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If they are doing a trade, then trade for Cease or Glasnow. We don’t need another outfielder. We are trying to dump some of what we have.
I won’t deny I wanted Yamamoto but I knew that was pie in the sky thinking for the Cardinals. They don’t do that kind of thing.
We were supposedly in on Juan Soto once before and it was a mirage.
Ask yourself why the Padres want to trade Soto.
As I said, there is nothing wrong with Gray. Signing a 34 year old who has probably pitched his best season and will more likely decline is not aggressive.
Signing one of the Japanese pitchers would fit my definition of aggressive.
I have said my piece. The Cardinals did what they always do. Play it safe and around the margins.
Yes, it is depressing and the strategy is not likely to change anytime soon.
The fact remains that the Cardinals are unwilling to spend big on any one player and will continue to play around the margins and hope to get lucky. That is an unexciting strategy for sure.
If ending 2023 with the worst record in 33 years wasn’t a big enough motivator I don’t know what will be.
Yay! The pitchers who lead in home runs allowed and hits allowed all have an option.
I get trying to make the best of this. I have just lost my ability to cover for incompetence.
It appears the Cardinals’ excessive risk averseness and reluctance to spend money has rubbed off on some people. It is a shame.
Starters who have shown they have the stuff are less risky than relying on arms that haven’t. You can always trade a longer term contract.
I have no problems with hoping on minor leaguers as long as you mitigate that with some proven talent. The Cardinals don’t do that. They just sign the shorter term contracts on the middle tier pitchers and rely on their ever dwindling luck of the draft.
There have always been prospects that have promise. When was the last time the minor leagues produced a No. 1 starter?
It looked like Flaherty might be, but injuries derailed that.
They have been trying to make Liberatore into a starter for a while. He hasn’t worked out.
Thompson has shown something lately but I am not holding my breath. The rest are lottery tickets.
I personally am not counting on any of them.
They are likely done with the rotation and will add some bullpen arms and be done.
There is nothing inherently wrong with Gray. He is 34 years old and will not be good for three years.
The problem is they haven’t done anything for the long term. They are just putting things off for another year hoping to get lucky with the arms in the minor leagues. That strategy hasn’t worked out in a long time.
It’s a very underwhelming move.
They will have to do this all over again next year. Probably plenty of old and cheap guys to get though.
I have mixed feelings about bullpens as a general rule.
On the one hand, relief pitchers are fungible, as they are often nothing more than pitchers with limitations in one form or another that make them not good starter material. It may be the lack of pitch variation for instance.
On the other hand, building a bullpen, imo, should start with choosing pitchers whose pitches are quality and who have had success with the most important rule of pitching, which is getting outs.
My issue with the Cardinals approach of building a bullpen in part with other team’s rejects is that other team’s rejects more often than not aren’t quality pitchers who are good at getting outs. Hence, that is why they are rejects.
If there are quality pitchers in your system that aren’t starter material then by all means put them in the bullpen.
However if you don’t have enough quality pitchers in your system, then you acquire them through trade or free agency. The Cardinals should do more of that and less of shopping in the Clearance Aisle.
I didn’t watch the game. I did follow on Gameday as I was doing other things.
With that caveat, I saw that Marmol commented after the game that the players were competing hard (my paraphrase I’m not looking up the quote).
I have been out there mostly alone in defending Marmol. Mainly because I don’t think he has a lot of choices. There is way more wrong with this team that is out of his control.
Nevertheless, I heard that and my first thought was to be skeptical. I just don’t see how this talented offense can be competing hard and be this bad.
Let’s be honest, when you are this far out of contention, there has to be the thought of not injuring yourself in pursuit of futility. In some part of my brain I can see the reasonableness of that.
I guess what I am saying is that I think Marmol is likely bullsh*tting us and I am not sure I blame him. PR still matters.
Then again maybe they are competing hard and they are just that bad.
Well in this case we would be choosing Carlson over DeJong.
That is a wash as far as I am concerned.
Eh, Carlson is overrated as a CF. I would put him out there in place of Donovan though if the best defense is the goal.
Donovan got the nod because of his bat. Carlson just hasn’t consistently shown anything at the plate that would make him the better choice.
Jack Clark likely blew his chance when he accused Pujols of juicing.
I have ambivalent feelings about Clark myself.
I didn’t vote for Holliday, mostly because I knew he would get in without my vote.
Seriously, Carlton can get into Cooperstown but he can’t get in to the Cardinals little museum?
It doesn’t matter to me that he had his best seasons in Philly, he was still a good Cardinal. It wasn’t his fault that Gussie Busch was an a*hole penny pincher.
FWIW, I did not vote for Freese. Love the guy, but no. I voted for Steve Carlton and will continue to do so until he gets in or is no longer on the ballot.
I voted for years for Keith Hernandez before he got in. I never voted for a few of the players who did get in.
Fan voting leads to popularity contests. This has always been the case for the All-Star game (and that’s fine) and does the same for the Cardinal Hall of Fame.
Thank you.
I have never been a person who sugar coats things. This team has serious issues, most pressing in my opinion is the pitching.
My thoughts are mine only but I have believed for some time that the Cardinals need to make some wholesale changes. Most importantly they need to abandon their Crash Davis philosophy of pitcher development.
For those who aren’t Bull Durham fans I am referring to the philosophy of Crash Davis that “strikeouts are fascist, ground balls are more democratic ”
Pitching to contact, IMHO, no longer works in the current environment.
Anyway, those are the thoughts that I have and that influence my writing.
The outfield is going to be a train wreck until one or more of Nootbaar, Carlson, or O’Neill return. There is no combination of the available outfielders that is going to help in any way.
Teams generally tend to draft for offense. Defense is extra. It is what it is. The idea is to get a net positive taking both into account.
Unfortunately, so far our bat first outfielders have trended net negative.
I am drinking a Firefly tonight and hoping for the best.
Yes, let’s IBB the bases loaded and bring in the worst pitcher in the bullpen. Sounds like a winning strategy.
That Cardinal minor leaguer is Luken Baker and there is video of it out there.
On another note, if Montgomery doesn’t pitch better soon, I am in favor of sending him back to the Yankees (not likely to happen but I can dream).
I’d send Matz to the nether regions but we’re stuck with him.
