Anybody see that lineup St.Louis put out today against the Reds. One of the worst I've ever seen.
D. Eckstein, J. Gall, H. Luna, J. Encarnacion, S. Spiezio, S. Taguchi, Y. Molina, A. Miles, S. Ponson.
A little too early to be letting up against the Reds. While Arroyo can't keep this up all year, they can hit and Griffey is supposed to come back and play a little bit. so the Reds will at least be in it for a while.
Well Pujols, Rolen and Edmonds are fighting little injuries so that's what they had to put out there. Different game if they're healthy. I'd say the Reds are ok, but I don't know if we're just looking at a repeat of last year. Hot start, faded badly.
Especially since the Cards haven't exactly been explosive behind the plate so far this season.
Really, they were only missing Pujols, who had stiffness in his back. Your major offensive weapon can be benched for one game to ensure you don't lose him for 15. They also took Jim Edmonds out because his shoulder was bothering him again, but it's not like they're missing him all that much since he's only hitting .200 on the season.
Sidenote: I think age has finally caught up to Edmonds, and I get the feeling he'll spend so much time on the bench in the second half that he might as well be part of the managerial staff (if not outright end up on the DL at some point).
The bigger issue isn't who they started yesterday, but that offensively the team isn't showing that they're championship caliber, and isn't all that well-rounded (even with three regular starters hitting over .300 their team BA is a mediocre .260). Unless things pick up offensively, they're going to continue having problems whenever they run into another team that has a good pitching staff.
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Originally posted by skorpio17Anybody see that lineup St.Louis put out today against the Reds. One of the worst I've ever seen.
D. Eckstein, J. Gall, H. Luna, J. Encarnacion, S. Spiezio, S. Taguchi, Y. Molina, A. Miles, S. Ponson.
A little too early to be letting up against the Reds. While Arroyo can't keep this up all year, they can hit and Griffey is supposed to come back and play a little bit. so the Reds will at least be in it for a while.
Anybody here think the Reds are for real?
The Reds are going to pound their way to 70-75 wins this season _ they won't have very many more 3-2 games. If Arroyo and Harang keep going the way they are and Paul Wilson comes back okay, then I think they're in pretty good shape. The Cards are still probably the best team in the league and the Astros might end up with Clemens again, but I wouldn't count the Reds out. When you can hit like they do, you've always got a chance.
Especially since the Cards haven't exactly been explosive behind the plate so far this season.
Really, they were only missing Pujols, who had stiffness in his back. Your major offensive weapon can be benched for one game to ensure you don't lose him for 15. They also took Jim Edmonds out because his shoulder was bothering him again, but it's not like they're missing him all that much since he's only hitting .200 on the season.
Sidenote: I think age has finally caught up to Edmonds, and I get the feeling he'll spend so much time on the bench in the second half that he might as well be part of the managerial staff (if not outright end up on the DL at some point).
The bigger issue isn't who they started yesterday, but that offensively the team isn't showing that they're championship caliber, and isn't all that well-rounded (even with three regular starters hitting over .300 their team BA is a mediocre .260). Unless things pick up offensively, they're going to continue having problems whenever they run into another team that has a good pitching staff.
Actually the offense has been picking up lately. Edmonds picked it up the past week or so and so have some of the role players. Yeah they started slow, but it's looking like the offense is coming around if they can stay healthy. Problem with the team is really the relief pitching. It's scaring me.
Originally posted by wmatisticActually the offense has been picking up lately. Edmonds picked it up the past week or so and so have some of the role players. Yeah they started slow, but it's looking like the offense is coming around if they can stay healthy. Problem with the team is really the relief pitching. It's scaring me.
I would agree that there has been improvement with the role players (in particular Eckstein, Spezio, and Taguchi) over the last week, and Pujols has been...well, Pujols. But then you have others on the team who have been miserable, such as Encarcion and ESPECIALLY Molina. St. Louis has won a few blowouts here and there, but that's to be expected playing against teams like the Nats and the Pirates.
The relief has lost four games this season, but overall their ERA is 2.70 on the season (which is second in the Majors). Can't ask much more of them than that, you know?
Edmonds is .200 for the last week (identical to his BA for the season), although he did manage to get a homer and 6 RBIs in that timespan. However, that's in two games. One of them was when they pounded Washington 9-2, similar to his other 3 Ribby games this season against the Cubs (St. Louis won 9-3) and Milwaukee (St. Louis won 8-3).
That's the problem: when he's performed to his abilities this season, it's at times when they really don't need it. Numbers can be misleading, but if you really examine his, you get the full picture of how his season has gone thus far. This certainly isn't to say that he didn't contribute in those games, or give them a comfortable lead, but it does give the impression that he's not coming through when they really need him to.
And like I said, staying healthy is a big "if" for him right now, and I think you can attribute much of his lackluster performance so far this season to that shoulder. Hopefully them benching him for a few games over the next week can help, but I wonder if he can avoid a stint on the DL (which could turn out to be better for him and the team in the long run).
(edited by Deputy Marshall on 3.5.06 1313) TO BILL BRASKY!
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They Red could hang around on past the All Star break but I just can't see them being in it at the end. The Brewers should hang around though and the Astros look better than most expected. It's defintely not going to be a runaway win for the Cards like most people in the predictions thread thought.