The always gentle Ben Hochman in the St. Louis Dispatch sports wrote a warm sendoff to Matt Carpenter. My response is this:

“It is fair to say Carp had some terrific years for the Cardinals, didn’t put himself into the lineup these past years, and sounds like a really good teammate. It is also true that he failed to adjust to the shift and hurt this team the past few years and that is on him. His reluctance to swing on close pitches with two strikes and then glare at the umpire on the called third always struck me as stubborn and selfish, not making contact for the team. It will be good to see him gone and that is just a plain fact.”