Noot's return could alleviate pressure from this Cardinal bat ..and no it's not VS II

[3dender]

People who think Noot is now bad, or not better than Church, are too heavily weighting last season when he was playing basically as a cripple.

Because I recognize that literally not being able to walk up stairs could affect how well somebody swings a bat, I'm expecting Nootbaar to be much closer to his 2022-24 OPS of .777 than to 2025's OPS of .686.

[rockondlouie]

It's definitely VSII who either moves to late inning defensive replacement/pinch runner or is shipped to Memphis (less likely since that HAS TO BE JAGesse).

While Noot should slid into that #5 slot, dropping Norman behind M. Winn into the #7 hole it doesn't make him a better hitter or cut down on his KO's.

The improvement in the offense comes from Noot essentially replacing VSII (even though it's N. Church taking over CF).

Can't wait!

What small amount of offense we get from him wontvoff set the chemistry kill.

There are rare instances in anything where the environment is stellar to perfect. It’s that way now, and I say, it’s a large part of their success. The STl cardinals are so tight you couldn’t push a fart thru.tifht as a goat horn. Tight.

On the other hand, I feel the team would embrace Torrres with no disruption of chemistry.

Why is that.

You keep forgetting BDog that Noot is an EXTREMELY well liked teammate, a lot longer than VSII has been.

There will be NO chemistry upset when he takes over LF and Church slides VSII to the bench.

Players want to win and they know Noot is the superior player.

Torres, on the other hand, is an outsider.

Not sure why you think Noot (EXTEMELY liked teammate for many years) is going to disrupt chemistry (and he's NOT) while a kid we know nothing about won't.

Great response. I don’t know either. I think my issue is absence from team, spring training, clubhouse, etc. for so long.

I'd go as far as to say his mates' will welcome Noot back w/open arms!

And VSII (likely) will still be here w/JAGesse sent down so no real disruption.

Plus it's won't be a "small" amount of offense Noot brings -vs- VSII considering he's a career .747 OPS w/some power -vs- Vic's weak .563 OPS and no power.

[Jatalk]

So reading through the thread I have concluded:

Noot no good
Scott no good
Minor league players not ready

Can we just play with two outfielders?

[11WSChamps]

Noot should hit fifth to build up his stats prior to the trade deadline! He should see better pitches with more runners onbase in the five spot.

Excellent post.

[82birds]

I was thinking about this the other day and I would be fine with it. Nootbaar, aside from last year, has always had above average offense.

He can’t be relied upon, Ronnie. And he doesn’t have corner outfield power.

Baez-Church-Walker is probably the future.

While it's true that trio would be a dream future outfield, Baez hasn't yet adjusted to AAA. He usually takes some time to adjust at each level, so nothing too concerning yet. I'm still a believer.

But for the 2026 team, Noot absolutely represents an upgrade. He's a good defensive outfielder who had a poor second half in 2025 at the plate. Now with injuries behind him, hopefully he's ready to return to being a 115 wRC+ guy. Victor Scott is currently the only negative WAR every day player. Replacing his putrid bat (13 wRC+) with an above average bat like Noot's will be a huge boost to the lineup and allow them to slide Gorman into the 7th spot. You are right that Noot doesn't have big corner OF power, but he does a lot of things well and improves the team when he's healthy.

it would be a very good future outfield.
dream outfield?
not sure about that

[pitchingandefense]

I was thinking about this the other day and I would be fine with it. Nootbaar, aside from last year, has always had above average offense.

He can’t be relied upon, Ronnie. And he doesn’t have corner outfield power.

Baez-Church-Walker is probably the future.

While it's true that trio would be a dream future outfield, Baez hasn't yet adjusted to AAA. He usually takes some time to adjust at each level, so nothing too concerning yet. I'm still a believer.

But for the 2026 team, Noot absolutely represents an upgrade. He's a good defensive outfielder who had a poor second half in 2025 at the plate. Now with injuries behind him, hopefully he's ready to return to being a 115 wRC+ guy. Victor Scott is currently the only negative WAR every day player. Replacing his putrid bat (13 wRC+) with an above average bat like Noot's will be a huge boost to the lineup and allow them to slide Gorman into the 7th spot. You are right that Noot doesn't have big corner OF power, but he does a lot of things well and improves the team when he's healthy.

it would be a very good future outfield.
dream outfield?
not sure about that

That's true, it might not quite be three all-stars in the outfield, a real dream. But I think it would kind of be a dream scenario if they had three homegrown players fill their outfield productively for a while.

Walker keeps doing what he's doing in 2026.
Church becomes a .320/.420 gold glove CF.
Baez an annual 20-20 guy playing excellent defense in LF.

Again, you're right, that's not a real dream outfield, but it would be really cool if it played out that way.

[riff raff]

Church 5th
Noot 7th
Gorman 9th

[CorneliusWolfe]

Church 5th
Noot 7th
Gorman 9th

That is where his pitcher-like batting average used to belong.

Noot will only shake up the order for a week or two though. That guy’s only real job is to rehab while on the IL.

[riff raff]

Church 5th
Noot 7th
Gorman 9th

That is where his pitcher-like batting average used to belong.

Noot will only shake up the order for a week or two though. That guy’s only real job is to rehab while on the IL.

Probably so. I was for trading Gorman this spring but he's going to get his run. I just wish it wasn't in a prime RBI spot.
Church is much better suited for the 5 hole.

[renostl]

I was thinking about this the other day and I would be fine with it. Nootbaar, aside from last year, has always had above average offense.

He can’t be relied upon, Ronnie. And he doesn’t have corner outfield power.

Baez-Church-Walker is probably the future.

His games played per season is lacking. The Cardinals in general have been
bad at this. His 120 games average per over season over the 3 prior years isn't good. But it's only
2 games below what Donovan was doing at 122 games. Arenado 134 games Contreras 114 games.

I think there's a difference if he is a part of a rotation in the outfield.
A rotation involving Walker, Church, Baez, Scott, and Nootbaar sounds decent
and there is the possiblty of him being moved.

There is a poster on CT who often brings up batting numbers by batting spot in the
lineup. It may be significant in regard to Nootbaar as he seems more passive
at the top and hunts OBP with BB.

Lars as a #5
.256/.353/.488/.842
Lars at #7
.276/.394/.494/.888

Cards using 7 players in the 5 spot
.246/.306/.375/.681

Everyday starter being counted on, I'll agree with you.
In a rotation as being a piece, he may excel.

[TXCardsFanX]

Nootbar may not be a massive upgrade, but he's never been as bad as Gorman or VSII are right now. Gorman has a 0.648 OPS and VSII has a 0.489.
Worst Noot has ever been 40 points higher than Gorman.
Easy to be an improvement over those 2 guys right now.

[Cranny]

People who think Noot is now bad, or not better than Church, are too heavily weighting last season when he was playing basically as a cripple.

Because I recognize that literally not being able to walk up stairs could affect how well somebody swings a bat, I'm expecting Nootbaar to be much closer to his 2022-24 OPS of .777 than to 2025's OPS of .686.

Nootbaar’s full minor league line -

.258/.346/.381/.728

That’s not a line for a corner outfielder on a better than average major league team.

[NYCardsFan]

People who think Noot is now bad, or not better than Church, are too heavily weighting last season when he was playing basically as a cripple.

Because I recognize that literally not being able to walk up stairs could affect how well somebody swings a bat, I'm expecting Nootbaar to be much closer to his 2022-24 OPS of .777 than to 2025's OPS of .686.

Nootbaar’s full minor league line -

.258/.346/.381/.728

That’s not a line for a corner outfielder on a better than average major league team.

Why would you exclusively quote the minor league line of a player who has been an MLB regular for 4+ seasons and produced 9.4/8.9 bWAR/fWAR in 527 games? That’s like evaluating an experienced adult job applicant based on his grade school report cards.

P.s. At AAA, one step from the majors, he had a .878 OPS in 249 PAs. So your entire argument rests on reaching back to A/AA numbers from 7+ years ago, to the exclusion of everything else.

[renostl]

People who think Noot is now bad, or not better than Church, are too heavily weighting last season when he was playing basically as a cripple.

Because I recognize that literally not being able to walk up stairs could affect how well somebody swings a bat, I'm expecting Nootbaar to be much closer to his 2022-24 OPS of .777 than to 2025's OPS of .686.

Nootbaar’s full minor league line -

.258/.346/.381/.728

That’s not a line for a corner outfielder on a better than average major league team.

Why his minor league stats?

His MLB is
.242/.341/.406/.747 brought down by his 2025. It happened so it's included.


Definitely not the #1 corner nor do I think anyone is calling him that.
Do a search of each teams second corner and you might be surprised.

A .747 puts him #26 in all qualified outfielders of 2026. Now the key is qualified and
Nootbaar himself is far from qualified due to his heels.

[renostl]

People who think Noot is now bad, or not better than Church, are too heavily weighting last season when he was playing basically as a cripple.

Because I recognize that literally not being able to walk up stairs could affect how well somebody swings a bat, I'm expecting Nootbaar to be much closer to his 2022-24 OPS of .777 than to 2025's OPS of .686.

Nootbaar’s full minor league line -

.258/.346/.381/.728

That’s not a line for a corner outfielder on a better than average major league team.

Why would you exclusively quote the minor league line of a player who has been an MLB regular for 4+ seasons and produced 9.4/8.9 bWAR/fWAR in 527 games? That’s like evaluating an experienced adult job applicant based on his grade school report cards.

P.s. At AAA, one step from the majors, he had a .878 OPS in 249 PAs. So your entire argument rests on reaching back to A/AA numbers from 7+ years ago, to the exclusion of everything else.

Because there is an agenda and that's his worst line.

The best position is Lars is too often on the IL.

[icon]

Noot has never been a good RBI man. Gorman so far has done that job, so they should leave him alone in the 5 hole. And he has far more power than Noot. Noot should be in the 7 hole.