The 2011 St. Louis Cardinals coaching staff will look conspicuously like the 2010 version. Bullpen coach Marty Mason is out, but if that’s the cost of doing business to keep LaRussa, then Cardinals fans are fine with it.
That ‘save one’ is long time bullpen coach Marty Mason. Mason is being “fired” and it’s being framed in terms of the ongoing dispute over the player development system. I’ve always had a positive opinion of Mason (though if you asked me why, I’d likely sputter a non-sensical “Just ’Cause.”
If the change to Jeff Luhnow’s office door plaque was deemed a demotion or step backwards of some sort for his clout within the organization, this firing has to be a strong repudiation that the analytical/scouting department is losing sway.