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.

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?)

it’s over.

THIS TEAM IS FUCKING OVER

St. Louis Cardinals 2026 - 20?? : the Best Fans in Baseball Have Never Known What’s Going On

today is willie mcgee's 67th birthday <3

loved him on the Giants

willie mcgee made his major league debut 44 years ago today <3

Today I found out about JJ Wetherholt and his historic rookie defense:

https://www.mlb.com/news/jj-wetherholt-is-on-a-historic-rookie-pace

Suggested nickname: Hunsecker.

(If I were John Schneider, I'd just say Holtzy.)

what is going on in STL besides darkhorse central?

i sacrificed a clydesdale under the blood moon

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.

it’s fun (for me) revisit all the hilarious and tragic ways in which in my 2018 op predictions played out

jimmy crooks is a great baseball name!

it really is!

pop warner, oli marmol, and of course canadian baseball hall of famer stubby clapp as well

i have been listening to games on the radio this season, with only a few times checking youtube highlights to see what certain plays looked like. it’s interesting to try to figure out how certain things are happening without seeing them!

- ivan herrera has been hit by a pitch for the 17th time, for example. it’s amazing to imagine it, each time. i don’t even know, he’s probably crowding the plate. he’s probably using protective gear on his arms and legs, while batting (he also plays cather, sometimes). who knows. the announcers never mention if he’s crowding the plate, or his gear. i remember reading about ron hunt being a legend of being hbp, and if memory serves (i’m channeling the intro of japanese iron chef here instead of just googling) he was hit 50 times in a season. not sure if that’s still the record - i read about hunt’s feat in a mid-90s book and have missed entire decades of baseball since.

i think it’s still the record. also, willson “son of will” contreras, recent cardinals catcher, is 2nd in mlb with 13 hbp’s.

- another thing is jj wetherholt being 99th percentile fielder (via baseball savant, Fielding Run Value), with a 100th percentile range despite a 59th percentile sprint speed. i figured, with the excellent range, that he must be able to use his speed to reach balls others can’t, but it must be his jump/insticts instead. the announcers only talk about masyn winn’s defense (which makes sense because he rules) because he’s won a gold glove and they don’t talk about statcast heroes. it’s wild though because i think the prospect profile on wetherholt was that he was above-average defender but i didn’t expect him to be setting the pace leaguewide!
- jj wetherholt,

…

- jj wetherholt,

herrera hit for the second time (18th on season)

https://i.ibb.co/DHX2z4NW/Screenshot-2026-07-31-at-5-59-06-PM.png

that’s the evil being that we cardinals nation does unspeakable acts for. he makes us. he’s an old white man that looks different to everyone who knows him. he sees who has drifted away and who remains and is getting very angry again

and he's apparently making it snow there... in late july?

he’s an old white man that looks different to everyone who knows him.

and that man... is David Eckstein

which is worse

[team] nation or [city] strong

City strong. Team nation is so bad it’s good at this point imo, while city strong is ironically trying to do it again only this time for a different imagined community

*unironically, not ironically. Bad typo. Totally different. City strong is unironically trying to bring the same shitty energy

i largely agree, apart from

Team nation is so bad it’s good at this point imo

it's just a thing to be used by Team Owner to demand money from Team Nation

honestly hope that the new portland trail blazers owner's utter shamelessness will create a blowback . . . but of course it won't

JAILBLAZERS REDUX
PDX STRONG
RIPCITY? RIPNATION amirite

sure

will put joshua baez content here later

just crushed his 3rd HR in his first 3 at bats in MLB, debut

it’s the top of the 6th at wrigley

he is enjoying the matt boyd experience

Got home and skim-skimmed this too quickly...Javier Baez, three HR, first three AB (that's been done lots of times in-game, no?). Now that I've actually read and caught up, astounding. I think it's safe to say it will never happen again, either.

(Meaning I skimmed the Baez posts on the other thread too fast; this thread's pretty clear.)

Homering on the first pitch you see:

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-rare-feats-home-run-on-1st-career-pitch-c265964496

Three Jays on there...best player: Bert Campaneris.

ok, i legit lol’d at báez on this. sorry, can’t find a good way to link to this video other than go to

https://www.mlb.com/news/joshua-baez-celebrates-mlb-debut-with-family-at-wrigley-field

and scroll several videos /images down to the one titled “Joshua Báez on his historic MLB Debut” (sorry, i can’t link directly to the video? wtf mlb.com lol)

and THEN wait 15 seconds through the ad, and THEN click to 50 seconds into the video, when he’s getting interviewed and he gets interrupted by the water cooler prank, but it’s not the water cooler prank you’re expecting, and then the reporter’s question after that and Báez’s answer.

—

NO ONE is going to do all that so i’ll just say this, they pour the water cooler over his head but it’s like, completely empty, just a drop or two comes and he’s surprised but then throws his hands up in the air like “aw what the heckers!” and laughs, then goes back to the reporter. the reporter asks “wow, how did that feel?” and Báez says “Amazing” lol

that was the first time i’ve seen him speak (that post-game interview) - i follow our prospects pretty closely, statistically and just tracking where they are in the org, but i don’t really pay attention to any personality stuff until they arrive in the big leagues. Báez is instant favorite, i can just tell. sports interviews are tough because it’s always a version of the same question (which i now understand is a way to be kind to players), but he said that at the plate he just tried to stay calm and have fun, and i thought that was a really excellent approach to life

wait, slightly better link:

https://www.mlb.com/video/joshua-baez-on-his-historic-mlb-debut-more

Baez is 0-18 since the three HR. It's like a mini-version of Carlos Delgado in 1994, before he got sent back down.

Games 1-14: 8 HR, .275/.373/.765
Games 15-42: 1 HR, .177/.340/.228

if baez ends up having delgado's career i will be very happy :)

My unposted thought too...it took Carlos till '96 to get going; also spent most of '95 in the minors.

but yeah he's almost certainly going to need to make adjustments at some point. he's one of those guys who wasn't on the prospect lists at all a couple years ago (not even top 30 in cardinals own system), then worked with some player development gurus who seem to have unlocked something. he hit well in 2025 in the minors, but you know, not a prospect so take it with a grain of salt, but then this year just kept going and going, became a top 100 guy, was leading AAA with 34 HRs when he got called up.

a lot of people wanted the cardinals to go for it this year at the deadline but i'm glad they're sticking with the rebuild plan and giving báez some real playing time in the big leagues to see how he adjusts