***Official 2015 STL Cardinals Thread***

[BigRedChief]

2011 World Series Championship
2012 NLCS. One win from another WS appearance.
2013 World Series. Two wins from another World Series Championship
2014 NLCS. Three wins from another WS appearance

• Made the postseason 10 times in the last 14 seasons.
• Only 1 losing season since 2000.
• Reached the World Series 4 times since 2004 and won as many championships (two) the past eight seasons as it did from 1965 to 2005.
• Made the NLCS 9 times including the last 4 years 2011-2014
• Three million attendance? Take it to the bank.
• 65 post season wins since 2004. 22+ wins more than any other team.

[O.city]

True, but I think you've got to keep Koz for defensive purposes, and surprisingly, he's hit the ball well this year.

I thought he used the bullet of Adams a bit early, when Wong would have worked Better.

I don't particularly care for Cruz, but he's the backup catcher and they seem to like him behind the Plate.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by O.city

True, but I think you've got to keep Koz for defensive purposes, and surprisingly, he's hit the ball well this year.

I thought he used the bullet of Adams a bit early, when Wong would have worked Better.

I don't particularly care for Cruz, but he's the backup catcher and they seem to like him behind the Plate.

You really don't need Kozma for defensive purposes, especially not if it's Anna you add to the roster.

Now if it's Kelly, you're going to be a little short on defense at SS, but Kelly can play it credibly. Ultimately it just doesn't matter that much. Peralta isn't going to get subbed out for defensive purposes and if he gets hurt, Anna's probably a better 15-day option at SS than Kozma anyway.

Kozma isn't needed on this roster at all. Moreover, no, Kozma has not hit the ball well this year. His OPS on the season is below .500. I feel like this is one of those things where people say "y'know, Cruz has always done a decent job of filling in when Molina is injured" without actually looking and realizing that he been abysmal during periods of injury for Yadi.

Kozma has sucked at the plate as badly this year as he ever has. Hell, he's probably been worse. With an ISO of zero and an OBP of less than .300, nothing about his offense has been surprising. It's been exactly the crap I would expect from a crap hitter.

And just ignoring the fact that Cruz sucks because "well, he's the backup catcher" is falling victim to Nichols Law of Catcher's defense. A catcher's defensive reputation is inversely proportionate to their offensive contributions. People assume that Cruz is a credible defensive catcher because his offense sucks so bad, but do you ever actually watch Tony Cruz play defense? Because I do and he's absolutely miserable. Next time he's catching - watch him. He doesn't present an early target and he can usually be counted on to be moving his glove as the pitcher is delivering (yeah, that's gonna help, Tony). He doesn't play up in his crouch but rather rocks back so that his ass rests on his heels and it makes him slower pop to pop on his throws down. Oh yeah, and his throws suck. And watching him pout like a petulant schoolgirl when Martinez was missing his spots (his body language was worse than Carlos's) while absolutely refusing to get up from behind the plate and go talk to the ****ing rattled 23 yr old on the mound was the worst display of a catcher taking command of a staff that I've ever seen.

Tony Cruz is piece of shit. He's terrible at absolutely everything baseball related. He's a bad hitter, bad receiver, bad thrower and shit leader. He's possibly the worst baseball player I've ever seen. If you can watch him critically and objectively point out one single thing he does well, I will tip my cap to you.

The team would be better with Pete Kozma as the backup catcher. Tony Cruz just started catching 4 years ago and it's very very obvious back there. He has no feel for the position and his technique is dogshit. He definitely a converted IFer playing C so why not cut his ass and put someone back there that can play SS instead? This is a terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE, idea but it's still a better idea than leaving Tony ****ing Cruz on a major league roster.

[O.city]

I hadn't looked at kozmas plate numbers because, well, I'm lazy. I was going by the few times I've watched him hit, which doesn't seem to be alot but he had seemed to scatter a few hits. With Reynolds ability to play third, I think kozmas is a little redundant and his supposed ability to play "multiple".

In regards to Cruz, yeah, he's not really good at particularly anything. If Yadi didn't catch basically everyday, I'd be more inclined to upgrade it.

Personally, I'd rather have someone that could credibly play a day or two per week therr and at first, but they dont.

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by Mi_chief_fan

970?'Oh, well, I was waaaaaay off; and didn't he have like 40 errors in 1 season?

You do realize the league average is .970ish, right?

[O.city]

Had to have that from Lackey today

[Pasta Little Brioni]

How that turd Kozma stays on a MLB roster is a great mystery.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by jd1020

You do realize the league average is .970ish, right?

You do realize that the .944 he's sporting is a damn far cry from .970, right? That's about 30 errors over the 300 games or so that he's played. So yeah, he's more than 15 errors per season worse than average.

Baez is an awful defensive player. He's also a terrible hitter.

If he's lucky he'll have the kind of career Mark Reynolds has had.

[DJ's left nut]

Oh for ****'s sake, Matheny. Do you not realize that the warmup tosses tax guys as well?

If you were really only going to leave Maness in to face a single batter, what the hell did you bring him in at all for? Just go straight to Rosenthal and give Maness the day off.

And if you were going to let Maness go if he kept getting guys out, why were you warming up Rosenthal? Again, for a reliever the getting warm is half the battle. It takes a fair amount out of those guys getting up and getting loose.

It's not just bad luck that causes Matheny to torch the back of his bullpen every single goddamn year. The guy truly has no idea what leads to reliever attrition.

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

You do realize that the .942 he's sporting at SS is a damn far cry from .970, right?

Baez is an awful defensive player. He's also a terrible hitter.

If he's lucky he'll have the kind of career Mark Reynolds has had.

.942 including when he was 20 years old in high a ball.

Last year, in AAA and PCL he was .967 at SS and .975 at 2B. But hey, experience and progress doesnt matter.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by jd1020

.942 including when he was 20 years old in high a ball.

Last year, in AAA and PCL he was .967 at SS and .975 at 2B. But hey, experience and progress doesnt matter.

You're welcome to think that will stick if you'd like, but you can count on one hand the number of guys that actually improved substantially defensively through their 20s.

Some do, but it's generally just because they've been moved further down the defensive spectrum. The vast VAST majority of players are who they are defensively by the time they reach the professional levels. You look at a guy like Addison Russell and he's already an outstanding defender and it's obvious.

Baez, OTOH, is a bad defender. He'll always be a bad defender. With some luck, he could sneak up to average but for the most part he's a heavy-footed player who should be at 2b at best (likely 3rd) and who's defensive instincts are sub-standard.

[raybec 4]

3 out of 4 from the cubs, now on to Pittsburgh. Let's hope McCutcheon doesn't get hot yet.

[jd1020]

I guess what I've learned here today is that Javier Baez, a top 10 MiLB prospect by every publication a year ago, was/is terrible at all things baseball.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by jd1020

I guess what I've learned here today is that Javier Baez, a top 10 MiLB prospect by every publication a year ago, was/is terrible at all things baseball.

Well at least you learned something. Well actually, that's not entirely true. When he does manage to put a ball in play, it goes a long way. Like I said, kinda like Mark Reynolds. He's not terrible at ALL things baseball, just most of them. I'm sorry you had to learn that today - you probably should have learned that last season when he struck out at an historic clip.

Guys that don't make contact rarely learn to. Guys that can't field rarely learn to.

The problems he has are problems that don't tend to go away. Perhaps he'll just learn to recognize breaking balls but he'd be an outlier if he did.

Baez didn't scare me, doesn't scare me and I hope they call him up so we can give up solo HRs to him in 5 run ballgames and strike him out every time the game is actually close. He's a guess/mistake hitter and that's what they do.

Russell scares the hell out of me. Bryant scares the hell out of me. Rizzo is a God among men and Soler is going to be a good one. Guys like Baez and Alcantara, who pretty much just swing really hard on the off chance that they make contact? They do not scare me. Guys like Almora who do a lot of okay things but nothing particularly well? They turn into Jon Jay if everything breaks right and they don't scare me.

The problem I have with this pack of Cubs prospects is that Cubs fans think they're all going to be the elite version of what their prospect guide says they might be. That ain't gonna happen and if you're betting on a bust, the guy who plays shoddy defense and has no concept of the strike zone is probably a good place to start.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Why the **** are people having a defensive argument using fielding percentage?

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

Why the **** are people having a defensive argument using fielding percentage?

Because when you commit 30 errors/season, that's relevant.

If you're arguing the difference between a .970 fielder and a .980 fielder, it doesn't matter.

But if a guy kicks 30 balls/season, well unless he's Andrelton Simmons, that matters a lot. And Javier Baez isn't Andrelton Simmons.