A tone deaf Oliver Marmol has set a new tone for the Cardinals season

April was supposed to be a crucial month for the Cardinals. The team needed to come out strong and show newfound life as they were digging themselves out of a hole created by the 2023 season. Many fans are not on board with the current state of the franchise and it is beginning to show with attendance so far in 2024. Having a team come out of the gate playing traditional Cardinals baseball would garnish fans' attention again and summer nights in St. Louis would be restored. So far, that has not been the case.

We are seeing one of the worst offenses in Major League Baseball. Paul Goldschmidt is a shell of himself, Nolan Gorman has an abysmal strikeout problem, Jordan Walker is looking for a second demotion in two seasons, Victor Scott was finally demoted after nearly a month of not producing at all, and Brandon Crawford continues to start games when he shouldn't even be on the roster.

On a more promising note, the pitching has been better than expected. The starting pitching has been still not great, as they currently sit with a 6-10 record with a combined 4.60 ERA and opponents batting average of .267 which is ranked 25th in all of MLB. But given how last season's rotation ended up, they are already in a much better place. The bullpen has been elite and easily the best component of the 2024 Cardinals. These points about the current state of the pitching staff do not apply in the Diamondbacks series.

After an electric comeback Monday night that ended in a Nolan Gorman walk-off two-run home run, the Cardinals found the smallest of sparks to get the offense going. In a much-needed turn of events, it felt like the recipe to get things going after almost a month of silent bats. But instead, they followed up Tuesday with easily the worst game of their season so far. The Cardinals got absolutely embarrassed Tuesday night, losing against the D-Backs 14-1. The one run shows not much was contributed on offense, shows the pitching staff collapsed, and for fans not caring to watch, it was very reminiscing to 2023.

Steven Matz and Zack Thompson did not provide any quality of pitching during the bludgeoning. It was missed locations all night and leaving pitches over the heart of the plate to then be sent into the stands. The writing on the wall says Matz is done being a starter and the four-year investment was a colossal failure from the start and that Zack Thompson is not developing into a major league pitcher which is now a common theme with team development. But Cardinals skipper Oliver Marmol is apparently not seeing the writing that everyone else can see on the wall.

As long as the velocity remains high and spin rates are generated, the rest does not matter. Even if you get rocked over 4 1/3 innings allowing 7 runs by having poor location and pitch execution, it does not matter. The manager thinks you are productive and it agrees with the sabermetric analysis provided by the front office before the game. With the current state of the Cardinals, outcome is not the priority anymore. It is all on probability and relying on fans to continue to pay inflated ticket prices to come support the mediocrity on the field. Fans have been long vocal about their feelings toward Oliver Marmol not being the right guy to lead this team. After Tuesday night's performance, it is hard to argue against them.

The Cardinals will look to right the ship this afternoon against Arizona as they face their old friend Jordan Montgomery.