Melville wrote: ↑16 Aug 2025 08:53 amWhen everyone here was saying in 2021that the Cardinals had an "elite" and "top 5" outfield with the "emergence" The Paper Tyler, The Poser, and the rookie appearance of Lars The Human Sushi-baar who some claimed were "MVP and All-Star caliber players", I was the ONLY person who correctly analyzed and advised that the outfield was the team's greatest weakness.
Everyone said I was wrong.
I said everyone was fooled - except me.
I was, of course, absolutely correct.
Which makes me uniquely qualified to analyze the current outfield trainwreck.
Mootbaar, as I alone have correctly advised for the past 4 years, is a 4th outfield platoon player and must be traded.
Scott has promise but is stupidly stubborn at putting the ball in the air and has been too lazy to work seriously on bunting skill - and blame for that is shared with the current coaching staff.
I would give him another opportunity next year - but on a very, very short leash.
He needs to spend all day every day in the off-season working to correct the 2 massive flaws detailed above and demonstrate improvement in ST and then through the first 60 games of next year.
It would be wise to have Church as the 4th/5th outfielder to push Victor along and serve as an obvious threat.
Joshua Baez needs to play CF exclusively in Memphis in early 2026 for that same purpose.
The leaves the corners - and STL must choose to address just ONE of them internally.
If Burleson handles one, Walker must go.
If Walker takes one (which would also require a ready Plan B), then Burleson must go.
That is obviously the CORRECT BASEBALL DECISION.
Whichever departs, he MUST be replaced by an established, productive, reliable, ASG quality RH hitting middle order outfielder.
That should be a non-negotiable imperative for Bloom and the new manager.
That leaves Herrera to discuss.
It is good the Cardinals finally and belated did as I and one other poster on this forum have correctly analyzed for the past 3 seasons by abandoning the idiotic notion that he could be a starting MLB catcher and repurposing him as a potential outfielder (regrettably the past 3 wasted years cannot be undone and that now makes his conversion far more difficult and uncertain than it could have been).
Is he a middle order bat as some here foolishly dreamed of based on 2 games in April?
No - and he never will be unless he radically changes his batting stance (as I have also been saying for 3 years).
But he can be a good BA/OBP guy who could conceivably fit at 2, 8, or 9 in a line-up - but that would not do much to address the anemic outfield problem.
Maybe worth keeping as a 4th outfielder/DH/PH option - but his best value to STL is as a trade piece.
If the team does exactly as I advise, the outfield should finally show some much needed improvement next season.
If they do not do as I advise, it will continue to be a massive issue.
Easy.
Obvious.
Correct.
In the first 6 sentences of your response you used the word “I” five times, the word “me” one time and the phrase “only person” one time. That’s seven personal references in just 6 sentences. It’s a good thing it’s never about you!
