Dusty Blake

He was even worse when he came back.

I, I don't know what happened, because, you know, I think, I think Dusty Blake does a good job giving pitchers what they need to make them better and bring out some improvement.

Yeah, they- kind of a strange case.

But, uh, you know, I give the guy credit for hanging in there and finding a way to kind of rebound and pull everything together.

So I know people sometimes dog on Brent Brown.

They dog on – They dog on Dusty Blake.

The Cardinals exceeded expectations from a national perspective this year, and I think a lot of that had to go along with – I think a lot of that had to go along with – um what ollie marmal and this coaching staff were able to do in nurturing and teaching a very young clubhouse so i'm not saying that they get all of the credit um but i think that they do get a good chunk of the credit for the team taking those steps of progression and seeing some of those young guys take good steps towards being those cornerstones so um I I'm, I'm pretty pleased with what we saw in 2026 from Ali Marmel and this coaching staff.

And I, in my eyes, It's the perfect fit for where they are right now and where they want to be going.

It's just how soon does that happen?

And the other interesting thing that I want to look at from a bullpen standpoint, really just all pitching in general, is as guys start to go off the rails here, it should be the job of Dusty Blake and his staff to correct that and fix that.

Well, to me, that doesn't seem to be happening, right? We don't seem to be correcting some of these errors that are happening.

Now, Libby had a good start here recently, but just for the last couple of starts hasn't been that great.

But I think what this staff is really missing is that veteran to show them how to get through the season.

They're missing that veteran presence to help them break down and get through it.

And yes, Dusty Blake can tell them all he wants, but he's never pitched a full season in the big leagues.

He doesn't know.

We could say this team is still in it mathematically, but they're really not, right? So why run him out there every time and why just continue to shred his confidence basically, right? Why not see, hey, can Graceffo close games or see what else we have? And I just don't know.

Is that Ali's call right now? Is that Dusty Blake's call? Is that Haim's call? Who's making the decision to keep continuing to put him out there?

I would think it's a combination of the three.

Well, here's my question that I would ask you as we already kind of spin forward to 2027.

I mean, it's kind of just – even the games that he saved.

I mean, the one save he had against the Giants early in that series, they had the tying and go-ahead runs on base in the ninth inning.

And I know that I've been negative toward Dusty Blake, and I would stand here on a limb to say that.

But, like, what has Dusty shown to fix this situation? That is his job.

But other than getting some more education of younger pitchers and the older veterans teaching them, I don't know how you fix that.

I would like to see some of the older veteran pitchers come back as pitching coaches because I think a lot of them could do this very well, right? I don't know a whole lot about Dusty Blake's background, but I don't remember ever seeing him pitch in the majors.

So just one example, but you look at some of these guys out there and the way they can develop pitching, some of these guys, some of these teams have really figured it out, right? You look at the Brewers and every year, They got a new pitcher that can come up out of the minors and they're just fantastic.

So what are the Brewers doing differently when they teach pitching that we're not doing or that other teams aren't

He's been there for a long time.

And also Dusty Blake does a very good job with the pitching staff.

So they are, like I said, teachers, and they understand they have to teach at the big league level.

It's not really always that when you have a veteran team, but you have a young team and you have an understanding that you've got to get the most out of these guys, and they put them in spots to succeed.

But Danny Wexelman was talking with the McGreevy family, specifically Mrs. McGreevy, when Joshua Baez connected.

And Dusty Blake's relationship.

That's a deep drive.

Josh Baez.