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In no particular order. And its not because they aren’t winning. I wouldn’t care if their record was 60-14 right now.
1) The goofy stuff that isn’t hard-nosed baseball.
2) Martinez antics with his hair and cup stacking.
3) That silly a$$ train thing they do after someone hits a homerun, whether they are ahead or behind.
4) All the strikeouts.
5) All the laughing and smiling.
6) Making those cute and funny gestures back to the dugout when they get a hit, like a double or triple, or when a pitcher gets a hit.
7) All the d~mn tatoos and gold chains.
8) Swinging like a maniac all the time, trying to hit the ball four miles instead of just trying to put the bat on the ball and put it in play. Especially with two strikes.
9) Not being able to catch balls that a decent high school player could catch.
10) Not having position players, or having players playing out of position.Did I leave anything out?
r/Rat
I care about the number of wins and losses. How they get there means little to me, so long as they’re playing by the rules. The inability to drive guys in from third with less than two outs and the bullpen faltering are the two glaring things right now that have resulted in a lot of heartbreaking losses.
You’re above getting sucked into this sort of negativity, Rat. I would like to urge cooler heads to prevail here during this bad streak our boys are experiencing. I really believe that starting today, the team is going to get sizzzzling hot! I bet even Dexter Fowler gets a base rap sometime here over the next 7 games….maybe even Wong too.
11) The neighbor kids playing soccer on your front lawn…
I don’t have any sh~tina$$ kids playing soccer on my front lawn.
I bet if you asked Whitey Herzog what he thinks about the points I made he would probably shake his head in agreement. Silly goofy crap is NOT what Cardinal baseball is all about. Let them go to Monday Night Raw if they want to act like goofballs instead of hard-nosed Cardinal baseball players.
r/Rat
I guess while we are having this group therapy session with Dr. Hartley, I will add a couple of gripes. First, the constant shuffling of bullpen pitchers back and forth between the minors and St. Louis. The concept is flawed, as it is basically saying, “None of you guys are good enough to stay on the roster for the duration of the season, so we will try to determine who has the hot hand at any given moment, and ride it until you inevitably fall apart. If your first appearance is a dud, you will be outta here on the next train to Memphis and we will bring in someone who can actually get an out now and then”. Stupid, stupid way to run a business, or ball club.
The daily lineup shuffle, other than vs right or left, is not my favorite thing either. To win, you put your best players out there in their best overall position on defense and in the batting order, keep the atmosphere upbeat and encouraging, and let ’em go after it. Sometimes that means putting a Mickey Stanley at shortstop (to reference a move from 50 years ago this October), or a Jedd Gyorko at second. But those are done sparingly – five days out of seven you go with a set, solidly crafted lineup, show them a confident leader, and give ’em you-know-what.
It’s a different world, Rats. Numbers 1 and 4-thru-8 are pretty much seen on every club these days. And most teams have a Carlos Martinez/Javy Baez type guy. Yeah, their schtik plays better when their team is winning, but it’s the way it is today.
I imagine if somehow we were able to communicate like this in the mid-to-late 1930s, some folks would have posted a similar thing about the Cardinal teams of that era, with Dizzy Dean in the C-Mart role and the rest of those knuckleheads filling out the remainder of the points.
I agree with those who are frustrated by the daily start lottery. Lets decide on a lineup of the eight best players we’ve got and stick with it – allowing for special circumstances, of course. This constant uncertainty is killing us, both players and paying customers.
The age of analytics may be driving these constantly changing lineups. Tough to swallow for some of us.
IMO, the changing lineups are more due to the fact the most of the players they have are not playing well enough to warrant every-day play.
Rats, while I respect Whitey, I also do not forget that he quit the Cardinals mid-season almost three decades ago in a great part due to his frustration with the “modern” players of that time.
If you cannot deal with change, the world eventually passes you by.
Seems like a Catch 22. They don’t deserve playing every day, but can’t hopefully re-find their groove if they don’t play every day.
Go back to the start of the season and recall that MM stuck with the same exact lineup for the first few weeks – and it did not produce: Fowler, Pham, Carpenter, Ozuna, Martinez, Molina, DeJong and Wong.
Fowler struggled from the start. Carpenter’s illogical inability to hit third returned. Ozuna slumped. DeJong was striking out at a historic rate, etc.
The core players on this team have been given enough at-bats to produce. Blaming it on the lineup card is a major cop-out, IMO.
Some players have indeed been the major problem. There’s no logic or excuse for the underperformances of Fowler and Wong or the occasional behavior of Pham. At least the core of Molina, Carpenter, Martinez, DeJong, Ozuna, and Gyorko has been somewhat consistent (or slow to start and improving).
I’d go with that group and feed in
O’Neill, Bader, Mercado, and Schrock.Some players have indeed been the major problem. There’s no logic or excuse for the underperformances of Fowler and Wong or the occasional behavior of Pham. At least the core of Molina, Carpenter, Martinez, DeJong, Ozuna, and Gyorko has been somewhat consistent (or slow to start and improving).
I’d go with that group and feed in
O’Neill, Bader, Mercado, and Schrock.This team just doesn’t have an identity. Some players can hit but can’t field. Some players can field but can’t hit. We have few who can do both so MM tries to mix and match each day and hit the lottery. I agree we should go with a more set lineup and I would go with defense because it is more predictable and relieable. Pitching and defense won us 100 games in 2015.
I don’t care for some of CMart’s antics either and I’ve always felt he was vastly overrated, but the truth is that his shenanigans and the shenanigans of others are usually only noticed when we are losing. Al Davis said just win baby.
This may have been the kick in the arss that the boys needed. MM may very have just ripped off Rat’s rant and read it word for word to the troops….except for erasing the later part of #10. Rat really does have a little Whitey in him….or is it the other way around? I have never discounted the distinct possibility that Rat is the real Whitey.
Rats, I’m with you, 1-10. But those kids are living for the moment and have the money and notoriety to do it with impunity. No one is going to tell them to shut up and sit down after they hit a home run because those antics bring revenues. Players on every team are acting this way, and they all respond to peer pressure because they don’t want to be the only one not doing those things. Did you see the Brewer’s walk off celebration the other night? It was disturbing, and embarrassing to watch, but there is no one telling them that they should tone it down. Sadly, the Cards are the same way now. I prefer the ’67 Cards behavior to the 2018 Cards, but there’s no going back. I stopped watching football for some of those same reasons, and if baseball becomes that bad, I’ll leave it too. Not quite there yet, but it’s trending that way.
Well #10 my be solved if you move Carpenter back to 1st, Martinez to LF, Ozuna to RF and get DeJong back. Maybe you add Beltre and have Gyorko play in a time share at 2nd and 1st and a day or two a week at 3rd to keep the old man fresh. Martinez can be subbed late just as much in LF as at 1st.
#4-8 are one in the same. It appears the VP OPS is a little tired of it.
If you expect the bad baserunning and sometimes lackadaisical play by a couple players only works itself out if it’s not allowed but we know with this manager it’s tolerated.
RedSox4ever…. great comment. I agree 110%. I use to enjoy the NFL and the Redskins, but the players are out of control and just out to knock someone’s head off so they can make the highlight film. The antics are silly and unbearable to watch at all.
I also dislike several things about todays players antics.I also realize that this is a different time and although i don
t buy into all the Sabernerd BS it seems to be dominating decisions today.when you come down to it the game is still what it is; Hit the ball,catch the ball,pitch the ball.The team that does those things better usually wins.I refuse to watch the NBA because that isnt basketball..its playground ball with different rules for the big stars from all the other players.The NFl is turning into the “look at me” i made a tackle or caught a 5 yard pass i am great now league.
All the sports are getting too many hotdog grandstanding players instead of players acting like Pros.I don`t like it but its the way it is.Like another poster said earlier these same gripes were probably said 70 years ago and then again 40 years ago .Baseball might be changing and evolving but it is still the BEST sport around IMHO.Add another item to my list.
#11) When you are down in the last of the 9th by a score of something like 11-3, or whatever, and you hit a double and then you stand on 2ndbase and smile and laugh and make those cute/funny gestures with your hands like you are on top of the world.
r/Rat
if we are down and out in a game should they just strike out on purpose then? or get a double and have their shoulders down and be moping all around?
Didnt we have a few amazing comebacks late?
THe only way to get back in the game is to believe you can do it, which they have done this year a lot, if you take away the joy of getting hits and doubles even in a longshot arent you saying you want the team to just fold? and isnt that worse of a character trait for a player?
People complain about not hustling down the line on a ground out but then people get upset when the guys is happy about beating it out when he deos hustle?
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