Around Baseball 2026

[BTS]

Strider to IL with an oblique strain. Guy can't stay healthy. 

The Braves rotation is hilarious 

[Brownie19]

 

JJ Wetherholt made the Cards opening day roster.  Good for him.  Curious to see what he can become.

[Spanky__99]

1 hour ago, Brownie19 said:

 

JJ Wetherholt made the Cards opening day roster.  Good for him.  Curious to see what he can become.

Stud.

[Stangstag]

2 hours ago, Brownie19 said:

 

JJ Wetherholt made the Cards opening day roster.  Good for him.  Curious to see what he can become.

Jordan Walker 2.0

[Spanky__99]

9 minutes ago, Stangstag said:

Jordan Walker 2.0

They're nothing alike.

 

[Stangstag]

13 minutes ago, Spanky__99 said:

They're nothing alike.

 

They’re both Cardinals top prospects that made the opening day roster ahead of schedule.

That’s all i need to see. Wetherholt is a BUST

[jaysblue]

11 hours ago, BTS said:

Strider to IL with an oblique strain. Guy can't stay healthy. 

The Braves rotation is hilarious 

Rotation is a mess. It was tough luck losing Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep earlier. Losing Strider really hurts now. 

Shocked AA didn't address the rotation after those injuries. Lucas Giolito would be a perfect fit, but signing him now means he likely won't be ready till the end of April. 

 

[jaysblue]

4 hours ago, Brownie19 said:

 

JJ Wetherholt made the Cards opening day roster.  Good for him.  Curious to see what he can become.

NL Rookie of the Year. 

[Stangstag]

1 hour ago, jaysblue said:

Rotation is a mess. It was tough luck losing Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep earlier. Losing Strider really hurts now. 

Shocked AA didn't address the rotation after those injuries. Lucas Giolito would be a perfect fit, but signing him now means he likely won't be ready till the end of April. 

 

You’re shocked? This is almost exactly how the rotation was handled when he was GM here.

Depth was always AA’s major flaw

[G-Snarls]

Jeff Passan

•5h

 

BREAKING: Center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong and the Chicago Cubs are finalizing a long-term contract extension, sources tell ESPN. Crow-Armstrong, coming off a 30-30 season and a Gold Glove, will get a big payday as the Cubs lock up a franchise-caliber talent.

[Ball4Life]

5 hours ago, Stangstag said:

You’re shocked? This is almost exactly how the rotation was handled when he was GM here.

Depth was always AA’s major flaw

Funny to see AA hasn’t changed. Don’t miss him one bit.

[jaysblue]

7 hours ago, Stangstag said:

You’re shocked? This is almost exactly how the rotation was handled when he was GM here.

Depth was always AA’s major flaw

They actually had a pretty deep rotation before the injuries hit.

If everyone were healthy, it would look something like:

• Sale
• Strider
• Schwellenbach
• Lopez
• Smith-Shawver
• Waldrep
• Holmes
• Fuentes
• Elder
• Wentz
• Suarez

That’s decent depth. But AA didn’t really pivot after Schwellenbach, Waldrep, and Wentz went down and with Strider going down at the end of spring training, the rotation is now in a tough spot. Lopez is now being pushed into the No. 2 spot, and they’re forced to rely on guys like Holmes, Elder, and Suarez to round out the rest of the rotation.

 

[Laika]

But the problem is that they were assembling their rotation without caring about injury risk 

Strider, max effort guy. Schwellenbach, history and limited innings. Sale, everyone knows. Lopez, RP convert with massive IP jump. Not sure about any red flags for the rest 

[BTS]

Love that Toronto just fills their rotation with rubber-arm guys with as few injury red flags as possible. 

[mphenhef]

12 hours ago, Stangstag said:

They’re both Cardinals top prospects that made the opening day roster ahead of schedule.

That’s all i need to see. Wetherholt is a BUST

So was Pujols

[Brownie19]

PCA is signing a long term deal with the Cubbies.  It will be interesting to see how long/much he gets and how this works out.  Will he be able to recreate 1st have PCA? Will the Cubs get big time value? or will PCA cash in on a GREAT half season?

[Stangstag]

3 hours ago, jaysblue said:

They actually had a pretty deep rotation before the injuries hit.

If everyone were healthy, it would look something like:

• Sale
• Strider
• Schwellenbach
• Lopez
• Smith-Shawver
• Waldrep
• Holmes
• Fuentes
• Elder
• Wentz
• Suarez

That’s decent depth. But AA didn’t really pivot after Schwellenbach, Waldrep, and Wentz went down and with Strider going down at the end of spring training, the rotation is now in a tough spot. Lopez is now being pushed into the No. 2 spot, and they’re forced to rely on guys like Holmes, Elder, and Suarez to round out the rest of the rotation.

 

I like that you have an excuse for every problem with the Braves roster. Its pretty neat

[Stangstag]

1 hour ago, mphenhef said:

So was Pujols

Different era, different coaching and management.

But im just kidding about Wetherholt anyways, hope he’s actually good because the cardinals desperately need a win somewhere 

[mphenhef]

4 minutes ago, Stangstag said:

Different era, different coaching and management.

But im just kidding about Wetherholt anyways, hope he’s actually good because the cardinals desperately need a win somewhere 

I figured :)

[Orgfiller]

 

14 hours ago, Stangstag said:

Jordan Walker 2.0

Ironically they're the same age. Always interesting how one guy can be a bust at 23 and another a top prospect at the same age. Of course, aging curves are not uniform and linear for every player, but it makes you think. What if Walker had been held down all these years? Would he have retained his top prospect status, or would the wheels have fallen off eventually just as they have at the highest level?

[Brownie19]

16 minutes ago, Orgfiller said:

 

Ironically they're the same age. Always interesting how one guy can be a bust at 23 and another a top prospect at the same age. Of course, aging curves are not uniform and linear for every player, but it makes you think. What if Walker had been held down all these years? Would he have retained his top prospect status, or would the wheels have fallen off eventually just as they have at the highest level?

I think the reality is that nobody knows...

[mphenhef]

Jordan Walker seems like a guy who needs a change of scenery or a new voice in his ear to take off.  The underlying metrics are there with insane bat speed but he needs to alter his approach and cut down on the swing and miss.

[Orgfiller]

31 minutes ago, mphenhef said:

Jordan Walker seems like a guy who needs a change of scenery or a new voice in his ear to take off.  The underlying metrics are there with insane bat speed but he needs to alter his approach and cut down on the swing and miss.

This is much easier said than done though. His K/BB rates were already not awesome in the minors, his contact rate was only 68.3% in AA (TIL this is now available on fangraphs). Then he got promoted pretty aggressively despite not necessarily crushing AA. I'm sure his defensive woes haven't done him any help, but it's not like you can just move him back to 3B and start over, right?

In an alternate reality this is what Aaron Judge turned into. Sometimes the tall, huge power, poor bat control - not that Aaron Judge and his 100th percentile barrel rate is this - guys just can't figure it out.

[Laika]

Jordan Walker needs to talk to Jo Adell. 

Maybe he can just be more aggressive, swing a bit more often to try and get to his power BEFORE he falls behind in the count or strikes out. 

[John_Havok]

Seabold signed with Detroit. 

Apparently he triggered the release clause on the Jays, he signed a split deal with Detroit and will make the opening day roster thanks to the injury to Beau Briske

[Angrioter]

1 hour ago, mphenhef said:

Jordan Walker seems like a guy who needs a change of scenery or a new voice in his ear to take off.  The underlying metrics are there with insane bat speed but he needs to alter his approach and cut down on the swing and miss.

Colby Rasmus? 

[Orgfiller]

1 hour ago, Laika said:

Jordan Walker needs to talk to Jo Adell. 

Maybe he can just be more aggressive, swing a bit more often to try and get to his power BEFORE he falls behind in the count or strikes out. 

And then they both need to talk to Kevin Kiermaier, or like Alex Gordon or something, to figure out how to be young athletic guys and not be among the worst fielders in the league.

[Stangstag]

1 hour ago, Angrioter said:

Colby Rasmus? 

Its actually remarkable how many top prospects have failed for the Cards over the last 10-15 years. And the only one that actually looked good died in a car crash.

Something is wrong with that development staff

[jaysblue]

5 hours ago, Stangstag said:

I like that you have an excuse for every problem with the Braves roster. Its pretty neat

Not as many as some others on here make when things don’t go right for the Jays. 
 

I just criticized AA for not addressing the rotation. Not coming up with excuses. 

[jaysblue]

13 minutes ago, Stangstag said:

Its actually remarkable how many top prospects have failed for the Cards over the last 10-15 years. And the only one that actually looked good died in a car crash.

Something is wrong with that development staff

Weren’t there a lot of prominent posters on here who were obsessed with the Cards front office years ago?