Bull wrote:raisincharlie wrote:As good as Jack Flaherty is, Dakota Hudson has been just nearly as effective.
Hudson has a 0.9 fWAR. But is 15-6 for a reason. Generates the weakest contact in baseball. Fangraphs needs to figure out how to quantify that in their WAR calc.
Both young cornerstones of the rotation. In less than two years the team’s regulars will include Flaherty, Carlson, Hudson, Hicks, Gorman, Knizner, Fernandez, and possibly Reyes, Wong, Edman, and Bader too. Great young core to work with. High output from Goldy and Carpenter will be bonuses.
Counting on young pitchers to not have their arms fall off is not a recipe for long term success. Cubs fans who remember the dusty baker days may be a little too sensitive to this, but it’s still true.
Meh. Hudson doesn't overpower and Flaherty has nothing in his delivery or injury history that says he will drop off the map. He's only getting better. Hicks is getting his Tommy John out of the way now so he will be good. Reyes already got his out of the way, so anything from him is a bonus.
No offense, but the Cardinals don't operate like the early 2000s Cubs on any level so I think we'll be fine in how we forecast for the future. We've been a contact-pitching team since DeWitt bought the team. We rely on defense and contact. And it works long term, demonstrably.
Plus...
FanGraphs wrote:UofIx3: Should the Cardinals worry about turning into the San Francisco Giants? St. Louis’ farm system seems to be slowing down and they’ve sure are paying for a lot of decline years in their recent long-term contracts to older players.
Craig Edwards: Is the farm system slowing down? I know it isn’t as highly ranked as it once was but it has two position players among the top 50 in the game for the first time in a decade. Flaherty should be a fixture in the rotation, in the last few years, they’ve gotten an All-Star in DeJong plus production out of Bader and potentially O’Neill. They already have their catcher of the future in Knizner to the point they traded Kelly away. The extensions have locked up a few positions in the near term, but the only long term deal is Goldschmidt’s. They have the resources, good young players now and a few in the system to build around without much committed in salary down the line as the money from Molina, Fowler, Carpenter, and a parade of relievers come off the books.