don.rob11 wrote:

Send Marte to China .....

Mini Marte

artie_fufkin wrote:

Horton can save the crap about giving up two runs in the seventh. The error at first and the ethnic fire drill on the popup in shallow left in the second inning were just as damaging.

Yeah, but Marte sucks.

artie_fufkin wrote:

"Yeah, but Marte sucks."

I'm not disputing that.

You're right that the defensive lapses are what hurt them. I just can't believe it's the last week of July and he's on the team. It's awful. Not even TLR rode Franklin this far.

Right. Salas and Marte have to be replaced ASAP. I don't know if this still means bringing in a starter to push Kelly to the bullpen (he's nearing his career high in IP) or just finding another Dotel (though I don't know who that would be).

I don't know how the Cardinals can watch the last few appearances by Salas and not come to the conclusion that he's lost it.

Hmmm, I disagree that they had to give up Rasmus to get those pieces. Chicago gave up Jackson for two relievers. He had no value to them since they weren't re-signing him. Dotel and Scrabble had no value to the Blue Jays. Well, maybe Scrabble had some value, but recall that Dotel wasn't exactly setting the world on fire in Toronto. He had been pretty bad for several seasons, giving up a ton of home runs and walks and was getting torched by lefties.

Dotel and Jackson's relative successes with the Cardinals have skewed how good they really were.

artie_fufkin wrote:

"I disagree that they had to give up Rasmus to get those pieces."

I didn't mean to re-hash the dynamics of the Trever Miller trade. My larger point was they had to give up a player who was once the jewel of their system and deemed not-for-sale, and a year later they find themselves in almost the exact same situation - needing to make a trade to fix a substandard bullpen that should have been and could have been addressed in November and/or December.

Yeah, no disagreement with that one. It's baffling that they thought putting a 31-year-old career minor leaguer with terrible MLB stats in the bullpen along with an obviously worn-down McClellan would yield good results. Same for Romero, whose goose was cooked.

Honestly, I don't think the fix will be as hard this time around, not to the degree where they are selling low on former ROTYs as Max would put it. If they make a trade, and there's no guarantee they will, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see them deal with Tampa.

"At this point they're losing because something isn't clicking with runners on base, which can't really be solved by a trade. Figure this one out: in July they are averaging 4.2 runs per game despite the fact that the team is hitting .280/.358/.420. Even if you take out the series against the Cubs they still have a team OBP of .350. I just don't understand what's going on."

It's mind-boggling, but if I hear Hrabosky one more time cite run differential and say "Sooner or later, it's going to even out ...," I'm going to throw things around the room.

"Honestly, I don't think the fix will be as hard this time around, not to the degree where they are selling low on former ROTYs as Max would put it. If they make a trade, and there's no guarantee they will, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see them deal with Tampa."

I don't know a thing about Tampa's bullpen, but supposedly they haven't figured out whether they're going to be buyers or sellers yet. I've heard James Shields' name thrown around, but based on what Moz is saying about the rotation, there wouldn't even be a discussion. The other guy they're supposedly trying to shed is Upton, but I can't see the Cardinals taking him on unless he's part of a package.
There was a report on the XM this afternoon that the Marlins are about to have a fire sale and will listen to offers for just about everyone but Stanton and Reyes, but Ken Rosenthal was the source.

artie_fufkin wrote:

"Honestly, I don't think the fix will be as hard this time around, not to the degree where they are selling low on former ROTYs as Max would put it. If they make a trade, and there's no guarantee they will, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see them deal with Tampa."

I don't know a thing about Tampa's bullpen, but supposedly they haven't figured out whether they're going to be buyers or sellers yet. I've heard James Shields' name thrown around, but based on what Moz is saying about the rotation, there wouldn't even be a discussion. The other guy they're supposedly trying to shed is Upton, but I can't see the Cardinals taking him on unless he's part of a package.
There was a report on the XM this afternoon that the Marlins are about to have a fire sale and will listen to offers for just about everyone but Stanton and Reyes, but Ken Rosenthal was the source.

Doesnt sound like the Pirates gave up much to get Rodgiruez.