Something has got to be done with this team

[Solair Wright]

Okay, I'm tired of this. The Cardinals get swept by the Cubs, of all teams. Juan "Left on Base" Encarnicion is terrible, and Izzy isn't much better. The Cubs won't win the World Series, hate to disappoint them. But here's what a bad offseason really did to us.

Here's what the Cards need to do:

- fire their hitting coach. Hal McRae isn't cutting any butter.

- fire their pitching coach. Dave Duncan has been a pure disappointment this season. These trademark pitches he gave these guys during Spring Training aren't doing ANYTHING for the relievers.

- trade Jason Isringhausen and Juan Encarnicion for a promising right fielder and a trusty closer. What's Izzy's excuse today? "I was off-pitch?" Well, I hate to say this, but Izzy is past his prime. We can't win everything, but these guys are really hindering us.

- FIX THEIR TERRIBLE BULLPEN!! That's all I have to finish with.

(I wasn't in a good mood when I posted this)

[otis89]

You have no proof that the Cubs won't win the World Series this year. You can't see into the future. To be honest, I hope you win tomorrow. If the Brewers lose, we're only a half game out of first.

[tonjes]

Okay, I'm tired of this. The Cardinals get swept by the Cubs, of all teams. Juan "Left on Base" Encarnicion is terrible, and Izzy isn't much better. The Cubs won't win the World Series, hate to disappoint them. But here's what a bad offseason really did to us.

Here's what the Cards need to do:

- fire their hitting coach. Hal McRae isn't cutting any butter.

- fire their pitching coach. Dave Duncan has been a pure disappointment this season. These trademark pitches he gave these guys during Spring Training aren't doing ANYTHING for the relievers.

- trade Jason Isringhausen and Juan Encarnicion for a promising right fielder and a trusty closer. What's Izzy's excuse today? "I was off-pitch?" Well, I hate to say this, but Izzy is past his prime. We can't win everything, but these guys are really hindering us.

- FIX THEIR TERRIBLE BULLPEN!! That's all I have to finish with.

(I wasn't in a good mood when I posted this)

i'm glad you have it all figured out.

first, i really hope this is just an anger-motivated post, because if it isn't, you're really making yourself sound a little foolish. there is absolutely no reason to panic. no reason at all. the cubs are a good team, and they won 3 games in an april series. big freaking deal. if you go get a newspaper and check the standings, you'll see that we're 3-3. we've only played 6 games. 6 games!

in 2004, we were a .500 ball club about 35/40 games into the season. were you calling for all sorts of drastic moves then as well?

let's all relax, put a little faith in TLR, and watch how this very young season unfolds...

seriously, there is absolutely nothing to worry about.

[rainout]

Dave Duncan won't get fired. He's been with Tony LaRussa since his days with the White Sox IIRC.

[Iron Jaw]

If the relief pitching keeps failing as it has the past couple of days, let the starters throw completes. To heck with the so-called closer.

[Solair Wright]

I got a little angry at the relievers last night, and with the hitting. One thing's for sure: Juan "Left on Base" Encarnicion is a terrible hitter. (he's as bad as he was in Detroit) For goodness sake, yank him out and put J-Rod or Schumaker in. Duncan won't get fired, but some people are really ignoring his advice to help us win.

Has anyone suspected leaks in right field and relief pitching? I sure have. Oh, why did La Russa use Isringhausen instead of Looper? He's losing his patience to pitch, and let me tell you, if you let people not play, they will get angry and demand trades. You know what I mean?

[KCGHOST]

Once you see Looper a few more times you will see why LaRussa used Izzy. For one of the rare times in my life I was impressed with LaRussa's managing. The game was absolutely on the line in the 8th and he actually brought in his best available pitcher (Izzy) instead of the using the book he co-authored which calls for the set-up man in that situation.

[godzilla]

Okay, I'm tired of this. The Cardinals get swept by the Cubs, of all teams. Juan "Left on Base" Encarnicion is terrible, and Izzy isn't much better. The Cubs won't win the World Series, hate to disappoint them. But here's what a bad offseason really did to us.

Here's what the Cards need to do:

- fire their hitting coach. Hal McRae isn't cutting any butter.

- fire their pitching coach. Dave Duncan has been a pure disappointment this season. These trademark pitches he gave these guys during Spring Training aren't doing ANYTHING for the relievers.

- trade Jason Isringhausen and Juan Encarnicion for a promising right fielder and a trusty closer. What's Izzy's excuse today? "I was off-pitch?" Well, I hate to say this, but Izzy is past his prime. We can't win everything, but these guys are really hindering us.

- FIX THEIR TERRIBLE BULLPEN!! That's all I have to finish with.

(I wasn't in a good mood when I posted this)

-here are some possible things they could do

-trade Izzy with Hoffman or F Cordero
-trade encarnacion and 3 or 4 young talents with Ichiro or vlad guerrero
-trade some set uppers with cotts, otsuka or T gordon
-trade all or some hitting/pitching coaches with minor league coaches

[cardinalfaninNY]

No need to panic. It's early. The bullpen will get sorted out. Actually I hope the division will push the Cardinals hard this year. I think having runaway division championships did not prepare the Redbirds for the tough post-season competition. I hope its a 1-3 game lead at the end of the season for the Cards.

[Solair Wright]

No need to panic. It's early. The bullpen will get sorted out. Actually I hope the division will push the Cardinals hard this year. I think having runaway division championships did not prepare the Redbirds for the tough post-season competition. I hope its a 1-3 game lead at the end of the season for the Cards.

Well, the pitching is a lot better, and our hitting is a bit rough, but it's better than when I posted that.

[skeletor]

too early to panic

too early to panic...give 'em another couple of weeks to sort
things out...the cards are in better shape than the braves..
and unless there's some sort of meltdown, the cards will
still be at the top of the heap, come late sept...

[tonjes]

...i'll eat a little crow on this one.

i wouldn't say that i'm remotely close to panicking. this team is 10 games over .500 and we're not even 40 games in. while that's pretty impressive, there's something about this team that doesn't scare me. i don't know what it is, but i wouldn't put the 2006 team in the same class as the 2004 and 2005 teams. maybe that's just it. this team doesn't have "it".

for one, this team is too reliant on albert pujols. scott rolen and jim edmonds aren't the same caliber of players that they used to be. rolen is coming off a serious injury, and edmonds is being slowed by nagging injuries and age.

also, i don't have a lot of confidence in the bullpen. we've let too many talented pitchers leave over the last few seasons. i don't miss ray king, but i would rather have tavarez instead of looper, and i'd rather have calero/haren/barton than mulder (that trade is really going to bite is in the ass).

we really need to do something about the outfield too. juan encarnacion is ok, but i don't like that we're platooning rodriguez/taguchi/bigbie in left.

these are a few of my concerns. does anyone else feel the same as me?

ps. what is wrong with jason marquis? why didn't we trade him to cincy when we had the chance? i still think marquis ends up a met before the trade deadline passes...

[Solair Wright]

We're playing over .500 ball now, thanks to McRae's encouraging batters to hit, even Edmonds chipped one Saturday. What to do with Left Field? Have it just named ?field, and have three people play every day?

Julian Tavarez plunked an O's batter (Mora I think), and he got a warning IMMEDIATELY after plunking one batter. Hot tempered batter learns his lesson...I don't miss him at all. Braden Looper is a lot friendlier and Duncan probably saved him from retiring.

That game when Marquis last pitched took nearly forever. Claudio Vargas IS a human rain delay. Rolen will turn around most likely, when he gets to talk to McRae later. We won't get 100 wins this year, but we'll try to. Some games are difficult to win (i.e. Tom Brunansky's former team, the Brewers and Rose's team, the Reds) and we'll probably lose about 60-71 games this season (as the final losses record, not in a row :P).