Join columnist Ben Frederickson for a live STL sports chat at 11 a.m. Tuesday
Ben Frederickson answers your Cardinals, Blues, St. Louis City, Mizzou and SLU questions in Tuesday's 11 a.m. live chat.
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Hey gang, hope you had a good Memorial Day weekend. I'm here to help as you "ease" back into the work grind. I'll be in the saddle for a few hours before I head down to Busch Stadium. As I type, the Blues are holding their end-of-season press conference. I can pass along some notes from there as it goes. So far Brayden Schenn -- one tough dude -- confirmed he played through multilple rib injuries this season. Jordan Binnington says he's not going to need surgery on the knee that was injured in the Nazem Kadri collision. OK, let's roll. -
Add NIck Plummer to the FO aka MO's list of swings and misses on evaluating talent and/or not getting anything in return for talent or giving away players and bad signings and the dead money contracts to be absorbed.
Nick Plummer had a break out year last year, and the reward is to be designated for assignment because the 40 man roster is not being managed adeptly.
I bet MO thanks the man upstairs for Jason Heyward signing with the Cubs and the ex-GM/management team of the Rockies - they didn't last long after the Arenado trade.
We are all glad that the young prospects are performing well and they resisted all trades for Gorman and Liberatore, but who can they trade to get a front-line starter for this year and into the future?
Good teams with motives to go deep into the playoffs need to have at least TWO good starting pitchers - power pitchers preferably - that can help them win series. That also works during the regular season... -
Plummer is under official consideration to join the list of "ones that got away."But it's going to take more than nine at-bats, even a power-packed nine, to drive that point home.The Cardinals were pretty convinced they had a rocking young outfield locked and loaded for years to come. Carlson's ups and downs and his injury have upset that plan. But the biggest thing upsetting it is Tyler O'Neill falling off a cliff.That turbulence sets the stage for Plummer to build a case for Cardinals what-ifs. He's off to a great start.
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We can't say Arenado is having an outstanding year at the moment. He had an outstanding April. Not May. His battling line dropped from .375/.444/.681 last month to this month's nearly complete .184/.255/.367. Yikes.Goldschmidt has been more consistent, but turned an OK (for him) April (.282/.356/.372) into a massive May (.406/.465/.822). I don't know why opponents are giving him any pitches to hit right now, especially with Arenado searching.Yes, the Cardinals need pitching help .Their free-agent additions in that department have not been good enough or reliable enough. There's really no other way to put it. If Matz gets healthy and Flaherty gets healthy, things could work out. Those are two big ifs. Last season's delay to add rotation help taxed the bullpen and cost the Cardinals a chance to win the division. Similar themes playing out this year, so far. Seems to me like Oliver Marmol is showing the front office with his actions -- running Mikolas into the ground the other day in a loss and using Gallegos earlier and earlier -- that he needs innings and a righty reliever who can get outs.
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I think they should try to get David Perron back. He proved his leadership and skill in the postseason entering a free-agency period. When some of the other forwards no-showed, he came up big.The Tarasenko situation is going to be significant again. His value should be higher than before, much higher, and he's entering the final year of his deal. If he wants out still, now would be the time to shop him. If he wants to stay, but he and the team don't see the same range in terms of an extension, it might be time to shop him anyway.The Blues need to figure out if Jordan Kyrou and Robert Thomas are guys they're planning on betting on for the long haul -- most seem to think yes -- and then see what they can do to continue to improve the defense so it can hold up better against teams like Colorado.I think it's OK to let Husso's free agency play out. I imagine there will be a team that will pay him to be their number one, or at least compete for it. I think the Blues are OK rolling with Lindgren as backup if need be.
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I'd give Dallas Keuchel a shot. Left-handed. Groundball getter. Cheap, which the Cardinals like and seem to prefer during this in-season scrambles for innings. If he doesn't work, so what? If he's healthy, he could be a good change-of-scenery candidate. Something that has not been pointed out enough is that Keuchel is a groundball guy who was pitching for a White Sox team that has a bad defense. The Cardinals have a good defense and a pitcher's park at home.
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Mozeliak scorecard
guys he traded away, current statistics
Carson Kelly 20 games, batting .105
Randall Grichuk 38 games .271
stephen piscotty 14 games .225
dexter fowler 0 games. cut from Toronto, now in minor leagues 1 game with AAA buffalo
Tommy Pham 42 games .233 now suspended for 3 games
Randy Arozarena 45 games .264
lane thomas 42 games .198
matt carpenter 4 games .111
Kolton Wong 46 games .224
Sandy Alcantara - Mozeliak's biggest miss. 10 games, 5-2 2.00 ERA for Miami.
Traded For
Got Nolan Arenado in trade for Elehuris Montero, Austin Gombar, Mateo Gil, Tony Locey, and Jake Sommers. Montero is the only guy who has appeared in the majors, batting .500 (2 for 4) in 1 game for Colorado. The other 4 guys never made the majors.
Got Paul Goldschmidt in trade for Carson Kelly, Luke Weaver ( 1 game, 13.50 ERA for Arizona), and Andrew Young Young played 2 years for Arizona, batted .205, is no longer in the majors. -
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Source? Look, he should be a little mad. The guy is a competitor. He lost his job for part of the season. The Blues turned to Husso, not Binnington, to start the postseason. If Binnington was OK with that, then something is wrong. That said, he has to know Husso was outplaying him during that time. He has to be an honest evaluator of his performance. He worked, played better, and reminded everyone why he's the guy the Blues have bet on with the contract, and the guy who lead the Blues to a championship. If it wasn't clear before, it is now. Binnington is the Blues' top goalie. He would be pretty crazy to foul up his own comeback with baggage about what happened before it.
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It was a little alarming over the weekend to hear Mo say on KMOX that they are just trying to "stay afloat" until Matz and Flaherty are back. There's no guarantee either one will be back soon or back and pitching strongly for a while. Seems like last year should have been a big lesson for them, but there doesn't seem to be any more urgency now, and things seem to be trending the same way. And there's always a fear in the back of my mind that Waino is due for an injury. Thanks for the chat!
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Pham slaps Pederson before the game over a personal grudge and gets suspended 3 games. Donaldson makes racially offense comments to Anderson that leads to benches clearing during the game and gets suspended 1 game. I find the disingenuous “I was just joking around and meant no disrespect” behavior to be a much more serious problem. A few years ago the Red Sox banned a fan for life after making racist remarks to a player. Obviously Manfred doesn’t believe racism is a real problem. He’s blind deaf and dumb when it comes to social issues.
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I suppose that's the difference between words and actions.Donaldson's words can be explained, even if not convincingly.Pham's slap can't.One is physical violence, the other words that left two sides disagreeing about intent.Pham got suspended for less than 2 percent of the season for what on the street would be assault.In a normal job, he's fired, no questions asked.
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The injuries to Carlson and O'Neill bought him time. With Gorman up and in the mix at DH and second, Donovan and Yepez should get some more corner outfield action. Dickerson should sit. Mozeliak can keep him on the roster, but Marmol doesn't have to play him. He's not giving them anything at the plate. His adjusted OPS is 33. League average is 100. It was said at spring training that the Cardinals felt like the hitting staff could unlock Dickerson's power. That won't be brought up, I'm sure, when Dickerson is let go down the line.
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There seemed to be a lot of people who seemed to forget or refused to understand that Kadri could have wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to get bodies on Binnington without knowing the exact outcome of that event. Kadri could not have known Binnington was going to be hurt on the play. That doesn't mean he didn't want to create the collision. I asked a former player about it in the press box after the dust settled. The response was, without question, yes, you know what you are doing in a spot like that, because you know it's a gray area and you know it's always good to shake up a locked-in goalie when you get the chance. A lot of "hockey people" looked dumb "defending" Kadri by chanting "hockey play" over and over again. The intent was the discussion, and they glossed over that. Kadri didn't get penalized. He didn't get punished by the league. Did he know what he was doing? Yes. I don't know why more people did not acknowledge that. Some seemed to think doing so was some sort of agreement with the out-of-line crap Kadri received after the incident. That's bogus, of course.
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Good morning Ben, Nolan Gorman is starting to be one of the teams hottest hitters. That’s brings me to why would the sit him tonight against a lefty, giving that they don’t want him hitting against lefty’s? If he’s going to help this team he going have to get AB against lefties and Sosa is not going is a offensive and defensive worse player. He is always swinging for the fence’s and still committed errors in the field.
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I don't think the lineup is out yet for tonight?Generally speaking, Oli Marmol is playing more guys than the Cardinals have traditionally. And at more spots. He's following through on what the Cardinals talked about this spring, trying to have a deeper and more dynamic team in part because of a deeper and more dynamic bench. Part of that means getting guys some chances where it makes sense, against pitchers they project well against. The Cardinals think spreading out the workload will lead to more players being ready to contribute and better results over the course of the season. And Gorman not starting a game doesn't mean he can't enter it. It's just a more versatile dynamic approach, and it's going to take some getting used to. The idea that a player has to play every day, in the same spot, no matter what, is no longer the case.Gorman is not a better defensive player than Sosa.
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The NHL has not opened up dressing rooms to the media since COVID. A couple players come out to a table to do group interviews after games, and that was the case in the postseason. Parayko was not one of the players who talked after Game 6. I'm guessing he would have said he screwed up. Not much else to say. It was one of his worst games.He had a pretty good postseason, though, to be honest. Played a ton of minutes. Two goals. Three assists. Was a plus-5 in the postseason.Some Blues fans are all over him, all the time, no matter what he does.
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I’m going to the game tonight and hoping the team doesn’t play Sosa over Gorman for the fact that it seems the team chemistry not there with Sosa/ Dickerson as with Gorman/Yepez/Donovan plus the you take out a dangerous bat for a mediocre bats and just giving up a loss.
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Ben,
I guess we will see the urgency the FO has to bring in pitching help. This season sure seems like a repeat of last, where injuries' have thinned out the rotation and it will tax the bullpen to shreds if they don't bring in outside help. Do you think the Cardinals will make a move? -
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I think it's time to take a look at Burleson in AAA. Bats L throws L. He needs some run in LF. If he produces for 2 mths, maybe O'Neill becomes the bait for a SP. O'Neill, J Oviedo, Luken Baker & Delvin Perez ( he can't hit his weight, but has that 1st rd pick shine everybody loves to talk about ) for Montas.
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He's averaging .331 and slugging .601 with more than twice as many hits as strikeouts. And he's slugging .700 against righties. Yes, it would be nice to see him. He's not on the 40-man, so it would take moving someone off it. Again, I'll point out Dickerson is not doing a lot for this team at the moment.
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I can tell you the Cardinals don't get too worked up about where their prospects rank when compared to other organizations, and Cardinals fans shouldn't either. Randy Flores knows what he's doing as scouting director, and one of the things that doesn't get factored into those rankings is how an organization prepares players for their shot, and convinces them that if they do what they are supposed to do, you will get one. That matters. A lot.
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Ottawa is willing to trade its first-round pick (seventh overall) for a top 4 defenseman. We haven’t had a top ten first round draft pick since 2008. They took Pietrangelo #4 that year. I’d love to trade Parayko and get rid of his salary, but I doubt the Sens bite at that apple. Would Mikkola be enough for a first-round pick?
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I guess I'll be the Parayko defender this offseason. Fine by me. Can he be better? Yes. Are the Blues better off without him? Hard for me to see that. People are quick to see what he doesn't do and overlook what he does.. Mikkola showed some physicality this season. Would hate to see him breakout somewhere else. Scandella can be traded. Leddy was good but not sure he's a must-keep unless he takes a steal of a deal. Perunovich's future must be figured. There are lots of levers Army can pull to try to upgrade the defense a bit more. I think it would be risky to trade either of those two you mentioned.
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Hello, Ben
Long time reader of yours, but I have to agree with a few of the commenter’s about Nolan Gorman. You can’t take his bat out of the lineup right now it’s too hot and with a struggling Arenado we need it.
Also Gorman numbers are outperforming Sosa right now so even if snell is a lefty unless Marmol want to lose this game and be questioned about it later he has to be crazy to take Nolan’s bat out of the lineup. -
I wasn't even advocating for Gorman to sit.I'm just suggesting that the "this guy needs to play every single day" stuff is not always how it's going to work moving forward.Marmol is going to pay attention to the splits, the match-ups, the projections.He's going to get guys off their feet before they need it, try to keep bench guys from getting too much rust, and so on.If Marmol -- or any manager -- made his decisions based on how fans can question it after a loss, he would never get out of bed in the morning.
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Ben, I’m with you on Keuchel. He’s worth a shot as a low cost bounce back candidate. I have a lot more faith in our pitching coach, pitching staff and Yadi to revive him than Albert helping O’Neil find his swing again. Plus the rotation needs help sooner rather than later.
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The Cardinals I'm sure have an opinion internally on if he's cooked or not, but if they think he has some gas left in the thank, it could be worth the very minimal risk. If Matz and Flaherty stormed back to push him out, that's would be a great problem to have. Betting on Matz and Flaherty staying healthy once they get healthy is not the safest bet, either.