cardsfan

The Braves are holding Josh Donaldson out until Wednesday. They prescribed exercises to buttress his calves. After having calf injuries the last 3 years was it worth the risk of signing him for $23 million a year? Who's going to sign him to longterm contract?

When I think of Kimbrel I think of Melancon. Perhaps, he has a good year or two left.

He should have went on DL for 15 days or so.

He should have went on DL for 15 days or so.

What do you guys think of 6 man rotation? It could be a modified one where your #1 and #2 pitch on 4 day rest where you use 4 other starters. Perhaps one is used in long relief. 5 or 6 innings starts depending on pitch count. You may have to carry 13 pitchers or rotate them with AAA team. A pitcher may have to pinch hit or run. This changes in September if you have pitchers as rosters expand. Well, you could do what the Rays did last year and the Twins 1 game: have a reliever start the game and pitch an inning or two.

His baseball-reference projections aren't that flattering batting-wise. After Hicks's struggles you can't blame him for signing. The Yankees on one good season?

Lizard king since he ate a live lizard. St. Louis has him for 5 more years now. I am wondering if they will get 3.5 years out of him knowing how often pitchers get injured. The last 4 of St. Louis longer-term pitching contracts time was lost.

You are referring to Bud Norris? He was bad the last 1.5 months or so. May be you will get something out of him at the beginning of the season if he is throwing 95. St. Louis was no longer interested.

Is this sung in English? Are you going to answer if Shoeless Joe knew ?

I can see the optimism if Buxton and Sano would perform. Cruz hits 30 HRs. SP stays healthy. Cleveland’s SP will be hard to beat though. Optimism. Though getting passed a first round by Boston or New York would be a miracle.

Schoop is puzzling like why the decline? If he gets back to 2017 levels you couldn't risk a big contract. Flip him at deadline. I was amazed why Dozier declined last year. He was good at scoring runs though his OBP wasn't that great. Seems risky giving him longterm contract.

I'm still torn as well though the Cardinals are fortunate to have had only 2 catchers since 2000 and their average record is like 90.5-71.5 with only 1 losing season. If they had 7 or 8 catchers this century doesn't seem they would be averaging 19 games over .500 for 19 years with Molina starting last 14. The Cards traded future catcher for Goldschmidt. Knizer is whom they are grooming in minors. Mauer was a major contributor to you winning in the late 2000s and 2010 as catcher. Needed more games as catcher to make it a certainity.

If those 3 batting titles were .350 or more than likely. Madlock won 4 titles, but, one was strike shortened season. He didn't drive in alot or score alot so he falls short on Hall of Fame standards.

Why didn't Mauer play another year at less pay since it looked like he could still hit .280 though with little power? Molina has won 4 Platinum awards for best defensive player in NL. He will likely get 2000 hits next season. Yes, he seems borderline. Not trying to troll since I followed Twins in 70s. Still think the Metrodome was rigged against visiting teams with the ventilation system in the World Series.

Sell me on why Joe Mauer belongs in the HOF and I will do the same for our catcher, Molina. First Mauer only started 885 games as catcher before switching to 1b the last several years. 1 MVP, 3 batting titles, 3 GG, but 200 games caught from 2011-2013 and 1 appearance from 2014-2018 as catcher before lucky for the Twins moved him to 1st base at a overpay, hamstringing team of $23 million a year. Thankfully they didn’t eat contract after concussion problems. After monster year with 28 HRs and 96 RBIs and MVP getting him a too long contract in 2009, he would average 8-9 HRs a year and switch to 1b. The team which had trouble winning in the first round of the playoffs in the weakest division since 2000 became awful after 2009. He ended his career in 2018 with a ,306 average and .388 OBP, but the average kept dropping after 2009 and little power. So do I think he gets in or belongs in HOF? Not in 1st round, perhaps in the 12 year of 15 years by the writers. Quitting at 35 instead of trying to get another couple seasons to get to 2400 hits would help. After 2009 never thought he had any HOF seasons if didn’t start games as catcher. A few ok 300 hitting seasons after 2010. I think if I had a vote I would wait several years as well. Retired at 35. Now to Yadier Molina: 9 Gold Gloves as catcher starting 1773, 146 lifetime HR, but averaged 19 the last 2 seasons, considered one of the best in keeping base stealers from stealing or picking them off, just .282 average with .334 OBP. Still catching will likely be 5th all-time in catching games with over 2025 and is at 1836 so possibly number 4. Johnny Bench thinks he is a HOFer based on defense. The next couple years helps with HOF voting. Turns 37 in July. Another GG ? I would vote for him because of his longevity and gold gloves. WAR is slightly below 40. 2 WS titles out of 4 appearances. Team usually has lower ERA when behind plate and is considered good at pulling balls into strike zone. Homerun in top of 9 in game 7 in 2006 playoff propelled team to WS breaking 1-1 ties in Shea Stadium. Maybe by 5 year or so of eligibility with a couple more playing years. So your thoughts and votes?

Notice the Nats went up without Harper who was hitting .214 at ASG break last year. His last 3 years doesn’t merit this amount of payola looking at WAR and games missed 2 seasons ago. One can see at times if at the beginning of this contract he puts up 1.3 WAR and misses 50 starts in another season those Philadelphia fans may start throwing batteries. Trying to get rid of this contract with years to go sounds like this wasn’t well thought out. 13 years.

How is your starting pitching really? The Twins win 65% of Berrios starts instead of 50% with a decent BP along with Gibson doing well. The Twins since I’ve been following this forum haven’t been developing enough good starting pitching. Bullpen needs to be rebuilt every year. Sano and Buxton and Rosario well they seem decent pieces, but, what if they were more like Bregman, Correa and Altuve? If injury free season yo will win 78-81 otherwise if BP blows up and starting pitching falter back to 60 wins, a long season. My Midwestern team hasn’t lost 90 or more since 1990. Only one losing season in this century.

When Harper is hitting .214 at the ASG break wait and see Philly fans boo him and throw items. What a disaster. He isn't going to get them to the playoffs. Pat Burrell is re-incarnated.

Aren't you glad you didn't sign Garza that same offseason?

Why did Dozier decline last year after going on a 29 HR tear the second half of 2016? He scored over a 100 runs 4 years in a row despite one year having a .307 OBP. A rebound candidate?

Didn't see any comments on a minimum of 3 batters or the end of the inning in order to speed things up? The pitch or batter clock may still happen.

I am surprised you didn't go for Iglesias as well.

I hope you got value out of Lance Lynn since he was going downhill after mid-season in 2017.

I am from St. Louis and we are having trouble dropping people from the 40 man roster if we don't DL someone for 60 days. We will have to do that when we put a backup catcher on the 25 man team. If we sign another reliever, another will have to go which may mean eating Cecil's contract. You guys don't have any troublesome longterm contracts after getting rid of Hughes's. Since mid-season last year we have had to trade players for minor leaguers that didn't need to be places on the 40 man roster, left off a few players from Rule V draft and disabled a few. Are you guys looking for whom may get caught in a roster crunch? The Cards like have 11 or so starters for 5 spots so we will have to make some moves.

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