Birds on Bats, Mang -- Redbirds in the '09

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'sup

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Dear Cards fan(s)

MLB network was saying last night that the Cardinals have a glut of 'talented outfielders' is this true?

Conversely: Ryan Ludwick - flash in the pan or what?

I think BP expects a sizable regression... lessee

Ludwick was a big prospect then was perpetually injured... I think his power will stick, but average/obp will come back.

They have 3 outfielders who can hit 30 hrs. People forget how good of a hitter Chris Duncan was before getting hurt. + uber prospect Rasmus + Schumaker, the only guy remotely resembling a leadoff hitter.

no legit 2nd baseman, no real closer <<<<<<<<<<<<<< how many games out of chris carpenter

pecota's ludwick projection is pretty generous... same with CHONE

what is ankiel's pecota projection?

Corkedbat (Dallas): Who are the win-now teams before they fall off the plateau like Detroit last year? What will they need to do to win now?

Steven Goldman: The Cardinals; get a defense.

guessing thats mostly "win before albert's contract is up" b/c they actually have a farm system these days.

I can't really see Pujols signing anywhere else though, can you?

no

Of course if the Cardinals re-sign him for mega-years/$$$ and he falls apart they may wish he signed elsewhere.

Ankiel proj: 258/327/488, 26 HR

Carpenter up to 14 scoreless innings...

http://i40.tinypic.com/2uy0wtw.jpg

^didn't work.

>>>>>>>>>BEST RECORD IN BASEBALL<<<<<<<<

khalil greene .220 hitter as advertised! defense is terribad. jorel pinero has a sinker? ankiel shaves porn 'stache. what happened? I am confused.

La Russa sues Twitter over fake page

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4230602

going to the game on friday!

can you play third base?

http://www.cantstopthebleeding.com/?p=17311

I had forgotten about writing (not w/ malicious intent!) the Yard Work post Cosloy links at the end.

Carp pitches a 1 run CG and his era goes up

I dont geddit, what did you write?

xxp lol andy k gonna get sued by tony laRoo

the twitter thing woulda been lolz but going after the kyle/hancock incidents was low and makes me hope TLR wins.

bnw: http://www.yard-work.org/?p=565

J Smoltz
5 IP
3 H
0 R
0 ER
9 K
0 BB

how

Pitching against/in San Diego helped.

Shit, I didn't even realize there was a Cards thread. I would've been all over it...never too late to start, I guess.

7 of those 9 K's were in a row, which was a Cardinals record.

I was kind of bummed that Larussa/Duncan were going to give Smoltz a chance at the #5 spot (I'd rather see him as a setup man to Franklin), but if he can perform a 1/10th as well as today's performance, he'd be an improvement over Boggs & Wellemeyer.

I would think that Smoltz would probably be in the bullpen when the playoffs come around.

From what I had heard, Smoltz problems in Boston would really come the 2nd or 3rd time through a lineup. He would do OK early in the game, but they seemed to figure it out.

Supposedly lefties are batting around .400+ against him. His stats make him out to be a ROOGY but it might also just be small-ish sample size at work.

Yeah didn't Smoltz only get 40 recovering from serious injury innings in Boston?

We'll see what lord god Dave Duncan has to say about your insolence!

Haha no no you are right it wasn't SSS it's all Dave Duncan.

the red sox are having some bad mojo this year

my friend told me that the cards radio guys were saying that the cards staff immediately noticed something in smoltz's delivery

Supposedly he was tipping his pitches. Maybe he should just start every game against the Padres and he will be back on track for good.

August 1st - tied for 1st
August 30th - 10 games up

the last 6 the Cards lost the small bears obliged and lost too

Bill James' Cy Young Predictor has Wainwright and Greinke as the leaders.

That's a bunch of ass IMO. Wainwright would be the #3 starter in SF (and probably hit cleanup).

Yhe Predictor copies BBRAA voting patterns, ya see.

(however, Wainwright leads Cain in K/BB, HR rate, and VORP -- by a sliver)

Shasta stats put a premium on walks, whether taking them or throwing them ;)

Waino gets a slight edge. For 2nd.

if Waino wins 20, and Lincecum wins 17-18, it'll be close.

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holla

If Carp has a stellar postseason, he could be in the running too. He's at 15 wins, and that's after missing almost most of April and May.

All the BBRAA awards are voted on before the start of the postseason. Cuz it's for the season.

question: is Matt Holliday out-Pujols-ing Pujols?

It seems like Albert's power dried up since Holliday showed up and puts on a clinic nightly.

His August slash was .319/.443/.649 w/ 7 HRs and 10 2Bs. What are you looking at?

holliday is no ludwick, let's get real

lol

Holliday's OPS is 200 points higher than Pujols' since joining STL...

Holliday's hot no doubt, but a .650 SLG is not very good evidence of power drying up.

MVP LUDWICK

maybe matt holliday will siphon some mvp votes away from pujols, allowing one of the phillies' candidates (howard, werth, ibanez) to take the prize that each of them equally deserves

Yeah, I'm sure the Reporters will again have Utley as the 3rd or 4th MVPhillie, right?

I hope Jimmy Rollins wins again.

Is Hanley still leading Pujols is VORP? He was for a few days last week.

Nah Pujols is like 10 uh VORP points ahead of him. I think Hanley has a slight edge in a couple of Fangraphs metrics.

It's too bad Hanley's doggin it

</Uggla>

The Braves broadcast, the night Hanley came out early, repeatedly showed him getting hit in the wrist with a hard grounder, shaking his wrist and grimacing then coming out after that inning, and Joe + Boog were all "wtf" later in the game when the Marlins said it was a hamstring issue.

The last time that the Cubs won on the same day that the Cardinals lost was July 30th.

11.5 games up, DAYAM

The Cardinals are looking like a juggernaut. I think they are one of the strongest looking NL clubs in a good while.

In third-order wins they're still behind the Dodgers and Rockies.

They have the luxury of playing the NL Central which pads their record considerably.

STL vs. LA, PHI, COL & SF (NL Playoff hopefuls):
9W - 14L

LA vs. STL/COL/SF/PHI = 25W - 16L
PHI vs. STL/COL/LA/SF = 14W - 11L
SF vs. STL/PHI/COL/LA = 21W - 20L
COL vs. STL/PHI/LA/SF = 16W - 24L***

***COL has the worst record against the best teams in the NL and yet are 4-0 versus STL this season.

Yeah, I worry about that too, although they are also 5-2 vs. LA and pretty much even with SF in their season series. It's also worth noting that most if not all of their games with the Rockies, Giants and Phillies were during their mediocre first half of the season, before they picked up Lujo, DeRosa, Holliday, and Smoltz. So the team got that ass handed to them by the Rockies and Phillies is quite different now.

They're playing the Rockies in a 3-game series in late September, hopefully they'll make a strong showing and bring some momentum into October.

look up the '88 Dodgers' regular-season record vs the Mets.

Yep, 1 and 10.

I'm optimistic about the Cards' chances in the postseason against pretty much ANYONE with Carpenter, Wainwright and Pineiro pitching the vast majority of games.

CLEEEEENCH

when the rockies swept the cards in stl i think it was the absolute nadir of the cards season - i went to the game where they bludgeoned waino. this was way before the holliday/lugo/derosa era & waino resurgence so i really wouldn't put much stock into their head to head

they've looked super even this weekend

very innaresting (tho the MSM seems to have given the Cy to Wainwright based on his wins):

VORP

Lincecum 67.7
Wainwright 67.1
Carpenter 66.0

TOP PERFORMERS - 10/01/09

C. Carpenter St. Louis Cardinals
2-3, HR, 6 RBI, 1 R
@ CIN | Top 6th

C. Carpenter St. Louis Cardinals
5 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 6 K
@ CIN | Top 6th

today's loss = 3 road games in Division Series

brendan ryan went 3/3 off of seeing 4 pitches