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| Matheny's managerial evolution is just beginning. photo provided by www.nbcsports.com |
Now I realize how shallow this could go over. Of course I feel ok after the fact that, once again, the classic use of “at least we lost to the champs” can ring true. Nothing could be further from the truth, though. What truly turned my enthusiasm was the way in which I can recall this year’s baseball marathon beginning. I would be hard-pressed to find any sliver of a team that remotely encapsulates what my beloved Cards were put through in the winter of last year; only to culminate their year a game short of back-to-back World Series appearances.
With the financial burden that quickly became the Pujols contract safely befallen on the Angels, the Cardinals faced perhaps one of the greatest tests in recent MLB history. Sizing up the immense impact that Tony La Russa and Pujols’ exits had on the organization is a conundrum in itself; a situation that is hard to explain simply because it doesn’t happen often that a manager in the pantheon of skippers and one of the game’s most accomplished hitters leave a single team in the same offseason. However, could it also be that those two absences were just overshadowed completely by the uncanny ability of John Mozeliak to continue to find ways for the ballclub to compete?
Of the three major head-coaching positions to open in the MLB in the winter of last year (in reference to the St. Louis, Boston, and Chicago Sox, positions) it was widely regarded that the least desirable position would be St. Louis. A plethora of analysts, with a concentration of anchors on Baseball Tonight, gave that highly esteemed praise to the Red Sox vacancy. The hiring of Mike Matheny, therefore, almost went on without a bang. Lost were the Cardinal’s rebuilding efforts (see signing of Carlos Beltran’s 2-year deal) amidst the more high-profiled story of Bobby Valentine’s hiring by the Boston Red Sox and Robin Ventura’s to the Chicago White Sox.
For all of this unglamorous treatment by the national media, the prototypical storyline of the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals was already being formulated again for this 2012 team early in the year. The birds lose an ace in Adam Wainwright one year; come back with the loss of Chris Carpenter the next. They gain the services of a veteran with experience one year with Lance Berkman; sign one of the most prolific postseason performers of all time in Carlos Beltran before the 2012 season. Then there were the young guys. Cardinals’ products Alan Craig, Matt Carpenter, and Daniel Descalso, all saw playing time increases that led to a monstrous farm system footprint on the 40-man roster. Of course there were also the continued efforts of farm grown talent in David Freese, Jon Jay, and an enlightened transformation for Lance Lynn from postseason bullpen staple to All-Star starter. However, there was something deeper to this Cardinals team than the purity of its young talent; and that something was the uncanny leadership ability of rookie manager, Matheny.
In his first year of managerial experience, Matheny showed many of the early qualities that made La Russa the highly-esteemed manager he retired as a year ago. The carry-over of the ‘professional’ lifestyle of the Cardinal’s clubhouse was still very much intact from a player’s standpoint. After all, many of the veterans were only a year removed from knowing just what it took to win a championship. Stalwarts like Lance Berkman, Yadier Molina, and Matt Holliday, knew the approach the club was to have if they hoped to repeat the success from the 2011 season. None of it would matter, though, unless Matheny’s leadership came into a quick fruition. The transition Matheny made from La Russa to himself was near effortless for many of the players. Much like rookie White Sox manager, Robin Ventura, Matheny is the prototypical “player’s manager”; a man who truly has the ability to empathize with his players from years of experience as a player himself.
The single relationship that may have caused Matheny’s rampant success was between the former Cardinal catcher and his current catcher, undisputed team leader after Pujols’ departure, Yadier Molina. With the absence of both Pujols and La Russa, one of the most glaring gaps in this year’s Cardinal team could have been its lack of “marquee leaders.” After all, the franchise had just lost its ‘captain’ in Pujols, and its commander-in-chief in La Russa; how could anyone possibly expect those two positions to be filled within only a few months? The natural process of the leadership from a player’s perspective was always going to be to Molina if Pujols should have ever left. That much of the story could work itself out, but to have Matheny already have a strong connection to your team leader was a meticulous upside to the hiring (the man groomed Molina for the big leagues back in the 2004 season).
Through the Matheny/Molina leadership group, the Cardinals now had a way to combat the loss of pitching Coach Dave Duncan, and the same clubhouse mentality that had already reaped the Cardinals so much success. At this point, you might be wondering what precisely is at the center of this glorious clubhouse chemistry I’m speaking of. For the Cardinals, La Russa had laid down the groundwork of what it meant to be a champion in his 2006 and 2011 World Series campaigns with the club. In both years, La Russa led the club to more ‘mediocre’ regular seasons than are the usual WS Champion standards (accumulating an 83-78 record in 2006 and winning the wild card with a 90-72 mark in 2011). The secret to La Russa’s success was that his years of experience had led him to the realization that it’s about when your team plays its best baseball. La Russa’s knack for readying his teams for the October season was seemingly greater than his knack for readying his teams for a fine regular season. And La Russa was justified in this thinking from his own experience (see the 2004 season in which a 105-57 regular season led to a playoff campaign that fell just short). All the while that La Russa was blueprinting how to reach the epitome of professional baseball success, Matheny was there.
Whether it was as a player under La Russa, or as a special assistant to the team, Matheny was around the attitude of a winning ballclub for years. Ultimately, Matheny’s most profound ability as a manager was to not reinvent the wheel that La Russa created. All Matheny was required to do was to keep that wheel rolling on its way, and for the most part this season he did just that. Matheny trusted that his team had a full understanding of the path in front of them, allowed them to rise to the occasion when called upon, and like La Russa utilized every player to their utmost capacity. The cliché is that the baseball season is a marathon, and that may even be an official motto in St. Louis. It’s that mentality that has carried the franchise and will carry Matheny throughout his regime with the club.
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| Chances are the Cardinals will be able avenge their NLCS exit at some point in Matheny's tenure. photo provided by www.bleacherreport.com |
The only glaring conundrum that Matheny has to deal with is his own experience, and finding his own identity as a manager. Matheny showed signs for improvement in this past NLCS, making decisions that leaned on the side of cautious more than confident. However, those mistakes could ultimately be associated with his rookie-manager status. At times, Matheny seemed to want to be able to justify his actions more than take chances. As the offense sputtered over the final three games, Matheny refused to make even the most minor of changes to his lineup, preferring to stick it out with what had been the usual suspects. A manager with a more comfortable sense of his job and style maybe isn’t afraid to take chances and make those changes (Craig to 2-hole and Beltran to the cleanup spot, anyone?).
The thing with Matheny, though, is that it’s scary-fun to imagine what the Cardinals could be once he blooms into his own managerial mind (much the same way La Russa did over his illustrious career). How he will grow independent of the set rotation in the bullpen (Mujica-Boggs-Motte), how we will mix-and-match his veterans and his youth, and how he will be more willing to take his risks in crunch time, will all be huge strives for the manager when he attains them. This is why after Scutaro squeezed that final out in the bay, with the rain soaked Giants ready to mug Sergio Romo in the wings, I was genuinely excited. Already, I’m looking forward to next year; Matheny’s growth as a manager and the team’s uncanny ability to find October success will dance in my head for as long as winter lasts. Merry Offseason, to everyone.
