Join Cardinals beat writer Derrick Goold for his live Cardinals chat at 11 a.m. Tuesday
Bring your Cards questions and comments to Tuesday’s 11 a.m. live chat.
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Every Cardinal fan must listen to your podcast with Girsch. It's the best podcast I've ever heard and will give both critics and supporters of the front office a window into the decision making. It's just fantastic. So much more goes into trades and player movement than most people understand.
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You can find that episode of the podcast here:
Cardinals GM Michael Girsch talks trades, challenges, championships expectations with BPIB - Best Podcast in Baseball
"Our fans want to win today. But our fans want to win every year," says Cardinals vice president/general manager Michael Girsch as he joins the Best Podcast in Baseball for the first time to discuss his rise to becoming the 13th GM in organization history and the expectations ownership sets for the club. Girsch, a native of Chicago, joined the Cardinals before the 2006 World Series championship season, worked his way up through the baseball operations structure, and became general manager in June 2017. He's had the position since. With St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer and BPIB host Derrick Goold, Girsch offers insight into how trades are made at the deadline, how the Cardinals' pitching depth has come up lacking two years in a row, and how there's been a Hall of Famer on the field for every generation, and that's something ownership expects. Girsch also discusses his entry into baseball, finding a door that opened in the wake of Moneyball, and the surprises he found once inside the room where things really happen, and not observing from the spreadsheet of an consultant. The Best Podcast in Baseball, sponsored by Closets by Design, is a weekly production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and Derrick Goold. -
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I hope it's been consistent with season's past. I try to be fair and direct, but definitely not ignore all that we can see. If anything, maybe the technology has made that more possible. We can go back and watch any at-bat on-demand and that helps with describing it, for sure. So if the tech has given us more information/more ability to report/review/confirm what happened on the field, then that would be different from 10, 15 years ago. Maybe I'm just a better writer? That's also the hope.
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This is an unanswered question at the moment for the Cardinals and Reyes, and it's possible what happens is they go to him and talk about a deal that is heavy with incentives, gives him some guarantee/security, but also does not plunge the Cardinals back into an arbitration case/discussion. What that looks like? A contract with a lower guarantee coming back from injury, incentives to make what both sides think he could command via arbitration, and then a second year of guarantee (or buyout) that increases based on those same incentives. That way the Cardinals can continue to invest in him and try to get the performance they want from him, and he gets certainty that being out in the free agent market as a player returning from another injury may not have.
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Balanced schedule is a misnomer. The Cardinals will still play the Cubs more than the Dodgers and the Dodgers more than the Twins. It's still tilted based on the league and divisions. They have not done an entirely balanced schedule. And, no, there will not be the fading of the awards into each other, not until the leagues dissolve. Yes, there has been some of that -- umpires are now MLB, not the leagues; the DH is everywhere. But the schedule will still tilt toward the leagues, and so will the awards. The two you mentioned are run by the BBWAA.
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Power-wise, yes. The Cardinals have spent this season asking that same question, and it will be interesting what run they give him in the near future and whether they see his upside with the bat enough to be protected on the Rule 5 draft. There is a lot of questions about, say, Burleson not getting promoted to the majors this month. He does not need to be protected this winter from the Rule 5 draft. So putting him on the 40-man roster means leaving someone else off, and that could be Gomez. Cardinals could go into spring training next year with Gomez, Burleson, and Walker all in camp -- and all with a chance to make the team. But they could not do that if they leave Gomez off the roster. Burleson and Walker would be NRIs.Gomez was once a top prospect in the Rays' system. He added some weight, struggled coming out of the pandemic and lost season, and the Cardinals signed him as a minor-league free agent. He improved his conditioning, and really took off at Class AA, offering protection for Walker in that lineup and power that got him to Class AAA. His position could be DH. And the answer will come when Cardinals can determine how they feel his power will translate.
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It's not certain he will opt out, and that could explain why there's just not much talk about where he fits in free-agent conversation. It's also September, and focus is elsewhere at the moment. He's been limited by injury this season, has an OPS less than .800, and also has an opt-out after the 2023 season. So maybe the timing is right for him to stick with the Twins, get a rebound, robust year, and then hit the open market ...
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I’m following up on a reader about Nootbaar looks as his average,OPS,and SLG has all dropped off the last 30 days. Is it time they just rest him for extended time and let Carlson play with the lead they have. If you can get Carlson going from the left side this would be better for the playoffs I would think?
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No. Carlos Martinez was suspended immediately for a violation of the league's violence policy. And the right-hander also has a pending suspension for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Any thoughts about his career are way way way way less important than thoughts about his family, his children, and what's next for Martinez the person, not Martinez the pitcher.
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Between Bogaerts, Turner, Swanson and Correa there is the potential for a lot of BFIB Dreamin' this winter. For purposes of this witty comment I am assuming the White Sox pick up the option on Tim Anderson although it is hard to predict what the White Sox will do on any given day.
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Beyond the roundedness of 700, a lot of the coolness for me if he makes it is it would reflect a harder accomplishment this year than just passing Arod would be. I thought him getting to 700 was a really tough ask, so doing it would be so impressive. If he came back next year just to hit a few more to get to 700, then it would just be a round number to me.
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I love a feel good story as much as the next guy but Sunday's at bat by Albert sure looked suspicious. My son was with me and said...."Oh thats a joke. He just laid a high fastball up in the zone and made it easy for him." I tend to agree. Lets not go with an all out conspiricy by major league baseball.
However, it sure did look like the Cubs Hughes said to himself...."Let me just throw it as hard as I can and see what Albert can do with it" . Would you disagree? -
I disagree. But this is the internet and facts routinely run behind fanciful fiction. That's the real issue. I find it interesting that people are rushing to explain why Albert Pujols hit a home run in his final swing against the Cubs and not just -- oh yeah -- Albert Pujols is good. Why detract from what Pujols did by trying to suggest it was a conspiracy of Cubs to give him a homer.Give me a break.
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Hi Derrick, really interesting insight about the roster considerations for our AAA outfielders. Wasn't Deluzio added to the 40-man for his callup? If so, what are the Cardinals' plans for him beyond this season? I hadn't heard much about him at all before his promotion. Thank you!
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A question as old as time and never answered quite to the satisfaction of the Cardinals chat. I think we all know the answer at the moment. That said, this winter could have some strong bang-for-the-buck moves, and the Cardinals have fallen short on some of their recent under the radar signings. Yours is a question that will fit in a chat in November, and in December, and then again in 2023, and then in 2024 and then in 2042.
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Does Dakota Hudson get offered a contract this winter? His sample size by now is not that small and he is who he is -- a guy that walks about as many guys as he strikes out. I'm not sure what a tune-up in AAA will do for him besides force him to work faster with the pitch clock, but he still has had control issues throughout his career.
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A former player mentioned that to me the other day and asked if there was another team in the majors that could even claim four. We went through them and listed the Ohtani, Trout, Cole, Judge, does Stanton?, and so on. So five? That's a lofty number, but you've got Pujols and Molina (two), and the more people I talk to the more seem to suggest that Molina is the catcher from this generation that reaches Cooperstown first, and then you've got Arenado and Goldschmidt and then Wainwright. You don't have to squint to see five.
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