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In that ALC the Guardians are hot at the right time, running off 7 victories in a row. Can they carry that momentum into a post season run? We will find out in a couple of weeks.
Next year’s main goals – a third baseman and pitching upgrades in both the rotation and ‘pen. And boosting the win total to at least the mid 80s.
And I guess we should say that the gains accomplished this year do not regress, at least not too far. Some guys might not attain their ‘26 numbers, but just don’t fall way off. Chances are some guys may not be quite as good but others will hopefully advance and offset them.
Chiming in again, I call this season a success. Without getting into the weeds too much but looking at a top level, we are farther along towards a post season caliber team today than we were in February. I think that was the goal coming in, and it was accomplished. This late season dive has tarnished things a bit, but still there is a lot to like and overall we passed the test.
Now for next year, to be successful we need to take the next step. Assuming the 2027 season is played, have a better winning percentage than 2026, and continue to see some organizational players come up to the big league club and have an impact.
Good assessment Blues86. I tend to agree. He has had to do OJT and seems to get a lot out of the personnel he is given, and it seems the younger guys especially go all out for him. He didn’t always handle things well in his first couple of years, but has upped his game as he has gotten experience.
IMHO he really should have managed in the minors a few years first and he would have come on better prepared, but it is what it is and the big league club had to suffer the consequences of inexperience.
My sense is he is respected among the manager’s fraternity as well, with Dave Roberts calling on him to be part of the All Star experience this year.
Not a smooth ride, but one that has leveled out and he is pretty good at his craft these days.
As for the sort of parabolic shaped record, I think gscottar has some good insight on that. Who knows, maybe the schedule had something to do with it as well.
A gorgeous somewhat Fall-like afternoon here has your Denver Broncos hosting the Jags of Jacksonville – one of three NFL teams from Florida.
Meanwhile I napped through our contest as I will be up late tonight helping the step-daughter move to a new apartment. She is working today so the move is scheduled as a Sunday “night game.”
It seemed like Walker has not homered in quite awhile, and I see from 1TD he has not even RBI’d since Sept 5. That was two days before the two Giants-Cards games I saw in the City by the Bay. Even some contact last night in the ninth inning might have won that game, but he went down swinging on the dreaded outer half slider that he still bites on now and then. He’s been better going the other way on that this year, but the pitch last night was unhittable and out of the zone.
Din-din before the move is homemade chicken pot pie the Lovely Lady Bike is preparing, and your choice of store bought cherry pie or homemade carrot cake for dessert. Yours truly made the “from scratch” cake, although the cream cheese frosting is Duncan Hines.
Yeah, playing out the string, and playing poorly at that. Most people are probably either looking at post season match ups, or have switched to football.
Looks like the Cubs, Padres and Phillies will be the three non-division winners in the NL post season, with the seeding order going down to perhaps the final game of the season
In the AL, the Yankees and Red Sox pretty much have the first two wild card seeds sown up. The final contender looks to be either the Guardians or White Sox, whichever team does not win the division. The ALW is still a dog fight, with two .500 teams from the Lone Star state battling it out.
That year seemed to be a fluke. I remember thinking it seemed like a “video game” year. We had two guys reach 60 homers in almost 100 years of baseball, and then out of nowhere two guys in the same season smash the record. Add to that both guys were so much more physically built than they had been in their earlier years.
The whole thing did not pass the smell test. You knew something had to be going on.
Same here ATM although I am also pulling for the ChiSox. But I like the Guardians as well. Whoever wins that division I would love to see get through a couple of rounds of post season, or more.
And like you I thought the Mariners would ride to the ALW in a cake walk, but our buddy Donny never got untracked and Cal Raleigh’s production fell off the table. They just never got things in order this year.
If they had an anti-comeback player of the year award, I think Raleigh would be the AL “winner” and Kyle Tucker in the NL.
I have the mlb package and can see all but the Rockies games, and an occasional game that is featured on Peacock or something like that.
Will check in and see how things are shaking out.
The AL Central and West are going down to the wire. I too am hoping the Rangers can sneak past their in-state brethren. In the Central I am rooting for the Pale Hose, but if the Guardians claim top slot that is fine by me.
Saw a game in Cleveland in 2024 where the Guardians beat our old buddy Jack Flaherty & the Tigers, and this summer saw the White Sox knock off the Bronx Bombers in extras. The Yankees were without Aaron Judge unfortunately. Wanted to see him play but he was not available.
Yeah 1TD, gotta like what he brings to the table. Really if I was PCA, I would like the “Crowbar” nick. Kind of communicates a hard working “toolsy” player. 😁
Did some quick checking and Mordecai Brown had a couple of seasons with 9+ WAR, so that list must only be offensive WAR.
Still very impressive. Was PCA considered a “can’t miss” prospect in the Mets organization?
On the McGwire 1998 home run finish, I read Felipe Alou’s autobiography recently and Alou talks about that. The Cards faced Alou’s Expos in the final four games and Alou met with his pitchers and pitching coach before the series and said they were going to pitch to him. He said McGwire might beat us, but we are not going to pitch around him – we will go right after him.
The rest is history. After the final game Alou said McGwire saw him on the field and yelled over to him. Alou met him and McGwire said, “Thanks for pitching to me”, and handed him a signed glove.
Alou found McGwire to be a class act, although I know there have been times in public where Mark could be kind of surly. Think he’s mellowed some but am not sure as he is quite private.
Cards go 1-5 versus the Giants this year, and four of the five losses were by one run.
Maybe I will wear my Giants hat the rest of the year. 🤨
I was at a SABR luncheon during the game, wearing a Cardinal shirt (no hat 😆). Most of our members feel there will be some games lost to the CBA impasse next year. Hope not, as that is a lose-lose, but it’s happened before.
One thing about the Babe, he was fast as a younger player. He is thought of as a fat guy, but really only in his last few years did he accumulate extra weight during the season. In his younger years he was in good shape, slacked off in the early ’20s, then got serious and engaged a personal trainer to get him back to physical peak from around the mid-’20s through around 1930, ’31 I believe.
Ugly early start to this one.
I thought that Redleg club would be a lot better than they were. Even rookie slugger Sal Stewart has not gotten them out of the NLC basement.
I’ve learned to “never say never”, but then his accomplishments are something very few ever do.
My Cardinal “Mount Rushmore”, and probably most if we took a poll, are:
Rogers Hornsby – our first superstar who even managed our first World Championship club while doubling as the second sacker.
Stan Musial – all time Cardinal leader in most every offensive category.
Bob Gibson – one the greatest big game pitchers of all-time and far and away our greatest moundsman.
Albert Pujols – perhaps the greatest 21st century player thus far. A 10-year sojourn to Southern California interrupted what might have become the greatest Redbird ever’s career with the birds on bat uniform.
My dad and I listened to the game the night of Carlton’s 19 Ks. Two two-run homers by Ron Swoboda resulted in a Mets win. It was that kind of year for the Amazins.
Thought OB would blow it again, but Winn with that cannon arm helps secure the win.
Another great Dizzy Dean story is the one from the 1934 World Series when he pinch-ran at first, and the hitter grounded a double play ball. The relay conked Diz on the head and knocked him out cold.
He was taken to the hospital for x-rays and later commented, “They x-rayed my head and found nothing.” 🤣
Back 19 years ago I was diagnosed with colon cancer. Fortunately it was caught early, I had the surgery and they took a bunch of lymph nodes that all were clean.
In post op I was talking to my oncologist and asked what caused this – I lived a fairly clean life style, exercised, did not have a family history of cancer, etc. He looked at me and kind of shrugged and goes, “Bad luck?”
So yeah 1TD, when there is no other answer, the “answer” is randomness. And even though we are being kind of light hearted, I think that is true. Sometimes things just happen.
You mean Jesus Baez GC. I have heard he may be more suited for third base, but others on here will know a lot more than me about him.
I have always believed there is a lot of randomness in life. Us humans always try to connect cause and effect, and often can do so. We get uncomfortable when we cannot control something, saying “there had to be a reason.”
I think often times there is no logical reason for things. Random occurrences happen at times.
Some good thoughts here. Any stat is worthwhile, but at the same time only one piece of the puzzle. To get a clear image of a players’s value you need to look at several components.
I think where we go wrong in using statistics is in using them as predictors. Sports is similar to investing; “past results do not guarantee future returns.”
Specific to Graceffo this year, it looks like he has been a bit lucky. Probably some hard hit balls were right at defenders, and he had his share of defensive “web gems.”
Does this mean he won’t be as good next year? I would not count on that. Maybe the breaks even out some, but also maybe he works on arm strength and adds a foot to his fastball. Or perhaps a tweak in his release adds a bit more break to his slider.
As for this year, I guess we can use the old saying “sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.”
