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The team seemed to mentally turn it off about the time that the squeeze play got botched. I think that's the thin line we're going to walk most of the season - if the team keeps their heads in the game, we'll keep games close vs tough competition. If they lose focus it's going to be tough to hang.

Cheddar Tom wrote:

dmarx114 wrote:Maddon has a reliever going with a 4-0 lead. He's always going to be 2 steps ahead of Matheny.

I often wonder if Matheny feels warming up a reliever in a tight game like that is insulting to his pitcher....he had his mind made up that Leake was going to go 7 innings.

I think there's some truth to that.

Also, it seems that Matheny is big on pitch counts. In his head, I bet it's much easier to justify taking out a pitcher in the 7th inning who's struggling at 100 pitches compared to someone who is struggling at 75 pitches. But Matheny needs to realize that no matter how many pitches someone has thrown, once the lineup turns over for a third time, you need to anticipate using your bullpen.

And that's really the point I was making in the the post you quoted. Maddon didn't wait for trouble. He had a plan in case Lackey started to get hit. I think that's really good managing.

dmarx114 wrote:

Cheddar Tom wrote:

dmarx114 wrote:Maddon has a reliever going with a 4-0 lead. He's always going to be 2 steps ahead of Matheny.

I often wonder if Matheny feels warming up a reliever in a tight game like that is insulting to his pitcher....he had his mind made up that Leake was going to go 7 innings.

I think there's some truth to that.

Also, it seems that Matheny is big on pitch counts. In his head, I bet it's much easier to justify taking out a pitcher in the 7th inning who's struggling at 100 pitches compared to someone who is struggling at 75 pitches. But Matheny needs to realize that no matter how many pitches someone has thrown, once the lineup turns over for a third time, you need to anticipate using your bullpen.

And that's really the point I was making in the the post you quoted. Maddon didn't wait for trouble. He had a plan in case Lackey started to get hit. I think that's really good managing.

There's a lot to this. Whether we like it or not, part of Matheny's managing style is to cater to the psyche of his players - even at the determinant to the on-the-field results in the moment.

I think the big question is whether or not he ultimately gets more out of his players by managing with this style and does it overcome the negative effects of the potentially sub-optimal in-game decisions.

Matheny’s leadership and managing of the players/crises/whatever is mostly excellent over 162 games. There is no qualms there. But in 5 years he still has not learned to be an effective game manager....he is reactive rather than pro-active...and is too stubborn imo to change (he figures his record speaks for itself etc.). His managing costs us dearly come playoff time when the stakes are bigger. (He has lost six of their last seven postseason games. And since grabbing a 2-1 lead over Boston in the 2013 World Series the Cards have gone 5-11 in the tournament. They’ve also been kicked out of four consecutive postseasons by opponents that swept the final three games of the series) So far this year, against the Cubs/Pirates he is 0-4.

When we play the Pirate/cubs/Nats/Mets/Giants/Dodgers during the regular season the games are important imo and I usually watch what Matheny does to get a feel if he has learned. Sadly, he is the same

We had the first game of the year were he walked the #8 hitter to face the pitcher in the second inning with our supposed ace on the mound-that's over-managing imo and he did the same thing this past Sunday with Wacha on the hill.

Has anyone actually heard the clip of Cardinals fans using the N word at Heyward?

Supposedly it made the ESPN broadcast.

New York Daily News ran a story on it, and I've seen other journalists who say they didn't hear it themselves being incredibly irresponsible and retweeting it, then hiding behind "it wasn't my story!"

If Cardinals fans used racial slurs, Deadspin would have ejacualted with the force of a nuclear bomb. So I bet it didn't happen. We'd be seeing the shrapnel and such.

A Cards fan on reddit said he heard one guy in his section use it, and the guy got dirty looks from everyone else in the section and ended up leaving. Take with the usual reddit block of salt but it's not a very exciting lie to make up.

I'm sure there were some fans who did. I'm also sure it happens in the 29 other MLB stadiums.

I'm not sure it made the broadcast.

Embrace the target, Cards fans.

Here's the Daily News article (not exactly known for their journalistic integrity!) making the "hot mic" claim. I played the clip at a pretty high volume and only heard booing.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseb ... -1.2606853