Cardinals Legend Discusses Team’s Shortcomings
With just one month left in the 2023 season, it is evidently clear that the St. Louis Cardinals will not be reaching the postseason for a fifth consecutive year.
Instead, they’ll miss the playoffs for the first time since 2018 and will also record their first losing season since 2007.
Several things have gone wrong for the team this year.
Their defense and pitching staff have both collapsed, while the offense has been inconsistent.
On Friday, Cardinals legend and 2011 World Series champion Matt Holliday stopped by 101 ESPN to discuss everything that has gone wrong for the team and what they can potentially do to improve in 2024.
Matt Holliday joined #TheFastLane and explained why the current formula for winning baseball isn’t working.#HangingWithHolliday is presented Air Alliance Team!
Full interview: https://t.co/xzQseV0dd2 pic.twitter.com/DBZSRxpIbX
— 101 ESPN St. Louis (@101espn) September 2, 2023
Holliday discussed how the Cardinals have become very analytically inclined and how analytics have changed the game.
Analytics will stress the importance of home runs, walks, and strikeouts.
However, Holliday says it’s important to note that games are not won on computers.
For example, the former slugger recalled how baseball was once taught and that sometimes a ground ball to the right side can help a team manufacture a run.
That isn’t something that analytics places a lot of emphasis on, according to the 2011 World Series champion.
Holliday believes that the idea of playing to win a game and doing the little things right is something that baseball has gotten away from a little bit, and he stated that he used to take a lot of pride in hitting a ground ball to the right side to move a runner over.
The slugger also hopes to see the Cardinals improve on this in 2024.