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Thursday, October 14, 2021
One week after losing the NL Wild Card Game to the Dodgers, the St. Louis Cardinals have made a managerial change. Mike Shildt is out as the club’s manager, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan. The team has not yet confirmed the news but has scheduled a press conference for Thursday afternoon.
Shildt, the 2019 NL Manager of the Year, replaced Mike Matheny on an interim basis in Aug. 2018, then was given the job permanently following that season. The Cardinals went 252-199 in parts of four seasons under Shildt, winning one NL Central title.
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1. RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: October 14, 2021 at 03:01 PM (#6046323)They didn't fire him on the off day yesterday, they fired him today.
I’m not unhappy, though. While he was better than Matheny, I was never left thinking he was a great manager, just competent.
Could be drug smuggling or something like that too.
That would fall under the category of "did something."
Yes, Shildt was a cog. I guess that would represent an improvement in Queens, but in St. Louis he's not the guy you lose sleep over.
all i can say is i'm (almost) speechless.
he struck me as the quintessential organization man that mo could give orders to and he would follow them.
it looked like he had the players behind him too.
it may be a personality thing with mozeliak, who strikes me as someone who wants to be recognized as a baseball genius (this is based on very scant evidence, just speculation), and so something shcildt did or said rubbed him the wrong way.
i could see how the business of batting yadi too high up in the order and some of his questionable bullpen decisions could have been a factor once all the analysis was in.
lots of folks are going to wonder if this isn't an opening for yadi to be the player/manager or whatever.
*shrug*
There has to be more to this, right?
IIRC Davey Johnson announced his resignation from the Orioles on the same day he was announced as Manager of the Year in 1997
Did the Marlins fire Joe Girardi before or after he was announced as MoY?
I'm surprised that they didn't let him play out the contract, but I guess there is a real possibility that the team might perform well under him another season and that even though he's getting results, doesn't mean they think he's a good fit long term.
I'm very surprised, it seems as if the team's 90-win performance with some real roster (mostly pitching staff) challenges would have bought him a little slack.
I wasn't a fan of his rigid usage patterns (be it batting orders or his closer) but overall, he was miles better than Matheny, who I thought was terrible in almost every way, and was thrilled when he was let go.
Yes, the staff did an about face in the second half, but that was mostly by replacing underperforming pitchers, especially in the bullpen. And the acquisitions of Lester and Happ did what the team hoped it would do, stabilizing a rotation that had lost 4 starters. Neither of those had anything to do with Shildt.
My guess is something very fundamental is at play here, like he clearly went one direction when he was instructed to go another. Whether that was bringing in Reyes in the 9th against the Dodgers, or undermining Jeff Albert (the hitting coach), I imagine it was some kind of decision that contradicted a team directive.
Shildt has a Constructivist outlook on lineup creation, and the Cards clearly were in the Intuitionist camp.
Heck of a coincidence that Schildt was in the audience for Chappelle's last funny joke.
I never wanted Matheny to get fired, you have me mistaken with Perry, I've argued that Matheny was quite good and was willing to learn, he changed how he did things so many times and he admitted he was learning on the job. Shildt on the other hand is hard headed and thinks he already knows, refuses to listen to advance stats. Shildt though was a players manager, he's Joe Torre. I think Matheny was equal to Whiney Herzog as a manager, superior to Torre, below TLR among Cardinal managers over the past 40 or so years. I think Shildt was the poor mans version of Whitey, great player manager, suspect tactical decisions.
I would have been fine with keeping Shildt to be honest, sometimes it's better to dance with the devil you know than the angel that you haven't met yet.
He wins because the players love him and play to their potential because of him. But it's not anything special to be honest, Baker, Torre, Leyland etc... all have done that for a much longer period of time. Again, I would have liked to keep Shildt for another year, but there was some issues with him. His utter disdain for advance statistics and the fact that as he managed more, he became more against it, is probably at least a part of it.
1. Poor tactician (too many IBBs, bad use of Platoons, slotting of relievers into “their inning”, etc )
2. Players manager which means veterans always got their way, no platoon usage, poor lineup construction, etc
3. Lack of killer instinct - most easily seen by sticking with wainwright too long in the wild card game. He’s a minor league manager - good with players but lacking the winning style.
If you are a cardinal fan this has to be a good thing because it means Mozeliak will have a more aggressive manager and Dewitt may spend more money this winter.
Meh, there have been a lot of bad managers who have won the World Series over the years.
I'm sorry, what? Wainwright gave up one run . . . in the fourth inning. Sending him out for the sixth had precisely no consequences. The Cards's bullpen isn't exactly an earth-bestriding behemoth, either. Yanking Wainwright so early might have been the mistake.
In basketball, Dwayne Casey was fired by the Raptors on May 11 2018, and then was awarded the Coach of the Year on June 25 2018.
Shildt’s the kind of guy who wouldn’t use flaherty there because “he’s a starter”. Roberts and Kapler were so much better at this
Shildt’s the kind of guy who wouldn’t use Flaherty there because “he’s a starter”. Roberts and Kapler were so much better at this
A bright flame that moth journalists are going to swarm looking for the dirt. My unfounded guess is that there is a gay Cardinal and Shildt is not handling it well.
Yes, as "gets us in the play-off but cannot get past the dodgers" seems like a pretty high bar. It will be interesting if he is a candidate for other open manager jobs, or if people just see him as a system guy. Until I hear facts and reasons otherwise, I will hold the thought that he was really unfairly treated.
Yeah, but that's been true for so long you'd imagine he wouldn't have been hired in the first place if he wasn't on board with analytics.
This isn’t hard to see if you’ve been following the Cardinals.
1. Mo hired Jeff Albert not only as hitting coach but also to bring a new hitting philosophy to the entire org. It appears there has been an issue with Shildt in accepting Jeff’s role. This was laid bare when Tommy Edman gave a candid interview mid year about the dysfunction in the batting area.
2. Shildt’s use of analytics generally was weak as you might expect from a middle-aged old school guy. He used them to explain decisions but often came across as a SSS user, abuser of IBBs and terrible in game tactitian.
3. Mo said the decision was NOT a non baseball decision but that it had become apparent in the last 5-6 days when something was brought on his attention. What could that be? Well the cards have a coaches review 2 days after the season and presumably they have a 1:1 with Shildt as well. I’m guessing the cardinals told him they wanted either a bigger and/or more analytical staff like the Giants and Shildt didn’t want that or some back and forth haplened between coaches, manager and front office that led them to believe there was a a bigger issue
Shildt may have done what many subordinates do which is confuse what management said as a suggestion instead of a directive.
Shildt addressed the media today, but didn't really offer any more details.
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