It ended as it began

I think the Angels could be fun to follow, beyond simply beating up on the Red Sox. In light of the Adenhart tragedy, they’ve got my emotional support at least.

I like their team when I’m not rooting for the Cards. Don’t know why, but I have a soft spot for them. Also, it’d be nice to see the Angels win it for Adenhart.

But he will be wrong.

The Holliday stuff sounds fine, but DeRo should not be a “priority” and I won’t even get started about Pujols, cause yeah.

It’s just too bad that we saw this team go down in flames.

We had the best 1-2-3 punch in baseball, which usually bodes well for the playoffs. We had a good offense (despite the regular season numbers) and a very good defense (despite the regular season numbers).

I sort of agree with you on Luddy but not for the same reasons. I don’t think 2009 Luddy is all that different from 2008 Luddy consider his reduced PAs due to injury. But I would still want someone more consistent even at 2008 numbers. Luddy is feast or famine and doesn’t work the count. So if one looks at the total numbers or average numbers, he is great. But when one looks at the distribution, he looks streaky. So I think he is great as a #5, but we need more consistency at #4 or #2. I want to exploit the Pujols factor and make people pay every single time the walk AP. I love Luddy. I think he is a great player and just such a likable person. My only beef is lack of plate discipline. His streakiness sort of reminds me of Reggie Sanders and even JimEd a bit.

Albert Pujols is in the midst of the biggest slump of his CAREER, pretty much (no HR in one calendar month!), Holliday was meh through September, and we weren’t getting anything out of Yadi with injuries and poor form for a little while. Pineiro and Franklin became the old Pineiro and franklin, and TBH I really don’t think the management (I include everyone here as well as TLR – Duncan, McRae) have done a very good job of keeping the team sharp.

We sucked in September, now we sucked in October. Something needed to be done to get the offence back on track (though I agree we probably suffered with “bad luck” with regards to the timing of our hits – lots of guys on base, lots of LOBs, but we’ve not hit well for over a month, as a team) and arguably the pitching didn’t really turn up in the playoffs. We didn’t look like a very sharp team and a lot of that I put down to the fact that we were ALLOWED to coast (by the management) through the last month of the regular season. Sadly, that September swoon seems to be a fairly regular thing in Cardinal-land these days.

Fritz had a wonderful post the other day that cheered me up. This has been very tough because of the way we lost the first two. I can’t say I didn’t see it coming because of the all O struggles throughout the entire season.

Agreed on Scoscia. I love his brand of baseball. Aggressive and entertaining baseball. I still have my California Angels cap. But part of me just wants to root for an NL team, and NL team.

I really can’t see too many internal options. I’d happily have paid Franklin’s extension and then let him walk, but I suppose now he’s stupidly signed on for a couple more years into his mid-30s we’ll end up with the spectre of him in the 9th inning again. The only home-grown guys I can see being + bullpen arms are Motte (I still think he’ll come around, was strong at the end of the season and had his velocity up again) and Boggs (97mph FB, decent slider, even if his control doesn’t come round much he can still be a Fernando Rodney-esque late inning guy, I think, which isn’t too bad, although he should probably be our #6 starter in 2010).

Hawksworth is OK but I think his success has been part-mirage this year, I can’t see KMac being more than mediocre and I don’t see anyone in AAA who will help, unless they push Eduardo Sanchez really hard (and, in a related note, they totally over-worked him this year, which is a terrible sin with a young pitcher in my book). Also, the pen’s been totally spoilt this year by our starting pitching – arms have generally been rested and fresh because we’ve had 3 guys who have gone 7+ innings most starts; that probably won’t happen next year. So I think we need to go and spend some $.

Personally, I’d love to have Kiko Calero back and I think he could be a really decent set-up guy. I wouldn’t be aversed to another year of Russ Springer, too; I think he could be cheap, given his connections to St Louis and his slightly disappointing 2009 (which actually had underlying solid peripherals).

we get to watch the Rams become the next 2008 Lions! Woohoo!

/sarcasm

like with Glaus. That was a total clusterfuck.

Get it done AP!

I was rooting for it at the end of last year with our 2009 projections being so low.

I don’t think he’s going to go for it until it’s absolutely forced, but ya never know!

Anything I heard it sounded worse than that. But maybe they really didn’t put a name to it, just that it was a degenerative condition, which scared the bejebus out of me.

plus five months of Albert Pujols with strength in his elbow? Count me in.

That dude must be fiddling with the numbers. On October 5th, DeRosa was a Type A: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/10/elias-rankings-update.html.

then you absolutely have to offer arb.

shows how much the Twins deserve us and need us. VEB needs to lead the Twins to a WS victory!!!

who the heck voted for them!!?? ;)

If the Cards get him, prepare to be really disappointed.

He’s going to spend all winter doing shoulder strengthening stuff and could add a tick back to his FB. He was pretty good as is and it was his FB that was the weak spot….I’d bet he could be pretty damn good next year.

the sort of contract he signed for Boston in 2009 ($5m-ish basic plus some incentives) would be ideal. He is one of my favourite players ever, so, from a personal perspective, yeah, I would absolutely love for this to happen.

this ain’t over though.

looks more like natural doucheyness

But he’s always looked like that, I believe. Sorta like he’s pushing the ball to the plate.

You could argue that’s actually safer.

And he’s definitely NOT pushing the ball.

Other tweets of his include:

Cardinals abruptly close clubhouse to media 5 minutes before Pujols’ reaches players parking lot. Gotta hand it to ’em. Not even subtle.

Redefining “team leader.” Is it bolting to leave teammates to answer how upgraded lineup scored 6 runs in 3 games?

You know you’re big when org. no longer stresses responsiblity to teammates, media and, by extension, ticket-buying public. Saw this in SF.

- Boogie Oogie Oogie

I like TLR, and despite some of the commentary on how he manages his bench & pitchers, I think he makes the team more competitive with his knowledge & experience. That being said, I’ve always been a big proponent of giving Oquendo a shot at the job at some point, so I wouldn’t mind seeing what he brings to the table if that would be the alternative. I’d be sorry to see Dunc go either way.

would be the most prized position for any Manager to take over. (two Cy Young Candidates and the Best player in Baseball signed for a few years) I am not sure there is someone out there who can take the position over and do a better job than Tony. I’m not saying that Tony is the best manager there is. Just that I don’t think there is a better one out there without a Job already.

There might be some first time Manager who can grow into being a better Manager. But I would rather the Cardinals stick with Tony at this time. After 2007 I would have been ok with going with a Younger manager and moving the team in a different direction. But that team needed to be torn apart and built up.

This team as it is isn’t done. We have Albert, Carpenter, Wainwright, Rasmus, a gold glove caliber shortstop, a GIDP Gold glove catcher… This team will be better next year. And I think Tony will have more success with this team next year than any other manager available. Of course, Mo still has some holes to fill.

He is a great manager, and has done a ton for this organization.

And if you don’t buy that, remember that Pujols love him, and if we let him go it would not make Albert happy.
 We should at least try to keep him until we have Albert signed long term.

But it’s not a given that he should be invited back, either. At the very least, I ask him to take a pay cut; there’s no reason for him to be paid more than Adam Wainwright next year.

IF he is replaced, it better be by someone whose BFF pitching coach uses (and understands) a computer, instead of a big paper thingy.

publicly calling out the team saying they clearly wanted his son gone & all that crap. at least Tony finally saw the team was better off without Baby Dunk.

and they aren’t joined at the hip anymore. Tony’s made that perfectly clear after all the fits Dave threw when his kid was traded.

Dave was right though, there’s a huge divide in pitching philosophies between the Cards & their minor league teams. Dave’s way of thinking no longer meshes with the teams thinking. it’s time for him to change, or it’s time for him to go. if anyone goes, and i hope they all go. but if it’s only one, Dave’s the one who’s worn out his welcome, not Tony.