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I do think that Dexter has something left in the tank, and he’ll show it this season. I also think that he will eventually be traded, a la Leake, to a situation of his liking.
Right now, the lack of any decent LH hitting options is making him almost essential to keep around. Carpenter is fading a bit, Wong looks like a classic change of scenery piece, and Garcia is a pure bench guy. Apart from those guys, we have no lefties at the big league level and no one of any repute even on the horizon in the pipeline. It’s pretty bleak. Any good looking free agents this coming offseason besides Harper that hit from the left side?
That’s why you’re almost stuck with Dex in the hopes he can even get to the 115-120 wRC+ guy from last year. The lineup needs the balance.
Will we see Bader against the LHP again? Will we get good Luke or shaky Luke? Seems like Carpenter might be due for a day off.
I like the Cards to win this one in a bit of a higher scoring affair, 7-5.
Speaking of the draft, does anyone know where we can find bonus info on the guys who have signed? Besides Callis’ Twitter I don’t know who has picked up on that info so far, even though we do know that a number of other top 10 guys have signed. In the past, it seemed like VEB and other places had a signing tracker thread but that has gone away with regime change.
At this point, I think that it is mental. Granted, a lot of baseball is mental, but this team can play well against good teams and then lay down a bunch of clunkers like tonight. To go 5-4 or 4-5 against three subpar teams really does not help. I suspect they will still be in the race until the end, but they need to get their heads in the game… all of them.
Finally a hit, only to be erased by a double play. Is the Padres bullpen really good or the offense just slept through their alarm?
Fangraphs redid their top 100 post draft and Gorman was #95, the Cards’ #3. O’Neill is #52 and Kelly #71.
Reading Goold’s chat yesterday, he indicated that the Orioles would hold out for one of the Cards’ elite pitching prospects in a trade for Machado (Reyes, Flaherty, Hicks) to build the trade around. Unless it was Reyes straight up (which the Orioles won’t want) that’s too much to stomach, IMO. I’d like to see it centered around Gyorko and add some pitching to suit but avoid giving away the guys that are immediately needed. Something like Gyorko, Hudson/Helsley, Fernandez or if they want closer to the bigs, Gyorko and two of Gomber, Gant and Poncedeleon. Would that get it done? Probably not. But it would be more than fair compensation for a two month rental.
Goold made it sound like there was going to be a run on guys signing today. It didn’t look like the Cards saved much money with their first two picks, but I figured Gorman might go over and Roberts under so maybe it evens out.
Oh how I wish the Cards had a shutdown bullpen. Now would have been the perfect time to give Flaherty a little slack, but he’s been pitching well and it would really help if he made it through the 7th.
Martinez is smoking every ball he hits. Pretty much he and Ozuna carrying the offense right now.
Speaking of, Ozuna deposits one into the left field seats for the 2 run homer. Lyles was bound to get burned after missing in the middle of the zone a ton of times tonight.
Jedd Gyorko is hitting .205/.235/.244 since May 12. He has had 0 homers and only 3 extra base hits in that span. Hopefully he can turn it around soon.
Lyles has struggled to put guys away but got out of his inning unscathed. Flaherty looked good the first four batters, then gives up the homer and the scorched single. 1-0 Padres.
I believe that Poncedeleon’s cutter will be a plus pitch in the big leagues if he’s given time to stick around. I’m very glad he has made it to the show!!
Then he has another “injury” and keeps at it. I guess he could refuse but the one thing that’ll kill a player’s value faster than a mid season trip to the minors is a midseason cut.
Good to see Junior Fernandez back on the mound. Hopefully his strikeouts will tick up a bit and he’ll regain some of the prospect luster he had.
Hi Bob! Nice to see you here.
I never hated the Fowler deal, as it was the natural conclusion to the couple year run that started with the tragic loss of Oscar Taveras and ended with the Cubs winning the Series.
Now, perhaps you’re right in that they “lost their minds” but I also think they knew they didn’t have the horses to keep up with the Cubs and also knew that fans wouldn’t accept a true rebuild. Thus they went through a “soft rebuild” with roster turnover, doing smaller deals that might pay off and push the team from mid 80s to low 90s wins and into the division hunt. Obviously they didn’t work out but even now, I don’t believe the team is handcuffed by the money they spent.
Cecil arguably is the worst of the entire bunch. Leake did what he was signed to do…be average and nothing more. They traded him and most of his salary and are not too much worse for the wear. I’d be willing to bet a lot that Ozuna will end up worth the trade. At worst, no one we gave up will be something great, IMO. The others are relievers and one year deals that ultimately aren’t killers and the Mikolas signing alone more than covers all of those minor errors, as far as I’m concerned.
The main point for me, I guess, is that the team is still positioned to make a couple moves in the next 12 months and jump into the middle of the race. Even now, they’re on pace for a 90 win season. So…I’m not too bummed. Remember all those upper 90s win+ juggernauts in the early 2000s that didn’t win the Series, only to have two of the worst 5 teams between 2000-2015 win titles? Baseball is funny sometimes.
Cecil gives up the insurance run on a decent pitch. Just way too much bad pitching to deserve the win today.
That’s pretty impressive for such a young guy. Know anything about his repertoire or how we got him, CC (or anyone)??
I may consider joining the fan club here soon if he keeps pitching so we’ll! I’ll have an eye out for his starts when I see them.
Cecil was so wild on that throw that the ball bounced all the way back to him, letting him throw out the runner trying to advance to third. Ya gotta laugh at this stuff sometimes. Lol
These last two were horrid pitching by Cecil. Should have quit while they were ahead with him. It’s about to get ugly.
I would barely call it “both ways.” The Cards have walked twice while the Reds have walked 9 times, despite hardly having what you’d call control artists on the mound for Cincy. The calls have disproportionately impacted St Louis. It happens sometimes but this could easily be 5-3 St Louis right now. It’s that bad.