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

[bleedblue1223]

They need to figure out what is wrong with Walker ASAP, that guy is broken. He's batting .186 with a .547 OPS in July. Our rebuild was very much dependent on him being at least a very good middle of the order bat.

 

[tfriede2]

They need to figure out what is wrong with Walker ASAP, that guy is broken. He's batting .186 with a .547 OPS in July. Our rebuild was very much dependent on him being at least a very good middle of the order bat.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with him - I think it’s the coaching staff (if the guys at 101.1 espn are right) telling him to swing upward to lift the ball; they seemingly don’t care if he gets doubles and singles and want him to get home runs. It’s asinine, if true. He’s focused now on hitting bombs, not hitting for contact. They’re ruining his mindset.

 

[Spear]

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with him - I think it’s the coaching staff (if the guys at 101.1 espn are right) telling him to swing upward to lift the ball; they seemingly don’t care if he gets doubles and singles and want him to get home runs. It’s asinine, if true. He’s focused now on hitting bombs, not hitting for contact. They’re ruining his mindset.

Good grief. IF the coaches are telling a BIG, STRONG 6'-6" player that's his swing plane needs to be an uppercut to hit home runs, he doesn't stand a chance. I haven't seen any of his minor league at-bats, but when he started the season it sure looked to me like he was constantly hitting the ball off the end and underside of the bat. With his size he will 'do damage' just by trying to make solid line-drive contact. It's what he did his rookie year!

2023 stats: 420AB's, 16 HR's, 19 doubles, 2 triples, .787 OPS.

VERY comparable to what Burleson has done at this point this year. And he's getting accolades!

Cardinals coaching has broke what didn't need fixing.

 

[Shwabeal]

Good grief. IF the coaches are telling a BIG, STRONG 6'-6" player that's his swing plane needs to be an uppercut to hit home runs, he doesn't stand a chance. I haven't seen any of his minor league at-bats, but when he started the season it sure looked to me like he was constantly hitting the ball off the end and underside of the bat. With his size he will 'do damage' just by trying to make solid line-drive contact. It's what he did his rookie year!

2023 stats: 420AB's, 16 HR's, 19 doubles, 2 triples, .787 OPS.

VERY comparable to what Burleson has done at this point this year. And he's getting accolades!

Cardinals coaching has broke what didn't need fixing.

Walker had a solid rookie season and showed promise and he still has an extremely high ceiling but this really undersells what Burleson has done this year.

316 AB, 17 HRs, 14 doubles and an .814 OPS. He, and Winn, have literally carried the offense while the guys that were expected to do it have been awful.

Cardinals coaching didn’t break him. Maybe he could’ve stayed in the majors and somehow gone from pounding balls into the ground at 100 mph and turned that into line drives like he did after is demotion and call-up last year, but he’s gone down a level and really struggled.

Burleson has always had great exit velo, barrel rate and xBA before this year with subpar counting numbers and he’s figured it out at 25.

Good chance walker does the same with reps but going down to AAA and struggling like he has is certainly a concern.

 

[BadgersandBlues]

Yea Walker 100% needs to fix his swing plane. He's got the highest groundball rate in the entire MLB over the last two years or something remarkable like that. Dude can't stop pounding it in the dirt, and no matter your exit velo, if you're pounding groundballs all the time you're an ineffective hitter. This was the same problem he had early last year when optioned to Triple A, unfortunately for whatever reason they can't get it fixed quickly like they did last year.

In other news, I'm pretty excited for this 1st round pick the Cardinals made. Kid sounds like a stud in the making. Sounds like Winn and JJ could potentially be the Cards' middle infield for the next decade.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

I am soooo gonna buy Ingrid Andress’ new album!!

 

[542365]

Someone sell me on Burleson. I can’t think of anything he does particularly well.

This was one of my many bad takes. Cards are dead in the water without Burly this year.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

This was one of my many bad takes. Cards are dead in the water without Burly this year.

Looks like many of us didn't like Burleson. He stepped up.

His only real weakness is that he is slow as shit, which diminishes his range in the field and mobility on the bases.

Donovan is another confounding player. He won a Gold Glove as a utility player and was a finalist for NL ROY in 2022, but his reads on fly balls are often terrible. Also, not fast.

 

[Memento]

Looks like many of us didn't like Burleson. He stepped up.

His only real weakness is that he is slow as shit, which diminishes his range in the field and mobility on the bases.

Donovan is another confounding player. He won a Gold Glove as a utility player and was a finalist for NL ROY in 2022, but his reads on fly balls are often terrible. Also, not fast.

Loved Burleson as a hitter, but I think he's our Goldschmidt replacement at first. Also loved Joshua Baez, so that should tell you that I'm not a good scout.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

Loved Burleson as a hitter, but I think he's our Goldschmidt replacement at first. Also loved Joshua Baez, so that should tell you that I'm not a good scout.

1st base makes a lot of sense for Burleson. No need to overexpose his lack of speed. A height of 6'2" is not bad.

 

[bleedblue1223]

Burleson was always someone that had a path to the majors, but it was entirely dependent on if he could hit, that's his thing. The only real question for me is can he do it next season and the season after. We've seen plenty of guys that come up and they eventually figure it out for a season, but struggle once they book on them is out and pitchers adjust. He can DH or play 1B, luckily being limited defensively isn't really an issue anymore.

And for Donovan, his underlying metrics in his GG year never really supported winning it, but he got the utility award because he played so many different positions.

 

[SirPaste]

Looks like many of us didn't like Burleson. He stepped up.

His only real weakness is that he is slow as shit, which diminishes his range in the field and mobility on the bases.

Donovan is another confounding player. He won a Gold Glove as a utility player and was a finalist for NL ROY in 2022, but his reads on fly balls are often terrible. Also, not fast.

I could be wrong but wasnt Donny playing mostly infield that season? Maybe he’s just not nearly as good in the outfield

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Our Outfield is just.... not good. Nootbaar is good, but always injured, Edman is good, always Injured. Burleson is a good hitter, but not an outfielder, Donovan should be an infielder/utility guy, Carlson has completely stagnated.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

I could be wrong but wasnt Donny playing mostly infield that season? Maybe he’s just not nearly as good in the outfield

I don't know either. Makes sense, though. Lots of infielders are not so good in the outfield.

 

[Spear]

From Baseball Reference: Brendan Donovan in 2022

Position	Games Played
2B	38​
OF	37​
3B	31​
RF	20​
LF	19​
1B	16​
DH	16​
SS	7​

 

[SirPaste]

From Baseball Reference: Brendan Donovan in 2022

Position	Games Played
2B	38​
OF	37​
3B	31​
RF	20​
LF	19​
1B	16​
DH	16​
SS	7​

Interesting, seems like it was more spread out that I am remembering. I am curious though it says OF 37, RF 20, LF 19, is OF supposed to mean CF? I don't understand that.

 

[Spear]

Interesting, seems like it was more spread out that I am remembering. I am curious though it says OF 37, RF 20, LF 19, is OF supposed to mean CF? I don't understand that.

I didn't even notice that. Here's the direct link:

Brendan Donovan Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More | Baseball-Reference.com

 

[bleedblue1223]

Interesting, seems like it was more spread out that I am remembering. I am curious though it says OF 37, RF 20, LF 19, is OF supposed to mean CF? I don't understand that.

The total innings of LF and RF equal the total innings of OF. This shows that he only played LF and RF, and had games where he played both positions since total games of OF is less than LF + RF.

 

[SirPaste]

The total innings of LF and RF equal the total innings of OF. This shows that he only played LF and RF, and had games where he played both positions since total games of OF is less than LF + RF.

Right on that makes sense, thanks for the clarification

 

[Bobby Orrtuzzo]

 

[Eldon Reid]

At some point you have to deceide what you are going to do. Cards did right thing last year selling. You either need to sell (most likely) or buy if you think you can do something.

Oh also sell some of your prospects at some point when they actually have value. Not wait til they fall apart such as Carlson.

 

[SirPaste]

Well looks like a done deal on that 3 way trade with LAD and CHW, Edman headed to LA, Fedde and Pham headed to STL, not sure who all is headed to the White Sox yet

 

[The Note]

Won’t pretend to know much about Fedde but he seems like a solid add

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Kinda sucks to see Edman go.

 

[bleedblue1223]

No doubt a good deal, and helps round out the rotation for next season. Not crazy about Pham, but Edman for Fedde is solid.