It is Time for the St. Louis Cardinals to Move on from the Mike Matheny Era

Time for the Cards to dust off the plate.

I've been sitting on today's topic for while, and I'm ready to put it out there. I think the time is right for the Cardinals to let Mike Matheny go.

Now don't get me wrong, he has been a very good to great coach for Saint Louis. He's been to the World Series, the playoffs and always seems to have this team in contention late into the season. But, the Cardinals have been, at least for them, pretty bad this year. They are a game below .500 right now, and if they lose to the Mets this afternoon, they will be even worse.

The current St. Louis baseball squad, while it doesn't have the star power of past Cardinals teams, does not have anyone that truly strikes fear into the heart of their opponents. They have names, Adam Wainwright, Yadier Molina and Dexter Fowler to name a few, but those guys are either washed up, Wainwright, old, Molina and have not lived up to the potential, Fowler. In my mind though, a lot of that has to do with coaching. I feel like the coaches, and mostly Matheny, have just thought that the big time players would continue to be big time players. But, father time always wins. I love Molina and Wainwright, but they are not the players they once were. That is a fact. Dexter Fowler is my new favorite baseball player, but he has had a very inconsistent year, and he's been hurt a lot. But that lineup, other than those guys, is littered with names like Matt Carpenter, Stephen Piscotty, Kolten Wong, hell, that is all I can think of. That is part front office, part manager putting together this team. Yes the front office hasn't done much, but I don't think Matheny has really pushed to add big time, good players. Josh Donaldson's name has popped up in trade rumors for the Cardinals, but I feel like it is just talk. I would bet a lot of money that Matheny still believes he can win with Matt Carpenter playing third base. They can't. I'd do much rather have Donaldson at third. He is a better hitter and fielder. He is just an all around better baseball player.

It doesn't stop with the current squad. The Cardinals have had chances to add David Price, keep Jason Heyward, trade for Chris Sale, keep Carlos Beltran, get good young up and coming players for older vets, but John Mozeliak, the GM, and Matheny have said no. They didn't want to pay for or give up young prospects for proven veterans. That is the "Cardinal way", but it is getting pretty tedious to keep believing in the "Cardinal way". So many wasted chances to add top players because they don't want to pay them is very, very frustrating.

I know this is a front office thing, but I would be willing to say that Matheny doesn't know how to deal with stars. He's never had anyone bigger to manage than Molina, to the best of my knowledge, and Molina is a very subdued super star. I don't think he thinks he can deal with a big ego, even if that ego would help them win. That is a big problem for me. Other than that, he is too forgiving to his pitching staff. It seems like Wainwright, Michael Wacha and Lance Lynn have been the core of the Cardinals rotation. Why in the hell did it take until this season to put Carlos Martinez in the starting rotation? Personally, I think that he is the best pitcher the Cardinals have. Sure he can be inconsistent, but he throws heat and has a very live arm. With young pitchers you should expect things like that. What I didn't expect was the amount of time in took for Matheny to finally put Martinez in the rotation. I'm sick of watching Wainwright get older and worse. Wacha had his moment, then fell apart against the Red Sox in the World Series and when I'm shocked to see Lance Lynn get a win, that is a big problem.

Beyond the pitching though, this team cannot hit and cannot score runs. They seem to get beat 3-2 or 2-1 or 3-0 all the time. I will look at the stats, I do not watch the game, and see that the Cardinals got 0 runs on 3 or 4 hits. That is atrocious. They either need to find a new hitting coach, or a whole new staff. Same thing for the pitching coaches staff.

Look, I am actually all in favor of trashing the whole coaching staff except for Jose Oquendo. He is the only coach I rely on, and he deserves his shot to be the head coach of the Cardinals. He has paid his dues, the current players love him and I think he would be a lot more willing and able to take chances with the lineups and on acquiring big time stars. If the front office were to fire Matheny and hire Oquendo, there would be no big hub bub. As I said, the players already love him, and I'd let him hire his own staff.

Mike Matheny has done all he could do with his time with the Cardinals. He is toast. Give Jose Oquendo the chance he rightfully deserves. Do the right thing Saint Louis.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He dreams of the days when Oquendo is the head man, and Willie McGee is the hitting coach. Could we somehow get Vince Coleman to come in and be the third base coach?

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The MLB Awards Give the Cubs No Respect

Maybe that World Series trophy will make up for the lack of any other awards.

With the MLB handing out their yearly awards, I have to say that I am shocked by the minuscule amount the Cubs players have won. Now, that is not to say that the people who won certain awards were not deserving, but the fact that Kris Bryant, who did win the NL MVP, is the only big winner is an absolute shock to me. So, I decided that I wanted to look deeper into this, and put my feelings on the page today.

Let's first look at the manager of the year awards. Terry Francona, in the AL, was a home run pick. He led a very undermanned Indians team to one win away from being the champs. They had a great pitching staff, but casual baseball fans, such as myself, can you name more than one positional player? I know Coco Crisp, because he has a kick ass name, and Rajai Davis, but that is it, and with Davis, I only knew him after he blasted that home run in game 7. Francona did an incredible job. That was a much deserved win for him.

But, the fact that Joe Maddon did not win NL manager of the year is ridiculous. Don't get me wrong, Dave Roberts did an incredible job in LA, especially when Kershaw went down for a long stretch of time, but Maddon was the manager of the best team in baseball all year long. The Cubs won 103 regular season games, by far the most in the majors. The Cubs were virtually unstoppable all season long. They never really had any dips throughout a very long regular season. They were consistently dominant. I know people will say that he made some weird choices in the playoffs and world series, but the manager of the year is a regular season award, and no one was better than Maddon. He did an exceptional job. I was floored when I saw that he did not win the award. I'm sure he doesn't care, he helped break a 108 year curse and won a ring, but he was the best manager, by a wide margin, all season long in all of the major leagues.

Then, when the Cy Young was awarded, I did not agree with either choices. First off, the only reason Rick Porcello won was because he plays for the Red Sox. Yeah, he had a decent record, but so did Justin Verlander, and Verlander does not have the offense that Porcello has. Porcello could give up 4, 5 or 6 runs sometimes, but his offense would score 5, 6 or 7 runs in those games for him. The Red Sox offense is light years better than Detroit's. Verlander would be lucky if he got 2 or 3 runs in support. The only real threat the Tigers have on offense is Miguel Cabrera, who is a future hall of famer, but that is it. Verlander, especially after the all star break, was lights out. Sure, he didn't have the wins, but he was a much, much better pitcher all season long than Porcello. The media bias for east coast teams was on full display here. Go read Kate Upton's tweet about this, not only because it is hilarious, but because it is true (NSFW).

Then, in the NL, I would have given the Cy Young to either Kyle Hendricks or Jon Lester before I even considered Max Scherzer. Yeah, Scherzer gets a lot of strike outs, and threw a no hitter this year I think, but come on, both Lester and Hendricks had much better seasons, in my opinion. Lester was completely locked in this year and pitched great. I picked him to win the Cy Young in my postseason preview. I thought he had the best season of any left hander in all of baseball. Then, we have Kyle Hendricks. This guy was virtually unhittable all season long. He is the NL's version of Corey Kluber. He is an unknown, but he is great. He is so quiet in his dominance. He is like the new age Greg Maddux, except Hendricks can bring some heat. The more I think about it, I think Hendricks should be the Cy Young. But, since they did not have the stats that Scherzer had, i.e., strike outs, wins, etc., the people who vote on this award deemed Scherzer the winner.

I feel like the voters decided that since the Cubs won the world series, they didn't need any award winners. I couldn't disagree more. Award these guys for their accomplishments. The only award I feel like the voters got right was the MVP, in both leagues.

Mike Trout is the best player in all of baseball. It is not his fault that the Angels stink. He goes out and competes everyday, and puts up big numbers and is the unequivocal leader of that team. I hope the Angels get better, or trade him away, so he gets to play some meaningful baseball before his prime is over. Then in the NL, I think the right guy won, in Kris Bryant. I could argue cases for guys like Andrew McCutcheon, who I think is one of the best players in all of baseball, or even Bryant's teammate, Dexter Fowler, but Bryant is as deserving as either of these guys. He had a great year, followed by a great rookie year. Honestly, you could pick almost anyone from the Cubs as MVP, and I wouldn't have batted an eye. But, the fact that Bryant is the only Cub bringing home a major award, I know that Jason Heyward won a Gold Glove, and I'm sure some other guys won Gold Gloves, but the big awards are manager of the year, coach of the year and MVP, and only one Cubs player brought home one of those awards is baffling to me.

Oh well, I guess this is why I'm not a voter, yet,  but I would have had the Cubs sweeping all of these major awards, and it is widely known that I am not a Cubs fan. But, I cannot deny the greatness that was the Cubs this season, and they deserved more than just the MVP. I know they won the World Series, but they also should have the MVP, which they do, and the Cy Young and Manager of the Year award as well. That is just my opinion.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He once tweeted about being screwed over. The damn pizza place gave him sausage, not Italian sausage. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.