"Official" 2011 St. Louis Cardinals Thread

[BigRedChief]

This is so unreal. We were dead. No hope. A season over. Somehow, someway we find some team chemistry and squeak into the playoffs on the last day of the season.

Only to find us facing one of the best pitching staffs assembled in years with home field advantage. We somehow, someway find a way to beat the best pitcher in baseball on the road in an elimination game.

We have to go on the road and beat the team with the best home record in baseball. A team who mortgaged their future to make this run .We somehow, someway find a way to beat them on the road and make our 18th World series trip.

We take game 1, we give away game 2 and home field advantage. Albert goes off for probably the best performance in World Series history and we take game 3 easily. Games 4 & 5 our bats fall asleep, Phone gate happens and its not looking too good.

Game 6, one of the best baseball games of all time and it takes place in a season ending go home game. Cardinals are down 2 runs in their final chance on the season, twice. They are down to their final strike of the season, twice. They give up a 2 run homer in extra innings. In the bottom of the inning their final 3 batters are a combined 3-26 in the Playoffs and a pitcher because the bench is empty. Somehow, someway they get some runners on and the comeback player of the year drives in the tying run. Mr. Freese hits the walk off home run. We will see you tommorrow night.

Game 7, With our bulldog on the mound pitching on 3 days rest he is able to give us 6 good innings and get us to within 9 outs of our 11 World series title. Texas meltsdown, probably left over from last nights game and its over.

The underdog, come back team who had no business even being in the playoffs wins a World championship. They make movies about events like this in life. Events that you remember even if your not a fan of the sport or team for the rest of your life.

When it is your team.......Priceless


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[raybec 4]

Originally Posted by Rams Fan

Holy shit, Carp and Boggs were both taken out of the game early because of injuries. WTF have the Cards done to piss off baseball gods? I dunno what Boggs injury is, but Strauss said that Carp's might involve something with his hamstring.

Not as bad as it could have been. It's surely not a good way to start the spring though. Carp to miss one spring start, Boggs is long tossing already.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by raybec 4

Not as bad as it could have been. It's surely not a good way to start the spring though. Carp to miss one spring start, Boggs is long tossing already.

Cardinal nation is a jumpy lot this year. We can't lose Carp or even have hom take a step back and win the division. Carp has to produce a healthy year of pitching around a 3.0 ERA or we are screwed.

[Rams Fan]

2-1 in ST, bitches. We're going to the playoffs!!1111!1!

[Miles]

Ian Snell Retires
By Tim Dierkes [March 15 at 2:40pm CST]

Pitcher Ian Snell has retired, tweets B.J. Rains of FOXSportsMidwest.com. The Cardinals sent Snell to minor league camp and he instead elected to hang up his cleats. Snell, 29, had signed a minor league contract with the Cardinals in January after being let go by the Mariners. He was described as eager and excited just last month upon arriving in Florida.

Snell's best season was 2007, when as a 25-year-old he posted a 3.76 ERA in 208 innings. That performance earned him a three-year, $8.6MM extension, but he quickly lost effectiveness.

So much for Snell getting his shit together.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Oliver Perez got shitcanned yesterday. Maybe we should give him a shot with a minor league deal. A lefty would come in handy against the Phillies.

[Rams Fan]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

Oliver Perez got shitcanned yesterday. Maybe we should give him a shot with a minor league deal. A lefty would come in handy against the Phillies.

Do. Not. Want.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by Rams Fan

Do. Not. Want.

I realize it's 99% likely that he sucks and will continue to suck, but the Mets are paying his salary.

[Rams Fan]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

I realize it's 99% likely that he sucks and will continue to suck, but the Mets are paying his salary.

I know, but I wouldn't even take a chance on him. As bad as Tallet might be, I'd still take him over Perez.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

I know he's been working in the pen, but I was thinking of it as a #5 starter/long man.

[Rams Fan]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

I know he's been working in the pen, but I was thinking of it as a #5 starter/long man.

Isn't that why the Cardinals have Batista? Augenstein or what ever hasn't been doing a bad job either.

[Rams Fan]

This man should GDIAF:

http://www.murraychass.com/?p=3118

With the economy and international turmoil, President Obama has enough headaches; he doesn’t need any more. But his staff has created one for him with its failure to investigate fully the career and life of Stan Musial before recommending him for a Presidential Medal of Freedom that Obama bestowed on him last month.Stan Musial Obama3 225

It turns out that the 90-year-old Musial is not the Saint Stan he is considered in St. Louis. For sure, Musial remains the great player he was in his Hall of Fame career and deserves all of the accolades he has received for his achievements in that career.

As a person, however, he left much to be desired. Marvin Miller raised the issue in a recent conversation and provided the evidence to make his case. It is a convincing one.

Curt Flood, a Cardinals’ teammate of Musial, was Exhibit A.

Musial, with a partner, had a restaurant (a “posh restaurant,” Miller said) in St. Louis called Stan Musial & Biggie’s. Flood and some of his teammates, also African-American and all former teammates of Musial, Miller said, made plans to attend a celebration at the restaurant. This was some time after Musial retired following the 1963 season.

“Flood organized this group of African-American players,” Miller related, “He got together a group that had known Musial as a teammate and they thought it was appropriate that they should go. As he said to me, ‘We didn’t always dress up but that night we did. We wore freshly pressed pants, shirts, ties, jackets and off we went to help celebrate with our former teammate.

“When we got to the restaurant, the maitre d’ refused to seat us,” Flood told Miller.

“He said they wanted to know why that was,” Miller continued, “and the maître d’ finally pointed around the restaurant and said, ‘Do you see any black faces here?’ Flood said he asked ‘Is this your idea?’ No, he said. The owner had given him instructions. They left.”

The incident appears in some books about Flood, though in one book in a different form. In that version, Flood was with a date when they were not seated. But that author’s version didn’t come directly from Flood.

Miller’s version did. He spent a lot of time talking to Flood when the outfielder was suing Major League Baseball in 1970, challenging the reserve clause that restricted players to their teams until and unless they were traded, sold or released.

Marvin Miller Curt FloodThe word ironic is overused, but it would seem to me we could consider it ironic that the nation’s first black president awards the nation’s highest civilian honor to someone who discriminated against blacks.

Some people believe that even earlier, in 1947, Musial displayed that view, opposing Jackie Robinson’s entry into the major leagues.

“When it became known that the Dodgers were going to bring up Robinson,” said a lawyer with no first-hand knowledge of the incident, “Musial tried to organize a boycott against playing them if he was on the team. Musial was outraged.”

Another lawyer, also with no direct knowledge of the situation, has studied the Cardinals in that time and has written about them.

“I’m a huge Musial fan,” said Jason Mark Anderman. “Either he was willfully blind as to what was going on in his own clubhouse or the sports writers were wrong. He might actually have been willfully blind. It also seems possible that he deliberately forgets things that were going on at the time.”

Anderman also noted that Willie Mays said that when he first made the All-Star game Musial was the first white player to be friendly to him. Anderman also said that that Musial had good relations with Bill White and Bob Gibson, black Cardinals’ teammates, who did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

“It doesn’t seem like the strike would ever have been something he’d have been a part of,” Anderman said.

Miller said he was not aware of any anti-Robinson feelings in Musial. “I know there were ardent racists on the Cardinals,” he said, “but I never heard Musial’s name in that connection.”

Miller, however, became aware of other issues involving Musial that render him less than “The Man.”

“The first real attempt to get the players freedom, I suppose, was the attempt by Robert Murphy, a former N.L.R.B. examiner, who tried to organize the players on his own. Musial had a cold shoulder for that.

“At the same time, in 1946, two Mexican brothers tried to create competition for the major leagues, deciding to establish a major league in Mexico. They attempted to recruit some of the top stars in the U.S. They succeeded in signing some of them, including Sal Maglie and Mickey Owens. The Mexican entrepreneurs offered two, three, four times what they were making.

“Musial at the time was already an outstanding major league player. Stan Musial 225The Mexican brothers tried to entice him, but he apparently discussed it with Gussie Busch (Cardinals’ owner) and decided his interests were elsewhere. He did nothing immediately.”

“The owners,” Miller continued, “panicked at the dual threat of a union and Mexico and offered a pension plan for the first time. Pensions were unheard of in professional sports at the time.

“Musial was on the committee considering the pension plan,” Miller said, “and as far as I could determine from the records, he was on the committee because the owners appointed him and not the players.”

The committee created a plan for players with five years or more in the majors. However, it included a limiting provision. To be eligible for a pension, a five-year player had to be on a roster the last day of the 1946 season and the first day of the 1947 season.

“It disqualified everyone who went to Mexico,” Miller said, “It was a very severe disqualification.”

A player could have 10, 15, 20 years of major league service but if he played in Mexico in 1946 or was released before the final day of the season, there would be no pension.

“It’s clear from looking at the records,” Miller said, “that that provision was aimed clearly at players who played in Mexico. Musial was part and parcel of that committee. I’ve looked and looked and never found anything about anyone raising a protest about that.”

The ramifications of the provision became apparent to Miller when he became executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association in 1966.

“When I came in,” the 93-year-old Miller said, “I began getting requests from players to become part of the pension plan who were not part of the plan because of that provision. There wasn’t anything I could do. But we knocked out that provision.”

Miller acknowledged that Musial continues to be worshipped in St. Louis, where a bronze statue of him stands outside Busch Stadium on Musial Plaza with these words: “Here stands baseball’s perfect warrior. Here stands baseball’s perfect knight.”

There also stands a recipient of a presidential medal of freedom from a president who should have known better, if only his staff had done its job.

The dude is an old guy who is against the sabermetrics(which is all of the new stats like WAR) and thinks you can judge a player based purely on RBIs, ERA, AVG. etc. He's against blogs, too.

[BigRedChief]

How do you guys feel about the Cards this spring?

It's spring training, not "real" games so everything needs to be taken with a grain of salt. I've seen about 5 games....here's what I've noticed...

The good

• Pujols, Carp, Molina, Holliday, Westbrook look GTG.
• Fresse will be an All-Star some day if his ankles hold up.
• Lohse has looked good.
• McClellan looked damn good..078 ERA damn...
• Shu looks better
• Rasmus isn't swinging for the fences and maybe will fill in the 2nd slot nicely.

The Bad

• Franklin looks ready to meltdown.
• Motte doesn't look ready to step up.
• The bullpen in general.

The Ugly

• WTF happen over the off season to Garcia?
• I hope Theroit finds his swing.
• Berkman is going to fall off the production cliff this year.

[Rams Fan]

Not worried about Berkman, at worst he's a 4th OF making $8 mil. Jaime scares me.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

I'd expect this team to win between 78-82 games.

As far as your points go:

Freese will never be an All-Star. It's not just his ankles, he also lacks power.
Schumaker still should not be starting over any MIF in AAA or above for this organization

Franklin is a junkballer who has been getting by on luck for two straight years. That shit evens out. Motte is a one trick pony with shoulder problems. Meanwhile, Chris Perez is lights out in Cleveland. Motte may not be in baseball in two years.

Garcia is due for an explosion in his ERA this year. Not only will he regress to the mean, but he threw way too many innings last year and it's going to come back and bite him in the ass. For as much animosity as they have, Tony has a very Dusty Bakeresque approach to young pitchers.

Of course Berkman is going to fall off. He's an aging player asked to play a position he can't physically play, and he's never been a model of physical fitness.

This is just going to be a worse version of the 2010 team. None of the glaring holes on the team were solved. If this team would have been wise enough to move for Dan Uggla rather than Ryan Theriot and Lance Berkman, you'd finally fill a hole at 2nd, you could get Schumaker out of their, and you'd also be forced to play someone at short who can actually man the position.

[Rams Fan]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

I'd expect this team to win between 78-82 games.

As far as your points go:

Freese will never be an All-Star. It's not just his ankles, he also lacks power.
Schumaker still should not be starting over any MIF in AAA or above for this organization

Franklin is a junkballer who has been getting by on luck for two straight years. That shit evens out. Motte is a one trick pony with shoulder problems. Meanwhile, Chris Perez is lights out in Cleveland. Motte may not be in baseball in two years.

Garcia is due for an explosion in his ERA this year. Not only will he regress to the mean, but he threw way too many innings last year and it's going to come back and bite him in the ass. For as much animosity as they have, Tony has a very Dusty Bakeresque approach to young pitchers.

Of course Berkman is going to fall off. He's an aging player asked to play a position he can't physically play, and he's never been a model of physical fitness.

This is just going to be a worse version of the 2010 team. None of the glaring holes on the team were solved. If this team would have been wise enough to move for Dan Uggla rather than Ryan Theriot and Lance Berkman, you'd finally fill a hole at 2nd, you could get Schumaker out of their, and you'd also be forced to play someone at short who can actually man the position.

This team isn't as bad as '07. Carp and Jaime would have to suck for that to happen.