They should have traded him at the deadline last year anyway but yeah he’s a headcase

looks like the Cards are hoping Martinez can at least be a functional MLB player for the times Carp is out.

Flaherty looked really good today.

Hicks is going to be our closer in 2018. His fastball/slider will play well right now at the MLB level. Excellent movement on both pitches.

He's too good of a prospect to relegate to the bullpen.

Its the first time I've ever saw his pitch. I know its spring training. But, facing Miami's low quality hitters was irrelevant to the movement on his pitches.

I was impressed with the movement on his fastball, that thing jumps on the hitter. I dont know how hitters are going to square it up. His slider looked like the fastball down the middle and it ends up off the plate.

Waino, Martinez both started out in the bullpen and then moved on to starting. Why cant he?

Picked up tickets to the first 3 games of the openeing homestand yesterday.

Can't wait!

Never been to an opening day game. It's on the bucket list.

Mikolas looked like as in his first outing. Not impressed at all.

He got shelled

Someone has to replace Mike Leakes production!

ROFL

Just gonna be another meh year. Mo so scared to do anything, only way he can succeed is if his farm system just blows people away.

Going tomorrow to see Flaherty pitch live in a spring training game. Beautiful weather expected.

2018 isn't the year this team should be viewing to contend for a WS.

It should be 2019.

Anybody coming over to Jupiter to catch a game? Let me know. I'm about a 5 min walk from the stadium. Can grab some beers after or whatever.

l was going to go over to Roger Dean this year but life got in the way of a weekend out of town free time. Best l was to do was a day game tomorrow in Sarasota.

Martinez/Reyes/Weaver/Flaherty/ 5th spot(multiple options) should be good enough to stack up as a playoff team rotation in 2019.

Still need to add some offense in the 2018-19 off season but they have tons of money to buy a top quality bat.

Lol buy a quality bet?

Unless a 12th round nobody magically develops into the next pujols they ain’t buying a bat

Sunce you have abandoned all hope, maybe you can become a Cubs or Yankees fan now?

Lulz. Not happening

The team needs an enema.

I disagree. It's been a couple of average years. We are not use to that so it stands out. We need a new manager and for whatever reason our owner loves the guy.

They did get Ozuna this off season. That was not the incremental move we are use to from the FO. We have always had a top 10 payroll. We were 14 last year and this year 12th so far. If we are average again this year and they dont spend the money on one of those big time FA next year, I'll join ya and Ocity in your depression.

We need more offense in 2019 but our pitching in 2019 will be playoff caliber.

I'm going to spend the afternoon in the Florida sunshine. 77 degrees with the ocean breeze blowing in watching my team. It's still enjoyable to me.

As some here have put it more eloquently than I can, they're scared.

They need to pay big for a bat to play 3rd base. Doubtful it happens.

Even if they pay big, StL hasnt been a preferred destination for big name free agents in a while.

Donaldson is your best hope because his age and cost will scare some teams away, but Machado will have his choice of the lot.

That's not enough. They don't even have a 3 hole hitter.

Cause they haven't been willing to pay top dollar.

Just offer enough to come in 2nd.

Not true. They've offered more for players than they have taken elsewhere.

Who would that be? Don't remember that being the case.

Heyward maybe?

Heyward.

Stanton. While Stanton wasn't a money issue, the Cardinals had the best offer on the table and Stanton said no.

How quickly you forget. Or maybe you just want to stick with the narrative of the Cardinals not trying.

So one example where they offered the most money but the guy went elsewhere?

I just gave you 2 examples?

You just said Stanton wasn't a money issue?

He's already getting paid. They had the best offer on the table for him and the Marlins preferred to send him to StL, but the guy in control, much like a free agent, said no.

Are you really this obtuse?

Are we really using 2, really just 1 instance to prove something?

Heyward didn't want to be the alpha so he went to Chicago to blend in and get paid. I'm not sure that's the best example but it works.

Stanton was never going to come to the Midwest. Didn't matter. Again, maybe it's the new norm. I'm skeptical.

Can we now list the other examples where the Cardinals chose not to go be the highest bidder? I'm gonna say that list is bigger than 2.

Be skeptical, then. Your choice to ignore the facts in front of you. They've made the best offer to 2 of the biggest named players available in 3 years and both said no to a perennial playoff team.

Name the ones you regret them missing out on, in hindsight.

Pujols?

Heyward?

I'm not a Cardinals fan so you can help out a little here, I'm assuming.

I'm gonna say we need more than 2 instances to determine if this is a trend but carry on.

Especially when we have the amount of situations that have gone the other way in the past however many years we wanna set.

Regret them missing out on?

They had David Price all wrapped up and the Sox came in at the last minute with a bigger deal and the Cards chose not to go there.

The dude that pitched at MU and was basically a home grown kid that they didn't wanna overspend on would be another.

The Pujols thing is what it is. I'd have preferred to have kept him, but once the amount of money came in there, it was done.

Also the organizations ability to celebrate "coming in 2nd" in terms of free agent deals is probably a pretty damning fact in my mind.

I honestly feel like Matheny is not a guy people want to play for. He's a terrible in game manager and he has the reputation of picking clubhouse favorites.

So you regret them coming in 2nd on the bidding for a guy who signed a $200M contract and is now in the bullpen? Ok...

Good to see you brought a real strong argument to the table.

True, but he also would have been in the national league and possibly played out differently as the Sox rode him in the ground IIRC, and he pitched a crazy amount of innings.

But I also don't really know how strong of an argument the Heyward one is when he's clearly shown to have been over paid and not worth the contract. Looks like everyone dropped the ball there.

It's a hell of a lot better than an argument from a Cardinals fan saying they don't try and can't name a single player they came in 2nd on that doesn't look like an albatross today.

I'm to lazy to look up the many examples we've had the last couple years where we'eve been fed "we tried, just came up short, gotta keep the powder dry" so ok.


And sure they try. The try just hard enough to appear they try hard.

Couple of the international signings come to mind as well where they didn't want to "overspend"

But I guess I shouldn't be too upset over it when the last couple big free agent spends they had were Mike Leake and Fowler.

today l saw our new 2019 SS and #3 hitter hit a grand slam. Just need to pay him $300 million. Overpay, get in first. We have the money to overpay.

glad we came in 2nd with Pujols, Hayward and Price.

Munoz who We got in the Piscotty trade put on a big time show in batting practice. He hit at least 4 out of the ballpark. Another 6 home runs into the stands. Then he turns around in the game and hits 2 Home runs in one inning. I thought this guy was a scrub. He was impressive at least today.

Here is a pic of Oquendo working with him on his footwork in the outfield. He mostly played RF today. Maybe they want him to change to the OF?

He played SS the other day.

I'm sure it was a great day for Munoz. Way above average. But, the power l witnessed in person, was in no way a fluke. He has natural power. That said, l have no idea if he strikes out too much, doesn’t take walks, can’t layoff the slider or whatever negative baggage he brings to his offense.

I’m sure the Cardinals have and are probably trying to figure out how to get his bat in the lineup more often. No way it was happenstance he was working with Oquendo personally and they are playing him a lot in different positions.

Cy Norris is getting shelled early on

Well that's a shock, Norris and Waino combined I'd be surprised if they collected 15 wins.

Not a **** given about this season

LMAO

I'm certainly not there yet man. You are acting like they're the 90's Royals

no shit. they are still a winning ball club. They have barely missed the playoffs. If they did make the playoffs, they would have got smoked but they are not losing 100 games depression worthy.

Hopefully they do drop 100. House cleaning...

fark u

Braves too :)

You dont seem nice.

Mikolas seems like he sucks

Cards extend Dejong 6/26

We have lots of quality pitching on the way. Flaherty will fit right into his spot this year. Hudson can take Waino's spot net year or at the All-Star break if Waino falters big time. Our main issue is the same one we have had for the recent past, offense.
I watched the broadcast yesterday and they were selling up how good DeJong was at SS. Not that he had fantastic range or arm but that he had good instincts. They showed a routine ground ball and talked about how good his instincts were to field that ball..... I thought that was really strange. Now, I know.

$26 million down the drain if he goes into a full on Diaz meltdown mode isn't much. Avoid arbitration and if he plays close to what he did last year, he's locked in until age 31. Get another year of control of his prime years. I like these cheap bets.

If Mikolas and Dejong both fail, its still a lot less money than we got just this year from MLB selling some tech developed on mlb.com. Baseball is awash in money.

Dejong extension seems reasonable. At worst, he can be a young platoon player within the infield if he regresses.

Yeah 4mil a year plus 2 option years is fine.

I have no problems with this.

If he regresses, you trade him.

He had a long time left before you need to make this decision.

It's not financially crippling, but that's just dumb as ****.

Perfect description of 95% of the moves Mo has made in his tenure.

Lulz

Seems unnecessarily early...

The bullpen blew 40 leads last year BRC. FORTY!!

Yea it was epic bad. Seemed every other game we had a lead going into the 6th inning and boom.

l agree on the big time suckage of the bullpen. but we have help on the way. Hicks is going to be our closer, maybe by the end of this year. We have other options a year or two away too.

Offense? Maybe O’Neill and some more OF’s. But there isn’t a #3 hitter among them.

$26 million over 6 years ain’t shit in baseball money. Who cares if they hedge their bets on future production? They have already proven with Diaz they will just cut a player, eat the dead money and move on if production drops.

Every four million you spend on Paul DeJong is four million you don't spend on Manny Machado, or Max Scherzer, et. al.

There is nothing about DeJong's skillset that suggests his production last year was sustainable, and now, you've taken someone that can provide significant surplus value if he is even a 1.5 win player, and gutted a good portion of that, just to potentially save yourself money in his arb years, which won't happen for another 3 seasons. If he was Carlos Correa and had torn up the minors all the way through, then yeah, you make this move. But when he K's five times as often as he walks and needs a ridiculous BABIP to remain a useful offensive player in a time where HR are cheaper than ever, it's just bad business.

if they try to sell that BS, no one is going to buy that crap. Oh we had to pay our 3B $4 million, 1% of revenue, so we can’t pay Manny $30 million a year? ROFL

The last “official” revenue year documentation we have is 2016. The Cardinals took in $310 million. They now have at least an additional $100 million from the cable contract. Not to mention increases in national TV contracts and mlb.com revenue. It’s a good assumption that in 2018 the Cards are going to have revenue in the $430-$450 million neighborhood.

Whether you piss away $50 at a three-card-Monte game in one sitting, or $5 ten times playing the Lotto, you're still wasting money, and it all adds up.