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But if you really want to make changes, bring in fresh blood with new ideas – and give them the flexibility to implement their plan.
I agree wholeheartedly with BW! To make an effective change it needs to come from without and a somewhat different philosophy. However…
Doesn’t matter who they hire as manager until Moz is gone.
This is also true because what BW states will not happen as long as Mozeliak is still with the organization. Mozeliak wants his manager to acquiesce to him. Shildt and his “philosophical differences” seem to be working in SD! In fact his current team’s record would be 1st place in our division.
This was meant to be a “fun” exercise to allow all the posters this year who criticized the FO for the team they put on the field. Instead of insulting a poster’s entry on the topic, put together a roster that you would be better. If you are unwilling to do that then move along as there would be nothing to see here for you.
As far as the 200 million budget, I read a post (I believe it was on El Birdos) where the blog author had done some calculations and arrived at a 2024 projected budget of 196 million. Since I like to work with round numbers I went with the 200M.
Kudos to those who have participated with your lineups. I hope that many more will do the same!
I still believe that the World Baseball Classic had a lot to do with the dismal showing of our pitching staff and the underperformance of many of our start players. This year we had more of our top-tier players spread across the world participating in this “tournament” than ever before and, therefore, not experiencing their normal Spring Training regimen. THe classic is a very high-intensity, lay-it-all-on-the line tournament held in a short amount of days. It is very taxing, not to mention the players are under different styles of managers and practices. You can’t tell me that it did not take some kind of toll on the players, both physically and mentally!
While I am disappointed in the level of play our Cardinals have provided this year, I also don’t kid myself into thinking that I can manage or play at the level these guys are expected to day-in and day-out. How many of you that are on here bashing a player or a pitcher every time they “fail” never fails at your daily job! Or for that matter how many of you ever put on a MLB uniform and hit or pitched. If you have, I value your input but if not then everything you say is just the opinion of another armchair quarterback.
Be passionate about your team but don’t be mean or disrespectful to the players who are doing something that we will only dream about doing!
Rats – Herzog was on the field for the HOF weekend. IMO he looks better at 92 years old than LaRussa does at 78!
Rats – Herzog was on the field for the HOF weekend. IMO he looks better at 92 years old than LaRussa does at 78!
I think several factors have contributed to the Contreras issue.
1. All of our major pitching staff that we were relying on bailed and played in the WBC. Contreras did not in hopes that he could get time with said pitchers. This cost valuable familiarity time between the battery.
2. Contreras (and for that matter no one) is or ever will be Yadi.
3. Contreras was a Cub and our recent track record for “used” Cubs has not been very good.
4. Front office needed a scapegoat when the pitching staff bombed and Contreras was the easy candidate because he was the “new” ingredient in the battery.
I am less enthusiatic than some about offing Contreras. He is not great defensively, but I think the whole catchergate thing was amplified by general disfuncion coming out of spring training. General disfunction that was not his fault and shouldn’t have had to step into, especially replacing a legend. Plus, I am not as sold as some on Knizner and/or Herrera. Knizner is better defensivey, but not enough so to justify carrying a .215 bat in the lineup, which is what he hit last year, with more PAs than he will have this year. He could just as well do that next year as what he is doing this year. And Herrera may or may not be an MLB starting catcher. We don’t know. On top of that, I think the finger pointing ring leader amongst the starters is gone. So my gut tells me Contreras will remain, and probably be OK. That means Knizner or Herrera will go. I think Knizner will, as his performance has established some value, and he is further up the salary scale. Theoretically, Herrera may have some value by the time Bernal is ready to move up and may then follow Knizner out the door.
I agree BB! The Contreras naysayers will not look at the overall picture of what Contreras brings to this team. They pick and choose which “sabermetric” that will back up their argument yet they ignore all others.
While I am not a real analytics type of guy, I can look up the stats on the Baseball Reference website. This site shows that Contreras is #4 on the Cardinals in WAR and none of the other catchers crack the top 12 on the Cardinals. It also shows that Contreras is better offensively than all of the others. As for the defensive categories, Contreras and Knizner seem to be neck and neck in most of them with each one being slightly better than the other depending on which category you select. The difference however is very marginal in these categories with one major exception. Contreras has a 27% Caught Stealing rate while Knizner’s is only 8% (the league average is 20% of which Contreras is better than). Lest one says that Contreras has had more opportunities, the number is only 8 more stolen base attempts against Contreras than Knizner (C = 12 out of 44 vs K = 3 out of 36)
As for pitch framing, how can we really use that as a stat when in reality it comes down to the Umps being terrible at strike calling. Pitch framing means the umps are watching the catchers glove more than they are the ball and where it crosses the plate. Once we get the “robo-umps” this stat will be gone! I can’t wait!
I have to agree with BW on this one 1TD. Marmol, while not the smartest guy in the managerial ranks, is not the problem. He saw what happened to Shildt when he bucked Mozeliaks “Sabermetric System” and he would like to keep his job. THere is no other explanation for why he still has a job except he is doing EXACTLY what Mozeliak instructs him to do every game.
None of the veteran managers that you mentioned would be Mozeliak’s “lap dog” and thus Mo will not hire one of those types. Our only hope out of this is for BDW Jr. to wisen up and get rid of MO or not extend his contract when it is up after 2024!
Bob Reed – According to Baseball Reference, Contreras has a better WAR, Rtot, Rtot/yr, RF/9, and CS% than Knizner. In fact, Contreras CS% is 9 points ABOVE the league average.
In the categories where Knizner is better it is only slightly better than Contreras with 243 less chances than Contreras has.
That and most of the so called veteran leaders bailing on ST to do the WBC just caused a cohesion problem right from the start
Wow! Did Bling and I just agree on something?! Maybe there is still hope for the world! 🙂
I think the jury is still out on whether the Cards have wasted the Goldy/NA time frame. It takes a lot to win championships and everything has to fall into place at the right time. Look at the history of baseball and you can find some very talented ball players and ball clubs that never won a championship. Does that mean their time was wasted?
I want my Cardinals to win a championship as much as anybody but I also need to be realistic and know that it happens very infrequently. I do however expect a competitive team every year and thus far Junior and Mo have not given us that this year! If their philosophy does not change then we are in for some lean years until that pendulum swings back,
YOu are all forgetting that there are TWO sides in the trade world. There is a lot of negotiating happening between clubs and the fact remains that none of us were privy to any of the conversations. Don’t get me wrong! I loathe Mozeliak like the next guy but until you know the whole story (which none of us ever will) all you are doing is stating your opinion based on your feelings and not fact!
The backstop is not the problem. The problem was all of our main pitchers went to the WBC and did not get time with the backstop. Plus they were spoiled by Yadi and no matter who came in to replace Yadi, all of you would be saying the same thing!
Get over it! Contreras is our catcher and you will see he will be just fine.
Doesn’t matter who our pitchers will be until we get a pitching coach who has experience as a pitching coach!
Is it just me or does it seem as if Flaherty cannot remain focused during the game. Ever since the COVID season he does not appear to be able to maintain his focus completely through an inning.
Is it just because he doesn’t want to be in St. Louis or is there some other issue going on with him?!?!
I agree TD! The blame for this debacle starts at the top.
DeWitt is happy and complacent to draw 3+million fans (which the Cards will do) so he will not fire Mozeliak!
Mozeliak will not admit that relying 100% on Sabermetrics will not get it done and so we will continue to go after the same type of players and coaches as long as he is POBO.
Marmol does not have the in”testical” fortitude to stand up against Mozeliak as he wants to keep his job! (See my earlier post concerning Libby and Shildt as proof.)
1TD – What was expected of Contreras that he has not lived up to? I believe they were looking for more offensive production from the catching spot, knowing they would dip defensively. I believe Contreras has been meeting that part.
Bling – You continuously talk down on Contreras but do not offer tangible proof of why?! Give me good baseball reasons of why you think the Cardinals made a mistake in signing him and what he has done this year that you do not like. According to Baseball Reference he is the number 6 Cardinal batter in terms of war . Also for some reason the table just below all of the pictures on that page shows him in the top spot overall.
Based on that it seems that you just have a personal dislike for Contreras. As I mentioned in a previous post it would not have mattered who was signed to take Yadi’s place, most on this board would have found something wrong with him. The poor pitching woes cannot be blamed on Contreras. The pitchers are not executing this year and adding to that we have a pitching coach who has never been a pitching coach before.
I don’t usually like the “I heard it from the cousin of a sister’s best friend…” type of information but..
Former MLB pitcher David Weathers (father of current San Diego Padres pitcher Ryan Weathers) is related to my sister-in-law and this past weekend they were visiting with my brother. According to David, the Padres and Cardinals had an even-swap of Ryan and Liberatore but the Padres GM backed out at the last minute.
He also confirmed that Shildt was fired because Shildt wouldn’t give in to Mo’s sabermetric demands. Apparently Shildt and Ryan have developed a pretty good working relationship.
Anyway it appears that the Cards were (or are) giving up on Liberatore so it wouldn’t surprise me if they packaged him in a deal either at the Trade Deadline or in the offseason.
On another note, all of those that are calling for the Cards to jettison Contreras, please provide tangible reasons why (i.e. your analytic proof in comparison to the other catchers we have) so we can see that it is based on good baseball proof and not that you just hate him. I am pretty certain that no matter who we got to replace Yadi you all would not have been satisfied.
Five runs should be enough to win a game even if they left the bases loaded that many times. While I agree they need to work on situational hitting, it was the pitching that let us down in this game. Everybody was fresh because they had two days off so the bullpen was not overtaxed. Being able to throw the ball in triple digits means nothing if you can’t get it across the plate. Too many walks and poor pitch execution cost us this game.
For those that are calling the manager stupid I believe you are off base. Oli is just doing what the analytics department have outlined for him to do with Mozeliak and DeWitt’s blessing. If it was ONLY Marmol making these stupid decisions he would have been fired long ago. The blame lies with Dewitt and Mozeliak and as long as they are running the club this will be the product!
Rats – Look at this article on MLB that ranks the potential starting lineups for the playoff teams. They have the Cardinals with the 4th best lineup behind only LA, Toronto, and Atlanta. They back it up with team ranks. Really getting tired of your gloom and doom!!
https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-playoff-teams-best-lineups-2022
4. Cardinals
MLB ranks: Fifth in wRC+ (114), OPS (.745) and wOBA (.326), tied for fifth in runs (772)
8. Phillies
MLB ranks: Seventh in runs (747), eighth in wOBA (.322) and OPS (.739), 10th in wRC+ (106)
Rats – I believe you are correct. We have 8 games left (Milwaukee has 9) with a 6.5 game lead. Winning one of the games gives us the season series and would maintain the 6.5 game lead with 6 games to go PLUS give us the first tiebreak with the season series win.
But Bader has been on a break for several months. That he means he is well rested and should be hitting well. The Cards will come out of their funk and put together a little run. They will go as far as they are supposed to – hopefully that will be there next WS Championship. If not, there is always next year!
