If you haven’t already noticed, I’m a frequent visitor to the StlToday.com sports section. This is my haven for information related to Cardinals baseball in St. Louis (correction: one of many havens). Upon Bernie Miklasz’s announcement that Mozeliak was named the Cards new GM, the message boards where going crazy. Some positive, some negative. For those of you who like this move, I’m with you. For those of you who do not, let me explain. Let’s look at the negative reaction.
Picklefork – “This blows, I hope they didn’t low ball Antonetti”
Playahard9 - “Bummer……that’s what I get for getting my hopes up for Antonetti”
MrBERGER - “Ha. So much for that much needed overhaul. A Jocketty clone. Same Genius. Same broken down players. Go Cards! “
ThirdGoAround – “Woohoo……once again old Billy DW settles when something much greater could have been had. This is becoming a really old tune with this ownership…..Oh well….Moz isn’t bad…..he just isn’t someone who is going to get the fan base excited or make any huge changes…..oh well”
These are the people who I’m speaking to.
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Reading some of these posts reminded me of Sunday night, hearing of AROD’s announcement that he was opting out of his contract, when the focus should’ve been on the Sox and Rocks(Ok, so maybe it’s not completely like that but…). The Cardinals name a new GM not named Chris Antonetti, the press conference is set and rolling, all eyes SHOULD be focused on John Mozeliek and Bill Dewitt, and Cardinal Nation is focused on the questions: What went wrong with Antonetti? Did the Cardinals scare him off somehow? Why not Antonetti? (I suppose you can’t blame a fan base who feels misused and mislead, only a year after their sports messiah St. Louis Cardinals hoisted the organizations tenth world title. They’ve been fed line after line from the front office in the past: “We were close to signing Jason Schmidt…”, “We were a finalist for AJ Burnett…”, “We’re keeping our payroll free to fill needs before the trade deadline…”, “Mark Mulder will be back by the All-Star Break…”).
John Mozeliek will be working closely with Jeff Lunhow to draft and develop young talent, he’ll be working with Dewitt and others on trading and signing free agents, and he’ll be working with multiple people as a whole to keep get this organization moving in the direction Mr. Dewitt wants it to. As a fan base, we must give Mozeliek at least one shot before we stone him 
, but I recommend letting the process run it’s course. I’ve heard many people’s knee jerk reaction to not hiring Antonetti be more about Mozeliek “being just like Walt Jocketty”, and this is “the same GM, why did they fire Walt?” than it is that Antonetti turned down the position.
The Fans must accept the fact the Antonetti is an afterthought at this point. It’s time to move on with Mozeliek. Sure, it’s positive to look at Mozeliek’s tenure with the Cardinals, he knows the organizational structure. But it’s beyond that. It’s more than “Mo is a guy that will walk the straight line Dewitt asks of him”. He’s now the GM for one of the most storied, respected, and followed sports organizations in history, and he already has a challenging to do list. Mo will have plenty of opportunities to win or lose your hearts over the next few years. He has to reformulate a starting pitching staff, draft and develop talent, and make this team more exciting for years to come. Oh, and in case your wondering, the Cardinals Roster Matrix is currently at 99.3 million dollars. Good Luck Mo. That’s a daunting task for anyone, let alone if Antonetti accepted the position (he actually withdrew HIS name from consideration, due to concerns of control of the whole operation being shared).
Let’s see what kind of minor league talent makes it to the bigs in five years. Let’s see what kind of creativity can stem from his reputation of working well with agents. Let’s see where were at in a year or two before we start judging.
As a fan base, let’s see what this “Kid” John Mozeliek can do. After all, he’s surely earned his chance.
