If I can keep it up all month, 31 days of positive posts! There's going to be enough negativity going around with the Cardinals not in the post-season.
Day 13
While Tommy Pham is no longer in the Cardinals' system, I can think of some positives to attribute to him.
1) I think the handling of Pham and Pham's outspoken thoughts on the Cardinals locker room was the beginning of the end of the Matheny era, which I think is a positive.
2) Apparently the Cardinals weren't really going to give Tommy Pham CF without Dexter Fowler's blessing. So I think it was a positive that Tommy Pham made nice with Dexter Fowler and they became buds because that helped the outfield defense to start 2018.
3) While Pham didn't hit like 2017, he was still a league average hitter by wRC+ while he was with the Cardinals in 2018 and was on pace for over 2 fWAR here before going to Tampa and being worth more than 2 fWAR in his 40 games there alone!
4) He brought in 3 prospects in the trade - and 2 of them look as though they might be quite good. While Roel Ramirez is not anything to write home about yet, Genesis Cabrera is slotted in at #11 on Kyle Reis' Dirty Thirty Five prospects in the Cardinals' system and Justin Williams is sitting at #18. The Cardinals got two top 20 guys for their system plus another guy for Pham. Cabrera is a LHP who is said to basically have a floor of a fantastic LOOGY and an upside of a top end starter (1-3) if he can get his control harnessed. Williams is a toolsy OF with upside, but will need good development. Williams seems to be something the Cardinals don't have a lot of in the outfield in that he seems to be more "bat first" than "defense first." We'll see if the Cardinals can provide that or if he becomes more trade depth at the position to upgrade elsewhere. (For what it's worth, MLB Pipeline puts Williams at #8 in the system and Cabrera at #13.
Positive October Day 13, in the books!
In case you missed them: