The Marlins just showed the Cardinals that things could be far worse

The St. Louis Cardinals are coming off one of their most impressive, in a bad way, series of the season against the Phillies. After holding late leads in two of the three games, the Cardinals were somehow swept by the second Wild Card team and puts the St. Louis season in real jeopardy.

Things are going the wrong direction, but at least Chaim Bloom still looks to be in control of the future. The same cannot be said for the Miami Marlins. Despite sitting three games over .500 and sitting above the Cardinals in the standings, Bob Nightengale reported the Marlins organization let go the entirety of their pro scouting department. The Miami starting lineup is all under the age of 30 and hanging around much longer than anticipated, but apparently ownership felt it was time for a change.

Chaim Bloom prioritized the Cardinals player development and scouting team to build for future success

In a followup post, Foul Territory posted that Miami made those changes with the desire to incorporate "more video" into their scouting strategy. While the use of video for advanced scouting and fine-tuning mechanics is nothing new, removing an entire department and substituting it with technology is unprecedented. This full shift is the complete opposite direction that Chaim Bloom has gone with the rebuilding of the Cardinals front office and player development team.

During the offseason, Katie Woo reported that one of the first changes that Bloom was going to make upon taking the helm was with the minor league system. After multiple years of trimming down the lower-level staff, the new POBO took it upon himself to reinstall some old positions and expand the department to include others. Now two drafts and 1.5 trade deadlines into his full-time role, the now seemingly old-time thinking of having boots on the ground in a scouting role has paid massive dividends.

In Baseball America's updated farm system rankings since the draft and trade deadline, the Cardinals surged up to second place behind one of Bloom's old employers. The Tampa Bay Rays sat at the top of the rankings but the Cardinals were right behind them, thanks to BA having four St. Louis prospects ranked among the top 100. Even better than those players ranking with the game's best youngsters, two sit in Double-A and another has made an historic MLB debut this year.

The Memphis Redbirds won the Triple-A first half and the Double-A Springfield Cardinals are off to an a hot start in their second half. With that much talent at the upper level of the minors, Cardinals fans have to be cautiously optimistic about Bloom's future strategy. He has put together a team of baseball guys, as well as people that can run and analyze the numbers, to create one of the most improved player development teams in the entire league.

Taking in the continued progress the young players have taken at the major league level, the deserved quick promotions of hot prospects, and the evaluation of talent in the amateur draft, Chaim Bloom has the Cardinals going the right direction. Which is the opposite of whatever the Marlins are trying to do.

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