Free Form Hot Stove Wednesday

11/13/2024 09:00 AM

Throwing some statistics out there, please feel free to discuss, and other free form musings from Howl HQ

• Giancarlo Stanton had 7 home runs this postseason, 5 was the next closest. Freddie Freeman had 4 (and so did 4 other players).
• Fernando Tatis Jr had a .500 OBP in 7 games in the playoffs; Juan Soto had a .469 OBP in 14 postseason games.
• Garrett Cole and Luke Weaver were both really good in the postseason by rate stats (except xFIP for Cole)
• Ohtani had over 400 total bases at 411, with Judge second at 392!
• Big News:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5906665/2024/11/07/cardinals-tv-diamond-sports-streaming-rights

There is a lot to read and digest there, so I'll just say that there are some things still up in the air with this but it seems to be heading in the right direction. They realize many fans were not watching in recent years for various reasons, and are introducing a direct option, bypassing the need to buy an entire tv service to watch baseball and with no local blackouts. Let's hope that is the true outcome and Diamond sports is able to deliver. Because local and/or internal options will not be nearly as ready to go or available.

Food for thought: let's throw some wood on the fire: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/11/the-cardinals-trio-of-bullpen-trade-candidates.html

What do you guys think? Should the Cardinals trade the trio? Or is that the one thing making Cardinals baseball watchable anymore?

I don't have as much for you this week, so I thought I'd keep this an open ended hot stove discussion this week. And I'll take the opportunity to list the articles I have written so far in case anyone missed any of them.

https://www.vivaelbirdos.com/st-louis-cardinals-sabermetrics-analysis/2024/10/9/24260004/the-2024-season-analysis-failure-mediocrity-or-overperformance-you-decide 2024 Season Review

https://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2024/10/16/24269617/after-season-afterthoughts-a-post-regular-seasonal-journal-part-1 a focus on defensive performances and talking about MLB historical postseason performances

https://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2024/10/23/24275522/war-vs-war-2024 comparing and contrasting the two main WAR systems fWAR and bWAR, and seeing what things would look like averaging them together

https://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2024/10/30/24281487/the-catching-cerberus-of-2024 comparing and contrasting the Cardinals 3 catchers, with a surprising revelation about catching defense

https://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2024/11/6/24286611/after-season-afterthoughts-a-post-regular-seasonal-journal-fall-part-2 Revealing how a rotation by committee produced alot of innings spread out over 9 starting pitchers.

***

Also, here's a link to some of VEB's coverage of Willson Contreras moving over to first base: https://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2024/11/7/24290203/willson-contreras-is-being-moved-to-1b

Album Hall of Fame

Making it quick this week, and going with one of my all time favorite albums of any band or genre: My Bloody Valentine's 'Loveless'. This is an album (if you haven't heard it yet) like no other, you'll either love it or be left scratching your head or even laughing at it. You either fall into its strange, ethereal world of ecstatic wonder... or you just hear vacuum cleaners and whirling sounds. Or maybe it's underlying basic melodies won't be your thing.

But for many of us its wall of sound is totally mindblowing, deep, and memorable. 'Loveless' combines some of the band's previous driving punk noise with totally new ideas and dimensions in sound. The album achieves this through walls of amps with different effects and fuzzes, distortions, and overdrives on each song. Band leader Kevin Shields innovative guitar walls of sound define the band, but the supporting cast is the best you could find for this project. Shields used multiple amps at once and is famous for using too many guitar pedals... and for nearly bankrupting a record label after hopping from studio to studio for the perfect sound. Shields had a vision and he did his best with what was on hand to reach it, almost no matter the cost.

So there you have it, another inductee into my Perfect Album hall of fame. Albums that are all killer no filler. Next week I'll come up with a list.

Thanks for reading! Take it easy and let me know of any ideas on what to write about next week. Let's keep the hot stove going.