Viva El Birdos Jan 20, 2015
A visual look at how every Cardinals player was acquired
The Cardinals are known for their solid drafts and development process that follows. This post looks at every player on the Cardinals and tracks back their acquisition to its origin. Every player on the Cardinals has an acquisition history. Some, like Yadier Molina, drafted in 2000, are very simple. Others, like outfielders Randal Grichuk and Peter Bourjos, have longer, more complicated chains leading them to the Cardinals. I have attempted to categorize the players with the most likely to chances to make the Opening Day roster in 2015. That added up to 28 players. Ty Kelly and Stephen...
Viva El Birdos Jan 15, 2015
The Other 15 for 2015
The Other 15 is a multipart series analyzing the last 15 spots on the 40 man roster -- those not expected to be among the 25 that head north for opening day. Given Yadier Molina's propensity to catch "all of the innings" for the Cardinals over much of the last decade, the rest of the catchers on the 40 man roster have generally been mostly an after thought. Sure, there's usually the veteran, defense-first catcher that ends up being the backup on the MLB roster, your Jason Larue's and Craig Paquette's, but those are also the players that the Cardinals generally go running for in the event...
Viva El Birdos Jan 2, 2015
What was up with the hitting of Yadier Molina in 2014?
Statistics show that Molina had a down year at the plate in 2014. Sure, he missed a significant portion of the season with a thumb injury, but even prior to getting hurt, his power bat was down compared to the last three seasons. It is clear that St. Louis Cardinals six-time All-Star catcher Yadier Molina has come a very long way at the plate since the years when Tony La Russa claimed Molina would have still been his starter even if he had a .000 batting average. However, Molina took a significant step back in 2014—posting his lowest ISO (.104) and wRC+ (102) since 2010. Of course, he...
