ADMDrayson
Apr 16, 2008 Dec 20, 2011 12 905
a fan of
St. Louis Cardinals
Iowa Hawkeyes
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Redo 2005 Draft Cardinals Get SCREWED
Wow, if the draft is redone in hindsight, Cardinals get completely screwed. We lose Colby, Garcia, and Boggs, who all get taken in the first round before us. We go with Cameron Maybin, and Will Venable in the first round. Thank God that year no one could use hindsight to pick.
Fun way to watch game with kids
So, my family (wife and three year old boy and 1 year old girl) are in Stl to mee some friends today at the zoo. We got in yesterday and I reserved a ballpark view room at the Hilton. Not having done that before i wanted to try it out. I tried to keep my expectations low. We got to the room and my wife was disappointed the room kind of sucked and we could only see right field and first and second bases. But, we found the game on Fsm and i suggested we order imps (never had but heard great things). We set up napkins at the window whic is perfect height for the kids to set their pizza on the sill and eat and look out the window and we watched the hgame. The tv was delayed by about 5 seconds. It was fun. We could see the board on first base line and so we could follow the count and could see e players get ready for the pitch. When a baserunner was on, (we couldn't see the ball) but we could tell by the way the players were running if it was a base hit or more and hr by other team was obvious because they were going but not running. Brad penny's HR was obvious as well, i knew bases were loaded because though i couldn't see third i knew nobody got out over there and no runs scored. So, i see the defense tense for the pitch and then the crowd roared. Evryone was just jogging round the bases and then the fireworks. We were cheeringand the kids got into it with the fireworks going and they were jumping up and down saying yeahhhh! I have to say it is close to my best time at the ballpark, next to nlcs game 7 and opening day in 2006 at new busch.
Big Mac's belatedly discovered penis joke
Strauss twitter Q on Manny.
Strauss asked if Manny opts out in LA would Cards be interested... Even with his lower numbers in 2d half of season he obviously would be a help to any team in production, we don't really need an outfielder if we sign Holliday back, who I would much rather have..though, we could try and convert Ludwick to 3rd base.. anyways... Even with the production and assuming salary wasn't a big deal...would you want Manny on the Cardinals. I just don't think Manny's personality fits with us. No Grit whatsover and probably a bit of a negative grit factor. And I have always been a fan of grit. and grits for that matter. Anyone agree/disagree.
My Cardinal License Plate
I have a Smart Car and I have paid the money to get the Cardinal License Plate. I need help in trying to figure out the best cardinal oriented license plate that is not otherwise taken and I would like to incorporate the smart car or something linking the car. My first idea was SMRTCRD...but too many letters. It needs to be 6 letter or numbers and may have a hyphen, or apostrophe. If people want to respond with ideas I will take the 6 most popular as long as they are serious.
Home Field Advantage?
Looking at the numbers with all teams but 2 there is a better record at home than away. At least one exception I think proves the rule, Phillies are .500 at home and .632 away (that just goes to prove nobody likes playing in Philly not even the Phillies.) The biggest differentials between Home and Away percentages are: Detroit with a .263 difference, San Fran .248, TB .235, Bos .214, Pit, .206, Cubs .203 (just because they are used to peeing in big troughs). Phillies are -.127 difference and AZ is -.050 as the exceptions. My question is why? The obvious and simple answer is an intangible 'being pumped up for the home crowd'. But, that definitely doesn't explain Phillies relative troubles at home. Is it a park thing, the team is built to that specific park's quirks. Like having a team that tends to pop high into left, which = HR over Boston's Green Monster but not in other parks. Why is is also that the ALE teams all have a percentage difference over .118 where no other division has more than 2 teams over that same percentage difference in favor of home. Are ALE teams just lazy on the road? Anyways, I do not have the math or time to really adequately answer these questions but I would like to hear at least some theories. It does seem the Angels and Marlins would be the most professional if it is a simple explanation of being pumped up for the home crowd..professionals should be equally pumped for every game Angels are a mere .015 game diff.
Franklin No respect as closer fromm CNNSI
Reading an article ranking 30 closers in the ML, Franklin is ranked 29? He has 0 era and a great whip, 7 for 7 this season. They list his current season numbers and career. Obviously his career has not been as a closer, but taking in his career numbers into account there is no reason for being 29 especially looking at those close ahead. Lindstrom for the Marlins has abysmal numbers. Even when you get into the much higher rated persons like Heath Bell, his current season numbers are great but career bad, why is Bell ranked 10th and Franklin 29th? I can understand career closers with excellent career numbers being hire ranked, Papelbon, Mariano Rivera, but Broxton for LAD and Bell, have bad/small career numbers but an as good to not as good season as Franklin yet they are 9th and 10th? What's the deal can anyone help explain this ranking or is it just bias. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/cliff_corcoran/04/29/closer.rankings/index.html
cnnsi power rankings..
For the first time I can remember 4 NL teams are in the top of any major news site's weekly power rankings. CNNSi's community rankings I think have it better with the cubs in 5th and Cards in third..though I am not sure about the Marlins and Braves being 1 and 2. The AL east is an interesting look right now, granted still small sample size, but the Orioles have taken 2/3 of their series so far and they have faced both the yankees and rays, the next 4 days will be telling as they also face the Red Sox. The Blue Jays on the other hand haven't faced anyone all that good. We will be pretty heavily tested until the 23rd of April, if we can get out of this month above 500 and plus...we'll have a good season.
Marlins v. Cardinals Payroll and Results
by ADMDrayson on Apr 9, 2009 2:01 PM EDT
on Viva El Birdos
I am still relatively new at posting and commenting here but the payroll numbers made me think about comparing Marlins and Cardinals payroll v. ours and wins and playoffs, etc.
From 2000-2008 Marlins paid a total of 312 m. avg. 34.6m/year. a low of 14.9/m in 2006 and a high of 60.4m in 2005.
They avg. 80.4 wins during the same time with a low of 71 and high of 91 (year they won WS).
For every million Marlins paid in Payroll they had 2.32 wins with one world series win and no other playoff appearances and 1 second place in division, 4-3rd, 3-4th, 1-5th.
Cardinals on the other hand have paid 759.6m avg. 84.4m a low of 63.9(2000) and high of 99.6(2008).
They avged. 91.3 wins (Marlins high) with a low of 78 and a high of 105 (year we got umm beat by ourselves in the WS giving the Red Sox the Championship.)
For every million dollars in payroll Cardinals had 1.08 wins with 6 playoff appearances and two WS appearances and a Championship. We had 6-1st, 2-3rd, 1-4th (4th place had 3 worse seasons in wins including our WS Championship).
Marlins only had more wins in a season than Cardinals once (the year Marlins won the WS. ) Cardinals only dropped below Marlins avg. in wins once in 2007.
Basically, The Marlins have only been competitive so far one year in this decade while being a budget team, that year they were only competitive in the wild card as the Braves had 101 wins against their 91 wins. Then of course the surprise in the playoffs. Whereas the Cardinals have been competitive 6 of those years and were a better team then their 4th place finish (worst placing) in the decade last year.
I guess I have to be thankful for two things in looking at this, that one we do have ownership willing to pay 400+million dollars more than the Marlins to be competitive every year..not that money buys happiness in baseball, and two that we aren't the Cubs, who has increased their payroll a lot lately up to 118mil and other than 2000-2003 have kept pace with our spending and higher the last three years.
Also, though a problem with taking the marlins approach is that in order to get fans excited about players you have to keep players on the team for some time...they haven't had a good history of that.
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Felipe Lopez the Slugger
I just saw that after 2 games Felipe Lopez has 1.000 slugging pct. 2 hits- 2HR. Who'd a thunk it?
Opening Day Lineup?
by ADMDrayson on Apr 6, 2009 12:26 PM EDT
on Viva El Birdos
1. Brendan Ryan, 2B
2. Rick Ankiel, CF
3. Albert Pujols, 1B
4. Khalil Greene, SS
5. Ryan Ludwick, RF
6. Yadier Molina, C
7. Chris Duncan, LF
8. Brian Barden, 3B
9. Adam Wainwright
Is Greene the best to protect Pujols? No deterence at all..not that really anyone in the league is acceptable deterence to not walk pujols. Who would be better at cleanup in our roster? I'd pick Yadi. At least he doesn't strike out all that much and can make a pitcher work real hard.
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