mul21

His ERA over his last 18 starts is about double what his career ERA was before entering this stretch. It’s beyond a slump at this point. He’s not putting the ball where he wants it. He got very screwed by two hits that had a less than 70 mph exit velocity last night. He's out of that 6th inning with the game tied and a 4.5 ERA for the game if not for some terrible BABIP luck. I'll freely admit the dingers are a big problem, but he was mostly fine last night.

The Nationals fixed Schwarber and Rizzo has 3 HR if he's playing almost anywhere other than Yankee Stadium. Meh.

McShay either hates everything the Bears did in the draft or is way more optimistic than anyone else I’ve seen about the Velus Jones pick. He chose that as the Bears best pick of the draft. I tend to lean toward option one even though I can see the upside on Jones.

I think they do, but they're far more afraid of getting caught for those things than they are anything else. And now that it seems like a certain segment of the population is actually being held responsible for those things because they don't have as much power over others as they have for years, it's suddenly a persecution problem instead of an even playing field problem, as with most other things in this country. Those people are the reason religion was invented and was so instrumental in keeping people in line for thousands of years.

maybe pessimistic/skeptical is a better word than adamant, but yeah for sure, i underestimated his otherworldly tools to help allow him to survive a broken approach my hot take here is mostly that it's probably not good that most of our top hitting prospects are aspiring to be Shaq Thompson Would you rather have Caissie demolish the ball in the Arizona backfields, put up a good not great ~110 OPS+ at MB, or get his ass handed to him at South Bend? The former are certainly better for us all throwing around high fives on here, but do you think they are actually better for his development? I think you'd rather see a guy put up a 110 OPS in MB because at that point he's seeing some success but also isn't at a point where he's dominating so much that he doesn't have anything to work on. I mean, he's a 19 year old kid from Canada, so he's probably slightly behind the curve of a lot of southern US born players the same age anyway. I don't think slowing down his overall promotion schedule is a problem in this case if it bodes for a higher likelihood of future success.

I said the exact same thing to a buddy last night. Why the hell are you shifted to the left side if you're throwing nothing but fastballs on the outside corner to a RH hitter. Makes zero sense.

I was listening to the radio broadcast during the game Sunday and Coomer was talking about his front side flying open and the way he was laying it out, it sounded like this isn't the first time he's seen this from Steele this year. Probably something that would affect both velocity and the larger thing Coomer mentioned, location of the fastball.

If they already know it's not going to start on time or there's certain delays ahead, I'm not sure why you'd stay with the scheduled time when that's just going to cause issues with pitchers and guys getting warmed up/cooled down.

Seems like it's been mostly high heat from observation and it also feels like he's swinging more.

Yeah, I have the same issue with Bally Sports here in STL. Seems like most of those very specialized apps aren't available directly through the TV.

He's not Javy, but he's been really good from what I've watched so far this year.

I think the cancer piece and him wanting to secure his financial security are things that really, really have to be considered here on top of the timing/track record. Add in the fact that this front office drafted him and traded for him twice, it was a significant leap of faith and trusting in their own judgement to sign that deal when they did. I don't feel a bit sorry for him when he could have gotten a longer, better deal from the Cubs and now comes out with this nonsense. GTFO.

Absolutely awful fundamentally. Over ran it and didn't set his feet at all to throw. So bad.

Some of you need to work on your math. That deal is for $210M, not $300M+.

As someone who supports a mostly reviled sports team with a new and eminently likeable coach, I can assure you that you will find new reasons to hate Duke. Yeah, it'll be really easy for Illini fans especially since Scheyer rejected them to go to Duke back in the day.

Problem isn't Poles, it's your expectations. Poles wasn't going to come in and build this team into a contender with 5 draft picks, little cap room, and like 23 players under contract. What's the threshold for you to be ok with what he's done? Did you want to pay Christian Kirk 19M per season? Did you want to trade 1 or more of the limited draft picks just for the right to pay a WR 20-25Mil/year (Cooper, Hill, Adams)? He tried to add Bates, but the deal was matched? They were in on other linemen who got paid more than they were willing to pay, and probably went to teams closer to winning than the Bears are. I would have liked a stud lineman or proven WR as much as anyone else, but the only reason why you are disappointed is because he didn't do what you wanted him to do, not because of what he's done/hasn't done. If the Bears had signed Terron Armstead and traded for Robert Woods (using him because his trade value and contract are most reasonable of the deals made) they'd still be a team that's not good enough to seriously compete for a Superbowl, maybe not even a playoff spot. If you're that far away and need 21 other players, there's really not a point in hampering your future ability to add players by giving 15M/year to a 30+ year old or trading draft picks for a big salary or injury risk, in Woods' case. The GM and the coaching is the help this year. Clearly those were huge issues for Fields last year, by his own admission at least in the Cleveland game. Just relax and give it more than 2 months. I don't really disagree with you much, but if Fields gets killed this year because the O-Line is so bad and turns into David Carr then you've set yourself back another 3-4 years. It's certainly a fine line to walk.

Idiot Cards fans have caused the ticket price for the last home game this year to already spike after he signed. I was giving my friends down here a hard time and said they should plan on the last home series of July for his last game. I will say this, I don't think it's a wise decision for him to be on the Cardinals roster if they intend to win the division. But, I think it's great that he is getting a chance to end his career with the organization he started with and for the Cardinal fans. It's the sort of thing an organization that cares about its fan base does. Javy, Bryant, and Rizzo aren't in the same category of player that Pujols is/was with the history he has with the Cardinals, but if the Cubs aren't competitive I would love to see them get to retire as Cubs. I strongly suspect the Cubs are not like the Cardinals though. Sentimental nonsense, I know. Yeah, I thought it would have been a dumb move for any team trying to win games, which was why the Colorado rumors made a lot of sense to me. I'm definitely hoping for an ugly end to things and all those people who called him a trader, dropped the N bomb on him and otherwise disparaged him for signing with the Angels come back out of the woodwork. A buddy told me the last like 11 Instagram posts from the Cards have all been Pujols related and now they've started selling a 5 game Pujols ticket package. I'd be pissed if I was guy who was going to be an everyday contributor and he's the guy getting all the press when he's going to be a bit player at best.

I'm bracing for him to magically revert to at least something resembling STL performance levels for short stretches and be overall way better than he has been most of the time since he left. I know it's unlikely but this is STL and I never rule anything out Idiot Cards fans have caused the ticket price for the last home game this year to already spike after he signed. I was giving my friends down here a hard time and said they should plan on the last home series of July for his last game.

What happened to Hendricks starting?

That last 4th and inches call will put a damper on what was a fairly decent game plan. That was ugly as a call. Then things spiraled in minutes, mainly because they had no choice but to try and let Mitch win it. I don't tend to get too caught up in the individual play calls. Every playcall looks terrible when it doesn't work and brilliant when it does. They went 4-for-5 on 4th and short. Sometimes the defense just wins. Generally I'd agree with you, but that play had no chance from the outset. 2 receivers bunched to one side with a rollout that way and nobody going downfield on that side to clear any defenders. They'd crammed it down their throat several times already and gotten them with a spread formation. Why they didn't go with some variation o f what had already been successful I have no idea. Give it to Monty and have him get you a yard or have Mitch sneak it again. That's too pivotal a moment in the game to do something gimmicky like they did.

Nagy is bad. I have no idea what happened to the plays KC runs with guys wide open across the middle all the time but this offense is trash in terms of design.

Looked like pretty obvious DPI to me.

He really needs to be hitting 2nd or 3rd in this order Don’t move him and horsefeathers him up again like last year.

Oof, Chris Duncan in the OF is an easy list topper there for me. Todd Hundley in the OF is close too.

I think the difference is that the Marlins has a pretty good idea of who had been exposed and who hadn’t while the Cards tests have been trickling in little by little and they have no idea who may or may not test positive, so it’s hard to just bring in new guys not knowing if the guys who haven’t tested positive yet still might.