Yeah they've definitely spent more than one $Scherzer on middling pitchers and (don't forget) relievers in recent memory with absolutely nothing to show for it.
I get the approach of not spending $ just to spend $, but still spending millions for below-average returns isn't wise. I get why they didn't sign Schezer when he went to the Mets. I don't get why they didn't sign guys like Cobb, Eovaldi, or Wacha in terms of their average salary price points.
Success in the playoffs is irrelevant if the entire goal from ownership is to be competitive enough to have a chance of making it to October and possibly win a few more games with a non-zero chance at possibly making the WS.
I don't agree with a lot of what Mozeliak's done from 2016 to now, but he's doing something right in the eyes of his boss if he hasn't been fired by now.
mozeliak is very bad at his job. when will people realize this?
His job is to field winning teams while spending the least amount of money possible. He's extremely good at it. He works for Bill DeWitt, not us.
????????????
hes very bad at spending money, hes very bad a trades and his system is very bad at development. and it's all been in a very bad NL central.
he's also made some extremely poor management decisions.
i'm trying to figure out how he isn't terrible at job and coming up fruitless.
Because his boss wants him to field a team that's slightly above average with the hope of catching fire in October if things go well with a payroll that doesn't make his boss uncomfortable.
And for the most part, he's been able to do that.
At this point, I'd be happy with "slightly BELOW average." Actually, the Cards have only been "slightly above average" because the NL Central has been so bad. In most other divisions, the Cards would hardly be considered "slightly above average." Mo is NOT very good at his job. Only weak competition in the division makes it seem so. Until he moves on (probably won't) the Cardinals will continue to be a weak team in a weak division. If fans keep filling Busch, DeWitt won't care. And even if they don't, he has his TV money.
While the NL Central has been pretty bad the last couple of years, there's this misconceptions there's a lot of tough divisions. There really aren't. Outside of the AL East, what other division has had consistently 2-3 good teams in it every year over the last decade?
The NL West is pretty close. The Dodgers have dominated the division, but every other team (usually the Giants, although all the others have popped from time to time) has had a 90+ win season in that span.
It’s the same organization that was top 12 in ERA a decade running. Whatever development flaws were overcome until this season. Mikolas, Wainwright, Hudson, Matz and Pallante started 110 games last year. The team won 93 games.
To some extent. At the same time we spent the last two trade deadlines bringing in Lester, Happ, Montgomery, and Quintana to keep the rotation afloat, because we didn't have good in-house options. One of the guys we traded away could have really helped the whole outfield defense problem we've got now. We also keep pissing away free agent dollars on mediocre (or worse) veteran bullpen arms because we can't seem to develop any of our own relievers that can stay good (or healthy) for more than one season.
Please pity a half-assed fan here. I saw a headline ranking Arenado destinations. How on the block is he?
Can't see how that makes any sense. Goldy yes, but Arenado's got a few good, just post-prime years left and a no-trade clause. Plenty of time to rebuild/retool around him and it's a good deal.
This does bring up the point that with some reinforcements to the pitching staff and some better luck, the Cardinals could be right back in it next year. Big emphasis on could. If it's another season like this one, you missed the opportunity to really cash in on returning a haul for Goldy and wasted his final season under contract.
The NL West is pretty close. The Dodgers have dominated the division, but every other team (usually the Giants, although all the others have popped from time to time) has had a 90+ win season in that span.
It's okay but the Padres, Rockies and Diamondbacks are usually always bad outside of a year or two where they pop out and have a respectable season. This isn't to say the NL Central is good, I think what separates the NL and AL central is the top team over the last 3-4 years hasn't been as good as the other division's top teams, but the rest of the divisions are typically mediocre. I don't think we'd win the other divisions outside of the AL Central the last handful of years but I push back that we'd be a bottom feeder/non-playoff contender in other divisions over the last few years.
