Derrick Goold, drinking and peddling the Cardinals Mozeliak-Girsh Kool-Aid

I've long considered Goold a Mo Kool-Aid drinker, but he really, really proved it last week in one of his weekly slide shows.

Start with Slide 1. He says team president and former GM John Mozeliak, and his flunky in the GM spot, Mike Girsch, really do have a plan. It's called "lurking."

No, DG, that's "opportunistic bottom feeding." It's a plan, yes, but one for incremental change.

As for what I think the Cards should do? It starts with starting pitching, as I noted earlier this week. You can vote in the polls at right, too.

But what do I know? Per Slide 2, I'm sure I'm part of "the vocal minority on Twitter."

Then, on Slide 3, Goold bitches about said vocal minority who can't accept that Paul DeJong is basically Trevor Story. Except that he's not. As part of that vocal minority, I told Goold that DeJong's 4.1 WAR is nowhere near Story's 6.4. (It was 3.8 vs 5.6 in 2018, so this isn't a one-off.)

Slide 4? Goldy WAS, not IS, unless he has a bounce-back, one of the best players in the NL. Maybe he does bounce back. But a sub-3 WAR doesn't make you one of the best. For that matter, he was sub-6 WAR for the previous three years. That puts you in the second-10, but not the top-10, tier of NL players. I liked the trade, and if he adds even 1 more WAR to be a 4-WAR player each of the next four years, I like the new contract. But, Derrick, c'mon.

Also, he gets weird here. He says Jack Flaherty is one of the best pitchers in the league ... basically based on one year, but later, says not to read too much into half a year of Tommy Edman. I mean, Flaherty was OK in 2018, and the team said he'd be better, but ...

Also weirdly, assuming the Cards let Marcell Ozuna walk, he doesn't mention Edman in the OF mix. He says Dexter Fowler and Harrison Bader appear to be locks (with more improvement desired), with Tyler O'Neill, Jose Martinez and others scuffing for time. Did he not see Edman play at least a competent RF? His offensive splits there were down a fair amount from 3B and a moderate amount from 2B, but he's got a full offseason and spring training to learn MLB OF defense, be more comfortable at it, and thus hit better while out there. (He was still a 95 OPS+ to the league average of 100 at RF.)

The OF reality is that Bader regressed last year, enough that, to me, 2020 is, if not quite make or break, certainly a "test" year. If not, is Dylan Carson ready? He is, per a Twitter respondent, a Goold favorite.

And Jordan Hicks? Yeah, when he had a healthy arm, DG, nobody else did what he did. BUT, isn't that just a minor complication? I guess you have to have major injuries two straight years, like Alex Reyes, before DG will stop pouring the Kool-Aid.

As for a plan beyond lurking? Yes, I know everybody thinks Cole Hamels will go back to Philly. But I think the Cards should make a run at him, and DG doesn't even mention him. (I would also be OK with trading for Corey Kluber; I was a year ago and even suggested trade pieces.)

Anyway, that gives you a sampling.