MLB

[Reality]

As with Johan Santana on D leaves one saying whats the point it will just be manage choked away I wonder if Beltran on O is saying the same thing.

Props to STL for going back to back yard.  Sure would be nice to have seen Lidge tho.
Bubblehead Gardy Garner.

[Wolverine]

I just got home from Game 2 of the Stros/Cards series.  Unbelievable.  Pujols is God, with Scotty Rolen playing the supporting role of Jesus.  What a team!  The Yanks better bring it in the Series.

[Reality]

To me Beltran is the stud of this series.  Or would be.  Walked three times.  
The 'Strohs baserunning blunders killed also.

If Pujols and Rolen go yard off of Lidge then what can you say.  But this idea of bringing in (Harville to face Walker earlier, HR) and sitting Lidge on the bench the entire game is most bogile.

Hey, maybe the Cards would have flipped the switch.  I just think the Strohs have just as much firepower (Killer Bs, Kent) but with Gardy calling the shots its St Lowie 2-0.


With Clemons and Oswalt next at Hou I look for 2-2.
 

[westkoast]

To me Beltran is the stud of this series.  Or would be.  Walked three times.  
The 'Strohs baserunning blunders killed also.

If Pujols and Rolen go yard off of Lidge then what can you say.  But this idea of bringing in (Harville to face Walker earlier, HR) and sitting Lidge on the bench the entire game is most bogile.

Hey, maybe the Cards would have flipped the switch.  I just think the Strohs have just as much firepower (Killer Bs, Kent) but with Gardy calling the shots its St Lowie 2-0.


With Clemons and Oswalt next at Hou I look for 2-2.

The Cards are weird in the sense where a block of hitters are smashing the ball at a crazy avg (in the last two series) and the other block of hitters are hitting at a much much lower avg.  I believe during the Dodger series it was like the good bulk of hitters were batting up towards .500 and the other set of hitters were hanging around the .200 mark.

[ziggy]

As with Johan Santana on D leaves one saying whats the point it will just be manage choked away I wonder if Beltran on O is saying the same thing.

Props to STL for going back to back yard.  Sure would be nice to have seen Lidge tho.
Bubblehead Gardy Garner.

I haven't been able to see any of the League Championship Series games yet, and it is driving me crazy.  When the season started I thought the AL East and NL Central were the 2 best divisions and that is what is left.  Whatever happens this will be an excellent World Series.

I think the Sox will give the Yahkees some trouble, but if Schilling can't go, then stick a fork in them.  Pedro has lost his edge against the Yanks, and Arroyo, Lowe, and Wakefield are not going to dominate this Yankee lineup.  It is to bad the Schilling got them this far, but he won't be able to take them to the next level.

The Houston and St Louis series still has a long ways to go.  St Louis has to much pop and more than enough bullpen to hold off Houston, even with their very medicore starting pitching.  Congrats Caleb.  I have always thought the Cards were the class of baseball.

One thing about this post season, is the fact that the best of baseball is on display, and that is as should be.  I puke  :puke: everytime I hear all this garbage about Barry Bonds being the best player in baseball.  He is a lieing, cheating, scumbag, with a hormone enlarged cranium to hold his massive ego and extra boney skull.

The best players in baseball are in the playoffs.  Pujols is incredible.  ARod is a marvel.  Beltran is everything a baseball player should be.  Santana has the best stuff in baseball.  Clemens is a warrior, just like Schilling and Pedro.  Vlad Gurerreo can do it all.  Gagne is like no one else.  Smoltz is a pros pro, and so is Derek Jeter.  Nathan, Rivera, Lidge, Percival, KROD, all just throw BB's.  That is what baseball is all about.

The only steroid popping pinhead left is Sheffield, but Bonds, Sosa and Giambi are all watching instead of playing.  That is as it should be.

[Reality]

The Cards are weird in the sense where a block of hitters are smashing the ball at a crazy avg (in the last two series) and the other block of hitters are hitting at a much much lower avg.  I believe during the Dodger series it was like the good bulk of hitters were batting up towards .500 and the other set of hitters were hanging around the .200 mark.

Exactly.  Superb point and all the more reason to do what you have to do to get around these guys.  Especially 8th inning on and triple and quadruple the urgency when your team, in the case the Strohs, have a lead or a tie.  

zig, you have raised the bar and i was expecting you to come in with your usual stellar stat and strategy breakdown analysis.  Your post is unacceptable given your past.  Tell your assistant manager to take over for a while.  How for a fact does the point 'Koast makes show up?  I also believe that 2345 has been around .450 meaning the rest of the Cards are sub .200 outs.  Bears repeating that LaRussa walks Beltran 3Xs while Grady Garner has his lesser relievers pitch to Walker and Pujols in key situations.  With a 3-0 lead you know you got the best you could hope for from Munro.  Okay, so the Cards are comin.  Why bring in Chad Harville, who is .500 on blown saves?  Contrast that with who they did bring in a day late and a dollar and three runs short, Dan Wheeler.  Superb 2 innings from Wheeler and it aint hindsight, compare those two the whole season.  As Chris Rock would say, "It Aint Right!"  On to the 8th...    

I'm not saying Lidge would have gotten around these guys.  I am saying the stats say the chances are 1 google percent better with Lidge instead of Micelli.  Lidge was rested.  
Ditto earlier in the game.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...second/guessing
zig to me its a no brainer foresight and hindsight that game should have been
Munro-Wheeler-Lidge.  If the Cards best that then hats off.

Wolf don't take this as my saying the 'Stros would have prevailed.  Do take it as my saying that against the Yanks and Cards you have to execute logic and not give them any gifts.  Good they are, but lets not make them out to be unbeatable.
Strohs kick arse IMO in spite of Grady Garners postseaon moves and MN could have (should have?) taken out NYY.  At least made it a 5 game series.

[westkoast]

I'm not sure why the Dodgers didn't try to do something similar in the 3 games they lost.  If these guys are hitting up towards 450-500 then give them tough pitches each and everytime.   Real low.  Too far in or just outside. If you walk em, oh well.  With that kind of avg from that bulk of the lineup its safe to say they are more likely than not going to get on base anyways.  I rather give up a walk than a HR, double, or triple.  Or bump the runner up one base with a walk (not intentional but because they arent biting on the pitches) instead of letting one of those hitters get some RBIs.  

The only game the Dodgers were able to win was due to great pitching.  Jose is  most effective when he just misses the strike zone.  Thats exactly what he did.  Pitches were a little off the plate and real low/high.  He did a great job of either striking out the batters or forcing them to pop balls up/ground otu.  Which in the long run let him pitch the whole entire game.  If my memory serves me the Cards got 6 hits that game but were never able to get past 3rd.

[ziggy]

The Cards are weird in the sense where a block of hitters are smashing the ball at a crazy avg (in the last two series) and the other block of hitters are hitting at a much much lower avg.  I believe during the Dodger series it was like the good bulk of hitters were batting up towards .500 and the other set of hitters were hanging around the .200 mark.

Exactly.  Superb point and all the more reason to do what you have to do to get around these guys.  Especially 8th inning on and triple and quadruple the urgency when your team, in the case the Strohs, have a lead or a tie.  

zig, you have raised the bar and i was expecting you to come in with your usual stellar stat and strategy breakdown analysis.  Your post is unacceptable given your past.  Tell your assistant manager to take over for a while.  How for a fact does the point 'Koast makes show up?  I also believe that 2345 has been around .450 meaning the rest of the Cards are sub .200 outs.  Bears repeating that LaRussa walks Beltran 3Xs while Grady Garner has his lesser relievers pitch to Walker and Pujols in key situations.  With a 3-0 lead you know you got the best you could hope for from Munro.  Okay, so the Cards are comin.  Why bring in Chad Harville, who is .500 on blown saves?  Contrast that with who they did bring in a day late and a dollar and three runs short, Dan Wheeler.  Superb 2 innings from Wheeler and it aint hindsight, compare those two the whole season.  As Chris Rock would say, "It Aint Right!"  On to the 8th...    

I'm not saying Lidge would have gotten around these guys.  I am saying the stats say the chances are 1 google percent better with Lidge instead of Micelli.  Lidge was rested.  
Ditto earlier in the game.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...second/guessing
zig to me its a no brainer foresight and hindsight that game should have been
Munro-Wheeler-Lidge.  If the Cards best that then hats off.

Wolf don't take this as my saying the 'Stros would have prevailed.  Do take it as my saying that against the Yanks and Cards you have to execute logic and not give them any gifts.  Good they are, but lets not make them out to be unbeatable.
Strohs kick arse IMO in spite of Grady Garners postseaon moves and MN could have (should have?) taken out NYY.  At least made it a 5 game series.

Reality,
Sorry I let you down.  I haven't had a chance to see any of the LCS games so far.  Hard to offer many opinions when I am not watching them.  I will try to do better in the future. :rolleyes:  

[Wolverine]

I will say this about the NLCS matchup: the Stros simply do not have the firepower or the bullpen to take down the machine known as the Cardinals.

Losing Dotel in the Beltran deal, while necessary to get Carlos, forged a huge, gaping hole in the pen.  They were forced to move Lidge, one of the best setup men in the game, to the closer's spot.  Therefore, they were weakened by one reliever.  Also, the injuries to Petitte and Miller forced Houston to insert Pete Munro into the rotation.  Again, this weakened their bullpen by one reliever.  Given that Munro actually pitched somewhat effectively against the Cards in Game 2, it could have given the Stros a weapon to throw at St. Louis in the middle innings.

The reason I say they don't have the firepower is because the Killer B's have been shortened to Beltran and Berkman.  Biggio and Bagpipes are getting old, plain and simple.  True, both had fairly productive seasons, but neither approached what they did even 2-3 years ago.  Biggio has turned into Mr. Ineffective once again in this postseason series, leaving four runners stranded in scoring position with two outs.  Bagwell hasn't done much better, and those are two guys they count on.  Old age has caught up with them.  Biggio's strikeouts have increased as he's gotten older (because his swing, much like Bagwell's, has gotten longer), and he hasn't shown as much patience as the years have gone on.  Craig's walks have decreased.  He received a free pass only 40 times all year, the lowest total of his career.  This from a guy who used to consistently walk 60-80 times a season.  Bagwell created 98 runs this year, the lowest for him since 1995.  And Biggio and Bagwell performed in one of the best hitters park in the game.

Plus, their depth from the top of the order down to the pitcher's spot isn't as great as St. Louis'.  St. Louis has Edgar Renteria and Reggie Sanders in the sixth and seventh spots, while Houston has put Morgan Ensberg and Jose Vizcaino there.  I'm not trying to knock Houston's lineup, by no means.  They have a good lineup.  But it's not the Cards' lineup.  The Redbirds led the league in runs scored while playing half of their games in a park that is slightly favorable to pitchers, while Houston plays their home games in Home Run Field.

My prediction for the rest of the series?  I think the Birds will take one of the next two from Clemens or Oswalt, and then pound Backe in Game 5.  Cards move on to face the Yanks.

[Reality]

I will say this about the NLCS matchup: the Stros simply do not have the firepower or the bullpen to take down the machine known as the Cardinals.

Losing Dotel in the Beltran deal, while necessary to get Carlos, forged a huge, gaping hole in the pen.  They were forced to move Lidge, one of the best setup men in the game, to the closer's spot.  Therefore, they were weakened by one reliever.  Also, the injuries to Petitte and Miller forced Houston to insert Pete Munro into the rotation.  Again, this weakened their bullpen by one reliever.  Given that Munro actually pitched somewhat effectively against the Cards in Game 2, it could have given the Stros a weapon to throw at St. Louis in the middle innings.

 

But Wolf Garner didn't play Lidge in game 2.
The "gap" was Garners brain fart.  Munro giving 4 complete innings scoreless was a series winning chance for Stros.  When Munro weakened Strohs still had the lead and Wheeler available.   All Wheeler did was go two straight innings of zero runs and zero hits.  He has been better all year and playoffs then Chad Harville.  zig give us the man to man stats of Harville/Wheeler vs Walker.  Or tell which website I can access if you are still jammed.

1Munro-2Wheeler-3Lidge.  Even if it means bringing Lidge in the 7th.  It was do or die for Hou.  You do all you can to protect the lead.  If Lidge tires after the 8th then you bring in Micelli.  When you have to.  After you have given your best.  This crap about saving Lidge for the 9th only is just that, crap.


Otherwise concur about demise of Bigs and Bagpipes.  Unpredictable.  Great at times but dissapear at times.  Nonetheless this team hung a 7 spot and a 4 spot on the Cards with Grady Little Garner calling the shots.  I say it could easily be 1-1.  It isn't.  Could well be Cards get one of the next two and its over.
But I'll stick with 2-2 assuming Garner gets pnuemonia and can't make the game.  Or kidnapped.