Post by Matt on Nov 2, 2020 17:24:02 GMT -5
Cardinal fans are rejoicing that the month of May has finally ended. After starting the first week 5-2 with impressive wins over the Braves and Reds, the sky definitely fell...quickly. After the hot start and sitting in 1st, the Deadbirds went 6-15 to finish off the month.
Rumblings around St Louis haven't been nice. That 3 weeks has dropped them from 1st in the division to 4th in the division, 6 games back. Then, to end the month, veteran 1B Lorenzo Gray got hit by a pitch, and unfortunately has a broken hand. "We definitely weren't happy with the news. Let's just say if the Padres come calling for a trade offer, the price went up on one pitch," said GM Carpenter. "I'm not saying they did it on purpose, but it's going to cost them just as it cost us." Carpenter snapped off and answer to the question when asked if they were going to try to find a replacement for Gray, "the way we've performed this past 3 weeks, I might be looking for multiple replacements right now."
While trying to compete the past few seasons, the Cardinals have greatly depleted the talent in the minor leagues. All that is available in AAA at this point for the offense would be OF Chili Davis and OF Willie McGee. Others that could fill some utility role could be 3B Mike Pagliarulo and catcher Mark Salas. "Willie or Chili will have to be called up here soon," said Carpenter. "We've got to figure out what's going on with the offense, otherwise you might see some new faces in the near future. We might end up giving the Pirates a run for their money the next few seasons."
As far as the pitching goes, they're doing a little better than the offense. "Bill Long has stepped up his past 3 starts after being swapped from the bullpen to the rotation," said Carpenter. "We've had some traction in trade talks for a few of our other starters, so we're trying to see if we can fill the holes if we do pull the trigger on a trade." Carpenter wanted to be clear that no one was going to be shot and that any rumblings of him being a "gun toting red neck" should be directed elsewhere. "Yeah, I know how the media likes to twist words and that other GM's have opinions that they've been public on before, so I wanted to clarify the words in my statement."
Anyway, back to baseball, the pitching staff is starting to round itself out. "We just need to get Madden back on track, which I think he will if he plans on signing the extension that he currently wants. We're close on the details, but he's got to start being the ace we need, and have gotten from him in the past," said Carpenter. Veteran Alan Wirth has come upon hard times, the Redbirds are 0-9 in his recent starts, 5 of which he gave up 2 or fewer earned runs. "Hopefully him and the offense can get on the same page" joked Carpenter, "he's throwing well, but the offense decides to take those days off I guess....or maybe we'll go back to the offense needs to get it's sh*t together."
The next few weeks will be telling for the Cardinals. The front office has been known to make strange deals to keep the ball rolling, but the pieces needed to do that aren't there anymore. One unnamed source has mentioned that he's heard rumblings of the Cardinals shipping off veterans to get some youth back in the organization to keep the success going, but will the other GM's come calling for those guys. It's well known that the trade market around here is tough, so we'll see what the Cardinals do in the next few weeks!
