2019 Cardinals

[Orcin]

Rink, you have to decide if the season is truly over. I hear you saying that it is, but then in the next sentence you are talking about a wild card. Are you in or out? You have to make that decision and then the others become easier.

IN... keep Wacha, play Carp at 1B and JMart in RF to replace Harper
OUT... trade Wacha and whoever else has value, play O'Neill and Andujar

[rink23]

The All-Star game isn't until July 22.

The gives me a little over two weeks.

My gut is to play to win until that date rolls around and see where we stand there.
If the team is double digits out of a wild card, dump Wacha and a few others and go with the kids.
I just like throwing it out there to see how other Cardinals fans feel about it.
It's always good to get input from others. Appreciate it.

[MizzouRah]

I agree with Orcin.

[rink23]

OK, maybe this is cheating, maybe not, but a lot of the Cardinal GM/MGRs have raved about the results they have gotten after acquiring outfielder Willie Calhoun from the Rangers.
I am just playing out the string on the 2019 season -- 12.5 out in the division and more in the wild card on August 20 -- so I have just been throwing lures out there.
I am pretty sure I can get Calhoun if I give up Carson Kelly and Tyler O'Neill.
Kelly, I am not sold on as a everyday catcher because of his offense. I think Jesse Jenner will bring more offense and be almost as good defensively, especially when I have Yadi for one more year.
No, I am not ditching Molina. He is a the heart and soul of my team and I will not give him up even in this fictional world.
If I make the deal, O'Neill has no place to play as I already have Bryce Harper in right, so my corners are set.
As for Ozuna, he seems to want a Harper-like deal, but that could come down big time like it did for all of the free agents in the 2018-19 offseason, but he has not played that well for me either.
He is currently batting .276 with 13 homers and 54 RBIs in 97 games.
Anyway, I am writing this for craps and laughs, I see talking with other Cardinal OOTP fans like what happens in the real world between GMs and other baseball gurus.
Is it wrong to go acquire an off-the-chart player, because other OOTP players have had success with him?
Talk among yourselves.

[Orcin]

It is no more wrong than acquiring Harper was. Everybody talks about him!

You can see the performance in your game, and you can see the ratings. Does Calhoun look like the type of player you would be interested in even without hearing about him here? It is clearly not cheating because there is no guarantee that your Calhoun will perform the same as mine or MizzouRah's version. There is also no guarantee that my Calhoun will continue to be Babe Ruth.

And you're right... in real life, fans and the media talk about Harper being THE free agent to acquire. So how is that different from us talking about digital replica players here? (Ok, so the answer is that we are a bit weird and socially unacceptable here, but I'm sure you get the point anyway.)

[Whoofe]

Originally Posted by Orcin

Willie Calhoun has made a great first impression. He has played six games for us and...

Attachment 559197

I had Calhoun on my Royals save, and he was fantastic as well.


unfortunately that save was royally f-d up because apparently league evolution (I am guessing) made some changes to pitching and I ran a whole season where starting pitchers were basically pitching 2 to 4 innings. I wondered why my bullpens were having such a garbage season - because they were being overworked. I just wasn't paying enough attention to figure out the problem, that the pull starters and pull relievers settings were both set to the max negative amounts.




now I like having league evolution on, but I am going to pay more attention between seasons to make sure that I know ahead of time about huge swings such as this.

[Orcin]

It's July 23, 2018 in my game and I just swept the Cubs in Chicago. We now lead the division by 9 games over the Cubs with a record of 62-37.

The trade deadline is approaching, but I have nothing that needs to be fixed with the way this group has played over the past month (20-3 since June 24).



Moves so far:

1) Carpenter went out for the year on May 7. I traded Lyons and Leone to San Diego for Hosmer (SD retaining 25%) to replace him. Hosmer has hit .297 with 14 HR in 62 games for me.

2) The bullpen was a mess, so on June 1 I traded Holland (STL retaining 50%), Garcia, and Guilmet to KC for Kelvin Herrera to close. Herrera has a 1.53 ERA and 15 saves since joining the Cards.

3) Ozuna missed six weeks with elbow inflammation. On June 19, I acquired Willie Calhoun in a six-prospect deal with Texas. Calhoun went to DH and Jose Martinez covered left field while Ozuna was out. Calhoun has been amazing and was rookie of the month in the N.L. for June. He has cooled off a bit, but he is still a force and adds a much-needed left-handed bat to the lineup.

4) Molina went out with a sports hernia on June 19. Carson Kelly was called up to replace him and has been outstanding.

5) On June 30, I replaced struggling lefty Ryan Sherriff in the bullpen by acquiring LHP Wandy Peralta from the Reds in exchange for prospect C Jesse Jenner (who was behind Kelly and Knizner on the development chart). Peralta has appeared in 8 games with a 2.70 ERA and a very good 0.60 WHIP. He is not just a LOOGY either with a 1.33 WHIP vs. right-handed batters.

6) In order to satisfy my owner and keep the fans happy, I signed Adam Wainwright to a 2-year extension at $10.5 million per year. The second year has a vesting option requiring 22 games started. I could just keep him in the bullpen if he has declined and still avoid the second year of the contract.

I am playing out every game so this will take a while to finish (especially since I am simming a second league as GM only) but I am inclined to roll with this group and see how it does. It is certainly a much different scenario from the real Cardinals, who look like sellers this morning.

[rink23]

I was at Busch, for two of the Padres games and last night's 13-5 utter embarrasent against the Cubs.
The Cards should be sellers, but I don't think anyone would want to buy the sh@# they have to offer
I would not.
Fricking putrid.

[pgjocki]

Originally Posted by rink23

I was at Busch, for two of the Padres games and last night's 13-5 utter embarrasent against the Cubs.
The Cards should be sellers, but I don't think anyone would want to buy the sh@# they have to offer
I would not.
Fricking putrid.

Indeed, they missed their chance to sell high on Gyorko and Wong is only good as a defensive player at this point.

The young pitching is intriguing but that's the one thing you don't want to sell.

If we could package Fowler and Matheny for a bag of balls and a diet coke I'd consider that a win.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[MizzouRah]

I honestly think we have a good team, I don't really think they like playing for Matheny.

[rink23]

My 2019 season is over, finally.
It was ugly. The Cardinals finished 74-88, in third place in the NL Central, 18 games behind the Cubs.
My big free agent signing Bryce Harper last just 79 games before breaking his leg on July 6.

Although the team was just 39-44 at the time of his injury, it was not his fault as he was hitting .290 with 23 homers and 63 RBIs when he got hurt.
After Harper went down, the team went 35-44, although you can almost throw out the last half of September/early October as I played some young players both in the field and on the mound.
I've got a lot to shuffle through moving forward.
Almost every member of what should have been a good starting rotation seemed to regress.
The offense also was not what it should have been -- although the loss of Harper had something to do with that.
2020 will be Yadier Molina's final season, I have to stick with him, too loyal although he may start less than half the games, and probably be mine for the summer as I have other things I hope to focus on.

[rink23]

Rink 23's final Cardinals team rankings for 2019

[Orcin]

Wow, you basically have three players: Carpenter, Simmons, and Harper. After that, it was a train wreck. The pitching was surprisingly bad, although the bullpen was pretty decent except for Hicks.

[rink23]

I have been playing OOTP and before that Baseball Mogul for as long as I can remember. Probably 8-10 years.
But I can never remember a game where my pitcher threw a no-hitter
Until the opening game of this year's 2020 season.
Carlos Martinez tossed a perfect game against the Miami Marlins, in Miami.
Having played probably 1,000 games or more, I've come close many times -- and maybe I did throw one, I just don't recall it -- but I was nervous as heck as we got to the latter innings.
Although, all I was doing was pushing buttons and maybe setting the defense.
But 'Los got me through it. He was dominating striking out 10 and he needed just 95-pitches to do it.
Great way to start off my season, after such a disappointing 2019.
I have a new thread for it rink23's 2020 Cardinals: Yadi's last stand in the dynasty folder.

[MizzouRah]

Playoffs 2022 - We finished with the same 105-57 record as last year, best in the league.


Jeren Kendall was great in his first season in CF, looks like that trade last year is paying off.


The biggest surprise for me was a trade I made for 38 year old SP Cole Hamels. He was 5-3 at the time and went 11-2 with a 2.23 ERA for us. I had so many pitcher injuries this year, he was a huge plus for this team!


We are playing the Cubs as they beat Milwaukee in the Wild Card game.

[MizzouRah]

I kind of hope Harper exercises his option this next season as he's been horrible in the playoffs, so has Calhoun.

Game 7 in the NLCS against the Dodgers and their ace. We shouldn't be in this position though.. those two guys have killed us.

[rink23]

Just need to vent.
It's 2020 for my Cardinals and I thought I had put together a real nice team.
I signed Nolan Arenado in the offseason and he is putting up MVP numbers and Gerrit Cole, another free agent signing, has performed well after missing all of 2019.

Came out of the gate 23-10, until we played the Dodgers.
Dropped all four in L.A. -- none were blowouts -- but their bullpen is the best I have ever seen.
Untouchable after the fifth inning.

Their bullpen consists of Justin Wilson, Kenley Jansen, David Robertson, and Liam Hendicks, and that is just the road to the ninth inning.
The closer, Juan Mestre is a beast. He came into the league in 2019 as a free agent from Mexico.
I thought I was about to sign him and lost out at the last second, to the Dodgers.

He boasts numbers that would shame Mariano Rivera and owns a stamina of 70.
We had a game in the series, where we were up 6-2 after four innings, he shut us out over the final five and we lost 7-6.
I figured, I need to improve my bullpen, which is pretty good, if I want to compete with the Dodgers, and Zach Britton was still out there.
I made him an offer of $9 million, I know some of us fellow Cards fans have had some success with him, it is May 19 in our season and he was looking for $5M this late in the game.

The next day, I get an email, the Dodgers have signed him for one season for $23 million. This brings their payroll to $280 million.
I am still confident this group can make the playoffs, although my lead in the NL Central over the Cubs is down to a game, but dang the Dodgers look like a juggernaut. They are 34-9 at this pt. in the season.

[MizzouRah]

I just beat the Dodgers in 7 games in the 2022 NLCS - but they have already won 2 World Series.

[jimmysthebestcop]

Dodgers I've noticed depends on how Cody is doing. Some files he is a god hitting near 70 hrs every year not to mention his RBIs and avg, ops+ and woba are astronomical as well.

[MizzouRah]

Boston beats us in 5 games.

We kick off 2023 by signing FA SS Francisco Lindor. I love my owner!