2015 Baseball Thread

[glen a richter]

I'd like to see the Cards do a little wheeling and dealing with the Angels and get themselves Nick Tropeano. I'm probably his biggest fan on this board, maybe the only one on this board who's ever even heard of him. Kid would have easily gotten a rotation spot in Houston until they traded him to LA for Hank Conger for some asinine reason. Now he's rotting in the Angels farm system because they don't have a rotation spot for him. He came up for spot duty because of an injury, pitched a great 6 innings against a tough Oakland lineup, then promptly got sent back down. If they don't want him, he can help a lot of teams who need a guy with a pretty good arsenal (shaky slider he's been working on) and has great control. He had a hiccup to start the season, but last year his numbers in Oklahoma City were stellar before he got injured. Long term he'll be a great #4 or #5 for whichever team finally gives him the long term shot he deserves. You can also probably get him on the cheap. He was traded for Hank Conger for crying out loud, it wouldn't cost Carpenter or Holliday. That's for sure.

[cardsfan04]

I'm not opposed to acquiring Tropeano, but I think he'd be more of a 6th starter kept in AAA than Waino's replacement. I think Marco Gonzalez has that unless we make a trade for Hamels.

[cprice12]

I doubt the Cardinals make any moves as long as they are winning like they are.
There isn't a rush...and any moves made early in the season would likely cost more than if they were made later in the year. Plus other options may very well be available the longer you wait.

[glen a richter]

Meanwhile in the AL West, the motherfrikken' Astros have arrived!

[cardsfan04]

I doubt the Cardinals make any moves as long as they are winning like they are.
There isn't a rush...and any moves made early in the season would likely cost more than if they were made later in the year. Plus other options may very well be available the longer you wait.

Probably true. Once healthy, it's Marco's chance to prove he's ML ready. They said he looked better than anybody going for the 5th starter spot in ST. Hopefully that translates.

Speaking of winning like they are, wow. This is the most fun since 2011. This is April fun and that was September/October fun. But, still, this is a lot of fun to watch right now.

[cardsfan04]

Meanwhile in the AL West, the motherfrikken' Astros have arrived!

I thought they'd be a little better than people expected this year, but they've been on fire. We'll see where they are in 2 months, but I've heard a few stats quoted recently that ended with, "the last team to do this won the WS." I'm not making that prediction, but was interesting to hear.

[glen a richter]

Meanwhile in the AL West, the motherfrikken' Astros have arrived!

I thought they'd be a little better than people expected this year, but they've been on fire. We'll see where they are in 2 months, but I've heard a few stats quoted recently that ended with, "the last team to do this won the WS." I'm not making that prediction, but was interesting to hear.

Their pitching is amazing. If they can learn to hit a little better (Carter, Gattis, Springer, Singleton--if he ever gets back to the show) they'll be a force and a half.

[cardsfan04]

I'm one of the few, but I actually like the Moss trade, kind of. There are valid criticisms of it for sure. We should have gotten more for Kaminsky. We should have targeted a bigger upgrade in a win-now move. If Moss was the guy, we should have given up less.

I think all of those are valid, but I think that Moss is better than his numbers this year. He has a 20.5% LD rate which is solid and a .265 BABIP which is way low for that LD rate (typically LD rate + 12% = expected BABIP, although I suspect that's oversimplifying it). Hopefully his luck evens out the next couple of months.

Also, there are questions over Kaminsky's durability, especially because of his size. He might make the majors and have a decent career. But, he's currently a 5'11" pitcher in A-ball. He has a long way to go to hit his ceiling.

[glen a richter]

The Mets did something right for the first time in about 72 hours but they still come out looking like assholes. Poor Wilmer, I feel so bad for that kid. Cespedes should help though.

[glen a richter]

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/s ... /71478388/

I had no idea this was even on the table. If he's reinstated, it's about damn time.

[glen a richter]

Well nope, mlb gets it wrong again. Joe Jackson was an illiterate, he had no clue what he was doing, then he goes out and plays his mind out in the ws. How is this evidence that he participated and knew what he was doing? The man had an IQ lower than Forrest flippin Gump! In modern day America that gets convicted murderers a hospital visit instead of lethal injection, but Shoeless Joe can't get in the hall.

[cardsfan04]

I hadn't heard that was on the table. I've vaguely familiar with the arguments that he didn't actually participate, but I think it's fairly inconsequential at this point anyway.

[cardsfan04]

I can't wait for the playoffs to start. Every matchup looks great.

Dodgers vs Mets -- established front end pitching vs the up and comers and the reloaded offense.

Cubs vs Pirates should make for a great play-in game.

Either team vs Cards will be great, especially if it's the Cubs (please don't let them end our season though).

Cubs are a great story that would be easy to cheer for in the playoffs if they weren't the Cubs and needing to go through the Cards. I really can't wait for this.

[cprice12]

This would be the best possible playoff route, in terms of pure excitement, for the Cardinals in the playoffs...

Cards vs. Cubs
Cards vs. Dodgers
Cards vs. Royals

I almost wanted to say Cards vs. Giants in Rd. 2 to get revenge from last season, but the last two series vs. the Dodgers were so great...I'd love to do that to them (and their $300 million payroll) for the 3rd year in a row.

But man...if we end up playing the Cubs in the first Rd.? Wow. The buildup for that would be unreal. And to knock them off? Ohhhh...man...would love to rub more salt in Cubs wounds. They are finally legitimate again, and we stand in their way...the team they hate more than any other.

[glen a richter]

The Cubs are winning the World Series this year because Back to the Future Pt 2 said so.

[cardsfan04]

A Cubs series would be flippin awesome . . . so long as we win. Getting knocked out of the playoffs by the Cubs, especially after the amazing season we've had, would be terrible on nearly Gretzky to Yzerman levels.

[cprice12]

Fantasy Baseball and the Cardinals...

Well, my fantasy team was on fire, clicking on all cylinders going into the playoffs. My team tore it up in Rd. 1, but hit a snag in Rd. 2.

The problem?
I have/had 4 Cardinal pitchers...Lynn, Garcia, Lackey and Martinez. Which was great all season long...until the past week+ (bad timing).
In addition to those 4, I have Price, Strasburg, Verlander, & Happ.
I just recently added Happ & Verlander off the waiver wire, and they have both been good for me.

I dropped Lynn after his last start...and I came so close to benching him vs. the Cubs because I had a bad feeling...but opted to start him at the last second. That sucked...I was so pissed. Before that night I was winning 9-6-1...and after that night I was losing 7-9. And both Martinez & Garcia screwed me over in their last starts. If they had just pitched like they had all year in their last starts, I'd be winning easily.

My pitching was great all year and my offense was pretty bad...but I made a lot of moves that have paid off late in the season...I picked up McCann, Phillips, Chris Davis, Granderson, Kemp, Ortiz, Beltran, Escobar, & Asdrubal Cabrera. The only holdovers on offense from my draft are my first baseman Encarnacion and my OF'er Nelson Cruz.
Right now, they are basically all on fire...but my pitching has tanked. WHY DID MY PICTHING HAVE TO TANK!?!?!?
I need to come back and win a couple categories if I am going to win...I'm currently trailing 9-7 in our two week matchup. that ends on Sunday.

I'm trailing by 3 in HR's and by 1 in the W column...and by .17 in WHIP. I'm down by .6 in ERA, which is going to be tough to come back from, unless my guys put up some zeros this weekend and my opponent's guys falter. I have 4 more pitchers going. We'll see if I need to pick up a couple more starters or not to try and win a category...but my three guys pitching tonight (and his 1 guy) may very well determine if I can win this week or not.

[cardsfan04]

Ouch. This is a bad week to have Cardinal pitching. I'm not real worried about the pitching, but it has been more than a little bad the past week or so.

I think dmiles is about to knock me out of the playoffs in our league. Of the 8 offensive categories, I was 1st in the league in 6 and 2nd in another (then like 7th in SBs) for the season. But, this week my offense has been mediocre and dmiles is tearing it up. .608 SLG or something sick like that. My pitching isn't great, so if I lose offense, I'm toast.

[glen a richter]

Go Cubbies!

[cprice12]

Lackey was dealing. Man he was great in game #1.
Lester was very good as well...just not good enough.
Cards had just enough offense early and tacked on a few late to seal it off.

It was funny reading Cubs message boards before the game started. Man they were just oozing with cockiness and overconfidence. And even throughout the entire game...cocky and overconfident. And then they lost.

Looking forward to game 2.