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

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

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