Join columnist 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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On balance, I think Mo has been a not great, but pretty good GM. But I think he suffers in comparison to Armstrong, who is certainly one of the best in the NHL. He absolutely stole Schenn, O'Reilly ( by the way, glad to see Tage doing so well. If I recall, you were always a booster of his) and apparently Buchnevich as well. A fair assessment of something that works against public perception of MO amongst fans? -
Cardinals fans have come to expect success because the franchise has been a name-brand historically and very, very strong during the long haul of the DeWitt ownership. Meanwhile Blues fans had reason to believe their team would never win the Cup. The franchise endured ownership instability, one near-move and enough bad luck to give the fan base and permanently fretful demeanor. Fans are thrilled by Doug Armstrong's success while they expect success from John Mozeliak -- who engineered huge, Armstrong-like moves to get Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado.
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Cuonzo Martin got $6 million to walk, so he never has to work again. Will he? We'll see. He's indicated that he will take the year off and catch up on family stuff. He's a competitive guy, so that could bring him back. But like a lot of old school coaches, he also hates to see where the industry has gone.
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Remember when Oli Marmol was being praised loud & long for his expected shrewd use of metrics and matchups? Well, Albert Pujols hasn't been a league-average hitter against righties since the Obama administration, and Oli has given him 40% more plate appearances versus righties than lefties. And poor Albert now has a nightmarish sub-.300 OPS against them. Not OBP or slugging. Total OPS. And it was just .500 against righties for the entire 2021 season. Way to go, Mr. Matchup!
My question, Gordo, is have you seen pitchers McGreevy and Graceffo in person? They have been equally (extreeeemely) dominant down in High-A Peoria so far, but I was wondering if one impressed you more than the other. -
I have not seen them in person. The independent scouting reports on Michael McGreevy are most favorable. He has a power arm with sinker/slider command that should play well at Busch Stadium. Gordon Graceffo is a fastball/changeup pitcher who started in college and shifted to relief work at Palm Beach before joining the rotation in Peoria. Give Randy Flores and Co. credit for starting to backfill the organizational pitching depth.
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There seems to be a lot of pessimism in the STL sports media about Edman moving to SS to make room for Gorman. If Dejong, Sosa and Edman all played a full year at SS how much different would their defensive analytics be? I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that it would be very difficult to tell the difference on paper.
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Back in the old days, perhaps we would fret more about Tommy Edman's potential range at shortstop -- as we heard about him at second base replacing Kolten Wong. But with teams leaning so hard on fielding shifts, does that reduce the value of an individual ability to cover lots of ground? So often hitters either ground the ball into a small crowd of fielders or they ground the ball into the vacated side of the field. That's a exaggeration, but I would like to see a study on the impact of shifts on the defensive runs saved metric.
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BoBo don't you think a lot of the hardcore fans complain because they want to see the Cards winning continue? I get irritated when Mo makes a deal because he's convinced himself it's a good deal. When I heard he signed Fowler for 80 million I wanted to puke and the same goes for the Carpenter extension. These.kind of moves appeal to the fair weather fans because Carp and Fowler are marketable but a lot of us that follow baseball 12 months a year see through this and know Mo and Dewitt are just doing the bare minimum. All that being said I do feel Mo has done well with trades with the exception of Ozuna and we'll see how the Libatore-Arozarena trade pans out.
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What is the justification to moving Jake Woodford out of sight – he earned the 5th starter spot – while giving Hicks the opportunity at the expense of others to start. Hicks should be at Memphis getting innings until he is ready for 90 pitches. When he is ready, he steps in to replace whomever is struggling. Has an explanation been given for this? Woodford should have been the pitcher last night in lieu of Verhagen – again he earned the chance.
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Happy Friday, Gordo.
Re Nolan Gorman and strikeouts. If a power hitter is fanning a lot and batting .220, that's serious cause for concern. If he's whiffing a ton but batting .320, then don't fret about it. Because it very likely means he is making consistent tremendous contact when he does meet the ball. If Nolan G. is still batting .300+ with a 4-digit OPS in mid-May, then he should replace Dickerson as the lefty half of the DH position -- assuming Corey hasn't come around by then, of course. -
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Sit Rosen the game after he scores 2 goals? His career stats indicate he is an offensive juggernaut. Obviously, Berube can't coach. Lucky for him, Tortorella has set the NHL coaching bar so low. Seriously, though I understand Krug needed to come back in the lineup. But, as it turns out, not for long.
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I've noticed that several players in MLB have played in Japan for the "Nippon Ham Fighters". I was wondering exactly just how does one "fight a ham"? I would think it would have to be a pretty one-sided affair. The ham just lies there. Heck, you don't have to fight it. Ingestion is all that's necessary. I was hoping you could enlighten me about this. Thanks, Jeff, and have a pleasant tomorrow.
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When they hear this team name, people either envision a guy pummeling a helpless ham or using said ham as a weapon in battle. Both scenarios are silly. What happened is the Nippon Ham company bought the team. The team nickname is Fighters. Frist name Nippon Ham, last name Fighters.
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Thanks for the chat, Gordo!
Esoterica question, Jeff. Will MLB teams be compensated with draft picks going forward, when they lose their better players/pitchers to free agency? Or has that compensation been abolished in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement? I'm pretty sure the Qualifying Offer thingy has gone away, but I'm foggy on the specifics overall. Thanks, Gordo. -
I will defer to Baseball America, which had this breakdown:
"Even if an international draft is implemented, teams that lose free agents are still eligible to receive a compensatory draft pick. Compensatory draft picks will be awarded as follows:
"Clubs that receive revenue sharing will receive a third-round pick if the player signs for more than $35 million total or $18 million in average annual value, a compensation round B pick if the player signs for more than $55 million or $23 million in average annual value, a compensation round A pick if the player signs for more than $100 million or $30 million in average annual value, or a third-round pick and compensation round A pick if the player signs for more than $150 million or $40 million in average annual value.
"Clubs that do not receive revenue sharing but don’t go over the CBT will receive a third-round pick if the player signs for more than $55 million or $23 million in average annual value, a compensation round B pick if the player signs for more than $100 million or $30 million in average annual value, or a compensation round A pick if the player signs for more than $150 million or $40 million in average annual value.
"Clubs that go over the CBT will receive a third-round pick if the player signs for more than $100 million or $30 million in average annual value or a compensation round B pick if the player signs for more than $150 million or $40 million in average annual value."
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jeff - I think the Molina concerns are legitimate . I think most fans want the Cards to win and right now Molina is not playing well at all. I think there are a far smaller group that want to see him play because he is a legend. Doesn't make either right or wrong but if it continues the manager has to decide if he wants to win or placate the group that like to long for the past .
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I have a hockey strategy question: In the Blues' OT loss against Boston, Berube had Thomas out there to take the faceoff. Given how important possession is in OT, I would have thought that putting ROR to take the faceoff would have made more sense--he's the only center with a winning FO%, (57%). Thomas has faded in this regard and is now a bit below 50%. If ROR wins, he can skate off and Thomas can come on. If he loses, he's a superior defender. What should the strategy be?
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The way overtimes are played now, the team that wins control of the puck might spend the entire 5 minutes circling around looking for a shot. Teams do not want to exchange chances. So winning the draw is crucial. Robert Thomas has won a lot of big draws this season, so we will continue to see him take a lot of draws. As for the overtime, Thomas' speed and edgework make him especially dangerous in that format. So does his chemistry with Vladimir Tarasenko. Using O'Reilly with the idea of taking him off the ice right away is harder to pull on in the 3-on-3 format.
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Hey, Gordo!
It said you edited my previous post. Was it the terrible puns or the profanity that you removed? (Just kidding, I know it was the Jake Woodford question, rendered redundant by another chatters query.) My new question, Jeff, is have you seen Connor Thomas pitch? He was great in Memphis down the stretch last year (last 12 starts, 2.22 ERA) as the second-youngest starting pitcher in all of AAA, and he's going good again this year (2.31 ERA so far). Looks like John Tudor Lite, to me. Or maybe Bud Smith Redux. What say you, baseball sage? -
Thomas has added a bit of velocity, but he is not a power arm under the current definition. He is a fastball/slider/changeup lefty with good command. So that projects him to be a fifth starter/long reliever type. Given this team's lack of pitching depth -- made worse by Drew VerHagen's hip impingement -- we could see him. For now lefty Packy Naughton is getting first call to fill in as a reliever.
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Edmundo Sosa has limited big league experience, so on balance Paul DeJong has been the better big league shortstop. Sosa was the better player in his small sample size as a starter last season because DeJong faded badly as a hitter. So the comparison is difficult until Sosa sees more time in the bigs and DeJong gets to prove whether he can or can't get back on track.
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