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Except that the probability of 26 guys all playing badly at the same time without a common denominator is impossibly low. It’s like if all the deck chairs slide to one side at the same time, it’s not the chairs.
Not really. Some of them play badly in one game and not another but the combination of all them playing badly at various times is the problem.
The common denominator is that they are not playing like a team is supposed to play.
Remember they didn’t all play together for a full spring training. A big chunk of them played in the WBC.
“So, do we conclude from all the above that perhaps it is, in the end, all the manager’s fault?”
No.
“So what is the manager supposed to do when 26 players are playing badly?”
Do what is in his power to help them, and wait for them to play better.
The manager’s duty is to put the players in the best position to succeed. After that the players must execute. There is a limit to what a manager can do.
The players have to execute. Up to now they haven’t.
Given the relatively small roster change from last year, and the relatively modest injury situation, one would suspect some sort of global malaise, rather than 26 individual problems.
What are the odds of 26 problems, all at the same time, all in the same direction?
I’m not saying we should fire Olí, but they are going to have to do something fairly quicklyFrom Katie Woo’s article https://theathletic.com/4471927/2023/05/01/cardinals-nolan-arenado-tough-start/
Any more thoughts on how the first month of the season played out?
“I think our record tells us how April went,” Nolan Arenado said flatly. “Just collectively, not very good baseball.”
Arenado paused, contemplating any other possible explanation for the Cardinals’ woes. If there was, he couldn’t find one.
“Yeah, that’s about it,” he confirmed. “Collectively, really bad baseball.”
“It’s pretty obvious we haven’t played good enough to win,” Paul Goldschmidt said following Sunday’s loss. “We have got to play better, individually and as a group if we’re going to win games and be where we want to be.”
It is that simple, even the players agree.
It really bothers me that some posters have suggested that Arenado doesn’t care and isn’t trying to win.
They’re all trying and at this juncture I’ve been left with an impression that they’re trying too hard at times. I genuinely believe that any endeavor can suffer when trying too hard to not make a mistake comes into play and creates a hesitant mindset. That type of mindset can spread and undoubtedly creates an atmosphere which interrupts and disturbs the normally natural flow of skilled and confident talent.
some posters have suggested that Arenado doesn’t care and isn’t trying to win
Yeah, I see no reason to think that. He’s an accomplished professional. But performance at a high lever is affected by physical and non physical factors. At the MLB level there is a thin margin between performing good enough, and not good enough, and intangibles can be the difference. I do think that there is one or a combination of factors that have and are affecting the performance of the team as a whole. Those sort of things can affect different people different ways and to different extents. Whatever the common denominator is, it could be distracting him. He does not look like his usual self at the plate. I’m not aware of anything wrong with his defense though. Until the factor or combination of factors resolves, I don’t think things will improve much.
He looks unhappy. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t care. But something is off with him. Maybe the “not to blame” manager can help him.
I have zero reason to think Arenado doesn’t care or isn’t trying but I also don’t get all of the posts saying how unhappy he looks. What does that mean? If it is implying that he is regretting opting to stay in his contract because the organization promised him that we would be a championship caliber team then that is ridiculous. Arenado seems like a high character guy so I am sure he realizes that he has been as much of the problem as anyone else. Maybe that is why he looks sad.
I am not implying anything. If I thought he regrets his contract I would say it. But his demeanor is bad. Maybe it is the slump. But something is off. Maybe after he breaks out of the slump he will be fine. Players are human maybe it is in his personal life. Who knows? Making an observation not trying to imply anything.
To say these guys aren’t trying hard is absurd. They are all trying to win or trying to pad their individual stats, one or the other
It really bothers me that some posters have suggested that Arenado doesn’t care and isn’t trying to win.
I haven’t seen that, but haven’t read as much in recent days. He’s obviously frustrated, so maybe to some that translates to not trying. Edmonds has spoken about it some, even mentioning one game that Arenado was visibly frustrated in batting practice.
And why wouldn’t Arenado be frustrated? He and the team are mostly very successful players going through a historically bad stretch. I’m sure other players are just as frustrated, but more stoic in body language. A short winning streak can solve the problem. It becomes serious, though, if it goes beyond questioning self and begins to veer into questioning teammates. That would cause ill feelings and harm that won’t go away with a short winning streak.
Cards play 28 games in May. To get to .500ish they need to go 18-10 (.642) or 19-9 (.679).
So, that’s pretty red-hot baseball for May to get back to either 28-29 or 29-28.
Doing that would likely move them up two spots in the division to 3rd place and cut 1/3 to 1/2 of the games behind first off.
So at the end of May they’d have stabilized the season and be 5-7 games out of first place in the NLC.
Here is another way of looking at it.
There are 133 games left in the season. To get to 94 wins they need to go 84-49 (.632) the rest of the season which is a little better than a 100-win season pace (.617)
I am not implying anything. If I thought he regrets his contract I would say it. But his demeanor is bad. Maybe it is the slump. But something is off. Maybe after he breaks out of the slump he will be fine. Players are human maybe it is in his personal life. Who knows? Making an observation not trying to imply anything.
Maybe your initial observation needed more clarification. Thanks for providing that this time.
I should clarify, too. No one exactly said Arenado doesn’t care and isn’t trying to win, but how should one interpret this recent poster exchange?
What I took away from the following:
– He isn’t into it
– He isn’t as ambitious as before
– He is content with his prior accomplishmentsOr maybe he is just frustrated that he is not helping his struggling team when he knows he needs to be. But I guess that isn’t controversial enough for some.
“It seems Arenado just isn’t into it…”
“I’ve had a feeling for a while that Arenado isn’t as ambitious as he was when he came on board. He’s apparently content with 10 gold gloves and 300 HRs which he thinks puts him in the conversation of the greatest 3rd basemen of all time….”
To be fair though, we don’t know what he’s thinking, and he does have a hang dog look about him pretty often lately. So who knows.
Maybe he’s thinking if ownership isn’t going all out, neither am I.
Maybe he’s thinking if ownership is content to rest on their laurels and rake in the gate, so am I.
Maybe if being in the hunt for a post season berth late in the season is competitive and that is good enough, he figures, fine, I’ll go with that.
Maybe the payroll increase smoke and mirror crock of BS didn’t set well with him.
Maybe Mo’s lapdog Oli’s big mouth trashing a teammate on TV didn’t set well.
Maybe he thinks commitment to winning is a two way street or a no way street.We don’t know if he’s thinking any of those things, but he might be.
4.59 R/G is mlb avg thru Sunday, runs scored, and of course runs allowed also. Simple works best for me, so here is how I look at us.
pitching:
We have allowed 5 or more EARNED RUNS 17 times, resulting in a 2-15 W/L. We have allowed 4 EARNED RUNS or less, 12 times, for a 8-4 record.batting: remember 4.59 mlb avg
We have scored 5 runs or more 10 times, 8-2 record. We have scored 4 or less 19 times, 2-17 record.Pitching has been better than mlb avg 12 times, batting better than avg 10 times.
Pitching has been worse than mlb avg 17 times, batting worse than avg 19 times.Thanks jj. So we’re getting out scored more often than not. The question is why? I don’t think our players are worse than league average, so why is their output below league average far more often than not?
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