Congratulations to the Cardinals...

[RFS62]

Gibson deserves manager of the year, LaRussa deserves a bib and rattle

Exactly.

[lollipopcurve]

I really dislike some of the players on the Cardinals, and Larussa has always bugged me. But I have a lot of respect for that team based on what they did this year. There was a lot of talk about how resilient the Reds were in 2010, but that was nothing compared to how strong the Cards bounced back from adversity this year. Tough, tough baseball team.

Of course, I'll be rooting for them to get their butt kicked in the 1st round.

[remdog]

Gibson deserves manager of the year, LaRussa deserves a bib and rattle

I'll third that. The Reds need someone that can light a fire under the players' butts instead of being concerned about them making their 'numbers'. I mentioned Gibson back in about June or July and I tip my hat to him. He should be the NL Manager of the Year.

Fire Dusty now; don't waste another year on his sillyness.

Rem

[Matt700wlw]

I'll third that. The Reds need someone that can light a fire under the players' butts instead of being concerned about them making their 'numbers'. I mentioned Gibson back in about June or July and I tip my hat to him. He should be the NL Manager of the Year.

Fire Dusty now; don't waste another year on his sillyness.

Rem

They're not going to pay him $3 million to go away, and pay someone else to manage.

[Tommyjohn25]

I will never congratulate the current Cardinals organization for anything. Ever. Every member of that franchise from the grounds crew to the owner can shove it.

[MikeThierry]

Cards really had no minor leaguers to play.

Their best prospects are in A and AA ball, so it's not like they wanted to see what some likely 2012 starters might do.

Their current team is their 2012 team, minus a PooHole or two.

Are you serious? Allen Craig, Daniel Descalso, Tony Cruz, half of their bullpen all came from the minors this season. Salas, who came from the AAA system, closed most of the year for them. In fact, if you look at the makeup of that roster, most of the players they have on that team were developed from their farm system. At least give credit where credit is due.

Here are the players that the Cardinals developed in their farm system:

Molina, Freese, Schumaker, Jay, Pujols, Garcia, Motte, Salas, Boggs, Sanchez, Lynn, Descalso, Allen Craig, McClellan, Wainwright. You are essentially talking about half of the current team minus Wainwright.


Another thing I was thinking about was that the Cards could get rolled over by the Phillies like the Reds did last year. Just like last year for the Reds, the Cardinals had the best offense in the NL this year. However, I was also looking at the Reds strike out rate last year compared to the strikeout rate this year for the Cardinals. Why I think the Cardinals will be tougher against the Phillies pitchers is that they had the second lowest strikeouts in the majors behind the Texas Rangers. The Cardinals also had the 6th most walks in baseball. If you look at the Reds strikeouts last year, they had the seventh most strikeouts in baseball and were 16th in walks. The thing with the Phillies pitchers is that they are strikeout pitchers so I don't think the Cards will bite on some of the stuff that the Phillies pitchers will throw at them unlike last year with the Reds. I don't expect the Cards to win this series but I also don't expect them to get swept either.

[MikeThierry]

Oh, and as good as TLR has been this year with his management, the Manager of the Year should definitely go to Gibson. Now the GM of the year should go either to the Brewers GM or the Cards GM.

[AtomicDumpling]

Congrats to the Cards. They deserved to make it in the playoffs. They had the same number of wins as the Reds did last year. I can't believe the Braves collapsed and let the Cards sneak in. Go Phillies!

[Brutus]

Are you serious? Allen Craig, Daniel Descalso, Tony Cruz, half of their bullpen all came from the minors this season. Salas, who came from the AAA system, closed most of the year for them. In fact, if you look at the makeup of that roster, most of the players they have on that team were developed from their farm system. At least give credit where credit is due.

Here are the players that the Cardinals developed in their farm system:

Molina, Freese, Schumaker, Jay, Pujols, Garcia, Motte, Salas, Boggs, Sanchez, Lynn, Descalso, Allen Craig, McClellan, Wainwright. You are essentially talking about half of the current team minus Wainwright.


Another thing I was thinking about was that the Cards could get rolled over by the Phillies like the Reds did last year. Just like last year for the Reds, the Cardinals had the best offense in the NL this year. However, I was also looking at the Reds strike out rate last year compared to the strikeout rate this year for the Cardinals. Why I think the Cardinals will be tougher against the Phillies pitchers is that they had the second lowest strikeouts in the majors behind the Texas Rangers. The Cardinals also had the 6th most walks in baseball. If you look at the Reds strikeouts last year, they had the seventh most strikeouts in baseball and were 16th in walks. The thing with the Phillies pitchers is that they are strikeout pitchers so I don't think the Cards will bite on some of the stuff that the Phillies pitchers will throw at them unlike last year with the Reds. I don't expect the Cards to win this series but I also don't expect them to get swept either.

Not trying to detract from your overall point, which I'm neither here nor there on... but Adam Wainwright pitched his first nearly 600 professional innings in the minors as an Atlanta Brave farmhand. I'm not sure the Cardinals necessarily deserve the title as having 'developed' him. He did come from the minors, but he never pitched below AAA for the Cards.

[Reds/Flyers Fan]

I will never congratulate the current Cardinals organization for anything. Ever. Every member of that franchise from the grounds crew to the owner can shove it.

Bravo!

The Lards were nothing more than in the right place at the right time to take advantage of an epic, historic collapse by an overrated hack Braves team in a pitifully god-awful National League that nobody really wanted to win. They're just the luckiest nerd on the short bus. If the season had lasted another 10 days, the thoroughly disinterested Reds would have passed the Braves. If the season lasted another two weeks, so would the Pirates, AAAstros, 1962 Mets, 1976 Buccaneers, the Washington Generals, Milli Vanilli, NBC's primetime fall lineup, the French army, Kentucky football and Arby's.

The cards are little more than the fat dweeb kid who happened to be standing at the window when the hot cheerleader neighbor girl forgot to close the curtains before getting in the shower. It happens once. Enjoy your 30 seconds of fun, St. Loo.

If I could wish something on the filthy, disgusting baseball epidemic known as the St. Lewis Bird Flu, it would be that they could be passed out drunk somewhere on G-Deck about 90 minutes after the Titanic hits the iceberg. Or that they'd have to spend considerable time in the no-man's land purgatory otherwise known as Missourah.

Either way, for all that is good, clean and pure in this world, please ... GO PHILLIES!!! (after relieving the bird flu of their duties, the Phillies are free to lose to any of the remaining teams, except for the Yankees.)

[MikeThierry]

Bravo!

The Lards were nothing more than in the right place at the right time to take advantage of an epic, historic collapse by an overrated hack Braves team in a pitifully god-awful National League that nobody really wanted to win. They're just the luckiest nerd on the short bus. If the season had lasted another 10 days, the thoroughly disinterested Reds would have passed the Braves. If the season lasted another two weeks, so would the Pirates, AAAstros, 1962 Mets, 1976 Buccaneers, the Washington Generals, Milli Vanilli, NBC's primetime fall lineup, the French army, Kentucky football and Arby's.

The cards are little more than the fat dweeb kid who happened to be standing at the window when the hot cheerleader neighbor girl forgot to close the curtains before getting in the shower. It happens once. Enjoy your 30 seconds of fun, St. Loo.

If I could wish something on the filthy, disgusting baseball epidemic known as the St. Lewis Bird Flu, it would be that they could be passed out drunk somewhere on G-Deck about 90 minutes after the Titanic hits the iceberg. Or that they'd have to spend considerable time in the no-man's land purgatory otherwise known as Missourah.

Either way, for all that is good, clean and pure in this world, please ... GO PHILLIES!!! (after relieving the bird flu of their duties, the Phillies are free to lose to any of the remaining teams, except for the Yankees.)

classy

[MikeThierry]

Not trying to detract from your overall point, which I'm neither here nor there on... but Adam Wainwright pitched his first nearly 600 professional innings in the minors as an Atlanta Brave farmhand. I'm not sure the Cardinals necessarily deserve the title as having 'developed' him. He did come from the minors, but he never pitched below AAA for the Cards.

I will give you Wainwright, though he did pitch two years for the Cardinals AAA team. Still doesn't take away from my overall point.

[Ron Madden]

You have to give credit where credit is due. The Cardinals deserve to be in the Playoffs, they won something like 23 of their last 31 games to win the Wild Card race fair and square. I congratulate them.

I'm as big of a die hard Reds Fan as anyone but I disagree with those who say the Cards backed into the playoffs.

[traderumor]

Are you serious? Allen Craig, Daniel Descalso, Tony Cruz, half of their bullpen all came from the minors this season. Salas, who came from the AAA system, closed most of the year for them. In fact, if you look at the makeup of that roster, most of the players they have on that team were developed from their farm system. At least give credit where credit is due.

Here are the players that the Cardinals developed in their farm system:

Molina, Freese, Schumaker, Jay, Pujols, Garcia, Motte, Salas, Boggs, Sanchez, Lynn, Descalso, Allen Craig, McClellan, Wainwright. You are essentially talking about half of the current team minus Wainwright.


Another thing I was thinking about was that the Cards could get rolled over by the Phillies like the Reds did last year. Just like last year for the Reds, the Cardinals had the best offense in the NL this year. However, I was also looking at the Reds strike out rate last year compared to the strikeout rate this year for the Cardinals. Why I think the Cardinals will be tougher against the Phillies pitchers is that they had the second lowest strikeouts in the majors behind the Texas Rangers. The Cardinals also had the 6th most walks in baseball. If you look at the Reds strikeouts last year, they had the seventh most strikeouts in baseball and were 16th in walks. The thing with the Phillies pitchers is that they are strikeout pitchers so I don't think the Cards will bite on some of the stuff that the Phillies pitchers will throw at them unlike last year with the Reds. I don't expect the Cards to win this series but I also don't expect them to get swept either.

Glad to see you are back up to speed in Homerism 101. Sort of like riding a bike, I guess.

[OnBaseMachine]

classy

I thought it was funny.

This is a Reds board after all.

I refuse to give the deadbirds credit. The Braves flat-out choked.