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Pugs?
This will be another CCFF! That’s another Cardinals Catfish Fiddlers Friday at the Amish restaurant north of town out by the lake. And then a 7×50 Palma Real Presidente cigar out on the front patio area.
And it’s Wednesday night and the Reds and Cubs are both way ahead late in their games. Milwaukee and Toronto are in a close battle in the middle innings and the Pirates have a 2-0 late against Washington at Three Rivers Stadium.
r/Esteemed Rat
“Call me crazy, but I think the majority of opponents should be division foes, Bikemike. I think it would improve the gate counts. Especially head to head division rivalries during matchups when the standings were still somewhat tight and the outcomes of those games were certain to effect the gaining or losing of ground. Those types of games can take on the same high stakes feel and atmosphere as any post-season game. Especially when the division rivalries are of the bitter variety during the last couple of months of the regular season.”
Circling back to the schedule and 1TD’s comment about playing more divisional games – teams actually do play more games against divisional foes than non-division or other-league teams. In total they play more games outside the division, but that is due to divisions only having five teams. Thus you only have four divisional foes, but 10 non-division league teams to play and fifteen other-league teams.
There are some exceptions, but basically teams play 13 or 14 games against division rivals (52-56 total), 6 games against non-division league opponents (60 total), and three games against other league teams (45 total). The exception for the Cardinals is we play the Royals 6 times, which makes sense given the geogrphic “rivalry”.
With leagues having an odd number of teams, an inter-league game needs to be played every day to get in a full slate of games.
One flaw is that the schedules sometimes put the 6 games against a league opponent within a week or two of each other, and sometimes not. Like this year we played the Nationals already in their park, and won’t play them again until late in the year. Meanwhile our two series against the Phiilies and Giants are within a couple weeks relatively late in the season.
Still I think MLB does a good job on the schedule given the current leagues configuration.
My only complaint is the way they order the games. They seem to intentionally avoid division games the first month of the season. But more important than that is making sure that your last 4 series are against division teams. That isn’t possible with 15 in each league and divisions of 5 though and they would have to go to 32 teams with even division counts.
Before IL play and the format going to 3 divisions in each league the Cardinals would play almost 90 games against divisional opponents. And normally they’d open and close the season with up to 15 to 20 consecutive games against teams in the same division. I realize they can’t do that today with 3 divisions in each league but, if it were my call, I’d cut IL play way down. In fact, I’d eliminate it all together but, that’s not going to happen. In my view, IL play is nothing more than a dog and pony show. I liked it way better when the NL and AL each had their very own distinct identity.
I don’t like interleage play either with the exception of the “rivaly series”. I would be fine with keeping those and limiting them to 6 games a year; a home and home series for each city.
This would be Cards-Royals, Cubs-White Sox, Yankees-Mets, Dodgers-Angels, Reds-Guardians, Nationals-Orioles, etc….
I am not a big fan of IL play either, but understand it with the odd number of teams per league.
And today “league” is a misnomer. What we really have are two conferences under one “Major League.” Back in the day when the leagues were truly that, each with it’s own president and independent management, we had more intrigue between the two.
Maybe if and when they expand to 32 teams IL play will become less frequent. But given the current set up this is probably about as good as we will get.
The Rockies have their first divisional series coming up this weekend with the Dodgers in town followed by the Padres.
I just finished disparaging IL play but, since the Redbirds are idle, I’m planning on watching the Mariners @ Padres game tonight on MLB network. So, forget everything I said…That oughta’ be a really good game…Haha!
I enjoy IL due to the matchups 1TD mentioned. You get some really fun games and each team at least gets to see the other teams. Aaron Judge or Bobby Witt coming to town is a fun event
Leahy is only 3 starts into his starter experiment, but he needs to show some bit of improvement. I get that with only Dobbins for depth we can’t really bring him up and shift Leahy to the pen, leaving no rotation depth. But Leahy is not working out so far. The WHIP is out of control. He seems real hittable when he comes over the plate, so I don’t see much hope.
I do not like interleague play and I don’t like the DH.
To prove I am not a stodgy old ba$tard:
I approve of batting helmets and
I do like the ABS system and I think they should go all the way with it. Just tell the umpire what the call is in his earpiece so he can make the appropriate hand signal.
I echo ZTR’s thoughts.
Fully aware that I’m jumping way ahead here, but the thought has crossed my mind that there’s actually an unexpectedly tangible chance that we may not be seller’s when the trading deadline nears. If this team is somehow still in contention around the all star break, the team would owe it to these guys not to trade the likes of May, JoJo and God forbid O’Brien. Wouldn’t that be something if we ended up dealing for a starting pitcher…..or two. Stranger things have happened.
Yes Rat, I’ll be gulping down some catfish fiddlers later on today. What true Cardinal fan wouldn’t entertain the idea of feasting on the fiddlers on a Friday during the season? I’m thinking of heading on down to the Rock River in Janesville one of these Fridays with pole in hand, to try my luck at hauling in some fresh fiddlers. Wouldn’t that be a treat!
Fiddlers are not to be had in the St. Louis food desert. I cannot even get good filets anymore. I did find a bag of frozen already breaded catfish filets at the supermarket that you can supposedly just pop in the air fryer. I am going to give them a try tonight, so if you never hear from me again, that’s why.
That’s a crying shame, Bling. Good luck on your unwavering quest to find the fiddlers. Isn’t the mighty Mississippi within driving range for you, Bling? If you need any fishing tips, ol’ Pugsaronias here would be most happy to get you angling in the right direction. Bon appetite.
JJ Wetherholt (L) 2B
Iván Herrera (R) DH
Alec Burleson (L) 1B
Jordan Walker (R) RF
Nolan Gorman (L) 3B
Masyn Winn (R) SS
Nathan Church (L) LF
Pedro Pagés (R) C
Victor Scott II (L) CFI posted this on the roster matrix thread but Fitts is out for the year. Apparently the lat strain was severe. That certainly hurts our pitching depth.
FYI here,
The Doyers are in Colorado this weekend. As I type this Coors Field is covered in snow. It’s snowing big time in Colorado. We should feel fortunate we are in Houston that has a retractable roof at Minute Maid Park.r/Esteemed Rat
It’s snowing big time in Colorado. We should feel fortunate we are in Houston that has a retractable roof at Minute Maid Park.
For sure Rat…..never know when Houston will be whacked by a nasty blizzard. It being Houston, I figured you’d be referring to the Stros park as the Astrodome, Rat.
I wonder if BikeMike is having a good time out there in Denver with all of that snow?
Maybe he will report in before long with a weather update and forecast.
I wonder if BikeMike is having a good time out there in Denver with all of that snow?
been a while since last post from BM
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