Contenders for what we want (world series) not what dewallet and mozo want (3 million in attendance and a wild card birth)
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Then the answer is 2015 or 2019, with no other teams that contended between 2015- now aside from 2019.
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I had 2015 in mind when i wrote my post because they looked like shit against the Nationals in the 2019 NLCS
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Offense was horrible vs the Nats and almost got no-hit twice. Doesn’t change that from being the last time I thought they could win or compete for a WS.
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If they beat the Nats, they weren't beating the 107 win Astros
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Probably not.
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Plus Mozo probably would have gotten a lifetime contract if that team made it to the World Series
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Your goal should be to build the 2004 Cardinals. You won't always win it all even if you do, but that should be the goal.
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So, have your rotation be centered around 2 reclamation projects, one of which was coming off severe injury problems (who would miss the WS but go onto win the CYA in 2005), 2 #3-4 caliber SPs, and arguably the second best SP the organization has developed in the past 30 years anchored by the one of the greatest hitters of all time, a HoF 3B, a great CF, and a good SS?

Personally, I think the 2005 Cardinals would be the better example of how to want to construct a team. 2004 had a lot of things go right. 2005 was basically the same team with a better rotation and Nuñez at 3B with Rolen being injured.

MV3 is something that I don't think can be easily replicated.
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You should build your team to be as much of a juggernaut as possible. That team had HOF talent acquired through the draft, shrewd trades, reclamation projects, and augmented it with excellent FA signings.

Mozeliak would have been too scared to trade away Bud Smith and Polanco for Rolen. He would have thought Kent Bottenfield was a lock down ace. He would have never bargain shopped for Carpenter or traded peanuts for Larry Walker. It ain't in him.
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You're making me defend Mozeliak here and wanting to view his tenure in two different eras as I think his style of moves are dramatically different from 2008-2014 vs 2015-present.

For the sake of this argument, I'm throwing out anything he did good or bad from 2008-2014, as I don't think his thought process is the same.

To Mozeliak's credit, he acquired Arenado (a 3B who is probably of similar caliber to Rolen both offensively and defensively) for jackshit and Goldschmidt for roughly the equivalent of Smith + Polanco with Weaver and Kelly.

His most notable reclamation project during this time was Mikolas.

I'd say the biggest issues Mozeliak/Cardinals have had during this time (2015-present) are the following:

-Doing the bare minimum to improve the team in FA. For example, at a surface level, signing Matz and Contreras were steps in the right direction but having those be the only moves of note made in FA isn't enough to move the needle to contend.
-Targeting middle-of-the-road starters. Leake and Matz shouldn't be the centerpieces of an off-season in free agency.
-Focusing on relievers who induce ground balls instead of strikeouts.
-Spending $ on the wrong relievers (Cecil, Holland, though I think Holland's issue was more due to when he was signed in-season).
-Relying on Frankenstein's monster for the BP and rotation the past 3 seasons.
-Letting Yadi have a swan song in 2022 when he should have been gone before then as well as continuing to delay the inevitable.
-Taveras' death.
-Focusing on having a bunch of guys offensively/defensively who are above average while not developing any superstars.
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The biggest issue Mozeliak has is not having Walt Jocketty and Jeff Luhnow to make him look like he knows what he's doing.
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Except Jocketty basically said fuck prospects and went all-in for the better part of a 7 season period before ultimately losing his job due to beefing with Luhnow.
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Noot hitting 3rd is embarrassing
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Noot is near the bottom of the list of things that are concerning with this abomination
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