As we continue to look back at the 2013 season, one area to review is the job done by Mike Matheny in leading the team. We’re all well aware this was just his second year managing anywhere, and the Cardinals improved on their 2012 NLCS performance to make it to the World Series.

With the United Cardinal Bloggers off-season roundtable kicking off today, our question to the group focused on the manager: what letter grade would give Mike Matheny for his job managing the Cardinals throughout 2013, regular season through last Wednesday’s Game Six, and why?

Here are the responses — and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Mark Tomasik, RetroSimba

He gets an A-minus. Just looking at it big-picture, he managed the Cardinals to the National League pennant even though, for most of the season, he lost two starting pitchers (Chris Carpenter and Jaime Garcia), two closers (Jason Motte and Mitchell Boggs) and a starting shortstop (Rafael Furcal). Plus, he lost his RBI leader (Allen Craig) for a month down the stretch.

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