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Could it be “Wonkyball”?
Surprised they won two in a row against those guys. That’s a winning streak. Maybe this is where Oli’s leadership kicks in. I hope he has the boys now convinced they gotta play ’em one day at a time, just be happy to be here and help the ball club, give it their best shot, and the good Lord willing, things will work out.
The Walker fiasco was the final straw for me.
What fiasco? The fact he can’t produce this season? That’s not on the FO. That’s on the player!
What fiasco? The fact he can’t produce this season? That’s not on the FO.
It was a total front office fiasco. He should have never been brought back up in the first place.Than when they get him here they have a public spat between the pobo and manager on how to play him. Yea sure. That’s on the player.
What fiasco? The fact he can’t produce this season? That’s not on the FO. That’s on the player!
He should have never been brought up in the first place. Than when they get him here, they have a public spat about how to play him. How is that on the player? Yes it was a total fiasco.
when they get him here, they have a public spat about how to play him.
It’s not a public spat. It is a media created narrative created from old soundbytes. Ollie is not stupid and is not going to antagonize Mo. Mo is not stupid and in not going to call up his prize young slugger without having discussed it and making sure they are all on the same page. No it doesn’t prove Ollie has sprouted a pair. No he hasn’t gone rogue. No he’s not coloring outside the lines. No it doesn’t prove Ollie writes the lineup cards without deference to the FO.
What happened is they were all on the same page. Some kind of spark was desperately needed, and since Walker was hot, he was brought up. Walker was then quickly sent back because instead of providing the hoped for spark, he looked horrible at the plate, and Baker was brought up instead to hopefully provide some spark.
Sounded public to me Bling no matter how you want to spin it. That’s beside the point. They should have never brought him up. You said it yourself-some kind of spark was needed. How about get players on the roster to provide that spark? Arenado provides meaningful offense and we win 2 from Milwaukee. That kind of spark. Not expecting a 22 year old who is having a hot streak after a year of frustration and failure to bail them out. There’s no defense for the front office or manager in this matter. It was a fiasco. Our handling of young players was put in the spotlight once again.
These are the kinds of issues teams have when they are losing / falling short of expectations.
Bill can fix the growing perception that he’s a penny pinching bottom line watching caretaker owner by cleaning out his FO and giving the new POBO some jingle to go shopping with this winter.
That would be step one.
Step two would be the new FO hiring a new manager who would hire a new coaching staff AND the new FO cleaning up the farm / player development folks.
Step three would have to wait a couple of years to see if steps one and two actually – you know – worked or if it’s just more of the same slog with different faces
I don’t care if this team does go on a 10 game winning streak and then somehow, some way slips into that 3rd WC spot. The fan base wants to see changes not smug, arrogant, condescending interviews and pressers; I can tell you that.
Change isn’t permanent but change is.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!
Get ‘er done Bill.
Bling, I suggest you read this article as the summary is faster than listening to the two radio interviews. Based on their own comments, it certainly seems the FO and manager were NOT in sync regarding the use of Walker.
Before this article appeared, Blake and I had the very same conversation on our podcast. However, that would go against the grain of your very strongly presented predetermined notions, which is likely why you were so against it.
Cardinals Staff Inadvertently Reveal Conflict Over Handling of Jordan Walker
He should have never been brought up in the first place. Than when they get him here, they have a public spat about how to play him. How is that on the player? Yes it was a total fiasco.
Oh I 100% agree with you. He should’ve never been recalled. He flat out fell into the play the first rounder way the team seems to have when they invest in a first round prospect. However it’s very shortsighted to think this is in some way stunting his development when let’s be honest here. He’s flat out sucked 85% of the season regardless where he’s been and that’s what’s really stunted his development.
However a player is at the mercy of the team. He and his agent are the one who signed a contract and they work at the request of where the organization wants them to work. I don’t see Walker whining about getting major league pay and per diem.
He’s basically Jo Adell 2.0 here. As you can see at some point it’s not about how the team handles the player. It’s about production he shows when they give him the chance and quite simple Walker hasn’t produced enough and that is on him to get his act together and show some value to either be recalled for a role or to be up permanently.
I had read that Brian. Here is how the narrative read a few days before that overview, closer to being contemporaneous with Walker’s call up. Note especially the Marmol quote.
“Manager Oliver Marmol elaborated on the promotion of Jordan Walker prior to Wednesday’s game, another instance in which Jordan was starting on the bench. Marmol said, “The big-league team has a need, and it’s a right-handed bat. Yes, we know it’s only (Clayton) Kershaw and Milwaukee has all right-handed starters for the most part, so we were aware of that going into how we made this decision, but there are also left-handed relievers (where Walker) can take an at-bat against.”
“Essentially, the Cardinals promoted Jordan Walker to be a pinch hitter against left-handed pitchers late in games. While he will likely be employed as a starter against lefties, the frequency with which the team sees lefties to start games is far less often than the instances where a righty would start a game”.
Notice it is “we were aware” we’d be facing a lot of eighties. “We made the decision”. It was obviously a collaboration with everyone on the same page. He looked horrible vs lefties and was sent down. Media types now spinning a drama.
Here is the cite for the blurb I posted:
https://redbirdrants.com/posts/recalling-jordan-walker-to-just-platoon-was-a-bad-decision-by-the-cardinals-01j597cwbrehNow it is being spun as not a bad decision by Mo but a misuse by Marmol. Actually, Mo knew all along what the useage was going to be. Batting against lefties. Walker failed at that and was sent back. End of story.
I agree Booyah it’s up to him to work his way back. The narrative that we have ruined him is a bit dramatic
Bling, you can make assumptions as to what “we” means, but it doesn’t necessarily make them right. When I read that, I assumed Marmol meant he and his coaches. The bench coach actually prepares the lineup card, I believe. You assume it means the entire organization. You could just as likely be wrong as right. In fact, I still think you are not right.
You conveniently ignore that Mozeliak said on Sunday that if they couldn’t find everyday at bats for Walker, they would probably need to send him down. That means Walker’s usage did not play out as he expected. He expected daily play, not as a platoon vs. LHP. I don’t see how that can be misunderstood.
But I know by now, you will believe what you want to believe, which in this case is that Marmol is a puppet who does what Mozeliak’s wonks tell him to do. If one sees everything through that prism, it is only logical what conclusions will be drawn.
As far as blaming the media, that is an easy cop out which incorrectly assumes that intelligent fans cannot interpret the facts and make up their own minds.
I’ve always thought of the little whiz-kid as more of a muppet than a puppet. Only because he features a surreal sort of humour in the sense that he consistently acts in a manner that defies logic and reason. If you watch him closely, he can be incredibly amusing. Not at all unlike a barrel of monkeys.
P.S. I did not accuse Marmol of mismanaging the situation. He used Walker the way he wanted to. That is his prerogative as the manager – the person responsible for the lineup. But as others already noted, then Walker shouldn’t have been up in the first place.
When “everyone” agrees the time is right for him to play every day will be the right time for him to return (assuming his then-current performance in Triple-A warrants it).
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