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Seems like Joe’s been around forever. He’s also appeared in 41 post-season games. That’s quite a few. Most know that M. Rivera holds the all time record with 96 appearances in post-season games.
We simply cannot compete with certain franchises anymore. Certain teams can paper over their mistakes, eat bad contracts, and just keep spending money until they get it right.
What we need is an owner with fat stacks that will spend us to the top.
Sure, he will need to hire good baseball people and let them deploy the money – but if Easy Money can set aside the ego – it’ll work.
Yeah, the Cardinals can’t even compete with the Brewers anymore. They’re entirely overmatched by teams like the Dodgers, Phillies and the rest of the organizations that not only spend money, but seem to have a sound approach to developing players and constructing a Big League roster.
Mark Harmon has had a long career as a TV & Movie actor. Very successful.
But….did you know….
He was a two year starter at QB with UCLA and led them to an historical upset over Nebraska!
Just think most everyone had the season over after the first series against LA. It appears that this LA series will actually be the one that likely sinks us.
This team just doesn’t have a big or a couple big streaks in them. It’s just in their nature. Even when they were doing well from mid May til the early July you never really saw a big streak or two.
Yeah, I did not like removing Mikolas after an infield hit. Kittredge brings a gallon of gasoline and throws it on the fire. He has really regressed since his early success.
Since May 11th until Aug 9th he had a 3.79 ERA with 4.83 FIP and batters hit .767 ops. However since July he has a 2.51 ERA with a 4.50 FIP. The numbers say in July and August he’s been a tad lucky due to babip.
He didn’t pitch much last year. Some downward trajectory was to be expected. He will not be retained next season.
“I see they pinch hit for Walker. His stock has gone off a cliff.”
They pinch-hit for Walker because Ollie Marmol has inexplicably made him a platoon player who only faces left-handed pitchers. I have nothing but contempt for Marmol, and yet even I didn’t expect Jordan Walker to immediately be the short end of a platoon upon his return to the majors.
Jordan’s just 22 years old with a solid 2023 rookie season under his belt, and nevertheless he’s now relegated to platoon duty. But that’s not the worst of it. The worst thing is, Walker actually hits righties much better than southpaws. (Even Chip Carey couldn’t help mentioning that!)
Specifically, Walker at the MLB level before tonight:
.790 OPS against righties
.638 OPS versus leftiesAnd his OPS was higher against righties in the minors this year. And higher in the minors against righties last year.
Simply put, from day one, the Boy Wonder has arrogantly managed this club according to the smartguy theories clanging around inside his own head, rather than intelligently leveraging the manifest observable talents of his players & pitchers — and minimizing their weaknesses.
The oddball mis-usage of Walker is just another reflection of Marmolian incompetence.
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And in tonight’s big moment, with two on, two out, and a one-run lead, who does Ollie call on? A guy who hasn’t pitched in a week. (Even Jim Edmonds questioned that move.) Five minutes and four runs later, the game was effectively over.
I understand why frustrated fellow fans desire a complete house cleaning. But really guys, it’s Marmol. Far, far more than any other individual, it’s Marmol. As noted recently in another thread, the Birds were favored to win the N.L. Central last year and this year. They have the talent. But they need a real manager.
The Cardinals are an elite MLB franchise, an important franchise. They should have an elite manager. Not a Tryout Guy.
I am thinking the decision to use Walker only vs lefties was made above Marmol. Ollie is a marionette.
What has Jordan Walker done in 2024 to be in anything but a platoon giving the current climate of his 2024 campaign. His .543 ops against ML pitch in nf is really screaming out fulltime role. How in the hell can’t this clown hit lefties. He should be destroying them if he was as good as Bobby thinks he is.
He just not very good this year and could be a bust but bob wants to play him every game and completely lose any sliver of confidence And dignity he has left. Walker should be earning PT and IMO he has earned nothing to be back up on this roster. Rather see Fermin, Baker or Herrera than this bum.
We have a misunderstanding, booyah. I guess I didn’t articulate my views of Jordan Walker very clearly.
I don’t want Walker playing in the majors every day. Not my first choice at all.
Personally, I would NOT have brought him back to MLB when the Cards did. In Triple-A, Jordan just had a two-week hot streak (average .340 and slugging .680) that may or may not mean anything. I would’ve left him in Memphis for at least another couple of weeks to see how real the hot streak was. (For that matter, I wouldn’t have brought Victor Scott back, either. He hit .208 in July; he’s not riding a hot streak.)
But when you DO bring a really young player up to the majors (Walker turned 22 a couple months ago), it is axiomatic to play him every day — or at the very least, make him the long end of a platoon, so he plays 5-6 days a week. It’s simply Player Development 101, that young hitters need to play every darn day, whether in the minors or majors, in order to have any chance to reach their potential. They ain’t like backup quarterbacks, who can study from the sidelines and get better mostly by observing.
And what you absolutely do not do, is make a young hitter the short end of a platoon when he hits lefties much worse than righties, just because you think it should be the other way around. That’s extremely stubborn, arrogant, and kinda insane.
Management was counter-intuitive when they brought Walker up, then decided to platoon him saying something to the effect that winning ballgames was a higher priority than player development.
Isn’t that why they brought in Pham? And they platoon Walker against pitching he has hit worse, probably because he has not seen it as much with lefties being more rare.
It’s certainly a head scratcher, and we have seen a lot of that lately starting with the firing of Mike Shildt. It was masked over for a couple of month with us winning a lot of close games, despite the fact we were still far under break even in being outscored. Usually that discrepancy will bring you back to reality over 162 games.
I wouldn’t have brought Victor Scott back, either.
Bob, what would you have done instead when Siani went down?
I don’t want Walker playing in the majors every day. Not my first choice at all. . . . I would NOT have brought him back to MLB when the Cards did.
Bob, what would you have done instead when MCarp went on the IL?
Citing Walker’s season stats are not as relevant as his recent numbers. During his last two weeks with Memphis, he was red hot. He was given one start with St. Louis and then sent to the pines.
How do we know that Walker’s platoon deployment was ordered by the manager? I would find it hard to believe that Marmol is on his own island for such a high visibility decision. My bet is that the organization discussed how Walker would be used before he was promoted.
As already noted, the Cardinals didn’t have many outfield alternatives to call up. Beyond Scott and Walker, Koperniak was the only other viable choice and he is another LHH and is not an every-day option in CF.
But to the main point, however the Walker platoon decision was made, I agree with those who don’t like it.
At the point if/when the season is lost, the Cardinals need to give more time to those who are on the bubble for 2025 consideration instead of playing the same slumping vets every day.
Here in the second half of August, the Cards are now 10 games behind the Brewers. That they are only four games out of the third wild card does not excite me.
I do want to mention that I am not arguing with what Bob said above, I am genuinely interested in what he thinks the better moves would have been.
If Walker is up he needs to be playing almost every day. If not then leave him in Memphis.
I don’t think Scott should have been called up either.
Go dumpster diving, go to an independent league, go to the Savannah Bananas if you have to in order to STOP messing up your prospects.
I know they have to keep acting like they are in the playoffs race but c’mon – they are not a good team and everyone knows it.
Bob, your dislike of Marmol is well known but I can’t fathom how all of this mess could be laid at his feet.
Do I really want him to be manager? No I don’t but I honestly and objectively feel that we have bigger problems. He didn’t hire himself, he didn’t give himself an extension, he didn’t construct the roster, he didn’t set the payroll, he didn’t develop our draft strategy, he doesn’t oversee minor league player devopment. Heck I doubt if he even has full authority to make out the lineup card.
This organization is rotten and stale from top to bottom. A more experienced manager and a fresh voice would probably be helpful but there are many, many other things that are going to have to be improved before we are a legit contender again. It baffles me how that could not be obvious.
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