2023 thread. Walker makes the roster. I'll update the rosters and opening day lineup when its official
2023 Opening Day Lineup
Spoiler!
Donovan 2B
Nootbar RF
Goldschmidt 1B
Arenado 3B
Wilson Contreras C
Tyler O'Neill LF
Gorman DH
Jordan Walker RF
Tommy Edman SS
2022 Opening Day roster.
Spoiler!
The Cardinals anticipated 26-player Opening Day roster projects as follows, but will not become official until Thursday, March 30:
PITCHERS (13): Jack Flaherty-RHP, Giovanny Gallegos-RHP, Ryan Helsley-RHP, Jordan Hicks-RHP, Steven Matz-LHP, Miles Mikolas-RHP, Jordan Montgomery-LHP, Packy Naughton-LHP, Andre Pallante-RHP, Chris Stratton-RHP, Zack Thompson-LHP, Drew VerHagen-RHP, and Jake Woodford-RHP;
CATCHERS (2): Willson Contreras and Andrew Knizner;
INFIELDERS (6): Nolan Arenado, Brendan Donovan, Tommy Edman, Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Gorman and Taylor Motter;
OUTFIELDERS (5): Alec Burleson, Dylan Carlson, Lars Nootbaar, Tyler O’Neill and Jordan Walker;
INJURED LIST (3): Paul DeJong-INF, Wilking Rodríguez-RHP, Adam Wainwright-RHP.
For the new Cardinal fans that joined the Planet since last year, here are some of the historical threads going back to 2006.
Originally Posted by raybec 4:
That is encouraging. Unfortunately that wasn't even the 5th worst outing Mikolas has had since becoming a Cardinal. :-)
Mikolas wasn't good, but the Jays got pretty lucky today overall. A lot of seeing eye singles/bloopers like we were channeling the 2015 Royals. Springer had 5 hits and I'm not even sure he hit the ball hard all game? [Reply]
Helsley deserved a loss. A leadoff 4 pitch walk in the 9th of that kind of game is just absolutely unacceptable.
But I've never seen a team get that many seeing eye hits in my life. 17 singles and I'd be surprised if 5 of them were over 90 mph. Irritating as hell. [Reply]
Originally Posted by KC_Connection:
Hicks was touching 104 with command today. Absurd stuff.
Dude is backing his shit up at 100+ on the black then throwing breaking balls right at the edge of the zone. It was the most dominant stuff I've ever seen from him.
But the Jays just got the same stuff they were getting all night. He was making outstanding pitches and they just found grass. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Jewish Rabbi:
Knizner is what he is. Not a ton of quality backup catchers around. If he plays more than 35-40 games that’s MO’s fault.
Yes bashing a backup catcher is a low blow. But the pop up bunt and not catching the foul tip was horrible. Helsley also picked up where he left off. [Reply]
Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins:
I'd like to think that keeping Carlson in CF is a run prevention scheme rather than refusal to admit a sunk cost.
I'd rather see Gorman at DH and Walker in LF against righties, which Manoah is, with O'Neill in center and Carlson on the bench. Given Tyler's fragility, I'm sure there will plenty of starts to go around in the OF.
I think that's what becomes of the outfield, eventually. You and everyone knows Tyler will go down for more than 10 days a couple of times this season. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Jewish Rabbi:
Knizner is what he is. Not a ton of quality backup catchers around. If he plays more than 35-40 games that’s MO’s fault.
Unfortunate that Contreras taking a Hicks fastball to the knee is going to put him in much earlier than anyone hoped for. [Reply]
In case y'all were wondering, Jack Flaherty still sucks.
He seems to suck even worse. No snap on his breakers, fastball at 88-90. Shit control.
He might be able to get his slider to work before he hits 100 pitches, but that's it. Nothing else he's throwing looks to be be major league caliber. [Reply]
So I'm snooping around the 2007 draft (it's when we took Marmol).
It's also the year we took Pete Kozma and one that John Mozeliak has openly admitted was so bad that it to them changing how they approach the draft. And yes, I always knew it was bad but mostly because I was white-hot pissed the second they took Kozma over Rick Porcello.
But I didn't realize HOW bad.
Would you believe that the Cardinals actually got a negative WAR out of that draft? They could've literally skipped the draft altogether and been better off. And what's more amazing still is that 80% of the positive value of that draft came from one guy - Sam Freeman - who racked up 2.9 WAR...1.9 of them for Atlanta.
That's just a hilariously awful draft. -1.9 WAR from a whopping 13 players to make a single big league appearance out of 52 selected. And that's if you give them credit for WAR that ended up being earned elsewhere. [Reply]