Guys, this is going to be their third straight season without a 20 home run hitter in the outfield.
That's ridiculous.
How can you expect to win with that? There's a massive hole in their lineup. Look at their lineup....even with Contreras healthy.
Donovan (LF)
Nootbaar (RF)
Goldschmidt (1B)
Arenado (3B)
Contreras (C)
Gorman (2B)
Burleson (DH)
Winn (SS)
Siani (CF)
That's not nearly good enough to win. Siani can't hit. Burleson is a singles hitter. Gorman is all or nothing. Goldy and Arenado are aging. The Cardinals lineup simply isnt good enough. You're talking about a 71 win team and they added absolutely nothing to the offense and defense of a 71 win team.
Now if you all of a sudden had say, Adolis Garcia or Juan Soto in RF (two players they had every opportunity to have), you're a different team. Your lineup could look more like
Donovan
Nootbaar
Goldy
Soto
Arenado
Contreras
Gorman
Winn
Siani (Edman)
You're much deeper. When Edman is healthy he's much better than Siani offensively.
But they have elected to have no legitimate power hitting outfielders for three seasons.
And they don't have enough pitching. Two years ago they had to add Montgomery and the other lefty, Quintana, to get through the season and push into the playoffs. They haven't had enough in the rotation since then. And it's astonishing because they knew enough in 2022 to make the trades but in 2024 they think they can get by with less it's like why?
. They are a poorly organized and ran team. They should know they don't have enough offense and pitching. What I'm saying should be like overtly obvious to them. In baseball, you need power at the corners. Period. And you need pitching that can shut teams down. They dont have enough of the basic components you need to win. It's that simple.
And I've edited this post a couple times. They have let their minor leagues go to complete shit. They have nothing at AAA ready to help the big league team. They used to have arms down there. They needed a reliever they called up Joe Kelly or Carlos Martinez or Kevin Siegrist. We all remember those teams. That's the kind of talent you have to have im reserve to win pennants. You need a lot of arms to get through 162 games plus the postseason. They don't have enough quality arms. If Helsley was to get hurt what do they do? If Kittridge or Romero wears out this summer, then what? They have Andre Pallante and what else? It's not good enough. The depth isn't there. They dont have pieces ready to help or pieces to trade for help. They made disastrous trades like the Ozuna trade, which destroyed their pitching depth and on top of that they've done a shitty job drafting and developing. I mean they traded two Cy Young winning arms away for two mediocre seasons of Marcell Ozuna. It's crazy stupid. They could have just signed a free agent outfielder and kept their pitching. What a ridiculous move. The organization top to bottom is stale. They do dumb things.
