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“I have no idea (who if anyone Woodford “mouthed off” to) and neither does anyone else. Regardless, it is the front office who decides who is in St. Louis and who is in Memphis.”
Fair point, gscott. It absolutely is the GM who moves players up/down between the majors/minors.
But my rage has been directed at Marmol because of his baffling usage of Woodford, making Jake the Castrated Garbagetime Guy. Ollie from the very beginning of the season refused to give Woodford any meaningful role whatsoever — and I am 99.9% confident that had nothing to do with anyone in the front office. If you’ll forgive me, I’ll just copy/paste the following from earlier in the week.
Cardinal relievers ranked by average leverage when entering the game (#’s courtesy of Fangraphs). Ranking is among the 317 MLB relievers with 10+ innings in 2022.
31. Gallegos
36. Helsley
56. Pallante
70. Cabrera
97. VerHagen
150. Oviedo
233. Wittgren
260. Thompson
290. Whitley
294. McFarland
299. Dead Skunk
300. WoodfordOllie Marmol isn’t a complete blockhead; based on these pitchers’ histories and performances in 2022, every placement on there is logical or at least defensible — except for two. VerHagen and Woodford. VerHagen and Woodford should simply be switched. And that was already quite clearly known before the season started. VerHagen: bad MLB track record and bad Spring Training. Woodford: good major league record, excellent spring. But Woodford is being punished. For something.
Marmol may be encouraged by the front office to not use relievers three days in a row, or for more than a specific number of pitches, that sort of thing. But I don’t think there’s any chance Marmol is being ordered to use certain pitchers in certain innings, or to use Pitcher X as mopup guy on Tuesday, then Pitcher Y as garbage guy on Friday, etc. This weird Woodford routine is all Ollie.
“Some really questionable stuff. Pujols playing against right-handed pitching. The shunning of Woodford. Etc.”
Indeed, cranny.
And Albert Pujols didn’t just play too many games versus righties. He hit cleanup in some of those games.Juan Yepez has twice as many starts in the outfield as at DH. That should be criminalized.
Bader hit ninth in the order against lefties on multiple occasions, including on the road.
The top of the order was Carlson to start the year. And Goldy batted second for weeks.
And then there’s all of the starts given to pitchers who at this point in their careers have no business starting an MLB game. Those numerous (and entirely foreseeable) abbreviated and ineffective starts put undo pressure on the rest of the staff — pressure on the bullpen to soak up far too many innings, and pressure on established starting pitchers to throw more innings themselves. And yes, 80-90% of this pitching staff debacle was avoidable if Marmol hadn’t been preoccupied with sticking pins in a Jake Woodford voodoo doll.
Marmol simply ignores everything that happened prior to 2022. Thus, Marmol doesn’t know which hitters and pitchers are good or bad at which skills. Marmol has no understanding that some players are more comfortable and/or more successful in certain roles. I fully expect Johan Oviedo and Packy Naughton — no matter how well they pitch coming out of the bullpen — to be given more starting assignments. They are NOT major league starting pitchers. But before the year is over, Ollie Marmol will give one or both of them some additional starts that any rational, competent manager would have simply given to Woodford.
Just you wait and see.
“Marmol is just horrible. I don’t think I’m my lifetime, I have seen a worse Cardinal manager.”
Unless you’re over 110 years old, Willie, I believe you are correct. The Roger Bresnahan teams of 1909/10 are probably the last Cardinal teams to be so poorly managed. (But I do think the Cards will win today.)
“I think he and Marmol have a personal issue between them. It needs resolved if so.”
Either way, it reflects very poorly on Marmol as a manager, and as a person. Either (1)his non-baseball vendetta towards Woodford is significantly undermining his team’s chance for success; or (2)Marmol really is as knuckleheaded as Derrick Goold and his fellow P-D scribes seem to honestly believe he is, and this “insufficient slider” nonsense should be taken at face value.
I understand why a handful of folks here don’t think this is that big of a deal. And many seasons it wouldn’t be a big deal. If the Redbird rotation were generally healthy & effective it wouldn’t matter much at all. Or if the bullpen had plenty of guys who get people out, it wouldn’t matter much at all. Or if the Cards were a 95-win team with no worries about making the playoffs, then it wouldn’t matter so much either.
But this particular year, with Marmol using 11 different starters and receiving so many truncated 3 and 4 inning starts because of it (like today!), and outright refusing to utilize a durable guy with a sub-3.00 major league ERA over his last 50 innings…well, it has already cost the team 2, maybe 3 games in the standings by my estimate.
This was the worst possible season to have a kid manager mis-managing his pitching staff this severely.
Some seasons it wouldn’t matter very much. This year it’s been deadly.I think we all know where Marmol can stick his “metric-driven” rationalizations.
It’s the mediocre-velocity but highly effective Woodford sent down to AAA again, this time to make room for that hard-throwing but useless Jordan Hicks, coming off one of the worst minor league rehabs since the days of Mark Mulder. An ERA of 12.60 overall, and five runs allowed in his final inning at AAA. Sigh.
“Maybe outs should be the focus.” Yeah, maybe. Maybe all the time, for every pitcher, every day. I know it’s not necessary to say this to an educated crowd of fans like we have here, so this is for our Boy Wonder in the manager’s chair:
A major league pitcher who gets people out is extremely valuable regardless of how he does it. Conversely, a pitcher who fails to get people out has no value, regardless of whether he throws 200 MPH or has pretty secondary pitches.
Marmol is behaving like a buffoon re Jake Woodford and he has been for months. The Post-Dispatch writers should stop giving him a pass on the matter.
“Outside of Baez and Cho, there’s no position player below AA that grabs my attention. Are there any position players down there that truly excite other posters? Not just guys who may get a cup of coffee someday.”
It’s just rookieball, and only 57 trips to the dish, but I have one name for you, cranny. The little guy on the Florida Complex team, Samil De La Rosa. He’s 18 and listed at 5′ 8″ and 175 (pretty sturdy, come to think of it). He was superficially very good in the Dominican Summer League last year with a 134 OPS+, but his mediocre BB/K numbers muted my interest. I confess his limited size sorta rebuffed me, too. I imagined a guy with no pop whatsoever.
(Brief aside re Samil’s plate discipline. In the DSL, the BB/K numbers for real, true future MLB hitters tend to be very VERY good, like 1:1 on average. Any level of pro baseball above the DSL, the expected ratios normalize immediately to 1:2 being acceptable, 2/3 being the threshold for “good,” and 1:1 being tremendous. So De La Rosa’s 14/28 BB/K last year in the DSL was fairly poor.)
After his 4-for-5 game yesterday, including his 4th longball, De La Rosa is hitting roughly .290/.370/.600 in Florida, and his plate discipline numbers haven’t collapsed with the move up from the Dominican League, as unfortunately happens so frequently with hitters. He’s walking 9% and whiffing 19%, which is okay, especially when showing power like he has. And speaking of the power, here’s the Florida Complex leaders in isolated slugging thus far (min. 30 PAs, and age 18 and under only):
1) Samil De La Rosa .314
2) Samuel Basallo .208
3) Nikau Pouaka-Grego .206
4) Luis Garcia .204
5) Jhonny Piron .184As you can see, cranny, Samil has really separated himself at the (very, very, very) early stage. It won’t continue, because he’s so small. (A 5′ 8″ guy might be a hitter, to be sure, however he will of course never be an uber-elite power hitter.) But the mere fact that the kid could homer 4 times in 15 games, at any stretch of his career…well, let’s just say that Delvin Perez hit his 4th career homer in roughly his 300th professional game.
I would place De La Rosa in my top 20-25 Cardinals prospects already. Don’t have any idea if he’ll stick on the infield or can run well enough for the outfield…but I like what he’s shown with the lumber so far. Because he must be doing it with bat speed, not brute strength.
Weird game for Gordon Graceffo. Only one run in 5 2/3 innings (good!), but just two strikeouts against two walks (bad!). He induced 13 groundouts and there were no fly balls. The four hits were an infield single, two line-drive singles, and a lined double.
In any case, Graceffo has now permitted a Double-A slashline of .216/.248/.346. (For those who like round numbers, the overall league on-base percentage is exactly 100 points higher, at .348.) Is he trying to be more of a groundball guy? Or was this a one-off? I guess time’ll tell.
In other news, Samil De La Rosa looks kind of interesting. Gotta like little infielders with some pop in the bat.
“Good idea. I’d trade Gomez before I’d trade Burleson.”
Yup.
“You would also get a lot less for him.”
Double-yup.
Other front offices are doubtless examining Moises’ Double-A numbers this year, mentally regressing his BABIP to a more reasonable .350 or so, and ending up with a .240 guy striking out 35% of the time despite being slightly old for his league (24 next month). That’s a combustible combo.
Malcom Nunez is probably viewed more favorably by outsiders. Less defensive value than Moises, but steady reasonable strikeout rates for his career, plus a blossoming patience/power combo — and he’s 2 1/2 years younger than Gomez. Big, big difference there.
Prediction! It’ll be Nunez plus Connor Thomas to some team, for someone. And Connor Thomas will turn into another Marco Gonzales by 2024, and Nunez into another Juan Yepez by 2025. For me that’s a bit too much for 1 1/3 seasons of the oft-injured Frankie Montas, but not near enough for 2 1/3 years of German Marquez.
Jack has pretty much reached the Jaime Garcia Inflection Point. In other words, as a fan I now hope for the best but expect nothing. Literally nothing.
On a barely related note, Baseball-Reference shows Matt Liberatore starting against the Phils on Saturday, but didn’t I read he was starting for Memphis tonight?
Speaking of pitcher injuries, Jordan Hicks has been raked over the coals in his four miserable AAA rehab appearances (5 IP, 7 hits and 4 walks, 7 earned runs for a 12.60 ERA, and fanned just 5 of 25 batters) but apparently he’s coming back to the majors anyway.
We all love velocity. But simpletons love velocity even when it doesn’t get people out. Hey, maybe the Cards can find Maikel Cleto and bring him back, too.
“I know guys who throw short outings aren’t usually eligible for POTD but Tink Hence has to be considered for his work today… 3 IP (10 batters faced), 1 hit, 0 walks, 0 runs, 8 swinging strikeouts. He used only 37 pitches to get all 9 outs.”
Agreed 100%, 25. Tink was terrif again. Now with a 36-to-7 K/BB ratio in just 21 innings, and he’s holding opponents to a .164 slugging percentage. No kidding.
And just 37 pitches to get 9 outs, even though 8 were via strikeout? How is that even possible when the Mad Hungarian has told us 1,000 times that strikeouts unduly increase your pitch count so it’s better to pitch-to-contact? (I love Al, honest. After Gibson and Brock, he was the Cardinal hero of my childhood. The Fu Manchu, the glove-punching, I loved it all. But it’s not whiffs that drive up pitch counts. It’s walks. Those devil walks.)
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He only went 2-for-2 tonight, but Jordan Walker rates a special mention because he has escaped his mini-slump by reaching base safely 9 straight times — and still counting. Two singles, three doubles, three walks, and a HBP over the past two nights. Walker has gotten some national attention (primarily at Baseball Prospectus, where he was correctly ranked in the top 10 overall prospects during the winter) but still not nearly enough by my lights.
For context, Jordan’s OPS is now 50 points higher than Nolan Gorman’s was last year for Springfield. And Walker is a full year younger than Gorman was in 2021. And he’s walking 28% more often than Gorman did. And Gorman struck out 30% more frequently in AA than Walker has. And Jordan is stealing bases. Now a dandy 15-of-18, in 63 games.
Thanks to his excellent 2021 performance, Nolan Gorman over the winter was a consensus top 25-35 prospect. (Well, except for Fangraphs who laughably ranked him 55th. Prospectus had him 28th, Pipeline 33rd, and BB America 34th.) So let’s do a head-to-head: Walker has the higher OPS, is substantially younger, makes markedly better contact, has distinctly more patience, and runs the bases better. Those five advantages dwarf Gorman’s very likely eventual MLB edge in defensive contribution.
Gunnar Henderson is the only prospect decisively preferable to Jordan Walker right now.
“This club really loses games you think are in the bag. That April game against the Mets, last Sunday against the Cubs, and now this one. Maybe we come back in the 9th, but if not this is another tough one to take.”
Yup, this makes four un-loseable games that were somehow lost anyway. And it’s not even July yet. Third game lost after leading with two outs in the ninth inning (two of those with two out, two strikes), plus blowing the 5-0 lead and losing to the execrable cubs.
Can’t blame Marmol for this one. But I still hate him. Bad managers find ways to lose.
Hope you don’t mind my usurping your idea, cranny, but I thought I’d jump ahead a bit to the post-Goldschmidt 2025 campaign. My lineup, with Opening Day ages:
Edman SS, age 29
Winn CF, 23
Gorman 2B, 24
Arenado 3B, 33
Carlson RF, 26
Walker LF, 22
Yepez DH, 27
Nunez/Burleson 1B, 24/26
Herrera C, 24Playing the optimist, there could be half a dozen #3 type hitters in that lineup. And by “#3 type hitter” I mean a good #3, a better-than-average #3, i.e., an OPS of 125 or better. (MLB average for the 3-hole is 116 this year and 121 last season.) I know. But a man can dream, can he not?
I’m not completely averse to trading Alec Burleson if the return is right. Say, with a sweetener, in exchange for German Marquez who’s in a down year and therefore might be pretty get-able. (Would Colorado be less inclined to swap with the Birds, though, following the Nolan Arenado trade backlash?)
But I really, really like the idea of platooning Burly at 1st base with Malcom Nunez, once Goldy leaves after the 2024 season. I know it’s probably thinking too far ahead — and the Cards as an organization have never embraced platooning as far back as I can recall — but their cumulative 2021/22 splits just beg for a tag team approach.
2021 & 2022 combined:
Burly v. righties .905 OPS (just .706 against southpaws)
Nunez v. lefties .939 OPS (only .723 versus normals)And the splits for each of them are even more pronounced than that, this season (Burleson well over 1.000 v. RHP and Nunez 1.100+ v. LHP). They could share first base. Or Yepez could take first, and Nunez/Burly could have the designated hitter role. Either way, Alecom Nunerly looks like a whale of a hitter.
If you were ever going to start such a terrible defensive outfield, this would be the time. Hudson on the bump, and multiple injuries to the outfield starters. Just hope the Birds can garrote Garrett and the defense behind Dakota won’t matter too much.
“Graceffo supposedly did a heavy off-season training regime that added about 4 MPH to his fastball. I’m hopeful some other system pitchers might see this and emulate him with similar results.”
Yeah, I hear you, C.C. Supposedly Graceffo is a highly motivated workout fiend. Very driven, dedicated. I guess I’m just a little leery about big velocity bumps in a relatively short timeframe. Seems they presage arm troubles with a lot of guys — at least I kind of recall John Sickels and other evaluators opining such.
“Villanova hasn’t exactly been a hotbed of baseball talent. This century, only 3 Villanova players have made it to the Major Leagues.”
“In 2006, Adam Wainwright was in 61 games, with no starts. I don’t believe he was ever slotted to be a bullpen pitcher long term. Perhaps it’s a good way for a very talented starter to cut his teeth at the major league level.”
Thanks for the Graceffo research, cranny. Didn’t realize Villanova’s hardball history was that dreary. Ugh.
And as for Waino and the MLB apprenticeship of minor league pitchers, I actually DO like the Earl Weaver Template, i.e., breaking in the future MLB starter as an MLB reliever — but generally, like with Jim Palmer, for multiple innings rather than the Jordan Hicks Model of “throw as hard as you possibly can, for as long as you can, before your arm falls off like in Saving Private Ryan.”
“Bob, I’m originally a central Illinoisan as well then moved up here after college.”
Sounds like me, ChiTown, right down to the early minor league games in Springfield (though my very first games featured the looong-defunct Decatur Commodores). Right after college it was Chicago for me, too. From 1984-2001 in Hyde Park, Old Town, Lincoln Park, Ukrainian Village, and finally by Belmont & Western. Still get back there five, six times a year to see old friends, play poker, and generally misbehave.
“Old school stats, Bob Reed. New school stats apparently say he is bad.”
Maybe so, Kansas. Maybe so. But that schism describes Andre Pallante faaar more than Woodford. Specifically, Pallante’s FIP is more than double his ERA this year. At any rate, Jake’s FIP has been just fine since the latter part of last year because of the home run drought he’s allowed. (One longball since last Labor Day.) Anyway, an update!
These numbers include tonight’s tilt. Redbird ERAs and innings pitched since Sept. 1, 2021. Pitchers listed alphabetically and without comment.
Cabrera: 2.01 ERA in 44.2 IP
Gallegos: 3.16 ERA in 42.2 IP
Hudson: 3.55 ERA in 83.2 IP
Mikolas: 3.14 ERA in 126 IP
Wainwright: 3.17 ERA in 127.2 IP
Woodford: 2.74 ERA in 49.1 IP——————————————————
But wait! There’s more! Cardinal relievers ranked by average leverage when entering the game (#’s courtesy of Fangraphs). Ranking is among the 317 MLB relievers with 10+ innings in 2022.
31. Gallegos
36. Helsley
56. Pallante
70. Cabrera
97. VerHagen
150. Oviedo
233. Wittgren
260. Thompson
290. Whitley
294. McFarland
299. Dead Skunk
300. WoodfordSince he’s been given zero responsibility/opportunity this year, it’s actually pretty surprising that Jake has posted an excellent ERA just over 3.00. Because for his career, he’s pitched best in the higher leverage situations. These career MLB splits are from Baseball-Reference:
High Leverage .355 slugging allowed
Medium Leverage .414
Low Leverage .432Maybe that absolutely pointless garbagetime shutout inning tonight will be just the motivation that Ollie Marmol needs to give Jake Woodford a rotation shot, now that Jack Flaherty is out again!
Great game for Waino and the bats. Man, there is some nice young talent on this roster. Too bad the Boy Wonder is managing for the foreseeable future.
Thanks for seconding my opinion, ChiTown.
Why can’t everyone just agree with me all the time about everything? Salma Hayek could move to central Illinois to live with me. The government could finally bestow that lucrative grant to shoot pool and watch baseball all day and drink beer all night. And the Birds could replace Marmol with Stubby.
And I agree with you, cranny, that Graceffo is certainly a superior prospect than McGreevy right now. McGreevy has done quite well for his first full minor league season, and a mid-rotation career is not implausible at all. But Graceffo has been on a different level. I think if Gordon had toiled for a more prestigious baseball college/conference, he would’ve been drafted a couple rounds higher. But maybe the Cardinal farm coaches have also helped him a lot in his maturation as a pitcher.
I feel like maybe there might be some mischaracterization of Jake Woodford’s minor league track record. His ERA’s were sometimes very good, sometimes just okay. But always he was young. Young in general and more importantly young for his league. And that matters — sometimes quite a bit.
In 2019 in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League, Woodford posted a seemingly uninteresting 4.15 ERA. But the things is, that was 4th in the league. And he was only 22. And the three above him were 27-32 years old. And the league leader posted a not-much-better 3.82 ERA. Then as now, it was a hitter’s league.
There were 26 pitchers in the PCL that year who threw 100+ innings, and Jake was the youngest of them all. (And it was no small sample; he was also 2nd in the league in innings pitched, just 1.2 IP behind the leader.)
So at 22 he put up a very good Triple-A season.
At 23 he struggled in his limited MLB debut, with a 5.57 ERA across just 21 innings.
Then last year at 24 he had a solid 3.99 ERA in 68 innings, and was excellent in 5 September starts.
And thus far this year it’s a 3.20 ERA in 20 major league innings.I just don’t see any rational reason at all that anyone would think he is not already a boringly solid major league pitcher — either in long relief or starting at the back of a rotation. He does not throw real hard. He is not exciting. He’s just an effective major league pitcher. And I dare say any manager who needs more than that doesn’t understand baseball.
“Edman SS, Winn CF, Goldy 1B, Arenado 3B, Gorman 2B, Walker LF, Yepez/Burly DH, Carlson RF, Herrera C”
“The defense on this lineup pans out as average. So no, I’m not too impressed with that lineup.”
I’m not sure how you’ve reached that conclusion, Willie, regarding their glovework. Walker and Winn are unknowns as outfielders, to be sure. But Walker runs well and Winn is a burner with a bazooka arm. Given their physical gifts and work ethics, I think for now it’s safe to assume they’ll be at least competent covering the green baize.
With Yepez and Burleson sharing the designated bopper role, I don’t see any below average defenders (save for Herrera, perhaps) and there’s multiple legitimate Gold Glovers. Looks like a good-to-very-good defense from where I’m sitting.
When Alex Reyes was in the minors, the reg flags were there indicating he was likely headed for the bullpen. Shaky health record, and more importantly he needed roughly 20 pitches per inning (over the course of entire seasons) even when he was posting low ERAs as a starting pitcher.
That’s not Graceffo. He’s been both healthy & efficient, as well as effective. He’s a starter and no amount of velocity or perceived MLB need should alter that fact one jot.
I hope and pray that Graceffo is given plenty of AA and AAA time — like Wainwright and Lance Lynn were given — to fully grow into the best possible version of himself, which could be special based on his amateur and professional performances thus far. There is no compelling reason right now NOT to project G.G. as a top-of-the-rotation MLB arm in a few years. He just needs time. He needs the patience of the organization. The patience Hicks & Alcantara & Gallen did not get.
“If it were up to me Donovan is the everyday 2B. Gorman and Yepez can share DH duties….”
There’s two websites that quantify minor league defensive value (Baseball Prospectus and Clay Davenport) and if we combine their numbers we should get at the very least a reasonable estimate of each player’s glovework to this point in their careers.
Gorman’s defense — again, averaging the only two public graders — has been excellent for his career, and dandy at the keystone. He doesn’t look like a traditional middle infielder, but that’s what the numbers say. On the other hand, Brendan’s great at the plate but not so hot with the glove.
Specifically, per 150 games Nolan Gorman has been 12 runs better than Brendan Donovan according to Clay Davenport’s site, and a whopping 18 runs better per Prospectus. That’s good enough for me to keep Nolan at second base until further notice, and keep Donovan a supersub who takes great at-bats while mostly filling in where he does the least harm with his glove.
As we saw with the 2021 Redbirds, a team can really get burned when their bench is bad. So there’s no harm having guys like Burly or Donovan contributing off the bench — even if they could start for 12-15 other teams.
“Edman SS, Winn CF, Goldy 1B, Arenado 3B, Gorman 2B, Walker LF, Yepez/Burly DH, Carlson RF, Herrera C
Have the Cardinals ever had a lineup potentially as powerful and exciting as this?”Maybe not, cranny. Taking into consideration just the past 40-50 years, the “MV3” teams were top-heavy in their production. But star-tilted or not, they did lead the N.L. in OPS for the four-year stretch of 2002-5. But your assemblage would be more dynamic in the field and on the bases, not much doubt of that.
The sole cause for caution might be the limited overlap of excellence. Winn and Walker could both be future Hall Of Famers, but still not be stars until 2024 or 2025, when Goldy is gone and Arenado is old.
“Carlson’s OPS+ is 103 which is not really what you want to see in a corner outfielder.”
Agreed, for sure. But since being removed from the unfamiliar and uncomfortable leadoff role, Carlson has been fine with a 115-120 OPS+. And he was reeeal good over the second half of the 2021 season.
Now I don’t expect Dylan to be a star per se, but I do think he’ll put up 3-4 WAR seasons going forward. He’s younger than Yepez & Donovan, and only a month older than Burleson. So there’s unquestionably 5-WAR upside if he can reclaim his 130 OPS+ or so from last year’s second half.
“Bader’s 97+ is maybe barely OK for a center fielder.”
Bader since the start of 2018 (his first full season) has an OPS+ of exactly 100, and per both Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference had been worth about 12 WAR in just over 1,600 plate appearances. Which of course is outstanding production on a per-AB basis. (Bader’s trouble has been [1]staying healthy, and [2]receiving maximum playing time from Mike Shildt. Mostly the former, of course.)
It actually shocked me when I looked this up, Bling, but of the top 15 CF defenders over the past 5 MLB seasons, Bader has the second-highest OPS+ during that stretch! The only good-glove CF who hit really well was Byron Buxton.
Here’s a Fangraphs link: https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=cf&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&season=2022&month=0&season1=2018&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=2018-01-01&enddate=2022-12-31&sort=21,d&page=1_50
Basically, if you want a centerfielder who can hit, you gotta be prepared to give up some glovework. And vice-versa, obviously.
“But now maybe Woodford finally gets some opportunities where these 5+ guys were being used.”
Anybody wanna bet on that? Woodford will only get meaningful innings if Marmol goes on the Covid list and someone else is named interim manager.
Marmol is punishing Jake for some transgression. Heck, it took Ollie two full months to even invent for the sake of the press the phony “bad slider” excuse for Woodford’s bizarre/humiliating garbage-time role — and eventual demotion to Triple-A.
