Join baseball writer Derrick Goold for his live Cardinals chat at 11 a.m. Monday
Bring your Cards questions and comments to Monday’s 11 a.m. live chat.
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He's a superb defensive catcher. Last I checked on this possibility, I was told -- not by anyone affiliated with the Cardinals -- that the Marlins dig him and plan to keep him. I'm eager to see more about what direction Miami goes into the offseason and if that stance holds. -
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Oh, yes. They do. They spend a lot of time on that. More the production of the young players elsewhere, and some of that is to take credit for identifying talent to begin with, and some of that is to recognize where they have holes in their development or identification of talent. Heck, it was observing the performance of their players elsewhere that prompted the commitment to young outfielders on the roster and the insistence from the front office to look at Yepez as the right-handed DH coming into the season, not signing Pujols until late in spring training. Remember that? That was from the front office looking into how their players had done with other teams. The commitment to Tyler O'Neill is informed by that. They did not want to see him or Bader go and light up Queens with production for a few months of Wheeler. And so on. You can see how their view of their players performing elsewhere has both emboldened their internal view of their ability to identify and build talent and also informed their roster decisions and look at how to improve development and launch into majors.
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Ok, I know this is heresy, but I am a little disappointed with Yadi. He seemed like he mailed it in this year, for some reason. So, my question is, should he not have realized that something was wrong with Helsley earlier in the inning and pointed it out to the dugout? Two walks should tell him that before he hit the next batter.
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There is no evidence that he did not notice that. We all did. The problem wasn't noticing it. The decision was when to act on it, and when to trust Helsley to figure it out and find his feel. That's all. It wasn't a lack of recognition by Molina, Maddux, or Marmol.
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I think Quintana has pitched his way into being an interesting fit for the Cardinals, one who makes a lot more sense here at the start of October than he did when the trade was made in July. The Cardinals recently described Jordan Montgomery as "one of the best pitchers in the league," and I found that interesting. They do have him for one more season, Matz under contract, and Quintana is a free agent. Is a three-lefty rotation the direction they want to go? Hard to see a spot for all three if the Cardinals are going to lineup Mikolas, Hudson, and Flaherty as parts of the rotation, too. There's a real riddle there, but Quintana's style of pitching, his fit for the clubhouse, and yes his cost -- there's just a lot there that suggests he'd be a good fit for a return, and maybe the move is to trade one of the starters to make room.
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Does this new postseason format, change the equation of the "get in and see what happens" approach to building a team? Teams that are built to win the division and did can now be sawed off by teams that lack depth but have a powerhouse lineup or top of the rotation and as we saw, not even get to the division series. The Cardinals won their division handedly and yet, played one more game than last year when they were the 2nd Wild Card.
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If it doesn't, it should. It's early in the new format, but there is already evidence to suggest that the Cardinals need to up their game from competing for a division title and taking on the Braves, Mets, Padres, and Dodgers to finish with at least the second-best record in the NL. It might 100 wins each year that gets the bye.Godspeed, Cardinals.
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I wonder about the thinking of having Donavon hit 5th after for the last 2 months he batted either 1st or second against RH pitching. Did Marmol explain that? All I can think is he thought Donavon would be like a second leadoff hitter for the bottom half of the order? I thought there were opportunities to steal a couple bases that they seemed to afraid to take the chance. If the offense wasn't going to do anything there were chances to force the issue by running and maybe bunting runners over. If Soto can bunt then any of the cardinals shouldn't be above bunting
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I'm sorry to do this, but it seems like it could be that kind of chat today, and I get there was a lot of coverage over the weekend. I don't want to turn this into a link tree. But his answer and his confirmation of making a decision are in the following story, and you can just scroll down to the Wainwright part. You don't need to read the whole thing if you don't want. My sense is not valuable to you as a reader, and it's not fair to you as a reader. My reporting:
Poof! Cardinals’ ‘magic’ season vanishes in sweep. Their next trick is up to new core
STLtoday.comMolina and Pujols single in final at-bats of their careers, but a lack of offense elsewhere, notably from Arenado and Goldschmidt, cost Cardinals in wild-card loss to Phillies. -
If you had to prioritize the needs of the Cardinals in the offseason, how would you rank the following:
1) Catcher
2) Top of the rotation pitcher
3) Shortstop
4) Outfield power bat
5) Relief pitcher(s)
Which of them do you think the Cards will seriously pursue? -
This all comes down to how you define "seriously". Does "seriously" mean trying to pursue them and having conversations about free agents and trades -- then, yes, they will do that seriously for all of these elements. Does "seriously" mean only completing deals/signings? Then we'll wait to find out together. The market hasn't even started, let alone moved. A lot of unknowns at the moment, especially how some teams are going to see their own ability to contend after the first year of this expanded format.The list, in order: 4 (power bat, not necessarily OF), 3, 1, 2 ......................................5.
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I have no idea what that means, honestly, or who that would be. They just need to add depth to the lineup so there are fewer ways to work around it in the postseason. That would be a huge help. So, get good hitters. Find out if their "clutch" later. Make sure they're good.
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Trading Arozarena was ill advised, but the bigger sin was trading Alcantara and Gallen for Ozuna. Having those weapons at the top of the rotation would improve the odds in the three game series, assuming they need many more pieces to build a 100 regular season win team. The Philles had what they needed to move on, we did not.
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The Cardinals' need for a middle-order hitter was so acute, so necessary, so immediate that imagine if they had not made that trade. They would have what ... signed Andrew McCutchen. Or gone young. Imagine the chat if the Cardinals came out of that winter without adding the bat that they so desperately needed and could not develop. I have no idea what the standings would have looked like. But good, I can tell you what the chats would have looked like. I can tell you how ownership would have been frustrated ...
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That is not my intention, no. I said nothing about Gorman. If you have a question about him, best to ask, not infer. And if there's a conflict in the answers, then it's on me to explain or do better reporting.Bryan Reynolds is one of the best players in the NL and arguably the best hitter for an offense that already has better hitters. He would immediately expand a contender's lineup. He would be an ideal fit for what the Cardinals need.
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They expect him to be the starter they saw in the middle of this season and were so excited by. They actually think that his best year is there if he can stay healthy and he builds on what he did in that brief look with the Cardinals. Internally, the pitching coaching staff and his peers are high on his potential (and so, candidly, is Matz, who spoke about this during the second half of the season and what he thought he could do if he just had some luck with the knee and avoided injury).
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There was no chance of turning two on Segura. Ball was hit too slowly. Edman tried to turn the ball into an out at home plate and got himself out of position to field it. He should have made the play at first, moving toward the base, and let the run go in. It was one of the worst spots at the worst pace for that ball to go, and when you do find the replay, take a look at Segura's swing and Pallante's pitch. Not exactly driving that ball.
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I understand Contreras is not an elite defender at catcher, but given the rule changes coming next year, is elite defense as it is currently defined going to be that important? Couldn't the Cardinals use Contreras as a DH, catch 80 games or so while Knizner or Herrera caught the other 80?
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Very involved. Turner Ward was also very involved. My hotel room in San Diego overlooked the ballpark, and five, six hours before game time, as I had lunch and worked on some expenses, I could see Goldschmidt and Ward on the field going through some early batting practices. There were times when Albert would be there -- my view could not see if anyone was on the far side of the shell -- and he'd be recording and gathering video to be watched with Goldschmidt later.It was a team effort. That is what they're paid to do.Goldschmidt's rapport with Ward was a big part of Ward being hired, and Ward's ability to work in complement to Albert was a big boost for the team, and it was something that Shildt, Mozeliak, and a few others had said they needed to add 12 months ago ...