TruffleShuffle

Somebody had to post a post about how the Cardinals were a minor league lineup before this series. Sometimes you should just bite your tongue and not tempt fate. they have 5 runs in 2 games.

classic fukucopter.

should've sold high.

i feel like soriano has kinda blown lately.

maybe that goateed guy was evil aaron miles.

http://5iveoclock.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/motte.jpg lol

fontenot you moron

what a cardinalish hit.

oh they are some of the best fans in america? i hadn't heard.

man this is boring

stop booing you dumb hicks.

bad first inning for carpenter - 4 hits (2 doubles) and 2 runs. hopefully the other chris carpenter sucks tonight too.

daytona may have some problems with wet grounds when they return home; it's rained over a foot in the past 2-3 days.

no, the short end of the stick was starting the game thread of the 5/19 game.

No, it isn't. There's no psychological hump that automatically stops the Cubs from being good once the postseason starts. That hump exists in the minds of ignorant fans who can't wrap their minds around the concept of sample size and probabilistic anomaly. It's 6 games over 2 years. That might be true in the abstract, but it may not be applicable to this team. It's hard to watch the games last year and not see that they clearly choked. The big plays were mental mistakes, not bad luck. And while the playoffs are obviously a crapshoot to a degree, I think any team that doesn't have good front-end starters is at a disadvantage. if i remember correctly, the things that are most strongly correlated with winning in the playoffs are frontline power pitching, a good bullpen and good fielding. the cubs have rich harden, carlos zambrano and dempster (who was very good last year); their bullpen was solid with marmol and wood, and they were one of the better defensive teams in baseball last season. but they got swept. crap happens.

let's review here: the brewers have some pretty good fielders (hardy, hall, cameron), some average ones (kendall, hart), a guy who has apparently improved a lot (weeks) and two lousy fielders (prince, braun). weeks is gone now, so they'll be replacing him with a guy who can't hit but is good defensively (counsell) or a guy who will probably hit well, but is atrocious in the field (gamel). yet they're ranked #2 in baseball with a .724 DER, which would be better than any major league team in history. Last year they were #7 win baseball with a .698 DER, with roughly the same team. exhibit #2, let's wade through their results on balls in play. Throwing out the two guys with BABIP's over .500 because they've collectively pitched 2 1/3 innings, all but two members of their pitching staff have a BABIP below the league average of .299. Some are very far below it, like Hoffman, Bush and Gallardo. The only guy who would expect to have a very low BABIP is Stetter, as a LOOGY with a low LD%. Hoffman has a 20.7 LD% the past 7 years; this year it is 8.7%, which is not likely to be sustained given that he's an old dog and probably hasn't learned any new tricks. Bush, Gallardo, McClung, Looper, Villanueva - all with anomalously low BABIPs that do not match up with their career track records and their batted balls this season. Suppan actually has only a 12.2 LD%, but that is far out of line with his normal 20% and will not be sustained. The two guys with higher BABIPs, Parra and Coffey, are actually right about in line with their career BABIP and projected BABIP by Zips. Lastly, take a look at these team stats. As mentioned above, the Brewers have an extremely high DER. They also have one of the highest LOB% in baseball (74%). Their ERA of 3.89 way below their FIP of 4.51. Given that they have roughly the same position players as last season, and also have a number of pitchers with a wealth of evidence as to what type of pitcher they are, I can't conclude that the Brewers have become one of the best defensive teams in major league history, nor can I believe that their pitchers have collectively learned how to pitch very effectively to contact. Rather, it looks to me like they've simply been very lucky through the first month and a half of the season, and once that luck runs out, they'll regress to being a team that is average at run prevention.

his babip is unusually high and his HR rate is high as well, although last year it was unusually low. his stuff still looks really good; his walks are up so maybe he's just missing his spots more this season.

yeah when they draft a scandinavian player in the late rounds, look out, because that guy is probably going to be really good. from what i recall, they place a much higher value on work ethic and willingness to learn than most organizations.

i hope dave duncan develops amnesia.

3 on 1 in overtime? yikes.

my question is why he keeps playing when scales has been hitting well since he came up.

gaub/schlitter choked away the lead, no W for J-Jax :x

ground out would have been more appropriate.

no but most of his pitches have been strikes, especially 1st/2nd pitches, and once you're down 0-2 you're in a big hole. the guy has walked 7 batters in 53 innings of work this year; you're not going to beat him by waiting for 3-1 counts and drawing walks. there were hittable pitches but nobody hit them.

pretty much. the approach isn't bad (despite what everyone in this thread seems to think), but everyone in the lineup is just getting poor cuts at hittable pitches. it happens.