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The Mets (3rd wildcard currently ) are on pace to win 86 games . The Cards currently are 70-71 . If they do end up 81-81 and that is sure not a given , they would be about 5 games shy .

Last year, it took 89 wins in the N.L. to get the last wildcard spot as Cardinals won 83 games. They were 6 shy last season.
BTW It was the NYM who had the 89 wins for 3rd spot in 2024 . So they could qualify again winning 3 less games or so .

The N.L. Central winner last year (Brewers) won 93 games. They currently are on pace to win 99 games. Cards may be about 20 games out of 1st place after 162.

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.

ecleme22 wrote: ↑04 Sep 2025 08:07 am 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.

ramfandan wrote: ↑04 Sep 2025 08:02 am The Mets (3rd wildcard currently ) are on pace to win 86 games . The Cards currently are 70-71 . If they do end up 81-81 and that is sure not a given , they would be about 5 games shy .

Last year, it took 89 wins in the N.L. to get the last wildcard spot as Cardinals won 83 games. They were 6 shy last season.
BTW It was the NYM who had the 89 wins for 3rd spot in 2024 . So they could qualify again winning 3 less games or so .

The N.L. Central winner last year (Brewers) won 93 games. They currently are on pace to win 99 games. Cards may be about 20 games out of 1st place after 162.

Have the Cards scheduled the day and time for the parade?

And you can thank..........

-Pallante
-Mikolas
-Fedde

rockondlouie wrote: ↑04 Sep 2025 08:37 am And you can thank..........

-Pallante
-Mikolas
-Fedde

..............& Oli and MO.

Basil Shabazz wrote: ↑04 Sep 2025 08:40 am

rockondlouie wrote: ↑04 Sep 2025 08:37 am And you can thank..........

-Pallante
-Mikolas
-Fedde

..............& Oli and MO.

And most of all?

BDWJr for employing all five of them!

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.

JDW wrote: ↑04 Sep 2025 08:45 am 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.

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

VegasVinny wrote: ↑04 Sep 2025 08:59 am

JDW wrote: ↑04 Sep 2025 08:45 am 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.

We don't have much in house
JJ on offense
Maybe Mathews on pitching
Many others on pitching stay hurt

rockondlouie wrote: ↑04 Sep 2025 08:41 am

Basil Shabazz wrote: ↑04 Sep 2025 08:40 am

rockondlouie wrote: ↑04 Sep 2025 08:37 am And you can thank..........

-Pallante
-Mikolas
-Fedde

..............& Oli and MO.

And most of all?

BDWJr for employing all five of them!

+1. The blame on the majority owner, who is very involved, is underestimated on CT.

Basil Shabazz wrote: ↑04 Sep 2025 08:40 am

rockondlouie wrote: ↑04 Sep 2025 08:37 am And you can thank..........

-Pallante
-Mikolas
-Fedde

..............& Oli and MO.

I'm gonna go with those three pitchers and Mo.

Oli all but begged Fedde to be DFA'd. He's been pretty proactive with turning Mikolas into a five-and-dive guy, which is a bad situation, but it's probably the best outcome we can have short of DFAing him. Pallante? I mean...what are we gonna do there?

Mikolas and Fedde have just been awful. Pallante has been awful...likely partly because he's taken on more innings than he has before...and he's just not that good even at his best. Liberatore is probably going to almost double his career high of innings, and Sonny Gray has been consistently inconsistent. That's a lot of Achilles' heels for one of the most important parts of any team. The bullpen has pretty much been the only consistently good thing this year. I think Oli has handled that as well as he can, given that the starting rotation has been absolute butts.

I fully lay the blame on Mo and by extension, DeWitt. They've been notorious for skimping on starting pitching. This year might be the worst they've done in recent memory. At least last season they brought in a couple experienced hands besides Gray. Instead, they chose to rely on Mikolas, who hasn't been good for a while. They chose to rely on Pallante, who--fair enough--was good last year, but also likely wasn't totally prepared to be one of the dogs for a full season. Fedde...'nuff said. There was failure on several avenues there. Failure to trade him when his value was high, but also needing someone experienced (like Fedde) to take that spot in the rotation. Erick Fedde was Russian Roulette with five bullets in the cylinder. And then just tossing Matthew Liberatore into the rotation with little stretching out.

ClassicO wrote: ↑04 Sep 2025 10:16 am

rockondlouie wrote: ↑04 Sep 2025 08:41 am

Basil Shabazz wrote: ↑04 Sep 2025 08:40 am

rockondlouie wrote: ↑04 Sep 2025 08:37 am And you can thank..........

-Pallante
-Mikolas
-Fedde

..............& Oli and MO.

And most of all?

BDWJr for employing all five of them!

+1. The blame on the majority owner, who is very involved, is underestimated on CT.

For sure CO

BDWJr skates to easily when he's the one person who could've spared us these past few years from Mo's ineptness and Oli's mismanagement.

Dewitt is the real problem, at least the tiny crowds have finally got his attention.

Charles King wrote: ↑04 Sep 2025 08:59 am 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.

Basil Shabazz wrote: ↑04 Sep 2025 08:40 am

rockondlouie wrote: ↑04 Sep 2025 08:37 am And you can thank..........

-Pallante
-Mikolas
-Fedde

..............& Oli and MO.

and Donner and Blitzen