Quote:
Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla
Why did the people in charge of building/acquiring the Lambo hand it to Matheny?
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Two reasons:
1) Mozeliak didn't build the Lambo, Jeff Luhnow did. See what Houston is doing right now for another example of his acumen. He was second in command and left after 2011, getting the Houston job
2) DeWitt was a huge personal fan of Matheny because of his spiritual beliefs and a dumbass letter he wrote to parents of the Little League team he coached (his only prior coaching experience, FWIW), which later became a book called, I shit you not,
The Matheny Manifesto.
Once Luhnow left the farm system began to dry up, and with Matheny's attrition of the bullpen and horrible tactical management, the window they had from 2012-2015 closed after Taveras died and Mozeliak couldn't restock the farm with talent that had elite-level upside. He's too risk averse, which led to the team being stocked with high floor, low ceiling types. With that said, there is still enough talent to compete for a Wild Card spot, and it's pretty obvious that has been the case since shitcanning Matheny, as the Cardinals have gone on a tear. As I mentioned earlier, Matheny also propagated a toxic clubhouse culture and repeatedly overused or misused players. He beat the desk for Greg Holland, which cost the team 14 million dollars, a draft pick, and probably 3-5 games alone. On top of that, his coaches were terrible (John Mabry's firing has completely changed the hitting philosophy of the team for the better, and strikeout numbers have plummeted), but he wouldn't replace them.
At the time of the hire people gave the Cardinals the benefit of the doubt because everything they touched turned to gold. They were a model baseball franchise. But then Pujols left (and if he stayed, he would have declined all the same), Matheny got repeatedly depantsed in the playoffs, and the window shut.
2013: WS appearance
2014: NLCS appearance
2015: NLDS appearance
2016: 2nd place, missed playoffs
2017: 3rd place, missed playoffs
2018: 4th place at time of firing, .500 record.
I'll say this about Ibanez: there was a time when people thought Matheny was a progressive hire because he could related to young players, being in his early 40's and a player of some note. Caveat emptor.