Willie McGee is part of the 2018 St Louis Cardinals

https://i.imgur.com/qhSEVKT.jpg

is it kind of weird that i'm most excited about the new coaching staff? willie fucking mcgee is part of this team now. jose oquendo is back. chris carpenter is back and ready to yell fuck. ozzie smith is finally beginning to get over tony larussa. mike maddux is the new pitching coach, replacing the guy who stares blankly while mike matheny calls on matt bowman for his 114th high leverage appearance of the season.

lynn is gone, mikolas replaces him and no one has any idea how good he'll be. projections are fairly high on a guy who hasn't ever had success in MLB and has been pitching overseas since 2015. alex reyes is In The Best Shape Of His Life and his replacement arm from Dr Andrews should arrive in the mail around early May. he might end up replacing wainwright, whose best case scenario is making a heroic relief pitching appearance in the playoffs and then retiring. carlos martinez continues to be the best thing about the team.

jose martinez is fun too, and if matt carpenter's back continues to flare up (it's happening already in spring training) he may end up getting a lot of playing time at 1B (please no luke voit, please). i haven't watched ozuna play that much. i hope that i like him. i have reasonable expectations for him, but i'm cautiously optimistic that he can put up at least one great (>4 WAR) season during his stint here. tommy pham is no fluke, and i'm looking forward to seeing what he can do in a full season. i'm also terrified that he'll get injured, like he has been almost every year except for 2017.

pre-season predictions are kind of silly because a team's final record depends so much on whether the front office decides to go for it or fold at mid-season. but i think they're capable of putting up 95 wins. if things go bad, they could be around 80 wins. i'd guess they end up around 87 or 88, hopefully enough to barely slide into the wild card.

best thread title

Was thinking something like “How ‘zuna is now?”

Outfield is better.
Infield is same.
Starters I’d bet shakes out even.
Bullpen is worse.

Treading water unless Reyes magically comes back at 100%.

i know cubs are the faves but i can see another tight season between the cubs/brewers/cardinals, like last year

does Willie still look like E.T.? (popular observation by Howard Cosell during '82 WS)

https://i.imgur.com/QT9ktTH.jpg

he's hanging in there! just heard a story on a broadcast that he was only tossed out of one game in his pro career, and that was in the minor leagues (after throwing a helmet in frustration) and he vowed to never let it happen again.

i know cubs are the faves but i can see another tight season between the cubs/brewers/cardinals, like last year
it's definitely possible, but i'd guess the cubs will only get tangled up in that if they have another slightly underwhelming year (obv they were good last year, just not as good as most people thought they'd be). i'd be pretty happy if the cardinals can split the season series with the cubs this year. but the brewers seem like the more imminent threat to the cardinals chances to snag a WC spot.

Outfield is better.
Infield is same.
Starters I’d bet shakes out even.
Bullpen is worse.

Treading water unless Reyes magically comes back at 100%.

i pretty much agree with all of that, except i think the bullpen might actually be better. i kind of agree with the strategy of countering the volatility of relief pitchers by building a deep bullpen with many options (https://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2017/10/25/16524650/the-cardinals-should-build-a-bullpen-through-quantity-not-quality). last year's group seemed kind of top heavy, and when those options disappointed (oh all season, and cecil in the first half) the team was just kind of fucked (until rosenthal stepped it up, RIP). but i feel pretty good about starting off with gregerson, lyons, cecil, leone, and then supplementing with the surplus of guys on the cusp as the season progresses (reyes, as he eases back into playing time, guys like helsley, hicks, etc).

i don't know. all of that depth is countered by the matheny factor, which will hopefully be at least somewhat countered by the maddux factor.

https://i.imgur.com/yeXWuQb.jpg

the determination you've come to expect from the 2018 willie mcgees.

it would be bad if he made the team, performance-wise, but i root for him all the same.

breaking: bernard gilkey is also on the coaching staff, at least in spring training

now all they need is mark whiten

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBg3dX7AdSg

i think i might like rick ankiel more than ricky horton, as a broadcaster? he's just doing guest color commentary on this game (and one earlier this week), and i'm not sure he's been considered as anything full-time. but he's pretty good at it already, for a beginner, and i imagine he would just get better. he has a natural grasp for the cadence of color commentary - when to shut up, when to talk. just the sound of his voice is good for tv. he has a sort of interesting twang that's hard to nail down but easy to listen to. he says interesting things and his little jokes are actually kinda funny, usually.

he just fucked up now, a little, by starting to discuss a strikeout sequence just as they were headed to break. but even then, he caught it and stopped himself short with a "...he's just dominatin' "

this kid has skills.

also he seems to be more knowledgeable about the game than horton (and by extension, hrabosky, who is kind of turning into a joke). example: just about a week ago ricky horton seemed to think he was really bold in saying that the astros "have a chance" of being good for the next few years. uuuh yeah, usually young teams that win 100 games and still have a top 10 farm system are predicted to be pretty good for a while. anyway, but just now they were talking about kyle tucker and ankiel kind of offhandedly mentioned that tucker would be starting for some teams, but the astros have excellent depth so he'll have time to develop. nothing groundbreaking, but a basic bit of understanding about the other team that the other announcers rarely seem bothered to mention, if they're even aware.

also - he has an ohtani-like advantage because he was an amazing pitcher AND a MLB-worthy hitter and genuine threat for a couple years, with that really unique, swing for the fences final season when he struck out 44% of the time but with an .ISO of .234. there aren't too many people who have a view on the game like him.

Lance Lynn is dad. Miles Mikolas is stepdad.

yadi went 4/4 with 2 HRs and a double today, and the double bounced off the very top of the outfield wall. he also picked a guy off first.

jordan hicks made the roster(!)

he has not pitched above high A

He’s good! My guess is that as soon as wainwright or gregorson some back from the DL he’ll be first back down

early season fun: matt carpenter probably has no business playing 3B (bad arm) or 2B (horrible range), but he'll keep doing it because jose martinez is the best hitter on the team right now and 1B is pretty much the only place he can play (he can technically play corner OF but it's pretty ugly).

also apparently ozuna's right arm has been bothering him since last fall and throughout spring training, and already yesterday there was an Outfielder who can't throw Situation where a ball hit to Ozuna in LF in a sac fly situation was awkwardly handled by Tommy Pham in CF, presumably because Ozuna couldn't throw home with authority.

How hot is Dominique Leone in person?

That was a wild game. I’m happy and sad to have seen it in person! First game that started and ended with back to back HRs (and on consecutive pitches each time too.)(and the CF and RF hit them for each team?)

btw https://www.si.com/mlb/2018/04/02/tommy-pham-st-louis-cardinals

Call hurts #STLCards
Ball 1 should be strike 2
Top 2 Wacha vs Marte
0% call same
11.4in from edge pic.twitter.com/MbQ8i8f9uW

— Cards Strike Zone (@CardinalsUmp) April 7, 2018

pic.twitter.com/eOMvgjby4y

— VanHickslestein (@VanHicklestein) April 7, 2018

Combination of terrible framing by the catcher and the pitcher completely missing his target, but yeah...

https://i.imgur.com/2agkMIn.jpg

XTREEEMBEARDZ

I may have said this before but: I was an eleven-year-old St. Louisan in 1982. Literally the ONLY sports allegiance I have is to the Cardinals of that era (McGee, Ozzie/Lonnie, Hernandez, Whitey, Sutter, heck, even Andujar). Makes me so happy to see that any of those names are still relevant.

let's give it up for tommy herr too, he doesn't get remembered enough. the 1987 team is the literally the first one i remember (i was 4 then, and i just knew ozzie), but my grandpa had an ozzie smith defense instructional VHS that i used to constantly watch, and part of the tape (the best part) was a highlight reel of all his greatest plays and somehow i absorbed the key players of 1982 through that.

tidbits i had to tune it to the cubs' broadcast to learn (i cannot tolerate jim edmonds in the booth any longer):

jose martinez' dad was carlos martinez, former MLB player. i knew that, but didn't realize that

1) carlos martinez was the poorly performing white sox first basemen when Frank Thomas rolled into town
2) the following year ('91), carlos martinez ended up as the backup to jim thome in cleveland
and most importantly, 3) carlos martinez was the guy who hit the home run that bounced off of jose canseco's head

tyler o'neill: good socks

son of a famous body builder, too!
and he's canadian! (speaking of which, this is kind of nowhere but what happened to brett lawrie? last played in 2016, played above replacement level, still only 28?)

head case: https://jaysjournal.com/2018/02/22/blue-jays-sad-story-brett-lawrie

oh. jeez, i had no idea. he seems very lost.

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/M8Qv7fN-a5OOpxHlhEnA14PIhOA=/0x0:1800x832/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x832):format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/10693217/Hicks_FastestPitches.jpg

dr andrews, i place a hex on you. leave this kid alone

Mets are done with the Cards this year, can't say I'm sad.

Gary:
Tommy Pham has 9 career WAR in less than two complete seasons of playing time. Where the hell do the Cardinals find these guys?

Jay Jaffe:
The Cardinals have a great organization, but it also took them until he was 29 to give him 200 PA in a season.

that's true, but he was also injured all the goddamn time as he was working his way through the minors. he missed almost all of the 2011 and 2012 to injuries, played poorly in AAA in 2013, and then suffered through a string of more minor injuries in 2014-2016. he played well in a bench role in 2015, but then in 2016 he was barely above average (albeit dealing with injuries again). 2017 was a breakout year for him, but it was also a rare season where he was healthy most of the time.

He should stop stabbing himself in the face tbqh.

i love that he invented some sort of elastic-band-based custom training tool that is also capable of making his head bleed

Where the hell do the Cardinals find these guys?

the real Cardinals Devil Magic story is Jose Martinez, i think. my co-favorite player (with carlos).

saw rany j being very salty about how the royals just sold him to the cardinals two years ago, didn't even get a player in return

can't seem to find out how much money they got, probably because it would be insulting as hell

i don't really blame matheny for doing it -- it worked! -- but i also don't want to see him use four damn pitchers in a single inning

greg holland - A Proven Closer

we are the goon squad and we're coming to town
beep beep

https://i.imgur.com/hL6iToQ.png

beep beep

dan mclaughlin has been talking about Kingham's perfect game chances since the 4th inning

Jose Martinez compared Carlos Martinez’s slow home run trot around the bases to Yoenis Cespedes, a comparison that’s strikingly accurate.

According to Statcast, it takes Cespedes 27.4 seconds, on average, to circle the bases.

Carlos took 27.9 seconds.

— Joe Trezza (@JoeTrezz) May 2, 2018

mike matheny just used carlos martinez as a pinch hitter in the 6th inning. jedd gyorko is still on the bench.

well, yadi's balls exploded, he's out for 4+ weeks. i've always wondered how carson kelly would do with playing time, guess we're about to find out.

damn, the gif of that is hard to watch and hard to stop watching. his junk ripples

doesn't help that it was a foul tip off of a ~100 mph jordan hicks fastball

doesn't help that he wasn't wearing a cup either, lolwtf

that's what i thought, too! has it been confirmed? i mean, it looks like he wasn't. but...shit, i wore a cup when i played catcher in my 10-12 year old league and no one could throw over 70 mph

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/K4oOcnB4ABEAADFvkLx-e_o56d8=/0x0:1286x744/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1286x744):format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/10791379/Q6pTsmk.png

that was fun, but mostly terrible.

not loading...?

hmm, it's working for me, but it's just the Fangraphs win expectancy graph from last night's game: https://www.fangraphs.com/wins.aspx?date=2018-05-06&team=Cardinals&dh=0&season=2018

piscotty's mom died.

at least he got to spend more time with her near the end. that's sad. just last night ESPN rag a segment about her, after the game

alex reyes will pitch for palm beach tonight

Alex Reyes (SP): 3.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K’s

curious about his velocity, which according to earlier reports is "good"

also, Jack Flaherty had a day in AAA: 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 13 K’s

the 2019 rotation is very promising

reyes reportedly hit 99 twice

i like these reports

reyes is pitching in peoria tonight if you feel like a road trip

i would have loved to have seen him, but i had to work (for once). that's a good heads up, though! i might try to catch him there another time, if i can, before he heads to STL.

dexter fowler is on pace for -3.2 fWAR over 600 PAs

it's hard to be frustrated with him because he's such a fun ballplayer, has an excellent twitter, he's funny and lighthearted, etc. but even his defense in RF has been awful, to the extent that it makes his protests about being moved from CF (in favor of Pham, Bader, or a number of other better defenders) seem absurd

also, wainwright might be done. done done. both flaherty and reyes are clearly better options in the starting rotation. hell, john gant and a few others are probably better options at this point. after that last awful start, he's kind of in DL purgatory again, resting his arm and waiting for the 2000s to come back. it doesn't look good.

i still hold out hope that he'll take a role in the bullpen and be effective in short outings and get the save in the final game of the world series for the cardinals.

I still can't believe that the Cardinals' manager in 2014 made Michael Wacha pitch with the season on the line after not pitching for a month. No wonder he couldn't find another managing job.

— Grant Brisbee (@GrantBrisbee) May 17, 2018

GREG HOLLAND IS A PROVEN CLOSER

also carson kelly to the 10-day DL with a hamstring injury. Adam Wainwright to retirement the 60-day.

Nope. Out of every pitcher who’s thrown at least 20 innings, Hicks has the second-lowest strikeout rate, ahead of only Alex Claudio. And out of the same pool, Hicks has the single lowest K-BB%. Over the past five years, when position players have taken the mound, they’ve posted a collective K-BB% of -4.3%. Hicks is at -7.4%. Out of 95 batters faced, he’s struck out nine of them, while walking 16. He’s also hit another three. The saving grace here is that Hicks has a top-ten rate of ground balls. He hasn’t allowed a homer. But his xFIP is 53% worse than the average. Jordan Hicks is perplexing.

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/baseballs-hardest-thrower-gets-the-second-fewest-strikeouts/

that's crazy, i assume his pitches have little movement?

besides his fastball which i assume has next to none

yeah, plus he currently lacks an effective second pitch

he still has a ton of promise, of course. he never pitched above A ball last year, and then was promoted to the big leagues after spring training, so he missed out on the kind of development time that will hopefully lead to a better arsenal at some point

i think reyes is ready

http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2018_05_24_okcaaa_mrbaaa_1&t=g_box&sid=milb

first pitcher in the 115-year history of the pacific coast league to fan nine in a row

Apparently one of the innings was 9 pitches, all swinging strikes.

the only reason he’s not up already is because of Greg Holland. I know their fates aren’t tied together now but it would be so satisfying to DFA Holland (and fire Matheny) on the same day Reyes gets brought up

Joe Sheehan was being interviewed on the EW podcast last week and when asked if the spread of analytics-derived strategy gave him less to write about now, he answered with several variations of "There's always Matheny."

Carson Kelly and Lyons back from the DL, Holland finally placed on the DL with some injury so that he can go suck in the minors

TS: right hip impingement vs 9.45 ERA

uuuuugh, the long-awaited return of reyes tomorrow is a FACEBOOK GAME

uuuuugh, the long-awaited return of reyes tomorrow is a FACEBOOK GAME

Is he still in the majors?

alex reyes! hopefully he'll be in the majors for another 15 years. his season debut was not so great, but he'll be a perennial all-star if he comes anywhere close to his potential

He's headed to the DL according to the twitters:

Today, the #STLCards recalled LHP Austin Gomber, RHP Mike Mayers and 1B Luke Voit from Memphis (AAA). RHP Alex Reyes has been placed on the 10-day disabled list with a right lat strain, while OF Tyler O'Neill and RHP John Gant have been optioned to the triple-A Redbirds. pic.twitter.com/aoaKZjGUPL

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) May 31, 2018

grooooooooooooan

Cardinals GM Mike Girsch said Thursday that Alex Reyes has a "significant" right lat strain and will miss more than a couple starts.

boo

ooooof

i mean, it's a selfish whiny oof, the team has good depth and this temporarily solves the "problem" of who should get the 4th and 5th rotation spots between flaherty, weaver, and reyes. but dangit i was really hoping this would be the summer of alex reyes

he's still young and good and everything but it's worrisome that he's never thrown more than ~110 IP in a season

don’t see too many pitchers wearing single digits

kolten wong is so bad clutch

some weird mathenaging in that he let weaver hit in the bottom of the fifth -- and he drew a walk and scored the go-ahead run -- and then replaced him anyway. i love it when a plan comes together

that's not even weird mathenaging, that's just how he rolls. letting the pitcher hit and then replacing him two batters into the following inning is SOP at this point. there's no point even trying to fix it

the daily standing ovations for freese are starting to get crepey

Alex Reyes underwent surgery to reattach a tendon in his right lat today. He is expected to miss the rest of the season. #STLCards

— Joe Trezza (@JoeTrezz) June 6, 2018

WAR/SABR hates him, but when does the conversation about Mikolas getting Cy votes begin?

when scherzer and degrom keel over dead

Cardinals record thus far...

26-27 against rest of MLB
9-0 vs. Reds

sounds about right. it's the sign of a middling team - beat up on the worst teams (sorry reds), split series against the WC-caliber teams, and consistently lose series against the teams that are actually good. to be fair, i guess that's pretty much how baseball goes for most teams. but it doesn't do much to inspire confidence in any sort of postseason run.

xposts mikolas will only get cy votes if a) he keeps this up all year, b) he ends up with the most wins in the NL, and c) the cardinals make the playoffs. he's really interesting because he is the pretty much the polar opposite of the modern elite pitcher - pitch to contact, very few strikeouts. fWAR is never going to like him because of his low strikeouts (and his xFIP is always going to be worse than his ERA because of his low HR%), but he's wonderful. really reminds me a bit of the way guys like bob tewksbury used to pitch. plus he even looks like he's straight out of 1989

Looks like Rick Reuschel.

http://www.tradingcarddb.com/Images/Cards/Baseball/8590/8590-15Fr.jpg

poncedeleon up!

gotta love poncedeleon.

meanwhile, somehow greg holland is doing even worse in AAA than in STL. dude is just broken

also - jordan hicks seems to be figuring it out

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/sUUVKShc16dnDA3YYCsFfBhUfAg=/0x0:837x679/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:837x679):format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/11519373/HicksWhiffs.PNG

matheny seems determined to get him a solid 100 appearances during a season when he should have been in A/AA

😂😂😂

(via @DexterFowler) pic.twitter.com/GOThose4PV

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) June 11, 2018

poncedeleon up!

― mookieproof, Monday, June 11, 2018 5:44 PM (four days ago)

poncedeleon down, without ever making an appearance. i think that's the second or third time matheny's done that to a rookie so far this year?

doing that to a guy on his first call-up is fucked up imo

during the fox broadcast of the cubs/cardinals game the other night, they kept showing slo-mo replays of ozuna's great incredulous reactions to strike calls, and i thought by now there would be a million gifs from that for social media use but i haven't seen any

yeah, he's been taking his reactions up a notch recently, in tandem with his hot streak. guess he's feeling sassy.

yadi will break a record tonight, with his 1,757th start as a cardinal, breaking gabby hartnett's record for most games caught for a single team.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/cardinals-executive-john-mozeliak-calls-out-dexter-fowler-for-his-effort-level/

i was just listening to the podcast (my first and last time listening to it, it's awful) where that discussion took place earlier this morning. goes without saying, but no one would be commenting on his "effort" if he wasn't playing way below replacement player-value.

did people in chicago give him a hard time about his style of catching easy fly balls, glove at about chest level? cardinals broadcasters seemed to be obsessed about it for a very long time - clearly they hated it but didn't want to seem like complete squares.

i don't really pay much attention to local sports media, so i don't know, but he also played well while he was here, so i doubt it

Dexter Fowler was also kind of a symbolic hero for the Cubs' 2016 WS run, when he had his surprise return in spring training after turning down the Orioles i think it was kind of a weirdly key moment of confidence building.

Top of the 5th. @Tsunamy27 doing his best #Wolverine ?? @Cardinals at @SFGiants (I won’t leave my heart @Yankees ... it was just a one nighter) pic.twitter.com/TGobRbC0S2

— Hugh Jackman (@RealHughJackman) July 6, 2018

go back to straya

surprise: bud norris is an asshole and mike matheny is a dumbass

Thirty-two​ years​ ago, when​ pitcher Chuck Finley got called​ up​ to​ the​ California Angels​ directly from​ the​ Single-A California League,​ one​​ of the first people he ran into in the clubhouse was Reggie Jackson, who was 19 years into what would prove to be a Hall of Fame career.

The celebrity slugger asked Finley what kind of year he was having at Triple-A. Finley swallowed hard, afraid to tell him he had never even touched Double-A. He just kind of stuck his left thumb in the air.

“I kept my mouth shut,” Finley said. “That may have been the smartest thing I ever did. If I had told him, he would have looked around and been like, ‘Are we even fucking trying?’ “

The game has changed since the years when rookies were afraid to open their mouths for fear of retribution from grumpy veterans and that is a good thing by most accounts, but vestiges of the old school remain. The relationship between the two best relievers on the St. Louis Cardinals is defined by one stubborn adherent of said old ways: closer Bud Norris.

The 33-year-old Norris has been mercilessly riding 21-year old rookie Jordan Hicks since spring training, reminding him to be at meetings on time and publicly calling him out when he is lagging in any of the details a visitor might not notice, but other players do. Perhaps Hicks will one day appreciate the treatment?

“Probably not,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny admitted with a chuckle. “But Bud’s going to do continue to do what he thinks is right as a veteran, so you respect that.”

Matheny said he has had conversations with Hicks to remind him that Norris’ badgering is a way to show he is invested in his success. Matheny sees Norris’ actions as an effort to carry on the dying tradition of teaching younger players in the harshest possible ways. Matheny himself faced that on the Milwaukee Brewers when he broke in as a young catcher 24 years ago.

“I think the game has progressively gotten a little softer,” Matheny said. “Man, it had some teeth not that long ago.”

Hicks, the hardest throwing right-handed pitcher in baseball, isn’t a fan of the treatment. Asked if he thinks it will one day pay dividends in his career, he said, “I have no idea. No comment.”

The roots of Norris’ saltiness, if you want to call it that, lay in the soil of his early years with the Houston Astros, when he was asked to take on a leadership position before he was ready. Norris was the closest thing the Astros — in their tanking phase — had to a veteran since he had reached arbitration, but he was struggling to establish himself. Most of his teammates were either being traded away or shuttled back and forth between Triple-A and the big leagues. Norris called it a “swamp.”

Before that mid-career phase, Norris was the young victim of veterans’ pranks. Astros teammates once drove his 14-year-old Acura out onto the warning track before a game and advertised it for sale using shaving cream. They were trying to send him a message that big-league players drive fancier cars.

Two years later, most of those veterans were gone and Norris was supposed to patrol the room.

“Everyone was looking to me to be the leader and I wasn’t ready for that,” he said. “I didn’t need the extra stuff on my plate. I really just should have been learning my craft and it definitely set me back mentally. It wasn’t a positive environment. Losing that many games for that many years makes it a pretty negative environment. I didn’t enjoy going to the ballpark most days and it messed up my personal life.”

Six teams later, Norris is thriving as the Cardinals closer. He has a 2.87 ERA, a 0.929 WHIP and 2.55 FIP. And Hicks, who has thrown a fastball at 105 mph, has been his ace setup guy, pitching to a 2.56 ERA, a 1.073 WHIP and 3.55 FIP.

The odd couple dynamic between the two pitchers isn’t an accident. Norris said he decided early on he wasn’t going to allow Hicks to let loose work habits affect his readiness to perform. Hick was originally optioned back to minor-league camp this spring for being late repeatedly, but the team couldn’t resist the allure of his electric right arm. The Cardinals relented going into Opening Day and he has been on the roster all season.

Like Finley several generations earlier, Hicks never pitched at the final two rungs on the minor-league chain. He was in Class A baseball last season.

“He’s learning,” Norris said. “He’s admitting when he’s wrong and he’s admitting when he’s right. We’re working together, but he still has a lot to learn on the pitching side, on the professional side of things, how to hold himself accountable for some things and just being a pro, coming to work every day and being ready to work, doing the little things, because they add up in the long run.”

Question Norris’ methods with Hicks if you like, but you can’t deny him his experiences. The game has a way of kicking you around if you stick in it long enough and Norris remembers each of the slights. The most recent came last season, when – he says – the Los Angeles Angels switched him from the bullpen to the starting rotation just before an incentive for relief appearances kicked in to sweeten the one-year, $1.75 million contract he signed there.

“It is what it is, you know?” Norris said.

Though Hicks it the most frequent target of Norris’ attention, he isn’t the only reliever who has sometimes prompted him to speak up. Matheny said he invited Norris to take leadership of the bullpen and he has responded by giving him occasional reports of pitchers not living up to the standards the team set in spring training. At times, Matheny said, he has levied team fines after Norris’ reports.

“I get regular updates,” Matheny said. “But that’s good. I invited him into that. We need leadership with each sub-culture of the team, including the bullpen, and he’s keeping an eye. He’s a stickler for what we established early on.”

The Cardinals’ unofficial keeper of the old school might not be the most popular player among his peers at all times. That doesn’t mean he’s going to change any time soon. The on-field results dictate whether something is working or not and, right now, the Cardinals’ two-man relief tandem is getting it done, no matter how squeamish it can get behind the scenes.

“It is what it is, you know?” Norris said.

flagposted your post just because of this

Though Hicks it the most frequent target of Norris’ attention, he isn’t the only reliever who has sometimes prompted him to speak up. Matheny said he invited Norris to take leadership of the bullpen and he has responded by giving him occasional reports of pitchers not living up to the standards the team set in spring training. At times, Matheny said, he has levied team fines after Norris’ reports.

“I get regular updates,” Matheny said. “But that’s good. I invited him into that. We need leadership with each sub-culture of the team, including the bullpen, and he’s keeping an eye. He’s a stickler for what we established early on.”

cardinals police force, sgt. norris reporting in

fuckin' cops

one and the same https://t.co/NLImFrVLql

— keithlaw (@keithlaw) July 12, 2018

man, what the fuck happened to tommy pham, he just fell off a cliff in mid-may. actually, i guess he had a weird 13-game hitting streak in early june, but other than that it's been bleak

Feel like he's on the wrong side of 30 for a breakout season to materialize.

The curse of Ryan Ludwick

#STLCards announce that they have fired Mike Matheny.

— Jenifer Langosch (@LangoschMLB) July 15, 2018

damn, now Bud won’t make it out of the next road trip alive.

it finally happened

i'm going to miss the Karl's disses.

hey, maybe another team will hire him!

*crickets*

I wouldn’t put it pass the Orioles.

HAHAHAHA! As a Reds fan, it's hilarious that this game tonight was the straw that broke the back. I think Matheny is still trying to change pitchers.

Amazing! Love that his old school bullshit sealed it. What a dunce.

In years to come, they will discuss a cold feeling that happens in the door way to the bullpen from time to time in games.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C7PmE9-W4AEl1qz.jpg:small

bernie miklasz on twitter:

"The lethargic and messy baseball aside, and crumbling player relations aside, I can share this: management was not happy with Matheny’s quotes in @markasaxon piece in @TheAthletic (1/2)"

"As I wrote for @TheAthleticSTL Friday, management uncomfortable with Matheny’s expressed zeal for old-school tough guy stuff and referring to today’s game as "soft" … felt (2/3)"

"That (3/3) whenever Matheny gets on the soapbox with old-school preaching that’s a huge turnoff to young players, it reinforced team’s rep as uptight, stressed, humorless and not a fun place to play."

"That’s why I was astonished by the attacks on @markasaxon ; without Matheny running his mouth and all but bragging over having Bud Norris being his enforcer/snitch, Saxon had much less to build his piece around. Today’s players are different. This manager never got that."

"If you go back and read the reporting on why Joe Girardi was sacked by the Yankees, you wouldn’t be so quick to assume he’s the right guy in STL. The ability to communicate-connect with young players, and all kinds of players, will be a priority in choosing next STL manager"

Also very good - got me to download the app —
Miklasz: In the end, Mike Matheny simply never delivered on the promises that led to his hiring in the first place https://theathletic.com/432508/2018/07/15/miklasz-in-the-end-mike-matheny-simply-never-delivered-on-the-promises-that-led-to-his-hiring-in-the-first-place/

congratulations Cardinal fans

the only drawback to all of this is that the cardinals failed to call up triple-a manager STUBBY CLAPP

He’s a manager now???!!!!

The Cardinals’ players are now “on notice” after the team fired manager Mike Matheny on Saturday, Mark Saxon of The Athletic tweets. If the Cardinals (47-46) don’t turn things around during the coming weeks under interim manager Mike Shildt, there may be “sweeping changes” to their roster, per Saxon. St. Louis’ front office, for its part, “has pined for years to be a seller and stock up for the future,” Saxon writes.

the front office is dad now, and dad is mad

if the 2018 season is going to amount to anything, we'll find out in the next 2 weeks. a 5-game series against the cubs, 3 against the reds, another 3 against the cubs, then the trade deadline. i'd think they'd have to win at least 6 of 8 against the cubs in order to have a fighting chance this season, and they haven't exactly stepped it up against quality opponents the last three years this season

nice little game from carp

He has been on fire for a really long time

Bit of a gap but 6 HRs in his last 4 games.

16 total bases today

brett cecil getting a pep talk mound visit in a 16-2 game lol

carpenter in 56 games since 5/16:

.346/.435/.738, 20 HR, 24 2B, 33 BB, 38 RBI, 50 R

only mookie is within 80 points of his 1.174 OPS. only 12 players are within 200 points of it

yadier molina is the slowest person who has ever moved

Ozuna just checked his swing and the ump signaled he’d been hit by the pitch on his arm, Ozuna waved him off and said it was the bat, then grounded into a double play.

twice in this series the cardinals' manager has intentionally walked rizzo to get to bryant. one of those times there was only one out.

at least it's better than rock paper scissors

pic.twitter.com/ff9kJcoaCa

— 📼 (@VanHicklestein) July 22, 2018

damn, now Bud won’t make it out of the next road trip alive.

― omar little, Saturday, July 14, 2018 11:32 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

honestly (and i felt this way the last 2 seasons especially) i would rather see them go down in flames a little earlier this year and be sellers at the trade deadline rather than hanging on all year only to end up a few games out by the end. i don't blame bud norris for where they are this season since he's been really good all year. i blame greg holland. i hate his face and he sucks

shit face holland dfa'd, man with a good name dakota hudson will take his roster spot

As Cras references here, the tension never really abated between Tommy and the front office. Recently he asked for an expensive piece of exercise equipment and became unhappy when the team didn’t provide it. Many small clashes, I’m told by source. TB has been on him a long time. https://t.co/L9FiZ49Rt7

— Mark Saxon (@markasaxon) July 31, 2018

i'm gonna miss watching tommy pham.

it sure has been a tough year for st louis. 3 years without playoffs! can anyone else possibly understand what that feels like to have to watch?!

guessing pham's pissed that he won't get to play against the cardinals -- he seems like the kind of guy who still burns with hatred for the JV baseball coach who once moved him down in the order

yeah, he definitely plays with a chip on his shoulder. for the most part that's worked well!

pham is hard to project, i think. but there's a decent chance this goes down as a criminally terrible trade for the cardinals

impostor

Lance Lynn kept the pinstripes, lost the beard ... pic.twitter.com/hjvggSTbYQ

— Ryan Fagan (@ryanfagan) August 1, 2018

from the EW FB group:

Al Hrabosky, on the Cardinals broadcast. "I don't believe in launch angle... Launch angle means fly outs to me". As the words were leaving his mouth, Matt Carpenter hits another home run. Never change, Al.

He is one of the dumbest men in professional sports

adolis garcia making his debut in CF tonight

part of me thinks carpenter embraces this hashtag because it could eventually lead to a lucrative new salsa company

Another big series win! Here we come... back at it Friday in Kansas City! Proud to be a redbird... #ItsGottaBeTheSalsa 🍅🔥🌶

— Matt Carpenter (@MattCarp13) August 9, 2018

looks like mike shildt, like matheny, doesn't know how to say no to molina. yadi is starting his 18th straight game tonight, apparently a record for catchers 35 or older.

Molina's knees must be made from metal or something. Both the Pudge's (Fisk & Irod) caught alot of games late in their career, so I could see him hanging around for a while longer.

his cup is made of metal, now, but i don't know about his knees. but yeah, he's something else. it seems ridiculously risky to play a catcher 18 games in a row at pretty much any age, let alone 36, but he's hit .313/.345/.488 (wRC+ 126) during that span, hitting consistently pretty much the whole time, so what do i know

sorry, "ridiculously risky" is a little too much there. i guess i just mean "shortsighted"

regardless of who wins, this has been an unbelievably tense last three innings

2018 with Matheny: .505
2018 without Matheny: .640

mgr of the year!

https://i.imgur.com/GOL2Sjj.gif

posting this here again because it's still making me lol this morning

seven-game winning streak, only 4 games back

though five of those seven were against the marlins and the royals

Yeah, story of the last few years - beating up on bad teams, mediocre against the good ones. Still, if they were going to bust into a 7-game winning streak, now is the time to do it! A big part of the streak has been carpenter and the bullpen (who have gone from closing game after game to being unstoppable since the all-star break).

this is about as wild as the cardinals get

After being hit, the trainers wanted to see if @MattCarp13's hand was ok. He tested his strength by trying to open a jar of salsa. He opened it!

"If I can open it, I can play!" - Matt Carpenter #ItsGottaBeTheSalsa 🔥 pic.twitter.com/fx3wgmdxum

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) August 16, 2018

https://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2018/8/19/17755916/system-sundays-the-cards-emerging-star-crop

cautiously optimistic

optimistically optimistic

i knew things would be better after matheny, but jesus

, but jesus

unintentional irony there

shildt, man

The #Stlcards will announce that Mike Shildt is now their manager, stripping away the interim title

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) August 28, 2018

✓

shildt likes to keep his eyes in the shade and i respect that

https://i.imgur.com/bT7ImBL.jpg

there aren't too many big-league managers who never played in at least the minors (although schildt did play college ball). last one i can remember for sure is dave trembley, but there might have been others since

the two true outcomes player

John Gant is the only player in Major League history to hit 2 HR and never reach base safely in any other way. #STLCards

— Joe Trezza (@JoeTrezz) August 31, 2018

greg holland's revenge

it was a stupid game. baseball is a stupid game

part of me thinks carpenter embraces this hashtag because it could eventually lead to a lucrative new salsa company

well, that didn't take long

Hey @MattCarp13! We get it! Bueno Mojo Salsa available 9/13 at our St. Louis stores. #ItsGottaBeTheSalsa #SchnucksMojo #Schnucks @Cardinals 🍅🌶🔥🛒 pic.twitter.com/BwXAohu9lT

— Schnucks (@SchnuckMarkets) September 10, 2018

4 losses in a row = drop out of WC2 slot

the rest of the season features 7 more games against the dodgers, cubs, and brewers, so for better or worse they'll have a decent opportunity to earn it.

news broke earlier today that they offered flaherty and another player for donaldson, last off-season. glad that didn't work out!

i hope i eat my words later tonight, but my stomach is already in a knot about this wainwright situation. he's starting tonight in a crucial game against the dodgers, still in the rotation, after an awful comeback start last week. watching that game was excruciating.

it started with an inning of the best velocity and movement i've seen from him since early 2017, which of course got me really excited about the possibility that his rehab actually worked and he was going to be useful down the stretch. a wonderful capstone to a great career. this was quickly followed by a nightmarish beatdown that should have been much worse, coupled with a 6-mph drop in velocity on his fastball, hanging many curves in the middle of the zone, and an ill-advised decision to send him back out for one more inning, which featured the same worrisome velocity and hanging curves. but no one scored in that last inning, somehow, and then the offense saved the day so that he didn't get the all-important Loss. immediately afterward they announced he would remain in the rotation. a very matheny-esque decision imo. it could get ugly out there.

especially frustrating because he could be legitimately useful in the bullpen right now.

Game score 75!

i am a genius

*eats words*

that was ~vintage wainwright~, it really was. if nothing else i'm really happy i was able to sit down and see it tonight, even if i'm not sure it'll ever happen again

Gomber has missed several possible called strikes tonight because he and Molina are not entirely on the same page and YM has to lunge around a bit.

yeah, on the Sunday Night Baseball game the announcers were raving about his pitchframing abilities, but to my eye they haven't been particularly outstanding of late (not sure what the metrics are (or how reliable said metrics are))

tyler o'neill, the guy at the party with his shirt off

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/yS_J_NuRsesXtVmyiTeiRoarLU8=/0x0:953x529/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:953x529):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13137033/tyler2.jpg

if y'all can sweep the Cubs I will proudly wear a "best fans in baseball" t-shirt

it's remarkable how much more i like the cardinals when they're not managed by TLR or matheny. and even more so if they don't bring bud norris back next year

i'd like 'em more without Molina but that's probably just sour grapes because he has an OPS of like 2.500 against Milwaukee

fact check: false

molina has hit .263/.324/.409 against milwaukee, and in fact has a higher OPS against all the other NL central teams

but yeah, i don't like him either

oh then I was just talking about the games I watch

can you check that

(actually he has hit pretty well at miller park)

Let me check my files...

Looks like his OPS is 1.836 when I truly, truly believe in him as I cheer him on

RIP cardinals, btw. I just saw the score of today’s game with the cubs.

how about this miles mikolas kid

cinderella story out of japan, throws 200 innings, goes 18-4 . . . and all without striking out a single batter

https://awfulannouncing.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/94/2018/08/stl18.jpg

viva el clemente bridge

according to some admittedly dubious math and a lot of assumptions, the guy who threw the baseball back after stanton's HR throws harder than marcell ozuna

https://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2018/10/6/17939400/who-you-got-marcell-ozuna-or-stanton-home-run-guy

Oquendo will remain in the organization, working out of Jupiter. https://t.co/Op4JYzxbr8

— Jenifer Langosch (@LangoschMLB) October 16, 2018

noooooooooooooo

Yadier Molina has been named the recipient of the prestigious 2018 Roberto Clemente Award in recognition of his exemplary humanitarian efforts, including relief work in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in 2017. #STLCards pic.twitter.com/vOo6SWUxBT

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) October 24, 2018

good, bcz the Mets' nominee was Jose Reyes

willie turned 60 on friday and i am ashamed to have forgotten until now

Karl Malone has to get a Joe Posnanski subscription so he can read this and have several meltdowns.

http://theathletic.com/1352678/2019/11/05/posnanski-on-mike-matheny-and-the-challenges-of-being-a-21st-century-baseball-manager/

:D

i am very curious!i do think matheny might have been an excellent 20th century baseball manager

When Posnanski moved to The Athletic, I remember him saying he didn't mind if subscribers occasionally re-posted something, so here's the Matheny piece on a Google Doc:

http://docs.google.com/document/d/1jGg1VPWGE24006Lgt56qTu4I1DFTS1sREuXNOV0F7iM/edit

Just read it...Good bookend to Hinch/Cole.

Thanks for posting that. I can see matheny sticking around KC for a while, but he seems to be particularly ill-suited to an up and coming team of prospects. In STL he was known for favoring poor-performing veterans for years at a time while providing inconsistent playing time to the prospects underneath. Maybe that won’t be such an issue in KC.

happy willie mcgee's birthday, everyone

happy willie mcgee's birthday. he's 62, today.

https://i.imgur.com/oY2lPtW.jpg

MC Gee is on the mic tonight

not sure what other teams were covered under fox sports midwest, but it's now sinclair_gambling.jpg(tm)

...

Fox Sports Midwest (along with most other RSNs acquired by Sinclair) will be renamed some permutation of Bally Sports, thanks to a deal with gaming and casino giant Bally’s Corporation.

Sinclair President and CEO Chris Ripley promised more integration of sports betting into the broadcasts, in an effort to “gamify sports.” That may involve some new technology for viewers to place bets via the TV or app they are watching on. But even without some new technology, if betters are watching the game and placing bets on their mobile apps - and they are - if Bally’s can drive those fans to bet via their book rather than DraftKings or William Hill or someone else, that’s a money-maker.

The silver lining for Cardinals fans is that this deal aims to provide more options for you to watch the games. Ripley also announced a plan to offer a standalone subscription for RSNs in their given territories. In other words, you will be able to subscribe to just Bally Sports Midwest (or whatever it’s called). Ripley promised this was being developed aggressively and would launch next year, though it is not clear if that will happen before Opening Day.

My guess is this will come in the form of a Bally Sports Midwest App, likely available on all your mobile devices, AppleTV and Roku, etc. And yes, I would expect that while you are streaming the game on your Bally’s Sports Midwest App, you can get some action on the Jack Flaherty strikeout prop.

https://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2020/11/25/21718960/the-deal-between-ballys-and-sinclair-will-provide-more-ways-to-watch-cardinals-baseball
(stupid URL)

missed this, 6 years ago, but it's great:

https://www.sbnation.com/2014/5/15/5717272/sb-nation-reviews-willie-mcgee

...When he got to the plate, he looked like he had just been beaten by angry people with truncheons, a crouched, stiff figure who didn't swing a bat so much as he threw it at the ball hoping for something to happen. It was a half-swing, really, the kind you'd take if an old war injury had left you with half a shoulder joint and shards of depleted uranium in your knees. He leaned backward waiting for pitches like a 75 mile an hour gale was blowing in his face. He looked, in the words of his teammate John Morris, like he "was in a lot of pain, and having a miserable time."

That sounds bad, but it got worse. At one point, provided McGee threw the bat and it made contact with the ball, there was a point where Willie McGee, all pained face and salvage-grade joints, had to begin moving like a human. Once he turned and got over the shock of hitting the ball-- and no matter the situation, McGee always looked shocked he'd made contact -- McGee would lurch forward and begin running on the balls of his feet, always at a ridiculously pitched angle like he had an invisible drag chute bolted directly to his shoulder blades.

It looked fast in motion, but let's specify what kind of fast. There is the fast of a Usain Bolt, the kind of effortless, long-striding speed, and there is the bull-strong intimidation of a Lamborghini you get when someone with giant traps can also run a 4.4 second 40 yard dash. (Think Bo Jackson in his prime.) Then there is the kind of fast that terrifies you for all the wrong reasons, like when a toddler in a grocery cart gets loose and begins rolling downhill in a busy parking lot. That is the kind of speed Willie McGee had: something that once in motion begs for a merciful stop, and the immediate intervention of safety authorities.

You may like an athlete because they happen to be very good at what they do. You won't love them for this, though, or at least not without combining it with other variables that make them unique. There were players as good as Willie McGee, but none were as entertaining to watch based strictly on quirk and the apparent misery that every step caused him. That misery was only part of it, though. McGee chose the odd set of options in life in every facet of the game, a switch hitter who looked equally strange from either side of the plate, a superb center fielder prone to rare but grandiose mistakes in the field, and a man who could not take a baseball card portrait without looking like you had just:

a.) bought him the most adorable rabbit in all the world

b.) made it his only and best friend

c.) slaughtered this rabbit in front of his horrified eyes

d.) put a bat in his hand, and pointed him toward the DonRuss artist while tapping at your watch

It's easy to explain why you love a conventionally excellent player, but way, way more fun to try and explain the appeal of a top-flight athlete whose every step and twitch appeared to be bringing him dangerously close to death itself. You had this guy, St. Louis, and he was awesome and everything, but every time he hit a triple he'd pop up and have the saddest look on his face like everything he loved had died, and left him with the soul of an ancient, sad, and immortal Golem. It was like watching Buster Keaton play centerfield, and he was like that every time he played.

That’s great.

i've come to the conclusion that he is my third-favorite ballplayer of all time

the two ahead of him either shared my surname or gave me a childhood lesson in decency, and both played for my home team.

willie mcgee is just a guy who was really good at baseball, and completely took over game four of the 1982 world series, and fucking look at him. <3

Mookie Wilson and ???

lol

dave parker & willie stargell

I was close!

Wild guess:

Parker = surname
Stargell = decency

Obviously, Mookieproof’s real name is Cobra.

willie mcgee is 63 today <3

https://greatestondirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/willie-mcgee-1983-smiling.jpg

From Goldschmidt's Baseball Reference page:

Nicknames: Goldy or America's First Baseman

Really? Someone somewhere has actually called him "America's First Baseman"?

i called him that, but the full quote is "america's first basemen in being a moran"

Hes America's first basemen because he isn't allowed anywhere else

yadi is (allegedly) skipping 2 games to watch the puerto rican basketball team he owns play in the championship

yes, but during that time his knees will heal

lol

Goldschmidt just isn't letting up. His OPS+ after yesterday is 202; the only players this century to finish with an OPS+ over 200 are Bonds (4 times), Soto, and Sosa. I can't see a first baseman who did it since Bagwell (213) and Thomas (212) in '94. I expect he'll fall back, but what a season. (Judge is at 194 right now.)

also has a legit shot at the old-school triple crown; he's three homers behind schwarber and two RBI behind alonso

i haven't looked it up, but i suspect he might be having an all-time platoon split season, too. vs lefties this year, in 111 PAs he's .435/.527/.848, wrC+ is 276

Leading in the slash TC right now, too. Huge lead in slugging, comfortable lead in batting average; Soto will probably overtake him in OBP.

Should also mention Freddie Goldschmidt out on the coast: second in BA, third in OBP, sixth in SP.

Willie >>>>> pic.twitter.com/nqCIv6KHvV

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) August 25, 2022

wainwright, whose best case scenario is making a heroic relief pitching appearance in the playoffs and then retiring. carlos martinez continues to be the best thing about the team.

i was so otm in 2018

Whoah--definitely making a run at the Triple Crown.

Goldman and Freeschmidt came up again on James' site yesterday, and one reader pointed out how similar Goldschmidt and Bagwell are (per 162 games):

PG: .296/.392/.529, 145 OPS+, 32 HR, 105 RBI, 5.9 bWAR, MVP pending?
JB: .297/.408/.540, 149 OPS+, 34 HR, 115 RBI, 6.0 bWAR, 1 MVP

But neither is on the other's Similarity Score list.

Arenado is going to wind up with his best bWAR this season. I’d say he and Goldschmidt are both locking down their HOF chances, though I guess Nolan could always do an Andruw Jones and nosedive before he clears the bar. I’m guessing that’s highly unlikely though.

yeah, he is a very competitive guy. i was reading a little blurb about the birth of his child the other day, and he was basically like "i'm just glad it went smooth and calm so i could get back to the team for the next game". he seems genuinely driven to win a WS (goldschmidt as well) and he seems pumped to get a decent chance to do it

He did win one back in 2006!

weather permitting, i'm going to tonight's game! i was originally planning on going tomorrow, figuring a sunday day game against the Cubs would be ideal. but then i noticed that Wainwright is pitching tonight, which means Yadi will be playing, and the Cubs are starting a LHP, Drew Smyley, which means Pujols will almost certainly start as well. might be my last chance to see any of those guys play again (unless I splurge for playoff tickets, if they get that far).

it's kind of an odd situation because i'm not sure if i'll be standing room only or have a seat somewhere. i was able to get tickets, just $11 for a pair, this morning through the First Pitch Program. Not sure if there's a similar deal at other parks, but basically you get a voucher, and then when you show up at game time they tell you where your seats are (or more likely for this game, standing room since it'll probably sell out).

$11 gets you a hot dog at the Rogers Centre.

That’s a great deal for last minute seats!
The jays are probably too popular to do something like that, but my gf would be all over it if they did.

That’s a great deal for last minute seats!

totally agree

i chatted with a few different people in the line about their experience with the program. one guy told me that he used to have season tickets and gave them up because so many of the voucher seats end up being so good. they come from unsold/unused tickets that were set aside for workers and players etc to give to their families - so they're a mix of the worst seats and also some really nice seats. because i'm an unforgivable weirdo, i asked him to give me a rough probability distribution. he told me that about ...he paused for a long time here to calculate...three out of ten were 100-level, meaning field level. another 3-4 out of ten in the mid-tier levels, and only 2-3 out of ten were nosebleed/standing room only.

for a game like tonight, with the cubs and the oldsters (who are my age) playing, the chances are very high that i'll get standing room only. but for an early season game against teams that are not the Cubs, Brewers, Yankees, or Red Sox, apparently the chances of getting a great seat are very good. For $5.50 a seat! the only catch is you have to live near Missouri, which is fucking terrible

it's extremely cheesy and i don't think i would participate irl, but i think it would be kind of neat if the fans started chanting MVP as goldschmidt bats, and then continue with no interruption to chant it with Arenado hitting after him

(i don't think Arenado has a chance of winning, and will probably end up more like 3rd or 4th or 5th. for those that don't get to see them play every day, amazing, superlative defense is hard to demonstrate with numbers in the same way that a triple crown level season does)

because i live in the world of regression to the mean, i never expected to see a mvp-like year from goldschmidt or arenado. it is very cool to see them do it in the same year, and to be equally as wrong about pujols

also, in the continued mea culpa that is my life, i was extremely wrong about wainwright. i wanted him to retire circa 2019. what a doof

I saw the play he made on that incredibly high chopper--amazing.

wait, hold that.

peninsula. penin.

hmm

sorry, wrong thread

If Goldschmidt doesn't get the Triple Crown, I hope it's because Freeman overtakes him in BA, rather than Schwarber winning HR--he's such a one-dimensional player.

dang, wish i would have gotten cheap-ass tickets for today's game, too! this is probably low on the list of notable career records, but wainwright and molina are tying the record for most starts as a battery. which is pretty cool. but also, alec burleson is making his debut in RF. probably not a household name, possibly DH bound, but he's a good hitter and will probably (hopefully) stick around for a while.

Not related to the Rooster, I'm sorry to say.

dang. i should gone. Burleson, it is clear to me from watching him track down (1) ball on the right-field line, is just too slow to be even an average fielder. he is a DH. bummer.

however, he took an easy 4-pitch walk in his first PA and then got to score on a Yadier Molina HR to Big Mac Land, which is what the upperdeck area is called on the LF line where McGwire once sent home runs with startling regularity. it is owned by mcdonalds

by bWAR, the cardinals have the top 3 position players in the NL

the outfield has been weird and catcher has been a black hole, but the infield production has been pretty phenomenal this year

Goldschmidt, arenado, and the best of them all albert pujols

https://i.imgur.com/nLexRNR.png

I was not expecting Wainwright to sing the national anthem

So wait the Cardinals have players named Hudson, Hicks, and Gorman

Not something I normally observe, but it turned up on my FB wall: 41 years ago today, the debut of a certain fleet-footed outfielder.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN198205100.shtml

getting ugly for waino : /

Just idle trade-deadline chatter to fill space, but interesting:

https://www.mlb.com/news/paul-goldschmidt-trade-could-be-right-for-cardinals

I shouldn't be saying this as a Jays fan, but it'd be exciting if he ended up with the Orioles.

it's shocking that they're at 27-41 and haven't had a resurgence yet. i know the pitching is bad but they've got so much talent and the division is so weak. time to fire the manager? that always works

Noticed that Edman has been terrible... until today when he hit a grand slam.

david freese declining induction into the cardinals HOF is absolutely legendary BFIB/cardinal way stuff

yesterday (thursday) was willie mcgee's 65th birthday

<3 <3 <3

I hope the Cardinals have a great year in 2024. I figure that's the best way to get Karl Malone posting in ILB again.

Willie McGee made his MLB debut on this date in 1982. #Cardinals pic.twitter.com/W6ijskFIV6

— Gummy Arts (@gummyarts) May 11, 2024

happy 66th to the legend <3

Just noticed something when I looked up Willie's BRef page: they've moved WAR into the Standard Batting part of each player's page (first column, actually, before even games played). I'm pretty sure that's a recent change--it was always confined to the Player Value section. Willie in 1985: 8.2.

Useful Willie Immaculate Grid stuff: 100 runs, 200 hits, 10 triples, 100 RBI (1987, with 11 HR), 50 SB (of course), .300 (of course), 6.0 WAR season, 2000 career hits, #1 pick, MVP, AS, GG, SS, all three outfield positions.

also: look at him

which should totally be an immaculate grid thing

z_tbd are you a cards fan cos there’s a strong rumour you’re getting Casas

traditionally, i root for the cardinals. it is my way. i don't know much at all about casas but tentatively intrigued! what's his deal?

he can hit but is too fey for the BFIB (unless he *really* hits)

Yeah for that reason alone I hope he doesn’t go there but who knows he might go off after being traded, very intriguing if you consider Chaim is likely involved in trying to get him

he can hit but is too fey for the BFIB

it would help to calibrate my fey scale if i knew how fey the following players were, on a scale of 1-10:

ryan theriot
skip schumaker
pete kozma
willie mcgee

i'd have given you scott spezio, but

Scott spezio ruined the dyed goatee for a generation.

It sounds like this trade might have legs so in recognition of your likely new 1B (who Chaim loves 🥺🥺🥺)

This thread: Thread of future Red Sox superstar Triston Casas

Shorter version: every home run he’s ever hit

Whenever someone says to trade Triston Casas, I recommend just showing them this pic.twitter.com/5tOfX8FXQN

— Nick J (@NickJJ95) November 27, 2024

Casas on him hitting in the box and the little voice in his head: "That alter ego comes out in that box, there’s a little switch you have to flip, so that’s who I talk to. It’s very demanding, it’s very harsh."
— Julian McWilliams (@byJulianMack) September 24, 2022

lol

God I love that freak

He’s too fab to function i love him

Where are we seeing these rumours he’s going to be traded?

i haven't come across them myself, but i the only place i check is mlbtraderumors (where it hasn't been mentioned)

but i'd guess it's because there have been a lot of arenado to red sox rumors, which would mean devers moving to first, which could mean casas getting sent to the cardinals?

the problem is, on the cardinals rumors side, it doesn't look like arenado is going anywhere, and casas seems awesome and i would love to watch him goof around, but he doesn't really fill a function on the cardinals, either - they're trying to trade arenado so they can clear space for a few good hitters / poor defenders (jordan walker, nolan gorman, alec burleson) to play 3B and 1B

There have been rumors about him being shopped for the last year

Not the last year really, since September. Iirc it stems from them wanting to move Devers from 3B and Yoshida’s contract being impossible to move, and he’s probably one of the biggest trade chips they’d feel comfortable moving. Anyway the account that threw in his name has since walked it back and I’ll go with what you said about their roster construction, cos I know they have a lot of young guys they want to play before Chaim takes over next year.

Also, Arenado and his sulking, idk man, I wish the Dodgers would just swoop in and add him to their 60 man roster like he wants, it’s crazy the Cardinals had that deal with the Astros lined up with them paying a significant amount of money and he invoked his ntc.

CNN.com: "Only a few cardinals have the skills to be pope. Here are the frontrunners." I think you know who's fleet of foot and has all the skills...

it's gotta be pete kozma

Pete Kozma was part of the 2018 Detroit Tigers, so no, not even close!

hope Quinn Priester gets traded to STL

(or Andrew Abbott?)