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bccran:
Hated to see them throw the shift at Gorman.
If he’s Matt Adams we might as well find out now.
To me hitting is only half the game and personally I think it’s the weaker half when you are talking about a baseball player.
At least up the middle.
The Cardinals need more offense up the middle because they don’t have established middle/top of the order corner outfielder. Maybe something will develop.
They’ll rotate the guys at ST so everyone gets a good look.
Come on cranny. Mo didn’t have to move Fowler and eat his contract to take a look at these guys in ST. We all know what we are going to see this season.
Carlson is a sure thing to play every day, but that’s all. He hit .280 in the Texas League two years ago. The rest is just spew on green bar paper until and unless he puts up some numbers that matter, and he won’t take anybody by surprise this year so it doesn’t get easier.
Bader has hit .235 over 1000 PAs in MLB. What is he sure to do? We have a bunch of outfielders that aren’t sure to do anything. They might though, I am not saying they won’t. I have hope, but I’m not getting caught up in the hype.
We don’t know what will happen during ST, but as of now Edman seems like he will get a shot at starting 2B and hitting leadoff. He will have to be better than Carp to keep the job. Carlson will get a good bit of play time and 4 or 5 other OFs will cycle in and out. Its the only way to get all those OFs a meaningful number of PAs. You can’t do it if Bader is out there most of the time and the rest are sharing only one spot.
Good point he did have a good 2019. You need to cherry pick around his 2019 .290 OBP when hitting 1st though. He seems likely to get the first chance at leadoff, hopefully he will stake his claim.
There is only so much Schildt can do. There is no leadoff hitter on the roster and he has to regularly play several guys with unknown offensive ability. It will be interesting to see how he manages it and what player stakes a claim to what job. The positive side is that by the trade deadline Mo will know what we have and what we need.
Yeah cranny I know. I’m losing brain cells at an alarming rate now days. My wife always said that would be the second thing to go.
Along those same lines, if Sosa makes the team, his defensive ability means he would spell DeJong, who allegedly would benefit from regular breaks, reducing the chances Edman would slide over and Carp would get in the lineup that way. It seems DH/PH is all that is there for Carp unless he just outplays Edman.
The more I think about it, I am convinced that either Carp or Edman will do the sitting. Mo didn’t move Fowler, eating the contract, to clear room to give a bunch of young outfielders more PAs just to see Schildt put Edman out there so Carp can get play time at 2B. I can’t see any way Carp is not squeezed for time this year at least until Mo is convinced some guys are not Arozarenas. We will have 5 or 6 outfielders cycling in and out and Edman trying to do well enough to keep Carp on the bench.
But of course just because Carp is outhitting someone doesn’t mean that someone will sit more. The Arozarena factor will skew the decisions.
Carp has maintained an OBP about 100 pts higher than his BA even these last couple seasons. So it is not unrealistic to think he might do .255/.350 or so this year. Depending, that might be enough to keep him in the lineup a lot of the time. Top of the order even, depending. Hopefully the bar will be higher, but guys would have to do what they haven’t done yet. Obviously, he might hit .235, but so might several guys who wouldn’t have a .335 OBP.
In the article, the argument against your best batter 3rd is he comes up with 2 out and none on too often. It seems like that depends on the OBP of the top 2, so maybe not the best choice for a team with no real leadoff man.
It is inevitable that all the detailed metrics churned out will be acted upon. The computer will spit out the statistically optimum lineup each day. The human factor that cranny puts forward gets run over because the computers can’t factor that in.
But I think today’s players are more willing to go with the metrics based game and would be better able to handle, for example, batting first against righties you can hit and 7th against lefties you can’t, or whatever the case may be. They can see the numbers too. So stay in the virtual reality batting cage until you can hit Sandy Koufax, then you can bat leadoff every day.
He probably would have said nice things about anyone he was asked about.
That’s been the MO with these talks so far. Nobody struggling. We should get a more realistic picture of how guys are doing starting Sunday.
I disagree with your approach cranny. As to Edmon, don’t put a guy in leadoff and let him grow into it and flourish. Bat him 7th and let him show he could hit 1st. As to the DeJong comment, let him show he can hit lefties if he wants a regular slot. Earn it rather than get it handed to you.
Splits are a major factor obviously, and there is a TLR fan on their payroll, but I like what they came up with. The most concerning things are the absence of a high OBP leadoff guy, and the roll of the dice on #3 and 5 slots. If we roll snake eyes it will be a long season. There are other outfielders to cycle in, but these are probably the best options as of now.
Charlie Tilson is looking for a job. He can play all 3 OF positions and hit .288 in AAA two years ago.
Hope to get Ozzie, Izzy, Carp, Ludwick, Sutter, Edmonds involved via Zoom or at Busch later in season. They come in and work.
Shildt hopes Ludwick, among others, can come in and work at some point. I guess he didn’t get the memo. Fired guys don’t come in and work.
I gave up trying to find games on TV a couple years ago. I’ll sometimes tune in KMOX if Shannon is on.
blingboy – Carlson should be fine.
Of course he will cranny. He hit .280 in the Texas League two years ago. There’s no arguing with credentials like that.
This whole thing with the outfielders seems pretty irrational. A bunch of guys who hit .235 last year. But we are to discount that as small sample size and highly unusual 2020 season. But the driver for Mo seems to be not to let another Arozarena happen. So evidently we are not to dismiss his small sample size-unusual season 2020 results. Time will tell but there is a problem with the inconstancy.
cranny I agree about Edmon, at least as far as being better than bottom of lineup, if not leadoff. It makes more sense to me to work Gorman up at corner outfield.
Hope you are right. I will wait to get excited about Gorman, having learned my lesson over and over the last 10 or so years when it comes to Cardinals 3B prospects. I do wish these two guys success.
stlcard25, we have no idea if Gorman or Carlson can hit in MLB. Carlson can shed some light on the issue this year. Gorman can show us if he can hit AAA pitching this year, then we will know if his bat is worth finding a defensive position for him. As of now, it really doesn’t matter if he can play 2B.
