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 DJ's left nut:
Brilliant, as ever...
Eh, it's Mo that has my ire anyway. Like I said, for not being a fan of either recent managers, my blame falls to the turd GM that keeps assembling these flawed rosters. It's absolutely CRIMINAL that MO was even in a position to be able to fire Shildt and skate by himself.
The fans were calling for Ollie's head in the stands last night but in typical Cardinals fan fashion ignore the root of the problem. Marmot will simply be made the fall guy [Reply]
Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins:
That whole game was mismanaged. He pulled Waino after 95 pitches when he had given up six baserunners in 5 1/3. He pulled Gallegos after 12 easy pitches, and after he pulled McFarland, he passed over Cabrera, who had 71 appearances that season for Reyes. And Taylor doesn't have a platoon split.
Yeah, the team won 18 straight games, but that's a statistical anomaly borne of sequencing, not wizardry. It's the same reason why they've never been able to recreate their 2013 production with RISP.
He won 90 games playing almost 60 of them against teams that weren't actively interested in winning.
Oddly once the shift was eliminated, the Cardinals' philosophy of pitching to contact has been exposed as anachronistic. And for all the hate towards Molina, he historically depressed ERA.
Is Marmol unfit to manage? Yeah. But the problem isn't Marmol and the solution isn't Shildt; the problem is ownership and the solution is making them care or making them sell.
Wainwright had been running on fumes down the stretch and exposing him to that monster of a lineup again was no sort of obvious decision. Gallegos got hurt. Cabrera had been just as erratic as Reyes. No, he didn't 'mismanage' any of that - he just didn't do what you'd have done but each of those decisions, in a vacuum, have an easy explanation. Nothing he did in that game is even obviously wrong, let alone 'fireable'.
The team won 18 straight because Shildt continued to work on guys like O'Neill, Whitley, Carlson, etc... and found ways to make them productive and maximize their abilities. They were playing hard and you can call that sequencing all you want, but they were creating those opportunities for themselves by simply battling every game.
And as I said in the Royals thread - everyone complains about strength of schedule for teams but then their guys still go out and lose to them. At a point you're just looking for reasons not to give credit, not any sort of discrediting factor.
And the problem with the Cardinals 'pitch to contact' philosophy is that they didn't actually have one of those for about 5 years but now they've been forced into it by a simple lack of talent. As I said a few days ago, they were ahead of the curve on this before simple laziness and incompetence on the part of Mozeliak set them back literally 15 years.
If Shildt isn't a good manager, then baseball has maybe 4 of those. He's still, relative to his peers and the impact he can actually make on a game to game basis, a good manager. And frankly, between the lines isn't as critical as managing the grind. He did that extremely well and we saw players progressing on his watch that have regressed since his departure.
Would this roster be substantially more successful with Shildt at the helm? Eh - depends on 'substantial'. This is probably a .525 true talent ballclub; 85 wins or so. Would they be WS favorites? No. Would they be last in the NL? Absofuckinglutely not. And without the free hand granted by a yes man like Marmol, this wouldn't be the roster we have anyway. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Pasta Little Brother:
Eh, it's Mo that has my ire anyway. Like I said, for not being a fan of either recent managers, my blame falls to the turd GM that keeps assembling these flawed rosters. It's absolutely CRIMINAL that MO was even in a position to be able to fire Shildt and skate by himself.
The fans were calling for Ollie's head in the stands last night but in typical Cardinals fan fashion ignore the root of the problem. Marmot will simply be made the fall guy
I'm not convinced Mozeliak will fire Marmol. Not this season anyway. But he does have a ready replacement in McEwing who will still get the BFIB all atwitter. "LITTLE MAC IS BACK!!!!" -- I can see the PD Headlines already.
It's not even Mozeliak anymore - it's DeWitt. He doesn't give a fuck and if he did, Mozeliak would've been fired 5 years ago. [Reply]