A moment of silence for Lyons' Career

Steve Lyons was fired today, a day after making some racists remarks on the air. You can google the same and see them, I won't repeat them. They were bad. Not Mel Gibson bad, but bad.

The real question is why he had a job in the first place. He's always been a space cadet. When he was a player, he was known for accidentally pulling his pants off when he was on first base. Anyone that out of it doesn't belong in front of a microphone.

I watched him in the A's series. In game 1, he seemed genuinely excited about seeing a 100 MPH fastball, saying he'd never seen one live. You know, if we wanted an announcer with some sense of awe at watching major leaguers, we'd pull fans out of the stands.

Perhaps they'll call me to replace him.

Wake me when it's over...

Was that a playoff game I was watching, or was I simply dreaming?

That had to be the weirdest NLCS game I’ve seen during the past six years. Fittingly, Suppan was the definition of a one man wrecking crew. Read that sentence again.

The game began in standard fashion. Suppan looked good early, getting out of the first with a hit by Beltran, and a stolen base, but no runs.

The Cards jumped on Trachsel early, and it was 5-0 before the crowd could even get into the game.

A lot has been made of the rainout of game 1, and the lack of an off-day. It has really affected this series. Both teams got to St. Louis Saturday morning at about 3:00 am. Trips like that have to hurt after a long season.

Suppan and Trachsel flew into town early, before game 2, so they could rest. Once Trachsel left the game, Suppan appeared to be the only player at Busch who was really plugged in.

Once the Cards took the 5-0 lead, the entire stadium began to presume the Cards would win. It was surreal.

The crowd, which had risen to its feet on every two strike pitch in the first and second, sat back and bided it’s time until the ninth.

We had Jeff Suppan, who last threw a shutout when he was a Pirate, pitching agianst the best offense in the NL, and everyone, even the Mets, appeared to think the game was over after two innings.

The Mets have the best offense in the NL, and Suppan out scored them by himself.

I watched, and kept thinking the Mets were a bloop and a blast away from being back in this game. But honestly, I never once thought it would happen. The Mets are tired. Could they wake up tomorrow? Sure. Momentum in baseball is only as good as today’s starting pitcher. But they are dragging.

A few more thoughts as we yawned our way to victory.

Nice to see Rolen return to his hitting ways. He had a solid single, but more importantly, hit the ball sharply on the ground, which is a vast improvement over the popups.

Wilson looks great in right-field. His play on Valentin’s single to throw Jose trying to stretch it to a double was textbook. He surrounded the ball perfectly, and threw a bullet to the bag that had to make Molina proud. It was nice to see good outfield defense.

Suppan’s homer was his first since he homered in 2005 off of, that’s right, Steve Trachsel.

The Cards have three homers in the series. Edmonds, Taguchi and Suppan, oh my.

Game 3 Preview

Everything you read about LaRussa indicates the man is passionate about winning. He spent hours absorbing all he could from Sparky Anderson and other great, late ‘70’s managers. He agonizes over losses, eating his post-loss meals by himself, quietly disecting what went wrong. He brings a football like intensity, albeit internally, to baseball. And he does it 162 games a year.

I always figured at some point TLR would go “Beautiful Mind” on us at some point. I figured Duncan would find him in the basement of Busch with matchup statistic sheets taped together to form patterns. All the while mumbling something about Kirk Gibson’s HR off Eck.

We might see it this series.

It’s been a stressful four weeks, with the Cards nearly blowing the division. In the back of Tony’s mind, he’s got to be thinking about starting the rookie Reyes Sunday. That won’t bring up fond memories. He also has the prospect of Weaver on three-days rest. He’s gotta be feeling it right now.

Plus, Steve Trachsel is simply frustrating.

First, he’s known as the human rain delay. He’ll spend more time behind the mound than on it. It’s maddening to watch. He’ll give Tony plenty of time to think between pitches. I’m not sure that’s safe for our skipper.

Second, the Cards stats against Trachsel could lead the manager to overthink. Rolen has more at-bats against Trachsel than any other Cardinal. He’s hitting .241 with 10 K’s. Not good, so you sit him, right? Well, Spezio is hitting .143 against Trachsel. Duncan would normally start against a righty, but Wilson is hitting .400 against Trachsel, with 3 HR in 20 at-bats.

Encarnacion has been awful against Trachsel, so I’m not ruling out an outfield of Wilson, Duncan and Edmonds. Edmonds is 2 for 12 lifetime against Trachsel. I usually discount Edmonds carreer numbers. He’s so streaky, he’ll hit anyone when he’s on, and no one when he’s not.

Albert has been Albert against Trachsel, hitting over .350 with a double and five walks.

My prediction of the lineup? Eckstein, Duncan, Pujols, Edmonds, Spezio, Wilson, Belliard, Molina, Suppan.

We’ll see if the opportunity for creativity, on the eve of starting a rookie, starts to get to Tony.

Suppan has had success against the Mets lineup, but little against them in Met uniforms. Only LoDuca and Chavez are hitting over .300 against Suppan with more than 10 at-bats. Only Valentin has more than one HR, he has four. For more stats regarding Suppan and the Mets, see the “Mets Lineup” post below.

We have our best pitcher not named Carpenter going tonight. He’s facing a mediocre pitcher in Trachsel. The Met bullpen threw 112 pitches last night. We are at home. It’s a game you could almost argue we are favored to win.

The Cards should be looking to take two here in STL, and win game 6. If we’re gonna win two, tonight should be one of them. If not, look for Tony in the basement.

Baseball tonight

Watching highlights. Dusty Baker has joined the Baseball Tonight crew. Should we start the John Kruk voice box injury watch?

Game 2 Wrapup

He’s 2 for 2 in the post-season, with a slugging percentage at 4.000. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you So Taguchi. He’s got two homers that have cleared the fence by a combined five feet. That was huge.

I've been down on So this year, but that was a tremendous at-bat. So laid off the inside slider, and worked the count full. Wagner knew So couldn't hit a 98 MPH fastball. Wagner knew he couldn't walk So in front of Albert. Only problem was, So knew it too. So was sitting fastball, and Wagner hasn't been able to locate as well for most of this year. The homer was an experience homer. It was huge.

There were many important questions answered by the Cards tonight.

The question as to what happened to Weaver's pitching arm was answered, when Carpenter took the hill with Weaver-like stuff. It looks like Carp is a bit tired. He only threw 92 pitches tonight, so perhaps he can rebound for game 6.

But the Cards needed this game, and they played well with the pressure on. They fell behind 3-0 in the bottom of the first, and added 2 runs in next half inning. They fell behind 4-2 in the bottom of the second, and scored 2 more in the next half inning.

This Cards team has heart. More heart than me, aparently, as I was ready to give up at 5-4. Led by Spezio, our Shane Falco, this team proved it could rebound.

Spezio is the answer. You’ve got to put this guy in the lineup. He has battled in every at-bat during the past two weeks. He's hitting .700 in the post season with runners in scoring position. .700. In 20 AB's. That's astounding. Even if you want to play Rolen against Oliver Perez, the lefty, you have to get Spezio in there somehow. Perhaps play him in left instead of Wilson, or perhaps instead of Encarnacion.

The bullpen was shaky tonight, giving up a run and five baserunners in the three innings before the 9th. But they didn’t break under the pressure. Let’s not fool ourselves. Johnson/Flores/Kinney et al are going to give up runs. But they kept battling. They made pitches when they needed to. More importantly, they didn’t let the big stage change them.

The pen benefited from amazing defense from Ronnie Belliard. At the plate, he’s awful. He’s got the swagger, but he just can’t back it up. When hitting, he’s the homelessman’s Manny Ramirez.

But defensively he’s been fantastic. The play to the leftfield side of second, the attempt at the double play when he glove-flipped to Eck, and the start of the double play in the 8th against Beltran were all big.

When the Cards got Belliard, I figured he would add a dangerous bat to the lineup, but be a downgrade defensively. He’s always killed us at the plate. Turns out he can play defense, and can’t hit. It’s like if you were to start dating Paris Hilton. She has obvious talents and shortcomings. Then imagine she gained 75 lbs, and then used her wealth for a great humanitarian cause…you know, like destroying Tim McCarver. She would have turned out to be worth it, despite the shortcomings.

Edmonds just may have found his stroke, with two long flies to leftcenter. He does that when he’s on. He also draws walks when he’s seeing the ball. He walked twice.

The Mighty Mets bullpen can be hit. They threw 112 pitches in Game 2. That seems like a lot. Mota threw 23, the day after he threw 19. Wagner threw 24, the day after throwing 15. Heilman threw 33, and Bradford 29.

I imagine Mota is available, but you have to wonder about Wagner. He is 35 with a history of injuries. You’d also have to wonder about the effectiveness of Heilman or Mota after working this hard in New York.

The Mets put some serious pressure on the Cards in Game 2. The Cards responded. It’s a series in St. Louis.

Game 2 Preview

Thoughts as I chew fingernails and wait for 7:05.

They say it’s a must win. I suppose it is. Saying we have to win with our ace on the hill is a comment worthy of the Great McCarver; only McCarver would add, “by winning, I mean scoring more runs than the opposition.”

I’m not sure I would say I enjoy these games. They are gut wrenching. Baseball is a game of failure, with a smattering of near-failures that lead to runs. Scoring is rare. Not soccer or hockey rare---where it is so rare the announcers are never ready for it. But it’s rare.

When you aren’t at the stadium, there simply isn’t enough to do to keep the game moving. My wife passes the time by vacuuming. I write diaries that literally dozens of people look at on my site.

I love baseball. I really do. I’ll bet I’ve seen over 70% of Alberts career at-bats. I love playoff baseball even more. Still, I won’t say I’ll enjoy tonight. At least, not the way I enjoy a Carl’s Drive-in Hamburger. Or bacon. I love bacon.

Anyway, a few things you may not know about tonights game:

The Mets are hitting .181 off Carpenter, with a slugging pct. of .340. Delgado is 2-3, but no one else comes close to being frightening.

Temperatures will hover around 50 degrees, with a 20% chance of showers.

We’ve faced Maine once, so there are few meaningful splits. Albert was 2-3 off Maine, with two HR. His lifetime slugging percentage is 2.667. I love small sample sizes.

Our Hero Rolen is 0-3 lifetime against Maine, meaning if Rolen goes 0-4 tonight, it might not be the fault of the shoulder.

Joe Buck will be back at the mic. I love Joe, but every time he gets excited about a Met HR, part of me dies. Just dies. I understand why he does it, but it feeds into Joe-overload. He’s on Sunday, each weeknight, Holiday Inn Commercials, Beer Commercials. He’s turning into the Ben Affleck of October. What would we call it if Joe dated J-Lo? Huh? Gotcha there, eh? See comments for my real answer.

Question: If Fox is going to promote every TV show by putting the stars in seats that any real New Yorker would kill to have, why can’t they do the same with their movies. You can’t tell me you wouldn’t want to see Borat as a sideline reporter, showing pictures of his naked sister to TLR during the game. Hi-Five!

The commercial breaks are extremely long in the postseason, but the drug commercials make it worthwhile. From what I gather, the average viewer or a baseball games is an old guy who can’t get it up, and has to pee six times an hour. Curiously, one of the side effects to the prostate drugs is sexual disfunction. You can’t convince me that’s a coincidence. You can hear the pitch in the board room: “And Avodart will have the added effect of zapping the patients sex life, which should boost sales of Cialis. Which reminds me, who has Bob Dole’s phone number?”

And while we're on the subject; Cialis works for 36 hours? Isn't that a long time to be "in that condition." You definitely don't want to take it the same weekend as your kids birthday at Chuck E. Cheese's.

Yeah, I'm nervous waiting for tonight. It feels like the Cards are on borrowed time. Yet a win would make this a competitive series.

Is it too much to hope for? Judging by my fingernails, I'm still nervously hoping.

Game 1 Quickies

Some quick thoughts on Game 1.

The good news, Weaver was nearly perfect. The bad news, he had to be exactly perfect.

Weaver absolutely baffled the Mets last night. Memo to Marquis---THAT’S HOW YOU SET YOURSELF UP FOR A FREE AGENT CONTRACT. I’ll bet Weaver made about $2 million last night---minimum.

Glavine was downright Glavine like. Despite what Albert said, I thought Glavine was good. The Cards hit four line drives into five outs. Make all those hits, and we probably do score two runs. That’s still strong on Glavine’s part.

Why is Albert saying Glavine wasn’t that good? Is there a point to that? I shudder at the thought of a distracted/distracting Albert in this series. Nauseating. Let’s just move on.

From Zimmerman: Glavine pitched 7 innings and faced 24 hitters. He fell behind 10 of those hitters, 2-1 or worse. Of those 10 hitters, 2 walked and 1 got a base hit. 5 made outs and two hit into DPs. 5 batters forced Glavine to make more than 4 pitches. Pujols (2), Rolen (2), Eckstein (1) and Encarnacion (1).

Glavine showed what a good pitcher can do to our lineup. With him pitching, the pitcher, Molina, Belliard and Rolen are nearly sure outs. Hard to score runs that way.

Did Glavine break a sweat out there? Weaver was giving it all he had for his 5.7 innings. Their efforts will impact game 5.

Rolen was awful. One benefit to the lack of off-days, Rolen may have to sit sooner. I love the guy, but he’s killing us. Spezio has had two of the really big at-bats for us during the past two weeks. Time to play him; it’s the classic Michael move.

Floyd looked done. You could see that one coming. He obviously tested his calf by joging after some fungo’s on Wednesday. Now, if only baseball were a game for lolligagers. The first time Floyd tried to actually run, his calf gave way.

Is it me, or do half the Mets fans look like Carl the Greenskeeper?

Does Beltran hit anyone as well as he hits us? Time to bean him.

Game 1 Diary---Innings 7-9

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Game 1 Diary---Innings 4-6

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Game 1 Diary---Innings 1-3

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Weather Watching...

Rainouts suck. The disappointment is palpable. I feel like I used to feel when our opponent in intramural football would forfeit. You get excited to play, then nuttin. Such a letdown. If they don’t play today, we’ll enter the “Chevy Chase Show” zone of disapointment. It’s best not to think of such things. Some quick hits while we wait for the series to begin:

* The weather is supposed to clear up in NY. Cool tonight, though, with temperatures in the upper 50’s by mid-game. Yes, I’ve added weather.com to my list of sites. I’m going to be fired.

* Weaver is traditionally bad in April, though it’s hard to say if that is the cold weather, or the fact that the season had just begun. It also might be that he’s just not a good pitcher.

* Floyd is apparently ready to go tonight. His numbers against Weaver are 2 for 9 with 2 2B’s. Given the fact that Weaver has reinvented himself more times than Hulk Hogan, and Floyd’s injury history, a sample of 9 ab’s probably doesn’t mean much.

* When it comes to stewed prunes; are three enough? Four too many? This is what we come to when we’re cheering for high pressure systems. (Those are the red lines on the map, right?)

* We’re supposed to have a few showers here Sunday, with rain Monday and Tuesday. It’s supposed to be nice Saturday. So long as Carpenter pitches before Sunday, he’ll be able to come back on regular rest to pitch again in this series.

* Did you know that weather.com has baseball stats???!?!?!?! According to the site, “the most favorable weather conditions for the St. Louis Cardinals are Night [sic] games, temperatures between 74 and 83 and winds cross-field right to left.” Amazingly, the Mets have the exact same quote on their site. They both even have the improperly capitalized ‘N’ in night. So if the wind is just right, and the temperature warms to the mid-70’s, we’ll have the veritable imovable force v. irresistable object. Something’s gotta give. This is what happens when scientists get involved in baseball.

* Speculation is rampant on whether Carp will pitch tomorrow. TLR has not ruled it out. In fact, Bernie seems to think TLR is leaning toward keeping Carp on regular rest. TLR says he’ll go with his gut. I think most Cardinal fans’s guts are churning simply because TLR has a decision to make.

* I’d wait on Carp. The Ace battled an inconsistent strike zone on Sunday by simply rearing back and giving the Padres the gas. I like the idea of an extra day’s rest after that 107 pitch performance. The extra rest before Game 1 against the Pads didn’t seem to hurt.

* On the flip side, Suppan is better at home. One thing that isn’t ever mentioned is who the umpire will be and what their strikezone is. I’ve googled the umps for our series, but find only the following: Tim Welke calls basestealers out more than any ump in baseball save one. If Welke follows a typical crew chief, he’ll start at home, go to an OF spot, then rotate. IF, and I’m merely speculating, he rotates per normal, he’d be at second for Game 4. We have Reyes, who is slow to the plate, pitching that game. So that’s something to think about…I hate rainouts. Forces me to google umpires. You have to know these thing if you’re going to be King.

* I like the fact that the game 1 starters have to pitch on 3 days rest. Glavine is 40, and threw more innings than the 30 year old Weaver. Plus, Weaver is a sinkerball pitcher with a rubber arm, so he should be himself on three days rest. Now, don’t get me wrong; Weaver stinks, and could be worse on 3 days rest. But Glavine is the Mets Ace; and now they only get him on regular rest once in the series…or they go with a bullpen game.

* The Mets included Anderson Hernandez, and infielder, on the roster at the expense of reliever Royce Ring. Would have been fun to listen to McCarver try to say, “reliever Royce Ring.” More practically, it means the Mets have 11 pitchers (same as the Birds), which could be big if Maine and Trachsel can’t get past the fifth inning.

* Well, that’s about all of the irrelevant stuff I can think of. If you have a weird stat, let’s see it.

Game 1 called

So now we head to Game 1 on Thursday, with Game 2 on Friday.

So what now? I'll tell you what now.

The weather has given TLR something he hasn't had since the postseason began....options. Is that a good thing? Well, that's another topic. What are his options?

Suppan pitched Saturday, meaning he could pitch Thursday, game 1, on regular rest. Carpenter pitched a hard 7 innings on Sunday, meaning regular rest for him would be Friday. Our first off-day is, apparently, gone.

While it hasn't been officially announced, we'll now play Games 1-5 on Thursday through Monday.

If our game 1 starter is to pitch game 5, he'll do so on 3 days rest. Our Game 2 and 3 starters can still pitch games 6 and 7 on regular rest.

The options: Pitch either Suppan or Weaver in Game 1, then again on three days rest in game 5. TLR could opt for Carpenter in Game 2 on Friday, pitching him again in game 6. He could go with either Weaver or Suppan in Game 3 and 7.

The logical move would seem to be to let Weaver go game 1, Carpenter Game 2, and Suppan Game 3. That leaves Carpenter and Suppan, our two best pitchers, the opportunity to pitch twice in this series on regular rest.

Game 5 would feature either Weaver on three days rest, or a bullpen game. Yicks. However, if we're going to throw a starter to the "wolves" of a three day rest, lets try it with Weaver. The one thing you can say about him, he's got a rubber arm. Also, he might just be better when he has nothing to lose.

The Mets might be in a tougher spot. They have their best pitcher in Glavine set for game 1. If they want to use him on regular rest, they have to hold him for game 6. That means they'd have to start Darren Oliver in game 5. Darren Oliver is bad. Very, very bad.

The Mets have a better bullpen, and can cover a bad game 5 start more effectively than we can. However, we have more durable starters, and, frankly, better starters to weather the weather.

Floyd gets an extra day to rest his calf. Rolen can rest his shoulder. Edmonds can do, whatever it is he does. Albert, well, I imagine Albert went to his hotel room, set up a tee, and smacked balls into the wall while watching Pulp Fiction on the TV. He's the one that says BFM.

The rain gives pundits a reason to talk. Let's hope it works for the Birds.

Roster Set

Only one change from the LDS. Marquis out, Reyes in. Hoorah.

I had really feared the rain might force Marquis onto the roster. If the Cards were forced into starting Suppan tomorrow night for three innings or so, then having the game cancelled due to rain, there would have been an argument for having Marquis' rubber arm around.

Thankfully, it will not be so. If the nightmare rain scenario happens, expect Thompson to start and Hancock to relieve.

The Mets will have Floyd available, to what extent is unclear. He was able to shag some flies in left yesterday, so we'll see. However, they don't have Dave Williams. I had wondered if they would consider him instead of Oliver, since Williams, a puss-ballin' lefty, baffled us when he was in Pittsburgh.

Cards Roster:

Pitchers (11): Chris Carpenter, Randy Flores, Josh Hancock, Tyler Johnson, Josh Kinney, Braden Looper, Anthony Reyes, Jeff Suppan, Brad Thompson, Adam Wainwright, Jeff Weaver.

Infielders: Ronnie Belliard, David Eckstein, Aaron Miles, Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen, Scott Spiezio.

Catchers: Gary Bennett, Yadier Molina.

Outfielders: Chris Duncan, Jim Edmonds, Juan Encarnacion, John Rodriguez, So Taguchi, Preston Wilson.

Mets Roster:

Pitchers: Chad Bradford, Pedro Feliciano, Tom Glavine, Aaron Heilman, Roberto Hernandez, John Maine, Guillermo Mota, Darren Oliver, Oliver Perez, Steve Trachsel, Billy Wagner

Catchers: Paul Lo Duca, Ramon Castro

Infielders: Carlos Delgado, Julio Franco, Anderson Hernandez, Jose Reyes, Jose Valentin, Chris Woodward, David Wright

Outfielders: Carlos Beltran, Endy Chavez, Cliff Floyd, Shawn Green, Michael Tucker

Game 1 Update

TLR has named Rolen the starter at third for tomorrow. Rolen says his shoulder is fine, or something.

Boy, what a hero Rolen is. Battling out there at third all of September, hitting .225 during the final month, and going 1-11 with a bloop double in the LDS.

I'm all for being tough. I'm all for playing hurt. But you have to know when you aren't your teams best option. I honestly don't think Rolen looks right. He isn't finishing his swing like he normally does.

The good news is I've never been right about Rolen in my life. In 2003, Rolen was decent, but unspectacular. At spring training before the 2004 season, I remarked to my wife that Rolen's bat looked slow to me. I thought he was overrated.

I relayed this "knowledge" to a friend in South Carolina, who then passed on Rolen in his fantasy baseball league. Rolen hit .314 with 34 homers, and my buddy "one-ringed" my cell phone after about 31 of those homers.

Prior to 2006, I figured Rolen would get stronger as the year went on, he did the opposite. Just last Saturday, I predicted a big night from Scotty. He went 0-4, leaving several runners on during the Cards only loss to San Diego.

So I'll say it in a "glass half full" type way: You're gonna suck in Game 1 Scotty. Flat suck.

Game 1 Matchups

For a complete list of how the Mets lineup fares against Weaver, see the post below.

No one outside of Delgado destroys Weaver. But man, Delgado crushes Jeff.

Weaver has been a different pitcher this year…and not in a good way. Lefthanded batters have an OPS over 1.000 against Weaver. That’s almost Albert-like production. Weaver managed to confuse the Padres with his curveball…for five innings. I'm sure the Mets have seent that video by now, and at least know it's coming.

I don’t see Weaver pitching longer than five innings at Shea. Look for Kinney, Hancock, Flores, Johnson and Wainwright (if we’re leading) to start the reliever merry-go-round no later than the sixth. It wouldn’t shock me to see Weaver lifted against either Beltran or Delgado with men on base even before the sixth.

If Weaver goes more than twice through the heart of the Mets order, it will likely mean we, A) have a 12 run lead, or B) Weaver has a no-hitter, or C) LaRussa is trapped under something heavy.

Glavine has had success against a lot of the Cardinal lineup. Scott Rolen has hit .358 off Glavine with two homers. But Scott isn’t right, and Spezio, who has never faced Glavine, should start at third. Albert is hitting .450 off Glavine in 20 at-bats, but no extra basehits.

Curiously, Encarnacion hits the soft-tossing lefty well, posting a .361 average in 36 at-bats.

Preston Wilson, who crushes left-handed pitching, is hitting .205 against Tommy. Duncan has never faced Glavine. I’m still betting on a Wilson start in game 1.

Edmonds is 4 for 19 against Glavine, while Belliard is 5 for 12.

Agaisnt the Mets bullpen, there is little to go on. Wilson has 18 at-bats against Mota, but a .222 average. Encarnacion is hitting .125 in 16 at-bats against Heilman. Albert is hitting .300 against Wagner, but Edmonds hits .231 with 6 K's in 13 at-bats against the lefty. It's a good pen.

It’s hard not to give the Mets the edge. They are a fantastic team…on paper. If Weaver can get us to the 6th, then all bets are off. However, that is a huge if. Opening games can be tone-setters. The thought a week ago of letting Weaver set a tone was downright frightening. Then again, a week ago, Cards fans were lobying to allow the Braves to play beat the Padres for us.

Weaver looked great in San Diego. I suppose it’s just more fun to be optimistic than realistic. So go Jeff.

Mets Lineup

Leading off for the Mets is Jose Reyes. The best lead-off man in baseball. He’s stolen 64 bases, being caught 17 times.

Jose is a switch-hitter that is measurably better against lefties, with higher BA, OBP, and better power numbers when he’s hitting right-handed.

Lifetime against Weaver: 2 of 11, 0 K’s
Lifetime against Suppan: 2 of 6, 1 HR.

Notable: Feasts on two Cardinal pitchers. Mulder and Marquis. 1-3 against Carp.

Conclusion: Don’t pitch Mulder or Marquis. The Cards pitchers have had success against Jose. We must keep him off base. The Molina/Reyes battle should be fun. As an aside, that was a nice Harold Reynolds face (think Bo Jackson throw in Seattle) that Dave Roberts made after being nailed by Yadier. I watched that ball track from home to second. Gravity appeared suspended. Yadier has a gun. Word is the ball took 1.68 seconds from Yadier's glove to second. Sounds like a record, or something.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Willie Randolph gives Reyes the stop sign, or does a lot of hit and run plays with Reyes on. Why run into an out with all that firepower coming up?

Paul LoDuca. Very consistent, with numbers similar against lefties, righties, at home, and on the road.

Lifetime against Weaver: 3 of 9, all singles.
Lifetime against Suppan: 6 of 16 with two doubles.

Notable: 4 of 8 against Marquis. 2-6 against Carp.

Conclusion: LoDuca is a disciplined hitter that is a tough out. He struck out only 38 times this season, so he’s a definite hit and run candidate. He doesn’t hit for much power, with only 5 HR this year.

Carlos Beltran: Surprisingly bad at home, with a .224 ave and a slugging pct under .500. He’s a monster on the road. Far, far better against righties, hitting only .247 against southpaws. Expect all his late inning ab’s to be against Tyler Johnson, and perhaps even fifth or sixth inning at-bats to be against Flores.

Lifetime against Weaver: 42 at bats. 11 hits, 2 2B’s, 2 3B, and 3 HR, .267 BA. 4 K’s
Lifetime against Suppan: 2 of 11. 4 K’s

Notable: 4 of 19 against Carp, with 4 K’s.

Conclusion: Beltran hit 41 HR this year. Weaver gave up a lot of homers to lefties. This would be the biggest matchup of the game…but for…

Carlos Delgado. Like Beltran, he’s far better on the road then at home with a .226 BA at home and a BA of .304 on road. He’s also better against righthanding pitching, hitting only .226 against lefties. But the real story for game 1 is this, and sit down before reading:

Lifetime against Weaver: 19 of 38, 4 HR. 4 2B’s, 8 BB’s and 2 K’s.
Lifetime against Suppan: 6 of 29 w/1 HR and 4 K’s.

Notable: .600 BA against Marquis. 2 of 3 lifetime against Carp.

Conclusion: Weaver needs to bean Delgado. Simple as that. Someone tell Bob Gibson to have a talk with Weaver.

David Wright: Consistent splits between home and road. Actually a little better against righties than lefties. Had a lousy August, but really came on in September; hitting .360 for the final month. He’s locked in. However, his power numbers have really dropped. He’s hit only four HR since August 1.

Lifetime against Weaver: 3 of 7 with 3 2B’s.
Lifetime against Suppan: 1 for 4.

Notable: To be fair to Marqius, Wright is 3 of 14 lifetime against Marquis, 0-3 against Carp with 3 K’s.

Conclusion: We need to keep him from busting out of his power slump. He can definitely hurt us when he’s hot.

Shawn Green: A lefty, but that’s about the best you can say about him anymore. He hit under .250 as a Met, though he did hit .301 at Shea this year. His power isn’t what it was, as he hit just 15 HR this year.

Lifetime against Weaver: 5 of 16 with 2 HR against Weaver
Lifetime against Suppan: 3 of 24 with 5 K’s

Notable: 0-8 against Carp. 4K’s

Conclusion: He’s been moderately dangerous against Weaver, with the two homers. He’s not who he once was, and no one should confuse him with the Blue Jay that hit over 40 homers six years ago.

Jose Valentin: Decent hitter with good pop, far better against righties. Switch hitter. Will turn 37 on October 12.

Lifetime against Weaver: 7 of 26 (.269) w/ 1 KR and 5 K’s
Lifetime against Suppan: 12 of 48 (.250) w/4 HR and 9 K’s

Notable: 1 for 15 against Carp with 5 K’s

Conclusion: Again, not great carreer numbers against Weaver. He’s an all or nothing hitter, with 19 homers this season in somewhat limited playing time. He’ll hit 7th, and we need to keep him in the park.

Endy Chavez: Slap hitter that will bat about .300, but hit for extremely little power.

Lifetime against Weaver: 0-4
Lifetime against Suppan: 5 for 12 with 2 2B’s and 1 K

Notable: 0-11 against Carp.

Conclusion: Endy is playing because Floyd is out with an achilles injury (the third one to affect the Mets this postseason….is it the stairs at Shea?) Endy can be part of a rally, but isn’t going to create one by himself.

I'll do a game by game analysis on the respective gamedays. However, to save you the math, the Mets are hitting a collective .147 against Carpenter. That sounds nice. I included a lot of Marquis stats just to show he sucks against the Mets. We honestly don't need stats to tell us Marquis will suck if he pitches in game 4.

Third time a charm? NLCS---on Fox...

How can you not love playoff baseball. It just infects this city, with the pep-rallies at schools, the Go Cards signs hanging off buildings, and the fact that loads of people wear red on game day. It’s a great civic experience to be in STL for the playoffs.

I’m enjoying our run as an underdog as well. The past two years, you could feel the weight of expectation. From mid-July of 2004, no one challenged us in the regular season. Losing both times was unexpected.

This time, we aren’t supposed to beat anyone. We’re the weakest team in the weakest league. At least that’s what 15 of the 16 experts on ESPN.com said. Hey, we had a shot in the eyes of the prescient Enrique Rojas. He’s the lone expert that has us beating San Diego. That’s one more expert than picked Detroit. Nice job, guys.

So how will our underdogs fare against the Pond Scummers? Well, I’ve been listening to radio, and reading on the net, and I conclude that we have no chance. It makes sense. On paper (which is the only place “experts” get to play) the Mets are better.

However, some of the “analysis” makes no sence. I have to call out Buster Olney for saying the NLCS will go 7 games, and we’ll lose. How can you pick the Cards to win three of the first six, then lose with Carpenter on the hill. It’s the one game where we have a decided edge…on paper.

I also heard someone evaluating the series by doing a classic position by position comparison. Those drive me nuts. Beltran is better than Edmonds, so, advantage Mets. That would be insightful, if only Beltran and Edmonds were meeting in a “hit, run and throw” competition to decide the pennant.

Not to sound like Joe Morgan, but pitchers pitch to hitters, who try to hit. That’s baseball. So how will the Cards do in getting out the mighty Mets lineup? How will we hit the Mets pitching? I’ll analyze the Mets lineup in the next post.

Hey, it's not like they let you carry on much anyway...

Leave home without it. At least that was Albert’s moto Sunday. According to reports, Albert addressed his team on Saturday, and said he better not see anyone bring luggage to the park on Sunday. No way they would need to go to San Diego.

In a game where neither team hit the ball especially hard, where a few breaks led to all the runs, perhaps the sheer will of Albert made the differece.

There’s nothing like celebrating a series clincher at home. And what a clincher it was.

The funny thing about five game series, is no one is ever out of them. As of noon yesterday, the Cards had a commanding lead. As of 4:00 pm yestereday, we were facing a must win. The prospect of Weaver on three days rest on the road tomorrow wasn’t pleasant.

With Carpenter, we had to feel confident. Two bloops and three (THREE?) first inning walks led to two runs, things suddenly looked bleak. The ump obviously had a floating zone. I think it was the third inning before he called a curveball a strike. It was clear a disciplined lineup would be able to have some success tonight.

Now if only we had one of those disciplined lineups.

What we lack in discipline, they make up for in what the French call a certain “I don’t know what.” The first inning Cards rally featured a single by Wilson, a walk by Encarnacion (he walked a whole 30 times this season), and a broken bat single by Belliard that tied it.

Carpenter responded with a seven pitch second, and the ace was rolling. What makes Carpenter so tough is he has four legitimate pitches. In Game 1, he baffled the Padres with his curve. Game 4 was all about the number 1. Carp threw about 40% four-seamers. Normally he throws about four total. They were good enough. The Padres had to be wondering where the curve was. Hey, if the ump couldn’t see it, you knew the Padres wouldn’t see it.

The four run sixth was incredible. The Padres finally decide to pitch around Albert, walking him. Encarnacion comes through again with a triple…on a curveball….to right field. Normally Encarnacion waves at outside curveballs. This one he took the other way. Must have been the fear of wearing his uniform on the plane.

After a Belliard walk, Spezio had one of the guttiest at-bats you’ll ever see. With a one run lead, one out, a man on third, and two strikes, and after several foul balls, Spezio grounded a sharp single to center to make it 4-2. That was huge.

It was those sorts of little things that made the differece in all the runs tonight. The bloops for the Padres; and the seeing eye singles, and triple, for the Cards. There were no homers tonight. The hardest hit ball was probably Klesko’s double in the ninth.

The Padres couldn’t come up with the big hit. You can thank Carpenter for that.The Cards always seemed to have the answer. Perhaps that’s the fear of explaining to Albert how you got a change of clothes.