caulfield12

http://insidesportsillustrated.com/ The St. Louis Cardinals are the most consistent franchise in baseball due to an organizational philosophy dedicated to measured and constant evolution, writes Ben Reiter in this week’s Sports Illustrated. At the forefront of their sustained success is diverse and dominant starting pitching, made up this season by a rotation of Adam Wainwright, Shelby Miller, Jamie Garcia, Lance Lynn and Jake Westbrook—all of whom appear on SI’s cover. The cover is inspired by the iconic October 7, 1968, SI cover that featured Roger Maris, Tim McCarver, Bob Gibson, Mike Shannon and Lou Brock. “When we think of the Cardinals, we think of a distinct organizational culture: Anodyne, diligent, supportive, resolute,” says Reiter. “Mostly, we think of consistency. Their 11 championships have been well distributed. No son or daughter of St Louis born since 1902 has reached the age of 25 without having lived through at least one victory parade.” (PAGE 64) At week’s end the Cardinals sit atop the National League with just nine players from their 2012 championship team. They are there, in large measure, because of a starting rotation that has been historically good. “The Cardinals have ended up with such a rotation by doing what they’ve always done, and what any team or corporation ought to do if it seeks success in the long term. Which is to ceaselessly, though judiciously, innovate,” says Reiter. (PAGE 64) When the game had become power crazy, former longtime St. Louis pitching coach Dave Duncan worked with the team’s pitchers to mix in ground ball inducing two-seam fastballs since he believed most pitchers only stood a chance by keeping their deliveries down in the strike zone. Wainwright busted on the scene as a closer late in the Cardinals 2006 title run throwing the two-seamer, and continues to use it now as the rotation’s ace and leader. However, when John Mozeliak was promoted to G.M., in 2007, Duncan began to lobby him to add power pitchers to the mix, especially since home runs were on the decline. “We decided to emphasize not just pitchers who were throwing hard, but guys we thought might throw harder in the future,” says Mozeliak. (PAGE 67) Within three years they drafted Lynn, Miller and also added Trevor Rosenthal and Carlos Martinez, each of whom throw around 100 mph from the bullpen and could be future starters—perhaps very soon since Garcia and Westbrook both recently were placed on the disabled list. The Cardinals have evolved financially, too, as they made the difficult choice to not re-sign Albert Pujols before last season. “Losing an iconic player was not easy—it was jolting,” says Mozeliak. “From a very simplistic standpoint, [once we let him go] we knew we had resources to deploy elsewhere.” (PAGE 67) The flexibility led to extensions for Wainwright and Gold Glove catcher Yadier Molina. “While an overriding ethos—the Cardinal way—has developed over the years, it is flexible enough to allow the team to capitalize on the game’s changing realities better than any other,” says Reiter (PAGE 65) This one had the Twins' fans crying in their beers with the 10 game losing streak, the near no-hitter, the lack of financial flexibility with the Mauer deal....and seemingly stuck with Gardy, Rick Anderson and Terry Ryan for the foreseeable future.

http://tracking.si.com/2013/05/24/mets-mat...9&eref=sihp Matt Harvey getting lucky on and off the field... http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-leag...-193535766.html Yu Darvish-like breakdown of Miggy Cabrera hitting homers on six completely different types of pitch with one swing motion...cool stuff.

It's only going to make sense if they start using Santiago in place of Jones, Omogrosso, Thornton and Lindstrom...in high leverage situations where the team has the lead, instead of when we're already 3-4-5 runs down. If he stays the long-man and last guy out of the pen, it's pointless. They might as well just bring up Jason Berken and send Santiago to AAA to start every 5 days. And this whole idea of eventually trading Santiago to get something useful in return...I'll believe it when I see it.

Omogrosso, Jones or Santiago here? Thornton? Looks like Matt. Crosses fingers.

Nope. Okay c'mon Dayan. You had a ball that you almost split the gap in RCF earlier in the game but then you've been humbled since.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 24, 2013 -> 08:48 PM) Time for Viciedo to get Reed his 2nd win I'm going with Paulie.

Good job, Addison. Strike throwing Reed >> Nibbling Reed

QUOTE (fathom @ May 24, 2013 -> 08:39 PM) Hopefully Adam does damage here, as I don't think Konerko is a good match-up against Qualls Unless it's 2005.

Wonder if they track the winning percentage of closers who enter games in the 9th or extras in tie games? Probably around 55%, but, with the White Sox, 40-45% wouldn't be surprising...especially with Jenks.

Thank god Ramos is out of there. That was the perfect pitch to take down a hot Rios. Have we ever had a closer who pitched effectively in tie games? I can't remember one.

Who pitches the 9th if we don't score?

Royals' free-fall continues. Dayton Moore and Yost are getting close to the point of no return.

Yay, another error/PB on our catchers. Are we last in throwing out opposing runners this year? We have to be in the bottom 5.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 24, 2013 -> 07:13 PM) Please give me a reason to follow W-S besides games when Beck is pitching. Kevan Smith? That's a stretch. DiMichele had his fans as well coming into the season. Some people like Haddow, but he's not a real prospect yet...sort of like Earley.

Combination of Ramos looking good and the bottom of our line-up offering little to no resistance.

And you can't go to Crain or Thornton here either. Lindstrom, this season's poor man's version of JJ Putz. Well, at least it's still tied. It could be a lot worse if the Marlins had an actual offense/Stanton.

Rios didn't read that one very well...he broke back on first move, then couldn't recover.

Harrelson....our advantages over DET in the bullpen and defense....you're sure about that?

More throwing woes from our catching corps...although he had a really nice break anyway.

Center cut fastball. Can't expect success with that location at 3-2. Had him down and let him escape.

Ozuna looks like a more menacing version of Juan Uribe...

Konerko finally looking better. Nice sign that he actually got his hands in on the first hit to LF on a fastball and looked reminiscent of the old swing.

Walk or hit for the Twins? They have a runner on 1st. Not a surprise there. Mauer with the single.

18 game hitting streak for Rios. Solid single pulled between SS and 3B.

74 pitches through six for Danks. Pretty economical.