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In Mo We Trust

Posted on November 14, 2011 at 9:25 AM
Filed Under: St. Louis Cardinals
The person probably at the bottom of most lists when this managerial search started was at the top of the only list that mattered.  This morning, at 11 Central Time, Mike Matheny will be announced as the next manager of the St. Louis Cardinals.  You can watch the press conference on Fox Sports Midwest, though it does not appear that it will be streaming over their website.

If you'd been paying attention to the reports and news coverage coming out of St. Louis, I don't think this was a major surprise.  There seemed to be a lot of fascination with a guy that had no experience at all.  Normally, that is just a courtesy interview, but it obviously either was more than that to begin with or became more than that along the way.

I remember thinking how strange it was when the Chicago White Sox went and put Robin Ventura in their top slot. Sure, he'd been a great player for them, but no experience?  Was he that much removed from a long-time fan of the game?  Was that really the best option out there?

Now the Cardinals, a team coming off of a World Series title, are in the same position.  I think the same questions are out there.

Look, everyone loves Matheny.  As Bernie Miklasz says in his column, there's nobody that's not rooting for him.  From all reports, he's a quality individual and a guy that everyone respects and admires.  He's not going to cause a problem in the clubhouse and as Aaron at El Maquino notes, Albert Pujols noted him as a mentor in the Christian faith.  As a Christian myself, that's an encouraging thing.  Bernie notes that a manager isn't going to make the decision for Albert on whether he returns, but having that sort of connection to the head guy can't hurt, I wouldn't think. It's one more small card in St. Louis's pile.

All that being said, and noting that I'm hoping that he succeeds as well, is this the best move to make?  Matheny left the game after 2006, so he's been away from the grind of a season for five years.  He was resistant to get back into things due to family concerns, but finally came back to the Cardinal organization last year as a special assistant.  Obviously, this wasn't the full-time job that being a manager is since he spent a good portion of the season being an analyst on Fox Sports Midwest.  He's not been through the day-to-day toil of a season in a while--is he up to that?

We heard a lot about the Cardinals treating this position as a leadership role instead of a tactician role.  I can understand where they are coming from on that, but is that the right direction to take?  It looks like Dave Duncan will still be the pitching coach and Jose Oquendo has said he'd stay even if he didn't get the job.  Tom from CardinalsGM passes along that he's heard Grady Little could be in the mix for a bench coach role.  There are a lot of resources for Matheny to draw on to make his decisions, but the final decision is his.  Also, he'll have to learn to be thinking beyond the next pitch or the next batter so as not to be caught unaware.  Can he do that?  I'm sure he can.  Will he be able to do that to start the year?  That's a different story.

David Freese and Jon Jay have already come out on Twitter and supported the move, which isn't too surprising.  Matheny has to make the transition, though, from being a player and a teammate to being the "boss", as it were, of this group of guys.  You have people like Chris Carpenter and (hopefully) Albert Pujols who played with Matheny and now have to follow what he says.  Bill and I had Derrick May, the roving hitting instructor of the Cardinals, on Gateway to Baseball Heaven last night and I asked him if he thought Matheny would have trouble making that adjustment.  May didn't seem to think so, citing Matheny's ability to know his responsibilities and the fact that there are strong leaders in the clubhouse already, so it's not like he's going into a fraternity-style setting expected to keep order.  Still, that transition can't be an easy one for Matheny to make.

I don't mean to be a drag on the groundswell of support that the fanbase is already giving him.    On Twitter last night people were just gushing about the pick, so excited to have him back in Cardinal red.  That's all well and good and I'm glad that it's a pick the fans can get behind, but I'm still reserving judgement.  It's been pointed out before that, as great as Ozzie Smith was, you wouldn't necessarily bring him in as a fielding coach.  What he did was, to some degree, unteachable.  Sometimes bringing in beloved former players works, sometimes it doesn't.  We'll have to see which of these it is.

There's no doubt the Cards are positioned well for the future, so much so that it may not take a managerial legend to get them into the postseason.  Hopefully having such a strong team early on will give Matheny the room to grow and the confidence to make mistakes, knowing they won't necessarily be costly ones.

I'm looking forward to hearing what Matheny has to say about the situation when he has his press conference today and which coaches are coming back.  It's going to add another wrinkle, another layer to a 2012 season that's already promising to be an exciting one.

If you missed it last night, my picks for the Cardinal Blogger Awards are below.  Remember that you can also submit a vote here!

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Heroes
Matt Holliday (5)
Matt Carpenter (4)
Rafael Furcal (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
Jaime Garcia (3)
Jon Jay (3)
Kyle Lohse (3)
Lance Lynn (3)
Yadier Molina (3)
David Freese (2)
Adam Wainwright (2)
Lance Berkman (1)
Allen Craig (1)
Shane Robinson (1)
Fernando Salas (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Hero: Lance Berkman (24)
2010 Top Heroes: Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols (24)
2009 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (28)
2008 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (25)

Goats
Matt Holliday (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
David Freese (3)
Jaime Garcia (3)
Jason Motte (3)
Marc Rzepczynski (3)
Adam Wainwright (3)
Rafael Furcal (2)
Tyler Greene (2)
J.C. Romero (2)
Fernando Salas (2)
Mitchell Boggs (1)
Matt Carpenter (1)
Tony Cruz (1)
Daniel Descalso (1)
Jon Jay (1)
Erik Komatsu (1)
Kyle Lohse (1)
Victor Marte (1)
Eduardo Sanchez (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Goat: Ryan Theriot (12)
2010 Top Goat: Brendan Ryan (14)
2009 Top Goats: Rick Ankiel and Todd Wellemeyer (13)
2008 Top Goat: Troy Glaus (13)

2012 Happy Flights
Happy Flights: 7
Happy Flight Opportunities: 12
Happy Flight %: 58%

Through 5/20

    Cardinal Nation Approval Ratings (March 2012)
    Adam Wainwright 91.9% (down 2.8%)
    Chris Carpenter 90.1% (up 3.2%)
    Lance Berkman 88.6%
    Tony La Russa 88.2% (up 17.4%)
    Yadier Molina 87.4% (up 3.7%)
    Matt Holliday 87.3% (down 3.8%)
    David Freese 85.5%
    John Mozeliak 85.4% (up 13.3%)
    Mike Shannon 85.3% (up 0.4%)
    Jose Oquendo 84.7%
    Derrick Goold 82.8% (down 5.0%)
    Mark McGwire 82.6% (up 20.1%)
    John Rooney 81.5% (down 2.8%)
    Mike Matheny 81.1%
    Bill DeWitt 79.8% (up 8.8%)
    United Cardinal Bloggers 78.9%
    Skip Schumaker 73.3% (up 9.2%)
    Jim Hayes 71.9% (down 4.2%)
    Jon Jay 71.1%
    B.J. Rains 69.5% (down 0.9%)
    Kyle Lohse 68.9% (up 13.8%)
    Dan McLaughlin 68.0%
    Joe Strauss 67.7% (up 10.2%)
    Ricky Horton 67.5% (down 1.6%)
    Al Hrabosky 66.4% (up 3.2%)
    Albert Pujols 54.9% (down 45.5%)
    Colby Rasmus 46.5% (down 35.3%)

    2011
    Dave Duncan 87.9% (up 0.9%)
    Matthew Leach 85.5%
    Pop Warner 76.7%
    Ryan Franklin 72.8% (up 3.1%)
    John Vuch 68.9%
    Jeff Luhnow 66.4%
    Dan Lozano 58.7%

    2009
    Rick Ankiel 83.9%
    Chris Duncan 69.1%


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