Baseball- GO Cardinals!

[saladdays]

Congrats to the redbirds!

Thanks, TPG. There's many fans (really on both sides of the fence) that wouldn't even acknowledge something like this.

[KBCraig]

Being married to a Cubs congenital raving loonyfan, I've come to appreciate the baby bears and their poor fans. I love the rivalry, but a good rivalry only counts when teams are closely matched. That's why, unless they're playing each other, or the Cub are ahead of the Cards, I cheer on the Cubs too.

[Twinsmom98]

I too live with a Cub fan and since I work in a university atmosphere - alot of Chicago students and Cub fans.  I like to tell them that we are trying to acquire Lilly since we have an open pitching position.

Which makes me wonder what the Cubs are going to do with Big Z and Milton Bradley?

Personally, I am concerned about Ankel - I want to see some fire in him again!

[sdcforever]

Being married to a Cubs congenital raving loonyfan, I've come to appreciate the baby bears and their poor fans. I love the rivalry, but a good rivalry only counts when teams are closely matched. That's why, unless they're playing each other, or the Cub are ahead of the Cards, I cheer on the Cubs too.

Like you, Craig, I am a more laid back Cards fan when it comes to the Cubs.  Unless we're playing each other, I don't get too fired up when it comes to the Cubs.  I've begun to realize that we don't have much of a rivalry due to the ineptitude of the Cubs, excepting the past couple of years.  I think this may be why the Cards vs. Cubs games don't get much national attention like the Red Sox vs. Yankees.  At least they regularly compete against each other during the regular season and the postseason.

Which makes me wonder what the Cubs are going to do with Big Z and Milton Bradley?

Personally, I am concerned about Ankel - I want to see some fire in him again!

Big Z wants to be traded.  I have a feeling the Cubs will eat some of his salary for a team to take him.  He's not a very good teammate, doesn't have a good work ethic, and didn't live up to the expectations of an ace this season.  As for Bradley, the Cubs owe him $20 million over the next two years, he's not good enough to warrant $10 million a year, and he's a clubhouse cancer.  The Cubs will have to eat almost all of his salary for a team to take him.  I heard one GM say that they might be willing to take a chance on Bradley but only if the Cubs ate at least $19 million of what's left on his contract!   Unloading Z and Bradley will really handicap the Cubs salary-wise over the next year or two.

As for Ankiel, some GM will over-pay for him after this year; Boras is his agent.  I guarantee you he will not be a Cardinal next season.  Some of his problems might be from the shoulder injury he took early in the season when he slammed into the outfield wall.  But he doesn't have good plate discipline; a shoulder injury does not account for poor at-bats and a high number of strikeouts.

[Zephon]

Quite frankly, not too many of the Cardinals have had "good plate discipline" lately.  Don't know if the fact that we are so far ahead in the standings, and they're just swinging for the fences has anything to do with that or what.  I hope they fix it by post-season.

I'm not one who roots against the Cubs no matter what either, although my wife probably is.  I was kinda hoping they would go farther in the post-season the last two years, at least making it to the WS before losing.  On the other hand, it sure is fun to point out to rowdy Cubs fans...100 years and counting.

[KBCraig]

Apparently, having clinched with 90 wins, they're determined to stay there. 

[sdcforever]

^Actually, there's a more disturbing trend at work.  Going back to Sept. 11 and the start of the last homestand when we played Atlanta (after the sweep of Milwaukee) we're 6-10.  Most of the past 16 games have been against quality competition, teams we could see in the playoffs (Atlanta, Florida, Colorado).  Over those 16 games we're averaging less than 4 runs/game.  However, 22 of those runs were scored in two 11 run victories.  If you take out those outliers, we're averaging less than 3 runs/game.  We're scuffling right now, and home field advantage throughout is looking less likely.  We're locked in a tighter race with the Phillies for home field in the first round.  Hopefully we can at least secure that.

[Swoosh]

I sure hope this is a case of just resting the starters due to the game not really meaning anything, but golly let's at least pretend that you're playing to win the game.

[KBCraig]

I haven't gone over the recent box scores in detail, but it seem like these recent losses have been from giving up 1or 2 big innings early on, and then never answering in kind.

[sdcforever]

Yesterday, Smoltz gave up all of the runs in the 2nd and 3rd innings; he felt the balls were being rubbed up and didn't like the texture.  He kept trading balls with the home plate umpire.  (Smoltz felt Arroyo was getting the upper hand by using pine tar on his cap and rubbing the baseballs with it.  If you look at the pictures from last night there is a dark smudge under the bill of Arroyo's cap...).  I think the problem is a lack of motivation; we locked up the division weeks ago and have little to play for except home field (which I think is quickly getting out of reach, even for the first round).  The way it stands right now LA would have the 1 seed and Colorado would be the wild card.  The WC and 1 seed can't play each other in the first round if they're from the same division, so Colorado would play Philly and we would play LA in the first round (if we're the 3 seed).  However, LA only has a .5 game lead over Philly for the best record.  If Philly ends up with the best record and Colorado gets the wild card then Philly would play Colorado and we would still play LA in the first round.  Hopefully we'll start playing better once the playoffs begin.  However, you can't flip it on and off like a switch.

Today we face old friend Kip Wells and counter with Carp.  If we don't win today...well, I don't even want to think about it.  Pujols is getting the day off, so Holliday is hitting 3rd and Glaus is batting cleanup.  Molina and Ryan are back in the lineup.  Even without Albert our lineup should be able to squeeze out a victory off of Wells.  EDIT:  Late lineup change--Freese is out of the lineup and Albert is in!

[sdcforever]

LOL!!!  Carp says, "You haven't given me runs in my last two starts, I'm gonna do it myself!"  Carp hits a GRAND SLAM in the 2nd inning for a 5-0 lead!   We can still count on quality Kip Wells pitching.   This was the first career home run for Carp and nearly doubles his career RBI total, which now stands at 10.  Believe it or not, this was the 10th GS hit by a Cards pitcher, but first since 1998 (Kent Mercker).

UPDATE:  Carp adds a 2 out, 2 RBI double in the 5th for 6 RBIs today!  Cards lead 9-0 now and Carp is beating the Reds with both his pitching arm and his bat.

[KBCraig]

When they decided to get off the stick, they did it with style!

Any more questions about the 2009 Cy Young winner?

[sdcforever]

Any more questions about the 2009 Cy Young winner?

Looking at the write-ups (voters handing out their season-ending awards), it won't be Carp.  Wainwright will probably win the Cy Young.  He has pitched for more than 200 innings, has more wins, and more strikeouts.  He won't match Carp's NL-lowest ERA, but that won't be enough for the Cy.  However, Carp will still be our ace and #1 starter, even if Wainwright wins the Cy Young.

Carp still has an outside chance for the award, though.  We could end up with three major awards after this season:  Carp or Wainwright with the Cy, Pujols with the MVP (that's a given), and Mozeliak with Executive of the Year.

[KBCraig]

Wainwright will probably win the Cy Young.  He has pitched for more than 200 innings, has more wins, and more strikeouts.

How many Grand Slams did he hit? 

[KBCraig]

Boy, I am sooooo glad they pulled Waino in the 7th. I mean, he gave up 2 singles! If he'd stayed in, he might have given up 6 runs or something!