This is October: 2014 MLB Postseason Thread

[kewp80]

Well... we gave it a good run. I can't really say I'm too sad or angry at the outcome. I am a tad ticked at Matheny. Especially in the moves he made tonight. Some of them were quite idiotic. Like why take Holliday out? Why not let Wrainright keep going? And why the hell do you bring Wacha in 9th inning? He's clearly not 100% yet. He shouldn't of been on our playoff roster IMO. Certainly at least should of had Choate, Maness, or somebody else there. But oh well. It was a huge momentum swing, and downer for the Cards when arguably the best player in baseball, and certainly the team captain and MVP, goes down in game 2.

Usually when the Cards aren't in the series I tend to root for the NL team. However, seeing as that I am from the smack dab center of Missouri, have lot's of Royals friends, the great story that have been the Royals so far, and not seeing the Giants win, I must say: Go Royals! Take the crown!

I'm a Royals fan for these last 4-7 games. Then it's back to being the "arrogant" Cardinals fan Already can't wait for spring!

[kewp80]

Gosh how can y'all complain saying "Worst manager in baseball."? I'm sure there are 15+ other teams that would love to have him as a manager. Sure he screwed up, but stuff like that happens. You win some, you lose some.

Any who, go Royals! Love seeing the Cards lose.

I'm pretty sure he interviewed for managerial jobs before La Russa left. Teams had their chance.

He did completely screw up in bringing Wacha in. He was a mop up reliever at best when he came back from his injury. He was not 100%. Whether it was physical, mental, or both.

Course, our pitching went pretty much to crap when Yadi got hurt. Postseason and regular season.

[CubsFanBudMan]

Always thought Jose Oquendo was the heir to La Russa's throne.

[STL FANATIC]

Me too. And then he wasn't. And then no other team ever will give him a shot. I thought La Russa's Diamondbacks would. They didn't. Not sure why Oquendo can't get a shot.

Not that I think Oquendo would be the type of manager I'd really like, but he might be the old school type that also has good instincts and therefore doesn't screw everything up.

But it seems even Oquendo hasn't been beyond the reach of the Matheny impact on the coaching staff. There was a time Jose was the most aggressive third base coach in baseball. Believing strongly that you send runners when there's any chance and force the defense to make a great play. But today (and at many other points this season), Jose acted conservatively.

With runners on 2nd and 3rd, one out, and a 1-0 lead, a mid-to-shallow fly ball was hit to CF. The CF caught it flat-footed. It would have taken an absolutely perfect throw to prevent the Cardinals from taking a 2-0 lead, and the perfect throw wasn't made. But Jose stopped the runner.

The struggling Jhonny Peralta did not drive the runs in after that, and the opportunity to extend the lead was wasted. The Giants had the lead after the next half inning.

I find very little redeeming about his coaching staff, and that's a shame considering the talent level of the players they oversee.

[dbadefense1990]

I think I'll be looking for a new team in April. Not happy with the Cardinals organization. Not because of the NLCS loss, no one really expected them to beat the Dodgers. But the awful defense, manager decisions, etc. The bitterness might be too much for me to continue to root for the Cardinals.

Worst manager in baseball..... anywho, congrats to the Giants, but go Royals!

Gosh how can y'all complain saying "Worst manager in baseball."? I'm sure there are 15+ other teams that would love to have him as a manager. Sure he screwed up, but stuff like that happens. You win some, you lose some.

These exchanges are why people have no utmost respect for Cardinals fans. None, whatsoever.

Their own team has been the benefactor of the insanity which is playoff baseball for the better part of the last 10 years. The St. Louis Cardinals have been ridiculously blessed with mindboggling, Holy Trinity-type moments, providing the crushing, catastrophic, deflating and crestfalling traumatic events truly-suffering teams have been subjected to (Mets, Rangers, Astros, Dodgers, Braves, Nationals, Pirates). When such plays occur, Cardinals fans gloat as if Jesus Christ himself had a part in Molina's HR at Shea, Freese's heroics in the 9th and 11th, Descalso and Kozma terrorizing the Nationals, the team getting the infield-fly-rule in Atlanta, and a whole bunch of Matt's teeing-off Dodger relievers (and Kershaw) in the 7th.

And yet when the Giants give them a taste of their own medicine, all I hear from Cardinals fans is something along the lines of, "our team sucks, I hate our manager, I hate our players, I hate baseball, we've never won anything in our lives." Just a few acknowledgements of congratulating the Giants for being the better team would be fine, but it's mostly how San Francisco "got all the bounces, didn't have an incompetent manager in Matheny and were just lucky as hell."

Virtually every other team in the National League not named the Giants would be glad as hell to be where the Cardinals have been these last 10 years. I simply can't comprehend why they fans mostly feel to accuse another team of being "lucky," when their own damn team have been the quasi-standard for pulling rabbits out of playoff baseball hats time and time again.

Knock it off with the pretentious crap Cardinals fans, and maybe, just maybe, you'll be respected by other NL teams and their fans.

[wdm1219inpenna]

So once again, in spite of that added Wildcard game, we have both league champions being Wildcard teams making it to the Fall Classic. It last happened in 2002, with the Anaheim Angels (before they complicated and elongated their name) and the San Francisco Giants.

The overall records of teams in MLB this season, the Royals I think had the 7th best record overall, and the Giants were tied for the 8th best record overall. Neither team won 90 regular season games.

I know the Wildcards are here to stay, but I cannot help but have a somewhat sour taste left in my mouth. There have been a disproportionate number of Wildcard teams reaching the World Series over the past 20 years, and a disproportionate number winning it too in my opinion.

All these division champions and then nothing else. All season long I kept following the division races, only to end up having the 7th best vs. the 8th best in the World Series.

The Giants are back there for the third time in five years. I'm sure many are tired of seeing them, and the St. Louis Cardinals both. Kansas City, the Cinderella story, back in the World Series for the first time since the year I graduated high school. A very small market club, and I can already predict the television ratings for this World Series will be in the tank again, which is very sad and disappointing to me.

I am a casual fan of MLB, where once I was a very passionate fan. I have no favorites, no "dog in this fight" as it were, but as a fan of baseball, it just doesn't feel right that two teams that are 7th and 8th best now will decide who the "best" is. It renders the 162 marathon regular season moot.

Just very disappointed with all these Wildcard teams making it, even now when it's supposed to be "harder" for them to do so.

[The_Admiral]

wah wah

[DaRadniz29]

I think I'll be looking for a new team in April. Not happy with the Cardinals organization. Not because of the NLCS loss, no one really expected them to beat the Dodgers. But the awful defense, manager decisions, etc. The bitterness might be too much for me to continue to root for the Cardinals.

Worst manager in baseball..... anywho, congrats to the Giants, but go Royals!

Gosh how can y'all complain saying "Worst manager in baseball."? I'm sure there are 15+ other teams that would love to have him as a manager. Sure he screwed up, but stuff like that happens. You win some, you lose some.

These exchanges are why people have no utmost respect for Cardinals fans. None, whatsoever.

Their own team has been the benefactor of the insanity which is playoff baseball for the better part of the last 10 years. The St. Louis Cardinals have been ridiculously blessed with mindboggling, Holy Trinity-type moments, providing the crushing, catastrophic, deflating and crestfalling traumatic events truly-suffering teams have been subjected to (Mets, Rangers, Astros, Dodgers, Braves, Nationals, Pirates). When such plays occur, Cardinals fans gloat as if Jesus Christ himself had a part in Molina's HR at Shea, Freese's heroics in the 9th and 11th, Descalso and Kozma terrorizing the Nationals, the team getting the infield-fly-rule in Atlanta, and a whole bunch of Matt's teeing-off Dodger relievers (and Kershaw) in the 7th.

And yet when the Giants give them a taste of their own medicine, all I hear from Cardinals fans is something along the lines of, "our team sucks, I hate our manager, I hate our players, I hate baseball, we've never won anything in our lives." Just a few acknowledgements of congratulating the Giants for being the better team would be fine, but it's mostly how San Francisco "got all the bounces, didn't have an incompetent manager in Matheny and were just lucky as hell."

Virtually every other team in the National League not named the Giants would be glad as hell to be where the Cardinals have been these last 10 years. I simply can't comprehend why they fans mostly feel to accuse another team of being "lucky," when their own damn team have been the quasi-standard for pulling rabbits out of playoff baseball hats time and time again.

Knock it off with the pretentious crap Cardinals fans, and maybe, just maybe, you'll be respected by other NL teams and their fans.

I want to respond about how I've credited the Giants quite a few times in these playoffs, (but Congrats again to the Giants). However, i may just come off as more pretentious.

I pride myself in being a fan who supports the teams I root for win or lose. So my rash rant earlier was a bit of fish-out-of-water I guess. In fact looking back on my posts of the last week, I think I'm just frustrated with sports in general - for a number or reasons (don't feel like repeating them here, but they are not too far away in previous posts). I also try hard to give credit where credit is due, which hopefully I have.

Not asking for acknowledgement, just guess I'm kind of rethinking some of my negativity on my posts recently and trying to my best to be cordial when posts honestly irk me. And yes, I know - I brought it on myself.

[Tigers6884]

Yes, the Cardinals lost! I don't expect this World Series to be too surprising, though. I'm predicting Giants over Royals in 5 games. While the Royals have been nothing short of magical this postseason and have been a nice story, San Francisco has been something of a dynasty in the making.

[DaRadniz29]

For those interested, here's the umpiring crew for the World Series, from ABC News via AP:

Jeff Kellogg (Crew Chief)

Ted Barrett

Jeff Nelson

First World Series for:

Hunter Wendelstedt

Eric Cooper

Jim Reynolds

Jerry Meals

[Kramerica Industries]

There was nothing wrong with that all-Wild Card World Series in 2002. San Francisco won 95 games. Anaheim won 99. Those were excellent teams. The problem with this year's World Series matchup has nothing to do with it being Wild Card vs. Wild Card; it has everything to do with the fact that, by WP%, it's the two worst playoff teams meeting. And I've shared this opinion enough times that everyone knows what comes next, so I won't waste the keyboard pounding to say it again..

[OnWis97]

Not only did the Royals not win 90 games, but they played the Twins 19 times...how unjust.

Anyway, thanks Giants for winning in 5...Now the Royals will not be at a huge "layoff" disadvantage.

[TheOldRoman]

These exchanges are why people have no utmost respect for Cardinals fans. None, whatsoever.

I talk English good.

Seriously though, just stop. It's pretty clear to people that you base basically your entire belief set on internet memes, and don't actually know much about any of the things of which you speak. Stop with the fake outrage. You've likely never even met a Cardinals fan in real life, yet you gnash your teeth and scream about this great injustice they've done to baseball merely because other people joke about Cardinals fans, and you think by being animated about it, you'll come across as super knowledgeable. Just stop with the hyper-dramatic, woe-is-me crap. Chill.

[STL FANATIC]

I don't think anybody said anything about "woe is me, the Cardinals have never won anything." But in theory we have informed sports discussion here, right?

And should I not be allowed to criticize the manager whether or not they won a couple of World Championships under a different manager a few years back? And whether or not they've had some success? The bottom line is I think this team severely under achieved. Both in the regular season (but they managed to win the division, so they were at least in a fine spot), and in the postseason. And I believe it was largely due to the manager.

And I have every right to criticize him for that, especially when I can give you example after example. This isn't a "THEY LOST FIRE EVERYONE" thing. This is, he's not very good at his job for reasons, a, b, c, d, e, f, and g, and I think that's preventing the team from having the best chance to win another championship.

No amount of past success makes winning not the goal the very next year. You don't let your expectations slide. One poster jested about this, but nobody's really saying they're quitting the Cardinals over this. That would be a ridiculous overreaction in spite of the past success. But just criticizing the team? That's fair game. Always. Especially when it's deserved.

As for the Giants giving them a taste of their medicine, that's now happened 2 times in the last 3 years, lest you act like this was some new and different experience for the Cardinals fans. In both Cardinals collapses and Giants triumphs, the Giants did it in ways that could certainly be considered flukes, so it IS a road that goes both ways.

Believe me, I understand how incredibly fortunate I am to have fallen naturally into being a Cardinals fan. I really do. But by the very nature of being a fan, I care, so I'm just not going to easily get over tough losses and stop critiquing the ball club.

It's silly that I even have to defend that.

Side note: here's some woe is me that you can hate on me for, though... In the Mike Matheny's three season at the helm of the Cardinals, they've been eliminated by losing three straight games each year. In Ken Hitchcock's three seasons at the helm of the Blues they've been eliminated from the postseason by losing four straight games each year. In Jeff Fisher's three seasons at the helm of the Rams they've been eliminated by being the Rams.

[-kj]

In Jeff Fisher's three seasons at the helm of the Rams they've been eliminated by being the Rams.

:lol:

[kewp80]

I don't think anybody said anything about "woe is me, the Cardinals have never won anything." But in theory we have informed sports discussion here, right?

And should I not be allowed to criticize the manager whether or not they won a couple of World Championships under a different manager a few years back? And whether or not they've had some success? The bottom line is I think this team severely under achieved. Both in the regular season (but they managed to win the division, so they were at least in a fine spot), and in the postseason. And I believe it was largely due to the manager.

And I have every right to criticize him for that, especially when I can give you example after example. This isn't a "THEY LOST FIRE EVERYONE" thing. This is, he's not very good at his job for reasons, a, b, c, d, e, f, and g, and I think that's preventing the team from having the best chance to win another championship.

No amount of past success makes winning not the goal the very next year. You don't let your expectations slide. One poster jested about this, but nobody's really saying they're quitting the Cardinals over this. That would be a ridiculous overreaction in spite of the past success. But just criticizing the team? That's fair game. Always. Especially when it's deserved.

As for the Giants giving them a taste of their medicine, that's now happened 2 times in the last 3 years, lest you act like this was some new and different experience for the Cardinals fans. In both Cardinals collapses and Giants triumphs, the Giants did it in ways that could certainly be considered flukes, so it IS a road that goes both ways.

Believe me, I understand how incredibly fortunate I am to have fallen naturally into being a Cardinals fan. I really do. But by the very nature of being a fan, I care, so I'm just not going to easily get over tough losses and stop critiquing the ball club.

It's silly that I even have to defend that.

Side note: here's some woe is me that you can hate on me for, though... In the Mike Matheny's three season at the helm of the Cardinals, they've been eliminated by losing three straight games each year. In Ken Hitchcock's three seasons at the helm of the Blues they've been eliminated from the postseason by losing four straight games each year. In Jeff Fisher's three seasons at the helm of the Rams they've been eliminated by being the Rams.

I was just about to say pretty much the same thing just in a more snarky, sarcastic, and defensive way. So thanks for saving me the trouble. Probably said it in a better way than I could.

His posts the past few months have lead me to believe one of two things: either a) He's secretly a butt hurt Cubs fan from SoCal (Seriously, would expect this from CS85 or any other Cubs fan who hates the Cards, and correct me if I'm wrong but you are from the LA area or fan of such teams right dba?) or b ) He's just straight outta LA and doesn't know how to properly root for a sports team.

Oh darn. Look at me judging a person, city, and fan base based off of one person's comments

[BBTV]

When the Eagles were winning 11,12,13 games and in the playoffs / championship game every year, everyone couldn't believe that most people here wanted Andy Reid fired, because they were never going to get past that final wall (mostly due to his absurd play calling, and a numbskull QB.) It sounds like a similar situation here, though I know nothing about this Cardinals team.

[kewp80]

When the Eagles were winning 11,12,13 games and in the playoffs / championship game every year, everyone couldn't believe that most people here wanted Andy Reid fired, because they were never going to get past that final wall (mostly due to his absurd play calling, and a numbskull QB.) It sounds like a similar situation here, though I know nothing about this Cardinals team.

Exactly. There are many instances of teams firing a coach/manager because he couldn't get over the championship hump. Hell look at the Yankees. Not saying I'm in the camp that wants Matheny fired or anything. I'd say give him maybe a year or two. He's young and has a lot to learn. So did La Russa when he first started managing.

As for the Cardinal team. Aside from Yadi, Holliday, Wainright, and few other free agent pick ups it's a very young and promising team. I mean we had someone calling Kolten Wong a minor league guy earlier in the thread, and pretty sure everyone here that follows baseball knows who Kolten Wong, Matt Adams, and Matt Carpenter are now.

[STL FANATIC]

I keep comparing this in my head to the Eagles, as well BBTV. Many uninvested people won't like that because the Cardinals won the World Series in 2011, but that was prior to Matheny.

Extremely talented rosters can take you so far, but when you get in win or go home moments, the decisions of the coaches are amplified. That, I assume, is what happened with Andy Reid, and I know it's what's happened with Matheny.

Fortunately, sports writers across the country have now taken notice, so I don't feel the need to defend my view here quite as much anymore. Just click around the sports internet. The case is being made over and over.

[kewp80]

I keep comparing this in my head to the Eagles, as well BBTV. Many uninvested people won't like that because the Cardinals won the World Series in 2011, but that was prior to Matheny.

Extremely talented rosters can take you so far, but when you get in win or go home moments, the decisions of the coaches are amplified. That, I assume, is what happened with Andy Reid, and I know it's what's happened with Matheny.

Fortunately, sports writers across the country have now taken notice, so I don't feel the need to defend my view here quite as much anymore. Just click around the sports internet. The case is being made over and over.

Plus there are only four players from that team still on the roster IIRC. Yadi, Holliday, Wainwright, and Descalso. I think Descalso was up with the team... Kozma too maybe for some of the year? The years run together for me sometimes...