Talking about offseason plans

10/05/2024 08:00 AM

and about baseball with people you like

You all wouldn't know this, but back in the past as I am writing this, it is late. Or early. Maybe what will be a truly astounding number of typographical errors would have given that away if I hadn't said anything. But now you know. It is the wee hours of the evening or the morning, depending on how annoying you want to be. I went to Syberg's and had a shark bite drink — it had Red Bull in it, so I am wide awake. Got to keep the little shark that came with it though.

There is something about being awake after everyone has gone to bed. Moonlight filters in and the wind sighs through the open windows. The house is enveloped in a tranquility, profound in its silence that only deepest part of the night brings. If you are someone that feels alive in the stillness of the night, this might be the time when you do some of your most thoughtful reflection. Or maybe you ingested 80 milligrams of caffeine at 7:00 pm and you do not metabolize it quickly, so you are just wide awake.

I have been thinking about the offseason a little bit. I have been thinking about the Cardinals some, but mostly thinking about the site. I'll talk about the St. Louis Cardinals first, since a majority of folks are likely here for that sort of thing. The Cardinals just feel sort of in a rut. It is a feeling I know too well. I look around my cluttered house and see so many things I've held on to that I don't need. I see projects I never started. I see empty glasses and water bottles strewn about from my sister when she stayed here last weekend that I haven't gathered up the energy to clean up.

I'm going to do that now.

That's a little better.

I can't help but feel like that when I look at the Cardinals. That twinge of anxiety you feel when you see a mess you have to clean up, but something takes over and you think about how much work it will be to clean it up, so you just leave it. And it really isn't that bad. It took less than thirty seconds to pick up the glasses and take them to the kitchen. It will take only a few more seconds in the morning to put them in the dishwasher. But it is so easy to resist when it isn't that bad. And then eventually you are stuck and you cannot recall how you got to that point.

I'm not sure what I want the Cardinals to do, let alone what I think they should do. Paul Goldschmidt, despite all his offensive woes to start the season, did end up with a 100 wRC+ for the season. Nolan Arenado was an above average player per fWAR because of his defense. Willson Contreras spent half the season on the Injured List. Jordan Walker has not yet come into his own and at 22 years old hasn't really had the chance to. So where do they turn?

Regardless of how they proceed, it soon won't be the familiar face of John Mozelak leading the front office as he prepares to step aside for Chaim Bloom to take over as President of Baseball Operations in 2025. From the sounds of it, Bloom's focus will be on improving from within, strengthening the farm system by drafting and developing talent and adding minor league staff. It won't be an overnight change; it will take incremental improvements over several years. It is an area the Cardinals were considered leaders and innovators in back in 2010. Remember that Sports Illustrated cover from back in 2013? They were called baseball's model organization in past, present, and future. Then every other team caught up.

Getting back to drafting and developing seems like an especially prescient choice considering the murmurs about what might be happening with revenues across baseball and with Diamond, the parent company of Bally Sports, announcing they are dropping two teams they partner with. The Cardinals are certainly not safe from this fate and with more and more people turning away from cable, this particular revenue stream might not continue to be the fountain it once was. The Cardinals might not always have the attendance revenue to back them up either. Attendance was down in 2024, likely in part due to the team's performance in recent years, but there are certainly economic factors at play as well. The pandemic was the catalyst of rising prices in goods and housing, but salaries in cities like St. Louis are not rising with it. A day at the ballpark is just not an accessible source of entertainment for a lot of folks. That is something the team must face as well.

We will have an entire offseason to unpack some of these things though and I am sure the Cardinals will give up plenty to discuss. I have some ideas for the site for the offseason as well. I want to bring back Viva El Libros, the VEB offseason book club. I would love to read any ideas you all might have for what to read. I think 2020 interrupted my last attempt and I never did finish whatever book I was reading that year. My brother gave me his old Kindle, so the literary world is truly at my fingertips.

I also want to start doing "Writer Roundtables" where you all can submit your questions and the writers will answer them in written form. We do this for podcasts all the time, but we don't always get time to answer everything we want to. I thought this might be a fun way to get to more questions — you all always have such great questions. We also have some new(ish) regular writers that will be taking their turns in the rotation and I think that would be a fun way to get everyone involved. If you have any questions you would like us to consider, please drop them in the comments below.

I am going to try to remember to post game threads for the postseason games. I can't promise I will always remember (you all know that too well by now, I am sure), but I will definitely have something for the World Series and any big elimination games.

Lastly, I have a special project I have been working on, or at least, assembling the equipment I need to try it. That makes it sound more epic than it truly is — by equipment I just mean a computer and some software. I won't say more in case it doesn't work out, but I have some ideas.

I want to thank you all if you have stayed reading so far — truly a testament to your patience — but I also want to thank you all for hanging with us this season. It didn't quite go like we had hoped for the Cardinals, but my goal is for this to be a place to talk about baseball with people you like. We try our best to be insightful or analytical or funny, but at the end of the day it is about a community of people that like talking about baseball (and other stuff) together. Thank you all for giving me the opportunity to do that with you for another season!