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

(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