By Nik
The St. Louis Cardinals are off to an eerily similar start to 2024, as they did in 2023, and that’s concerning.
The night after an inspiring win with a first pitch, walk-off home run by Nolan Gorman—the ball gets dropped in a 14-1 loss against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Time and time again, the management, front office, commentators, writers and independent stat jerkoffs alike come together to try and justify a player over a small-ish sample size. Steven Matz being their #1 favorite most recently. According to everybody, he was a top 10 pitcher in baseball over his last however many starts dating back to last summer. But over his last 5 starts he’s given up 30 hits and 15 earned runs through 24.1 innings. Good for a 5.55 ERA.
That is not good. He is on year 3 of a 4 year, $44 million dollar contract. One in which should have been off-loaded for low level prospects this past off-season. Matz also struggles to stay healthy, and hasn’t since he was signed. If this is what we get in a healthy Matz season, a season which he can barely fire 5 innings per start, we as fans, are in trouble.
Another “frustrating” thing we all have to deal with is Miles Mikolas. The usual shitty or pretty starting pitcher has been shitting his pants since the beginning of last season.
After 5 starts, 26.1 IP, and a 6.49 ERA so far this season, Miles is sitting pretty on a 2-year extension that will pay him $40 million.
And should we touch on Zack Thompson? Our initial 5th starter? Who they keep throwing out there while dealing with “issues”? Is it an injury? Mechanical? Either way, he does not need to be on the major league team, even in a mop up role.
Andre Pallante who developed a “death ball”, has been demoted after a terrible start to the season, essentially a continuation of his stat line last season. He had company going down too, with center fielder Victor Scott joining him on the ride to Memphis after posting 5 hits across 59 at-bats. I’ll add though, that Victor Scott II getting a shot at AAA is a good thing.
However, construction has been a struggle for John Mozeliak and Co. for many years now. So who do we blame? The players?
The Cardinals have a star-studded lineup on paper and nobody can click at the same time. Nobody is hitting but 3 and a half players, and we have no idea why. Are we overreacting?
It doesn’t help that this organization’s personnel is not respected by anyone, including their peers:
The coaching feels like a bottom 3 staff in the league, and it has for a long time. You can’t place the blame on them fully when the players don’t perform, but something isn’t working. Turner Ward, who seemingly is using the same hitting philosophy as Jeff Albert, and Dusty Blake, who shouldn’t be a major league coach are continuous thorns in the side. A shake up needs to happen and multiple people need to be fall guys.
As this is all an opinion, Oli Marmol should not have been extended. Even if it was a fluff to avoid the questions about an extension all year. Unfortunately until there is different ownership, the cardinals will not go out and get “THAT GUY” whoever that is, from outside of the organization.
The DeWitts should sell, and they won’t. Mozeliak should step down right now, and he won’t. Oli Marmol should have been fired 7 months ago and he wasn’t.
Will Chaim Bloom save the team? Will Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols take this team back to the Promise Land as manager and hitting coach? All of those things aren’t very likely right now—but we can HOPE.
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