I expect Hampus Lindholm is that guy, but he would be a high-priced rental. I'd be surprised if Armstrong met that price for rental, but he has often surprised me.
That's a surgical strike right there.
I absolutely wish I had a dollar for every time I heard him use that phrase.
The Blues like the work of Faulk and Krug quite a bit. I believe the solution needs to be upgrading Parayko's partner.
They were pretty close in OPS last season. Not much separating them there. Dickerson can add to the outfield defense, which is a plus, and Yepez could still add multi-positional flexibility.
Low-hanging fruit: J,A. Happ, assuming he hasn't landed anywhere when I wasn't looking. He fit the team chemistry well and found some fixes.
I am warming up to Kim English, because I believe he would be smart enough to build the right support structure. He would draw fans, at least at first, and this turnaround has to start somewhere. He can recruit and like Drinkwitz, he would embrace NIL.
Good for him. I read where he spent all winter trying to rework his swing. Not having guaranteed millions anymore is a powerful motivator.
Your assessment is spot on. The Blues could catch fire in the playoffs, but realistically their better chance could come after more retooling on their roster and Colorado taking some salary cap hits. So reconfiguring the roster in the summer could make more sense if they can't add the right D-man with remaining term during the next few days. Now, a Chychrun trade could still happen before the deadline and fit that model of preparing for two or three years down the line.
They could another hitman for sure, but the higher priority is defense. Achieving both of those goals would be really, really hard.
There were some boosters who wanted to see him get another shot. I was a Martin fan, but this season raised so many doubts. Ultimately the decision came down to "times have changed" and it was time to seek a coach that played a faster tempo and embraced the current recruiting/transfer budget.
Among the top mid-majors, McMahon is still coaching and that complicates the search for a school like Mizzou, which is not a top destination. The longer the school waits, the more candidates they like could sign elsewhere. So that leaves Gates and English, unless Wyoming's Jeff Linder is also in the mix. He could bring former Missouri Western head coach Sundance Wicks with him off of his Wyoming staff.
Burleson could use a year in at Triple-A to work on his fielding. And Nootbaar and Dickerson could both play on the same day in the DH world. Expect Marmol to shuffle his mix more on a day-to-day, inning-to-inning basis than Shildt did. Perhaps Nolan Gorman will more more impacted by this signing that Nootbaar, since Lars has established himself to a degree.
That will be interesting to see. Will he pursue a passion outside of coaching, perhaps in the community service realm, or will his competitiveness draw him back to the mid-major level? But it might be easier for a younger guy (Bryce Drew, Archie Miller) to make that step back while trying to work back to the big time.
There are many free agents available, mostly back-of-the-rotation veterans. Depending on the second opinion on Flaherty, Mozeliak should definitely add guy and not put the Jake Woodfords on the depth chart on the spot.
The lack of work with the training staff and coaches who are trained to build up or rehabilitate arms that was critical. There is an army of people, including orthopedic specialists, who work in concert on this stuff. Players can seek independent advice, but aggravating an injury while locked out could come back on the player. So I could see why the player would wait until the lockout ended. If that means they miss time, then that's on the owner for locking them out.
If he is healthy and motivated, that could work.
The roster is not frozen. They could add guys this spring, they could add guys during the summer. About half the team in baseball aren't trying to win, so there will always be guys available. Their current estimated Opening Day 26-man roster payroll is a shade over $150 million, but wouldn't much with injuries and such to get that to $170 million.
Hi, Jeff. Happy Friday. The MLB Network is a joke. As a Cardinal fan living in Florida, I must rely on that network to see some of the Cardinals games. Today the network showed the first 4 innings of Cards-Astros, and then switched over to Kris Bryant and Freddie Freeman press conferences. Would MLB Network have pre-empted a Yankees, or Cubs, or Red Sox game to show a spring training press conference? Not a chance. Maybe Ken Rosenthal can ask his buddy Rob Manfred about that.