Last’s night’s game was so incredible and had enough talking points to fill 19 hours of sports-talk time, which is exactly what is happening right now in the Metroplex. I’d be curious to get everyone’s thoughts.
I really don’t want to see the Cards win another one.
Sorry, Kevin. Go Cardinals!
Valverde’s option got picked up today: http://www.mlive.com/tigers/index.ssf/2011/10/tigers_exercise_club_option_to.html
Some thoughts on Game 6 and 7:
A. Never, again I say never, count Tony LaRussa out until the last out has been made and the field has been cleared.
B. I hope the Ranger fans will mature as fans as a result of the past two year of Ranger playoff experience. Cardinal fans are among the best both in baseball knowledge and class. Many Ranger fans arrive after the game starts and leave early and in between they are only interested in eating nachos. Focus on the game!
C. As much as I have learned to hate his style of play, this October has shown me that AJ Pierzynski is a hoot and looks like actually a good teammate. Makes me wonder if I have misread some other MLB players.
D. It was great to see Bob Gibson at Game 6 and given they way he looks I believe he could have given the Cardinals 9 scoreless innings.
E. Game 7 prediction: Cardinals 7, Rangers 2 (If in doubt, see #A above)
Wow! I can’t imagine how it must feel to be a Ranger fan. No team in any sport has been closer to a championship only to have it slip away into a hopeless abyss. Unbelievable!
Go Tigers 2012
The key clearly was the clown show ratio, which tonight for the first, and decisive time, shifted in the Cards’ favor.
The Rangers = The Mavericks. They will get theirs, but it will be a painful process. And the sweeter for that.
(Nolan Ryan, however, is still enduring bad karma for devouring Brandon Inge and giving Texas an unfair advantage in the ALCS).
you only have to be the best team at the moment….Congrats to the Cards…I didn’t think 2006 would repeat itself because we knew the Tigers were the better team. The Rangers are a superior team, however, the better “TEAM AT THE MOMENT ” beat them
The Rangers are not that good, and they didn’t have an impressive win total despite playing in a weak division where 2/3 of their divisional opponents are close to being amongst the 2 worst teams in baseball. They got lucky to get as far as they did, and both teams were relatively equal with very little to distinguish one as superior over the other. It was a coin flip for all intents and purposes. And in comparison to the Tigers, well the Tigers won almost as many games as them in the regular season despite not selling out a bunch of future pieces for lots of extra help and death late in the season. You might argue that the Rangers get extra points for the future, but for the talent that only concerns 2011, even our crappy team was still better overall than them.
That’s depth, not death, gee where is my mind at? lol
What would an impressive win total be for playing in a weak division? And was any team good this season?
Depends on the team and the budget and the situation.
Tampa Bay looked like the did a good job by winning a respectably 91 games in a tough division while being the 2nd lowest payroll with only $41M spent. I don’t know how accurate those numbers are I’m just pulling it off of this site:
http://content.usatoday.com/sportsdata/baseball/mlb/salaries/team
The Cardinals won the WS but I don’t know what the state of their farm system is or what their long-term outlook looks like and what all of their transactions and choices were. If they could have still won the WS while also vastly improving those categories then then that’s something to think about, but I’m unfamiliar with that franchise’s complete situation. So they look like a possible good performance, but hard to say without doing a lot of research on them. Since they spent a somewhat relevant $105M they should be analyzed further before making any absolute statements of certainty.
Arizona seemed to win a decent amount with a respectable salary level. I would consider them to have likely done good, but still am not familiar enough with their operation to know if they blew any obvious opportunities to improve their present or future.
So i would say the 3 teams I mentioned look like the only teams that I would consider having done good at first glance.