Laika

His xFIP and FIP are both in line with his career marks. Really, they just happen to have three young studs to go to in Logan T Allen, Tanner Bibee, and Gavin Williams. Could also see them option Quantrill at some point if McKenzie gets healthy. Bieber, McKenzie, Bibee, Allen, Williams.... Plesac, Quantrill, Civale, Curry, Battenfield, Gaddis are all extra. Wow.

one nice thing about this series has been realizing that Triston Casas f***ing blows he looks like one of those slow twitch behemoth 1B prospects who will have trouble getting to his power in game like Justin Smoak or Nomar Mazara... doesn't really have that lightning strike swing like certain other fatties show. e.g. Rowdy Tellez

go blue jays gooseman vs. bellllllllo 1SpringerRF .208 3 10 5 2BichetteSS .328 7 21 1 3Guerrero Jr.1B .317 6 18 2 4VarshoLF .209 4 10 5 5Chapman, M3B .364 5 21 1 6BeltDH .161 1 5 0 7Jansen, DC .177 3 13 0 8Biggio2B .122 2 4 1 9KiermaierCF .277 1 8 2 1Tapia, RRF .233 1 4 1 2YoshidaLF .303 5 21 2 3Turner, JDH .273 2 10 1 4Devers3B .226 10 27 0 5Duran, JaCF .400 2 12 2 6Casas1B .157 3 10 0 7Valdez, E2B .345 1 5 2 8Hernández, KSS .243 3 11 1 9McGuireC .327 0 6 0

OUCH. ouch. he legit f***ing sucks like, he might not be a top ~80 SP

Jack Flaherty against Toronto 5.0 IP no hits, no runs SEVEN f***ing walks four strikeouts lmao so pathetic

Kodai Senga also cannot throw strikes

It looks like service time manipulation but it really can't be or shouldn't be because they are .500 and ostensibly trying to compete. Really just at a loss. I sort of get not handing a job to Matt Mervis, 1B prospects are 1B prospects, but Morel not being on the roster is f***ing insane, he is such a useful player.

pythag W-L is 14-17 so they are getting unlucky but, they just aren't very good. aside from the obvious problems with the pitching staff they are surprisingly unathletic for a Cardinals team. I like to look at DEF and BSR runs combined on Fangraphs to get a good idea of which teams are neglecting the non-hitting side of position players. The bottom ten is kind of a list of the most poorly run organizations in the game, to be honest. STL is not typically negative in this stuff. MIA -7.8 BOS -8.2 CHW -8.3 WSN -8.8 MIN -8.9 CIN -9.3 STL -10 BAL -10.9 OAK -11 PHI -11.8 COL -20.9

Springer has been s*** but I'm not really worried about him. MaxEV and barrel rate are actually better than last year. His timing has been off all season though; his hard hit % is down a lot. If you believe expected stats at all he has been pretty unlucky. His .322 xwOBA is fifth best on the team. Not good by any means but not brutal. xwOBA - wOBA Springer 0.071 (.322 vs .251) Jansen 0.040 Vlad 0.030 Bichette 0.020 Chapman 0.010 Kirk 0.002 Varsho 0.000 Whit -0.012 Kiermaier -0.033

Barriera absolutely shoved

Kiermaier!

Our little groundball meatball coming off the bench All cold and gross what a luxury

Manoah ugh After back to back tough losses, it's tough that we have to roll out the team's worst SP

Some pieces available. Kutter Crawford and Xzavion Curry --- two live young MLB arms. Crawford is stretched out and could slide into the BOS rotation at some point. Both of these guys have good numbers. Daniel Lynch - 26 years old with prospect pedigree, on rehab, could trade before he gets activated. Kyle Hendricks - on DL and on rehab. Adam Wainwright - on DL and on rehab. Brian Anderson - 3B/OF eligible off to a good start. Charlie Blackmon - off to a good start. I could use one more rock solid reliever. Could also trade for pick(s) or an interesting prospect. I want to clear a few spots for DL activations and prospect promotions. Open to discussing other OF like Haniger and Laureano.

Stuff+ projections love Pressly still for some reason even though his K rate is way down. They also love Abreu, obviously. But they think Mayza is better than any other HOU reliever. And Yimi is about as good as Montero and Neris. For some reason the model does not love Swanson. Seems weird tbh but there is something to pull at there. Visually, he does not have amazing stuff but his results have been fantastic for a while. Stuff+ might have a specific issue measuring his splitter. I'll go so far as to say that the model is just wrong on Swanson. He should have a projected ERA in line with Steamer (3.62) and perhaps even better. Romano - 3.50 Mayza - 3.57 Garcia - 3.84 Pearson - 4.03 Swanson - 4.10 Pop - 4.11 Richards - 4.50 Pressly - 2.77 Abreu - 3.14 Montero - 3.83 Neris - 3.87 Stanek - 3.88 Maton - 4.01 Martinez - 4.60 And again on the Richards number - Stuff+ sucks with most changeup. He should be more like 4.00

MLBTR has an article on the White Sox rebuild and it is fascinating that they have f***ed this up because they made some great trades. 2016 Chris Sale to the Red Sox for Yoán Moncada, Michael Kopech, Luis Alexander Basabe and Victor Diaz 2016 Adam Eaton to the Nationals for young pitchers Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López and Dane Dunning 2017 José Quintana to the Cubs for a package headlined by prospects Dylan Cease and Eloy Jiménez Drafted / developed Tim Anderson, Luis Robert, Andrew Vaughn, Gavin Sheets, Jake Burger, Garrett Crochet, Aaron Bummer, Oscar Colas... Signed Liam Hendriks, extended Lance Lynn (traded Dunning for him), signed Benintendi and Grandal... From that collection of high-end young assets the only two they have playing towards the top of their potential are Cease and Giolito. And even they are pretty volatile as they are pitchers with some command issues. Just rotten to the core on the developmental side of things I guess... and drafting. But to trade three expiring contract veterans and land MONCADA, KOPECH, GIOLITO, LOPEZ, DUNNING, CEASE, and JIMENEZ and still f***ing suck all the time is really some feat.

Yeah he's a stud. Haters simply do not understand baseball

Toronto bullpen has the 2nd best xFIP in baseball. And second best SIERA. ERA and FIP not as good. It's possible they are getting pretty unlucky. When I think about Yimi Garcia, for example, I can't help but think that he is being tested by god. His K-BB numbers are sublime and he is throwing very hard but he has a f***ing 30% HR/FB rate lmao.

And now Zach Pop looks like a replacement level reliever again. Stupid sinker

George Springer is a f***ing problem. 0.086 ISO. He is playing like Randal Grichuk in a cold streak. Ugh. Belt has been useless. The "supporting cast" is mostly without power. Biggio + Belt + Espinal + Luplow + Lukes + Kiermaier have.... 268 combined PA and 5 combined home runs. Merrifield has none but that's not his game anyway. I'm not worried about the catchers. Their K-BB rates seem fine so they will both come around.

Barriera supposed to debut today

But they just extended him through 2027. Leave it to the Rockies to turn one of their only assets approaching free agency into a brick with no value. He's an okay player but the total package is a bit borderline. Like, the K-BB numbers are fringe and the power isn't amazing. Not a guy I want to own into his 30s. Metrics do like his 3B defense. He's probably a .230/.300/.400 hitter outside of Coors.

The bat looks EXTREMELY legit. But so far the defense and baserunning look horrible. That contract is good for a viable outfielder but if he is closer to a DH it's not good.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/05/cubs-designate-ryan-borucki-for-assignment.html

Every other manager in baseball would bug a FAN with a SERIOUS INTEREST in the results as much or more than John Schneider