***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]

I hope not.

[O.city]

Napoli is interesting I think Hamas brought that up.

I think you've gotta get pitching before a 1st baseman though. Ideally, I'd like to fix this forst base issue for good, but we've been pretty spoiled there in the past.

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

I could see something stupid happening like trading to get Joe Kelly back.

Would rather send O City out to the mound than bring that douche back.

[O.city]

I've got 3 plus pitches man, I could do it

[O.city]

So someone tell me about Alex Reyes

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by O.city

So someone tell me about Alex Reyes

The best pitching prospect that we have ever had since Gibson. Period.

May never be due to injury or whatever. But, best raw talent evah.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

The best pitching prospect that we have ever had since Gibson. Period.

If he ever discovers his fastball command, he's Matt Harvey.

Huge HUGE qualifier, obviously, but that's how good the guy can be. Personally, I don't care for the reports that he's touching 101 on occasion because that tells me that he's overloading his shoulder to add 2-3 mph of velocity, but if it's the kind of thing he's only doing 2 or 3 times/game, I can live with it.

Too many guys go out there in the minors and start shoulder loading on every pitch. It adds velocity but it will absolutely wreck their arms. If I see Reyes cruising at 99, I'll worry quite a bit about his long-term health because he was sitting at 95-97 a year ago. Sure, sometimes maturation adds a little, but that's a rare bird for a guy that was already built like a 27 yr old (as Reyes was). If he's finding extra velocity, that tells me he's scapula loading to get it and it doesn't speak well to his long-term prognosis.

If the kid is cruising at 96 and can get his walk rate down near the 3.5/9 range, he'll be a monster. Obviously 3.5 isn't a premier walk rate by any means, but with his stuff, it will be good enough to be a dynamite pitcher. At 3.5, he can be Sonny Gray.

This article from the pre-season in 2014 brought him from someone I had a passing awareness of to someone I've really been watching closely:

http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/ale...ever-heard-of/

He's the only true impact prospect in our system, IMO. Kaminsky can be a fine #2 starter someday and I like Flaherty a ton, but he's so far away who really knows. Marco's a 3. Sierra is far away and even if you do think he can be an impact guy, it would require he develop either .400 OBP ability, 25 HR pop or 30 SB skill and right now he possesses none of those things (BABIP fueled OBP last season notwithstanding). Edmundo Sosa is probably never going to hit well enough to be more than a 2-3 WAR player, that's assuming he continues to develop steadily for another 4 years.

That's why you can't trade him, IMO. When you end up with a system full of JAGs, you're only ever 2 seasons away from being a .500 ballclub.

[kcxiv]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

The best pitching prospect that we have ever had since Gibson. Period.

May never be due to injury or whatever. But, best raw talent evah.

Lets do this again! im ready! lol

[DJ's left nut]

Man, look at the shit that Peoria has turned into:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/mi...gi?id=b49dc3db

That's one regular with an OPS over .700. ONE. And .700 ain't exactly a high bar. Moreover, even that guy is 2 bad games away from dropping under .700 himself, with a .708. Worse, that's coming from a 23 yr old in A ball; the kid's already overaged so even that doesn't matter much.

Palm Beach has 2 guys over .700 and none at .750. AA is a little better with a handful of guys over .700 but none over 8 and only 2 over .750. With the Texas League being something of a launching pad, Hammond Field in particular, .750 is pretty much the equivalent of .700 elsewhere. At least one of them is Jacob Wilson, who's a legitimate possibility to someday be a major league contributor, if not a plus regular.

The system is barren of position players. There's just nobody down there that's going to be the part of a new wave of Cardinal championships. They're going to have to hope that Wacha's a #1, Reyes develops into one, Martinez is not far behind them and hopefully Kaminsky only a small step behind that. The Cardinals of 2020 are going to have to win a TON of 2-1 ballgames because apart from Wong and maybe Grichuk if he can get the holes in his swing closed up a bit, there's nobody in this system that's likely to be a plus hitter by then.

[O.city]

They're gonna have to either go buy bats, or trade some pitching for some

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by O.city

They're gonna have to either go buy bats, or trade some pitching for some

Bats on the FA market rarely turn out well. Every article you see referencing Holliday gives some passing mention to the other guys that have signed deals that rival his and how pretty much every single one of them have been huge busts for the team that inked them.

The odds of us going out into FA and getting that lucky again are pretty remote. Some of the mid-tier FA signings like Peralta have come up roses for us, but very few championship teams don't have a legitimate superstar somewhere on the roster. A team where Peralta or someone of his ilk is your best hitter is probably going to be a pretty blah team.

**** it - let's take up a "Bryce Harper in 2019!" collection. If we get 10,000 fans to chip in $500/yr for the next 10 years, we can come up with about 1/7th of what he'll likely cost...

[O.city]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Man, look at the shit that Peoria has turned into:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/mi...gi?id=b49dc3db

That's one regular with an OPS over .700. ONE. And .700 ain't exactly a high bar. Moreover, even that guy is 2 bad games away from dropping under .700 himself, with a .708. Worse, that's coming from a 23 yr old in A ball; the kid's already overaged so even that doesn't matter much.

Palm Beach has 2 guys over .700 and none at .750. AA is a little better with a handful of guys over .700 but none over 8 and only 2 over .750. With the Texas League being something of a launching pad, Hammond Field in particular, .750 is pretty much the equivalent of .700 elsewhere. At least one of them is Jacob Wilson, who's a legitimate possibility to someday be a major league contributor, if not a plus regular.

The system is barren of position players. There's just nobody down there that's going to be the part of a new wave of Cardinal championships. They're going to have to hope that Wacha's a #1, Reyes develops into one, Martinez is not far behind them and hopefully Kaminsky only a small step behind that. The Cardinals of 2020 are going to have to win a TON of 2-1 ballgames because apart from Wong and maybe Grichuk if he can get the holes in his swing closed up a bit, there's nobody in this system that's likely to be a plus hitter by then.

In they're defense though, I'm not sure many though carpenter or jay or Craig type players would be what they are/were.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Bats on the FA market rarely turn out well. Every article you see referencing Holliday gives some passing mention to the other guys that have signed deals that rival his and how pretty much every single one of them have been huge busts for the team that inked them.

The odds of us going out into FA and getting that lucky again are pretty remote. Some of the mid-tier FA signings like Peralta have come up roses for us, but very few championship teams don't have a legitimate superstar somewhere on the roster. A team where Peralta or someone of his ilk is your best hitter is probably going to be a pretty blah team.

**** it - let's take up a "Bryce Harper in 2019!" collection. If we get 10,000 fans to chip in $500/yr for the next 10 years, we can come up with about 1/7th of what he'll likely cost...

I'd imagine that was part of the reason for the Heyward trade.

Oscar was supposed to be that guy, but well, obviously that didn't work out.

Royals fans seem pretty sure Hosmer is gonna hit the market, I think he would fit well in STL, but I'm not overly optimistic.

Speaking of Heyward, I read Bernie's article about it today. Did you catch it? Apparently the club acknowledges that he still has things to change swing wise and are working on it, added to the fact that the numbers are starting to swing positive.

However, like you said, until he shows it on a consistent basis, I remain skeptical. But they severely need him to become a cornerstone.

[O.city]

This franchise also needs to develop/acquire a shortstop for the future. We kicked the can down the road with Peralta, but they've got to figure something out long term. We can't run Kozma like guys out there and expect results.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by kcxiv

Lets do this again! im ready! lol

You guys got it in for us since we kicked you out of the playoffs the last two years? Or do you see it as more about your issues than us?