cards just blew it.
- Thread starter rem101
- Start date
rem101 said:
As well as Holliday has played since joining the Cards , He pissed it all away with that play.
Unless the Cards come back and win this series , His outstanding regular season play will be outshadowed by this image of him looking like the offspring of Bill Buckner and Dick Van Dyke.</p>
I have thrown clocks in the garbage that had better looking hands than Holliday did on that play.</p>
</p>
if it wasnt for his homer earlier the Cards would not have been in position to win the game, and if it wasnt for his second half success they would not have finished with the record they did. With that being said, it was a terrible play
on Holliday. Should he have made that play? Absolutely. There's no excuse for him to not make that play. He just misplayed it, and there's no other explanation than that.
But that said, I think what cost the Cardinals in these two games was the lack of hitting in clutch situations. How many men have they left on base these two games? A ton. They had only two runs, on I think 10 hits. Ideally, you want no more than twice as many hits as runs, in my opinion. In other words, you get 10 hits, you should score five runs. If you don't, you're not doing your job.
I think the Cardinals are being overaggressive at the plate with runners on. They're all swinging at too many pitches out of the strike zone. For them to correct this, they have to focus on hitting mechanics, figure out how the Dodgers are trying to pitch them, adjust, and then be patient until they get a good pitch to hit. (It's so easy to say that!)
If I were LaRussa, I would definately be looking for ways to try to create some runs the next game(s). Hit and run, stealing bases, etc. Try to do some things to try to get their defense out of position.
That's a long way off saying that Holliday's play shouldn't have mattered that much anyway because the Cardinals should have had more runs on the board to start with.
I also need to mention that despite the error, all the Cardinals needed to do was get one out. Franklin didn't pick his teammate up. That error simply put the tying run on base, but the other runs were because Franklin didn't execute his pitches.
I'll tell you what disturbed me the most during the broadcast- they were talking about how they had asked LaRussa why Pujols and Holliday struggled down the stretch. His answer was paraphrase "I think they were going for some personal goals after we had clinched". That upsets me a lot because when have a team that has a lot of talent and is trying to win a championship, you want to try to foster an environment where players are doing the little things to help the team win going into the playoffs, even after you've clinched. That should be a time of refinement. You shouldn't expect it to be "Well, it's postseason now, let's flip the switch". It's hard to "flip the switch on" when you've been cruising for two weeks or so. You especially need to keep playing nowadays because you can get homefield advantage for a lot of the playoffs if you have the best record. To borrow from Drebin, "Winning may be the worst thing for the Cardinals" because in 06, they never had home field, and yet won. That team also "flipped the switch on" in the postseason in 06, but the difference is the Cardinals in 06 had a ton of guys that were coming back from injury, and it just so happened that they all got healthy at the very start of the playoffs. This team has just been kind of cruising.
But understand, this loss is on ALL of the Cardinals, not just Holliday, or Franklin, or Fred Bird, or anyone else.
But that said, I think what cost the Cardinals in these two games was the lack of hitting in clutch situations. How many men have they left on base these two games? A ton. They had only two runs, on I think 10 hits. Ideally, you want no more than twice as many hits as runs, in my opinion. In other words, you get 10 hits, you should score five runs. If you don't, you're not doing your job.
I think the Cardinals are being overaggressive at the plate with runners on. They're all swinging at too many pitches out of the strike zone. For them to correct this, they have to focus on hitting mechanics, figure out how the Dodgers are trying to pitch them, adjust, and then be patient until they get a good pitch to hit. (It's so easy to say that!)
If I were LaRussa, I would definately be looking for ways to try to create some runs the next game(s). Hit and run, stealing bases, etc. Try to do some things to try to get their defense out of position.
That's a long way off saying that Holliday's play shouldn't have mattered that much anyway because the Cardinals should have had more runs on the board to start with.
I also need to mention that despite the error, all the Cardinals needed to do was get one out. Franklin didn't pick his teammate up. That error simply put the tying run on base, but the other runs were because Franklin didn't execute his pitches.
I'll tell you what disturbed me the most during the broadcast- they were talking about how they had asked LaRussa why Pujols and Holliday struggled down the stretch. His answer was paraphrase "I think they were going for some personal goals after we had clinched". That upsets me a lot because when have a team that has a lot of talent and is trying to win a championship, you want to try to foster an environment where players are doing the little things to help the team win going into the playoffs, even after you've clinched. That should be a time of refinement. You shouldn't expect it to be "Well, it's postseason now, let's flip the switch". It's hard to "flip the switch on" when you've been cruising for two weeks or so. You especially need to keep playing nowadays because you can get homefield advantage for a lot of the playoffs if you have the best record. To borrow from Drebin, "Winning may be the worst thing for the Cardinals" because in 06, they never had home field, and yet won. That team also "flipped the switch on" in the postseason in 06, but the difference is the Cardinals in 06 had a ton of guys that were coming back from injury, and it just so happened that they all got healthy at the very start of the playoffs. This team has just been kind of cruising.
But understand, this loss is on ALL of the Cardinals, not just Holliday, or Franklin, or Fred Bird, or anyone else.