so if the cardinals do, in fact, miss the playoffs, i won't lose a minute of sleep over it. the guys losing sleep will be the new york mets and all their fans. you think they want to face clemens oswalt and pettitte? they're all rooting like hell for the cardinals -- probably harder than some of us are. they, not we, may be the real losers if st louis completes its collapse. i daresay even some of those american league teams are pulling for our guys; of all the nl teams they might wish to avoid in the world series, houston probably ranks at the top of the list. just what we've always wanted -- the whole baseball world is rooting for the cardinals!"

I couldn't agree more.  I have a friend who's a Mets fan and he's scared shitless that the Astros are going to make it and steamroll everyone else in the NL playoffs.  He's rooting for the Cardinals pretty hard now, especially considering the latest developments with Pedro.  Imagine if the Mets had pulled off that trade deadline deal and acquired Oswalt?  We wouldn't be talking about the Astros right now.  

I hope we miss the playoffs and it wakes management up.  Is it even worth making the playoffs at this point?  The team is a shell of its' former self.  I think it's better to not make it and avoid suffering the humiliation of a first round knockout by San Diego or the Mets or whoever we'd end up playing.  

Last night, I was hoping and praying that Duncan would've punched Marquis out there. Knock him on his rear, and show the rest of the club that they deserve better than that "I don't give a rip how I pitch" Jason Marquis. I have stood up for players that just didn't play well; shoot, I even stuck up for Mulder this year, but for crying out loud, the whole team walks into the ballpark knowing they are gonna have to push for double digits at the least, whenever JM was pitching.

I still cannot believe that he has gotten worse and worse (wanton profanity omitted for the sake of other readers).

So, our season comes down to Weaver. Hopefully we can get Blondo a lead, and hopefully he looks far better than that (wanton profanity omitted again) thing we had on the mound last night.

And to think, Redbird fans started the season booing Encarnacion and Izzy!

on a side note, if by some miracle we make the playoffs marquis will be upset he is not on the playoff roster, marquis is clinically insane. if he had sanity he would not be able to show his face to his teammates EVER again. id like to see him committ sepuku myself. you are garbage marquis. go home.

Seriously, it's well past time to give up on him, and yet I have this horrible feeling that he's going to get re-signed because of a weak FA pitching market.

i just dont understand how tony la russa teams can have these collapses. in the WS in 2004, that NLCS with atlanta, he even got swept with an A's team by a vastly inferior reds team.. maybe tony should change the way he goes about approaching and preparing his teams for playoff situations.

He asked, almost pathetically, "When do I get to start razzing the Cardinals' fans?  The Cardinals haven't won a World Series since 1982."

This is the primary reason I need the Cardinals to make the playoffs.  Obnoxious Cubs fans (not all, just the obnoxious ones) will be talking about 2006 for years if they think they had any hand in keeping the Cardinals out of the postseason.

Looking at the season as a whole body of work, I completely agree with lboros that the Cardinals don't deserve an appearance in the postseason.  However, if they can pick themselves up and dust themselves off and make it in, they'll "deserve" it in the sense that when they had to (this final weekend), they won.  (Sort of a relative maximum thing.)  If they don't, it's gonna be a long offseason.

Quietude, MdRedbirdFreak:  I'm starting the rumor right now that TLR is planning to teach Marquis to play middle infield so he can keep his bat on the roster for 2007.  :-)

TSF

The Astros are in town tonight, of course, and it appears as though they are riding in like a rabid foal. It just dawned on me this morning ... I mean, not that they are coming to town .... but after all the sleep I've been losing in the last week-and-a-half; after all the silent moments on my couch, in front of the TV, in the dark of the room, letting the remote fall uselessly from my lap, without the energy to pick it up; with the rally cap turned in and then back out and then several more rally caps drug out of the back of the closet; with my framed Busch Stadium picture from 1996 collecting dust on the wall (the year they brought the fences in and put the grass in and started playing Baseball Like it Oughta Be played); the Post-Dispatch white playoff towels; the seats I ordered from old Busch; you know, all these things, these reminders, they are just too much to absorb every day and not wind up in this situation and not get my ass up and take it to Turner Field, where I will be tonight, representing everyone here--the anger of everyone here; the frustrations of everyone here; the hopes of everyone here ...

and I'll have a cold beer in my hand, and I'll be sitting somewhere cheap,  but I'll be louder than anyone in a half-empty Turner Field screaming for the Braves to kick the Astros' ass and for the Cardinals to make the playoffs.  

I think everyone underestimates the weird, personal damage that the Ankiel debacle had on Tony.  I've seen him talk about that awful game against the Braves like other people talk about combat or a car wreck.  He feels personally responsible for the kids' professional and personal demise - and it eats at him.

This, I believe, accounts for his unwillingness to rely on young players in pressure situations.  He certainly did not have that problem in Chicago or Oakland.

If that's right, that means we're looking at Weaver (on three days' rest) or Sosa.  I think Sosa could give you 5 innings and 2 or 3 solo home runs.  Not too bad for a team that has an offense.  But we don't.  And we don't have a 9-inning 3-hit shutout option.  So better bring the bats, boys.

Remember, we're likely to have to win 2 of 3 w/ Brew-Has to make Monday matter.  I think Weaver's the right guy tonight, but I doubt it'll matter b/c our whole team curls up in a fetal position anytime somebody steps up on the pitchers mound with a glove on their right hand.  Count on 4-1, 5-1 loss tonight.  That's a BIG load on SoupCan and Carp.  

I'd LOVE to wait Carp til Monday's game, or even to a playoff(s) on Tuesday (and Wednesday, in a 3-way) but I dont' think we'll have that luxury.  After tonight, we will have must-wins Sat and Sun, followed by a must-win v SF on Monday, followed by must win playoff v HOU (with maybe a must-win v. CIN in the middle just for fun) -- and IF we win ALL of these must-wins, we get to go to NY or SD to start the playoffs.  The pressure will be "off" for the first 2 games of the LDS in the since that, if by some bizarre quirk of fate we make it there, they'll be the first two non-must-win games in more than a week!

Good luck.

Weave me a dream, tonight, Jeff.
Get lots of sleep, Soup and Carp.
Sosa - stay ready.

Wouldn't it be fun (and potentially effective) if TLR lined up Weaver to start, then, a la Whitey, sent Narveson into right field so he could swap him in to face the 2-3-4-5 lefty part of the Astros lineup?

This sounds kind of nutty now, but Whitey used to do it, although I can't remember if it ever really worked...

What makes it practicable is that the Stros bat Lamb-Berkman-Scott-Huff all back to back instead of alternating them. Or at least they did that last time the teams played.

Okay we're waiting for the last week-end instead, but we can still pull this thing out.  And like lboros says... its just 3 series, anything could happen.  If Bennett gets on fire again or Duncan has another hot streak, or even spiez, we could pull it off!  Really!

Btw, anyone really look at marquis on the mound last night?  Have you ever seen a more uncomfortable looking pitcher ever?   I wanted to jump through the TV and just scream at him "GET THE BALL, PITCH, GET THE BALL, PITCH!"

Maybe it was "I need to soak this in, because it's the last time I'll ever pitch." searching he was doing.

This is a rattletrap car of a club . . . .  These guys are gamers, no doubt, but there's just too great a chance that the kids at home would be exposed to sustained periods of Preston Wilson and Scott Spiezio if [Eck, JEd or Rotten] go down, and that's just not fair to the kids.

as far as the talk of a pitcher who can throw from both sides, cold pizza had a college guy on, and he said he can only switch once, if he changes its done for the game, cant change per batter, or even per inning. id imagine mlb rules are even stricter. there wouldnt be much point to it.

as far as this collapse thing, i dont want it to happen even if to us it isnt that big of a collapse, because we seen em lose 8 in a row twice and 7 and seen plenty of other periods where oru boys were just plain bad. the problem is everyone outside st louis will see it as the biggest collapse ever, regardless.  

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2606427&campaign=rss&source=MLBHeadlines

That is good.

He's younger than the other stud (Schmidt). He provides an EXCELLENT contrast to Carpenter going 1-2 (as opposed to this year's Carpenter and a bunch of pitchers not as good throwing similarly).

Someone mentioned this last month: if you want to make a run, one last run, for the WS, you overpay for a 5 year stud contract, and then, at the end of the first or second year, trade him (make sure it doesn't have a no-trade ;)). SOMEONE will bite.

ive moved around and always been a hometown team guy, but you dont escape kansas without being a jayhawk fan, you dont get outta montreal without rooting for the canadiens, and even if i left st louis/missouri ill be a cardinals fan for life.

and now, smoltz, a pitcher who made me a fan of the game 15 years ago, i will depend on to help save my cardinals from the worst collapse in the history of the game. i like it.

i cant think of another pitcher id want out there going up against the astros with cardinal pride on the line. espn had a neat stat, smoltz, the winningest right hander in post season history, will face off against andy pettite the winningest left hander in postseason history. what a game..

i love baseball, and im right handed, go smoltz! beat that lefty so bad he wants to become a righty!!

Although Juan got a bit better (league avg player?), Izzy sure as hell didn't.  But the other players have been so poor that I have actually come to think of Juan as our 2nd best hitter right now.  Really, it's that bad...

Here's to the hope that the Cards find something to play for, even if it is the hottie in the front row.  And pray that the Jeff is Weaving tonight, not bobbing.