Losing has its own dynamic. Matheny is right to ask does losing cause bad attitude or bad attitude cause losing. It's likely the former. But it's also true a leopard doesn't changed his spots much. He's definitely the best manager to go. Mike Shildt is available - he was great after Marheny left. They should try that.

Well, he did play under Tony LaRussa so the manager being a bit uptight might not same unusual to him.

My only real issue with Matheny, was bringing religion/god/jesus into the clubhouse, god has no place in a clubhouse, and it makes people uncomfortable to pretend it does. Yes, Pujols and Wainwright are also big god in the clubhouse people, but they are just veterans, not management, and they still have fun.

Matheny and Shildt both had no real grasp of analytics, but Matheny always tried, and was definitely the better bullpen manager. At the same time, he absolutely developed favorites or trust in someone even if they weren't doing the job well, they just weren't burning him.

Didn't Matheny allow some redneck to repeatedly haze Jordan Hicks?

Didn't Matheny allow some redneck to repeatedly haze Jordan Hicks?

He allowed hazing, not sure the full story and who, but the article above has a link to it.