Corey Noles, staff writer for The Daily Statesman and Editor of The North Stoddard Countian, is the author of a regular baseball/St. Louis Cardinals column and also uses his blog to sound off on various happenings in sports. He also operates a weekly baseball mailbag column.

Matheny has a chance to lose "rookie" manager stigma

Posted Wednesday, October 23, 2013, at 10:23 PM

By COREY NOLES

When the St. Louis Cardinals signed Mike Matheny to manage a team fresh off of a World Series win, many in baseball scratched their heads.

The idea that general manager John Mozeliak would hire a person with no managerial experience outside of little league to lead one of the most storied MLB franchises made little sense.

As he has proven on plenty of occasions now, Mozeliak saw something the general public might not have noticed.

With Matheny it was about knowing how to manage, it was about knowing how to lead.

Matheny, a man of strong moral standards with deep conviction in his faith, understands what it means to be both a leader and a St. Louis Cardinal.

Throughout his first two years, the "rookie" manager narrative has been a frequent story as writers and pundits questioned his decisions.

Quite a few of those decisions were, in fact, head-scratchers--but because he hasn't been at the helm for a "sufficient" length of time, his lack of experience is commonly blamed.

Often, instead of giving credit to Matheny when it is deserved, it is pointed out that he was handed a winning team on day one.

He will be the first to agree.

"I don't know if you could ask for a better situation," Matheny said prior to Game 1. "You have a group of guys, one, who are talented, obviously, but experienced, as well. And you're able to walk in and put a lot of pressure on them to help pick up the slack."

After two postseasons that excuse will be tossed out the window. Aside from that, this World Series presents a valuable opportunity for Matheny.

A World Series win would likely put an end to that "new kid on the block" stigma.

Compared to the 2012 postseason, Matheny has shown a managerial style that is considerably more confident. On more than one occasion when facing the San Francisco Giants in the 2012 NLCS, he was simply out managed by Bruce Bochy.

In 2013, Matheny has out-managed the competition. His use of a pinch-hitter in the NLCS to get Don Mattingly to pull Clayton Kershaw is a prime example. The same can be said for his decision to bring in Lance Lynn for two innings late in Game 1 of the NLCS.

The disaster that was the first two innings of World Series Game 1 was no fault of Matheny's. It was just a classic example of the domino effect in baseball.

The decision to come out in the bottom of the first inning and argue the call at second base on Pete Kozma's catch was more a matter of posturing than arguing. Kozma botched the catch--that's not even debatable.

Matheny was just firing up his players in an effort to get them back on track. They got back on track, but it was too little too late.

One could question the bullpen moves in the 7th inning, but in reality that appeared to be an opportunity to let a few young guys pitch in a game that wasn't exactly a high-pressure situation. The pessimist, however, would question giving Boston an early look at so many of them.

Regardless of whether the Cardinals win or lose, Matheny can make his mark during this series.

It's his chance to step out of the shadow of Tony La Russa and show that his "style" is worthy of respect, too.

Given the chance, Matheny doesn't compare himself to La Russa--at all.

"I didn't come in expecting to ever replace a Hall of Fame caliber manager like Tony La Russa," he said. "I came in to do what I could do and let these guys know that we're going to do a lot of learning along the way. [I said] I need you guys to step up, just like I need the staff to step up. And both the guys and the staff were able to do so to address the problems as they came."

That was enough to get him through the honeymoon period--now, he's officially neck-deep in the Matheny-era.

He's had some hiccups along the way, but all in all it's hard to argue with his overall record.

So far, so good.

Now he has a chance to show everyone in baseball what he can do with this team.

Corey Noles is a Cardinals Writer and Columnist for The Daily Statesman. He is also a regular contributor to KSDK.com, StLSportsPage.com and Bleacher Report. Contact him at cnoles@dailystatesman.com or on Twitter @coreynoles.

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For one I just wanna say it's not hard to out manage Don Mattingly and I think Matheny wasn't just posturing when he argued last night he was making sure that if the umpires were going to pull an unprecedented move and overturn a call on the field( that's something I have never seen in my 14ish of watching baseball so veteran fans tell me if I'm wrong) that they better be ready to do it again if something else happens. The reversal wouldn't have happened in a regular series game which is what irks me about it the most.

Cardinals can only win this series if they....

A) Play better defense: Kozma your a defensive SS for a reason so please make easy double plays and easy outs.

B) Adjust offensively to Fenway: I had never noticed the way Fenway effects how baseball is played until last night since I don't watch Red Sox games. The Monster should be abolished it creates the smallest left field I have seen in the majors. This makes the Cardinal's offensive strategy of hitting Groundballs up the middle and through either side of the infield much more difficult to win with. Runners( unless speedy or using a massive head start) have a hard time taking the extra base or scoring from second or advancing on fly balls harder because of how close the OF can play up. Plus the wall creates stupid bounces no one else sees besides AL East players. You have to be a gap fly ball/ Homer run hitter to win there. It's like playing exclusively on grass in tennis and then having to play on clay against a guy who plays half on grass and half on clay.

-- Posted by Bunk on Thu, Oct 24, 2013, at 8:13 AM
Really lets tear down the Green Monster so the Cards have a chance.

-- Posted by BIGELW on Thu, Oct 24, 2013, at 8:41 AM
It's a 7 game series for a reason. Keep the faith. Wacha will be ready tonight.

Last night, Boston got timely hits when they needed them early and were able to coast without much pressure. The Cardinals hit the ball, but they didn't when they had runners in scoring position. Example: Freese swings at a bad pitch with the bases loaded and 1 out and completely kills a chance of a rally. He should have ran the count a bit deeper and at least tried to put some pressure on Lester.

-- Posted by yah-yah on Thu, Oct 24, 2013, at 8:51 AM
Last night was ugly, no question. That was not our true Cardinal team out on that field. Still, there were also some positives to focus on instead of all of the negative.

Carlos Beltran could have missed that spectactular catch and the game would have been even uglier with a grand slam. Allen Craig is back after 7 weeks off and looked pretty good behind that bat. The game was not a total shutdown. They kept us from getting runs but they didn't stop us from getting some good hits.

I have complete faith in our manager and think he has done a tremendous job during his "honeymoon" period. I think he will continue to lead us to great places in the future.

Never give up until the last pitch is thrown and the last strike is called. 2011 is proof of that!

-- Posted by Dbethshaffer on Thu, Oct 24, 2013, at 9:20 AM
Yeah the point is we got what two singles and walk already in that inning I think. 8/10 that is at least one run in normal parks so it makes it harder in Fenway. The good to Tahoe away from that game is that wasn't overly impressed with Lester was throwing and without errors Waino doesn't give up any runs. Lester was leaving the ball around the plate and we got good contact. It was not near as bad as when we faced LA. I felt like Greinke and Kershaw( 1st game) where throwing it by us and we lucky to catch up and hit it an infielder or with Ryu weakly hit Groundballs to infielders or weak flys to outfielders. I don't think Boston has that one guy who is just gonna crank it up to 95-98 and spot it perfectly. We can score we just need to open up the stance a little and be willing to drive opposite field fly balls and see if they sneak out or hit the monster weird.

-- Posted by Bunk on Thu, Oct 24, 2013, at 9:20 AM
Bunk, didn't Wainwright have 3 Earned Runs last night? This would indicate that without the errors he still would have given up at least 3, or am I wrong on that?

-- Posted by Razor on Thu, Oct 24, 2013, at 10:21 AM
If Kozma makes that double play in the first than no ones score.

-- Posted by Bunk on Thu, Oct 24, 2013, at 10:59 AM
Just FYI, double plays can never be assumed when scoring plays, so only 1 runner was the "error".

-- Posted by sm0723 on Thu, Oct 24, 2013, at 11:16 AM
It should have been a DP....holy crapping slapjacks! Ortiz should have been out by a mile.

If I see Kozma in the lineup tonight I will throw-up. He is quickly wearing our his welcome in STL. He's an average defender at best and that average D does not make sense when he cannot hit.

-- Posted by Jolly Dump on Thu, Oct 24, 2013, at 12:45 PM

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