2018 STL Cardinals Thread

[BigRedChief]

Opening day lineup

Fowler RF
Pham CF
Carpenter 3B
Ozuna LF
Martinez 1B
Molina C
Dejong SS
Wong 2B
Pitcher

Edit:
Matheny fired 07/14/2018




Opening Day Roster

Spoiler!

St. Louis has opted to carry 12 position players and 13 pitchers to begin the new season, with a four-man bench and eight-man bullpen.

Outfielders:
Dexter Fowler
Tommy Pham
Marcell Ozuna

Infielders:
Matt Carpenter
Paul DeJong
Kolten Wong

Catchers:
Yadier Molina
Francisco Pena

Utility:
Jose Martinez
Greg Garcia
Yairo Munoz
Jedd Gyrko

Starters:
Carlos Martinez
Michael Wacha
Luke Weaver
Miles Mikolas
Jack Flaherty

Relievers:
Dominic Leone
Tyler Lyons
Bud Norris
Brett Cecil
Sam Tuivailala
Matt Bowman
Jordan Hicks
Mike Mayers

On the DL:
Adam Wainwright
Luke Gregerson

[George Liquor]

Originally Posted by Jewish Rabbi

Hold them hitless into the 7th and they’ll still figure out how to lose.

Exactly

[Jewish Rabbi]

Shocked...

[George Liquor]

Can we just make Willie Mcgee the manager?

[Jewish Rabbi]

Originally Posted by BDj23

Can we just make Willie Mcgee the manager?

Just save DeWitt some money and just set up a ****ing folding chair in the dugout and call it the manager. Might motivate the team more than the current one.

[George Liquor]

Originally Posted by Jewish Rabbi

Just save DeWitt some money and just set up a ****ing folding chair in the dugout and call it the manager. Might motivate the team more than the current one.

At least Willie would look cool while losing.

[BigRedChief]

You guys know I've been on the Flaherty train since I saw him pitch 2 years ago. But, come on guys, right now he's the best pitcher on our staff.

Maybe I'm grabbing onto anything positive.

The "book" is out on him by other MLB teams but he is still getting people out. It's not a fluke. He can throw that slider for a strike on the inside or outside corners. They cant just ignore it and wait for a fastball. His curve is looking better. He still has a lot of room for improvement.

He has a little Carpenter in him. Look at the video. It’s not some baseball platitude he’s been taught. He is not happy about the losing. At all.

From last night when asked about taking the no hitter into the 7 inning:
"We lost, that's how I look at it. Doesn't matter what I did, Doesn't matter what anybody did, we lost at the end of the day."

[ChiefsCountry]

Mozeliak Running Low On Patience With Cardinals: 'Something Has To Change'
https://kmox.radio.com/articles/moze...ing-has-change

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by ChiefsCountry

Mozeliak Running Low On Patience With Cardinals: 'Something Has To Change'
https://kmox.radio.com/articles/moze...ing-has-change

But does he have the balls to basically throw away a season in which the Cardinals are still in striking distance of first place but no real shot of actually contending and blow it all up? He hasn't been willing to in the past and its been no different in recent years.

At least you dont get swept by the Reds in a 4 game series so there's that.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by ChiefsCountry

Mozeliak Running Low On Patience With Cardinals: 'Something Has To Change'
https://kmox.radio.com/articles/moze...ing-has-change

He'll show the assistant to the traveling secretary what's up, that's for damn sure.

The poor peanut vendor in RF loge is probably ****ed. And I gotta imagine that Mike Mayers and Harrison Bader will end up getting optioned to shake things up. Oliver Marmol and Bryan Eversgard will probably be 're-assigned' and we'll probably bring in another of Mike's golfing buddies as a bullpen catcher to show those loafers out there warming up pitchers that we mean business.

**** off, Mozeliak. You don't have the stones to take a risk or the humility to admit the myriad of mistakes you've made over the last 3 years. You go get your stooge Girsch and take a nap or something. Lord knows after your 'being a GM is hard' speech from last trade deadline that I'm not interested in any more of your bloviating.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by ChiefsCountry

Mozeliak Running Low On Patience With Cardinals: 'Something Has To Change'
https://kmox.radio.com/articles/moze...ing-has-change

He was just saying the day before that everything was fine. Stay the course. Let things work itself out.

I'm sure he got some major blowback from the fans so he comes out with this new BS spiel. Not buying this. Just political spin to pacify a pissed off fan base.

[jd1020]

Trade Mikolas. Trade Ozuna. Trade Jose Martinez.

I dare you Mozeliak!

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

He was just saying the day before that everything was fine. Stay the course. Let things work itself out.

I'm sure he got some major blowback from the fans so he comes out with this new BS spiel. Not buying this. Just political spin to pacify a pissed off fan base.

It's okay guys - they earned a split. So all is well now.

God damn Cardinals can't even do a losing streak right. Get swept this weekend and there'd have been meaningful change. But no, they won a couple of games that did very little to demonstrate that the team is meaningfully better than the squad that has meandered through the first half of the season and everyone gets to keep their job for another month or so.

Look at the Reds when they got rid of one of the only managers in baseball who was worse than Matheny. Brian Price was staggeringly terrible and a brief glimpse at the Reds roster vs. their record supported it. Jim Rigglemen is as average as Price was awful. He's a 'replacement level' big league manager; someone who neither adds nor subtracts anything from the true talent level on the squad.

And the Reds, while still not good, are at least fighting through games now and have gone 29-30 with Rigglemen in charge after starting 3-15. The difference is obvious.

I just don't see how you can watch this squad day in, day out and not think that Matheny is due for exactly the same kind of treatment with Oquendo getting his shot.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by jd1020

At least you dont get swept by the Reds in a 4 game series so there's that.

Aw Boo-Hoo. You have room to blow a series or two. 162 games etc. I'm sure the 27 Yankees got swept by some team.

Originally Posted by jd1020

But does he have the balls to basically throw away a season in which the Cardinals are still in striking distance of first place but no real shot of actually contending and blow it all up? He hasn't been willing to in the past and its been no different in recent year.

I agree with the lack of stones to make a move.
I disagree with blowing it up. Offense, sure but our starting pitching is excellent.
We still have Hudson languishing in AAA because they dont want the service time clock to start ticking. And I get that and agree. We are going nowhere so why burn a year of maybe a future top of the rotation starter for us?

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

I agree with the lack of stones to make a move.
I disagree with blowing it up. Offense, sure but our starting pitching is excellent.
We still have Hudson languishing in AAA because they dont want the service time clock to start ticking. And I get that and agree. We are going nowhere so why burn a year of maybe a future top of the rotation starter for us?

Blow it up meaning trade the guys your have on your team that are producing and signed in the short term to get better in the long term.

Mikolas is on a 2 year deal and you got him from Japan. You could probably get a really good return from a contender for him.

Same with Ozuna.

I dont see much reason to keep those guys unless there's a plan to go all out on this 2019 FA class. Even if there's a plan to do it, is there any hope to actually persuade one of those players to pick the Cardinals over the other bidders?

Jose Martinez shouldn't be in the NL. Wong should be on the bench and Fowler should be cut.

Whole lot of turnover to be made in a starting roster.

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

Aw Boo-Hoo. You have room to blow a series or two. 162 games etc. I'm sure the 27 Yankees got swept by some team.

Cubs aren't the 27 Yankees.

This team wont be winning a WS unless they get a consistent bat to put at the top of the lineup and keep Maddon from putting ****ing Rizzo or Bryant there. Maybe this Nico Hoerner guy will be the ticket if he can hit as advertised in the minors and Russell or Baez will be traded next season.

The Cubs can score a lot of runs but for as good as they are and with how many runs they score they get shutout A LOT and it doesn't even have to be a good pitcher. Any bum with a 5+ ERA can make them look like idiots at the plate.