How good were the Cardinals, anyway? They flourished by playing a relatively easy schedule, with only 40 percent of their regular-season games coming against teams that finished with a winning record. The Cardinals went 30-35 in those games against winning competitors.
This is why not a single person should have been surprised. If you watched the season it was such a predictable ending.
I mean, it’s nothing really new. Basically all the stuff we talk about around here. A good encapsulation of it all though.
I agree that they should upgrade the team, but acting like it’s some sort of magic bullet is wishful thinking. The playoffs are basically a series of coin flips.
The Dodgers were objectively the best team in baseball. They had one of the best starting pitching staffs of all time, the best offense in baseball, and the best bullpen in the NL. They went 14-5 against the Padres in the regular season. They spent a ton of money to get there. Didn’t matter.
The Braves won 101 games, had elite pitchers in Strider, Wright, and Fried. Didn’t matter.
The Mets also won 101 games, had the highest payroll in baseball, and had arguably the two best pitchers in baseball. Didn’t matter.
The playoffs are random, and ascribing anything to the results isn’t based in reality. They’re fun to watch, and it’s great when your team wins, but the outcomes shouldn’t meaningfully inform roster construction.
Great read. Been saying it for awhile now. STOP DOING JUST ENOUGH TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS. We need serious help at SS , C , OF & pitching to get over the hump. So tired of the same old song and dance with “prospect x will be the difference next year” mentality. Get more proven dudes and maybe we can win a playoff series again.
Do people think it’s easy to win it all?? Cuz it’s not, 2 titles in 16 years is extremely above average, this isn’t the NBA where the same few teams always win
“The catching situation is a joke and requires serious attention.” It is cathartic to see that written by a St. Louis sports pundit. Yadi, for as amazing as his career has been, was awful this season.
The Cardinals paid him $10,000,000 this year and he was worth a whopping 0 fWAR with a 53 OPS+. Yadi wasn’t just bad, he was one of the least productive catchers in the league this year.
Mix that with the fact the Knizer hasn’t taken the steps to elevate his game and the result is the catcher spot being a disaster this year, with no clear solution for the future.
I mean, this team was perfect for the postseason. They just didn’t preform.
I think increasing the payroll is the best and most realistic way to improve the team. Even additions of two $30M contracts has just risen the ceiling of individual players and dropped the floor. The median player is a pre-arb player at this point (don’t quote me on this, I haven’t checked recently). They don’t even need to go out and necessarily get another superstar, but going out an getting two very solid players and a pitcher for a total of like $30M on top of their current payroll is probably the difference
We had a great, memorable season for reasons we all know. That’s a lot better than most teams. We weren’t close to being one of the best teams in baseball, though, and I think most realistic fans know that, too. I’ll take it. And I trust this front office to keep working to make us competitive next year and the years to come, for whatever that’s worth.
In the playoffs I feel like you need Joc Pederson level players, guys that can hit a solo shot out of no where to get a lead. Cards have only a couple power hitters and they both were ice cold in the playoffs. Phillies have like 3 or 4 guys that can hit a bomb at any given time
Yeah because our last two championships were just how you would draw up the teams…86 wins and making the postseason on the last day
Be better in the post season. Another hot take from Bernie.
This entire point can be made moot by just pointing at the dodgers no? It’s up to each individual org to get themselves in the best spot to win it all, and that rarely looks the same between two teams. We’ve had had sustained success with this model IDK why people are so desperate to burn it all down. The Mariners just made the playoffs for the first time since a lot of the people in this sub were born lol.
It is not about payroll. That is such a lazy take, tbh. The reality here is that, particularly moving forward, we are a team driven by two absolute studs. Two perennial MVP candidates who I love having on this team. Nonetheless, both of them have a fairly long history of disappearing in the postseason. And that sucks. It sucks for them and it sucks for the fans. Some people blossom on the biggest stage. Others… not so much. What this team needs is one or two “big stage” guys. One or two players who are going to step up in those big moments and play greater than they really are. Players like Freese, or Yadi ten years ago. Players like what Bader has become for the Yankees this year (No, I do not regret that trade). We need just a couple of guys who step up. They don’t have to be regular season stars. They don’t have to make 30 million per year. We have exactly the two studs we need to get us through 162. We need a player or two who has that extra gear when it matters the most.
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How good were the Cardinals, anyway? They flourished by playing a relatively easy schedule, with only 40 percent of their regular-season games coming against teams that finished with a winning record. The Cardinals went 30-35 in those games against winning competitors.
This is why not a single person should have been surprised. If you watched the season it was such a predictable ending.
I mean, it’s nothing really new. Basically all the stuff we talk about around here. A good encapsulation of it all though.
I agree that they should upgrade the team, but acting like it’s some sort of magic bullet is wishful thinking. The playoffs are basically a series of coin flips.
The Dodgers were objectively the best team in baseball. They had one of the best starting pitching staffs of all time, the best offense in baseball, and the best bullpen in the NL. They went 14-5 against the Padres in the regular season. They spent a ton of money to get there. Didn’t matter.
The Braves won 101 games, had elite pitchers in Strider, Wright, and Fried. Didn’t matter.
The Mets also won 101 games, had the highest payroll in baseball, and had arguably the two best pitchers in baseball. Didn’t matter.
The playoffs are random, and ascribing anything to the results isn’t based in reality. They’re fun to watch, and it’s great when your team wins, but the outcomes shouldn’t meaningfully inform roster construction.
Great read. Been saying it for awhile now. STOP DOING JUST ENOUGH TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS. We need serious help at SS , C , OF & pitching to get over the hump. So tired of the same old song and dance with “prospect x will be the difference next year” mentality. Get more proven dudes and maybe we can win a playoff series again.
Do people think it’s easy to win it all?? Cuz it’s not, 2 titles in 16 years is extremely above average, this isn’t the NBA where the same few teams always win
“The catching situation is a joke and requires serious attention.” It is cathartic to see that written by a St. Louis sports pundit. Yadi, for as amazing as his career has been, was awful this season.
The Cardinals paid him $10,000,000 this year and he was worth a whopping 0 fWAR with a 53 OPS+. Yadi wasn’t just bad, he was one of the least productive catchers in the league this year.
Mix that with the fact the Knizer hasn’t taken the steps to elevate his game and the result is the catcher spot being a disaster this year, with no clear solution for the future.
I mean, this team was perfect for the postseason. They just didn’t preform.
I think increasing the payroll is the best and most realistic way to improve the team. Even additions of two $30M contracts has just risen the ceiling of individual players and dropped the floor. The median player is a pre-arb player at this point (don’t quote me on this, I haven’t checked recently). They don’t even need to go out and necessarily get another superstar, but going out an getting two very solid players and a pitcher for a total of like $30M on top of their current payroll is probably the difference
We had a great, memorable season for reasons we all know. That’s a lot better than most teams. We weren’t close to being one of the best teams in baseball, though, and I think most realistic fans know that, too. I’ll take it. And I trust this front office to keep working to make us competitive next year and the years to come, for whatever that’s worth.
In the playoffs I feel like you need Joc Pederson level players, guys that can hit a solo shot out of no where to get a lead. Cards have only a couple power hitters and they both were ice cold in the playoffs. Phillies have like 3 or 4 guys that can hit a bomb at any given time
Yeah because our last two championships were just how you would draw up the teams…86 wins and making the postseason on the last day
Be better in the post season. Another hot take from Bernie.
This entire point can be made moot by just pointing at the dodgers no? It’s up to each individual org to get themselves in the best spot to win it all, and that rarely looks the same between two teams. We’ve had had sustained success with this model IDK why people are so desperate to burn it all down. The Mariners just made the playoffs for the first time since a lot of the people in this sub were born lol.
It is not about payroll. That is such a lazy take, tbh. The reality here is that, particularly moving forward, we are a team driven by two absolute studs. Two perennial MVP candidates who I love having on this team. Nonetheless, both of them have a fairly long history of disappearing in the postseason. And that sucks. It sucks for them and it sucks for the fans. Some people blossom on the biggest stage. Others… not so much. What this team needs is one or two “big stage” guys. One or two players who are going to step up in those big moments and play greater than they really are. Players like Freese, or Yadi ten years ago. Players like what Bader has become for the Yankees this year (No, I do not regret that trade). We need just a couple of guys who step up. They don’t have to be regular season stars. They don’t have to make 30 million per year. We have exactly the two studs we need to get us through 162. We need a player or two who has that extra gear when it matters the most.