Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I could be wrong but I don’t think he has been the same pitcher since he had tommy John surgery, but the last few years they really wanted him to get more swing and misses and I think that approach has led to a lot of control issues as well.
Maybe they are moving Hicks to the 9th to showcase him for a potential trade to a contender….I am all for that…hopefully he doesn’t blow up before they can get it done.
This is just Ridiculous, I think this Cardinal Way BS has got into some peoples head too much and they don’t see this team has just been ordinary the past 5-7 years. If that is what Management wants to just make the playoffs, cash the 3 million fans checks and go home after getting blitzed in the first round…. well this is your team.
I think most fans want a decent chance to win the whole thing coming into the year. Not start it with a bunch of question marks in your rotation, Bullpen and Outfield.
You had 2 cornerstone players at 1st and 3rd coming into the season on reasonable contracts for star players and management can’t build a 500 team around that.
It would be hard to argue there has been some poor talent evaluations made by Management on their own players. They have relied on players that can’t consistently stay healthy or produce like Carlson, O’Neil, De Jong and Flaherty. Yet the were sure quick to ship out an OF who has had some success in Tampa, and another OF they cut that has had some success in Texas.
Then you have the Contreras and Matz free agency signing nightmares that handcuff moves b/c they are dead money with no trade value. Hard to believe the Cardinals had no Major league scouts that couldn’t see Contreras defensive deficiencies.
You have an Owner that has the 16th highest payroll in baseball, while drawing 3 million + fans (The Rangers spend $38 million or more than the Cardinals). I think real questions need to be asked about why the payroll is so low after the team drew so well last year and is drawing this year.
I think now fans better hope Walker, Gorman, Winn and a few other rookies become very good players b/c I have no confidence that Dewitt is spending any more than $160 -165 million a year and with that you will have Matz and Contreras eating about $28 million of that the next 2 years.
Players show their support for the Manager the next game out by scoring 1 run in 9, and giving up 3 in the first to a team that is under .500.
I’m starting to wonder if they may finish 30 or more under .500
This has to be the most disappointing team since 1986.
I think it goes without saying the players have underperformed, but I’m not real sure how good this team really is.
The offense the past 3 or 4 years has been hot and cold and really struggled against a solid pitcher. You don’t know what you are going to get from any outfielder…though Walker is showing signs of being a pretty decent hitter at least….his defense is a work in progress.
The Bullpen was a strength last year and has totally imploded, wondering if the starters going so few innings the last few years has caught up to them. The starters are at best a bunch of #3 and #4 type starters….I would trade all of them at the deadline for prospects.
Shortstop has been a hitting black hole for 3 years, not even going to mention Catcher.
I also think the team defense has gotten dramatically worse this year, that to me is on the players.
Never understood the Schildt flap with upper mgmt, thought he was a pretty good Manager and the players seemed to respect him. With Marmol I still wonder how the incident with O’Neil went over in the clubhouse. I am not to sure that was handled well on the Managers end.
I basically think since he won the division last year they will give him to the end of the year to turn it around and most likely he will not return next year. Though I do worry that they may be to stubborn to change direction, b/c it will mean they failed when they fired Schildt and picked Marmol over Schumacher.
I don’t see anyway this team can get back close to .500, there pitching is a disaster and they usually struggle to score more than 4 runs a game so it will be nearly impossible for him to right the ship and save his job for next year I would think.
If you throw out Matz who was signed as a starter and has to now pitch in the bullpen b/c he is awful the Cardinal total salary for this year on the entire bullpen is $14 million according to Sportrac.
That seems ridiculously low to me coming into the year for a supposed contender unless you are the Rays or have a bunch of young arms in the pen (cardinals don’t). Now they could be gun shy b/c they have wasted a lot of money on some terrible signings in the past like Cecil and the guy from Kansas City/Colorado who did nothing, but the bullpen has cost them quite a few games this year and they really have nothing at AAA to help.
The one thing out of this disaster season is they at least will get a decent draft pick in 2024, and surely they now realize that they need a serious overhaul of their entire pitching staff for 2024, and an evaluation of their position players.
This season is toast
They need a coherent plan on who they are going to trade/what they can get in return and then who they are keeping for the future
I would think Goldschmidt would bring the most, as I don’t see them trading Arenado b/c of his age and friendly contract.
Would think all the starters are available outside of Libratore just because of contract and age.
Would think all the relievers are available outside of possibly Helsley, but he would probably bring the most return
Would assume Walker, Donovan, Gorman are staying….Edman possibly but he could be a good piece for a contender and him and Donovan are somewhat repetitive if Winn is the ss next year
They also will need a new manager for next year
The biggest question is why is there payroll so low compared to other teams
There $38 million below the Rangers, $26 Million behind the White Sox, $40 million behind the Braves, $25 million behind the Giants
I would find it hard to believe they don’t bring in more revenue than at least 3 of those 4 teams if not all.
Matz either needs to pitch well or hit the road (DFA or a bus to Memphis)…so far the only thing he has done this year is eat some innings
Moving Contreras off catcher after 30 games is maybe the dumbest move they have ever made…just total nonsense…someone has to lose their job over that surely
This past off season was a total disaster
1) again for like the 3rd year running they have no #1 or #2 pitcher and rely of Flaherty to be a #1 when he hasn’t done anything in several years and is injury prone….
2) Contreras Signing ….that has long term ramifications that are not good if he is not at catcher
3) pass on multiple shortstops…I guess waiting on Winn in 2024 or 25
4) relying on O’Neil and Carlson again…not exactly consistent bats
5) didn’t do jack to address the bullpen
This team has to be hitting like .120 with RISP….13 hits and 4 runs tonight
Hicks needs to be sent to Springfield or DFA’d
No clue what the manager is doing with his starting pitcher pulling him with less than 90 pitches….don’t see how he can survive unless they hit a win streak quickly….but knowing how tight dollar Bill is he may not want to eat the contract and upper Mgmt admit the failure in their hires
The loss of Maddox may be bigger than thought, b/c Marmol looks clueless managing the pitchers and I’m not sure the new pitching coach is pushing back on some of these stupid moves
As bad as this season has started thank goodness they didn’t sign Rodon in the off-season that could have been a catastrophic contract for the Cardinals going forward
I think the last time we saw Helsley in the 9th, he gave up a moon shot game winning home run to Blake Sabol who is not exactly known as a prolific hitter. I am not sure if he has recovered from his meltdown in last years playoffs. Gallegos has decent stuff but probably better suited to be a setup man.
This season just seems to be a perfect storm of management not doing enough in the off season to bolster the starting pitching, and only going after 1 hitter (Contreras) when at least one more bat was desperately needed. Though it looks pretty evident they may have been hamstrung by a tight-fisted owner not wanting to spend any $$, then you have the Manager making some questionable decisions with personnel, lineups and game management and the players absolutely not performing.
Ver Hagen makes $3 mill and Stratton makes $2.8 mill hardly anything to sweat if the Cardinals had an owner that didn’t pinch every penny
But speaking of money betting against the Cardinals in series openers is about as good as it gets 0-10 and counting
I took in the 4 games in San Francisco in person….didn’t watch any of the dodger series, but this team had zero energy and none of the OF’s are what I would call professional hitters, they are all like below 250 hitters or worse with some occasional pop and the whole team is terrible with RISP.
The starters were pretty good in the San Francisco series but they are all a bunch of #3 type starters or lower.
Not sure what to think of the bullpen the blown save by Helsley in the 2nd game of the SF series really was a bad loss on an absolute horrible pitch.
I really don’t see a lot of hope for this years team from what I saw…I was hoping Walker would have a breakout rookie year and that would help the offense which hasn’t been good against decent pitching the last several years.
Marmol may have lost the team with the O’Neil stuff from earlier; they certainly played lackadaisical in San Francisco (terrible fielding)….but Management really did not do anything to improve the team this past Offseason except the bare minimum.
Do the cardinals have advanced scouts or did dollar Bill gut them…not only are they 0-9 in opening games in series they are getting outscored in those games by a 56-25 clip if my math is right
95 pitches when pitching well hard to believe you pull them in that situation, but that is the analytics I guess
Pulling Mikolas after 95 pitches with a shutout….really not sure that is a sound move even with the next 2 scheduled batters being left handed
