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

[jd1020]

At least the Cubs don't have to worry about giving Baez a MVP arbitration bonus next year, thanks Yelich.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by jd1020

And?

The Cards and Cubs split the same state in which the Cubs are in and the Cards play on the border. The Brewers are 30 mins north.

There's an entire state that separates the Reds from the closest team to the west.

I'm right smack dab in the middle of Cubs-Cards country and it's about 90 mins to St. Louis and about 2 1/2 hours to Chicago. Its 5 hours to Cincinatti.

Do you think that Indiana is just a void of baseball fans? Hell, your own post points out that you don't have to be in the same state to be a fan.

You are criminally incapable of admitting when you're wrong. There's no geographic distance issue. If I'm in the middle of Indiana I'm no more than 3-4 hours from each of those cities.

[jd1020]

Ya ok bud. There's clearly no geographical difference between where the Reds and Pirates are compared to the rest of the division.

Leaving Chicago you'll run into ****ing Tigers fans before sniffing a Reds fan. Hell the Cardinals control equal if not more of the Indiana fan base than the Reds.

Meanwhile if you start heading towards St. Louis there wont be any other major fan base to weave through to get to the Cardinals fans because once you start getting to around Bloomington its gonna start getting a little more red. Or if you start heading to Milwaukee there's obviously gonna be a little more Navy than Royal once you get past the border.

But, but, but.... Google maps says...

[BigRedChief]

What do you guys think of posting what the Cardinals should do this off season. I’ll Put the answers in the opening post in a spoiler and it can be in the 2019 thread.

[scho63]

Are you diehard Cards fans mad they didn't make the wildcard or glad because you think they would have failed and want to see major changes next year?

Do you think they are going in the right direction for the next few years or too old and not improving the depth of younger players?

What was the biggest let down on the team this year?

I saw Carpenter was fantastic as always

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

What do you guys think of posting what the Cardinals should do this off season.

Go all in pre-flop on Harper or Machado with a 2-6 offsuit and hope its enough.

[KChiefs1]

Originally Posted by jd1020

Go all in pre-flop on Harper or Machado with a 2-6 offsuit and hope its enough.

You do realize that St Louis will be up against the big boys(Boston, Yankees, Dodgers) in this bidding war right?

$300+ million. Yikes!

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by scho63

Are you diehard Cards fans mad they didn't make the wildcard or glad because you think they would have failed and want to see major changes next year?

Do you think they are going in the right direction for the next few years or too old and not improving the depth of younger players?

What was the biggest let down on the team this year?

I saw Carpenter was fantastic as always

Its irritating considering how they folded in August, that was a terrible collapse.

Long term its probably better though as they need to make some major moves.

And Carpenter wasn't fantastic, he had a 3 month stretch he was unreal and 3 months where he was absolute total dogshit. August being one of those months so he is a big part of why they flopped. I would take a more consistent player without the crazy hot streaks. Trade him if you can is my opinion.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

Its irritating considering how they folded in August, that was a terrible collapse.

Long term its probably better though as they need to make some major moves.

And Carpenter wasn't fantastic, he had a 3 month stretch he was unreal and 3 months where he was absolute total dogshit. August being one of those months so he is a big part of why they flopped. I would take a more consistent player without the crazy hot streaks. Trade him if you can is my opinion.

Because 5-win players making $14 million grow on trees.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

I was in the middle of typing out a long form post and deleted it, because it doesn't really matter. The only thing that matters is firing Mozeliak and Girsch, and here's why:

1) They passed up Donaldson for nothing but salary, and he's hit .280/.404/.511 this month. Maybe that would be an improvement over Gyorko's .227/.333/.273. Just maybe.

2) They traded Pham at the nadir of his value, and in the second half, he has a wRC of 171, including 205 this month. Basically, since going to Tampa, Pham has been the third best hitter in baseball. I ****ing told you guys.... But hey, gotta keep running Dexter Fowler out there to keep losing you games and then stuff an oaf like Martinez in RF once the $80 million albatross blows a tire.

3) They overvalued their glut of average arms in the minors and wouldn't package them to get Yelich, instead getting Ozuna, and there is a five win difference between those players (along with years of additional control for the former).

4) Their hand-picked manager couldn't realize that luck was catching up to Norris, who blew the first two games of the month in spectacular, yet obvious fashion.

5) Their "fixes" were papering over drywall holes using bullshit as an adhesive.


So what are you going to do in 2019? Hope that Molina can hold it together for yet another season? Hope that Wacha and Reyes can actually give you meaningful innings? Hope that all those AAAA pitchers don't regress and destroy their value? Are they actually gonna run Waino out there for one more year on a four start sample?

This team is on the precipice of turning themselves into the Giants if they don't watch out. You have to be able to properly evaluate your players. Because they didn't, they slammed the window from this year on their own fingers and now they don't have one for a couple years to boot. Oh, and they might have just given the Yankees a first baseman for the next half decade for Chasen Shreve and Giovanny Gallegos.

****ing idiots.

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Yup. Fire Mo has always been the only option

[jd1020]

Pretty sure O'Neill's reaction to that ball just gave Contreras a HR when it should have been a double. Good looking out O'Neill.

[Rudy tossed tigger's salad]

YES!!

[BigRedChief]

So JD, you lose the division with a 5 game lead in less than a month. Forced into a one game decider. Lose. Get to watch the Brewers celebrate the division win on your field. Next day you lose the wild card game and then you have to see the Rockies celebrate on your field. Two times in two days. Yikes.

You purposely lost 100 games for what 3-4 years to get draft picks. You got 1 WS. Was it enough when you were expecting a dynasty?

[jd1020]

So BRC, you watched Tony LaRussa hand off a WS team only to miss the playoffs for 3 years in a row now and you are still trying to bad mouth a team that went to 3 straight NLCS?

Newsflash: The Cubs are still a really good team that needs minor tweaks with a closer and a leadoff bat... along with a new hitting coach that can actually teach awareness like "Hey Bryant, dont swing because our Manager pinch ran Gore for Rizzo, instead of for Happ 2 innings ago, and they arent going to throw you a strike."