for the first time in many years the NL Central is the best division in the NL. And for once there are actually 2 teams that are better than us in this division that was once known as the Comedy Central. I’m not going to lie…the Cubs and Brewers are both better than us and their records show it.
Yeah we would be in first place in the NL West and 1 game back in the NL East…but those are the breaks. It was only a matter of time before a team or teams in the Central dominated the NL besides us for awhile. How many years did we dominate this division (2002, 2004, 2005) or barely take it because all the other teams in the Central were pretty shitty (2001, 2006).
Yeah I’m not going to be thrilled that it looks like we will not make the playoffs for two years in a row but considering how good this team has done from what I was expecting I’m not going to get too mad about it either. And to be frank, I think we are going to have strong competition from the Cubs for the next few years as well so next year is no shoe-in. But I think this team is a few IF pieces a starter and a couple of bullpen pieces away from getting into the playoffs next year..we will have our shot at October again real soon in my opinion. I can’t say that for the Pirates, Reds, Astros and even the Brewers for 2009.

But I’m still bitter about this season. Maybe it’s because I came into it strangely optimistic, but I thought we were gonna make a run and if we had back just HALF the blown games, we’d be sitting so pretty right now.

I’m bitter. We should be contending for the Wild Card, not 5.5 games back of it.

If anybody points blame at anything it should be this. I’m not upset about 7-7 against the pirates or injuries or anything else for that matter. The fact is, the team stuck with not 1, but 2 guys in the closer role that couldn’t get the job done. However, even if we had those games back in the win column, the brewers would still be hot on our tail and I think they’d catch us anyway. The Cubs and Brewers are both really good teams this year, and there is no shame in losing out to them, no matter how much it pisses us off.

I’m really excited about next season, which is more than I could say coming into this one. I think I had the cards pegged for around 78 wins or so this year, so it was definately a more enjoyable ride than I thought it would be, though filled with a lot of screaming at the TV after about 9 pm or so.

I’m done hoping for this year., I’d rather the Cards just expand the rosters and see what the young guys can do. Even if we go 6-20 the rest of the year we’ll just get a better set of draft picks (although, as dumb as it is, this could cost Albert his 2nd MVP).

Not because we sent guys out who got beat, but because TLR ran Izzy out there over and over, when he couldn’t compete, much less dominate. Then the same thing with Franklin. Maybe Perez wasn’t an option early on, but we could have tried out Springer, or K-Mac. I’d feel better about the blown saves if most of them weren’t from Izzy and Franklin.

Other than that, there’s not much to complain about. Our offense played really well, at least I thought so, and the starting pitching was phenomenally better than I thought it would be.

At the end of the season though, this year has been a load of fun, and I for one don’t feel cheated by the team like I did last year. Injuries happen, other teams spending and trading out the wazoo happen, and sometimes a decent team loses to the frickin Pirates and Astros. Hard to complain about a season where we, the fans, had fun and were extremely entertained, since that is baseball’s biggest value to us.

Yes yes yes!

Of course it’s disappointing to be a contender all year and then see what appears to be our dwindling chances finally end (although, it’s not over until we are mathematically eliminated! for those optimists out there) but I think it is important to remember that there was little to expect this year. We had so many question marks, and it was made clear that it was a rebuilding year.

The fact we had (have?) a playoff run should be viewed only as a positive, not as an excuse to whine about raising low expectations and then crushing them.

Besides, this year has been a cakewalk (imo) compared to the emotional roller coaster of ’07. This is what I wrote last fall about that seasons highs and lows:

HIGH: Win World Series!
LOW: Manager arrested for DUI during Spring Training
LOW: Lose #1 Starter after one game pitched
LOW: Relief pitcher killed in car accident
LOW: Utility player voluntarily enters rehab for substance abuse problem
LOW: Stints on disabled list by shortstop, center and right fielders, most of pitching staff, and catcher
HIGH: Triumphant return of player who imploded during his first career in the Majors (leads to team surge in the standings and another chance at the division title)
LOW: Possible career ending injury inflicted to on-deck batter by a foul tip from his own teammate
LOW: Season ending injuries to starting 2nd baseman, 3rd baseman, left fielder
LOW: Cinderella story tainted by allegations of steroid use
LOW: Seven game losing streak (coinciding with worst road trip for team in 35 years) on the heels of clawing back into contention for division title

Tell me how this year has even come close to that drama!?!??

It is always hard for me to see the full part of the cup and you have laid it out quite nicely. This season has exceeded expectations and we have at least made it to the start of football season. Go Tigers!

This season has been a lot more fun than I anticipated it being.

the post all star break west coast round swing always seemed to be the pin that popped the Cardinals’ contender bubble.

Lately (and this may be a misperception based on a thankfully small sample size) it seems to me like it has been a late season critical series loss at the hands on the Astros.

The Cards were not expected to be good this year, even by us. Instead they were good enough to be frustrating. Good enough to contend, not good enough to win. That the modus operendi of defeat was often the bullpen, the only area of the team not named Pujols that was considered a strength of the ballclub heading into the season, has added to the frustration.

My pessimistic side thought the ‘contender’ ended when we fell out of the wild card spot. The strongest argument that this version of the Cards were a playoff caliber team started with the words “If the season ended today….”

Once they became the chasers rather than the chasees, alot of things were going to have to go right for this franchise, especially on the injury front (a rarity of late) in order to catch the Cubs or Brewers who on paper look to be superior teams. That hasn’t happened.

Many question marks have been answered, but many remain. Even with the seemingly endlessly varied discussions of “should we replace skip with……Bonds, Holliday, Nady, Duncan, etc” . The OF as a unit has been the NL’s best at the plate. Glaus has proved the thought that his career would resurrect on natural grass correct. Yadi has developed into an approximation of a league average offensive player to go with his superb defense. Pujols remains Pujols (or if you will, looking at ‘most similar by age’ for every year of his career, the answer to the question “Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio?”)

Carp Wainwright Wellemeyer should be counted on for the rotation next season. Many young arms have proved they could be of value on the mound or in trade.

we lack major league options at short and 2nd and seemingly have no internal answers on the horizon. We have no lefty reliever thats both healthy and worth bringing back.

8 game losing streaks that these recent teams have been prone to. Could even be worse with the schedule we have coming up, 3-ARI, 3-FLA, 3-CHC. Cardinals could be staring up at the Astros come September 12th.

And, if they finish behind Houston, say what you will but this season will be a HUGE disappointment. Preseason prognostication or not, no one expects you to show up to the dance with the prom queen but when you do, you damn well better start dancing or no one will care that you ‘got her there’.

Thanks, this made me lose my breakfast! Apparently I was trying to repress this fact.

As much as I dislike the brew crew more than the cubs this year I think iwould rather have them win the world series over the cubs. If the cubs won the WS it would be the worst thing ever in baseball (/melodramatics)

I like reading your stuff, mostly because it can really strike up some good conversation/debate.

I remember thinking that you were totally out to lunch with your Rasmus/Schumaker post, but it drew a lot of responses early that morning.

I think this post does a great job of describing how most of us are feeling about the season, and I’m sure it will get a ton of comments too. Good work!

Tho I could have done without the rip on pitchers with foreign-sounding (in this case Korean) names.

More importantly tho, I am in total agreement from you. In what was suposed to be a rebuilding year— as forecast by the fans, if not declared by the club— we have had more than our fair share of surprises and the club has wildly exceeded most of our expectations. To me anything much beyond 81 wins or so is gravy.

I still may be wrong on this one, but my bigger regret of the season was that management didn’t cash in on their winning Lohse Lottery ticket.

That I will be visibly upset if ownership doesn’t open it’s wallet up and sign a major FA. The last couple years the Free Agency list has been weak. No point to overpay for crap so I didn’t blame them. This upcoming off season though their will be quite a few quality players worth chasing especially starting pitching.

I can’t help being disappointed. The probability of reaching the post season at the start were slim, but they played better than expected, so my expectations changed accordingly. In my mind, they let a real possibility slip. Sure, in March I would have signed up for 85 wins, but at this point that doesn’t feel so good anymore. Look at it like this: If you set yourself a goal, and reach it ahead of time, you go for the maximum, right? You set yourself a new goal. And if you don’t reach that new goal, you’re disappointed. Apparently the original goal set was too low. That’s why I see this season, although better than expected in March, as a missed opportunity.

In the spring, I thought: these boys need to get playoff experience. When we get our new lineup(s) in the off-season, it’s not going to be the same mix, or exactly the same chemistry. Playoff experience honed a lot of our young/new hands, guys who are now leaders in the clubhouse, and I’d argue that this is just as important a component of a rebuilding year as winning 88 games. Especially since it’s been relatively in reach for so long.

That’s my disappointment. Even if they lost in the first series, this club — with and without injuries — was playoffs-ready for a very long time. I wanted very badly for the young guys to get that experience before shuffling them hither and yon. But hey, maybe that scrappiness I saw in the first couple of months isn’t there now, and if so, it’s a helluva missed opportunity.

(And if that lack counts against Pujols getting more well-deserved acclaim, that’ll be extra bitter.)

i’m on board with the early success not being sustainable and how disappointing it has been to watch us fade down the stretch. contrary to what was said above, i feel our issues start at the top. i believe that mo gets a “B” and tlr etc a “C”, at best. with “A” performances from both, we’d be worrying about who we play in the play-offs. this leads me to have limited optimism for next year because the misplayed pieces and, of course, the pieces themselves remain in place. having colby around all next year won’t cure the problems. i fear there is something fundamentally wrong with the atmosphere created by management that allowed/induced cd, iz, mm, carp, etc to keep playing and costing us or remain mythical saviors, and you can add upper management’s inability/refusal to provide better pieces as equally culpable (not to mention the one we are paying to play well for the cubs). internal solutions to our deficiencies aren’t going to cut it in terms of catching the brewers or cubs. we were fading long before cc or harden found new homes and the internal fixes did not stop the slide. in addition, one potential internal fix was blown up and is now wining for the indians. i find it hard to believe we maximized their impact. the positives are nice, but these are players achieving. because of management or in spite of them is an interesting question with no way to determine for sure what the answer, but should stir some debate, healthy or not, this winter.