End of April Observations...

[Dillagii]

This could make the trade deadline very interesting.

Which raises a strange question I've had boiling in me since yesterday.... In 2002, after DK passed, Walt made a huge push to upgrade the club, acquiring first Chuck Finley and then Scott Rolen. Do you suppose it'll happen again?

What do we have to give up apart from Rasmus to get something valuable in return?

[Phyrkrakr]

This could make the trade deadline very interesting.

Which raises a strange question I've had boiling in me since yesterday.... In 2002, after DK passed, Walt made a huge push to upgrade the club, acquiring first Chuck Finley and then Scott Rolen. Do you suppose it'll happen again?

What do we have to give up apart from Rasmus to get something valuable in return?

Reyes.

[a_smith]

This could make the trade deadline very interesting.

Which raises a strange question I've had boiling in me since yesterday.... In 2002, after DK passed, Walt made a huge push to upgrade the club, acquiring first Chuck Finley and then Scott Rolen. Do you suppose it'll happen again?

What do we have to give up apart from Rasmus to get something valuable in return?

it could happen, but i dont think hancock's passing would have anything to do with it.
No offense to the dearly departed, but he wasnt a major player on the team in the way that Kile was. Kile's death made a team that was competative much much weaker and he took the opportunity to fill the holes. I dont think think that Walt got Rolen and Finley to replace Kile per sae, rather he got them because the team had holes. (if kile had passed and the team didnt have any holes then i doubt that he would have traded for rolen and finley)

I could see Walt saying my team is weak and i need to fill holes.
but the team being weak isnt really connected to Hancock.

It also seems that the economics of the trade market have changed where it is much much harder to pull off a big trade.

[longhornbaseball]

They have to do something if they want to contend this year. The "saviour" is currently batting .077. If Yadi keeps up his hitting and OBP through the trading deadline, Anderson might be viewed as tradeable. If he keeps up his hitting he'll be considered one of the best catching prospects in the game by that time.

[jim]

They have to do something if they want to contend this year. The "saviour" is currently batting .077. If Yadi keeps up his hitting and OBP through the trading deadline, Anderson might be viewed as tradeable. If he keeps up his hitting he'll be considered one of the best catching prospects in the game by that time.

Yadi has an OPS of .689. If he keeps this up he'll be considered just what he is today - a weak hitting catcher with a cannon hanging off of his shoulder.

You might have something with Anderson though, as much as I would love to have a catcher that could hit a little bit his stock is definitely rising. If the Cards plan on Molina long term, then there may be some interest.

[greenback44]

This could make the trade deadline very interesting.

Which raises a strange question I've had boiling in me since yesterday.... In 2002, after DK passed, Walt made a huge push to upgrade the club, acquiring first Chuck Finley and then Scott Rolen. Do you suppose it'll happen again?

I doubt it. Reading between the lines, it sounds like "Moneyball" and the Mulder debacle have changed how the Cards plan on running the team, and that new plan requires heavy reliance on the farm. Or maybe it's the fact that something like 27 of the 30 teams have a shot at the playoffs, so nobody with any talent is a seller.

[longhornbaseball]

Yadi has an OPS of .689. If he keeps this up he'll be considered just what he is today - a weak hitting catcher with a canon hanging off of his shoulder.

What I meant by that is if Yadi's hitting .260 he's not going anywhere for a while. If he keeps hitting .210 Anderson may be a real possibility in 1-2 years.

[greenback44]

Yadi has an OPS of .689. If he keeps this up he'll be considered just what he is today - a weak hitting catcher with a canon hanging off of his shoulder.

Forget the spelling nit, but I've started calling him St. Yadier anyway.

[JL21]

What do we have to give up apart from Rasmus to get something valuable in return?

Reyes, Anderson, Jamie Garcia if they have to, Encarnacion as part of a package, Blake Hawksworth, Nick Stavinhoa, Jarrett Hoffpauir.... There's not a ton available, but there is some value available.

[GatewaySnayke]

2. What happened to David Wright

It's a good thing Wright has improved his walk rate from 9% to 15% because otherwise he would be extremely worthless right now. He has just five extra base hits, and before anyone thinks it's just a run of bad luck and this will go away, he only had six home runs in the second half of last season and went from 'elite' to 'very good.' He has one home run in his last 44 home games. It doesn't really make sense why he's suddenly turned into Aaron Miles with a nifty 16 walks in one month. I have no predictive models that can take a guess that Wright will improve, but a quick check at his BABIP shows that he's at .349!

Well, he'll turn a corner, but a lot of folks thought he was playing a bit over his head during his first couple of years in the majors. He's better than he is now, but he's probably going to settle out as a 120-130 OPS+ hitter.

--P--

Yeah, that's probably about right, but I thought Wright would wind up having his slugging north of .550 on most years. Being between 120-130 is nothing to sneeze at, but I just kind of expected more from him.

Right now, it's ugly. His slugging dipped down to .311