6 people who are on the hot seat after Cardinals' lackluster start to 2024

The St. Louis Cardinals pulled off a series finale win and an actual series win over the Arizona Diamondbacks with a 5-1 victory Wednesday afternoon. The club is now 11-14 and has a lot of questions left unanswered as baseball completes its first month of the season.

The Cardinals have a day off Thursday as they head to New York to take on the Mets for a three-game set.

The off day gives us time to ponder who may be in the hot seat as we get deeper into the season. The series win feels great, but the Cardinals need some significant changes up top. The team will not have a complete fire sale of the front office, but changes are afoot.

Let's discuss who may have a warmer seat than usual in the next few weeks.

6. Dusty Blake

Blake is doing much better in his second season as the Cardinals' pitching coach. He has turned the staff into a group more focused on making swing-and-miss pitches to fool the opposing batters. Working with the pitchers and catchers on their plan has improved. However, his moves reflect his inexperience as a pitching coach at the Major League level.

Blake seems to work well with seasoned pitchers who already have a plan of how they work - think of the older members of the starting rotation. He appears to just talk to them about the plan and what to do in a situation and the pitchers will go from there.

But, if there is a younger pitcher - think Zack Thompson and Andre Pallate - there is a bit of a disconnect. He doesn't seem to help prepare them for the situations they are getting into when they come into a game. Blake is the head pitching coach and does need to recognize when what he's doing isn't working and adjust.

Thankfully, Thompson and Pallante have each been sent to AAA Memphis to work on things. The two will join a staff in Memphis with many of the organization's top pitching prospects. Darwin Marrero is the pitching coach there and will help them develop a plan to set them up for success when they return to St. Louis.

If young pitchers continue to fail when they come to St. Louis, it may be time to make a change at pitching coach.