Joe Buck says St. Louis Cardinals clubhouse not happy with Oscar Taveras

During Saturday’s Fox Sports broadcast, broadcaster Joe Buck commented that some members of the St. Louis Cardinals clubhouse were not happy with Oscar Taveras‘ work ethic.

I didn’t watch the game so I can only go by columns written after it happened (Cards Conclave, Bernie Miklasz, InsideSTL). I don’t know whether it’s a few players or the entire team but I won’t begin to speculate of which players it might be.

What I do know is this. The Cardinals are 3-1 since the trade went down and Oscar Taveras has played a role in all four games. He’s riding a four-game hitting streak as the Cardinals welcome the Boston Red Sox to town this week.

Since Thursday’s trade, which can only be described as controversial, Taveras has had an impact with his bat unlike Allen Craig. Let’s look at the trade in a different way. How many runs batted in did Craig have since June 25th? Five. How many runs batted in has Taveras had since the trade happened? Five.

In four games, Taveras is hitting .308 with two doubles, a home run, two walks, and five runs batted in. Craig has only played in one game since being traded to the Boston Red Sox. He suffered another injury on his foot while crossing the plate on Friday night and was out for the rest of the series against the New York Yankees. It was the same foot that he injured last season.

Say what you will about this campaign against Taveras in the clubhouse but John Mozeliak had to shake up the clubhouse with a trade. I think it’s more about Craig being traded than anything else. If Craig didn’t want to be traded last week, he should have hit the ball better this season. His batting average clearly was not doing any favors.

According to Bernie, Matheny praised Taveras following the game on Sunday.

"“Right now I think he’s confident that he can be a part of this team that’s going to contribute,” Matheny said. “And he’s doing that. Having a little success helps a young player do that. We’ve given him confidence and told him exactly what we’re asking for him to do. Most of it is just going in there and be the kind of player he’s always been … he’s always been a pretty confident player. He’s got a lot of faith in his ability.”"

With the recent trades that the club made, I have high hopes that this team can not just pass up the Brewers but make a deep postseason run once more. Since the trade, the team is 3-1 and that includes a late-game rally to win on Sunday afternoon.