When I was in high school, I overheard a coach saying, “The best players start but more important, the right ones do as well.” I always thought about that. What did he mean? The best play but then again, so do the right ones. Cerebellum scrabble ensues when I attach that thought to the Matheny way of not just managing but leading as well. Leadership is supposed to be his strong suit. Matheny shouldn’t have any problems leading. Then again, this is the Major Leagues and you don’t see the true test of a leader until adversity strikes. Â Mike Matheny hasn’t had to deal with an Oscar Taveras type prospect until this summer. He hasn’t has to deal with a severely struggling offense. Matheny’s first two seasons were solid and dominant at times. He had little to zero issues to handle. That’s what managers do right. Handle things.
Matheny has a problem with Oscar Taveras in 2014. He can’t figure out if he wants to play the kid, encourage the kid or bench him due to a lack of grit or short stature. Matheny is toying with the kid’s head in my opinion. There is a double standard building in St. Louis.
Confession: Oscar looks a little out of sorts on the bases and fields baseballs in right field like a gorilla. He swings mad to the point of his helmet falling off. He isn’t polished and is still very raw.
Reality Check: He isn’t going to look right. He has several critics, the biggest of whom works as a part time color analyst for Fox Sports Midwest. I doubt Oscar is on Tim McCarver‘s fantasy baseball team. So, yes, I admit Taveras looks rough out there. Then again, isn’t that the way all rookies look? The most gifted athletes hit the field and sometimes trip up a bit. They need time to find their way.
I can’t sit here and tell you Oscar Taveras will be a great player. There is no way to know because I can’t tell the future. I can tell you Matheny isn’t doing it right. Matheny told the Post Dispatch that “Oscar has a lot to learn” and that he didn’t like his lack of hustle on a few plays. Keep in mind you won’t hear Matheny question Jhonny Peralta‘s lack of hustle on the base paths or the fact that Matt Holliday has lofted towards a double in the field defensively more than twice this season. If Matheny is going to complain about a lack of hustle with Taveras, then it should apply to every player on the team. Right? Once they reach the 25 man roster, the unwritten rule of unity takes precedence. All are equal no matter what. Matheny seems to differ.
As Corey Rudd (find him @CoreyRudd on twitter, good follow for Cards fans) said on twitter as simple and blunt as a man could, “Matheny’s job is to put guys in position to succeed. Hasn’t happened with OT.” With those words spoken to the local paper, how is that supposed to hit Oscar and make him do better? Should Oscar think to himself…if I become established like Peralta, I can then dog it to first and act like a blank alien when I am on the field?” What message should be given to Oscar Taveras when he is sat on the bench for the .128 hitting Shane Robinson?Â
Look, if there was a better option on this roster to take starts in right field, I wouldn’t be as critical of Matheny. This has little to do with competition and everything to do with favorites. If Alfonso Soriano or Marlon Byrd were here playing tug of war with Oscar for ownership of right field, I wouldn’t complain…as much. That isn’t the case. Instead of putting Jon Jay in right and Peter Bourjos in center, Matheny puts Robinson out there. The only thing Robinson has done lately is make a halfway decent throw to home plate and draw a walk to start a rally two weeks ago. Why start him over Oscar? Makes little sense.
I have tried to tamper my criticism of Matheny this season since it flows so easily from other baseball bloggers and fans. He is still growing as a manager. I get that. Â This is his third year and easily his toughest. While that may not be easy for some fans to grasp, it’s the truth. Few managers in baseball have the reins of a franchise expected to compete for a championship every season and are given such ambitious talent to put to use.
Michael Wacha was easy to deal with in 2013. He came up in June and struggled. He came back in late August and was a completely different pitcher. Taveras has taken more time. Position players sometimes do take a bigger gamble at the beginning. I would make an Albert Pujols reference but several other writers have beaten that to death. It hasn’t been easy to watch Taveras play at times. At all. A Cards fan or Taveras advocate like myself wants to see him punch the ball to all fields, drive in a bunch and start swinging his way into the lineup. Â I am sure my readers have gotten tired of me writing about this kid. It’s warranted. However, until Matheny gives Taveras the same respect he gives others, I will come here and fire away. Let the kid play. For weeks. How is he supposed to get comfortable if he doesn’t get the reins?
Sure, starting 7 to 10 days in a row is nice. Benched for Shane Robinson? Wrong answer. Matheny has a limited bench to work with but that one is an easy one to solve. Play the kid unless you want to get really creative and start Bourjos(a guy expected to start in March) or Jay(a smooth hitting machine) out there or call up another hopeful Matheny prodigy in Tommy Pham or Stephen Piscotty.
I know this sounded like a rant so I apologize. I need at least one of these a week watching this team play and this manager fail to grow.
Find more of me on Twitter, @buffa82.
29 comments
why dont we take the starting nine, and change the line up. lets see a lineup of wong, adams, carpenter, jay, holiday, perallta,a.j., taveras then the pitcher.
if the current elements do not produce, change the arrangement.
Gorilla? racist much….
Critical analysis – Oscar’s swing is the LONGEST I’ve EVER SEEN for a professional baseball player. Even with his single tonight, that swing is HORRIBLY LONG. So the question is, what are Mabry and Matheny doing to improve that swing? Short and compact, he needs a lot of work – but why sit him and start a guy hitting .132 in Robinson? That makes no sense.
Oh stop you your PC BS. He wasn’t being racist and you know it — don’t you think it has been abused enough?
If a kid is struggling to speed up to the game, you keep him in. Because more play sometimes can fix that. But is a kid is loafing around the bases, or being a space cadet in the field, you sit his butt down. Because riding the pine will sometimes fix that too. More play sure won’t.
Matheny is doing exactly the right thing. Anyone who don’t believe that is a racist. Or a homophobe. Or a Islamophobe.
Using the term “gorilla” for a young black male- that’s smart. You’re really that ignorant to think that’s a ok? Please, I don’t care if Oscar gets benched, by using a Neanderthal reference to a professional athlete causes all credibility to fly out the window.
Wow, using an ape reference for a baseball player and you instantly play the race card. Even for you Brett, that’s cheap and kind of silly. I have compared Holliday to a bronco and Matheny to a dog at times but never really caught any flack there. But oh no, the instant I compare Taveras to a gorilla because he moves unorthodox in the field, you call me a racist.
Taveras’s swing is long just like Vlady Guerrero’s was long in his rookie days. Let it be and let it develop.
Demeaning your player through the media while veterans like Peralta jog down to first base on grounders doesn’t help anything. Then again, I wouldn’t expect you to understand that.
You can’t compare a black guy to a primate, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that’s not a good idea.
And you are the only one who pointed that out. Too bad I am as far from a racist as one can be but….you don’t really care about that. All you want to do is complain. But..let me play along with your theory. Turns out that gorillas and humans are closely linked by their DNA and gorillas are one of four species of apes that are the closest living relatives of humans. Then again, all you do is see the color of the fur and skin and make your judgement.
Next…
yep, I’m the only one – I sure don’t notice a great array of posts to your article, so it appears that only 3 of us have read it.
1st off, I’m hardly PC, quite the contrary – just WAY smarter to know that you can’t say that and expect credibility to your point(s), whether valid or not. It’s all mute – go on TV or post this on a forum that actually gets more “eyes” and see if I’m the only one that knows it’s wrong.
As to your point about calling white guys names – of course, you can call white guys names, just like ripping christians, no problem – but rip on a minority group and you’ve lost all credibility. Fair or not, it’s the truth.
You can’t write on a public blog/article what you say in your living room – maybe you missed the Donald Sterling story…..
One more thing – I’ve been in the media for 30 years and own radio stations currently – if you were my employee and this was on my station – you’d be looking for work ASAP.
If you were one of my many employees I would fire you for projecting your racism one someone who is innocent enough to be confused by your white superiority driven take on his comment. And for being WAY too dumb to recognize your own irony.
Projecting racism? Nope. Wrong again. You took that comment and twisted it. I am the opposite of a racist but thanks for reading. And by the way, if you are going to comment and throw blame around, please be able to put a sentence together.
“I would fire you for projecting your racism one someone who is innocent enough to be confused by your white superiority driven take on his comment.”
That isn’t going to cut it. Stay on the radio.
I didn’t mean to say this to you Conservative BC. All my remarks were at Brett. Thanks for the support.
My grammar is far superior. You both enjoy your day, I’m a fan of lively banter and though we disagree – I hold no ill will towards anyone.
That’s the great thing about America – we can disagree and go about our day in peace.
I haven’t changed my opinion. Dan, I believe that you could have gotten your point across in a much different way. To me, it lost it’s validity with the reference you chose.
Go Cards!
Fair enough Brett. To each his own. All words are dissected differently.
No problem. You are in the right…
Not you Dan – lol. I replied to Brett Grant. Auto-correct is a bitch when you try to use your cell phone. But thanks for the grammar lesson. You are not a racist, but you may very well be as dumb as what this Brett dip is claiming.
My grammar correction was harsh. My apologies.
And I shouldn’t have called you dumb…
I wouldn’t work for you anyway. If you are this fragile,I can only imagine when you have real news to report. I go on plenty of radio stations and would skip yours.
A Donald Sterling reference….(drops the mic and walks away).
Tired worn out race baiting demagoguery. A lumbering gorilla is a perfect description of his play – black or white. You would have to be a true racist to notice it, and then equate it with a black person. Most people read right past it.
It is you who interjected your own racism into the conversation.
you’re putting yourself into every conservative stereotype by defending this. I’m conservative, 100% – just way smarter to know that you can’t say that and be taken seriously.
What is wrong with the conservative stereotype? It is called common sense. Anyone who interjects racism into an obviously benign comment is projecting — always.
Black people don’t need your protection – they are not children. It is your racism that makes you feel like they do. And it is that same misguided sense of superiority that compelled you to comment in the first place. Stop looking at the world through your racist lense.
Any person of color reading your comment would see you as a condescending bigot.
Everyone who read the man’s piece took him seriously, except for a few white supremacists who refuse to treat minorities like men — that you be you.
(playing his violin for the only whiner in the audience) Brett. I hope you get a couple more friends to unload this garbage onto. You took a plain old baseball conversation and made it ridiculously political. Wow. This made my day pal. If I can get this reaction from you, I can only imagine if I actually attacked your political beliefs….
One more thing. Just to prove something you already know. Not only are you a racist, you’re a liar. You are no conservative.
I know because I am your intellectual superior.
No self respectable conservative would have Obama’s Obamacare Pajama Boy as their avatar, unless of course they were making fun of it. That coupled with your very effeminate and ambiguously gay [squeaky voice] “… Racist much” comment cuts the odds of you being a conservative to 0%. And being a liberal moonbat alone puts the odds of you being flaming homosexual to about 50%. If you call me a homophobe that too goes to 100.
Because you are a liberal, you will undoubtedly not have the moral fortitude (integrity) to admit that you a liar. So you can respond with more lies or not — I don’t care. This is not for the people who may stumble across this blog – whom you might try to doop. This is not for them; it is for you and I.
Now slink back under your rock and marvel at how dumb you are.
OMG! OMG! Racist alert. Racist alert…
http://www.swing-smarter-baseball-hitting-drills.com/how-to-hit-a-baseball.html
Another completely stupid article. At least you’re consistent.
Where’s your article?
Thank you. Glad you finally got around to reading it.
Comments are closed.