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I hate the dh rule. it hasn’t bothered me much cause I really only follow the cardinals. ive always liked the yankees but ive only really watched them at playoff time. but I absolutely hate the dh. isn’t how the game is supposed to be played. I also don’t feel the need for a pitch clock, the umpires should just warn the pitchers that are taking too long and if they continue, just call a ball if they are continuing to take too long. that will get the pitchers attention. sometimes there is a need for slowing down the game and a rule them all clock is not the right thing. I personally don’t have a problem with making pitchers have to pitch to more than one batter, I have never liked the match up stuff, that’s the biggest time user. no need to lower the mound either, heck they should raise it back to where it was. no, baseballs problems lie elsewhere. one of them is tanking. its always been around but over the last two decades even prominent teams have started doing it. the bad thing is that it has worked in giving some teams championships but in the long run, its bad for attendance and bad for the game overall. who wants to go watch a team with nobodies playing and not trying to win. how about trying to play a different style of game, build your team around different things like speed, ball contact, better defense. the game can be played more than one way. get coaches that think outside the box, that aren’t glued to these analytic schemes, god bless you whitey Herzog. if the league was really serious they would institute rules that mandate each team spend so much money on the team in the field, not their organization as a whole. its nice if your minor league teams win but if that doesn’t translate to your main team winning, it doesn’t really matter. also baseball seems to want the audience of the nba and nfl. you aren’t gonna get it without totally destroying the game. just look at the superbowl. even though it was a tight game, people were bored by it. they would rather have a wing the ball down the field throw fest like last years than an actually well played defensive games. why cause people want to be entertained. in the end, most aren’t even real fans. they would rather have this back and forth even if the team they are rooting for ends up losing. I think you could bring back the baseball games of old with their shorter game times and those people still aren’t gonna watch. to me part of the problems lie with networks like espn or fox sports. those are the places people get most of their sporting news other than maybe their phone but those networks are there too. they don’t talk about baseball, hardly ever. some big suspension, hall of fame news, the new proposed rules discussion like today yea they will mention it but other than that , nothing. you get a little free agency talk but not much but the owners of the teams have largely been responsible for that cause these teams don’t want to at least try for these guys, theyd rather sit on their fortunes like the cardinals do or spend it in areas that don’t translate. now I understand a baseball show isn’t gonna have the rating power of the nfl or nba shows but it wouldn’t hurt them to have one on especially espn with all its channels. instead of a rerun of highly questionable they could have a regular baseball show. a baseball show with the right people that know the game, that have played the game could do well and would go a long ways to getting the game back in the general audiences minds. would it do as well as the other shows, no but its not that important. getting someone like alex rodriguez or john smoltz could do wonders even if they could only get them part time. im sure there are some other former players that could work well. they have to have the knowledge and be able to translate their information well. I have other thoughts on baseballs woes but ill let it go for now.
well I think most of the guys this year would be deserving. the only one I would really question would be izzy though I think a lot of fans like him. I just didn’t like his approach of passing over certain guys to get to others especially in close games. so I would never vote for him. I think rolen is the only one that you could even consider for the baseball hall of fame and I really liked him, best third baseman I ever saw. but I usually go for older guys first. Hernandez was really a great first baseman maybe the best ever but he went to a rival at the time and back then things were different. guys switching wasn’t as prevalent as it has become, and to go to a rival, its hard for older people to get over. my votes will go to tudor who was just awesome for the cardinals. that game seven of the 85 series prob hurts him in some eyes but he had been almost perfect that year and the series should have been over the game before anyway. my other vote would go to morris. I always liked him and he was like chris carpenter was in a way, a workhorse and a really fine pitcher.
yea it seems its phillies or dodgers. personally I don’t think Philadelphia is gonna win their division and I don’t think they are a good fit for harper so hes gonna end up just as unhappy there. I think where a player plays can matter far as how they perform. if I was him, id go to the dodgers if its reasonably close far as their offers.
well I think wainwright is still a good option for spot starts. I would prefer he pitch out of the pen myself but I think he could be fine in spot starting duty. hes one of my all time favorite cardinals so I guess im a little bias.
well this is what they do with all their money instead of trying to get us better players. instead of that, they say spend the bulk of the money on either fifty fifty guys and unproven talent in the minors and hire a guy to try to make our average guys better by planning what shifts and defensive positions our players do. sounds about right.
oh b Walton, im not dissing trout. hes a fine player, I just don’t see the same greatness everyone else does. yea, the numbers say I should but my eyes see a really good to great player not hey this is a great player. he doesn’t jump at you like a ken griffy jr, or a barry bonds, or albert in his prime. now I don’t watch him every day but I didn’t watch griffy jr a lot either but I saw greatness when I did. what I said, he should be able to compensate some for a bad offensive squad just the way albert did for the cardinals after Edmonds went downhill. the cards had some really average to below guys around him for a few years there far as hitting goes. far as ernie banks goes. im sure he was a fine player but he played for the cubs hence I hate the cubs, they deserve to lose every game they play.
to b Walton, people were talking about waiting for trout. while stupid was the wrong term to use, ill say misguided. hedging today for a player that for a myriad of reasons might not be available in a couple of years doesn’t fix today. far as pujols comment, I meant that he carried the cardinals for a few years there after Edmonds started going downhill all the way up til he went to the angels. yea holiday came along but im not his biggest fan. to others, far as my comments on carpenter. his batting average those other months were in the low 200s, maybe that’s good to some of you guys, but I have a little higher expectation for a guy that generally hits leadoff. yea im sure his on base was ok. but should have been better. he struck out looking way too often constantly getting into it with umpires, most of the time the umpires were right. he may have been frustrated with his hitting but taking hittable pitches and hoping for walks isn’t the right way to get out of bad hitting.
well pena is a solid backup. Kelly just wasn’t good enough at the plate to override his defensive liabilities. Molina hasn’t shown he needs a lot of days off. there were a lot more guys on this team that needed far more time off than he did. does he have a little selfish streak to him, yea maybe. but at least hes passionate, a few more of the other guys could show such passion and he generally backs it up. he may go into mini slumps but he doesn’t go astray for months at a time like some others.
I was fine with coleman and Lankford getting in the cardinals hall this past year. I voted for Lankford but not coleman but not because I feel he doesn’t belong. I just felt tudor deserved it first. his all time numbers don’t jump out at you like Colemans does but I think a lot of people have forgotten just how great he was in a cardinal uniform. rolen deserves to be there but im always gonna vote for older guys first. I would like to see Duncan get in, without him, larussa would not have had the success he did.
I also think worrying about trout now is just stupid. also I feel hes a solid player but I don’t think hes the great player that the metrics make him out to be. he hasn’t carried the angels to any prominence like pujols did for a few years when they didn’t really have that much in their lineup. would he be a good player to get then, yea for any team, but no need to worry about him now.
to bccran, homeruns mean very little to me if they are attached to horrible hitting otherwise. yea carpenter was babe ruth for a couple months but he was one of the worst hitters in the league the rest of the time. also his fielding isn’t terrible at third, its his arm that’s the main problem. also some on this board are funny in that they make certain statements about harper but don’t use them with other players. harper has trended downward since his mvp season but is still solid in areas and hes just coming into his prime years so theres a chance he improves especially with the right team. carpenter had a very down year minus a couple months and a lot of home runs but no one is projecting him down though hes at an age where going down is normal, not going up or getting back to the same.
to me, i don’t really like the miller trade. yea if he returns to form, it seems great. but that isn’t what normally happens. its best to look at what the guy did the year before which in this case was not that great. but its what the cards do. lets not spend this money on a good to great up and coming reliever, lets pay less money for a broken one and hope and pray that time reverses. if you pay the money and get the stud guy, then management and the fans can blame the player. if you do like the cards do and get the old and or broken guys, then blame falls on management and the fans who don’t want them to spend all that excess money they have. im not gonna blame miller for trying to get what he can.
to bccran, no i haven’t checked carpenters defensive stats at third. im sure they are fine. but stats can be misleading. they don’t always tell you plays that should have been made that weren’t. an error may not have occurred far as officially but if the play could have been made by a player with at least an average arm, then it really is like an error. in my view, i still believe in the eye test. i see that he has a very weak arm. i saw guys get on because of it. and regardless of what analytics say, errors and plays that should have been made of which there were many last year, hurt a team in a multitude of ways that stats cant really nail down.
well gscotta im saying everyone is overrating him based on his value to the cards lineup when you put him at first base, not in his value as an individual player per se. carpenter is a cdecent first baseman, will goldy be better, yes, but I feel its marginal. meanwhile carpenter at third is not very good. his fielding is passable but his arm is horrible and that isn’t something stats are gonna accurately tell you unless someone has a stat for plays that could have been made but didn’t but aren’t errors, just lack of arm strength, accuracy, etc. will goldy hit, yea he should. i have no problem with goldy, the cardinals didn’t really have to give up anything to get him though that does concern me that someone else wasn’t willing to do better. maybe they know something. but getting goldy for basically nothing doesn’t mean wqe shouldn’t go after harper. the two together would be great. would it keep us from resigning goldy, yea probably but that isn’t guaranteed to happen if we don’t sign harper. sometimes you need to focus on the needs of today, not worry about tomorrow. that’s one of the cards biggest problems. far as paragraphs, i don’t really believe in them. i never have a problem reading whats written and my eyesight is horrible.
to me I think everyone is over valuing goldshmidt. if he is on a solid hitting team, then hes a nice great fit. the cardinals had a very inconsistent hitting team last year. carpenter was great for about two months of the season, the rest he was horrible. yadi was generally fine but I don’t like him in the two hole and both guys are getting older. wong has always been inconsistent with the big team and seems injury prone. fowler, well what can you say. if he does anything, its better than what he has done but that isn’t saying much. I love bader but he needs to learn to hit to his strength. he chases too much and tries to hit for power too often. he should use his great speed and just learn to put the ball in play. unless he just hits it right at somebody, he has a chance to get on base on any ground ball. munoz is fine as a hitter but horrible on defense. ozuna is an interesting one, if he recovers from his shoulder issues, he could be great. but that’s a could be. all that is why adding a guy like harper makes great sense. ive always believed in hitting line drives and hard ground balls. harper does that, he doesn’t try to do launch angles and change his swing generally to try to elevate. importantly he also is very willing to take a walk, something other players on this team can learn from. he reminds me of pujhols in this. pujhols for trhe first 8 to 9 years hit line drives, hit opposite field, took his walks. an all around great player which benefitted everyone. after that he started trtying to pull too much, swing at thing he shouldn’t, hence his average went down and his on base percentage went down and his value to the team went down. he no longer really made others better. now injuries might have been a part but I always felt he tried to do too much the last couple years. but by then, ownership had let the team around him go down. holiday was fine but he wasn’t no jimmy Edmonds in his prime. so maybe he felt the pressure. while harper isn’t going to be an all timer like pujhols, the way he goes about things offensively can make a team that is offensively inconsistent, much better than it would be without him. he would also make life much easier for goldshmidt.
the improvements the cardinals have made are subjective to a point. yea they added goldshmidt which is a net positive but you are replacing somebody in the lineup probably the guy who cant play any defense. sorry not in baseball mode yet, I cant think of his name. but his offensive numbers were solid so how much does goldshmidt improve that. miller is coming off as bad season so that’s how he is projected. you cant project off of yesterday. add the fact that by moving carpenter to third, we will still have a poor defense. yea goldshmidt is really good but carpenter was pretty good at first but horrible at rthird so we are actually losing there in my opinion.
well this is to brian Walton. ive always felt that the cardinals have far more money than they let on. they constantly have attendance figures over 3 million every year which is a dream for most teams not in LA, NY, or Chicago. they also have a healthy tv contract. they are very well supported by their community and surrounding area, far better than most. while im not saying go crazy ala how the yankees, dodgers, or angels did, im saying they can afford to spend big money on a player that I feel could be a great all time player with them. I think hes a great fit for the team and the city. im not sure he is with some of these other teams. in my opinion, fit can make the difference between a player being a good solid player to a player being a great player. have I felt they would make a real move for him ,no. I could only hope. they went after Stanton last year but I think knew he wasn’t gonna come. plus I never felt that was a good move. Stanton would not fit, we don’t need another high strikeout, no walk guy. most of the big moves the cardinals have made recently, haven’t worked out. only two that I can say worked out well. the guy last year that played in japan, for whatever cant think of his name, but he was great. it was still one of those fifty fifty moves that just happened to work out. the other was ozuna. he didn’t have the power I wanted but im going to give him a pass cause of his shoulder for last year and he actually was geeting hits when nobody else was early on. the fowler and cecil moves I didn’t like then and I hate now. miller is another fifty fifty shot. hes getting older and coming off a down year. they are also paying him too much along with a no trade clause. it only looks great if he turns back the clock, im not counting on it though im hoping just like management does when they make their deals cause they always never go after almost sure thing players. goldshmidt is a solid player and a great deal for onrer year but the cardinals didn’t have to give much to get him so they didn’t really pull off anything. those might be enough and great if you are talking about the pirates, twins, or the mets. not the cardinals with their fan support. plus getting goldshmidt creates problems. what about carpenter. move him to third I guess cause I don’t see goldshmidt going there. we will have a below to average third baeman with a very below average arm. carpenter is a decent first baseman so the pickup at first isn’t going to offset the bad play at third. we were already the worst fielding team in the league far as errors go so that isn’t gonna improve. while analytics may not grade errors harshly, most people thatr really know the game, do. there is a lot more cause and effect than whether an error causes a run to score. far as being projected to tie with the cubs at 87 wins. 87 wins is weak for a cardinals team expectations and im a old school cardinal fan. I hate the cubs and being content with losing to them or finishing tied with them isn’t enough.
harper is a really good player that with the right organization could be a great player. he could fit right in and make the cardinals a legitimate threat to go the world series. my only issue is his lack of hustle sometimes but about 80 percent of the players in the league have that issue and some are far worse. I think he would change a little bit in st. louis. but he will usually hit around thirty homeruns or more, 100 to 125 rbi if guys are getting on, and the biggest part of all is willing to take a walk. a rarity in todays game. put him right ahead of goldshmidt and watch the cards take off. he defense is average but he isn’t bad. to me goldshmidt is not enough to take this team to the top. maybe they get a wild card spot but I doubt it and they wouldn’t get far in the playoffs in my opinion if they did make it. the cardinals have the money to make it happen, but I don’t really think the management is really serious about winning. the talk a good fight but never show. goldshmidt is probably a one year rentaltrhough worth it for what they gave, and miller is past his prime, and they are still stuck with fowler who was never worthy of being a cardinal.
well I have no problem with either guys really. I think smith should have gotten in on the regular ballot so to me its about time. far as baines goes. I can definitely see the argument that he doesn’t belong. but I guess im softening as I get older. I just think there are tiers to the hall of fame. there has always been guys that if you look back at the history, probably shouldn’t be in if you are totally trying to limit it to the immortals. those are guys that are never brought up in greatest of discussions but their inclusion in the hall doesn’t tarnish the others in any way. its fun to discuss who should or shouldn’t but its ok if some guys get a nice break. even baines never expected it so to me its ok. sure are there others more deserving, yea most definitely. but baines was a solid player. my only issue is it opens up for other dh players. but everyone knows big pappi is gonna get in so that was gonna be opened anyway. just my thoughts
