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I know many of you hate the sound of his name. And this is the last of my postings on the major league draft.
During Luhnow’s tenure as Scouting Director with the Cardinals and General Manager of the Astro’s
He inherited a Houston team that had finished 51-111 the previous season. He basically demolished the existing team. Two years they made the playoffs, missed them in 2016 and the team has been in the playoffs every year since and look like a good shot of making it this year.
In that period they won two World Series, 6 regular season division championships,and 3 National League Playoff championships.
Players drafted during his tenure at the Cardinal and Houston have career WAR of 419.6, exceeded only by Arizona with 422.9. Hard to explain the Diamondbacks success in the draft. They have turned the General Manager and Scouting Directors position over numerous timmes.
Houston enjoyed success during Luhnow’s tenure but have had continued success due to the players he brought into the system through draft, trades, and free agent signings (particular Latins).
During the 2024 season he still made an impact. The Astro team as a whole had a collective WAR of 43.2. The players Luhnow brought into the system had a collective WAR of 32.7 or over 75% of the total. Of the 15 key performers (8 position, 5 starting pitchers and 2 relief pitchers) 9 were players acquired by Luhnow.
Somewhat of a dynasty.
One wonders what would have happened had the Cardinals apointed him GM instead of Mo when Walt was terminated. Would he have caused the Cardinals to get caught with illegal sign stealing? He claims that he didn’t know about it but if he didn’t know he should have.
He now owns a Mexican Soccor team and a Spanish soccor team and owns a business. He claims that he has been offered a coule oof major league baseball General Manager position but says he is through with baseball.
I think major league sports, particularly baseball are snobbish and think everyone has to play pro baseball to have success. Luhnow and Mike Schildt represent one of my pet theorys. Technical skills can be acquired by those who have reasonable ability but leadership and management skill are achieved by far fewer.
Thank you for your participation in the major league draft thread. It has been fun.
I don’t have anything to say about Lunhow that hasn’t already been said but I will say that a lot of people view the way the Astros and Cubs tore it down and rebuilt in the early to mid 2010’s as the model to follow. While there are things to admire I think we are seeing firsthand this year that that exact model will not work for the Cardinals because our fans wouldn’t tolerate it.. Our attendance has already plummeted to depths we haven’t seen in decades so you can only imagine how it would be if we were putting a 60 win team out on the field for a few years.
I can’t speak to how the Astros were able to get away with it. Perhaps their fan base has different expecations and there are many other sports options in Houston than just baseball. It is easy to explain how the Cubs got away with it. While their fan base wants to win they are also perfectly happy just partying in the Wrigley bleachers as long as the Old Style keeps flowing.
I think the pundits and bloggers have it all wrong regarding the attendance plummet. Whilst I hesitate to think of the nachos munching selfie stick crowd as baseball fans, there are a lot of loyal and knowledgeable fans in Cardinal land. I do not think they are chased away by a couple bad years. Thay are turned off by loss of confidence in the competency of the front office and in ownership’s commitment to do anything beyond putting a marginal wild card possible team on the field going forward.
That being the case, a couple horrid rebuild seasons could be tolerated if confidence in the FO’s competence and in ownership’s commitment could be reestablished. If Busch Stadium is the place to be for real baseball fans, the munchers will show, selfie sticks in hand.
I used to think the same thing bling but for a complete decade 2014-2023 Cardinal fans packed Busch to watch “get in and get hot” baseball. Not one time during that time span did the Cardinals really “go for it” however one wants to define that. Are we saying that after a decade Cardinal fans just happened to snap? That may explain a part of it but the public announcement of “rebuild, reset, and transition” also has played a part. It would only get worse with a complete teardown.
One wonders what would have happened had the Cardinals apointed him GM instead of Mo when Walt was terminated. Would he have caused the Cardinals to get caught with illegal sign stealing? He claims that he didn’t know about it but if he didn’t know he should have.
Likewise I have wondered where we would be today had we hired Terry Francona as manager after 2011, rather than Mike Matheny. Since he left Boston Francona has a .551 winning percentage. This year he has the Reds, a .475 team last year, 5 games over .500 and looking down at us.
It seems that what happened with Mozeliak is he got it in his head that he had all of the answers, and to look outside the organization would risk losing “the Cardinal way.” He made the same mistake Connie Mack did in the ’40s and early ’50s with the Athletics, the result of which the city of Philadelphia lost the once proud franchise. And really, with us, Shildt was a good hire. But when Mike wanted some autonomy on running the club from the dugout, Mo & Co. let him go.
Now DeWitt is changing that a little with bringing in Bloom. We will see who Bloom ends up bringing in as manager, an “inside” guy like Molina or Pujols, or if he goes outside for someone. An inside guy might not be a mistake, but you have to let him be the manager, not a puppet of the front office.
It seems that what happened with Mozeliak is he got it in his head that he had all of the answers,
Perhaps more importantly, BDW agreed, and continued to agree all the way to the bottom of the cliff.
. . . there are a lot of loyal and knowledgeable fans in Cardinal land. I do not think they are chased away by a couple bad years. Thay are turned off by loss of confidence in the competency of the front office and in ownership’s commitment . . .
I would try to improve this 44-word excerpt, but I can’t. Well, other than spelling “thay” correctly . . .
We will see who Bloom ends up bringing in as manager, an “inside” guy like Molina or Pujols, or if he goes outside for someone. An inside guy might not be a mistake, but you have to let him be the manager, not a puppet of the front office.
He may not bring in anyone. 2026 is shaping up to be another rebuilding year and Marmol is still under contract for 2026 so I don’t know if the timing will be right for a change next season.
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