Bernie Miklasz, writing at the Scoops with Danny Mac website, has been, shall we say, critical of the St. Louis Cardinals organization. He leads his latest story thusly:

“We have to be perfect to win right now,” manager Oli Marmol said. “It feels like we can’t make a mistake because the other team has found a way to capitalize on it every time. We can’t give up extra outs or a leadoff walk — we have to execute better than that.”

That’s a pretty good quote from Cards manager Oli Marmol.

But I think what he meant to say was something like this:

Let’s face it. We’re a bad team and the avoidable mistakes really hurt us more than a lot of teams. Our fundamentals have gone to hell, and we need to stop making so many excuses, play with more energy and urgency and compete like a team that’s hungry to win. We need to end the carelessness of walking opposing hitters. We can’t continue to freeze under pressure when up at the plate with runners in scoring position. We need to take smarter at-bats based on the situation at the time. And as the manager of the Cardinals it’s up to me and the coaches to clean up this clutter and get this team going. This season has been beneath our standards and we should all be embarrassed. And I’m the manager so you can point the finger at me. 

Oli could have added this: Listen, I didn’t put this roster together.

Yes. They are a bad team. Something has to be done. Nothing is going to be done.