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.

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