To nobody’s surprise, Scott Linehan was finally put out of his misery as head coach of the St. Louis Rams.
Thankfully,it’s now over. Or is it? Before we get to that let’s back-track for a bit to how we got to this point. It was three years ago that the Rams hired Linehan, who was considered the next young hope that was going to bring the Rams back. It was a nice idea that nearly everyone bought into. Well almost everyone.
Marshall Faulk again showed better vision than anyone. Normally, he is seeing things on the football field that
allowed him to avoid would-be tacklers that no one else saw. This time he saw well before anyone that Scott Linehan was not the guy he was going to play for, hence injured reserve, then retirement. No sense of Faulk being remembered as a “coach killer” when he knew that the marriage was not going to work. Instead he moved on to avoid the distraction.
Wish we would have seen it coming but we didn’t.
Three years later after most players had decided that Linehan was not the guy for him, you knew it was over.
Before the start of the season most had circled the Monday leading into the bye week as the day that would be Linehan’s last as head coach. He had no shot. He had lost his
players, coaches media and oh yes, fans.
With all that, it added up to one thing that owner Chip Rosenbloom had to do. Fire him, and that he did. This thing has been a disaster as Linehan had coaches he could no longer trust so he decided to send cryptic messages by making personnel changes only to wrankel them.
That’s all good and well because he got the players in between his personal war. Bad Idea. It back-fired. Everyone then turned on him, especially the media. Never since the days of Bob Hollway or Mike Keenan has the
media made it their business to run a guy out of town. In essence they did their job in giving their readers, listeners
and viewers the cold hard facts…
Scott Linehan is not the coach the Rams need to win. With that, he was done as Sunday Dinner.
Now, the man who had the most run-ins with the former coach is taking over. Jim Haslett has been a head coach and feels he deserves another chance. What did the Rams have to lose here? For all in tense and practical purposes this season is over. If Haslett can get them to .500, it would be short of a miracale considering that many of this hapless bunch were masterful in getting their coach fired or was it that they were so bad Tom Landry could not revive them.
Only time will tell on this one. If they come back, they will quit again. If they don’t them blame management for
drafting many of them. Either way, it will be an ineresting three months.
While I will admit that, I am totally on board with the Haslett thing, I will give him time. Only because any other
coach that is any good is already working somewhere and Marty Schottenheimer is too smart to inherit this mess right now. The same can be said for Marshall Faulk who won’t come
near until the whole joint is cleaned out and that will not
happen until season’s end.
There are some that are deserving to stay but that is a handful. The rest should be working elsewhere by this time next year. Until then, it will be a long year. For Haslett, he has nothing to lose. Anything
better than what was here the week before will be veiwed as a positive. Will it be enough though when it comes to removing the interim title?
In the meantime, Chip Rosenbloom should be conducting a quiet search for a new head coach and front
office structure. Marshall Faulk, Dan Dierdorf and someone who has no ties to St. Louis should be part of that
committiee. They should have three to four names to put in the interveiw hat and go from there should the Haslett
experiment not succeed.
This thing will not turn around quickly so patience is required if you want the Rams to turn this thing around.
Cardinals Can’t wait
Now, that the St. Louis Cardinals’ season is over it’s time to take a look at what happened and where do they go from here.
When the Redbirds broke from spring training, I thought they would compete and maybe even surprise someone in the standings. They competed all right, but they finished in fourth place where
many had predicted. While fourth place sounds rather disappointing, you must remember that they finished ten
games over .500 in what would be considered the toughest division in baseball.
It was not hard to see what this team needed. Another bat and more pitching. Once Rick Ankiel and Chris Duncan were down with injuries, one had to realize that this was going to be tougher and it was. The help from the minors was either not good enough or not ready.
With that, the Cardinals were short and they elected not to do anything about by not giving up some of their preceived prospcts. WIth that, manager Tony Larussa was down to playing middle infielders in the outfield. Sad but true. Funny thing is those infielders accounted for themselves better than anyone expected with the exception of Larussa who came up with theidea.
So, where do the Cardinals go from here? Simple. More pitching, more money and more middle infielders with some pop. The bull pen blew 31 save opportunities. If they blow half that many, the Cardinals are in postseason. Hint. The bull pen needs help? Left-handed releif is at the top of the list. A left handed starter would not hurt either and somewhere in that search, how about a bonifide closer to help the growth of Jason Motte who is the real deal. The Cardinals have already taken the first step by re-signing pitcher Kyle Lohse. He lead the team in wins and if the
bullpen would have done there job he could have easily won 20 games. For those who have been critical of the Cardinals for not spending money in the past, take a look at the Lohse
deal. It could and should be the start of something.
When you look at their roster, they have some big-money players. The likes of Alber Pujols, Troy Glaus, Chris Carpenter and Yadier Molina have big deals not to mention Adam Wainwright was extended at the start of the
season. The next investments have to be wise as well. So far, the Lohse signing is a great start because the Cardinalscan not afford to wait.
