Game 1: An Interesting Observation

Whoa, I get a blog? Sweet.

I didn't realize just by signing up for an account I'd be given a blog, so I guess I'd better use it.

My personal introduction? I'm a 25-year old lifelong baseball fan and a St. Louis-raised Cardinal fanatic. I live in Oregon, and one of the most painful things about the West Coast is not having seen my Cardinals play in person for over 3 years.

Game 1. Reyes vs. Verlander. Here's something worth chewing on that I haven't heard anyone talk about yet. Reyes' fastball versus Detroits big swingers. Mid-season, a big deal was made about La Russa and Duncan trying to get Reyes to change his pitching approach by using more low fastballs to "pitch to contact". Reyes was to use less high 4-seamers to induce ground balls and keep his pitch count down.

In this series, I think La Russa and Duncan would be wise to reexamine this philosophy with Reyes. The Tigers were not the most disciplined bunch during the season. They improved their pitch selection during the first two playoff rounds, but now that they've had a week layoff, there's reason to believe they will be itching to get those bats off their shoulders. If the Tigers are going to come out swinging on the first and second pitches, would it be better to have them swinging at 2-seamers or 4-seamers? I say, tell Reyes to let loose with some high-heaters. Especially on 0-1 and 0-2 counts, I think that would be a great way to try to take advantage of the Tigers' pension for swinging at fastballs. No other Cardinal with the possible exception of Carpenter has the capability of throwing fastballs by these guys, and I'd like to see the coaching staff allow Reyes to employ his full arsenal in this series.

Any thoughts?