I know right?
He’s not going to sit on the bench and his OF defense isn’t so great that you leave him here especially when you have 4guys already rotating in the OF.
Unfortunately the team makeup and performances are forcing Matheny to constantly shift people around to mix and match a usable lineup everyday that still keeps guys rotating in to still get Pt enough to work through problems.
If you have strugglers like Pham and Wong and Fowler on your team. Guys that have shown they can be very good everyday players. Sticking them on the bench forever isn’t going to fix them. And if they’re still in the team part of your job as manager is finding ways to get guys back to their norms and up to their expectations. It worked for Carp and is slowly getting there for Ozuna.
Plus we’ve seen that Fowler and Pham are starting to get less leash as they aren’t figuring it out quick enough. Especially Fowler. Wong’s great defense has shown up by him getting more time in hopes he can get the ABs tobgwt baxk I track. Slowly he seems to be figuring out.
Pham has the tools. His eyes may be having a bad year or pitchers get him now. But he isn’t far off. Feels more like Ozuna early and even as of late . Pressing too much to try to solve all the problems of the team in one at bat
A few more stable pieces I think is all the team and the players need. I think DeJong returning will help a lot. Just because they know where he will play and it is one more solid batter to take off the pressure from everyone a little. If we could do that or get that with one more position I think the whole team would settle down.
Nevertheless. We can win this series tonight despite all the problems and angst. And a win against a division leader at their place is important.
This team is not as bad as everyone seems to want it to be by how they act and write. It also is far from being good. We expect winners every night but reality is that the NL is wide open and the Cardinals have played good teams well within and outside the division. No one is dominating. If we can just get healthy and add a piece or two I think we’ve got just as much a shot as anyone else.