Why does it seem so so simple, clear, and straight forward to me
by TheHolyDiver19 on Jul 2, 2010 4:29 AM EDT
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PrintBut to the organization, this team and its roster construction might as well be calculus and its applications to pornography. Its enraging, painfull, and hard to watch at times. Here are a few simple ways this team could improve itself for this year and the near future.
Release Aaron MIles, call up Tyler Greene. Greene is 26 years old, he is not and should no longer be considered a young prospect. He has proven he can hit AAA pitching and he can play 2b and ss at average to above defense. What else is there to be gained playing everyday in the minor leagues? I believe (as should the org) that the best players in your system should be playing at the MLB level. Is there a person in cardinal nation that thinks that Aaron MIles is a better ball player Tyler Greene at this stage in thier careers? I hope not. With David Freese on the DL this would be a perfect chance to get him regular playing time at the MLB level. I dont know if Greene will ever be able to make it as an everyday player for an MLB club but he would sure be a better backup than Miles. Maybe we get lucky and he duplicates his results at the mlb level that he has at AAA, we will never know if he is left to rot at AAA.
Release Jeff Suppan, call up Eduardo Sanchez. Sort of the same situation as Greene. Why is 35 year old, 85 MPH fastball Jeff FREAKIN Suppan starting in a cardinal uniform when you have Adam Ottavino and Blake Hawksworth available. Both of these players have reached the stage in thier respective careers where they are too old to be considered prospects but AAAA players. Why not give them a chance to prove themselves? This team is struggling to win with Jeff Suppan starting games so why not let it struggle to win with some players with actual ceilings of abillity. Players who have more to prove and more to give to the game. In this scenario, release soup and try out Eduardo Sanchez for a little while. He has been very successful at every level he has played at so why not try him out for a few weeks till your injured players (Penny, Freese) come back. Letting Salas play had been a great success so why not try this with Sanchez?
Trade, release, or send down Nick Stavinoha, call up Joe Mather/Allen Craig. We have seen Stavinoha for 3 months now. What we have from him is a 288/333/397 line. Ill admit he has been better than expected but thats due to luck and my low expectations. But does anyone expect that line to get better? The guys has walked 4 times all year compared to his 21 strikeouts, not exactly the definition and a guy who shows patience and promise. He has little power and no speed. So why not try out someone else? Joe Mather who plays better D, runs well, and has shown better patience and skill at the plate. He is learning to hit without the power that his wrist injuries have sapped. The trip to the minors has helped him just like one (might) help stav. Allen craig is another guy who trumps stav in almost every physical and statistical way. All im saying is whatever we are doing now at the MLB level isint working (or at least not as well as it should or could) and that a fresh face with something to prove could give this club the boost it needs.
Start
C Molina
1b Pujols
2b Schumaker
SS Ryan
3B Freese
LF Holliday
CF Rasmus
RF Ludwick
Obviously with injuries and what not this cant and wont happen. Lopez will split time with Ryan and Schu all year (and play 3rd till Freese is Healthy) and Craig/Mather/Winn will play when someone needs a breather (or injured IE ludwick at the moment). But when those players are healthy, they should be playing almost everyday.
Start
Wainwright
Carpenter
Garcia
Ottavino
Hawksworth
every 5 days till someone gets healthy or we make a deal
Franklin
McCleallan
Motte
Miller
Reyes
Boggs
Salas
Sanchez
For the Bullpen
Lopez
Larue
Winn
Greene
Mather/Craig
As the bench
Finally trade away pieces that have no room or place in the org. For example Stavinoha, Jay, Anderson, Hamiliton. Does anyone really see these guys making a real impact on this franchise. Pujols is not going anywhere (i hope) neither is Molina, Holliday, or Rasmus, so where do these players project at the MLB level? All of these player are at a position of strength in the so why not deal from that depth and bring in players that can help the MLB team down the stretch. Maybe a starting pitcher? Or you could deal them for other prospects at positions of weakness like the middle infield.
I would not mind trading for a few pieces either. If the player makes sense, and the deal does not involve miller, Sanchez, the MLB level players or anyone not critically mentioned above, than pull the trigger. The cards have a good shot at a title this year with a few adjustments, so why not take it? we dont have to mortgage our future to do it either, just trade from surplus.
It seems simple to me, maybe because i dont see them play in person i dont fully understand what is going on. What I do understand is that this 100 million dollar team is underachieving (and i realize that the starting pitcher injurues have something to do with that). So why not try something else? Instead of waiting for the problem to fix itself why not get proactive and make some moves?
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The only thing that makes me happy about your post
is that I’m not the only one sitting in front of my TV, night after night, ranting about the exact same thing.
Misery loves company, and we have a lot of self-imposed misery by the stubbornness of the front office and the man in the manager’s office.
I agree with the poster a while back who referred to the roster construction and in-game decisions The LaRussa Tax, a deadweight around the neck of the Cardinals.
by Michael_68_1999 on Jul 2, 2010 12:35 PM EDT reply actions
The only thing I disagree with
is trading Anderson. Not because I think he will be an outstanding player, but because i think his trade value is very low right now and he’s a better (and cheaper) option than LaRue.
still don't understand the joe mather love....
if you bring down Stavinoha, bring up Craig…. or even Jon Jay over Joe Mather for me right now….
Release Jeff Suppan, call up Eduardo Sanchez.
Nah, bring up Ottavino or Salas (i know both are here) for the long term and then use the other spot for Greene or Craig or someone
Sanchez is a reliever AND just got brought to AAA so he’s not ready yet….. he has 3 IP in AAA and while they have been great, he needs more time
Rasmus can hit lefties
cardinalred
St. Louis Sports blog
yeah
Jay and Craig are both better than Mather in all likelihood. I think that wrist injury really messed him up.
*now with more veterany veteranness and a higher grit factor
by Cards Fan in Chitown on Jul 2, 2010 6:18 PM EDT up reply actions
yeah, that is heartbreaking
losing both Duncan AND Mather to freak injuries is a bit unfair.
Well the girls would turn the color of the avocado when he would drive down the street in his El Dorado... -the modern lovers
yes :(
*now with more veterany veteranness and a higher grit factor
by Cards Fan in Chitown on Jul 3, 2010 3:17 PM EDT up reply actions
Joey Bombsquad
is hitting .302/.374/.414/.788 in Memphis. Sure, it is only 116 ABs (because MinorLeagueSplits.com doesn’t have PAs for some reason). Not bad, but the power is definitely lacking and likely due to his wrist. In ’08, Bombs slugged .630 in Memphis. I doubt very much that he had that much power, but he had more power pre-injury than post-injury and it would be great if some pop returned to his bat.
"I'm gonna throw the nastiest curveball I have ever thrown...if he hits it, I'll tip my cap, but if not we're going to the Series."
--Adam Wainwright on the final pitch of the 2006 NLCS
ok so i had 26 players under this roster construction
so forget sanchez (i was implying one or the other as for mather and craig). Im not a huge Mather fan, all im implying is that his AAA stats show improved plate discipline, and that a change over Stavinoha could not hurt. Jay could be a good fit just a willingness to try something else would be great form from the orginazation.
The point of this post was to show the unwillingness to budge from a philosophy that has shown mediocre results to this point in the year. All im asking is to take a step back look at the players you have and make logical assements of these players and where they are at this stage of thier careers. Im sure this horse has been beat to death but its frustarting.
i would click the reply button so we know who you're talking to
and i was just nitpicking… im really only overly annoyed at Miles and Suppan more than anyone else
Rasmus can hit lefties
cardinalred
St. Louis Sports blog
I can't say that I disagree with anything you said,
except I’d like to see John Jay again.
I like Joey Bomb too, though.
bring up who ever is hottest at the time.
Baseball first, teams second, players third, agents last.
Absolutely no reason
why Skip should start at 2B over Lopez since your lineup assumes a healthy Freese. Other than dive into first base, I can’t think of a single thing Skip does better than Flip.
Carry the battle to them. Don't let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don't ever apologize for anything.
I cant disagree with you there honestly
id love to see him in there everyday at 2nd, and in that case it would leave skip almost no place on the team
by TheHolyDiver19 on Jul 3, 2010 1:46 PM EDT up reply actions
you might have something there, vep
"Some days I feel like the hypotenuse in a love triangle; others as if my lucky number is pi."
Mather is broken
I can’t really see the point of brining him up, even over Stavinoha. He hasn’t shown an ability to hit any sort of professional pitching since the wrist injuries and he’s old enough that you have to assume he never will.
I’d give him the rest of this year and maybe next to see if he can ever recover some semblance of his previous ability, but to be honest I’d be closer at this point to cutting Joe Mather than I would be to putting him back on a major league roster…
Still bitching to contact.
yeah
I totally don’t get why people want Mather up, he hasn’t done well since 2008. no thanks!
*now with more veterany veteranness and a higher grit factor
by Cards Fan in Chitown on Jul 5, 2010 3:09 PM EDT up reply actions
well, he's been injured since 2008, so that's probably why
seems to be getting healthier and healthier in memphis – hitting well, and he can defend 5 positions and run the bases. wouldn’t doubt he recovers enough this year to make a playoff roster, should one be needed.
"Some days I feel like the hypotenuse in a love triangle; others as if my lucky number is pi."
He's hitting with no power in Memphis
and with that long swing major league pitchers will eat him up if he’s only hitting singles on the occasions he makes contact, IMO.
I like him, a lot, seems a great guy, I like the glove, but I just think from a realistic point of view he’s, what, 28 or 29 now (I think), coming off MAJOR wrist surgeries, and there’s maybe a reason he didn’t make it to the majors until he was 26 or so. I have hope, still, but realistically he’s not really any closer to being a viable major leaguer now than he was at the start of the year, and at that point he was a LONG shot IMO.
I guess we’ll see – Ryan Ludwick (late developer, good skills but problems with injuries in his time in the high minors) might not be a bad comp, so he could still make it, but Ludwick is only a couple of years older and made his breakthrough at about the same age Mather is now. I think he was probably more highly rated skillset-wise before he became a productive hitter as well.
Still bitching to contact.
by Felonius_Monk on Jul 6, 2010 7:51 AM EDT up reply actions
i agree bombs needs to get his power back
sometimes it never returns, and sometimes it just takes a while, like with werth. i haven’t seen his memphis at-bats, but someone posed the question a few days ago, considering mather’s higher-than-normal average, if he’s perhaps cut down on his swing. if he has, i’d think that would be at the behest of the org and an indication they believe the power will never return anyway, so why not work on the average/on-base skills. if this is the case, my held-out hopes for bombs would vanish.
"Some days I feel like the hypotenuse in a love triangle; others as if my lucky number is pi."
Werth also
*now with more veterany veteranness and a higher grit factor
by Cards Fan in Chitown on Jul 6, 2010 2:32 PM EDT up reply actions
why the john jay hate
potential .300 hitter who can man all three outfield positions? i’ll take that for a 4th outfielder anytime(especially if he is only making $400K a year)
heck i’m even fine with stav as the 5th outfielder/PH specialist(though i wish they’d give craig another chance, or trade him to the A’s)
"Albert hits good pitches hard and bad pitches even harder. And when he gets in the batter's box, if you pray, then you start praying. And if you don't pray, you think about starting."--Brian Bannister
That guy we gave a lot of money in the offseason to protect albert is dead to me...DEAD TO ME
Jay is definitely a better option than Mather
although I don’t think he hates Jay
*now with more veterany veteranness and a higher grit factor
by Cards Fan in Chitown on Jul 5, 2010 7:17 PM EDT up reply actions
i'm not sure about that
a healthy mather would be better option, imo, so that when colby gets days off, which it seems he needs, those days can be against lefties, and neither jay or winn are ideal matchups vs. lefties. and i’m not saying colby should sit vs. lefties, because he shouldn’t, just that when he does rest it might as well be against lefties.
"Some days I feel like the hypotenuse in a love triangle; others as if my lucky number is pi."
where is this healthy Mather you speak of
*now with more veterany veteranness and a higher grit factor
by Cards Fan in Chitown on Jul 5, 2010 10:05 PM EDT up reply actions
raking in memphis
he’s not hitting the dingers, but is hitting for a higher average than you’d expect, .300. his numbers are good, as are craig’s (and anderson too, for that matter)
"Some days I feel like the hypotenuse in a love triangle; others as if my lucky number is pi."
not exactly
craig is opsing .893 compared to mather’s .788….
plus .788 isn’t exactly raking
Rasmus can hit lefties
cardinalred
St. Louis Sports blog
this is why i said he's hitting for a high average
but not the dingers (power). taking defense, flexibility, and baserunning into account, craig and mather are about equal on the call-up totem pole, with probably a slight edge to mather because of centerfield.
"Some days I feel like the hypotenuse in a love triangle; others as if my lucky number is pi."
mather was 1-4 tonite, batting .300
craig had a double and grand slam, hitting .306. he can definitely hit, which is why i wanted him as the starting left fielder this year. the holliday money i would have used differently.
that said, there is now no place for craig in st. louis. he’s blocked at both first and left. they have to either trade him, while his value is highest, or deal luddy for a pitcher and insert craig in right, which they don’t seem to want to do (arm issue). i’d think both he and luddy would interest the braves, and bring us back a pitcher. craig is a pretty good athlete who just can’t throw, and he’s playing first in memphis, which is very telling about his future in st lou. mather is playing right, and gunned a guy at third tonite. i expect him to be back up at some point, and craig to be dealt (and luddy kept). who knows, maybe the m’s would consider craig, anderson, and greene – they need all three positions, and maybe we could sweeten the deal if necessary (throw in hamilton or something).
"Some days I feel like the hypotenuse in a love triangle; others as if my lucky number is pi."
I think they really should deal Craig
so I agree. If he could bring back a cost-controlled 4th starter type I think that would be a smart move for us, even if we have to throw in another piece or two.
Earlier in the year I thought a Craig-for-Heath Bell trade might be possible, but with the Pads in some sort of contention and our bullpen doing OK maybe that’s not so likely now.
Still bitching to contact.
by Felonius_Monk on Jul 6, 2010 7:53 AM EDT up reply actions
ok you can't say his numbers are as good as craig's though
and baserunning… got any proof (i think you’re just assuming mather is better cause of that slide)….. flexibility is part of defense as well
craig has the edge…. you’re underestimating craig’s power methinks… 25+ homers is greater than mather’s 10 or less homers
Rasmus can hit lefties
cardinalred
St. Louis Sports blog
i never underestimate craig
i wanted him to be the starting left fielder this year, so i think pretty highly of him.
baserunning – the slide has nothing to do with it. mather has always been a good baserunner, with good instincts. and of course he is much faster than craig. if you don’t want to take my opinion, then how about brock, who said in spring training that mather was the best baserunner on the team?
i don’t know what you mean by “flexibility is a part of defense as well”. defensive flexibility is what i am talking about. by separating the two words what i mean to convey is that not only does he play more positions (flexibility), but that he is a better glove and arm than craig also (defense).
i’ve watched these guys considerably over the years, in various places and stages of their careers, so i have a pretty good grasp on each. as i said, i would have loved for craig to get the starting nod in left in lieu of holliday, but that didn’t happen. now he is blocked at his two positions and will likely be traded. so i stick by my assertion that mather is higher on the call-up totem pole, which is not saying that mather is better, if that’s how you read it, but you do seem to have a propensity for misinterpreting what certain posters are saying. and this other business you are in to, such as thinking i’m assuming something based on some slide, is very annoying. do you think someone who spent a decade in the scouting world and is still very much in touch would assume such a thing? really, i don’t know why i even respond. you seem alright but like a kid who is constantly trying to show the adult how smart he is by naming the 50 states or counting to 1000. in short, i have no problem with your opinions, as that’s what this site is for, but i do have a problem with you telling me what you think my opinions are based on, because what they are generally based on are the same numbers you have at your disposal, plus a wealth of personal observation and experience – please keep that in mind.
"Some days I feel like the hypotenuse in a love triangle; others as if my lucky number is pi."
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