Stl Cardinals 2011 - The Road To Somewhere ?

[Brian K. Shaffer]

I for one have high hopes for the Cards this season... but is this the year ?

Berkman if he stays healthy is a nice pickup..

Holiday is seeing the ball well at the bat and in the field..

Rasmus is playing great.. and his bat is alive..

TheRiot is playing well enough I guess but his bat needs to come around a little..

Pujols just needs to not tear anything and see the ball well.. he'll do well either way I think

We do need to establish a closer if Franklin isnt it..

Sanchez for a rookie is doing very well.. surprisingly well..

Carp, Loshe, Garcia.. they should all fair pretty good.. but its Westbrook I fear..

Keep your fingers crossed guys and gals.. the NL Central is gonna be a bumpy ride!

Brian

[David Unnerstall]

Ohhhhh but Boggs blew that save last night. St. Louis is a baseball town but cannot tolerate closers who are not one hundred percent.

[Brian K. Shaffer]

David - thanks for joining in! You gotta be pumped living in STL for this seasons progress thus far.

Tuesday's game; that was a rough one to lose. My brother in Houston got to gloat about the walk-off win. Ugh!

Our bullpen still needs a little work.. and our closers do too... but once we get things figured out....

We will be the force to be reckoned with in the NL Central! All teams play thru us to get to the fall classic this year.

( i just gotta keep telling myself that )

Brian

[stlfisher]

I think they will be alright in the end, but the reds are a pretty good team and have a few injuries themselves. The closer situation is disturbing...they almost blew a 6 run lead tonight. Starting pitching is good, offense has been great since the first week, and the bullpen is questionable. They have a lot of young arms and I think they will be better as the year goes on. To bad the Cardinals didn't trade Motte for Derosa a few years ago...they elected to send Perez...who is doing very well and closing. Tough call at the time though, but Motte was billed as a closer and hasn't developed into one...yet. Bogg's could be that guy too, but we need one of them to step up soon. McClellan has been great as a starter and Garcia has been lights out the last 1 1/2. To bad Wainwright isn't healthy!

[Kyle]

I think they will be alright in the end, but the reds are a pretty good team and have a few injuries themselves. The closer situation is disturbing...they almost blew a 6 run lead tonight. Starting pitching is good, offense has been great since the first week, and the bullpen is questionable. They have a lot of young arms and I think they will be better as the year goes on. To bad the Cardinals didn't trade Motte for Derosa a few years ago...they elected to send Perez...who is doing very well and closing. Tough call at the time though, but Motte was billed as a closer and hasn't developed into one...yet. Bogg's could be that guy too, but we need one of them to step up soon. McClellan has been great as a starter and Garcia has been lights out the last 1 1/2. To bad Wainwright isn't healthy!

How long can LaRussa keep throwing Franklin out there? He just doesn't have it anymore. He was talking about retiring last year, wish he would have. There is no such thing as a pitch to contact closer. Closers are supposed to be shut-down. I understand his defense is not helping him out, but you can't let every batter smack the ball as hard as they can and hope your defense takes care of it. (Remember we knew we were giving up defense for offense.) I'm not going to get into Miller right now but jeeze, get stop taking pitching advice from Franklin.

I feel better now.

Kyle

[jah]

I can't stand LaRussa. There, I said it. I think he thinks he's a freaking guru, when he complicates everything and has completely conflicting game plans. To wit: the first game of the series, late in the game, bases loaded, Larussa played for 2 up the middle and got the DP to end the inning. 9th inning same exact siuation, this time he brings the infield in. If they're back, another 6-4-3. Instead, game over on rbi hit. Why change? Why stick with veterans when the youngsters are ready to play? Why allow Albert and Yadi to jog out ground balls to first yet preach " a hard nine"? Anyone else notice that Albert "hurt" his hammy on a play where they threw wide to first base??? Had he have been sprinting, he would have been safe on a throwing error. Instead, he KNEW he should have been sprinting, and then made the excuse about "hurting himself". It's ridiculous. Tony needs to go, and I'd love to see Jose Oquendo take over. Or just put an inanimate cone in the dugout so we don't have a manager "overthinking"....and I use the term "thinking" lightly.

darn, who started this???? My day is now ruined....when will the Current be fishable so I can participate in a different forum???

[stlfisher]

How long can LaRussa keep throwing Franklin out there? He just doesn't have it anymore. He was talking about retiring last year, wish he would have. There is no such thing as a pitch to contact closer. Closers are supposed to be shut-down. I understand his defense is not helping him out, but you can't let every batter smack the ball as hard as they can and hope your defense takes care of it. (Remember we knew we were giving up defense for offense.) I'm not going to get into Miller right now but jeeze, get stop taking pitching advice from Franklin.

I feel better now.

Kyle

Yep, I agree Franklin needs to go. You could kind of seeing this coming at some point. Unless he is almost perfect he get's hammered. It worked for awhile, but it is time to find someone who has shutdown material. We have lost 5 games in the last at bat already...we can't keep giving games away like that! So frustrating to watch.

[stlfisher]

I can't stand LaRussa. There, I said it. I think he thinks he's a freaking guru, when he complicates everything and has completely conflicting game plans. To wit: the first game of the series, late in the game, bases loaded, Larussa played for 2 up the middle and got the DP to end the inning. 9th inning same exact siuation, this time he brings the infield in. If they're back, another 6-4-3. Instead, game over on rbi hit. Why change? Why stick with veterans when the youngsters are ready to play? Why allow Albert and Yadi to jog out ground balls to first yet preach " a hard nine"? Anyone else notice that Albert "hurt" his hammy on a play where they threw wide to first base??? Had he have been sprinting, he would have been safe on a throwing error. Instead, he KNEW he should have been sprinting, and then made the excuse about "hurting himself". It's ridiculous. Tony needs to go, and I'd love to see Jose Oquendo take over. Or just put an inanimate cone in the dugout so we don't have a manager "overthinking"....and I use the term "thinking" lightly.

darn, who started this???? My day is now ruined....when will the Current be fishable so I can participate in a different forum???

Larussa makes me scratch my head at times too howver he does seem to win a lot of games. I hate it when he bats the pitcher 8th! I wonder if we could retain Duncan when Larussa leaves. My guess is Duncan goes too. I would be good with Oquendo taking over as well.

Very possible next year we have no Larussa, Duncan, or Pujols.

I too hope the Current is fishable soon...everytime I have had some free time to go down it has either been snowing or flooding. Almost as frustrating as watching Franklin closing.

[jah]

Larussa makes me scratch my head at times too howver he does seem to win a lot of games. I hate it when he bats the pitcher 8th! I wonder if we could retain Duncan when Larussa leaves. My guess is Duncan goes too. I would be good with Oquendo taking over as well.

Very possible next year we have no Larussa, Duncan, or Pujols.

I too hope the Current is fishable soon...everytime I have had some free time to go down it has either been snowing or flooding. Almost as frustrating as watching Franklin closing.

Here's a list of managers with the highest winning percentages:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_managers_by_wins

Not "wins", mind you. Winning percentage. He's awful----and everyone looks at his wins vs win %, which is more indicative of a good manager. I cannot stand him. Now I'm mad again....thanks stlfisher.

RankNameWin Pct.Games1Joe McCarthy.6153,4872Jim Mutrie.6111,1143Charlie Comiskey.6081,4104Frank Selee.5982,1805Billy Southworth.5971,7706Frank Chance.5931,6227John McGraw.5864,7698Al Lopez.5842,4259Earl Weaver.5832,54110Mickey Cochrane.58260011Harry Wright.5812,18512Eddie Dyer.57877713Cap Anson.5782,28814Fred Clarke.5762,82915Davey Johnson.5642,03916Joe Girardi.56466317Monte Ward.56375118Pat Moran.5611,34419Steve O'Neill.5591,87920Walter Alston.5583,65821Larry Dierker.55678322Bobby Cox.5564,50823Miller Huggins.5552,57024Bill Terry.5551,49625Patsy Tebeau.5551,33926Charlie Manuel.5541,39827Billy Martin.5532,26728Buck Ewing.55390329Grady Little.55264830Mike Scioscia.5511,79931Walter Johnson.55096632Nap Lajoie.55070033Ron Gardenhire.5481,476RankNameWin Pct.Games1Joe McCarthy.6153,4872Jim Mutrie.6111,1143Charlie Comiskey.6081,4104Frank Selee.5982,1805Billy Southworth.5971,7706Frank Chance.5931,6227John McGraw.5864,7698Al Lopez.5842,4259Earl Weaver.5832,54110Mickey Cochrane.58260011Harry Wright.5812,18512Eddie Dyer.57877713Cap Anson.5782,28814Fred Clarke.5762,82915Davey Johnson.5642,03916Joe Girardi.56466317Monte Ward.56375118Pat Moran.5611,34419Steve O'Neill.5591,87920Walter Alston.5583,65821Larry Dierker.55678322Bobby Cox.5564,50823Miller Huggins.5552,57024Bill Terry.5551,49625Patsy Tebeau.5551,33926Charlie Manuel.5541,39827Billy Martin.5532,26728Buck Ewing.55390329Grady Little.55264830Mike Scioscia.5511,79931Walter Johnson.55096632Nap Lajoie.55070033Ron Gardenhire.5481,476

[Guest P. owensby]

Six blown save chances already, on pace for about forty, need I say more?