Surely no one from Missouri will tweet something incredibly stupid this year: The 2016 St. Louis Cardinals

i try not to pay attention to spring training but they've looked absolutely awful out there recently. only won 1 of last 12 games, and 5 errors today

looks like walden is out again. i was kind of hoping we'd get him for at least a month or two this year. on the plus side, it opens up a spot for matt bowman.

opening day lineup, 2016:

Carpenter 3B
Pham LF
Holliday 1B
Grichuk CF
Piscotty RF
Molina C
Wong 2B
Gyorko SS
Wainwright P

awesome challenge Mike

Does this game COUNT??? I had no idea...

Tommy Pham to the DL, but Aledmys Diaz gets a promotion.

man, so disappointing about Pham.

2 games in and every question mark is being answered with a negative. ;_;

i was only able to catch the first 2 innings but i read the recap and it sounds like they got matheny'd.

btw, why is wacha the #2 starter?

Matheny was terrible again. I mean there's a reason a team with one of the best records in the last 4 years has one of the worst in extra-innings. He still does this crap of removing the 3rd spot in the order for a relief pitcher. He brings in Adams to face a pitcher who kills lefties because........?

Wacha is an issue. Matheny's terrible line up construction is an issue. And aside from maybe Piscotty, none of the hitters look like a force or catalyst. They look very much like the team that was fading out in September.

One positive: Oh.

Jenifer Langosch ‏@LangoschMLB
Marco Gonzales began feeling elbow discomfort 2-3 weeks ago. He's already seen #STLCards doctor; second opinion to come from Dr. ElAttrache.

yikes, could be another lost season for him. :-/ that leaves cooney and/or lyons as a replacement SP when someone goes down. plus reyes as a potential late-season option if he continues making good progress. oh, and after he serves his suspension that's more severe than what aroldis fucking chapman received

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cfd4c-OUMAA-CEq.jpg

(source)

wow

that's just

i mean

jfc

for the second time in 5 games, matheny is benching grichuk. hazelbaker hit a HR so now he deserves starts instead of grichuk.

gotta go with the hot hand

TJ for marco gonzales

offlirtion

Hazelbaker?

Jaime dealin

1 hit, 13 Ks, 1 BB, game score 97

two 97s in today's matinees

Cardinals just got matheny'd

'started a center fielder who can't throw'??

well, not that bad. there needs to be an entirely different category for matheny mistakes of that magnitude. in this case he brought out wainwright for the 6th inning despite him already blowing a 4-run lead and being very obviously out of gas. why? the game was tied so he needed to get the all important W in order to rebuild his confidence

that's a move a number of managers would make, i guess, but the matheny bonus is not having anyone throwing in the bullpen and then having the game slip out of hand before anyone could get warm

the optics of booing heyward tonight sure will be great..........

cardinals now batting .276/.362/.511 as a team and are scoring a run per game more than everyone else

getting to play the barves, brewers, and reds for most of those games probably helped quite a bit, along with hazelbaker and aledmys diaz' deals with the devil

i'm sure some people will boo heyward tonight, but i doubt it'll be more than a one game thing.

anytime one of your longtime, legendary players leaves for a rival it's a tough break

Lackey is pitching tonight too

yeah, but heyward was only with the team for a year, and it wasn't even his choice - he was traded. he left for more money and, in all likelihood, a better team over the next 3-5 years. it's a tough break but when people get all pissed at him it's highlights the things about sports that i hate

"local man angry at player leaving team he didn't want to be on in the first place"

exactly! i mean, what's with heyward - he gets a brief taste of the #1 city in the world and he doesn't want to stay for the next 7-9 years???

Seung Hwan Oh's three closest comps for his slider are Scherzer, Tanaka, and Cueto.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/seung-hwan-oh-has-been-completely-unhittable/

Sussman, BP: Sometimes you can't predict baseball, but when a 30-year-old former backup catcher for the Twins and Pirates starts the season 6-for-6 for the Cardinals, sometimes it's like fish in a barrel.

via Bernie: With Jhonny Peralta (age 33) on the DL ... the Cardinals actually have a younger roster (average age) than the Cubs right now.
http://www.101sports.com/2016/04/18/cards-cubs-real-rivarly-enough-lazy-narratives/

he walked and threw someone out, too! that'll most likely be the highlight of his career. feels like hazelbaker's earned a place in the 4th OF competition with Pham, at least, but Diaz is the one I'm excited about. Peralta's obviously the starter once he gets back, but if Diaz keeps playing well it could open up an opportunity to trade Peralta at some point and at least get a return on him while he still has value. Oooor, if Wong never lives up to his potential (feel like they sent the extension his way a little too soon, even though it's likely to be a decent value), they could even think about moving carpenter back to 2B and sliding Diaz over to 3B. it's all small sample sizes of course, but i buy the future of diaz more than hazelbaker.

those guys will all have to sit now -- ruben tejada has been activated

fully expect Leake to get mashed tonight. like our chances with Martinez and Garcia a lot more.

yeah, same. not looking forward to 5 years of mediocrity from leake

it would help if he was funny or did something unique or had a weird delivery or something, but to be v v boring on top of mediocre is just too much to handle

my impression is he's a "who gives a shit, its just baseball" guy. which is fine if he could roll a .500 win pct and 4.50 era, eat innings and get sent to long relief in the playoffs. In his defense, he's supposed to be a ground ball pitcher and the cardinals fielding is very bad.

So it all went about as expected ●︿●

yeah, when i was advocating Diaz just upthread, i kind of forgot that he doesn't know how to play SS. yikes. the infield D would be bad enough with Diaz/Gyorko pretending to be shortstops and Holliday/Piscotty handling 1B a significant amount of time, but Wong has seemingly lost the ability to field routine grounders. nothing against Carp but when he's your standout defender in the IF, you know you have problems

if wong keeps this up he's gonna endure the entire wrath of al hrabosky. i have the game on mute but i can only imagine the sublimity of his concern

there was no evidence of a racial slur is the best cards news of the week. go team!

grich

i appreciate pitchers whose batting stances involve a leg kick

he used to be a SS back in the day

Wong trying to fix his divots after that play was pretty funny.

Diaz returns from a day grieving with the Fernandez family, hits a grand slam

http://www.todaysknuckleball.com/nl/st-louis-cardinals/column-poor-game-tactics-make-mathenys-retention-mistake/

OK I haven't even read this yet but:

"This is part one of a three-part series delving into three different elements of Mike Matheny’s management — in-game tactics, player usage and rest, and prospect development — and why the Cardinals retaining him for 2017 is a mistake." [emphasis mine]

oooh votto just got clocked in the chin with a one-hopper from the left fielder as he was sliding into second, stretching a single into a double. has a nice laceration and not too happy about being forced to leave the game

another example of the cardinals not playing the game the right way imo

controversy

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/17673770

I think we can all agree that the next batter definitely would have driven in the winning run anyway, so no big deal.

surprised to see that joe west was not part of the umpire crew

No option year for Holliday. He was a great part of the team, but it was the right decision.

totally willing to give you this game fwiw

and possibly this one

what stands between the cardinals and dominion? ryan vogelsong

Chad Kuhl is listed as the Pittsburgh starter for tomorrow.

oh never mind that was today! sorry.

frustrating year for sure. the demise of Wacha being the worst part imo. Diaz/Reyes the best.

but still being in the race on the last day in what seemed like a bridge year going into is decent.

other things learned: giving a flexible lineup to a challenged manager is not a great plan. less platoons/throw 5 mediocre players at one position in 2017, please.

yadi and waino up for the gold glove again

http://i.imgur.com/ZwP02Nx.gif

yadi doesn't deserve it. :( his pitchframing still looks good and i'm sure his gamecalling is great, but his arm is gone. his caught stealing was 21% this year, i think? way down from previous years, and it seemed like as the year went on more and more teams starting realizing they could basically steal at will on him.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cvo3Er5VUAE7leL.jpg:small

sorry, had to

ok lol at that one, i admit