Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I think Doyle will turn out to be a fine pick. Whether that fine pick becomes a #2 starter or a relief arm, I think he’ll have some role at the big league level.
Hernandez looks great so far, a la Alex Reyes from our system 10 years ago. As we learned with Alex Reyes, nothing is a sure thing and it takes hard work, smart coaching and some blessing to make it happen at the highest level.
You mean it’s not likely that he homers once every 5-6 PA and runs a .250/.348/.850 line? That would surely play. Haha
Cho is enjoying Springfield as I thought he might. Good to see him continue to hit well. With all the prospects there, they are becoming a more exciting team to watch. If the bullpen tightens up a bit, they could make some real noise in the second half at the Texas League.
I am not as high on the Cardinals pitching situation as others. I look at how many of the top prospects are injured or struggling to ERA’s over 5, and am just not impressed. I am not high on Flukey or Peterson, which means one of them will probably be the Cardinals choice.
I am with you there. I think there are a few generally positive performances, and a few that we should expect given that the Cards are prioritizing long term gains (such as Doyle), and a few that have me really thinking about how much we can expect long term.
Curious why you don’t like Flukey? He was looking like a top 5ish pick before the injury, which doesn’t seem like an arm thing. Peterson I get, he’s like a plus Franklin who could go either way, to turn into a stud starter or end up a reliever.
With the draft less than two weeks out, I’ll be curious to see how things shake out for our Cards. For a while, it has looked like they will go with a hitter for their first round pick. I’m not sure I feel confident enough in the pitching in the system to pass up a guy like Flukey or Peterson if they are still available at our pick (and many mock drafts now have them sliding past 13).
I guess I’ll just have to trust Chaim and the development team to make a good choice. But I sure would feel better if we had a guy who’s a pretty likely mid rotation starter at least (like Flukey) in the system to go with the more wildly variant guys like Doyle, Mathews and Franklin.
I thought this was going to be about Brian stepping back and one of his digital progeny, such as Kyle Reis, taking over the lead role. We’d last about 3 weeks with Kyle at the helm, I’m afraid (and I do enjoy Kyle on Wednesday with Walton and Reis!)…
Seems like more non starter type of talk here.
For whatever faults he has been accused of having (some of which may be true, and some not), it’s been fairly well established that BDW Jr is a fan of the game and team. My concern is that BDW III is a pure bottom line sort of guy. Hopefully that’s not the case and he is willing to spend when the farm system produces a core worth going all in with.
I like seeing Cho moved up. We will get a better chance to see if the changes made this year are for real or not. You’d typically like seeing the lefty move into the more friendly environment at Springfield. Baez, I’m not as sure that I like the move. But he has hit for some power this year and perhaps the challenge will be good for him.
There might be other options out there but I don’t know if they would be better options at that price point. I view Herrera as an elite bat and Burleson isn’t far behind. I think I would lock those two up on extensions along with Winn and Wetherholt. I would make Walker prove it again next year to make sure 2026 hasn’t been a fluke.
My point is that they are both DH/1B types. Both are good bats (I think Herrera is better overall, as Burly still struggles against lefties). I am not saying to trade both, but trading one might make sense.
Does playing a good 2nd base add more WAR than playing a good 1st base?
I’m asking because as good as he is he’s not the BA / HR machine Pujols was.
Albert didn’t play as much 1B his rookie year (mostly OF and some 3B). Also, as good as his bat was that year, the hitting environment was pretty great at that point so his line was a little more mitigated (JJ at 129 OPS+ and Albert was 157). So JJ with great 2B gets a very big bump over Albert, who was not as good at 3B or OF, lower defensive value positions.
Instead of trying to get the revenue for two playoff games in 2026 they need to be thinking about how to continue to reinforce the pipeline which could lead to deeper playoff runs in 2027, 2028, and beyond, which would lead to a lot more revenue.
If they intend to do that, then we should probably be saying goodbye to one of Burleson or Herrera as well. There isn’t a reason to keep around a guy whose defensive value is so low. DHs can be found fairly easily on the market or in the draft.
Hjerpe looking good at Palm Beach, as expected. His fastball was in the 91-93 range mostly. Will they move him up quickly or let him dominate hitters at PB for a while?
Garcia was a bit older than Baez when he climbed all those homers. That said, if the Cards got a near 4 WAR player for a few years out of Baez, that would be a pretty positive outcome.
Rainiel Rodriguez with his 4th AA homer today. He’s gotten his line together nicely after a slow start at the level.
Maybe I’m putting too much faith in the new regime, but I’m imagining that he’s working on things with the coaching staff often and even if he’s tapped into the power, there’s probably an adjustment to help him make a little better contact. Of course, being at AAA vs AA means the pitchers have better command and stuff in general, which probably plays a part.
Bottom line, I think he’s athletic enough to be fine in the long term, even if he likely won’t be the superstar that his power portends at the minor league level. I’d be very happy if Baez is a little above average, 110-120 OPS+ type hitter (lower BA, higher SLG) with above average LF defense. Once Noot moves on, I certainly don’t want to go back to Nathan Church in LF. A home grown, 2-3 WAR LF with Walker looking good in RF and hopefully something useful in CF sounds a lot better than what we had the first two months this year. If somehow Baez makes the adjustments to drop the K rate and keep the power, then having two Walker-level hitters at the OF corners would be a nice surprise and a great help to the team effort.
He has 1 walk and 15 Ks in June. It’s one of those times where his batting average is higher than his OBP: .412/.400/.912. He’s definitely swinging a hot bat, but his plate discipline does need some refining.
May has been really good for us since those first two clunkers that he had. He sort of get the feeling that any game that he starts is going to be a win for the Cards. That’s a pretty nice feeling to have, and it hasn’t been that way for quite some time in our rotation. He should either be a contract extension candidate or he’ll fetch a nice prospect or two at the deadline.
Gorman typically goes on a couple of hot streaks in a year where he hits 6 or 7 dingers in two weeks and looks like the best hitter on the team. He hasn’t even done that this year. Hopefully he has a hot streak or two left for the year. I was a bit fooled. I thought he would be at least average ish with the bat and low quality defender to provide us something akin to Arenado at 3B (1-2 WAR). He’s now negative WAR. Something will need to change soon.
With the Cards firmly competing so far, I wonder if they hold onto May at the deadline. I would not be opposed to offering him a contract extension. If you take out his first 2 starts, he has a 2.89 ERA and 2.86 FIP. He has pitched well and seems like a dependable mid rotation guy at least.
He is only 28 years old and offering him a 4 year deal for example would still only be in his prime. He has injury risk, but also the inverse is that he doesn’t have as many innings on his arm already that may wear him out earlier in his career.
I would be fine with offering May some change to extend that contract and be our Mikolas of the next generation. Maybe something like accepting the mutual option for 2027, then $25M, $27.5M, $30M for 2028-30?
The Cardinals have such a large bonus pool and so many high picks that it’s really hard to fully project what they might do. I’m hopeful that we are debating the Top 50 this fall with at least 5 or 6 new faces meriting status.