****The Official 2019 STL Cardinals Thread****

[BigRedChief]

Cardinals announce 25-man Opening Day roster for the 2019 season.

Spoiler!

The Cardinals today announced their 25-man Opening Day roster that includes four first-time Cardinals and 13 players that were developed within their organization.

PITCHERS (12): 60 – John Brebbia-RHP, 22 – Jack Flaherty-RHP, 53 – John Gant- RHP, 49 – Jordan Hicks-RHP, 43 – Dakota Hudson- RHP, 55 – Dominic Leone-RHP, 59 – Mike Mayers- RHP, 21 – Andrew Miller-LHP, 39 – Miles Mikolas-RHP, 29 – Alex Reyes, RHP, 52 – Michael Wacha-RHP, 50 – Adam Wainwright- RHP;

CATCHERS (2): 4 -Yadier Molina, 32 – Matt Wieters;

INFIELDERS (6): 13 - Matt Carpenter, 12 – Paul DeJong, 46 – Paul Goldschmidt, 34 – Yario Muñoz, 33 – Drew Robinson, 16 – Kolten Wong;

OUTFIELDERS (5): 46 – Harrison Bader, 25 - Dexter Fowler, 38 – José Martínez, 41 – Tyler O'Neill, 23 – Marcell Ozuna;

DISABLED LIST (5): 27 - Brett Cecil (10-day, left hand Carpal Tunnel syndrome), 44 – Luke Gregerson (10-day, right shoulder impingement), 18 – Carlos Martínez (right shoulder cuff strain), 3 - Jedd Gyorko (10-day, right calf strain), 67 - Justin Williams (10-day, right hand 2nd metacarpal fracture).

2019 Opening Day Line up

Spoiler!

Starting lineup
Matt Carpenter 3B
Paul Goldschmidt 1B
Paul DeJong SS
Ozuna LF
Yadier Molina C
Dexter Fowler RF
Kolten Wong 2B
Harrison Bader CF

Won the Central Division. Won the NLDS.

NLDS Playoff roster

Spoiler!

Pitchers (12): Miles Mikolas, Jack Flaherty, Adam Wainwright, Dakota Hudson, Genesis Cabrera, Tyler Webb, Andrew Miller, John Brebbia, Daniel Ponce de Leon, Ryan Helsley, Giovanny Gallegos, Carlos Martinez.

Catchers (2): Yadier Molina, Matt Wieters.

Infielders (6): Paul Goldschmidt, Kolten Wong, Paul DeJong, Matt Carpenter, Tommy Edman, Yairo Munoz.

Outfielders (5): Marcell Ozuna, Harrison Bader, Dexter Fowler, Jose Martinez, Randy Arozarena.

NLDS Playoff Game 1 starting lineup

Spoiler!

1. Dexter Fowler, CF

2. Tommy Edman, 3B

3. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B

4. Marcell Ozuna, LF

5. Yadier Molina, C

6. Paul DeJong, SS

7. Kolten Wong, 2B

8. Harrison Bader, CF

9. Miles Mikolas, P

NLCS Game One Starting lineup

Spoiler!

1. Dexter Fowler, CF

2. Kolten Wong, 2B

3. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B

4. Marcell Ozuna, LF

5. Yadier Molina, C

6. Matt Carpenter 3B

7.Tommy Edmond RF

8. Paul DeJong, SS

9. Miles Mikolas P

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Y'all seem to forget that I'm much more careful than you give me credit for.

I said '5 win bat'. That means a bat that could yield a 5 win player. Matt Carpenter's glove/baserunning sucks bawls but on 3 occasions he's been roughly a 5 win player. Those years were driven by his offense and generally credible defensive play at positions that give him just enough of a positional adjustment to boost him the rest of the way.

I figure a neutral defender/baserunner can be at/near 5 wins w/ a WRC+ in the neighborhood of, what, 145? Seem fair?

All four of those guys have the potential to develop into a hitter than can hit that mark.

Look at it this way - from 2011-2013 Allen Craig had a WRC+ of 139. Would you say that those 4 guys I mentioned have the potential to be, say, 10% better than Craig was over that period of time? They'd get there in different ways (Torres excluded, who may be EXACTLY that kind of hitter if he continues on his present course), but if you pare that development down and 1 of them makes it to his top 20% projection, isn't that the kind of bat you're looking at?

Craig was never a 5 win player due to injury issues and negative defensive adjustments (I think all 4 of those guys profile better defensively than Craig, who was not quite Jose Martinez out there, but he made Matt Adams appear look like a MASSIVE improvement at 1b and was only a marginal upgrade on Matt Holliday in the OF). And I wouldn't say he QUITE reached the level of a 5 win bat. But I'd say he's pretty close and with a little bit of improvement on who he was over that 3 year period, you get to what I would call a 5 win bat.

Any of those 4 guys is capable of that. Which was precisely my point from the jump. I'm not saying all 4 of those guys are going to be dude's capable of getting MVP votes in any given year. I'm saying that with 4 of those dudes, you can be a lot more comfortable that at least ONE of them will be that kind of player and maybe another settles into a solid complementary lineup piece.

I give you all the credit for careful statements, man. Your reasoning here makes sense - thanks for clarifying!

I think it’s reasonable to hope for a lineup centerpiece from that group (my money is on Nunez) and a good starter (money is on Gorman and Carlson, both, actually).

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

I give you all the credit for careful statements, man. Your reasoning here makes sense - thanks for clarifying!

I think it’s reasonable to hope for a lineup centerpiece from that group (my money is on Nunez) and a good starter (money is on Gorman and Carlson, both, actually).

Nunez is the most fun, but he's the least projectable at the moment. Nobody hits the DSL the way he just hit the DSL; it was truly historic. But...it's the DSL. If you consider it high-level high school ball you're probably not far off the mark.

You just can draw so very little from it. I mean if he were 85% that good in RK ball it would mean more to me than what he did in the DSL. But the good news is that he'll get that shot soon enough. There's a ton of helium there.

I don't even include Carlson in that group of 4, to be honest. He's a completely different animal in that I think he's actually immediately projectable and as sure a bet to contribute in the major leagues as anyone we have.

Montero has more power projection than he's shown but he needs to show it. He's super-young for full-season ball so I'm not too worried, but if we don't see him take a step forward there this year, his ceiling starts to drop and Craig becomes your target mark. It's not the raw HRs that concerns me, it's the lower ISO in general. But 37 doubles in 531 PAs as an underaged player in your first crack at full-season ball is no joke, especially when he played in a couple of fairly tough pitcher's leagues. I don't think he becomes an annual 30 HR hitter but I won't close the book on the possibility just yet.

Torres is that "85% of Nunez in RK ball" that I mentioned. He got to the GCL and man they had no idea what to do with him. The problem there is a really really short sample size. The Cards had a kid named Juan Yepez murdering the midwest league last year over 100 or so PAs and when they moved him up he fell flat on his face. It's reeeeaaaaaal early in the game on Torres but he's less about stats than he is some of the scouting reports that got out once he got into the system. There are some folks that love the guy's swing and raw athleticism for his size.

Gorman...well, he's probably my highest floor, lowest ceiling prospect in the lot. His raw power will get him to the majors. But his K rate is just spooky. Even before he was super-aggressively promoted and hitting very well in RK ball, he was striking out a bit too much. And obviously getting to full-season ball his first year out of HS is impressive as hell and very rare, but he was obviously overmatched. The good(ish) version of Mark Reynolds in Arizona is his disappointing but not terribly unlikely outcome. If you see additional development in his K rates and general plate discipline you could see a peak Troy Glaus type, maybe? Probably not that 8 win monster he was for a season, but the 4-5 win guy he kinda settled into when healthy.

Carlson's gonna be a dude you overlook but holds a lot of shit together for you for years, though. Maybe the Cincinnati version of Paul O'Neill? Just a really good, really overlooked player for a lot of years. Not the post-strike, steroid era version of O'Neill that coincidentally became an MVP candidate in his mid-30s when the juice became rampant, but the athletically underrated, steady offensive weapon and solid defensive ballplayer he was prior to that.

[O.city]

What does Nunez profile out at in terms of player comp?

via GIPHY

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by O.city

What does Nunez profile out at in terms of player comp?

via GIPHY

He's 9 years old or something like that and playing high level rec league ball.

He's a likely 1b prospect going forward and by most accounts he's so physically mature that he was playing as a men among boys in the DSL.

And the list of greatest seasons in DSL history BEFORE his is littered with washouts.

I don't think you can put a comp on him right now, to be honest. I mean I could make up some name and be like "yeah, he's gonna be....Tim Salmon" but I have no idea really. You can find some videos of his swing and it looks damn good. But it's also super-aggressive and for a physically advanced dude against high school pitching with a really aggressive swing, he's gonna have a hell of an adjustment to make in as much as RK ball. He's probably gonna have to dial that load/kick down a bit and if he does, can his raw power still hang at/near a 60 grade? Shit if I know. But if it can and if there's even a little more projection in that frame (even some of the 'grown ass man at 17' types like Moncada and Jimenez still got stronger as they got to their early 20s), he could be damn impressive.

But he's gonna have to get a little less aggressive with his swing and there's a chance that it could take a full year or more to see those adjustments take place without destroying his timing/production.

[DJ's left nut]

I mean for real - this look like many 17 yr olds you've ever met?



I mean...I guess Gorman looked pretty stout at 17 in his own right, but Gorman wasn't terrorizing a bunch of 155 lb DSL kids. He's just so much more physically advanced than what you normally see at that level that he can just waylay those guys.

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Y'all seem to forget that I'm much more careful than you give me credit for.

I said '5 win bat'. That means a bat that could yield a 5 win player. Matt Carpenter's glove/baserunning sucks bawls but on 3 occasions he's been roughly a 5 win player. Those years were driven by his offense and generally credible defensive play at positions that give him just enough of a positional adjustment to boost him the rest of the way.

I figure a neutral defender/baserunner can be at/near 5 wins w/ a WRC+ in the neighborhood of, what, 145? Seem fair?

All four of those guys have the potential to develop into a hitter than can hit that mark.

Look at it this way - from 2011-2013 Allen Craig had a WRC+ of 139. Would you say that those 4 guys I mentioned have the potential to be, say, 10% better than Craig was over that period of time? They'd get there in different ways (Torres excluded, who may be EXACTLY that kind of hitter if he continues on his present course), but if you pare that development down and 1 of them makes it to his top 20% projection, isn't that the kind of bat you're looking at?

Craig was never a 5 win player due to injury issues and negative defensive adjustments (I think all 4 of those guys profile better defensively than Craig, who was not quite Jose Martinez out there, but he made Matt Adams appear look like a MASSIVE improvement at 1b and was only a marginal upgrade on Matt Holliday in the OF). And I wouldn't say he QUITE reached the level of a 5 win bat. But I'd say he's pretty close and with a little bit of improvement on who he was over that 3 year period, you get to what I would call a 5 win bat.

Any of those 4 guys is capable of that. Which was precisely my point from the jump. I'm not saying all 4 of those guys are going to be dude's capable of getting MVP votes in any given year. I'm saying that with 4 of those dudes, you can be a lot more comfortable that at least ONE of them will be that kind of player and maybe another settles into a solid complementary lineup piece.

8 players in MLB had a 145+ wRC last year.

[BigRedChief]

Mo hasn’t exactly covered himself with glory in drafting position players over the years. Why do we suddenly have these high ceiling position player prospects?

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Randy Flores

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

Randy Flores

the middle innings reliever we use to have? sounds like they had better be locking him up long term. Promising promotions etc.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

the middle innings reliever we use to have? sounds like they had better be locking him up long term. Promising promotions etc.

He's already been promoted to Asst. GM.

[Jewish Rabbi]

Damn. Haven’t seen much of Goldschmidt but looks like he barely swung at that pitch and golfed it out. Is that what we’ll see of him all year?

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Ozuna is running like it's a contract year

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

He's already been promoted to Asst. GM.

Sounds like he needs another promotion considering the front office's track record.

[Miles]

****ing Braun

[kcpasco]

That’s 2 bad strikeout calls ump. He’s needs a bat shoved up his ass.