4-27 Post Game Thread

Jmodene · Post by **Jmodene** » April 27 07, 10:47 pm

The parody was indeed written by Goold.

It was on the P-D website, but apparently on the front page of the sports section. WGN led off their telecast with it, and Kasper/Brenly tut-tutted about it a bit and mentioned, rather offhandedly, that TLR wasn't too pleased about it either.

My first thought, when they said that, was, "great - we gave them some bulletin board material". Apparently, TLR must have felt the same way, the way this thing blew up - although Bernie is now reporting that he and TLR have talked some more and it's now over - except, of course, that Bernie still has to write a "Bits" column, and he'd probably be remiss if he were not to mention the spiff.

Outshined_One · Post by **Outshined_One** » April 27 07, 11:01 pm

Mephistopheles wrote:
haltz wrote:Yeah, but it's a silly parody of a poem. It isn't derisive, it just comes with the territory of being a Cardinals fan. I don't know about putting it in the P-D, but I seriously doubt that if it had been posted here it would upset any of the Cub fans on the board. I lurk over at NSBB every now and then and I don't get upset when the Cub fans there say ridiculous stuff about the Cardinals, it's just part of it.

ALBERT PUJOLS IS THE DEVIL AND HAS BEEN CURSED FOR THE SEASON

Yes, this.

BW23 · Post by **BW23** » April 27 07, 11:22 pm

clevername wrote:somebody's got to upload this to youtube or something. I wanna see.

Do you have ESPN News? They're even showing it. That's how I saw it.

GatewaySnayke · Post by **GatewaySnayke** » April 28 07, 12:41 am

I cannot believe I went out instead of watching this.

Not the game, the free-for-all later on. That's hilarious stuff.

BTW, I was following along on my phone in that fateful eighth inning and I was stunned at what happened. I have never seen a team become so futile when the pressure gets turned up. How in the world you can load the bases with one out and not push one freaking run across is asinine. A quick check at the Win Expectancy Finder shows that the home team won 56 percent of those games.

Unbelievable.

Post by **Bo Hart** » April 28 07, 1:44 am

Here are my postgame thoughts:

- What is it with Reyes? Can anyone explain this to me? Its like he does not have an "out" pitch. Even when he gets ahead in counts its like they're just hacking away, continually making solid contact (but fouling it off). Is that OK? Does that mean he's changing speeds well enough to keep them ahead / behind and off-balance, or is it cause for concern?

The bases loaded situation in the 8th; here are my thoughts:
- Rolen fouled the first pitched he saw straight back. He got a great rip on it. I'm OK with his at-bat.

- Now comes Edmonds. Taguchi in. Taguchi flailed at the first pitch he saw. How fortunate were we that he got hit? He would probably have been the scapegoat of the game had that at-bat continued.

- Wilson up. Watching this guy is really, really unsettling. He has absolutely zero pitch recognition. It is honestly beyond me why he ever gets fastballs. Screw keeping someone "honest," this guy swings at any and every breaking ball below the strike zone.

- Kennedy up. Routine groundball to Theriot... I can't believe this hasn't been mentioned yet, but, I'm almost positive that Taguchi was safe at second. I replayed it like ten times on my DVR. I can freeze it with the ball still clearly in the air, and if Taguchi isn't there, only a splinter is separating him and the base. I can't believe people haven't mentioned this yet.

Maybe he was out? OK, lets move on. Maybe he was safe? Well, bad calls happen. I don't want to dwell on it, its just frustrating to see...

The ninth was a lot of fun to watch. Sooo close to tying it with Spiezio there. He had a great at-bat. Dempster made a fantastic pitch to strike him out.

And Duncan continues to impress me. He looks a lot better in the field (even though he's still an adventure). He also seems to be able to chug around the bases pretty well for being so big. And his plate discipline is awesome. It's really nice to have someone batting in front of Pujols that consistently takes quality at-bats.

One more thing popping into mind: very frustrating to see Flores give up the run in the 9th. A hit to Ceasar Izturis? C'mon. That guy is a clown.

It really hurts to lose what was -- pardon the cliche -- a very winnable game. There is a very, very good chance that Zambrano obliterates this lineup tomorrow. I think that Wainwright will pitch decent, but not nearly well enough to keep us in the game against Zambrano.

And then we look forward to Sunday, a day on which Rich Hill will kill us.

Unfortunately, I think we lose this series. A sweep is not only possible, but, in my opinion, likely at this point.

Bright spots:
- Molina's McGwire-esque blast.
- The offense finally looking healthy (only 3 runs, but they're getting guys on).
- Signs of life towards the end of the game.

haltz · Post by **haltz** » April 28 07, 3:36 am

Kyle wrote:What is it with Reyes? Can anyone explain this to me?

His FIP is OK at 4.56, he's had 15 K to 6 BB, and his WHIP is 1.27.

He's looked better in his last two starts I think, and we're two awful 86 MPH two-seamers and a batting practice changeup away from having an entirely different conversation. I'm not sure that he won't keep making mistakes like those, but I'm still optimistic that he's a much better pitcher than this.

DynamicDynamite · Post by **DynamicDynamite** » April 28 07, 3:44 am

The one thing that I am sure everyone has noticed is that Reyes just throws to many pitches.. he was at 41 pitches with 2 outs in the second inning, and I think by the time he started getting roughed up he was around 100 already or so...

its the same that Wainwright was going through... Reyes is trying to strike out more and more hitters and not just focus on getting outs. Im sure if he pitched a bit more to contact then it would be better and he would go deeper along with still getting his strikeouts... but when you cant get past 5 innings you dont look to good..

and it doesn't hurt that we give him practically no run support. I think the 3 runs in the game tonight were the most they scored in a start of his at all this season...

he basically from the looks is a 4 run a game pitcher and you have to try to get 5 or more.... once the bats continue to go a bit then Im sure it will get better...

businessmansspecial · Post by **businessmansspecial** » April 28 07, 6:59 am

I finally saw the Larussa/BM argument. Which article about the cubs was Tony referring to?

jim · Post by **jim** » April 28 07, 7:17 am

What is it with Reyes? Can anyone explain this to me? Its like he does not have an "out" pitch. Even when he gets ahead in counts its like they're just hacking away, continually making solid contact (but fouling it off). Is that OK? Does that mean he's changing speeds well enough to keep them ahead / behind and off-balance, or is it cause for concern?

Our house was a little more crowded and noisy than usual, so I couldn't focus as completely as I wanted to on Reyes. That and the camera angle was just horrible from WGN, it was high and off center.

But my general impression of Reyes was that he continued what he left off with on his last start - which was good. In his last start, he really settled down to me after his first few innings and pitched pretty well for the first time all season. He continued that on into this game, and to be honest from what I can tell he made a pretty decent pitch to Ramirez who hit it out. Ok, that happens. Good hitter hits a good pitch.

His inability to put guys away is a bit of a concern. I know we've gone back and forth on this many times, and there are different camps on this, but to me he just doesn't have the "stuff" to put guys away like he used to. It's just who he is right now.

Like I said, the camera angle was so bad and with the people in our house I couldn't watch as closely as I had hoped, but I actually thought Reyes took a baby step forward last night. I don't think that pitch Ramirez hit out is going to be hit out all that often.

And yeah, I thought Tags might have been safe on that play. He was really hustling.

The play I can't believe hasn't been mentioned is Edmonds. Why is a slow old man looking over his shoulder? I don't know how much it slowed him down, but it didn't help.

Also, if I'm catching today's game, Felix gets one in the rib cage. I didn't appreciate that little wing airflap thing he did around 2nd base.

Leroy · Post by **Leroy** » April 28 07, 7:34 am

He struck out the side in the first. Apparently, there was an out pitch somewhere.

If you ask me, he tries to pitch up too much...at least in the two starts I have seen. Sometimes hitters swing and miss, sometimes they don't. And when they don't miss, it goes a long way.