"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


.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by frazod

I think you'd be hard pressed to find a life long Cubs fan who hates this ****ing team as much as I do right now. Goddamn I wish LaRussa would drop ****ing dead and all his sycophant crony one who sucks the peniss right along with him. They should have blown it up last year. They really, really should have blown it up this year. Now we'll have to endure a lost season of no hope and further internal destruction and then hopefully next season the rebuilding process will begin.

Goddammit.

The Yankees are ripe.

Offer them Carpenter for Montero and Banuelos then say yes when they come back with Carp for Montero by himself.

Afterall, someone's going to have to play 1b next year.

[Rams Fan]

Originally Posted by PGM

2-4 against a couple of realllly talentless teams.

The Padres are basically the same team as last year except with out Gonzalez.

Except with a new SS and I think 2B.

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Originally Posted by Shatty Lite

The Padres are basically the same team as last year except with out Gonzalez.

Except with a new SS and I think 2B.

That's a pretty substantial loss. That lineup is a joke. They have a hell of a bullpen though.

Imagine the Cards over a whole season without anyone substantial to replace Albert.

[Rams Fan]

Originally Posted by PGM

That's a pretty substantial loss. That lineup is a joke. They have a hell of a bullpen though.

They have virtually the same staff and might have improved with Correia going to Pittsburgh.

[Rams Fan]

Cards play the Giants on Friday in their first home series of the season in SF. And they got Wilson back.

FML

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Originally Posted by Shatty Lite

They have virtually the same staff and might have improved with Correia going to Pittsburgh.

Petco helps quite a bit.

2.9 ERA Home

3.9 ERA Away

That's team ERA. The starters were much, much worse.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Well, it's a day game after a night game and the Cardinals have a whopping 4 hits through 6 innings against the immortal Kevin Correa...

Glad to see they bothered to show up.

Lemme know when I can start worrying about that 90 loss season without being "hysterical" - m'kay?

These guys suck. Or they just don't give a shit. More likely both.

When I said you were being hysterical, it was about the possibilities for rebuilding this team with the talent available, not the prospects for this year.

Don't get it twisted.

[Rams Fan]

Some people at a Cardinals forum I lurk at are calling for McGwire to be fired. I don't think he's the problem.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by Shatty Lite

Some people at a Cardinals forum I lurk at are calling for McGwire to be fired. I don't think he's the problem.

Do you like our hitting philosophy?

[Rams Fan]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

Do you like our hitting philosophy?

LaRussa has gone through multiple hitting coaches. The 2010 Cardinals offense was pretty much the same as the 2009 Cardinals offense statistics wise, except a bit better in some places and a bit worse in others.

To answer your question, no I don't like the hitting philosophy but McGwire shouldn't be the scapegoat.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by Shatty Lite

LaRussa has gone through multiple hitting coaches. The 2010 Cardinals offense was pretty much the same as the 2009 Cardinals offense statistics wise, except a bit better in some places and a bit worse in others.

To answer your question, no I don't like the hitting philosophy but McGwire shouldn't be the scapegoat.

I think you're right that making McGwire the scapegoat is ultimately counterproductive for the reason that TLR always wants his players to swing at first pitch strikes, which in my mind is a foolish and wasteful approach. However, I don't believe that McGwire has enough knowledge about the swing to correct players when problems arise. That's why he should be fired.

[Rams Fan]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

I think you're right that making McGwire the scapegoat is ultimately counterproductive for the reason that TLR always wants his players to swing at first pitch strikes, which in my mind is a foolish and wasteful approach. However, I don't believe that McGwire has enough knowledge about the swing to correct players when problems arise. That's why he should be fired.

Has LaRussa ever fired a coached mid-season? 2001? I think it's highly unlikely that McGwire will be fired but if LaRussa leaves after this season, I don't see McGwire coming back.

And we don't know how much knowledge he does or doesn't have. Personally, I wouldn't have a problem if they named Aldrete the hitting coach.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by Shatty Lite

Has LaRussa ever fired a coached mid-season? 2001? I think it's highly unlikely that McGwire will be fired but if LaRussa leaves after this season, I don't see McGwire coming back.

And we don't know how much knowledge he does or doesn't have. Personally, I wouldn't have a problem if they named Aldrete the hitting coach.

I think it's fair to draw the conclusion that he doesn't have much knowledge of hitting. What hitter has improved under his tutelage? A number of them got worse, including Matt Holiday in early 2009 when he was with the A's, before he jettisoned McGwire's approach.

If you looked at his own swing, it wasn't a very sound one. He drew almost all his power from his arms, which is one of the reasons why he was fooled quite often, and why he often battled injury.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

I think it's fair to draw the conclusion that he doesn't have much knowledge of hitting. What hitter has improved under his tutelage? A number of them got worse, including Matt Holiday in early 2009 when he was with the A's, before he jettisoned McGwire's approach.

If you looked at his own swing, it wasn't a very sound one. He drew almost all his power from his arms, which is one of the reasons why he was fooled quite often, and why he often battled injury.

Hitting coaches are scapegoats for hitters swinging at bad pitches and not being disciplined.

These are major league ball players, thousands and thousands of hours in the batting cages. Thousands of games from little league baseball till now to refine their swing. At this level they watch video of their swing after every game to spot mechanical flaws.

As much as I hate this swing at the first pitch BS. Mcguire isn't the reason for our offensive troubles.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

Hitting coaches are scapegoats for hitters swinging at bad pitches and not being disciplined.

.

I think we all agree that Tony is the one who preaches the lack of discipline, but can you honestly point to a single hitter that has improved under McGwire's tutelage?

One of his jobs is to spot and fix flaws he finds in the batter's approach. He can't turn a .230 hitter into a .300 hitter, but he should be able to help a .300 hitter get out of a prolonged slump, or fix a guy's mechanics.