GaryWoods

I do, for one. At least I did that series.

Yeah, on a positive lighter note, it'll be interesting to see if he can find creative ways to use Ohtani. On a much more important darker note, this Skaggs situation could turn into a huge mess. I'm guessing there's a good amount of work being done behind the scenes to keep this out of the headlines during the playoffs. The second part is what I was talking about. I live out here and it sounds really bad. It's definitely not Gene Autry's team anymore.

The thing that will forever upset me about the juiced ball era and the Cubs is that all these other teams had guys who struggled to reach 20 home runs crushing 30 dongs a year and our two biggest HR threats, Rizzo and Bryant, can barely reach 30. I know Bryant had his shoulder issues and he was plenty valuable as was, but a fully healthy Bryant should have no issues hitting 40+ in this juiced ball environment and Rizzo shouldn't be struggling to reach a number that guys like Ketel Marte and Yuli Gurriel and Kole Calhoun and Mitch Garver reached with relative ease. Meanwhile, our biggest benefactor from the juiced ball was probably Jason Heyward who hit 21 homers and managed to boost his offense to replacement level production. Huzzah. The juiced ball pushed a lot of warning-track fly balls barely over the wall, which is why Heyward hit a dozen more basket shots than usual. Rizzo and Bryant (and Schwarber, as far as that goes) don't historically record a ton of warning-track outs, so they didn't really benefit from the juiced ball.

Yes, Kolten. The haters were right. Good luck repeating this charade next season, bitch! So people who didn't think the Cardinals would win the division are "haters"? That seems a little harsh considering the fact that many Cardinal fans would have to be included in that broad statement. Coupled with Mike Schildt's assertion that the Braves "started some " just by showing up for their scheduled playoff series and that any team that dares to take the field against them is with them, the current Cardinal culture seems a bit pansyish.

Honestly, I think the complete opposite. Free agency has been particularly unkind to guys in their mid 30's lately, so Rendon's not going to want to sign a deal like that and hit FA again at 35. He is most likely going to geta contract that could be his last, 8-10 years in the 30 per year neighborhood. There's an outside chance he does something short at a crazy AAV, like 4/150, but until we actually see one I'm growing increasingly skeptical that the Dodgers are actually offering these. I happened to read an article about Howie Kendrick in the last couple of days where Rendon was quoted as saying that he doesn't want to be playing baseball when he's Kendrick's age (36). Maybe he was just poking fun at Kendrick, but if he was serious a deal that takes him to age 35 might be exactly what he looks for.

It just comes with the territory for pitchers who keep the ball in the strike zone. Fergie Jenkins was always among the league leaders in home runs allowed.

Dave Martinez seems too nice a guy to do that (or appears too nice to do that). I agree it'd be horsefeathering awesome if he did give that speech lol. For Schildt:

Can anyone else spot what’s wrong with this sentence? So I take this to mean that there are a few closeted black bullpen coaches out there?

But would you trade Yadi for Mike Trout? Yadi will finish his career as a Cardinal, and that has been the plan since Pujols left. He's this generation's franchise player for St. Louis. And yes, I absolutely understand why fans from other teams hate him. I was trying to come up with a comparable player in recent (2 decades) of a Cubs player and how fans regarded them. I'm having trouble finding a 15 year player with multiple all-star appearances and arguably a HOF career. I think Rizzo is probably the closest as far as fans adoring a player. Am I missing somebody? Do we have to go back to the 60s/70s teams to do that? I think Steve Stone comes closest. But that was as an announcer. Rizzo will be that guy if he sticks around awhile and his performance doesn't fall off a cliff. I barely followed the Cubs for about 10 years following the debacle that was the 2004 season so I missed most of the tenures of Aramis Ramirez and Derrek Lee, but as I recall they were both pretty well loved although their tenures didn't really reach the "forever identified with the Cubs" mark and therefore probably aren't what you're looking for. Sammy Sosa was there up until the 2004 season. Grace was pretty close, but when Rafael Palmeiro started using steroids developed into a power hitter a lot of fans felt like the Cubs had traded the wrong first baseman. Plus he kind of turned into a grumpy old man his last year or so with the Cubs.

Beating Scherzer twice does mean something, lol. Sorry you can't do "small samples!!!" to things like that. That guy wrecked almost every one he faced. Since Jeff Albert (came over from Houston) became the primary hitting coach, the Cardinals have had the 4th best offense in baseball. Nationals, like the Braves, have a crap bullpen. You need that to win in the playoffs. Cardinals will just hack fouls and take take take until the 5th-6th when starters are lifted and feast on their pen. Just like we did Atlanta. I don't put a lot of stock into WAR for pitchers when the stat doesn't consider weak contact/ground balls. And that's the moneyball market efficiency that Cardinals were all-in on. Mikolas, Waino, and Hudson are all groundball specialists. The whole staff is. With Edman and Wong and DeJong in the infield... it'll be smooth sailing barring crazy BABIP luck. Cardinals are the best postseason team remaining with HR/FB rates too. We keep the ball in the park in a homer-crazy league. That's how you win. That's how we'll beat the Nationals. But would you trade Yadi for Mike Trout? Most Cardinal fans I know wouldn't trade Yadi for Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, and Duke Snyder together in their respective primes.

You forgot to mention the statue of Jobu in Heyward's locker.

I'd prefer Gabe Kaplan.

He'd better just stay there until he catches Catfish Hunter.

The evil part of me wants them to bring in Mike Matheny. Not because I think he'd be a good fit; I just have a few friends who are Cardinal fans who have an irrational affection for the dude and are still butthurt that the Cards let him go, and I'd love to witness their reactions.

I'm sure they probably feel an obligation to speak to anyone within the organization who expresses interest. But assuming the goal is to bring someone in who can light a fire under these guys, I question whether they'd seriously consider a candidate who was in a position to do that last season as a coach but didn't.

Fortunately Don Baylor is not.

Yeah, I'm still baffled how the dong surge seemingly didn't hit the Cubs in any obvious way outside of Heyward, maybe Castellanos, and Almora for, like, a month. It’s horsefeathering bizarre man. Like Rizzo king of hitting 28-32 HRs a year couldn’t somehow have a 40-50 Dong year in this environment? It makes no sense. But at the same time all these guys would hold these HR totals in the old ball environment while every other dude saw massive dips. I think it's a reflection of the type of hitters they are. Their home runs tend to be of the legitimate, no-doubt, line-drive variety. So their homers are going farther as a result of the juiced ball, but they aren't generating a significant number of additional homers. I think the guys realizing the benefits of the juiced ball are those who don't have as much power (like Heyward, who probably has a dozen basket shots this year) or who hit more fly balls that are carrying farther. That's all just speculation, of course, but there has to be an explanation somewhere.

The caption said it was the day he returned to action so it would have been the fourth day after the injury.

Gotta love the post-elimination "Let's throw all the turds in there and see which ones float well enough to bring back next year" lineup.

He went back to crushing the ball for a week after he got the cortisone shot. Over his last 6 games he hit .100/.217/.100. I think the knee is a much bigger problem than we've been led to believe, but hopefully it's something that can be corrected over the winter. I agree that he's not getting traded unless it's a blockbuster deal, though. Or you know, since it’s 6 games, it’s just noise. But if that's the case, we have to consider possibility that the six games where he was crushing it was just noise.

I get it. Bryant is one of the best 20 players in baseball. However, the likelihood of him staying past free agency and the fact that he has had 2 dehabilitating injuries 2 years in a row provides reasonable consideration to maximizing his value to help cover holes elsewhere. This season wasn't debilitating -- he had a bad (by his standards) August and then went back to crushing. He went back to crushing the ball for a week after he got the cortisone shot. Over his last 6 games he hit .100/.217/.100. I think the knee is a much bigger problem than we've been led to believe, but hopefully it's something that can be corrected over the winter. I agree that he's not getting traded unless it's a blockbuster deal, though.

I think it's a tossup between Schwarber and Contreras. Schwarber is expendable because his one strength, hitting for power, is well covered by this lineup. Contreras has become expendable with the emergence of Caratini. Possibly both will be dealt as we have multiple holes to fill. If Schwarber goes I have a feeling we'll see a lot more of Contreras in the outfield.

it doesn't seem like it because this team has lost ground in the standings That, plus the fact that most of their losses and even a few of their wins have been pretty frustrating.

I have no interest in the magic number until it reaches the point where the team can achieve it without regard to what the other team does. That's when you control your own destiny.