tkihshbt wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

In hindsight, Maloney probably should have sent Wong.

In hindsight, they made a mistake allowing Lackey to walk

Was just thinking the same thing. 2 more years of Lackey versus 5 years of Leake seems like a no-brainer.

Why is Leake still in the game? FFS

Well, my fantasy team needed that start by Lackey. Hopefully it gets a similar one tomorrow from Garcia.

artie_fufkin wrote:

The Cardinals are going to be dominated by good teams this season.

Luckily there's not many in the National League. In the moment, I thought it was about the Cardinals taking lousy at-bats, but Lackey was pretty sharp. His change-up to lefties was as nasty as anything I recall him bringing to the table with the Cardinals.
 

forsberg_us wrote:

tkihshbt wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

In hindsight, Maloney probably should have sent Wong.

In hindsight, they made a mistake allowing Lackey to walk

Was just thinking the same thing. 2 more years of Lackey versus 5 years of Leake seems like a no-brainer.

In fairness, it's 5 years of Leake plus a high Cubs draft pick. But I agree and always thought Lackey was the anchor of the rotation during 2015 and would have been happy to see him around for another year or two.. 

"Luckily there's not many in the National League."

Warschington, the Mets, the Cubs, the Pirates, the Dodgers and the Giants. 
The Rockies and Diamondbacks will hit, but they won't pitch, and the only time to worry about the Marlins is when Fernandez is on the mound or Giancarlo is at the plate.
Every other team can be categorized into degrees of awful.

tkihshbt wrote:

JV wrote:

APIAD wrote:

So is Diaz a ss and if not what position is he?

I had the same question after that horrible play last night. Is he expected to ever be adequate at SS?

I think the hope is that he becomes adequate, but it's going to take some time and I think it's pretty clear now why the Cardinals ticketed him for Memphis. I suspect Ruben Tejada starts tonight.
 

The hope is that he can become adequate, but the skeptics within the organization would point to the fact that he's almost 26.  Some believe that what you see is what you should expect going forward.

APIAD wrote:

Isnt he a FA after next year? Not sure how much development they have left to do.

No, it's complicated, but he's basically a Cardinal for three seasons after this.

Some believe that what you see is what you should expect going forward.

They could very well be right. It appears he has the tools to play an average shortstop, but needs as much playing time as possible. How the Cardinals balance that against needing competency right away is difficult.

The Cubs ascribed a lot of.Castro's problems to immaturity. I don't see much of that with Diaz, though it's only been two weeks. He clearly has a major league bat. Maybe his defensive position is elsewhere.
The Cardinals broadcasters, almost to the point of distraction, have continued to point out that Diaz didn't play for 18 months during his defection and residency phase. That notion is likely coming from the team, which indicates to me they have high hopes for him.