The All-Star break is here, the manager is gone. The hitting coaches, as well, but that’s somewhat less dramatic in terms of what it says about the direction of the organisation. Actually, maybe that’s not quite right; I almost just said, “After all, hitting coaches get fired all the time,” but then stopped myself. Because hitting coaches in the St. Louis Cardinals organisation do not, in fact, get fired all the time. At least not those who have served under Mike Matheny, anyway.
What we have here is a team at a crossroads, to a degree that they really haven’t been in recent memory.