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As long as Duncan is here, a Tony Armas /Tomo Ohka pitches better for the Cards than Jason Schmidt/ Barry Zito does for anybody else.

Johan Santana would be OK though.

But really, now and in the future, Cards should focus on acquiring premium hitters and scrap heap pitchers.

Hmmm some top hitter would look nice right now. Would look good to reload some of that lineup. I guess Walt is just waiting for his next heist after getting Edmonds and Rolen.

How much was spent on Sup, Weaver, Marquis? How much was spent on Zito, Schmidt, Meche, Lilly ?

If Dunc can make a Franklin, or a Wells, or a Thompson, or a Looper a 4.00 ERA 14 game winner (which I believe he can) Why spend that money on pitching?

Who's willing to place money that Zito, Schmidt, Meche, and Lilly outperform K Wells and Looper?

The fact that's it's questionable (considering the salaries) is awesome.

I've a feeling we might really, really miss Dave Duncan when he leaves/retires. No joke. I don't want to attribute everything to him, but at least 90% of the time he knows what he's talking about in just about every respect with the pitchers. Looper could blow his next 3 games out his bum and the experiment will have still been a success.

Cronos69 wrote:I've a feeling we might really, really miss Dave Duncan when he leaves/retires. No joke. I don't want to attribute everything to him, but at least 90% of the time he knows what he's talking about in just about every respect with the pitchers. Looper could blow his next 3 games out his bum and the experiment will have still been a success.

I think Duncan should be paid just as much as LaRussa, he's just as valuable. We don't need another good hitter.

Fan_In_NY wrote:Hmmm some top hitter would look nice right now. Would look good to reload some of that lineup. I guess Walt is just waiting for his next heist after getting Edmonds and Rolen.

I'm not sure that heist will ever happen again. It seems that GMs around the league have wised up after reading Moneyball and it'll take an organizational shift to developing talent within (which is already happening) for us to continue the kind of success Cardinal Nation has become used to.

For example, who besides Pat Burrell could you see Jocketty pulling off a trade for peanuts for more than a season? Around the league, there are fewer trades, period, as teams get more used to keeping what they have instead of seeing guys do better with other teams.

Funny how quickly attitudes can change. Not pointing fingers at anyone on this board but the off-season brought enormous criticism of Jockety for not going out and replacing our lost starting pitchers.

And after the first series, the World was officially coming to an end for Cardinal fans, and the "I told you so" crowd was having a field day(s).

Now we've won 4 out of 5, Looper has pitched brilliantly, Franklin looks sharp, Izzy's saving games and it no longer matters who's on our roster as long as we've got Dave Duncan.

This nightly inventory of who we should send down, who we should bring up, who we shouldn't have wasted money on and who we should try to acquire is getting dizzying.

But I suppose that's what makes these forums interesting and why I keep coming back.

Richie Allen wrote:Funny how quickly attitudes can change. Not pointing fingers at anyone on this board but the off-season brought enormous criticism of Jockety for not going out and replacing our lost starting pitchers.

And after the first series, the World was officially coming to an end for Cardinal fans, and the "I told you so" crowd was having a field day(s).

Now we've won 4 out of 5, Looper has pitched brilliantly, Franklin looks sharp, Izzy's saving games and it no longer matters who's on our roster as long as we've got Dave Duncan.

This nightly inventory of who we should send down, who we should bring up, who we shouldn't have wasted money on and who we should try to acquire is getting dizzying.

But I suppose that's what makes these forums interesting and why I keep coming back.

But that's essentially what this thread is. Some of the people in the thread were the ones criticizing the offseason, and now there saying "hey, hats off to these guys because they knew more than I did"

For the record all winter long I said we need a thumper to bat 4th. Duncan has always found a way to turn losers into winners. Marquis even won a few games for him for crying out loud!!!

Not taking credit away from LaDuncan, but every single simulation I saw pegged the Cards as a pretty good pitching team, with little offense to support it.