Decisions, Decisions

Hello, again.  My name is Bill Ivie and I am the one that got this whole hijacking off the ground.  Daniel left the keys to the house in our care and we are coming to the end of the week of guests, pinch hitters, writers from other teams, and the stuff that I throw up here.

Let's get straight to the big news.  I was talking with a colleague who told me that Daniel had sent another writer a text and informed him that he may not be moving home and would be soon closing up shop here at C70.  More on that in a bit...

This Cardinal team is really starting to wear me out.  Can we figure out which team is going to be the 2010 version of the team we know and love?  Is this a team that can rip off an eight game win streak, dominate teams from the mound and make pitchers have twitchy nightmares when they lay down thinking of Jon Jay, Albert Pujols, and Matt Holliday?  Is this a team that drops two of three to a Houston Astros team that resembles a minor league roster, getting outscored 31-16 in the process?

Earlier in the season fans would have been ecstatic to hear that the team scored an average of 5+ runs a game in a series.  With the way the pitchers performed, that would be more than enough to win some ball games.  Now the offense gets things moving and the pitching staff falls apart.  The pitching staff can go out and hold teams to two runs and the offense cannot figure out how to push a run across the plate to give them a chance.

Daniel was reached directly for comment and he told me that he had not decided whether or not to leave the writing career behind at this point and was just enjoying vacation, he will discuss his impending decision further on Monday.

Back to the Cardinals, which team is this really?  We have all made excuses on top of excuses but, frankly, it is the first week of August and I am not sure excuses are going to cut it anymore.  At the risk of overturning the bandwagon we all want to ride, there is a statement here that every fan, fair-weather or otherwise, needs to hear.  2006 was a fluke.  There, it has been said.  The team backed into the playoffs and was questioned at every turn.  The offense, defense, and pitching suddenly captured lightning in a bottle and put it together in October.  They were bad in August, horrible in September, and no one, not even Cardinal Nation, expected them to make a run at it.

That team was the exception, not the rule.  This team is up against a real threat from Cincinnati just to get to October.  If they get there, the Cardinals will face some real competition that is already finding a foothold and starting to click.  This team will need to get it all together and find a way to start stringing together some wins.

Daniel was reached at a local high school writers workshop that he does every year to help young people interested in this business learn and grow and said that he had not made a decision to retire from blogging or to return, he will discuss with his family and see how his injured index finger is recovering before making that decision.

Simply put, the Cardinals need to see more eight game win streaks and less series losses to rebuilding, horrible teams.  Time is running out for excuses and utility players in major roles on this team.  The team will have to dive into the Waiver pool and pull out a player or two that will propel this team forward.  The current roster will not cut it and the team cannot hope to capture lightning in a bottle for the second time in five years. 

Daniel will be back on Monday, and I hope you all have enjoyed reading a few different things here at C70 this week.  I know all of us have enjoyed being able to bring our voices to you. 

I'm pretty sure Daniel is not retiring, but stay tuned, we should know more about his fate before ESPN knows about Brett Favre's.

Bill Ivie is from i70baseball.com and is the Assignment Editor for BaseballDigest.com


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