Let me know if somebody else already posted this, and I'll delete this thread. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A7064-2004Oct4?language=printer
Those are exactly the kind of teams that win it all. They use the old "It's us against the world" strategy to hype them up. I think the reason they're not getting respect is because they don't have a solid 1-2 pitching combo. Morris and Williams haven't pitched the way they used too. But then again, it is a whole new season and that's why i 'm routing for the Dodgers. They helped us with SF, it would be nice if they could do the same with the Cards. However, i don't see that happening. Especially after today's blowout.
Any team that relies as heavily on offense as the Cards are vulnerable in the playoffs. Kind of like how running teams in the NBA always get killed by slow-paced half court teams. Even the Cards get into hitting slumps, and you only need to hit badly in 4 out of 7 games to get bounced. I'm not saying the Cards will stop hitting, just that they're more vulnerable than their record suggest. Because all of their pitchers are prone to getting shelled on any given night.
Yeah, but the Cardinals pichting has been consistent all year. They haven't been shelled. So are they really vulnerable.
Their pitching overall is pretty good. Actually, quite good. But their starters have been average. Maybe "consistently" average, but average nonetheless. And these pitchers will have to face some pretty nice lineups later on. They do have a nice bullpen(partially helped by usually getting big leads late in games). But that's not exactly important when your starters give up high number of runs.
