The Chris Moeller Archives

Not in the Cards

The Cardinals season ends-- and in a very fitting way. You can count on one hand the number of times the Cardinals have just missed reaching the postseason during my lifetime. In fact, I can’t think of another season in which the Cardinals were in the race but eliminated the last weekend of the year. They have outlasted the other guy each September, and the reason they have done so is that they have always been the club that does the small things. They pitch, they run the bases, they play defense. They have performed those things that seem trivial game to game, but over the course of the year, wind up making the difference.

This year was a different story. The starting pitchers, excluding break-out staff ace Carlos “Tsunami” Martinez and a late arrival, rookie Alex Reyes, massively under-performed. They acutely missed coach Jose Oquendo’s guidance on the bases and in the field-- in a manner one would have never imagined would be so visible-- after 1987's Secret Weapon announced in March that he would be spending the summer in Florida recovering from back surgery rather than coaching third base. The 162-game Major League season is a grind, and every game needs to be played to its utmost. These Cardinals seemed to give one away every week during the summer thanks to their collective lack of focus, and they finished one game behind San Francisco on Sunday for the final playoff spot. I say it was fitting because a team that didn’t do the little things deserves to miss out by one single contest. It's what Cardinals Hall of Famer-turned-broadcaster Jim Edmonds on Sunday called "a learning experience for the young players."

When the Cards installed Mike Matheny as their manager in November 2011, plucking him away from the Little League team he was coaching at the time, it was not immediately apparent that the emphasis away from fundamental baseball was beginning. Clearly, Oquendo’s continued presence in the clubhouse was masking the symptoms. But Magic Mike was on his own this year, and the results were night and day difference from even one year ago when the club won 100 games with precious little contribution from their offense and an unusally-high number of one-run victories. This year’s final day elimination snaps a franchise-record five consecutive seasons in the postseason, each of those years playing at least four playoff games, and the first four of them advancing at least as far as the NL Championship Series. They still won 86 games this year, but that’s the fewest by the club since-- get this-- 2007. And prior to that dark championship-hangover season of ‘07, the team had been in the playoffs six of the previous seven seasons.

It’s been a great run for MLB’s team of the new century, but a lot of retooling is necessary to shape the roster into one that, next year, will be more sound, more relaxed, certainly more athletic, and something more befitting a cohesive unit. Right now the club is loaded with second and sixth place hitters, lacking middle of the lineup consistency despite a record number of home runs hit this year. I spent my entire childhood lecturing friends that were fans of other teams that the home run was overrated, and this year’s Cardinals team made the case in reverse just as well as Whitey Herzog’s “Runnin’ Redbirds” made it during the 1980’s. They were feast or famine in their offense in 2016. They had virtually no speed in the lineup to help blanket the famines. (Speed never slumps, pally.) And these same sluggers on offense kicked enough balls around in the field to make a fan want to slip the latest New Era cap down over his or her eyes.

This year’s pennant will belong to another club. The Cardinals will not be in the playoffs, but they may still haunt them. The Giants have had their way with the Cards since 2012, but the Mets were tortured by the Birds in ’06. The Nationals were burned with an epic Game 5 NLDS meltdown against them in 2012, and Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers got slapped around by both the 2013 and 2014 versions of the Cardinals. I’ve left the favored Cubs out of the equation, of course. This is their year-- the year, as we’ve been told since even before last year’s playoffs when the Small Bears reached the League Championship Series supposedly a year early. Now the Cubs are on time.

Speaking quite honestly here, I would absolutely love to finally see redemption for the most star-crossed individual in United States sports history-- Steve Bartman. And that’s why I’ll be rooting for 2003 Cubs manager Dusty Baker and his current club, the Washington Nationals. I'm predicting that the Nats will win the World Series in three rounds.

posted by CM @ 6:30 PM