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With the season coming up soon, it’s time to revive a thread where folks can go crazy and make the picks they’d never dream of laying a wager on…yet will look like a genius if they prove right. It’s BOLD pick time!
Last year was a middling one and the same old direction may bring the same results…or perhaps the front office will light off in a BOLD new direction! So let’s see the negative Nancys and the positive Petes…make your BOLD picks for the 2025 season…and maybe in October we can look back and see who proved the BOLD and brightest!
As a matter of rule, know that your picks must be BOLD to count here. They can be positive or negative, but don’t be boring. Nothing probable, such as “The Cards finish 4th in the division” or even likely, like “Gray leads the rotation in wins.”
Let’s see those BOLD picks!
I’ll take a stab although I’m not feeling super BOLD at the moment:
Our 3 best starters this year will be Michael McGreevey, Quinn Mathews, and Miles Mikolas.
Only 1 trade will happen from the major league roster all season.
The bullpen will see >75% turnover from opening day to end of season.
Luken Baker will end up with the starting job at 1B despite it being awarded to Contreras and Burleson all offseason.
Bling will say one nice thing about management by season’s end.
I did my best. That last one is maybe too bold.
Matz will be off and on the DL again and will end up in the pen.
Mikolas has a good season in his walk year. 15-10 or something like.
Gorman and Walker flop.
Winn and Scott are really good.
2 of our young starters come through.
87 wins sneaks us into WC3.
87 wins
Its supposed to be bold not wild and crazy.
I say Ollie doesn’t make it to the end and they stagger to the finish with an interim manager.
Always love this thread. In our good years my bold predictions were usually based on everything falling apart. Again this year, like last, with us not looking to be contenda’s I will go with the “everything came up rosy” predictions. Here goes:
– Luken Baker clubs pinch hit grand slams twice in four games in early June. He gets a shot to start at first base after Contreras goes out with an injury, and ends up leading the club with 37 homers, 108 RBIs and finishes third in MVP voting.
– Baker’s combined hitting with the rejuvenated Nolan Arenado’s 33 homers and .312 batting mark gives the Cardinals the best 1-2 punch in the NL Central.
– Hitters are not the only key to the 98 win, division title team as Steven Matz comes out of nowhere to earn 17 wins, sporting a 2.77 ERA. Management re-ups him with a two-year extension in mid-September.
– With Ryan Helsley out for the season in mid-June, Tink Hence earns his way to the closer’s role by the end of July and finishes the season with 22 saves and a sparking K/BB mark of 75/16, in 41 innings of work.
– Ollie Marmol is surprisingly not retained after the season, taking the reigns of the American League champion Boston Red Sox while the Cardinals hire Albert Pujols to manage in 2026. Pujols also signs a player contract and will be a part-time DH for the club.
76-84.
I hope I’m wrong. But Cards will need a lot to go right in order to even break .500.
Been a Card’s fan since the 60’s…seen lousy teams and the great ones, along with everything in between. This team isn’t lousy, but it’s not very good either.
1. Helsley, Fedde, Mikolas, and Matz are all former Cardinals by July 31.
2. Marmol is retained for 2026 to finish out his contract. (The Cardinals don’t like eating money). Depending on who is available look for Pujols, Molina, or Schumaker to lead the club for 2027.
3. The only 2025 all-star representative is Donovan.
4. Quinn Matthews is called up in late May and leads the team with 10 wins.
5. The Cardinals end up trading Nolan but it is Gorman instead of Arenado.
I’m not entirely sure if bold is the correct term, but if I would have predicted that the first 6 games of the regular season would be contested with teams named the Twins and Angels, I’d have been tested and screened for an illegal mind altering substance. Such is today’s reality and my best guess is that both Timothy Leary and Bill “Spaceman” Lee are the architects of today’s game.
1. Cardinals finished as division champs.
2. Matz/Mikolas combine for more wins than Gray/Fedde
3. Winn has sophomore slump. Gets sent to Memphis but returns to help down the stretch.
1. Lars Nootbaar is an All-Star
2. Alec Burleson struggles, loses the DH role, and is demoted to the minors
3. Nolan Arenado has a bounce back year and is an All-Star, but is traded at the deadline
4. The starting rotation August 1st is 1. Sonny Gray, 2. Mathew Liberatore, 3. Andre Pallante, 4. Michael McGreevy, 5. Quinn Mathews
5. The Cardinals draft one of the many talented college SS in this year’s class at #5 overall to establish a long term potential infield of 3B – Dean Curley, SS – Masynn Winn, 2B – JJ Wetherholt
6. Ryan Fernandez is the Cardinals best RP this yearMy picks will have sort of a feast or famine aspect to it…
1. The Cardinals are the only MLB team this year to win 10+ games in a row and lose 10+ games in a row. These both happen in the same month (June).
2. Your season RBI leader is…Jordan Walker. He gets hot in September by hitting 8 homers and driving in 26, which leads to a season total of 102.
3. Walker leads the team because the team leader at the trade deadline is Nolan Arenado. He turns back time and is hitting .288 with 27 homers by late July, as the Cards lead the division by a game. Nevertheless, the front office needs to save money and Nolan goes, traded to the Dodgers for Bobby Miller. He hits only .225 the rest of the way in LA but hits 7 dingers in the postseason as the Dodgers win the Series.
4. Also traded is Ryan Helsley. He is not as good as 2024 so the return is a couple of lotto tickets, but Bill is happy to save some change from his couch cushions too. The new closer? Cooper Hjerpe, who’s almost unhittable out of the pen. He’s quickly labeled the next Josh Hader by experts.
5. The wild swings continue after the trade deadline. The Cards avoid any 10 game losing steaks in August but still go 5-23, going from first to last in one month. In September, they go 17-7 to finish at even .500. Mozeliak at his exit conference lauds his ability to lead the team to winning season after winning season.
.500 ball for 100 games, and another 25 wins at .400 ball after the purge, would result in a 75-82 w/l. Boldly predicting a losing season.
75-82 is only 157 games JJ. What happened in the other 5?
5 rainouts that never get made up is BOLD!!
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