Cardinals Delenda Est
Aug. 20th, 2024 10:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
billroperI had some hopes for the Cardinals baseball team a month ago. And then they fell apart again.
The manager, Marmol, and Mozeliak are clearly not on the same page. This is the third time in a row this has happened, which is distressing. Shildt got fired in the offseason for apparently not being on the same page with Mozeliak, while we are now seeing Mozeliak repeat what he did with Matheny before firing him, which is to take toys away from the manager to prevent him from misusing them.
Clearly Jordan Walker was brought up to play in the hope of sparking some life in the team.
Equally clearly, Marmol had no intention of playing him against right-handed pitching, despite his career splits being better against same-handed pitching. (Don't count on that holding up forever, but still...) And if Marmol wasn't going to play Walker, then he needed to be at AAA getting at bats. We saw this with Kolten Wong under Matheny.
Marmol seems to have handled the relief staff pretty well, but my usual assumptions give credit to the pitching coach when things are going well and blame to the manager when they aren't. This may be unfair. It may also be accurate (as I remember Dusty Baker with the Cubs).
The whole situation is not helped by Goldschmidt looking aged and Arenado looking middle-aged at best.
This team needs a reset.
And that will have to wait until next year.
In the meantime, I understand that Skip Schumaker will be available...
The manager, Marmol, and Mozeliak are clearly not on the same page. This is the third time in a row this has happened, which is distressing. Shildt got fired in the offseason for apparently not being on the same page with Mozeliak, while we are now seeing Mozeliak repeat what he did with Matheny before firing him, which is to take toys away from the manager to prevent him from misusing them.
Clearly Jordan Walker was brought up to play in the hope of sparking some life in the team.
Equally clearly, Marmol had no intention of playing him against right-handed pitching, despite his career splits being better against same-handed pitching. (Don't count on that holding up forever, but still...) And if Marmol wasn't going to play Walker, then he needed to be at AAA getting at bats. We saw this with Kolten Wong under Matheny.
Marmol seems to have handled the relief staff pretty well, but my usual assumptions give credit to the pitching coach when things are going well and blame to the manager when they aren't. This may be unfair. It may also be accurate (as I remember Dusty Baker with the Cubs).
The whole situation is not helped by Goldschmidt looking aged and Arenado looking middle-aged at best.
This team needs a reset.
And that will have to wait until next year.
In the meantime, I understand that Skip Schumaker will be available...