Everyone's conceding the NL central penant to the Cardinals, especially after pre All Star game and Post All Star game the Cards dismantled the cubbies and won't see them again for possibly a long time. Also I noticed the teams the Cards have to wrap up the season with aren't exactly pieces of cake. The Marlins, Mets, and Braves will be tough as both of they all battle for the NL east and will most likely all three step up their play. The Pirates are suprisingly not as bad as they should be and seem to put up a decent fight. And if you look at July Auguts it looks like all the cards do is play the reds. There's also the Astros who though out of the race for the most part, still have a great club that once it gets its act together will be a force. As well as the Brewers who surprisingly are fighting with the reds and cubs for a possible wild card. And if that weren't enough there's the entire west coast. Rockies (though bad historically the cards struggle sometimes against them), Padres, Dodgers, and Giants---all of which are battling for their division. So though the cubs are done with the Cards don't have it in the bag yet. They have to battle the best of the east and west. Hopefully they'll stay on top of their game and bring one home for the Holtie!
Posted by holtonian at July 22, 2004 10:09 PM | TrackBackI don't think they give a division winner the "pennant." And I doubt ANYBODY'S giving the Cardinals the National League championship just yet. If they just handed 'em out, the Cubs would have gone to the Series last year! :)
Posted by: RobU at July 23, 2004 07:12 PMah..St.Louis has seasoned you well. Indeed, all is not won until the detroit red wings come back from a 3-1 game deficit to win the western conferance 3-4 games in '97. Or the Braves come back from a 3-1 game deficit to beat the cardinals to win the national league pennant in. Bastards! Yeah thats right...I said it and I live in Georgia. Not that there are too many Braves fans out there who would disagree.
Cards hitting is unbeatable. What I'm worried about is that a lot of our wins come from out hitting our opponents. Our best starter is Suppan with a 3.48 ERA. Our pitchers with the most wins are Carpenter, Morris, and Marquis, yeah i don't know who he is either, some french guy, all with 10 wins and the lowest ERA among them is the frenchy with 3.76. Is that a run on sentence? They're playing SF right now, Giants shut out in the 1st. Its a start. I got 10 on the cards. Any takers?
okay on ebaums world there is a maze. Its about getting out of a room. I get stuck at the video part. I try clicking everythinhg but nothing works. What do I do?
Posted by: concenrened at July 24, 2004 02:54 AMHunt what are you talking about Maze? Ebaum? what? Elaborate. Rob, the reason I said that was because some of the espn commentators the other day were predicting that the cards had things wrapped up and I wanted to set them strait.
Hunt Marquis is the stud picther we got from the Braves for JD Drew, so far our end is doing better. Marquis was their top pitching prospect pretty much. He's done well for a young pitcher.
ALso my brother taps into the fact that as St. Louis sports fans, we know the agony of the old saying, its not over till the fat lady sings. The 3-1 series lead, in our minds, is not a series lead. A series where we have 4 out of the 7 wins, thats a lead. I remember when the cards went up 3-1 on the braves. Those whole 3 remainings were agony> Every night there was a game my family (parents and me) went to a sports bar and watched every night as the cards crumbled. And the Blues entire history is one of sucking in the playoffs. They're sort of like the Cubs or Red Sox of hockey. They get close but never touch Lord Stanley.
Posted by: holton at July 24, 2004 11:15 PMWell sports fans, the 3-1 Braves series will always be painful. Nice blog holton (this is Kyle, Hunt's friend from STL and fellow green seat lover from the Cubs game). Hunt and I were trading favorite blog spots and he turned me onto the chattablog community. There is some good comments on some of the blogs and humor which is a must.
The trade for Marquis also included Ray King, who has more than earned his keep (era under 2.00).
And Hunt, our best pitcher's era may not be like Woods or Prior, but we have 5 starters that give you a quality start every time (actually, the best line up for quality start in the majors). When your worst starter is still .500 (Woody's getting old), you can't complain much.
Being a STL boy, you can't claim victory too quick, but the Cards are not winning out of sheer luck. The are truely impressive. Last year we were well under .500 in 1 run games and this year we are dominating. Anyway, just wanted to drop in and say hey. I drop some posts from time to time.
Posted by: thehaze at July 27, 2004 07:14 PMKyle, too true, too true. Keep the comments coming.
Posted by: Holton at July 27, 2004 08:26 PM