Congrats To The St. Louis Cardinals!
Posted by Steve L. on October 28th, 2011 · Comments (20)
The Cardinals have now won twice as many World Championships as the New York Yankees over the last 11 years.
Think about that when Brian Cashman starts his 15th season as Yankees G.M. in 2012.
And, the Sabathia games begin…now!
God! Talk about a choke! But then the Cards still had to win…and they did. No mystery about it. They got hot in September and with four (4) post season slots per league that’s all you need.
Texas becomes the first American League team since the Yankees of 63 and 64 to lose back to back World Series.
What happened to the superior American League.
One thing the Cards have proven. You only need to win 85 to 90 games to have a World Championship caliber team. Heck, they only won 83 games in 2006. Are the Yankees up to that challenge?
From ten and a half out on August 30 to sneaking into the playoffs on the last day to coming back from one strike away – twice. Can’t say they didn’t earn it.
Steve Lombardi wrote:
I’m thinking about it.
What it tells me is that Billy Beane is right; the post-season is a crapshoot.
Joseph Maloney wrote:
Well, this was the 7th consecutive year the AL won the interleague battle, head-to-head. But I suppose 4 to 7 games in October are more significant than over 250 games in May and June.
I kind of agree with the playoff crapshoot concept when thre is not a real dominant team out there, like this year. It certainly applies to game 7′s.
As I watched these games/teams I saw a few things the Yankees lack. Both of these teams were generally more athletic, went first to third more often, had more reliable contact hitting up and down the line up, had more reliable production from the middle of their orders, and had multiple starters capable of giving you 7 decent innings without holding your breath in the pre-game. On the other hand, the Yankees’ pen was much much better than either of these teams and the Yankees had a much steadier defense with a higher chance of making routine plays. Both catchers looked like they had a lot more left in the tank than Martin did at playoff time and both teams had more versatile benches. My read is the Yankees would have looked a bit tired and worn out against either of these teams and would have lacked the starting pitching depth to compete to the end. All that said, we should have beaten the Tigers. After that, without a really dominant team out there this year… crapshoot.
77yankees wrote:
Amen.
W.S. rings since 1964:
Yankees 7
Cardinals 5
A’s 4
Dodgers 3
Reds 3
Orioles 3
St. Louis is catching up on the Yankees…
@ Steve L.:
W.S. Rings since 1986:
Yankees 5
Twins 2
Blue Jays 2
Marlins 2
Red Sox 2
Cardinals 2
So St. Louis has caught up to Minnesota and Toronto.
@ Jim TreshFan:
And, the count since 2001 is… ?
Why do I feel like I’m at an auction here?
Five, five, five, five….do I hear seven, seven, seven, seven??
@ Steve L.:
2 to 1.
You can slice it any way you like. For instance: In the 10 year period from 1983 to 1992 what team won the most rings?
But it can go on and on. After 2007 everyone was convinced that the Red Sox were a dynasty. They self destructed. After 2008 everyone was talking about a Phillies run. They haven’t won since and now have been displaced by the Cardinals as the premier National League team. My guess is that five or six years from now we’ll look back on this and say, “Hey, remember the Cardinals? They won two World Series in six years.”
@ #15:
Can’t agree with you on some of these. If anything it proved starting pitching was overrated- the Cardinals only reliable starter was Carpenter. The Rangers starters weren’t very good either- I don’t think a starter for Texas made the 7th inning during the playoffs until Holland did so in game 4!
I had no problem with the Yankees bench. The problem is the bench isn’t that important in AL baseball, and Girardi maybe could’ve been a bit more aggressive in moving cold hitters out of the lineup to take advantage of the bench, but there wasn’t a ton of opportunity to do so.
Objectively, I do think the Yankees probably had the best team going into this thing (or maybe a nip behind Texas), and they just didn’t get it done.
#15 wrote:
There may not have been a real dominant team, but the Phils had the best record in MLB and the Yanks had the best record in the AL, both teams didn’t escape the first round.
The Braves are so lucky the Red Sox were somehow worse than them down the stretch. They’d be getting killed for this, otherwise.
You know, Freese had an A-Rod 09-like post season this year…out of nowhere….wonder if there’s anything to that….
or is it just A-Rod that can’t have super human post seasons?
Depends. Did Freese see a HGH-dealing doctor before the series, against the wishes of his doctor and team? If not, then he has nothing in common with A-Rod.
@ Steve L.:
Let’s be fair here. You were saying PEDs before the news about the doctor came out.