Hodge Podge, Smorgisbord, or my real answer …D all of the above

Tardiness of late is an understatement for my lack of posting.  I get relatively strong traffic even though I don’t post very often, but I don’t do this for fame, fortune, or glory.  I heart baseball.  That’s the real reason for doing any posts at all.  Besides, when I saw that the brockabrella domain was available how could I pass up the chance to own it!

So without further ado, the random baseball thoughts of a Cardinals Fan circa October 2008.

The season of the 2008 St. Louis Baseball Cardinals - It was a bit of a rollercoaster ride with a fast start and surprise out of a team anyone didn’t really have much hope for, but the first half the season was quite enjoyable.  The quality of their games lead to some fist pumps, high fives and some exclaims of “See, no one should ever count out the Redbirds!”  On June 16, 2008 I even went so far as to write a prediction on my whiteboard of the Cardinals winning the World Series.  Alas, I may have been wrong.

The second half though exposed the details of their very evident flaws…the bullpen.   There is the well documented problems of the bullpen, their roles, and actually closing out games.  The Redbirds lead the NL in bullpen losses (30) and blown saves (30) and you can certainly point to that being a reason for missing the playoffs.  The offense was actually pretty good.  1st in the National League in batting average and second in my favorite stat of OPS.

Albert Pujols vs. Ryan Howard for MVP – This an April Fool’s Joke right?    Simply hitting a lot of home runs does not equate to being Most Valuable.  Statistically there are many ways to slice and dice the numbers and both Howard and Pujols come out ahead in them, but the true value of a hitter is seen through OPS.  OPS meausres the value of every at bat and those numbers don’t lie.  Albert Pujols 2008 OPS was 1.114 (73rd best of all-time) and he had 104 walks and only and Ryan Howard’s is .880 or more than 21% lower. Howard also had 199 strikeouts.  OPS takes the home runs in to account, and the walks, and the strikeouts, so for me that sums it up best.  Yes, Albert didn’t lead the Cardinals to the playoffs but neither did Andre Dawson in 1987 when you won the NL MVP for a sixth place Cubs team!  BTW, Ozzie Smith and Jack Clark finshed 2nd and 3rd that year respectively.

Don’t be a knucklehead like THIS guy.  Be honest with the observations.

Chicago Cubs 2008 play-off run –  They lose game one and game two, so are the cubbies on the brink of failure?  We’ll find out late Saturday night, early Sunday morning when the game ends for us Central Time Zoners as to whether of not the curse continues.

Outlook for 2009 Cardinals – More than 86 wins?  A better bullpen?  Some clearity in the outfield?  More second basemen playing the outfield?  Will Dunc be back? Mo pulling another excellent trade out of his sleeve?  We’ll see….and comment on it over the winter.