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By Connor Byrne | at
Email a copy of 'Central Notes: Cardinals, Indians, Royals' to a friend
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davidcoonce74
Wow, the Royals are going to play the next 10 days with a 24-man roster? That doesn’t seem wise at all. I know they love Perez, but is there any consideration from the team that the reason his hitting has declined precipitously might be because they never give him games off? Why not give him a two-week breather and play with a full bench? They’ll need Perez more later in the season.
stl_cards16 2
It’s not that hard to play with24 in the AL.
davidcoonce74
It’s a four man bench though, and the Royals have a starting catcher and third baseman who will need to be hit for in late-close situations. And the starting rotation lacks length, so a six-man bullpen isn’t going to cut it. Once they get back to 7 they have a three-man bench, which includes the backup catcher no manager ever uses, so you’re down to one infielder and one outfielder.
But mostly, this should obviate the need for the Royals to find more rest for Sal Perez. He’s played – by far -the most innings behind the plate over the last few years. And I know KC loves his leadership and defense. But. The toll of all those games is clearly affecting the offensive part of his game. Look at his stats after around July the last two seasons – he’s fallen off a cliff with the bat. Catching in the summer is hard and wearying, and it’s clearly draining him. And doesn’t Perez just seem like the guy who’s going to try to come back early from this injury and re-aggravate it?
todda1
Isn’t it a little early to proclaim Diaz as the long term solution at short for the Cards?
Connor Byrne
Fair point. I changed the wording a bit.
robertj53086
The Cardinals do need to find the right combination to win games or they will be passed up by the Brewers.
EndinStealth
The combination they need is get their pitching going. The offense is fine.
EndinStealth
It’s been much better lately.
Strauss
Hey Clevenger, you are the captain of the all ugly team! Get a haircut. It’s not helping at all!
cardfan2011
Cards need to remember Diaz’s defense has been terrible at SS, but maybe the more he plays, the better he’ll get
Blue_Painted_Dreams_LA
I think a majority of the mistakes are the pace of game. Playing more he will get better. It seems like the game speeds up on him at times. Only way to fix that is keep running him out there.
fanofcards
I recently had a person, associated with the Cardinals, confide in me, that some of the players are very disgruntled with their Manager for a number of reasons. One was there is never a consistency to any of his line ups, except for Holiday. He throws in the towel every Sunday, always an inferior line up on Sundays! Let’s the games get too out of hand early without making a pitching change. Plus, they feel he handles the relief staff very inefficiently, and again, stays with a pitcher in trouble, way too long. I know there it was publicly known when the Cards left Spring Training, does this all play into it??? The Honeymoon is over.
stl_cards16 2
I am not a fan of Matheny, but if the players are worried about lineups and bullpen usage, that’s on them.
Matheny has been better than ever (not saying much) this year about using platoons and his bullpen. The pitching and defense just simply need to be better
ms75
First of all . Sure someone close to the cards told you that ? I doubt it . Second your just repeating every bad comment about managers in St. Louis for the last 20 years . The bottom line is the starting pitching has been horrible . The line up has hit , the bench has hit , and more is on the way with JP , but if OH and Broxton keep pitching two thirds of the 6th and 7th innings it don’t matter who the manager or offense is .
dtwb93
Diaz has made too many errors to play SS. The Cards built the team on contact pitchers that are looking bad from the bad defense. But Diaz isn’t the only problem. Wong and Gridchik need to go down to AAA and learn to hit again. Gyrko, Wong, Moss, Pham, Garcia, Diaz, Adams, Holiday, and Gridchik all have problems with defense or at the plate. This isn’t Matheny, this is Mozalik putting a team together that has too many players that need AB’s to play the way they they are known for. They need to make a big trade and spend some real money. Get rid of all these mediocre players and get a star OF and clean up the infield with two full teams of players.
fanofcards
Ha! I stirred up a hornets nest as I intended to do! Ha! I totally agree with everyone who reacted to my post. By doing what I did generally gets responses from devout, intelligent Cardinal fans who also sees problems with a team you’ve seen overcome adversity on a regular basis for years. I especially agree with you dtw. It’s not just Matheney and his philosophy of managing. He can only be as good as the General Manager who is in charge of developing and/or obtaining top grade players to continue to be a contender in the Central Division. I also agree that currently the GM has an abundance of mediocre to above average players and they have got to spend money and talent to obtain that consistent, proven, young, superstar clean-up hitter-(rumor is Trout is available for the right price and deal)-