As you have likely heard, but which likely has not yet tangibly impacted your experience as a consumer, Major League Baseball owners locked out its players on December 2. Despite implications from commissioner Rob Manfred, this was not a requirement of MLB owners, as the league's collective bargaining agreement had not expired, but it was…
Wander Franco and the ten Cardinals pre-free agency extensions of the 21st century
Upon being called up to the Tampa Bay Rays on June 22, 2021, twenty year-old shortstop Wander Franco earned the Major League Baseball minimum of $570,500 for the remainder of the season. The extension which Franco signed with the Rays on Tuesday pays him more than that per each of his 308 career MLB plate…
The Steven Matz signing is a good signing as long as it isn’t the only signing
Since debuting with the New York Mets in 2015 as a lesser-but-not-insignificant prospect in the young pitching core that guided the Mets to their first World Series in *checks, assumes it must be many many decades based on how Mets fans discuss their futility* fifteen years, Steven Matz has been an aggressively average pitcher. Both…
Which is the superior Rick Hummel Bit: Matt Cain or Trea Turner?
Sports media is an often far too self-serious business. While most other subsections of the media landscape view sports journalism as access-based propaganda (often true) and no more dignified than entertainment reporting (almost always true), its practitioners frequently treat what they are doing as though asking Giovanny Gallegos what he was thinking when Christian Yelich…
How good is Dakota Hudson, and why will that define the Cardinals’ off-season?
In 2019, the season in which he threw 70% of his Major League Baseball innings to this point in his career, St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Dakota Hudson accomplished something that had not been seen in Major League Baseball since 2003 and which no pitcher came particularly close to accomplishing in the two subsequent MLB…
If the NL adopts the designated hitter, how should the Cardinals fill the position?
Occasionally lost the hubbub about the pending free agency signing period is that we are looking down the barrel of some contentious labor negotiations. And an oft-cited potential ramification is the institution of the designated hitter in the National League. To be frank, I don't really get it. This isn't because I have a strong…
An alternative to my Just Sign Max Scherzer plan
Yesterday, I wrote a long post about all of the top ticket free agents available this off-season. I noted that Carlos Correa and Corey Seager are great players and will be a wonderful fit for somebody, but that since the St. Louis Cardinals do not have a pronounced weakness at shortstop, with both Paul DeJong…
Which free agent should St. Louis Cardinals fans covet the most?
The time will come, likely quite soon, for keeping our expectations in check. It may soon be time for St. Louis Cardinals fans to talk themselves into how Actually If You Think About It Anthony DeSclafani Is A Game-Changer, but for now, let's fantasize. It's probably a bit unfair to the Cardinals to dismiss immediately…
How the Cardinals helped launch the Atlanta Braves World Series run (and why that shouldn’t bother you)
When it comes to making trades, the primary directive, particularly when dealing with teams which are not your direct divisional rivals, ought to be for teams to improve based on the context of their own specific situation. During the Walt Jocketty era as general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, there was this weird tinge…
The twenty greatest baseball plays of the 21st century
Why yes, Game Six of the 2011 World Series will be present.
St. Louis Bullpen 