The Cardinals' farm system and player-development structure is an embarrassing mess. I knew it was bad, but the deterioration is much worse than I imagined. Thanks to the excellent reporting by Katie Woo, who covers the Cardinals for The Athletic, we received valuable information of how bad things are, and what must be done to fix a long-term foundation that was irresponsibly allowed to collapse. Woo reports that Chaim Bloom has moved into a full-time role, and soon we will know if Cardinals' ownership is ready to put him in charge of the baseball operation.

As I continue with my series of looks at the best and worst of the St. Louis Cardinals' season, I turn my attention to the two best stars on 2024. Two shining stars, sparkling above the mediocrity: Masyn Winn and Ryan Helsley. I think we all agree on both of these obvious choices. But I'll give you some extra details that you should find interesting.

There's obviously a chance that Oli Marmol will return as the St. Louis Cardinals' manager in 2025. He is under contract through the end of the 2026 season, and the Cardinals' ownership-management could give him another chance in '25. It depends on who will be running the baseball department in 2025? John Mozeliak? Chaim Bloom? What if the hand-off from Mozeliak to Bloom happens a year from now? Would it make sense to retain Marmol and then have Bloom pick his own manager -- if motivated to do that -- going into 2026?

The Cardinals actually overachieved this season. Based on their run differential, they should be 12 games under .500 with a 73-85 record. Instead, Marmol has the Cardinals at four games over .500 (81-77) with four games left on the schedule. Marmol's expert handling of the bullpen is a prominent factor in the team's 29-14 record in one--run games, and a 57-38 mark in contests determined by three runs or fewer.

Can Marmol ever win the fans over? Will Cardinal fans ever come to love him as the manager? Or has he reached a dead end, no matter what?

If the Cardinals see Miami manager Skip Schumaker as an ideal candidate to take over as manager for the St. Louis franchise that he played and coached for, they can't afford to wait. I'm not saying that he's the only candidate the Cardinals should pursue. It's just a matter of timing. If Schumaker checks all of the boxes for the Cardinals -- and I believe he does -- they have to get him before he takes a managing job elsewhere.

There will be several openings, at least. And other jobs may come available if one or two of the wealthy, high-powered franchises (Yankees, Dodgers) flop in the postseason. The division-rival Reds reportedly have Schumaker at the top of their list to succeed the deposed David Bell.

The Cardinals' decision-makers may like Oli Marmol ... they may believe he deserves at least one more season ... they may want to give Marmol some time. But do the Cardinals want to give Marmol another year on the job, even if it means losing their chance to hire Schumaker?

Fired by Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak in a stunning and controversial move at the end of the 2021 season, Mike Shildt has rebounded in a big way by leading the San Diego Padres to the playoffs in his first season as their manager. And as we write this, the Padres are only two games behind the first-place Dodgers in the NL West with five games left to play. So a division title is still possible.

Under Shildt, the Padres have won 91 games and counting. This is their first 90-win season since 2010, and only their second 90-win campaign since 1998. And with Shildt making a significant difference in the dugout and clubhouse, San Diego will compete in the postseason for only the third time over the last 18 seasons.

Shildt's impressive resume as manager continues to grow. He made history this week, which I explain in the video. So far in his big-league managing career, Shildt has a higher career regular-season winning percentage than some of the illustrious names in MLB history ... and a higher career winning percentage than that of Tony La Russa, Whitey Herzog and Red Schoendienst.

For more info and perspective, please watch the video and feel free to comment.

The 2024 Cardinals will conclude a disappointing season at the end of the week. I'll be handing out some awards -- and some penalties -- in the coming days and weeks. Best player, MVP, most disappointing player, top pitcher, most overrated, most underrated, high point, low point, the firing line ... things like that. Today, I discuss the most Disappointing Cardinal in 2024.

We respect Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras for speaking up and speaking about the team's front office needing to "be hungry" about improving the team, especially the lineup, to reclaim the NL Central division from Milwaukee. The truth is always preferred to head fakes and cliches and excuses. That said, we're not sure what Cardinals management will do this coming offseason ... because we don't know who will be in charge of the baseball operation. Hopefully the Cardinals will reveal those plans next week.

But no matter who is in charge, questions remain: payroll size? What's the realistic goal? Is 2025 a transition year? Will it be a two-year transition that includes 2026? And if more false or misleading promises are made by ownership-management -- trying to win the division, win the pennant, win the World Series -- how is that even possible for 2025 when a team is has so many areas of need to develop a championship-caliber roster? Contreras did a good thing by speaking out ... but many, many questions remain.

The Missouri Tigers are 4-0. That's great. But the first two games were glorified scrimmages, and over the past two weeks Mizzou has defeated Boston College and Vanderbilt by an average of 4.5 points.

Coach Eli Drinkwitz and his team were very fortunate to escape with a harrowing 30-27 victory over visiting Vanderbilt in two overtimes.

But the Tigers must play at a much higher level -- especially on offense -- to play up to the soaring expectations and hype generated by last season's 11-win campaign.

This program has so many positives, so much momentum. It would be a shame to see the Tigers fail to seize the opportunity that awaits them in 2024.

Despite having substantially lower payrolls than the Cardinals and Cubs, the small-market, limited-spending Milwaukee Brewers clinched their second NL Central division title this week. That makes three division championships in the last four seasons, and four first-place finishes in the last six years. The Cubs and Cardinals have a huge financial advantage over the Brewers, but it doesn't matter ... in this instance Brain Power beats Spending Power.

The last two executives that have led the Milwaukee baseball department, David Stearns and Matt Arnold, were analysts for Jeff Luhnow in Houston, so it's no surprise to see the Brewers have superior payroll efficiency and an excellent touch on drafting and development. It used to be that way in St. Louis when Jeff Luhnow was here. Those days are long over, and we can see how the "Luhnow Effect" has dramatically altered the landscape in the NL Central.

Other than Bill DeWitt Jr., Bill DeWitt III, John Mozeliak -- and perhaps others in the Cardinals' leadership circle -- know one knows if the Cardinals are planning to offer, or have offered, their top baseball job to Chaim Bloom. And hypothetically speaking, what happens if Bloom politely declines the offer? What if he joined the Cardinals as a special assistant just to study the player-development system and the state of the minor-league operation -- with no commitments about staying on and moving to the top baseball post?

What if Bloom makes recommendations that DeWitt doesn't agree with? I assume that Bloom would expect the owner to buy into the plan to renovate the Cardinals ... but what happens if DeWitt doesn't commit to total support of what Bloom wants to do? In that scenario, I don't know why Bloom would take the job -- especially after his bad experience with Boston's ownership group.

Bloom is only 41. He will have other opportunities because he's highly respected in the industry. He doesn't specifically need the St. Louis job. In addition, Bloom practices Judaism and is seriously devout. He and his wife have two young sons, live in Boston, and Bloom may not want to uproot his family ... or live away from his family.

I've been thinking about these matters. If Bloom rejects the Cardinals, this would be a bad look for DeWitt. We can only wait and see how this all turns out as the Cardinals prepare to go into a critically important offseason.