[Marcellus]

Part of that article that I think was mentioned earlier -

At this point, it’s difficult to understand why ownership-management would continue to stand by Matheny. Unless, of course, they have a fondness for fielding a depressingly dull and ragged baseball team that loses too many games to bad teams at Busch Stadium. Or perhaps ownership-management is digging the the jolts of negative national attention that have made the Cardinals the target of scorn and ridicule. As we keep saying here: the Cardinal brand is being sullied, and I’m not sure why this is acceptable to the good men who serve as caretakers of a venerated franchise.

Matheny isn’t winning. He’s lowered the standards. (Remember: a 10-13 record represents “playing well.”) He hasn’t put a well-drilled team on the field for a long time. He plays favorites, treating some players better than others. He hasn’t improved tactically. He’s stubborn, set in his ways, still welded to that thick front door of the baseball old school, and not much interested in analytics or your newfangled, nerdy ideas.

Too many St. Louis players are underachieving. Successful players come to the Cardinals from other MLB teams, and play worse. Fowler (this season) left fielder Marcell Ozuna, reliever Brett Cecil and the since-traded starting pitcher Mike Leake are four examples.

Why is that? Is at least part of this attributable to the culture?

Sorry, but it doesn’t make sense when three former Cardinals who were sent away — Matt Adams, Randal Grichuk and Stephen Piscotty — each had more extra-base hits than Ozuna’s 20 xbh through Wednesday.

When Tony La Russa managed the Cardinals from 1996 through 2011, an astonishing number of players improved immediately after signing with the Cardinals, or being dealt to St. Louis.

And yes, I went through each roster and checked the stats on each player that got a new start by joining La Russa’s team. All of these players had a positive spike in stats in their first seasons under La Russa. And I didn’t even include all of the names. I left off some marginal examples.

Position players: Delino DeShields, Mark McGwire, Fernando Tatís, Edgar Renteria, Craig Paquette, Jim Edmonds, Fernando Viña, Mike Matheny (!), Eduardo Perez, Tony Womack, David Eckstein, Scott Spiezio, Scott Rolen (until suffering shoulder injuries), Ryan Ludwick, Jason LaRue, Gerald Laird, Aaron Miles, Mark Grudzielanek, Troy Glaus, Cesar Izturis, Matt Holliday, Lance Berkman, Nick Punto, Rafael Furcal.

Pitchers — with credit to pitching coach Dave Duncan: Chris Carpenter, Andy Benes, Jeff Suppan, Kyle Lohse, Jason Marquis, Woody Williams, Darryl Kile, Garrett Stephenson, Joel Pineiro, Todd Wellemeyer, Mark Mulder (in 2005, before a shoulder injury in 2006), Kent Bottenfield, Jake Westbrook, Darren Oliver, Edwin Jackson, Octavio Dotel, Jeff Weaver, Juan Acevedo, Chuck Finley, Cal Eldred, Mike Timlin, Troy Percival, Jason Isringhausen, Steve Kline, Ray King, Trever Miller, Russ Springer, Julian Tavarez, Dave Veres.

La Russa and Duncan had a few players and pitchers perform worse after coming to St. Louis, but it’s an awfully short list when compared to the lengthy roll call of success stories. Position players Eric Davis, Juan Encarnacion, Shawon Dunston (marginally), Adam Kennedy, Mark DeRosa (who got hurt), and Tino Martinez. Pitchers: Kent Mercker, Brett Tomko, Miguel Batista, Jeff Brantley, Scott Radinsky, Marc Rzepczynski. And I’m probably stretching it to include names such as Tomko and Batista.

As for Matheny…

Position players who improved: Jhonny Peralta (for 1½ seasons), Heyward, Brandon Moss, Jedd Gyorko.

Position players that got worse: Fowler (in 2018), Ozuna, Peter Bourjos, Mark Reynolds. And in Matheny’s case, I’m not including old guys who came here and broke down, like second baseman Mark Ellis and catcher Brayan Peña.

Pitchers who improved: Really, it’s pretty much all relievers. But some nice career-best seasons from Edward Mujica, Pat Neshek. And upturns from Bud Norris, John Axford, Randy Choate, Steve Cishek (here two-plus months) and Carlos Villanueva.

Pitchers that got worse: John Lackey (in 2014, but better in ‘15), Leake, Justin Masterson, Cecil, Matt Belisle (got injured). There’s also Greg Holland; Matheny really pushed management to sign him and wouldn’t let up. And it’s too soon to know about Luke Gregerson and Dominic Leone because of injuries.