BP: Hope and Faith: St. Louis Cardinals

[mcgee51taguchi99]

I;ve been banging this drum for months. Trade Juan!!! Hes an average big league RF. I think we would be just as well with Duncan in RF and a JROD/Wilson combo in LF. Im not sure what value Juan has in a trade (maybe a #5 starter or mid level prospect), but I think he could bring another bully arm at worst.

Your outfield then is:

LF: JROD/Wilson/Spiezo/Schmacker
CF:Edmonds/So/Wilson/Schumacker
RF:Duncan/Wilson/Schumacker/Spiezio

I bet a LF platoon would equal what Juans numbers are.

The reason he has not been dealt is bolded. At least his contract isn't Gary Matthews-esque, but Walt wouldn't do such a thing.

[stlmark]

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Flores still with the club? And "mid May" for Mulder also sounds optimistic.

Overall, he sums it up pretty well, though. I like the bit about Encarnacion, especially, although where the roster spot for Rodriguez is going to come from is a bit of a mystery.

My thoughts exactly. It would be nice for Mulder to return in mid-May, but there's no chance. If Flores isn't a Cardinal , then what team is he on?

[JL21]

Given the timing of this article, shouldn't it be 'Faith and Begora: St. Louis Cardinals'?

[Jmodene]

Could be worse, "Dayn", she could have named you "Denys".

[jim]

Not a bad article at all, and I'm just nitpicking..... but to refer to Adam Wainwright as a "converted reliever" is just assinine. The kid's been a starter for something like 5 of 6 professional seasons. And a workhorse starter in the minors at that. If anything, he was a converted starter last year.

That's been the case with several writers recently. Drives me nuts.

[skmsw]

Not a bad article at all, and I'm just nitpicking..... but to refer to Adam Wainwright as a "converted reliever" is just assinine. The kid's been a starter for something like 5 of 6 professional seasons. And a workhorse starter in the minors at that. If anything, he was a converted starter last year.

That's been the case with several writers recently. Drives me nuts.

I completely agree that "converted reliever" is a misnomer.

But it seems to me to be a sort of shorthand -- educated or otherwise -- for "promising young pitcher who did well out of the bullpen in 2006 but has yet to prove that he has the stamina, the repertoir, or the ability to handle lefties that it will take to get through a lineup several times and be an effective major league starter."

So personally, I tolerate the misnomer, whether a possibly insightful heuristic or as a misguided but essentially accurate reflection of his status as one more high-upside questionmark in our rotation.

[jim]

Not a bad article at all, and I'm just nitpicking..... but to refer to Adam Wainwright as a "converted reliever" is just assinine. The kid's been a starter for something like 5 of 6 professional seasons. And a workhorse starter in the minors at that. If anything, he was a converted starter last year.

That's been the case with several writers recently. Drives me nuts.

I completely agree that "converted reliever" is a misnomer.

But it seems to me to be a sort of shorthand -- educated or otherwise -- for "promising young pitcher who did well out of the bullpen in 2006 but has yet to prove that he has the stamina, the repertoir, or the ability to handle lefties that it will take to get through a lineup several times and be an effective major league starter."

So personally, I tolerate the misnomer, whether a possibly insightful heuristic or as a misguided but essentially accurate reflection of his status as one more high-upside questionmark in our rotation.

Depends on how it's used. I expect writers to paint an accurate picture. When it's used like "The Cardinals rotation outside of Carpenter consists of an injury plagued guy, an unproven rookie, and two converted relievers" it's not entirely accurate. It's painting the picture slightly more bleak than it is, and that is I believe the intended wished of the authors. That's ok if it's factual, but it's really not. The entire year last year TLR and staff made it very clear that AW was in the plans for the rotation. But the snowball has started, if the Cards pitching pans out like some projections say wait until July when the hyperbole about the converted reliever hits epic proportions.

If AW succeeds as a starter, Earl Weaver will be happy. That's pretty much how Weaver treated alot of his starters, breaking them in in the pen for a year or two.