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You can count on your hand how many prospects there are showing some good progress this season.
The minor league teams are disappointing, and markedly so. But for me, plenty of individuals have raised their stock in a significant way.
Dylan Carlson has gone from borderline top 100 to definite overall top 40. Nolan Gorman from top 60 to top 30 or so. Ivan Herrera from roughly #140 to a certain top 100, likely in the 70-80 range. (No one nationally is talking about Herrera, but get these parallels/comparisons. He’s exactly the same age as Gorman, has a great pre-2019 track record just like Gorman, will have more defensive value than Gorman if he sticks at catcher, and is walking more and whiffing less than Gorman against the same pitchers this year. If he had the glove of fellow backstop Julio Rodriguez, Ivan Herrera would already be a top 50 prospect, and easily so.)
And speaking of Julio Rodriguez, he’s still 21 and the best player in the Florida State League so far. So he’s leaped from top 350-400 to borderline top 100 for me. Others to have moved up meaningfully are Tommy Edman, Lars Nootbaar, Justin Toerner, and Brady Whalen. None of that quartet threatens a reasonable top 100 list, but they all rate top 300 for me now. Maybe top 200 for Tommy.
On the pitching side there’s Angel Rondon, Johan Oviedo, Diego Cordero, and despite his recent struggles Jesus Cruz. And this is top-of-my-head. I’m sure there have been other breakouts I’m not recalling just now, Ny. Especially pitchers.
I would say that the farm system overachievers and underachievers have balanced out quite evenly thus far. But the truly ugly bullpens at both Memphis and Springfield have cost those teams innumerable contests, and made the overall farm system look terrible on many nights.
One last note: Carlson, Herrera, and Gorman may be hitting even better this year than their excellent numbers imply. They have combined for a home OPS just above .770 this year, but a road OPS over 1.000.
“Arauz has had four straight poor showings including two disasters and IMO needs to perform well tonight to avoid having a decision made to have him continue on.”
In 2017, when Arauz was with the Phillies pitching across three levels, he was fine as a starter but spectacularly successful pitching out of the bullpen. I mean, a world-beater.
The numbers in relief: 60.2 IP, 1.48 ERA, sub-2.00 FIP, 59 strikeouts and 8 walks, and 2 homers. (That’s exactly what a terrific future reliever looks like.)
Meanwhile, also in 2017, Jordan Hicks was spectacularly successful as a 20-year-old starting pitcher over the final two months across two A-ball leagues. High strikeouts, low walks, zero home runs, tons and tons of groundballs, and an incredibly efficient 12.8 pitches per inning. (Exactly what a terrific future starter looks like.)
So I’m thinking that perhaps someone in the Redbird front office just got their Aruaz & Hicks files switched. Made the reliever a starter and the starter a reliever, all by mistake. To quote Zach Galifianakis, it was a classic mix-up! (But with no humor.)
Since a terrible first week (4-27) Montero is batting .280/.345/.520.
And Dylan Carlson is now in the Texas League top 10 in homers and triples and doubles. I doubt if anyone else in any other league can make the same claim.
“Malcom just popped up to the 1st baseman. I figured it would only take him a handful of ABs to get settled in. He should be stroking it pretty good when Bobby Reed hits town on Wednesday to take in the action.”
I’m afraid Wednesday is just a 50-50 proposition, Pugs. Overriding family health question remains uncertain at this time. Here’s hoping.
We shouldn’t get too impatient with the young ‘uns. The MWL is a tough, tough hitting environment in general, and Peoria is a pitcher’s park on top of it. For instance, Ivan Herrera’s OPS is 140 points higher on the road than at home — and Nolan Gorman’s OPS away from Dozer Park is over 400 points higher. Yeah, 400 points.
“Bad timing for him to miss on Nunez and Torres, but good for the folks able to see games in Peoria. Hopefully they do well.”
I may be going to Wednesday’s game. If I do, I’ll file a full report, 25.
Not sure how Torres and Nunez both make a top 5 Cardinal list, what with Gorman, Montero, Knizner, Carlson, and Ivan Herrera each distinctly ahead of them. Herrera for instance is younger than Torres and already succeeding conspicuously for the Chiefs.
If Ivan keeps doing what he’s doing, there’s pretty much no way that Torres can catch him this year — especially given that Herrera has much more defensive upside, too, if he remains at catcher. I like Torres plenty (roughly 12-14 slot in the organization), but I can’t help feeling that some folks are overreacting to his blistering three weeks with the Gulf Coast Birds last year. Throw out those 17 games and his career track record is good-but-unspecial.
I mean, if we’re going to completely re-evaluate a guy based on that kind of sample size, in a league where he is merely age-appropriate, then let’s make Julio Rodrigez a top 30-40 overall prospect right now. Because he’s a 21-year-old catcher with a nearly 200 wRC+ in High-A, his defensive markers are all off the charts, and he has the lowest strikeout rate of the 44 hitters in his league with an above average isolated slugging. So high ceiling, safe floor — if we only look at his 90+ trips to the plate this year.
“Lost opportunities and poor execution. Any professional batter, even a pitcher, should be able to lay down a bunt, period. It’s a required skill.”
“Schildt (sic) should be reading them the riot act right about now.”I cannot disagree more strongly, on all counts.
Each and every player has certain skills and certain limitations. Munoz or Musial, it doesn’t matter. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses.It is the job — the primary job — of the major league manager to know what his hitters and pitchers can and cannot do. And then, if he has any competence whatsoever, he will put his players in a position to succeed as much as is reasonably possible.
Yairo Munoz had never executed a sac bunt in the major leagues. He has only two of them over the past four years as a professional ballplayer. It was therefore un-reasonable to have him bunt.
But that’s not the punchline. Here’s the punchline. Since arriving in the majors, Yairo Munoz has been maybe the best hitter in all of baseball when he has a man on first base and fewer than two outs. In 63 trips to the plate he has batted .446, slugged .679, and struck out just 6 times. He has hit into just 4 double plays.
As a major leaguer, Yairo Munoz has killed the ball with men on base, and he’s killed it most in so-called “bunting situations.” Just like the day before, Shildt managed his team straight into a defeat. And yet, obviously some people still want to blame the players.
Munoz was the right man at the right time…but with the wrong manager, deploying him in the absolutely wrong way.
(Also, thanks CC for clarifying my Hicks remarks last night. I thought I was articulate enough, but I guess not. Of course I only meant that Hicks had been ridden too hard Friday to be safely used in Saturday’s game if needed.)
And with that, so long.
How many times was the tying run on third base with fewer than two outs tonight, and the Cardinals declined to even attempt a safety squeeze? Four times? Five? More?
And what was the Wainwright bunt supposed to be? Is Shildt honestly too stupid to realize that Wainwright did the one thing the opposition would most WANT him to do, i.e., make an out on purpose (when there’s already one out in the inning, by the way) without even trying to score the runner from third?
On an almost daily basis Mike Shildt is making mistakes (of both omission and commission) worse than any Redbird manager in my memory, including Vern Rapp — most obviously re-installing Dexter Fowler in centerfield full time, among innumerable other philosophical or tactical gaffes.
How’s about allowing Jordan Hicks to throw 28 pitches when trailing in the ninth inning tonight? Inexcusable, with games tomorrow and the next day. A dozen pitches to shake some rust off, okay. But nearly 30? With the effort he expends? Now using him tomorrow is dangerous to even consider.
Between the repeated front office blunders of the past 2-3 years, and the ongoing Shildt dugout buffoonery, I’m pretty much throwing in the towel on the organization getting back to what it was from 2012-2015, or was for well over a decade under LaRussa/Jocketty. There are just too many bad decisions being made day in and day out, at all levels.
Maybe Girsch is more the problem than Mo, I dunno. This decline did start pretty much when Mo was granted his title inflation and kinda sorta bumped upstairs. But it’s no fun cheering for stupidity and incompetence. It’s just too exhausting. Last year it was waiting and waiting and waiting for someone to figure out how Luke Weaver and Greg Holland were tipping their pitches. This year it’s Dakota Hudson. Next year I guess it’ll be Hicks or Flaherty of someone else.
And now we get to wait for who knows how long before Shildt alters the worst defensive outfield in Cardinal history. Seriously, how can anyone keep his self-respect after writing Ozuna, Fowler, Martinez as his starting outfield? So anyway, I won’t be following the MLB team any more until either the front office is overhauled or manager replaced. Life’s too short to waste on ugly baseball and idiot managers.
(I’ll still pontificate about the minors, though. Some of those guys are going to be REAL good.)
I don’t know, CC. But here’s a fun stat:
Versus lefties, for his MLB career so far, Bader has posted a 151 wRC+. Let’s see how that compares to a couple other center fielders we all know.
Willie Mays for his career had a 154 wRC+ and Joe DiMaggio had a 152. Since Bader’s defense/baserunning is very likely better than the Clipper’s, but not as great as the Say Hey Kid’s, it’s fair to say that when Bader plays against southpaws, he’s more or less the midpoint of Joe DiMaggio and Willie Mays. (Joe D. was worth just over 6 WAR per 600 PA’s for his career, and Mr. Mays 7.5.)
Now, does that sound like someone who should ever be benched against a lefty, under any circumstances?
I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that this is a conflicted organization right now. They are a mid-market team that has done a great job over the past decade-plus at developing players and pitchers from within…but they have recently made a series of fairly massive commitments — both financial and emotional — to aging or aged athletes. Moreover, their current manager has shown a tendency to favor veterans of questionable or severely imbalanced skillsets over young players who need every day playing time, in order to potentially get to where Paul DeJong (and to a lesser extent, Kolten Wong) have arrived.
Anyway, I hope that if Tyler O’Neill homers once a game in Triple-A for the next ten or twelve days, the front office can convince Mike Shildt to find four or five starts a week for him in the majors.
“Also, Eduardo Perez just said that Bengie Molina said that Yadi has “a lot of baseball left to play.” NyQuist triggered??”
If Yadi is signed beyond his current contract (for the same per-year $$), the Cards in 2021 will be paying roughly $100M to the quintet of Carpenter, Goldschmidt, Molina, Fowler, and Mikolas, who will average 35 years of age at that point.
But it isn’t the extreme likelihood of much dead moneyy that’s worrisome. It’s the blocking of better players, due mostly if not entirely to contractual commitments. That’s potentially a big problem in two years — perhaps even bigger than it was last year, when the stubborn usage of Fowler, Holland, Cecil, and Gregerson cost the team a playoff spot, and maaaybe even a chance at the division title.
So I suppose I’m the one who was “triggered,” 25. I love Yadi and Carp, but guys in their mid-late 30’s provide a lot more unpleasant surprises than pleasant ones. (And I suspect this era of high velocity will only exacerbate the aging curve for hitters going forward.)
Rotten series, at the wrong time. The club was bad at pitching, baserunning, batting, and real bad in centerfield defensively whenever Bader wasn’t out there. Honestly, during Spring Training, who among us thought we’d ever again see Dexter Fowler attempt to play center field in the majors? Honestly, based on the bizarre events of last year I knew than Shildt had a thing for Fowler, but I didn’t know how far it might extend. Now, I understand, he’s got a great head-to-head hitting record against Quintana.
So start Fowler in right field! Bader has to be in CF as long as he’s healthy. That’s how much better his glove is than anyone else on the team. And of course, re Jose Quintana, Bader murders southpaws. His whole life. At every level including MLB. Will someone please tell the manager all about that?
And yet, despite Mike Shildt’s highly questionable managerial notions the Cards are 1/2 game out, and on pace for 95 wins, despite also having played one of the four or five roughest schedules in the sport. (The easy stretch is from mid-June to the Midsummer Classic, when the Birds will play the Marlins 7 times, and have another 18 games all of which could be against teams with losing records by then. The best of the bunch are Seattle, San Diego, and the Mets. Okay teams, but not too daunting. I see a 17-8 or 18-7 run to finish the season’s first half.)
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It’s really stupid that the series was a sweep. I mean, think about it.
Yesterday the Cards led by four runs early but the Cubs had the bases loaded. Lucky for the Birds, there was one out already, and due up were an aging journeyman non-hitter whose name I have already forgotten, barely a quad-A player, and then the pitcher’s spot with his career sub-.100 average — and it was early enough in the game that very likely neither one of those awful non-hitters would be pinch-hit for. So there was an 80-90% chance that the Cards would leave the inning with at least a 2-run lead. And probably a better than even money chance they’d retain the entire 4-run lead.And based on all the events that followed, if they leave the inning with a multi-run lead, they almost assuredly win the game. And if they win the game, they’re 1 1/2 games in front of the cubs now, and on pace for a 100-win season.
So if not for the capricious and malicious gods of baseball interceding on behalf of that journeyman cipher yesterday, the Cards would be sitting very pretty indeed right now. Good for whatshisname. He got a grand slam he can tell his grandchildren about some day. Right after asking them if they want fries with their Big Mac.
“Shildt should have had Bader hit for Fowler.”
It certainly would have been the smartest thing, if a little impolitic. Delicate Dexter and all.
Fowler v. lefties this year, .533 OPS.
Bader v. lefties this year, 1.086 OPS (.948 MLB career, and roughly 1.200 in the minors).I’d like to think that if it had been the 7th or 8th inning instead of the 5th, that Shildt would have pinch hit for Fowler. But I just don’t know.
Bader has to not only start against every lefty, he should obviously bat near the TOP of the order every single time. And his lefty-mashing should have been leveraged today — though, again, I did not expect Shildt to remove Fowler that early in the game. I’m not sure any manager would have removed any veteran who’s been hitting well, in favor of a much younger player, just because of extreme splits.
But Mr. Shildt? Think of tactics like this: If you make a move that the opposing manager did NOT want you to make, then you are on the right track. And believe me, Joe Maddon did NOT want to see Harrison Bader at the plate with a lefty on the mound and the bases loaded.
Hendricks shouldn’t be great. But he just is. Not just against the Cards. But he’s faaar more frustrating to watch pitch, than Maddux was. Because Hendricks has no fastball, at all.
But let’s look at how the unimposing twerp with no fastball has done. Over the past five years, in the entire majors there are only eight pitchers with a lower ERA and more innings than Hendricks. They are: Scherzer, Kershaw, DeGrom (yes, I’m going to capitalize your last name whether YOU do or not, Jacob), Verlander, Arrieta, Kluber, Grienke, and Chris Sale. So, Chris Sale plus a pile of Cy Young Award winners. How many Cy Awards are accounted for there? About fifteen or so?
Hendricks is not an ace. But he is a number one starter. If you are one of the top 10 or 12 starting pitchers in baseball over a 4-5 year period, you are a number one. By definition.
Those eight aforementioned stars and superstars of the bump are the only pitchers we can say definitively have been better than Kyle Hendricks over the past half decade. And you have no idea how much it baffles and pains me to type those words.
This cubs run was MADE by the Arrieta and Hendricks trades. Not just that, of course. But I would argue that they had to have them, or they’re just another good-to-very-good team for the past several seasons. Theo Epstein has developed ONE starting pitcher from scratch in his nearly 20-year career, and that was Clay Buchholz a long, long, long time ago. (And they have drafted an awful lot of pitchers in rounds 3-10 over the years.)
Arrieta and Hendricks saved Epstein from his rather astonishing incompetence at pitcher draft & development. And he deserves full marks for trading for them.
Paul Goldschmidt has been a monster with men on base over his career.
Bases Empty: .869 OPS with an average BB/K ratio of 300/632
Men On Base: .997 OPS with a solid BB/K ratio of 266/463But here’s the weird catch. He’s not good with the bases loaded. In fact he’s much worse with the bases loaded than he is in any other men-on-base situation.
Bases Loaded: .854 OPS with a crap BB/K ratio of 6/28
Well, make that 6/29 now. I’m not saying that Shildt shouldn’t have used him there. Not saying that at all. But it makes for an interesting study of psychology, in that Goldy certainly appears to simply place too much pressure on himself, or just gets impatient, when the sacks are jammed. He isn’t himself.
“Leone warming up. Cards are hell bent on not sweeping this series.”
If you don’t let Leone pitch in the ninth inning or later, you’re usually okay. Career OPS allowed, very very late in games: over 1.140 in 151 plate appearances. (Not a typo. 1.140+ OPS.)
6th inning: .657 OPS in 204 PA’s
7th inning: .675 in 237 PA’s
8th inning: .644 in 166 PA’s“Here are a couple of names that caught my eye as possible exceptions.
Nootbaar had five homers, but batted only .227 in April.
Montero started slowly, but was playing well the last 10 days before he was injured.”Yeah, I can see an argument for Elehuris Montero as a grey area guy, as he’s come on strongly of (very) late. I suspect that your optimism is not misplaced, Brian.
Lars Nootbaar is having an unusually promising start. I’m stickin’ to it.
He doesn’t offer much in the way of glovework or baserunning value, but Nooty’s underlying numbers reflect positive hitting traits — low pro batting averages notwithstanding.
This is a hitter with an outstanding 144 wRC+ for Peoria despite a BABIP of .235. How is he doing it? A very good walk rate of 13%, excellent power (isolated slugging of .256 vs. league average of .118) and most impressively an elite strikeout rate of just 9.6%.
Roughly 1,200 minor leaguers have 50 or more plate appearances so far. Of the real prospects (those under 25 years of age), only four have an isolated slugging over .200 and a K rate under 10%:
Lars Nootbaar (.256), Wander Franco (.235), Alejandro Kirk (.230), and Vlad Guerrero Jr (.244).
This doesn’t make Nootbaar any sort of elite hitting prospect. Or even a good one. But it sure makes him interesting. Nooty’s a little old for his league, but I like him anyway. I’d probably put him above both Luken Baker and Genesis Cabrera on my prospect list, among others.
My expectations for Lars were non-existent before the season. Now he’s a plausible 4th/5th outfielder long term. Maybe even more. It’s such an idiosyncratic profile, I don’t know what to expect. And that’s fun.
“Funny how with the big league team doing well the Nunez talk has almost totally died. I think there is a direct correlation.”
Yeah, I confess I haven’t given much thought to Malcom N. over the first month of the minor league season. For me though, CC, it’s because there’ve been so many unexpected performances by prospects — both good and ill.
Much worse than expected: Reyes, Hudson, Montero, Urias, Kruczynski, Hurst, and Cabrera.
Much better: Gorman, Herrera, Sosa, Edman, Rondon, Oviedo, Toerner, Whalen, Nootbaar, Julio Rodriguez, and Woodford sort of. Oh, and Jesus Cruz. Absolutely Jesus Cruz.So there’s been a lot to take in, a lot to process for trends both positive and the other.
(Apologies to any overachievers I forgot. And if I left out any underachievers, you’re welcome I guess.)
You’re just sayin’ that, So Cal, because you know I lived in Malibu. (Say hi to George and Michel at Colony House if you’re there. And Martha and Winston at the Artifac Tree. If they’re still around. “You know, Bob. The tallish bald guy with the beagle!”)
I don’t write anywhere but here, as no one compensates me more than Brian does. To pay bills there’s part-time moneymakers dealing sports memorabilia and editing the scribblings of others. All brands of stuff, novels, corporate reports, all sorts of miscellaneous. Anything less sophisticated than White Papers.
As with pretty much everyone ever, my life may have turned out quite differently if not for fate’s fickle finger, So Cal. When I’d been at Inside Sports a handful of months, I approached my managing editor Jim O’Conner with the idea of penning some magazine filler pieces here and there. And being a sober man of sound judgement, he agreed. I was on cloud ten, with all the cloud nine suckers looking up at me.
Three days later we were bought out by Peterson Corp., publishers of Sport Magazine. And they fired us. Oh, I’m sorry — they downsized us. You bet I was downsized. Downsized like Rick Moranis’ kids by that shrink machine. And thus, a budding career began and ended the same week. Since then I’ve just had jobs. Jobs I liked and loved. But just jobs.
So if you know anyone who wants a copy editor or mildly misanthropic ink-stained sportswriting wretch, I’m your guy.
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“I subscribed to a Cardinals only baseball magazine in the early 80’s called ‘Redbird Review’. It had write-up and glossy photos of some Cardinals’ prospects. I want to say that Jim Lindeman was on one of the covers.”
Jim Lindeman! Now there’s a name, muddy, that brings back Spring Training memories galore. Remember back in ’87 I think it was, when Lindeman destroyed Spring Training? He was a force of nature like Florida hadn’t seen since Hurricane Whosis back in the late 1960’s.
I just looked up his career and was surprised to see than Jim acquitted himself very well in the dome-tainted 1987 postseason. He went 9-for-28, including 5-for-15 in the Series. Not too shabby.
“For me they (ESPN The Magazine) were airplane reading during takeoff and landing.”
I admit I read it a few times myself. In many ways a deeply underrated publication, for the bottom of a birdcage.
I was working at Inside Sports magazine in ’98 when the ESPN bi-monthly hit the stands amid much fanfare. As we passed around the maiden copy of E.T.M., we couldn’t believe the breakthrough. Finally, a magazine for folks who enjoyed neither reading nor thinking. It honestly wasn’t like anything that had come before. The USA Today was The Economist by comparison.
The late great journalist Frank Deford had faith in American sports fans when he founded The National, a glorious twin pillar of daily sports entertainment and enlightenment. It lasted 18 months. On the other hand, the cynical vile dreck-peddlers at ESPN got better than two decades from their hollow rag. How can these facts exist in any rational world? All I can figure is, I guess George Carlin was right when he said to imagine how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half of them are more stupid than that.
I do appreciate the P-B-P, Pugs. And I don’t want to play the killjoy.
But I hate getting my hopes way, way up…and then dashed, all within a fingersnap. So anyway don’t listen too much to me — other people probably prefer the high-energy stylings.
“Goldy – Gives her a ride to deep left! Juan Soto back to the track and he’ll corral it on the track for the out.”
Two rules to live by, Pugs:
1) Coffee is for closers.
2) Exclamation points are for homers.I recall one Mike Shannon call oh so very vividly. It was the eventual 20-inning loss to the Mets, back about a decade ago. Allen Craig I think it was, up in extra innings.
“Long one down the line! If it’s fair it’s a game-winner! And that one is…caught up against the wall.”
Calls like that one define Mike Shannon to me. And not in a good way. You could not pay me enough to ever again make me listen to Mike Shannon broadcast a Cardinal game. Yeah, the Hatfields and McCoys have got nothing on me, when it comes to holding grudges.
“Per Goold, Fowler has the flu. No indication when he caught it and how much longer he will be out.”
Just glancing at the matchup possibilities for the next couple of days, it may have been smart to give Dexter a couple days off anyway. He hasn’t hit Sanchez well and has struggled badly versus Scherzer. As have so many. Like Paul Goldschmidt for example.
Goldy is 1-18 lifetime against Mad Max, with 10 strikeouts. But Gyorko has hit him well. So maybe, Carp slides over to first base and Jedd gets a start at the hot corner against the St. Louis native. (Did you know that Scherzer is from St. Louis? It’s true.)
Surprise stat of the day:
Harry Bader, batting .222, has a higher on-base percentage than Jose Martinez, batting .351. Martinez has the edge in slugging, by 15 points. But Bader tops him in OBP by 25.Bader has a higher OPS than Martinez or Fowler. Barely, but still higher. Probably plays juuust a bit better defense, too. Gotta get the kid in the lineup whenever you can.
Hot Players = Sosa(very quietly .334 but only 3BBs) Toerner (mashing at Palm Beach… the tough league) and Gorman has been what we all hoped for and more.
Sosa’s impatience is mildly troubling, it’s true Ny. But he’s hitting for avg./power, and we can’t ask for more than that from a shortstop in a bad hitting environment. (Road games only this year: .394 average, .636 slugging.)
I’ve found the Cardinal catcher cache pretty exciting so far. At Palm Beach, 21-year-old Julio Rodriguez is hitting .339 with a 169 wRC+. Molina heir apparent Andrew Knizner is batting. 333 with a .400 OBP, is yet to commit a passed ball, and has gunned 46% of basestealers.
And maybe most fun of all, 18-year-old Ivan Herrera has a 166 wRC+ for Peoria after a 155 and 160 at the lower pro levels in 2017 and 2018, respectively. (After his severe PB troubles last year, Herrera also has not permitted a passed ball, and like Knizner he’s showing solid plate discipline markers.) In fact, so far the three catchers cited here have combined for 20 walks and 31 strikeouts. Good sign for the future.
I’m boringly ambivalent.
I say trade him if you can get 75 cents on the dollar, because to me the chances that he’ll ever be more than a reliever seem pretty remote.
Two major injuries in two years, and three self-destructive instances of fairly severe immaturity just that we know of (two drug busts, plus one wall-punching of course) do not bode well for the future, I don’t think. Has anyone with such a checkered health history, coupled with behavioral question marks, ever panned out as an above average MLB starting pitcher for any length of time?
Again, I’m talking ~75 cents for a buck. I’m not advocating he be dumped for a borderline top 100 prospect type just to spare us the anxiety of waiting and hoping, hoping and waiting, over and over. But if the Cards could get a very good cost-controlled MLB bullpen arm, or a top 50-60 or so prospect at a position of relative organizational need, then I say cut the strings. Because if Reyes keeps up this Steve Dalkowski impersonation, he’ll have very little value a year from now.
I could see Kody Hoese lasting for awhile in the draft. Hoese has never done anything until this year.
Hoese may be another Tulane optical illusion, not unlike Mike Ferris whom the Cards drafted instead of Dustin Pedroia back in 2004. That one left a mark. (On me anyway.)
I want a guy with a less suspicious track record, whether it’s a hitter or pitcher. What can you tell us, 2016, about that Small guy?
