Limbo Time.

Hey all been a while. I meant to write this post at the All-Star break, got started, then never finished. It’s still relevant though.

One thing I’ve always assumed is that front offices of professional sports teams are smarter than the average joe, especially now. They’re paid a ton of money, either have advanced degrees or have been in their particular sport for ages, and know a good player when they see them.

With all that in mind, lets look at two players.

Player A) 17 Homers, .277 BA, 50 RBI, .393 OBP

Player B) 16 Homers, .259 BA, 37 RBI, .337 OBP

Player A is Luke Voit, Player B is Paul Goldschmidt.

Voit makes $573,000. Goldschmidt makes $14.5 million this year and and $26 million each year from 2020 until 2024.

Voit, of course, was ours once. We traded him to the Yankees last year where he almost immediately became productive. That has continued over to this season, where it can be argued that he deserved to be an All-Star. Meanwhile the Cardinals acquired Goldschmidt via trade in the off-season to become our long term 1B and he’s currently having the worst season of his career.

John Mozeliak has been doing this lately, acquiring pricey, well known names only to see them flounder. Our All-Star this year was home grown talent, Paul DeJong, not any of those pricey vets Mo has been acquiring. Dexter Fowler is making $16.5 million.  That’s a lot of money for a guy who’s hitting .251 with no power. He has a solid eye with a .354 OBP but that alone isn’t worth $16.5 million. I could go on but you get the idea. We’re paying too much for pricey veterans who aren’t performing up to their salaries. Meanwhile former Cardinals who are making quite a bit less are producing elsewhere. Guys like Voit and Tommy Pham.

To me, the solution is obvious and two-fold: Fire Mozeliak and GM Mike Girsch, find replacements from outside the team with a farm background, then start a rebuild. Not a retool where we sign or trade for other veterans. A rebuild, where we trade our veterans (well most of them. keep Yadier Molina, he’s a lifer) for prospects. Keep our current youngsters like Harrison Bader, Tyler O’Neill, Jack Flaherty, etc. and build around them. I think it’s time to start over. Follow the path of the Cubs, and yes, the Astros. Stop signing or trading for pricey vets. Build from within. We have some solid guys like DeJong and the guys mentioned above (some are struggling, but they’re young, they just need time) build around them. The best way to do that is to hire executives with no attachment to the current roster. Sentiment is a dangerous thing in most cases (again, Yadi. He’s a lifer and future HoFer. You don’t trade those guys.)

The Cardinals have been in a sort of near playoff limbo for several years. I believe it’s time to escape that limbo by rebooting.

 

As always thanks for reading.

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