Trick or Treat: St. Louis Cardinals

Honestly, this will not be long. I promise.

Probably the last thing any Reds fan wants to read or hear about right now is anything related to the St. Louis Cardinals. I’m one, so writing this is almost as painful as watching them pull off that dramatic win in Game 6 of the World Series.

Still, that was a great game, but I digress.

How was I tricked and treated by the Redbirds in 2011? Not difficult to determine.

Trick would be the operative word when you recall a game held on April 22. There were weather concerns. Apparently, someone, somewhere, somehow was tricked by the local weather reports. The umpires were informed there was a window, but Baker (per a John Fay piece from that evening) offered this…

"“It was a really tough start,” Baker said. “There was information we received that probably wasn’t the information they received. We probably wouldn’t have started Volquez in the first place. We were told there was going to be a window. That window lasted about three minutes.”The Reds were told, Baker said, the window was 45 minutes to an hour.“Sometimes the weatherman’s wrong I guess,” he said. “When we went to the plate with umpires, they said the rain was going to come eventually, which we all knew. They said we’re going to play through it the best we can. It just didn’t last too long.”"

It lasted all of six pitches. Mind you, that wasn’t the reason Cincy took the loss that game, but it did mess up the bullpen for some time. And it is the “responsibility” of the home team to decide if/when a game should start. The Cards staff chose to start at the original time.

Now, I wouldn’t have brought any of this up again, but it just so happens that an F-4 tornado hit the St. Louis airport that same evening. I remember reading tweets from John Fay stating he was heading for cover.

Oh…the treat? As of today, TLR is no longer the manager. He retired. Maybe now we won’t have to listen to ignorant stuff like Yadier Molina is the best catcher ever. Um, I don’t need stats to tell me that Johnny Bench, Yogi Berra, Mickey Cochrane and Carlton Fisk are all better after their first eight seasons…but maybe that’s just me.

The lunacy is gone…

By the way, LaRussa had a pretty good catcher in Oakland that had better stats through eight seasons than what Molina has posted. Care to take a guess on who it is? If you do, post that in the comments.

Of course the big news (outside of the LaRussa announcement today) will center around #5. Will he or won’r he return. Some Cards fans tend to thin kthat with TLR out of the picture, Pujols may decide to go elsewhere. Really, I’m not seeing it. While he may not get that ten year deal, he could still receive a lot of dough from the Cardinals. I honestly cannot see The Machine in any other uniform.

If he does return, St. Louis has to be faves for the division. The return of Adam Wainwright will only help. Another important piece could be keeping Edwin Jackson. That could form a starting rotation consisting of Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Jackson, Jake Westbrook and Kyle Lohse.

Not bad at all.

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