Oli Marmol's reasoning for a baffling decision proves the Cardinals are in good hands

The St. Louis Cardinals are proving naysayers wrong this season, and manager Oli Marmol has been an integral piece to the team's success. Given a roster bereft of top talent and with a shaky bullpen and a pitching staff that isn't missing many bats, Marmol has seemingly pulled all of the right levers to have the Cardinals soaring past expectations so far.

Some of Marmol's decisions will still come into question, and one of his more curious moves came on May 14, when he yanked starting pitcher Michael McGreevy prior to the seventh inning after only 74 pitches. McGreevy had allowed just one run on five hits against the Athletics, and the bullpen eventually blew the lead, although the Cardinals would come back to win 5-4.

Fans wondered after the game why Marmol had such a quick hook for a pitcher who had been dealing for the entire night, and when the Cardinals manager appeared on 101 ESPN on May 19, he fielded a question regarding that situation. His response made it clear that he's the right man to lead the Cardinals.

"He's at 74 pitches, and once you get into that sixth inning, for me, it's less about pitch count and more about effectiveness," Marmol said of McGreevy. "Out of the 19 balls in play, 14 of them were hit over 94 [mph], seven of them were hit over 100. His expected ERA was like 13.80, and he walked out of there with a 1.50 [ERA]."

Although Marmol wasn't quite bang-on with the stats (McGreevy actually allowed 13 balls in play of at least 94 mph and six of at least 100 mph), he and pitching coach Dusty Blake clearly realized that McGreevy was likely a ticking time bomb on the mound, and Marmol acknowledged that he was even considering not allowing McGreevy to pitch the sixth inning.

"His sinker wasn't behaving the way it normally was," said Marmol. "[McGreevy] knew it from pitch one, so we have his feedback too, understanding how he's feeling throughout the course of the game. ... I would love for him to go back out if I feel like his stuff is actually doing what he wants it to and we're not relying strictly on the balls being hit at somebody."

Logic like this should keep drawing fans toward Marmol

Marmol's and Blake's new-school approaches to evaluating McGreevy should have the more analytical Cardinals fans tripping over themselves with delight, and even some fans who have long disliked Marmol may gradually be coming around. The Cardinals are winning in a year where fans were preparing for failure, and Marmol furthered his way into fans' good graces when he purchased the remaining seats for fans to snap up and go wild in the "Tarps Off" section on May 16 and 17.

It's notoriously difficult to get the majority of a baseball team's fanbase to approve of the manager, and with Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina both signifying that they intend to seek out managerial jobs in the future, fans have been waiting to pounce on Marmol and call for his dismissal at every turn. But if Marmol keeps finding ways to eke out wins and the high-flying Cardinals continue to defy expectations and provide a rocking atmosphere at Busch Stadium, the calls for Marmol's job should dwindle to a whisper. In a city where fans expect no less than the best from their home nine, that's an enormous achievement.

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