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OT: OT: Lets Go Cardinals! (All Baseball Talk Here) Part 2

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Davimir Tarablad said:
Flaherty’s never going to pitch much more than 100 innings in a year because he’s always going to end up on the shelf for some reason or another.
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Never is an interesting word choice given that he has already done it twice.

542365 said:
He played 15 years in the majors. He knew exactly what kind of time commitment he was making when he signed on. I don’t buy it.
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Yeah, but when he was in the majors, he didn't know any better. Now he's had time to be around his family. It's easy to be okay with something in the abstract and then, as it gets more real, have second thoughts. That's a universal experience.
 
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ZIPS really likes the Cardinals. Usually they don't like them this much. They have the Cardinals in the same tier as the Astros, Dodgers, Mets, Braves, Padres
 
Just so many unknowns. The OF could be one of the best in baseball, or a complete disaster. The rotation could be pretty good or a complete disaster.

Is Walker one of the prospects that can step in and produce immediately? Can Carlson/O'Neill bounce back? Is Nootbaar for real? Rotation kind of goes the same way, but more with injuries and age.
 
The Cards have a good lineup especially if TON and DC have bounce back years. Gorman and Yepez both hit 14 and 12 HRs in less than 1/2 the games played. TON hit 14 in under 100 games. Their biggest issue last year for position players was catching and they got Contreras.

Their biggest issue was and still is the pitching.
 
The funniest thing is MLB ranking Arenado as the 5th best 3rd basemen. The disrespect
 
Right now in the MLB Network rankings for top 10 in positions Cards have.


1B- Goldy-#1 (#1 in Fan vote)
3B - Arenado-#5 (#1 in fan vote)
LF - O'Neill-#7 (not ranked in fan vote)
RP - Helsley-#10 (can't find fan vote)


Nootbaar was ranked #4 RF on the fan vote.
 
Linkens Mastery said:
Machado, J-Ram, Riley, and Devers
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I wouldn't say there is a glaring issue with all but Devers ahead of Arenado. Devers is the only one I would for sure move out of that group to put Arenado in.
PJJJPanesar said:
ZIPS really likes the Cardinals. Usually they don't like them this much. They have the Cardinals in the same tier as the Astros, Dodgers, Mets, Braves, Padres
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Genuine question as I don't know how ZIPS does their forecasts. Is it possible that the reason we are so well liked because we have a much clearer path to the division title? Dodgers and Padres will be battling it out all year most likely. And the NL East is just a total clusterf*** with those 3 super teams.
 
Allens Five Hole said:
I wouldn't say there is a glaring issue with all but Devers ahead of Arenado. Devers is the only one I would for sure move out of that group to put Arenado in.

Genuine question as I don't know how ZIPS does their forecasts. Is it possible that the reason we are so well liked because we have a much clearer path to the division title? Dodgers and Padres will be battling it out all year most likely. And the NL East is just a total clusterf*** with those 3 super teams.
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Their lookout is our strength at defensive and offensive abilities.
 
Linkens Mastery said:
Their lookout is our strength at defensive and offensive abilities.
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Defense is clearly the strength of our club. We should be the best defensive team in baseball which definitely counts for something. However, I just do not see it with our offense and starting rotation.

Goldy and Arenado had incredible years last year. I don't think they will both be top 5 MVP candidates again. One may be but I would be surprised if they both had the same output. Nootbaar is being way overvalued for a hot streak that he had over ~20 games or what not. Outside of our big 2, it just doesn't look amazing to me. Just my opinion.

Right now, I think we should win the Central and that will probably take something like ~92 wins. It would take a fair bit of luck to get past any of the Dodgers, Braves, Phillies, Mets, or Padres in a best-of-3 at Busch. Elite starting arms is what advances you in the postseason and we have exactly 0.
 
Allens Five Hole said:
Defense is clearly the strength of our club. We should be the best defensive team in baseball which definitely counts for something. However, I just do not see it with our offense and starting rotation.

Goldy and Arenado had incredible years last year. I don't think they will both be top 5 MVP candidates again. One may be but I would be surprised if they both had the same output. Nootbaar is being way overvalued for a hot streak that he had over ~20 games or what not. Outside of our big 2, it just doesn't look amazing to me. Just my opinion.

Right now, I think we should win the Central and that will probably take something like ~92 wins. It would take a fair bit of luck to get past any of the Dodgers, Braves, Phillies, Mets, or Padres in a best-of-3 at Busch. Elite starting arms is what advances you in the postseason and we have exactly 0.
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I think you're underestimating the Cards offense quite a bit, even if they aren't both MVP finalists I'd highly expect Arenado and Goldie to hit around 30 HRs again. We lost Pujols but the DH will be a platoon of Yepez and Gorman who I'd expect quite a decent amount of offense from both. Molina/Kiz to Contreras is going to be a huge offensive difference. Carlson and O'Neill should have big chips on their shoulders after last year's injury issues. And if Walker is half as good as they are making him out to be he's going to be great as well.

Pitching is definitely an issue tho.
 
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Linkens Mastery said:
I think you're underestimating the Cards offense quite a bit, even if they aren't both MVP finalists I'd highly expect Arenado and Goldie to hit around 30 HRs again. We lost Pujols but the DH will be a platoon of Yepez and Gorman who I'd expect quite a decent amount of offense from both. Molina/Kiz to Contreras is going to be a huge offensive difference. Carlson and O'Neill should have big chips on their shoulders after last year's injury issues. And if Walker is half as good as they are making him out to be he's going to be great as well.

Pitching is definitely an issue tho.
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I may be undervaluing it a little but there are just too many problems with it. I have mentioned it in a post or two before, but we are way too right-hander dominant. We faced right handed starters something like 9% more often than the average major league team. That is a significant percentage. Other teams know what puts the brakes on our offense.

TON could bounce back but he could also just be what he is. He has had 1 good year and the rest of his career has been essentially what Grichuk was for us. Carlson is a complete black hole as a LH bat, which is where he will get most of his PA's. I think Walker is going to be great but I don't like to pin the hopes of our offense on a rookie hitting the ground sprinting and becoming our 3rd most dangerous bat.

I hope that Gorman can curb his SO%. There is definite upside with him in that regard but I'm not sold he is a premiere bat until that SO% goes down a bit.

Maybe I'm a little too doom and gloom but to me, its a lot of the same. I think our numbers will look fairly decent again throughout the regular season but we will absolutely murder LH pitching again and struggle against RH pitching. Unfortunately, RH pitching is a lot more prevalent and, come playoff time, most aces are RH (Verlander, Scherzer, Wheeler, Nola, Darvish, Strider, Musgrove, Buehler just in the NL alone).

My hope going into this year was that we would balance the lineup with an everyday LH bat to help Goldy and Arenado see less RH pitching. That never happened.
 
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I prefer Chip's voice to the other guy who was in contention. Having Harry Caray and his grandson call Cardinals games along with the history of Jack and Joe Buck is nice, too.
 
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Brendan Donovan named MLB Network's 7th best Second Baseman. (10th in Fan-Vote).

All that is left to see is Shortstop. I predict Edman between 7th and 4th.
 
I always forget that Edman was drafted as a Middle Infielder, Started off at SS in the Organization, was converted by STL to 2B because of DeJong, and is now being converted back to SS because of DeJong.
 
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