The Cardinals: More Than Just A Season of Disappointment
I love this team. I want them to be good, but they aren’t. I want every single one of them to be all-stars, but they aren’t. I want Oli Marmol to be better than Tony was, but he’s not. Something has to change. Not the kind that involves disrupting the progress of your once number-one prospect in the league and then proceeding to sit him after one game.
Mother’s Day was supposed to be the end of this team’s struggles. Winning fixes everything. It silences all of the naysayers because you are doing the one thing they are saying you can’t. I haven’t looked at the stats for the run they had in May and June, but I would bet money that their hitting still wasn’t anything to write home about. It was still mediocre at best. I watch these guys play just about every day and remember those games. They weren’t blowing anyone out of the water. If they were, then Ryan Helsley wouldn’t have had 34 save opportunities before the All-Star break.
The guys that were lighting it up were: Winn, Burly, and Siani. Pagés had a couple of random strides, so did Carpenter, and even Brandon Crawford had three games of good ball. When you account for the fact that he’s played like 15 games, then I guess that’s a great stretch of play, and don’t forget about the ever-important veteran leadership he brings to the table. The big three on the offensive side however, have let this team down all year long. Goldy, Arenado, and Gorman are the guys this Cardinal team needed to be the anchors. You could argue that Noot and Walker should be right there with them, but to me, it was always more of a building season for them.
After Noot ended up getting hurt again, he’s been a disappointment since coming back. And Walker just wasn’t hitting, and he was still below or right at average in right field. He made some good plays, but I don’t imagine there is a single fan who genuinely felt comfortable when a ball was hit to right. I know they needed some kind of spark, but maybe let him cook a little bit and build his confidence back up even more in AAA. Time and time again, they do this to guys. I understand that they have to step up at some point, I know, but you’re asking this kid to save the season essentially after about 3 weeks of good ball in AAA. Oh wait, no, sorry, you’re asking him to actually be a platoon guy against the opposite of what his splits are. Does that make any sense? Seriously, there is no way I am that stupid. Maybe I am, though, what do I know?
Regardless, they owed that winning streak to two things: the bullpen and the starters, up to and including Pallante. Again, this is all based on watching these games and not any stats I have in front of me. Something I fear the front office doesn’t do. This team stinks. Now Sonny Gray can’t find it, Fedde has been slow since getting here, and Mikolas may have spent too much time thinking of quirky one-liners and trying on cowboy hats instead of learning how to not throw over the heart of the plate with 2 strikes.
Even despite all of that, though, this offense is still very much to blame. This team has got to win the four-run games if they want to be anything other than mediocre.
Oli in his post game interview was saying that “Going forward we have to be better.” No kidding dude? Where have you been? Up until now they’ve been fine, but now going forward they can’t play like that? “Guys, what if we try getting hits when we have runners on second, or second and third, or bases loaded,” — Oli probably.
Don’t get me wrong, I want Oli to be good. Like I mentioned, I love this team. If he’s good, then the Cardinals are better for it, and for all I know, he is a genuinely good dude. That’s awesome, and I don’t mean any personal disrespect, but it isn’t working, why does he still have a job? Why does everyone on this coaching staff still have a job? Maybe there is a good apple here and there, so I’m not necessarily with the “clean house” crowd, but I’m getting much closer after every disappointing loss.
These are not tough losses; they are disappointing. Tough losses are when you just get beat; disappointing losses are games that you should’ve won. Way too many of those. I said it early on in the season, but what was most weird to me about Goldy and Arenado was that they weren’t the only ones not hitting. IT WAS THE ENTIRE TEAM, barring Contreras and Winn. I get it that the vast majority of people think they are just regressing, and I will gladly accept that if it is truly the case, but to me, there is no way that these two dudes should be falling off this hard.
It can’t be solely on the front office. They put together a very good and effective group of arms, arms that were very good for a while and have only hit a small backslide as of recently. They got burnt out. Imagine giving up two runs and then feeling like the game is over. That’s what these dudes have had to deal with all year. You’re wrong if you think that doesn’t affect them. They say it doesn’t, but that’s what ballplayers do. It’s what they’ve always done. They aren’t going to talk crap about their obviously incompetent manager either. Again, Oli is probably a super cool guy and one that has more baseball knowledge than I ever will, but it’s not working. It does every now and then, but his misses far outweigh the hits.
2022 was special. It almost wasn’t though. It was almost a huge let down and If you can remember, Albert said he was close to retiring at the half. The Cardinals were not doing great, but the magic kicked in because that’s baseball and it didn’t hurt to have the magic of Yadier Molina returning from where he was to save the team one last time. Why is it again that both Holiday and Molina didn’t show up to help coach this team? I know they have their reasons, but guys who are uber competitive the way that they are don’t just turn accept and then turn down the offer to be a part of something special. Which tells me more than it probably should about the current state of this ball club. They aren’t special.
The worst thing to happen to this team was going on a decent run, enough to let Oli keep his job. I said it then, and I will say it again and again, but something has to change. Everyone on that staff and everyone in that front office are probably great people, but it isn’t working. None of it. Not anymore. How is it that every fan I know or have seen online can see what this team is, but the front office refuses to see? Whether you disagree about the reason that they are mediocre, it doesn’t matter because they are just that, mediocre.
Who are the people that are in charge of this team? Because to me, it seems like a bunch of accountants that don’t truly know anything about baseball.
I wish that someone would ask Mo if he truly cares about winning anymore. Has he been too complacent? Does he want a championship like he wants to breathe? Because this is what you need out of a GM to have a chance. Maybe it’s not him; maybe it’s the DeWitts. After all, Bill DeWitt III is not on the baseball side of the operations, so it can’t be his fault — sarcasm. He should want to win just as badly, regardless of where he is inside the organization. Every single person, top down in that organization, should have that attitude. It used to be that way. The fans still have it; I know that.
No matter what I will always want this team to win and if you’re anything like me, there is still a small part of you that would put 10 bucks on them figuring this all out and winning it all this year. We were spoiled to have the best baseball player of all time for the best 10 years of his career and even more spoiled to have it finish the way it did. We know what it’s like to be winners. We want it back. I want it back. I want this team — top down — to be the best team in baseball, especially their farm system. So much has gone wrong in the last 10 years, and it needs to be fixed. Change your way of thinking because what you’re doing isn’t working.
It’s not on the players, it’s not on the coaching staff and it’s not on the front office. It’s on all of them. If nothing changes, this is what we will always get. A mediocre product hoping for a chance to sneak into the playoffs with the wonderful chance of a first round exit.