Cardinals chat: Derrick Goold takes your questions at 11 a.m. Monday
Bring your Cards questions and comments to a live chat with Derrick Goold at 11 a.m. Monday
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You have already stated your opinion. It's going to be from the best fielder at the position in the National League to an above-average fielder. That's the dropoff. Wong will go and win a third consecutive Gold Glove for the Brewers. We'll see if Edman takes to the position and can become a finalist for the Gold Glove. He's a reliable fielder, and should be a solid glove at 2B.
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Hey, Derrick.
Dumb question of the day. Is it an absolutely foregone conclusion that Dakota Hudson will miss the entire 2021 season? I feel like some younger guys have returned from Tommy John in 9 or 10 months, and that would be late June or late July, as his surgery was 9/28/20 if memory serves. Thanks for your time, DG. -
He will spend the entire year recovering from Tommy John surgery. That does not mean he won't pitch in some competition. Could be on a rehab assignment to close the year and see how that goes. The Cardinals have no plans to rush him back to help them out, appear in the bullpen, or anything like that. Not now. They'd rather he use this season to get healthy and then have a normal winter leading into 2022. They've had that timetable with other pitchers, and because of the timing of the injury it does mean he could see some minor-league appearances.
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Lane Thomas can play CF just fine. He's a solid CF with good instincts for the position, a true arm, and he can handle that position. Let's take a moment to consider the assertion that Edman will somehow automatically be this better bat than Kolten Wong. There is upside there for sure, but don't diminish what Wong was for the Cardinals that Edman can yet be .... OBP matters.Edman had an OBP of .317 in 2020, and he's a got a career OBP of .337 with 32 walks in his 576 plate appearances.Wong's career OBP is less, at .333, but keep in mind that he has improved and was a .350 OBP in 2020. Want to dismiss that as a small sample size? Fine. In the previous four seasons his OBP has been a .356. That's not something to just count on replacing.
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Hello, Derrick.
Since the start of the 2019 season Jack Flaherty has made 35 starts against non-Milwaukee opposition and posted a dazzling 2.30 ERA. Basically as good as DeGrom or anybody else in baseball. Versus the Brewers however he's made 7 starts and allowed 30 earned runs in 33 innings (8.18 ERA). So obviously Jack is tipping his pitches but only the Brewers have decoded it so far.
My question is, in the past the Cards have had specific guys (Chris Carpenter and Eduardo Perez most notably) who were extremely adept at spotting a big tipper. To your knowledge is there no one on the current roster who excels at this skill? Because Milwaukee is a real bad team to be useless against, given the division rivalry. -
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Actually some of the best at decoding this are still with the team. One of the best, according to his teammates, is Jim Edmonds, and he has actually brought this up to the Cardinals, and a few years ago he was able to correctly tell what pitch an opponent was about to throw before he threw it. He's got a gift. Ryan Franklin and Adam Wainwright are also good at this, and Wainwright works with the young pitchers during spring training to help each other spot it. Franklin is no longer with the team. He was part of the layoffs that cut the jobs of the many former players in the front office. Edmonds no longer as the special assistant title, but he's around the team still and this is an area of expertise that players will utilize. The Brewers have something on him, for sure. Flaherty and the Cardinals are aware, and so is Molina, and they've sought to throw them off.
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I read the 2020 book The Wax Pack by Brad Balukjian during quarantine...a great read for any baseball fan, but having grown up during the 80s and remembering the cards in the book and the players he tracked down, I found it just riveting. A great, newer, entry into the non-fiction baseball books. (Also read The Cactus League which you mentioned earlier and it's fantastic. Also just received a used copy of The Baseball Confederacy and can't wait to start it.)
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Agreed: I too read Wax Pack during "quarantine" and readily enjoyed it. Had the author as a guest on the podcast, and you can find that here: Best Podcast in Baseball 8.09: 'The One with Balukjian's Wax Pack'
Best Podcast in Baseball 8.09: 'The One with Balukjian's Wax Pack' - Best Podcast in Baseball - Omny.fm
Author Brad Bulukjian joins St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold to discuss his new book, "The Wax Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Baseball's Afterlife." The concept is so genius it should make you jealous. Balukjian took a pack of 1986 TOPPS baseball cards, opened it, and then set out on the road to find each player inside the pack -- from Steve Yeager in Los Angeles to Don Carman in Naples, Fla., to Garry Templeton in San Diego and Vince Coleman in ... well, we will get to that. The conversation with Templeton and chapter about him hinges on his view of the event in St. Louis, the one that got him yanked from the field and eventually traded by the Cardinals. His thoughts -- and his explanation -- alters the perspective of a pivotal moment in Cardinals history. The book is part travelogue, part memoir, and part baseball book -- all wrapped up neatly like the familiar TOPPS wax pack, complete with a stick of gum. The Best Podcast in Baseball, brought to you weekly by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and Derrick Goold. -
I find it insensitive you used "collapse into disaster" as your verbiage to describe the season going poorly for the Cardinals. A bad baseball season is not a true disaster such as Hurricane Katrina. I'm also offended you're describing easily winning the division as "run away with NL Central", as if it's something that you can just run away with.
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You answered someone who asked about signing Story “next offseason” by saying “The Cardinals seem positioned, financially, to add another $20m salary to the roster at some point in the near future, but that's not $30m, let alone $35m-$40m.” Are you saying that when they lose close to $60 million after this season they won’t be able to add $30m?
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Well, they did add Nolan Arenado if he sticks around, so that has already taken some of that money. That's all. Also please consider the following raises coming their way:-- Hicks-- Flaherty-- Reyes-- Gant-- Bader-- Edman-- HudsonSome of those salaries will double from 2021 to 2022 if the players perform to expectations, and that too will cut into the money coming off the books.That's where I'm starting from.
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I would assert that Edman will be a better hitter this year than Wong and will certainly be better than Wong was in his third year.
His OBP needs some improvement to your point but here’s an interesting question - who will score more runs, steal more bases and drive in more runs TE or KW? -
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So you won't say an outfielder has a "bazooka" for an arm, even though that is strong vividly descriptive writing, because... you're what? Concerned about upsetting war veterans? Take it from a Gulf War participant: we aren't that fragile, Derrick. Whether it's Colavito or Kaline or Clemente, a rifle/cannon/bazooka arm is part of a well-established and exciting baseball lexicon. Watering it down to protect some imaginary individual(s) just undermines your writing unnecessarily.
Thank you for allowing me this forum. You're a fine scribe. No need to be so therapeutic. -
It's a choice. It's a challenge. It's a chance to test myself to be a better writer and not confuse baseball for war, not to soften those words or weaponize human actions. I don't claim that it's for everyone and I don't do it because I think you, dear reader, are "fragile." It's something personal that I'm being honest with you about -- in the same way I only referred to Cleveland as Cleveland through the 2016 World Series. Remember that whole thing? Other writers can can choose differently. And if I didn't bring it up, I doubt you'd notice.It's not always about you.
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They are bullish on him. Young, big frame, potential power, and took a real stride in 2019. Acquired from Cleveland in the Oscar Mercado deal, Torres was part of the goal the Cardinals had of keeping their outfield depth but doing so with players who didn't have to be added to the 40-man roster. He was raw. Clear potential. Unclear how it would come together. And it's start to. He's set up for a significant season in 2021 if the lost time of 2020 didn't set him back.
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My Wife regrets the Arenado trade. We haven’t attended a game since 2018, choosing cruises instead.
She knows we’ll be spending many a hot summer night in downtown St.Louis this year.
There are a few 37 year olds available in free agency that might add to the Cardinal’s depth. Would any of these be good matches with Cardinal needs?
Cole Hamels? Jon Jay? Nick Markakis? Ryan Braun?
Thanks for your time/energy. -
There are many emails and comments like this -- about the Cardinals bring fans back to the ballpark with the Arenado trade. That apathy that was such a topic around here all winter has been replaced by the Arenado Bounce. Of that group, all of whom have some tie to St. Louis (former player, wife is from here, once did snow angels on the warning track), it sure seems like a DH would make Braun of interest to the Cardinals in the pre-Arenado times. Not so sure of the appeal now, not as they move toward spring.
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