December 7, 2010. The Cardinals had just acquired shortstop Ryan Theriot for right handed pitcher Blake Hawksworth from the Dodgers. Calling him a “natural shortstop” the organization quickly distanced themselves from Brendan Ryan as their starting shortstop in an effort to become a better team. After having considered starting to blog for awhile, it was the push I needed.
Over the next few days I registered a blog on Blogspot, used my graphic design skills to whip up what would be Redbird Dugout’s first logo, and wrote a critique of the concept of how someone could possibly be a “natural shortstop” when every metric says they’re a terrible shortstop and that if the Cardinals really wanted to improve up the middle, they’d start Theriot at second over Schumaker and keep the defensively elite Ryan at shortstop. …
Could the Indians shortstop find his way to St. Louis?
Just over a week ago it began being reported that the Cleveland Indians have informed other clubs that they intend to trade Francisco Lindor this offseason. It’s not that surprising of a proposition considering that the organization has all but come out and said that they don’t intend to sign their star 27-year-old shortstop to an extension once his years of team control come to an end at after the 2021 season. That means the time to trade Lindor is now.
There have also been a few reports that the Cardinals are among the top candidates to acquire Lindor in a trade, and it’s important to watch the wording in articles. I’ve not seen any actual reports that the Cardinals are pursuing Lindor or intend to pursue him, just that people think he’d fit with the Cardinals. If we go back several years, we saw this with the Colorado Rockies and Troy Tulowitzki winter after winter, but there was never anything there except dots being connected by the media. …
On Tuesday night, Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com posted an article talking about the history of the Tampa Bay Rays’ pursuit of Randy Arozarena, who has been the breakout star of this postseason. So far this postseason, Arozarena has the rookie record for home runs in a postseason and is knocking on the door of the rookie record for hits as well. He’s clearly been the central cog of the Rays’ offense on their charge to their second World Series berth.
Last winter the Rays acquired Arozarena, Jose Martinez and traded back in the competitive balance round of the MLB draft in exchange for their #3 prospect Matthew Liberatore and catcher Edgardo Rodriguez. The further we’ve gotten from that trade, the more obvious it becomes that Arozarena, who had lit up the minor leagues for the Cardinals in 2019 and outperformed their top prospect Dylan Carlson across the same levels, was the centerpiece of the return for the Rays. …
Because when you look at what we know, it doesn’t seem like it.
Over the weekend, negotiations between the Major League Baseball owners and the Players’ Association about a new economic agreement to get the season started have broken down. The owners have accused the Players’ Association of a failure to negotiate in good faith while the players have publicly said that further attempts at negotiation would be fruitless and therefore the owners should just tell the players when and where to report.
The breakdown is the latest in a long line of troublesome negotiations between the players and the owners — and really Major League Baseball and anyone else these days.
There are a lot of similarities in how Major League Baseball worked to negotiate their new agreement with Minor League Baseball and now the Players’ Association. As I summarized those Minor League Baseball negotiations back in…
When it comes to money, it’s never as easy at seems.
St. Louis Cardinals’ owner Bill DeWitt Jr was on St. Louis’ 590 The Fan this week and talked about the business side of baseball and negotiations with the players while they try to find a way to get back on the field and play the 2020 season. During the interview he dropped a bomb that caught a lot of attention on Twitter.
“The industry isn’t very profitable, to be honest. And I think (the players) understand that. They think owners are hiding profits. There’s been a bit of distrust there,” said DeWitt Jr.
The response is always quick when billionaire sports team owners play poor, most reactions pointing out the rise in value his investment in the St. Louis Cardinals has seen over the 25 years of his ownership group’s management of the organization. …
As he nears salary arbitration, the stage is set for intrigue
The St. Louis Cardinals announced yesterday that they have agreed to terms with all 25 of their team controlled players, except one. Jack Flaherty.
For players with fewer than three years of Major League service time, teams hold rights of renewal on a player’s contract and have the right to impose a salary on a player, provided it meets the league’s minimum salary. Teams usually have systems to determine how they pay players during those first three seasons and typically players will accept those numbers assigned to them by the team because they have no bargaining power. …
It’s the Cardinal Way
Same verse, new year for the Cardinals. A young prospect arrives in St. Louis out of nowhere and then goes on a tear that earns them consistent playing time to finish out the season. Fans spend the offseason clamoring for said player to get a larger role in the next season, but when the time comes, the player fails to produce.
In 2015, it was Randal Grichuk who put together a dominant year at the plate with an .877 OPS and 17 home runs in 103 games for the Cardinals. But in 2016, he struggled with a full season in the St. Louis outfield that included a brief demotion. …
Not yet, but he’s not as far off as you think
Earlier this year I was talking baseball with my brother when he mentioned that he saw a comment on an article calling Diamondbacks’ shortstop Nick Ahmed the best shortstop in baseball. Even my Dbacks fan brother thought it was a laughable concept because Ahmed’s is not a name that comes to mind when you start talking about who the best shortstops in baseball might be. It’s so far out of left field, that I at least glance at the stats to see if I’m just missing something, but beyond a pair of NL Gold Glove Awards, it’s hard to see.
Three years ago the mere consideration that Paul DeJong may one day be the best shortstop in baseball seemed ridiculous. The Illinois State University product was the starting third baseman at Double-A Springfield. Conventional baseball wisdom would suggest that shortstops move to third base, because if they were good enough to play shortstop, they’d already be playing there, right? …
Last Monday the Cardinals announced that President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak had his contract extended through 2023 as well as General Manager Mike Girsch and Manager Mike Shildt through 2022. We learned a few things about the Cardinals’ offseason plans from it being unlikely that the team will be a big spender this weekend to the effort to create opportunities.
I suppose that how enthused you are about that idea depends on what you think about the 2019 team. The Cardinals won 91 games and, if not for the May swoon, we could easily be talking about a team that won 97 or more games and the NL Central handily. …
The MLB offseason, often called the “hot stove” (though at this point the stove may only be set to simmer), is generally the time of greatest hope for a team and its fans. Teams are exploring all the options to achieve their goals and fans are excited because anything could happen, waiting eagerly for news about how their team is going to get better. Discussion of what could be dominates baseball talk from trade polls to just throwing ideas against the wall to the national media connecting dots, conjecture is the name of the game each winter.
And as it so happens, discussing one of those conjectures is where we find ourselves today. Last week it was reported that the New York Mets are exploring the trade of starting pitcher Noah Syndergaard to gauge interest and potential return. According to those same reports, the Mets are looking for MLB ready players rather than prospects. So reading these reports, I threw something against the wall to see how it stuck. …
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