DOB has blown the whistle on the clubhouse; now what?

50PoundHead said:
adversity does reveal character.
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Yes. The hard part is to keep playing hard and doing all the little things that go toward winning when things are not going well. The 2011 Cardinals were having a very disappointing year until the last five weeks of the season. They weren't catching any breaks and were getting far enough behind that it would have been easy to pack it in. But they kept battling and the breaks started going their way. They had control about the battling and playing hard part. They had no control over the breaks. But the team has to take care of the things it can control. And those things are the preparation, the effort, the staying focused.

Here is a little bit of history about the 2011 Cardinals (before their comeback):

At the beginning of the month the Cardinals were 2 1⁄2 games behind the Brewers in the standings. However, they lost two of three to Milwaukee on the road Aug. 1–3, then did the same at home on Aug. 9–11, giving the Brewers a four-game lead in the NL Central. The team continued to stumble as the Brewers continued to win. Newly acquired shortstop Furcal hit only .240 for the month. The Cardinals went 2–4 on a six-game road trip to Pittsburgh and Chicago, then came home and were swept in three games by a bad Dodger team. After close of business on August 24, the day the Dodgers completed their sweep, St. Louis had fallen ten games behind Milwaukee in the NL Central standings and 101⁄2 games behind the Atlanta Braves (and in third place) in the NL Wild Card standings. Manager Tony La Russa said on the struggles: "I guarantee that the team you have seen the past few weeks is not the team we have, and I believe you will start to see our team tomorrow." Chris Carpenter and other veterans called for a closed, player-only team meeting, which was held the day after the Dodgers series ended. St. Louis' odds of making the playoffs stood at 1.3%.

The sweep by Los Angeles dropped the Cardinals to 67–63.
 
The day when one of the worst hitters in baseball who gets the most at-bats on the team is not leading off is the day I will have faith in this team again. Until Fredi quits sending out our worst hitter in the lead-off position, he will be known as a moran.
 
AerchAngel said:
The day when one of the worst hitters in baseball who gets the most at-bats on the team is not leading off is the day I will have faith in this team again. Until Fredi quits sending out our worst hitter in the lead-off position, he will be known as a moran.
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I agree that BJ should not be batting first. But the difference between BJ batting first and BJ batting eighth is maybe 1 win.

But yeah every little bit helps. What is the saying. Victory had a hundred fathers. Defeat is an orphan.
 
Upton the Elder leading off and Fredi's other decisions may be contributing to the team's performance overall, but I believe they are minor (not Mike) in the whole scheme of things.
 
nsacpi said:
I agree that BJ should not be batting first. But the difference between BJ batting first and BJ batting eighth is maybe 1 win.

But yeah every little bit helps. What is the saying. Victory had a hundred fathers. Defeat is an orphan.
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Ignoring situational advantages. BJ hitting first over a season vs 8th nets him approx 100 PA. Jason hitting 1st vs 5th nets him approx 50 and Gattis moving up a spot nets himabout 20 (not much movement there) I'd guess there's potentially full WAR swing in that move which is worth way more than a single win. BJ Offensively has lost a run every 30 PA so that alone is +3.3 RAR Jason would add about a run in RAR and Gattis probably the remainder to push it close to a 5 RAR swing. Not quite a full WAR in calculation but that's not including what I think happens if Jason has more reps which is he gets out of his slumps quicker which leads to a better offensive result.

So based on numbers we're talking about half of a WAR. That's hardly insignificant.
 
nsacpi said:
What do you think the effect is?
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It effects the whole lineup dynamics especially giving at bats to the worst hitters. According to you, it doesn't matter if the pitcher leads off (BJ is slightly better than a pitcher), it will just be 1 game.
 
I was at the game yesterday and they all just looked dead to me. Lots of slow walking and heads down. Even when hot head CJ struck out he just put his head down and proceeded to take about 5 mins to walk back to the dugout. Everyone just looked sad, when they should have looked pissed, and ready to make up for that crap from sat night.
 
Doesn't help that the Front Office didn't exactly extend a vote of confidence toward the team by trading for spare bits (Bonifacio & Russell) at the deadline.
 
Hawk said:
Doesn't help that the Front Office didn't exactly extend a vote of confidence toward the team by trading for spare bits (Bonifacio & Russell) at the deadline.
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Well unfortunately what would we have done? ONly Price and Lester were traded.
 
Hawk said:
Doesn't help that the Front Office didn't exactly extend a vote of confidence toward the team by trading for spare bits (Bonifacio & Russell) at the deadline.
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I liked that trade, but yeah...we needed more.
 
zitothebrave said:
Ignoring situational advantages. BJ hitting first over a season vs 8th nets him approx 100 PA. Jason hitting 1st vs 5th nets him approx 50 and Gattis moving up a spot nets himabout 20 (not much movement there) I'd guess there's potentially full WAR swing in that move which is worth way more than a single win. BJ Offensively has lost a run every 30 PA so that alone is +3.3 RAR Jason would add about a run in RAR and Gattis probably the remainder to push it close to a 5 RAR swing. Not quite a full WAR in calculation but that's not including what I think happens if Jason has more reps which is he gets out of his slumps quicker which leads to a better offensive result.

So based on numbers we're talking about half of a WAR. That's hardly insignificant.
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Half a win. Thank you.
 
AerchAngel said:
It effects the whole lineup dynamics especially giving at bats to the worst hitters. According to you, it doesn't matter if the pitcher leads off (BJ is slightly better than a pitcher), it will just be 1 game.
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1 game matters. I'm just saying it isn't more than that. Or much more.
 
Half a WAR bumps our team right now from 15th best position players to 11th and puts us closer to the Cardinals than the Marlins.
 
nsacpi said:
I agree that BJ should not be batting first. But the difference between BJ batting first and BJ batting eighth is maybe 1 win.

But yeah every little bit helps. What is the saying. Victory had a hundred fathers. Defeat is an orphan.
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It's not just the fact that it would give 1 win (which is nothing to scoff at). It's the fact that it is a blatantly stupid idea, and completely indefensible. It sets a tone right off the bat that the team's leadership is incompetent, and then they go ahead and back it up with the hitting displays lately (especially with the bases loaded).

This "leadership" issue has to start with Fredi. He needs to man up and move BJ to the bottom of the lineup no matter how much of a hissy fit he throws. He then needs to work Boni into the lineup more as BJ continues to suck.

Someone needs to step up and tell BJ to shut the **** up when he strikes out looking. Someone needs to remind Simmons that bunting with a slow guy on 3rd and 1 out is beyond idiotic. Someone needs to bang it into guys' heads that it helps to step up and score runs when the bases are loaded. Someone needs to inject a sense of urgency and light a fire, rather than just watching everyone on the roster **** themselves out of fear all the time and tighten up whenever the team loses momentum. Someone needs to step up and rip the momentum back from the other team when things start to go south rather than just striking out. One of the studs needs to step up and be a stud, on and off the field.

The time for sparing feelings and egos is over. It's time to win. Now.
 
Bottom line is this team plays with no passion or sense of urgency. Ever since Fredi took over this team just sleepwalks. We need a new manager who can light a fire on his team and be the leader.
 
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