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

[JohnnyMO]

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.

Other than disrupting what has been working, I don't see an argument against this top 6

JJ
Noot
Walker
Burly
Herrera
Gorman

[Talkin' Baseball]

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.

Other than disrupting what has been working, I don't see an argument against this top 6

JJ
Noot
Walker
Burly
Herrera
Gorman

I wouldn't dislodge 4 of the top 5 lineup spots just because Lars Nootbaar is going to be playing with them for 60 days or so. As you say, it has been working. Lengthen the lineup where it is not working as well.

[renostl]

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.

Gormans rate stats actually show a decrease with RISP

.227/.302/.346/.666 in 2026
.212/.296/.415/.711 for career

Lars

.246/.347/.383/.731 career

neither are great.

[Ronnie Dobbs]

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 he doesn't like him for some reason and will go to ridiculous lengths to try and make a point.

If Noot is "not reliable," then who on this team is? You want to keep Church there with his reliable .281 .353 .397 .750 full minor league line? Keep him in LF and start VSII and his reliable .263 .343 .379 .723 line? You have two thirds of your outfiled reliable this way, I guess. Even prized prospect, and I am being serious with that comment, has a .248 .352 .436 .788. Is that what want?

I seriously have no idea what he is getting at other than "I don't like the guy and he shouldn't play ever."

[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.

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.

Good to see everyone after your post has pointed out how dumb and/or disingenuous your argument is.

[BrockFloodMaris]

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.

Yes, you are correct, Cranny! Feel better? In a perfect world, we’d have a 30/90 hitter in LF. We don’t currently have one of those guys. What we do have is Noot coming off the IL shortly. We’re chatting about the best way to deploy him. Any thoughts on that topic?

[Ozziesfan41]

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.

Yes, you are correct, Cranny! Feel better? In a perfect world, we’d have a 30/90 hitter in LF. We don’t currently have one of those guys. What we do have is Noot coming off the IL shortly. We’re chatting about the best way to deploy him. Any thoughts on that topic?

.258 .346 .728 would be a significant improvement in left especially if church moves to center

[Strummer Jones]

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.

I agree, but I don't think Baez is ready yet.

Here's what I'd do. Probably won't be what the team would do.

-Nootbaar returns--he takes left field. This kicks Church to CF. And Scott to the bench.

-With Church as the primary CF, Victor becomes the fourth outfielder. Also someone who you put in during extra innings as your ghost runner if you don't have someone with wheels at second base. He can also come in during late innings in CF for defense, kicking Church to left. That leaves you three rangy outfielders--two of them who have howitzer arms--and all are above average to great gloves.

-Basically, Victor becomes the ideal bench outfielder. Gifted runner and defender, but doesn't have the bat to start. That--to me--is what makes bench players. Players with a certain good-to-great skillset, but a fatal flaw somewhere. But in a game or two a week? Sure. Why not?

[ilcubuffs]

I thought for sure one of the caveats of the runaway, runway, rebuild, retool, et al was to determine how a player would fit into "future" by displaying their skills. Do not play well, you do not have a position on Cardinals.

Noot comes back from major surgery and is gifted a starting position. No doubt the common Cardinal fan does not have privy to all the details, but gifting a position to a player who has had almost avg performance, extended time out of lineup, etc and is given starting position. Contract talks?? Thought Cardinal organization was done with such dribble??

[Charles King]

When is scheduled for a rehab assignment
I think he needs to play 3 weeks getting ready
Been so long since he played. About 2 more weeks and time is up

[Ozziesfan41]

I thought for sure one of the caveats of the runaway, runway, rebuild, retool, et al was to determine how a player would fit into "future" by displaying their skills. Do not play well, you do not have a position on Cardinals.

Noot comes back from major surgery and is gifted a starting position. No doubt the common Cardinal fan does not have privy to all the details, but gifting a position to a player who has had almost avg performance, extended time out of lineup, etc and is given starting position. Contract talks?? Thought Cardinal organization was done with such dribble??

I think the way the cardinals view it is noot had OPS in 2021 of .739 .788 in 2022 .784 in 2023 and .758 in 2024 in 2025 he played the entire season with two bad feet and had a .686 OPS. His OBP have been .317 .340 .367 .342 .325. I don’t think it’s gifting him anything I think it’s they see it as he was a pretty decent player every year but the year he played with two bad feet and if he can get back to where he was before the bad feet or close to it he would be a significant upgrade in left with church moving to center which would be another significant upgrade. Anyone but church in left and they are gifting it to them because none have earned it but him if they called up Baez and put him in left it would be gifting it to him because he hasn’t even earned a call up yet. I just hope they don’t rush him back from his minor league rehab assignment if they do he will start off slow and the board will melt down. I said with all the time Herrera missed in spring he would start off slow at the beginning of the season and the board will melt down about his slow start and I was right they will do the same with noot for sure

[blackinkbiz]

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.

Thankfully, the Cards are smart enough to give a highly-talented guy who's been playing on bum feet a chance to prove what he's capable of. If I'm not mistaken, Noot said this problem has affected him beyond just this past season. If you've got bad feet, makes sense that you'd compensate however you can, thus leading to other injuries.

Not saying that's what happened, but it's definitely possible.

[AZ_Cardsfan]

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.

I doubt they will add Baez to the 40 man this year. So for 2026 the likely lineup/psitions are:

JJ - 2B - L
Herrera - DH - R
Burleson - 1B - L
Walker - RF - R
Noot - LF - L
Gorman - 3b/DH - L
Winn - SS - R
Pages - C - R
Church - CF - L

VSII needs to return to AAA.

That is kind of a decent lineup. Next year if Rodriguez storms into the majors and Baez makes the leap it gets very interesting.

[Ozziesfan41]

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.

I doubt they will add Baez to the 40 man this year. So for 2026 the likely lineup/psitions are:

JJ - 2B - L
Herrera - DH - R
Burleson - 1B - L
Walker - RF - R
Noot - LF - L
Gorman - 3b/DH - L
Winn - SS - R
Pages - C - R
Church - CF - L

VSII needs to return to AAA.

That is kind of a decent lineup. Next year if Rodriguez storms into the majors and Baez makes the leap it gets very interesting.

Switch Gorman and Winn and I think that’s it. No way oli would go LL then RR that’s not in olis pad

[AZ_Cardsfan]

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.

I doubt they will add Baez to the 40 man this year. So for 2026 the likely lineup/psitions are:

JJ - 2B - L
Herrera - DH - R
Burleson - 1B - L
Walker - RF - R
Noot - LF - L
Gorman - 3b/DH - L
Winn - SS - R
Pages - C - R
Church - CF - L

VSII needs to return to AAA.

That is kind of a decent lineup. Next year if Rodriguez storms into the majors and Baez makes the leap it gets very interesting.

Switch Gorman and Winn and I think that’s it. No way oli would go LL then RR that’s not in olis pad

Yeah I noticed that after I posted. Too tired playing 18 holes from the back tees in 104 degree heat to fix it. Good catch.

[Ozziesfan41]

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.

I doubt they will add Baez to the 40 man this year. So for 2026 the likely lineup/psitions are:

JJ - 2B - L
Herrera - DH - R
Burleson - 1B - L
Walker - RF - R
Noot - LF - L
Gorman - 3b/DH - L
Winn - SS - R
Pages - C - R
Church - CF - L

VSII needs to return to AAA.

That is kind of a decent lineup. Next year if Rodriguez storms into the majors and Baez makes the leap it gets very interesting.

Switch Gorman and Winn and I think that’s it. No way oli would go LL then RR that’s not in olis pad

Yeah I noticed that after I posted. Too tired playing 18 holes from the back tees in 104 degree heat to fix it. Good catch.

Good lord I like golf not enough to play in 104 degree heat! You’re a champ