***Official 2015 STL Cardinals Thread***

[BigRedChief]

2011 World Series Championship
2012 NLCS. One win from another WS appearance.
2013 World Series. Two wins from another World Series Championship
2014 NLCS. Three wins from another WS appearance

• Made the postseason 10 times in the last 14 seasons.
• Only 1 losing season since 2000.
• Reached the World Series 4 times since 2004 and won as many championships (two) the past eight seasons as it did from 1965 to 2005.
• Made the NLCS 9 times including the last 4 years 2011-2014
• Three million attendance? Take it to the bank.
• 65 post season wins since 2004. 22+ wins more than any other team.

[BigRedChief]

O.City, I rarely get to watch the games live. Life or work intrusions. Usually its a DVR game for me.

[BigRedChief]

From our old friend Frazod

[O.city]

So personally I think Scruggs has a slider bat, but if he could turn out to not suck, thay would be awesome.

I still think Adam Lind would be great platoon

[VAChief]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

FWIW, after that walk, Jay's OBP is higher than Grichuk's.

Yes, but Jay's OPS+ is still an abysmal 62, while Grichuk is at a very respectable +129. That is better than Wong and Heyward and ties him with Carpenter. Only Peralta and Holliday have a better adjusted OPS. It is only one statistic, but helps provide some perspective that he isn't total crap.

Speaking of adjusted for ballpark stats, our individual ERA+ stats are off the charts as a team. Garcia is not at +228!

[VAChief]

We all need to savor these times. Most of us can remember the days when excitement meant adding a fading Bob Horner or Tom Brunansky at the break.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

Physics I? I got an A in all my physic courses and I guarantee your mathematical skills are better than mine. No sympathy.

I'm really good at performing floating calculations in my head, and I can solve a lot of math problems intuitively, but my algebra skills are only so/so.

The biggest issue with me in that class is translating the problems to a workable formula, as I am sure it is for pretty much everyone.

Covering half of a Physics textbook in three weeks wasn't fun either.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by VAChief

Yes, but Jay's OPS+ is still an abysmal 62, while Grichuk is at a very respectable +129. That is better than Wong and Heyward and ties him with Carpenter. Only Peralta and Holliday have a better adjusted OPS. It is only one statistic, but helps provide some perspective that he isn't total crap.

Speaking of adjusted for ballpark stats, our individual ERA+ stats are off the charts as a team. Garcia is not at +228!

There is no doubt that Grichuk has had a better offensive season than Jay. I was making a half-assed point to illustrate how I think his numbers aren't that sustainable, and why I wouldn't want him starting in October.

He's the kind of guy that will murder a #5 starter and get eaten alive by good pitchers, especially those with good offspeed stuff.

He has value, but I don't think it's October value.

[Swanman]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

There is no doubt that Grichuk has had a better offensive season than Jay. I was making a half-assed point to illustrate how I think his numbers aren't that sustainable, and why I wouldn't want him starting in October.

He's the kind of guy that will murder a #5 starter and get eaten alive by good pitchers, especially those with good offspeed stuff.

He has value, but I don't think it's October value.

He did run into one against Kershaw last year in the playoffs. Granted, Kershaw wasn't really pitching like a #1 but still. If the choice is Jay vs. Grichuk in any of the outfield positions, I am choosing Grichuk every damn month of the year.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by Swanman

He did run into one against Kershaw last year in the playoffs. Granted, Kershaw wasn't really pitching like a #1 but still. If the choice is Jay vs. Grichuk in any of the outfield positions, I am choosing Grichuk every damn month of the year.

I'd rather see Tommy Pham get run in center than Jay right now.

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Fools gold O

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

I'm really good at performing floating calculations in my head, and I can solve a lot of math problems intuitively, but my algebra skills are only so/so.

The biggest issue with me in that class is translating the problems to a workable formula, as I am sure it is for pretty much everyone.

Covering half of a Physics textbook in three weeks wasn't fun either.

I took some advanced Quantum Physics classes as electives. I don't think I had a natural talent for the advanced equations. I was just able to learn it quickly and apply it to the next progression up the equation ladder.

I enjoyed the possibilities. It was fun to me. There is a lot of movement lately in the physic community that we are living in a hologram. Fascinating stuff to me.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by VAChief

We all need to savor these times. Most of us can remember the days when excitement meant adding a fading Bob Horner or Tom Brunansky at the break.

No shit. I can't believe we won a WS in 2006 with those pitchers.

Now, unless some SP breaks down, I'm not in favor of adding anything to the roster. We need to save our young talent for down the road.

[BigRedChief]

So I ran into a guy today. We were talking Pujols and I told him I was a Cardinals fan. He congratulated us on Woolford our comp pick in the first round. I guess the guy's son plays in the same league as Woolford. He saw him pitch a lot over the years.

He said the fastball in just low 90's but he can control it and put it anywhere he wants to in the strike zone. He was so notorious at hitting the catchers glove at the exact spot that they had to modify the catchers stance before his sophomore year.

He said he is a good kid. In love with Florida baseball. Surprised that he signed. Everyone figured he was gone to college for at least 2 years.

If he throws in the low 90's out of high school what does it usually project as a 22 year old?

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

So I ran into a guy today. We were talking Pujols and I told him I was a Cardinals fan. He congratulated us on Woolford our comp pick in the first round. I guess the guy's son plays in the same league as Woolford. He saw him pitch a lot over the years.

He said the fastball in just low 90's but he can control it and put it anywhere he wants to in the strike zone. He was so notorious at hitting the catchers glove at the exact spot that they had to modify the catchers stance before his sophomore year.

He said he is a good kid. In love with Florida baseball. Surprised that he signed. Everyone figured he was gone to college for at least 2 years.

If he throws in the low 90's out of high school what does it usually project as a 22 year old?

I'd say about 93-95, depending on how much they want to torque his mechanics for extra oomph. If he were a reliever, probably another 3 mph on top of that.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

So I ran into a guy today. We were talking Pujols and I told him I was a Cardinals fan. He congratulated us on Woolford our comp pick in the first round. I guess the guy's son plays in the same league as Woolford. He saw him pitch a lot over the years.

He said the fastball in just low 90's but he can control it and put it anywhere he wants to in the strike zone. He was so notorious at hitting the catchers glove at the exact spot that they had to modify the catchers stance before his sophomore year.

He said he is a good kid. In love with Florida baseball. Surprised that he signed. Everyone figured he was gone to college for at least 2 years.

If he throws in the low 90's out of high school what does it usually project as a 22 year old?

The thing about Woodford is that he's built like a grown-ass man. A lot of prep pitchers are tall, stringy fellas that you figure will add 30 lbs to their frame and gain velocity. Woodford certainly doesn't qualify there.

Woodford may not be as projectable as most 18 yr olds because he's already pretty well built. He may end up cruising around the 93 mph range.

Really, I see a lot of Lynn in the kid. He's going to live or die off his fastball in all likelihood and it seems like he gets good movement to go with plus command. Neither of his breaking balls seem terribly advanced but there's obviously some time there.

Seems like a kid with a very high floor - with a moving fastball with decent velocity and plus command, he seems like he could be Seth Maness with very little additional development. I just didn't see a ton of upside there either. If you knew how strongly committed he was to FL and that you'd have to go $300K over slot to get him, he seemed like an odd pick. If they'd have taken someone that would accept slot, they'd have another $300K to throw at Kep Brown and get him to sign rather than (likely) losing him to his SC commit.