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First – The Cardinals never wanted Ozuna to resign. Why? $$$$$
Second – MO – Successful? Failure? In eyes of the Cardinals ownership he is hugely successful. Look at their stated goal. Stay relevant, put a competitive team on the field, Keep the pep’s in the seats, and of course the unstated goal make $$$$ or ownership. From this perspective he is quite successful. Failure – Fan’s want ownership to put a team together to win championships. Cost is secondary. We rented Ozuna for two years at a tremendous loss of talent. We did the same with Hey Jay. Ozuna will hit 40 homers in Atlanta this year at a 280 or better batting average. He is weak in the field, and I don’t expect this to change. His arm will never be what it was b4 his injury.
Third – Cardinals have a terrible track record of judging their own talent. Look at who they have given away. Diaz, life time 275 avg. and a plus fielder. We gave away? Demoted after a month of subpar play. By the way the chosen one who can do no wrong Mr. Carpenter’s life time average 269. We also gave away Jon Jay who is a star since leaving the Lou. Now were going to have our best hitter (Edman) in 2019 start the season on the bench????
But at the end of the day, we will have 3 million attend the games this season. We will be competitive in the central either making the playoffs or coming close. Management will tell us they want to win and will make some changes. Which of course they will, but within budget. LOL. SOS SOS SOS. no matter what the year SOS.Kudos to you, at least one fan who has a clue. Saw in Post today opening day line up that did not include Edmonds in the line up? Unbelievably stupid. He is by far our best fielding 3rd baseman in years. He hit 303. He has pop in his bat. Is our front office and management this unbelievably stupid? The one guy that should not be in the line up is a certainty. And that is Matt Carpenter. If he plays, no one wishes he’d turn it around more than me. But his public statements about his own play last season should all give us a clue. Confidence is everything to an athlete. Not only is Carpenter older, slower, with a declining batting average since his 2nd year as a Cardinal, but he has obviously lost his confidence. Not a good recipe. I predict he is riding the pine by June.
I was at the game so I am not sure what was shown on TV, but Ozuna on his 2nd home run yesterday mocked Acuna’s shuffle steps prior to stepping on both 2nd base and 3rd base as he ran around the base paths. I get what everyone is saying about the Cardinals being pissed about Acuna’s antics. I did not see the throat slashing sign to Martinez as mentioned, but to me lowering ourselves to Acuna’s standards is not the answer. Also the few boo birds when Martinez took the mound yesterday is also pretty disappointing. I have always been proud that in St. Louis we normally only boo those things that are within the players control, like not hustling. No one feels worse about giving up the lead than Carlos. Booing him will not help him perform better. Get a clue.
In my initial comments about Matt Carpenter, I fully expected many to voice their support of him. What astounded me is just the magnitude of those disillusioned by the front office hype put out about him over the years. One actually compared his quality to Joey Votto. Votto is a life time 300 hitter and a possible hall of fame candidate. Carpenter a 270 life time hitter has absolutely ZERO CHANCE of being voted into the Hall of Fame. I also heard the comment about returning to “one of the best NL Hitters. Again Really? 270 does not get you into that class. Last year for a couple months he was certainly in that conversation due to his Home Run Surge. However, if you look at his home run statistics over his career this was a fluke and not something anyone could reasonably expect to continue (15.8 avg). Does anyone out there really think we could get any value for him in a trade???? We would most likely have to pick up a large portion of his salary just to unload the guy. The facts are simple – He is a solid average MLB hitter. He is a below average fielder. He is a below average base runner. He gets a lot of walks. He strikes out a lot. His best season as a Cardinal was his first two full seasons (.294 and .318). Since 2013 he has steadily declined.
WAR is the most misleading statistic in baseball. All it means is when someone wasn’t playing how well the team fared. Freese has played on some better teams for one thing. Freese consistently gets picked up by winning franchises. If we shopped Carpenter around how many teams do you really think would jump at him?????? I seriously doubt many. Lets be clear, I am not down on him for his bat. He is a solid average MLB hitter with a better than average OBP. But he is an incredible liability in the field. Many misplays in the field do not go down as errors which is infuriating to me. If they did, his percentages there would be worse than what they are. Our outfielders over the last two years also have benefited from generous score keeping. How many balls go to the wrong base for example? Our worst year defensively had a lot to do with Wong on the bench and Carpenter in the field. Wong has been our best fielder for the last few years other than Yadi of course. The reason we are better this year is Wong plays most of the time, Bader is solid in center and the addition of Goldschmidt.
I would be the first to admit Carpenter had a great middle of the season last year. You might even say a Career year. Let’s face it he is a life time 270 hitter and the fans in St. Louis who believe all the front office hype have him on a pedestal. He is at best an average MLB player who we have given a Franchise label to. We kept him after a brilliant first full year in favor of keeping David Freese who’s career overall has out performed Mr. Carpenter. David is a 276 lifetime hitter who’s fielding has improved dramatically over his career. Teams have always benefited from his ability to hit in the clutch something Carpenter who consistently leaves runners in scoring position has not. Make it clear, I am not down on him because of 2019 lackluster performance. He is simply a liability in the field. He lacks range, makes lots of errors, and has no arm. Anyone who thinks he is going to duplicate 38 home runs in what’s left of his career is an eternal optimist. And Edmans and Munoz are far superior fielders. I am not saying they are the answer. It is yet to be seen if they can consistently produce offensively. But if I am pitching I want them on the corner instead of Carp.
