Comments on: NLDS Preview: St. Louis Cardinals

By: joanne a. holliday

joanne a. holliday — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:47:55 +0000

Good Morning just thought i will let you know i had a issue with this blog appearing blank also. Might be monkeys in the page.

By: Felonius_Monk

Felonius_Monk — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:27:37 +0000

He was also walking nobody and not giving up any HR (again, thanks to some luck with flyballs) but his control was, generally, excellent.

Trouble is, his stuff is mediocre at best, so unless he’s right on top of his game, he’s pretty meh. Which is what’s happened in the second half. We’re seeing the same Franklin we’ve seen through most of his career, and, as a Cardinals fan, I was pretty pissed off that we gave him a totally unnecessary extension into 2011 on the back of 3 months of good pitching (we already had him under control for next year via a fairly cheap team option). Bad, bad, bad.

By: Matt Harms

Matt Harms — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:00:59 +0000

No, in the first half of the season, Franklin had some of the most insane LOB% and BABIP rates of any pitcher this year. Completely unsustainable, and completely lucky.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/all-about-franklins

By: MU789

MU789 — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:55:44 +0000

The only thing I saw was that the Cardianls were hitting 223 against LH when Holiday and Lugo joined the team. they “raised” their ba against LH to 233 so it did make some improvement.

But sometimes TRL doesn’t seem to pay attention to L/R splits. He likes to sit Ludwick against RH at times (usually for Ankiel – ugh) when his splits the last two years show a better OPS against RH. And Shumaker should not start against a LH but Tony has him starting tonight against RW. I know he likes to be thought of as a genius but still!!!!

By: Samuel Lingle

Samuel Lingle — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:03:02 +0000

I keep reading about how the Cards struggle against lefties in every single postseason preview on every site on the internets, but I have yet to see any look at the Cardinals against lefties since acquiring Holliday, Lugo, and DeRosa, which would seem like a much more appropriate number to look at than the season split.

I’d assume that the term “struggle” would still apply but it may not be as bad as everyone keeps predicting, no?

By: MU789

MU789 — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:14:36 +0000

When Izzy was the closer Franklin was lights out as the set-up man. The when Izzy went down Franklin bombed as the closer.

The first half of the season he was the old 8th inning guy and in the second half he was the old 9th inning bomb. Right now I would prefer to see Smolz out there ready to pitch the 9th as soon as Franklin gets lit up.

Will Tony let Carpenter and Wainright finish a game if they are cruising or will he hand the game over to Franklin to close out the ninth. Cardinal fans are worried TLR may not have noticed which Franklin was pitching in the second half.

By: Nats fan

Nats fan — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:31:26 +0000

I think the Cardinals will win the NL this year and Holliday will be the MVP of the NLDS.