The 2017 Cardinals are America

title taken from the last lines of this really good article mookie posted about Dexter Fowler.

i liked the way earlnash kicked off the reds thread
so i'll rip him off, sorry:

1 man, i am really dreading all the coverage about wainwright trying to maintain his ace status, because it's obviously carlos martinez. wainwright's peripherals in 2016 were better than you'd expect, but i watched most of his starts, and it was just ugly most of the time. his contract runs out in 2018, and the best-case scenario for him is that he manages to hold onto the 4th starter role. leake will be leake, but even an average defense behind him in the infield should improve his results a little. lance lynn is one of the players i'll be watching closely in spring training. people seem bullish on his ability to bounce back, and his recovery seemed to go smoothly. his contract is up after 2017, so if things go south before the trade deadline, he'll be gone. i will feel better about alex reyes tommy johnsoning once the season is underway, i suppose, but right now it's a bleak way to start the season. we'll have to wait until late 2018 to see if he'll be able to improve his command at all. even if he doesn't, his stuff can still be jaw-droppingly effective. his floor is elite reliever, and it wouldn't be surprising him to be the kind of pitcher who can bust out a 14K gem at any time. his spot will go to either wacha or luke weaver, i'd guess. there are arguments to be made for both of them, but ultimately i think wacha's arm condition will point him in the direction of the bullpen, and weaver's stuff is 4SP or 5SP level. i'm not sure they'll end up in there in 2017, but by 2018 that's where they'll be. there's also a small possibility of a rosenthal experiment, but that would require either catastrophic early performances from both wacha and weaver or an exceptional performance (and surprise development of a third pitch) from rosenthal.

the bullpen should be strong. too bad matheny doesn't know how to use one. he's not quite as bad with it as his reputation suggests, but he still used broxton on a regular basis and you just know he's going to do it again this year. i will miss watching oh after this year. hopefully we'll get to see him all year. along with lynn, he'd be one of the first guys to go if the team isn't in contention mid-year, and regardless he'll be gone at the end of the year. i can't remember the last cardinal player with a knockout slider on oh's level. it's just wicked. you know it's coming, but it fools everyone.

2 yadi's contract goes through 2017, with an option year that will almost certainly be exercised in 2018. one of the bigger storylines going for the cardinals right now is how the transition to carson kelly is handled. kelly is the top-rated MLB catching prospect and having him on the bubble is comforting to me - i don't see him as a perennial all-star but i expect above-average catching (he won a minor league gold glove in 2015, not bad for a guy who first began playing the position a year before) and average hitting. it's molina's job for 2016, of course, but an ideal transition would involve reducing his time at catcher in 2017 (and maybe more time at 1B?), but it's hard to see matheny letting that happen. anyway, not sure why i'm talking about that since it's likely to play out more prominently in 2017, but an injury to yadi might introduce that storyline a little earlier.

3 matt carpenter moves (again) from 3B to 1B. his relative offensive positional value might take a hit as a 1B, but his average-y defense might balance things out since he should be better than whatever we were playing there last year. his leaving 3B should theoretically help the defense there as well since either gyorko or peralta would represent a step up (more confident in gyorko, but peralta might be decent as well since his problem is range, not his arm)

4 second base is kolten wong's to lose, again, in 2017. as long as he doesn't go two games in a row with an 0 for 4, he should be ok. as we all know, the matheny penalty for consecutive games in a row with zero hits is a spell of imposed adversity. matheny deploys this spell as an area attack inflicting multiple enemies (e.g. the minor-leaguing of randal grichuk), but since his INT is only 4 the roster has some decent depth, the overall effect is weak and merely annoying. the defense up the middle should improve with regular playing time for wong. i don't know if his hitting will ever come around, at least not consistently. but he's still capable of speed and power at any moment.

5 gyorko vs peralta in the battle to see who can be the king of beef. i guess i'm a jerk but something about gyorko rubs me the wrong way. i'm not sure i've ever even heard him talk but i imagine him to be the guy who stuffs you in the locker and then refuses to own up to it to the principal. he's probably not a jerko, but he is jedd gyorko. in some ways i can see him peralta-ing even more than jhonny peralta did between his age 32, 33, and 34 seasons. it's amazing how much baseball abilities can balance on an edge, and peralta's a fine example of that. he lost a step at SS and suddenly became a liability there. his swing looks just a bit slower than it was a few seasons ago, and now it seems like he can never catch up. perhaps he'll end up in the best shape of his life after spring training but for now he seems like he should serve as depth or trade bait if he manages to impress before the break.

6 it's still hard to believe aledmys diaz is real. we can rightfully expect regression, but anyone watching him every day last year knows he's not a fluke. he tailed off a bit in the second half but that can probably be attributed in part to his thumb injury, and he still managed good power and kept his walk rate up. his defense was an issue in the first half but he really calmed down during the second half. i think his floor is higher than a lot of people expect, and wouldn't be surprised at another all-star season.

7 grichuck shifts from CF to LF, which should help the defense there. moss held up ok last year, but holliday was painful to watch. grichuk was a strong 2-outcome player (HRs and strikeouts, very few walks) after he recovered from the matheny spell of minor imposed adversity, but if he goes into any sort of slump, matheny will be there to make sure that he never forgets it. at that point you have tommy pham as the fourth outfielder, a guy who might have turned into a starling marte if his body weren't made of glass and swizzle sticks. if anyone goes down with injury and pham becomes an everyday player, the cardinals will need to decide between an early promotion for harrison bader or some sort of trade for depth.

8 the optimistic version of the 2017 goes like this: fowler works a 6-pitch walk, is able to use his speed to make it over to third on a single by diaz, and then makes it home on a 7-pitch carpenter sac fly or hit. if all three of those guys can manage .360+ OBP it will be a much more entertaining team to watch than last year. i haven't seen him on defense too much, but i'm sure everyone will be watching to see if the improvements in 2016 were attributable to his deeper positioning or not. i like dexter fowler a lot. don't fuck this up, st. louis and baseball fans and world in general.

9 puuuhscotty. puuuh-scotty. i can't stop saying his name like that, really slow and drawn out, sometimes with a b at the beginning instead of the p. he kind of epitomizes the current cardinal configuration. his floor is average, his ceiilng is slightly above average. he'll get into a mini-slump every once in a while but he's generally steady. when you see a prospect that rates out to average to just below average in all categories, it's kind of boring and hard to work up too much enthusiasm, but piscotty is a good example of what that kind of profile can result in. you never wind up in an in-game situation where you think "goddamn it, if only it wasn't piscotty!". you're always mildly optimistic when it's him coming up.

http://i.imgur.com/2cACL3w.gif

wow that was a lot of text, sorry. months of off-season boredom all pent up, i guess. here's the summary, i guess: if the cardinals manage to grab a wildcard spot in 2017, i think they're going to need stronger than expected performances from grichuk and wong. the 2017 cardinals have a high floor and a low ceiling. if anyone's going to be a pleasant surprise this year, it's going to be grichuk or wong (outside chance to harrison bader). the worst case scenario is a repeat of 2016 - the team is close enough at the trade deadline to decide against selling, but they don't have quite enough to make the wildcard. a result like this year would be particularly bad because they should have good depth/tradebait (peralta/lynn/oh/weaver) that could really help out for 2018.

fowler's already getting the st. louis welcome

for sure. and i think it drew in a fair amount of non-cardinal fans as well.

(fwiw i interviewed gyorko back when he was a padres prospect and he was perfectly nice. and actually had a personality, unlike matt adams. i am a bad interviewer tho)

http://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2017/2/23/14706270/overlooked-moments-in-cardinals-world-series-history-pt-1-1982

some great clips of the on-field pandemonium after the last pitch in 1982. it's crazy how unruly things used to get, it feels like a different world.

@Cardinals
Luke Weaver removed from game. Left with the trainer. We'll pass along more information once available.

oof.

@RobRains
Matheny says Luke Weaver had spasm in lower back, removed for precautionary reasons. #STLCards

exhale

*reverse oofing noise*

he's almost certain to be depth SP this year anyway, at least until someone else goes down.

"it's crazy how unruly things used to get, it feels like a different world."

I think the Chambliss HR in the Bronx has to be one of the craziest.

this is awesome: http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/birdland/goold-wainwright-gives-prospect-sherriff-a-license-to-drive/article_406cb9e5-d0e8-5fa4-86e1-19de631a0f2c.html

(might have been worth pointing out that one of the reasons he didn't have a car was probably that MINOR LEAGUERS DON'T GET PAID FOR SPRING TRAINING but anyway)

http://i.imgur.com/bZtQi8R.png

i love the small angry secondary mouth between his eyebrows.

It appears the right lat muscle soreness Cardinals righty Trevor Rosenthal has been battling will kill his chances of winning a place in the team’s rotation. Moreover, it could stop the ex-closer from beginning the year as a multi-inning fireman, reports Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “Rosenthal – now, saying could he get the innings he needs to contribute as a starter or a multiple-inning relief appearance? “I think that is still in question,” said manager Mike Matheny. “It’s very important that at some point this week he gets into a game and we can get that pitch count up.” Regardless of whether Rosenthal is well enough by April to toss multiple innings in an appearance, someone figures to serve as that type of weapon for the Cardinals. General manager John Mozeliak called it “very appealing” to Matheny, and Goold adds that John Gant, Matthew Bowman, Miguel Socolovich, Tyler Lyons and Sam Tuivailala are possibilities to fill that role.

the problem with trying to replicate the andrew miller role is that we don't have anyone approaching andrew miller. Oh is the closest, but he is the closer so he must be used only for 9th inning save opportunities. if we're midseason and matheny is deploying tyler lyons in key high leverage moments and then leaving him in for 3 innings (only taking him out after letting him bunt with 1 out in the inning before, of course), we're in deep shit

also i am really looking forward to DR vs PR tonight (carlos martinez is starting, hopefully yadi is too)

i know i'm falling prey to recency bias because he has been absolutely awful today, but i see wainwright as the 5th best starter in the rotation this year. martinez is clearly better, no need to elaborate. lynn has looked like his old self. wacha has been a pleasant surprise as well. leake will probably keep being average, but that's better than wainwright these days. he made a big deal about his alleged rediscovery of his curveball a few weeks ago, and said that over the offseason he was tossing the ball around with his wife and suddenly realized (after fasting and praying passionately for 40 days and 40 nights) that back during his old tyme excellent curveball days he had employed a ~different grip~. With his redisovery of the blessed grip his curveball would be back to where it once was. the way he talked about was like the prodigal son had returned. he also admitted that he never had a feel for the curveball in 2016.

anyways, it's been painful watching his pitch today, but it's not that much different from watching him pitch last year.

good lord, i typed all that before that grand slam

wainwright:
1.2 innings
4 BB
0 K
10 ER
7 H
1 HR

game score of -8

honestly it looked way worse than that

bengie has some thoughts on the yadi extension:

"It annoys me how the Cardinals have put some distance with him," Bengie said. "He's not asking for seven years or 10 years or $200 million. He's asking for three years, at least, in his hometown, in the place that he's sweat in that jersey so much. He's given his all for that jersey all his career since the Minor Leagues.
"Don't you want to have this kid? This is a leader, man. This is a kid who can help your catchers, take care of your catchers. This is a kid who can take care of the pitching and show them so much. Don't you want to let him finish his career, three more years, and whatever he wants? He just wants to be the best-paid catcher."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWQACEMW0i4

he had me until the last sentence

puuuhscotty. puuuh-scotty. i can't stop saying his name like that, really slow and drawn out, sometimes with a b at the beginning instead of the p

when i was a kid i said it like this too, until i finally realized i was supposed to pronounce it steven spaghetti

punxsutawney, obvs

@LangoschMLB
Matheny hinted that Matt Adams will see his first game action in the outfield later today. Stay tuned.

who said spring training was boring

Matheny's brain

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/4a/6e/ee/4a6eeee98d87505f483e26ca04955064.gif

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--sDpwVVlr--/blrasaynicot8xuf4moo.jpg
and he's still injured from that #Mike

one of the rules of america card nation is that we must have a completely inappropriate person ready to play outfield at any moment. if none can be found, matheny will just find someone on the DL (a Grichuk) who can't throw and force them to play there.

tbf they are not the team that just signed 30-year-old, 250-pound pedro alvarez -- a man who committed 23 errors as a first baseman in 2015 -- with the idea of making him an outfielder

Don't give Matheny ideas! There is a chance he reads ILX

Give Matheny ideas! There is a chance he reads ILX

Has anyone experimented with switching the LF/RF with the batter's handedness, so instead of having a "left fielder" and a "right fielder" you have a "good fielder" and a "bad fielder"?

i'm imagining 2011 lance berkman puking his guts out after running back and forth from LF to RF 3 times in an inning

So Wong couldn't make it to the opener as the everyday 2b... feels familiar?

ugh, really? did they announce it?

in similar news, jeremy hazelbaker, oops, i mean jose martinez, made the club, pham down to the minors.

if that's true about wong, they should trade him. enough fucking around with him. matheny can't handle it, just trade him to a smarter team and at least get something in return

lots of juicy wong drama here:

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/cardinal-beat/wong-would-rather-be-traded-than-platoon-at-second-base/article_9d03dd0f-b604-5be7-8a44-0287814094da.html

as i mentioned above, i think they should trade him, but it's nagl for wong to be complaining about playing time when he's not clearly better than gyorko/garcia.

god, i'm watching the espn feed of the mets/cardinal and there was some really sad commentary on the matt adams in LF experiment. paraphrasing: "the first ball hit to matt adams in LF will be the first ball he ever catches in LF during a game. i asked adams how he was feeling about this game and he said 'eduardo...i'm nervous.'"

we are all nervous. goddammit matheny, every year i think i have prepared myself but you keep innovating

they sent pham down to the minors and go with the hot hand in the immortal jose martinez. granted, pham was having a crappy spring training, but he's a reliable backup in the field and his bat is usually decent. instead we get jose martinez. it's not hard to imagine a scenario where one of the three starting OFs goes down with an injury, martinez sucks ass for 3 weeks, and then magically you have matt adams as your temporary LF for a while. or they send wong out again to give it a shot. there's going to be a lot of adversity this year.

much of Matheny's roster dicking last year was all a cascade effect of when Moss went into a horrible slump but Matheny kept playing him at 1st and would look everywhere else for offense.

I'm pretty sure the recent Wong drama coincided with a 1-0 spring training loss.

His mental process is so obvious and he's usually reacting to his own bad decisions. Like "I should play Wong in LF b/c he needs to get at-bats to get out of his slump!"

brisbee predicts 4th place (although he admits that he's trolling and actually thinks it's 3rd place).

It’s been a bad idea to underestimate the Cardinals for, oh, about 20 years or so. But here’s a partial list of what I’m not buying:

Kolten Wong’s bat
The team finding about 75 homers on the bench again
Mike Leake’s viability in a homer-happy era
Adam Wainwright’s ability to bounce back at 35
Aledmys Diaz being the great hitter he was in the first half, instead of the solid hitter he was when he came back from injury
Lance Lynn returning like nothing happened
Michael Wacha putting his miserable 2016 season entirely behind him
Dexter Fowler repeating his career year

Add it up, and what do you get? I'm predicting a fourth-place finish, but what we'll actually get are 93 wins and Rookie of the Year votes for Harrison Bader. I’m no dummy. I know exactly how this is going to look stupid by August. But when you spend 7,000 words writing predictions, sometimes you just want to watch the world burn. Of all the would-be contenders, though, the Cardinals have the most obvious worst-case scenario, and it doesn’t take a lot of suspension of disbelief to get there.

http://www.sbnation.com/a/mlb-2017-season-preview/st-louis-cardinals

Yadi, 55 millions for 3 year per mlb dot com.

rosenthal says 55-65 million, and that molina will be the highest paid catcher in the game (per bengie and yadi's wishes, it seems), at least per AAV

in cold baseball terms it's probably an overpay, but the cardinals ownership has had a surplus that they keep threatening to spend the last few years, so if this is how they do it, so be it. it would be great to see him close out his career as a cardinal, and hopefully get a chance at one more championship before replacing matheny as manager.

commenter on mlbtraderumors that wrote that lucroy just popped a bottle of champagne otm

twitter is brutal
http://i.imgur.com/7M0ZOhN.jpg

in cold baseball terms i'd say it's a ridiculous overpay, but i think it's cool that they did it

It could have been worse, they could still owe Pujols 150 million.

lol, yeah.

i don't know, i think $55 million for 3 years isn't too bad. $8-9/WAR is the going rate for free agents these days, and three years from now that's likely to be around $11 to 12. So assuming a middle ground of $10 million per WAR, they're asking yadi to generate 5.5 WAR over 3 years. i think he'll do that, or at least come close. the effect on fans and attendance is more limited because most games come close to selling out anyway. people will turn out to see yadi's final days but they were probably going to the game anyway.

America's opening day starting lineup:

CF: Dexter Fowler
SS: Aledmys Diaz
1B: Matt Carpenter
3B: Jhonny Peralta
C: Yadier Molina
RF: Stephen Piscotty
2B: Jedd Gyorko
LF: Randal Grichuk
SP: Carlos Martinez

Wong is probably having feelings right now

Peralta batting cleanup was a possible worst-case scenario for this season, but i didn't think it would happen on opening day. hopefully the guy bounces back this year but...probably not.

almost beat out a routine grounder in his first AB, and got a standing O from the BFIB for it

it was a nice moment, honestly. but, instead of being hailed as someone who Plays the Right Way, i suspect that if he were black, ppl would merely marvel at his speed

trust me, this is paul dejong's body

http://i.imgur.com/1giot0d.jpg

also harrison bader ginsburg

http://i.imgur.com/BSw4v4C.jpg

sorry

http://mlb.nbcsports.com/2017/07/31/mike-matheny-complains-that-some-cardinals-fans-are-just-so-bitter/

i guess they almost tried to trade for Sonny Gray (Piscotty + Weaver/Flaherty, according to Rosenthal). glad they didn't do that - starting pitching hasn't been the problem, and they have plenty of depth for next year already (the return of alex reyes, weaver, flaherty, dakota hudson, gant, alcantara, etc)

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/cardinals-can-t-find-a-deal-they-re-comfortable-making/article_ac03c549-404f-5063-957a-8d43e9eeef05.html

it's a shame they're wasting the unexpected great season of tommy pham this year. 18th in WAR despite playing much less than everyone else ranking above him!

6 in a row, one behind Cubs! But their cat is missing.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/20304837/st-louis-cardinals-say-rally-cat-missing

the stupid groundskeeper dude who got scratched up decided to run straight out to the stan musial statue and let it go. come on kid, you know someone's gonna want to adopt that cat!

i've been trying not to jinx this winning streak. the team suddenly seems a lot more "fun", but it's hard not to seem like that when you're putting up 8+ runs each night.

wainwright threw a 59.4 mph curveball

don't tell carlos beltran

you said it, not me!

i won't be surprised at all if waino needs some sort of surgery within a couple weeks.

lol

it's a shame that mets fans have basically disavowed him. it was a nearly perfect pitch (if perhaps not as good as endy's catch)

Tired of sputtering along, Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright moved to re-establish order. On the Cardinals last road trip, they summoned their teammates to The Precinct, a high-end steakhouse.

To appreciate the Cardinals’ recent surge and their newfound belief in each other, it helps to understand what transpired at a former Cincinnati police patrol house on Aug. 3.

That’s the night Molina, Wainwright, Matt Carpenter and a few other veterans dropped the law on their teammates and pulled them into a more united team.

“The message that was given both by me and collectively from everybody was that if we’re going to win this thing we’re going to have to do it together,” Carpenter said. “That’s why you see the new rallying cry that’s happening.”

In case you’re wondering, the Cardinals’ new rally cry is a two-handed gesture. The players execute it in their teammates’ direction after clutch hits and runs. They lift their hands near their heads and then interlock and unlock their fingers as they bring their hands together and squeeze multiple times, symbolizing team unity.

well great, first rule of fight club etc

have to admit that the new rally gesture is possibly better than the last one, though, which i believe was the miming of tit-squeezing

http://deadspin.com/cardinals-rudely-presume-feral-cat-that-ran-on-field-is-1797920735

i know this is coming from a known anti-cardinals publication but jesus fuck i hope this cat is not allowed to be adopted by the fucking cardinals, this is absolutely gross

It is now up to St. Louis Feral Cat Outreach to determine whether living in a ballpark with Mike Matheny as caretaker qualifies as a “happy and healthy life.”

loooooool

St. Louis Cat Nonprofit To Cards: Bullying Us Over Rally Cat Is "Inconsistent With The Cardinals Way"

it's actually consistent with the Cardinal Way. It's in there near the end. They added it in after LaRussa left. I've been trying to tell people about this for years but everyone has blinders on

http://i.imgur.com/QON7ugb.png

Adam Wainwright is on his way back to St. Louis to have his arm examined by Cardinals team physicians, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes. Wainwright allowed five runs in three innings yesterday and has been plagued by persistent pain in his elbow when pitching. MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch notes that Wainwright hasn’t reached 90 mph in either of his past two starts and has yielded nine runs on 15 hits and nine walks with just one strikeout in his past 11 innings (Twitter link). Wainwright recently spent a bit more than two weeks on the disabled list due to a back injury.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DIH3g_YU0AAeHje.jpg

timely

America

Jack Flaherty, 21 (Harvard-Westlake HS), tonight becomes youngest starting pitcher to debut for Cardinals since Rick Ankiel in 1999.

— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) September 1, 2017

now 2 behind the Rockies for WC2

lance lynn is outperforming his FIP at a historical level (ERA of 2.99, FIP of 4.71)

https://www.vivaelbirdos.com/st-louis-cardinals-sabermetrics-analysis/2017/9/7/16248452/cardinals-lance-lynn-earned-run-average-fielding-independent-pitching-luck-peripherals

my condolences to whoever wins the Lance Lynn free agent sweepstakes

(to be clear, i think he'll be a solid #3 in someone's rotation for a few more years at least. but i can also imagine a team overpaying for that shiny sub-3.00 ERA)

pham picked up both his 20th SB and 20th HR today

it's been about a minute since he hit the HR, and somehow the broadcasting team has not made a reference to 20/20 vision. i don't understand why it's taking them so long since they talk about his vision every single game

tommy pham, despite missing the first month because mike matheny thought it was a better move to play matt adams in left field, is 10th in the NL by fWAR. and by fWAR/600, he's second, just ahead of harper and behind only rendon. definitely a bright spot in an otherwise frustrating year

http://mediadownloads.mlb.com/mlbam/2016/06/16/images/mlbf_818435583_th_45.jpg

look you don't know any better, Matheny gets up close views of his players in action, he knows their strengths

Juan Nicasio batted with two runners on in the 9th inning of a pennant race. WITH A 40 MAN ROSTER. https://t.co/edzYDcRjPf

— stlCupofJoe (@stlCupofJoe) September 23, 2017

of course it worked out because the pirates WAIVED A DECENT RELIEVER LEST HE BE CLAIMED BY A DIVISION RIVAL

FOR WHOM THE PHILLIES AT LEAST GOT SOME SHITTY PROSPECT

jfc

man i know Bryant is hot right now but Matheny just IBB'd him to load the bases with 1 out and Rizzo and Zobrist on deck

ha and it paid off of course

bad process / passable results is the matheny way

congrats to the cubs btw

Players with at least 23 HR, 23 SB, .410 OBP since 1987:
Altuve
Trout
TOMMY PHAM
A-Rod
D Wright
Abreu
Chipper
Bagwell
L Walker
Rickey

— viva el birdos (@vivaelbirdos) September 28, 2017

arb eligible at 31, free agency at 34 ;_;

RIP 2017 cardinals, and america

that final play was a perfectly agonizing, fitting end to the season

will they be *spoilers*, like America?

i think they'll be half spoilers. wild (card) prediction: i think they'll take 1 of 3 from the brewers, and the rockies will manage to pick up at least one from the dodgers. even if matheny plays his B squad all weekend, that's still a pretty decent team, capable of winning at least one from the brewers.

"high floor, low ceiling" will be the epitaph of the 2016-17 cardinals

RIP 2017 cardinals, and america

that final play was a perfectly agonizing, fitting end to the season

― Karl Malone, Friday, September 29, 2017 4:15 AM (thirteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there's always next year! as a Cubs fan, watching Matheny and the Cards dugout was "good times", i'm sorry to admit...

https://media.giphy.com/media/8TNHNwBEhhc4g/giphy.gif

ICYMI

https://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2017/9/29/16388812/busch-stadium-cardinals-protest-stockley-verdict

fuck yeah, they're bringing oquendo back to 3rd base coach and giving willie mcgee some sort of job

happy willie mcgee's birthday

https://i.imgur.com/jEG0gNL.jpg

cardinals figurative boner is getting impossibly hard this offseason

Cardinals "Bitter" After Being Turned Down by Giancarlo Stanton

wow guess he wasn't ready for the cardinal way(TM)

https://i.imgur.com/oDYy5Hy.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/H2uBVJo.jpg

luke gregerson, 2 years/$11 million

i think i like this deal? all of his troubles last year seem to come from a huge spike in FB% + HR/FB, plus a jump in BABIP. the rest of his peripherals seem to be in line with the rest of his career, so he seems like a good bounceback guy

I'd think the only thing would be a second year on a reliever at age 33. He was always good with the Padres.

also he can tell the cardinals all of jeff luhnow's secrets

yeah, ideally all relievers could all be signed for a single year given how volatile they are, but that's the risk you run i guess...

encouraging to see that 3 of his HRs last year were of the minute maid bullshit variety (http://www.hittrackeronline.com/detail.php?id=2017_6059&type=pitcher) and a 4th wouldn't have been a HR in almost half of MLB stadiums.

cardinals/astros and yankees/marlins should hold a secret-sharing slumber party