- This topic has 219 replies, 30 voices, and was last updated 2 years, 9 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Thanks, a good article BW, which clearly shows the pros and cons in managing Carlsons workload.
Baders gone. Carlson is “I’m him”. Noot in CF is out of position. Mercado is AAAA. There is always free agency, if the FO wants to pony up the big bucks and continue to ignore pitching, again. A young affordable Varsho type costs a top 5-10 prospect overall, in trade.
The best case is Carlson in CF. Play him.
Because O’Neill and Nootbaar seem so far like much worse CF’s than Dylan, I am also all for playing Carlson more. I’m ok with Burleson taking some of his playing time (with Noot in CF) against a certain type of right handers, but in general, I prefer the better defense. It kills a team’s morale to watch hits fall in that shouldn’t be hits or singles turn into doubles and triples. In baseball, confidence is king and pitchers are far more confident with a good defense behind them.
Historically, championship teams have good up-the-middle defense. This includes pitching – you want to build a club like you approach a chess match. Control the middle of the playing surface.
Build a strong pitching staff, and ideally world class defense at catcher, middle infield, and center field.
Also to comment on something GScottar pointed out. I 100% agree that the Cards started drafting and acquiring more middle of the order bats because about 5 years ago that was a genuine weakness in the organization. The Cards traded away one of those guys in Malcolm Nunez last year due to a logjam. We’re not quite so crowded as we were after that because the last three drafts have been more pitcher-focused but before that, it really was about middle of the order guys. That’s why they traded for O’Neill, Goldschmidt, and Arenado. And it’s why they drafted guys like Luken Baker, Nolan Gorman, and Jordan Walker. I’m not sure that was quite the same reasoning for Burleson. I think his pick was more about saving draft $ to get Walker, Winn, and Hence while still getting a player the Cards liked. And Yepez was really acquired before this focus back when we traded away Matt Adam’s. There’s also Chandler Redmond at AA who fits the same mold, but he was a 32nd round pick so I think that’s just a crap shoot at that point in the draft.
FG war thru 4-28:
0.4 Noot
0.1 Carlson
0.1 Burleson
-0.1 O’Neill
-0.2 WalkerBR war:
0.5 Noot (58 PA’s)
0.0 Carlson (56)
-0.1 O’Neill (85)
-0.2 Burleson (85)
-0.4 Walker (78)Fielding matters
Despite the fact that Jordan Walker’s last game was on April 23, he still leads Cardinals’ outfielders with 11 RBIs.
From Rob Rains’s game report article for Friday’s game.
Walker is also second in OPS. He may be first soon as Nootbaar has been dropping hard recently. Before he went 4-for-5 last night, Noot was at .728 with Walker at .718.
Walker had 12 good games and eight bad ones. Would he have turned it around or continued slumping? No one knows, but what is clear is that the “clarity in the outfield” they wanted by sending him down has been bad clarity. The individual numbers are not good and the team has just one win since Walker left.
As you noted, he drove in 11 runs (in his 20 games). No other outfielder is close to that kind of productivity and the offense has been struggling to get key hits. (Such as last night when they stranded the bases full in both the seventh and eighth innings.)
If I had my way, I would have given Walker more time to adjust before giving up. He has more upside than any of the outfielders playing now. As far as those touting the need for prioritizing defense in the OF, the current corner OF choices are Burleson and Yepez, so choose your poison.
Walker’s current focus has to be getting over the disappointment and earning his way back up.
Yeah, it does seem like we stink even worse without him. I don’t think they know what they are doing. Maybe strike up the band so the fans don’t panic.
This article was inspired by our discussion.
Clarity in the Cardinals Outfield Isn’t Yet Working for Anyone
To be fair, Carlson got to 11 RBIs in one more at bat than Walker with a lot better defense.
But O’Neill has been pretty terrible. And Burleson hasn’t been much better. So we have Dylan in CF, Noot in RF, and Contreras now as a LF? Yeah, I hope Walker gets going and learns the defense and I hope we find someone willing to trade us something of value for Tyler.
Well if Contreras is now going to be DH/LF we might as well try to trade him as well. As bad as Walker is defensively I would rather have him in LF than Contreras.
Must be Marmol’s fault.
It seems like maybe Contreras isn’t going to be in the OF as much as we were thinking. I think the verbiage used by the Cardinals officials kind of skewed it that direction for whatever reason. Contreras as primary DH is itself not horrible. For now the clog at DH seems to be sorted with Donovan going out to LF, but O’Neill will be back at some point. So the OF situation is still clear as mud. If it is to be that Burly and Yepez are not going to be out there with any regularity, then it is less muddy, so we will have to see. The next week will be interesting.
As to Walker, we can’t have two DHs, and Contreras is the money guy so he wins. Walker is going to have to step up his defense. Or, Contreras is going to have to do whatever he has to do to resume catcher duty at some point. Next season even, would be fine. I don’t know if that is possible.
They can’t trade Contreras now.
My guess is someone(s) is getting traded. If they want to make room for Gorman and Donovan the in the field and Keep Contreras as DH then someone has got to go. Tyler would be the guy but he’s really has never shown ability to stay healthy or produce consistently other then 1 year. I think he could if he could stay on the field 120-230 games.
Oh and btw Adolis just hit a 3 run bomb. Lol
Oh and btw Adolis just hit a 3 run bomb. Lol
It burns me up he has 36 RBIs and we quite literally gave him away. Produces at the plate and plays outfield just fine, including some center field, for a first place team. Somebody had their head where its dark on that one. That someone is still making player evaluation and personnel decisions for us, probably with the same methodology.
Adolis Garcia is definitely not concerning. We gave him to Texas for cash. Then, he was bad for them and so they DFA’d him. And no other team wanted him. So he went to their minors for a year. Then he played his way back up and became who he is today. He wasn’t a lot different for us than Gomez is now. Lots of strikeouts. Sketchy defense. Serious power. But he has learned to hit enough homers in the majors to outplay those other 2 concerns. My point on him though is that no other team in baseball wanted him when he was available at league minimum to anyone. So this wasn’t just the Cardinals missing.
As I mentioned in a different thread I wish Walker was playing LF in Memphis instead of RF because I think RF is a more premium defensive position. Noot is a pretty good defensive RFer and Carlson can hold is own in CF so when Walker returns to STL I think LF would be his best spot but apparently the Cardinals don’t see it that way.
Gscottar, I think I agree but I’m not sure it matters a ton. If we trade O’Neill, then Nootbaar could slide to LF. Walker definitely has the arm for RF and I think he just needs reps either way. But yeah, LF is generally a little bit easier so maybe he could be competent faster there? Maybe anyway.
I wasn’t aware that anyone thinks RF is a more premium OF position than LF because there’s absolutely no question that it indeed is. Some of the best defensive HOF OF’ers of all time including Roberto Clemente, Larry Walker, Al Kaline, Dave Parker, Frank Robinson, Tony Gwynn, Dave Winfield and Ichiro Suzuki all held court in RF. LF and 1B has always been the location of the “safe house” for inferior defenders.
Until today’s win, the Cardinals were 1-8 after demoting Walker to Memphis. That’s simple enough for me. He should be on the 26 man and situated in LF.
Some seem to be lumping all aspects of defense in one pot. While Walker had trouble with routes and playing the ball at times, that can be helped with repetition. He is raw but has excellent physical attributes. He is mobile and can run very well for a man of his size. Further, no one has questioned the strength of his arm. Simply put, that is why he is in RF.
I agree on LF for Walker, GS. Adding our RF, sun field, to Walkers to-do list is just piling on. Besides, O’Neill is likely first out the door.
But, with Contreras, Carlson, Noot and Donovan available as outfielders (and O’Neill), Walker is blocked without a string of injuries. He was just brought up to sell tickets and avoid the bad PR from not making opening day.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.