In the offseason, it might take that much, yes.

But in July, the Astros could see him as a missing piece (and I think they'd be right). Look at the Chapman deal. You have to catch the right team at the right time.

Oh, and the Cardinals should also trade Fowler back to the Cubs. Eat $40 million of that deal and see if you can get Eloy Jimenez from them. I don't even give a shit - I hate hate HATE watching Dexter Fowler play outfield. What a disinterested bum.

But the Cubs need a leadoff hitter. This Rizzo at leadoff thing is cute but it's hampering their ceiling.
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On the plus side, the Dodgers dont appear they will need the services of Eric Hosmer, so that's one less team to come 2nd to.
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If Jimenez is going for anyone it will be a pitcher and if it were to be a position player, particularly CF, it would more than likely be someone like Christian Yelich.
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Take $65 million of that contract off our hands and I'll take Almora instead. You'd still have gotten your draft pick from the Cardinals and you'd have Fowler at the top of the order again.

The Cardinals need to bite the bullet and the Cubs kinda need to swallow some pride here as well - losing Fowler has hurt that team.
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Well, Maddon's stubbornness with the top of the lineup has more to do with it than anything.

When Theo signed Jay I figured they got their 1 year leadoff man. Instead Schwarber hit leadoff for the first 2 months and Bryant hit 2nd and has like 13/15 solo HRs. Meanwhile Jay is hitting over .300 and getting on base nearly 40% of the time and hitting 9th, when he's not on the bench platooning between 2 other players, so Rizzo can ****ing leadoff.

I really don't understand why the most obvious lineup of Jay, Zobrist, Bryant, Rizzo, Schwarber was and has never been used. Schwarbers BABIP is ****ing .195 because he's a pull hitter and he was put in the worst spot to hit with runners on base so when he does get a bat on the ball it goes right into the shift. Putting him behind Bryant and Rizzo, 2 guys that get on base a lot, not only would you have a 30 HR hitter protecting Rizzo, but you would eliminate a lot of the shifts on Schwarber because men would be on base. And putting 2 OBP contact hitters in front of Bryant and he might have better than a ****ing 1:1.87 HR:RBI ratio.

It's actually really incredible how ****ing awful Maddon can manage this roster.
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With the boom in HR (thanks strike zone!), it may be swinging back to valuing pitching. And i dare say HOU, given their rotation Mash unit, may wanna get an arm of Bregman is the bait. Jose Quintana straight up may work, maybe Gerrit Cole
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Tucker and Paulino, then.

The Astros have a TON of quality OF prospects in their system, if they can afford to move a big-time prospect, Tucker would be the guy that could get them an immediate return.

So if they moved Bregman, Tucker and Paulino for Carpenter and Quintana, they'd get 3 years of control of Carpenter and 5 years of Quintana. They'd have a wide-open window for the next 2 years where they'd have to be seen as prohibitive favorites in the AL.

Flags fly forever...
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If they could really pull off both they'd prob have already done that
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Pham just did something I am fairly certain Carp has never done in a much larger sample size.

Damn near single handedly won a game with his bat AND defense. :-)
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More Matt Adams news. Freeman should be back in the Braves lineup in about three weeks, and then Adams will be riding the pine again. Or not. Freeman played third base in high school, and volunteered to take it up again so that Adams (who as we know can basically play first and only first) can stay at that position and they'll both be in the lineup. I guess the Braves thought about it for about a microsecond before they agreed to give it a try.

Freeman must be a special kind of player to switch positions like that for the good of the team, even though he's their number one guy. And Adams has turned into a home run hitting machine since escaping the clutches of Matheny. It being his idea just makes it that much better.
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Whiffed 3 times :-)
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Name 3 cards starters since 1945 who have multiple seasons ERA 3.10 or lower before age 25:


Bob Gibson is not one. According to FG took him until 29.
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Steve Carlton's always a good guess. Looks like Carlos is #2. No idea on the other. Most of the other Cardinal 'greats' got a little later start. Tudor didn't start full-time until his mid-20s. Forsch might technically count as his age 25 season was his second year under 3 but he didn't qualify for the ERA title in year 1. Guys like Breachen and Walker are pre-WWII so I didn't bother to check on them.

Dear Rick Ankiel's 'splodey brain - fuck you. Ankiel would've been an all-timer. His progression just over the 2nd half of the 2000 season (combined with his video game numbers as a teenager in the minors) makes you hurt as a baseball fan for what might have been. The guy had Kershaw ability. People always talk about "how many pennants the Cardinals would've won had they not shipped out Steve Carlton" but I think they overlook just how dominant that team would've been in the 2000s if they'd have been able to add the best lefthanded starter in baseball to the roster. He was that good.
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Found another in Nelson Briles but he also didn't qualify for the ERA title in '67. He went 14-5 and actually garnered MVP votes but spent so much time in relief (in an era where starters threw ungodly amounts of innings) that his 155 innings didn't qualify.
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So does the age 25 season count? Because if so, I believe I have our answer.



I can't imagine anyone would've figured that one out.

EDIT: Nevermind, don't need the age 25 season and I'm annoyed I didn't think of him sooner.



This little homework exercise reminded me how weird 80s baseball was. Nobody struck anybody out. Just a bunch of guys throwing 90 at the knees and hoping someone whacked it at a fielder.
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