Suppan Villanueva
12-7, 4.23 1-1, 4.05
There was some skepticism about my sentiments in the morning thread regarding a turned corner, so I offer up the following justification of my previous comments--I have broken up the season into three parts, the first stretch of the season, where the Cardinals enjoyed a massive division lead, lasting until the collapse against the white sox on the June 18. The team then went through a long pitching poor slump period until my arbitrary cutoff of Aug 24, and the completion of the teams' sweeping at the hands of the Pond Scum themselves.
But since then, the team has recovered, though the sample size is still a bit small:
Actual | Pythagorean | Win Percentage | |
Early Season | 42-26 | 40-28 | 61.8% |
Losing Streaks | 14-25 | 16-23 | 35.9% |
Since | 14-9 | 14-9 | 60.9% |
Looks to me like the team has finally put that horrible stretch behind them and are playing to their true ability. Demoting Marquis from the rotation will do more to stabilize the rotation than any other action possible. It's anyone's guess whether or not Weaver, Reyes and Wainwright can hold up through the postseason in their increasingly critical roles, but at this point, we're stuck with the 2006 Cardinals, so it's best to just stop worrying.