On the disabled list due to a reported ligament issue in his right elbow, Trevor Rosenthal has consulted with Dr. Neal ElAttrache for a second opinion on the best course of action, tweets Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com. The Cardinals are expected to make an official announcement on his status tomorrow after going through the results of both tests, though it’s already been reported that a surgical option is at least a possibility for Rosenthal.
More on the Cards…
- President of baseball operations John Mozeliak tells Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the Cardinals are rethinking their protection process when it comes to the Rule 5 Draft. St. Louis lost right-hander Luis Perdomo and shortstop Allen Cordoba to the Padres in each of the past two Rule 5 Drafts because the Cardinals’ front office assumed that no team would be comfortable carrying a Class-A player for the entire season in the Majors. (Cordoba, for reference, has just three at-bats all month with the Padres.) However, Mozeliak acknowledges that with more teams opting for complete rebuilds, those clubs can afford to prioritize sheer upside over proximity to the Majors. Goold’s column is well worth a full read-through, as he runs down several players that are locks to be added to the 40-man roster this winter and others that the Cards will have to consider with their new-look approach to this process.
- Both Bernie Miklasz of 101 ESPN and Jeff Gordon of the Post-Dispatch have penned columns imploring the Cardinal front office to shake up the team’s pitching staff. Injuries to Rosenthal, Adam Wainwright, Kevin Siegrist and the recent struggles of both Mike Leake and Michael Wacha have left the team’s pitching staff looking depleted and vulnerable. As Miklasz points out, every other National League contender has made at least one addition via trade since the season started, but the Cardinals have stood pat. Gordon notes that the pitching problems are hardly a short-term cause for concern. Lance Lynn is a free agent this winter, and each of Wainwright, Leake and Wacha carries his own brand of uncertainty. Miklasz and Gordon call for quick looks at young arms like Luke Weaver, Jack Flaherty, Sandy Alcantara and others, both as a means of remaining competitive in 2017 and evaluating for the future.
- One of those moves could come in the near future, as Langosch writes. The Cardinals are considering skipping Leake’s slot in the rotation this weekend, per Langosch, and his scheduled start aligns with that of Flaherty in Triple-A. Leake has previously conceded that he’s experiencing some fatigue, and the stats bear that out; Leake logged a 2.24 ERA through his first 10 starts but has an unsightly 5.83 earned run average since June 1. General manager Mike Girsch tells Langosch that “all options are on the table” as the team evaluates its best course of action.
When don’t the Cardinals stand pat
When don’t they say “all options are on the table?” I hope Mike Girsch is true to his word. I know Mozeliak just used that term to give fans FALSE hope.
When they signed Dexter Fowler away from the Cubs…
Not sure that will turn out to be one that they’ll want to brag about…..I guess time will tell. Right now, it looks like a serious overpay.
Yes. Stand Pat is what they do best
Leake’s record might be a lot better if he could avoid Cincinnati. He’s 0-4 against the Reds, although he really hasn’t pitched terribly against them.
He’s just a Reds sleeper agent
The Cards need a shot in the arm from either adding a bullpen piece via trade or bringing up someone like Flaherty to stick longer than a spot start.
Please don’t change your Rule 5 approach Cards. I don’t want my Padres to lose their second farm system!
Lol
Padres still suck.
Who cares. Neither the cards or padres are winning the world series this year.
Only difference between the cards and padres records are the cards will have worst draft position in next years draft.
Except the cardinals farm system is probably just as good as the padres and they have 10x the talent on the MLB roster.
In baseball, even having a close to contention record means the a world of difference rather than just draft positioning. The only time draft positioning matters is when you’re a bottom 5 team, and you’re able to grab one of the truly elite prospects. Every draft, a team carries almost the same chance of hitting on the #13-#18 pick as they do the #’s 7-10…It isn’t like football or especially basketball, where there’s typically such a massive drop off in talent from #7 to the middle teens…
I’d much rather have my team in contention right now, or being close to contending, than being a bottom dweller, where then you’re truly fighting for having the worst record…
Dunnobouthat
So are you saying prospects taken later in the draft are more likely to succeed? If not, then there is no incentive not to tank if you aren’t going to make the playoffs anyway.
I’m saying, I’d rather have my team in contention, even if they don’t make the playoffs, rather than tanking just to secure the lowest possible draft pick…
…The baseball draft is well known for being quite the crap shoot…Players drafted 8th overall aren’t necessarily guaranteed to be THAT much better than say that of the #18 pick…I’d rather have my team fairly contend and end up picking around the 20’s than being horrible and focused on tanking…
Plus, if you pony up, and your team is willing to get quality over quantity, you can sign a talented player away from his commitment, that could be a top 10 prospect with the 20th-25th pick…
Winning drives up attendance, merchandise sales, it helps in free agency, international free agency, etc. In baseball, winning is most important, even if your team just misses the playoffs…
Why? There’s no place in baseball for stupid moral victories. As far as I’m concerned if the Padres aren’t going to make the playoffs they can go 0-162.
The only way your argument works is if you can prove that lower draft picks somehow have a higher chance of success. They don’t. And even if it were a complete crap shoot, you still get a bigger signing bonus cash pool by drafting higher.
And it’s not just tanking vs. respectability. It’s often a matter of inches. One win last year cost your Braves the chance to draft Hunter Greene.
“Just as good”….according to who? You?
Bleacher report: bleacherreport.com/articles/2723949-updated-farm-s…
Cards 11, padres 7
Mlb.com: m.mlb.com/news/article/246166920/midseason-ranking…
Cardinals outside top 10, padres 3
Baseball America has:
baseballamerica.com/tag/organization-talent-rankin…
Cardinals outside top 10, padres 4
When you’re 4 or more rankings apart you aren’t “just as good”. “Just as good” means you’re within 2, continuously.
The padres farm is just as good as the braves cause theyre both top 5 across the board.
Wrong @jbigz12 Wah wah wah. They aren’t even in the top ten. Padres are ranked right around 3-4, depending on the person/site reviewing the systems. Bleacher reports has Cardinals at 13. Mlbpipeline doesnt have them in the top 10. BUT, you do have more ML talent! But that’s not what the Padres are going for at this time. They are stock piling talent in the minors.
there is many people saying the Cardinals farm should crack the top 10 at the beginning of next year. I know that the Padres have a great farm system But I honestly can’t think of anyone who has come out of it? I will take the Cardinals farm system any day considering the padres are so desperate that they steal players from the cardinals in low A ball. Not to mention the system is loaded with pitching. Plus the Cardinals system produces guys who aren’t even mentioned in the top 100 prospects. (by the way the Cardinals have 5 players in the top 100 prospects) But to the point Paul Dejong wasn’t even in the top 100 prospects last year and he would be Rookie of the Year at this point if it was not for Bellinger from the dodgers.
Well considering preller has been gm for what 3 years, course nobody has come out of it yet. He signed a lot of young high upside guys from hs. They take time to develop. And he went big in IFA so they take time to develop too.
Aside from his hand picked players- trea turner, mallex smith, matt bush, brad brach, nick vincent, david freese, corey kluber all came out of their system of varying degree.
1st Preller prospect to make it to the bigs was Phil Maton
Padres have a lot of low
Minors guys. They could find some stars down there, but I’ll take the cardinals roster and the close to mlb ready prospects they have anyday. Alex Reyes looked like a future #1 Weaver and flaherty look like two good starters. Bader O’Neill, and Kelly are all near Mlb ready or already there. So yeah could the padres have a lot of top guys sure but they’re not that close to the big leagues.
yea they have a lot of low minor league guys…so do the cardinals. But low guys are really not that impressive and dangerous because they still have a long way to go…Cardinals have Delvin Perez in low A ball but i’m not counting my blessings about him because he has a long way to go. One of the reasons cardinals farm isn’t in the top ten now is because Alex Reyes went down with TJ…you mentioned Weaver and Flaherty but don’t forget about Hudson, Sandy A, and Fernandez,
Well to be fair only a disastrous roster like the padres can afford to carry multiple low A guys on it all year. Córdoba getting 0abs sitting on the padres bench is doing him absolutely no good, it’s more or less a lost year in development because he hasn’t even been allowed to play SS at the MLB level.
Yeah ,it certainly isn’t a new trend several teams will try out. It just happened to be the Padres were that bad, where they could afford to hide a player or two on their 25-man all year…
If I were the Cardinals, I wouldn’t change too much, just solely based off of one team’s actions. Re-thinking their strategy very well could lead to them making am even bigger mistake. They could chose to protect a younger player further away, and in turn they end up losing a slightly less talented, yet more proven guy that’s closer to the ML level…
And there are still 7 teams with worse records XD XD XD
Is that a good thing that 7 teams have a worse record than the padres? Because you could make the argument that 4-5 of those teams are closer to being competitive than SD.
It’s just funny to me that people made such a big deal about the Padres tanking and then when it’s all said and done they are better than 24% of the other teams in the game.
The cynic in me wants to say they can’t even tank correctly.
The padres had a rotation full of league average veterans this year for the most part. And they had a very good pen. I think that explains the record, you look at the Phillies and they were throwing out young volatile pitchers this year. The mets have been throwing anyone healthy out there. The A’s have had a bunch of young volatile guys. The reds have thrown about 12 different guys out there. Unfortunately the padres starters are just so average they’re good enough to give you a decent start 70% of the time.
I wouldn’t call Clayton Richard or Jered Weaver “league average” but to each his or her own I guess.
Weaver only started 9 games not a full 30 to screw you guys bad enough. And Clayton Richard would be considered average. .4WAR pitcher is about as average as they come.
I hate WAR…