****The Official 2019 STL Cardinals Thread****

[BigRedChief]

Cardinals announce 25-man Opening Day roster for the 2019 season.

Spoiler!

The Cardinals today announced their 25-man Opening Day roster that includes four first-time Cardinals and 13 players that were developed within their organization.

PITCHERS (12): 60 – John Brebbia-RHP, 22 – Jack Flaherty-RHP, 53 – John Gant- RHP, 49 – Jordan Hicks-RHP, 43 – Dakota Hudson- RHP, 55 – Dominic Leone-RHP, 59 – Mike Mayers- RHP, 21 – Andrew Miller-LHP, 39 – Miles Mikolas-RHP, 29 – Alex Reyes, RHP, 52 – Michael Wacha-RHP, 50 – Adam Wainwright- RHP;

CATCHERS (2): 4 -Yadier Molina, 32 – Matt Wieters;

INFIELDERS (6): 13 - Matt Carpenter, 12 – Paul DeJong, 46 – Paul Goldschmidt, 34 – Yario Muñoz, 33 – Drew Robinson, 16 – Kolten Wong;

OUTFIELDERS (5): 46 – Harrison Bader, 25 - Dexter Fowler, 38 – José Martínez, 41 – Tyler O'Neill, 23 – Marcell Ozuna;

DISABLED LIST (5): 27 - Brett Cecil (10-day, left hand Carpal Tunnel syndrome), 44 – Luke Gregerson (10-day, right shoulder impingement), 18 – Carlos Martínez (right shoulder cuff strain), 3 - Jedd Gyorko (10-day, right calf strain), 67 - Justin Williams (10-day, right hand 2nd metacarpal fracture).

2019 Opening Day Line up

Spoiler!

Starting lineup
Matt Carpenter 3B
Paul Goldschmidt 1B
Paul DeJong SS
Ozuna LF
Yadier Molina C
Dexter Fowler RF
Kolten Wong 2B
Harrison Bader CF

Won the Central Division. Won the NLDS.

NLDS Playoff roster

Spoiler!

Pitchers (12): Miles Mikolas, Jack Flaherty, Adam Wainwright, Dakota Hudson, Genesis Cabrera, Tyler Webb, Andrew Miller, John Brebbia, Daniel Ponce de Leon, Ryan Helsley, Giovanny Gallegos, Carlos Martinez.

Catchers (2): Yadier Molina, Matt Wieters.

Infielders (6): Paul Goldschmidt, Kolten Wong, Paul DeJong, Matt Carpenter, Tommy Edman, Yairo Munoz.

Outfielders (5): Marcell Ozuna, Harrison Bader, Dexter Fowler, Jose Martinez, Randy Arozarena.

NLDS Playoff Game 1 starting lineup

Spoiler!

1. Dexter Fowler, CF

2. Tommy Edman, 3B

3. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B

4. Marcell Ozuna, LF

5. Yadier Molina, C

6. Paul DeJong, SS

7. Kolten Wong, 2B

8. Harrison Bader, CF

9. Miles Mikolas, P

NLCS Game One Starting lineup

Spoiler!

1. Dexter Fowler, CF

2. Kolten Wong, 2B

3. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B

4. Marcell Ozuna, LF

5. Yadier Molina, C

6. Matt Carpenter 3B

7.Tommy Edmond RF

8. Paul DeJong, SS

9. Miles Mikolas P

[Marco Polo]

Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News reports that Kwang-Hyun Kim is currently in St. Louis for a physical and contract talks with the Cardinals.


It does not appear that Kim signing with the Cardinals is a done deal at this point, but clearly the two sides are deep in negotiations. The 31-year-old left-hander posted a 2.51 ERA, 1.24 WHIP and 180/38 K/BB ratio over 190 1/3 innings this past season for the SK Wyverns in the Korea Baseball Organization.

https://twitter.com/Jeeho_1/status/1206761197061623808

[Chris Meck]

Get this St. Louis bullshit the **** out of here.

Shit town.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Marco Polo

Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News reports that Kwang-Hyun Kim is currently in St. Louis for a physical and contract talks with the Cardinals.


It does not appear that Kim signing with the Cardinals is a done deal at this point, but clearly the two sides are deep in negotiations. The 31-year-old left-hander posted a 2.51 ERA, 1.24 WHIP and 180/38 K/BB ratio over 190 1/3 innings this past season for the SK Wyverns in the Korea Baseball Organization.

https://twitter.com/Jeeho_1/status/1206761197061623808

Moe struggling to close the deal w/ even the watered down minor league version of Hyun-Jin Ryu.

Corey Kluber gets traded for a dry tug-job and salary relief while our clown-ass GM is trying to convince a 31 yr old lefty swing-man that money isn't everything and that the Cardinals will offer him a REALLY nice parking space if he'll sign with us...

Dick.

[KChiefs1]

I thought you guys would get Kluber.

[Marco Polo]

Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Cardinals have reached an agreement with left-hander Kwang-Hyun Kim.


No word yet on the details of the agreement. Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News reported that Kim was in St. Louis for a physical, so things appeared to be leaning in this direction. The expectation is that the deal will be finalized Tuesday. Kim, a 31-year-old southpaw, posted a 2.51 ERA and 180/38 K/BB ratio over 190 1/3 innings this past season as a member of the SK Wyverns in the Korea Baseball Organization. He could slot into the fifth spot in the Cardinals' rotation, potentially leaving Carlos Martinez in the bullpen.

https://twitter.com/dgoold/status/1207018359214288896

[Marco Polo]

https://theathletic.com/1468075/2019...wang-hyun-kim/

Everything you wanted to know about Cardinals pitching target Kwang-Hyun Kim

By Mark Saxon

Information doesn’t go through customs, and it doesn’t wait for a visa.

Thus, reporters working in South Korea, notably Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News, who writes and tweets in English, punctured the quiet of the St. Louis Cardinals’ winter to break news that the team was hosting left-handed pitcher Kwang-Hyun Kim in snowy St. Louis on Monday and that Kim was in town for a physical, a pretty good indication an agreement could be close.

The Cardinals were the last remaining major league team not to have added a player from outside the organization to their 40-man roster yet this winter, so the news gives us the first indication of the team’s offseason strategy.

Is it to lay back and pick off value targets from abroad? The team was among the last to jump enthusiastically into the east Asian talent market, but in recent seasons has gotten nice value out of Seung-Hwan Oh and Miles Mikolas, both of whom signed out of Japan. One of the Cardinals’ highest-ranking scouts, Matt Slater, has helped open the flow of that faucet after having helped the Los Angeles Dodgers do the same a generation before. If that is, indeed, the case, could they also be lying in the weeds to take a run at left-handed-hitting outfielder Shogo Takiyama, a free agent from Japan?

Considering two division rivals, the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds, have been linked to Takiyama, that might make some sense.

Even if it’s not their overarching strategy, what kind of pitcher are the Cardinals getting in Kim, presuming for the moment this deal gets finalized? Let’s take a look at some of the primary factors that will go into assessing whether this is a substantial addition or a long-distance mistake:
The Cost

The Cardinals have been clear that this winter’s maneuvers are complicated a bit by a roster that is calcified by the final, lower-value years of contracts to Dexter Fowler, Matt Carpenter and Brett Cecil. The hot stove did them a favor, perhaps, by moving quickly on starting pitching and giving them a good early indication of the price range for starters.

Nine of the top 11 free agent starting pitchers with at least 2.0 WAR in 2019 already have signed deals, and those pacts add up to $741.8 million. The Cardinals may have looked at Kim as a way to add pitching without paying sellers’ prices.

So how much will he cost them? That will depend, in part, on the size of the posting fee that will go to Kim’s Korean Baseball Organization team, SK Wyverns. The Cardinals and Kim have until Jan. 5 to cut a deal. If they do, SK Wyverns will receive a 20-percent posting fee, assuming the deal is for $25 million or less, which seems likely.

Hyun-Jin Ryu cost the Dodgers an additional $25.7 million in addition to his $36 million contract when they signed him in 2012, but Ryu was a legend in Korea by then, having dominated the league since arriving as a teenager in 2006.

Kim, 31, is also five years older than Ryu was when he made the leap across the Pacific. In 2014, the San Diego Padres won exclusive negotiating rights with him for $2 million in posting, but couldn’t come to an agreement. Perhaps Mikolas’ two-year, $15.5 million pact will be something of a comp? If so, we can assume that Kim’s posting fee will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 million. So if the total package costs the Cardinals $19 million or so for two seasons, it could be a relative bargain considering Madison Bumgarner, who is a year younger than Kim, just signed for $85 million over five seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

It’s way too early to say whether Kim will prove to be a bargain, but it’s not too early to surmise that he’s probably safely within the Cardinals’ price point for adding to their rotation.
The stuff

Back in 2016, when it appeared as if Kim might become available via free agency with no posting fee, Sung-Min Kim, an expert on Korean baseball and an excellent follow on Twitter, quoted an anonymous major league scout as saying of him, “He has big-league stuff. Definitely a big-league slider. But due to his control issues, I see his best fit as a major-league matchup guy against left-handed hitters.”

Why are we dwelling on just one of Kim’s pitches? Because that slider could be a major weapon if Kim does, indeed, end up pitching at least some of the time in relief for the Cardinals. The Cardinals already had five starters penciled into the rotation and 10 or 11 of them on their roster, after all. When I asked Cardinals general manager Michael Girsch what the team would do if Carlos Martínez’s shoulder holds up all spring and the team breaks camp with six starters, he said one of them would move to the bullpen. Obvious, right?

But who? Martínez, Adam Wainwright and Dakota Hudson all have experience pitching in relief. But it doesn’t hurt that Kim, too, has that skill in his bag. He has made 23 relief appearances in his career, including last season. With Cecil derailed by injuries, the Cardinals struggled to find a second suitable lefty to pair with Andrew Miller in the bullpen last season. Though the three-batter rule figures to eliminate the strictly situational lefty this season, Kim could provide valuable cover against teams with several dangerous left-handed hitters should the Cardinals elect to use him in relief. Versatility is a big factor here.
The results

When Ryu joined the Dodgers, he had pitched seven seasons in Korea and posted a 95-52 record, a 2.80 ERA, a 1.154 WHIP, an 8.8 SO/9 rate and a 3.23 SO/BB ratio.
In 12 seasons in Korea, Kim has gone 136-77 with a 3.27 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, 7.8 SO/9 rate and 2.25 SO/BB ratio.

He has been similar to, though not as dominant, as Ryu. Of course, Ryu figures to sign a contract this winter that will pay him $20 million or more per season, so the performance is reflected in the price. Kim might not be quite as good as Ryu, but that’s like penalizing Bumgarner for not being quite as good as Clayton Kershaw in the NL West for all those seasons. He’s still a pitcher you’d really like to have on your team.

Korean baseball is widely considered a better power league than Japan, but it also comes with more strikeouts. Kim, like Ryu, figures to rely more on his off-speed pitches and will look to induce bad contact from hitters to get through games. Ryu’s strikeout rate dropped in the majors (to 8.1 SO/9), but he made up for it by walking practically nobody, so his SO/BB rate (4.05) actually has gotten better in the U.S. If we assume Kim will have a similar dip, he still would have a better K rate on the Cardinals than both Mikolas and Hudson last season.

All of which leads to the conclusion …
Is he worth it?

Hard to know until the final figures are in, but based on the hot pitching market, it appears to be an avenue worth exploring.

[DJ's left nut]

That's FAR more than I intend to read about a dude who is almost certainly nothing more than Rheal Cormier. And probably Post-Cardinal Cormier at that.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

That's FAR more than I intend to read about a dude who is almost certainly nothing more than Rheal Cormier. And probably Post-Cardinal Cormier at that.

possible 5th starter not floating your boat?

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

possible 5th starter not floating your boat?

Gotta have a lefty that can throw 2 innings now that the LOOGY is being eliminated, I guess.

But if this dude's our 5th starter throwing 90 mph w/ 2 pitches, we are ****ED.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Gotta have a lefty that can throw 2 innings now that the LOOGY is being eliminated, I guess.

But if this dude's our 5th starter throwing 90 mph w/ 2 pitches, we are ****ED.

I could see him being a good change of speed, stuff and angle coming in after Flaherty for a couple of innings. Maybe keep the hitters timing and rhythm off from centering the ball.

I think what this says is they still don’t trust Martinez as a starter. And they need arms to throw at innings.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

I'm not going to lose sleep over not acquiring Kluber, even if the prospect cost was low. I followed every start of his in 2018--he was an absolute mirage, and downright bad against good offenses. He's probably a 2.5 win guy at this point, and I wouldn't be surprised if he blew a tire and pitched another 30-40 innings this year.

Bumgarner getting $1MM more in AAV four years later than Mike Leake shows you how bad the latter's contract was.

You have to approach this from the perspective of riding shotgun with a horrible driver. The fewer miles you have to ride with them, the safer off you are. In Mo's case, the fewer moves and longer term contracts he signs, the better off the team is in the long run. I would rather them do nothing and have Flores focus on building up the farm system than signing any big contract with high risk players past 30.

[Mecca]

What is that i hear...

[VAChief]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

I'm not going to lose sleep over not acquiring Kluber, even if the prospect cost was low. I followed every start of his in 2018--he was an absolute mirage, and downright bad against good offenses. He's probably a 2.5 win guy at this point, and I wouldn't be surprised if he blew a tire and pitched another 30-40 innings this year.

Bumgarner getting $1MM more in AAV four years later than Mike Leake shows you how bad the latter's contract was.

You have to approach this from the perspective of riding shotgun with a horrible driver. The fewer miles you have to ride with them, the safer off you are. In Mo's case, the fewer moves and longer term contracts he signs, the better off the team is in the long run. I would rather them do nothing and have Flores focus on building up the farm system than signing any big contract with high risk players past 30.

I looked at this post 2011 and came to the conclusion we were no worse off if he makes no deals at all, and quite possibly you could argue we would be better off.

[scho63]

Where does St Louis fall on the money scale of being able to sign talent?

Middle of the pack?

I know where my Pirates stand.......BASEMENT!

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by scho63

Where does St Louis fall on the money scale of being able to sign talent?

Middle of the pack?

I know where my Pirates stand.......BASEMENT!

we had the sixth highest payroll last year. Probably something close to that this year without adding anything due to bad contracts of aging and declining players.