As we approach trade season, teams are burdened with the overwhelming task of re-evaluating the league in the wake of the crackdown on illegal substances. Broad strokes, evaluators will be more trusting of pitchers who rely on two-seamers and sinkers, writes ESPN’s Buster Olney. Unsurprisingly, those pitchers who have taken to the recent trend of high-velocity heaters up in the zone and wicked curveballs diving away will be watched more closely. The next month will obviously provide important data points for potential buyers, but looking at how players have struggled and/or succeeded in the first few months of the year will also be heavily scrutinized by teams looking to find players on the rebound. In other MLB news….
- The Cardinals are doing their best to patch together a rotation in the wake of Jack Flaherty’s extended absence, but they’re also exploring their options outside the organization. They have reached out to the Twins about Jose Berrios and the Rangers for Kyle Gibson, but the price for Berrios was “high,” and presumably, the same will be true of Gibson, per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. With very few difference-making arms likely to be available, Berrios and Gibson are sure to be in high demand. President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak spoke of the Cardinals’ desire to win, but “not at the cost of our future.” While that’s a reasonable mode of thinking, such a mind-set isn’t likely to procure an arm like Berrios or Gibson.
- Justin Verlander hasn’t rule out the possibility of returning to the Detroit Tigers before his career runs out, per Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press. Of course, Verlander needs to get healthy first. He will be a free agent at the end of the season, however, free to pursue a return to Detroit, should that be his desire. Verlander played in Detroit for 13 seasons. He ranks 2nd in Tigers’ history for rWAR among pitchers, 2.7 rWAR behind Hal Newhouser. He is fifth in Tigers’ history in games started with 380 and 2nd in total strikeouts with 2,373.
Mozeliak blows it once again. Could have had several options for the rotation for just money back in the off season. Every fan with any clue knew the rotation was super thin and the team had no depth. Not the way to keep Arenado here or celebrate the last years of Waino & Yadi’s careers. FIRE MO!!!!!
This is not apart of Bill Dewitts business model for the team. Bill Dewitt is Mr. Burns, and Mozeliak is Smithers. Together they work in perfect harmony at keeping the Cardinals away from winning another title, but continuing to pick up playoff revenue year after year, and claiming “there is no money in baseball.” Also Crying broke when a decent player is available that fits the teams needs and budget. This is not good ownership. If you are flawed as an owner, nothing good comes for your business….
Remember when people thought degrom used sticky stuff???? He is no Cole lol.
Careful there, little bro.
deGrom (note the correct spelling) isn’t in the clear yet. Posting stuff like this ^ could really backfire on you.
No spin rate decline whatsoever. Think he’s good.
@Ducky That’s never stopped him from making himself look like an idiot. He craves the abuse.
Man.
I think I’m the only poster on the board who doesn’t hate him. & that includes the mets guys.
Haha… He lies between living version of Mr. Met and Roberto De Niro’s character in The Fan.
I’ve been a Mozeliak defender for a long time, willing to look past the occasional whiff to instead focus on the generally solid work overall. And I realize as a Cards fan I am spoiled. But the duct tape approach to the pitching rotation going into the season was foolish, and there were starters available affordably, so I must say he really botched this season. He doesn’t want to mortgage the future now, which makes sense, but he put them in this position by somehow expecting magical seasons from Mikolas, Carlos Martinez and walk-machine Gant.
There are very few examples of teams heading into the season with unaddressed screaming needs that ultimately sort themselves out successfully. Teams can try to wish away their holes, but those of us grounded in reality know it never works. So the Cards can window shop SPs all they want, but the reality is they’ll have to keep running the bums out there day after day and hope for the best.
The trouble in evaluating any acquisitions, or lack thereof, and team construction, is none of us know the complete history. I see fans all the time saying so-and-so should have signed what’s-his-face. We have no idea whether or not there was an attempt to sign the guy. Players will turn down more money from one team to sign with another. There are all sorts of reasons why players will choose one team over another.
We also don’t know the exact limits imposed by an owner. Some teams are more transparent in that regard, but I think most teams don’t want fans to know those particulars.
Teams have budgets, and they may want a guy on whom they’ve put a certain dollar worth. If that guy gets a better offer from another team, should that team now overpay for that guy?
I’m sure Mozeliak has made mistakes, all GMs and PBO’s do. It’s just very hard to figure out how culpable these guys are, given the mitigating factors we are not privy to.
Why sell the franchise for SP they don’t have the offense to support it.
Ive defended him as well because of who he was and is. The Arenado trade, Matt Holiday trade, signing Lance Berkman, drafting Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, Matt Carpenter, trading Jim Edmonds for David Freese, but over the last 5 years I see more of him damaging the club by trading for Marcel Ozuna, signing Dexter Fowler, signing Greg Holland, trading away Randy Arozarena, Selling Adolis Garcia to the Texas Rangers for 30 Pieces of Silver…. He’s done A lot of damage the past few years, and I conclude its why the team struggled so much this June and might continue to struggle into July. Bad leadership, bad ownership.
Fire all the coaches in STL.
It’s the same story every year from Mozeliak…
“We’re not going to make a trade just to make a trade”
“We’re going to look internally at our ballclub to come up with the right solutions”
“I like the team we have in the field. We’ve had injuries but we just have to find a way to win.”
Hes traded for 2 superstars and Ozuna in like the last 3 years
That Ozuna trade is going to go down as one of the worst of his tenure.
Good thing we went after Stanton and Ozuna, but never thought about the best of the three… Yelich.
Yes but he also brought us Cecil, Holland, choate, Miller and we got got both superstars a year later than we should/could have. 99%of the time we laid idle when we only needed one key piece. Or by the time he was ready to check the market it was toooo late
Trading away good talent instead of spending in free agency is his biggest downfall to me. I have defended him in the past, but his unwillingness to sign a starter this latest offseason turned the page for me. Even with the Arenado deal signing. If the plan was to use Libertore and Thompson then when he is bringing them up?
Verlander stepping into the old, wise mentor role could pay off bigly for Detroit’s young pitchers, same as he benefitted from Kenny “Get That Camera Outta My Face” Rogers.
Detroit would never pay anywhere near what he is expecting… they are a small market team now that Daddy Warbucks has passed away… It is just a nice thing for Justin to say… does not mean a thing.
I don’t believe that, however it would have been stupid to be a buyer in the last several seasons after the old man sold the farm and future to chase a championship.
Yep, all of those farm hands who went on to brilliant careers for other teams, gone.
He will be cheaper than Scherzer. Besides, Avila likes to pay at least One pitcher to not pitch, and Tehran is on a one year contract.
Lol. They are paying miggy 31 mil til age 40. What in the hell are u talking about ?
Man MLBTR leaving low hanging fruit out there not mentioning Donaldson/Giolito drama! Donaldson slowly becoming my favorite player
Always been a big fan of JD he’s definitely an instigator and seems to be getting crankier in his old age.
Maybe he bring wacha back next month when Rays begin offloading for cash.
Bring back the sticky stuff, I miss elite Chatwood.
Does this mean that we are finally done with that spin count crap, that all these super high numbers were aided by sticky substances and all these retreads we saw paraded around the league the last few years as all of a sudden.. reclamation projects with some new found pitch (sticky aided) was nothing more than good old fashioned cheating, aided by GM’s around the league, looking at some new fangled numbers, which to many of us? Were BS from the start .
I say pitchers get what they deserve now for a time with these checks for allowing this nonsense to go on unchecked. Can’t tell me NOBODY else on the team didn’t realize a guy wasn’t going out there with that junk all over them. Too stinking bad.
The balls are still going to spin lol. The ones who were abusing it are going to spin less though and as a result their performance will plummet a bit. Spin rate isn’t a mythical thing that began when guys started using these substances lol.
Dude.. The ball has been spinning since the game was invented (sans a good knuckleball). Instead of just inventing some new term.. of little use called spin rate? most fans, worth their salt can use eyes to see a slider, FB, curve worth anything.
Have said before and again for those who to dim to comprehend.. Spin rate was something conjured up by nerds, for GM’s and everyone else to focus on instead of using those eyes God gave everyone to observe and study the game with.. just another clutter number on some tool’s fact sheet and another abused, as the sticky garbage proves.
Quit tinkering with the game and this type of junk goes away.
Wow you’re bitter. Spin rate is a stat today because they have cameras good enough to accurately measure it. That’s it. Who cares who made the name??
A “rising fastball” from the 90s is a high spin rate pitch today. ITS THE SAME THING. With better cameras comes the ability to identify the difference, and more importantly, teach the skill
Sandy Koufax had a great curveball because he had a very high spin rate. Same thing with Nolan Ryan’s fastball. It’s not mysticism. It’s common sense if you understand what spin rate means. It’s nothing new
And no one is ruining the game for identifying and teaching what makes a pitch harder to hit &harder to square up… that’s, I don’t know, a coaches job…?
1. Hooks Dauss 223
2. George Mullin 209
3. Mickey Lolich 207
4. Hal Newhouser 200
5. Jack Morris 198
6. Tommy Bridges 194
7. Justin Verlander 183
8. Dizzy Trout 161
9. Bill Donovan 140
10. Earl Whitehill 133
11. Frank Lary 123
12. Dan Petry 119
13. Jim Bunning 118
14. Denny McLain 117
15. Virgil Trucks 114
16. Schoolboy Rowe 105
17. Ed Killian 100
“Getting caught with the sticky stuff can ruin your life”
~Monica Lewinsky~
Sticky Stuff Crackdown is a cool band name.
Sounds like an instrumental played by Flatt and Scruggs.
I would say ok boomer but you’re right, it does 🙂
It is obviously expected that the Twins will have a high price on Berrios and i don’t think the Cardinals can fish in deep waters without offering Nolan Gorman, Matthew Liberatore, or Zach Thompson. Might have to stick in the shallow end. J.A. Happ, Jose Urena, Jordan Lyles, Matt Harvey, etc. Guys that can be had on the cheap
Cheap it is
If Berrios is a #2-4 pitcher then he is worth trading for except no top 5 prospects. There are a number of players in our top 30 that will be decent players. Or are the Cards gun-shy about trading away a “superstar”. I believe the trade off is worth it. Bird in hand is better than prospect in minors.
Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball and the Korea Baseball Organization both use pre-tacked balls, and the pitchers who have experience with them generally approve.
“I really liked the ball,” said Matt Moore, a Phillies pitcher who spent 2020 in Japan. “When they first come out of the package, they’re in a tin foil package, and then they’re inside of a plastic package around that. So when you first take it out, it pretty much feels like a new ball — like the leather is not sticky — but the more you play catch with it, the easier it is to get a grip on it.”
Cardinals get: Kyle Gibson and Ian Kennedy
Rangers get: John Gant, Jordan Walker, and Tink Hence.
Come on rangers fans! Let’s get together to get rid of this piece of junk manager. What a waste! Pitiful excuse for a leader for these young players. Front office needs to fire him ASAP!!!!!