St. Louis Cardinals

blzhrpmd2 · PostJul 13, 2015#5012015-07-13T17:40+00:00

No, they are not a bad team. My concern is that at their core they are an exceptional pitching staff with an average offense capable of painfully anemic stretches of run production. Their winning percentage almost can't continue at this pace and their pitching will likely hit a small bump somewhere (although that has been tossed around since May).

I would like to see certain fundamentals better executed. This team seems to have a ridiculously hard time bunting runners over and is running themselves into so many outs that it has become comical. They have had the luxury of a buffer to balance out some of those mistakes, but if Pittsburgh continues to play like they have been with any consistency, we could be looking at a wild card as a real possibility. That said, they could also build another 6-7 game lead as soon as the all-star break is over....the beauty of baseball.

For all the talk of Cardinal baseball being played the right way, however, this team, veterans and rookies alike, seem a little lost more often than a team with the best record in baseball should. I'm sure this could be labeled as an extreme overreaction, but just some observations at the midpoint of a fun season.

shimmy · PostJul 14, 2015#5022015-07-14T20:01+00:00

downtown2007 wrote:The desperately need a First Baseman.

This. Adams may be out for the season, and even when he's healthy I'm not totally convinced that he's the answer (though he may realistically be the best available). Reynolds is a good pinch-hitter or plug-in guy, but I think he swings and misses way too much to truly be effective. Maybe I'm old-fashioned in that way, as I know the current progression of thought says that strikeouts are meaningless. I disagree. Put the ball in play and give yourself a chance.

Our staff ERA at this point is ridiculous, and I don't expect them to keep up the pace for the entire season. We're going to need to be able to score more runs to compensate for when they do regress.

PostSep 02, 2015#5032015-09-02T13:18+00:00

We need to show the Cards a little love on this board. 40 games above .500.

MarkHaversham · PostSep 02, 2015#5042015-09-02T13:44+00:00

shimmy wrote:We need to show the Cards a little love on this board. 40 games above .500.

Pardon me sir, but this is UrbanSTL, not SportsSTL. We'll get excited when BPV is 40 stories above ground level.

dmelsh · PostSep 02, 2015#5052015-09-02T14:13+00:00

MarkHaversham wrote:
shimmy wrote:We need to show the Cards a little love on this board. 40 games above .500.
Pardon me sir, but this is UrbanSTL, not SportsSTL. We'll get excited when BPV is 40 stories above ground level.

Relax Francis, if you don't want to talk about the Cardinals, click on any other thread on this site. A little Cards talk won't kill you.

As for the Cards, it's been amazing watching this team play with so many injuries. These past two comeback wins against the Nats really show what this team can do. Hoping it continues late into the post season.

MarkHaversham · PostSep 02, 2015#5062015-09-02T15:02+00:00

I wasn't being serious.

I am a little worried, at least as much as one can "worry" about strangers playing a game, that the Cardinals seem to benefit from a lot of luck. Clutch hitting, etc. I'd feel better about their playoff chances otherwise. But, perhaps it's better to be lucky than good!

Edit: Who is Francis?

DogtownBnR · PostSep 02, 2015#5072015-09-02T15:04+00:00

It's going to be interesting to see what they do with the roster, assuming everyone is hitting like they have been the past few weeks and they get back their injured guys. Jon Jay, Holliday, Adams, Waino, to name a few. I would love to have Moss and Reynolds as our utility / bench guys. Would be imposing to have guys come off the bench with homerun power. Will be an interesting post-season for sure. I'd love to see a Cards-Cubs NLCS and Cards-Royals WS. If they won that, would be amazing!

dmelsh · PostSep 02, 2015#5082015-09-02T15:44+00:00

MarkHaversham wrote:I wasn't being serious.

I am a little worried, at least as much as one can "worry" about strangers playing a game, that the Cardinals seem to benefit from a lot of luck. Clutch hitting, etc. I'd feel better about their playoff chances otherwise. But, perhaps it's better to be lucky than good!

Edit: Who is Francis?

Ha couldn't read your tone.

Misquoted, should have been "Lighten Up Francis"

MarkHaversham · PostSep 02, 2015#5092015-09-02T15:52+00:00

dmelsh wrote: Misquoted, should have been "Lighten Up Francis"

Ah, a reference to popular media. I should have known!

shimmy · PostSep 02, 2015#5102015-09-02T16:59+00:00

If they play .500 the rest of the way they'll still end up with 101 wins. That's really what's frustrating about baseball though, or at least the modern version. With the marathon season, baseball is really the only sport where winning your division is a huge deal. However, a 4 game skid in the playoffs and it's all for nothing. It's tough to just enjoy the regular season success, as remarkable as it is, while knowing that the '04 and '05 teams that won 100+ games failed to win the title while the '06 and '11 teams won 83 and 86 games, respectively, won the World Series. But, along with the '04 team, the '13 team won 97 games and won the pennant, which is also a much bigger deal than winning your conference in other sports. In my eyes, winning the pennant and having a shot at the World Series is the goal for this team. Bowing out in the NLDS or NLCS would be rather disappointing, and it sucks that such a result would taint an otherwise amazing year.

It'll never happen with the success of the Wild Card making more teams, and therefore markets, more relevant throughout the season and making them more engaged with the sport. However, as a traditionalist, I would be all for a return to two divisions per league. East and West. The two division winners, who have proved their worth over the course of a 162-game schedule play in the LCS with the winner advancing to the World Series. Really, as this Joe Posnanski article from two years ago really delves into, nothing makes more sense than for baseball to follow the Premier League example and just ditch playoffs and award the best team the championship (http://www.nbcsports.com/joe-posnanski/ ... t-playoffs). Never going to happen of course, but it makes sense. And it's never going to happen because even guys like me, who advocate for such a format, love the drama of October baseball.

JNOnSTL · PostSep 02, 2015#5112015-09-02T18:00+00:00

^
A happy medium would be a return to the old format of allowing the two leagues' best record teams play in the World Series. Hell, make it best of 9 again.

But I do like the LCS's, though. It's possible we might finally see a Cubs/Cards NLCS for the first time this year (though doubtful, as the winner of the Wild Card plays in the NLDS the team with the best record, which as of right now will be the Cards - but still a first October meeting between the rivals would be awesome).

I'd like to scrap the division series and the wild-card crap and just give the two best record teams in each league, regardless of division (scrap divisions too!), a 7-game series for a chance to play in a 9-game World Series. That will fill October with only four deserved teams playing.

shimmy · PostSep 02, 2015#5122015-09-02T18:07+00:00

I don't want the Cards to play the Cubs in the playoffs. I want the Cubs to lose in Pittsburgh, as I don't mind the Pirates. My heart can barely take the Blues playing against and losing to the Hawks in the playoffs and then watching the Hawks hoist another Stanley Cup (I know the Blues didn't play them last season, but it all runs together). If the Cards play the Cubs in the postseason then I'm going to have my wife on standby to call 911 for when my blood pressure skyrockets and I have a heart attack and/or aneurysm. A postseason match-up would be great for the storied rivalry, but not for my health.

PostSep 03, 2015#5132015-09-03T18:18+00:00

I was listening to Bob Costas on the Bernie Miklasz Show, and this is Bob's postseason plan:

Wild Card: 3 game series, all games played at the first WC's field. The first two games are a day/night doubleheader.

LDS: 5 game series. First 3 games are played at the park of the team with the better record, ensuring that they always have home field (instead of the equal split of the first 4 games now where each team has two home games before the final game).

LCS: Same as LDS.

World Series: Best of 7.

I like it.

onecity · PostSep 28, 2015#5142015-09-28T02:41+00:00

So... Supermoon eclipse=cards WS win, right?

shimmy · PostOct 08, 2015#5152015-10-08T11:45+00:00

Well. This should be interesting.

JNOnSTL · PostOct 08, 2015#5162015-10-08T14:36+00:00

^It should be. I'm excited for this matchup. The only thing that would make it better would be if it were the NLCS, for the pennant.

shimmy wrote:I don't want the Cards to play the Cubs in the playoffs. I want the Cubs to lose in Pittsburgh, as I don't mind the Pirates. My heart can barely take the Blues playing against and losing to the Hawks in the playoffs and then watching the Hawks hoist another Stanley Cup (I know the Blues didn't play them last season, but it all runs together). If the Cards play the Cubs in the postseason then I'm going to have my wife on standby to call 911 for when my blood pressure skyrockets and I have a heart attack and/or aneurysm. A postseason match-up would be great for the storied rivalry, but not for my health.

Here's to your health, shimmy, and hopefully three Cards' wins

dweebe · PostOct 08, 2015#5172015-10-08T15:30+00:00

I know two people that work at bars not far from the stadium. Talking to them via texts this morning they're basically at a "battlestations/all hands on deck" situation. Everyone has to come in today to prep, clean, stock and get ready as they bring in extra stock because of a Cubs fan invasion. As busy as an Opening Day. One asked me to come out of retirement to help barback/stock/run.

MarkHaversham · PostOct 08, 2015#5182015-10-08T15:30+00:00

Historians agree St. Louis began its resurgence right after the famous Cards-Cubs playoff series, which precipitated a rise in heart attacks among conservative old-timers and cleared the way for Millennials to seize the reins of leadership.

JNOnSTL · PostOct 08, 2015#5192015-10-08T19:37+00:00

leeharveyawesome · PostOct 09, 2015#5202015-10-09T02:19+00:00

MarkHaversham wrote:Historians agree St. Louis began its resurgence right after the famous Cards-Cubs playoff series, which precipitated a rise in heart attacks among conservative old-timers and cleared the way for Millennials to seize the reins of leadership.

TRANSLATED:

Historians agree there is no change in city after baseball game (because studies show that things that happen in sports stadiums have zero effect on cities) but some old people (who built the city) died and were replaced by a few autistic younger people (who can't get an erection because of porn damage and live in walkable suburbs) thought about moving to the city but decided there was too many black people.

dbInSouthCity · PostOct 09, 2015#5212015-10-09T13:38+00:00

Astros 3-1 over KC
Texas 3-1 over BlueJays
Dodgers 3-0 Mets
Cardinals 3-1 Cubs.

Book it

Aesir · PostOct 14, 2015#5222015-10-14T00:14+00:00

Well those of you that want the Cubs to do well "because it would be good for the rivalry" got your wish.

As an aside, it is sad how it seems this entire city is preoccupied with avoiding acquiring great offensive players. We're being strangled out of potential championships.

jstriebel · PostOct 14, 2015#5232015-10-14T06:37+00:00

Cardinals did not lose this city because of offense. Offense scored 4, 3, 6, and 4 runs. Including 4 off of the "untouchable" Jake Arrieta.

Did they waste some chances and flail at pitches? They did. Way too many strike outs. But they scored.

The Cardinals lost because the injuries that taxed the team—specifically the pitching staff—throughout the year finally caught up to them.

Martinez is out. Waino was technically back but not really. Wacha was gassed and ineffective. Lynn rarely got to pitch, but largely because he proved to be gassed as well. Garcia was sick—I suppose not an injury, but bad luck all the same. Lackey had to go on short rest because of the above.

And the bullpen broke after slowly cracking late in the year. They admirably put up great numbers without a huge piece in Jordan Walden and another key piece in Matt Belisle, but that meant A LOT of innings for Seth Maness, Kevin Siegrest, and Trevor Rosenthal, and those guys were spent. And the reinforcements acquired just plain weren't very good.

This was one of the most amazing Cardinals teams I've ever watched with all they put up with. They won 100 games and were THE best team in baseball the entire season. All those injuries caught up with them in the postseason tournament, and they won't be crowned champs... but they were the best.

We've got so much to look forward to in 2016 as guys heal up. Minimal moves are needed. Only one is huge.

1. Re-sign Heyward
2. Upgrade at backup catcher
3. Upgrade middle infield depth
4. Add bullpen depth

There are plenty of other moves that can be made as this team has surpluses in some spots and you can always look to upgrade in others, but nothing else is really needed.

The Cubs winning this series is only going to make the talk about their future more in our faces, but the Cardinals future, built on their already great foundation, remains awesome.

shimmy · PostOct 14, 2015#5242015-10-14T12:30+00:00

Well ****.

I agree, jstriebel, that re-signing Heyward should be the Cardinals' top priority, and that we to address our catching depth. Yadi is going to be Yadi for a couple more years, so I think we need to be looking for the catcher of the future as opposed to a backup rental. Perhaps this should be a draft priority?

Otherwise, the Cards aren't in bad shape. Is 1B Piscotty's job going into next year? That gives us a solid, young infield of Piscotty, Carpenter, and Wong (need to look for a replacement for Peralta going forward) and an outfield of Holliday, Heyward, and Grichuk.

But, the Cardinals lost to the Cubs because the Cubs simply kicked our ass. And as tough as that reality is, I'm actually really proud of the way I see Cardinals fans handling it. There are always exceptions, but for the most part I see Cardinals fan being very gracious in defeat. That serves the duel purpose of looking good for the organization and the city, as well as making it more difficult for Cubs fans to talk crap.

moorlander · PostOct 14, 2015#5252015-10-14T13:27+00:00

The Cardinals lost to the better team. Cap tip to the Cubs.

This Cubs team is really good will be force in the Central Division for the foreseeable future. This series should be a wake up call that Mo and Dewitt need to better and need to be deeper.

St. Louis Cardinals

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