My most frustrating aspects of watching our team:

“On-field”:
1. Blown Saves
2. Missed Umpire Calls
3. Walking a Pitcher

“Off-field”:
1. Inane Commentator Remarks
2. Interminably Long Rain Delays

i agree on the frustration of not scoring those “low hanging fruit” runs from third, but i disagree a bit on how to measure success. league average of rbi/ab was 59% in these situations and cards average was nearly identical (58). as the individuals in the table go, however, the top 2 were miles and kennedy followed by pujols, with skip right behind him (all in the 70 range). after skip, only molina was above league average (63) and ank gets the bottom slot at 34. to me this reflects not only a “cardinal sin”, but also a sin for most of modern baseball. just watch the at bats in these situations. there is very little situational hitting in terms of looking for the pitch that might best be put in play for the SF. i was always told in those situations, the first two strikes are for the team and you don’t hit for yourself until 2 strikes. i guess you can’t make money that way, and these numbers kind of reflect that. they also reflect the fact that miles and kennedy did make some real contributions to our run total after all.

I am a huge fan of the big inning, but if the score is tied or we are down 1 then I want APu to get the run home at all costs. Otherwise, let ’er rip.

boy it’s frustrating to have an opposing batter make first on a strikeout. And I’ll second foursticks blown bunts by pitchers.

When there’s a rally and someone comes up and pops out on the first pitch. I mean, really, don’t effing reach 2 feet out of the zone to swing on the first pitch when the bases are loaded.

I hope we see alot of PH’s for him with Mather of (hopefully) Freese in these late inning situations. That is if Ank can’t improve and Mather/Freese can be more productive than him under these circumstances. But, with those numbers Rick put up last season, doing so will not be too difficult…

The batter pops up on the infield. I know we have two more outs to work with, but it just feels like such a huge momentum swing that there’s no way we’re getting a run. That, or a 1-2-3 DP with the bases loaded and none out.

man on second, base hit up the middle, and we end up first and third?

Is when a pitcher walks in a run when the bases are loaded especially when it is the closer, ie Perez

the kind of thread starter I enjoy the most (informative)… and I thank you for the time it took to research and present it. It inspired nice, crisp comments, too.

when the coaches godson gets to keep playing even though his neck is broken.

but stupid managerial decisions are worse. I can cut a player a little slack when in a pressure situation with a 94 MPH fastball or wicked slider catching a corner. That’s a damn tough environment to work in, and getting a GB to the right side isn’t always going to be possible in those situations, even for the league MVP.

My personal head-banger is a manager calling bunt when there’s a man on 2nd, no outs. My choice for the stupidest conventional wisdom in baseball, and way too many managers default to that too often.

and I’ll say it again.
That’s a big FUCKIN pitch.
AW has balls, and needless to say I was drunk for that inning in 06 and preceded to go out and get even more drunk to celebrate.
BTW I still dislike Endy Chavez for that catch

for me, has to be the inability of some of the Redbird pitchers, the inning after the offense puts runs on the board.