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

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?!?