2015 MLB Corner Episode V

 

Bud Black was shown the door in San Diego this week.  Can’t say we didn’t see this one coming either.  The team isn’t competing the way new GM AJ Preller wants/thinks it should be.  Preller didn’t hire Black and with the rough start the formula was complete for a dismissal.  The team named their AAA manager to replace Black but that’s not the move a team loaded with talent needs to make a move in the standings.  What new skipper Pat Murphy really needs is for pitchers Andrew Cashner and Tyson Ross to remember how to throw strikes consistently. Some offensive punch out of Matt Kemp wouldn’t hurt either. 

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Jeff Luhnow is a hated man.  I feel comfortable saying that because the team he used to be employed by before joining the Houston Astros as their GM, the St. Louis Cardinals, hacked the Astros computers and accessed player profiles, scouting reports and internal trade discussions.  We do need to point out that Luhnow left amid some hard feelings in 2011, and I have a feeling we will find out he was not kind to a certain employee or two.   The Feds are involved and when that happens someone goes to prison, not the white collar kind with conjugal visits the Shawshank Redemption kind.  The Patriot Act makes this a virtual certainty to happen. 

 

The degree to which this information affected the game itself is probably miniscule but just like Deflategate in the NFL, it damages a team and organization’s reputation.  It would be a shame if this was one guy getting back at Luhnow, because now the Cardinal Way as they like to call it is now tarnished.  Hopefully the players are able to deal with the impending media circus well enough to hold onto the division, it’s not their issue to deal with, its management’s.  I’m sure Tony LaRussa will be getting a phone call from the FBI and MLB on the matter. 

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