The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors for a mailbag episode. We spent the entire show answering questions from listeners, including…
- Which of the division leaders have the most or least staying power? (3:10)
- What does it look like if the Cardinals are selling at the deadline? (11:20)
- Do the Cardinals have a problem with coaching or player development? (18:50)
- When the Braves traded Marco Gonzales and Max Stassi, why did they trade for a player to be named later or cash when they were paying most of the salaries for both players? (22:35)
- Will the Marlins trade Jazz Chisholm Jr. if they are out of contention in July? (24:45)
- You’re designing a pitcher in a lab to succeed in today’s game and mitigate the likelihood of an injury. What is their profile and what pitches do they throw? (28:35)
- Why isn’t there more umpire accountability? (33:30)
- Why are the Pirates committed to hitting coach Andy Haines? (35:45)
- Compare the cost of a Falcon 9 launch to the Javier Báez contract. How much could the Tigers save? (38:55)
- Should the Tigers send Parker Meadows down and should the Giants release Mike Yastrzemski? (40:05)
Check out our past episodes!
- Free Agent Power Rankings, Shohei Ohtani’s Stolen Money And The A’s Moving To Sacramento – listen here
- Reviewing Our Free Agent Predictions And Future CBA Issues – listen here
- Baseball Is Back, Will Smith’s Extension, Mike Clevinger And Jon Berti – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
The answer to the 3rd question — “do the Cardinals have a problem with coaching and player development’ — is a resounding yes. And has been for the past half decade.
Them being in denial about it is the single most infuriating thing about being a Cardinals fan at this point. Mo continuing to have the job he has defys credulity.
The team was elite up until 2015. After that it’s been poor decisions in free agency couple with a complete lack of development for young players. ONeill had to sit on the bench for years so Fowler and his contract could play. Leake pitched exactly like one would expect him to and was traded away in a salary dump. Hicks and Flaherty both had tons of potential and never realized it short of 1 season for each.
The decline started when Luhnow left to build Houston.
With the exception of Daniel Descalso—- none of the Cardinals Coaches, (pitching or hitting coaches), were good enough individual players —— pitchers or hitters ——to make it to the Big Leagues & substain any type of major league career.
The Cardinals — entire current baseball system’s heads of their coaching staffs —— at every level—-quite frankly would not make good college coaches, much less Major League Coaches.
Why won’t the Cardinals spend money on actual Former experienced mlb players or Stars as their coaches??????
Examples; Chris Carpenter, Matt Holliday, Jim Edmonds, Adam Wainwright, Yadiar Molina, Albert Pujols, Skip Shumaker, Scott Rolen, and that’s just from the past Cardinals players who are interested in coaching!!!!
Those players would emphasize the basics and fundamentals of baseball on a Daily Basis as Coaches.
Plus they would care about making “winners out of young Cardinals players”!!!
Wanna fix the league?????
1. Let the players juice
2. Let the pitchers use whatever they want to increase spin rate
3. Use computerized strike zone
1. Hell no
2. Maybe allow something but not just anything
3. Challenge system would be accurate and more entertaining.
Wanna ruin baseball?????
Hire buffaloboob88 as a senior advisor to MLB
The game has already been ruined. It’s turned into a HR of strikeout game. You got guys batting .200 & under in MLB. Those guys were sent to the minors back in the day now it’s the norm so tell me how baseball isn’t ruined already
So you want to ruin it more? Yeah, that’s smart.
I agree that much of the game is ruined but your suggestions are akin to fitting submarines with screen doors.
Screw it. Let the player’s juice. I know it’s a different era in baseball, but players are striking out more often, lower batting averages, and all pitchers now a days are just trying to throw 100 mph and need Tommy John surgery. 1990’s was way more entertaining than now I don’t care what anyone says. People would show up early to the games just to see Mark McGwire Jack 500 homeruns in batting practice. At this point what does it really matter, the MLB didn’t really care they were making a lot of money and only started cracking down because it became a public issue. I mean the players in that era that are in the HOF probably did stuff.
Does relying on major surgery to create an arm capable of repeatedly throwing damaging, high spin rate pitches qualify as talented?
case – I don’t think any of these surgeries turn the pitcher into The Bionic Man (nananananana).
They just restore what God gave them.
Maybe get rid of players and make it a Video game.. no one gets hurt coders stay employed… fans get their stats??????
MLB does a terrible job developing baseball outside of the Americas. There are so many athletes in the world that can make MLB a whole lot better.
uvm – I’m pretty sure MLB is more diverse with international players than any of the four major team sports, with the exception of the NHL. In fact 29% of all MLB players are not Americans. It wouldn’t be that way if baseball wasn’t developed in countries such as Japan, Canada, Dominican, Venezuela, etc.
Always be careful of April Allstars and DFA candidates. Talent and track records almost always rise back up.
1. Let the players juice
==========================
LOL! That might be the problem. You have hitters that can hit a ball 500 feet and pitchers throwing 100 because they have more muscle than they have tendons.
I hate it, but it’s time to just admit they need a total rebuild. New front office, new manager, new players brought in. For years now, we’ve gone into the season with entirely too many “we hope so’s” and guys who should be in a platoon we count on being starters. The only 3 in the lineup that are full time “stars” are Goldschmidt, Arenado and Contreras (marginally). Lots of potential in there with Walker, Gorman, Nootbaar, etc, but potential doesn’t win pennants…
Goldy is not playing like a star this season.
All great players have bad months. It’s just seems worse in April.
NZ, Goldy has always been a slow starter, but there’s a big difference between slow and awful.
gbs – He’s playing more like a piece of debris from the International Space Station.
I believe they’re going to let Goldy walk after the season. The fact they haven’t connected on an extension at this point says as such.
And the Cardinals rarely do a 2nd extension / contract for players. There’s exceptions of course — Waino, Yadi — but I don’t see that happening here.
I think Gorman or Walker are going to be you’re first baseman next year.
He and Arenado should’ve been gone last July, and Walker should’ve been in the minors all year. The Cards would’ve been much better off for it.
Sometimes teams get stubborn. Things have always been done a way and it worked.
Sure makes you realize catchers are so important.
Now Jose Abreu stinks on Ice. He is playing more like he might be 5 years older than his stated age. Problem is Astros still owe him 30+M.
Q: You’re designing a pitcher in a lab to succeed in today’s game and mitigate the likelihood of an injury. What is their profile and what pitches do they throw?
A: A lefthanded pitcher with an excellent pickoff move who only throws low velocity fastballs and knuckleballs. A Mark Buehrle/Wilbur Wood hybrid. My second specimen would be a clone of Greg Maddux.
Speaking of maddux, how about that maddux shutout from fried last night? Gotta love it.
Option B: Teach more kids to throw sidearm. The human body is not designed to throw overhand especially at max velo. There is a reason a torn UCL is also known as javelin thrower’s elbow. They throw overhand at max velo as well and blow out the UCL.
Maddux would be great for making the playoffs but you need Smoltz to succeed there.
Hmmm… my profile would look like Randy Johnson and Aroldis Chapman. Towering leftys with a flame thrower and devastating slider. They seem to have durable arms, maybe it’s genetics.
There are always guys like Chapman, in a sense anomalies. Johnson threw sidearm so there was less strain (trying to think of a sidewinder who had TJS and can’t). Nolan Ryan was a freak and still the fastest pitch every (I can explain that if you like).
At the end of the 86 season he was in pain and went to see Dr’ Jobe. The Dr. suggested TJS….Ryan said No. ‘”Dr. Jobe said there might be scar tissue that would hold [the ligament together],” Ryan recalled. “I decided to go home and see what would happen. Around Dec. 15, it quit hurting. Then it was sore the first 10 days in Spring Training, but it went away, and the rest is history.”‘ He pitched 7 more seasons before it finally tore again. In his last career start, while throwing a fastball in the first inning, Ryan tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. Later that night in the clubhouse, he described his final game. “I heard the ligament pop like a rubber band.”
Bottom line is…. throwing overhand + max velo = intense strain = higher chance if a tear
Jordan Walker has been sent down. And the guy he replaced Tyler ONeill is leading the league in OPS last time I checked. This is a win now team one of the oldest in the game and you put a 20 year old in there and HOPE he plays well and banish a guy who is a 2 time gold glover and has a top 10 MVP finish on his resume.
World class stupid.
Tyler O’Neill was a roughly league average glove the last two seasons, and slightly below league average with the bat. He’s also somewhat injury prone (although isn’t everyone these days) Offensively, he’d only ever had that one good year.
The trade return seems a little light, but the notion of moving on wasn’t completely outlandish.
His current production is not going to continue, and even if he does have a great year with Boston, there’s no certainty that it would have happened with the Cards. He may have needed a new set of coaches and a new environment in order to recapture that 2021 vibe.
He was only league average defensively the last couple years because he wasn’t fully healthy. A league average outfielder is not a bad player don’t pretend like it is. A league average outfielder would be the best outfielder on the 2024 Cardinals team.
If players get better when they go to a new team then there is a problem. And make no mistake there is Marmol and Mozeliak are the problems.
He needs to stay healthy. That’s it. If he’s healthy he’s good.
Jazz will be traded and he’ll s@#ttalk the org on the way out.
The ump union is stronger and more competent than the players union.
Nutting is too cheap to pay someone to sit at home.
I wouldn’t cut Yaz yet but he should ride the bench more and try and figure things out.
“Do the Cardinals have a problem with coaching or player development? ”
Yes.
Design a pitcher – can throw with both arms and throws knuckleballs.
So a cross between Pat Venditte and Tim Wakefield?
It’s not just ball & strike calls that umps need to be held accountable for. There have been some HORRENDOUS calls on the basepaths, and the replay system that was supposedly designed to fix that issue…hasn’t.
Many plays are reviewable and can be corrected when mistakes are made by umpires (not balls and strikes).
Today, the Angels are trailing 6-5 with two outs in the bottom of the 9th. Adell attempts to steal 2nd base and the umpire calls him out and it goes to review.
Everyone can see that his foot hits the bag before he is tagged and yet, the replay official in New York calls him out and the game ends.
So the problem isn’t solely on umpires.
Yeah that was an iffy call.
Edub23, that sounds like it’s completely THE UMPIRES’ FAULT. Replay Booth is umpires as well. So they had a chance to fix it and still messed it up. Replay needs to be a disinterested party… Not more umpires
Just like Hunter Wendelstedt “definitely” heard Aaron Boone yelling when video clearly shows the fan, AND THEN HE DOUBLED DOWN AFTERWARDS… But it’s not solely the umpires you say…
Alec Marsh got drilled by a line drive last night and who knows how long he’ll be out. Where is the uproar for the pitchers? The fake protection for pitchers is nonsense.
For over 30 years hitters have been allowed to cheat closer to the plate thanks to every type of padded protection possible. You say, “oh no we can’t ban the hitters padding”. Yet, a line drive is more likely to kill a pitcher if struck in the head than a fastball that goes wayward. It’s time to stop the shenanigans with checking pitchers’ hands, make hitters uncomfortable in the box again and (here’s to hoping) pitchers should adjust back to being pitchers instead of flamethrowers.
should the Giants release Mike Yastrzemski?
No.
no, they should’ve released him 3 years ago
How many more years of Angel Hernandez trending? Do the owners think that is funny?
Yes, the Tigers should send Meadows down. Keston Hiura is hitting well at Toledo. He is a 1B/DH. Bring him up.
Put Greene back in CF. Ibanez is due back. He can handle 3B along with McKinstry. Kennedy goes back down. Vierling can handle CF too.
Hiura and Torkelson share 1B and DH. Tigers need some oomph in that lineup.
OF of Greene CF, Carpenter RF and Canha LF.
Meadows is a great defender, but man, he makes Baez look like Bobby Bonds.
I also think Hiura has an opt out by May 15 if he’s not called up.
The Giants should release Yaz, Slater, and Hjelle.
And amongst a lot of needed moves, the Cardinals need to release Crawford. He’s taking up valuable roster space and nearing 300lbs!
Marlins fans are gonna be pretty disappointed by a jazz return. Dude is one of the more overrated players out there.
I wouldn’t want Jazz Chisholm Jr–unless you can get him for cheap.. You are banking on the upside. Now in his 5th season, I’m still waiting for the star player—or even an every day player.
I think he’s a real player, but only when he gets to the point where he plays every day.
I get paid to play jazz so I’m glad I don’t work for the Marlins, if that makes any sense.
The Cardinals will be just fine. You kids make way too much out of slow starts. They’ve actually won 4 out of their first 7 series. I believe the pitching will get even better and I know they are going to start hitting. It’s not all doom and gloom
The first months schedule is probably the most difficult they’ll face all year. Now they have to prove they’re better than they’ve shown so far.
I’m seeing the Jazz Chisholm question and have come to the conclusion that the Marlins have now placed themselves into the clickbait pile. Now we will see this site fill up with every Marlins player being traded whenever they need some filler in here.
And the delusional fans from other teams will swallow it up and make their trade suggestions involving their tea, giving up dime-a-dozen prospects for the Marlins players they want. Then want called out on it, they’ll come up with some ridiculous justification to pretend that they aren’t living off the wishful thinking that the Marlins are in business to make their favorite team better instead of the Marlins making themselves better.
Another long year for Tigers hitting, or lack of it
The question regarding the pitch lab, there is a lot of data on things that contribute to elbow injuries. Things like the amount of throwing as a young pitcher, breaking pitches at a young age, trying to max velocity/max effort at young age and as a professional. The problem is MLB can’t go back and fix how a pitcher was developed as a younger player. The other problem is that the job of a pitcher is to get hitters out and throwing higher velocity does that. BA and OPS are much lower on fastballs at 95mph+ vs slower fastballs. Spin and break also gets hitters out. So MLB teams are going to maximize velocity and spin/break with their pitchers and hope for the best regarding injury.
So if I were designing a pitch lab, I would look to find a position player or two who did not pitch much if at all as a young player. One with a strong arm but clearly isn’t going to make it as a hitter. Teach them how to throw a fastball, a change up, and one breaking pitch. Start them in the bullpen and slowly build up their arm to starter level innings. Can’t do that with all of your pitchers but you could do that with a few and stand a decent chance of avoiding serious injury.
The other thing I would do is hire someone to work with the pitchers on their mechanics in order to minimize injury and improve performance.. Tigers hired Robin Lund to do just that and so far they have avoided serious injuries this year.