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Uh, what?
Herrera, Yepez, Burleson for a starting pitcher?
The only starting pitcher those three would bring would be a dud.
If we want to get a top of the line starting pitcher, a #1 or a #2, you better realize it’s going to take a Gorman or a Walker in the package.
At some point it would also be nice to get an actual closer. We don’t have one. We have 13 blown saves thus far this year, which is the third most in all of mlb.
Bernie: The 'Blackberry' Cardinals – 25-35 And Worst In The NL – Have Failed To Adapt And Evolve. https://t.co/g1laAaoyKQ
— Bernie Miklasz (@miklasz) June 5, 2023
Good article, but Bernie neglected to mention two items…
1. Tony LaRussa didn’t retire after the 2011 season. He quit because he refused to subject himself to any more nonsense from Johnny.
2. The sole reason the Cardinals haven’t hired an established manager who comes with any substantial credibility is because Johnny will never again subject himself to being intimidated by more knowledgeable and competent baseball people who possess a strong character such as Tony LaRussa.
If we want to get a top of the line starting pitcher, a #1 or a #2, you better realize it’s going to take a Gorman or a Walker in the package.
Yes that is true now as it was last winter. The Murphy non-trade happened because Mo didn’t want to trade anything good then and he probably doesn’t want to now. Oakland was only interested in a small handful of guys that Mo wouldn’t turn loose of. The same small handful that teams would be interested in now.
We’ve got three outfielders in the IL, and Yepez and Burleson still can’t get in the lineup. Nobody is in their way, they just are not good enough. We’re using infielders out there instead. They do not have trade value.
Herrera has spent the last year being not especially impressive until having a really good month in May. He may have some value as a good add on piece in a major trade. The truth is, we do not have much in the way of trade goods which is not unexpected from a last place team.
Bernie bringing the heat. There are so many good quotes I don’t know which ones to choose from.
President of baseball operations John Mozeliak has been negligent in building a starting rotation that fits into the contemporary mode.
The Cardinals have largely stayed away from the free-agent market – which is probably a wise thing considering the disappointing results from Mike Leake, Brett Cecil, Dexter Fowler, Steven Matz and – at least so far – Willson Contreras.
Mozeliak has hired three managers since Tony La Russa retired after the 2011 World Series championship. Instead of going with a more established manager that had substantial credibility, Mozeliak went with three guys – Mike Matheny, Mike Shildt and Oli Marmol – that had never managed in the majors. Mozeliak already has fired two of the three, and Marmol looks shaky here in 2023.
Mozeliak wants inexperienced managers so he can control them. But his preference for malleable managers has led to only one NL pennant – and considerable chaos – since the World Series triumph in 2011.
The DeWitt-Mozeliak operation has become complacent and stubborn – with arrogance mixed in. The baseball operation made an egregious miscalculation, beating up on a weak NL Central to make the playoffs and using the success to convince themselves they’re still great
Herrera, Yepez, Burleson for a starting pitcher?
The only starting pitcher those three would bring would be a dud.
If we want to get a top of the line starting pitcher, a #1 or a #2, you better realize it’s going to take a Gorman or a Walker in the package.
Not saying it would bring a #1. And I said a package including them. The rotation next year is ?, ?, Mikolas, ?, Liberatore. And that’s saying Hudson is probably non-tender and don’t know what you do with Matz, Thompson, and Woodford.
Pen of Woodford/Matz/Thomoson?, Pallante, ?, ?, ?, Cabrera(L), Gallegos, Helsley.
There’s lots of pitching to acquire.As far as in house assets, system wide, we could probably provide the 2024 pitching staff with a #4 and #5 starters, a couple OK, but not great, 7th-8th inning guys, and a couple serviceable middle inning/mop up guys. The disfunction is not just at the MLB level.
Bernie has a gig where he’s not dependent on access, so he doesn’t have to suck up like most of the local sports media.
I’ve been harping on it for years, mostly with pretty intense blowback. Mo’s been surviving on momentum ever since Luhnow and the smart computers left town. His wonky gaggle of front office pukes have run off everybody who knew what they were doing. Nothing but Marmol-like drones all up and down the organization. They have run the whole organization off a cliff and hastened the end of life as we know it.
Well, we currently have three games in Texas. Then:
3 with the Reds at Busch
3 with the Giants at Busch
3 with the Mets at Shea
3 with the Nats at DC
2 with the Cubs in London
3 with Houston at Busch
3 with the Yankees at BuschWhat happens if we go 16-7 in these 23 games and get back to .500 and only 2-3 games out of 1st place?
I’m not trading to add to this mess for sure. Even if they were to somehow go 16-7 the rest of the month, then best I’m doing is telling the guys we have to keep figuring it out. But I’d put money on just the 9 games vs Texas, NYY, Houston that there are 7+ losses.
Need batters that hit for average
Texas is starting 7 batters who are batting.270 or better. It will real sad if they make Walker a home run hitter like they did Carpenter. Lead the majors in doubles hitting right at.300 one year told to hit more homers left cardinals with a low .225 life time average. Also DeJond has not shown he can hit consistently-Hicks and VerHagen- Texas is definitely a team that comes to mind that is good, but needs pen help. Maybe these 2 can be impressive getting swept in Texas the next 3 days and they want to acquire them.
They just showed Texas is #1 is most offensive stats, #3 is SP ERA, and #24 in RP ERA. So I was right, they could use Hicks and VerHagen. And they are both born and raised in Texas, so they might even enjoy being there more.
If we are out of it at the break, you have to think about trading anyone other than Walker, Gorman, Donovan and Liberatore. Probably want to keep Nootbaar and Hicks as well. Everyone else is negotiable.
Regardless of the crappy division, at what point does ownership look at the bigger picture and make some changes?
I’d say unless we get to something like 20 games under they are gonna ride the season out….
What’s it gonna take to fix the Cardinals? Easy. A general manager (or pobo or whatever you want to call him) with stones, and nothing less. It’s the fixer who needs fixing.
That’s a good question that’s hard to answer, ZTR, but it’d be my guess that it’ll be an all or nothing approach. They’re now at 11 games under which is 3 shy of their worst point of 14 under .500 back on May 6th. I’d be my guess that if they’re going to take the all in approach, a managerial change will take place in the next few days prior to the possibility of againn descending to the season low 14 under abyss. If the team can then creep toward .500 and improve their place in the standings going towards the deadline, an attempt will be made to address perceived weaknesses at the end of July. I regards to the nothing approach, I genuinely feel that if they were to plummet to somewhere near 20 games under .500, they’d simply let it eat and do nothing until the off-season and then make some wholesale changes after things had quieted down during the cold winter months.
I’m not sure there’s really a way to fix this. Sometimes a culture of losing sets into a franchise and it can’t be navigated out of until an entire generation of players is gone. If we can’t win with the talent we have now, particularly on the offensive side, when will we?
I recall when the Cards used to emit excellence from the bottom of the minors to the top. The last few years they’ve been stuck at the bottom of the standings. Feels like an organizational culture change from prioritizing winning to prioritizing creation of prospects has come home to roost. Things look a little better in the minors this year so hopefully we have some winning ballplayers on the way.
What’s it gonna take to fix the Cardinals? Easy. A general manager (or pobo or whatever you want to call him) with stones, and nothing less. It’s the fixer who needs fixing.
I totally agree CIF.
I recall when the Cards used to emit excellence from the bottom of the minors to the top. The last few years they’ve been stuck at the bottom of the standings. Feels like an organizational culture change from prioritizing winning to prioritizing creation of prospects has come home to roost
You are correct stl25. I was thinking about this the other day and how bad our minor league teams have been the last few years, especially with the pitching. It has finally matriculated up to St. Louis.
I am afraid that those thinking this is going to be as easy as replacing Marmol with Stubby and we are magically going to go to the World Series like the Phillies did last year are in for a rude awakening. The problems run deeper than that.
Just to clarify my thoughts on replacing Marmol with Stubby, I have no idea of that will help. But it is the only realistic thing we can do in the short run.
We got here by continually focusing on short term fixes, hoping we could get to the post season and then who knows. But we did not get far in any post season the last few years, and have not developed replacements for those guys we sent away, primarily pitchers.
Plus the manager has lineups that are a mess – injuries have hurt, no doubt. Ollie has been hamstrung by outfielders who cannot stay healthy. But you have a middle infielder playing center field, a bunch of DHs, and three second baseman to where you have to play two of them elsewhere.
No stability. I would go this way for a month and let ‘em play, working Noot and Carlson in when they are back and healthy.
Donovan, rf
Edman, ss
Goldschmidt, 1b
Gorman, 2b
Arenado, 3b
Baker/Burleson, dh
Contreras, c
Walker, lf
Mercado, cfOne of my thoughts on this matter is…. why would the Cards bring in any players at the deadline when the team is now dysfunctional, lacking leadership, has no real plan from the FO how to get out of this situation? The prudent thing to do is to stick it out this season and circle the wagons during the off-season. Just thinking.
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