Quote:
Originally Posted by duncan_idaho
Oh yay. We’re going to do this again.
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I wouldn't.
Look - you'll never convince him and it's not worth the effort trying. So why bother?
There are dozens of other reasons to be pissed about that hire. You mentioned the bullpen usage and that's an obvious one. It isn't just about how hard he leaned on his 'circle of trust' to create the injury problems that plagued that 'pen - and man oh man, did he run his favorite relievers into the ground; it was always hilarious to see how many cardinals were at the top of the leaderboards in appearances on 0 days rest. The guy just would not get away from his 2 favorite righties and his favorite lefty - ever.
It's also about the fact that he just sucks ass at knowing when to pull a pitcher and who to replace them with. I think it was someone at BP or maybe the Ringer; someone did a study a few years back comparing all managers bullpen patterns and came to the conclusion that Matheny was easily the worst in baseball. And he was the worst by so much that they compared his decisions to what would've happened if a random number generator made the calls for him.
Matheny's 'logic' was worse than blind ass luck. Literally throwing darts at a dartboard while blindfolded would've yielded better outcomes.
Over in the Cardinals thread I've also gone over the defensive runs saved via the shift with the Cardinals. The Cadinals saved all of 6 runs in his entire time in STL via the shift; 4th worst in baseball over that period. They became the best in baseball (saved over 30 since Shildt took over) after he left.
They were the 4th worst baserunning team in the league while he was there; a shocking
-36 runs created in his time at the helm. The Cardinals are plus 20 in a season and a half under Shildt.
When Matheny was there we could speculate what might have been with a qualified manager but that's all it ever was -
speculation. Then Shildt came in and the areas that a team can really see improvement in coaching did a 180 literally overnight. From among the worst baserunning teams to the best. From among the worst defensive teams to the best. From a bullpen that was routinely at the bottom of the league to one that was in the top 5 despite losing its closer and having a chaff LH relief corps.
We always thought Mike Matheny was a disaster - Mike Shildt's success in the 'manager areas' served to prove it.
You DO NOT want this guy. Take the bible study shit out of it. Don't even speak to the issues with communication with his players, like when he didn't talk to Fowler for a month or used Bud Norris as a clubhouse narc. Don't even speak to more nebulous issues like watching him get de-pantsed routinely in the post-season by Bruce Bochy; still dumbfounded that he lost a game with a guy who hadn't pitched in a month pitching in extras.
Leave the 'style' points out of it and focus just on tangible, on the field production. That's all you need to do and you can STILL easily reach the conclusion that Mike Matheny is very possibly the last person on this planet you'd want managing your baseball team. My 5 year old would at least stay the !@#$ out of the way.
It blows my mind that he's still in consideration. It truly is staggering.