MY STLtoday Forum Open Letter to Fans

I said that I was motivated to start this blog because of what I was reading over at the forums on the Post's website. I just posted an open letter to other fans. Here it is.

An open letter to my fellow fans:

Cards Fans,

Spring Training is almost here and I wanted to share some thoughts and pose some questions to you, my fellow fans. I am concerned for our national reputation with what I have read in various forums for much of this offseason. People both inside and outside of the game refer to us as, “the smartest fans in baseball” lately some of us have given reason for that honor to be reconsidered. It is time for some frank and honest talk.

“Management is being cheap”, “Mo can’t do his job and he needs to go”, “The division has gotten better”, “We need to sign a big name or else”, “I’m boycotting games until things change”, etc these are just a few of the many criticisms I have seen recently. Let’s go through them one by one.

“Management is being cheap.”
In this game does money guarantee success? If it did, couldn’t we just have a two team league of the Mets and Yankees play each other all season? Wouldn’t the series always come down to that? In fact we could just scale everything back to a best of seven in October and still keep the name “World Series” and watch NY go crazy. I am sure the owners would love it, they wouldn’t need to pay anyone (except for the NY owners) and the demand for advertising would go through the roof! With so many unused stadiums the series could travel each year to, “better serve the fans and to keep them happy” I can see Selig practicing that line in the mirror as we speak with visions of dollar signs dancing in his head.

Come on, in any business finding a model that is cost effective and keeps you competitive is the key to thriving. It is the same for us and our families. If we could all eat out at the best restaurants every night wouldn’t we? Me, my family started shopping at Aldi for some of our groceries when the economy went south. We found a way to lower our expenses while keeping our meals as tasty as they have always been. That being said, we still buy good meat and the best produce we can from nicer stores. So, save the cash where you can while keeping quality as high as possible and then spring for the occasional premium goods. Should the Cards be different? Keep things in perspective, reality is reality. St. Louis isn’t NY, LA, or Chi and it will never be. Cost of living in STL is lower than those other cities, and there are fewer people in the area. Locally major companies are cutting jobs; look at the Brewery as the prime example. The team is operating in reality but still being committed to winning; STL is someplace between 25-30 in national market size but the teams payroll is consistently in the top third of all MLB teams. I could understand all the complaints of not wanting to win if the owners spent like a team from the 25th to 30th market, but they haven’t and still don’t. They keep things in perspective and get creative with the business model to keep us in the mix year after year.
I see the “cheap” argument as, frankly, plain jealousy of rich people. Fact: all MLB owners are rich, richer than most of us will ever be, richer to astronomical levels; they have tons and tons of cash. There are thirty ownership groups, all with tons of cash, but even in that small elite club some owners have more cash than others it’s just a fact.

I am a college educated guy with a wife and daughter; I have been a stay-at-home dad for the last year and a half so we are a one income family. I no longer live in STL (was born and raised there and DuBourg to answer THE question) I’m now in Chicago. I am throwing that out there to preemptively cut off the expected, “You must be rich, and aren’t you holier than thou” comments. I’m not.

“Mo can’t do his job and he needs to go”
Short answer, yes he can, and no he doesn’t. I hope in 10 years when he is recognized as one of the top GMs in the league that he is still with the Cards, and that idiots like the ones who were plain disrespectful in his recent online chat with the Post don’t get to him.
If you read the post everyday and have for the last several years you may remember the stories back in 2007 where it was reported that as Ast.GM Mo was the one who pushed for and handled the deals of both Luddy and Springer. Do the last two seasons look the way they do with out those moves no they don’t; they look really bad.

Glaus for Rollen, Lohse, Freese for Edmonds, extending Wainwright for a steal all great smart forward thinking moves. I can’t even begin to mention the value of his not making dumb moves that others had pushed for.

Remember when the forums were filled with people being all upset that we didn’t get Juan Pierre then a year later it was Soriano, this year it is Manny. Look at how the first two contracts played out, and watch Manny this coming season then I will be glad to listen to your case if you still want to make it.

Also, for those who want the good old Jocketty days, resigning Mulder, trading for Mulder in the first place, Kennedy at 2nd, Pineiro in the birds on the bat (Mo did resign him when he was the interim GM), Mike Maroth, Kip Wells, etc. We did have a nice ride with Walt for awhile, but would you have kept him with that track record his last few years? I take Mo’s first year for Jocketty’s last hands down and for the record both were working for the same owner.

“The division has gotten better”
No, it has gotten a lot worse. Have a look at this from the Sporting News: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=cardskidscouldtrumpcubsv&prov=tsn&type=lgns
Remember I mentioned that I now live in Chicago? Think of me as a sleeper agent. DeRosa was one of the Cubs top two players last year in value (Soto was the other). They traded him, and as we well know while a lot of fun to watch and a seemingly great guy Miles isn’t DeRosa. He fades with over exposure, and while he is a great bench guy he shouldn’t be a starting player on a daily basis. That was a big hit. Wood in Cleveland another hit. Marmol as the only good option in the bullpen, another hit. D-Lee getting worse year by year, that’s a hit. The $136 Million man in left and his annual injury, a costly hit. Big Z’s injuries last year and his being a head case in general, a hit. Harden needing all of the last three years combined to pitch his last 200 innings (Carp pitched 232 innings in that same timeframe if you need a barometer) in reality Harden’s presence is not as scary as it looks on paper so it’s a hit. Paying Milton Bradley way to much to get hurt again a hit and a really dumb one at that. Dempster remembering that he is Dempster, another. Selling off their farm system, yet another.

The Cubs are a tattered and beat up expensive punching bag pure and simple. Larry Rothchild as a pitching coach kills pitchers. We are stacked with Cy Youngs compared with the big name rag tag bunch in the Windy City and if we have a problem we have depth, a lot of depth, probably more depth than we realize before we see the younger kids play.

Even my Cubs fan friends see the weakness of their 2009 team, and it takes a lot to make a Cub fan think the team sucks BEFORE the season starts; usually at this time of the year they only think that this is the season and we know how that turns out.

Need more proof? Let’s just isolate HRs as that is typically seen as a sexy stat. Here are just the OF HR numbers from last year looking at players currently on each team’s active roster.
Luddy 37 Ank 25 Schu 8 Barton 2 Mather 8 Dunc 6 Strat 1MLB total: 87

And now the Cubs
Bradley 22 Fukudome 10 Gathright 0 Johnson 6 Soriano 29 Fox 0 Fuld 0 Robnett 0 Snyder 0 MLB total: 67

Then think about the Cubs having 4 guys on their active roster( Fox, Fuld, Robnett, and Snyder) all with 0 MLB at bats last year and the last two have no MLB experience.

Our no MLB experience guy (Rasmus) had 11 at AAA in an off year for him and one where he missed time with an injury.

Man those Cubs got so much better.

Still want more proof that we are in a good place to win the division? Albert no last name needed!

“We need to sign a big name or else”
No, we need to be smart and let the market work its self out. There are still big name free agents on the market, after they sign. Then the trade market will heat up in Spring Training. We need to some OF depth so Rasmus can play. Dunc has a nice spring, he and Schu are dealt for a pitcher. In less than 10 days we will start to get a better picture of our rotation and bull pen. We can add pitching depth if we need to as there are lots of pitchers looking for work. We are in a strong smart place. Even if no more moves are made we are in a good place.
Still need a big name? You know MLB sells customizable jerseys. No one is stopping you from buying a Manny Jersey with the Birds on the Bat.

“I’m boycotting games until things change”
Do you even like baseball, are you really a fan? So, if we don’t make any moves but the team is fun to watch and runs away with the division can I hold you to your word? I hope so it will mean I can go to more games. Come on everybody, we follow baseball because it is fun, it is a great game, it is the national pastime, the more you learn about the game the more fun it becomes, our team is the best team to be a fan of, Albert, we “Go Crazy Folks, Go Crazy”, the economy is pretty rough right now shouldn’t we enjoy the simple pleasure of kicking back with a Budweiser and watching the Cards play a hard nine? Do you remember that great childhood dream of some day playing in the big leagues? Our team is set up to let a talented bunch of kids fulfill that dream and I know their excitement will carry over into their performances on the field. For me as a fan, I am more than happy to share that excitement with them and cheer them on and hang in there when they hit a slump. That is what St. Louis Cardinals baseball is about, and that’s why I am proud to be a fan.

Here is the link to the Post's site with all of the comments.
http://www.stltoday.com//forums/viewtopic.php?p=6655850#6655850