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The very first thing that needs to happen is for DeWitt to come to the understanding that the sorry state of the team is his and Mo’s fault.
Then he will have to fire Mo and replace him with a proven GM type that has recently built a winner. Both sides of that move are going to cost him a lot of money
Once he has his new man in place – that guy will have to take the organizational reins and make the personal and philosophical changes he needs off the field.
Following that his evaluation of the the current 40 man & farm system talent will determine whether he wants a complete tear down or only a partial one.
If he does decide to trade Goldschmidt and / or Arenado then he absolutely MUST hit on the players he gets in return. If it’s prospects, and likely it would be, then the greater majority must pan out fairly soon or it’s a bad, bad situation.
We can only hope that Mo is not left in charge of this team because we already know what he will do. He puts together . 500 baseball teams that can beat sub-par NL Central teams and then get summarily dismissed in the play offs.
I think the Central got better and Mo didn’t see it coming and his own roster has just collapsed under the weight of several years of band aid roster mentality.
The best record in the Central is currently 34-33 so I don’t know if the Central has gotten better but the Cardinals have certainly collapsed due to some ill-conceived roster decisions.
Amen, other than we will not win the division. Everyone else has proven thus far, they are better than us. Maybe need to finish last for management to realize they do not have a grip on what it takes to be a serious contender, but even then, I doubt it. Fans need to make a statement and quit being the number two attendance franchise in the NL. Perhaps that may work when you affect their revenue.
On June 15 last season we were in 1st place in the Central, up 1.5 games, with a 37-28 record (+9). MIL was in second with a 35-29 record (+6).
PIT is currently +1 as the leader, and MIL was +6 in second place last season, so our division leader isn’t even as good as last seasons second place, to date.
I contend that parity in the division has brought the leader back to the pack. At this time last season, CHC and CIN were -15 or more, and they are much closer to .500 this season. PIT was -12 at this point last season.
Also, the balanced schedule is tougher on the NL Central teams as they play each other 6 fewer times a year.
That’s 24 fewer games against generally weaker competition.
I read an article by Bernie Mac talking about our defense. The numbers are staggering considering where those numbers were the last few years. Only people having decent season are goldy and dejong. Edman isn’t bad in outfield but infield he’s bad. When you had a questionable pitching staff coming into the season, the worst thing you can do is get worse defensively. Right now I don’t think the defense is going to turn itself around and I don’t expect our pitchers to suddenly start striking everyone out so just not any good news.
Saw this today. If the FO trades Nootbaar and Edman, Mozeliak and crew will get backlash never seen before.
“The Cardinals are going to have to sacrifice some key position players to improve their pitching staff.”
——–Robbing Peter to pay Paul for pitching does not make the club better, unless you fleece another club, and receive more value back than what you traded away. Good luck with that.
The pitching staff is a self-inflicated inadequacy by whom they have decided to invest their budget dollars on over the last two offseasons, and the falling ranking of the overall budget amount year to year needs to reverse course.
Bader for Montgomery is a perfect example. The pitching gets better while the outfield D falls apart. We didn’t get better overall. We shuffled deck chairs. We traded from a perceived OF depth, so we could watch Yepez, Burleson and Walker chase their tail in the outfield, to make a rotation upgrade that was necessary before the season even started.
Repeating this strategy and expecting different results will only continue the downward spiral. The pitching needs fixed over the winter, not in a sellers deadline market.
Sell FA’s-to-be now. Stock the minors/roster with future control years. Lock in a high draft pick every round with this seasons horrible win%. Spend an increased amount of budget on different pitchers this coming offseason.
Rant complete.
Yeah, this season is totally different from last season when both Quintana and Montgomery panned out. They were THE reason we won the division but didn’t really fix the long term issue.
At 13 games under and 9 out of the division / 10 out of the 2nd wildcard this may be the year to sell off some (apparently) excess talent and stockpile prosects – then actually be a player in the free agent pitching market. We are gonna need three new starting pitchers next year and 2 of them need to be really good if this year is just going to be an unfortunate blip.
I think they should trade Goldschmidt but hang on to Arenado.
What will it take?
An epic winning streak by the Cardinals, plusAn epic losing streak by the Brewers, plus
Trade an everyday gold glove center fielder, or equivalent, for a couple so so starter rentals who then have way above career mean second halves.
Then get shown the door by a good team in post, go home and think about Jr. counting his money.
ZTR, Walker is an infielder. He’s not going to magically develop outfielder skills. He fits best at 1B. Huge target that has played corner infield.
Gorman is making my Russell Braynan comparison look more and more realistic lately. And my comparison all along with Jordan Walker has been Richie Sexton.
I know people want to say Walker is the next Judge or whatever. I think Sexton is much more likely.
I don’t think Richie Sexson is a very good comparison for Jordan Walker at all. If you want to make the comparison and say they’re good hitters without a lot of defensive value, I would probably agree. Yet, Sexson was a guy who really was a three true outcomes guy…lots of power, good walk rate but a ton of Ks. I see Walker as being a lot more balanced than that. Hopefully the power will come, but I don’t expect the big whiff rate.
I’ll also add that Walker has been better in the minors at a younger age than Sexson was at older ages as he went through the system. Sexson didn’t have his first full season in the majors til age 24. Walker will be into arbitration at that age. So the optimism for a young hitter who’s hitting very well at barely 21 is at least somewhat founded. It would be a lot to ask for another Judge though (who is quite a bit better with the glove).
1. DeWitt extracts head from his rear end
2. DeWitt fires Mo
3. DeWitt hires a real POBO / GM
4. New POBO / GM fire Marmol and hires new manager (‘his guy’)
5. The process of fixing the Cardinals can then and only then, beginRUMOR OF THE DAY:
NYY get Burleson and DeJong
STL get 3 NYY top prospects Warren RHP (AAA) – Fitts RHP (AA) – Vasquez RHP (MLB)
I think two of those three… maybe.
If I am Mo, I call up Philly and try Goldy and Contreras for Mick Abel. Really I just want to dump Contreras contract and it is worth it to clear Goldy’s contract and get Walker learning the 1st base job during a lost year. But I salivated over Abel during his draft year and would love to get him as he is overshadowed by Painter right now and had an injury early in his career. Philly gets a replacement for injured Hoskins this year and adds a couple big bats for their hopes to reclaim the pennant. Then I reveal my deepest, darkest, desire of all…replace Mo with Jeff “Who says you can’t go home” Luhnow. Ok, I’ll put my video game controller down now.
Assuming there is not going to be a sell off of win now guys and a ground up rebuild, one of the initial matters to be decided is what the outfield is going to consist of. It is evident that Carlson is not considered the center fielder of the future. I think he was when Bader was dealt, but no longer. I had thought Noot would go back there for a more extended trial, but now it seems like Edman might be more than a fill in. Could that be what they are going to do? They do need to decide, because that ripples through the position player side of the roster and affects who they can trade.
The pitching side I consider a hopeless disaster that cannot be fixed by the current regime. They can’t buy enough talent to fix it. They don’t have the skill to get the right guys even if they could afford it. They can’t develop any significant part of what will be needed, that much is obvious as well. The system of acquiring and developing talent simply doesn’t work. There just isn’t an answer and it will not get fixed.
I like MrPerkins’ ideas. I would be shopping Goldy and look to get a prime top prospect, plus a close to or major league ready starter. Tough to do, but in the right situation you can do that.
IMO, the Cards rushed Walker to the majors. I know he had a great year at Springfield and shined in Spring Training. However, I have seen this happen before. This does not guarantee success at the Major League Level.
Walker has done an admirable job at the plate against RHP. However, I agree he needs more time learning to play the outfield. I am nit a big fan seeing him learn to play at the Major League Level.
Additionally, I am not confident Carlson or Burleson are going to be reliable every day players. Hope I am wrong.
I just read an article on this and it seemed to infer that the fans are what wants the team to be a contender every year. That is nonsense. This is the model that ownership has prized cause they figure it puts people in the seats. Sure fans want the team to win but if you asked whether you want a team that is playoff capable every year but not really a dominant playoff type team vs having a few down seasons with some dominant teams within that time, I think they will take the latter. The main issue this season isn’t the team losing but that plenty of people knew the pitching issues we had which largely have led us to a losing record and nothing was really done about it in the off-season. True being a decent team every year can sooth over a bad finish but this teams issues were known enough that fans aren’t going to give ownership a break once we started losing.
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