffo, McGreevy. At the deadline you probably have to swap Flaherty, Hicks and Monty if he’s healthy.
The bullpen has been a mess and is going to require some finagling. One of the above offensive guys should be traded for an upper minors bullpen arm, sort of like the Voit for Gallegos swap. Helsley can probably continue to close. Thompson, Gallegos are guys who should at least be ok in the pen. Then maybe you go the SF Giants/Tampa Bay route and grab relievers who have some upside and hope you hit on a couple.
Bottom line…the cupboard isn’t totally bare, but the culture has to change and it will probably require moving on from quite a few players and staff.
Tonight after the All-Star Game. John Mozeliak on the mistakes made, fan frustration with the franchise, and anger directed at him. #StlCards @FOX2now pic.twitter.com/PA0waTlDcv
— Martin Kilcoyne (@martinkilcoyne2) July 11, 2023
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