***Official 2024 STL Cardinals Thread ***

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

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.