Anyone watch the NLCS and think, that should have been the Astros?

[DaDakota]

I mean the Cardinals, IMHO, are not as good as the Astros. I can not help but think, if we just took care of business a couple more times this year, the Astros would be thriving in the playoffs.

The Cardinals LIMPED in and now they are in the World series, just imagine if Lidge had been throwing the cutter all season, or if Qualls would concentrate each and every time out.

Or if Morgan would have hit what he is capable of, or if Scott had played all year.....same for Roger....

The Astros only needed to pick up 2 games.....

Ugh....it is gut wrenching.

DD

[Major]

The Cardinals LIMPED in and now they are in the World series, just imagine if Lidge had been throwing the cutter all season, or if Qualls would concentrate each and every time out.

Or if Morgan would have hit what he is capable of, or if Scott had played all year.....same for Roger....


But all the same things could be said about the Cardinals. If only Izzy had played to his abilities. Or Rolen didnt go into a massive slump. Or if Pujols didn't get hurt for 3 weeks. etc.

Both teams played mediocre for huge chunks of the season. Ultimately, their mediocre was better than ours. :( As far as limping in, the White Sox limped in last year and got on a roll, as did both Detroit and St. Louis this year - momentum apparently means very little as far as the baseball playoffs go. Surprising, but what we really thought of as terrible teams in September have consistently been turning it on in the playoffs.

[DaDakota]

But all the same things could be said about the Cardinals. If only Izzy had played to his abilities. Or Rolen didnt go into a massive slump. Or if Pujols didn't get hurt for 3 weeks. etc.

Both teams played mediocre for huge chunks of the season. Ultimately, their mediocre was better than ours. :( As far as limping in, the White Sox limped in last year and got on a roll, as did both Detroit and St. Louis this year - momentum apparently means very little as far as the baseball playoffs go. Surprising, but what we really thought of as terrible teams in September have consistently been turning it on in the playoffs.

Well that is exactly what I said...only you said it differently.

:D

DD

[MadMax]

It's what I was saying all year long, DaDa. The margins between the teams in the NL was razor thin this season. The Astros were good enough to win that division..they just didn't execute on it.

This playoffs should remind us all how different baseball is from the other sports. "Momentum going into the playoffs" is a fantasy. Once you get there, virtually anybody can be beat anybody. No one gave the Tigers or the Cards much of a chance to advance to the WS. It happened, anyway.

[msn]

What I kept thinking last night was, "That Beltran is such a choker. He comes up in the "clutch" and looked *horrible*!!" :D

[macalu]

not really, b/c we sucked the whole year.

[A-Train]

Yeah, divisional standings are so old fashioned. After the season is over, I think there should be a national vote on who gets in the playoffs...

[mrdave543]

Nope, they won games when it mattered....we didnt

[Angle02]

not really, b/c we sucked the whole year.
Dont know what your definition of "sucked" is but we certainly didn't suck. Wait am I in a Astros thread or Texans thread? Kidding aside. I didn't watch the NLCS because I was thinking that could have been the Astros there. I'll watch the WS now but I'm pulling for the Tigers to sweep the Cards. Has any team been swept twice in the WS or at that swept in 2 straight apperances?

[Buck Turgidson]

What I kept thinking last night was, "That Beltran is such a choker. He comes up in the "clutch" and looked *horrible*!!" :D
That was an UNPROFESSIONAL at-bat.

[JunkyardDwg]

Both teams played mediocre for huge chunks of the season. Ultimately, their mediocre was better than ours. :( As far as limping in, the White Sox limped in last year and got on a roll, as did both Detroit and St. Louis this year - momentum apparently means very little as far as the baseball playoffs go. Surprising, but what we really thought of as terrible teams in September have consistently been turning it on in the playoffs.

I really don't think you can compare Detroit and the White Sox (last year) to the Cardinals (this year). The difference with those teams is that the Tigers and Sox played great baseball all year aside from a little slump at the end, then continued that success in the playoffs. StL has struggled all year, got lucky and backed into the playoffs where they have faced competition that had their own struggles; I hardly think the Cardinals have caught fire. Also, Detroit already had a playoff berth locked up when they started slumping; the only thing the Semptember struggles cost them was a division title, no biggie.

I think momentum toward the end of the season can very much translate into playoff success...look at the Astros last year, the Marlins, the D'Backs; all those teams played hard to the end and snatched up the Wild Card and took that success all the way to the Series. But then there's an equally number of instances where September success doesn't mean jack...Yankees anyone?

I'll agree with the mediocrity though. While I do feel the Astros should have been there...there's about 3 or 4 other teams that could make the same argument had a few losses gone the other way. The NL fielded such a weak class this year...the thing that is a shame is the Astros couldn't take advantage with the pitching they had.

[Uprising]

Nope, they won games when it mattered....we didnt


They did? I can swear the Brewers were whooping the dead birds asses. Only, we couldn't beat the damn braves!

[sammy]

They did? I can swear the Brewers were whooping the dead birds asses. Only, we couldn't beat the damn braves!

The Cards split the 4 game set with the Brewers. The Brewers had their chance to win the series 3-1 but their closer blew the third game. If they lost- they would have had to play the Giants and who knows. There were too many if's this baseball season for the astros. It wasnt meant to be and we didnt deserve to make the playoffs. Its not ok to just turn it on whenever you feel like. We must play more consistant baseball next year.

[hatemavs4life]

They did? I can swear the Brewers were whooping the dead birds asses. Only, we couldn't beat the damn braves!

Two things here.

One, if Bochy doesnt go braindead and NOT pitch to Pujols with game on the line in the rubber game, this all doesnt matter anyway all that much. Or at least bring in Trevor ... duh. :rolleyes:

Two, its pointless to blame teams for not taking care of businees that your team should have. If Lane or Ensberg would've not been sleep walking through a majority of this season, we would be there regardless of our bullpen blues.

Also, this just in ... pretty much EVERY bullpen blows games. It's just our offense SUCKED basically the WHOLE season. There's your culprit.

[A_3PO]

DD, I agree somewhat, but I felt the Astros were going to run out of gas and they could not sustain the run. It just happened in the last series of the season instead of during the playoffs.

[Uprising]

Two things here.

Two, its pointless to blame teams for not taking care of businees that your team should have. .

I agree, hence why I said damn the braves. The Astros didn't do their job. Brewers did enough to help us if we only could win in Atlanta. But ultimately, the Astros fate was the same as 90% of the season.

[hatemavs4life]

I agree, hence why I said damn the braves. The Astros didn't do their job. Brewers did enough to help us if we only could win in Atlanta. But ultimately, the Astros fate was the same as 90% of the season.

No need to clarify. I'll keep saying "damn the braves", even Buck the Fraves until we sweep them at least twice in the playoffs then payback is complete for 97 & 2001. :)

[TMac#1]

No need to clarify. I'll keep saying "damn the braves", even Buck the Fraves until we sweep them at least twice in the playoffs then payback is complete for 97 & 2001. :)

Don't forget '99 , Walt f'n Weiss............. :mad:

[macalu]

Dont know what your definition of "sucked" is but we certainly didn't suck. Wait am I in a Astros thread or Texans thread? Kidding aside. I didn't watch the NLCS because I was thinking that could have been the Astros there. I'll watch the WS now but I'm pulling for the Tigers to sweep the Cards. Has any team been swept twice in the WS or at that swept in 2 straight apperances?
82-80 record. and it took a miracle winning streak in the end to get there.

[DaDakota]

82-80 record. and it took a miracle winning streak in the end to get there.

The team clearly underacheieved.

DD

[rrj_gamz]

THey had a chance and choked...Plain and simple...There were a lot of "If's" this season...I just don't want the Cards to win b/c that would hurt even more...

[DieHard Rocket]

82-80 record. and it took a miracle winning streak in the end to get there.

So that means they sucked?

Actually, if Lidge would've been shut down as closer earlier on, and Lane or Wilson (take your pick) would've been benched/cut sooner and Scott been called up earlier, it might be a different story.

I bet we would've won 90 games if it weren't for Lidge's struggles. Wait, I know we would've based on the 10 or 12 games he blew single-handedly.

[macalu]

So that means they sucked?

Actually, if Lidge would've been shut down as closer earlier on, and Lane or Wilson (take your pick) would've been benched/cut sooner and Scott been called up earlier, it might be a different story.

I bet we would've won 90 games if it weren't for Lidge's struggles. Wait, I know we would've based on the 10 or 12 games he blew single-handedly.
it doesn't matter what they should have or shouldn't have done or whether they underachieved. the fact is they were under .500 the majority of a season and that usually means a team sucked. we didn't deserve to make the playoffs anymore than the Cards.

if Isringhausen didn't blow games for the CArds, if Rolen was playing up to his contract, if Edmonds didn't get hurt, the Cardinals would have run away with the division. if my aunt had gonads, she'd be my uncle. get my point?

[DieHard Rocket]

it doesn't matter what they should have or shouldn't have done or whether they underachieved. the fact is they were under .500 the majority of a season and that usually means a team sucked. we didn't deserve to make the playoffs anymore than the Cards.


I agree, that in most cases, you can say the team as a whole sucked if they were under .500 ... usually there are a bunch of reasons why. But in this case, you can point at 3 players (Lidge, Lane, Wilson) and the manager and say they are the reason we sucked. Lane and Wilson were supposed to be middle-lineup power guys, and both sucked. Lidge blew tons of games. Garner didn't make changes soon enough.

I truly believe we would've won at least 90 games had those changes come sooner. I don't know why we're talking about the Cards in this either ... but their woes were injury related, ours were just poor decision making. We could've done something about our problems, they couldn't. Hell, give the Cards Edmonds, Rolen, and Izzy at full strength. Maybe they win the division ... but we're right there in the wild card at 90 wins.

You can't just sum up this season by saying "they sucked." Not this year anyway.

[macalu]

I agree, that in most cases, you can say the team as a whole sucked if they were under .500 ... usually there are a bunch of reasons why. But in this case, you can point at 8 players (Lidge, Lane, Wilson, Ensberg, Tavares, Everett (at least offensively), Ausmus, Biggio on the road) and the manager and say they are the reason we sucked. Lane and Wilson were supposed to be middle-lineup power guys, and both sucked. Lidge blew tons of games. Garner didn't make changes soon enough.

FYP. when you look at it this way, they didn't underachieve at all. they were flat out bad. the only real surprise was Ensberg.

[ubigred]

i thought that

[DaDakota]

OMG.....if the Cardinals win this thing the Astros players will probably all be sick.

DD

[macalu]

OMG.....if the Cardinals win this thing the Astros players will probably all be sick.

DD
the astros should throw up just thinking about themselves and how much they "underachieved."

[DaDakota]

That should have been the Astros....2006 was the weakest run to the WS in history.

The Astros SHOULD have won this year.......dang......

DD

[sammy]

OMG.....if the Cardinals win this thing the Astros players will probably all be sick.

DD

The Cards winning it all this season makes me sick. That really could have been us.

[Shroopy2]

Absolutely.
IFs are always just that but can safely say IF it were the Astros there's a good chance they'da swept the Tigers

[jgreen91]

Uh Ya, the Texans SHOULD win the superbowl this year too. And last year. :rolleyes:

[A-Train]

That should have been the Astros....2006 was the weakest run to the WS in history.

The Astros SHOULD have won this year.......dang......

DD

Yeah, I SHOULD have won the lottery, but damnit, some other guy picked all the right numbers!

[sammy]

Uh Ya, the Texans SHOULD win the superbowl this year too. And last year. :rolleyes:

Who is talking about the Texans?? :confused: :confused:

[msn]

Uh Ya, the Texans SHOULD win the superbowl this year too. And last year. :rolleyes:
That analogy falls apart at too many places. Non sequitur. Nice smiley, though.

[Saint Louis]

That should have been the Astros....2006 was the weakest run to the WS in history.

The Astros SHOULD have won this year.......dang......

DD

The Astros have no one to blame but themselves. Letting the Cubs role into town and sweep them late in the year was one of the big killers for their season.

[nigma2000]

Hopefully this WS outcome makes Uncle Drayton sick as freaking dog and they go out this offseason and try to become the Yankees of the NL next year. Damn, not only did the Cardinals win but Preston Wilson gets a WS ring!!

[br0ken_shad0w]

The Astros have no one to blame but themselves. Letting the Cubs role into town and sweep them late in the year was one of the big killers for their season.

Let's not forget about those Cardinals games right before the all-star break. We had a chance to put them down after they lost 13 out of 16 games and what happens? We crap our pants in front of national televsion...

[Sishir Chang]

In my heart I always think the Astros should be in the World Series but my head says something different.

Just because the Cards beat the Padres, Mets and Tigers doesn't mean the Stros could've. You just can substitute the two teams and if the Stros had been it in it things might've turned out very differently.

I don't like the Cards but lets face it this was their year and things just lined up right for them.

[macalu]

i'll tell you deserved to win the World Series...the St. Louis Cardinals.