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“At the end of the day, the Cardinals are probably what we thought they were at the beginning of the season. Most people thought the Cardinals would be around a .500 club, at best. That looks accurate.”
I can’t agree with this statement.
On Opening Day, the Cardinals were in fact co-favorites (with the Cubs) for the division title, per the professional betting lines. Those two franchises were 2-1, the Reds were 5-2, the Brewers were 7-1 (wish I’d bet more than 10 bucks), and the Pirates who cares?Also, the Cards’ over/under line was 86 wins. So they were not supposed to be “.500 at best.” They were supposed to contend for the division title. Just like they were supposed to contend for the division last year.
The Cards are underachieving relative to their talent. Not as horrifically as last year, but still significantly underachieving. And that falls to the manager, in my opinion.
As far as Goldy and next year’s first base job — why not Burleson?! He’s a poor defensive outfielder, and Marmol (and most other managers) does not believe in deploying a full-time DH, so that’s out. So a transition to first base is perfectly logical for Burly, isn’t it?
I did not think we would be as good as the betting odds, but was hoping I was wrong.
Burly would be my choice to look at as next year’s first sacker. Also give Baker a long look in the Spring, and maybe in September to see what he looks like.
Don’t go the free agent market as we need to be working on a five-year plan, rather than the one-year hope-and-pray methodology of the last decade.
ZTR, your observations above are spot on! I hope we do not resign Goldschmidt! Give Baker or Burleson a chance! There production and clutch hitting can’t possibly be any worse than Goldschmidt and they won’t cost as much!
The 2024 season opening line from my source, betonline.ag, had the Cards and Cubs at 84 1/2 wins each. While they were the best in the division, that is faint praise. 84 1/2 was the lowest win line for any division leader and the NLC in total was the worst collection of teams in all of MLB per this oddsmaker.
To the bottom line, I agree 100% that the Cards are underachieving in a division that should have been easiest to win.
I don’t know the rules but I believe there is a minimum based on his current salary that they can tender and offer to Goldschmidt and it would be much more than he will get as a free agent. They have to tender him to get a draft choice if he doesn’t sign.
I agree that Burleson would be the replacement. As for platooning him, I think it is insane. He has become one of our best hitters and is still developing. How is he ever going to develop his hitting against lefties if he doesn’t play against them. Same with Gorman who would be the third base replacement if we can get someone to take on Aranado and get anything of quality for him.
But can Mo really get anyone of quality. I could be wrong but I believe that we have zero contribution for all the supposedly hot prospects we got at the 2023 deadline deals.
The rules are that the Cardinals cannot offer Goldy more than a 20% pay cut while he is still under contract to them. So that has a zero percent chance of happening. There will be no offer and no draft pick compensation. But once he becomes a free agent, anyone can offer anything.
Burleson has been playing some against lefties. I would play him the rest of this year in that role and see if he can improve. It isn’t like he is blocking anyone. But heading into the off-season, they need to make a clear decision if he is a platoon player going forward and build the 2025 roster accordingly. A masher against RHP is a good thing to have.
Similar to the arrival of The White Rat in
1980, The Cardinals are in crisis. The organization no longer has an identity and ownership appears to be in denial of how bad it has gotten.The DeWitt’s refuse to do it, but they need to blow the whole thing up and start from scratch. New Management, new Coaches, New Scouting, New players! If it ain’t broke don’t fix it…well boys & girls, it’s BROKE!
We have to look outside the organization for a manager. Find hitting & pitching coaches with a track record of success…I do not care if they have a Cardinal background or connections with this organization!
Make trades. Lots of them. Sign free agents. Screw sentimentality…b like Ole Red and figure out who can play at a high level and who can’t. Figure out who can be fixed and who can’t. DO NOT ACCEPT MEDIOCRITY!
It’s a big job. It’s a difficult job. It may not always be popular or pretty. But this organization is not only a mess, it seems to lack a direction. Ownership
MUST figure out what type of team the want and find someone to build that team.Whitey wanted speed, switch-hitters, defense. He wanted men on base with speed so teams could never relax.
TLR liked power and sound fundamentals. He wanted guys who gave 100% on every pitch no matter the situation.
I have no idea what this team is?
Here’s what I do know…
1. Nado is too young to lose his power completely.
2. Scouts raved about Carlson & Gorman & Walker. They get here and regress. Significantly. And no one seems to have a clue how to help them!
3. We’ve traded away some darn good players and received little in return in many cases.
4. This team is no longer an attractive destination for free agents.
5. Resigning a 37 year old Goldy would be yet another mistake.
6. Stop signing washed up vets like Carpenter & Crawford.
End of rant. Enjoy your weekend.
Nice rant ADM. It is comforting to not be out on this ledge by myself any more. There is getting to be a crowd out here now.
As to Brian’s comment about looking at guys, once we wave the white flag, in anticipation of roster decisions for next year. I argued the same last season and nothing happened. I would describe where management’s head seems to be but I am mindful of family friendliness.
As I have been saying for a couple years, nothing good can happen until BDW opens his hand and observes that the beans he has been clutching are not what they were billed as. They are not magic and they are not going to sprout and carry the organization upward to baseball heaven. He was hoodwinked by a pretender who has driven the organization to total and profound ruin. My concern is that BDW is not a spring chicken and I do not know if he has it in him to show his baseball love child the door, bulldoze it all into the river and rebuild from the ground up. That is what it will take and I am not sure Mr. DeWit is up to it.
Right!
It needs to be bulldozed! And when re-built, let’s forget about legacy Cardinals!! We need baseball people who have a track record of success!
I love Pujols, Yadi, Carpenter, Waino, etc…but they are not the answer!
Go outside the organization ! Start by finding the best hitting coach on the planet who can work with and hopefully fix Walker, Gorman, Scott, and yes…even Nado! If the can be fixed, get ’em out of here! Bring in winners!!!
DeWitt knows a lot about baseball and business and is highly engaged. He hasn’t been hoodwinked. That is a ridiculous assertion.
He tried to walk the line between profit and competitiveness. Ever since Albert and TLR left there has been a slow but consistent decline.
I don’t know the answer. I don’t know if a new regime will be enough. It would be expensive and disruptive and it would take time to rebuild.
Does BDW have the appetite for it after almost three decades of ownership? Only he knows…
Nobody knows the answer for sure because crystal balls don’t really exist – however – we DO know that the current people and systems in place do NOT work.
As anyone who has been paying attention knows, there has been a slow, steady decline over the past decade.
Changes (BIG) need to happen. The scary thing is that whatever changes are made may not work and it won’t be apparent for 2-3 years if they will or won’t.
It’s a lot easier to stink than it is to be great and it’s a lot harder to stay great once you get there than it is to roll back down the mountain.
It’s possible that the Cardinals do not have the ownership people and structure in place to fix this.
Start by finding the best hitting coach on the planet who can work with and hopefully fix Walker, Gorman, Scott
I think this is a loop a lot of observers are stuck in right now. The solution is not to find a hitting coach who can fix whatever has spewed out the end of the organization’s development pipeline. If the issue were with this guy or that guy, then hell yes, find somebody who can work with them and fix it. But the issue is with all of them, so it is not them, it is a common denominator. That needs to found and fixed. That is hard and requires somebody who knows what he is looking at.
That is not to say the ML staff is fine. Hell no they are not fine. They are organization minions who color inside the lines. The output of the analytics staff informs the hell out of whatever they do. If it didn’t they would be gone like many others. But to say the ML hitting coach is to blame for not fixing what pops out of the pipe is wrong. On the other hand, to imagine that a Turner Ward and a Brandon Allen are going to be able to help a Nolan Arenado is also wrong.
Brian I do not dispute Mr. Dewit’s basebll chops or business chops, but he is not some kind of baseball businessman Jesus walking on water. Since the smart people left for Houston its been a long downhill coast living on the momentun, and, yes, Mr. DeWit was hoodwinked, and yes he was hoodwinked by a pretender who confidently slid in behind the wheel.
If BDW Jr doesn’t have the stomach to do what needs to be done then he should step aside and turn it over to BDW III. I have no idea what kind of owner III will be but he should at least be young enough to have the energy to roll up his sleeves and do some hard work. Right now we are just slowly headed off a cliff.
No, bling! You BELIEVE with no substantiation that DeWitt has been duped – for the 17 years he has kept Mozeliak in charge. I repeat, this is ridiculous. This owner, who is more engaged than most of his peers, is as responsible as his people.
Paul Goldschmidt has been one of my favorite Cardinals during his time here but even I couldn’t give you a good reason to bring him back next year unless it was an extremely team friendly deal. It baffles me how an organization could on one hand suggest that rough economic times are here, the budget may need to trimmed, then on the other hand contemplate spending money on one of their least productive players. How does that even make sense?
And what is wrong with some platoons? No you don’t want an entire roster of platoon players but they can work here and there. The Dodgers have the big 3 (Ohtani, Betts, Freeman) and a bunch of platoon players and they do fine (Ok Smith and Hernandez are good but they still have several platoon players). Whitey didn’t have many platoons because he had a roster of switch hitters. He did platoon in RF with Van Slyke and Landrum.
What is wrong with a Burly/Baker platoon at 1B or Burly/Herrera or Burly/Contreras?
Gscottar, just to clarify, when I say appetite, it is also financial. A rebuild could require more expense to execute at the same time the team brings in less revenue. I imagine this could be a factor in the DeWitts thinking. When is the situation dire enough they feel they have to do it?
The other thing I have seen the Dodgers do is regularly turn over their bench. On the other hand, the Cards hold pat. The good try to get better. I admire that in them.
I get that Brian but father time catches up with all of us eventually. BDW may still be spry but does an 82 year old man really want to oversee a major overhaul? I wouldn’t think so but I could be wrong.
That is a great question, gscottar. DeWitts personal motivation may be yet another factor that is very difficult to assess.
When is the situation dire enough they feel they have to do it?
A friend from the old days at TCNB used to say ‘its not about baseball’, and this is such a case. The situation will be dire enough when it is assessed that the cost of not doing an organizational overhaul and rebuild exceeds the cost of doing it.
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