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I gotta say…I’m really excited about this upcoming season. Sure, Cards are likely to lose 80-90 games…I get that.
But it’s a new era. Mo is out and we’re going to Bloom. Now is the time to see what we got and it’s going to be fun to watch.
Will JJ be all that and a bag of chips?
Can Ivan catch? Can he stay healthy? Will he continue to rake?Do Walker & Gorman finally get over the hump?
Will Scott get on base and drive opposing pitchers crazy?
Will McGreevy & Libby take that next step?
It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be painful. Exciting. Infuriating. Exhilarating. Bring it on!!!
I agree. I dont have high expectation of team success but i think there are lots of interesting parts to sort out and see how they come together for the future. Small steps
I’m excited to watch baseball again. The Cards may not be as exciting, but they will still be the majority of games I watch. I look forward to seeing Herrera, Winn, Wetherholt, and Liberatore to start the year. Hoping to see Mathews by July and see if he can come up and pitch well in the bigs after hopefully putting things together in AAA.
Baseball’s my favorite game and the Cardinals have always been my favorite team so I’m always excited to see the kids take to the field of play for a new season. And it’s always good to know that even if my favorite team tanks and packs it in early, there’s 29 other teams that comprise the Big Leagues so there’s never a shortage of exciting Big League action. I’ve been following the Redbirds for a minute or two so the last few seasons are certainly not my introduction to lean times for my favorite team. Once the season begins I can always find a good baseball game somewhere. Even if it’s an American Legion game played on a diamond somewhere in StL. Co…”Let’s play ball, boys!”
I wouldn’t say that I’m excited as I think the team will lose more games than anyone here is guessing. Yet, it will be interesting to see the if the farm system can produce players that we can clearly see are part of the next core. I’m talking about whether guys like Doyle, Baez, Wetherholt, Mathews, maybe even Hence or Lin or someone overlooked can advance to AAA or the big leagues and start to make an impact. The fact is that the Cards will need at least one ace pitcher and a couple of star hitters to come through the system in the next three years or there won’t be any more pennants or World Series flags flying over Busch anytime soon. Management has signaled that they want to go the route of Milwaukee and Cleveland… hopefully their results turn out better than those two franchises’ combined 0 titles since 1948.
The way the Cardinals view it is that both the Brewers and Guardians won their divisions last year on microscopic payrolls so what is not to like? Their view, like some others, is that the playoffs are random anyway. If you can win your division with a payroll in the bottom 20% that has to be music to BDW’s ears.
I also am excited for baseball to start again! Even with the Cards not contending this year, or probably next as well. I am looking forward to seeing some of the new faces advancing their careers and improving on what happened last year, or the real new guys showing what they can do! I am especially looking forward to seeing some pitchers that have been hurt actually pitch in meaningful games soon! (I’m looking at you, Alec Willis!) Development seems to be the catch word around the team, so that is what I will be watching for!
My Spring Training excitement definitely exceeds that of the past couple of years, where both the present and future looked fairly bleak. With our 2026 squad, the present holds very little promise of winning baseball, but the future shines bright.
It’s a given that some of these youngsters are going to flop, but there should also be pleasant surprises. Get enough of the later and playoff baseball will return sooner than expected. Losing is seldom amusing, but with our 2026 Cardinals, it should be a fun season…..win, lose or draw.
I’m looking forward to our suite being empty at Busch- more food and booze for us! By this time of the year we usually have people begging for opening day tix and asking when available dates are as well…this year nothing.
I’m also looking for 5 dollar all in bleacher seats from row- and actually having a good chance to shag a ball! Then obviously give it to a kid – not heartless 😂
That being said I’m wheels up at 5:35 at lambert to head down to Jupiter tonight.
Feels wonderful to have baseball back.
More focusing on Player development this year at Major and Minor league level, as I expect them to win around 70 games.
I also think this is a big year for Marmol …he needs to do a better job with the younger players on the roster….I don’t think that has been one of his better areas for several years.
I’ll be glad to see all the new faces. I feel a fresh was needed, and I like moving the veterans, but am very worried there won’t be a 2027 season. They will need a couple major surprises in the outfield, and/or lineup to be a .500 team,
The on-field product could get ugly if one focuses solely on Ws/Ls. Overall I’m encouraged by the investments in the player development infrastructure. If the Cards can build a MIL/TB/CLE type pipeline and buttress it with a little more FA spending than they do it could be their path back to consistent contention.
And as a side note the only obligation they have after this season is a 500k buyout to May. Everyone else is a FA or arb/pre-arb. I can’t think of another team with cleaner books heading into an uncertain world with a new CBA looming.
Cards can build a MIL/TB/CLE type pipeline and buttress it with a little more FA spending than they do it could be their path back to consistent contention
That’s the plan
And
as a side note the only obligation they have after this season is a 500k buyout to May
I expect them to flip him around the td
A re-build was needed. I’m excited as it begins. I’d rather this was 2004 and we could watch Pujols, Edmonds, and Rolen every night, but it’s possible 2026 will be the birthing of something special down the road. One can only hope.
And as a side note the only obligation they have after this season is a 500k buyout to May. Everyone else is a FA or arb/pre-arb. I can’t think of another team with cleaner books heading into an uncertain world with a new CBA looming.
Not exactly true. They still owe some money on Contreras and Arenado in 2027.
Well it won’t likely be a nice bookend to the centennial of our first National League pennant and World Championship, but it will certainly be interesting.
I am seeing a last place finish, maybe even buried well into last place with the Pirates and Reds looking to be on the upswing, and the Brewers competitive while our arch rival Cubs might be a powerhouse.
But it will be good to see who takes the next step in their careers, and get some clarity on a few other guys. In my long Cardinal fandom I am not sure we have gone in to a season where we did not have a single player that you would be pretty sure of him being an all star. Masyn Winn is probably the closest to that and could be very good, with maybe Ivan Herrera up there as well. But we do not have any star player in their prime, which is unusual for our club.
I can’t think of another team with cleaner books
Lucky for us everybody knows BDW isn’t positioning to sell the team or it might look like he was.
He won’t sell just yet. I strongly suspect he has plans to move the team to either Little Rock or Cincinnati…Under cover of darkness.
I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how the players mentioned in this post develop. It is definitely a make or break year for Gorman and maybe even Walker.
The trade chatter should be very entertaining as well.
The trade chatter should be very entertaining as well.
Wouldn’t that be amazing if we were totally unexpectedly “buyers” instead of “sellers” as the trading deadline approached this summer? The only obstacle would be that we wouldn’t have anything to trade. Besides “Romeo”(Romero), we have no decent veterans to deal. And obviously it would be ridiculous to trade any quality youngsters. Until next winter, I think we’ll be witnessing little, if any, trading activity from our Cardinals. Supposedly, the cubbies were fielding offers this winter for either Shaw or Nico. Donovan’s versatility is exactly what Chicago was looking for. That right there was the deal Bloom should have pulled off……Donovan to the cubs for Shaw.
As we head to the end of May, it’s been more exciting than I could’ve imagined. It’s fun watching Cardinal baseball again.
And…a few questions have been answered. Yes…Walker is over the hump a rising star. Same with McGreevy. Herrera getting on base at a .390 clip and JJ is always on base as well.
Of course, still hard to say what we have in Gorman. He looked really good at dish last night…other nights, not so much.One thing for certain…this is NOT a 90 loss team! Enjoy!!!
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