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Still early but the Cards are struggling against Folty. They had a shot to get something going twice with first batter walks, but couldn’t get anything across.
1-0 Braves early on.
Mike, the AL is actually horrible this year. Those .600 teams have gaudy records on the backs of a whole bunch of tanking teams.
Other than that, I can’t quibble much with your positings. This team needs something to shake it loose.
Looks like another embarrassing loss here. Weaver just doesn’t have it right now. He would be a good candidate to spend a few starts in Memphis to straighten things out a bit.
Teheran really seemed like a very good pitcher not too long ago, but has turned decidedly average the last two years. Here’s hoping the Cards can get to him.
The Braves have a good offense with quite a lot of young talent. Mikolas will need to be on tonight.
This one seems like it could be a 5-4 type game, although I’m hoping the good guys can get the series going with a comfortable win.
I would still prefer not to go after a replacement for one of our two best hitters unless it’s a clear upgrade. Moose has tailed off lately and really doesn’t project to add a whole lot. I guess he’d be good to add to the mix if we’re giving up something not important. But then you’ve got Carp, Moose, Gyorko, Wong, Muñoz, Jmart to fit into 3 spots presumably once Dejong returns.
Nolan Arenado sounds like he might not be too happy with the Rockies or their season…
“I’m tired of coming to the ballpark and losing,” he said, via the Athletic. “We work too hard as a group to experience that. I’m not saying I go home questioning, like, ‘I don’t like this place.’ I love it here. But yeah, I want to win. And the more we lose, the more I — if you lose all the time, nobody wants to be there.”
We know this front office is happier to deal if there’s control involved. He certainly would be an upgrade. Any chance we could make that trade?
Weaver, Hudson, Kelly, Seijas…is that enough or would they demand Flaherty?
Carp could move to 1st and spot 2nd if absolutely needed. Jmart platoons and gets a few starts in right. Gyorko or Wong get traded.
A showcase year and a half of Carp, Pham, Arenado, Ozuna, Dejong, Molina, Fowler/Bader, Wong sounds solid. Gant fills in the rotation and Poncedeleon until Wacha comes back, Waino gets whatever is needed if he comes back from injury this year.
I wouldn’t see a trade for another bat as a replacement situation but rather a supplement. I still think Ozuna will hit around 25 HRs which isn’t his 2017 level but is OK. I’d never turn down a chance to add another good hitter if the price is fair, though.
Which of the guys that went to the Marlins are major losses, to you?
I wouldn’t say the Ozuna trade is a bust as I’m still not sold on any of the guys we gave up being great.
The bigger issue for the offense this year has been the stretches where most everyone except Molina and Martinez have hit like A ball players for a month at a time. I guess Dejong hasn’t had an ice cold month but he has been injured.
Machado would be an impact bat, but I’m in agreement that the prospect price would be too high to stomach, IMO. I think they would want more than the Ozuna return, and for 1/4 of the time. No thanks.
I don’t have a sub but I saw elsewhere that it’s Martinez and Helsley for Abreu and Wong and O’Neill for Moustakas and Merrifield.
Meh.
Abreu’s defense has never been that good and it looks like it may be even worse this year. His bat is also not elite this year either. To give up Martinez alone for that…plus a legit prospect…feels like an overpay (literally, Abreu is making a lot of money the next two years).
Merrifield is interesting, but Moustakas is a rental and in Bowden’s proposal he has Carp moving to 2B. An IF of Moustakas-Dejong-Carp-Abreu might be worse defensively than what we already have. I guess if it happened, I wouldn’t hate it but I would be sad to give up O’Neill for a rental player.
I’ll also add that Wong is at .232/.348/.429 in June, which is a 115 wRC+. The batting average is a bit low but so is the balls in play average. If that gets a little more normal he’s pretty much right at last seasons numbers overall. Can we expect it going forward? Maybe not…but it’s very solid if he can.
As the second member of the Ludwin Jimenez Fan Club™, it’s exciting to see him continue to pitch so well as a 16 year old. 11 K/9 is nothing to sneeze at for a man 4 years older in his first pro shot, let alone for such a youngster.
6 years from now when he becomes the second Jimenez in St Louis Cardinals history to throw a no-hitter, you will all remember where you were when you finally joined the Ludwin Jimenez Fan Club™.
Yeah, I think that most of those lower class RHP are probably headed for relief. Do you know if there are any reports of Oviedo’s velocity this year at Peoria? Seems we may never hear of the guy throwing 98 again.
Woodford could be a good double play reliever in the future, and maybe gain a touch on his fastball. Perhaps a souped up Seth Maness? It would be an ok outcome, although less than hoped for given his draft spot.
It’s never fun to lose…but it’s more tolerable when you’ve been playing well. Hopefully a blip on the radar with the Braves coming into town on Friday.
Wong is a bit of a pitch magnet tonight…second HBP and Gyorko is in to try to put a charge into one.
To top that, the Tribe get a run themselves in the 6th. Anything is still possible but with 6 hits and only one run..perhaps they should have saved some situational hitting from last night.
Ozuna strikes out by trying to hit pitches out of the zone. Up to Yadi…who grounds out.
Killer half inning for the chances of a win there. Had to have the run.
I hate to say it, because he could be really important to our offense down the stretch..but Pham probably needs to hit 6th or so for the time being. He’s just not hitting well. I do believe he’ll get going eventually but we need someone behind Carp to move him along.
Can’t see it but the radio guys seemed flabbergasted that Carp didn’t score on that single?
Carp works a walk, moves over on the Pham grounder and driven in on the Martinez single. Chip away, Cards.
A not so great third for Flaherty either. A lot of dink and dunk junk, but two runs are in.
If he can’t get this third out, I think you have to get out the hook and go to the bullpen while the game is still semi in reach.
A good first for Flaherty is followed by a less than good second. Two homers for the Indians to make it 2-0.
FWIW, I concur with your player assessments, but how can a team be “decent” on defense with half of the starters agreeably playing below expectations?
“Decent” in the sense that I expected Ozuna and Pham to be plus defenders in the outfield, especially with Ozuna coming off the Gold Glove. They’ve both been more average for their positions, in my view. Bader playing a lot for Fowler also bumps the OF defense up a notch, IMO.
So I suppose by “decent” I meant by overall compared to other teams, while still acknowledging that my own expectations were top third of the league defense. They’re more middle third and thus that’s a step down from what I’d hoped. Individually there have been good and bad, though.
Hope that’s a little more clear…?
An elite bullpen guy…sure. I would see Martinez the PH/spot start guy as about as valuable as a very good relief pitcher. So if we could get one, I’d make the deal.
I’m also fairly certain that we have at least one or two very good bullpen arms in the minors if we can get past the idea that we need to have 12 starters at the ready. By next year I’d like to have Hudson, Helsley, Poncedeleon and Gant all in the rotation or bullpen with the big club, full time. Those 4 alone have great potential to be the nucleus of a very good ‘pen, IMO. They could also be grade bait to bring back something of value (which I hope would be a hitter).
I think there is definitely some value in error totals, as they’re “should have been” outs that force the pitcher and defense to face another batter that they wouldn’t have before. Considering that official scorers are often hesitant, perhaps even loath, to give errors at times, the number of errors the Cards have committed is a concern.
That said, I do think the team is decent in the field…at least far better than the error totals say. I would also say that some guys have been disappointing…Ozuna and Pham in particular have not been up to what we hoped for pre season, Martinez has been worse than even the low bar we hoped he would clear, and Fowler has further regressed.
I also think Marp has been passable, even good at 3B at times, Dejong is turning into a young Peralta (not flashy but makes all the plays), and Wong and Bader have elite, potentially Gold Glove type gloves at 2B and OF.
Throw in Yadi and mostly good fielding pitchers and I agree that they’re not bad. The potential is solidly above average if guys play up to what we expected though.
Interesting list, Brian. It’s cool to see how you rate the various newcomers as well as the guys within different position classes. I intended to sit down and figure out who the top RHP, LHP, C, corner IF, middle IF, OF, etc were according to your rankings but haven’t had time yet.
Thanks for sharing your list; these things are a great monthly feature to me.
I would trade Gyorko right now. His hitting has fallen off and his defense is not enough of an upgrade over Carp (who has rated and passed the eye test as a pretty decent 3B this year) to justify his flagging bat.
Maybe we could get Mychal Givens off Baltimore for him? Jedd fills in as the Machado replacement and we have another good bullpen arm.
I like Wong to get every day starts the rest of the season and see what he can do. If he can’t hit out of the slump, he’s next to go in the offseason and we run out some combo of Schrock/Muñoz/Garcia at 2B unless we think we can upgrade SS or 3B (Dejong to 2B if it’s a SS). Carpenter would be adequate for a 1B/3B platoon but I think Jmart is probably best as a bench bat going forward.
Watching guys like Lindor and Simmons…man, wouldn’t it be nice if Delvin Perez was delivering the goods and already in A+ or AA to look forward to? What a disappointment so far.
A chance for a sweep with Jack Flash on the mound?? I’ll take it.
The Tribe counter with a young hurler, Shane Bieber, who can only be described as “stingy.” He made his debut a couple of weeks ago, and has proceeded to pitch very well with a 2.45 ERA. Not only that, but his walk rate has skyrocketed to 1.5 per 9 innings upon his arrival with the big club. “Skyrocketed, you say?” Well, this young man has something of a Schillingesque acumen for precision baseball chucking. He has walked a grand total of 6 batters in his 76 innings this year. His career K/BB ratio is 14.2. Lest you think he’s a chump, he also has a career WHIP of .971 and an ERA of 2.20 with a FIP that has never gone above 2.64 at any level.
The moral of the story? “You swing your bats early and you swing em often,” to paraphrase Wilford Brimley. This should be a good matchup of exciting young arms. Hopefully the Cards can come out on top again.