*** Official St Louis Cardinals to the 2006 World Series Thread ***

[astroglide]

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As an Astros fan, I'm pretty upset right about now. There are so many games that they blew earlier in the season that should have been LOCKS. Just look at the low win totals of the starters.

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as a cards fan, allow me to say that one can make a convincing argument for tons of cards losses that weren't even the fault of the players, but the management.

i agree that houston has a better shot in the playoffs than st. louis. your pitching lineup smokes ours, we can't even come up with a #3 starter and our bullpen is horrible.

i'm definitely still pulling for the cards to make it, but if the astros advance it's because they were a better team with better management. i'll be fine with rooting for them.

[Schwartzy61]

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only having 1.5 pitchers

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this is jocketty's fault.

edit: this may be a bit harsh, but who else is he going to blame for it?

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Well...

Marquis went from ~4.50 ERA to 6
Mulder went from ~4 to an ~8? Then got hurt
Suppan was near 5+ most of the year
Isringhausen went from reasonably reliable at the end to career high in blown saves and then wound up hurt

And then Edmonds performing below career expectations and then getting hurt.

It just seemed like a whole lot of regression across the board on this roster all in the same year.

[crockpot]

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mulder's injury was quite a setback, and the market for pitchers is supposed to be pretty dry. that's still a situation where you make your own luck though.

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yes, and jocketty traded a better SP as just one part of a package for mulder, who the analysts said had some huge red flags entering 2005.

the cards' current pitching situation is still better than having a five-year commitment to aj burnett, so i guess jocketty deserves some credit for not pulling that trigger.

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Well...

Marquis went from ~4.50 ERA to 6
Mulder went from ~4 to an ~8? Then got hurt
Suppan was near 5+ most of the year
Isringhausen went from reasonably reliable at the end to career high in blown saves and then wound up hurt

And then Edmonds performing below career expectations and then getting hurt.

It just seemed like a whole lot of regression across the board on this roster all in the same year.

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BP's profile of jason marquis this year began with the words "warning: highly flammable". honestly, if i told you a pitcher had a 94:72 K:BB ratio and 34 homers allowed in 192 innings, wouldn't you expect his ERA to be well over 5? last year, marquis had a 100:69 with 29 homers in 207 innings, which is really not that different.

suppan's 4.18 ERA this year is well below his career average and lower than it should be based on his peripherals (4.72)

mulder, izzy and edmonds all getting injured was bad luck, but also not the most unlikely parlay in the world. izzy has been a huge injury risk for years (i'm pretty sure the injury was affecting his performance long before he was shut down), mulder was rumored to have shoulder problems before coming over in trade, and edmonds is an old center fielder who plays an all-out, dangerous style.

[MyTurn2Raise]

I agree, the management should've known Edmonds would flame out and none of us have really been happy in terms of output per dollar from Izzy even coming into the season.

Injuries happen....while bad, the injuries are not the reason the Cards are still in doubt of making the playoffs.


Well, anyway, my fingers are crossed that either the Pirates can win or Reyes can step up. Yikes on both counts!

[nolanfan34]

Has anyone seen Clarkmeister lately? Worried about his health.

[Quadstriker]

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I will say that I HOPE they pass the Cards, b/c I think the Astros will/would put up a better showing in October than the struggling Cards. If the Cards get in, it is only after coasting in on fumes.

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This is hard to argue with. *sigh*

[Schwartzy61]

So far so good...

Pitt 3 Hou 1
FLA 3 Cin 1

Keep in mind St. Louis has 4 games vs. Milwaukee at home. Milwaukee is 25-51 on the road and the Cardinals are 46-29 at home (two of which are day games, where I belive the Cardinals are killer, right?). A split seems guaranteed, 3/4 very likely no matter how bad the Cardinals have played over the last week. Meanwhile Houston finishes at Atlanta, Houston being sub-.500 on the road. And Cincinatti finishes @Pit, and the Pirates actually have a winning record at home, while Cincy like most NL clubs have a sub-.500 record on the road.

[djj6835]

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Well, anyway, my fingers are crossed that either the Pirates can win or Reyes can step up. Yikes on both counts!

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What's sad is the fact that the former is more likely than the latter.

[Schwartzy61]

Now this is the Houston we all know and love...

Hou 1
Pit 6

[Aceshigh7]

Hou 4
Pit 6

Two on in the 6th.