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Conspiracy_Victim

Astros/Cardinals NLCS thread

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And so the Astros bullpen explodes yet again and wastes a pretty decent start by Pete freakin' Munro of all people.

 

Great.

 

Here's hoping that Roger, Roy, and Brandon can all make it at least into the 8th in their starts, otherwise this is going to be a real quick series. Then I would have no reason to watch the World Series. Again.

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Here's something I just noticed. Kevin McReynolds held the NL record for most steals in a season without getting caught, stealing 21 bases in 1988. In half a season, Carlos Beltran broke that record, stealing 28 bases without getting caught. At this point in his career, Beltran is easily the greatest percentage basestealer in baseball history.

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I think it's safe to say that, with six home runs in seven postseason games, Carlos Beltran is making The Leap (tm, Bill Simmons). He's going to be quite an expensive grab for somebody this offseason.

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Almost Game 3 and this thread is still on page 1

 

(though I have my board settings to have the maximum 40 posts per page, but still...)

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There's an excellent recap of last night's game by Brian Gunn of The Hardball Times that you might want to check out:

 

"Mistake #2: Letting Brad Lidge rot in the bullpen. This one is so obvious that I feel bad bringing it up, but why in the world Garner let Dan Miceli face Pujols/Rolen/Edmonds in the bottom of the 8th is beyond me. One week ago I was watching Game 2 of the Braves/Astros divisional series, and I saw Garner call on Lidge with one out in the seventh inning. At that moment I knew the Astros were forces to be reckoned with, because the move told me that Garner had learned from Jedi masters Joe Torre and Jack McKeon, that he was willing to bring in his top reliever wherever and whenever he was needed, "by the book" be damned.

 

But perhaps because the Astros ended up losing that game (in part due to a subpar performance from Lidge), Garner has completely retreated from that strategy. Last night the 'Stros got close enough to have the tying run on deck in the last inning. Last night they were tied heading into the bottom of the 8th. And for some reason Garner let Brad Lidge -- as in Light's Out Lidge, better than the Great Gagne this year -- pitch exactly zero innings in these contests. Mystifying."

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Guest Brian
I think it's safe to say that, with six home runs in seven postseason games, Carlos Beltran is making The Leap (tm, Bill Simmons). He's going to be quite an expensive grab for somebody this offseason.

He'll get a good deal, but he hit .258 after coming over to the Astros. He picked up a bunch of homers, which raised his slugging, but he just barely made out with more RBIs (53 to 51) considering he played 21 more games.

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Guest Anglesault
There's an excellent recap of last night's game by Brian Gunn of The Hardball Times that you might want to check out:.

When it Rains it Pujols

 

I thought that signed sucked last night as well. Maybe I just pronounce Pujols poorly, but it didn't work at all.

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http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CLE/2000.shtml

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/STL/2004.shtml

 

2000 Indians statistically have the better offense than the 2004 Cardinals.

Except that the Cleveland Indians had the designated hitter. The Indians scored 5.86 runs per game when the league average was 5.30. The Cards scored 5.28 runs per game when the league average was 4.64. The Cardinals' offense, in context, performed better than the Indians in 2000.

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Yeah, Beltran's out of his "NL adjustment" period now.

 

And yeah, Clemens was great, but Lidge is the real difference maker - the Cardinal bats can't seem to solve him at all. Brad Lidge makes any game against the Astros a seven-inning game when Houston has the lead and that alone could turn a mediocre outing by Backe or Munro into a win (which is why Garner was rightfully vilified for not bringing him in).

 

When It Rains, It Pujols

 

Yeah, that one's pretty much indefensible.

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I'll tip my cap to the Astros tonight, good game by Clemens & Lidge, although its good the Cards got Lidge to throw 40 pithces today.

 

Tomorrow should be interesting with Oswalt v. Marquis especially with Marquis HR-filled performance against the Dodgers in the NLDS.

 

Hopefully tthe Cards can attack Oswalt early as it is blatantly obvious that a team has to get to pitchers between starters and Lidge.

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After game two, we gave the Astros and Phil Garner flack for not pitching Brad Lidge. So what about the Cardinals? Should Larussa have gone with his best reliever, knowing they couldn't afford to give up another run with Lidge on the mound? Or is the Cardinals' bullpen so balanced (and Izzy is not Lidge) that it was not as crucial to use their closer in a tight game?

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The gap between Lidge and Dan Miceli is gi-normously bigger than the gap between Jason Isringhausen and any of the Cardinal relievers...so Garner still comes off as a tremendous idiot.

 

I think the bigger issue was the fact that LaRussa brought in Dan Haren, who's essentially the designated long reliever, for such a short stint today when the entire bullpen was available. If Marquis isn't sharp (which is likely to be a reality - he's been throwing with a dead arm the last month or so), we'll need somebody to eat up innings tomorrow and Haren could have been that guy.

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Guest Wart

Just got back from the game(I live 3 hours from Houston). Beltran is just insane. Im bitter over having to pay $30 for parking though. That's almost as much as the most expensive regular season seats.

 

I really hope the Astros can score a lot of runs early off Marquis and give Lidge the day off tommorow, theyre probably gonna need him a lot more when Backe pitches on Monday.

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