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If we are realistic we have to accept that the Cardinals will rarely if ever land a major free agent. No matter how much we would be willing to spend, most of the time a big money team will offer much more.
I think Bloom has significantly changed the Cardinals approach from acquiring high floor players to go after high ceiling players. That is showing up in the trades he has made as well as on the international front.
For years the Cardinals thrived on picking up low hanging fruit. Who can forget that Kieth Hernandez was like a 45th round pick. But in today’s game there are too many technical improvements in scouting for that strategy to work. If it did the reduction of the draft to 20 rounds should produce a lot of undiscovered gems. Hasn’t been the case.
I think today we have to maintain a strong minor league system and make good trades. Hopefully Bloom will keep the right players whereas Mo kept the wrong ones and traded away the good ones. He also often got a poor return on his trades and especially in the selection of free agents.
I agree with everything you say. There’s always been a few teams spending more than everyone else in any given year. The Cardinals were successful with a model that had a group identifying and procuring talent. When Tony left it seems ownership let one guy pretty much call all the shots on player procurement. It didn’t work. Eventually it crumbled but we let that guy hang around a few years too long. Now we are joining the rest of the world in the fight against Goliath. Our new guy seems to have a good plan. They will hire a few mercenaries in the next year or so after the new litter is weaned and we should return to relevance. I will be watching.
LaRussa’s reputation helped attract better free agents along with the winning culture and usually packed stadium.
Now all three of those elements are gone and the spending gap, while always there, has never been bigger.
The Brewers and to some extent the Astros proved they could ‘beat the system’. Houston is not a small market but I think they have traditionally kept the $$$ under control?
Anyhow, if Bloom is the man and at least some luck is with the Cardinals they will be contending again in 2-3:years. If Bloom falls flat then it will be another decade of mediocre to bad baseball just like 2016-2025 was.
It appears the Cardinals are fast becoming the newest version of the Tampa Bay Rays model of baseball. It’s not like we’re all alone though. Hard to get behind the constant turnover of roster like TB’s fans have demonstrated year after year. Half empty stadiums are the result unless they’re in the fight for a final playoff spot right at the end.
I realize it will be hard to adapt knowing no free agents will want to come here as in years past, but the best hope of survival and fielding a potential playoff team in STL under the current management is to draft well, build from within, and do this all the while knowing that any beloved players that develop well will end up being replaced when their careers start to blossom.I love this approach vs paying for an expensive player that may at best give you a couple of decent seasons for a lot of money. Develope your own talent and when time comes, lock up the ones that track to be great rather than spend lots of money on gambles. Also accept the fact that having a year or two down years isnt the worst thing.
“I think today we have to maintain a strong minor league system and make good trades”
Well said. When you pull the plug on funds, those are the avenues left to improve for any club. We will see how we stack up vs the other have-nots.
The Cardinals have never been big in free agency. They got lucky by drafting Pujols and Molina. Most of the rest of the stars of the LaRussa era were acquired by trade. McGwire, Walker, Edmonds, Rolen, Waino, Holliday, Renteria and Freese were all traded for. Jocketty took a free agency flyer on injured Cris Carpenter that turned out well. We had a knack for acquiring big name players on expiring contracts and getting them to sign extensions.
When Mo dipped into the FA market he usually went for the middle class FA’s and it usually turned out to be a disaster. Gregerson, Fowler, Leake, Holland, Cecil, and Miller, to name a few. All of those free agent mistakes along with things like the Ozuna trade are why we are now in a rebuild. Eventually the chickens come home to roost.
As other have said Bloom will focus on drafting, developing, and trades with the occasional splash in FA. While we may be modeled on the Rays, Brewers, and Guardians I think the Cardinals will eventually get their CBT payroll back up between $150M and $200M in a few years. They may have no choice if a salary floor is implemented.
Apart from creating a more productive system, something has to be done about the problem with hitters coming up and looking good at first but quickly fading. I think that in many cases hitters are not well prepared with the skills necessary to face MLB opposition, and then efforts to help them adapt are ineffective or do more harm than good. Player development doesn’t end when they are called up, but they seldom seem to get better once they arrive.
It will come down to if they develop them can they retain them when they are close to hitting free agency….A $100 million payroll is not going to cut it for very long.
Exactly. And if there’s no butts in the seats to fund more payroll to keep a real good player around when it comes time, those players will soon be gone too. But getting butts in the seats means you have to put a good product on the field.
Vicious circle. By next year, a lot of answers we want will be obvious with this organization.If JJ for example is the real deal. Do you see the Cardinals handing out a 11 year $289 million dollar deal to him? I mean maybe the mindset on payroll changes if they start to compete and get some butts back in the seats. KC had no problem with handing Witt that money but you know they backloaded it with player and club options for either party to get out if they wanted to explore other options. Witt’s contract has player opt outs starting in 2031 to 2034
I think a good ceiling for payroll if we get this rig rolling in a couple seasons is about between where the reds are now and where the Angels are at. Not even really thinking about inflation, new cba, salary floor or lockout etc.
I mean let’s not fool ourselves. Bloom is here to do a job and do it on a budget. The Dewitt conglomerate runs the team like a business. Draft, develop, extend when needed and trade when the going gets tough to restock the farm. Wash, rinse, repeat. The new Cardinal Way.
You have to be willing to give some young guys good contracts before they turn a feee agent. But you have to develop them and you have to know or at least believe in them long term. The ones that dont fit that, you have to let things play out and if you lose them, you lose them. Question is do we have the right people that actually know what talent is. Sometimes it seems that unless they are a pujols type, they dont really know.
I doubt the Cardinals will give a big contract to a hitter who is not a middle of the order power bat. That said, I don’t know what JJ will be, but I don’t really see him being that.
Well bling i did mention you have to have people that know what talent is. It isnt a lot of power. Pujols was his best before he became a power guy. Once he became that, he became less than. Weatherholt seens like a guy who can def drive the gaps. Guys like that can drive in lots of runs, score lots of runs if he has suitable teammates. I wasnt really pointing out weatherholt in particular. And large sums of money is different things to dufferent people.
I’m not saying they should or shouldn’t, just I think they won’t. Use the term middle of the order run producer if you want.
I think its too early to project on weatherholt. I dont see 30 homers, 15 to 25 seems possible. But im more focused on his gap to gap, contact, and average. To me a person batting second can be just as or more important than middle power guys and equally as hard to find good or great ones. George hendrick was our power guy in 82, but he was far from being one of the most important guys or one of those that deserved the most pay as goid as he was.
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