NL Central thread

[tomcat1]

I can see it going back and forth between Milwaukee, Chicago, and possibly St. Louis throughout the rest of the season and they beat up on each other enough to keep the other 2 out of the wild card

Great point! None of us know what will happen for the last 2/3 of the season but it's hard for me to visualize a wild card team coming out of the NL Central based on exactly what you said.

 

[scoutyjones2]

Suck it Scrubs...welcome to our world! you've lost 8 of 10...and we pushed you out of 1ST!!!

 

[tomcat1]

Cardinals fans, let's get out the brooms and do some sweeping if we still have one in the closet!

With 46,053 paid today at Busch Stadium can I hear an AMEN for the job Mr. Wainwright did? I mean throwing 126 pitches in 8 full innings and giving up only 2 hits with 8 strikeouts and allowing no runs sounds like a pretty good day of work to me.

 

[Myles]

Cardinals fans, let's get out the brooms and do some sweeping if we still have one in the closet!

With 46,053 paid today at Busch Stadium can I hear an AMEN for the job Mr. Wainwright did? I mean throwing 126 pitches in 8 full innings and giving up only 2 hits with 8 strikeouts and allowing no runs sounds like a pretty good day of work to me.

Gotta hand it to him, Wainwright came through in that game. We figured he'd be an inning eater, but to keep the runs off the board is pretty impressive.
Maybe, just maybe a Cubs sweep could ignite this team. I doubt it, but I can still hope.

 

[Tidergirl]

Gotta hand it to him, Wainwright came through in that game. We figured he'd be an inning eater, but to keep the runs off the board is pretty impressive.
Maybe, just maybe a Cubs sweep could ignite this team. I doubt it, but I can still hope.

i will enjoy the sweep for now.... I don't want to think about the rest of the season at the moment..

 

[kburjr]

"The Brewers still baffle me a bit — their +18 run differential isn’t that of an elite team — and they haven’t been as impressive as some of the other top teams, but they’ve played the toughest schedule in the league and they keep steadily stacking wins."

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/mlb-power-rankings-weve-got-a-new-no-1-144229957.html

I knew it seemed we have had a tough schedule but I didn't realize we had the toughest. I feel better about being only 8 games over .500 now.

 

[packerzrule]

"The Brewers still baffle me a bit — their +18 run differential isn’t that of an elite team — and they haven’t been as impressive as some of the other top teams, but they’ve played the toughest schedule in the league and they keep steadily stacking wins."

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/mlb-power-rankings-weve-got-a-new-no-1-144229957.html

I knew it seemed we have had a tough schedule but I didn't realize we had the toughest. I feel better about being only 8 games over .500 now.

And have not gotten minimal offense from the power 1B position.

Weird

 

[kburjr]

And have not gotten minimal offense from the power 1B position.

Weird

and virtually nothing from Shaw.

 

[Markwassillylaugher]

Pirates announce that they have signed a 34 yr old left handed pitcher. They are not worried about his blindness.
afterall how much worse could this blind pitcher do compaired with the rest of this staff??

 

[tomcat1]

Gotta hand it to him, Wainwright came through in that game. We figured he'd be an inning eater, but to keep the runs off the board is pretty impressive.
Maybe, just maybe a Cubs sweep could ignite this team. I doubt it, but I can still hope.

If we don't have hope we don't have anything, think about it.

First of all concerning Wainwright, just when we all think he is ready to be put out in the pasture he seems to have enough gas left in his tank to get across the finish line in a big game. This is just what true quality veterans do but I think you will agree with me that his inconsistency is still a major concern. I admire Schildt for sticking with him through 8 complete innings and going out to get Hicks in the 9th before we saw another rerun of a sad movie again and allowing Gant to close it out who now has an ERA of 1.15 which is almost unheard of in today's game.

Now for bigger immediate concerns: Since I can't remember, when was the last time we were home underdogs to the Reds? Well, we are -130 home dogs to the Reds tomorrow night because of who our starting pitcher is. Let's hope he proves that he wants to be a part of the Cardinals roster for longer to come because I sure don't feel comfortable with him getting the call tomorrow night. After the Reds series it is on to Wrigley for a weekend series and we both know the Cubs will have big time revenge on their minds after what just happened to them in St. Louis so I think the next several days will be very important to how our June might go after an undefeated June so far.

 

[tomcat1]

i will enjoy the sweep for now.... I don't want to think about the rest of the season at the moment..

Is that you with the broom? Sweep away for a change for us!

Think positive because over 2/3 of the season is left and dedicated Cardinals fans never quit until the math says we don't have a chance!

 

[tomcat1]

"The Brewers still baffle me a bit — their +18 run differential isn’t that of an elite team — and they haven’t been as impressive as some of the other top teams, but they’ve played the toughest schedule in the league and they keep steadily stacking wins."

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/mlb-power-rankings-weve-got-a-new-no-1-144229957.html

I knew it seemed we have had a tough schedule but I didn't realize we had the toughest. I feel better about being only 8 games over .500 now.

Baseball has more stats than any other sport by far and run differential is one of the worse stats they have. When you look back at baseball history the cream of the crop is teams who have excelled in winning one run games.

 

[navamind]

Pirates announce that they have signed a 34 yr old left handed pitcher. They are not worried about his blindness.
afterall how much worse could this blind pitcher do compaired with the rest of this staff??

That blind pitcher will still have a better grasp of the strike zone than Joe West.

 

[kburjr]

Baseball has more stats than any other sport by far and run differential is one of the worse stats they have. When you look back at baseball history the cream of the crop is teams who have excelled in winning one run games.

The argument for run differential is that elite teams dominate the competition, play fewer 1-run games.

 

[tomcat1]

That blind pitcher will still have a better grasp of the strike zone than Joe West.

Now that's funny . . . and correct I might add.

 

[navamind]

Baseball has more stats than any other sport by far and run differential is one of the worse stats they have. When you look back at baseball history the cream of the crop is teams who have excelled in winning one run games.

lmao this is so wrong. one run game performance is completely unsustainable, just look at the Showalter Orioles teams. They were 29-9 in 2012 in one-run games. They were 20-31 the next year. 32-23 in 2014... and 25-26 in 2015. the Mariners went 89-73 despite getting outscored by 34 runs, but they crashed and burned after a strong start and fell out of the playoff race in early September. They're now 25-37 this year.

there's a pretty strong correlation between run differential and win percentage.

 

[tomcat1]

The argument for run differential is that elite teams dominate the competition, play fewer 1-run games.

I understand that argument but stats don't lie. I forget which year it was even though it hasn't been that many years ago when the Yankees won about 125 games in one season. This was when Mariano was their closer. They were dominant and they won many of those games that season by one run.

Many quality teams win 10-0 today and lose 3-2 tomorrow. I do get your point but I think run differential is a very misleading stat.

 

[tomcat1]

lmao this is so wrong. one run game performance is completely unsustainable, just look at the Showalter Orioles teams. They were 29-9 in 2012 in one-run games. They were 20-31 the next year. 32-23 in 2014... and 25-26 in 2015. the Mariners went 89-73 despite getting outscored by 34 runs, but they crashed and burned after a strong start and fell out of the playoff race in early September. They're now 25-37 this year.

there's a pretty strong correlation between run differential and win percentage.

I guess we will have to agree to disagree on this one because I don't have time to look up a million stats.

 

[LambeauLegs]

"The Brewers still baffle me a bit — their +18 run differential isn’t that of an elite team — and they haven’t been as impressive as some of the other top teams, but they’ve played the toughest schedule in the league and they keep steadily stacking wins."

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/mlb-power-rankings-weve-got-a-new-no-1-144229957.html

I knew it seemed we have had a tough schedule but I didn't realize we had the toughest. I feel better about being only 8 games over .500 now.

It has been a tough schedule with the Dodgers over for the year and Philly a few times, the Cubs and Cards, Atlanta and the Twins. I was looking at the rest of the first half of the schedule and based on current records things would appear to ease up a bit. Of the next 31 games between now and 7/7 the Brewers play 2 teams that are over .500, there are 2 games with Houston one of the best in the American league and the other is San Diego which is just 1 game over .500.

Maybe they can create a little separation between now and then. It kind of ticked me off today sending Hiura the new young second baseman back to AAA ball. I doubt Shaw will be any better than before he was put on the IL. But it was nice to see Nelson is coming back on Wed after being gone so long as Chacin has fallen off horribly and hopefully Nelson can replace him with some decent pitching

 

[Moab]

It has been a tough schedule with the Dodgers over for the year and Philly a few times, the Cubs and Cards, Atlanta and the Twins. I was looking at the rest of the first half of the schedule and based on current records things would appear to ease up a bit. Of the next 31 games between now and 7/7 the Brewers play 2 teams that are over .500, there are 2 games with Houston one of the best in the American league and the other is San Diego which is just 1 game over .500.

Maybe they can create a little separation between now and then. It kind of ticked me off today sending Hiura the new young second baseman back to AAA ball. I doubt Shaw will be any better than before he was put on the IL. But it was nice to see Nelson is coming back on Wed after being gone so long as Chacin has fallen off horribly and hopefully Nelson can replace him with some decent pitching

Hiura is the guy they have options with, so that was the obvious choice. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Shaw or Moose is traded and Hiura is up for good...but we'll see.

The Brew Crew needs to get some separation between now and the end of July if they want to win this division. It was loaded in the front and back and the middle is kind of soft, so they'll need to get a nice lead going into the end of July and early August...and if they don't they'll have a tough time getting a wild card spot. Basically, they need to make hay while the sun shines...