Bernie TORCHES Mozeliak for Protecting Fedde While St. Louis Cardinals SANK

Bernie TORCHES Mozeliak for Protecting Fedde While St. Louis Cardinals SANK

Hey there. Greetings. I hope you’re doing well on this very hot Thursday in St. Louis. My gosh, the heat wave. Um, well, the Cardinals aren’t hot. We know that. What a disastrous road trip. Colorado or Arizona than Colorado. You can probably read a column on that here. Uh, in fact, there is a column I wrote about it uh at STL Sports Central. You can check that out. I’m Bernie Miklas and this is the Bernie Show Sports Central. I do one video per day and one column per day from Monday through Friday. I got to earn my paycheck. I appear on the Randy Carricker show every Friday at 10:30 a.m. You can hear me frequently frequently that is talking baseball and Camel X as part of the gas house gang and the Redbird rush hour shows also sports on a Sunday morning. I do the Cardinal Territory video podcast with the fantastic Katie Woo and I do a weekly Seeing Red Cardinals podcast with my longtime friend Will Leech. And make sure you really support all of our work here at STL Sports Central where we just keep continuing pumping out great content about all the teams that you follow. Today’s topic, we’re going to go back to John Mosaic again. You might be getting sick of me talking about him. I get it. But my gosh, he’s probably the number one story of the season and he is the for somebody like me as far as like, well, what do I want to talk about today? He’s kind of like the gift that keeps on giving. Uh, I look forward to talking about some other things, but I think that John Mosaic, more than anybody in terms of Cardinals baseball right now, is in the news and he will continue to be in the news prominently so through the trade deadline, which is a week from today. So, with that in with that all said, J Moch finally rid the team of the Eric Fetty problem. It was uh too late, too little, but very significant in other ways. The Cardinals disappeared from the face of the earth on Wednesday afternoon in their six to nothing mail it in loss to the Rockies in what’s becoming a trend. Sadly, the Cardinals failed to compete, which can no longer be downplayed or dismissed as just a little slump or something. Right. I I keep talking about this. They the Cardinals have not been a good team since the end of May. And I’m not sure why some hard-headed individuals out there in the media or whatever, they’re like don’t get that. They focus on well, they’re having a bad July. They have they haven’t been good since um really it they started to fall apart on May 30th and it’s just gotten worse and worse. Anyway, I don’t I’m kind of obnoxious talking about that, but I I don’t know. I can’t explain it why I get so irritated with it. Anyway, sorry. With his bad look dud of a game and a horrendous road trip, the Cardinal season reached a new low and manager Ali Marmal, I give him credit. He called the team’s performance at Kors Field Wednesday the worst game they’ve played this season. I think we all concur. Um, my gosh, the card, look, I know Andre Palante put him in a hole. Okay. And that’s a regular occurrence as well, the Cardinal starting pitchers, except for Michael McGrevy, uh, putting him in a big hole early. Uh, but is that any excuse for like the Cardinals hitters as they walk the home plate, it it was, you know, basically a zombie parade? I mean I mean, come on, guys. Come on, guys. grinded out. We’ve been all patting you on the back for being fighters and grinders and resilient and tough-minded. Come on. Where is that? Is it all gone? The Rockies had played their last 159 home games without shutting out a visiting team and the Cardinals were happy to do it by basically rolling over, metaphorically speaking, and taking a nine inning nap. I will say this though, I did find it kind of funny that so many people were stunned, shocked by the Cardinals losing a series to the lowly Rockies. Granted, the Rocks have a 2676 record. It’s the worst in the majors, sure, but in case you missed it, the Cardinals have the worst record in the majors during July. The Cardinals uh the Cardinals are 5-2 and Colorado’s 8-11 this month. And since June the 1st, the Cardinals are 19 and 26 and the Rockies are 17 and 27. Like big whoop. What’s that a difference? Like a game and a half. So why should we act like the Rockies beating the Cardinals at Kors Field is like some sort of baseball apocalypse. All right. The Cardinals like the Rockies have been a bad team over the last 53 days of the season. and the Rockies merely reaffirmed that by taking the Redbirds down in Denver. Before Wednesday’s game, of course, the Cardinals designated Fetty for assignment, thus bringing an end to this sorry chapter in the Mosaic history that made Mo look worse than ever as the baseball leader of this franchise. I want to update a note I wrote yesterday. This season, 67 major league starting pitchers have worked 100 innings or more. 67 pitchers. Fetty ranks 65th in erra, 65th in fielding independent RAS, 66th in swinging swing and miss rate, last in strikeout rate, last in walks and hits allowed per inning, and last in strikeout walk ratio. Fetti’s go-to pitch is the cutter. He throws a lot of them. And according to Sports Info Solutions, the Fetty Cutter was the worst in the major leagues this season. I mean, I could go on, but you get the point. Mosaic just sat there, stood there, whatever, and just watched Fetty disintegrate. And Mosa stood his ground with his Fetty fantasy of getting a something in a trade for him. and meanwhile watched his team’s playoff chances deteriorate even more. All of this because Mo is wanted to get something worthwhile for Fetty in a trade even though Fetty’s value was completely shot. The president of baseball ops wanted to prove to those who criticized his failure to trade Fetty last off season that we were wrong and Mo was right. Fetty made some good starts early this season. I kind of feel bad for the guy. He He doesn’t want to suck the way he has, right? It’s kind of embarrassing. He’s a decent man, but he ran out of luck and he ran out of confidence and Mo just kind of let it happen before intervening way too late. You know, this the fact that Fetty, you know, just started getting trashed out there his last I don’t know what it was. I forget, six or seven starts. No, no, no, no, no. his underlying metrics, and I’ve talked about this, his underlying metrics were a flashing warning alert all season, but most people, including Mosaic, ignored it. It was a matter of time basically for this thing went boom. With the Cardinals having a shot at making the playoffs, Fetty had a 6.38 erra over his last 12 starts. And the Cardinals record in those 12 starts was 2 and 10. This team was 5 and5 when Fetty started a game this season and they were 8 and22 in Fetty’s 30 starts as a Cardinal since Mosaic got him from the White Socks last summer. The deal made sense at the time. It really did despite the the comical attempts by some people to engage in stupid revisionist history. But, you know, everyone can say what they want. The Cardinals sent Tommy Edmund to the Dodgers in a three-team trade. The Cardinals received Fetty and outfielder Tommy Fam in return. Mosak’s trade was praised nationally and locally at the time for good reason. Mosak Fedetti had a had a great first half for the uh the White Sox. Cardinals needed a starting pitcher. He only had a year left on his contract. It seemed like a good play to me. And Mosaic had a solid reason for uh parting with Tommy Edmond. And this is another example. as some people are like completely revising history uh and pre pretending that Mo just like randomly decided to trade Tommy Edmond like Tommy Edmond was having a great season or Tommy Edmond had been on a roll and all this other stuff. Number one, here’s the reality check. This is a truth check. Tommy Edmund was injured and had not played a game all season before the trade. Number two, Edmond’s contract was due to expire after the 2025 season, and there was zero zero chance of the Cardinals giving him a contract extension. Three, the Cardinals are already overloaded with middle infielders and they had a young center fielder that they liked who was on the horizon. Talking about Victor Scott. Now, all of that said, the bottom line is the bottom line and ultimately the trade was a failure. That’s obvious and no one would dispute that except maybe for John Mosaic and his family or Bill Dit, right? But the point the point here is we can agree that the trade went bad. It was a bust. Even though it was the intentions were good, it didn’t work out. Failure. But the point is that Mosaic only made it worse by hanging on to Fetty when he could have cashed him in at a higher value last winter. I’ve heard some people in the media that I love and respect and all that stuff saying, “Oh, no. He didn’t. That would have been a mistake.” No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. The Cardinals weren’t set up to make a run to the World Series this year. The point is you put you cast your net to the future a little bit. You try to get something worthwhile and meaningful for Freddy when you had a chance. You said, “Well, who would have? They don’t have depth.” Okay, granted, there were all kinds of pitchers out there that that could have been signed for a bargain price. I mean, the Brewers signed uh Jose Canana to a pretty reasonable deal, one year. There were one-year deals available for all kinds of starting pitchers. You swap Fetty out because you can get something for him in a trade, something good, and then you plug in, if you don’t want to plug in McGrevy at the beginning of the season, Michael McGrevy, well, you plug in your your guy on a one-year deal and you ride it out with him for a while. You’re not going to win the National League pennant. You never were. So, what was the point of all of this? If it’s a runway season, the runway leads to 2026. And you got to think 2026 in the forefront of your thinking of your brain. So having screwed up the chance to uh acquire, you know, to cash in on Fetty, Mosak hung with Fetty all season and Fetty’s value went down to well nothing. Okay? And Moselch did not acknowledge the obvious until the 23rd day of July after the damage had been done. And in doing so, Mosaic blocked rookie Michael McCree from becoming a regular member of the rotation, even as that rotation began to crater and just completely crack and fall apart. For the record, St. Louis starting pitching has the worst ERA in the major since May 30. Even though people in the media in this town just keep talking about, well, the ERA in July is really bad. ERA’s been the ERA’s been really bad since the end of May. Okay, they ranked 25th for the season and they have the worst starting pitching erra since May 30th. As I joked in my updated column yesterday after that game, I had already filed the column. I went in and added some stuff because I figured some people would check on it later or didn’t get a chance to read it earlier. Whatever. As I joked in the updated column yesterday, Mosaic designated Fetty for assignment. Well, Bill Dit should have designated Mosaic for assignment a long time ago. Just look at all the damage that has been done because of Dwit’s decision to stand by his man Mosa. And I’m going to get into that in my next segment and I think you’re going to want to listen to it. the second segment of Thursday’s Bernie Show. And yeah, I’m fired up and that’s a good thing. The Cardinals just completed that uh horrific road trip losing five of six game to Arizona in Colorado. They were outscored 38-7 in the six games. And except for one guy, and I think you know who that is. Except for one guy, their starting pitching was utterly demolished during this road trip. Sunny Grae, Miles Nicholas, Eric Fetty, and Andre Palante were smashed for 28 earned runs in 20 innings for a 12.60 erra. The only starter who turned in a stellar performance was the rookie Michael McGrevy, who went seven innings at Korsfield, gave up only two runs in the six-2 win Monday over the Rockies. And as I noted for you earlier this week, um that was one of the best starts made by a visiting team starting pitcher at Korsfield this season. Now, how’s all this for irony? The dude, the dude that Mosa’s front office drafted in the first round in 2021, the dude that Mosaic had blocked all season, even though this kid was ready to be a part a regular in the big league rotation. That same dude that Mosa said, “No, no, no, no, no, no. We got to stay with Fetty.” That dude stepped up and was respon he stepped up big and was responsible for the team’s only win during a ruinous disaster of a road trip. Over the last two seasons, and I don’t care if it’s a small sample or not, you either win or you don’t. Over the last two seasons, the Cardinals are 6-1 when McGrevy starts a game and 8-1 when he works in a game. He has a 3.38 erra as a starting pitcher and five of his seven starts produced an above average game score. And the game score is something that Bill James devised to basically give you a snap judgment on a starting pitching performance. And five of five of McGrevy’s seven starts have been above average. So he deserved for many reasons a shot in this rotation. But nope, Mo knows best. Remember that people, Mo knows best. The rest of us are dummies. Mo wanted to keep Michael and Fetty in the rotation even though the team’s record over the last two seasons. All right, listen carefully. The team’s record over the last two seasons is 102 and 82 when Michaelis or Fetty don’t start a game. That’s a 554 winning percentage. And you’re probably wondering, okay, well, what about when they do start a game? Okay. When Fetty or Mike have started a game over the last two seasons, the Cardinals in those starts are 33 and 48 for a winning percentage of 407. Hm. Geez, I wonder why you would put want to put McGrevy in there for Fetty or Michaelus. Um, sure th those numbers are really ugly and I think it’s more about Fetty than Michelis. And I’m not saying that these guys are solely to blame for the team’s terrible record when they have started those games, but and I wanted to be fair. I said, I said, “Well, wait a minute. Wait a minute.” Because the Cardinals got Fetty in a trade and they didn’t he didn’t make his first start until August 2nd of last season. So I said, “Okay, the fairer thing to do is look at the team’s record from August 2 up until now when and I included the Michael starts from that point last season from August 2 on to the end of the 2024 season. So then I stitched all this together and I included the team’s record in their starts from 2000, excuse me, from August 2nd of last season up until Wednesday. And here’s what I came up with. Since Fetty made his Cardinal debut, uh, the team is 2020, excuse me, the team is 22 and 37 when Fetty or Michael started a game. 373 winning percentage. I said a 373 winning percentage. And when all of the other Cardinals pitchers have started a game since last August the 2nd, the Red Birds are 57 and 40 for a 588 winning percentage. Now, you know, re rewind this for a few seconds if you want to hear those numbers again. It’s a it’s amazing the difference. And it’s no coincidence because in their combined starts for the Cardinals over the last two seasons, Michael and Fetty have collectively pitched to a 5.08 erra. They stink. Okay? They’ve been a big drag on the rotation and a big drag on this team and a big drag on any chance the Cardinals had to make a good chance to make the playoffs. If they you agree that they did at least one point this season and I would argue that Michael and Fetty were also a drag uh and Michael still is on this team’s morale. Michael still is because of his smug refusal to take any responsibility for his rotten pitching performances. I mean, I if I’m Gosh Almighty, I wonder what teammates think when they hear that stuff. He’s giving up bombs all over the place and it’s like, “Oh, I pitch pretty solid.” I talked about that the other day. I still can’t shake that yet. Uh, listen, Ma, I know a lot of y’all don’t like manager Ali Marmo. Whatever. You like what you like, you dislike what you you like. It’s your choice. I don’t care. Uh Marmal though was strongly in favor of putting McCree in the rotation and moving Fetty to the side, but Mosaic refused. And once again, let me remind you, Mosaic, as all all people that lead a baseball operation in the majors, those guys set the big league roster. The manager doesn’t. You got to you got to play the roster that you’re handed. and Mosak refused to uh accommodate Marmal’s wishes because after all u you know what why would Marmal want to win games? Why why would Marmal want to what what what could he possibly be thinking? Hey, this team’s got a got a shot at making the postseason, but we can’t keep doing the same thing over and over again. Mosak didn’t care. and Marvel as time went on and I know this from you know doing the me and Tom Arian and Chris Ranji do this thing with Marmal every Tuesday and I think it’s actually pretty good and we and we do ask him tough questions. I mean you know Ali likes tough questions by the way but Marmal became uh more and more public in making his preference obvious. He really wanted McGrevy. And if he wanted McGrevy, I’m thinking that, you know, the Cardinals teammates who although they felt bad for Fetty and liked him, they probably wanted a better shot at winning because how do you get to the postseason when 40% of your rotation stinks? It’s not going to happen. But we have to remember that after the Tony Larusa managerial era and he was one of the strongest personalities and leaders in the history of the game and Mosak, you know, he it’s not like he took orders from Larusa, but Larusa could be just a forceful guy. And I think Mosak probably deferred on some things. I know he did because he was a firsttime leader of a baseball operation. So I my my theory and I’m guilty of practicing uh psychology without a license. My theory is that after Larusa retired, Mozilla A was like, “Okay, now I’m in charge.” And he’s always made it known that he’s in charge and he won’t put up with some little manager telling him what to do, right? And that even includes, ironically, giving Ali Marmal a contract extension when Moselle previously said he wasn’t going to do that. And then he changed his mind in spring training, whatever year that was. And then so, well, I’m in charge and if I want to reward Ali, I’m going to do it. I don’t care what I said three months ago. It’s just pure madness. So, knowing all this, of course, Mo would reject Marmal’s desire to make the team better by using McGrevy instead of Fetty. Well, Mosaic finally had no choice after that horrific performance Tuesday night by Fetty, the poor dude. Mosaic finally let reality take control over his ego and he dumped Fetty. But Marmal is still stuck with Michaelus, statistically one of the worst starting pitchers in Major League Baseball since the start of 2023. He is also a pitcher who, among other things, threw his new teammate Wilson Contrarus under the bus early in 2023 by blaming Contraras for his own terrible pitching. Michaelus has no shame and yet he is still here. Michaelus should be bounced but that won’t happen because of another mosaic failure were two actually. He twice extended Michaelus’s contract. The results awful and also there is no starting pitching depth at Memphis and Mosaic always mentions that as if it’s somebody else’s fault. It’s like, well, you know, there’s, you know, we really don’t have the starting pitching depth at Memphis, so if we take one guy out, you know, we just don’t have a lot to lean on. Well, who’s responsible for that? I mean, there were ways to add pitching depth at at uh at Triple A Memphis. There were all kinds of like major league pitchers, fringe major league pitchers available that you could assign to a minor league contract just to fill some spots down there and to have a little backup. So yeah, there’s not because of some injuries down there, there’s no there’s not any real starting pitching death in Memphis, there’s no one to call on, but that’s on Mosaic. He wants us to think he was independent of all of this or something. Like I said, this is just pure craziness. And the Cardinals after the Cardinals exceeded expectations, Mosaic undermined his manager and his team. The starting pitching faded, it cracked. That was the breaking point. and the two pitchers protected by Mo his guys Michaelis and Fetty had a lot to do with that. The lack of depth in this organization is appalling. But once again, who’s responsible for that? If you have the title of president of baseball operations and you are now, you know, the emperor of all things Cardinal baseball, right? All of it’s on you. The success you can share in and take credit for the failures are on you. Although Mosak’s a ky guy, he’s a ky guy. He knows that there is such a obsession uh out there with Ali Marmal and people who blame him for everything. That’s another reason why Marmal actually has a lot of value to Mosaic because Marmal is the punching bag because he’s answering questions twice a day with the media and then the fans get all riled up by what he says and they they they get distracted from what a failure Mosaic is and Mo knows that you know Ali Marmal is just going to take a lot of heat and people are going to like blame everything on him. Like I said, Mo’s smart about some things. Running a baseball team the last few years, that ain’t one of them. No. Um, as Mosaic moves closer, I’m sorry. As Mosaak moves closer to the end of his term as president of baseball operations, I’m gonna be quick with this, but let’s just think about all the damage he has done to the franchise, especially after the the uh Albert Pool Holes and Yer Molina farewell season in 2022. And that’s also when Goldmid and Aronado were great. But since then, franchise popularity damaged, franchise brand damaged, turning a happy fan base into a very unhappy fan base damaged, ticket revenue damaged, TV ratings damaged. Loss of national prominence and prestige damaged. A disappearance from the October stage, which had become a St. Louis baseball tradition, damaged. a 482 winning percentage that ranks 22nd in the majors over the last three seasons. Damage. The collapse of the player development system. Damage. The inability to draft and develop quality starting pitching. Damage. The repercussions are still there. overrating, constantly overrating the team’s talent and the prospects and hyping these guys up and then they don’t they don’t pan out and then they trade him and they do better in other places. Damage. Firing a manager who stood up to him. Hello, Mike Schil. Welcome to town. Damage. I could sit here for another hour or so and add more to the mosaic damage list. I think I said his name wrong there and I apologize. That was not intentional. As someone who has a difficult last name, I know what that’s like. Anyway, John Mazak has cost Bill Dwit a lot of revenue. And John’s a number one reason for the Cardinals decline from being one of the most prestigious and successful Major League Baseball franchises really since uh 1996 when the Cardinals uh when Bill Dawit took over. And they’ve had a lot of success and it’s been bad lately, but they’ve had a lot of success. But but but but you you might be thinking and I get it. I got you. Well, but wait a minute, Bernie, but Bill Dwit’s ultimately responsible for this. Yes, he is. Because Bill Dwit Jr., the chairman, stood by Mosa the way Mosak stood by Eric Fetty. So, let’s think about that a second. Dwit stood by Mo the way Mo stood by Fetty when it was obvious to everyone that you you got to do better than this. So my little tiny brain was working and I and I thought to myself, I guess we could say that Mosak is Bill Dwit’s version of Eric Fetty, right? Yeah, I think so. That’s it. I’m gonna stop talking now. Thanks for watching. Much appreciation to you all. Even if you’re mad at me, I appreciate when you uh watch and leave uh and you subscribe, you hit the like button, you leave your comments. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And of course, thank you to DraftKings for presenting the Bernie back tomorrow and I’ll have a column up in a little while at STL Sports Central. Thank you.

The Cardinals finally designated Erick Fedde for assignment, but Bernie says it’s too little, too late.

In this blistering episode, Bernie Miklasz breaks down how John Mozeliak’s stubbornness, failure to trade Fedde, and refusal to promote Michael McGreevy tanked the team’s playoff hopes.

Bernie doesn’t hold back on the Cardinals’ disastrous 1-5 road trip, horrendous pitching, and the front office’s excuses. Is Mo the real problem?

👑 Presented by DraftKings. The Crown is Yours.
🍎 Listen to show on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bernie-central/id1803733896
🟢 Listen to show on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1JhgQnJ88S0rWrXesg2dqz?si=1dc9263dc5f34bbce
🎧 Find the rest of our shows on audio: https://www.stlsportscentral.com/2025/03/30/links-to-sports-hub-stl-poodcasts
🔗 Visit: https://stlsportscentral.com
📺 Subscribe to catch every Bernie Show video
💬 Drop a comment — Bernie reads as many as he can and appreciates your feedback!

00:00 – Cardinals Collapse in Colorado
01:40 – Fedde DFA’d… Finally
05:10 – Mo’s Pride Delayed the Obvious Move
10:20 – McGreevy Delivers, Fedde Flops
14:45 – Marmol Wanted Change. Mo Said No.
18:30 – Mikolas & Fedde: A Losing Combo
24:00 – Mo’s Damage to the Franchise