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You’re both right. Ortiz is a possibility (along with Gurevitch). But Ortiz has been a relatively poor defender. I haven’t watched much of him this season given how late he came back from injury to have any real thoughts on whether defense has improved. Any of you?
Pages is our best pitcher now. Didn’t see that one coming but doesn’t surprise me. Pedro can do it all. Vote for Pedro!
Fermin or Urías can both backup SS. Neither is all that good there, but both have experience.
I would expect Jordan and Gorman to rotate at 3B depending on pitcher handedness. I would expect the same with Urias and Torres at 2B. Fermin probably will mostly play in the OF with all the infielders around.
I would suspect Gorman plays 3B tonight with Torres at 2B.
I really hope Gorman has made some changes that will help him. He should not have ever been as bad as he became. He’s better than that. On the plus side, this should improve the D at 3B.
Although I do want to note that Pages both has experience at 2B and an errorless streak there that extends throughput all his Minor and Major League experience. But, they may want to save him for late inning mound work again as he was our top performing pitcher in his last outing.
Great interview again! I thought the way Odle answered the first question, we’d never learn anything! But then it turned around for the rest of the interview. I especially enjoyed reading about all the steps to get ready to pitch. The average fan has absolutely no clue all the things these guys go through while not in the public eye. It’s also nice to see Jacob has friends or family reading articles on The Cardinal Nation. This is a great place to get Cardinals news, but it’s also neat to think that players or their family members may be right beside us looking at the same information, wondering what utterly genius or completely moronic thing Kyle is going to say next! We are all one big Cardinals family.
Thanks again Steffen!
I share the same opinion as 25 and Brian. I have Baez at 11, 12, or 13 (still deciding) although I could see an argument for him as high as 6 or 7. That still keeps him well out of baseball’s top 100. His defense is generally good, but not anything to get excited about. I love the low strikeout rate with power combination but I’m not sure it holds up (at least not anything like where it is in AA) at the MLB. I would project him as an average third baseman with 20 home runs and a solid OBP. That’s valuable and probably better than any other current 3B candidate anywhere near the MLB level. Maybe a perennial 2-3 WAR player. Basically Nootbaar at 3B only hopefully healthier. And frankly, that would be a great outcome for 1/3 of a year of Helsley that we gave up.
I agree with many of GScottar’s solutions. Share more revenue (not all – I kind of like rewarding better run organizations), salary floor, and bigger penalties for going over a top threshold. Makes sense.
Thanks GScottar! The problem with getting traction on my idea is why would the owners who have all the resources want to give more of them to owners without? It would be just giving money away. It essentially would prop up the value of those lesser franchises in the long run and lower the value of the top group. It would be hard to get that to happen unless baseball sees an equity crisis that is hurting everyone. The problem is that right now the equity crisis is only aimed at the Dodgers. I’m not sure we end up with the right solution through that lens, especially if it’s shown that the Dodgers have been cheating all along. That may give an excuse for and downplay the real issue.
I also wish the fans could be part of the negotiations! I feel like both sides are trying to maximize what they can take from the fans because they have a monopoly on what the fans want. But there is no hope of that concession ever.
Last 20 World Series which were won by 12 most valuable franchises:
2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2018
2017
2016
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006Just two exceptions – 2019 (Nationals) and 2015 (Royals). And the Nationals are complicated because they probably would be top 12 if they were winning more lately.
That’s my issue. Not the Dodgers. Just that 12-18 teams have little to no chance every season because of lack of resources. But I admit that the Brewers and even more interestingly, the Rays, are doing their best to buck this trend. So it is possible, just extremely difficult to thread that needle without resources. On the other hand, all the resources in the world don’t seem to have done much for the Mets. The Rays and Mets are truly the 2 outliers though.
I’d like to see some additional revenue sharing or draft incentives to help even the playing field. That’s actually worse for the Cardinals, but probably better for baseball in general. I’m ok with floors and caps if they make sense, but not ok with implementing them and not addressing these other issues. Just implementing a cap would be wildly stupid.
Anyway, just my 2 cents.
Bling – I’m just playing with you. I find your views to sometimes be really interesting and other times just entertaining for the downright pessimism you can dispel. Either way, I enjoy hearing your voice here at The Cardinal Nation.
Albert, knock it off. There is no reason to celebrate hitting prospects on a prospect site. We all saw Saggese and Crooks win back to back players of the year in the Texas League and now they are AAAA players. As true Sports Curmudgeons, we know nothing good will ever come of any of this prospect hype nonsense. You should just stop paying attention to prospects altogether. They will all fail. Just post about broken pitchers and what you are having for din-din.
Thank You,
The Sports Curmudgeons
I get it. On a site to talk about prospects, do not mention when they are doing well, only when they are performing poorly unless they are a pitcher who has never had an arm injury. Then it’s ok. Saying anything positive about anyone may be interpreted as exuberance or infatuation and has no place here amongst the Curmudgeons!
Hey – I was equally skeptical. Kyle Reis seemed to be too. And Bob Reed went on several rants about it. We were all wrong. Leahy has been outstanding. And it doesn’t appear to be just a lucky stretch. I sincerely doubt he’s the best pitcher in all of baseball (as his numbers since the All-Star Break may suggest), but he’s been darn good for awhile now and may deserve to be our first starting pitcher extension. Not bad for a guy drafted in the 17th round.
We know the Texas League has inflated numbers. But isn’t it still interesting when someone is the best (or 2nd best) hitter in that league and is only 19 years old?
We know that Texas League production doesn’t always (or even usually) translate to Major League production. But isn’t it still better to be a really good hitter in the Texas League as opposed to average or poor?
Bling, it feels like you dismiss all prospect stats as being irrelevant. Maybe it’s because you’ve been burned too many times. We all have. Being the best in a League is still far more predictive of future performance than being mediocre in a league. It’s ok to promote caution. Many of those guys still fail or turn out being just average. But the constant pessimism for every hitting prospect who does well gets redundant and doesn’t serve much purpose. You’re like Frank Deford’s “The Sports Curmudgeon” in the flesh.
It means almost nothing but our new position player draftees have really struggled thus far.
Williamson – .122 Avg, .411 OPS
Ferraro – .162 Avg, .481 OPS
Kennedy – .098 Avg, .367 OPS
Camacho – .238 Avg, .652 OPS
Lobliner – .185 Avg, .586 OPS
Henne – .190 Avg, .700 OPS
Condon – .444, 1.000 OPS (only 9ABs)Gagliano – I was really listing the possibles to be taken. If it were me choosing today, I’d only protect Baez, Odle, and Winquest. Maybe one or both of Rincon and Clemente to keep them leaving in free agency. I’d take the risk on leaving Cho, Davis, Lin, and Ledbetter unprotected. Those 4 are low risk, although Ledbetter has really come on lately so it’s a good thing we don’t have to decide yet.
I’m fairly certain the Cardinals would prefer not to have a Rule 5 Draft and only have to choose what they want to do with Clemente & Rincon.
Jack Ralston got called up today for the Marlins. For years, Ralston was always one of my favorite underrated prospects. Unfortunately, injuries sidelined him several times. I always thought he and Granillo could end up as fixtures in our bullpen (note that Granillo has been terrible this season – not sure what’s going on as I haven’t watched him at all).
The only player the new player development system has drafted or traded for so far to reach MLB is Blaze Jordan (unless you count Ferguson, which you probably shouldn’t). Time is needed to get everyone ready.
They could push Doyle or Franklin up now to fill innings and they might be ok. But that wouldn’t give us the best version yet of who they can be or maximize their 6 years of MLB time. The message all year is we are rebuilding. The players have outperformed expectations. Bloom has tried to support them with players who were nearly ready, but he’s not willing to fill clear holes with players who aren’t ready. That takes a certain amount of courage given the pressure from fans.
But you are right. The system does not have ready prospects to fill all its holes . . . yet.
