Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins:
They can afford it and it doesn't cost a comp pick. The owners can afford these contracts, they just don't admit it.
If we could afford to pay Carpenter, Miller, Fowler, and Cecil what we did for jack shit yea I guess so. [Reply]
As soon as I saw the Mets were involved yesterday I immediately thought the butt hurt the owner had over the Matz signing might lend to him "tilting" on a deal with Scherzer.
I wanted him, but that is insane money. Even as durable as he has been, he is still 38, 39, 40 in the years of that contract. [Reply]
Sources: Texas Rangers land star shortstop Corey Seager on 10-year, $325 million deal. The Rangers have committed $561 million over the last 24 hours to free agents, the biggest free-agent spending spree in MLB history. [Reply]
Jon Gray signing for 4/$56 is a risk I'd have been willing to take.
He's an awfully good complement to Matz. When both are healthy and productive they'd provide much different looks and Gray provides a nice floor given his health history and high-octane fastball.
At $14 million/season (in an environment where Scherzer is getting $43 million), I think that's a very justifiable risk. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
Jon Gray signing for 4/$56 is a risk I'd have been willing to take.
He's an awfully good complement to Matz. When both are healthy and productive they'd provide much different looks and Gray provides a nice floor given his health history and high-octane fastball.
At $14 million/season (in an environment where Scherzer is getting $43 million), I think that's a very justifiable risk.
I totally agree.
If you gave me a choice of Gray for 4/$56M or Kevin Gausman for 5/$110M, it would have been Gray hands down for me. [Reply]
Originally Posted by BigRedChief:
he’s got a long list of misses.
How’d your new manager do last year? Did he seem to learn from his mistakes with the Cardinals?
I will grudgingly admit Matheny was less of an epic disaster than I expected. He seems to have learned at least a smidge. But he’d still be out on his ass tomorrow if I was calling the shots. [Reply]
The Twitter world is suggesting the Cards are still hoping for one out of two from Story or Stroman. Story’s non-Coors lines are not worth bragging home about but still think that he’d be an upgrade over DeJong if the price is right. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Marco Polo:
The Twitter world is suggesting the Cards are still hoping for one out of two from Story or Stroman. Story’s non-Coors lines are not worth bragging home about but still think that he’d be an upgrade over DeJong if the price is right.
I don't think he'd be a significant enough upgrade over Sosa to justify the pricetag and the opportunity cost.
Sosa's glove is GG caliber. Over a full season he's worth 3 wins on the basis of his defense alone. His contact skills are average and his patience is abysmal.
But he was one of 3 players in MLB last year to put up a max sprint speed, max exit velocity and outs above average in the top 10% of baseball. That means he has elite raw speed, plus raw power and is a premium defender at a premium defensive position.
I think over a full season you're probably looking at a .710ish OPS from him that's something along the lines of .260/.310/.400. That's about what Miguel Rojas gave the Marlins last year - nothing great, but it'll play. It's a wRC+ of almost dead average. And Rojas never showed the kind of power potential that Sosa showed in AAA in '19 (17 homers). In nearly 2400 ABs over his career Rojas has never hit a ball 110 mph - Sosa hit one 115 mph last season. He has far more natural power than Rojas and decent contact skills. That's a guy who can at least play at this level.
So you give him a slightly better offensive profile than Miguel Rojas and GG defense at shortstop and you have a 4+ WAR player on your hands. Especially if he can improve his base-stealing technique. And if he could even creep that walk rate to 8%, you're really cookin'.
Now if TON is for real and Carlson's late-season power development continues, and ESPECIALLY if Bader continues to turn the corner offensively (a process he actually started in '20) - you can easily afford to carry Sosa's bat. Suddenly that team is genuinely good, especially if Yepez/Gorman/Noot can provide viable punch at DH.
They still don't have a true leadoff hitter in the lineup, but Story doesn't solve that problem anyway (I still say you see if you can get any traction moving Jordan Walker or Nolan Gorman for CJ Abrams).
So pass on Story and get a deal done with Stroman. Now you have Stroman and Matz, not to mention Hudson, Wainright and Mikolas, who all have extreme ground ball tendencies backed by one of the better defensive infields in decades. Then you work on guys like Reyes and Hicks. You get Reyes to trade velocity for command and get Hicks to trade velo for movement. Now you have both guys working at 95-96 with the ability to coax playable contact instead of walking guys (Reyes) or taking 17 pitches to get anyone out (Hicks) and you can see if they could actually develop into rotation options long-term.
Stroman is the right answer here. But don't forget to block him on social media because he'll just piss you off. [Reply]
#stlcards draft OF with STL ties in the first round of MiLB Rule 5: Ben DeLuzio was born in St. Louis. An undrafted free agent (2016) who had been in Arizona's system, DeLuzio went to high school in Orlando, played at Florida State. He's 27 with a career .363 OBP in minors.
Pirates lose OF Jonah Davis to Cardinals in Rule 5.
Liover Peguero said Davis had best bat flip in Pirates system: "He hit a bomb and just threw the bat. He pointed to the dugout like, ‘I fucking told you.’ Before the game, he said, ‘I’m gonna hit a bomb.’ That was crazy."