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2022 StL Cardinals Thread of Domination

Beau Vine

By Beau Vine
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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 54857

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JUPITER, Fla. — Since the lockout was lifted a week ago, the Cardinals have been busy plumping up their roster with incremental, team-friendly moves.

They addressed their biggest need — pitching depth — first. On Friday, the team signed right-hander Drew VerHagen to a two-year, $5.5 million contract, ensuring another swingman option to complement Jake Woodford. On Sunday afternoon, they brought in Nick Wittgren on a one-year, $1.2 million deal to shore up their relief depth. Then on Thursday, they switched gears.

The Cardinals intend to sign veteran outfielder Corey Dickerson to a one-year deal pending a physical, sources confirmed to The Athletic. The 32-year-old was an All-Star in 2017 with Tampa Bay and won a Gold Glove with Pittsburgh in 2018. He began the 2021 season with Miami before being traded to Toronto in late June and posted a combined line of .271/.326/.408 with six home runs. Dickerson has played all three outfield positions throughout his career, but has mostly been seen at the corners with the occasional start at designated hitter in recent years.

Though the Cardinals pledged confidence in internal options like Lars Nootbaar, Juan Yepez and top prospect Nolan Gorman, Dickerson provides veteran experience to a rather young outfield. Tyler O’Neill, Harrison Bader and Dylan Carlson, the club’s ideal starters, won’t lose playing time, but Dickerson’s addition allows the club some roster fluidity and flexibility, especially with the implementation of the universal DH.

Manager Oli Marmol is expected to incorporate matchups and platoons more frequently than his predecessors have, a concept that differs from the the set lineups the organization has preferred in the past. By signing Dickerson, St. Louis now has two left-handed bench bats in a predominantly right-handed lineup, and Marmol has additional depth to get creative as the organization determines how best to get the most production out of its young bench.

The most prevalent question is how Dickerson’s presence will affect the playing time of Nootbaar, who opened camp as the club’s reserve outfielder. The Cardinals believe Nootbaar would benefit from seeing consistent at-bats. The DH and the possibility of expanded rosters to open the season allow plenty of room for a fifth outfielder. Although the club is high on Yepez and Gorman, the two young prospects likely will open the season in Triple A. Gorman is expected to debut this season, and Yepez — who was named the organization’s minor-league co-player of the 2021 season — will likely join the big-league club if he can continue producing the numbers that led to his breakout 2021 season.

Although Dickerson’s pop has dipped in recent years — his power peaked in 2017, when he hit 27 home runs in an All-Star season with the Rays — he does profile as a spray hitter that makes consistent contact and hits for average, and he should be a serviceable defender and left-handed pinch-hit bat.

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Beau Vine

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10 hours ago, pops said:

I just came. Pujols, yadi and waino going out together is fucking movie material. I dont care if they win 60 games. This is the greatest swan song ever. 

Meh, seems like the best way to send those guys out is by upgrading at SS and P and putting them in one last pennant race.  

Or, they could just be satisfied with selling a shitload of tickets and making a lot of money while going .500.  

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pops

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11 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

Meh, seems like the best way to send those guys out is by upgrading at SS and P and putting them in one last pennant race.  

Or, they could just be satisfied with selling a shitload of tickets and making a lot of money while going .500.  

DeWitt has already he's shown he won't spend mone seey to actually compete. Yeah, he got goldy and nolan.... but the bullpen sucks. So I've given up on titles. If I get to watch pujols dh for a year while the longest battery in history gets to pump out innings then I'll  just sit back and enjoy it. The central sucks. They should win it by default but to me this is just a feel good year. Maybe oli will surprise. I just want to watch Albert rake to remind me of 2011. 

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You don't know me

You don't know me 1161

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On 3/28/2022 at 10:37 AM, Beau Vine said:

Meh, seems like the best way to send those guys out is by upgrading at SS and P and putting them in one last pennant race.  

Or, they could just be satisfied with selling a shitload of tickets and making a lot of money while going .500.  

You summed up my feelings perfectly.

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Beau Vine

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21 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

What's the O/U on Pujols home runs this year?

I'll go 8.

Over, easily.  He hit 17 last season, and that's with only 2 games as a DH.  

The key for using him is to absolutely completely keep him nailed to the bench when there's a righty on the mound, because he's still pretty damn solid against southpaws:

image.png.60775f8255b94989a9bdbec875f21c2b.png

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Beau Vine

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I heard from Paul today -- he said "We have a legitimate chance to win the World Series," which not only have I never heard him say before, but also is pretty out of character for him, so I'm going to support him by pretending to believe him.  

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oSuJeff97

oSuJeff97 3435

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On 4/20/2022 at 4:46 PM, phdhorn said:

So, which is it gonna be this year?

giphy.gif&f=1&nofb=1   OR      SecondPresentGuppy-size_restricted.gif&f

Hard to say. 

I worry about the pitching staff. I can’t imagine Waino is going to keep firing out quality starts and beyond him there still really isn’t any kind of ace with Flaherty still on the shelf. 

But the offense does look salty.

If we are still at or near 1st place by June 1 I’ll start to get my hopes up.

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Beau Vine

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20 minutes ago, You don't know me said:
1 hour ago, Beau Vine said:



Does this make sense to anybody? Why not send PD down if you're bringing in an IF?

PD is making the big money, so Noot goes down. Noot probably has options available. Older guy with service time would likely have to clear waivers, if I am not mistaken.

Counting this year's full salary, PD is owed at least $18M on his current contract.  If someone snatches that off the waiver wire, we should send them a nice fruit basket.

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You don't know me

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Counting this year's full salary, PD is owed at least $18M on his current contract.  If someone snatches that off the waiver wire, we should send them a nice fruit basket.
I agree, but they don't think like that. Exactly why Matt Carpenter was sitting in the dugout for 3 seasons while not contributing. The smart play is to get rid of those guys, but they rarely do
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Beau Vine

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I also wonder why they didn't bring up Gorman.  His OPS is over 1100; Donovan's was under 800.   Are they fucking with Gorman?

I guess I should be happy they didn't bring back Nick Punto for the retirement tour.

 

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