Jocketty Fired!

[cardinalfaninNY]

I'm stunned over Jocketty's firing. Sounds like he is being blamed for front office discord. I think Tony is probably gone too. What say you, my fellow citizens of Cardinal Nation?:thumbsdown:

[Monarch]

I think Tony will leave, too. 2008 was a difficult road and he has accomplished so much in St. Louis. Besides, I'm not sure which direction the organization is currently headed. They claim they want to compete, but cannot significantly increase payroll. They are hoping to start drafting better and promote from within the organization. Great idea, but the cupboard is bare down to AA. There are some arms in A ball, but will they all pan out. Doubtful. This is the type of situation where Jocketty performed well in pulling off a trade. LaRussa wants no part in rebuilding. He wants to win. I think he still has a ton of passion for the game so retirement is probably out. My only hope is that we have a GM in place before the end of the World Series. That should give us some sort of indication for 2008. There are free agents to deal with and holes to fill.

Priorities
1. GM
2. Manager
3. Rotation
4. Resign Springer, Percival, Eckstein and pick up option on Izzy
5. Go shopping via free agency and trade route

[hubkittel]

i'm not all that shocked or upset about jocketty "parting ways" with the cardinals. in another thread, i said that the most important thing the cards needed to do this offseason was to straighten out their management situation.

i've always liked jocketty and respect everything that he's done for the cards. he has to rank at or near the top of the list of the best cardinal gm's of all time. but he and dewitt were no longer on the same page. the cards must have unanimity in the organization with regards to the direction of the franchise. the removal of jocketty and the possible hiring of a new field manager gives them the opportunity to achive this.

one thing i've been wondering though is where is mark lamping in all of this? i can't remember the last time i heard from the president of the team.

[KCGHOST]

Their are rumors going around that he got axed because the farm system is barren.

As far as LaRussa goes, he has a track record of cutting-and-running when the talent runs thin.

[cardsfanatic]

I'm outraged by this, honestly. A total WTF? moment. Jockety was easily one of the top 5 GM's in the MLB. Personally, I'd put only Beane and Schuerholz in his company. Some could argue Ryan and Epstein, too, I suppose. I tell ya, the Cards top brass just continues to baffle me. They build a new park and get all kinds of new revenue and refuse to open the pocket books even a little after winning a WS. They nickle and dimed it in the off-season and brought in people like Kip Wells (???) and Adam Kennedy (???) when they had the money to net bigger fish. I mean, now that they won a WS do they intend to just waste the rest of Pujols' career surrounding him by mediocre talent and sending one of the best GM's in the business packing? I'm not going into panic mode or anything but this new direction is baffling to say the least.

[hubkittel]

this new direction is baffling to say the least.

The organization is certainly heading in a new direction-one that is going to focus on player development and growing our own players rather than trading prospects for established players and filling holes by signing free agents. I personally think that is the proper way to build a ballclub. The only caveat is that you have to have the right people making decisions with regard to scouting and player development. Any club can say "we're going to build through the draft and develop our minor league talent" but if you don't have guys who can scout and draft and train young players then it isn't going to work. Right now I couldn't tell you if we have the right guys in place or not. I guess we'll find out in a few years.

What I really think is infuriating Cardinal fans is the timing of this new direction. A few years ago, the ownership group was saying that in order to compete they needed an increase in the revenue stream. Build us a new stadium, they said, and we'll take all of the that money and re-invest it into the team. We'll spend the money to win, they said, just get us more money. So we build a new stadium and sell the joint out for two straight seasons. So what do they do? With their pockets stuffed full of cash, the ownership now says to us, essentially, that they don't need to spend money to win. They've decided that it's better to take a small market, "moneyball" approach to winning. It's no longer about money or new revenue streams or increasing payroll to be competative-it's about scouting and player development.

We can argue all day long about which approach is better from a baseball standpoint. What is undeniable is that Cardinal fans believe that this ownership group lied to them.