2018 STL Cardinals Thread

[BigRedChief]

Opening day lineup

Fowler RF
Pham CF
Carpenter 3B
Ozuna LF
Martinez 1B
Molina C
Dejong SS
Wong 2B
Pitcher

Edit:
Matheny fired 07/14/2018




Opening Day Roster

Spoiler!

St. Louis has opted to carry 12 position players and 13 pitchers to begin the new season, with a four-man bench and eight-man bullpen.

Outfielders:
Dexter Fowler
Tommy Pham
Marcell Ozuna

Infielders:
Matt Carpenter
Paul DeJong
Kolten Wong

Catchers:
Yadier Molina
Francisco Pena

Utility:
Jose Martinez
Greg Garcia
Yairo Munoz
Jedd Gyrko

Starters:
Carlos Martinez
Michael Wacha
Luke Weaver
Miles Mikolas
Jack Flaherty

Relievers:
Dominic Leone
Tyler Lyons
Bud Norris
Brett Cecil
Sam Tuivailala
Matt Bowman
Jordan Hicks
Mike Mayers

On the DL:
Adam Wainwright
Luke Gregerson

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by Jewish Rabbi

And hot damn I’m happy. I kinda expected Mabry at the end of the season but both in the middle?

I cant believe that Dewitt okayed a firing of his golden boy in the middle of the season. Totally unexpected that’s for sure.

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by Rams Fan

DeWitt's on record as believing this team has the talent to make the postseason and I honestly wouldn't disagree.

2B and RF are the two shit parts of this team currently that can't easily be fixed.

You can't honestly believe that the Cardinals have the talent to make the playoffs in a division with the Cubs and Brewers.

If the Brewers go out and get an ace before the deadline its gonna be scary.

Hell, if the Reds had starting pitching they would be pretty deadly. They have the 4th best scoring offense in the NL.

The Cardinals have a roster full of fringe starters where half of them would be on the bench on a legit contender.

[Rams Fan]

Originally Posted by jd1020

You can't honestly believe that the Cardinals have the talent to make the playoffs in a division with the Cubs and Brewers.

If the Brewers go out and get an ace before the deadline its gonna be scary.

Hell, if the Reds had pitching they would be pretty deadly. They have the 3rd best scoring offense in the NL.

The Cardinals have a roster full of fringe starters where half of them would be on the bench on a legit contender.

What fringe starters are you referring to? I'll give you Wong and the abomination in RF

Carpenter, Martinez(even though he's a ****ing abomination defensively), DeJong, Molina, Ozuna, and Pham have also posted positive WAR. Of those 6 starters, the only one I think you can really argue as being fringe is Pham. Martinez would be starting in the AL at DH.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by Chiefspants

Awful news for the rest of the NL central today.

We are not a great team but everyone knows we are underperforming for our talent level. Having Daffy Duck as our manager makes us a better team than a Matheny managed team.

[kcpasco]

Baseball is a funny game and I’m still not sold on that Brewers starting rotation come playoff time. Counsell won’t be able to maneuver a sub par pitching staff for a World Series run like a LaRussa could.

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by Rams Fan

What fringe starters are you referring to? I'll give you Wong and the abomination in RF

Carpenter, Martinez(even though he's a ****ing abomination defensively), DeJong, Molina, Ozuna, and Pham have also posted positive WAR. Of those 6 starters, the only one I think you can really argue as being fringe is Pham. Martinez would be starting in the AL at DH.

Martinez, Pham, Wong, Bader.

Martinez is not a starter in the NL. Pham is not a starter, period. Wong is good defensively but his bat does not play. Bader came out of the gates blazing but has never been highly regarded at the plate and has a .654 OPS over his last 30 games.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

The Brewers have a terrible staff and without a run of Royals-esque sequencing luck, they won't be able to maintain during the second half. Regardless, this team still needs to sell. It needs a hard reboot.

And the Carp gif was fixed for y'all.

[Rams Fan]

Originally Posted by jd1020

Martinez, Pham, Wong, Bader.

Martinez is not a starter in the NL. Pham is not a starter, period. Wong is good defensively but his bat does not play. Bader came out of the gates blazing but has never been highly regarded at the plate and has a .654 OPS over his last 30 games.

Your comment said on a legit contender. Martinez is a starter on a legit contender, just not in the NL.

The other 3 I don't disagree with and even stated as such.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by jd1020

Martinez, Pham, Wong, Bader.

Martinez is not a starter in the NL. Pham is not a starter, period. Wong is good defensively but his bat does not play. Bader came out of the gates blazing but has never been highly regarded at the plate and has a .654 OPS over his last 30 games.

Bader is on pace for a 4 WAR/600 ABs. That's not even close to a fringe starter. Keep picking those cherries, though. He had a good April, a great May, a terrible June, and has had a very good July so far. If he's a league average hitter (105 wRC right now) then he's basically a cost-controlled version of the guy you're paying 20 million per.

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by Rams Fan

Your comment said on a legit contender. Martinez is a starter on a legit contender, just not in the NL.

The other 3 I don't disagree with and even stated as such.

I dont even think Martinez could latch on to a contender in the AL. He's more like a decent bat you can plug into at DH but would you take him over other DH's currently on the AL's best teams?

So you are left with Carpenter, Molina, Ozuna, Gyorko, and Dejong. Not exactly a great core to be building a contender around.

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

Bader is on pace for a 4 WAR/600 ABs. That's not even close to a fringe starter. Keep picking those cherries, though. He had a good April, a great May, a terrible June, and has had a very good July so far. If he's a league average hitter (105 wRC right now) then he's basically a cost-controlled version of the guy you're paying 20 million per.

Ya ya ya. I'm sure you were singing the same tune to Heywards WAR as well.

[kcpasco]

The Cubs should win this division easily but it doesn’t matter because the AL is so much better this year anyways. I’d like to see the Mariners make a run because they have for the most always sucked ass and I have friends and family who have suffered as lifelong fans.

[Rams Fan]

The issue I have with ownership currently is I don't know if they're honestly willing to go all in for a playoff team even if that's the expectation.

I've been on record saying 2019 is the make or break season with this roster and stick by that with regards to making the post season. However, the only chance they have at that is making significant changes to the roster with regards to spending even more.

Solutions:
-Bite the bullet on Fowler. Similar to Leake situation. I liked the Fowler signing at the time but for whatever reason he hasn't really clicked in St. Louis
-Norris needs to GTFO.
-Trade one of Carpenter or Martinez to create more opportunities for Gyorko.
-Give Machado an endless amount of Brinks trucks. Donaldson doesn't do shit.
-Get rid of either Gregerson or Cecil.
-Sign an OFer.

Originally Posted by jd1020

I dont even think Martinez could latch on to a contender in the AL. He's more like a decent bat you can plug into at DH but would you take him over other DH's currently on the AL's best teams?

So you are left with Carpenter, Molina, Ozuna, Gyorko, and Dejong. Not exactly a great core to be building a contender around.

I'd take Martinez over Gattis and the 2018 version of Edwin Encarnacion.

Ozuna and DeJong are two players who I believe are legitimate core pieces.

[kcpasco]

Fowler needs to fake an injury and hit restart next year. If he is still completely useless this time next year than get rid of him.

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by Rams Fan

Ozuna and DeJong are two players who I believe are legitimate core pieces.

You only have Ozuna for 1 more year unless you grab a manager in the offseason who's ready to get down on his knees and relax his throat.

Unless you are lucky enough to somehow lure Machado or Harper to play in St. Louis then you probably aren't going to make enough changes to that roster to beat the Cubs or Brewers in 2019. You could hope to re-sign Ozuna, but you still need a bat in the middle of that lineup and its not coming from the minors.