Prospects Will lead Bloom Farm to Promise Land

[CorneliusWolfe]

There is no viable option other than to have a strong farm system that develops a lot of talented prospects.

For example, if you want just a 90 win team, you need about 42 fWAR in talent.

The typical values on the FA market for fWAR are $8-$10 million per fWAR.

So if you had to buy all of your 42 fWAR from FAs, your payroll would be in the range of $336-$420 million.

Since the Cardinals have typically had payrolls in the $170, $180 million range - obviously they need a lot of less-than-full-market-value players, who come from the farm system to have 90 win, 92 win, 95 win, etc. rosters.

The idea that a front office can formulaically draft its way to “42 fWAR” and hit on enough prospects, all within the same window, is not realistic. If winning baseball were purely linear, every team with a top-ranked farm system would win a WS.

Wins Above Replacement measures volume, not high-leverage execution or postseason resilience. Top prospects fail at alarming rates due to injuries and mechanical exposure. Young rosters lack leadership, especially with weak coaching.

Baseball is a game of human variance, not a deterministic simulation where inputs guarantee outputs.

Top prospects bust or stall frequently.
Buying established, predictable MLB production eliminates the guessing game. And I don’t mean as occasional mid-tier filler. Cardinals are going to have to spend - significantly - to win. They aren’t going to get 90% there with prospects.

Yes, they will have to spend significantly, at some point, to add a few, select, key FAs.

But that spending comes AFTER you have developed the core of young players that you need to build around. Only AFTER you have developed that core do you know what are the priority holes you have to fill. And you have to keep at acquiring and developing prospects until you get to that core of young players on your ML roster.

It's not just spending - it's timely, informed, and smart spending that will be necessary.

Before the recent stall, our 1-4 in the lineup was amongst the most productive in MLB. Our rotation has 3-5 solidified with McGreevy, Pallante, and Leahy. We have a closer near the top in saves and a great setup man in Soriano and another promising in in Graceffo. Gastelum has been taking his lumps but did earn his promotion. Baez is on his way along with Cintje and Liam Doyle. We have two young stars in JJ and Walker.

Is that not enough young talent to work with? If we keep waiting, the young talent we current have is going to be deep in arbitration and reaching free agency and will be lost. The time to shift to a winning mentality is this offseason. The stars will NEVER perfectly align. Keep waiting and making cherry picked metric based excuses and this team will continue to bottom feed.

Worst to first isn’t happening. Incremental success is more sensible. To think we’re just going to jump straight from non-playoff bottom feeder to WS winner is ridiculous.

No, it's not.

Just having a 1-4 in your lineup isn't enough.

And the Cardinals are, at least, having developed 1-2 young, front of rotation SPs short of being ready to compete.

They need to develop and get Doyle, Franklin, Cijinte, R. Rodriguez, Baez, etc. to the majors not just be "on the way."

And you have to keep the young talent you have developed (Wetherholt, etc.) from being "lost" by aggressively signing them to team friendly long term extensions so that you keep them through their prime seasons.

And, yes, it all takes time. Houston went through three 100+ loss seasons (2011-2013) before they rebuilt, then started spending again, and won. Atlanta went through three 90+ loss seasons (2015-2017) before they rebuilt, then started spending again, and won.

If Cardinals fans can stand just being a sub-.500 team for two or three years, maybe they need to toughen up a bit like Astros and Braves fans.

And you think all of this is going to happen all within the same timeframe? Why can’t we sign a good starter as we wait for the others? Quite
possible both Doyle and Cintje fail, or at least don’t live up to FOTR standard. What then? Back at square one.

Why can’t we buy a bat or two? Maybe a top tier and a mid tier? No one will stop Baez or Raniel from carving out a role if they force the issue. We could always trade someone away if there’s that bad of a logjam. If Bloom’s developmental system is so magical, let them bask in its glory another year to ensure success and less growing pains. You act like we have nothing right now. If that’s the case, the plan has already proven to be completely ineffective.

You must really think Bloom is a genius and knows something everyone else doesn’t.

They don't have "nothing," but they are clearly far short still of having enough.

And, if you know you are far short of having enough, you don't go out now and add older, expensive veterans to it just to fall short - because that is how you end up with 2025 Nolan Arenado on your roster instead of 2021/2022 Nolan Arenado when you DO have enough and ARE ready to compete.

Keep the books clean of big contracts that will likely be bad in 3-4 years when you aren't ready to compete now anyway.

When you prospect and metric guys run out of answers you always bring up Nolan Arenado. What about these guys, who their teams followed your master plan of getting prearb team friendly extensions? Are they not more relevant examples?:

Wander Franco, Tampa Bay Rays, 11 years, $182M
Ke'Bryan Hayes, Pittsburgh Pirates, 8yr $70M
Kristian Campbell, 8 years, $60M
Luis Robert Jr. 6 years, $50M
Paul DeJong, 6 years, $26M
Eloy Jiménez, 6 years, $43M
Fernando Tatís Jr. 14 years, $340M (he was prearb)

A bunch of “safe-bets” on this list that were projected to be 2-3 fWAR and then some. Every one was a mistake. Your plan is not bullet proof, no matter how passionately you believe in the metrics.

Once the CBA dust settles the Cards need to spend aggressively to supplement their draft and development efforts and up their game in international scouting too, otherwise they are not serious about winning.

[CorneliusWolfe]

There is no viable option other than to have a strong farm system that develops a lot of talented prospects.

For example, if you want just a 90 win team, you need about 42 fWAR in talent.

The typical values on the FA market for fWAR are $8-$10 million per fWAR.

So if you had to buy all of your 42 fWAR from FAs, your payroll would be in the range of $336-$420 million.

Since the Cardinals have typically had payrolls in the $170, $180 million range - obviously they need a lot of less-than-full-market-value players, who come from the farm system to have 90 win, 92 win, 95 win, etc. rosters.

The idea that a front office can formulaically draft its way to “42 fWAR” and hit on enough prospects, all within the same window, is not realistic. If winning baseball were purely linear, every team with a top-ranked farm system would win a WS.

Wins Above Replacement measures volume, not high-leverage execution or postseason resilience. Top prospects fail at alarming rates due to injuries and mechanical exposure. Young rosters lack leadership, especially with weak coaching.

Baseball is a game of human variance, not a deterministic simulation where inputs guarantee outputs.

Top prospects bust or stall frequently.
Buying established, predictable MLB production eliminates the guessing game. And I don’t mean as occasional mid-tier filler. Cardinals are going to have to spend - significantly - to win. They aren’t going to get 90% there with prospects.

Yes, they will have to spend significantly, at some point, to add a few, select, key FAs.

But that spending comes AFTER you have developed the core of young players that you need to build around. Only AFTER you have developed that core do you know what are the priority holes you have to fill. And you have to keep at acquiring and developing prospects until you get to that core of young players on your ML roster.

It's not just spending - it's timely, informed, and smart spending that will be necessary.

Before the recent stall, our 1-4 in the lineup was amongst the most productive in MLB. Our rotation has 3-5 solidified with McGreevy, Pallante, and Leahy. We have a closer near the top in saves and a great setup man in Soriano and another promising in in Graceffo. Gastelum has been taking his lumps but did earn his promotion. Baez is on his way along with Cintje and Liam Doyle. We have two young stars in JJ and Walker.

Is that not enough young talent to work with? If we keep waiting, the young talent we current have is going to be deep in arbitration and reaching free agency and will be lost. The time to shift to a winning mentality is this offseason. The stars will NEVER perfectly align. Keep waiting and making cherry picked metric based excuses and this team will continue to bottom feed.

Worst to first isn’t happening. Incremental success is more sensible. To think we’re just going to jump straight from non-playoff bottom feeder to WS winner is ridiculous.

No, it's not.

Just having a 1-4 in your lineup isn't enough.

And the Cardinals are, at least, having developed 1-2 young, front of rotation SPs short of being ready to compete.

They need to develop and get Doyle, Franklin, Cijinte, R. Rodriguez, Baez, etc. to the majors not just be "on the way."

And you have to keep the young talent you have developed (Wetherholt, etc.) from being "lost" by aggressively signing them to team friendly long term extensions so that you keep them through their prime seasons.

And, yes, it all takes time. Houston went through three 100+ loss seasons (2011-2013) before they rebuilt, then started spending again, and won. Atlanta went through three 90+ loss seasons (2015-2017) before they rebuilt, then started spending again, and won.

If Cardinals fans can stand just being a sub-.500 team for two or three years, maybe they need to toughen up a bit like Astros and Braves fans.

And you think all of this is going to happen all within the same timeframe? Why can’t we sign a good starter as we wait for the others? Quite
possible both Doyle and Cintje fail, or at least don’t live up to FOTR standard. What then? Back at square one.

Why can’t we buy a bat or two? Maybe a top tier and a mid tier? No one will stop Baez or Raniel from carving out a role if they force the issue. We could always trade someone away if there’s that bad of a logjam. If Bloom’s developmental system is so magical, let them bask in its glory another year to ensure success and less growing pains. You act like we have nothing right now. If that’s the case, the plan has already proven to be completely ineffective.

You must really think Bloom is a genius and knows something everyone else doesn’t.

The pipeline that's being created and the system Bloom has in place isn't solely dependent on Doyle and Cintje being studs.

Totally agree, some of the fruits are already on the roster or banging on the door in the minors. And it might be hard for some to admit, but Mo made some good picks the last few years too, though it was a concerted effort with Bloom as he has been around a few years in waiting. I still say, the majority either won’t make it or won’t live up to their ceilings at least. All avenues, including spending and international scouting should be prioritized equally starting this offseason. The cupboards are no longer bare.

[ecleme22]

There is no viable option other than to have a strong farm system that develops a lot of talented prospects.

For example, if you want just a 90 win team, you need about 42 fWAR in talent.

The typical values on the FA market for fWAR are $8-$10 million per fWAR.

So if you had to buy all of your 42 fWAR from FAs, your payroll would be in the range of $336-$420 million.

Since the Cardinals have typically had payrolls in the $170, $180 million range - obviously they need a lot of less-than-full-market-value players, who come from the farm system to have 90 win, 92 win, 95 win, etc. rosters.

The idea that a front office can formulaically draft its way to “42 fWAR” and hit on enough prospects, all within the same window, is not realistic. If winning baseball were purely linear, every team with a top-ranked farm system would win a WS.

Wins Above Replacement measures volume, not high-leverage execution or postseason resilience. Top prospects fail at alarming rates due to injuries and mechanical exposure. Young rosters lack leadership, especially with weak coaching.

Baseball is a game of human variance, not a deterministic simulation where inputs guarantee outputs.

Top prospects bust or stall frequently.
Buying established, predictable MLB production eliminates the guessing game. And I don’t mean as occasional mid-tier filler. Cardinals are going to have to spend - significantly - to win. They aren’t going to get 90% there with prospects.

Yes, they will have to spend significantly, at some point, to add a few, select, key FAs.

But that spending comes AFTER you have developed the core of young players that you need to build around. Only AFTER you have developed that core do you know what are the priority holes you have to fill. And you have to keep at acquiring and developing prospects until you get to that core of young players on your ML roster.

It's not just spending - it's timely, informed, and smart spending that will be necessary.

Before the recent stall, our 1-4 in the lineup was amongst the most productive in MLB. Our rotation has 3-5 solidified with McGreevy, Pallante, and Leahy. We have a closer near the top in saves and a great setup man in Soriano and another promising in in Graceffo. Gastelum has been taking his lumps but did earn his promotion. Baez is on his way along with Cintje and Liam Doyle. We have two young stars in JJ and Walker.

Is that not enough young talent to work with? If we keep waiting, the young talent we current have is going to be deep in arbitration and reaching free agency and will be lost. The time to shift to a winning mentality is this offseason. The stars will NEVER perfectly align. Keep waiting and making cherry picked metric based excuses and this team will continue to bottom feed.

Worst to first isn’t happening. Incremental success is more sensible. To think we’re just going to jump straight from non-playoff bottom feeder to WS winner is ridiculous.

No, it's not.

Just having a 1-4 in your lineup isn't enough.

And the Cardinals are, at least, having developed 1-2 young, front of rotation SPs short of being ready to compete.

They need to develop and get Doyle, Franklin, Cijinte, R. Rodriguez, Baez, etc. to the majors not just be "on the way."

And you have to keep the young talent you have developed (Wetherholt, etc.) from being "lost" by aggressively signing them to team friendly long term extensions so that you keep them through their prime seasons.

And, yes, it all takes time. Houston went through three 100+ loss seasons (2011-2013) before they rebuilt, then started spending again, and won. Atlanta went through three 90+ loss seasons (2015-2017) before they rebuilt, then started spending again, and won.

If Cardinals fans can stand just being a sub-.500 team for two or three years, maybe they need to toughen up a bit like Astros and Braves fans.

And you think all of this is going to happen all within the same timeframe? Why can’t we sign a good starter as we wait for the others? Quite
possible both Doyle and Cintje fail, or at least don’t live up to FOTR standard. What then? Back at square one.

Why can’t we buy a bat or two? Maybe a top tier and a mid tier? No one will stop Baez or Raniel from carving out a role if they force the issue. We could always trade someone away if there’s that bad of a logjam. If Bloom’s developmental system is so magical, let them bask in its glory another year to ensure success and less growing pains. You act like we have nothing right now. If that’s the case, the plan has already proven to be completely ineffective.

You must really think Bloom is a genius and knows something everyone else doesn’t.

The pipeline that's being created and the system Bloom has in place isn't solely dependent on Doyle and Cintje being studs.

Totally agree, some of the fruits are already on the roster or banging on the door in the minors. And it might be hard for some to admit, but Mo made some good picks the last few years too, though it was a concerted effort with Bloom as he has been around a few years in waiting.

I think about the 2011 Cardinals OF. Homegrowns were Rasmus, Craig, Jay, Skip. Big contract was Holliday. A one year flyer was Berkman.

It's about finding top prospects like Rasmus, but it's also about having internal productive players like Craig, Jay, Skip, etc. If you have a darn good supporting cast, then it makes the Hollidays and Berkman acquisitions more impactful. And, it makes the guys like Rasmus expendable.


Bloom isn't just building a pipeline of ace starters and studs. He's building a deep system of simply productive players who can make an impact on the MLB level.

[CorneliusWolfe]

Where is this team if they just held onto WC and Gray?
Theres 43mil……and the possibilities of another 47mil somewhere on this field are over the top.
Gray
May
McGreevy
Pallante
Leahy
And possibly another #2

With Contreras and another 3-5 hitter in this lineup

I was pounding the table all offseason for months. This entire episode and journey now engrained into Cardinals Nation minds about Prospects Prospects is the only way…..was only to save BDW money. Everything detailed above would not have killed restocking Bloom Farm.
Winning could’ve been sustained with rebuilding Farm. What killed this org with Mo’s bad moves and allowing farm to go stale.…..not having higher payroll.

In a highly entertaining and compelling dogfight with the Cubs for the top wildcard spot with a still very young roster gaining valuable big game experience that separates the men from the boys and helps further identify which young players actually should be extended. But who cares about all that, right?

[11WSChamps]

Resurrecting this dead horse again?

[CorneliusWolfe]

There is no viable option other than to have a strong farm system that develops a lot of talented prospects.

For example, if you want just a 90 win team, you need about 42 fWAR in talent.

The typical values on the FA market for fWAR are $8-$10 million per fWAR.

So if you had to buy all of your 42 fWAR from FAs, your payroll would be in the range of $336-$420 million.

Since the Cardinals have typically had payrolls in the $170, $180 million range - obviously they need a lot of less-than-full-market-value players, who come from the farm system to have 90 win, 92 win, 95 win, etc. rosters.

The idea that a front office can formulaically draft its way to “42 fWAR” and hit on enough prospects, all within the same window, is not realistic. If winning baseball were purely linear, every team with a top-ranked farm system would win a WS.

Wins Above Replacement measures volume, not high-leverage execution or postseason resilience. Top prospects fail at alarming rates due to injuries and mechanical exposure. Young rosters lack leadership, especially with weak coaching.

Baseball is a game of human variance, not a deterministic simulation where inputs guarantee outputs.

Top prospects bust or stall frequently.
Buying established, predictable MLB production eliminates the guessing game. And I don’t mean as occasional mid-tier filler. Cardinals are going to have to spend - significantly - to win. They aren’t going to get 90% there with prospects.

Yes, they will have to spend significantly, at some point, to add a few, select, key FAs.

But that spending comes AFTER you have developed the core of young players that you need to build around. Only AFTER you have developed that core do you know what are the priority holes you have to fill. And you have to keep at acquiring and developing prospects until you get to that core of young players on your ML roster.

It's not just spending - it's timely, informed, and smart spending that will be necessary.

Before the recent stall, our 1-4 in the lineup was amongst the most productive in MLB. Our rotation has 3-5 solidified with McGreevy, Pallante, and Leahy. We have a closer near the top in saves and a great setup man in Soriano and another promising in in Graceffo. Gastelum has been taking his lumps but did earn his promotion. Baez is on his way along with Cintje and Liam Doyle. We have two young stars in JJ and Walker.

Is that not enough young talent to work with? If we keep waiting, the young talent we current have is going to be deep in arbitration and reaching free agency and will be lost. The time to shift to a winning mentality is this offseason. The stars will NEVER perfectly align. Keep waiting and making cherry picked metric based excuses and this team will continue to bottom feed.

Worst to first isn’t happening. Incremental success is more sensible. To think we’re just going to jump straight from non-playoff bottom feeder to WS winner is ridiculous.

No, it's not.

Just having a 1-4 in your lineup isn't enough.

And the Cardinals are, at least, having developed 1-2 young, front of rotation SPs short of being ready to compete.

They need to develop and get Doyle, Franklin, Cijinte, R. Rodriguez, Baez, etc. to the majors not just be "on the way."

And you have to keep the young talent you have developed (Wetherholt, etc.) from being "lost" by aggressively signing them to team friendly long term extensions so that you keep them through their prime seasons.

And, yes, it all takes time. Houston went through three 100+ loss seasons (2011-2013) before they rebuilt, then started spending again, and won. Atlanta went through three 90+ loss seasons (2015-2017) before they rebuilt, then started spending again, and won.

If Cardinals fans can stand just being a sub-.500 team for two or three years, maybe they need to toughen up a bit like Astros and Braves fans.

And you think all of this is going to happen all within the same timeframe? Why can’t we sign a good starter as we wait for the others? Quite
possible both Doyle and Cintje fail, or at least don’t live up to FOTR standard. What then? Back at square one.

Why can’t we buy a bat or two? Maybe a top tier and a mid tier? No one will stop Baez or Raniel from carving out a role if they force the issue. We could always trade someone away if there’s that bad of a logjam. If Bloom’s developmental system is so magical, let them bask in its glory another year to ensure success and less growing pains. You act like we have nothing right now. If that’s the case, the plan has already proven to be completely ineffective.

You must really think Bloom is a genius and knows something everyone else doesn’t.

The pipeline that's being created and the system Bloom has in place isn't solely dependent on Doyle and Cintje being studs.

Totally agree, some of the fruits are already on the roster or banging on the door in the minors. And it might be hard for some to admit, but Mo made some good picks the last few years too, though it was a concerted effort with Bloom as he has been around a few years in waiting.

I think about the 2011 Cardinals OF. Homegrowns were Rasmus, Craig, Jay, Skip. Big contract was Holliday. A one year flyer was Berkman.

It's about finding top prospects like Rasmus, but it's also about having internal productive players like Craig, Jay, Skip, etc. If you have a darn good supporting cast, then it makes the Hollidays and Berkman acquisitions more impactful. And, it makes the guys like Rasmus expendable.


Bloom isn't just building a pipeline of ace starters and studs. He's building a deep system of simply productive players who can make an impact on the MLB level.

Don’t get me wrong, I love what is happening with the recommitment to the pipeline’s overall productivity. It is absolutely critical. And I fully support the seller stance we’ve taken to include this deadline too hopefully. But I think we’ve reached a point to where we can start attacking the rebuild from multiple angles now.

We have our Craig, Jay, and Skip comparables and more right now with JJ, Walker, IH, Burleson, and maybe Church and Blaze, with Baez, Bernal and others knocking on the door too. We also have 3/5 of a really good rotation and a few bullpen pieces, though that is the biggest weakspot, but a bullpen should be the easiest, or at least fastest, to repair.

[mattmitchl44]

There is no viable option other than to have a strong farm system that develops a lot of talented prospects.

For example, if you want just a 90 win team, you need about 42 fWAR in talent.

The typical values on the FA market for fWAR are $8-$10 million per fWAR.

So if you had to buy all of your 42 fWAR from FAs, your payroll would be in the range of $336-$420 million.

Since the Cardinals have typically had payrolls in the $170, $180 million range - obviously they need a lot of less-than-full-market-value players, who come from the farm system to have 90 win, 92 win, 95 win, etc. rosters.

The idea that a front office can formulaically draft its way to “42 fWAR” and hit on enough prospects, all within the same window, is not realistic. If winning baseball were purely linear, every team with a top-ranked farm system would win a WS.

Wins Above Replacement measures volume, not high-leverage execution or postseason resilience. Top prospects fail at alarming rates due to injuries and mechanical exposure. Young rosters lack leadership, especially with weak coaching.

Baseball is a game of human variance, not a deterministic simulation where inputs guarantee outputs.

Top prospects bust or stall frequently.
Buying established, predictable MLB production eliminates the guessing game. And I don’t mean as occasional mid-tier filler. Cardinals are going to have to spend - significantly - to win. They aren’t going to get 90% there with prospects.

Yes, they will have to spend significantly, at some point, to add a few, select, key FAs.

But that spending comes AFTER you have developed the core of young players that you need to build around. Only AFTER you have developed that core do you know what are the priority holes you have to fill. And you have to keep at acquiring and developing prospects until you get to that core of young players on your ML roster.

It's not just spending - it's timely, informed, and smart spending that will be necessary.

Before the recent stall, our 1-4 in the lineup was amongst the most productive in MLB. Our rotation has 3-5 solidified with McGreevy, Pallante, and Leahy. We have a closer near the top in saves and a great setup man in Soriano and another promising in in Graceffo. Gastelum has been taking his lumps but did earn his promotion. Baez is on his way along with Cintje and Liam Doyle. We have two young stars in JJ and Walker.

Is that not enough young talent to work with? If we keep waiting, the young talent we current have is going to be deep in arbitration and reaching free agency and will be lost. The time to shift to a winning mentality is this offseason. The stars will NEVER perfectly align. Keep waiting and making cherry picked metric based excuses and this team will continue to bottom feed.

Worst to first isn’t happening. Incremental success is more sensible. To think we’re just going to jump straight from non-playoff bottom feeder to WS winner is ridiculous.

No, it's not.

Just having a 1-4 in your lineup isn't enough.

And the Cardinals are, at least, having developed 1-2 young, front of rotation SPs short of being ready to compete.

They need to develop and get Doyle, Franklin, Cijinte, R. Rodriguez, Baez, etc. to the majors not just be "on the way."

And you have to keep the young talent you have developed (Wetherholt, etc.) from being "lost" by aggressively signing them to team friendly long term extensions so that you keep them through their prime seasons.

And, yes, it all takes time. Houston went through three 100+ loss seasons (2011-2013) before they rebuilt, then started spending again, and won. Atlanta went through three 90+ loss seasons (2015-2017) before they rebuilt, then started spending again, and won.

If Cardinals fans can stand just being a sub-.500 team for two or three years, maybe they need to toughen up a bit like Astros and Braves fans.

And you think all of this is going to happen all within the same timeframe? Why can’t we sign a good starter as we wait for the others? Quite
possible both Doyle and Cintje fail, or at least don’t live up to FOTR standard. What then? Back at square one.

Why can’t we buy a bat or two? Maybe a top tier and a mid tier? No one will stop Baez or Raniel from carving out a role if they force the issue. We could always trade someone away if there’s that bad of a logjam. If Bloom’s developmental system is so magical, let them bask in its glory another year to ensure success and less growing pains. You act like we have nothing right now. If that’s the case, the plan has already proven to be completely ineffective.

You must really think Bloom is a genius and knows something everyone else doesn’t.

They don't have "nothing," but they are clearly far short still of having enough.

And, if you know you are far short of having enough, you don't go out now and add older, expensive veterans to it just to fall short - because that is how you end up with 2025 Nolan Arenado on your roster instead of 2021/2022 Nolan Arenado when you DO have enough and ARE ready to compete.

Keep the books clean of big contracts that will likely be bad in 3-4 years when you aren't ready to compete now anyway.

When you prospect and metric guys run out of answers you always bring up Nolan Arenado. What about these guys, who their teams followed your master plan of getting prearb team friendly extensions? Are they not more relevant examples?:

Wander Franco, Tampa Bay Rays, 11 years, $182M
Ke'Bryan Hayes, Pittsburgh Pirates, 8yr $70M
Kristian Campbell, 8 years, $60M
Luis Robert Jr. 6 years, $50M
Paul DeJong, 6 years, $26M
Eloy Jiménez, 6 years, $43M
Fernando Tatís Jr. 14 years, $340M (he was prearb)

A bunch of “safe-bets” on this list that were projected to be 2-3 fWAR and then some. Every one was a mistake. Your plan is not bullet proof, no matter how passionately you believe in the metrics.

Once the CBA dust settles the Cards need to spend aggressively to supplement their draft and development efforts and up their game in international scouting too, otherwise they are not serious about winning.

No plan is "bullet proof." Unless you are the Dodgers and can implement their plan.

And - yes - everyone agrees that the Cardinals need to be much better at identifying and developing talented players than they have been for the last decade. They have to be good at knowing who to sign long term, who to go year-to-year with, who to trade, etc.

Any team is going to make some mistakes with the evaluation of their prospects - that is unavoidable in the baseball business. But it is much easier to absorb a $5 or $10 million AAV "miss" on a young player who you signed aggressively than a $25 or $30 million AAV "miss" on an expensive veteran.

[CorneliusWolfe]

There is no viable option other than to have a strong farm system that develops a lot of talented prospects.

For example, if you want just a 90 win team, you need about 42 fWAR in talent.

The typical values on the FA market for fWAR are $8-$10 million per fWAR.

So if you had to buy all of your 42 fWAR from FAs, your payroll would be in the range of $336-$420 million.

Since the Cardinals have typically had payrolls in the $170, $180 million range - obviously they need a lot of less-than-full-market-value players, who come from the farm system to have 90 win, 92 win, 95 win, etc. rosters.

The idea that a front office can formulaically draft its way to “42 fWAR” and hit on enough prospects, all within the same window, is not realistic. If winning baseball were purely linear, every team with a top-ranked farm system would win a WS.

Wins Above Replacement measures volume, not high-leverage execution or postseason resilience. Top prospects fail at alarming rates due to injuries and mechanical exposure. Young rosters lack leadership, especially with weak coaching.

Baseball is a game of human variance, not a deterministic simulation where inputs guarantee outputs.

Top prospects bust or stall frequently.
Buying established, predictable MLB production eliminates the guessing game. And I don’t mean as occasional mid-tier filler. Cardinals are going to have to spend - significantly - to win. They aren’t going to get 90% there with prospects.

Yes, they will have to spend significantly, at some point, to add a few, select, key FAs.

But that spending comes AFTER you have developed the core of young players that you need to build around. Only AFTER you have developed that core do you know what are the priority holes you have to fill. And you have to keep at acquiring and developing prospects until you get to that core of young players on your ML roster.

It's not just spending - it's timely, informed, and smart spending that will be necessary.

Before the recent stall, our 1-4 in the lineup was amongst the most productive in MLB. Our rotation has 3-5 solidified with McGreevy, Pallante, and Leahy. We have a closer near the top in saves and a great setup man in Soriano and another promising in in Graceffo. Gastelum has been taking his lumps but did earn his promotion. Baez is on his way along with Cintje and Liam Doyle. We have two young stars in JJ and Walker.

Is that not enough young talent to work with? If we keep waiting, the young talent we current have is going to be deep in arbitration and reaching free agency and will be lost. The time to shift to a winning mentality is this offseason. The stars will NEVER perfectly align. Keep waiting and making cherry picked metric based excuses and this team will continue to bottom feed.

Worst to first isn’t happening. Incremental success is more sensible. To think we’re just going to jump straight from non-playoff bottom feeder to WS winner is ridiculous.

No, it's not.

Just having a 1-4 in your lineup isn't enough.

And the Cardinals are, at least, having developed 1-2 young, front of rotation SPs short of being ready to compete.

They need to develop and get Doyle, Franklin, Cijinte, R. Rodriguez, Baez, etc. to the majors not just be "on the way."

And you have to keep the young talent you have developed (Wetherholt, etc.) from being "lost" by aggressively signing them to team friendly long term extensions so that you keep them through their prime seasons.

And, yes, it all takes time. Houston went through three 100+ loss seasons (2011-2013) before they rebuilt, then started spending again, and won. Atlanta went through three 90+ loss seasons (2015-2017) before they rebuilt, then started spending again, and won.

If Cardinals fans can stand just being a sub-.500 team for two or three years, maybe they need to toughen up a bit like Astros and Braves fans.

And you think all of this is going to happen all within the same timeframe? Why can’t we sign a good starter as we wait for the others? Quite
possible both Doyle and Cintje fail, or at least don’t live up to FOTR standard. What then? Back at square one.

Why can’t we buy a bat or two? Maybe a top tier and a mid tier? No one will stop Baez or Raniel from carving out a role if they force the issue. We could always trade someone away if there’s that bad of a logjam. If Bloom’s developmental system is so magical, let them bask in its glory another year to ensure success and less growing pains. You act like we have nothing right now. If that’s the case, the plan has already proven to be completely ineffective.

You must really think Bloom is a genius and knows something everyone else doesn’t.

They don't have "nothing," but they are clearly far short still of having enough.

And, if you know you are far short of having enough, you don't go out now and add older, expensive veterans to it just to fall short - because that is how you end up with 2025 Nolan Arenado on your roster instead of 2021/2022 Nolan Arenado when you DO have enough and ARE ready to compete.

Keep the books clean of big contracts that will likely be bad in 3-4 years when you aren't ready to compete now anyway.

When you prospect and metric guys run out of answers you always bring up Nolan Arenado. What about these guys, who their teams followed your master plan of getting prearb team friendly extensions? Are they not more relevant examples?:

Wander Franco, Tampa Bay Rays, 11 years, $182M
Ke'Bryan Hayes, Pittsburgh Pirates, 8yr $70M
Kristian Campbell, 8 years, $60M
Luis Robert Jr. 6 years, $50M
Paul DeJong, 6 years, $26M
Eloy Jiménez, 6 years, $43M
Fernando Tatís Jr. 14 years, $340M (he was prearb)

A bunch of “safe-bets” on this list that were projected to be 2-3 fWAR and then some. Every one was a mistake. Your plan is not bullet proof, no matter how passionately you believe in the metrics.

Once the CBA dust settles the Cards need to spend aggressively to supplement their draft and development efforts and up their game in international scouting too, otherwise they are not serious about winning.

No plan is "bullet proof." Unless you are the Dodgers and can implement their plan.

And - yes - everyone agrees that the Cardinals need to be much better at identifying and developing talented players than they have been for the last decade. They have to be good at knowing who to sign long term, who to go year-to-year with, who to trade, etc.

Any team is going to make some mistake with the evaluation of their prospects - that is unavoidable in the baseball business. But it is much easier to absorb a $5 or $10 million AAV "miss" on a young player who you signed aggressively than a $25 or $30 million AAV "miss" on an expensive veteran.

Whole lot of misses that exceed 5-10M AAV on the list I provided, especially if you’re trying to build the majority of your team using that model. But we’ll just move past all that I guess. I don’t see why it’s so hard to accept that 1. It takes an all encompassing approach to build a winner and 2. You can’t keep waiting expecting every star in the sky to align. Take the successes you gain and build on them. The time has come to engage the other available mechanisms. We’re not an expansion team in the first couple of seasons.

[Melville]

Tenk Hence…..DFA
This is the rish of solely relying on your prospects to field a competitive MLB team.

Just a couple short years ago this young fella was THE #2 guy in the org…..today DFA’d
Flip of the coin…..either ALL the great prospects could make it to the bigs or All could fail. No one knows but that doesnt stop the enlightened here from claiming a ‘28 WS team.

Or perhaps a more nuanced view- some will deliver and some will fail?

And a more precise statistical view - a few will deliver and the vast majority will fail.

Which is why having a lot of talented prospects is a not guaranteed but viable strategy. Sometimes quantity has a quality all its own.

I would prefer the characterization that having a lot of prospects is one component of a viable strategy - but not a stand-alone solution.
Which aligns with a point on which you have already expounded in this thread.

[mattmitchl44]

There is no viable option other than to have a strong farm system that develops a lot of talented prospects.

For example, if you want just a 90 win team, you need about 42 fWAR in talent.

The typical values on the FA market for fWAR are $8-$10 million per fWAR.

So if you had to buy all of your 42 fWAR from FAs, your payroll would be in the range of $336-$420 million.

Since the Cardinals have typically had payrolls in the $170, $180 million range - obviously they need a lot of less-than-full-market-value players, who come from the farm system to have 90 win, 92 win, 95 win, etc. rosters.

The idea that a front office can formulaically draft its way to “42 fWAR” and hit on enough prospects, all within the same window, is not realistic. If winning baseball were purely linear, every team with a top-ranked farm system would win a WS.

Wins Above Replacement measures volume, not high-leverage execution or postseason resilience. Top prospects fail at alarming rates due to injuries and mechanical exposure. Young rosters lack leadership, especially with weak coaching.

Baseball is a game of human variance, not a deterministic simulation where inputs guarantee outputs.

Top prospects bust or stall frequently.
Buying established, predictable MLB production eliminates the guessing game. And I don’t mean as occasional mid-tier filler. Cardinals are going to have to spend - significantly - to win. They aren’t going to get 90% there with prospects.

Yes, they will have to spend significantly, at some point, to add a few, select, key FAs.

But that spending comes AFTER you have developed the core of young players that you need to build around. Only AFTER you have developed that core do you know what are the priority holes you have to fill. And you have to keep at acquiring and developing prospects until you get to that core of young players on your ML roster.

It's not just spending - it's timely, informed, and smart spending that will be necessary.

Before the recent stall, our 1-4 in the lineup was amongst the most productive in MLB. Our rotation has 3-5 solidified with McGreevy, Pallante, and Leahy. We have a closer near the top in saves and a great setup man in Soriano and another promising in in Graceffo. Gastelum has been taking his lumps but did earn his promotion. Baez is on his way along with Cintje and Liam Doyle. We have two young stars in JJ and Walker.

Is that not enough young talent to work with? If we keep waiting, the young talent we current have is going to be deep in arbitration and reaching free agency and will be lost. The time to shift to a winning mentality is this offseason. The stars will NEVER perfectly align. Keep waiting and making cherry picked metric based excuses and this team will continue to bottom feed.

Worst to first isn’t happening. Incremental success is more sensible. To think we’re just going to jump straight from non-playoff bottom feeder to WS winner is ridiculous.

No, it's not.

Just having a 1-4 in your lineup isn't enough.

And the Cardinals are, at least, having developed 1-2 young, front of rotation SPs short of being ready to compete.

They need to develop and get Doyle, Franklin, Cijinte, R. Rodriguez, Baez, etc. to the majors not just be "on the way."

And you have to keep the young talent you have developed (Wetherholt, etc.) from being "lost" by aggressively signing them to team friendly long term extensions so that you keep them through their prime seasons.

And, yes, it all takes time. Houston went through three 100+ loss seasons (2011-2013) before they rebuilt, then started spending again, and won. Atlanta went through three 90+ loss seasons (2015-2017) before they rebuilt, then started spending again, and won.

If Cardinals fans can stand just being a sub-.500 team for two or three years, maybe they need to toughen up a bit like Astros and Braves fans.

And you think all of this is going to happen all within the same timeframe? Why can’t we sign a good starter as we wait for the others? Quite
possible both Doyle and Cintje fail, or at least don’t live up to FOTR standard. What then? Back at square one.

Why can’t we buy a bat or two? Maybe a top tier and a mid tier? No one will stop Baez or Raniel from carving out a role if they force the issue. We could always trade someone away if there’s that bad of a logjam. If Bloom’s developmental system is so magical, let them bask in its glory another year to ensure success and less growing pains. You act like we have nothing right now. If that’s the case, the plan has already proven to be completely ineffective.

You must really think Bloom is a genius and knows something everyone else doesn’t.

They don't have "nothing," but they are clearly far short still of having enough.

And, if you know you are far short of having enough, you don't go out now and add older, expensive veterans to it just to fall short - because that is how you end up with 2025 Nolan Arenado on your roster instead of 2021/2022 Nolan Arenado when you DO have enough and ARE ready to compete.

Keep the books clean of big contracts that will likely be bad in 3-4 years when you aren't ready to compete now anyway.

When you prospect and metric guys run out of answers you always bring up Nolan Arenado. What about these guys, who their teams followed your master plan of getting prearb team friendly extensions? Are they not more relevant examples?:

Wander Franco, Tampa Bay Rays, 11 years, $182M
Ke'Bryan Hayes, Pittsburgh Pirates, 8yr $70M
Kristian Campbell, 8 years, $60M
Luis Robert Jr. 6 years, $50M
Paul DeJong, 6 years, $26M
Eloy Jiménez, 6 years, $43M
Fernando Tatís Jr. 14 years, $340M (he was prearb)

A bunch of “safe-bets” on this list that were projected to be 2-3 fWAR and then some. Every one was a mistake. Your plan is not bullet proof, no matter how passionately you believe in the metrics.

Once the CBA dust settles the Cards need to spend aggressively to supplement their draft and development efforts and up their game in international scouting too, otherwise they are not serious about winning.

No plan is "bullet proof." Unless you are the Dodgers and can implement their plan.

And - yes - everyone agrees that the Cardinals need to be much better at identifying and developing talented players than they have been for the last decade. They have to be good at knowing who to sign long term, who to go year-to-year with, who to trade, etc.

Any team is going to make some mistake with the evaluation of their prospects - that is unavoidable in the baseball business. But it is much easier to absorb a $5 or $10 million AAV "miss" on a young player who you signed aggressively than a $25 or $30 million AAV "miss" on an expensive veteran.

Whole lot of misses that exceed 5-10M AAV on the list I provided, especially if you’re trying to build the majority of your team using that model. But we’ll just move past all that I guess. I don’t see why it’s so hard to accept that 1. It takes an all encompassing approach to build a winner and 2. You can’t keep waiting expecting every star in the sky to align. Take the successes you gain and build on them. The time has come to engage the other available mechanisms. We’re not an expansion team in the first couple of seasons.

I've never once said that it DIDN'T take an "all encompassing approach to build a winner."

I have repeatedly said that the Cardinals will eventually have to spend back to their historic levels (around 10th to 15th in MLB in payroll).

But eventually is not now, and it is almost certainly not this coming offseason.

If the development of the necessary young core of players continues as expected, they are probably looking to be back in a position to add ML players from outside the organization after the 2027 season - which is why 2028 is the most probable point at which they will be "competing" again.

Again, Houston went through three straight 100+ loss seasons and Atlanta went through three straight 90+ loss seasons before they were ready to compete again.

The Cardinals haven't even finished two straight 80+ loss seasons yet. This isn't some kind of epic suffering that Cardinals fans are going through.

[WeeVikes]

Tenk Hence…..DFA
This is the rish of solely relying on your prospects to field a competitive MLB team.

Just a couple short years ago this young fella was THE #2 guy in the org…..today DFA’d
Flip of the coin…..either ALL the great prospects could make it to the bigs or All could fail. No one knows but that doesnt stop the enlightened here from claiming a ‘28 WS team.

Or perhaps a more nuanced view- some will deliver and some will fail?

And a more precise statistical view - a few will deliver and the vast majority will fail.

Which is why having a lot of talented prospects is a not guaranteed but viable strategy. Sometimes quantity has a quality all its own.

I would prefer the characterization that having a lot of prospects is one component of a viable strategy - but not a stand-alone solution.
Which aligns with a point on which you have already expounded in this thread.

Unsurprisingly, we are of the same mind in this.

[Melville]

Tenk Hence…..DFA
This is the rish of solely relying on your prospects to field a competitive MLB team.

Just a couple short years ago this young fella was THE #2 guy in the org…..today DFA’d
Flip of the coin…..either ALL the great prospects could make it to the bigs or All could fail. No one knows but that doesnt stop the enlightened here from claiming a ‘28 WS team.

Or perhaps a more nuanced view- some will deliver and some will fail?

And a more precise statistical view - a few will deliver and the vast majority will fail.

Which is why having a lot of talented prospects is a not guaranteed but viable strategy. Sometimes quantity has a quality all its own.

I would prefer the characterization that having a lot of prospects is one component of a viable strategy - but not a stand-alone solution.
Which aligns with a point on which you have already expounded in this thread.

Unsurprisingly, we are of the same mind in this.

To a point, I believe DeWitt and Bloom are also likeminded.
My disagreement with them may be limited to a specific point - but that one point is extremely significant.
DeWitt has made the business decision that a higher quality organizational pipeline must precede the return to prior spending levels before the team can return to contention - or, perhaps, be permitted to.
Bloom, knowing his job depends on being aligned with DeWitt, is fully invested in that.
If my analysis of their thinking is correct - and there is a 96.94 probability that it is - that is a miscalculation on their part.
I correctly understand that both may be accomplished at the same time - and should be - depending on evolving metrics.
The team, exactly as I predicted in the spring, had sufficient talent to produce a winning record - perhaps as many as 86 games.
The players immediately validated that analysis.
Thereby indicating an opportunity was available to DeWitt and Bloom to adjust their timeline.
In early June, they rejected the opportunity to accelerate and instead intentionally chose to postpone success.
In fact, they chose to undermine it outright.
Why?
Very good possibility the CBA negotiations were a factor.
Also possible they simply did not believe what they were seeing on the field: while the players demonstrated a confidence in winning in 2026, DeWitt and Bloom were inflexible in their own assumptions (side note: that is the single biggest failure of ineffective leaders).
Or, DeWitt wanted to leave the status quo is place for a new generation of executives and allow them to make any decisions related to the master plan.
Regardless of the reasoning, they made a major mistake.
And the standings prove it.

[scoutyjones2]

Tenk Hence…..DFA
This is the rish of solely relying on your prospects to field a competitive MLB team.

Just a couple short years ago this young fella was THE #2 guy in the org…..today DFA’d
Flip of the coin…..either ALL the great prospects could make it to the bigs or All could fail. No one knows but that doesnt stop the enlightened here from claiming a ‘28 WS team.

Only around 7% of MiLB play one game in the bigs.

You're one slow "witted" poster

Also Scouty.
Yes, Bloom will create entire starting championship roster by 2028 with prospects not yet in organization. I think that’s been my point for 7-8 mnths
You just figuring that out.???

I can't figure out stupid

[CorneliusWolfe]

There is no viable option other than to have a strong farm system that develops a lot of talented prospects.

For example, if you want just a 90 win team, you need about 42 fWAR in talent.

The typical values on the FA market for fWAR are $8-$10 million per fWAR.

So if you had to buy all of your 42 fWAR from FAs, your payroll would be in the range of $336-$420 million.

Since the Cardinals have typically had payrolls in the $170, $180 million range - obviously they need a lot of less-than-full-market-value players, who come from the farm system to have 90 win, 92 win, 95 win, etc. rosters.

The idea that a front office can formulaically draft its way to “42 fWAR” and hit on enough prospects, all within the same window, is not realistic. If winning baseball were purely linear, every team with a top-ranked farm system would win a WS.

Wins Above Replacement measures volume, not high-leverage execution or postseason resilience. Top prospects fail at alarming rates due to injuries and mechanical exposure. Young rosters lack leadership, especially with weak coaching.

Baseball is a game of human variance, not a deterministic simulation where inputs guarantee outputs.

Top prospects bust or stall frequently.
Buying established, predictable MLB production eliminates the guessing game. And I don’t mean as occasional mid-tier filler. Cardinals are going to have to spend - significantly - to win. They aren’t going to get 90% there with prospects.

Yes, they will have to spend significantly, at some point, to add a few, select, key FAs.

But that spending comes AFTER you have developed the core of young players that you need to build around. Only AFTER you have developed that core do you know what are the priority holes you have to fill. And you have to keep at acquiring and developing prospects until you get to that core of young players on your ML roster.

It's not just spending - it's timely, informed, and smart spending that will be necessary.

Before the recent stall, our 1-4 in the lineup was amongst the most productive in MLB. Our rotation has 3-5 solidified with McGreevy, Pallante, and Leahy. We have a closer near the top in saves and a great setup man in Soriano and another promising in in Graceffo. Gastelum has been taking his lumps but did earn his promotion. Baez is on his way along with Cintje and Liam Doyle. We have two young stars in JJ and Walker.

Is that not enough young talent to work with? If we keep waiting, the young talent we current have is going to be deep in arbitration and reaching free agency and will be lost. The time to shift to a winning mentality is this offseason. The stars will NEVER perfectly align. Keep waiting and making cherry picked metric based excuses and this team will continue to bottom feed.

Worst to first isn’t happening. Incremental success is more sensible. To think we’re just going to jump straight from non-playoff bottom feeder to WS winner is ridiculous.

No, it's not.

Just having a 1-4 in your lineup isn't enough.

And the Cardinals are, at least, having developed 1-2 young, front of rotation SPs short of being ready to compete.

They need to develop and get Doyle, Franklin, Cijinte, R. Rodriguez, Baez, etc. to the majors not just be "on the way."

And you have to keep the young talent you have developed (Wetherholt, etc.) from being "lost" by aggressively signing them to team friendly long term extensions so that you keep them through their prime seasons.

And, yes, it all takes time. Houston went through three 100+ loss seasons (2011-2013) before they rebuilt, then started spending again, and won. Atlanta went through three 90+ loss seasons (2015-2017) before they rebuilt, then started spending again, and won.

If Cardinals fans can stand just being a sub-.500 team for two or three years, maybe they need to toughen up a bit like Astros and Braves fans.

And you think all of this is going to happen all within the same timeframe? Why can’t we sign a good starter as we wait for the others? Quite
possible both Doyle and Cintje fail, or at least don’t live up to FOTR standard. What then? Back at square one.

Why can’t we buy a bat or two? Maybe a top tier and a mid tier? No one will stop Baez or Raniel from carving out a role if they force the issue. We could always trade someone away if there’s that bad of a logjam. If Bloom’s developmental system is so magical, let them bask in its glory another year to ensure success and less growing pains. You act like we have nothing right now. If that’s the case, the plan has already proven to be completely ineffective.

You must really think Bloom is a genius and knows something everyone else doesn’t.

They don't have "nothing," but they are clearly far short still of having enough.

And, if you know you are far short of having enough, you don't go out now and add older, expensive veterans to it just to fall short - because that is how you end up with 2025 Nolan Arenado on your roster instead of 2021/2022 Nolan Arenado when you DO have enough and ARE ready to compete.

Keep the books clean of big contracts that will likely be bad in 3-4 years when you aren't ready to compete now anyway.

When you prospect and metric guys run out of answers you always bring up Nolan Arenado. What about these guys, who their teams followed your master plan of getting prearb team friendly extensions? Are they not more relevant examples?:

Wander Franco, Tampa Bay Rays, 11 years, $182M
Ke'Bryan Hayes, Pittsburgh Pirates, 8yr $70M
Kristian Campbell, 8 years, $60M
Luis Robert Jr. 6 years, $50M
Paul DeJong, 6 years, $26M
Eloy Jiménez, 6 years, $43M
Fernando Tatís Jr. 14 years, $340M (he was prearb)

A bunch of “safe-bets” on this list that were projected to be 2-3 fWAR and then some. Every one was a mistake. Your plan is not bullet proof, no matter how passionately you believe in the metrics.

Once the CBA dust settles the Cards need to spend aggressively to supplement their draft and development efforts and up their game in international scouting too, otherwise they are not serious about winning.

No plan is "bullet proof." Unless you are the Dodgers and can implement their plan.

And - yes - everyone agrees that the Cardinals need to be much better at identifying and developing talented players than they have been for the last decade. They have to be good at knowing who to sign long term, who to go year-to-year with, who to trade, etc.

Any team is going to make some mistake with the evaluation of their prospects - that is unavoidable in the baseball business. But it is much easier to absorb a $5 or $10 million AAV "miss" on a young player who you signed aggressively than a $25 or $30 million AAV "miss" on an expensive veteran.

Whole lot of misses that exceed 5-10M AAV on the list I provided, especially if you’re trying to build the majority of your team using that model. But we’ll just move past all that I guess. I don’t see why it’s so hard to accept that 1. It takes an all encompassing approach to build a winner and 2. You can’t keep waiting expecting every star in the sky to align. Take the successes you gain and build on them. The time has come to engage the other available mechanisms. We’re not an expansion team in the first couple of seasons.

I've never once said that it DIDN'T take an "all encompassing approach to build a winner."

I have repeatedly said that the Cardinals will eventually have to spend back to their historic levels (around 10th to 15th in MLB in payroll).

But eventually is not now, and it is almost certainly not this coming offseason.

If the development of the necessary young core of players continues as expected, they are probably looking to be back in a position to add ML players from outside the organization after the 2027 season - which is why 2028 is the most probable point at which they will be "competing" again.

Again, Houston went through three straight 100+ loss seasons and Atlanta went through three straight 90+ loss seasons before they were ready to compete again.

The Cardinals haven't even finished two straight 80+ loss seasons yet. This isn't some kind of epic suffering that Cardinals fans are going through.

They were already competing and as Melville pointed out, they derailed their own success out a stubbornly being unwilling to adjust. If this offseason is not the right time, it’s only because they made it that way. When the rebuild model is prioritized over the actual rebuild there will be persistent setbacks. And the answer will always be to wait it out. Just a different type of “reset” which still reeks of the Mozeliak mindset and poor leadership.

[Cusecards]

Resurrecting this dead horse again?

Someone is in desperate need of a Corner Man!
Then you have someone looking out for you that can throw in the towel when they see you’ve taken far too many head shots!
Or....at least take a standing eight count?

[Ozziesfan41]

Tenk Hence…..DFA
This is the rish of solely relying on your prospects to field a competitive MLB team.

Just a couple short years ago this young fella was THE #2 guy in the org…..today DFA’d
Flip of the coin…..either ALL the great prospects could make it to the bigs or All could fail. No one knows but that doesnt stop the enlightened here from claiming a ‘28 WS team.

lol congratulations on another very dumb post. It’s not a coin flip and either ALL will make it or ALL won’t. Some will some won’t. That’s why you want as many good young prospects as possible so you hit on some of them. The problem is you and others are used to the poor farm system from mo where the cardinals may have if lucky one starter with top of the rotation stuff coming up like flaherty or hence or Alex Reyes and if they fail then the clowns say see a prospect fails that means its bad to depend on prospects it’s just stupid when you have a good draft and development system your eggs aren’t all in one basket of hence or taveras or flaherty or Reyes