St. Louis Cardinals: New Members Added to the Coaching Staff

Starting next season, the St. Louis Cardinals are going to have a couple of new coaches in the clubhouse.

The St. Louis Cardinals have announced that Mike Schildt and Oliver Marmol will be a part of the 2017 St. Louis coaching staff. Marmol, previously the Palm Beach Cardinals manager, will be taking over as first base coach, replacing Bill Mueller. Mueller, will be returning to his previous role, as the Cardinals assistant hitting coach.

Marmol was originally drafted in 2004 by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 31st round, and then St. Louis Cardinals in the 6th round in 2007. Just because it’s interesting, Anthony Rizzo was drafted 2 picks later. Isn’t baseball a beautiful thing?

During his 3-year career, Marmol played SS, 2B, and some outfield, although he never progressed further than Palm Beach. For those who take interest in statistics, Marmol’s career line in the minors was .203/.301/.282. But where he failed as a player, he has succeeded as a coach.

After his retirement at age 23, which is depressingly young, Marmol was hired as the hitting coach of the GCL Cardinals. The following season, Marmol was promoted to manager of the Johnson City Cardinals. Then, in 2015, Marmol became the manager of the Palm Beach Cardinals. After spending 15′ and 16′ there, Marmol was recently promoted to the Cardinals. With Marmol only being 30 years young, I am greatly looking forward to watching him this year.

So now to the “quality control coach”. Many of you already know who Mike Schildt is. He has been the Memphis Redbirds coach since 2015, and will be replaced by fan favorite, the one and only, Stubby Clapp.

Shildt never played pro baseball, which there is absolutely nothing wrong with. In fact most of the best coaches we’ve seen either never made it to the Majors or have stayed long enough to be remembered. Some examples: Bruce Bochy played major league ball for 9 years and accumulated a whopping 2.4 career war. Tony La Russa played in the majors for 8 years and owned a career war of -0.7. You don’t need to be good at the game to know the game.

So carrying on, Schildt was originally a scout for the Cardinals. To be specific, he scouted North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virgina. After doing this for some time, Mozeliak offered Schildt a job as a part time coach. Schildt was assigned to the Cardinals Single-A affiliate in the New York-Penn League. He was then promoted in 2006 to a full-time coach. Then, in 2008, Schildt coordinated the Cardinals minor league spring training workout camp.

In 2009, Schildt was named the St. Louis Cardinals Minor League Manager of the Year by Scout.com. Following this season, Schildt was awarded the George Kissell Award for his “excellence in player development” by the Cardinals. In 2012 Schildt became the Springfield Cardinals manager, and in 15′ he became the Memphis Coach.

So. What is a quality control coach? That’s a great question.

After the Cardinals horrendous defense last season, Mozeliak decided some help was needed. So he hired Schildt. His role, in summary, is to refresh the fundamentals of quality fielding. They want him to take part in, and specialize how they teach and develop standards in their system. Schildt will report to Matheny and it can be assumed this means Schildt will be taking over defensive positioning as well.

I think the fact that the Cardinals are hiring someone to take over the teaching of fundamentals, could be a bit of a shot at Matheny. Obviously he is in good relation with Mozeliak, since he has received a 3-year extension and is constantly defending him.

“Mike takes a lot of heat, and I’ve defended him and I will continue to, I really feel like some of the things that we’re dealing with aren’t fair to put on the manager.” – John Mozeliak

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Fair? maybe not. But that is the role of a manager. If he isn’t upsetting people, then he probably isn’t doing his job right. I don’t like Matheny, in fact I could write a 2 page essay in MLA format listing every reason why I don’t like him. But I do respect him, and until anything changes, he’s in charge.