Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
And regarding Wacha, since his return to the 'rotation' the Cardinals have gone 2-2 in his outings with the two losses being games where they scored 0 and 1 runs respectively. Those are likely losses with Flaherty on the mound. Hell, those are likely losses if Verlander's making those starts.
Shildt's running with a real talent disadvantage quite often and he's managing to milk .500 baseball out of Wacha starts by getting his ass out of there pretty quickly and letting Helsley do some lifting for him. It's a terrible position to put Shildt in but one he's handling very admirably.
As for Carpenter - I think Shildt is predisposed to giving Carpenter every chance he can, yes. But I also think he gets a LOT of pressure from on high to put Carpenter out there and try to justify that extension. If the Cardinals could just decline his option this off-season and move on, I think Carpenter would've been a bench bat weeks ago.
I don't think Shildt is completely without blame, but it's probably an even 50/50 split between him and the front office. And even at that, Edman appeared to have supplanted him as the starting 3b before Wong took the foul ball off the toe. I think going forward you'll see that alignment far more often than not.
Carpenter's season is winding to a close. His Cardinal career should be as well but $$$ dictates that they'll give him every chance to keep that 3b job (because he'll be gifted it to start the season) next year.
|
Yes, where he has really started to stand out to me is he seems willing to make some clear decisions when they needed to be made that Matheny was unwilling or incapable of doing regularly.
We have seen him pull starters WITH a clear lead in the 5th inning because he saw it was going to be a track meet all game.
You know what that does do your position players who just put up crooked numbers? It makes them trust you even more.
It wasn't his fault that we extended Carpenter. I think you are right had that not happened, I think you see him limited even more to a bench role and spot starting.