Hotel Missouri

by Schmitt88 on Jun 24, 2010 5:23 PM EDT

Let's take a look at the Cardinals through the music of the other group of birds playing at Busch Stadium tonight.

"I Can't Tell You Why" - Stavinoha was the cleanup hitter last night

"Already Gone" - Jon Jay, Allen Craig, Tyler Greene, et al.

"New Kid in Town" - Randy Winn, hitting .393 with the Cards

"One of These Nights" - Dennys Reyes is going to come into a game and not suck. Right?

"The Last Resort" - Jeff Suppan

"The Heat Is On" - Fun fact: Don Denkinger HATED Glenn Frey and took it out on the '85 Cards.

"Ol' 55" - Skip!

"Peaceful Easy Feeling" - What I get when Adam Wainwright starts.

"How Long" - until Brad Penny comes back?

"Wasted Time" - Matt Holliday's season until a week ago.

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Comments

Surely someone on the team is a Desperado...? And maybe one is even a Witchy Woman.

Also, TOM WAITS RULEZ!!!

by BTown Birds fan on Jun 24, 2010 5:54 PM EDT reply actions

is tony the desperado?

"Some days I feel like the hypotenuse in a love triangle; others as if my lucky number is pi."

by cardball on Jun 24, 2010 9:41 PM EDT up reply actions

A few more

“Take it to the limit” —Some of Franklin’s save situations.

“Get Over it” —Something fans are going to have a hard time with when it comes to Holliday’s contract.

“Take it Easy”—- Something Motte knows nothing about.

“Tequila Sunrise” —There’s a good Mike Shannon joke here somewhere.

Boy a frosty cold Budweiser would be great about now"…long pause…then an "aahhh". --Mike Shannon

by KYCards on Jun 25, 2010 8:10 AM EDT reply actions

"Love Will Keep Us Alive"

About Boog and Bombs’ lovelorn hearts during their time apart?

Of all sad words of tongue or pen; the saddest are these: 'It might have been!'

by mysterui on Jun 25, 2010 2:38 PM EDT reply actions

imagine their phone bills!!!

funny, because don’t you have a long-distance relationship too? perhaps you can empathize.

"Some days I feel like the hypotenuse in a love triangle; others as if my lucky number is pi."

by cardball on Jun 25, 2010 4:02 PM EDT up reply actions

"Best of My Love"

What TLR must have for Miles.

“Already Gone”
Albert’s chances for MVP

“Tequila Sunrise”
If the cops hadn’t found Tony in his car when they did (I know….)

“Lyin’ Eyes”
The homeplate umpire two nights ago.

“Peaceful Easy Feeling”
Miles, when the Cardinals re-signed him….or when he left Chicago.

Baseball first, teams second, players third, agents last.

by Dave Pendleton on Jun 25, 2010 4:43 PM EDT reply actions

pujols is by no means out of the MVP race

Rasmus can hit lefties
cardinalred
St. Louis Sports blog

by stlcardsfan4 on Jun 25, 2010 7:38 PM EDT up reply actions

We'll see

Baseball first, teams second, players third, agents last.

by Dave Pendleton on Jun 26, 2010 12:31 AM EDT up reply actions

i'm waiting for him to go on a rampage

those always prop his numbers up. sadly, i think his best days are behind him. he’s still elite, but it’s become debatable who’s the best player in baseball now, when it hasn’t been since he decisively took that title from a-rod once a-rod got to be around 30 yrs old. i think he’ll still have those huge individual games, or maybe a run of two or three really good games in a row, but i don’t know if he will be great day-in and day-out anymore. i hope so though. but if not, those huge games will keep his overall numbers in the elite category.

"Some days I feel like the hypotenuse in a love triangle; others as if my lucky number is pi."

by cardball on Jun 26, 2010 12:43 AM EDT up reply actions

I absolutely agree.

and also, unfair as it is, the MVP usually goes to a player who’s team makes the big show. I just don’t have that confidence this year. I hope I’m wrong in a big way about both Albert and the Cardinals.

Baseball first, teams second, players third, agents last.

by Dave Pendleton on Jun 26, 2010 1:42 AM EDT up reply actions

that's the problem with looking at his wOBA or OPS and comparing it to past years

and saying he’s right around his career numbers, a little below, but he’ll regress and attain them. the problem is those numbers don’t translate to wins like they are supposed to if they come in bunches rather than consistently. a lot of the production is “wasted” on 10-1 blowouts and then disappears for chunks of time while we’re losing lower-scoring, close games. there’s a lot of “overkill” performances, but our record would be better if his production was distributed more evenly. a 3-homer game can only win you one, but those homers could win you two or even three if spread out. it’s not just how many runs your offense averages, but how you get there – 5 runs each of two games gives you a good chance at 2-0, whereas 10 runs one game and 0 the next gives you no such chance.

i haven’t gone through any data to see if he’s less consistently good this year, or even since the second half of last year, so this is anecdotal right now – but it sure seems like it. i think it’s more difficult, and more valuable, to be really good consistently, day-in, day-out, than it is to go on monstrous but short binges now and again, even if the final overall stats end up the same. and when rating or valuing a player, wOBA and WAR, they can’t account for this. i believe that, theoretically, two players with identical WAR could have vast differences in actual value to their teams by how they impacted their W-L records.

"Some days I feel like the hypotenuse in a love triangle; others as if my lucky number is pi."

by cardball on Jun 26, 2010 2:54 AM EDT up reply actions

that's why

I say that numbers don’t always tell the whole story. They can be deceiving sometimes.

One of these nights
Albert’s gonna break out

Baseball first, teams second, players third, agents last.

by Dave Pendleton on Jun 26, 2010 3:40 AM EDT up reply actions

I have been wondering if Albert's best days are behind him??

The biggest thing I have noticed this year besides the strikeouts is lack of hitting against left-handers. But as you say, the tons of hits in bunches doesn’t contribute as much as we would like.

I can understand that stats have predictive value but there are limitations. In many forms of analysis qualitative methods are used in addition to quantitative methods.

"I've had pretty good success with Stan (Musial) by throwing him my best pitch and backing up third." - Carl Erskine

by spfldbird on Jun 26, 2010 8:58 PM EDT up reply actions

yes, i am an advocate of combining qualitative with quantitative

and i’d like to make clear, the above comment of mine is not in any way an anti-sabr stance. in fact, i would consider it as advocating for further advancement in that field. i don’t know how much new thought there’s been since the sabr explosion, but i think if sabr is not left to become stale, then what it leaves in its wake as it continues to advance will actually become more readily accepted and valued by fans, writers, managers, etc.

"Some days I feel like the hypotenuse in a love triangle; others as if my lucky number is pi."

by cardball on Jun 26, 2010 9:56 PM EDT up reply actions