It really sucks that the front office doesn’t give a shit about the product they put on the field. I have made it to the point in my life I can afford tickets to a shit load of games, and to take my dad. Make memories, enjoy time together, but I will not give that club my money

1 more option year left now before he's traded for a bucket of balls.

And goes on to have a .900 OPS on his next team.

Eh - the appear to have finally gotten it through their idiot skulls that extending Goldschmidt is a horrifying idea.

If they're smart, he's playing 1b in Memphis everyday to prepare him for 2025. And if they do that and let him focus on hitting, he'll be a strong player for them.

But they're very stupid. So they'll probably have him playing 3b or something. Maybe CF.

Walker will be the new closer in Memphis

Goldschmidt is a slow starter. When he starts carrying the team in June/July the fears of extending him will subside. Mozeliak will extend him like he did every other 38 year old career Cardinal. Then he'll get a jump on trading Walker and send him to the Mets or some shit for Drew Gilbert.

Good point. By the time July rolls around and they're already 12 games back in the WC he'll write Goldy a check for his senior years.

I hope the BFIB located in St. Louis are paying attention.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Athletic interviewed more than 40 baseball executives for their inaugural ranking of the top 10 front offices in Major League Baseball.<br><br>The Cardinals didn&#39;t receive a single vote. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/STLCards?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#STLCards</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ForTheLou?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ForTheLou</a> <a href="https://t.co/B7oX4O3ZsJ">https://t.co/B7oX4O3ZsJ</a> <a href="https://t.co/Fwmi6NARQQ">pic.twitter.com/Fwmi6NARQQ</a></p>&mdash; Augie Nash (@AugieNash) <a href="https://twitter.com/AugieNash/status/1783163704428654602?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 24, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

What should worry you is that this is a statement of how little respect there is for the Cardinals leadership throughout MLB.

So it means that when you're dealing with them, you treat them like your idiot nephew and offer him 3 beads for his Snickers bar because you know there's a chance he might say yes. And because he IS your idiot nephew, he probably will. After he gets that 4th bead out of you and you 'reluctantly' pull the trigger.

But ultimately I can't imagine this is anything DeWitt doesn't already know. He has to see that these guys ****ing suck at building a baseball team.

He simply doesn't give a shit.

Getting beat down by Jordan Montgomery today is going to make this even more painful.

I do find it interesting that the Cardinals chose a day that they were facing a lefty without premier velocity to finally pull the plug on Walker.

It suggests that they realize there truly is no matchup that favors him. He really can't hit anything right now.

Maybe the STL fans are finally fed up. But, it was a school night game.


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">good morning to everyone except John Mozeliak and Bill DeWitt😭 <br><br>Is this rock bottom in St. Louis? <a href="https://t.co/G3cuneXXKg">pic.twitter.com/G3cuneXXKg</a></p>&mdash; Cardinals Talk (@theredbird_way) <a href="https://twitter.com/theredbird_way/status/1783132481644081402?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 24, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

https://www.baseball-reference.com/b...02404230.shtml
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Start Time: 6:45 p.m. Local
Attendance: 32,875
Venue: Busch Stadium III
Game Duration: 2:37
Night Game, on grass


Announced attendance -32,875 There's no way that's even close.

I'd be surprised if that's 14,000.

The good news, to whatever extent they still care, is that the Cardinals know exactly how many came through the turnstiles.

The message is being delivered. It's just a question as to whether or not DeWitt is willing to listen to it at all.

I don't get it. Dewitt is going to be 83 years old this year and he is worth ~$4B. He ain't taking it with him.

WTF would he not be all in on this team? He will be lucky to be alive another 5 years.

Fangraphs has his barrel rate at 11.9%, launch angle at 12.8 and fly ball at 45.2%.

He still hits too many ground balls, but what's sinking his performance is his dismal 4.8% line drive rate that will eventually normalize.

He's only 21 and had a wRC+ of 116 in a meh rookie year. Nobody with any smarts in the industry is writing him off.

What was the give away? I know of people that went over the weekend, grabbed a few, then left.

But also...why is anyone braving that cesspool downtown with a family to see this team? $60 parking to avoid some of it, but then you're paying 60 to park to see this trash team.

What's sinking him is he can't hit a single pitch right now. He's got a 42% K rate against 4 seam fastballs.

No one is writing him off, but until he actually listens to some approach advice, he won't amount to shit as a 1B/DH that doesnt hit for power.

The poor line drive rate isn't an accident.

He pulls off everything. So his timing has to be perfect to drive a ball and even then he's not getting his lower half into it so it'll be a struck liner into RC field.

He leaves almost his entire pull potential on the table because his mechanics are a damn trainwreck. His top and bottom half couldn't be any more out of whack if he tried.

No, that's not something you just wait on regression to fix.

He had to be sent down. And they HAVE to take a more direct approach with him. If that means burying his ass in AA until he gives you a 100 PA rolling average with a groundball rate below 35% then so be it. You absolutely cannot bring him back up until he demonstrates fundamental changes in his approach.

This isn't tenable long-term. You can't take a guy with truly top 5% raw power, quick hands and a solid batting eye and say "Well...Casey Kotchman wasn't a bad player...."

They've already missed a window to trade him and let someone else do the spadework. The possibility of dealing him for someone like Kirby was last spring when he gave you the bird the first time you asked him to do it. Now you have no choice but to pull out the paddle, try some tough love and go full on 'Checkers or Wreckers' with him. You develop him into a star or you end up non-tendering him in 4 seasons.

There's no more room for middle ground.

TJ McFarland, a pile of shit castoff LH Reliever (I know this as he was a Cardinal piece of shit not long ago) came out in relief for Oakland, the only team in baseball that would actually roster him.

And vivisected him. Runners on 1st and 3rd so really nowhere to put him, McFarland comes right at him, gets ahead 1-2 in the count and Walker hits a tapper to SS, as is his custom.

There is no better matchup for Walker that can possibly exist. McFarland throws from a low 3/4 angle so everything comes at Walker. His breaking stuff is cement mixer on a good day. His fastball is nothing of any note. He doesn't even hide the ball all that well. He's a bullet catcher and little else. And Walker couldn't could do a damn thing with him.

And what is truly jarring is that the As knew all this and sent him to the bump anyway. Because NOBODY thinks Walker is going to hit them right now. And of course, he didn't.

Bad luck has nothing to do with Walker's poor performance. He's not a major league ballplayer at the moment. And that's been the case for more of his big league career than it hasn't been.

Im remember paying $30 to park in that lot right off 3B for the winning game of the 2006 WS. I think most parking was 10 bucks in the garages. That was a helluva lot back then but the area around the stadium wasnt as bad as I hear it is these days.

I agree that Walker to had to be sent down, but there's also some development malpractice going on.

For instance, Walker showed some signs of life on Saturday. Look at the MLB.com summary. Walk, flies out sharply to center (102 mph), lineout in three plate appearances.

And what do the Cards do? They bench him on Sunday and Monday. No plate appearances. If they're going to do that, he might as well be in Memphis. That's just terrible decision making. No excuse for that.

Just SOME!?!?

My god, "Development Malpractice" is the operating mantra this team has worked from over 10 !@#$ing years.

What pisses me off most about Walker is that he's put me in the position of having to defend these assholes, tepid though that defense may be. They TOLD him this was a problem. They demoted him LAST year and told him to work on it. He gave them the bird.

In virtually every other case this organization has ****ed up, they're primarily responsible. As it relates to Walker, he's had a hand in his own demise here.

But truthfully, I was serious when I said I'd consider sending him to Springfield. Hammond Field down there (and the Texas League in general) plays small. You can really be rewarded for lifting the damn ball. Get him in a spot where that benefits him.

I don't think AAA is still using that rocket ball, though if they are - sure, leave him in Memphis. In either event, send him wherever he can get the most positive feedback from getting his legs into a swing and elevating the stupid baseball. Right now he thinks hard grounders are some sort of marker of success. That cannot stand.

He needs to fix his swing. So much untapped talent. He refused to change anything when he got sent down last year.

A rookie being insubordinate to their employer that's being done for their own benefit. Surely he knows if he doesn't change his swing, he's never going to live up to his raw talent.

He needs some tough love for his own benefit. Until he changes, leave him down, He's 21. Plenty of time to blossom if he elevates the ball.

I am in full agreement.

I am still pissed off how they handled Magneuris Sierra.

It's so similar to what Heyward was doing. Jason Heyward spent his entire prime ruining the immense raw talent he showed as a rookie to the point that watching him swing a bat was physically painful for me.

That guy should've been a set and forget 35 HR, 25 SB player. And instead he appeared to have spent his every waking moment doing fence drills and learning new ways to jam himself to the point that the only thing he could hit with any authority was a pitch down and away that REQUIRED him to extend his arms.

Vlad Jr is doing some of the same stupid stuff.

These guys that just will not use their attributes because they have convinced themselves that they could be Albert Pujols and hit for power without ever striking out are just maddening. Guys - use your tools. Albert Pujols was Albert Pujols and you are not that.

Stop trying to be more than you are because in the process you're making yourself far LESS than you could be.

Alcantara will forever be the best example of Cardinal development malpractice.

They were GOING to hammer him into a bullpen and turn him into a raw thrower with poor command and a 2-pitch arsenal. He'd have never found the feel for his pitches in small doses, he'd have seen some success by throwing hard, but he'd have never had the command for the 9th. So he'd have been an erratic but enticing 7th/8th inning guy.

He'd have been Hicks before Hicks. Or Rosenthal after Rosenthal.

It's hard to get too upset about what he became in Miami because he'd have never been that guy in a million years in St. Louis.

Because this organization just has its head jammed up its ass. Which is gonna happen when you just cannot get enough of the smell of your own farts.

God I ****ing hate these guys.

There was a reason I called him Heyturd.....and to think so many Cardinals fans told me I was wrong when I pointed out that swing wasn't gonna cut it or get fixed at the time he was in Stl.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Oli would never �� I miss Mike Shildt more and more every day <a href="https://t.co/tKPsHShLf3">pic.twitter.com/tKPsHShLf3</a></p>&mdash; Cardinals Talk (@theredbird_way) <a href="https://twitter.com/theredbird_way/status/1783643716718408108?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 25, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Do I know my Pirates or what!

From 9-2 with the best record in baseball to 13-14 after a wonderful 4-12 run that including being swept twice.

Trying hard to push you Cards out of last place. Hahahaha

Like that Tom Petty song:
"And I'm free
Free fallin'
Yeah, I'm free
Free fallin'"

The mismanagement is the most frustrating aspect of the Pirates.

Paul Skenes is still in Triple-A despite having 34 K and 5 BB in 17 IP.

I don't think the Pirates have quite enough to compete with the Reds, Cubs and Brewers, but they do look better when Skenes arrives to join Jared Jones.

Flaherty just skull ****ed them. 6.2 IP with 14Ks on 93 pitches and no runs.

Damn you, John Mozeliak.

Damn you for making me cheer for Jack Flaherty.

Gibson walks Carson Kelly and his sub .200 BA to load the bases.

Just pitchin' to the scoreboard again...

Its pretty comical but this lineup has the potential to be no hit pretty much
2 or 3 times every week.

And the White Sox are somehow far worse.

Lord they're awful.

Are we ready to have a dialogue about how Mozeliak’s moves to improve the Bo and rotation worked?

Or are we going to continue to roast him and DeWitt for this mediocracy.

Every player that's traded, allowed to leave, cut whatever seems to find success on other teams.

Whaaaat?

It's hilarious that he pitched the game of his life and still came away with the ND. **** him

Mozeliak’s moves in acquiring Gray, Gibson, Lynn, and Kittredge have actually worked out so far.

Doesn’t excuse his other **** ups.

Except Gray has already been hurt, and now Matz is hurt with zero depth behind him. Maybe wait more than 4 weeks before you start singing the praises of the nursing home starting rotation.

Through the 1st month the rotation looks better than last year. Unfortunately there was almost no way it could have looked worse. As Rabbi said though, these guys are all pretty seasoned and one or more of them will spend significant time on the DL (it will always be the DL to me)

They signed 3 SP. I’m not sure how many more guys they could have gotten and I’d argue they should have gotten someone that’s better than Lynn.
Matz wasn’t signed this off-season.I still think they should have gotten someone who can play CFin the off-season.

Age is a huge concern with the rotation. Doesn’t mean that the moves haven’t worked out so far.

Yeah, I think the rotation couldn’t be worse than last year. I don’t think Lynn will continue to pitch as well as he ha. Gibson at least has a track record of being an average innings eater. Gray has been phenomenal, though.

The team is garbage, so yes I will still say he's failed and he gets zero praise for anything.

This was always the primary concern of this rotation. How can they possibly hold up for 162 games?

And if you can find anyone that had a bad word to say about the Gray signing, I'd be surprised. Gray was a great get. The issue was that I think that's a guy you want taking the ball on Game 2 after you've had a power pitcher at the top of your rotation speeding guys up.

I'm not sure what you can reasonably expect from Gray in September/October as power pitching starts to become more and more important.

The age concerns with the rotation have been something I've had for the past year or 2. Having a bunch of guys in their mid-to-late 30s being counted on for consistent innings isn't a smart plan. I didn't want to go after Scherzer and Verlander because of that.

I think spending on two higher end starters would have been ideal. Personally prefer Montgomery to Snell based on their BB/9 the past 2 seasons and would have signed Gray to pair with him. Doesn't give you a true ace, but gives you two guys who are solid #2s. Bring in Gibson and you've raised the floor of the rotation by a lot.

The BP structure is something I would've done, too. Have a bunch of inexpensive guys with no long-term commitment that didn't profile as starters in AAA (bunch of strikeouts but some endurance/walk issues). Maybe throw in a guy who is a stud and give some commitment, but aside from 1 contract, nothing else should be prohibitive for future seasons in terms of additions.

Calling anything a success or failure one month into the season is ridiculous. Baseball doesn't and has never worked that way.

Can someone explain to me how MLB got itself into a scenario where its a total pain in the ass for most people to access their product without spending a fortune?

The Cardinals' popularity came from a massive radio audience across the Midwest and center western US.

The Cubs gained popularity even when terrible being on WGN all over the country.

The Braves had TBS.

Now its a ****ing pain in the ass to figure out how to get access unless you want to devote yourself to Direct TV or buy a streaming service just to watch the games. Its insane.

From first to worst.

Pirates are your saviours to keep you out of the cellar.

One of many reasons baseball is losing popularity. You also could watch them on local TV at one point. Fox Sports Midwest was at least somewhat accessible when they took it away from local broadcast. Now it’s a complete pain to watch games.

Meanwhile you can watch most Chiefs game on local TV or accessible networks (other than the bullshit 1 off streaming game a year. **** that) all across the Midwest including all of Missouri both ends of the state.

Honestly, I think this is one of BB largest problems. The access to the product is becoming darn near impossible.

I would just as soon the Cards would stream every game (no blackouts) and then I would buy it. Simple.

Who thought this was a great business model? Its insanity.

Nobody.

Bally Sports got bought by Sinclair Media and Sinclair promptly drove it into a MFing mountain.

This was wholly a product of the Fox Sport group getting purchased and parted out. And I don't imagine MLB expected that to happen. The Regional Sports Networks were a perfect solution for baseball - baseball is largely a regional sport. The teams get followed by their local fanbase but it hasn't generated a true 'national' market for probably 50 years. There are just too damn many games played for folks to care about any single game on a Thursday where they don't have a rooting interest.

But the RSNs addressed that perfectly and brought a level of access that was largely unprecedented. What we have now is somehow STILL better than what we had in, say, 1997. But it's certainly a roll-back of 25 years of progress on that front.

It's a mess. But at least as it relates to this specific mess, I'm not positive there was anything else that MLB could've done.

I've never in my life had a problem accessing Cards games until FSMW got parceled off.

RSN were available on all cable and satellite platforms (before there even was streaming) since I started watching the Cards in 1995 or 96'. Most cable packages it was standard programming back in the day.

What I don't understand is how Bally or Sinclair or whoever owns the rights to the team's games doesn't seem to understand that accessibility is how they make money rather than continually feuding with service providers. And yes MLB seemed to get blindsided by it.

Hopefully in the end MLB takes the nonsense over and you can start getting your teams channels independently.

I sure have. There was a long stretch of time up until and slightly after the Big Mac/Sammy home run chase that if you weren't listening to Jack/Joe/Mike on the radio your only option was to check the box scores in the next day's paper.

Yeah, being in KC, I didn't have Cardinals games until I went to Kirksville for college in 2000. So I don't really know when those RSNs really got up to speed. But yeah, mid-90s feels about right.

Prior to those, it was a wasteland for finding out of market games. I searched the box scores on the KC Star for results and read the 'local prospects' tracker when they had it in there. That's how I managed to know about Pujols earlier than most; being a Maple Woods kid, the Star tracked his performance. I knew his name well before I knew how the hell to pronounce it.

I think Sinclair did it on purpose. They were actively seeking to destroy the 'bundle' model so they could lean into a stand-alone streaming service or even a PPV model. And they just did a god-awful job with it. And badly underestimated how savvy fans would be. I don't think they expected that the fans would come to hate THEM rather than MLB. And that's exactly what happened.

Anyone that might bother to learn how to get a streaming service directly from Sinclair also learned that Sinclair essentially blew up an existing model that they really liked. So they gave them the bird.

Nothing else would explain why they blew a working model apart as thoroughly and rapidly as they did.

Victor Scott's OPS in Memphis is below .400 right now.

We pushed that kids development back 2 full seasons. And honestly, we should just acknowledge that and move him down to Springfield with the idea that he spends all of 2024 there, most of 2025 in Memphis and maybe sees the bigs in 2026.

This team raw-dogged the shit out of that kid. Just unbelievable how bad they are at this.

He'll end up traded to the Ray's for peanuts then magically become a legit force

Not really a Rays kind of player, though.

He's a guy we'll insist is amazing and waste 3,000 PAs on over 7 years of bouncing around the lineup and burning through option seasons. In the meantime we'll trade 2 players BETTER than him.

One benefit to the Ozuna deal is that it at least kept us from doing that with Magneuris Sierra. Ricky and Butters would still be rubbing themselves raw over his occasional catches in the OF while batting .215 with an OPS of .650.

"Man he can really pick it. You can see why the Cardinals value him so much. That defense and his speed on the bases makes him a big part of this Cardinal core..."

Baseball has the perfect setup waiting to keep a regional model with national reach. Take all local rights in house - have games on MLB Network. Localize it where each region gets their teams games. In the actually city, simulcast the games on a local over the air television station. I'm sure one of the CWs or similar would love to have the Cardinals or Royals games on every night. Then stream the rest on MLB.TV where you pay for what kind of package you want.

"Butters" ROFL ROFL ROFL

Yeah - that's an old one. Goes way back to the Alex Reyes days.

Reyes wouldn't do anything but ignore coaching and get lit up - would still get a spot in the starting 5. Thompson would go out there and pitch to his defense, get outs and just otherwise be a good soldier....and ride the Memphis shuttle.

So I said "Man, the Cardinals treat this dude like Butters at the NAMBLA convention..."

And thus a nickname was born.

I forget that it's pretty much a nickname that about 25 people actually understand. I just use it as a matter of course. When that dude retires at 85 years old after spending 5 decades on the mic, he'll still be Butters to me.

Mostly because "Lesbian Volleyball Coach with Downs" takes too long to type.

That "butters" post is in the birdsonthebat.com hall of fame.

I've had the MLB streaming package for 10 years or so. I've always streamed it through an app on my TV or the app on my phone. No issues. Its $99 a year for only the Cardinals games. You can pay $129 and get every game played by all teams.

That doesn't work for people in market, only out of market. See how ridiculous this is? Its easier for out of market fans to watch the games than in market fans.

There’s six teams I get blacked out of in Des Moines. If those teams aren’t playing each other that’s almost half the league I could be blacked out of at any given day. Closest stadium to me is 3 hours away.

Well that sucks. :cuss:

Indeed. Pretty legendary nickname.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Cardinals franchise was in a bad spot when DeWitt bought it. He did a great job of putting together a successful operation for one of the greatest eras of Cardinals baseball. But franchise leadership let the system/product go stale. And now it’s rotting. Sad.</p>&mdash; Bernie Miklasz (@miklasz) <a href="https://twitter.com/miklasz/status/1787217861271777423?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 5, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Burn it all to the ground and start over.

Should have done that after last season, instead we gave an extension to the manager and ownership claimed the FO is doing good work.

This team is 3 years away from being relevant if they got someone with half a brain in charge tomorrow.

I said last May that this just isn't a single-season process. They had 3 years of trying to rebuild this thing ahead of them. And all they're doing is delaying that clock.

They could've started last deadline and into the offseason and been a few steps down the road; probably about where the Reds were in 2019. The Reds have slowly built their foundation back (with no meaningful fan support) and have managed .500 records or better in 3 of the last 4 seasons, with a team that's gotten younger every season.

Now they're in the tough spot of finishing off the rebuild and making themselves relevant. But they have a foundation in place that would allow for good decisions that could bring them back to 90 win territory.

Now the Reds draw less than 2 million fans/season so they'll struggle there. But this team shouldn't. You give the Cardinals a young foundation that can get them to .500 and a smart front office and they absolutely should be able to get to 90-92 wins again. And with a little luck and development, they can push that to 96+.

This team just lacks any sort of vision to even be seen in the same light as a fairly mediocre franchise like Cincy. Those guys aren't full of wiz kids over there - it's a pretty average front office. They're just better than the arrogant and rudderless ship this mess of a squad has.

****ing sports talk radio man... 500 would be a success for this team and a sign MO has them in the right direction! Homer ****ing garbage.

.500 is a pipe dream for this club. The solid pitching isn't going to hold up especially with the lack of offense stressing the **** out of them everyday having to be near perfect.

These mother****ers gave Paul DeJong a standing ovation Friday.

They take pride in not giving a shit about actual success.

The BFIB are the goddamn worst.

That sequence right there sums up how
dumb the Cardinals are at baseball.

Get a 2 run double with 2 outs to tie it and get thrown out by a mile trying to stretch it to 3rd for no ****ing reason at all.

Hey dumb**** you likely score from 2nd on a base hit with 2 outs anyway.

I think that maybe just maybe the BFIB may actually start staying home.


From a twitter post

Matheny was fired after starting 47-46
Shildt was fired after a 90-72 season
Marmol is 86-110 over the past two seasons and still has a job.

What has happened to this organization caring about winning?

Tickets are already sold, DeWallet doesn’t care if they show up to the stadium or not.