Blowsenthal.

I'm tired of this effete one who sucks the penis.

My dad spends a lot of his free time expressing his anger and frustration with Blowsenthal. He doesn't piss him off as much as Tony Cruz, but it's close. His diastolic rises the moment he takes the mound.

I don't get why Cruz is playing. He offers nothing more than AJ. AJ has an 80 point BA advantage over Cruz. But, he is a RH bat so he gets the start. :banghead:

We are going to have to watch at least 5-6 blown saves before Matheny pulls Rosenthal.

I saw this stat last night

Taveras has hit .367/.406/.433 in eight starts since, having worked to shorten his swing so as to handle big league fastballs.

OT took instruction and modified his swing. Thats a damn good sign of his growing maturity. He screwed up last night swinging at the first strike he saw with bases loaded. He will soon realize you can swing at that pitch on a 3rd strike, not the first. Part of the learning process.

I've read at least 3 national articles in the last couple of days that almost all the top prospects in baseball struggling to live up to their potential right out of the gate. It's not just Oscar. We as Cardinals fans need some patience with him. .308/18/100 hitters don't grow on trees.

Biggest surprise to me........... Mabry actually improved a hitter.:eek:

I guess Mike was saving Choate to pitch to a lefty in the 15th inning or something. :shake:

It really can't get much worse than Mike Matheny.

Freeman threw 5 pitches and got a 1-2-3 inning. He should have pitched the 8th inning.

Since when did Maness earn the right to pitch the 8th inning of a tie game, on the road, against a divisional rival in a playoff push? WTF Matheny?:cuss:

Not pissed at Maness. He should not have been out there. He's not that good.

Javier Baez the Cubs savior....40 k's in 90 AB ROFL

He's definitely going to have to learn to be more patient. He's 21 and on pace for 57 HRs in a full season. We'll see how he does next season. If he can turn a few of those K's into BB's then I've got no problem with a young Adam Dunn at 2B but with much better D.

But he's not the Cubs savior. Kris Bryant is the best hitter the Cubs have in the minors. I'm really not even sure why he is still at AAA when the Cubs have ****ing Luis Valbuena at 3rd and they just called up Soler for some reason.

Stretch run time. We all thought this team under performed all year. We lost Molina, Wacha for extended periods. Most thought we were done.

But, here we are. 1.5 games out of the division lead. 4th best record in the NL. 16 out of 30 at Bush. 20 out of 30 remaining games against sub .500 teams.

Molina could be back behind home plate at Bush this weekend. Wacha may be full strength for playoff starts and late Sept. games.

What say you? Do we make the playoffs and make a quick exit or make a run in the playoffs?

Yadi returns to the lineup.:thumb:

Excellent; I feel with his addition, Cards have a decent shot of splitting this 4 game series.

Gonna be painful to watch this team implode. This team can't hit water if they're standing in a boat.

Not even mad at Neshek. You cannot expect these guys to be perfect every night. The offense is a damn dumpster fire.

Not that it matters but Joe West can suck a fat dick. Ya I know it's 7-2 and you probably have a box of donuts waiting for your fat ass in the locker room but call the k zone right you ****ing asshole.

Seriously, if this team makes the playoffs.....I mean.......they've been getting completely shut down by bums like tonights Cubs starter. How would they fare against a playoff team's 1-3? It's not like they'll see the likes of Hendricks, Locke or Kendrick.

Just don't feel good about this team at all.

Ummmmmmm... You don't know much about Hendricks.

1.78 era with a 1.01 whip... What a bum!

You are welcome St Louis. Lost a tough one, but don't worry, there is an ass whooping being put on by my Giants tonight.

I know he'll be out of the league in 2 years. I know that this team has been shut down recently by such studs as Jeff Locke, Kyle Kendrick an Jerome "released by the Astros"Williams in the past week. I call it as I see it. And Cub fans seem to love this guy the same way they loved Jim Bullinger at first.

He is pitching better than anyone in the game. Even hall of famers have bad nights. Understandable.

This team is ****ing horrible.

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And yet we are tied for first place.

i feel you. my team is ass this year too and in first. I guess this year teams just suck in the NL. We are one of the worst hitting teams with RiSP. So bad, that after the 7th inning when down by any amount we are 1-43 lol

This year, anyone in contention can win i think.

yep, just get in the tournament. After that, it's anyone's for the taking.

It's a hell of a lot easier to stay in the tournament if you stay out of the WC game. The way it is looking, if the Cardinals were to win the division, you'd have a repeat of the LCS in the Divisional round, with the Nats playing the WC winner.

Quoted for truth

Spoiled Card fans LOL

Yeah, you see the conversation in this thread and you'd think they were 8.5 games out of the race.

The last 3 weeks or so we have started coming from behind to win games. If we were down 5 runs, thats it, we laid down. Not happening anymore.

We have the best schedule to win the Central. Washington plays the wild card. We get LA or the Giants. Doe LA or SF scare anyone?

Back in first for now. News on Wacha is sounding positive at least. Gotta win the division to have a solid chance to make a run.

This team still has one of the worst offenses in baseball and a negative run differential. I have not been unrealistic in my evaluation of this team

Thats looking at it from a purely stat perspective. No one is saying the offense is great. Despite that fact there are also other facts.

After 137 games we are in first place. We have the 4th best record in the NL. Thats not luck. Offense is down all across baseball. We have the most favorable schedule out of all the playoff teams. Pitching wins playoff games, not offense. Waino/Lynn/Wacha/Lackey should be able to compete with any NL staff.

Not at all unrealistic in that take. Still I hope this team might have a chance if they get healthy (Wacha and Yadi). Those Giants recent WS teams couldn't hit for shit.

The Cardinals got completely shut down in their last two playoff series losses not because the pitching imploded, but because they couldn't hit worth a damn.

The anemic numbers they put up against Buchholz and Lackey in the WS are shameful. They scored 14 runs in 6 games.

Wacha starts Thrusday at the Brewers. He should have full arm strength by the playoffs.

I wouldn't count on that. Remember that he is dealing with a stress reaction in his shoulder. We can't predict if it's going to respond to an increasingly heavy workload. It's an early stress fracture. Maybe he never has another issue with it, but this isn't merely a "stretch him out" kind of injury.

Wainwright is just ridiculously overworked. Honestly, I'm surprised he lasted this long into the season before getting pounded.

Waino looks gassed. All those 120 pitch outings in a blow out we're unnecessary.

Also, they keep showing Herzog, anyone else notice te two chicks behind him with the big cans?

It's not just this year, but the cumulative workload of the last two. It's too much to expect.

Yep, bet the same issue with Rosenthal. He got 4 days rest and he looked a lot better. Nesheck got a days rest and he looked good. See a pattern? evidentley Matheny doesn't see an issue with overuse enough to change his usage of his top line pitchers.

I know anything with a shoulder injury in a pitcher is career threatening way more than worrying about this year. I hope they know what they are doing sending up against MLB hitters after only 2 innings of work in the minors.

JFC Rosenthal.

First pitch - line drive single to right.

way to rebound

Pete Cock****in' Bourjos.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FpcyFABSwu...s1600/tuco.gif

dude. you have to admit there is something positive going on with this team. When you get Pete Kozma, Delcasco, Bourjas, Seth Maness, Grichuk making positive contributions, Holliday heats up and so on something positive is happening with your team.

I think Molina being back has paid such positive dividends. Look at Martinez's, Miller's and Rosenthal's outings. They threw pitches in counts we haven't seen them throw all year. They get off track, Yadi makes a trip to the mound and wham, they are back on track.

That was some ballsy shit to allow Martinez to take on McCutchen with the game on the line, runners in scoring position. If it fails, everyone will be all over Matheny. I think they have decided that if Rosenthal falters, Martinez gets the 9th and leave Neschek in the 8th.

I can no longer deny it.

I was about to admit that I gave this team my kiss of death by putting $50 on them to win the World Series in March.

I think it's easy to be seduced by narratives, but that doesn't always make them true. Descalso's BABIP is something like .425 since the ASB. Kozma getting two big hits is nice, but he's still Pete Kozma.

Wacky shit can happen in a small sample size; we're just lucky that the team is running hot right now.

The Brewers played out of their ****ing skulls in April and have been a sub .500 team since.

I agree that it's nice that things worked out, but the Martinez-McCutchen AB was a white knuckler all the way. 10 pitches and he only swung and missed at one.

In essence, I'm saying that luck doesn't distribute itself evenly across random events. They appear much more even when viewed through a larger prism. You'll have two week periods where every ball drops. We're in one right now. Doesn't make the team great, but the run is certainly enjoyable.

who in their right mind thinks Kozma is now a good player? That's the point. Even shit players are contributing.

It should have been a white knuckler. The dude is the reining MVP. He's a damn good player. It's suppose to be hard to get him
Out. Mathemy decided to take him on and not let him have a free pass. Play to win the game move.

I know it's small sample size. But, they are ranked 6th in the league in runs scored since July 31st. They have been coming from behind in games for weeks now. I'm sure we will look like shit again before the season is over. Doesn't mean we won't get hot in the playoffs and win another.Keep hope alive.:rolleyes:
/gets off the hope soapbox

Cards winning down the stretch. ....shocking

As a Pirates fan, I am not a happy camper! :cuss:

Hats off to the Cardinals who consistently find a way to beat us.......

You have a good team. Cole, mccutchen etc are as good as anyone in the game. I don't see any hard facts as to why we win more than we should against you guys the last two years. :hmmm:

I knew the Brewers would collapse with that fraud pitching staff of theirs. It's on guys.

I think if we can take 3 out of 4 they will fold.

I'd settle for 2 out of 4 in this series. They are fighting for their lives. Desperate team playing at home will be tough to take 3 of 4. The odds of the losing streak continuing are hard to overcome. MLB teams with that amount of talent just don't keep losing like they have recently.

Their pitching is dogshit

Cole ain't dogshit. He is the real deal.

BTW, How in the hell is Peralta a top 5 player in WAR? A 5.6 WAR? He's hitting .260.

That's true but I'm not worried. Like I said their best pitcher is Gallardo and he's inconsistent at best. Same with Garza, throw in a steroid free Braun and I don't see how they bounce back.

He's at 5.1 fWAR. His defense has been spectacular and he's produced 26% more runs than the average ML hitter from the shortstop position. That's huge.

Cole is a good young pitcher, but they don't have a single starter who has put up more than 1.2 WAR. Kind of hard to compete in a division when your starting pitching is that bad.

MLB tonight had him at 5.6 WAR. 5th best in MLB.

That's his bWAR.

bWAR? fWAR? Batting/Fielding? Is there an all inclusive one?

2 runs in the top of the first.

Wacha looks well rested.

That will take the wind out of their sails.

bWAR/rWAR=Baseball-Reference

fWAR=Fangraphs

They use slightly different formulas. The difference is more noticeable with pitchers than position players. Their use of different fielding formulas is why Peralta rates slightly higher in bWAR than fWAR

This mother****er's zone turned into a thimble at the half inning.

Wacha's velocity was a tremendously positive sign. And we're PH'ing Ellis against a RHP?

Mark Ellis is every bit as bad as Ty Wigginton. Goddamn, he ****ing sucks.

Thats just pure BS. He was only insurance for wong. He is not one of Matheny's guys. You want to save Grichuk or taveras for a double switch later okay. But Kozma and Delcasco have some hits lately. Ellis has been out for weeks. He should not be getting AB's in playoff push time.

I love Mott as a person and we will always have 2011 but a reliever coming in and throwing a flat, no movement 93 MPH fastball is going to get hammered.

He's old, its why we let him go and the team before us as well. Think he was with the A's for a bit.

JFC, even if I was a Brewer's fan I would have to go over to who ever is doing that woouhoouoo every pitch and punch them in the face.

Rosenthal has got to go. He's just ****ing terrifying.

Ain't happening. He would have to blow 5 games to get canned. Let's hope there isn't 5 blown games.

Besides that, it was a good game. All of a sudden we have a damn good defense.

Big win, great defense. Left alot of runs out there.

I like Scruggs off the bench in the playoffs. Would like to see Oscar get more AB's but with Jay and Bourjos playing well, it's tough.

For my favorite baseball geek

viva el birdos (@vivaelbirdos)
9/4/14, 11:51 PM
14 games over .500 with a run differential of -2.


Sent from my iPhone. Go Chiefs!

Unlike Wigginton the Ellis signing at the time at least made since with him being productive last year and Wong not being a sure thing. Just got hurt and fell off the cliff which was hardly surprising but there was at least a solid chance that could have been a year away from happening.

I take it ESPN also list bWAR? It's pleasantly surprising how well he has played this year. At least using WAR as a reference you would hardly expect a guy to put up his best season after a signing a decently sized contract that followed a PED suspension.

Yeah, he was a good one year insurance policy. I have no problems with the signing. We still have a payroll lower than last years. We had money to buy insurance. But now, he needs to ride the pine the rest of the way.