“It’s a good question. It’s very universal to what we believe as a staff is what our job is: And we believe that we are to go out there and selflessly serve these guys,” Matheny said. “That’s it. Go out and there and put in as much or as little time as needed to get them to where they need to be. Always be on point. Always be available. The goal is to make them better, not necessarily to please the critics.

"It is about the guys, period. We’re paid to win, but when they go about thinking about how to make each one of these players better, they’ve done their job. Results are going to come. They may not come when we want them or as often as we want them but they will if we go about it the right way.”

These statements reflect something that Matheny has discussed before as his beliefs in “servant leadership.”

In one sense this absolves the coaches from being tied to the production numbers of batting average, ERA, and whatnot because it suggests that they be measured on the time and effort they put in and not the raw results. There's no Value Above Replacement Coach. There's only service time. They’re measured on process, which is a word they use a lot around the Cardinals to describe the preparation for a game.

In another sense, Matheny offers a bottom line way to judge a staff.