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cardstatman wrote: ↑26 Aug 2025 22:13 pm Starting Point for Bloom's first offseason

C Pages/Pozo Crooks/Pages
1B Contreras/Burleson
2B Donovan/Gorman Wetherholt
SS Winn/Saggese
3B Arenado
LF Nootbar Donovan
CF Scott Scott/Church
RF Walker Nootbar
DH Herrera

Trade Pozo, Gorman and replace with Crooks, Wetherholt
Send Walker to AAA and replace with Church
The OF is too lefthanded so why not trade LH Nootbar for a young RH outfielder. Sign a FA RF if the youngster isn't yet MLB ready.

SP1 Gray
SP2 Liberatore
SP3 Mikolas Mathews --- big upgrade
SP4 Fedde/McGreevy McGreevy
SP5 Pallante

Traded Fedde and replaced with McGreevy
Mikolas leaves via FA; replace with Mathews
Sign a FA SP to push Pallante for a job; need some depth until the herd of LH starters (Henderson, Hanson, Mautz) is ready late in 2026.
They should DFA Mikolas now and give Curtis Taylor an MLB look to see if he's worth keeping around for 2026.

RRP1 Helsley Granillo
RRP2 Maton Alcala
RRP3 Leahy
RRP4 Svanson
RRP5 O'Brien
RP6 Matz Graceffo
LRP1 Romero
LRP2 King Veneziano or Mosqueda

Traded Helsley, Maton, Matz and replaced with Granillo, Alcala, Graceffo
Trade King and replace with Veneziano or Mosqueda
Sign a FA reliever or two to push Graceffo back to AAA for depth

Who plays 3b when goNado blows out his arm/shoulder?

That team is worse than this years

scoutyjones2 wrote: ↑26 Aug 2025 23:24 pm

cardstatman wrote: ↑26 Aug 2025 22:13 pm Starting Point for Bloom's first offseason

C Pages/Pozo Crooks/Pages
1B Contreras/Burleson
2B Donovan/Gorman Wetherholt
SS Winn/Saggese
3B Arenado
LF Nootbar Donovan
CF Scott Scott/Church
RF Walker Nootbar
DH Herrera

Trade Pozo, Gorman and replace with Crooks, Wetherholt
Send Walker to AAA and replace with Church
The OF is too lefthanded so why not trade LH Nootbar for a young RH outfielder. Sign a FA RF if the youngster isn't yet MLB ready.

SP1 Gray
SP2 Liberatore
SP3 Mikolas Mathews --- big upgrade
SP4 Fedde/McGreevy McGreevy
SP5 Pallante

Traded Fedde and replaced with McGreevy
Mikolas leaves via FA; replace with Mathews
Sign a FA SP to push Pallante for a job; need some depth until the herd of LH starters (Henderson, Hanson, Mautz) is ready late in 2026.
They should DFA Mikolas now and give Curtis Taylor an MLB look to see if he's worth keeping around for 2026.

RRP1 Helsley Granillo
RRP2 Maton Alcala
RRP3 Leahy
RRP4 Svanson
RRP5 O'Brien
RP6 Matz Graceffo
LRP1 Romero
LRP2 King Veneziano or Mosqueda

Traded Helsley, Maton, Matz and replaced with Granillo, Alcala, Graceffo
Trade King and replace with Veneziano or Mosqueda
Sign a FA reliever or two to push Graceffo back to AAA for depth

Who plays 3b when goNado blows out his arm/shoulder?

That team is worse than this years

Gorman.

cardstatman wrote: ↑26 Aug 2025 22:13 pm Starting Point for Bloom's first offseason

C Pages/Pozo Crooks/Pages
1B Contreras/Burleson
2B Donovan/Gorman Wetherholt
SS Winn/Saggese
3B Arenado
LF Nootbar Donovan
CF Scott Scott/Church
RF Walker Nootbar
DH Herrera

Trade Pozo, Gorman and replace with Crooks, Wetherholt
Send Walker to AAA and replace with Church
The OF is too lefthanded so why not trade LH Nootbar for a young RH outfielder. Sign a FA RF if the youngster isn't yet MLB ready.

SP1 Gray
SP2 Liberatore
SP3 Mikolas Mathews --- big upgrade
SP4 Fedde/McGreevy McGreevy
SP5 Pallante

Traded Fedde and replaced with McGreevy
Mikolas leaves via FA; replace with Mathews
Sign a FA SP to push Pallante for a job; need some depth until the herd of LH starters (Henderson, Hanson, Mautz) is ready late in 2026.
They should DFA Mikolas now and give Curtis Taylor an MLB look to see if he's worth keeping around for 2026.

RRP1 Helsley Granillo
RRP2 Maton Alcala
RRP3 Leahy
RRP4 Svanson
RRP5 O'Brien
RP6 Matz Graceffo
LRP1 Romero
LRP2 King Veneziano or Mosqueda

Traded Helsley, Maton, Matz and replaced with Granillo, Alcala, Graceffo
Trade King and replace with Veneziano or Mosqueda
Sign a FA reliever or two to push Graceffo back to AAA for depth

If Arenado is still on the team next year, that is no good. I would rather see Wetherholdt at 3B so we have a long term replacement there. Nootbar should be traded based on control years. Saggese does nothing for me at this point, no pop at all. I would trade him if possible. Gorman if he brings back the right guy, can be traded or he can be bench/DH.

Your starting pitching is woefully inadequate. Mathews has walked so many guys, he clearly is not ready. Pallante has pitched himself off the team. They need either two new starting pitchers this year or they need to move Leahy in as a starter and acquire 1 more this offseason, at least. They need to have 1 ML ready starter in the McGreevy role presumably acquired via trade and then Mathews if he can pitch himself into the picture and Doyle perhaps is a fast riser as well. They also need to go out and acquire 2 more relief pitchers. I am still hopeful for Mathews, but lets not ruin him...

ICCFIM2 wrote: ↑27 Aug 2025 00:19 am

cardstatman wrote: ↑26 Aug 2025 22:13 pm Starting Point for Bloom's first offseason

C Pages/Pozo Crooks/Pages
1B Contreras/Burleson
2B Donovan/Gorman Wetherholt
SS Winn/Saggese
3B Arenado
LF Nootbar Donovan
CF Scott Scott/Church
RF Walker Nootbar
DH Herrera

Trade Pozo, Gorman and replace with Crooks, Wetherholt
Send Walker to AAA and replace with Church
The OF is too lefthanded so why not trade LH Nootbar for a young RH outfielder. Sign a FA RF if the youngster isn't yet MLB ready.

SP1 Gray
SP2 Liberatore
SP3 Mikolas Mathews --- big upgrade
SP4 Fedde/McGreevy McGreevy
SP5 Pallante

Traded Fedde and replaced with McGreevy
Mikolas leaves via FA; replace with Mathews
Sign a FA SP to push Pallante for a job; need some depth until the herd of LH starters (Henderson, Hanson, Mautz) is ready late in 2026.
They should DFA Mikolas now and give Curtis Taylor an MLB look to see if he's worth keeping around for 2026.

RRP1 Helsley Granillo
RRP2 Maton Alcala
RRP3 Leahy
RRP4 Svanson
RRP5 O'Brien
RP6 Matz Graceffo
LRP1 Romero
LRP2 King Veneziano or Mosqueda

Traded Helsley, Maton, Matz and replaced with Granillo, Alcala, Graceffo
Trade King and replace with Veneziano or Mosqueda
Sign a FA reliever or two to push Graceffo back to AAA for depth

If Arenado is still on the team next year, that is no good. I would rather see Wetherholdt at 3B so we have a long term replacement there. Nootbar should be traded based on control years. Saggese does nothing for me at this point, no pop at all. I would trade him if possible. Gorman if he brings back the right guy, can be traded or he can be bench/DH.

Your starting pitching is woefully inadequate. Mathews has walked so many guys, he clearly is not ready. Pallante has pitched himself off the team. They need either two new starting pitchers this year or

they need to move Leahy in as a starter

and acquire 1 more this offseason, at least. They need to have 1 ML ready starter in the McGreevy role presumably acquired via trade and then Mathews if he can pitch himself into the picture and Doyle perhaps is a fast riser as well. They also need to go out and acquire 2 more relief pitchers. I am still hopeful for Mathews, but lets not ruin him...

They can do this, but if they do we should expect him to hit an innings wall in the second half much as Liberatore has, and perhaps Pallante.

The pitching of Mautz may have helped. He’s one to track.

The BLOOM EFFECT at work!

Takes over the start of 2024 and look at the jump from national minor league system rankers:

From Bernie:

This once heralded foundation of St. Louis baseball had fallen into decline, so the Cardinals recruited Chaim Bloom and gave him a generous budget to modernize a deplorably outdated operation.

In turn, Bloom recruited talented, up-and-coming executives to join the restoration project. The curative Bloom Effect initiated a change in draft philosophy, and aligned the major-league leadership with the minor-league initiatives so everyone would work together in a shared objective.

MLB PIPELINE: The Cards’ system was ranked 23rd overall before the 2024 season, moved up to 20th before the start of 2025, and recently moved up to No. 12 in the midseason rankings.

BASEBALL AMERICA: Ranked 20th overall at the start of 2024, slipped to No. 21 at midseason (2024), improved to 18th at the start of 2025, and moved to No. 14 in the recent midseason rankings.

FANGRAPHS: 20th before the 2024 season, 21st at midseason (2024), No. 15 at the start of 2025 – and then all the way up to No. 6 in the recent midseason update. The organizations in front of the Cardinals (in order) were the Guardians, Dodgers, Rays, Brewers and Tigers.

ESPN: The Cardinals’ farm system was ranked 18th at the start of 2024, moved up to No. 15 at midseason, was listed at 19th before the start of 2025, and zoomed all the way to No. 9 in the recent update.

* Here’s what ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel had to say about the Cardinals’ quick movement and progress in the rankings:

“As Chaim Bloom takes the reins from John Mozeliak as president of baseball operations after this season, the Cards' system is in the best shape it has been in years. JJ Wetherholt and Liam Doyle are the most recent first-round picks and are also potentially impactful rookies for the 2026 club.