SF70

If Cousins is healthy I probably should have put him in instead of Gott, since I believe he has 1 more option and Gott doesn’t.

At a minimum, the team needs to add a veteran high-leverage arm, preferably LH. One of Hand or Chafin, would work. Both made 6.5M this season and will likely demand a raise due to performance, so whoever can be had for less should be the preferred route. A backend of Williams-Chafin/Hand-Bush would be ok, especially with Strez’s breakout and the potential of Uribe making his mark this season. Would like both of Hand & Chafin, but $16-$20M id probably too much for Stearns to pay, even with money savings from trading Renfroe and letting Wong walk. So here’s my bullpen: Williams-Hand-Bush-Uribe-Strez-Milner-Box-Gott

At a minimum, the team needs to add a veteran high-leverage arm, preferably LH. One of Hand or Chafin, would work. Both made 6.5M this season and will likely demand a raise due to performance, so whoever can be had for less should be the preferred route. A backend of Williams-Chafin/Hand-Bush would be ok, especially with Strez’s breakout and the potential of Uribe making his mark this season. Would like both of Hand & Chafin, but $16-$20M id probably too much for Stearns to pay, even with money savings from trading Renfroe and letting Wong walk. So here’s my bullpen: Williams-Hand-Bush-Uribe-Strez-Milner-Box-Gott

The team was 4 games under .500 the last 4 months of the season. Those team you cited were healthy and playing good ball entering the postseason, our team was not.

If the team wants to contend without a rebuild they will need to extend Woodruff or trade him next offseason. Burnes isn’t getting extended, so he will need traded this offseason or next. A trade of Burnes this offseason returns more than twice what the team would get waiting a year and just as importantly gets his replacement starter into the system a year earlier as well. The goal needs to be to get his replacement into the rotation by OD of ‘24. This is why I believe the team will trade Burnes this offseason. They can buy an innings-inning starter like Quintana or Cueto that can replace his innings but will take a hit performance-wise obviously. Outside of Gasser, the teams best minors starters are 3 years away from helping the big-club and that there-in lies the problem. Let’s say the team extends Woodruff, and signs Quintana to a 2 year deal, that gives them a ‘23 rotation of: Woodruff-Peralta-Quintana-Ashby-Lauer-Houser?-Depth signings-Gasser (July)-Burnes replacement (post-S2). 2024– Woodruff-Peralta-Ashby-Lauer (extended?)-Quintana-Gasser-Burnes replacement-Depth starters 2025- Woodruff-Burnes replacement-Peralta-Ashby-Gasser-Burnes replacement-Lauer?-Misiorowski?-Rodriguez?Cruz?Henderson? By ‘25, Burnes replacement could be our 2nd or 3rd best starter. Now if the team is ok with a rebuild, all this I’ve done is moot and they go another year full bore, then likely rebuild. ’

If the team wants to contend without a rebuild they will need to extend Woodruff or trade him next offseason. Burnes isn’t getting extended, so he will need traded this offseason or next. A trade of Burnes this offseason returns more than twice what the team would get waiting a year and just as importantly gets his replacement starter into the system a year earlier as well. The goal needs to be to get his replacement into the rotation by OD of ‘24. This is why I believe the team will trade Burnes this offseason. They can buy an innings-inning starter like Quintana or Cueto that can replace his innings but will take a hit performance-wise obviously. Outside of Gasser, the teams best minors starters are 3 years away from helping the big-club and that there-in lies the problem. Let’s say the team extends Woodruff, and signs Quintana to a 2 year deal, that gives them a ‘23 rotation of: Woodruff-Peralta-Quintana-Ashby-Lauer-Houser?-Depth signings-Gasser (July)-Burnes replacement (post-S2). 2024– Woodruff-Peralta-Ashby-Lauer (extended?)-Quintana-Gasser-Burnes replacement-Depth starters 2025- Woodruff-Burnes replacement-Peralta-Ashby-Gasser-Burnes replacement-Lauer?-Misiorowski?-Rodriguez?Cruz?Henderson? By ‘25, Burnes replacement could be our 2nd or 3rd best starter. Now if the team is ok with a rebuild, all this I’ve done is moot and they go another year full bore, then likely rebuild. ’

Love your passion, and agree with a lot of what you say, but…….. This year we would have 4 rounds to get through to win a title, ‘06–3. Also back in ‘06 there were good teams, but no great teams, definitely no superteams like there are now. Atlanta, LAD, and Houston are all monstrous and far superior to any team back in ‘06 that St Louis played. Back to the September Brewers — Bad bullpen, poor offense, mediocre defense, and what happens when these teams throw a LH starter at us? Glad this season is behind us. Looking forward to what’s ahead.

Few weeks? More like 7 weeks, and those 7 weeks tanked his trade value. He’s back to being a 1-pitch pitcher who’s command can leave him at any time. You say Gasser is a 4/5 starter, I say he’s got 2/3 starter potential. Ruiz May very well be a 4th OF on this team, since they are loaded with talented OF’s, but as a trade-chip he has value.

Agree to disagree then. This team had too many flaws to overcome entering the postseason. Just my opinion.

Couldn’t agree less. How many teams would have wanted a closer that couldn’t close? Can we not remember just how bad Hader was for the month prior to the deadline? Which one of those teams you mentioned was trading a huge prospect package for that Hader? I’ll tell you, none of them. Thankfully Preller offered and we accepted, or this team would have been stuck with him this offseason and his diminished trade-return. We now have arguably our best pitching prospect, and near big-league ready at that, and a near top 100 prospect also near big-league ready. Blame Stearns for the handling/communication of the trade, not the return.

Not flawed, the truth. 4 pitchers, no matter how good, were not carrying this team thru 4 rounds of the playoffs. Ashby and Peralta weren’t stretched and hadn’t pitched enough to get their command back. The offense was terrible all September, and abhorrent vs LHP all year. This team had no chance and would have been by far the worst playoff team in the postseason. This season needed to come to an end.