Cards on pace to miss wildcard by 5 or 6 games

[Cardinals4Life]

So 5 games out of the WC, let's say. An 81-81 record. And the team didn't do anything this past offseason, had horrible starting pitching and very weak hitting. And the team is mostly very young with no glaring big albatross contracts.

Looking forward to seeing what Bloom does in the offseason.

Exactly. This mess can be cleaned up with a few simple, yet shrewd moves.....and a little $$.

Now if only ownership will allow ot to happen??

[Cardinals4Life]

So in hindsight, if the Cards had just traded Fedde in last year's offseason and replaced him with McGreevy to start the season, and had not given Walker basically an all season runway, one could project they might be right with the Mets currently. They also could have more aggressively called up JJW say post AS game, and one could again project he would have put up a positive WAR and possibly injected some new life into a sputtering engine.
Of course the problem with projections is they often don't pan out as well as, ............. projected, lol, so you never know how the alternative scenario really would have played out.
Kinda been saying it all year, the Cards may not be that far away and in 2026 I think they could factor in the PO's, but not that confident if that's not the Cards FO's focus, and they're still in whatever mode we're currently in. To be fair maybe to still have the focus on rebuilding next year is the better path longer term, but as a fan, patience is often lacking.

The team could've done several things to either a) supplement the roster into a playoff contender OR b) reset as they originally stated and figure out the best way to map things moving forward. They failed on a) and half-measured it on b). Why any of us who have been paying attention the last five years would be surprised by that is beyond me.

It would be unwise to attach any hope for organizational commitment over the next two seasons. Bloom may very well break up some roster redundancies this offseason, but the in-house solutions as we sit here today are further away than 2026. And the team has stated it will not be spending its way into contention this winter.

The team will preach patience which will fall upon deaf ears. The only goodwill achieved between the org and the fanbase will be a new spokesperson.

Well said and encapsulated, VV

[Cardinals4Life]

So what's worse? Missing the playoffs? Or sneaking in by the skin of their teeth, and getting smoked on national TV in a bunting decorated, half empty stadium?

Talking about for the self-respect of the organization. (I know....I know....)

Missing the playoffs is worse.
That's the point of playing each season.

[JDW]

If Walker had not played
Who gets those abats
They would not trade for anyone
It would had to be someone on the 40 roster or in minors

So you could have had an OF stable of Noot (+2.0 bWAR), VS2 (+2.4 bWAR), Burleson (+1.6 bWAR) and Donovan (+2.3 bWAR).
With some foresight, they could have worked with Herrera on OF reps during the last off season to have him ready for more exposure in LF this year.
Then there was Koperniak, Antico and Church in milb that might have settled into a 5th OF role with time. Even Church's less than great first look start at the show, he still is at +0.1 bWAR even with a sub .500 OPS. Defense factors, even though many don't accept that.
Walker has a -1.4 bWAR so far this season. It's possible his innings given to the mix above would reverse that into around a +1.4 bWAR.
Right there is about a potential 3 win difference. That's significant. Walker's defense is bad, and not getting better with a larger sample size than we had early in the season.
I actually think once Church gets more adjusted to MLB, he could have achieved around a +1.4 himself with Walker's playing time, but that's just speculation on my part.

Screw that Nostradumbass, give me the Powerball numbers!

I wasn't the one who made any predictions on here, but wait, didn't you just recently?
Oh yeah, something about Rainiel Rodriguez, where you said something along the lines of "bet he never makes it to the big leagues."
Then Huge took you up on that bet right away. I also followed and suggested a $100 bet that he would.
Did you disappear then, or are we on? It's only chump change after all.

LOL...5 years...10 years from now, how will I collect?

You are right that we would need a timeline, and RR is currently 18 yrs. old. So would 2029 be a fair year to you for RR to reach MLB?
Wetherholt turns 23 Sept. 10th and hasn't made it yet, so RR would be younger than JJW making it to the bigs IF it it's in 2029 or before.
So previously I've lost at least 2 $100 bets on here, one or two to mattmitch and one to Jeffy I think.
In all those cases they had me donate it to Cards Care, in which case you get a nice letter back from Cards care highlighting some of what they do. I PM'd a pic to Jeffy I think showing the letter or receipt if I remember right. MM might have let me get by with just the honor system, ha.
But yeah, it's likely a ways off, although my guess is RR's ETA could be as early as 2027.