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Good to see both Cardinals do well. I am glad they dispensed with the whole “this one counts” business, and the All-Star game is back to being an exhibition.
Quite a different game with the on-field interviews. Making it an exhibition game allows for that though. It gives the game more of a throw-back feel, when professional sports was not nearly as controlled by money as today.
The game typified in many ways the professional game today – home runs and strikeouts. It would have been more entertaining to see a couple of rallies, where a team had several hits and scored 2 or 3 in an inning. It was still a good game though.
Matheny is right in that he and the players need to focus on playing the game, and not be distracted by trade talk. Trade talk is mostly media speculation and opinions.
But it has always been there, since the early days of professional sports. Once radio coverage became widespread, it was common for radio announcers to call out players. That is not done too much today, but now we have all of us fans throwing opinion on social media.
At any rate, the first half of the season has not worked out at all like the club had planned. Fowler was acquired to get us a legitimate leadoff hitter and stability in center field. But when Carpenter started slow, it was assumed his problem was that he was not hitting lead-off, and he was moved there. That was a mistake in my opinion.
Then Dexter has had some injuries, and Tommy Pham looks like he could handle center field just fine. Another mistake, which I harped on a lot last year, was not playing Pham everyday from around mid-August to the end of the year. Matheny kept playing Moss, despite his being in an historic slump. Pham should have been auditioned to see if he might be a legitimate candidate for an outfield spot this year. Now maybe Pham was having those vision problems then, and that’s why he was not playing much. If so I give the club a pass on that.
The remaining issues are things that happen beyond the club’s control. Reyes goes out for the year, Peralta got real old real fast, Wong has missed a lot of time, Piscotty had not been near what he was last year, nor has Diaz, nor Carpenter, nor has Grichuk based on his second half. Positives are DeJong, Gyorko looking like the real deal, and some good starting pitching.
I think we should mostly look to sell, but not dismantle the club. Grichuk is another guy we could possibly deal (in addition to Lynn, Oh, and Carpenter). In fact I would see what we could get for any of the outfielders other than Pham and Piscotty, and likely Dexter as well as I doubt anyone would want him.
Second half, we should go with this order basically every day assuming these guys are here and healthy:
Fowler
Carpenter
Pham
Gyorko
Piscotty
Molina
Wong
DeJongAt this point, I definitely would not be “all in” on a guy like Donaldson. I don’t think he makes our lineup strong enough to seriously contend this year, especially if he is added and Gyorko subtracted. If we don’t do that, it will cost some premium prospects, and I would not do that.
The Marlins have some intriguing players, but will most likely need to wait until their sale closes before anything can be finalized. Thus they probably will not be selling this year.
So for now, I would be shopping Lynn, Oh, and possibly Carpenter to see what we could get in terms of decent prospects. If little is available, you take your chances on possibly getting hot and sneaking away with the division title this year, although most likely we will be better equipped to compete in the coming years.
Hard to say. The league knows him pretty well, so I think if he is healthy, he is a decent hitter.
He’s not a 1.000 OPS hitter, but I think he would be a solid .850 guy. Being trimmer will hopefully keep him on the field more.
I had mentioned before about asking the Rockies’ GM about their thoughts on Adams, and they had little to no interest. So his reputation was not all that great among other teams, as evidenced by the return we got for him. He is a guy who may have been under-valued.
Nice win. Really needed 3 of 4 in that series, but a bad start by Leake was the big factor in keeping us from it. Wacha is really throwing hard this year. He seems healthy, and if his stamina holds up he might just be our best pitcher in the second half.
If both guys pitch close to the top of their games the remainder of the year, Martinez and Wacha could be the keys to making a second half run at the division title.
Ouch, not a good first inning for Martinez. Slacks on defense allowing Gordon to take an extra base, then called out on strikes at bat.
Gyorko called out as well, on a pitch that looked high and outside. But he swung at a lousy pitch for strike two.
Only the first inning, but this club continues to make mental and defensive miscues that hamper their game. The blame for that is largely on the coaching staff.
The club probably did not what to re-position two players, and thus moved Carpenter to second rather than Carp to third and Gyorko to second.
Some good points, especially comments on the roster. Part of the problem this team has had is the roster does not work well. Carpenter is a bit of an enigma, as his bat does not play all that well as a first baseman, and for whatever reason he and the organization feel he cannot bat anywhere but leadoff. And while he does have value there, we need more slugging from first base than a get-on-base guy.
Thus part of the answer is to deal Carpenter, and possibly others with the goal being to get a strong bat back that can play first base and hit in either the 3 or 4 slot. Or possibly third base or the outfield, with Gyorko or maybe Piscotty going to first. Either that, or get pitching help and give the first base job to Voit, which is a gamble.
I cannot understand the willingness to deal Gyorko, thinking you can improve the offense. Trade him, and you just gave up your top WAR player, so you are starting in negative ground. You would need to get a guy that can replace that WAR in the second half, and then you are only breaking even. Gyorko is exactly what we need at the position he plays.
Carpenter is the guy you shop, as he should bring a good return, and with the right deal the roster could fall in to place.
Replacing Gyorko with Donaldson makes no sense to me. Gyorko is having a much better year, seems to be trending upward, and is almost 3 years younger than Donaldson. Donaldson is struggling, and at 31 could be on a downward trend.
What has hurt the Cardinals offense this year is not third base, but first base and right field. Carpenter and especially Piscotty have not been as consistent as projected.
If we want an impact bat, I think you have to look at the outfield for changes. When Fowler comes back, he probably plays and then you almost have to keep Pham in the lineup. That leaves Piscotty as the odd man out if we could get a better player.
I think Voit can handle it. I would have rather have Mejia in the lineup at second, and Carpenter at third. Or maybe just put Mejia at third in this one.
Carpenter’s weird “I can only bat lead off” really cramps the options for the batting order. Piscotty should not be hitting third, but almost has to with this group (although Pham would be a good option there). It’s sort of like having a guy that can only play one defensive position.
Grichuk could hit third if he learned to layoff any pitch that is coming in at the knees. If he sees a pitch headed for the knees, he should automatically take, but he rarely holds off on that pitch. That is one thing I am seeing from Pham this year – he has really improved at pitch selection, laying off a lot of those low deliveries. Grichuk has never learned that. Maybry needs to tell Grichuk to watch Pham’s approach and learn from it. Pham swings at more pitches he can square up, and lets go pitches he cannot do much with. Plus he’ll take that outside pitch to right field, which was a major flaw in Diaz’ approach this year. Diaz pulled off everything, even pitches in the left-hand batter’s box. Grichuk is similar, although he does go to right occasionally. Grichuk’s weakness is the pitch down in the zone.
Crazy game. The offense was on track, and Waino looked great, then gave up six in one inning. Fortunately the offense gave him a lot of room to work.
The timing of adding Weaver seems a bit odd. Is he going to be a one-inning pitcher? I would prefer him starting every fifth day at Memphis that being a one-inning pitcher in St. Louis. Maybe they are hoping he can be a late innings guy and an improvement over what we have there. With the big lead last night, I would have brought him out for a second inning since he’ll most likely be a starter perhaps as early as next year.
The new “Memphis Mafia” has really made their presence known. We now have Voit, DeJong, Mejia, Weaver, and even Pham from the Memphis roster that opened the season.
For now, it is going to be trial and error. Since he is so unpredictable, you gotta use him and hope for the dominant version, the Dr. Jeykll Rosenthal. But you keep a guy ready in case you get the Mr. Hyde version.
If he never does settle in to one or the other, then he becomes a middle inning guy, who gets shopped around. The trouble with trading him though, is our biggest need is bullpen help so we might send him somewhere for another team’s bullpen enigma.
I agree on Yadi “selling” that strike three call. It looked outside from the television angle, but that is certainly not an accurate view. But Molina did a fist pump and started heading for the mound before the ump called it. By then, the ump almost had to call it a strike.
The late inning relief was considered a strong suit heading in to the season, but has been an issue all year. I think Matheny needs to see how the 8th inning guy is going, whoever that may be. If that guy sails through the 8th, then leave him out there for the ninth.
Man, quite a free fall for Allen Craig. I don’t recall anyone in the long history of the game that seemed to suddenly lose the ability to hit, other than two similar players where it happened roughly at the same time, Craig and Garrett Atkins.
Guys age, and thus are less productive. But it seems like both Craig and Atkins were real good for a awhile, then had a season where they just lost it and never recovered.