I agree that the Cardinals will be worse next year. They’re week at the corner OFs (Encarcion, Taguchi), catcher, and 2B. Eckstein is a nice player who had a career year at age 30, but is bound to regress some. Edmonds is getting long in the tooth (lowest ba/obp/slg since ’99 last year). Rolen being healthy (a big “if”) will obviously help, but there are too many holes in that lineup.
Of course, that rotation even without Morris is still very good. I still think they’re the favorites for the division, especially if Clemens retires.
Ortiz was lucky after the All Star break, here are his OPS against by month:
Apr – .753
May – 1.018
June – 1.001
July – .774
Aug – .830
Sept – .822
Sure he pitched better than May or June, but he was still bad.
Williams splits don’t look much better:
Mar – .771
May – .629
June – .977
July – .841
Aug – .714
Sept – 1.483 (one start)
but his OPSA was still almost 100 points lower than Ortiz. I’m not saying that he’s the answer to the rotation, but he’s not going to make it any worse.
I think Casey’s 2005 production can be replaced by Kearns and Pena playing everyday. And if the money saved from trading Casey and not offering Ortiz arbitration goes toward locking up Dunn, I’m fine with that.
I’d say that the Reds have neither improved nor gotten worse. In classic DanO style, the wheels are spinning place.
I agree that the Cardinals will be worse next year. They’re week at the corner OFs (Encarcion, Taguchi), catcher, and 2B. Eckstein is a nice player who had a career year at age 30, but is bound to regress some. Edmonds is getting long in the tooth (lowest ba/obp/slg since ’99 last year). Rolen being healthy (a big “if”) will obviously help, but there are too many holes in that lineup.
Of course, that rotation even without Morris is still very good. I still think they’re the favorites for the division, especially if Clemens retires.
Ortiz was lucky after the All Star break, here are his OPS against by month:
Apr – .753
May – 1.018
June – 1.001
July – .774
Aug – .830
Sept – .822
Sure he pitched better than May or June, but he was still bad.
Williams splits don’t look much better:
Mar – .771
May – .629
June – .977
July – .841
Aug – .714
Sept – 1.483 (one start)
but his OPSA was still almost 100 points lower than Ortiz. I’m not saying that he’s the answer to the rotation, but he’s not going to make it any worse.
I think Casey’s 2005 production can be replaced by Kearns and Pena playing everyday. And if the money saved from trading Casey and not offering Ortiz arbitration goes toward locking up Dunn, I’m fine with that.
I’d say that the Reds have neither improved nor gotten worse. In classic DanO style, the wheels are spinning place.