Hazelbaker cost a run with poor base running. On second with a deep line drive by Carpenter to right field and Harper catches it with his back to the infield but Hazelbaker wasn't tagging.

Matheny is not trying to win today. He has Wong/Tejeda instead of the leading hitter in baseball and a long ball threat. Adams in the lineup. No Piscotty. This is a typical day game getaway game.....except its not one. More brilliant managing. :#

Mediocre team this year, I'm not even mad. Hopefully Reyes will be ready soon.

Wong fumbles a turn for an easy DP. How is he not in AAA?

He is way too hard on himself. Best theory I got is that they are worried that if they send him down, it will just make things worse.

He makes fantastic plays. He made a helliva play on the next batter after that fumble. Thats him. Why is he booting the easy plays?

He just signed a guaranteed $25 million contract this off season. IMHO, to try to boost his confidence.

He has MLB starting talent. He just may be one of these headcases that never "get it" and move beyond failure to the next AB/game.

Please, just win 70 games, get a good draft pick, and fire Matheny.

Pretty much the best we can hope for.

I'm on the Matheny needs to be fired bandwagon. Your more inside baseball than I am. What makes you think Mo or the Cardinals organization would even consider that this off season?

I'm assuming they look at more than a W/L record. There has not been any whiff of discontent with Matheny. I knew Maddon from down here and wanted him instead of Matheny but that seems so long ago.

Mo went with his core players choice and who obviously has leadership skills. I think managing the locker room and players is the biggest difference a manager in 2016 can make. But, his lineups, bullpens and game day decisions suck so bad. He has had a lot of good players in their prime to work with during this run. Thats covered up a lot of his deficiencies as a manager. Can Mo and the Dewitt's see that? Act on it?

And if they do, who do we get? Is some young hot shot bench coach we can go take off a team?

This cheer you up? From Bernie's column

I see you, Harrison Bader: oh, he strikes out a bunch (24 in 84 at-bats) but Cards’ power-hitting prospect Harrison Bader is making thunderous noise at Double A Springfield, batting .345 with a .402 OBP and .560 slugging percentage in 29 games. He has 5 homers and 14 RBIs. In his last four games Bader is 9 for 18 with four homers. Bader played at the Class A level last season after being chosen in the third round of the 2015 draft. In 316 at-bats in the Cards’ system over the last two seasons he has 16 doubles, 16 homers, 46 RBIs and is slugging .533.

Hoping for a sub five hundred record and a cleansing. Can't wait to see some of our fellow worship and not question anything Cardinal fans squirm.

He is so, so good...

http://m.rockies.mlb.com/col/video/t...ayer_id=571448

Obviously the defense is amazing; the smash in the 9th had an exit velocity over 110 mph and he manages to snag in on a short-hop...****ing unreal.

But my favorite part of that clip might actually be that little single, or at least the combination of the single and the HR. Those are two completely different swings and that's why I'll never really listen to folks that claim RBI is completely team dependent.

Look at the first AB - man on 2b, 3-2 count and nobody out. He knows that he's going to get the pitcher's 'filthiest' pitch because if he misses out of the zone with it, 1b is still open. He also knows he needs to get that runner over to 3b even if he makes an out. So does he look for a HR? Nope - that's a shortened up, opposite field stroke that's designed to try to ring a double down the line at best, get the runner over to 3b at worst. There was no way he was going to let that AB not yield something productive and it was obvious by his swing. He's coming into the plate to maximize coverage, letting it get deep in the zone to increase recognition and keeping his hands in as long as possible to improve the odds of solid contact. It was a picture perfect 'rbi stroke'.

Then look at the HR stroke - 1 out, man on 1b and a 1-0 count in a situation where the D-Backs have just gotten back to within 1. He's ahead in the count so he can be a tick more aggressive. Now 1b isn't open so at 1-0 he knows there's a pretty good chance the pitcher is going to have to come after him in the next pitch or two or risk falling to 3-0 and essentially have to give up the AB and put a runner in scoring position via the walk. That's a HUGE no-no in the top half of the frame after your team has cut into a lead; just a pitcher murdering his team's momentum. So what's Arenado do? Looks to me like he halved the plate, looked for the inside pitch and as soon as he saw it, unloaded on it. It's a much longer stroke, with his top half much more upright so he wasn't looking to maximize coverage on that outer third. It looks to me like he was essentially going to let him have the black away if the pitcher could hit it. He didn't and Arenado was ready for it.

Obviously it's hard to get RBI if you don't have guys on base, but to say it's wholly team dependent is just wrong. Arenado's respective approaches there show you why he led the league in RBI - he simply knows situational hitting and how to produce runs.

Arenado's looking more and more like he belongs in the tier with Harper, Trout and Machado. Once Correa gets over his early season struggles, I think you have your top 5 players in MLB for the next 5 years right there.

Well that should help in my proposed Reyes, Bader and Fernandez for Arenado trade.

See, Colorado? Win - win.

Do I sign here foe that..



Or here?

How many years of control does Arenado have left after this year?

3 years of arb.

He'll start costing money quickly but I don't give a shit. This team is rudderless and isn't going anywhere with a pack of JAGs leading the offensive charge.

Make the trade for the young superstar and spend the money it takes to keep him. None of this 'first in line with the next best offer' bullshit that Moe has specialized in over the last few FA periods. Go out there and aggressively sign your guy.

I read something a few days ago that said if Arenado and Harper were dropped on the open market today, Arenado might actually get more. I don't believe that for one second and in fact I don't think it would be within $100 million of each other, but I do think that Arenado would be one of the top 5 highest paid players in the game (Harper's just going to wreck the scale).