Question for those not wanting to Rebuild

[Ike Hammett]

In 2011 the Dodgers payroll was around 110 million. The Cards and Rangers(who met in the WS) were in the low 90's millions. Not a lot of difference huh. Now fast forward, the Dodgers are what, 300-350 million? And where are the Cards, 120 million. It's a disgrace. A slap in the face to 3 million fans. And you have the audacity to get on here and justify it. How pathetic.

Thank you for making my point.

In 2011, the Dodgers were outspending the Cardinals by $20 million, or just under 20%. Now, even if the Cardinals spend $200 million, the Dodgers are outspending them by $125 million, or nearly 40%. And multiple other teams are on the Dodgers heels in terms of spending as well.

Baseball has changed and the Cardinals, now more than ever, have to develop more young, cost controlled talent to compete.

They aren't even trying to keep up with the teams just below the Dodgers and we're talking about a team that drew 3 million fans for nearly two decades. A team that has a profit of over 300 million a year. They could easily be a top 10 payroll. They CHOOSE not to. Saying baseball has changed doesn't mean that it hasn't changed for the Cards also. The Dodgers spend more because everything goes up, but it goes up for the Cards also. If a team doesn't try to win then why is it even playing? It's like the Dodgers and other top 10 teams are playing poker while the Cards are playing Uno. How do you not see this? If the strategy you push is so viable then why don't all winning teams push that more? It's obvious perennial losers do. How much talent have the Pirates alone traded away? What did it win them?

And as I've explained over and over again, it's about spending smartly. And WHEN to spend is a key component of spending smartly.

By all means, they should spend when they have an actual chance to compete - but right now they don't have an actual chance to compete.

Spending just to be mediocre isn't competing.

Pujols was drafted in like the 13th round, The Yadfather was drafted in the fourth. Not all great players come from the draft lottery. Go draft and develop all you want, nobody is OR EVER HAS BEEN AGAINST IT. Give Jordan Walker and Masyn Winn etc a runway and a real chance, but give us some Goldy, Nado, Contreras, Gray action too!

When they are ready to compete, they should/will add more expensive veterans. But that time isn't now.

It was and IS! The Cards were a Chris Taylor homerun away and just as good as they Dodgers. They were a flukish inning away and favored over the Phillies. So you go out and find a better more upside upgrade and try again. Like get Dustin May to replace Mikolas, find an Emmett Sheheen or Gavin Stone to replace Matz and even save big bucks doing so. IT WAS THE MODEL!

[CCard]

In 2011 the Dodgers payroll was around 110 million. The Cards and Rangers(who met in the WS) were in the low 90's millions. Not a lot of difference huh. Now fast forward, the Dodgers are what, 300-350 million? And where are the Cards, 120 million. It's a disgrace. A slap in the face to 3 million fans. And you have the audacity to get on here and justify it. How pathetic.

Thank you for making my point.

In 2011, the Dodgers were outspending the Cardinals by $20 million, or just under 20%. Now, even if the Cardinals spend $200 million, the Dodgers are outspending them by $125 million, or nearly 40%. And multiple other teams are on the Dodgers heels in terms of spending as well.

Baseball has changed and the Cardinals, now more than ever, have to develop more young, cost controlled talent to compete.

They aren't even trying to keep up with the teams just below the Dodgers and we're talking about a team that drew 3 million fans for nearly two decades. A team that has a profit of over 300 million a year. They could easily be a top 10 payroll. They CHOOSE not to. Saying baseball has changed doesn't mean that it hasn't changed for the Cards also. The Dodgers spend more because everything goes up, but it goes up for the Cards also. If a team doesn't try to win then why is it even playing? It's like the Dodgers and other top 10 teams are playing poker while the Cards are playing Uno. How do you not see this? If the strategy you push is so viable then why don't all winning teams push that more? It's obvious perennial losers do. How much talent have the Pirates alone traded away? What did it win them?

And as I've explained over and over again, it's about spending smartly. And WHEN to spend is a key component of spending smartly.

By all means, they should spend when they have an actual chance to compete - but right now they don't have an actual chance to compete.

Spending just to be mediocre isn't competing.

But you can't say that one pitcher and/or hitter wouldn't put the Cards in the playoffs. Your intent is to build a mythical juggernaut that will require a lot of losing seasons and still guarantee nothing. We disagree.

[CCard]

Again, another "but they can't walk and chew gum at the same time" post. When will you guys understand that they can do both every (drat) season. They've proven they can because they did it and in the process won some championships.

Yes, and why did they do it? They didn't just start from scratch and were immediately successful. It took building of the developmental infrastructure to get it in place so that when they were at a point where they could be truly competitive, they could start bringing in those more established, potentially more expensive players.

We have to build that again (you know, reduild) to get to that point where we were in the past. Unless you think that we are producing players like we did in the first 10 years of the 2000s, then I would think you would agree that development needs more improvement.

Your point is pure foolishness. The Cards had the 16th highest payroll in baseball in 2025. For this franchise that's a disgrace. You all get on here and justify it, kissing DeWitt's a$%. You make me sick. They could easily be spending 50 million more, easily. Imagine what that could turn this team into.

An 81 win team?

Add an rbi guy to the lineup and a top of the rotation pitcher. Shore up the bullpen with some quality and not trade away one of the better Lefty relievers in baseball. Still think it's an 81 win team? This was with Gray, now they have to replace that talent.

If they had kept Gray, maybe 84 or 85 wins instead of 81. But that's about it.

You're guessing again. It's not a good look for a stats guy.