Two Birds, One Bat - your 2014 St. Louis Cardinals

couldn't wait any longer, i had to start it. so many things to talk about!

so we lost beltran and freese, picked up peter bourjos, jhonny peralta, and mark ellis. seemed like a great offseason, overall. two big weaknesses last year were bad defense and lack of speed, and the offseason moves seemed to improve on that. the OF defense will still be relatively weak (with Holliday and Craig manning the corners, at least), but it'll be nice to see Bourjos on the highlight reel. IF defense should be better as well, with Marp back in his natural 3B spot and Wong/Ellis over at 2B. And Bourjos/Wong should provide some decent speed, too, if they ever get on base.

other things:

1) rotation: Wainwright, Miller, Lynn, Wacha...? (Garcia if his arm doesn't fall off? Martinez if he can be more consistent? Kelly if everything else goes wrong?)

2) outfield: will Bourjos play every day or will Matheny try some sort of platoon with Jay? seems like the regular lineup should be bourjos in CF, Craig in RF, Adams in 1B. when facing left handers, sit Adams, move Craig to 1B, and bring in Jay in RF? which brings us to the question of...

3) Oscar Taveras: is he coming up in June? more like September? will he somehow make the team out of spring training? what happens to the jon jay when he does? or shane robinson, for that matter? (RIP shane robinson?)

4) Kolten Wong and Mark Ellis: will Wong step it up this year? i like him quite a bit, but i can see a scenario where he struggles early and ellis gets more playing time, does a decent job, and Wong is basically on the bench all year, crying.

5) Pete Kozma: is he still on this fucking team? is descalso the utility IF guy instead?

finally, fangraphs posted their top 10 prospects list yesterday. looks like this:

1. oscar
2. kolten wong
3. stephen piscotty
4. alexander reyes
5. rob kaminsky
6. marco gonzalez
7. james ramsey
8. carson kelly
9. tim cooney
10. randal grichuk

bold prediction - Miller emerges as the ace. Waino still good but a lot of innings on him. Fans flummoxed that Lynn ends up with better numbers then Wacha.

Best bet for Oscar time: Craig or Big City get hurt.

Most excited to see more of Carlos Martinez. Don't see how he gets out of pen to start. Maybe next year.

i love miller but i'm a little worried that he's going to see worse results this year, mainly from a lack of diversity in his pitch selection. he throws his fastball 74% of the time! that is waaaaaaay higher than any other starting pitcher. check out this list - next closest are jordan zimmerman at 62% and kershaw at 60%! obviously you go with what works, and it worked for him last year. but it does concern me a little.

wacha is probably bound to let down a lot of people as well. but i still think he's a #2 kinda guy, in a few years at least. that near no-hitter at the end of the season against the nats, and then the 1-hitter against the pirates a week or two later - amazing stuff.

i think wong plays, unless something goes horribly wrong in spring training. ellis is almost 37, hurt a lot, and not that great anyway. either way, wong won't be on the bench -- he'll be playing either in st. louis or memphis.

ozzie: http://t.co/u5OAIqRlwy
red schoendienst: http://t.co/vYyp6YheFn

i love red but i always wonder what exactly he...does...

obviously ozzie is going to have some good words of wisdom but i picture red just riding around on the infield on his golf cart, telling all the rookies to choke up on the bat

p. sure he is passing on the lore of baseball cursing

i'd be kinda surprised if any of these guys had anything useful to offer current players, but it's fun for everyone

red is kind of famous for judging prospects - he chimed in on matty carp the spring he tore it up and then subsequently fizzled in the majors.

speaking of prospects, i hadn't read too much about alex reyes but he seems very promising:

http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/alex-reyes-the-best-pitching-prospect-youve-never-heard-of/#more-55994

sorry that all i do is link to fangraphs articles but Dave Cameron ranks the Bourjos acquisition as the second best transaction of the 2014 offseason:

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-best-transactions-of-the-2014-off-season/

a Cuban defector? Intersting http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/article_513dc077-074f-599c-976e-29a2593fed1b.html

Red is cool.

Steve Bilko, a righthanded hitter, probably was the closest to (Matt) Adams in build at 6-1 and 240 pounds. Bilko hit 21 homers for the Cardinals in 1954, but his career soon flamed out.

“Adams is more agile than Bilko,” said Cardinals Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst, who was a teammate of Bilko’s.

“But I’m sure Bilko could drink more beer than this kid,” Schoendienst joked.

Schoendienst then went on to relate a story concerning Bilko’s consumption of beer after a game and then his ability to make a hotel bed shake while he snored

god, let's just hope the bed shaking was from the snoring

Uh oh. Can't say it's shocking, but Jaime has been having shoulder problems again and was sent back to St. Louis for a MRI. Starting the season in the rotation looks very doubtful.

how did i miss this story? CarMart favoriting porn pictures via public twitter profile
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/cardinal-beat/cardinals-martinez-embarrassed-by-inappropriate-images-on-twitter/article_08ed7e21-01e1-5e54-a034-e12c6128125e.html

matheny going after the nerds:
"I think the days of Charlie Barkley saying he’s not supposed to be a role model – that’s garbage. If that’s what you want to do then you should have been a computer programmer sitting in your flipflops at home somewhere"

"young eyes love the Cardinals": missed thread title opportunity

i can't look at the Deadspin story from work, but i really hope that there are no tie-ins to the existing thread title

today's starting lineup!

1. Matt Carpenter, 3B

2. Kolten Wong, 2B

3. Allen Craig, RF

4. Matt Adams, 1B

5. Yadier Molina, DH

6. Peter Bourjos, CF

7. Shane Robinson, LF

8. Tony Cruz, C

9. Pete Kozma, SS

Pitchers: Carlos Martinez, Tyler Lyons, Keith Butler, Jorge Rondon, Marco Gonzales, Neshek.

i love the idea of martinez getting a legit shot at SP this year, but i don't see how it works for a full season. the most IP he's ever thrown was 108, last year, which includes postseason. and even in the minors as a SP i think i read somewhere that he's averaged less than 5 IP per start.

oh man, sad lol - ty wigginton is DH'ing for the marlins

gtfo with these black hats

jhonny jhomers x2 vs tigers

a quick article on wtf daniel descalso is apparently guaranteed a roster spot this year: http://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2014/3/4/5468802/cardinals-spring-training-competitions-or-a-lack-thereof

i hate to be in the terrible position of defending pete kozma, but i agree that descalso doesn't belong on the club. there was an argument to be made for him last year because he was a backup for both carpenter and kozma, there is no reason that descalso should play a game at 2B this year (with wong/ellis covering it), and his defense at SS is absolutely abysmal. whoever backs up peralta (SS) and carpenter (3B) this year should, ideally, only be starting maybe 15-20 games in 2014. carpenter will play every day, barring injury, and peralta should get around 155 starts or so. i'll take kozma's defense, total lack of offense, and 0.0 WAR over descalso's awful defense, total lack of defense, and negative WAR.

GM John Mozeliak suggest Oscar T's head has to catch up to his body:

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/3/5/5474122/oscar-taveras-injury-cardinals-gm-implies-problems-mental

yeah, that whole issue has been strange. apparently he's favoring one leg over another, although there doesn't appear to be any structural damage or physical reason that he's doing so. but would he really be limping just because he's afraid to go at full effort? isn't it likely that he actually is hurting a little bit? weird.

cards nearing six-year extension with matt carpenter

wow! that came out of nowhere. the payroll is about $15 million less than last year's team. a lot of people were talking about saving that for some sort of big ticket mid-season acquisition, but i think it's much more appealing to use any surplus to nail down guys like carpenter.

seems a little curious -- he's not even arb-eligible until next year, is under team control for four more, and is already 28 -- but i guess they want 'cost certainty' and the arbitration awards probably build quickly when you're fourth in mvp voting

"Carpenter's deal will be worth $50-55MM if completed, Rosenthal tweets"

wonder how much he lost marketwise switching to third

Tim McCarver and Oscar Taveras are starting today.

nice game so far (the one I just tuned into, at least. split squad games today?)

taveras finally plays, is 1 for 2 with a double so far
wong finally gets a hit, and then steals a base, and also hits a double
carlos martinez throws 3 scoreless innings
holliday with 3 hits

matt the batt is 8 for 9

"if he keeps this pace up" etc etc old man joke

good game on the other side, too. waino did well, but lynn came in and quickly gave up 5 runs on 50+ pitches in an inning and a 1/3.

http://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2014/3/9/5488088/cardinals-sign-cuban-infielder-aledmys-diaz

looks like we picked up Aledmys Diaz. can't say i know too much about it, but previous stuff i read about him didn't exactly make him sound like the future of middle IF for the cardinals:

I haven't seen Diaz since he was in Cuba, but unless he's made big strides over the past year, I see him as a second baseman or possibly third baseman on a bad team or a utility guy on a good team. Defensively, he's not in the same class as Iglesias or Arruebarruena, and a move from short seems likely. Offensively, he projects as no more than an average bat (and even that might be optimistic), and I don't see him having the power to play third on a regular basis, at least not for a good team.

As for his ML ETA, the idea that he's ML-ready or near-ML-ready, as his agent and some media reports have suggested, seems highly dubious. Aside from the fact he's been away from organized baseball for almost 2 years, he'll see more good pitchers in a week in Double-A than he saw in his last year or two in Cuba. By the time Diaz made it to the National Series, the league and especially the pitching had been substantially weakened by defections, retirements, and injuries.

oscar out for today (and probably for a little while, at least) with a sore hamstring.

https://medium.com/double-birds

pro:

cool, kyle beachy's writing for them! he's an old friend from my chicago days (although he's a stl native) and a good guy. looking forward to reading whatever he writes.

con:

"Which is all to say that the St. Louis Cardinals are objectively the best organization in baseball. By extension, the people who root for them are the best at watching and cheering for baseball. These are facts."

i'm sure that was meant to be tongue in cheek...god please let that be tongue in cheek

rough day at roger dean stadium

i dunno, other than the 7-run 3rd and 8-run 4th they did just fine!

i guess it really isn't so bad, though, when you consider that the murderer's row of stoppelman (who? i don't even know and i sorta follow this team closely!), lyons, and butler gave up 15 of those runs

sorry, forgot fornataro too

wait, who?

lance lynn had 10 strikeouts in four innings today, including eight in a row at one point

yeah, that was nice to see! esp. after his slowish start.

oscar t was sent down to memphis yesterday. only got 6 ABs in before the hamstring. i was hoping that 2014 would be his year, but i'm a little worried. seems like one more leg injury that knocks him out for 6-8 weeks could really kill his momentum.

Bryan Kilpatrick at SBN thinks that might've been premature:

Craig and Bourjos haven't exactly been the poster boys for health, either, so it's quite possible that Taveras will wind up getting his shot sooner rather than later, anyway. But getting him some at-bats against MLB-quality pitching now seems just as crucial as having him rack up plate appearances at a level that he's probably going to dominate anyway. It just doesn't appear that the Cardinals are willing to do that yet.

kolten wong: three hits today, 10 in his last five games, now batting .394 this spring

unless i missed it, this seems to be the first spring training lineup that reflects the expected regular season lineup:

1. Matt Carpenter (L) 3B
2. Kolten Wong (L) 2B
3. Matt Holliday (R) DH
4. Allen Craig (R) RF
5. Yadier Molina (R) C
6. Jhonny Peralta (R) SS
7. Matt Adams (L) 1B
8. Peter Bourjos (R) CF
9. Stephen Piscotty (R) LF

(of course holliday would be in LF and piscotty's spot would be the pitcher during regular season games)

i guess i shouldn't put much stock into it but i'm surprised if they're thinking about batting adams behind peralta

anyone else see diaz yesterday? he managed two hits off of gio in two at bats, and wasn't embarrassing at SS. that last part is the key - he'd likely be a better backup SS than descalso right now, hitting-wise, but if he sucks at SS the whole thing starts to make no sense for this year.

also, here is diaz hitting his first EVER home run, at 8 years old.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_PHk08FZTY

ugh. joe kelly will be the 5th starter. carlos martinez will begin the season as the setup man to rosenthal.

https://twitter.com/dgoold/status/447833280172556288

i'm going to take the optimistic view that martinez isn't starting the season as a SP because he simply hasn't built up his arm to throw 150+IP yet. he's never close to that many in a single season. so maybe they're looking to promote him to rotation sometime midseason as they head (hopefully) toward the playoffs.

but there's something that just SUCKS about joe kelly, out of all people, winning the spot when there's so much talent in the cardinals organization.

Taveras (leg) slipped coming out of the batter's box Monday and will be held out of action Tuesday and possibly longer

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/taveras-to-be-rested-again/article_3edbb6e8-68e1-5d97-a7f2-07463850b809.html

starting to have a baaaaaaad feeling about oscar. :(

he's no piscotty anyway

if he's ever healthy for more than 3 days straight he's gonna tear it up, mark mah woids

I'm going to take the optimistic view that martinez isn't starting the season as a SP because he simply hasn't built up his arm to throw 150+IP yet. he's never close to that many in a single season. so maybe they're looking to promote him to rotation sometime midseason as they head (hopefully) toward the playoffs.

but there's something that just SUCKS about joe kelly, out of all people, winning the spot when there's so much talent in the cardinals organization.

― love and light (Karl Malone), Sunday, March 23, 2014 9:53 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think most GMs approach is to let the prospects kick the door down and dethrone Kelly.

They could also easily stretch out Martinez once the season is underway and they can replace him in the pen at the deadline.

yeah, i think you're right. also, not to totally jinx everything but it looks like we should be in decent shape to make the playoffs this year. it doesn't make sense for the organization to stretch out Martinez until they need him (heading toward postseason).

meanwhile: New St. Louis Ballpark Village Has A Ridiculous Dress Code

http://i.imgur.com/9tQung9.jpg

i feel like the fact that it mentions sleeveless shirts is progress for the area. finally we are discriminating against all poor people equally!

final real spring training game is today (they play one more against memphis tomorrow). wonder if this is a preview of the starting lineup for the opener:

Carpenter, M, 3B
Peralta, Jh, SS
Holliday, LF
Craig, RF
Adams, M, 1B
Cruz, T, C
Wong, 2B
Bourjos, CF
Wacha, P

with Yadi replacing Cruz in the 6-spot, of course. i like this lineup, and i like bourjos in the 8th spot. hopefully there will be some good opportunities with our speedier guys getting on to start an inning (wong + bourjos), a bunt to move them over from the pitcher, and then carpenter getting some more RBI opportunities

@JosephKellyJr 8m
I feel like I have something to do today

lol

wish the game was a little later so i could watch it!

living outside the lou again is going to hurt me. i am inching closer to the mlb.tv purchase

despite all my whining about it (esp. when the cards are in DC and the game is blacked out on mlb.tv), i am now a 3-year subscriber.

@Jhoanmanuel23 6m
Lineup #Cardinals:

Carpenter 5
Wong 4
Holliday 7
Craig 9
Molina 2
Adams 3
Peralta 6
Bourjos 8
Wainwright 1

that's deep baby :)

my dream lineup for the end of the season is something like

Carpenter 5
Taveras 9
Holliday 7
Adams or Craig 3
Molina 2
Peralta 6
Wong 4
Bourjos 8
Wainwright 1

with either craig or adams being traded midseason to make way for incoming legend oscar taveras

it'd be nice to see wong or ourobourjos push carpenter out of leadoff. but not until OBP justifies it.

don't think bourjos ever will tbh. his obp is probably going to land at around .310 or so, unless john mabry can teach him a thing or two this year. wong might have a chance some day!

that 1st inning catch by bourjos just made me smile

he played deep, but was able to cover so much territory that it was just an ankle high catch, gracefully made. jon jay would have started by running backward, reversing course, then diving at the last second straightforward. every once in a while he would actually make the catch and everyone would be like "god jon jay is great at diving catches" but it's so much more satisfying to have someone who just sprints in and catches it without too much fanfare.

♫ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9bfBJG_OCE ♫

St. Louis Cardinals ‏@Cardinals 10m
Estimated start time of tonight's game is 8:50 p.m. Central Time.

wooO!

where da bats

delayed start, apparently at 4:15 EST

and yeah, they seem like they left the bats back in jupiter.

oh my fucking GOD cardinals outfielders, call for it #@$(@#$

i'm blaming this on jon jay even though even though holliday isn't exactly brooks robinson either

yikes, jon jay, yikes. he redeemed himself by driving in a run with a double, and then got thrown out trying to steal 3rd, for no reason, with lance lynn batting and 1 out. it made no sense to steal there. it's almost like he's subconsciously trying to compensate for his inadequecies as compared to bourjos (he fucked up in the field, and so he tries to steal a base)

So, Matt Adams...

has that fan made it out of the hospital yet?

the NL central has some crazy good young pitchers. cingrani to cole in a 3 game span :[

matt adams otm

woooooooo

― mookieproof, Sunday, April 28, 2013 6:32 PM (11 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I am going to save my counter-woooooo until the day the bucs inevitably fall below .500 in mid-august

― your holiness, we have an official energy drink (Z S), Sunday, April 28, 2013 7:26 PM (11 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

― mookieproof, Sunday, April 28, 2013 7:30 PM (11 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

Jeezus what happened. When I left the house to go the obscure band Kraftwerk's show, it was 3-2!

adam wainwright vs edinson volquez seems a little . . . lopsided

you'd think so, but barnes, martin, mccutchen, tabata, and walker have all MURDERED wainwright in the past (see the "hot batter matchups section" in http://www.rotowire.com/baseball/showArticle.htm?id=20068)

oh man, the mlb.tv audio is fucked up so that the announcers are muted but you can still hear the ballpark sounds. this is AMAZING. i wish this was an audio option for every game, i fucking hate listening to al hrabosky

1) billy hamilton just stretched a routine single into a double, and it wasn't even close. !!

2) with billy hamilton on second and no outs, the reds just had brandon phillips bunt him to third. ??

3) watching billy hamilton in a hotbox situation is amazingly tense. !!

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/shelby-miller-looks-broken

"In the nine starts he’s made since August 30th of last year, he’s thrown 110 breaking balls; hitters have swung and missed at two of them. Same thing with his off-speed stuff; 60 pitches thrown, two swings and misses."

:-O

i never thought i'd be saying it, but if he keeps disappointing for another month maybe he needs trade places with Carlos Martinez for a while.

brutal game last night, eh

what are allen craig and jhonny peralta doing on base at the same time?!!??

JFC

http://i.imgur.com/tNYeXHf.jpg

Insane Cardinal Posse

“The ball is coming out good,” pitching coach Derek Lilliquist said. “Our big three relievers are a tick down in terms of velocity."

Add that to Shelby Miller and Craig not being able to hit a ball out of the infield. Plenty to fret over.

http://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/imported_assets/2150253/oL6JmlJ.gif

I'm going to tonight's game as well as Friday and Saturday.

Unfortunately my phone is about to die so no liveblogging

lol nats

zs has a decision on yr future location been made?

http://i.imgur.com/nOYY58j.png

#tbt

xpost yep, NYC for me. starting late july/early august

also wow, a 2-hit complete game shutout! and nearly a 1-hitter, until 2 outs in the 9th. nice!

that's cool (the first part)

Cool I'm sitting in front of a group of obnoxiously loud cardinal fans who hate everyone who isn't a WASP!

Icing on the cake, the loudest one thinks our 3rd basemen is named Shane Robinson

The @Cardinals face Bartolo Colon on Thursday. The first time they did that the starting OFs: McGee, Lankford and Gant via @vivaelbirdos

:O

Jenifer Langosch ‏@LangoschMLB 8m
Oscar Taveras out of Memphis' game today after twisting left ankle running out of batters box Mon. Absence is precautionary; he's day-to-day

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

looks like david freese passed his glass ankles on to the next generation before he left

http://37.media.tumblr.com/6ce55064ca95fd248f56fdbaf5a761ee/tumblr_n4ihfdgEM51rrjuxno1_400.gif

everyone expected the cardinals hitting w/ RISP to fall off dramatically this year, but i was really hoping that their hitting with no runners on with regress toward the mean as well. it's frustrating to watch a team with the second best ERA in the majors hit like this. it's not a disaster, they're still splitting or winning series, and it's a long road trip, but they should be outpacing the brewers right now.

cardinals getting dominated by the immortal bartolo colon, whose "sneakyfast" pitching is "lulling them to sleep"

jfc this team is frustrating this year

why is daniel descalso in the major leagues? why is he batting 6th?

isn't it enough that pete kozma is in triple-a? jeez

it's not! because greg garcia is also in triple-a and he makes way more sense than descalso.

also, sadly, i would rather have kozma as peralta's backup than daniel descalso.

i think last season's not entirely terrible first half for descalso was a mirage that's still fooling the cards a bit.

yeah - there's also some speculation that they're not treating the $1.3 million that they gave him for arbitration in the offseason as the sunk cost that it is

btw i have found slashfic involving Matheny and all of his pitching staff if anyone wants the link

!
i would link a link, for archival purposes

the karl malone cardinals hall of fame would be a very different experience

where da bats

― bnw, Thursday, April 3, 2014 8:46 AM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

...

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--upYBH8-i--/c_fit,fl_progressive,w_636/bkgsz1lyzms6q0cda186.gif

high Colonic

i understand why they're using jon jay recently, but bourjos really doesn't seem like he got a fair shot. i guess whoever designed for the team thought the same:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BmKACMLCQAIWpyU.jpg

not just design -- bourjos is on the official ballot and jay is not

wow, didn't realize that. i wonder how they decide that? also, i understand that the all-star game is just a popularity contest and has little to do with the skill of the players, but it's so bogus to start voting for it less than a month into the season.

*challenging opinions* i know

Candidates for the ballot are submitted by the club and limited to one per position, including three outfielders.

a tough call sometimes, especially in platoon situations. four-time all-star carl crawford didn't make the dodgers' ballot.

8 runs scored over the last 6 games.

after 2 hours of additional research, i have determined that the cardinals have scored 15 runs over the last 9 games.

murderer's row at 6, 7, and 8 in the lineup today:

craig .174
peralta .175
descalco .111

prediction: bourjos and wong aren't ever going to get in a groove if they're playing every third day

hope u feel better now

peralta had a good game, but like an asshole father who is secretly disappointed at a child's A- score on a test that wasn't actually that hard, i will need more positive results

Wong, Robinson down. Grichuk, Garcia up. Odd. What's it going to take to pry Descalso off Matheny?

i'm all about sending robinson down or just trading him away. he makes no sense as a 4th outfielder. it'll be cool if Grichuk keeps up his hot streak, but i'd expect him to just resume his 25% strikeout rate and suck. craig will bounce back soon, i think, and taveras or piscotty should make it up later this season, so talent is no problem in the OF.

wong, though. goddamn matheny. wong must have rubbed him the wrong way early on or something. i mean, read this shit:

"He hasn’t had a whole lot of struggle throughout his career," Matheny said this weekend. "You’ve got to figure out how to get through it.

"Without question, he’s going to be his own toughest evaluator. But he’s getting better at that, by the way. He’s better now than he was in spring training. He might be faking part of that. Good for him. That’s part of the process, too.

"When he’s that hard on himself, it makes it more difficult to get through these tough runs."

"Everything’s there. It’s a matter of him believing it."

i like garcia, but he should have traded places with descalso, not wong. and i can see Jedi Knight Matheny starting descalso over garcia, too.

also, even on an old guys talking baseball who only care about Wins and RBIs level:

.225/.276/.268
.100/.240/.100
.100/.156/.167

those are all barf, but the top one is wong.

lol wong and garcia were college teammates

'headscratching move'

I don't know the specifics, but a lot of times it might be some other player is 'out of options'.

hope you all caught Tim McCarver sitting in for a few innings on the telecast last night

i hope ZS didn't watch.

the bunting, my god, the bunting

sliding headfirst is AN EPIDEMIC

(well maybe, but it's def stupid)

"I'm not one to lecture younger players [more than anybody else]..."

xposts

i listened to tim mccarver, and also stayed up late to watch the cardinals get there asses handed to them. insult to injury.

speaking of, tim mccarver just said "well ah never really understood the term "foreign substance" - pine tar is a domestic product, you can get it in this country"

<3 willie to cards hof <3

Adam Wainwright has given up 11 runs on the year and 9 of them have been to the Cubs.

from BP chat --

Bill (New Mexico): What's your take on the Kolten Wong demotion? People seem to be reading between the lines on that one to an extent that seems excessive to me, but what do I know?

Jeff Moore: I was surprised, as were most people. It's early to give up on a player with his track record. The Cardinals are panicking a little, it seems. There's no upside to playing Mark Ellis. The hope is that Wong goes down, has some success in Triple-A (which he is), feels good about himself and comes back up and plays like they expect. It's not a bad idea and it might just work. I was just surprised. Doesn't seem like something the Cardinals would do.

<3 willie to cards hof <3

Coveted this card, not one of Topps' best:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e4Mg3vc6zTo/TsxH8c5hWfI/AAAAAAAAAOY/LxGmoR5RRds/s400/49.jpg

majestic imo

Joe Sheehan also sees panic

The ’13 team won 97 games and reached the World Series in no small part because they had one of the greatest clutch seasons in recorded history, batting .330/.402/.463 with RISP. No other NL team batted higher than .271 in those situations! It was a clearly unsustainable performance that, nevertheless, helped power a divisional title.

The 2014 team has seen the flip side of that. After last night, it’s batting .227/.295/.341 with RISP. Allen Craig, clutch monster, is hitting .200 in the split, while new pickup Jhonny Peralta is at .115. These numbers don’t mean any more than the 2013 ones do, of course; batting with runners in scoring position isn’t a skill over and above “batting”, but when a team is hitting .330 with runners in scoring position, the narrative becomes that they’re the exception. The 2013 Cardinals were not; the performance was valuable, but it didn’t reflect any breaking of the code any more than the 2012 Orioles or 2007 Diamondbacks did.

What is frustrating is the Cardinals’ seeming inability to process this.... [They] have acted, to start 2014, as if everyone’s job is on the line. The amount of base-level panic driving wholly indefensible personnel management calls into question everything I said a year ago about Mike Matheny’s growth as a manager.

http://www.gammonsdaily.com/sheehan-mike-mathenys-terrible-choices/

matheny drives me absolutely fucking nuts

I don’t expect Mike Matheny to use RE charts from “The Book” to make decisions; I do expect him to manage people, and what he’s done so far this year is manage his people poorly. You can’t bury a rookie two weeks into the season because his batting average isn’t high. You can’t take a player who’s spent two years not knowing whether he was going to play or not and make him start guessing again in April. You can’t use two weeks of plate appearances to make decisions on anyone. Matheny has been the worst manager of any good team in baseball so far this season.

yep. matheny did the same thing to wong last season when he was called up. they made a big deal out of benching freese and moving carpenter over to third to make room for wong, and i got excited that wong would be given a fair shot. he struggled for about 3 games, and then for the rest of the season matheny decided to play wong sparingly, using him to pinch hit or pinch run every 2nd or 3rd game. it was the same shit as this season - he gave up on the plan before a week had even passed.

plus, unfairly or not, i just think he's dumb. as in, he's not smart. read any interview with him that's transcribed verbatim and it quickly becomes apparent that he doesn't use pronouns because he doesn't know they work

he doesn't use pronouns because he doesn't know how they work

and then there's his in-game managing, which is an entirely different sad story. examples abound, here's the latest:

Mathenaging: Why does St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny like to put the go-ahead run on base?

and the bunting. oh god, the bunting.

lol wong almost cycled for memphis last night

mozeliak said they want taveras to 'play a lot more cf' before calling him up, which kinda makes sense. at least until they bench craig for being unclutch

~poof~

craig not in lineup tonight

peter bourjos homer, tho

pushin' buttons

#mathenaging slowly finding way back to lineup orginally handed to him

grichuk back down, joey butler up

look who got clutch again

dammit

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BnOQNVzIEAASZ-K.jpg

not a bad AAA lineup!

return of the wong

now that he's overcome adversity by being sent down to minor leagues by his dipshit mathenager so that old man ellis could suck ass at hitting a baseball for a few weeks while he went on a hot streak in non-major league counting games, i predict that kolten wong is primed for a great career. but he better not have 3 bad games in a row or he's done for!

that was exactly like fantasy baseball, where all you accomplish is missing the upswing in production.

lol wong is sick with stomach flu, won't be available tonight anyway

<3

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

great article. god i love willie mcgee.

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

http://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/imported_assets/2198899/86Donrussbaseball-WillieMcGeeDK_medium.jpg

ugh, yesterday was a tough one.

ban matheny.

but garcia seemed like he did relatively well, and if motte can come back and be effective that'll help the bullpen fiasco.

@keithlaw
Matheny's #smrtbaseball move was really egregious: he had a great RHP intentionally walk a hitter with a career .278 OBP vs righties.

E Gattis intentionally walked.
J Schafer walked, F Freeman scored, R Doumit to third, E Gattis to second.
C Martinez relieved T Rosenthal.
M Ellis at second base.
R Doumit scored, E Gattis to third, J Schafer to second on wild pitch by C Martinez.
R Pena walked.
J Heyward grounded out to first.

and as part of that same stupid sequence, double switching out wong for ellis.

it didn't end up mattering, but why??

matheny has some uh limitations and can't manage around his key guys not performing. you can't blame him for Craig and Holliday hitting like crap, or for the bullpen getting wild. Mike doesn't seem to really know what to do to manage around those issues though :/

btw cool strike zone
http://t.co/MViMujQQkk

apparently the gameday strikezone mapper thing was a bit off compared to other mappers. here's brooks baseball's version of the same plate appearance:

http://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/imported_assets/2203367/numlocation_php_medium.png

damnit. did you see the one of the called strikes on carpenter? dude has gotten screwed.

https://twitter.com/AugieSports/status/467295904865988608/photo/1

ugh, that's awful. anecdotally it seems like he's been getting repeatedly fucked this season but it's nice to see the data to back it up

St. Louis Cardinals ‏@Cardinals 21m
#STLCards recall OF Shane Robinson and option OF Joey Butler to the @memphisredbirds. @SUGASHANE43 batted .371 (23-for-62) while in Memphis.

fine, i guess

but i really don't understand what the reasoning is. why did robinson go down in the first place? did they actually want to give butler a fair shot or did robinson have to go through some Matheny-endorsed Adversity(tm) so that he could be better? piscotty/taveras/grichuk's playing time in AAA was curtailed while robinson played every day.

i just don't understand what the goal is

man, i love to see them fail to bring in a winner.

Motte looks more like a crazed hillbilly fuck that any player i've ever seen.

i know it's only one game, but the velocity of Jaime's fastball from his last start is encouraging:

http://www.fangraphs.com/fgraphs/8137_P_FT_20140518.png

fastest average velocity he's ever had in a game, and highest peak velocity as well.

oh, oops.

http://i.imgur.com/bgVvlXA.png

bourjos sprints to 1st on a routine bouncer to short, forces a quick throw and error from crawford. bunt and run with a decent bunt from jaime, and then he does this crazy quick slide into 2nd and immediately floats back up to his feet and takes 3rd while they're throwing jaime out at 1st. sheesh, that was beautiful to behold.

oscar time!

YES!!!

i'm trying to lower expectations, especially because if he has 4 bad games in a row matheny will matheny him down to the un-matheny leagues. if he does well, though, i think it sets up a trade of either jon jay or matt adams. i feel bad for jay. he puts up 2-3 WAR for the last few seasons and would be a no doubt starter on almost any MLB team, but could almost be a 5th outfielder on the cards if taveras hits well. i think it makes sense to trade him to a team that will play him every day and hopefully get some good relief help and/or another minor league pitching prospect in return.

in related news "pump up the jam" has been playing on a loop in my head ever since i heard about this

http://cdn3.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1425347/2012-March-24-17-17-5_medium.jpg

(from the infamous moment in spring training 2012 when ricky horton and dan mclaughlin had no idea who taveras was, neither did the production crew, and horton said "'Joe Minor League Guy, No. 91, had a great year last year.")

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI9pllCxVNI

https://newenthusiast.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/ot-2.gif?w=388

haven't read this yet, but hey who doesn't love an oral history

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/oral-history-of-st-louis-cardinals-2009-draft-class-060514

Jack Flaherty ‏@Jack9Flaherty 9h
Truly blessed to have been taken by the Cardinals!! What a day it has been! Looking forward to a bright future ahead! God is good! *emoji praying symbol*

:-/

#IAmSecond

kid goes to the same high school my wife went to.. he was also teammates with giolito and the other guy who went in the first-ish round two years ago.

lol preppies
http://i.imgur.com/gEo2KUb.jpg

lol, i love that picture. is that grichuk popping out of yadi's head, or bourjos? only regulars missing are peralta and craig!

taveras down, making room for adams

makes sense, grichuk has been on a tear
(looooooooooooool)

obv taveras will be back, but it's gotta be super disheartening to work your whole life toward reaching the majors and then be sent back down 10 days later

the move makes sense, at least in mathenyland. OT isn't going to get regular time with Adams back in the mix, not with the current roster and Matheny managing. so it's grichuk who gets chosen/screwed by being left to rot on the bench.

one can imagine creative ways to get OT regular playing time while spelling craig and holliday, and against lefties (adams should sit, craig would play 1B). but matheny can't handle it. i realize the effect of the managerial decisions is minimal, but even given a very low bar, matheny shits the bed. he can't do it.

i have no idea what OT has left to prove in the minors. even in the majors, despite the poor results he has been hitting the ball well. i've watched every at bat since he came up and he's taken better swings than most of the lineup, and certainly grichuk (who i'm rooting for but has looking absolutely awful at the plate).

this sums it up: http://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2014/6/12/5804200/the-st-louis-cardinals-should-demote-oscar-taveras

...Taveras’s peripherals reveal a batter who has put good swings on major-league pitching.

Taveras has swung and missed 2.5% of the time by Fangraphs swinging-strike rate (SwStr%). Let me repeat that: Taveras has come up empty on just 2.5% of his swings. At 9.1%, the MLB non-pitcher SwStr% is over triple that of Taveras. Small sample size, sure, but that’s an awful lot of contact.

Speaking of contact, Taveras has done nothing to disprove the scouting reports indicating that he has an innate and elite skill at barreling the baseball. If a baseball is thrown, Taveras can hit it.

MLB non-pitchers have made contact 79.7% of the time this year. Taveras has done so 92.4% of the time. On pitches in the zone, those MLB players who aren’t pitchers have made contact 87.3% of the time. Taveras? 92.5%. Perhaps my favorite Taveras contact stat is the fact that he’s basically equaled his in-zone contact rate on pitches outside the zone: 92.3%. This compared to the MLB non-pitcher out-of-zone contact rate of 65.7%. Yes, it’s a small sample size, but holy shit.

...It’s a question of development. Taveras needs to play daily or something very close to it. With Adams on the DL, Taveras could do that in St. Louis. But with Adams activated, an outfield consisting of Holliday, Craig, Jay, Bourjos, and Grichuk (or Shane Robinson), and Matheny penciling in the lineup, the PAs won’t be plentiful or regular enough for Taveras. Without frequent playing time, it’s difficult to justify having Taveras on the St. Louis 25-man roster from either a development or financial (Super Two arbitration qualification) perspective. Consequently, the Cardinals should demote Taveras upon Adams’s activation.

i think jay or bourjos needs to go. earlier in the season i was thinking adams would be a good candidate, but after he went down on the DL i realized there's no one else who can play 1B except for Craig. Yadi can, but it's a negative to not have him behind the plate (even if it's good for his knees).

but it's gotta be super disheartening to work your whole life toward reaching the majors and then be sent back down 10 days later

totally. but predictable. if he would have hit .300 while he was here, matheny would have kept him. but he did not, so down he goes. matheny also likes to play mind games with him, just like he did/does with wong.

"He has not looked overmatched, but I've seen him when he's right," Matheny said. "There's another gear that we haven't seen since he's been up here this short time. That's not an effort-level gear, it's just a level of locked in. When that hits, it's truly impressive."

Matheny mentioned a couple of "mechanical flaws" in Taveras' swing that the club did not want to address with his plate already full trying to adjust to being in the majors.

"This is a tough place to try and compete and take in all that information at the same time," Matheny said. "You're almost setting them up for failure."

god shut up mike matheny

Carlos Martinez to start tomorrow, with waino's start pushed back to Monday.

Er, I mean waino's next start pushed back to Saturday

be really nice if CarMart shows something today.

and then we'll get Shane Robinson called back up -_-

marco gonzales (1st rounder 2013) is yr texas league pitcher of the week

lefty, great numbers, 22yo

I missed the Taveras demotion, that is nuts

(or the callup was nuts)

nuts, but predictable. they're just trying to limit his service time and it would take an intelligent manager to get Taveras regular playing time with the Bourjos/Jay/Craig situation, and we don't have an intelligent manager. I'd like to see some sort of trade to open up space for him.

al hrabosky can't stop talking about the subject that is on EVERY cardinal fan's mind tonight: will carlos martinez be efficient enough with his pitch count to qualify for a win? because if he doesn't get a win tonight, it means he wasn't good

So I'm guessing he's not an advanced metrics guy either. I get an earful of that shit from Joe Simpson.

That makes me wonder: are there any team broadcasters who are gung-ho advanced metrics guys?

Cubs color man Jim Deshaies is sabermetrics fan, mentions fangraphs pretty frequently, was just talking about Casey McGehee's BABIP and Chris Hatcher's K%-BB%.

*a* sabermetrics fan, obv

plus he just talked about how lineup protection is (mostly) bullshit

does the other cubs broadcaster keep it "balanced" by expressing skepticism about sabermetrics? seems like every time i hear it brought up on tv it's usually apologetic in nature and then the other guy balances it by saying that back in the good ol' days pitch counts were 150+ per game and that was just fine, yeehaw

the other hilariously sad thing about baseball broadcasting is that every team is afraid to hire a woman to do anything except for reporting on player injuries

actually no! Len doesn't get real into it but he never really expresses any skepticism, except maybe for joeks

I very much appreciate it as I'm watching a demoralizing loss 60% of the time

o shit carlos martinez will not in fact qualify for a win

at least he wasn't batting eighth tho

So do you think the Cardinals might try to deal with the Rays to get David Price, especially with the injured starters? Price seems like a guy that I could see St. Louis going to get.

http://i.imgur.com/PhT5fyf.jpg

until i saw earlnash's post i didn't know anything about the injuries, and so i was about to say that starting pitching wasn't exactly an area for improvement. ugh.

there was a really long post a few days ago on what the cardinals would need to do to get price (http://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2014/6/19/5823098/cardinals-david-price-trade-rumors):

The Cardinals have graduated multiple top prospects recently. Shelby Miller, Trevor Rosenthal, Michael Wacha, Kolten Wong, Carlos Martinez, and Oscar Taveras have all made it to the majors. In any trade for Price, Taveras is likely out of the question. Wacha will be asked about but denied while Miller and Martinez will likely be involved in any discussions with the Rays. After some early season struggles, Miller's trade value is not clear, nor is it clear which member of the rotation would move to the bullpen if one is not traded. Lance Lynn has been the Cardinals third best pitcher. Miller has still shown flashes of his ace potential, and it is not clear that Garcia could pitch out of the bullpen, physically. Any trade of this magnitude will involve many moving parts greatly affecting the major league roster.

A trade of Matt Adams would clear up the outfield logjam, but giving up Adams and a top pitcher off of the current major league roster is likely too high a cost. Stephen Piscotty, Marco Gonzales, Alex Reyes, and Rob Kaminsky will also likely be in play as well as slightly lesser prospects like James Ramsey and Randall Grichuk. The Rays will likely not settle for less than three players going to Tampa.

the first paragraph is probably out of date because i doubt the cardinals would be getting rid of major league starters right now (miller, lynn, obv wacha, or carlos martinez, who was recently promoted to the rotation and has some of the best stuff in all of baseball). the second paragraph may still be relevant.

i still don't think the cardinals should go after price, though. they have carlos martinez to cover for wacha, even for the rest of the season. and joe kelly is on a rehab assignment now and should be coming back soon. behind kelly they have several guys who could fill in for a spot start if needed, and while i'm not a huge fan of tyler lyons, he's probably best situated to take on several starts if something happened to kelly or another starter.

at the same time, the cardinals reduced their budget by 15 million or so this year (i think) and it would be nice to see them pick up someone awesome at midseason.

i'd still rather have a bat (3b?). Kelly and Martinez are or will be above average replacements. but the wacha news is depressing. Shoulder issues tend to keep coming back :(

big bats called up, brace yourself
K O Z M A

oh no - are you serious?

St. Louis Cardinals ‏@Cardinals 1h
#STLCards D.L. pitchers Jaime Garcia & Michael Wacha with shoulder injuries. RHP Eric Fornataro & INF Pete Kozma recalled from Memphis (AAA)

i can't TAKE this much shitty news in one tweet

HE'S BATTING .234/.341/.372. IN MEMPHIS.

COME ON

greg garcia isn't the cure to all that ails us, but he's better than pete fucking kozma

lol

ugh. i know i'm not adding anything new here but FUCK. FUCK!

willie mcgee hit for the cycle at wrigley 30 years ago today

FUCK! I love Willie McGee! FUCK!

one of the weirdest looking people to ever play baseball.

speaking of which, get the feeling rockies undervalued what Matt Big Mayo Adams could do in Coors re: Tulo trade rumors.

whoa the cards just called up marco gonzales to start tomorrow

he was in high-a a couple weeks ago

KOZMA DFA'D

our long national nightmare...

kind of odd, considering the total lack of SS depth.

cleared waivers, orbiting memphis

yeah, i guess Descalso is our backup SS right now. and backup 2B. *gulp*

our bench is beyond shitty. hate how they waste tony cruz because of irrational no backup catcher fears.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/matt-adams-and-beating-the-eye-test

St. Louis Cardinals @Cardinals · 17m
#STLCards optioned RHP Jorge Rondon following yesterday's game & will recall OF Oscar Taveras before tomorrow's game with the Giants.

and keep shane on the roster?

Robinson has been getting valuable experience along with Matheny noogies.

BOOOOOOOOOO

doing it right
http://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2014/7/7/5875761/viva-el-gallo-the-shirt-a-cardscare-fundraiser

@StullySTL 12m
Mozeliak to address media at 2:45 #Molina

http://i.imgur.com/CjpYzfJ.gif

uuuuuuuuugh no, i don't want to hear it

8-12 weeks

ooph.

mookie - your voodoo hate curses caused this! admit it!

(if there is a god, please don't let Pierzynski be the replacement. anything but that, ANYTHING)

i can neither confirm nor deny that

joe kelly: not quite ready

dat game
http://i.imgur.com/nZs5SRm.gif

i love carlos martinez so much

i'm just going to post it here so i can see it again on this thread every time i open it

http://i.imgur.com/nZs5SRm.gif

RJ Anderson of BP on Yadier replacement George Kottaras:

"Just why has a catcher who, for his career, has been an above-average hitter, bounced around so much? Part of the explanation stems from his poor defense. Kottaras is a fine blocker, but struggles to throw and receive the ball. There's also the matter of his limited and risky offensive profile. Kottaras has to be platooned to be effective, and he takes the walks-and-bops approach to an extreme. Given his ever-increasing contact woes, there's no guarantee Kottaras is effective for much longer anyway. As such, Kottaras is an example of a player who teams tolerate until they can replace—and boy is he replaced often."

I think Michael McKenry is kind of the same type catcher as Kottaras description, he can hit a bit and has some power but his defensive problems kept any club from wanting to use him as a regular.

honestly i'm cool with tony cruz being the primary option for 6-8 weeks, and i think matheny is too. the fact that my thinking may line up with matheny's probably indicates a problem, but whenever cruz gets a chance to play he seems at least average defensively, and he seems to handle and know the pitchers well. he's probably a .220/.310/.390 kind of hitter, but so is half of our lineup at this point

quiet bright spot in the cardinals season so far: peralta has been worth 3.1 fWAR, projected for 4.6 for the whole season. pre-season i told myself that if he was worth ~3 for the whole season i'd be satisfied

don't tell john lackey

or jon heyman: http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/writer/jon-heyman/24602538/best-mlb-winter-signings-white-sox-rookie-stud-abreu-orioles-cruz

The Disappointing Five
...
5. Jhonny Peralta, SS, Cardinals (four years, $53M): The almost always prudent Cardinals probably knew they were paying a lot for Peralta, but they also surely expected more than a .241 batting average his first year in the deal, a 62-point falloff from 2013.

lol he leads the team in homers (!) and has been the second-best shortstop in the game ffs. even if you completely discount defense, he's third

yes but his batting average isn't .300 so he he cannot be a very good hitter

Heyman's regular spot is in idiot media thread

Stanton whispers getting a little louder lately?

Can't imagine what we'd give up. Oscar is a given.

if they give up OT i will release ten million toxic balloons into the st. louis sky that all have matheny's face with a butt photoshopped over his mouth

speaking of, OT has sat for 3 of the last 4 games, all against right handers

allen craig's wRC+ for July is 19. in June it was 68.

does McCarver do all their Saturday regional TV? What a plague.

it's either him or al hrabosky. honestly i don't know who is worse

"allen craig should pinch hit for oscar taveras", said no one ever, except mike matheny

I'm only following this game via an updating box score, but...Peter Bourjos just tied it up with a 2-run homer off of Kershaw?!?

Kershaw must hate Matt Carpenter--just before Bourjas, worked him for another 10-pitch walk.

Taveras isn't starting again.

Tip for rookies breaking into the big leagues under Matheny: Never, EVER, go 2 straight games without a hit. It doesn’t matter how talented you are. You WILL face 'adversity'.

lol polanco went two games without a hit and yesterday clint hurdle put michael martinez -- a 31yo infielder with a career .492 ops in 169 games -- in right

Chris Hrabe @chrabe

Matheny talking Taveras/Craig pregame: "We've got to do what we can to win today, we're not here in the development business."

GRRRRRRRRR

playin' the HOT HAND

his philosophy sounds like Lasorda's, so ticket to the HOF

he is seriously an idiot. i love OT but i almost wish he could be traded to another team where he can play every day

that's what usually happened to Dodger prospects under Tommy L

Rays up 1-0, 6th inning. carpenter on 2B, no outs. wong bunts.

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in conclusion

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tee hee!

seriously, i just can't TAKE this any more, it's nauseating

like, right now, in the 7th inning, i know one thing. if oscar taveras gets a hit in the 8th inning, when he comes up, he'll stay in the game. if he doesn't, he'll be replaced in right field by allen craig. in fact, mike matheny may even choose to pinch hit for taveras in the 8th, no matter what. why? because allen craig hit a home run a few weeks ago. and shit, you gotta play the hot hand

you poor thing!

have a competitive balance draft pick

you don't understand! he's terrible! HE'S RUINING THE CITY OF ST LOUIS AND AMERICA

But imagine if you were a Giants fan and your team just signed Dan Uggla.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLyxmD_UAK4

a masterpiece of awful #mathenaging today. Mo really needs to step in and simplify his job.

Addition of Pierzynski actually makes me like the Cards more.

why, o perverse one?

I like AJ! He thrives off hate so he's basically just a wrestling heel, and he helped the White Sox win a World Series.

Plus he makes sense on the Cards: the asshole player on the asshole team.

haha ok

it is almost unfortunate that he is a terrible, stick-a-fork-in done player, in that he's an awful receiver, a proven asshole, and can no longer hit

almost

i just got home from a wonderful evening

why did i open this thread

what just happened

who is doing this

who is editing

who deletes

why does

this team

sadden

me

so
].

nOOOOOOOOOO

Honestly worse then I thought.
http://www.cardsconclave.com/2014/07/25/mike-matheny-wrong-fridays-loss-cu/

holliday has generally had stronger second halves throughout his career, but it will take a hell of a streak to steer him back to his usual output this season. not only that, but fangraphs released some updated xBABIP numbers the other day and he's actually outperforming his peripherals:

He is already having his worse season since 2005. Looking at his xBABIP (.271) vs BABIP (.304) values, his production could even be worse. Besides a possible lower AVG, his HR and Flyball distance is at a 6-year low.

2009: 296 ft
2010: 299 ft
2011: 295 ft
2012: 305 ft
2013: 289 ft
2014: 283 ft

i'm meh on the masterson trade. i get that he's been injured and i can see a scenario (back in the dave duncan days at least) when he has a decent second half and is totally worth it. and ramsey is blocked, so it makes sense to get somebody in return while we still can. but masterson's velocity on his fastball is down 2.6 MPH this year, which is kind of frightening.

and in case you didn't realize how bad allen craig has been this year, from bernie miklasz's sometimes stupid column today (he wonders what would have happened had andy van slyke hit better in 1986, a year in which he put up a 119 wRC+):

...With all of that in mind, what should the Cardinals do to kick-start the production in RF? Believe it or not, I have some empathy for manager Mike Matheny. But only some. I think Matheny is overly stubborn and wholly unrealistic in his insistence on giving so many at-bats to Craig when the Cardinals are facing a righthanded starting pitcher. Craig is basically helpless against RHP this season. In 298 plate appearances against RH this year, Craig has a .292 onbase percentage, a .310 slugging percentage and a 59 percent ground ball rate. He's getting progressively worse, with a .261 OBP and .250 SLG against RHP since June 1. (That's on 115 plate appearances.) For perspective: Craig's .511 OPS vs. RHP since June 1 isn't even close to Pete Kozma's OPS (.554) vs. RHP last season. And Kozma had to play shortstop in 2013 because the Cardinals lacked a viable alternative. That isn't necessarily the case in right field in 2014; the Cardinals have Taveras on the big club.

That said, Taveras hasn't done much in his 96 MLB plate appearances this season. It's too small of a sample slice to matter in a meaningful way, but even as a Taveras honk I can't be dishonest about this; I expected more from now. And I've been disappointed by Taveras' inability to do something dramatic and seize the job. By hitting only .209 with a .240 OBP and .275 SLG during his brief time in the majors, the uber prospect has given Matheny cover to continue using Craig. And that's where my dollop of empathy for Matheny comes in. It's not as if he's burying a hot-hitting rookie to play an overmatched veteran. I think Matheny would give the job to Taveras if Taveras would only heat up and take off. That would settle the matter ... at least I think it would. (With Matheny you can never be sure.) But Taveras hasn't done that. Even after returning from the minors on July 1 Oscar has batted only .222 / .250 / .259 and has an awful groundball rate of 62 percent. Good grief ... there we go again with a soaring ground-ball rate, which is the Cards' No. 1 affliction.

cameron: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/when-im-a-bit-of-an-oscar-taveras-skeptic

and yeah, masterson might work out, might not, but ramsey was never going to play in st. louis, so whatever. for similar reasons i'm not sure why the pirates have deemed josh bell untouchable -- is he going to replace marte, mccutchen or polanco?

something for KM to read when he's done unpacking

http://www.vivaelbirdos.com/st-louis-cardinals-sabermetrics-analysis/2014/8/4/5961579/whats-wrong-with-adam-wainwright-cardinals-baseball

seven days with oscar: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/a/24376

something for KM to read if there's a need to induce vomiting
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/matheny-will-use-descalso-ellis-this-weekend/article_b9d35c96-8515-521f-aceb-28f7bffae36c.html

that's a lot of homers

Willie! (No, not that one.)

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/mlb/willie-mcgee-jim-edmonds-mike-shannon-marty-marion-join-cardinals-hall-of-fame?ymd=20140816&content_id=89970158&vkey=news_mlb

That seemed strange at first--I thought his Cardinals time was relatively brief--but no, I'd forgotten he came back for a second turn. (Had even forgotten he played all through the '90s.) Here's the thing that really surprised me, though; how favorably WAR sees his '85 MVP. Put aside Gooden for a second, and the pitcher-bias in MVP voting. (Tudor, too.) McGee indeed had the highest WAR for position players that year. I'm pretty sure James ridiculed the award in that year's Abstract, arguing that it should have gone to Dale Murphy or Pedro Guerrero.

@BNightengale 6m
Actor Jon Hamm provides night of respite for hurting #STLCards community with National Guard summoned to Ferguson. http://usat.ly/VAUgOP

I...what? How?

Mathenaging!

http://www.vivaelbirdos.com/st-louis-cardinals-sabermetrics-analysis/2014/8/18/6030219/mathenaging-mike-matheny-doubles-down-on-double-standards

Yeah, I almost posted that last night. I'm gonna guess he's done after 2015, unless there's another World Series miracle. He's just too much of a dipshit

or jon heyman: http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/writer/jon-heyman/24602538/best-mlb-winter-signings-white-sox-rookie-stud-abreu-orioles-cruz

The Disappointing Five
...
5. Jhonny Peralta, SS, Cardinals (four years, $53M): The almost always prudent Cardinals probably knew they were paying a lot for Peralta, but they also surely expected more than a .241 batting average his first year in the deal, a 62-point falloff from 2013.

new franchise record-holder for homers by a shortstop in one season, nbd

he's also leading the team in fWAR (4.4), and except for Matt Carpenter it's not particularly close

Second in OPS and WAR among MLB SS -- just what were the Cardinals thinking?

xpost

oh hi, 1st place ;) spoiled cards fan checking in!

goddamn witchcraft

wainwright not pitching well. wacha not back. molina misses 6 weeks. no one can hit. taveras disappointing. rosenthal walking every single 9th inning lead off hitter. justin masterson throwing batting practice every 5 games. MATHENY #MATHENAGING

= 1st place obv

Cards collapse joining NYY & BOS on their October couches wd be priceless

apparently all the cardinals needed was for me to leave phone reception for 4 days so they could play in peace. i return to civilization and suddenly they're in 1st place.

wainwright not pitching well. wacha not back. molina misses 6 weeks. no one can hit. taveras disappointing. rosenthal walking every single 9th inning lead off hitter. justin masterson throwing batting practice every 5 games. MATHENY #MATHENAGING

daniel descalso is the backup 1B, apparently?

i was assuming that molina could play 1B on occasion to give adams a rest, but i guess i was wrong

fuck waino and his three rbis

I couldn't help but think of Stan Musial, the standard bearer of the Cardinals and a man of impeccable character. He had to be looking down from heaven with tears in his eyes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJZ_k1rQN90

PORNOGRAPHY

14 games over .500, four-game lead, -2 run diff

karmic payback maybe for the last few years where they significantly underperformed their pythag (at least if iirc)

6 games under their expected record in both 2013 and 2012. last year they were expected to win 103!

i think you rc? a few years tho, and last year they had the RISP thing (rip allen craig)

Yeah, that's definitely true. The hitting with RISP was out of control last year

anyway it's fine, i'm just lashing out in bitterness

Got curious to see how long Stan Musial played with the 60s Cards like Bob Gibson, Curt Flood & Tim McCarver and found this box score. This is Stan Musial's last game. It's a definite changing of the guard as you have rookie Pete Rose in the lineup for the Reds along with Hall of Famer Frank Robinson. It was a matchup of a couple of the best starting pitchers in the NL at that time with Jim Maloney going for the Reds against Gibson. Looking it up, Maloney beat Gibson in the first game the Reds played against the Cards back in April. Musial got a couple hits and was lifted, probably leaving with a hit and maybe that RBI earlier in the game. This is definitely a changing of the guard moment when you look at the players in the scoreboard, considering how many of those players dominated the rest of the 60s and early 70s.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN196309290.shtml

see also october 1964

The closest awards-vote after tonight might be runner-up in the NL Cy Young. Wainwright and Cueto are extremely close, and would both take the award most any other year.

I'm sad Zimmerman will get ignored, once again because of wins and era.

Ditto Hamels, because of wins.

good

runnersup only counts in Miss America

I brought it up because this would be Wainwright's third time finishing second, with a third-place finish on top of that. He's becoming this generation's Juan Marichal to Kershaw's Koufax. (Koufax's Cys were all unanimous, but I imagine Marichal would have finished second at least twice with an expanded ballot; he was 72-27, with an ERA around 2.25, the three years Koufax won.)

Arrieta triple plates two!

lol the old IBB isn't working out to well for Matheny this week

*too

earlier tim mccarver got really amazed at the phrase 'come into his own'. he said something like

'this guy is...well, it's an odd thing to say, i guess, but he's really coming into his own this year. that's such a weird thing to say...must be 100 years old, or older. it doesn't make any sense!! but nevertheless he has really come into his own this year...'

deshaies and the other dude are pretty good, you should switch imo

yeah len and jim are my second fave broadcasters now, stat friendly, goofy without being too corny, nice guys, think unwritten rules are dumb, etc

yikes. wacha does not have his stuff. get the bullpen going right NOW matheny

clearly alan trammell, who has already been fired, is mustering these d-bags to greater things

truuumbo

starters should be interesting

1. wainwright
2. lynn
3. miller?
4. wacha/lackey/wainwright?

i thought we'd all agreed that shelby miller doesn't pitch in october

yeah, the rotation is a mess. wainwright and lynn, pray for rain...in'

i thought miller was doing much better in the second half, but really he just had a good September . still, i think he has to be part of the mix.

between lackey and wacha at #4, i'd rather see wacha combined with a very short leash, larussa 2011 style.

lackey will probably get the nod for #4 though, or even #3 because of his veteran grittiness.

matt carpenter is the cardinals' finalist for the hank aaron award, recognizing the most outstanding offensive performer

which doesn't seem quite right

Must be a positional thing, or Holliday needs a new agent

time to get fired up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9bfBJG_OCE

lackey 3, miller 4, wacha in pen

Lackey for the first home game (most likely a must win after Kershaw and greinke, although I guess every game is a must win in a 5-game series) seems like a mistake.

Yeah that part is odd/wrong. If you need to fire Waino again in 4, rather have him replace Lackey. Wacha in pen is right call. Bullpen needs it. Neshek looks burnt lately.

intersting: http://www.hardballtimes.com/staggered-rotations-and-postseason-win-probabilities

The Art of Mathenaging

...Matheny is by all accounts a nice man, but it is becoming increasingly clear that the speed and madness of the postseason is too much for him. If you'll excuse an extension of the driving metaphor, he manages like someone used to cruising around a small rural town suddenly being thrust onto a heavily trafficked freeway during rush hour. He speeds up at the wrong times, he slams on his brakes for no reason, he'll panic and swerve from one lane to another, and then he'll slow down to a crawl just to make it look like he's calm now… it got a little crazy there, but it's all under control. When you're behind someone like this in traffic, you make sure you're as far away from him as possible and take pity on the poor souls in his car. I joked yesterday that you can actually hear him blinking, but seriously, with those dugout microphones, I really think you can.

Matheny is a frustrating regular season tactician as well, but his primary skills as a manager are ideally suited for a long season. He looks like a leader, with that jaw and that unfocused "determination," and his players love him because he was so recently one of them and therefore understands how to keep them happy. All the little things he does during the regular season, they all even out: The game doesn't move too fast on him in the regular season because it never moves too fast in the regular season. You don't have to blink too hard over 162 games. The Cardinals have made the NLCS all three years Matheny has been manager, and while he's not personally responsible, he never completely lost control of a season the way some managers have, and he deserves credit for that.

But when every single game means everything, Matheny couldn't adjust. We've seen this with other managers this postseason -- the most egregious offender had been Ned Yost, until he, sort of amazingly, suddenly started adjusting -- but Matheny may have cost his team the most. The problem with Matheny is that the trick he uses in the regular season -- putting players in predictable roles since players like their routine -- doesn't work in the postseason because you actually have to manage to win in the postseason. Matheny has generally been considered a strong manager throughout baseball because his teams have had so much regular-season success. But I suspect, after the last two days, that honeymoon is over.

...fter the game, Matheny's explanation of why he brought Wacha in made no sense. I don't mean that his explanation was faulty, or I disagree with it. I mean it makes no sense.

'I put him in a tough spot. But you [saw] the first couple pitches come out of [his] hand and I think everybody in the baseball world asked why we had been waiting so long to let this kid throw. Just a tough spot for him to be in and not the spot we want him to be in but we'll put him out there again in a similar situation.'

Lots to unpack there, but that answer is really how Matheny has managed every postseason: He goes one direction, retreats, goes another, changes course again, and then, after this confusion has ended in failure, insists that if the same thing happened again, he'd do the same thing … even if he still can't quite explain what that thing is.

the scary part is that his Wacha answer is just completely wrong. A 96 mph fastball that you can't locate doesn't impress the baseball world.

Dewitt and Mo are very strong with handling the big picture so there's reason to still be optimistic for the redbirds. Mmmmaybe they'll gut Matheny's staff and force some smarter baseball minds in there to challenge him/overrule him/lock him in a closet.

ugh, but they also extended him through 2017 after the 2013 postseason, and this was after watching him operate for 2 years.

i have zero confidence in his ability to juggle taveras and grichuk. it's really sad because taveras and carlos martinez are my two favorite cardinals, and they couldn't be in worse hands. martinez will hopefully get his chance to be a part of the rotation next year, but taveras probably needs to be traded to a team that knows how to play him.

...Center fielder Peter Bourjos, also eligible for arbitration for a second time in his career, had played into a late-game or part-time role during the season and wasn’t sure what that meant for his future.

The season “was up and down,” Bourjos said. “And that kind of went with the playing time, too. Inconsistent playing time, inconsistent results — that’s how it goes sometimes. If there’s an opportunity out there, I’d like to play every day.”

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/descalso-bourjos-wonder-if-they-ll-be-back-with-cards/article_1e09d594-92a9-5e5b-997d-7155fda75839.html

i didn't realize he was only under contract for this season. for some reason i thought he was cost-controlled for a few more years or something, but maybe i confused his contract with grichuk's.

either way, i don't blame him for wanting to gtfo of mathenyland. i suppose it's way to early to talk about the offseason, but it should be an interesting one for the cardinals. the OF alone presents some tough decisions. jay is up for arbitration, and is likely to get in the $6-7 million range. bourjos' contract is up. then there's matt holliday in LF with taveras and grichuk in RF.

it seems they need to make a choice between jay and bourjos. i'm not sure what to make of bourjos. he hit close to average in the second half (96 wRC+) but was rewarded by matheny with half as many PAs compared to the first half (74 wRC+). even with his shitty hitting in the first half and sub-.300 OBP for the season, his good fielding helped him to reach about 1.5 WAR in only 119 games/294 PAs. but i don't see a full-time role for him in 2015 - the best he could hope for is jay being traded away and entering a platoon with grichuk - and judging by his quote above he seems like he'd be pretty disgruntled. for good reason - as a full-time CF his floor is probably 2 WAR and it's not hard to imagine him getting back to 4 WAR again.

but if they go with jay, then it's easy to imagine a kind of living hell watching matheny juggle grichuk and taveras again all year. i can just imagine it now, all the games with jay starting in CF and grichuk in RF, the 7th innings where grichuk shifts over to CF as a defense improvement and taveras comes in for 2 innings and a pinch-hit appearance. it's nauseating to even think about. but it wouldn't be wise of mozeliak to force matheny's hand by trading away too many OFs, because it makes sense to have depth with an aging matt holliday in LF.

then with the rotation, i'm assuming the first four are wainwright/lynn/wacha/miller, but there's another dilemma with carlos martinez and john lackey (if they decide to pick him up for an option year, which seems like something they'll do). again, it makes sense to have the depth, and again, it's frustrating to watch one of the most talented young pitchers in baseball get used as a 7th inning setup man until someone else gets injured in the rotation.

PS the cubs are probably going to win the division in 2016, and i'm worried they might do it as early as 2015, depending on the hot stove this offseason. :-/

or is matheny's best friend and soulmate marco gonzalez a dark horse candidate to make the rotation?

if they're not going to play taveras full-time then he shouldn't be in the majors. he was awful in st. louis this year, but his ceiling is still a lot higher than grichuk's, and he's only 22.

jay put up offensive numbers almost identical to carpenter's this year, and totally worth $6-7m. obviously he's not the fielder that bourjos is, but the latter has really only ever had one good year, and that was a while ago now. and it would seem that with a strong pitching staff, holliday and yadi in decline, and peralta unlikely to match his awesome 2014 season, the cardinals could use jay's offense more than bourjos' defense.

kinda funny that jay was hit nearly as many times as he walked this year, tho.

lackey has intimated that he'd retire rather than play for $500k, and tbh i think the cards have better options anyway.

mozeliak and matheny held a press conference the other day that went from meh to bleh to agonizing.

meh - jay will be the starting outfielder. i like jon jay. i feel bad for bourjos. i do think he's a wasted asset, and one of the few sources for speed on the slow-ass cardinals. every year i think jay's bubble is going to burst because his BABIP is always through the roof, but...he does his thing year after year.

bleh - taveras will compete for RF with grichuk and piscotty, "with 2014 performance, completion of offseason goals and Spring Training all factoring into the decision." bleh because yes, grichuk performed better than taveras in the MLB in 2014, but it's clear that taveras has the higher ceiling:

http://i.imgur.com/YLjDhUx.jpg

it's way too easy to see grichuk opening the season as the starting RF and matheny sticking with him half the season, with taveras getting a start every 6 games and only starting 3 games in a row when he gets a "hot hand". bleh.

agonizing - carlos martinez is the 8th inning guy in 2015. he's not in the rotation plans. at all. in the event of injury to wainwright/lynn/lackey/miller/wacha, marco gonzalez would most likely be the next guy in the rotation. fuck. FUCK. another lost season for carlos martinez. i don't understand.

go 6 man rotation. Need to lighten up on Wacha and Waino. Give Martinez as much of a look as you would Justin freakin Masterson.

awful part is going to be Spring Training when Martinez outpitches everyone AGAIN and gets put in the bullpen.

offense is really still missing 2012 Allen Craig :(

I would love a 6-man rotation, and it makes total sense with this group. Unfortunately I don't think it a 6-man rotation is listed as an option in the 1979 edition of How to Manage a Team that Matheny consults, so I can't see it as a possibility.

Oh wait, he's obsessed with really defined setup and closer roles, so I guess he's moved on to the 1993 edition

maybe send him a Stengel bio for the holidays

Oscar Taveras (Pinch Hitter, USA)
Am I in StL next season or do they trade me? Should they trade me?

Klaw (2:04 PM)
I thought the trade of Allen Craig was designed to force Matheny to play Taveras, but in the NLCS it seemed like Mozeliak was backing up his manager's decision not to play the better player (especially with a RHP on the mound for SF). So I don't think they should trade him, but now I'm wondering if they will trade him because they think he's not fully committed to keeping himself in playing shape.

tbf i don't see how taveras was the better player during the nlcs -- he was -1.3 war in 80 regular-season games, after all. he just has more potential

'minor' elbow surgery for waino

https://sports.vice.com/article/mike-matheny-little-league-and-baseball-fundamentalism

the "co-author" of the upcoming Matheny book is the guy who co-wrote the Left Behind series.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/10/oscar-taveras-dies-in-car-accident.html

holy shit

that is really awful and sad

fuck

terrible indeed.

Wow - as sad as it was unexpected.

he was my favorite baseball player. a lot of people's favorite ballplayer, already. i always stopped whatever i was doing to watch his PAs, and at work i'd slip on headphones and listen to the radio broadcast whenever his turn in the lineup came up, if it was a day game. i'm not one to pay attention to the aesthetics of baseball swings very often, but imo he had the most beautiful swing. i'm glad he got to enjoy that moment in the NLCS when he had a pinch hit HR to tie the game, and the cards' fans made him come out and wave his hat. i was honestly looking forward to watching him for a very long time. so tragic. RIP Oscar.

http://i.imgur.com/UxCmlcJ.gif

awful

jesus christ....so horrible

That hat tip was great, he was eating something and seemed, def not annoyed, but just like "guys I just hit a dinger, I do that sometimes, chill." I really liked his style, was looking forward to lamenting his hits for a long time. RIP.

Man, terrible news. RIP.

Shocking and sad. RIP.

holy fuck

so easy to forget these things can happen

RIP

this is the worst

woah - had no idea he was also a Canadian citizen

Me neither ... he lived in Montreal from ages 12 to 16.

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/07/08/top-prospect-has-canadian-passport-to-wbc

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B09u5_6IMAAlHCy.jpg

dang, his girlfriend died too. brutal.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B1Ebx89IUAEyFOb.jpg

Cardinals leave right field light on to honor Oscar Taveras

o man

http://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1n8KkXNzUsZvyQRw4YnPN2lImBE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn1.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2415500/xW956Yv.0.jpg

happy 56th birthday to willie mcgee

#51 4eva

lol

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B1yvA_fIIAAwD93.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B1yvA_hIAAAnggJ.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B1yvA_eIQAIM8TW.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B6O5CmHIMAAoG7p.jpg

released today!

http://mikematheny.com/book-matheny-manifesto

with an afterword by Bob Costas.

*fart noise*

i vote to wait a few days, start a new cardinals 2015 thread, and pretend the matheny book never, ever happened

Matheny’s tough-love philosophy contained his throwback beliefs that authority should be respected, discipline and hard work rewarded, spiritual faith cultivated, family prioritized, and humility considered a virtue. In The Matheny Manifesto, he builds on his original letter by diagnosing the problem at the heart of youth sports—Hint: it starts with parents and coaches—and offering a hopeful path forward. Along the way, he uses stories from his smalltown childhood, as well as his career as a player, coach, and manager, to explore eight keys to success: Leadership, Confidence, Teamwork, Faith, Class, Character, Toughness, and Humility.

we can't bring him in, tie-game situation. we're on the road.

we can't bring him in, tie-game situation. we're on the road.

should have been the title of the book

The Matheny Manifesto is co-written with Jerry B. Jenkins, author of the Left Behind series

LEFT BEHIND

http://www4.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Trevor+Rosenthal+World+Series+Media+Day+rxjqmwwNBhdl.jpg

i vote to wait a few days, start a new cardinals 2015 thread, and pretend the matheny book never, ever happened

― ♪♫_\o/_♫♪ (Karl Malone), Tuesday, 3 February 2015 16:00 (2 days ago) Permalink

Amen, preparing for the rapture of a new thread.

You know I'm going to post about that book right at the top of the 2015 thread once you start it, right? Nothing personal; it's just a Cards thing

^^^

From “The Coach Is Always Right, Even When He’s Wrong” to “Let Your Catcher Call the Game,” Matheny’s old-school advice might not always be popular or politically correct, but it works.

Take that, PC police!

"Carlos is going to be the recipient of baseball talk."

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/109429988/with-new-role-cardinals-right-hander-carlos-martinez-gets-new-locker-near-catcher-yadier-molina