St. Louis Cardinals - maybe I was wrong

we just beat the Brewers 19-5. Can’t you just sit back and enjoy the moment? Pete’s sake.

Mulder didn’t do to well tonight. The Cubs on the other hand. . .

The Cardinals may be one of those teams this year that do a lot better than you would expect out of their roster. But it’s not likely.
So far, they are scoring more runs than they are allowing to be scored against them. But they have had a very easy schedule so far this year.
I’ll take them seriously in a month if they’re still doing well and if Carpenter is throwing off a mound.

Duncan’s gameplans. And just watch their bunt defense, not as good as it was with Rolen, but still incredible.

I don’t see how they can keep this up with what is essentially a bunch of mediocre players and Michael Jordan. I’d say they’re the best coached team in the bigs.

...you take maybe one of the five times you were actually right.

Never change, Blue Mike. Never change.

He was named in the mitchell report for using HGH.

I still don’t think their success will last.

I don’t expect Todd Wellemeyer to keep pace. Bad teams can get off to good starts. The Marlins are another example. I really expect neither of these two teams to compete.
Bad Cubs teams have started well over the years, long-timers know that, and that’s been well documented on these pages recently, for those who might be younger.

In a weak AL Central, you can see how the Tigers have been able to turn things around, and are still a threat. (Of course, we just have to look at last year’s Cubs for another example.)

The Cards will slide back. However, they might not be the last-place team that many expected, as it would now seem the Reds/Bucs are going to slug it out to stay out of the cellar.

Wellemeyer, Lohse, Looper – three “starters” that will fall quickly back to earth..

Can we wait until Friday to see if they’re a threat?

Not only will they start to falter soon, but the upper man. won’t make any trades at the deadline.

To wonder if either the Cubs or the Cardinals are as good as they appear in April. I’m enjoying good baseball being played most nights.

I think the Cardinal pitchers cannot sustain, but that’s also as big of a guess as anything.

sit back and enjoy what the Cubs are currently doing. Yes, the Cards are starting off hot, but I still believe it’s mostly due to LaRussa/Duncan making chicken salad out of chicken sh*t…

. . . for the Cardinals to pull it out. In order for them to stick with us, the following two conditions must be met:

1) Their pitching continues to be excellent.

2) The Cubs offense falters.

The Cards have allowed 16 fewer runs than we have, but we’ve scored 36 more runs than they have. (In fact, they’ve given up the fewest runs in baseball, and we’ve scored the most.) If things continue as they are we should be fine.

If only one of the above conditions occurs, I still think we are fine. This is comforting, since I doubt our offense can sustain this level of awesomeness over the long term. But I also doubt that their pitching can continue to lead the league. If both teams regress to the mean, we will win since we don’t have as far to regress, and we are just flat-out a better baseball team.

My .02

and almost every year they’re wrong. I don’t think the Cardinals are going away. I remember back in ‘04 when I had this almost exact discussion with friends-for whatever reason, they almost ALWAYS seem to outperform their expectations. Look at how well they’re playing while missing two of their best starting pitchers. When Mulder and Carpenter come back, this team has the potential to be scary.
I’ve learned to NEVER underestimate a Tony LaRussa-led team. When the dust settles, it’s going to be St.Louis that gives the Cubs their main competition in the Central.

Adam Wainwright has quietly developed into one of the better starting pitchers in the NL. Braden Looper is OK. Joel Piniero appears yet another one of those revelations under the tutelage of Dave Duncan. Kyle Lohse is an innings eater. Mark Mulder and Matt Clement are due back soon. And Chris Carpenter is waiting in the wings. Bullpen? Jason Isringhausen remains high quality. Anthony Reyes, Brad Thompson and Ryan Franklin are all getting the job done. Todd Wellemeyer will eventually slot to the pen.

So I look at the Cubs pitching versus the Cardinals….and I’m not sure how we are superior in this department.

Any team with Albert Pujols in the lineup is to be greatly feared. And this Rick Ankiel thing can no longer be a myth because baseball tests for performance enhancing drugs and clearly he must now be playing clean.

So yeah, I think I have come around to the thinking that the Cardinals are for real and I shoudl respect them a lot more than I was.

It’s still too early in the season, plus we’ve been playing too well, to worry about the Cards. Let’s wait till June at least, and see if they are still hanging around the top. Lets see how well their stamina is when they are playing day after day in 100 degree heat. If they are hanging around the top around the All-Star break, then you can start thinking they are the “real deal.” Till then…. no card worries.

Thats what the Cardinals have been doing. I see just about every game they play and thats all they have. I can not see it continue all season. Many of their pitchers are pitching much better than usual this also will start to fall.

In the last month they played the Brewers 5 times and went 3-2 after the Brewers the best team they played was Cincy. Their may is not to bad but if you look at June it is BRUTAL. They play the play Philly, KC (always find ways to lose to them), Boston, Det., and NYM. This team will fall hard.

All their fans think they will sweep us this weekend so I really hope that the Cubs just win the series. I always match up our line ups position by position and there are 3 spots that are arguable and everything else the Cubs have a MUCH bigger advantage on. I can’t wait for this weekend so I can shut all these people up down here…

LaRussa and Duncan do deserve a lot of credit. However, after the 5th spot in their line-up, Glaus, it’s a cake walk. They bat the pitcher 8th thinking it will put runners on base for Pujols, but their #9 hitter is Cesar Itzuris (batting barely .200). Molina is a constant double play candidate and barely hits over .230. Players like Miles, Kennedy, Ryan, and Ludwick are not going to give the production needed to sustain an offense over the course of the season. Their only hope is that their pitching staff holds opponents to under 3 runs/game otherwise, they are screwed. Once the scouting resports come out on Lohse and Piniero and Wellemeyer, all of a sudden they become very beatable. And Clement isn’t coming back until June at the earliest and he is a huge Q mark to begin with. They need a solid left-handed starter in their rotation and they have all of their chips placed on Mulder. I wouldn’t make that bet, even with Duncan. Mulder had Duncan when he came back last summer and look what happened. Duncan can’t heal injuries. Duncan can make healthy pitchers great, sure, but if the pitchers aren’t 100% they are going to cave. Their bullpen isn’t as great as everybody thinks either. Isringhausen isn’t lights out. McLellan is a rookie. Franklin has been decent for them, but also isn’t untouchable. The wheels will come off the bus by the All-Star break unless they make some big time trades. Mark my words.

of discussing until after the all star break since we are only 28 games into the season!