LOL. Typical Little League 4 bagger right there.

If my FBB update is correct, Trout just hit for the cycle.

ESPN says he has 4 hits, including a double, triple, and homer.

10 TB for my FBB team.

There you go. Kid is nails.

Descalso, you ****.

And that's a winner.

****

alright see you tomorrow

Jedd Gyorko is Dan Uggla with the ability to hit for a high average.

It's going to suck to trade him in my auction league, but I won't have a keeper spot for him and I'll need some ammunition at the trade deadline.

I love Gyorko, though. Nice piece for the Pads to build around.

After I traded Longoria for Braun a guy in my league dropped Gyorko, who has 2B/3B eligibility. I snapped him up w/o having to use a waiver claim (calculated risk). Excellent insurance policy for Mark Reynolds' swoon.

I cut ties w/ Weeks. Howie Kendrick is having an excellent year anyway, so no need to wait out Rickie's worthless ass.

Oh no....

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.n...11331669_n.jpg

Wait, a guy in your league dropped Gyorko LAST WEEK?

Is that guy f***ing high?
.323/.389/.585 in May for Gyorko.

:cuss:

Oh **** me...

Is Jaime Garcia attempting to make the "most interesting man in the world" face?

Considering that the photo was probably taken about a week ago, that's probably him trying to hide the pain of a screaming left shoulder at least long enough to manage to be a victim of the cover jinx before the cover even comes out...

Well played, Jaime.

Herpty from the Midwest so they have to put them in button ups and jeans Derptydo

damn, i'm getting old.
sec

Salas to the DL! Praise the lord

Retroactive to October 2011 with dislocated stuff.

He pulled Heyward off the DL. I couldn't believe the stupidity of the move. I was lucky enough to know that since Gyorko doesn't have a ton of HRs yet he'd probably be overlooked on the wire.

Jaime is officially done. He's finally going to have the surgery he should have had last year.

There wasn't enough Oh ****s with this pic so I'll just add another, Oh ****. :shake:

Once
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/video/IVA/thumb/3023

I'm fine if he never returns. You just never knew what he was going to do out there on any given day.

What about...........What the ****?:shake:

I loved those guys (except for Maris)

SI Curse.

The end of Joe Piscapo's career and the beginning of Michael Keaton's. Odd how that happened.

Wacha Clock Explained from STLToday

I’m trying to put all this in the most accessible terms possible, offering up a verbal flow chart – so to speak – of the mechanisms in place. Examples help. Let’s consider Michael Wacha.


The Cardinals’ top pitching prospect came to the club as the 19th overall pick last summer. Let’s follow his progress through the steps mentioned above …


40-man roster: As a college junior he was older than 19 at the time of the draft, so he has four Rule 5 drafts before he’s eligible for his first one. That means 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 have to pass before he needs to go on the 40-man roster.


Options: It won’t take that long. So, if Wacha is added to the 40-man roster and then sent back to Class AAA at any point this summer, 2013 will be the first of his three option seasons. No one expects him to use all three. In fact, if the Cardinals wait until, say, September to promote Wacha and put him on the 40-man roster then – as they did for Miller and Adam Wainwright – he’ll stay on it all winter. And if he makes the team out of spring training in 2014 he won’t have spent an option at all.
Super Two and Arbitration: Of course, when Wacha reaches the majors his clock starts ticking. In theory, a major-league team has control of a player for 13 years. The four years after the draft and before the 40-man roster, the three option years, and then the six years of service time before free agency. The better the player, the more that clock speeds up because the quicker he gets on the 40-man roster and the quicker he starts accumulating service time in the majors.


The Super Two concern is all about the salary a player can command, not the free agency he can achieve. What bringing up a player now does is puts him in line to reach Super Two status and gain a fourth year of arbitration eligibility.


If Wacha arrived today to pitch tonight and stayed in the majors from now on, he would reach arbitration eligibility before the 2016 season. He will then be eligible in 2017, 2018 and then 2019 before reaching free agency after that year. (There is no Super Five, so if a player hits six years of service time in April or August it’s all the same. Free agency arrives at the end of the season.) A prospect who arrives in August of this season and remains in the majors will be first eligible for arbitration in 2017.


Free Agency: If Wacha starts the 2014 in the rotation or joins it before then, free agency will arrive after he has at least six years of service of time. That will hit after 2019 season.
This is where the formality of all these rules and clauses and clocks comes crashing into reality.


For the elite players, they rarely matter. Allen Craig’s clock doesn’t tick so loud because the team negotiated an extension with him that swallows whole his arbitration years. The Cardinals did the same with Wainwright before that and Albert Pujols before that. Yes, arbitration eligibility does frame each of those extensions. Craig’s salary spikes every year to reflect the arbitration process. A player with an extra year of arbitration rights – a Super Two player – would not only have the leverage for an extension earlier but have those four years of escalators in place.
In that way, five days does matter.


But not as much as you may think.


For many contending teams, one earlier and extra year of arbitration is a palatable exchange for the return on another month or two with an elite player on the roster. The cost isn't as high as the perceived angst.

Reds get the Cubs again this weekend; hopefully, they'll begin the MLB part of their schedule soon they've had a lot of Cubs & Marlins already.

Seriously. Seems like every game they play lately is against a floundering team that's 10 games under.

hey guys baseball is cool huh

Not surprisingly, according to ESPN's strength of schedule, the Cards are near the top and the Reds are near the bottom. I don't like having only a 1.5 game lead but in the big picture the Reds have been feasting on bad teams for the better part of the season so far. The Cards just need to keep up until the schedules even out.

They've pretty much been been owned by the good teams they've played - it looks like they've only won one series against a club with a winning record.

The Reds don't look like they have a really hard month until July, when they draw the Giants for seven games.

The Cards have been a great road team and the Reds are only one game over .500 on the road. They own at home but that might be helped quite a bit by the opponents.

It's going to be getting tougher for that sooner than that. Starting Monday they have four series in a row with above .500 teams (Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Colorado and us). Then a vacation week with the Cubs and Brewers, and after that Pittsburgh again, along with Arizona, Oakland and Texas.

Looking good guys!

http://i.imgur.com/YzioIgl.jpg

SI Cover jinx and allowing soccer pansies to invade our home.

This really is the beginning of the end for the 2013 Cardinals.

Busch Stadium as God intended!

They will get a shit ton of money from the game though. If it is any consolation.

Would your sister becoming a high-priced hooker be of any consolation to you?

No. Not it would not.

Haha. I deserve that.

The HORROR!
http://www.forumspile.com/OMFG-Argh.jpg

No worse than them playing that queerbait third world shit at Arrowhead, I guess. At least it's not a regular thing.

4321 soccer

Sweet. Someone post the creepy gif of the kids wigging out with the dinosaur head.

So you still think I'm overrating Rosenthal? Since about this time you posted this lecture for me on Rosenthal, that he shouldn't be in the majors and developing in the minors...........

In his last 16 appearances Cardinals’ eighth-inning reliever Trevor Rosenthal has allowed one run in 14.1 innings, with 24 strikeouts. That’s an 0.63 ERA. And has walked only two of the last 39 batters he’s faced.

Rosenthal’s strikeout rate of 13.5 per nine innings is fifth-highest among qualifying NL relievers. According to STATS LLC, Rosenthal has the fourth-best swing-miss rate (34.2 percent) among qualified NL relievers.

Soccer is the worst.

I guess I'm confused. You want Rosenthal to be a starter next year, but are happy that he won't have anywhere near the innings this year to accomplish that feat?

I'm evolving.We don't have a closer that we can count on for 2 years. It takes 2 years for Tommy John pitchers to return to 100% of their previous success. Waino is just the latest example.

Mott will not be ready next year. If he is, great.Does anyone think he is going to come out of spring training firing 98 mph fastballs all season without any issues?

Mujica works out, great. Can we really count on him continuing his current success for 2 years? Rosenthal is the only option that I can see that could have success for the next 2 years. Our future starting rotations can be great without Rosenthal.

We will trade some of our pitching. I disagree with that option but its reality. Young stud cost controlled pitching is how we can compete with $2 BILLION TV contracts. But, again realistically it will happen.

I count 12 possible starters in the pitching pipeline, not counting future draft picks.

Waino
Miller
Wacha
Martinez
Lynn
Garcia
Jenkins
Maness
Lyons
Gast
Swaggerty
Westbrook (too many young arms. Mo may tolerate 3 youngsters but not 4 in a 5 man rotation next season.)

Garcia is toast. Swaggerty projects more as middle to set up reliever, but the rest are viable options at this time.

Thats still 10 for 5 spots. Waino, Miller and Wacha have 3 of those 5 locked up. And where is Martinez? Thats really 6 for 1 spot. Would you still use Rosenthal as a starter?

While he's obviously turned into a good reliever, his success as a reliever does not necessarily excuse not stretching him out as a starter.

You could make a fair case that the team would have been better off had they stretched him out and given him a starter's setup at the beginning of the season, calling him up when Gast got the call.

I think we'd all also feel more comfortable about our rotation going forward, although the bullpen would be a ****ing disaster.

With that said, I think that having him pitch a year in the pen isn't necessarily a bad thing for his development. It worked perfectly well for Wainwright in 2006, and although he isn't getting stretched out, he is getting used to major league hitting, and he's slowly learning how to pitch rather than throw.

tl;dr: both viewpoints have merit.

Lyons and Maness are not major league starters. The organization will even tell you that. They really like Lyons in the role Rzep was supposed to fill: lefty with breaking pitches that are hell on LHB, but who can go multiple innings/batters.

Gast is just a touch over replacement level as a starter, IMO, but he'll never be a great LHR because he doesn't have an effective breaking ball.

**** Garcia in his labia meat shoulder.

Wainwright
Lynn
Miller
Wacha

That leaves a fifth spot for Martinez, Rosenthal, Jenkins, or Swagerty.

Swagerty is coming off of TJ surgery (still hasn't appeared in a game since '11) and is a 24 year old in ****ing A ball. Stop it.

Jenkins is getting his ****ing teeth kicked in at A ball.

Realistically, you have six legitimate guys for five spots, and that assumes that Martinez can continue to develop as a starter (and can handle the workload), and that Rosenthal can develop as a starter.

I would mostly agree with your evaluations. But, you are making my point also.

1. We have realistic options. We can use Rosenthal as a closer.
2. We have no business trading our young pitchers. You can never have enough pitching.

1. Having only six legitimate options for five spots at SP should not point to you using the sixth guy as a permanent reliever. Look at the attrition rates in modern pitching staffs. You're effectively moving your entire army to the front line. If the enemy penetrates it at all, you're risking an encirclement.

2. Who argued differently?

wasnt saying someone was thinking different. Just that its an obvious conclusion. But, watch, we will trade one of our studs at the trade deadline.

Unless Westbrook just doesn't recover from injury, I would be surprised if we didn't pick up his option next year. Too many rookies/unknowns in the rotation going forward.

For what? This team is fairly stacked with position players. We're also going to add Carp and Wacha to the pitching staff (bullpen?) by the end of the year.

Bullpen or maybe a top of the line SS?

I'd bet real money by the trading deadline next year that one of our young stud pitchers is traded.

JFC. I'm strongly against trading any pitchers.

I'd be perfectly content with them moving Jenkins. I just don't see that kid ever developing, and I don't see them getting much of anything for him. I have no idea how he made the top 100 list this year.

Sounds like a loser trade for us.

We don't get shit in the trade and we give up on a pitcher that one day could possibly be a #3-#5 MLB pitcher. Why not just hang on to him and see if it ever clicks?

You guys watching the game. Here's a stat I heard scully say...........

When Lynn pitches and the Cardinals score 3 or more runs, he is 22-4 for his career.

Seems massively good to me. Hamas, is that a high winning % for a #3 pitcher with 3 runs of support?

Anyone see Angel Hernandez blow that call in the White Sox game? Jesus, how does he have a job?

I heard them bitching about it on the radio. Apparently Harrelson blew a microchip on the air, too. I'll have to try to find video of that when I get home. :D

That's a ridiculous W-L for any pitcher, but I'd be more interested to see his W-L w/ just 3-4 runs.

While that would be nice, a 20 year old who has had two consecutive years of decreasing K totals and increasing walk totals in Single A is not exactly a commodity that inspires confidence.

Just tuned in. Lynn's two-seamer has ****ing ricockulous movement tonight.

For comparison:

Lynn's splits:

7-3 w/ 3-5 runs, 15-1 w/ 6+.

Wainwright's:

3-5: 29-17

6+: 50-2

Guerrier must be their version of Boggs. This **** has thrown 11 straight balls...and Yadi swings at the first pitch :spock:

and of course you pull him after 77 pitches.:)

Wasn't a huge fan of that move, but the top of the 7th was a long inning and with the off day some of the less valuable pen arms could use some work.

This is a game we should throw Boggs, since we're insistent on having him on the roster. Hell, Mujica can probably get another save out of the deal.

Almost posted the exact thing.

Holy ****, this Rodriguez dude has a funky delivery.

thats pretty funny but too close to the truth.

Ask, and I shall receive. I'm off to bed. Not even worth chancing it.

From now on................. when Boggs is on the mound, you must go to bed.

Why did Gast leave after the first inning? I took a nap to wake up to the nightmare that is Joe Kelly.