Spot on. The playoffs is all about pitching and situational hitting. We are almost totally lacking in the latter.
But that shouldn't suprise us as the manager and hitting coach do not insist on our players learing to do it. "Get a good pitch and whale on it" is the hitting philosophy now, and we will be unlikely to win a WS until that philosophy changes.
Last edited by smixsell; 10-13-2012 at 11:22 AM.
As cards fan, I would admit that the Cards record shouldn't have been good enough to get into the playoffs. But I think anyone who's objective can acknowledge why the second wild card is good for baseball. It makes teams care about winning the division, and in the AL, I don't think there was one team who you could argue didn't deserve to make the playoffs.
Meanwhile, if Bud Selig wants the Cardinals in the playoffs, then we aren't going to refuse that.
Its only good for making baseball more money! If you wanted to make it more about winning the division you wouldn't even have WC's but clearly you are not smart enough to realize that.
With every added WC you add its another team they doesn't need to care about winning its division thus making them worthless, its the same reason nobody can remember who won division titles in the NFL, NHL and NBA from one year to the next.
The WC teams faced zero punished this year, the only team punished was the Braves. The AL WC game was going to be played regardless since it would have been a game 163. None of the teams that won the WC games used their #1 so those teams face zero punished from the rotation stand point.
Literally the only thing to come out of the Wild Card was to have the 11th best team beat out a 4th best Braves team in a one game set up, that Braves team had 3 more wins than best Cards team had made since 05 with included 2 world champions, and 4 playoff teams. The Braves 94 wins is the best for a NL Wild Card team since the Giants 95 a decade ago, that team lost in the 7th game of the WS.
I never want the Reds to get in as the 11th best team with 41% of the season wins coming vs teams with 90 or more losses.
Its also doubtful the Cards will win the division next year since they aren't going to have Houston to beat up on, you aren't going to pay Kyle Lohse who you have 9 of the 14 games over .500 in his starts, Jaime Garcia is going to need a shoulder surgery, Carpenter is going to be a year older and trying to hand on for 32 starts at 38 and Wainwright will hit the wall after throwing well over 200 innings after missing a full season. Strasburg worked 24 then jumped to 159.1 while Wainwright went from zero to 206.2 and counting.
Yadier Molina and Allen Craig aren't going to match their career years. Rafael Furcal will be back banged up and older and if he can't go Kozma isn't eventually going to go bad hitting like a .236 minor league hitter, Jon Jay is never going to have a .384 average with a .453 OBP at home again, and Beltran will be 36 the year that position players die in the post steroid era, and good money is on the Berkman track going from 30+ to injured.
The Cards are about to put all their hopes into rookies because key guys are about to get big money or will be gone.
In 2014 Wainwright and Carpenter become a FA, with Molina/Holliday/Garcia who may never be the same after shoulder surgery making 40M. Motte is about to go to arbitration for the 2nd time so he's going to get paid now this winter and it will be even more in 2014. Also in 2014 Fresse and Boggs will be in 2nd year of Arbitration and Jay and Craig will be in 1st year.
The window is closing and the owner is about to jump out of the game and cash out with maximum profits. The new owner may not be wanting to put in 25 more million bucks like they outspent the Reds this year.
It's no secret the Umps call them loose in elimination games when a team with a large draw has a chance at advancing. MLB may be about competition but they like to make money too. The cards in the NLCS or WS will draw a larger audience than the Nats, so if the Umps or the league can give them a small nudge in the right direction and help them get in they're going to do it.
I've said all winter — they talk about this team winning the division — and my comment is, they won't win it because, at the end of the day, they still are the Chicago Cubs, and they will figure out a way to screw this whole thing up. - Marty Brennaman
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