Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins
You should build your team to be as much of a juggernaut as possible. That team had HOF talent acquired through the draft, shrewd trades, reclamation projects, and augmented it with excellent FA signings.
Mozeliak would have been too scared to trade away Bud Smith and Polanco for Rolen. He would have thought Kent Bottenfield was a lock down ace. He would have never bargain shopped for Carpenter or traded peanuts for Larry Walker. It ain't in him.
|
You're making me defend Mozeliak here and wanting to view his tenure in two different eras as I think his style of moves are dramatically different from 2008-2014 vs 2015-present.
For the sake of this argument, I'm throwing out anything he did good or bad from 2008-2014, as I don't think his thought process is the same.
To Mozeliak's credit, he acquired Arenado (a 3B who is probably of similar caliber to Rolen both offensively and defensively) for jackshit and Goldschmidt for roughly the equivalent of Smith + Polanco with Weaver and Kelly.
His most notable reclamation project during this time was Mikolas.
I'd say the biggest issues Mozeliak/Cardinals have had during this time (2015-present) are the following:
-Doing the bare minimum to improve the team in FA. For example, at a surface level, signing Matz and Contreras were steps in the right direction but having those be the only moves of note made in FA isn't enough to move the needle to contend.
-Targeting middle-of-the-road starters. Leake and Matz shouldn't be the centerpieces of an off-season in free agency.
-Focusing on relievers who induce ground balls instead of strikeouts.
-Spending $ on the wrong relievers (Cecil, Holland, though I think Holland's issue was more due to when he was signed in-season).
-Relying on Frankenstein's monster for the BP and rotation the past 3 seasons.
-Letting Yadi have a swan song in 2022 when he should have been gone before then as well as continuing to delay the inevitable.
-Taveras' death.
-Focusing on having a bunch of guys offensively/defensively who are above average while not developing any superstars.