Blogs By FansC70 At The Bat
Sponsor


Cardinals_WideSkyscraper.jpg

Baseball Schedule is your best source for the latest St Louis Cardinals Schedule information as well as keeping up with division rivals including Cubs Schedule, Reds Schedule, Brewers Schedule and Astros Schedule.

Bet on the Cardinals with Sports Interaction's MLB betting lines


Slots Galore Casino Tournaments

Get your tickets from Bubba! Cheap St. Louis Cardinals Tickets and more, including tickets for the next MLB All-Star Game. Bubba's got Boston Red Sox Tickets and New York Yankees Tickets

Authentic, large selection of Cardinals memorabilia, guaranteed and certified.

Subscribe
RSS Feed

Archives

Players

Categories


Alliance tickets has an extensive inventory of St. Louis Cardinals Tickets , Colorado Rockies Tickets, San Francisco Giants Tickets and Seattle MarinersTickets.

With all of the St Louis tickets out there, Cardinals tickets and Rams tickets make for great presents. GoTickets.com can fill all of your sports tickets needs, just check out our testimonials!

Philadelphia Phillies: October 2011

A Game For The Ages

Posted on October 8, 2011 at 9:25 AM
You may remember that recently I had a giveaway of a DVD of Game 5 of the 1985 National League Championship Game.  It was part of a series of DVDs called "Baseball's Greatest Games."  After last night, A&E needs to make room for another disc.

Going into a game that was as heavily hyped as this one was, I was a bit concerned.  I mean, how often to these games live up to the advance billing?  However, I told my father Thursday afternoon, "You know, the team that scores next in this series might just win it."  I was sure it was going to be low-scoring, but this low-scoring?  That the Cards score the only run of the game before anyone was out?

Which, of course, made for a stressful evening.  The mid-evening start time meant I missed parts of the game with the whole bathtime/bedtime routine for the kids, but when I wasn't doing that, I was standing in front of the TV, pacing a little square as I watched the tension continue to increase.

My wife, who went back to watch another show, came out in the bottom of the ninth to see me in front of the TV, phone in hand, and asked, "What did baseball fans do without Twitter?"  As I told her, I honestly don't know.  I'm not sure I'd have stayed sane if it wasn't for being able to share this incredible tension with a number of my closest Cardinal fans.  So thanks to all that Tweeted with me last night, even if the last out countdown worried some.

Right now, I think the next podcast is going to have our resident historian Bob Netherton as a guest.  One of the questions I was planning to ask him, even before last night, was if Chris Carpenter was the Bob Gibson for our generation.  He's not going to be a Hall-of-Famer (though if Jack Morris still gets arguments basically for Game 7 of the '91 World Series, perhaps there will be some discussions of Carp) but as Bernie Miklasz stated, last night he sure looked like him.

Credit where credit is due to Tony La Russa, who did the controversial to attain the inconceivable.  It almost backfired on him--if the Cards don't come back in Game 2, we probably aren't talking about a Game 5 at all--but La Russa knew that if the Cardinals were going to have a chance to win against Roy Halladay in an elimination game, they had to have Carpenter to go against him.  There's no doubt that TLR is a baseball visionary and I'm very, very glad that he had the foresight to do just that, apply his vision to this series.

We'll talk about the NLCS in the next post.  The Brewers and Diamondbacks played their own classic game last night, an extra-inning affair that featured a safety squeeze to tie the game in the ninth.  And yet, it was completely overshadowed by a game that will be talked about for a long, long time.

Thanks, Chris Carpenter, for giving us a night we'll always remember and for giving this team yet another happy flight.

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Quick Check-In

Posted on October 5, 2011 at 6:44 AM
The beginning of October, I always have a bank audit to do for my real job.  (If only blogging paid the bills!)  It's a two-hour drive, so I'm out of the house before dawn and back not much before dark, with kids to see and things to do before getting to bed earlier than normal to make sure I don't snooze on the next day's drive.

Sometimes, that's not a huge deal.  If the Cards miss the playoffs, as they have three of now-five postseasons since I've started blogging, it's not like I'm missing much.  However, when they make it like this year, it leaves me behind the eight ball.

Which is a long winded way of saying I wish I could be writing about these games and probably will try to look back on them this weekend if I can get a chance.  However, I have a couple of minutes this morning before I head out of town and I want to talk about a point in yesterday's game that could have been the turning point of the whole series.

A lot of focus is being put on the seventh-inning intentional walk of Carlos Ruiz, and with good reason.  I listened to most of the game driving back in my car yesterday afternoon and I was talking to the radio much of the drive, but especially then.  I know there was sound baseball logic to it--Ruiz was probably more likely than a pinch-hitter to get a base hit that would have driven in Shane Victorino from second.  It sets up a force play as well and gets Cole Hamels out of the game (though at 117 pitches, he probably was out anyway).

So I understand why Tony La Russa made the call.  I just know that so often times, that kinda thing backfires.  He got away with it earlier by walking Hunter Pence to get to Ryan Howard, which I thought was a gutsy but smart move with the way Howard had looked against Jaime Garcia (and his typical struggles against lefthanders).  I just wasn't sure that he could get away with it again and, sure enough, Ben Francisco put one over the wall.

However, that might not have been the turning point of the game.

I wasn't on Twitter at the time and I've not had a lot of time to look at our intrepid Cardinal bloggers, but I'm not sure a lot of discussion is going on about the bottom of the sixth.  After two strikeouts, Ryan Theriot singles and they wind up walking Jon Jay with Garcia up next.  Two on, two out against Hamels, who really seemed to be laboring from what I was hearing on the radio.

Now, I know Garcia was pitching a strong game up to that point.  That said, it's October.  Don't you have to take a better shot there than letting Garcia hit?

You've got a rested bullpen for the last three innings, allowing you to mix and match however you want.  Garcia had just gotten past Howard after walking Pence, so you aren't going to have him come back up and you are looking at 5-6-7, which is less formidable than 2-3-4.  A base hit here gives you the lead, which would have been huge in a 0-0 game.

If this was April's bullpen, I'd have understood the move more.  You wanted to keep that bullpen off the field as much as possible.  Now, though, the pen is a strength, or at least not a weakness.  You'd feel pretty confident with those guys and a one-run lead, also figuring that the bullpen moves for Philadelphia might be different if they are behind than if they are ahead and you can likely hit them better than you have Hamels anyway.

Cards have their backs against the wall today, sending Edwin Jackson out against Roy Oswalt.  Oswalt's been tough on the Cardinals in the past, but after facing the other three Philadelphia pitchers, I feel pretty good about the Cardinals' ability to put good at-bats together and score a few runs off of him.  This will be Jackson's first postseason start, though, so I'm a bit concerned with how his game is going to go.  You have to figure he'll be yanked at the first sign of trouble because of the import of the game.

No matter the outcome of today's game, it's been a good series.  That said, be nice to see Roy Halladay vs. Chris Carpenter in a Game 5, wouldn't it?

Know Your Enemy

Posted on October 2, 2011 at 12:00 AM
I will have more to say about Game 1 of the NLDS either tomorrow or Monday, but for right now I want to bring you a chance to learn about the Phillies from a person that follows them.  Max of Fire Eric Bruntlett is the Membership Secretary of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance and a diehard fan of the Philadelphia persuasion.  He and I exchanged some questions before the series started.  You can see my responses to his over here (along with our old friend Bill Ivie), while his answers to mine are below.

C70: What's the pulse of the Philadelphia fanbase? Are they expecting a walkover? 

FEB: Some of the fan base seems like they would be disappointed by anything less than a sweep. However, I think that's too arrogant. Obviously, the Cardinals are the biggest underdogs in these series, but they're not the 2010 Cincinnati Reds that the Phillies swept last year. The Cardinals offense is more balanced, and the Reds didn't have a Chris Carpenter-type starter who could at least salvage one game with a shutdown performance. Not to mention, expecting a sweep leaves no room for error, only room for disappointment. Better to expect to lose a game and be pleasantly surprised than expect a sweep and be disappointed. 

C70: Is there any one player that worries you more than the rest of the Cardinal team? 

FEB: Aside from the obvious Albert Pujols-Matt Holliday-Lance Berkman fearsome trio, that Yadier Molina has put up the best offensive numbers of his career does worry me, especially considering last year's sharp decline. He was the NL's starting catcher last year, despite a truly abysmal .223/.301/.294 slash line, but the difference between his second half of the season and that first half was a very impressive .092/.067/.111. Still though, I figured it was merely regression to the mean and his awful first half was evened out by an over-his-head second half. However, this season, Molina put up numbers on par with those from the All-Star break on last year and set career highs in nearly every offensive category. He's already an above-average catcher defensively, and only helped to further the separation between him and Carlos Ruiz with his offense. 

C70: Do you put any stock into the series from mid-September, when the Cards won three of four in Citizens Bank Park? 

FEB: Offensively, no, I don't. The second game, when the Phillies won and clinched the NL East division, was the only of the four in which they had their full starting line-up, the same one that will be used in this series. Game 1 had first baseman Ryan Howard and left fielder Raul Ibanez out. Game 3, when I believe the team to have started putting on the cruise control, also the first game of their 8-game losing streak, gave Howard and catcher Ruiz the night off, and Howard also sat out Game 4. 

What I do put stock in is the starting pitching. Game 2 featured Roy Oswalt continuing to make great progress from a long injury that kept him out into August. 5 hits and 7 strikeouts through 7 innings was instrumental in reminding Phillies fans both why he was acquired in July 2010 and why he is the clear choice for fourth starter over rookie Vance Worley. Meanwhile, in Game 3, Hamels, except for two mistake pitches, was similarly masterful. One was a first-inning home run to deep left-center by Allen Craig, the other a sixth-inning homer just inside the left field line by Pujols, accounting for all four runs allowed by Hamels. Take away those, Hamels likely would've fared better than Oswalt - also 7 innings and also 5 hits, but 9 strikeouts - and likely would have pitched longer as well. Hamels's innings got him 16 fewer pitches, despite the homers. 

Unfortunately, Hamels has an unusual propensity for giving up the long ball. That game was the fourth in a streak of six consecutive games in September allowing a home run to end the season, the longest of his career. Surprisingly, that was the sole game of the month at home, in which he has allowed a long ball in just five of fifteen starts, despite the widely-held belief that Citizens Bank Park is a bandbox. On the road, he's allowed a homer in ten of seventeen. Of course, Hamels will start Game 3 of this series in St. Louis, so that may all be rendered moot. 

C70: What could reasonably go wrong in this series for the Phillies? What concerns do you have, if any? 

FEB: It is certainly difficult to imagine the Phillies losing this series, but of course, nothing is impossible. My main concern is Murphy's Law, "everything that can go wrong will go wrong." The young Phillies bullpen that is largely new to big roles in playoff baseball will blow a couple leads and the offense won't be able to come back. The offense continues the trend of being shut down by former teammates, this time Kyle Lohse, who beats Roy Halladay in a very close pitcher's duel and sets the tone for the series. Chris Carpenter wins a similar match-up over Cliff Lee in game 2 and the Phillies are on the road on the brink of a sweep. The phases of the moon determine that Raul Ibanez will go into a slump. The effects of injuries to Ryan Howard and Chase Utley will continue to manifest themselves and the rest of the lineup will not be able to overcome them. But while it is now apparent that the purpose of this question was to make me paranoid, I will continue to pray to BaseBa'al that not all of those things happen. 

C70: Is anything short of a World Series title acceptable among the majority of the fans?

FEB: Unfortunately, for most fans, no, but I guess that's the downside to having the best 162-game team by a wide margin. I would obviously prefer the best regular season record 100% of the time, regardless of post-season expectations. As has been proven many times, the best team actually rarely wins the World Series. There's so much more luck and variance that plays in. But no one remembers the best regular season team even a couple years later, while most fans can reel off every World Series champion of the past ten years or so. 

C70: Who is the hottest hitter on the team at the moment? Who do you want up with the game on the line? 

FEB: No one is coming into this series on a tear, likely as a result of clinching so early, then losing eight in a row. Of hitters with 50+ September plate appearances, the highest batting average was just .317 (Hunter Pence), Ryan Howard's .417 OBP led the team, and Pence also led in slugging, at .548. I suppose either of them would be preferred in a crucial situation. Both of Howard's September strikeout and walk rates were improvements over his season totals, 25% vs. 26.7% K-rates, and walk rates of 16.7% compared to 11.7%. Swinging at junk in the dirt is usually I fear the most from Howard in a big spot, so, despite a small jump, is still a good sign for me. Meanwhile, Pence was by far better with the Phillies than he was in Houston, improving in nearly every category and does inspire confidence. 

If the Phillies are in a spot in which they need a big hit from the bench, John Mayberry, Jr. would certainly be the first player to look at, unless Charlie Manuel plays the platoons and starts him against lefties. He's hitting .095 points better (.306 vs. .211) and OPS'ing a whopping .368 points better (.953 vs. .585) against them this season. Since he was called back up to the big club on July 5, 25 of his 49 hits have come for extra bases. Mayberry is the best hitter on the team when it comes to making the most of his hits. 

C70: We know about the rotation, but what is the state of the Phillies bullpen right now? 

FEB: The bullpen is in a very interesting position right now. This series, it consists of Ryan Madson, Antonio Bastardo, Michael Stutes, Brad Lidge, Vance Worley, Kyle Kendrick, and Joe Blanton. Worley, a rookie, and Kendrick was successful in their starting roles, filling in for the injured Oswalt and Blanton, while Blanton experienced moderate success in 7 September innings in his return. Bastardo pitched more than 25 innings for the first time in his career (58), and used the opportunity to break out as a great setup man. He had one of the lowest opponent batting averages for a reliever ever (.144) and that he did that in his third Major League season at the age of 25 is incredible. He has run into some troubles of late, but it seems that's as a result of having never pitched this much before, and appears to be back on track now. 

Stutes is another rookie of the bullpen. He had a 3.63 ERA in 62 innings in his first ever season. He hit a bump in the road in August to the tune of a 5.84 ERA, but brought it back down to 3.00 last month. Behind injuries to Lidge and Jose Contreras, Madson broke out as a dominating closer, previously standing out as one of the top-tier set-up men and among the most underrated relievers in baseball. In 60.2 innings, he accumulated 32 saves and an ERA of 2.37. In his return from injury, Lidge had a 1.40 ERA in 19.1 innings. 

The most encouraging part of the bullpen is their ability to dominate. Five of the seven have SO/9 rates of 8 or better: Bastardo, 10.9; Lidge, 10.7; Madson, 9.2; Stutes, 8.4; and Worley, 8.1. On the other hand, only Bllanton, Madson, and Kendrick walk 2.5 batters per nine innings or better (2.0, 2.4, 2.4, respectively). If I were to rank them by confidence, Madson is easily first, followed by the close second-tier of Worley, Bastardo, and Stutes, then Lidge fairly sizably over Blanton and Kendrick. 

C70: Can we have Brad Lidge always pitch to Albert Pujols with the game on the line? 

FEB: That's fine by me, so long as it's not Game 5. Lidge has yet to allow a home run this season, only four extra-base hits, all doubles. Small sample size alert, but this is the lowest opponent slugging percentage of his career, save his 48-for-48 save 2008 season. I've been anticipating Lidge winning a rematch between the two of them, anyway.

My thanks to Max for his input on this series.  So far, his confidence in the Phillies is well-placed, but we'll have to see how things look tomorrow evening.

And So It Begins

Posted on October 1, 2011 at 9:36 AM
I wrote two different posts yesterday talking about the NLDS and in neither one of them did I actually get around to asking a question that I meant to ask.  So before we talk about the latest Cardinal roster move, let me jump into that.

I don't to speak for a large part of Cardinal fandom (though I would hope the fandom would speak in the comments to what I'm about to say) but so often we go into the postseason with high hopes and high expectations.  I don't think there's an NLDS that I haven't expected the Cardinals to win.  So often it seems like that's just a stepping stone to going deep into October.  

It hasn't always panned out that way, of course.  When the Cards were swept last time, in 2009 against the Dodgers, there was a lot of angst and frustration.  We knew this team was better than that.  We knew they should be moving on.  And yet they weren't.

Today, the Cards kick off another NLDS.  I do believe they can win it (as I noted yesterday) and I know that if they don't win, I'll be disappointed at seeing the season come to a close.

And yet, I don't think I'll be able to get really worked up about it, no matter what.  Sure, a couple of late inning collapses and I'll rue what could have been.  In the heat of the moment, I might get irate over what has just taken place.  But angst?  Lasting frustration?  I just don't see that happening.

I think that, because I had pretty much put this team to bed in August, that everything from now on is house money.  I want the team to win, I think they can win, but I don't think I can get all wrapped up in a loss knowing that if Atlanta had just been a smidgen better at holding a lead, the Cards are playing golf right now.  September gave us a lot of thrills and have given us the chance to see some October baseball, so to some degree I think I am just "happy to be here."  That doesn't mean I don't want to see more, just that I'll be content either way.

Being the fact that the Cards are an underdog rather than a favorite probably plays into it as well.  It's one thing when we've seen a team be strong all year long and are playing a team that's perhaps their equal or less.  We feel the Cards really should win those series.  Instead, this time they are playing possibly the best team in baseball, a team that is on paper built to win it all.  Again, doesn't mean that the Cards can't do it or that it'd be some major miracle if they did, but I can accept being beaten by a team that appears superior better than I can a team that the Cards really should handle.

Am I wrong?  Are more of you going to live and die with this October just like you have in years past?  Let me know in the comments or on Twitter.

Now, we've talked about the surprise in the rotation already, but there was another twist to the roster.  Kyle McClellan won't be on the NLDS roster, it seems.  McClellan had complained of a dead arm recently, but he says he was back to full health.  The Cardinals felt they couldn't trust him to be available on back-to-back days and so they left him off.

That's a very, very tough call.  As Kevin referred to last night on Twitter, the Cards asked McClellan twice this year to change roles, first from the pen to the rotation when Adam Wainwright went down, then back to the pen when Edwin Jackson was acquired.  McClellan was a good soldier, doing what the team asked of him.  In that regard, doesn't he deserve the honor of going to the postseason with the club?  I mean, that's the reason that Jake Westbrook is still on the team, isn't it?  Westbrook hasn't relieved in a game since 2004.  He can eat up innings if the Cards are getting blown out, but that's about it.  I don't think we want to see Westbrook come into a game in the fifth if it hangs in the balance.

On the flip side, the Cards have to put out the best team they have, and if they are concerned that McClellan can't go more than an inning every other day or so, that's a legitimate reason to leave him off the roster.  The postseason isn't a time for sentiment and minimizing hurt feelings.  Remember, the Cards dropped Jason Marquis from the roster in '06 due to ineffectiveness.  McClellan has been prone to the long ball lately--possibly due to arm fatigue--and that can be a dagger in the postseason.

So I can't fault the Cards for doing that.  I do wish they'd have made room for Eduardo Sanchez, but they aren't completely sold on his health either, so I guess they are consistent about the whole thing.

The good news about the roster is that Rafael Furcal and Matt Holliday will both be on it after passing some physical evaluations.  It looks like Furcal might be healthy enough to go in Game 1, while Holliday isn't likely to start until later in the series, but could possibly pinch-hit.  Hopefully those guys can be healthy and productive, because that would be huge for the Cardinals' chances.

One last note--Tony La Russa is again a trendsetter.  He hit the pitcher eighth, then a couple of other teams started flirting with it.  He announces that Chris Carpenter is going in Game 2 on short rest and immediately Milwaukee thinks that's a great idea for Zack Greinke.  'Course,  Ron Roenicke said if Greinke had thrown 100 pitches he wouldn't be doing it, which shows he still has a ways to go before getting to TLR levels.

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta




Cardinals_MediumRectangle.jpg

UCB_11_trans_dark_sm.png

Search



BallHyped Best Sports Blogs Book
This blog was featured in the Best Sports Blogs of 2010 Book!
• Pick up the limited print edition
• Free Best Sports Blogs ebook 


United Cardinal Bloggers

FRIENDS OF THE UCB


Download the iPhone or Android UCB app by clicking on the nice orange picture.
Open in Mobile App 

And check out the UCB Network over at LockerDome!
lockerdome-share_63x63.png
  



Other Cardinal Blogs

Recommended Cardinal Forum

Other Cardinal Sites

General Baseball Blogs/Sites



Heroes
Matt Holliday (5)
Matt Carpenter (4)
Rafael Furcal (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
Jon Jay (3)
Kyle Lohse (3)
Lance Lynn (3)
Yadier Molina (3)
David Freese (2)
Jaime Garcia (2)
Adam Wainwright (2)
Lance Berkman (1)
Allen Craig (1)
Shane Robinson (1)
Fernando Salas (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Hero: Lance Berkman (24)
2010 Top Heroes: Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols (24)
2009 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (28)
2008 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (25)

Goats
Matt Holliday (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
David Freese (3)
Jaime Garcia (3)
Marc Rzepczynski (3)
Adam Wainwright (3)
Rafael Furcal (2)
Tyler Greene (2)
Jason Motte (2)
J.C. Romero (2)
Fernando Salas (2)
Mitchell Boggs (1)
Matt Carpenter (1)
Tony Cruz (1)
Daniel Descalso (1)
Jon Jay (1)
Erik Komatsu (1)
Kyle Lohse (1)
Victor Marte (1)
Eduardo Sanchez (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Goat: Ryan Theriot (12)
2010 Top Goat: Brendan Ryan (14)
2009 Top Goats: Rick Ankiel and Todd Wellemeyer (13)
2008 Top Goat: Troy Glaus (13)

2012 Happy Flights
Happy Flights: 7
Happy Flight Opportunities: 12
Happy Flight %: 58%

Through 5/20

    Cardinal Nation Approval Ratings (March 2012)
    Adam Wainwright 91.9% (down 2.8%)
    Chris Carpenter 90.1% (up 3.2%)
    Lance Berkman 88.6%
    Tony La Russa 88.2% (up 17.4%)
    Yadier Molina 87.4% (up 3.7%)
    Matt Holliday 87.3% (down 3.8%)
    David Freese 85.5%
    John Mozeliak 85.4% (up 13.3%)
    Mike Shannon 85.3% (up 0.4%)
    Jose Oquendo 84.7%
    Derrick Goold 82.8% (down 5.0%)
    Mark McGwire 82.6% (up 20.1%)
    John Rooney 81.5% (down 2.8%)
    Mike Matheny 81.1%
    Bill DeWitt 79.8% (up 8.8%)
    United Cardinal Bloggers 78.9%
    Skip Schumaker 73.3% (up 9.2%)
    Jim Hayes 71.9% (down 4.2%)
    Jon Jay 71.1%
    B.J. Rains 69.5% (down 0.9%)
    Kyle Lohse 68.9% (up 13.8%)
    Dan McLaughlin 68.0%
    Joe Strauss 67.7% (up 10.2%)
    Ricky Horton 67.5% (down 1.6%)
    Al Hrabosky 66.4% (up 3.2%)
    Albert Pujols 54.9% (down 45.5%)
    Colby Rasmus 46.5% (down 35.3%)

    2011
    Dave Duncan 87.9% (up 0.9%)
    Matthew Leach 85.5%
    Pop Warner 76.7%
    Ryan Franklin 72.8% (up 3.1%)
    John Vuch 68.9%
    Jeff Luhnow 66.4%
    Dan Lozano 58.7%

    2009
    Rick Ankiel 83.9%
    Chris Duncan 69.1%


    Looking for St. Louis Cardinals Tickets?  TicketCity is your source for New York Yankees Tickets and World Series Tickets.

    Looking for Cardinals tickets? Stop by OnlineSeats. We’ve got Blues seats and even Rams games. Go to the coasts as well and catch a Celtics game or get Dodgers tickets.

    Referrals