The Mike Matheny era of St. Louis Cardinals Baseball was at times messy and mistake-riddled, but not always. Though imperfect as a manager, there are a few things Mike did right. And that is where the focus of today’s post will be.
Back in 2013 Matt Carpenter was a twenty-seven-year-old coming off a solid year as a bench player and trying to cement his role as a starter. He spent the first month of the season hitting in various spots of the order before his talent at getting on base was obvious. Despite not possessing the traits an old school “traditional leadoff hitter” was generally considered to have, like speed and base-stealing ability, Mike Matheny installed Carpenter at leadoff.