2019 Cardinals

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Orcin

Speaking of bullpens... I am at the current date in my game, and my bullpen just makes me want to puke. My bullpen ERA is 5.29 (#13 in NL). We have 18 wins and just 4 saves as a team. We are winning the blowouts and losing anything that is close.

Gregerson has been good. Tuivalala has been decent and Holland has been ok since joining the club. Norris has been 4.00 ERA tolerable. Lyons, Leone, Cecil, and Bowman have been horrible. I mean 9.00 ERA bad. I have to do something to save my keyboard and mouse from more abuse.

Lyons is out of options and I am tempted to throw him on waivers in order to bring up Sherriff. Leone can be optioned to bring up Hicks. Cecil will likely refuse the DFA and he would clear waivers, so my only solution for him is to eat $22 million. Maybe I can find someone to trade? Stop laughing.

I am mostly here to whine, but I would like to hear about your experiences with some of these guys and who in the organization has been successful in your bullpen.

No need to tell me to go trade for Colome. I have already thought about that. Tampa will give me Colome for Cecil, Leone, AA SP Jake Woodford, and $2.5 million. What am I waiting for? I have no idea.

I have pretty much replaced the whole team.. LOL!

Bowman has been decent.. Lyons stinks and is back in AAA. Zach Britton is my closer. I love Tuti as he K's a lot of hitters, but he's just not consistent.

[Orcin]

It is time to consider a trade for a third baseman.




Of course, Machado and Donaldson come to mind. I am also interested in Kyle Seager (Seattle), a left-handed batter which I now need without Carpenter in the lineup. Seager has a pretty good track record of 6 straight years with a positive OPS+ and has averaged 4 WAR. He also has a contract that does not expire, although he is not cheap at $19M per year. However, I will likely pay even more to extend either Machado or Donaldson.

All three teams will trade their third baseman for Wacha and Pham. It is tempting. I can play Bader in CF and Flaherty can slide into Wacha's rotation spot.

I am leaning toward Seager but I have to consider whether another "above average" player is really what we need.

I know MizzouRah would vote for Donaldson.

[pgjocki]

Originally Posted by Orcin

It is time to consider a trade for a third baseman.

Attachment 554843


Of course, Machado and Donaldson come to mind. I am also interested in Kyle Seager (Seattle), a left-handed batter which I now need without Carpenter in the lineup. Seager has a pretty good track record of 6 straight years with a positive OPS+ and has averaged 4 WAR. He also has a contract that does not expire, although he is not cheap at $19M per year. However, I will likely pay even more to extend either Machado or Donaldson.

All three teams will trade their third baseman for Wacha and Pham. It is tempting. I can play Bader in CF and Flaherty can slide into Wacha's rotation spot.

I am leaning toward Seager but I have to consider whether another "above average" player is really what we need.

I know MizzouRah would vote for Donaldson.

I think getting rid of Pham before he falls off a flip is a good move.

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[rink23]

Boy, what I would give to see this happen to the "Real" Matt Carpenter.
Not that I would wish an injury on anyone.
As there is something definitely wrong with Carpenter be at mental, physical or both, and he is killing this team with his lack of performance.

[Orcin]

Unfortunately, he was off to a good start in my league. The more that I think about it, replacing Carpenter AND Pham with Donaldson and Bader doesn’t really help me much. I might look for a player to acquire with prospects.

[Orcin]

Has anyone else tried to trade for Eric Hosmer? I was looking for left-handed bats in general, and it appears that San Diego is willing to literally give him away and pay a decent chunk (25-30%) of his salary in the bargain. I can get him in the lineup by moving JMart or Fowler to DH and he would be a good replacement for Carpenter.

[Orcin]

The AI takes over a team that it did not build, and sometimes that makes for a few weird transactions in the first year. The AI version of A.J. Preller appears to believe that his team needs to shed payroll, probably motivated by the San Diego owner's "penny pincher" fiscal personality. Preller has a lot of future money committed to Wil Myers, but his only remaining large non-expiring contract is Eric Hosmer. Thus, he wanted to trade Hosmer even though the real-life Padres just acquired him. It seems weird, but it makes sense if you think about the game environment.

I acquired Hosmer for Dominic Leone and Tyler Lyons, two relievers that I wanted to get off my roster in any manner short of violence. In addition, San Diego retains 25% of Hosmer's salary. So I get a good replacement for Carpenter on a reasonable contract of $15M per year x 5 years before the opt-out. Jose Martinez will take over as the DH and Hosmer will upgrade the defense at first base.

[rink23]

I have a question about building your playoff roster.
With about 30+ games remaining, I am in possession of the second wild card and with that, I checked which players would be eligible for the postseason.
I noticed the relievers and position players were not on that list, so I went into the actions menu and added them to the playoff roster.
However a few of them -- Jordan Hicks and Jack Flaherty, especially -- the option to make them part of the playoff roster was not there.
What do I have to do to resolve that? I definitely want Hicks on that team if I should make it.

[pgjocki]

Ouch

@JoeTrezz: St. Louis Cardinals to appear on DL this season (35 games in):

Yadier Molina
Carlos Martinez
Alex Reyes
Adam Wainwright
Brett Cecil
Jedd Gyorko
Luke Gregerson
Tyler Lyons
Sam Tuivailala
Ryan Sherriff
Dominic Leone

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[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Orcin

I went with the DH for both leagues but stayed with the 25-man roster (7-man bullpen, 13 position players). Carpenter is my DH with Martinez at 1B and Gyorko at 3B. I kept Luke Voit as the extra position player instead of Munoz because I would not be double-switching or substituting during the game as much as I would if the DH were not in effect.

I've been using a 26 player roster (13 P/13 H) and you got me thinking...

So next season (2021) I'm going the opposite way from what you did. The DH will be removed from the AL and I'll keep rosters at 26.

This way position players will be used more in the AL and benches will be more valuable. (plus I don't like the DH anyway)

[Orcin]

A frustrating game, where I had the lead twice late in the game and blew it both times, caused me to make this chart of my bullpen's "Inherited Runs Allowed %". My relievers allow a runner that is already on base when they enter the game to score 38% of the time. I searched a lot and could not find out what a good percentage was, but that doesn't sound very good to me.



Leone and Lyons are already traded, so I don't have to worry about them. This chart tells me that I have to stop bringing Norris, Gregerson, and Cecil in with men on base and keep using Bowman and Tui in those situations.

[MizzouRah]

I love my closer Britton, but Tui is going to close for us in 2021 as he has a ridiculous strikeout rate for us and Britton wants a 6 year deal at his age.. yeah not going to happen.

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

I love my closer Britton, but Tui is going to close for us in 2021 as he has a ridiculous strikeout rate for us and Britton wants a 6 year deal at his age.. yeah not going to happen.

I read the Britton thread, and this post has me thinking that I should offer Britton a long-term contract next offseason before the 1-year deal is all that he wants.

I love how this game boxes you into a position. I can trade Fowler and Wacha as a package for Kyle Seager, and can get close on Machado and Donaldson. However, Fowler and Wacha both have "extreme" popularity. Trading both will crash my fan interest, and that will have unwanted consequences on next year's budget number.

Baltimore is in last place, yet their focus is still "win now". Maybe when that changes they will have more interest in trading Machado for prospects.

I am also thinking that I might be better off with DeJong moving to third and acquiring a Gold Glove shortstop. Simmons is available for *sigh* Fowler and Wacha.

[MizzouRah]

Yeah the game is much better this year with making you think about roster decisions.

Osuna wants a big deal too but he's strikes out too much and with Molina's $20M coming off the books in 2021 I'm not sure it's too far fetched for me to at least make a run at Trout.

Can you imagine Trout in LF and Harper in RF?

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Can you imagine Trout in LF and Harper in RF?

That sounds great!

[rink23]

With six games remaining in my 2018 Cardinals season, I am two games ahead of Washington for the second wild card, I got called out of town for family issues.
Dang, I miss it and was excited to see how the season played out.
Anyway, I've been thinking about my roster for 2019.
I have Manny Machado, who has been a stud for me, but whose salary demands in free agency (eight years-$50 plus million) tells me I am not going to be able to afford him.
Anyway, I will at least offer him -- as I expect those demands are just to assure he gets to free agency -- but I do have a backup plan.
During the season, I acquired a young third baseman Miguel Andujar from the Yankees. He raked for me at Memphis and has done quite a bit damage in MLB as a Sept. callup.
I got Andujar in a deal for catching prospect Andrew Knizner.
I was thinking of trading for a defensive shortstop -- Andrelton Simmons -- and Eric Hosmer, who is always getting offered to me when I shop players to offset that loss.
I plan to use players like Paul DeJong, Dexter Fowler, Matt Carpenter, John Gant, Carson Kelly as possible trade chips.
Wainwright and Holland will leave as free agents, but I have players like Flaherty and Hicks to fill that void.
Wainwright is already out until the start of spring training after severing three fingers (two were reattatched) in a freak lawn mowing accident in late Sept.
I also have a second baseman Tommy Edman, who I promoted around the All-Star break because of injuries. He batted second for a good while with great results (batting .340-plus), but when those injured players returned I moved him to eighth (I've got a little Matheny in me and can't bring myself to bat Yadi eighth), where he's fallen back to the .270s.
I am hoping to bat him first or second in 2019, he doesn't have much pop but bunts well and draws walks, and he's a plus defender at second base.
Will the addition of Hosmer and Simmons, along with Hicks (who pitched as a closer the minors), Flaherty and couple of other good looking prospects be enough to keep me competitive?

[MizzouRah]

Well we finally made the playoffs as a Wildcard in 2020 as we just couldn't pass the Cubs who won the Central again but only by 5 games.

We played Atlanta at home and got smoked 10-4. The Cubs would beat the Texas Rangers in the World Series.

I did make the $15M qualifying 1 year offers to Ozuna and Britton so we shall see how that pans out.

We need a true #1 pitcher as Martinez is so up and down. My owner wants me to resign a 38 year old Molina.. is he nuts?

Looking forward to 2021.

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by rink23

Will the addition of Hosmer and Simmons, along with Hicks (who pitched as a closer the minors), Flaherty and couple of other good looking prospects be enough to keep me competitive?

Yes, but only if the pitching is solid. If they don't pitch up to their potential, then you won't be out-scoring people. The better defense at SS and 1B should help the pitching some.

[MizzouRah]

Well.. the Texas Rangers just offered me this trade during the offseason.. this one is quite a thinker for me and I'm leaning towards doing it.

Ozuna rejected my $15M deal so I have LF open and I've already placed a contract on AJ Pollock to hopefully be our CF in 2021 as Bader fits a bench role but can't handle being a full season starter.

Martinez has not been the #1 we had hoped for and I do have another SP who can fill out the 5 man rotation and have 3 other SP's who pitched better than Martinez did in 2020. Not to mention Calhoun just turned 26 and Martinez is 29.

I could also pull Pollock's offer and put my $$$ on another top SP, but I'm drooling over an outfield of Calhoun/Pollock/Harper.

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

I've been using a 26 player roster (13 P/13 H) and you got me thinking...

So next season (2021) I'm going the opposite way from what you did. The DH will be removed from the AL and I'll keep rosters at 26.

This way position players will be used more in the AL and benches will be more valuable. (plus I don't like the DH anyway)

I am now convinced that an 8-man bullpen is essential. I have been going with 7 but I always have two that are tired and two (at least) that I don't trust in a tight spot. The 26-man roster is under consideration for next season in my league.