****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

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by BDj23

Holy shit, Wong crushed that ball.

Yea, strangely I am concerned he hit a HR his first at bat of the season. We know how it usually ends up when he goes on a HR binge for a minute then starts trying to hit every pitch out.

[Marcellus]

And as I typed that Wong hits his 2nd HR of the day.

[Marcellus]

Good to see Carp learned from his slow start last season. He currently sits 0-4 and hasn't made decent contact on a single pitch.

[bdj23]

Bad things happen when you don't get the pitchers out

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by BDj23

Bad things happen when you don't get the pitchers out

Not a bad first game. That place is the classic band box. Balls fly out that shouldn’t. Mikolas just missed location a few times and they made him pay. Wong and Bader stepping up. Lower rung bullpen guys got the job done. Martinez has the game tying home run in the 9th but Cain makes a helluva play. Tip your cap.

If this is what we see all year, going to be a lot more fun to watch over that Matheny shitshow we had to endure the last few years.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

With Gorman, Montero, Nunez and Torres the Cardinals have the best group of young hitting prospects they've had since I started following the system closely.

Now you can generally guess that 1/2 of those guys will wash out entirely and at least one of the other ones will disappoint. But when you have 4 guys with potential 5 win bats parked in the low minors, you really like your odds of getting at least one impact hitter out of that lot.

It's pretty far removed from the days where we had Drew down there and were waiting on him. Then Rasmus. Then Taveras. We have usually had one premier hitting prospect in our low minors that we followed with baited breath in the hopes that they develop perfectly. Then we'd get to overrating someone like Evan Mendoza and calling him a possible All-Star. Right now we have numbers we can throw at it and that's a biiiiiig difference. A guy like Mendoza is someone that a honk such as myself says "man, just see if you can get some solid innings at SS with him, pump his value in the Tx league and trade his ass for a lefty reliever with a couple years of control..."

This system could explode up the rankings next season if even 2 of those guys do well in full-season ball (or a taste of a full season level), especially if Carlson puts himself into the top 50 conversation as I expect he will.

so let me get this straight, we have 4 players that “potentially” give us 5+ wins in the majors? That’s their ceiling. Like you said, odds are only 1 makes it to the majors but still...... isn’t that damn good for us?

[duncan_idaho]

Question:
With Carpenter 1 and Goldschmidt 2, why hit the pitcher 9th?

Also: Man, 5 wins might be a stretch to swing for Gorman, Nunez, and Montero. All have questionable gloves, which doesn’t give you much margin. You have to be a superstar, all-around hitter to get to 5 without help from your glove and legs.

Carlson might actually be the best bet for that. I like him a ton (but I’m also a sucker for do-it-all OF, especially switch hitters).

[raybec 4]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

Question:
With Carpenter 1 and Goldschmidt 2, why hit the pitcher 9th?

Also: Man, 5 wins might be a stretch to swing for Gorman, Nunez, and Montero. All have questionable gloves, which doesn’t give you much margin. You have to be a superstar, all-around hitter to get to 5 without help from your glove and legs.

Carlson might actually be the best bet for that. I like him a ton (but I’m also a sucker for do-it-all OF, especially switch hitters).

I don't get why Fowler was hitting 6 and Bader 8

[Miles]

Originally Posted by raybec 4

I don't get why Fowler was hitting 6 and Bader 8

Or get what Fowler did to earn opening day starter over O'Neill when spring training was just more of last year.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by Miles

Or get what Fowler did to earn opening day starter over O'Neill when spring training was just more of last year.

$50 million reasons.

[Miles]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

$50 million reasons.

Unfortunatly yes. I really had no problem keeping him around and hoping he managed to rebound some. It’s a sunk cost but not the worst idea just to make sure since shit season do happen but spring training seemed more of the same with O’Neill being productive.

[bdj23]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

$50 million reasons.

Dont forget his smile!

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by Miles

Unfortunatly yes. I really had no problem keeping him around and hoping he managed to rebound some. It’s a sunk cost but not the worst idea just to make sure since shit season do happen but spring training seemed more of the same with O’Neill being productive.

Dewitt and Mo say its a business. Every business makes bad investments or in projects. But, successful ones cut their losses on bad projects or investments that are hurting the company.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

Also: Man, 5 wins might be a stretch to swing for Gorman, Nunez, and Montero. All have questionable gloves, which doesn’t give you much margin. You have to be a superstar, all-around hitter to get to 5 without help from your glove and legs.

Carlson might actually be the best bet for that. I like him a ton (but I’m also a sucker for do-it-all OF, especially switch hitters).

Y'all seem to forget that I'm much more careful than you give me credit for.

I said '5 win bat'. That means a bat that could yield a 5 win player. Matt Carpenter's glove/baserunning sucks bawls but on 3 occasions he's been roughly a 5 win player. Those years were driven by his offense and generally credible defensive play at positions that give him just enough of a positional adjustment to boost him the rest of the way.

I figure a neutral defender/baserunner can be at/near 5 wins w/ a WRC+ in the neighborhood of, what, 145? Seem fair?

All four of those guys have the potential to develop into a hitter than can hit that mark.

Look at it this way - from 2011-2013 Allen Craig had a WRC+ of 139. Would you say that those 4 guys I mentioned have the potential to be, say, 10% better than Craig was over that period of time? They'd get there in different ways (Torres excluded, who may be EXACTLY that kind of hitter if he continues on his present course), but if you pare that development down and 1 of them makes it to his top 20% projection, isn't that the kind of bat you're looking at?

Craig was never a 5 win player due to injury issues and negative defensive adjustments (I think all 4 of those guys profile better defensively than Craig, who was not quite Jose Martinez out there, but he made Matt Adams appear look like a MASSIVE improvement at 1b and was only a marginal upgrade on Matt Holliday in the OF). And I wouldn't say he QUITE reached the level of a 5 win bat. But I'd say he's pretty close and with a little bit of improvement on who he was over that 3 year period, you get to what I would call a 5 win bat.

Any of those 4 guys is capable of that. Which was precisely my point from the jump. I'm not saying all 4 of those guys are going to be dude's capable of getting MVP votes in any given year. I'm saying that with 4 of those dudes, you can be a lot more comfortable that at least ONE of them will be that kind of player and maybe another settles into a solid complementary lineup piece.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Miles

Unfortunatly yes. I really had no problem keeping him around and hoping he managed to rebound some. It’s a sunk cost but not the worst idea just to make sure since shit season do happen but spring training seemed more of the same with O’Neill being productive.

So in softball games if we ever get to where we're just ramrodding some team, I'll get bored, want to get the game over with and I'll just go take an AB lefthanded. It's kinda douchy but no more douchy than scalding a liner at some poor bastard 2b that just wants to go get another beer (and I really can't help it, my swing is so ludicrously inside out that I'm almost certainly hitting it at that 2b even if I'd prefer roll one to SS).

For perspective on how that tends to go, when I broke my right arm, I had to pee sitting down for 6 weeks because if I used my left I'd piss on the wall. My left hand might as well be that golden thing that Jaime Lannister has in Game of Thrones. It is useless. And my prescriptions on my eyes are so different that my L and R contacts are different BRANDS, so needless to say, I have a clear dominant eye and it ain't the one facing forward when hitting lefty.

And I'm confident that despite all that, I only look marginally worse swinging from the left side than Dexter Fowler does swinging from his right.

Stop calling yourself a switch hitter, Fowler. Going up there and swinging like a 12 year old from the right side of the plate doesn't mean you can competently switch hit. And on a team with no good LH hitting options off the bench but a bit of a surplus from the right, what the **** would you EVER send him up there to swing from that side for?

You have Munoz on the bench and Martinez. You're pulling Wong (who Munoz could play for) so you could use Martinez to face Hader in Fowler's place and Munoz to face Hader in Wong's place. Even if you end up in a tie game situation you have Robinson on the bench who can play IF or OF. And that's only necessary if you're completely uncomfortable with the Martinez in RF, Munoz at 2b alignment (which is admittedly not ideal but it'll play for a bit in extras if needed).

We went north with 7 relievers and I thought that meant maybe we would FINALLY use our bench aggressively. Nope - we sent Dexter Fowler out there to do a thing he is woefully ill-equipped to do while leaving a bench option on the pine who would've unquestionably given a better at-bat than Fowler did in that situation. That was some Mathenaging from Shildt and so far I haven't seen it called out.

Dexter Fowler should not take another at-bat from the right side of the plate for the remainder of his career. He's absolute garbage at it.