For all you talk about "New Money" (it's almost like a fixation), you don't pay very close attention to them. "New Money" traded off most of the older players they could mid-season when they acknowledged they would suck this year. Several of the young players (especially some SP's) they received in return will be very productive MLB players in the next 2 seasons. Add in a player (Merrifield) who led all of baseball in both hits and stolen bases, a young shortstop (Mondesi) who is a stud offensively and defensively and they were very enjoyable to watch the last six weeks of the season. Some young talent (i.e. O'Hearn) got a chance to play earlier than expected and played well. They didn't kick the ball around much and ended up ranked as the 6th best defensive team in MLB (BTW The Cards ranked 30th). While I don't think they'll contend in 2019, they aren't that far away and should be fun to watch. We will have a couple of large, and admittedly not very smart, contracts (Kennedy & Gordon) falling off in a couple years and they will spend it on some free agents.