Same Ole

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Johnconrad
Same Ole
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Joined: June 4 14, 12:33 pm

Same Ole

Post by Johnconrad »

Trade deadlines… winter meetings… they all come and go. But, other than a fresh new suit for the front office, the Cardinals didn’t make any moves.

Michael Girsch was added to the powerhouse Cardinal front office as the new VP-GM, with John Mozeliak ascending to the team’s “Presidency”

Cardinal fans can be forgiven for thinking the team may have done more to improve its flagging chances.

On the morning airwaves, the apologies were out in full force

“Wait until the winter meetings!” is the new rallying cry. Wait a minute, weren’t we waiting 4-6 weeks to see “where we are?” Well, where are we?

We’re in just about the same place (2.5 games back) we were when we were told we’d wait 4-6 weeks to see where we are.

The Cardinal’s front office is filled with Doublespeak.

But, the high honors of apologetics goes to none other than Mr. Bernie Miklasz on ESPN Radio

A) Colby Rasmus (who was hoped to have anchored center field for years) was a flop here.
B) Oscar Taveras died.
C) Shelby Miller (who was supposed to be a No. 1 or 2 starter for years) was traded because Taveras died.
D) The core of Matt Holliday, Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina and Waino all aged and some left.
E) The braintrust has replaced none of them. Carlos Martinez (CMart) is not yet and may never be what Waino and/or Chris Carpenter were for this team.
F) ALL attempts at replacement have failed.

As I ponder this list, I think about the massive salaries being paid to suits like President Mozeliak.

I think of 3.4 million fans. I think of $10 beers and $30.00 parking at Ballpark Pillage.

Hey Bern… draft picks don’t work out all the time. In fact, baseball draft picks NORMALLY don’t work out. Hitting a baseball consistently and squarely is the most difficult task in the world of sports.

Pssssst…. draft picks flop for “other teams” also. But, they somehow recover. Even Dodger draft picks flop sometimes.

The local scribes are going on about “logjams” in the outfield. Yes, yes, logjams of unproductive players. Yes, a logjam that consists of Dexter Fowler, Harrison Bader, Windmill Grichuk and Stephen Piscotty isn’t really a “logjam” at all. Its four really unproductive players. Several of whom are being paid quite well to be unproductive and others who look like they’re destined to join them as unproductive players in the future. Some logjam.

And, really? Going back to Rasmus to cite “bad luck”. Rasmus is already RETIRED for God’s sake. That has nothing to do with this year’s team. Just so weak.

It really boils down to this. The post-Jeff Luhnow front office hasn’t been able to draft major league hitters. I’m sure the guys they do draft look good, but they all seem prone to swinging and missing once they face big league pitching. One Windmill after another.

No one could criticize the Cardinals in their drafting and developing of young pitching. This is a good thing.

In fact, cost-controlled young pitching is THE MOST valuable asset in baseball – as Oakland and the ChiSox just proved with Sonny Gray and Quintana

Does it strike anyone as odd that the Cardinals have an abundance of the most valuable commodity in MLB and yet can’t seem to make any trades? You have a stockpile of the most coveted asset in professional sports and somehow, you always seem to have another young arm to sacrifice in Mike Matheny’s bullpen, but none available to trade for a capable middle of the order hitter?

The losses and the excuses keep piling up.

Folks – there is no plan.

Cardinals’ fans have every right to be disgusted – both with the Cardinals’ front office and the softball St. Louis sports media complex.

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TheoSqua
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Re: Same Ole

Post by TheoSqua »

I honestly have no idea who you're trying to argue against or what your goal is of these posts.

We get it, you think the team is heading in the wrong direction. You make about 10 posts a day about it.

Especially in this forum. Yeah, there's a few homers - and they're allowed to be homers this is a friggin Cardinals baseball forum.

But that said there's a pretty big majority of posters that all agree on these points:

- The Team isn't doing as well as they could.
- Management and Ownership deserve criticism for their passive approach to roster construction over the last few years.
- Mike Matheny is not a good manager.
- The bullpen has not been very good.
- This team is not a playoff calibre team.
- Managment misse the mark at the trade deadline.
- The team earns enough money to spend more on salaries.
- The team hasn't managed their assets as well as they could.

The team has been heading in the wrong direction for several years.

But dude, seriously, it's not the end of the world.

- This is just baseball. We're all fans and love the team/game, it's why we're still spending ridiculous hours on a phpbb forum talking about them. But it's just a sport - we're not going to protest outside of Busch stadium and the people who are going to quit buying tickets because this team isn't a .550 team already stopped buying tickets.
- The team's ownership still is not BAD. They spent a lot of money on keeping the team competitive. It might not be the best spent money, but it's not like ownership is selling everything to maximize profits ala the Marlins.
- The team still isn't that bad. They're over .500. The team has a better win/loss percentage than 17 other teams in the league right now. They haven't had a losing season in a decade and i'm pretty sure they're the only team that can say that.
- In that span, the Cardinals are top 5 in wins, playoff appearances, ws appearnaces, ws wins - basically if it's a good stat over the last ten years the Cardinals are top 5 in it.
- Their run of success is so long that teams like the Reds, Brewers, and Astros have sucked, rebuilt, won, sucked, rebuilt, and started winning again (well the brewers at least on the last part).
- There is potential for the future. The farm system isn't horrible. Management has shown it can build quality teams in the past. Ownership has shown it will invest enough money to keep the team competitive. A complete rebuild where the team starts losing 100 games a year and stocks up on first overall picks isn't likely in the near future.


So yeah, no one is happy that the team is trending in the wrong direction. We like having good coversation about what's going wrong and what the team needs to do to correct that.

But good god man, get some perspective.

Johnconrad
Same Ole
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Re: Same Ole

Post by Johnconrad »

What do you think they should do?

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Farewell Friends
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Re: Same Ole

Post by Farewell Friends »

Trade for Matt Adams.

Johnconrad
Same Ole
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Re: Same Ole

Post by Johnconrad »

The Braves turned down President Moe's offer of Mike Mayers.

Can you imagine?

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Hoot45
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Re: Same Ole

Post by Hoot45 »

Johnconrad wrote:What do you think they should do?
There's this message board gatewayredbirds.com you should go there some time and read what people post. Fans have been having this conversation for months over there. Sure, there are some trolls that just spam and ignore anything anyone else has to say, but on the whole it's a good group with a diverse set of valuable, educated, and evolving opinions.

TimChopsula
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Re: Same Ole

Post by TimChopsula »

Farewell Friends wrote:Trade for Matt Adams.
AND THE BRAVEZ COACHES. GET IT DONE YESTURDAY, PREZIDENT MOE!!!1!

Johnconrad
Same Ole
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Re: Same Ole

Post by Johnconrad »

Hoot45 wrote:
Johnconrad wrote:What do you think they should do?
There's this message board gatewayredbirds.com you should go there some time and read what people post. Fans have been having this conversation for months over there. Sure, there are some trolls that just spam and ignore anything anyone else has to say, but on the whole it's a good group with a diverse set of valuable, educated, and evolving opinions.
Hoot,

What should they do?

Is it time to hire another guy for the front office?

Should they actually get serious about acquiring another hitter?

Rick Hummel said they'd have "offensive star talent" on the roster within 2 months. He said that in May/June.

Is that "offensive start talent" Paul DeJong? Is that what Rick Hummel meant?

What do you think?

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Farewell Friends
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Re: Same Ole

Post by Farewell Friends »

Why is it not DeJong? You were applauding the Braves for finally "developing" Adams after a good six weeks. Why are you not saying the same for DeJong?

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CardsofSTL
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Re: Same Ole

Post by CardsofSTL »

Farewell Friends wrote:Why is it not DeJong? You were applauding the Braves for finally "developing" Adams after a good six weeks. Why are you not saying the same for DeJong?
Doesn't fit the narrative.

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