Willie McGee is part of the 2018 St Louis Cardinals

jordan hicks made the roster(!)

he has not pitched above high A

He’s good! My guess is that as soon as wainwright or gregorson some back from the DL he’ll be first back down

early season fun: matt carpenter probably has no business playing 3B (bad arm) or 2B (horrible range), but he'll keep doing it because jose martinez is the best hitter on the team right now and 1B is pretty much the only place he can play (he can technically play corner OF but it's pretty ugly).

also apparently ozuna's right arm has been bothering him since last fall and throughout spring training, and already yesterday there was an Outfielder who can't throw Situation where a ball hit to Ozuna in LF in a sac fly situation was awkwardly handled by Tommy Pham in CF, presumably because Ozuna couldn't throw home with authority.

How hot is Dominique Leone in person?

That was a wild game. I’m happy and sad to have seen it in person! First game that started and ended with back to back HRs (and on consecutive pitches each time too.)(and the CF and RF hit them for each team?)

btw https://www.si.com/mlb/2018/04/02/tommy-pham-st-louis-cardinals

Call hurts #STLCards
Ball 1 should be strike 2
Top 2 Wacha vs Marte
0% call same
11.4in from edge pic.twitter.com/MbQ8i8f9uW

— Cards Strike Zone (@CardinalsUmp) April 7, 2018

pic.twitter.com/eOMvgjby4y

— VanHickslestein (@VanHicklestein) April 7, 2018

Combination of terrible framing by the catcher and the pitcher completely missing his target, but yeah...

https://i.imgur.com/2agkMIn.jpg

XTREEEMBEARDZ

I may have said this before but: I was an eleven-year-old St. Louisan in 1982. Literally the ONLY sports allegiance I have is to the Cardinals of that era (McGee, Ozzie/Lonnie, Hernandez, Whitey, Sutter, heck, even Andujar). Makes me so happy to see that any of those names are still relevant.

let's give it up for tommy herr too, he doesn't get remembered enough. the 1987 team is the literally the first one i remember (i was 4 then, and i just knew ozzie), but my grandpa had an ozzie smith defense instructional VHS that i used to constantly watch, and part of the tape (the best part) was a highlight reel of all his greatest plays and somehow i absorbed the key players of 1982 through that.

tidbits i had to tune it to the cubs' broadcast to learn (i cannot tolerate jim edmonds in the booth any longer):

jose martinez' dad was carlos martinez, former MLB player. i knew that, but didn't realize that

1) carlos martinez was the poorly performing white sox first basemen when Frank Thomas rolled into town
2) the following year ('91), carlos martinez ended up as the backup to jim thome in cleveland
and most importantly, 3) carlos martinez was the guy who hit the home run that bounced off of jose canseco's head

tyler o'neill: good socks

son of a famous body builder, too!
and he's canadian! (speaking of which, this is kind of nowhere but what happened to brett lawrie? last played in 2016, played above replacement level, still only 28?)

head case: https://jaysjournal.com/2018/02/22/blue-jays-sad-story-brett-lawrie

oh. jeez, i had no idea. he seems very lost.

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/M8Qv7fN-a5OOpxHlhEnA14PIhOA=/0x0:1800x832/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x832):format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/10693217/Hicks_FastestPitches.jpg

dr andrews, i place a hex on you. leave this kid alone

Mets are done with the Cards this year, can't say I'm sad.

Gary:
Tommy Pham has 9 career WAR in less than two complete seasons of playing time. Where the hell do the Cardinals find these guys?

Jay Jaffe:
The Cardinals have a great organization, but it also took them until he was 29 to give him 200 PA in a season.

that's true, but he was also injured all the goddamn time as he was working his way through the minors. he missed almost all of the 2011 and 2012 to injuries, played poorly in AAA in 2013, and then suffered through a string of more minor injuries in 2014-2016. he played well in a bench role in 2015, but then in 2016 he was barely above average (albeit dealing with injuries again). 2017 was a breakout year for him, but it was also a rare season where he was healthy most of the time.

He should stop stabbing himself in the face tbqh.

i love that he invented some sort of elastic-band-based custom training tool that is also capable of making his head bleed

Where the hell do the Cardinals find these guys?

the real Cardinals Devil Magic story is Jose Martinez, i think. my co-favorite player (with carlos).

saw rany j being very salty about how the royals just sold him to the cardinals two years ago, didn't even get a player in return

can't seem to find out how much money they got, probably because it would be insulting as hell

i don't really blame matheny for doing it -- it worked! -- but i also don't want to see him use four damn pitchers in a single inning

greg holland - A Proven Closer

we are the goon squad and we're coming to town
beep beep

https://i.imgur.com/hL6iToQ.png

beep beep

dan mclaughlin has been talking about Kingham's perfect game chances since the 4th inning

Jose Martinez compared Carlos Martinez’s slow home run trot around the bases to Yoenis Cespedes, a comparison that’s strikingly accurate.

According to Statcast, it takes Cespedes 27.4 seconds, on average, to circle the bases.

Carlos took 27.9 seconds.

— Joe Trezza (@JoeTrezz) May 2, 2018

mike matheny just used carlos martinez as a pinch hitter in the 6th inning. jedd gyorko is still on the bench.

well, yadi's balls exploded, he's out for 4+ weeks. i've always wondered how carson kelly would do with playing time, guess we're about to find out.

damn, the gif of that is hard to watch and hard to stop watching. his junk ripples

doesn't help that it was a foul tip off of a ~100 mph jordan hicks fastball

doesn't help that he wasn't wearing a cup either, lolwtf

that's what i thought, too! has it been confirmed? i mean, it looks like he wasn't. but...shit, i wore a cup when i played catcher in my 10-12 year old league and no one could throw over 70 mph

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/K4oOcnB4ABEAADFvkLx-e_o56d8=/0x0:1286x744/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1286x744):format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/10791379/Q6pTsmk.png

that was fun, but mostly terrible.

not loading...?

hmm, it's working for me, but it's just the Fangraphs win expectancy graph from last night's game: https://www.fangraphs.com/wins.aspx?date=2018-05-06&team=Cardinals&dh=0&season=2018

piscotty's mom died.

at least he got to spend more time with her near the end. that's sad. just last night ESPN rag a segment about her, after the game

alex reyes will pitch for palm beach tonight

Alex Reyes (SP): 3.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K’s

curious about his velocity, which according to earlier reports is "good"

also, Jack Flaherty had a day in AAA: 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 13 K’s

the 2019 rotation is very promising

reyes reportedly hit 99 twice

i like these reports

reyes is pitching in peoria tonight if you feel like a road trip

i would have loved to have seen him, but i had to work (for once). that's a good heads up, though! i might try to catch him there another time, if i can, before he heads to STL.

dexter fowler is on pace for -3.2 fWAR over 600 PAs

it's hard to be frustrated with him because he's such a fun ballplayer, has an excellent twitter, he's funny and lighthearted, etc. but even his defense in RF has been awful, to the extent that it makes his protests about being moved from CF (in favor of Pham, Bader, or a number of other better defenders) seem absurd

also, wainwright might be done. done done. both flaherty and reyes are clearly better options in the starting rotation. hell, john gant and a few others are probably better options at this point. after that last awful start, he's kind of in DL purgatory again, resting his arm and waiting for the 2000s to come back. it doesn't look good.

i still hold out hope that he'll take a role in the bullpen and be effective in short outings and get the save in the final game of the world series for the cardinals.

I still can't believe that the Cardinals' manager in 2014 made Michael Wacha pitch with the season on the line after not pitching for a month. No wonder he couldn't find another managing job.

— Grant Brisbee (@GrantBrisbee) May 17, 2018

Willie >>>>> pic.twitter.com/nqCIv6KHvV

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) August 25, 2022

wainwright, whose best case scenario is making a heroic relief pitching appearance in the playoffs and then retiring. carlos martinez continues to be the best thing about the team.

i was so otm in 2018

Whoah--definitely making a run at the Triple Crown.

Goldman and Freeschmidt came up again on James' site yesterday, and one reader pointed out how similar Goldschmidt and Bagwell are (per 162 games):

PG: .296/.392/.529, 145 OPS+, 32 HR, 105 RBI, 5.9 bWAR, MVP pending?
JB: .297/.408/.540, 149 OPS+, 34 HR, 115 RBI, 6.0 bWAR, 1 MVP

But neither is on the other's Similarity Score list.

Arenado is going to wind up with his best bWAR this season. I’d say he and Goldschmidt are both locking down their HOF chances, though I guess Nolan could always do an Andruw Jones and nosedive before he clears the bar. I’m guessing that’s highly unlikely though.

yeah, he is a very competitive guy. i was reading a little blurb about the birth of his child the other day, and he was basically like "i'm just glad it went smooth and calm so i could get back to the team for the next game". he seems genuinely driven to win a WS (goldschmidt as well) and he seems pumped to get a decent chance to do it

He did win one back in 2006!

weather permitting, i'm going to tonight's game! i was originally planning on going tomorrow, figuring a sunday day game against the Cubs would be ideal. but then i noticed that Wainwright is pitching tonight, which means Yadi will be playing, and the Cubs are starting a LHP, Drew Smyley, which means Pujols will almost certainly start as well. might be my last chance to see any of those guys play again (unless I splurge for playoff tickets, if they get that far).

it's kind of an odd situation because i'm not sure if i'll be standing room only or have a seat somewhere. i was able to get tickets, just $11 for a pair, this morning through the First Pitch Program. Not sure if there's a similar deal at other parks, but basically you get a voucher, and then when you show up at game time they tell you where your seats are (or more likely for this game, standing room since it'll probably sell out).

$11 gets you a hot dog at the Rogers Centre.

That’s a great deal for last minute seats!
The jays are probably too popular to do something like that, but my gf would be all over it if they did.

That’s a great deal for last minute seats!

totally agree

i chatted with a few different people in the line about their experience with the program. one guy told me that he used to have season tickets and gave them up because so many of the voucher seats end up being so good. they come from unsold/unused tickets that were set aside for workers and players etc to give to their families - so they're a mix of the worst seats and also some really nice seats. because i'm an unforgivable weirdo, i asked him to give me a rough probability distribution. he told me that about ...he paused for a long time here to calculate...three out of ten were 100-level, meaning field level. another 3-4 out of ten in the mid-tier levels, and only 2-3 out of ten were nosebleed/standing room only.

for a game like tonight, with the cubs and the oldsters (who are my age) playing, the chances are very high that i'll get standing room only. but for an early season game against teams that are not the Cubs, Brewers, Yankees, or Red Sox, apparently the chances of getting a great seat are very good. For $5.50 a seat! the only catch is you have to live near Missouri, which is fucking terrible

it's extremely cheesy and i don't think i would participate irl, but i think it would be kind of neat if the fans started chanting MVP as goldschmidt bats, and then continue with no interruption to chant it with Arenado hitting after him

(i don't think Arenado has a chance of winning, and will probably end up more like 3rd or 4th or 5th. for those that don't get to see them play every day, amazing, superlative defense is hard to demonstrate with numbers in the same way that a triple crown level season does)

because i live in the world of regression to the mean, i never expected to see a mvp-like year from goldschmidt or arenado. it is very cool to see them do it in the same year, and to be equally as wrong about pujols

also, in the continued mea culpa that is my life, i was extremely wrong about wainwright. i wanted him to retire circa 2019. what a doof

I saw the play he made on that incredibly high chopper--amazing.

wait, hold that.

peninsula. penin.

hmm

sorry, wrong thread

If Goldschmidt doesn't get the Triple Crown, I hope it's because Freeman overtakes him in BA, rather than Schwarber winning HR--he's such a one-dimensional player.

dang, wish i would have gotten cheap-ass tickets for today's game, too! this is probably low on the list of notable career records, but wainwright and molina are tying the record for most starts as a battery. which is pretty cool. but also, alec burleson is making his debut in RF. probably not a household name, possibly DH bound, but he's a good hitter and will probably (hopefully) stick around for a while.

Not related to the Rooster, I'm sorry to say.

dang. i should gone. Burleson, it is clear to me from watching him track down (1) ball on the right-field line, is just too slow to be even an average fielder. he is a DH. bummer.

however, he took an easy 4-pitch walk in his first PA and then got to score on a Yadier Molina HR to Big Mac Land, which is what the upperdeck area is called on the LF line where McGwire once sent home runs with startling regularity. it is owned by mcdonalds

by bWAR, the cardinals have the top 3 position players in the NL

the outfield has been weird and catcher has been a black hole, but the infield production has been pretty phenomenal this year

Goldschmidt, arenado, and the best of them all albert pujols

https://i.imgur.com/nLexRNR.png

I was not expecting Wainwright to sing the national anthem

So wait the Cardinals have players named Hudson, Hicks, and Gorman

Not something I normally observe, but it turned up on my FB wall: 41 years ago today, the debut of a certain fleet-footed outfielder.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN198205100.shtml

getting ugly for waino : /

Just idle trade-deadline chatter to fill space, but interesting:

https://www.mlb.com/news/paul-goldschmidt-trade-could-be-right-for-cardinals

I shouldn't be saying this as a Jays fan, but it'd be exciting if he ended up with the Orioles.

it's shocking that they're at 27-41 and haven't had a resurgence yet. i know the pitching is bad but they've got so much talent and the division is so weak. time to fire the manager? that always works

Noticed that Edman has been terrible... until today when he hit a grand slam.

david freese declining induction into the cardinals HOF is absolutely legendary BFIB/cardinal way stuff

yesterday (thursday) was willie mcgee's 65th birthday

<3 <3 <3

I hope the Cardinals have a great year in 2024. I figure that's the best way to get Karl Malone posting in ILB again.