Join Cardinals beat writer Derrick Goold for his live chat at 11 a.m. Friday
Bring your Cards questions and comments to Friday's 11 a.m. live chat.
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Good question. I've asked him, and his point is that deadline offers clarity on asking prices, and getting ahead of the market means paying a price before all the bidders and pressures of making a deal are in place. The Cardinals have attempted to beat the market before with free agents -- Cecil is a great example -- and they did do it with a trade way way way way back in 2009 by going out to acquire Mark DeRosa. So what's changed? Well, it cannot be need.The Cardinals need a third baseman at the time, DeRosa was available, and it was an obvious trade, so obvious that the Cardinals were in Cleveland a few weeks before it happened, I talked to DeRosa, and I said I'd see him in a Cardinals jersey in a few weeks.The Cardinals have needed a starter for like 15-16 months now. Some have been available. What has changed is the number of berths in the postseason. More teams are in it in June than back in 2009, and that's changing the market. Not saying they couldn't still jump the market, but it certainly caters to their conservative approach to hold back while buyers outweigh sellers. -
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Soto would be a perfect fit for 30 teams. He's 23 and one of the best hitters in the game that now has the universal DH. He's a known quantity and he hasn't turned 25 yet. I cannot think of the last player like him with the track record he has already established that was available to other teams.Walker and Winn would be a high price. Soto is going to command a high price.The Corbin attachment brings us back to the question about the Nats' motivation.
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The word? No, there's video. He got ejected. He kicked a basketball at a game featuring the team he owns. He apologized for his actions. Owners should not kick basketballs as a way to protest officials -- though, imagine Bill DeWitt Jr. chucking a baseball because he's had it with the home-plate umpire. That would be a great story to cover. Either way, that's not word. That's proof. Right there. Rehab is not a 24-hour a day process. Players on rehab or recovering from injuries are allowed to ... live. Jack Flaherty was seen at a recent event out in Los Angeles. There were photos. He's rehabbing there.Why did he return?1) He had a contract.2) He had teammates lobbying him to join him.3) He had a team eager to celebrate that final season and needing him at catcher because they saw him as part of succeeding in that final season.4) Eventually, reuniting with his friend, pal, big brother, Albert Pujols.Hope that helps.
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I guess anything is possible. But it sure seems like they're going to move forward with Hicks as a reliever. It would be good for the team not to enter spring with more experiments and just go with depth of pitching. Nothing wrong with having five starters identified, two ready to go if needed. I'm old school like that.
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Hadn't realized until this past weekend that Topps had put out a "game used" card of you when they honored you in the Allen & Ginter set. How did that process work? They just call you and ask for a shirt? Do they buy it from you or did you just donate it to them?
Also, how did your signed cards work? Did you have to sign in the presence of a Topps rep? Have to use a specific sharpie? -
Yeah, "game-used." So, it was an interesting process. They asked for a shirt or something else that I wore -- and they didn't say it had to be from a game, but it was preferred. I originally talked to them about sending a Mizzou tartan tie. Thought that would be fitting. I'd worn it at a game. But there wasn't enough fabric to snip up and turn into the cards. So, I went with an Oxford that I could prove I wore at a game -- there's photos from that day at PNC Park.They did not buy it from me. I sent it to them.As far as the signatures: Yes, I was supposed to do them in the presence of a Topps official. That was going to happen -- in spring training 2020. As you can imagine, things changed. I received a box of cards at home to sign during that quarantine period. I took photos of me signing them and I had to have a witness there, who also signed an official statement that they observed me signing something like 250 or so cards, including a few of the 1/10 limited ones.It was a tremendous honor to be asked, a fascinating process to be go through, and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I never thought possible. Still amazed such a card exists.
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There should be. Bill DeWitt III told me several years ago: 'In retrospect, you’d have to say yes, because he’s outperformed his contract. I would admit that.'That's from this article:
Goold: High Rollers? Cardinals putting their chips on 2019
STLtoday.comAs the winter meetings begin, Cardinals remain engaged in talks about lefty relievers Zach Britton and Andrew Miller. They're also interested in a reunion with Daniel Descalso as a lefthanded-hitting -
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The Cards should trade for Matthew T of the Flames. we swap after giving up the fastest player on the team and a 1st rounder. THe blues should trade for Soto only giving up Bader and a good pitcher from Springfield and a 1st rounder, plus we pay up. then the blues and cards make a trade. lol
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It was super interesting to see that a tie in the All Star game could now be decided by a HR derby. I hate the extra runner on 2nd - but paradoxically, I think a version of this idea sounds cool. I think it would be cool if, when a game is tied after 12 innings, a sudden death HR derby was triggered. Each team's chosen slugger gets 60 seconds to mash, most HR's win. If they tie, pick another slugger for another round. It wouldn't happen very often - many games would just be decided in extras like normal - but when it did, it would be a THING and it would be exciting.
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Thanks as always for the chats. You mentioned Arenado's opt out in conjunction with the front office making a deadline move to improve the team in the most recent BPIB, you wrote an article about it before the All Star Game, but how much pressure do you think Mo is under to get something done to make a sunstantial mprovement to the team to keep Arenado from opting out? (separate from just the pressure to improve the team) I realize the two probably can't be completely separated, but I can't imagine a bigger PR disaster than Arenado walking away from the Cards.
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I think there's pressure, but I'm not sure how much of that has to do with Arenado as it does with several years now of not winning the division, and a lack of urgency/reach in moves being directly tied to why the Cardinals have not won the division. Last year's delay adding pitching still stings, and should still inform the team. The front office has been outmaneuvered by the Brewers, who are also arguably better now at developing pitching. This is a concern for the Cardinals and that is applying the pressure to pull off a deal that changes the team, not just rescues the team.
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I find it interesting you bring up the rise in demand for pitching caused by expanded playoffs.
For years (say 2007-2015ish) it seemed like the Cardinals had a WEALTH of young pitching. Lately, it seems like the organization has switched to focus on developing young hitters. To me, some of their drafts since 2015 seem to support this shift.
Do you think the Cardinals have cost themselves here? The young Shelby Millers, Luke Weavers, Marco Gonzales, etc would have so much more value in today’s game. -
I get what you're saying because of Gorman, Winn, Walker, and the handful of standout prospects the Cardinals have drafted recently on the position player side, but they have not abandoned the pitching end. Not at all. Zack Thompson was the first-round pick in 2019. Michael McGreevy was the first pick in 2021. Both are college pitchers, straight out of central casting. This year, 2022, they went back to the college ranks for a pitcher who could move swiftly to the majors. Look at the outs he gets and how uncomfortable hitters are and I can only imagine that Oliver Marmol is scanning video and metrics to see how soon Hjerpe fits in.In the past three full-season drafts -- 2019, 2021, 2022 -- the Cardinals have taken 20 college pitchers in the first 10 rounds of each drafts, seven this year and seven last year. Pallante was part of the group, for example.I don't see a switch in focus at all, just an improvement in developing hitters that can make an impact on the way to the majors, and perhaps someday in the majors.