I'm tired of hearing this claim made by people in the press.  Sure, they only won 83 regular season games (in 161 tries).  But it's not like the Devil Rays got hot and won the Fall Classic.

First and foremost, this team contained the previous season's MVP and Cy Young winner.  There's a decent chance the 2006 MVP was on the team, and an outside chance the that 2006 Cy Young will come from this team as well.

The 2006 Cardinals also featured 6 regulars who had started on World Series champions, including 4 that were on the team just 2 years ago.  (Molina started Game 4 of that series.)  Add in bench players Speizio and Taguchi, along with Jeff Suppan and Braden Looper, and you had 10 out of 25 players with World Series experience.

Now take a look at the Cardinals over the past 3 seasons.

Over the past 3 regular seasons, the Cardinals had 288 wins. That's the most in the NL, and 2nd most in baseball behind the Yankees with 293. 2006 was the only season in that span that the Cardinals finished with a record worse than the Yankees.

Over the past 3 seasons, the Cardinals and Yankees are the only teams to make the playoffs all three years.

The Cardinals are the only team in either league during that span to have multiple pennants (2).

And, obviously, the Cardinals are one of 3 teams to win the WS. Compared to the other 2 champions, however, the Cardinals have had a better 3 year run.

vs. Red Sox - 9 more regular season wins, 1 more playoff appearance, 1 more pennant, (and 3 more division crowns)

vs. White Sox - 16 more regular season wins, 2 more playoff appearances, 1 more pennant

Yes, they only won 83 games this year.  And yes, they should have been underdogs in all three series they played, based on those results.  But for people to claim that there is a problem with the playoff format because the Cardinals won is short sighted.