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wuchang said:
This year's team playing the way that got him fired and everyone said HE was the problem

How long is Fowler under contract? Too long

Will Carpenter ever learn to hit to the opposite field? Very unlikely. I played golf with a friend that played pro ball and he explained to me some of the dynamics of that. It was eye opening and interesting. I came to the conclusion that the most we will ever see from Carpenter is an occasional bunt like he did earlier this week.

They said starting pitching was going to be very good this year---still waiting for a starter to go more than 5 innings consistently. They lost 2 of top 4 starters they planned on. The others are simply under-performing. Anyone that thought Wainwright was an viable starting pitcher is thinking with their heart and not their head

Would any Cardinal be on the All-Star team if they stopped letting the fans vote? No and they shouldn't. All are under-performing

Is there a second half resurgence in this bunch or they going to hit .252 the rest of the year? I heard about a team in another sport that was in last place mid-season and ended up winning a championship that same season.
The Cards are playing about as poorly as you can imagine and are still only 3 games out of 1st place. It is very doable.

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Mike Matheny was a huge part of the problem and I wouldn't hire him as a Manager for an MLB team if he worked for free.

Starting pitching is the #1 issue today. They lost two of their top 4 starters they were planning on (Reyes & Martinez) and the others are mostly under-performing. I would not pin that on Schildt. The front office needs to get to work and find some help, soon!!

The defense is greatly improved and that is mostly due to a change in culture and attitude on the team. I put most of that on the Manager.

The running game is vastly improved. That is the direct result of a more aggressive manager, letting the players play...

Hitting is simply not up to par, across the board. Nearly every player that has some MLB history is hitting below their career norms. This is especially troubling with the top offensive players (Goldschmidt, Carpenter, etc...). And some of the new/young guys are looking more and more like Bo Hart (Bader). Not sure if this is a hitting coach issue or what the reason is but the Manager has to take some of the heat for it. It is time to shake things up and get a new hitting coach or figure out the root cause. All players have hitting slumps. But it is pretty rare to see a whole team struggle like this. Not sure what to make of it.

Overall, I'd say the Matheny firing was a good one and loooong overdue. I also think Schildt is the right man for the job. He's not perfect and should be criticized for some of this. But he's still 10x better than Matheny.

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"Hunts are best measured by the endurance of the memories they produce..."

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