Join Jeff Gordon for his live STL sports chat at 1 p.m. Friday
Bring your Cards, Blues, Mizzou, SLU and MLS questions and comments, and talk to columnist Jeff Gordon in his weekly live chat.
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They are in for a challeging year for sure. But if a team needs to have a potential reset, like the Cardinals, doing it while the pandemic limits the attendance is a great time for that. This team will draw the same for a so-so squad in transition than it would for a juggernaut.The build-up for the 2022 season will be interesting.
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I have always wondered how did Brett Hull and Adam Oates put up the numbers they did, but today players get HALF those stats and considered great? TOI more then? The style of play? Brett Hull 3 year period almost 230 goals and if a player today get 120(40 goals a year) in 3 years they are great. Adam Oates 250 assists in the same 3 year period. He did lead the league in assists when only getting in the 60's late in his career.
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Old-timers will recall how Brett Hull chafed at the NHL's shift to defensive-minded hockey -- the neutral zone traps and such. Coaches of teams in the bottom half of the league opted to reduce their margin for error by clogging up the middle of the ice while keeping the score down. The Golden Brett caught the tail end of a great era for hockey scoring before all that took hold. Teemu Selanne can say the same thing about his early days. This is not to take away from Hull and Oates, because that was an amazing tandem. Hull ditched the big windup and developed a quick release. He lurked on offense and jumped into holes. Oates could make sure the puck was waiting for him. Hull valued the quick release over holding the puck and aiming. And he was a volume shooter, like Tarasenko.That was some run.
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So be it. When the club is looking at maxing out at 12,000 attendance after potentially starting at zero, that will lower the spending for sure. They will try to win, as always, but they will have to work within a tighter budget while cycling out some contracts and preparing for bigger moves for 2022. Watching how the young pitchers fare will be interesting. They have some plus prospects on that front. Watching Carlos develop (or not) will be interesting. So will tracking the development of prospects once minor league ball gets going again because there are some interesting hitters there.
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Even with low expectations that the Cards would make only the smallest changes to their lineup, we're now 3 weeks out from the start of spring training and the team still hasn't even come to terms with the 2 future Cardinals' HOF they claim to want back.
At this point, it seems like the team will use a platoon of Carpenter, Sosa, and Edmond to rotate through 2nd and 3rd this season, and will run it back with O'Neil, Bader, and Carlson in the outfield.
The organization says that it will pin its hopes on pitching and defense while trying to finally sort out their pile of 4A outfielders, but can a team with this pathetic of an offense really win playing 2021 baseball? Planning to win every game 3-2 or 4-3 places an insane amount of pressure on a pitching staff that knows just one missed placed slider or hanging curveball to one of the game's many many sluggers can mean falling into hole the offense can't dig out of.
This team has a blackhole on offense in CF and 3B, and nothing but ??? at LF, 2B and C. Saying that this team is going to win by holding teams to 3.5 runs a game and relying on this offense is like saying your going to pay your mortgage every month by getting hot at the roulette wheel. It will work occasionally, but you're just killing time waiting to eventually go bust. -
Like I say every week, the Cardinals' primary goal of 2021 is to get to 2022 in one piece. The franchise is going to lose a lot of money however it operates, but the goal is to position itself to push ahead when the revenue streams reopen. That process includes sorting through pitching, seeing what they really have with Dylan Carlson, defining guys like Harrison Bader, Tyler O'Neill and Lane Thomas once and for all while also evaluating whether deciding if the hitting prospects in the minor are legit. The to-do list for the season is long.
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Good afternoon good sir. What are your thoughts on the Wilks hire at Mizzou?. I'd have to think the DL hire will be crucial to get the unit back to where it was a few years ago. A few higher profile recruits on the interior worldnt hurt either. Hopefully that hire will have the reciruiting chops to make a difference.
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Bringing a guy from with big NFL experience can be a plus, but only if that pays off on the recruiting trail. By all accounts Wilks will bring an upbeat presence and a lot of energy to the job. Obviously he has a ton of experience too. The NFL is all about the Xs and Os, so I trust that he can adjust the defensive schemes to the talent. And, yes, the next defensive line coach will have a big job.
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So,if the cardinals don't want to do anything,that's fine,just come out and say it. Why would Molina even want to come back here? Allegiance goes both ways,you know?I do feel bad for both Yadi and Waino,though,it seems they get a take it or leave it offer from DeWitt.
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If the Cards' goal for the next couple of seasons is to cycle through bad contracts while waiting to see how young talent develops, would you call the team's current state as in a tankless rebuild?
Reading between the lines of what the front office says, that certainly seems like what they view as happening. But why not be more honest with the fans? Saying you plan to compete every year, but then making no real effort to do so, is why these chats are filled with so much frustration and disappointment from fans. Sure, you want to keep attendance up, but you do more damage to your brand misrepresenting the product than you do setting realistic expectations. -
The Cardinals are not tanking. If they were, they would trade Jack Flaherty and Paul DeJong for a stack of prospects. They would approach Paul Goldschmidt to see if he would accept a trade to a contender. That's what tanking looks like.Nobody else is spending in the NL Central either, so it's quite possible for the Cardinals to stay in the division hunt while also trying to limit their losses. About 75 percent of the teams are looking at things the same way.
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Flaherty's potential earning for a monstrous deal is bigger obstacle to a long-term contract here than his activism. Also, it's easy to imagine him wanting to play on the West Coast. The Dodgers have lots of money coming off their books in a few years and the Angels always need pitching.
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I keep seeing that we still need to see what the Cardinals have in Bader. He's been at the big show for 4 years now. How much more can we learn about him at this year that we don't already know? Great defense, averageish hitter. I think is a whipping boy because the rest of the offense is so bad, but they have to stop trying to fool us into thinking he is going to magically have a break out year that we make us forget about his actual performance. He is the back of his baseball card.
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Your partner in crime, BenFred, summarized fans frustration quite well in his chat when he said that he doesn't understand why the Cards feel that maintaining competitiveness and signing a star player are mutually exclusive? Even if the team pockets half of the $60M coming off the books next year, they can still go get one $30M superstar. They have no near term need to pay a pitcher (we know they aren't re-signing Flaherty) and they'll never pay $12M for a middle reliever (or any reliever... maybe Hicks) ever again. So there is no excuse not to spend on a star bat.
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It is a bit ironic that the two NL Central teams that stand head and shoulders above the others in revenue, also have ownership groups who invested heavily in real estate around their respective stadiums right as the pandemic hit, and now seem to be pulling the reins on spending. Fans have to live with teams not spending because they signed bad contracts but fans shouldn't suffer because owners made ill-timed real estate investments.
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Welcome to the free enterpise system. The Cardinals do have a vested interest in long-term success because the DeWitts made long-term investment. So they will take the long view of things. And in the long view, curtailing spending in the face of nine-digit revenue losses makes sense.And are the Brewers, Reds and Pirates throwing huge dollars around? Did I miss something?
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Jeff thanks for the chats! Can you see MO getting a budget type RH bat with some power to platoon with Carp? Todd Frazier or Gyorko both mash LH pitching and could be a good in a platoon situation. I've given up on 21 for the Cards but after reading Goold's interview with Schildt I am looking forward to see how ths budget platooning will work out. I think this may be a strategy to build on.
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