nate82

The reason the Cardinals have better odds now is because there are more games to be played. Your argument makes no sense at all. Why are you comparing something near the end of the season compared to about the middle of the season? You see the issue with your comparison? Your comparison is just nonsensical.

They were only 8.5 games out on September 1st 2011. Which is bigger 11.5 games or 8.5 games back?

I think maybe putting one as an opener and the other as the next 3 innings is probably best.

Actually it was easier for the Cardinals in 2011 the percentages maybe different but the number of teams the Cardinals had to run down for the wild card spot was 1. Right now even with that 3rd wild card spot the Cardinals are 11.5 games behind. On June 30th in 2011 the Cardinals were only 3 games back of the Braves for the Wild Card and were actually tied with the Brewers for the NL Central lead at 44-38. Which is an easier one to come back from 11.5 games behind or 3 games behind?

Completely different scenarios. In 2011 they only had to catch the Braves and weren't 14 games under .500.

Can't be throwing nearly 40 pitches in an inning. This was not the day for Peralta to have a blow up inning.

The enigma that is Freddy Peralta continues......

I think Peralta is going to have to eat this inning with the bullpen being used so much lately. But this is probably his last inning.

Only against the Pirates.

Carter to the Bulls on a 3-year $20m deal. Ingles to the Magic on a 2-year $22m deal. Bucks are rumored to be in on Christian Wood.

Teams don't really care about the baggage as much as fans do. The walks are concerning but this is still rather light return for a reliever.

Middleton has resigned with the Bucks on a 3-year $102m deal: https://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/nba/bucks/2023/06/30/khris-middleton-resign-milwaukee-bucks-3-years-102-million/70369213007/

If he is still available at 33 I would take him then but not at 18. He is just not going to stick at 3B kind of like Braun didn't stick there. Morales does remind me of Braun at least power wise. I like Taylor better at 3B as he will stay at 3B and Taylor has a better hit tool while Morales has a better power tool. Where Taylor wins out over Morales is that Taylor will be able to play 3B in MLB while Morales looks to be a corner OF or a DH.

Still seems a bit light for a reliever and this doesn't bode well for the Padres if they decide to trade Hader as the market looks to be really weak for relievers on the return side.

This is a light return for the Royals. They didn't get all that much for Chapman in this deal so they must be in love with one of the prospects as neither are currently in MLB.com's top 30 prospects for the Rangers.

This is a very light return for the Royals and I think this sets up the reliever market for this deadline which is rather low than in past years. The Royals gave up about $7m in value and only received back about $3m in value. This is a huge gamble on Cabrera and Ragans staying healthy (he has had two TJ surgeries already). I don't think the Padres will get much more for Hader who has a higher price tag than Chapman did. This does sound good for the Brewers if they do decide to get a bullpen piece during the deadline.

Rangers have traded for Aroldis Chapman

Jordan Turner has been suspended due to a OWI. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/37940392/wisconsin-lb-jordan-turner-suspended-violating-discipline-policy

Bucks Summer league roster has been announced and there are some familiar names on the roster. https://www.nba.com/bucks/news/milwaukee-bucks-announce-roster-for-nba-2k24-summer-league-2023

If the decision is between Taylor and Schanuel it is an easy decision and that is Taylor. Taylor plays at a premium defensive position and is a really good offensive player. He made an adjustment this season to try and hit more home runs it didn't go so well earlier in the season for him but as the season went on he made adjustments. The same type of adjustments he would have to make in the minors. Teams are going to see that and put a higher value on him over Schanuel. I like Schanuel but Taylor is the better prospect in the draft. There are questions of Schanuel's power and he may have to make the same adjustments that Taylor has made to be more of a power threat. Taylor has already proven he can make those changes Schanuel has not.

The BTV site hasn't updated their values in awhile I believe. Though a new update should be coming soon with the deadline approaching. I expect Black should move up to a valuation of closer to what Misiorowski is worth. I would also expect drops in valuation for Burnes, Peralta and Adames.

Majority of recycling just goes to the same place your trash goes to. Paper though does get recycled at a higher rate than other things.

Student loans are not going to be as big of an issue as some think it will be. The ones that were going to default on their loans were going to default on their loans anyways. Resuming the payments doesn't change that. The financial institutions that service these loans will be hit hard but after a quarter everything will go back to normal. Now if you say the combination of inflation still being high, unemployment/participation rate and student loan repayment coming back then yes all of those things combined are a cause for concern. Individually other than inflation, these are just blips in the economy. Inflation is still the number one concern with everything else well below.

The Cardinals are currently 11.5 games back for a wild card spot and 9.5 games back for the NL Central. The Cardinals would need to go 21-6 from here on out to just get above .500 by the end of July. Is that possible? Sure but it is not likely to happen that would be a 1-100 chance of that happening. Basically the Giants, Phillies, Brewers and Reds would have to play close to a 72 win pace all while the Cardinals play at a 120 win pace. The Cardinals have dug a hole and they are not getting out of it. They have only one month of winning baseball and that was in May at 15-13 and currently sit at 8-15 for the month of June. If they lose tomorrow against the Yankees that puts them at 8-16 and even a win puts them at 9-15. While the Brewers are 14-12 so far with a game against the Pirates. The worst the Brewers have done so far is in the month of May at 11-16. The Brewers would have to play absolutely horrible in the month of July for the Cardinals to even have a chance at coming back and being competitive in the division. While the Brewers schedule in July looks to be rather brutal they would have to go 8-18 in their next 26 games and the Reds would have to go 7-20 which would be near impossible as the Brewers and Reds play each other 9 times. Lets say it goes 5-4 that means 5 or 4 wins would be the majority of their victories for their last set of games. The math just doesn't work for the Cardinals to become a threat in the NL Central and it makes even less sense for a wild card spot. The one team that the Cardinals could jump in the NL Central would be the Cubs as they play them 8 times. The only easy part of the Cardinals schedule is against the Cubs (8), Nationals (3) and the White Sox (3). The Cardinals would need to sweep the 6 games against the Nationals and White Sox while losing no more than 2 against the Cubs. So the Cardinals would have to go 12-2 against the Cubs, White Sox and Nationals. Then picking up 9 wins against the Yankees (3), Marlins (6) and dbacks (3). Which means they have to sweep at least one of those series and wouldn't and could only lose 3 games total to go 9-3 in those games. Again this is just not probable and no the Cardinals are not going to be trading players from their farm system for a team that is currently 14 games under .500.

Still waiting on that Cardinals run they were supposed to go on………. Wainwright looks like he should have retired and probably should retire by the all star break. The Cardinals like I have said previously are the 2013 Brewers all offense and no pitching.