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You need to change some names to give the visual appearance of doing something. Not everyone reads articles written about the team. Creating some good vibes can motivate your fanbase to come out and support the team more. Now if they are ok with lower attendance, then fine dont make any visual changes as the team goes through this process.
Some more stats to consider:
If the Mets get in, 9 of the top 10 offenses will have made the playoffs with only Minnesota as the outlier and they just missed the postseason.
Pitching and defense also correlate well to playoff teams, but aren’t quite as predictive. For example, Toronto had the #2 defense and the Cubs were #4.
Some more interesting information on value production looking at what a player was worth due to their production this season in millions (top 10, bottom 5):
Gray – $30.7
Winn – $27.2
Arenado – $24.8
Donovan – $22.9
Contreras – $21.1
Helsley – $18.3
Herrera – $16.9
Mikolas – $15.8
Nootbaar – $14.1
Pallante – $12.9Carpenter – -$1.9
Scott – -$3.8
Walker – -$4.6
Fermin – -$5.9
Carlson – -$6.6Note that this does not consider their salary. Therefore, the true net value is the number above minus their salary. Goldschmidt has the lowest net value.
Also, Shady would be disappointed to learn Burleson generated only $3.9 in value, which is around 15th on the team.
You gotta get to it to get through it.
We all knew the organization had rotted from the inside but probably not just how bad and for how long.
This is a multi-year fix and if the owner is serious about rebuilding his organization and spending money on minor league coaches, instructors, and other necessary infrastructure AND the money to do that is going to be diverted from signing ML free agents to paper over a decade+ of organizational player development failures THEN +/- .500 baseball in StL may be the ceiling for a couple of seasons.
After the decade we’ve just slogged through that doesn’t sound too good but if it fixes the problem it will turn out well in the end – IF Bloom has lost his touch and it doesn’t work out….. Ugh…..
I find it interesting that ownership considers themselves a small market team. I know by general definition they are. However if you look at their average attendance, they arent really that. I guess if they want to still consider themselves that, they should be ok with a dwindling attendance which may equate to 2 million or slightly less if you go by typical small market teams. Not sure, i need to check out attendance for other small market teams.
Clever marketing can somewhat curb attendance issues at least early in the season.
Philadelphia’s NBA team used a ‘Trust the Process’ slogan to good effect a few years back as an example.
Losing will fatigue any fanbase and by mid season if the writing is on the wall no amount of clever word salad can overcome results on the field BUT it can dampen the effect a little.
By any definition except MLB, the Cardinals are a small market team. They used to draw well because they put a winning product on the field. That was their path to profit maximization. It seems that started robbing Peter to pay Paul a few years back, and it has caught up to them.
The Cardinals have always been a regional draw with fans coming in from far and wide for weekend series.
When I lived in Memphis I’d go to a couple of series each year and then try to be in attendance late if they were going to clinch the division.
That was a 5 hour drive each way when the speed limit was 55 and driving 62 or 63 was pushing your luck.
We now live in the Nashville area and so even driving 75 to 80 it’s back to a full 5 hour drive. The cost of everything from gas to tickets to hotels (ridiculous) and food for a weekend trip to StL will now put the cost of a weekend for 4 at well over $2,000 all in (2 rooms within a mile of the stadium plus decent food).
For that amount of money the product in the field better be pretty damn good.
Everything that comes from the Cardinals ownership and organization concerning finances is negative. It’s like working for a company that cries poverty constantly and won’t give decent salaries raises bonuses or good health insurance benefits. But the management and owners all drive luxury cars live in Ladue and belong to Belrieve. It gets old.
Not sure I’d go that far. The bar for making the playoffs isn’t that high and it would merely take a good development team in place to help players like Walker, Gorman, etc and some luck in having Mathews and Hence advance and stay healthy, and you’d be right there by 2026. Far stranger things have happened.
Perhaps so but just making the playoffs shouldn’t be the bar we are shooting for anyway.
IMO we are more than a couple of players away from being a true championship contender. Going out an buying someone like Teoscar Hernandez, Anthony Santander, Pete Alonso, or Corbin Burnes is not going to put us on the level of the Dodgers, Phillie, or even the Brewers. All that would do is bump us up closer to the 6th playoff spot, cause us to forfeit draft picks yet again, and keep us on the borderline playoff merry go round.
Instead of investing in win now players the Cardinals need to invest in their player development system. You can’t build the walls and roof unless you first have a solid foundation and right now our foundation is crumbling. We have all been duped into believing that we are a build from within organization. This scathing report by Katie Woo proves that we haven’t been. Hopefully Bloom will get us back on the right track.
This is why I am not optimistic a quick fix is coming. It took years to get here and it may take years to recover, IMO.
A quick fix is the last thing we need. That is how we got into this mess. We need to be considering dealing Arenado, Contreras, Gray, and Helsley to big market contenders so we can throw all of that savings into our player development system. Yes the next couple of years would be tough but we could out of it much stronger on the other side.
And for those who say “how are you going to replace those guys on the 2025 team? My answer is who cares? Plug the holes the best you can and wait until the pipeline is flowing again. These half measures are killing us.
Note that this does not consider their salary. Therefore, the true net value is the number above minus their salary. Goldschmidt has the lowest net value.
Goldschmidt is not on your list.
Well the list i saw has st louis at 24 at market size. Personally i think they actually have a wider draw area than a lot of teams so not sure about that. Either way the cardinals arent your average small team. If current ownership wants to think like that then they best get used to less fans than more fans. You dont have to win every season but you do need to run your organization better and listen a little more to your fans if you want them to show up like you are a large market team.
Another thing to consider is that if the Cardinals are going to go into a 2 year rebuild, which they should, then they might as well just keep Marmol around. No high quality manager is going to want to deal with a rebuild. The Cardinals should wait until they are ready to win big before hiring an elite manager. That is what the Cubs did a decade ago. Dale Sveum and Rick Renteria got the honor of managing through the rebuild then when they were ready to win they hired Joe Maddon.
For almost 30 years I don’t think there’s ever been a time when this ownerships’ primary source of baseball talent was placed on what’s termed a pipeline. They got lucky with two HOF players who emerged from the minor league system, but every other area on the field including rotations were filled with talent obtained via trades or free agency. The two aforementioned HOF players who somehow emerged from any pipeline may not materialize again for another 50 years.
I dont agree with keeping marmol just for the rebuild. First hes the figurehead and people know hes there, no reason to get excited or even come if you one of the mind he isnt the answer. Now since im old school i will be in the minority on this but i would want a new manager thst is there while all this rebuilding is going on so they are part of the process, seeing how things work, getting to know the other coaches, trainers,new players, etc as opposed to bringing in some outsider and saying here you are, this is your team, team this is your manager. Here go gel and win us a championship this year. I just dont like that.
That is fine willie if you can find an elite manager to sign onto a team who will probably not be a playoff caliber team for the next couple of years. Good luck with that.
I can’t get behind the idea that an 83 year old owner is going to embark on a multi year rebuild. He probably doesn’t even buy green bananas any more. I think they will try to win something next year, and I think they recognize that Mo’s definition of competitive isn’t going to fly.
I also cry BS on the narrative that the org needs to spend more on the minors to get better pipeline results. Spend more on what? DSL signings? Fancier tech gear? The problem seems to me to be the methodology does not work. The philosophy does not work. The people are the wrong people. I reject the idea that the problem with the pipeline is money.
And then there is the manager question. After seeing what happened to Shildt, how might a manager of substance with his own ideas even fit into Mo’s system? It doesn’t make any sense to talk about a real manager until the system is changed.
I also cry BS on the narrative that the org needs to spend more on the minors to get better pipeline results. Spend more on what?
More on pitching labs, hitting labs, enough instructors. The Cardinals have fallen way behind other organizations in this area. The Brewers have triple the instructors we have. Looked at the standings lately? And with Bloom in charge it is much more likely to be done right. He has a track record of of knowing how to do player development.
Elite manager, i would like to know who those are and dont tell me joe maddon. I want a coach with a great knowledge of the game, the ability to interact and lead others, the willingness to take blame as well as being mindful of the clubhouse when talking to the press. A coach that wants to be there on the groundfloor as the team is going through the growing process. I dont want a yes man but i dont want a hired gun. The cardinals need to admit they screwed up by firing shildt and one way to do that is to hire the best baseball guy, not the next yes man
Most likely the most sought after manager this winter will be Skip Schumaker. Would he be willing to take over a rebuild? Maybe I don’t know.
That article was enlightening. Cards have five minor league instructors, with some examples of other clubs having three times that many.
Cardinal youngsters doing things at the major league level that should have been corrected before they got there.
It appears that over the next few years we will beef up the minor league instructional budget, and draft pitching. The big league club will sink or swim with a lot of younger players, and not go to free agents as much as in the past.
A rebuild, or re-organization if you want to call it that, looks like the best option. DeWitt may not be around to see the results a few years from now, but will have left the club in good shape. And that is meaningful in his later years.
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