Baseball College

Brandon Webb took home the hardware today being named the NL’s Cy Young.  He was followed in second place by Trevor Hoffman.

Carpenter finished in third place, receiving only two first place votes.

I expected this outcome, and feel pretty indifferent about it.  I personally don’t enjoy seeing a closer finish ahead of Carpenter in the race, but Hoffman had a very good season.

Congratulations to Brandon Webb.

I’m still floating on cloud three billion after #10.

Let’s take a look at the possible bullpen of 2007, shall we?

We all know that Tony likes to carry 12 pitchers on his squad, so that means we have seven spots to fill in the bullpen. I would assume that our long reliever spot(s) will not involve a whole lot of money spent, so my guess is that Thompson and/or Hancock will be in the mix once again in 2007.

As for middle relief, I don’t believe that anyone will offer Randy Flores ridiculous money, and we have Looper locked up, so, hello middle relievers. To be honest with you, I wouldn’t mind seeing Looper in a different uniform next year, because for the money we are paying him to do a mediocre job, we could find a quality 2B or a couple of utility guys. If on the off chance this happens, I guess we have a small hole in our bullpen - would we take another gamble and try further to reinvent the enigma that is Jorge Sosa?

Our setup men, Kinney and Johnson, both look like locks to come back next year.

Our closer is still up in the air.

If Wainwright moves to the rotation, it is because Izzy is healthy. Fine.

If Wainwright remains the closer it means one of two things:

1. Izzy is not healthy - if this is the case, we have to assume that he will eventually come back during the season. If he does, the question becomes, who closes? I think Wainwright’s success in the role will go a long way in determining the answer to that question. However, I don’t know how keen I am of paying our setup guy 8 million bucks. If we were to move Wainwright to make room for Izzy, where would he go? He could go to the rotation if someone is struggling, but it’s hard to make the transition from closer to starter mid-season. He could go to the setup role, but that seems like a waste of his talent. I guess we just better hope that Izzy is healthy at the start of the season.

2. It is easier to find a starting pitcher on the FA market than it is a legit bullpen pitcher. If this is the case, I’m fine with Wainwright in the bullpen for another year, but then the issue of wasting his talent comes up again if he’s in the setup role instead of the closer’s role.

This position in the bullpen appears to me to be the only real question mark, and I think that there are much worse problems that could occur with a team’s bullpen.

This bullpen looks to be the least of our current concerns right now. If someone said that to me in September, I would’ve punched them in the face in hopes it would knock some sense into them. OK, maybe I wouldn’t have gone that far, but I would’ve definitely laughed sarcastically.

Next time, we’ll address the offense and what we can expect to see for the 2007 version of the Cardinals. We may also throw in what we’d like to see.

<< What a shirt - if you can't read it, it says Smooch Your Pooch, hence the lips.

Anyway, now that the parade has finished, I feel it's time to start looking towards next year and our quest to repeat. The first question that I pose to whoever is reading this thing is this: Who do you think will be in our 5 man starting rotation in April?

Here's a couple things to think about when you're making your picks...

1. Where will you find Adam Wainwright? Are we going to put him in the rotation, or will he remain our closer until (and possibly even after) Izzy gets healthy. Maybe Izzy will be healthy in April, who knows.

2. How much of a pay raise did Jeff Suppan and Jeff Weaver earn with their performances in the postseason, and will we be able to afford both of them?

3. Who is on the FA market that we would be interested in?

All that being said, my rotation goes a little something like this:

1. Carpenter

2. Weaver

3. Mulder

4. Reyes

5. Wainwright

I think that we will re-sign Mulder and Weaver, mainly because it really sounds like both of them want to be here (A home town discount perhaps?) I have Weaver in the #2 slot because I think his stuff is coming around, and at this point, I believe it is better than any of the other 3.

I think Suppan may have priced himself out of our range with his performance in the postseason.  I wish him all the best with whoever he pitches for next year, and I do hope it's us.  Realistically, I don't think it will happen.

I think Izzy may be healthy come April, and that will give Wainwright a chance to be in the rotation. I have him in the five slot because I think he will be far less effective initially in a starter's role than he was as a setup/closer.

Well, whaddya think? I went with the conservative approach in my picks, but it's an approach that I hope comes to fruition, because I would love to see this rotation next year.

Can you believe it? I sure can’t.

Let me give you a rundown of the way my day went. I was unable to post a game 5 preview because I had to take a section of the CPA exam. Needless to say, in the hours before the test, I was very nervous. Once the test was over, I had a work party for my girlfriend that I was required to attend, which also makes me a little nervous because I know I’m going to be uncomfortable for about 95% of the party. As soon as that was over, it was time to get nervous for game 5. All in all, one of the most nervous days of my life, but one of the most rewarding as well.

I am now 24 years old and was born on game 1 of the 1982 World Series, a game which the Cardinals lost 10-0 to the Milwaukee Brewers. I really thought that was a bad omen for me and Cardinal fans in general, and for 24 years, it was. This World Series win is something that blows my mind and puts me on cloud nine at the same time.

I’ve been waiting for this day to come my whole life, and it is here when I least expected it. It comes when a team that wins 83 games in the regular season comes to life at the right time. It comes when a team that loses their closer (blessing in disguise) has to turn to a lanky rookie to close out games. It comes in a year when “the experts are idiots” according to a sign hung at Busch Stadium last night. Nobody picked the Cardinals to win, and I think that’s what makes this so sweet. ESPN.com had their playoff predictions, and one out of 18 “experts” picked the Cardinals to win in the first round.

I have a lot of respect for what the Tigers have done in the last few years, and I have all the respect in the world for Jim Leyland. That being said, I almost feel bad about all the errors they committed in the World Series. It was getting downright unbelievable towards the end, and I just hope that the reflections on this World Series give credit to the Cardinals for playing well, not getting lucky on account of the Tigers’ misfortune.

2006 is in the books in the baseball world, and what a way to end it. Our 10th World Championship after a 24 year wait - how sweet it is!

In the words of you know who, “Go Crazy Folks!” Go crazy.

1. Jeff Suppan needs to pitch the way he pitched in the NLCS - to be honest, he can pitch a little worse than that and still be fine, but we need a solid 6 or 7 innings out of him tonight. Getting ahead in the count and keeping the ball on the ground are two keys to his success tonight, let’s see if he sets the tone early.
2. Jump on the righty - Hey, it’s a right handed pitcher! We suck against lefties, so we damn sure better string some hits together against the righty tonight.

3. Rain rain go away - I want the Cardinals to play tonight, as they seem to have some momentum. It doesn’t hurt that the Tigers are still extremely flat.

4. Be, aggressive, B-E Aggressive - Detroit has shown us that they are mediocre at best defensively, so I feel that tonight we should try to take the extra base whenever possible (except on Pudge). Make them earn a victory tonight not only offensively, but defensively.

A 3-1 lead at the end of the night? Not these Cardinals, they’re not good enough, right?

1. Chris Carpenter must work both sides of the plate and throw his off speed pitches for strikes. With all the movement that he has (in either direction) with his fastballs, he can get away with mistakes out over the plate if he is mixing up speeds. If he can’t establish his curve ball, however, the Tigers hitters are going to be sitting on the hard stuff all night.  Mission accomplished - unbelievable performance.
2. Give the crowd something to cheer about early. How about a 1-2-3 inning and then a run or two in the bottom of the first? A crowd that is in the game for the whole game will make a very tough environment for the Tigers to play in.  One for two ain’t bad, and we ended up scoring first, so that’s a plus as well.
3. Go to the opposite field against the lefty. I’ve said it before (In game 2 actually), and I’m gonna say it again. Let’s be unselfish and go the opposite way against this lefty (unless he is constantly busting us inside).  He did go inside a lot, and I still don’t think our approach was that great, but it didn’t have to be that good with Carp pitching the way he was.
4. Forget about game 2. If everyone is still dwelling on the pinetarhandgate, then it could be tough to rebound and win tonight. If the Redbirds use the Kenny Rogers situation as fuel for the fire, we could be a very dangerous team tonight.  Dangerous indeed.
5. If we must be behind heading into the bottom of the ninth, let’s try to keep it around 1 or 2 down. I have all the faith in the world that we can get to Todd Jones if we have to, but it would be much easier if we were only down a couple, or, hell, even ahead going into the ninth inning. Let’s give Wainwright’s filthy curve ball a chance to display itself.  Disregarded.
Let’s go to game 4 with a 2-1 lead shall we?  OK.

As I’ve stated earlier, I’m not a huge proponent of a lot that Bryan Burwell has to say, but again he’s summed up my feelings in one of his articles.  This one pertains to the whole pine tar/dirt incident with Kenny Rogers last night.

I don’t want the first World Championship I remember seeing go down on a technicality.  Let’s earn it damnit!

A little pregame - pregame analysis for game 3.   Carpenter needs to shut down this Tigers offense with a mixture of cutters, two seamers, and curve balls.  Even if he has two of these pitches on, he should be ok, but I really hope that one of them is the curve ball.  Oh, and another thing, how bout we take a different approach against this lefthander and try hitting the ball to right field?  Are we blind to the reason we had success against Glavine the second time around?  C’mon dum dums, we took what he gave us and went the opposite way with it.  We also jumped on his mistakes over the plate.  We’ll have to take the same approach against Robertson, and if we do, we’ll be up 2-1.

1. Jeff Weaver must establish the fact that he is capable of throwing curve balls for strikes. If he can get his breaking ball over, he’ll be very effective again tonight.  He got better as the night went on, but it was too late.
2. The Cardinals need to score early again tonight, this time to establish the fact that they can score against a soft-tossing lefty. We finally figured out Glavine, and Rogers is Glavine with a few extra MPH and a little less movement on his pitches.  No.
3. Make Kenny Rogers throw a lot of pitches - If we can get to the Detroit bullpen before the seventh inning, we have a solid chance to win. If the Tigers can throw Rodney, Zumaya, and Jones in innings 7, 8, and 9, we could be in trouble.  He did, but over a span of 8 innings.
4. Stay loose - we looked good last night, but tonight’s another night, and the boys know this would be a big win. We have to maintain that carefree attitude, otherwise we’ll score very few runs.  Tighter than spandex.
I just witnessed the first World Series game win of my life that I can remember. Tough sentence to understand I know, but I was born on game 1 of the 1982 World Series, so obviously I don’t remember that series, and I really don’t remember the 1985 or 1987 series. This is a sweet feeling, and wouldn’t it be great to go back to St Lou up 2-0?  It would be great, but it’s not to be.  Going back with a split is just fine with me, especially with Carp and Soup taking the hill in games 3 and 4.  We should get at least one of those games at home, and if we don’t, we really don’t deserve to win the series.  Enjoy your flight back into warmer weather (I hope) boys.

1. Get ahead of hitters Mr. Reyes. We’ve all seen his potential, but we need that potential to come to the forefront tonight against the Tigers. Mission accomplished - tons of first pitch strikes tonight.

2. Please Mr. Reyes, change speeds. If the Tigers’ hitters can sit on fastballs down the middle on the first pitch of every at bat, your night will be very short. According to McCarver, he was changing speeds too much early on, so mission accomplished there as well.

3. Cardinals hitters, don’t be selfish. It seems that everyone wants to hit a home run lately. If the pitch is on the outside corner, go to right field. Remember, it’s a team game, work as one! Pujols homered to right, Rolen doubled to right, and Molina had a base hit to right. Well done boys.

4. Jump on ‘em early. Let’s get a run or two early to give not only Reyes more confidence, but the team as a whole. This will also send a message to the Tigers that we aren’t as overmatched as everyone thinks we are. We got one in inning two - that’s good enough for me.

5. Score more runs than the Tigers. I can almost guarantee victory if we do this. Turns out we did - five more to be exact.