Mike Shildt part 3: Cards fans kissing Mo's ass

So now the backlash comes over the backlash over Cardinals president John Mozeliak firing Mike Shildt.

"Differences of opinion," per Shildt in  his presser presumably included roster management and talking about roster management in public, or not. In short, whether the manager should kiss the head honcho's ass in public.

But, per the backlash to the backlash, there's also day-to-day roster management of the roster you have, and a lot of fans and blogging fans are saying that Shildt was blowing this long before the wild-card loss.

First? Even if, as Schoenfield alleged at Red Satan, this all boils down to his decision to use Alex Reyes at the end of the wild-card game to face Chris Taylor, or that decision as a microcosm of pitcher handling, did that still necessitate this haste? I say not, unless you're a junior Nero.

That said, even without this undue haste, firing Shildt?

The Cardinals outperformed their Pythagorean this year by five games. They were even last year and -1 in 2019. They were at Pythag in 2018, but much below for the first three-fifths of the season when Mike Matheny was still in charge. As the PD notes elsewhere, Shildt had a better season than Mo.

Will Shildt land on his feet? Ben Frederickson and John Alba are among commentators suggesting the Padres should scoop him up and fast to replace Jayce Tingler. And, reports have it that the Padres have started kicking his tires.

As for the replacement? Rick Hummel says that Nolan Arenado, he of long-term contract and opt-out options, should have some say on a replacement.

Whoever it is, Derrick Goold says Mo has to nail this one.

Is Shildt perfect? No.

Has he arguably had bullpen management problems? Yes. Or too much Matt Carpenter too high in the order? Yes.

He's still a player's manager, and again, a good one.

As for what Mo did to address Shildt's lineup complaints? 

Don't be this guy, on Twitter 10 days ago when discussing Shildt's presser:

Pitchers added in 2021:
Garcia
McFarland
Lester
Happ
LeBlanc

Mo added pitching. And all contributed heavily to the Cardinals' significantly better final third of the season. Even Happ treaded water for us.

— Danrar - Get Vaccinated (@dan_rar) October 18, 2021

To which I responded:

You mentioned ... Jon Lester ...
ERA+? 89. FIP? 5.40 WHIP? 1.424 Negative WAR. All of that just for the Cardinals portion of his 2021 season.
You can thank me later.https://t.co/aT4MRsV93u

— Crushes Xi Jinping Thought Kool-Aid peddlers 🚩🌻 (@AFCC_Esq) October 18, 2021

What else can you say? That this guy kisses Mo's ass, too? That he thinks Mo's making it rain when he's peeing on my leg?

Jon Lester is dealt with above. J.A. Happ also was a sub-100 ERA plus and high in other sabermetrics, though not as bad as Lester. Happ maybe treaded water; Lester was still a sinking rock. Period.

Wade LeBlanc? Broke 100 on ERA+, but other sabermetrics were worse than Lester.

That leaves two of the five mentioned pitchers, T.J. McFarland and Luis Garcia, as adding value as late acquisitions. And, both of them had already been used in the wild-card game before Shildt called on Reyes, as had Giovanny Gallegos. If you're going fault Shildt for that? He's managing for one game to win the one-game wild-card playoff. Be more serious.

And, giving credit to Mo? Let's call it luck. Both McFarland and Garcia hadn't made the big league rosters with playing time this year with the Nats and Yanks. Mo got lucky on the cheap. 

And, all lefties on this list are of limited value with the new three-batter minimum rule.

But that's not as bad as this guy:

Using Carpenter to pitch in that situation would have given us a better chance of winning. Shildt had plenty of options rather than going with the one guy who was absolutely certain to lose it for us.

— 🥁🇨🇦CHAZ PREMIERE‼️⚡️🏒 (@CTPCTPCP) October 18, 2021

There's only one Carpenter on the Cards roster, of course, and if you're hating on Shildt so much as to sarcastically say Matt Carpenter was a better option, you got problems. If you seriously believe that, you've got even bigger problems.

Again, Shildt outperformed Pythag in two of four seasons, and the Padres were quick to indicate their interest in him.

And, as I said before, I'd STILL take Shildt over  Matheny on managing pitching, and Mo's hook with him was twice as long.

And, Mo would probably like these ass-kissers as junior GMs. Such brilliance from some of the Best Fans in Baseball™, and yes, I like trolling Cards fans who display a certain level of ignorance mixed with arrogance.