St. Louis Cardinals Major League Notebook – October 7-13

photo: Daniel Descalso (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)

The St. Louis Cardinals may lose another coach as Daniel Descalso is reportedly among candidates to be the manager of the Chicago White Sox. We highlight key Cardinals post-season events during this week in team history.



Descalso to be considered for White Sox managerial opening

Daniel Descalso (Jim Rassol/USA TODAY Sports)

If anything is predictable in major league baseball, it is that losing teams often fire managers as the first step in changing their course. The 2024 season is no exception.

The Seattle Mariners fired manager Scott Servais before the season even ended. Just a few days after the end of the regular season, the Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago White Sox respectively let David Bell and Pedro Grifol go.

The Reds have since hired Terry Francona to be their new manager. The Mariners hired former catcher Dan Wilson shortly after Servais was given his walking papers.

Chicago is the remaining team currently looking for a new skipper. According to the New York Post’s Jon Heyman, among those on the “long list” of potential candidates is current St. Louis bench coach Daniel Descalso.

Other notable names on this list include former Angels manager Phil Nevin and Texas Rangers’ bench coach Will Venable.

Descalso was hired by the Cardinals at the end of 2023 after Joe McEwing was shifted to a position in the front office. The former player with four teams began with the Cardinals, who drafted him and elevated him to the big leagues. Descalso spent the 2023 season as a baseball operations assistant with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Though Descalso is viewed favorably in the industry as a future manager given his reputation as being strong in analytics, both Venable and Nevin have longer resumes. Nevin is the only one of the three with major league managerial experience. Venable has seven years of coaching experience in contrast to one year for Descalso.

Should Descalso get the gig with the White Sox, the Cardinals will have to fill two roles on the major league staff instead of one, given the recent departure of hitting coach Turner Ward.

Trade and Acquisition Rumors

There are no trade and acquisition rumors to report.

Transactions

There are no transactions to report.

Injury Report

There are no new injuries to report.

Looking Ahead

The postseason proceeded without the participation of the Cardinals. The participants have been whittled down to four as the Championship Series began Sunday, October 13.

The postseason will continue through October and end with a potential World Series Game 7 on Saturday, November 2.

After the end of the World Series, the offseason officially begins. As of 9 am on the day after the end of the World Series, all eligible free agents will officially become free agents. During a period of five days following, all free agents may negotiate exclusively with their parent club.

Also, during that five-day window, teams must make a decision on whether to pick up or decline any player option. For the Cardinals, those players are pitchers Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson and Keynan Middleton.

The five-day window is also when teams must make any qualifying offers to departing free agents. This off-season’s QO for a one-year contract is projected to be $21.2 million. The Cardinals’ eligible free agents are Paul Goldschmidt, Matt Carpenter, Keynan Middleton and Andrew Kittredge. Lynn and Gibson will be free agents if the team declines their options.

It is not expected that the Cardinals will make the QO to any of their free agents.

Blast from the Past

The postseason is upon us and though the Cardinals are not participating in this postseason, there have been many postseasons in the history of the franchise.

This week’s Blast from the Past is a recall of some memorable postseason events that occurred in the past during the period October 7 through 13.

The following is a list of notable postseason happenings beginning with the date of the event and a description of some memorable anecdote that occurred on that date.

Matt Holliday (USA TODAY Sports Images)

October 8, 2009 – The Cardinals played Game 2 of the National League Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers were leading the series 1-0 entering this notable contest in Dodger Stadium.

The Cardinals were leading the Dodgers 2-1 heading into the bottom of the ninth inning. With two outs on the board, James Loney hit a line drive off Ryan Franklin to left field. Matt Holliday sprinted forward to catch it below his waist and the ball hit the glove and popped out, sending Holliday to the ground on his belly. Loney made it to second base on the E7. The error snowballed into a two-run inning and a walk off win for the Dodgers.

The Dodgers won Game 3 and advanced to the NLCS.

Pepper Martin (St. Louis Cardinals)

October 9, 1934 – The Cardinals played the Detroit Tigers in Game 7 of the World Series. The Series was tied 3-3.

The Cardinals held a commanding 7-0 lead as the sixth inning began. With two outs and Pepper Martin on second base, Joe “Ducky” Medwick tripled to right field, scoring Martin. Tigers fans became upset by what they considered a dirty slide by Medwick into third base and began throwing fruit at him. Medwick scored the second run of the inning on a single by Pepper Collins, but as the fruit throwing continued, Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis, who was in attendance, ordered Medwick to leave the game for his own safety. The Cardinals won the game 11-0 and took the Series 4-3.

Curt Flood (AP photo)

October 10, 1968 – The Cardinals were once again playing the Detroit Tigers in a World Series Game 7. Several notable happening occurred in this game that the Cardinals lost 4-1.

First, starter Bob Gibson set the record for total strikeouts in a World Series with 35. Second, Dal Maxvill, with a pop out to second base in the fifth inning, became the first player to go 0-for-22 in the World Series.

But the incident most remembered was a misplay by CF Curt Flood. With the score 0-0 in the top of the seventh inning and two men on for the Tigers, Detroit outfielder Jim Northrup hit a deep fly ball to center field that went over Flood’s head and became a two-run triple.

Flood and some of his teammates insisted that he had no chance to catch that ball, but history remembers it as a misplay as Flood came in briefly to catch it and realized he needed to retreat. Flood slipped on the grass trying to reverse course and could not catch up to the ball.

Pete Kozma (USA TODAY Sports Images)

October 12, 2012 – The Cardinals played the Nationals in Game 5 of the NLDS in Washington.

The Cardinals dug themselves a 6-0 hole in the first three innings and seemed well on their way to losing the game and not advancing to the NLCS.

However, the Cardinals clawed their way back, scoring nine runs over the final innings to win the game 9-7. A four-run ninth inning was the clincher, as Daniel Descalso and Pete Kozma each drove in two runs on two singles to put the Cardinals on top.

Vince Coleman

October 13, 1985 – The notable event on this date was not the game itself, but what happened before it started.

The Cardinals were down two games to one entering Game 4 of the NLCS against the Dodgers. It was a rainy day in St. Louis and the tarp was set to be deployed two hours before game time. Cardinals left fielder Vince Coleman was standing next to the automated tarp doing stretches. As the tarp began to unroll, he became trapped under it, and the tarp had to be lifted by several of his teammates to free him. Coleman fractured his ankle in the accident and missed the remainder of the postseason.

The Cardinals routed the Dodgers 12-2 and eventually won the series 4-2, advancing to the World Series against the Kansas City Royals.


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