Cardinals at the Break

As promised here is my take on the Cardinals at the MLB All-Star Break:

My take on the Cardinals changes every 2 weeks; they win 5 or 6 games in a row then go on a terrible losing streak and lose 7 or 8 in a row. They are an extremely tough team to gauge and I have flipped flopped on what I think they should do in the second half after a weird first half of the season. Part of me wants to say blow the team up except for a few core guys and go into a rebuild mode, while the other part of me says we are 41-44 and only 5.5 games back of the NL Central lead. The NL Central has been extremely bad this year, but I still believe the Cubs are the team to beat even with how bad they have played lately. They have dealt with a lot of injuries and a lot of guys not playing the way they should, which usually evens out in the course of 162 games.

I really like what the Cardinals have done lately however, they called up a few of the players from Memphis who have been dominating in AAA. Now I am not sure if these call-ups had to do with guys like Dexter Fowler, Kolten Wong, and Kevin Siegrist getting hurt and going to the disabled list. This opens up a roster spot for Luke Voit, Alex Mejia, John Brebbia, and Tommy Pham but all of these players have had solid contributions for the big league club. The Cardinals finally got rid of Jhonny Peralta and sent Aledmys Diaz down to the minors after his struggles which opened the door for some of this younger talent to emerge. The real question is what happens when Wong, Fowler, and Siegrist all get healthy? Or when Diaz starts hitting again in the minors? The front office is going to have some extremely tough decisions to make regarding who gets sent back down until rosters expand in September.

I am not a fan of the Cardinals coaching staff and believe this is some of the reason for the up and down season we are having. Our hitters and pitchers have struggled with a few exceptions but when they get sent down they start excelling again. We bring them back up they do well for a few weeks then they fall right back in the same problems they had before. For me this falls on the coaching staff not being properly prepared and willing to work with some of the younger talent the Cardinals have. In my opinion the Cards need to shop some of their guys around and see what they can get from other teams looking to bolster their roster. We have always been a team of aging, proven players that does not like to give roster spots to some of our younger talent. In  my opinion, the Cardinals have a decent farm system but nothing that jumps off the screen. Why not see what guys like Jedd Gyorko, Lance Lynn, or even Matt Carpenter are worth? If you can get a haul of some decent prospects for these guys it would definitely intrigue me. However I am sure the Cardinals will stand pat at the deadline and try to make the playoffs with the team they have and see what happens. Once you get in the playoffs anything is possible.

Royals at the Break from James Schneider

We have our first outside contribution this week on "For Your Entertainment" it comes from a good friend of mine and an expert on anything Kansas City related. The one and only James Schneider joins us to give us his take on the Kansas City Royals at the MLB All-Star break. He will break down what he has seen from the Royals in the first half of the season and where he sees them going in the second half; tomorrow you will all see my take on the Cardinals at the break in a separate post. So without further ado James Schneider's take on the Royals:

It’s the midway point of the season and as a Royals fan it has been a crazy ride.  After opening the season 7-7, the Royals promptly went on a 9-game losing streak. The team seemed disinterested, with our biggest stars focused on free agency and possible big paydays. This set off all the alarms in Kansas City, fans calling for trades, questions about management and direction, and most importantly what the hell was Rex Hudler going to spin it to the fans. As we inch closer to the All-Star break, the Royals find themselves back in the thick of things for the AL Central Division.

 I was one of the many calling for trades and a re-stocking of a farm system devoid of all-star material. There were rumblings of a trade with the Nationals and their coveted prospect Victor Robles. The cost, Lorenzo Cain and Kelvin Herrera. This seemed like a fantastic opportunity to pick up one of baseball’s top prospects. As, a fan it would and will be hard to see players go, especially ones that have been part of an extraordinary turnaround for a franchise that had no direction. I felt they needed to pull the trigger and if we are going to be losers again, lets field a young team and watch them learn how to win. I mean we’ve done it before, right? These rumblings turned out to be speculative at best.

Then, to make matters worse, Danny Duffy went down for six weeks and we also lost Nate Karns. Duffy had picked up where he left off last year and Karns was pitching lights out. When they went down and we were forced to watch Chris Young take the mound, I thought surely this is when the wheeling and dealing would start. Through all of this, Yost and Moore preached patience and caution, no moves would be made without giving the squad a chance. The lineup was shuffled placing Escobar at the top of the order, in hopes of grabbing some of that 2014-2015 magic that he seemed to possess. For a brief time, it appeared to be a spark. However, the Royals could not get closer than 5 games below .500.  

Then, the switch was flipped and the team took off. A road trip out west proved to be just what they needed. They rattled off 6 in a row and came back home 33-35. What awaited them was the AL East leading Red Sox, and the Royals took 2 of 3. Game three ended with a grand slam by Salvador Perez, and for someone who was there to see it, that felt like the moment you could believe in this team again.

Since then, the Royals have gone 6-4 and sit at 41-40, 3 games back of the division leading Indians. There is now talk amongst fans of going after bigger trades to make a real push and give this core one last chance to get a title together. The odds of retaining any of the big four, Hosmer, Cain, Moustakas or Escobar are slim. Escobar is the most likely to be retained and has the least amount of trade value of the four. If anything, the Royals will likely make small moves to bolster the bullpen. They lack the prospects, it appears, to make a big splash like they did in 2015 for Cueto and Zobrist. But, Dayton Moore has an above average track record when it comes to deals and seems to have an eye for diamonds in the rough. This team is hard to read but they have a winning pedigree and to this point, seem to have found their stride.