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Seeing how they’ve had a very spotty track record of hiring coaches, I wouldn’t be too optimistic. And anyone placing great faith in a guy that was dismissed from his prior job for not getting it done is soon to be disappointed. But so goes the present version of the St. Louis Cardinals Baseball Club.
This franchise is a mess. I and others have been saying it for a while now. Until there is a complete house cleaning at every level of the organization these “moves” are just a rearranging of the deck chairs.
I’m optimistic about Bloom.
Leaving Mo in place for 2025 to be the hatchet man and Marmol to absorb a possible losing season on the field isn’t a bad plan.
It will give Bloom a year 1 honeymoon in 2026 when it will actually be year 2. At that point he can change managers etc and hopefully be a full year down the road with the farm system and know exactly what he has to work with as far as the Winn, Walker, Gorman, Saggasse, McGreevey, Liberatore, etc group – without the 2025 results being his fault if the season goes pear shaped.
It would be interesting to listen in on discussion of a future issue in which Mo says “yes” and Bloom says “no”, or vice-versa. What would BDW Jr. do in that case?
1) Embrace change and break the tie in Bloom’s favor. – or –
2) Accede to Mo as he has done for years. – or –
3) Do whatever is most cost effective.Since the Cardinals are planning to go with a youth movement I wouldn’t be surprised if they promote Howie Clark to hitting coach. He has been the hitting coach at Memphis and I’m sure he is very familiar with Gorman, Walker, Winn, Herrera, Pages, Baker, and Saggesse.
Brain,
I’d bet Mo and Bloom are both too smart to let it get to the point where BDW has to be the ‘tie breaker’.
I’d bet Mo gets his way and Bloom would let certain things go knowing that he takes over next season anyway.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they promote Howie Clark to hitting coach. He has been the hitting coach at Memphis
Even the fluffiest of the local media would have a field day with a Marmol-like promotion of an organization minion to the ML coaching staff to perpetuate the status quo for another season. Fluffing the accent pillows. They need to do something though, for the interim between Ward leaving and whoever will take over for Marmol after next season bringing in his own coaches.
Assuming Bloom will transition the org to a different system/methodology/worldview, it will be a mistake if he retains too many of the same people. In such a case they will tend to circle the wagons and persist with doing things the way things have been done. It is human nature, and I have seen it a few times in workplaces I have been when new management tries to update the way of doing things. It’s different with new people who don’t have years invested.
2025 is a transition year. I don’t think they will do anything too brash with the hire. Bloom can clean house in 2026 if he wants. My money is on Clark for ’25.
Everytime one of the young guys stopped hitting in STL in 2024 they got sent to Memphis to work with Clark. By promoting him to STL it will save BDW some gas money.
My inclination would be to line up everyone who had anything to do with hitters and march them over a cliff.
FWIW, Clark is well respected in the organization. I could see why the Cardinals would look at a short-term replacement with everything potentially back on the table in 2026.
Seems logical. If it works out great, if not well – I would say that fan base expectations for next season will be the lowest in a long, long time. Maybe back to the dog days of the 70s?
I’m not sure I understand the logic of planning a do-nothing year for 2025 and delaying efforts to put a better team on the field until 2026.
I am not thinking it will be a do nothing year. Hopefully, the player development makeover will progress rapidly. Hopefully, the ML roster will shed expensive over the hill players. Hopefully, some resolution of the TV revenue situation will come into focus so that a better understood future revenue stream will allow a roster rebuild to commence.
Well, it seems to me if Bloom is already standing in the wings with a bag full of bright ideas and fairy dust, why not jut get on with it instead of throwing a wet blanket over fan hopes for next year.
If you read the reports from the news conference, it seems like BDW doesn’t quite have the same view of things as everyone else. That is understandable in that it is a business proposition for him.
My take is he sees things like this: There are business side concerns relating to revenue uncertainty, which can be addressed through cost control. On the baseball side, everything is more or less fine, but they will take the occasion of Mo’s retirement to freshen up the FO and update how things work. Mo will handle the transition. I think probably Bloom has a realistic understanding of how BDW feels about things, and the need to tiptoe around his baseball love child.
2025 wont be wasted as long as the Cardinals do in fact renovate the farm system infrastructure, give this crop of youngsters enough playing time to figure out what they have AND, just as importantly, what they don’t have, and shed the dead weight from the ML roster.
You never know for sure what’s going to happen – it feels like 2025 will be the ‘reset’ year the Cardinals have needed for awhile now. A bunch of young players could really perform and make the playoffs or more likely it’s a ‘year to grow’ and then certain additions for 2026 put the team back in contention.
I agree ZTR. 2025 may not look productive in the standings but there could be some very important work going on behind the scenes and down in the minors that could pay dividends in the near future.
As for the Mo/Bloom transition my take is that is as simple as Mo is still under contract so he gets one more year. If Mo were out of contract right now he would probably be gone.
Ward was a part of the problem. If they don’t get rid of Marmol, nothing changes. That means 2025 is more of the same. They better be ready for the attendance to be down. WAY Down. The Cardinal Fans have had enough.
Hard to see someone from outside the organization taking the hitting coach knowing that Marmol is most likely gone at the end of the season and realizing the new mgr may want to bring in his guy
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