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Agreed that if they need a SS for an extended time, it’s Winn. The main MLB IF player set is Arenado, Edman, Donovan, Gorman, Goldschmidt. As noted, when Edman needs a day off, Donovan can play SS. The 6th IF seems likely to see almost no action. The last person on the bench if something weird happens. Play last innings of blowouts.
With Winn down at Memphis to be called up only in case of serious injury.
Seems to me there are three options for that 6th infielder, DeJong, Motter, and Robertson. Given how little I’d think any would play, I don’t see a lot to distinguish the three. DeJong’s already got the MLB contract, so doesn’t cost a roster spot or salary. And he can field well. And maybe he’s fixed his swing somewhat, which we can’t know without him playing. So he gets my first shot. But if he’s on the DL, then my question is who helps more, Motter or Robertson? I mostly shrug since neither would play much. But I see “defensive sub at SS for an emergency game or two” as the most likely. So I lean ever so slightly to Robertson. If we’re looking at spring stats, his OPS is 1.031. So few ABs, it hardly means anything, but Motter hasn’t outperformed Robertson. He had a .757 OPS at Memphis last year. Not as good as Motter’s.870, but not shabby.
The Cards should have 11 guys getting regular time…Contreras and backup C. Arenado, Edman, Donovan, Gorman, Goldy, O’Neill, Carlson, Nootbaar, Walker. That leaves little playing time for the other two. If DeJong can’t go, I actually could see them dropping Fermin from the 40 man and adding Motter to mostly ride the bench and come in if there’s a late injury. With Winn’s play in spring, there’s probably less need for Fermin in AAA. But I wonder if they would add Robertson before Motter. He can play SS in a pinch.
Motter is 33 and had a .619 OPS going into today. Career .572 OPS in MLB. Seems like a good guy to have in AAA as a Crash Davis type veteran, and can be the guy called up for 2 or 3 games in a particular injury situation.
If they stay healthy and Walker goes north with the big league club, I’m wondering who the 13th position player is. Figure Contreras and Knizner at catcher, and Contreras sometimes at DH. Arenado, Goldie, Edman, Gorman and Donovan get most of the IF time and some DH time. O’Neill, Nootbaar, Walker, and Carlson playing the OF and some DH. DeJong is backup on the infield and doesn’t see much time.
That’s 12. Is the 13th a young guy like Yepez or Burleson who might benefit from playing everyday at AAA, or is it someone like Mercado, who could pinch run, play some late OF in D, and the like? One of the main 9 who are not catcher is on the bench each night, and two if Contreras is DH. Hard to see DeJong or the 13th guy seeing much playing time, barring injuries. And if there’s a serious injury, youcall up from AAA.
Brian-
I think you’re right about the depth point, and I expect it will have Woodford start in AAA, albeit with more starts in MLB this year as 6th starter.That’s an interesting and intriguing set of 8. I’ll add one (unlikely) name, Cabrera. If he doesn’t make it north in the bullpen, I wouldn’t rule out giving him lots of innnings in AAA to try to get right. But that seems unlikely.
To get to your list of possible AAA rotation, that would suggest a major league bullpen of, say, Helsley, Gallegos, Hicks, Ver Hagen, Rodriguez, Stratton, Cabrera, and Misiewicz. So I wonder which of those 8 I’d bump with one of your 8 potential AAA guys. I’d probably drop either Stratton or Misiewicz. I think the latter has an option, though it would leave only 1 lefty reliever. And I’d add one of the 8 as a long reliever. I’d probably go with Hudson.
I’d move Thomas to the pen in AAA. I’m skeptical his future is in the rotation.
I’d leave one of McGreevy or Graceffo in AA, expecting them to move up when someone in the AAA rotation gets hurt or moves up to MLB.
So I guess my Memphis rotation is:
Pallante
Woodford
Thompson
Liberatore
Graceffo or McGreevyPart of the goal is that two of them (Pallante and Woodford?) serve as 6 and 7th starters this year and show enough, and rack up enough innings, that they can be in the MLB rotation next year with Matz and hopefully two resigned guys of Mikolas, Flaherty, and Montgomery.
That said, I bet instead that Thompson and Hudson are both in the MLB pen, Stratton dealt, and Misiewicz optioned. We’ll see.
Carioca-
I could hardly do less! But I am hoping that with more breathing room I can hang out here more often.
Brian-
It does seem weird to only have one lefty. But….Helsley, Gallegos, and Pallante all had pretty good whips vs. lefties last year, all better than Cabrera or Romero. And I can’t figure out which of those 7 righties wouldn’t make the team, assuming all are healthy. Does Cabrera have an option left? If so, I could easily see Thompson edging him out. Really liked what I saw out of him in the pen last year.
Hiya Cranny-
They lose VerHagen if he doesn’t make the team, and my bet is that he’ll be past his injuries. That would limit it to one lefty. Agreed on the other six, and on poor Woodford, likely to get in lots of mileage between Memphis and St. Louis this year.
I find interesting that four of the five who graduated (Yepez, Donovan, Nootbar, Pallante) were no better than 28th in the 2021 rankings. They did show much better in the 2022 rankings. I wonder how much the COVID compressed 2020 interfered with being able to spot prospects. And thanks for doing that story about the folks who moved off the list, Brian!
I’d think 8 in the bullpen. The Athletic projections are interesting. I’d assumed Thompson would be in the pen, not Memphis, at season’s start. But if verHagen is healthy and doing what was expected last year, and if Cabrera is back to form, it makes sense he would start at AAA. I could see the Cards wanting to give Thompson more experience at starter. They’re gonna need a couple of the kids to be starters soon, if not this year, then next with contracts expiring. Will they have all five of Thompson, Liberatore, Woodford, Graceffo, and McGreevy in the rotation at AAA with one or two of them getting the call when injuries happen to the big league rotation? [Or will Hudson, Pallante, or verHagen get the injury starts instead?]
I’m also curious to see if Mercado gets the 5th OF spot instead of Burleson. I’d think that with Gorman, there would not be a ton of ABs for Burleson, who might do well to play every day in AAA for awhile more. Yepez would be 4th OF, playing when one of the main three needs a day off and getting subbed for by Mercado late if they are ahead. And they might well need a PR or late inning defender more than an extra PH off the bench. The Cards had only 102 PH ABs last year after 215 in 2021and 238 in 2019. With the DH, the bench is just a different beast than before. Alas.
Will the move to clear a 40-man roster space for Flaherty be moving Walsh to the 60-day DL? Hasn’t pitched since June.
I wondered whether the position player callup would be primarily to pinch run/play CF late if Carlson isn’t available. So long as Nootbar and Pujols are hitting, I don’t see how much action Yepez would see. But I figured it would be Capel. DeLuzio has the stolen base lead, so maybe the best base runner? Anyone have a sense of how the compare defensively?
I’m pretty sure Allen doesn’t need a 40-man spot. His wiki says he was outrighted to the minors in May, and he does not appear on the 40-man roster at MLB, whereas they do show Montgomery, albeit “minors” which is maybe what they do when the guy needs to travel? Allen is a native St. Louisan.
Thinking about it a bit more…..I’m guessing Burleson stays in Memphis through the end of the year. I bet they’ll give Noot a run to see what he can do with regular playing time. His July was pretty darned strong. If you don’t bring Burleson up, he won’t need to be protected in the offseason, if I’m counting right. Dickerson had a good July, too, so is another option. And Yepez will be back at some point.
Oh the broadcast, they said Mo said Walker is now headed to the outfield. All three positions.
Goold’s twitter says the PTBNL goes to the Yanks if Bader is not ready for playoffs.
Get healthy, Harrison!
Yanks twitter says they also got a PTBNL or cash. Who the player is will obviously affect what we think of the deal. I wish I knew who was on the list!
I think greyghost’s point about Walker getting outfield time makes a great deal of sense. Add me to the “call up Burleson” group. And I, too, am wondering if it’s Hudson, not Pallante, to the pen.
I had a sense Carlson had pinned down the CF spot given his play since Bader was hurt. And that frees up a corner spot for a bat upgrade from Bader. With Bader’s injury, I, too, am surprised. If it’s really Bader for Montgomery it seems like a pretty good deal, much as I’ll miss Bader’s play in CF.
The question is if we trade future wins (brought by, say, Walker) for current (from Soto). Hard to know what the cost in future wins would be, especially without knowing what the Nats would have asked. So party of the disagreement is likely over that. I’d like 6 years of Walker, with some at fairly low price, quite a bit.
Do we know that Walker is two years away? At age 20, Albert had only 3 games above the A+ level. At age 20 this year, Walker has 80 games at AA. Obviously Albert was a unique talent. But I’d think a AA guy with a .905 OPS would have a pretty legit shot at spending part, perhaps most, of next year in the big leagues.
Does securing an arm tonight reduce the pressure to do another pitching deal tomorrow so that the price of another target drops? Does getting a pitcher as a rental free them up to spend on a splashy position player?
It’s all my fault for going to see ’em in person tonight. My apologies!
More seriously, I’m curious why Cabrera didn’t pitch for two weeks (an appearance July 15 then not again to July 29). There’s the all star break and game situations, but two weeks? Is there something going on we don’t know about?
Not sure where reports on the day’s minor league games go these days. But so far, 6 shutout innings from Woodford. Two starts ago he had 5. Now, it was 4 runs in 4 innings in the appearance between the two. But I wonder if he might return before long.
Definitely don’t want to drop Nootbaar. He’s a 0.4 WAR player. Not amazing, but, well, better than replacement. Just 24 years old. He seems like a keeper to me. I’d love to know more about the health of Walsh and Whitley. Whitley’s slide surprised me. I’d prefer to keep Fernandez. Romine goes when Yadi returns, I think.
We’ll get more clarity after the trade deadline. Some form of package of multiple players for one better player, in part to clear roster space?
Third time up, he hits another grounder. And on a hard play the SS throws it away. Molina looked like regular Yadi speed running to second to my eye, not bad knee Yadi. Yadi then stole third without a throw (reading it so he got an enormous jump) and scored on a single.
they ruled the grounder as an error. second time up, a deep fly.
Bling-
I’d think they would be pretty shot, but before he went DL, I thought he still looked like he had enough that he could get through a couple or three months, particularly with some days off. I wonder if he’s realizing he needs more work than expected before he can make a return to St. Louis….
Hello Pugs–I haven’t been gone that long! The Pugs moniker is happily familiar! I’ll start finding some good food to post.
Thanks, Bikemike! I do hope to be around a few times a week. I really don’t expect a Soto trade. We need pitching, not hitting, and I’d bet the price will be too steep.
