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Having the highest payroll in the NL Central isn’t a high bar. The only team that should have a higher payroll is Chicago.
Pujols had three of the hardest hit balls of the game, including one with an exit velocity of 106 mph. For one day, he looked good even if his results did not.
Let’s keep moving the goal posts.
What is the definition of hard-nosed?
Bader gets a lot of his value from defense. Isn’t that where the definition of hard-nosed comes from?
Bader – 10.6 bWAR in 1451 PAs
Edman – 8.8 bWAR in 1267 PAsBader averages 4.38 bWAR / 600, Edman averages 4.17. But now Edman is hard-nosed and Bader is a goof.
Bader actually has a career .836 OPS against lefties.
As for the idea Bader is platoon only:
In 1,083 PA’s against righties, Bader had a career.238/.320/.386 slash line, good enough for a .706 OPS.In 977 PA’s against righties, Edman has a .266/.318/.382 slash line, for a .700 OPS.
Edman is our lead off hitter and Bader can’t hit.
Matheny would bench Bader to get the mighty bats (and horrific defense) of Dexter Fowler and Jose Martinez in the lineup.
Shildt benched Bader to get Dylan Carlson in the lineup when Carlson’s OPS was 500 points below Bader’s.
Both of them were fired for not buying into analytics.
So again, where does this narrative come from?
“Now I’d like to see a full season from him.”
Where does this narrative that Bader can’t play a full season come from?
In 2018, he missed two days due to a hamstring.
In 2019, he missed 9 games due to a hamstring and one day due to a stiff neck.
In 2021, he missed 25 games due to a forearm strain, and he has said he has changed his workout routine because of it. He also missed 34 games due to a rib injury from landing on a ball on a play he makes 98.99% of the time.
So, where does this narrative come from that he can’t play a full season?
This is stupid.
I guess the Cardinals are trying to cover over they didn’t actually try to upgrade the team this offseason with a nostalgia tour.
Now, if the Cardinals would be inspired to do a similar deal for Trevor Story and then trade Paul DeJomg for a AAA Pitcher…
I generally figure a baseball player will lose 40-60 points of OBP in the jump from AAA to MLB. Baker simply does not have the on base skills to be a MLB player IMO.
In 2020, Bader was benched in the middle of a hot streak for a guy that had an OPS .500 points below him. But the narrative here is he can’t play a full season.
Why do people say that about certain prospects or how the Cardinals’ system had an implosion of pitching last year?
Every player in every system that was not at the alt site had the same obstacle to overcome.
It was 4.5 per 9, according to Baseball Reference.
He is also left-handed, and held lefties to a .074 avg and .130 slugging %
The non-tender player I think the Cardinals should pursue is Andrew Vasquez from the Dodgers. 37.4% strikeout rate and 61.8% groundball rate in AAA.
And if people want to argue the value of WAR, I am right there with you. We should really be reading WAR as “Bader’s WAR was 5.8/600 +/- 2 WAR”.
Same for every other player. There is enough of a difference I feel comfortable saying Bader was better than Canha and Taylor.
The only one that would give me pause is Marte (until I look at the cost).
@kscardfan – WAR was created to stop the type of arguments you are making. Yes, defense is part of the game. Bader’s offense was 16% better than league average last year, and his defense is elite. That makes him more valuable than an elite offensive player who is one of the worst defenders in baseball.
Castellanos in right and Carlson in center takes our outfield defense from elite to poor.
If you want to make the argument the Cardinals should sign Castellanos as a DH, that is fine. Though I think the Cardinals prefer Yepez at $20 million less per season.
To argue Castellanos improves our outfield is a terrible hill to die on.
