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Youth baseball has become more elitist from what I see. There are less informal leagues and teams, and more of the “pay to play” organizations.
I just don’t see kids informally playing the game like we did when I was a youngster.
As an exercise, what do we think Schildt would be doing differently, if anything, from Marmol with the line ups / pitching so far?
I don’t notice anything but maybe I’m missing it…
Marmol seems to have a similar style. I thought he might utilize his bench more, but it’s early.
I like the aggressiveness this club has shown. They seem upbeat and take it to the other club.
If we stay fairly healthy, this should be a good year with a chance to go far in the post season tourney.
Shildt would definitely have Edman batting leadoff. Right now that might not have been a bad thing but we’ll see things change as the season goes on.
I also think that there will be a difference in how Gorman, Yepez, etc are handled when they get called up vs how Shildt would have. Shildt had a Matheny-like deference to the veterans.
I don’t think Schildt was as bad as matheny and larussa when it came to their handling of young players. I look at Wong as the example. Never has a player been yanked around as much as he was. matheny would still have Carlson in the minors. With matheny / larussa they got a hit today so they play tomorrow. They went hitless so they sit for three days. As frustrating as it gets seeing the same young players struggle as they have the past 2-3 years, it is nice to see that Marmol is throwing them out there daily. Give them an adequate shot for an extended time then if they don’t produce it’s time for another to get that shot. By the way Dejong has had that shot, imo. Move on to Sosa and give him his shot. Give Bader another two weeks. If he continues hitting below .250 time to give another an extended shot.
bicyclemike:
Youth baseball has become more elitist from what I see. There are less informal leagues and teams, and more of the “pay to play” organizations.I just don’t see kids informally playing the game like we did when I was a youngster.
I hate seeing all the baseball fields empty. Some are becoming soccer fields and tennis courts or teens playing frisbee on them.
Kids ain’t what they used to be…. they have too many things that attract them more. Participation in sports, in general, is becoming less and less. Unless you call that corn hole thing a sport.
Kscardfan,
When LaRussa & Luhnow left, their talent evaluation & player development began to decline. So to compensate they are now giving players a chance to compete so they can stop trading our best players away.MO’s response to their departure was to proxy their system which obviously did not work. MO’s inability or ineptitude set them back for several years.
So what we have to look forward to is the playing out of each player instead of knowing more of what we have earlier on.
Even before Yadi’s injury Marmol was committed to giving Knizner significant playing time.
Hicks as a starter.
Matheny was the worst with the young guys in my opinion. That whole deal where he was using Wong in center field was a joke.
Shildt’s playing Edman in the outfield was not something I favored either, although at times our outfield seemed to be thin. Now we have seen guys mature and have a real good young threesome, any of whom could play center field if needed. The Giants outfield is similar in that regard.
So, now we know that Shildt wasn’t fired for refusing to use analytics (the Cardinals don’t have any) – so why was he fired?
Shildt had the highest (or close to it) winning percentage of any Cardinal manager in the 125 plus year history of the club. Also, look what he did when he took over a .500 ball club in 2018: Managers: Mike Matheny (47-46) and Mike Shildt (41-28)
Yeah, he was annoying, but not as much as TLR. He was fired due to one horrible pitching change at the end of 2021 Wild Card game. Game was tied and he brought in Reyes to throw a gopher ball. That was inexcusable. This was an elimination game. He had a dozen guys in the pen to choose from, and he picked the worst one. Everyone in the stadium knew what was going to happen before the batter got into the batter’s box.
He should have been fired right there in Dodger Stadium that day, not two months later.
I don’t think Shildt was fired because of losing to the Dodgers in the playoff game and it wasn’t two months later. The Dodger game was on October 6 and the announcement that Shildt wasn’t returning was on October 14.
The public reason was “philosphical differences” but it was never clarified as to what that meant exactly. Some have speculated that it had something to do with Jeff Albert but who knows. Whatever it was the team apparently felt that Shildt was not respecting the chain of command. It was a bad decision by the team.
Good leadership respects a difference of opinion among their staff, and people who challenge the status quo. As long as they are not subverting the mission, it is healthy to have a diverse range of thought. Carried to an extreme, an environment where only one school of thought is allowed becomes leadership-by-fear. Very unhealthy and even toxic.
While not knowing specifics, it seems Cardinal upper management felt Shildt was a detriment to the club’s overall mission. You would think his W-L record would have carried more weight than the philosophy differences, but management was not swayed.
We had our local monthly SABR luncheon today and shared some thoughts for NL manager of the year. One guy who has a vote put Pat Murphy at 1 and Shildt at 2. He said Shildt came in to a club with a lot of talent but in a bit of a mess and “calmed the waters” to some degree.
He was also impressed at how Jurickson Profar became an all-star, whereas the Rockies let him go after 2023. He was not sure how much that was on Shildt, but the manager helps set the tone of the club and the Padres were obviously a good unit this year.
We could see from when he took over here he was a “player’s manager”. That might have been part of his undoing as management appears to be fairly autocratic, and having a manager that sticks by the players could have been outside their philosophy. They prefer a manager that throws the players under the bus. (sorry for the sarcastic comment – not totally fair as I am not privy to the inside of the organization, but felt a little snarky) 🙂
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