St. Louis Cardinals: Breaking down the Matheny years

Since taking over the St. Louis Cardinals prior to the 2012 season, Mike Matheny has a .579 regular season win percentage, but is just 21-22 in postseason action

On November 14, 2011 the Cardinals named Mike Matheny their 49th Manager in franchise history. His task: following up Hall of Fame skipper Tony La Russa, and fresh off of a historic World Series run.

The move made Matheny the youngest manager in the majors, and was surprising to most, considering Matheny had no professional coaching experience prior to the hire.

All Matheny has done thus far in St. Louis is compile a 375-273 (averaging 94 wins a year) regular season record. He has led his team to the playoffs in each of his first four seasons, including NLCS berths from 2012-2014, with a World Series appearance in 2013. His Cardinals have been crowned NL Central Champions the past three seasons as well.

Matheny is the unquestioned leader in the Cardinal clubhouse. Matheny carries himself with a  confidence and presence that sets the tone for the entire Cardinals roster. Players, both past and present, are quick to credit Matheny’s leadership style as reason for his past success and reason why he should continue to be successful moving forward in his career.

“People make a big deal out of not having coached or managed. … You can take a guy with no people skills, no leadership ability, let him manage in the minor leagues for 20 years, and he’ll never be ready to manage at the major league level. And you can take a guy that has all the intangibles, put him in the big leagues, and he can be a hall of fame manager.” -Former Cardinal right fielder Lance Berkman.

Cardinal fans have questioned some of Matheny’s in-game decisions, particularly in the playoffs, and with good reason. Hindsight is definitely 20/20, but there are legitimate questions concerning the workload he has placed on his pitching staffs of the past, pitching personnel decisions in the postseason, and how much he has rode Yadier Molina the past couple of seasons, even if it was Yadi who was pushing for it.

This article will break down each year of Matheny’s tenure thus far, ending with a breakdown of what Matheny’s future looks like going forward as the Cardinal skipper.

We will start with 2012.

Next: Year 1 - 2012

 Year 1: 2012

Regular Season Record: 88-74

NL Central Finish: 2nd (clinched 2nd Wild Card Spot)

Playoff Results: Won National League Wild Card game, Won NLDS against Washington in 5 games, Lost NLCS against San Francisco in 7 games

The 2012 season was an admirable one for first-year manager Mike Matheny and his Cardinal squad. Fresh off of losing future Hall-of-Famers Albert Pujols to free agency and Tony LaRussa to retirement, the Cardinals really didn’t miss a beat in 2012.

Despite winning just 88 regular season games and finishing second in the NL Central to the Reds, Matheny’s club still sported a 44-31 record against division opponents.

In the first year of the two team wild card format, Matheny took his team to Atlanta and was victorious in a 6-3 effort as an underdog to the hometown Braves. The memorable moment from that game was the sacrifice fly call on Andrelton Simmons’ shallow fly to left that seemed to be anything but routine.

Regardless, the Cardinals advanced to take on the NL East champion Washington Nationals in the franchise’s first playoff series since 1981. The Nationals were considered favorites to represent the National League in the World Series.

That Cardinals’ squad went on to show the same resiliency instilled in the organization by the La Russa regime, winning in five games after a four-run top of the 9th when they were down two and facing elimination in Game 5.

In the NLCS, the Cardinals went up three games to one against the Giants before losing the final three games, being outscored 20-1 in the process. The Giants’ Game 7 win was their first in a playoff series since 1912.

How Matheny handled his pitching staff after Kyle Lohse was knocked around early in that Game 7 was the start of a trend of questionable choices by Matheny in playoff situations.

With runners on second and third to lead off the bottom of the third and already trailing 2-0, Matheny turned to Joe Kelly right away despite having three lefties due up over the next four batters. Had Matheny used left-hander Mark Rzepczynski right there, maybe he gets out of the inning unflawed or giving up just a run.

As it happened, the Giants scored five times in the frame, and at 7-0, the game was virtually over. The Cardinals didn’t score a single run that game, so Matheny may not have been able to change the outcome of that game anyways. However, overcoming a two or three run deficit is drastically different than seven runs.

Matheny Regular Season Grade: B+

Matheny Postseason Grade: B-

Next: Year 2 - 2013

Year 2: 2013

Regular Season Record: 97-65

NL Central Finish: 1st

Playoff Results: Won NLDS against Pittsburgh in 5 games, Won NLCS against Los Angeles in 6 games, Lost World Series against Boston in 6 games.

2013 began with the Cardinals saying goodbye to the likes of Chris Carpenter, Jason Motte, Rafael Furcal and Jaime Garcia to season-ending injuries. To compensate, Matheny turned to rookies like Shelby Miller and Matt Adams to carry some of the load.

Adam Wainwright was sensational all year, turning in a 19-9 record with a 2.94 ERA over a career high 241 2/3 innings pitched. Allen Craig was historically great, turning in the .454 batting average with runners in scoring position. That was the third-highest mark in that category ever.

Matt Carpenter made his first all-star game appearance in 2013, when he in 199 hits (55 of them doubles) and scored 126 runs. The 2013 Cardinals set franchise records in fielding percentage (.988), strikeouts (1254), and strikeouts per nine innings (7.73).

After winning their first NL Central division title by three games over Pittsburgh, the Cardinals went on to face the Wild Card winning Pirates in the NLDS. Ultimately, it was Wainwright outlasting Pirates rookie Gerrit Cole in game 5 by a score of 6-1 in front of 47,000 Busch Stadium fans.

In the NLCS, St. Louis faced the Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw for round one of fun. The Cardinals took the series 4-2, winning their 19th pennant in franchise history and clinching Matheny’s first World Series berth.

In the World Series, the Matheny questions came early and often. In game one, facing a 5-0 deficit, Matheny elected to bring in Randy Choate to lead off the seventh and face his one batter as opposed to leaving John Axford in to at least start the inning.

After Choate threw to his one batter, Matheny brought in Seth Maness who should have gotten through the inning except for a David Freese error that prolonged the inning for the scorching-hot David Ortiz.

Matheny countered with rookie Kevin Siegrist, who was greeted with a towering blast into the Boston bullpen on his first pitch fastball. Had Matheny not used Choate to start the frame, he could have been used against Ortiz, and Siegrist could have been spared the confidence-shaker that was the Big Papi bomb.

After going 1-2-3 in the top of the 8th and facing a 7-0 deficit, the game was as good as over. The seemingly no-brainer choice would have been to bring in former closer Edward Mujica to finish out the game and move on to game two. Instead, Matheny went with his other rookie out of his pen, Carlos Martinez.

Martinez showed nerves, giving up a leadoff double and uncorking a wild pitch right out of the gate. Martinez only surrendered a single run in the inning, but he did not look comfortable at all.

There is no way of knowing for sure whether or not game one struggles dealt a blow to both of the rookie Cardinal relievers’ confidence the rest of the series. I believe with certainty that it did. Neither guy showed the same dominant stuff that landed them postseason roster spots after that game one.

While there were certainly some head-scratching decisions in that World Series, the fact of the matter is that Matheny got his club there in just his second professional season as a manager.

Matheny Regular Season Grade: A-

Matheny Postseason Grade: B

Next: Year 3 - 2014

Year 3: 2014

Regular Season Record: 90-72

NL Central Finish: 1st

Playoff Results: Won NLDS against Los Angeles in 4 games, Lost NLCS against San Francisco in 5 games

For the second consecutive season, Matheny’s Cardinals took the NL Central crown over the Pittsburgh Pirates, this time outlasting the Buccos by two games in the final standings.

Key departures going into 2014 included the likes of Chris Carpenter (retirement), Carlos Beltran, Rafael Furcal, Jake Westbrook and Edward Mujica. Allen Craig also went into his historic tail spin after the magical 2013 he turned in, a tail spin he has yet to recover from.

Michael Wacha spent the majority of that season on the DL, and Jaime Garcia went under the knife on July 5, ending his 2014 campaign.

Youngsters Kolten Wong and Lance Lynn burst onto the scene, and 2014 was the first year we saw Jhonny Peralta at shortstop for the Cardinals. Jon Jay had a career year, and Matt Carpenter made the switch to third base seamlessly.

With all the roster turnover and the reliance on young talent, the Cardinals still took their second consecutive divisional crown, posting a 17-9 record in September to hold off the surging Pirates.

The Cardinals drew the Dodgers in the NLDS for round 2 of Dodger/Kershaw fun. Game one of that series was a defining game for Matheny and his club. They showed the resiliency and never say die attitude first instilled by Tony La Russa, only seemingly amplifying it under Matheny.

After Wainwright was roughed up over four plus innings by the Dodgers, the Cardinals faced a 6-2 deficit heading into the top of the 7th. From there the Cardinals went to work on Kershaw.

St. Louis opened the frame with four straight singles before Matt Carpenter’s three run double cleared the bases and jolted the Cardinals ahead 7-6. The game finished with a score of 10-9 in favor of St. Louis. Had the Cardinals not mounted that magical comeback, the series likely would have gone in a very different direction.

Up two games to one going into game four, the Cardinals again found themselves in a hole against Kershaw and the Dodgers in the seventh inning. Down 2-0, Matt Holliday and Jhonny Peralta led off the frame with back-to-back infield singles. Then Matt Adams did his thing. The rest is history.

The Cardinals went to the NLCS to again face the Giants, and again Matheny employed some questionable tactical decisions.

In game 3, Matheny brought in Randy Choate to start the 10th inning, despite having Carlos Martinez and others remaining in the bullpen. Choate walked left-handed hitting Brandon Crawford. Matheny stuck with him. Pinch hitter Juan Perez then proceeded to line a single to left field.

Two on, nobody out. Choate stays in to face another lefty in Gregor Blanco. Blanco bunts, Choate fields what is likely his first bunt in years, he sails the throw to first, ball game over.

In game 4, with Shelby Miller laboring through three innings of his start, Matheny stuck with Miller to hit in the top of the fourth, only to see him unable to finish the bottom half of the inning on the mound.

Matheny actually leads all managers in that odd category. There have been more occurrences of Matheny letting a pitcher hit, only to see him fail to finish the next inning, than any other manager in baseball.

In the elimination Game 5, Matheny turned to Michael Wacha (who hadn’t thrown in any postseason game that year) in the bottom of the 9th, despite having Rosenthal and other arms still available in the pen. Wacha clearly didn’t have it, and we all know how that game ended.

I feel like Matheny won the NLDS against LA based on magical individual performances, if not luck, more than anything. That is reflected in his postseason grade for 2014.

Matheny Regular Season Grade: B+

Matheny Postseason Grade: D

Next: Year 4 - 2015

2016 and Beyond

So where do things go from here for Mike Matheny? What does his future in St. Louis hold? Like it or not, he is going to have some cloud of doubt hanging over him, based off of his decisions of the past.

As a leader, there is nobody I would want managing the Cardinals more than Mike Matheny. What he was able to accomplish last year, with everything his club faced, was remarkable in so many different ways.

The fact remains, though, that Matheny seems to become a different manager when playoff baseball rolls around. It just seems like the game speeds up on him, and guys like Bruce Bochy and Joe Maddon are quick to jump all over that.

With time, I have to believe that Matheny’s in-game decisions are going to get better. He is in a position in 2016 to not have to ride guys like Siegrist, Maness, Molina and others as much, and experience has to help him come playoff time.

Next: Cardinals look to hold off Cubs in 2016

The next step for Matheny is to accomplish the one goal that has eluded him thus far. He needs to get a ring, plain and simple. Easier said than done, I know.

The fact of the matter is that expectations are insanely high in St. Louis, probably to the point of being a bit unfair. That is just the reality of the situation. With the roster that he has and the tradition that has been established in St. Louis, Matheny is going to be up for a year-by-year evaluation until he gets that playoff monkey off of his back.