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Does Molinas promotion mean Fajardo may be on his way to Springfield?
That is another promotion that should happen.
Happy to see the promotion. I was probably second highest on this board on Molina after gscottar. I was hoping they would draft him out of college, but getting him in a trade for a reliever is almost better.
My acute baseball intuition tells me that Johnny was forcibly nudged out of the picture
It definitely looks as though Mo was forced out.
I wonder if this will be Flo’s last year leading the draft. If I am Mo, I’d give him a long look as a GM candidate to revitalize the Angels.
It seems many are drawing that conclusion:
MLBTR – Mo doesn’t know Moreno, may draw Flores
Jeff Fletcher of the Southern California News Group suggests that Cardinals assistant GM Randy Flores could be a candidate for the Angels job, as Flores is a known quantity to Mozeliak and has local ties as a SoCal native.
My use of stats tends toward brutalism, I admit, but with starters I like to pull up their game log on BRef and scan down the game score column, mostly to judge consistency, or lack thereof.
I’ll go a little further with stats – Molina is one year younger, has far superior ERA, BAA, WHIP and strikeouts.
Davis’ fastball can top out 1.1 mph higher, but the results say Molina is a better pitcher.
Was that a Minasian effort or one driven more by Moreno?
Given that only one GM of the Angels has pursued such a strategy during Moreno’s tenure, it seems that the rush-them-to-the-majors strategy was on Minasian.
McGreevy with a great game, but the Marlins pitcher is at 66 pitches through 6 innings. At some point, the batters need to make a decision not to swing at the first pitch they see.
I was surprised Minasian lasted as long as he did with his awful rush the draftees to the majors strategy.
Even more surprised Mozeliak “came out of retirement.”
Mozeliak is interim GM of Angels
Mo found a new job.
The problem for the last five years was trying to compete and rebuild at the same time. I hope they have learned something.
Gutting your player development and analytics staffs while throwing money at mediocre free agents isn’t trying to compete.
It’s paying lip service to the notion of trying to compete.
I am indifferent as to whether they hold May & Romero or sell them. I just don’t think it changes the direction of the club at all.
I understand what you’re saying, but can they get through Braves, Dodgers, Brewers, and Phillies and make the World Series? I don’t think holding on, or even adding a piece or 2 does it. So stick to building for 2028.
They aren’t going to be World Series contenders for a long time. But holding on to May and Romero and lining DeWitt’s pockets with a little more money doesn’t set the rebuild back at all. Have any of the prospects acquired in 2023 paid off for the Cardinals?
So the Cardinals will abandon the rebuild in order to try to have two playoff games, with no guarantee that either one of them would be at home? That seems like the exact opposite of what Bloom has been talking about since last October.
It doesn’t abandon the rebuild at all, unless they start trading a bunch of prospects for rentals, which I don’t see them doing.
If they are up 2.5 games on the wild card at the trade deadline, I would expect them to hold on to May and Romero and see how far the current group can go.
If they are in the last wild card spot or worse, I would expect them to sell.
As far as Spangler, he would probably be at the top of my list as far as HS SS available to the Cardinals, but I don’t know if he is best player available at 13, I don’t like an injury history in HS players, and if there was ever a year to use a draft strategy to maximize talent drafted, this is probably it.
The one HS SS BA has linked to the Cardinals several times is Luke Williams. I would probably prefer Ethan Bass or Trey Ebel.
As far as college shortstops, I would go after Carson Kerse, with the idea his bat can probably carry him through the minors quickly and he can join Winn & Wetherholt as a 3B in 2-3 years. For SS, I would like Jake Schaffner.
A is Dattalo and B is Gurevitch.
Actually, you have them in reverse order.
Dattalo is a corner infield only guy and his path to the majors in my opinion is much less likely if he can’t tap into more game power.
I think it is easier for bat control guys to develop power than high strikeout guys to learn plate discipline. We have seen an organizational change in how players like Cho & Richardson are now being asked to go after more power at the expense of strikeouts, because their contact-oriented approach wasn’t working. So far for Dattalo, the contact-oriented approach is working.
I really feel like there is a drop off in talent after the first 6 or 7 picks. I really don’t know what I would do at this point but I do know some players like Helfrick I am fully out on.
I am guessing you listen to the BA podcasts on Youtube…they don’t see a lot of difference between guys 8-28, and Carlos Calazzo said a few weeks ago he would prefer multiple picks at the top of the draft (like the Cardinals) than choosing #8.
I think this would be a good year to strike a pre-draft underslot deal with a draft-eligible sophomore like Cade Townsend or Tegan Kuhns and then extend how deep you go in the draft taking Top 100 players. If you can save $500k – $1 million at 13, and use the full 5% bonus pool overage, that gives you a lot of ammunition later in the draft.
I’m going to highlight two players’ offensive seasons at Palm Beach this year.
Player A:
128 PA’s – .274/.398/.538/.936 – 20 BB/39 K – 6 HRPlayer B:
125 PA’s – .396/.480/.509/.989 – 15 BB/13 K – 1 HRI don’t think the Cardinals will spend any more than they have to until they are more competitive….
But if it was my money to spend, when the time is right, I’d look at locking up core members of the team for the future before paying expensive veterans on big multi-year contracts.
Agree on both statements.
I could imagine that when they were drawing 40K, 70% of seats would be sold before the season, but when attendance is much lower (mid-20K), there would be fewer seats sold before the season and more “hey, they’re better than expected, and kinda fun” seats sold, reducing the percentage sold before the season began to a considerable degree.
I actually think it’s the opposite. As attendance was falling, the walk-up 30% shrank to about zero.
This year, the Cardinals are averaging roughly 600 more fans per game than last year. That is about a 2% increase in overall attendance from last year. Most of that is probably fans willing to spend because the Cardinals are actually more competitive this year – i.e., the walk-up fans.
They tried a right-handed hitting-heavy lineup.
And in the process, showed they have learned nothing from their struggles the past few years.
People inherently think high schoolers are better than college players, but here is the reality:
75 percent of domestic Major League players were developed through college baseball, 88 percent of whom were not ranked in high school.
since 2023, 82 college players have reached the big leagues within two years of being drafted, more than 2016-2022 combined.
According to MLB, 75 percent of high school signees do not make the Majors, and those players have used only 12 percent of the Continuing Education funds in their Minor League contracts.
I like when we pride ourselves on good defense first.
It is amazing how quickly the Cardinals abandon the defensive side of the ball, year-after-year.
Worth a read – has some nuggets of success of players by academic level, too
