I have to admit that I was a Matheny supporter early on. I was never as uptight about the lineups and in game moves as some. But I had reached the conclusion that he had to turn it around this year or a change needed to be made. I just didn’t expect it to happen this early in the season. I hope this is only the beginning of major changes. This team is loaded with redundancy. Too many corner infield and outfield players. Way too many instances of poor execution and sloppy play. Far too much uneven play; hot one day and inept the next. Those last things are the responsibility of the manager on the field. Too many young players at Memphis who are blocked by players who are seriously underachieving.
I suspect that Shildt is an interim manager period. I don’t think the Cardinal dare not to bring in a big name from the outside. But Shildt is a solid baseball man and I have been very impressed by interviews with him. He is ideal to handle the team on an interim basis while a search for a permanent manager goes on. I do not expect it to take long. They have the advantage of little or no competition for who they want unless the target is currently a manager with another team. I’m not a big fan of some of the names being mentioned, particularly Baker. But I will support the new manager at least until there are good reasons not to.
The sad thing is that the internet, which can be a great thing, is that it has given a platform to those who feed their self importance by trashing others. Most often with the advantage of 20/20 hindsight or preconcieved points of view. Those people will ultimately trash our new manager as well.
I am glad to see Mabry go. If he is responsible for our approach at the plate he needs to go. The take the first pitch, often a batting practice fastball down the middle, and wild swings at pitches out of the zone have made far too many ordinary pitchers enjoy some Cy Young type moments. Seems that our hitters are often behind 0-2, particularly Carpenter and Ozuna. Carp for taking fat pitches and Ozuna for wild swings at bad ones. It will be interesting to see how they replace him. It almost has to be an interim move because a new manager will want his own coaches. Possibly Budaska from Memphis.
My hope is that a move at this time of the season is an indicator of major changes. That would be a departure from the Cardinals normal practices. But this team is not going to get better as currently constituded. They have to take some risks with young players and have to spend some money. Top priority would seem to clean up the defense and clear out some of the bad performers, particulorly those vets who are not going to get better. To do that we probably have to eat some bad salaries. While Matheny was pretty consistent with his late inning bullpen moves I feel that he was very inconsistent in the use of the remainder of the bullpen. That could have impared the progress of some of our young guys with good arms like Tui, Brebbia and Mayers. They need a clear understanding of their role on the team.
Speaking of roles that appears to be a major failing of Matheny or Mo or both. LaRussa was one of the best in understanding the roles that had to be filled to have a winning team. He often spent the early part of the season in getting effective players in those roles and usually had a better last half of the season when succesful in doing so. One of the ultimate results of bad performance in this area is playing a lot of players out of position and having unproductive batting orders.
Let’s hope this is the dawn of a productive new era in Cardinal baseball.