Banking wins is good, but this team needs to be the best in October.
The good times and vibes abound with the Cardinals right now as the team has jumped out to a 50-24 start and a sizable division lead over two very talented teams in the Cubs and the Pirates. It's been strange to watch, as the Cardinals have seen quite a few injuries already, both of the season ending variety (Wainwright and Adams) and the significant but not season threatening (Holliday and Walden.) They don't hit very well, but they seem to hit just enough. The pitching has been great. They don't really have a quality first baseman right now, but that may be changing as Xavier Scruggs has been very productive since his recent callup. I'm not complaining, but I am a little nervous considering that past Cardinal glories have come from the team playing their best at the end of the year rather than the beginning.
Here's a fresh batch of Cardinal cards from Scott Crawford that I received back in April. This is a mid-oughts parallel of Jimmy numbered to 643, which matched his slugging percentage the previous year. It's also Edmonds card number 482 in my collection.
Scott added a couple of goldies to my collection, including Cardinal legend (not really) Felipe Lopez.
This shiny-for-no-real-reason Heritage Chrome refractor is Holliday number 250!
There were lots of serial numbered goodies, like this Sweet Spot gold from Big Albert. Pujols is moving his way up some very impressive lists these days.
If' you're still a productive player in 2015, take a step forward. Ehhh... not so fast, Mr. Howard.
Scott also sent a number of minor league cards, which are always welcome in my collection. Wacha is pretty much the ace of the staff these days with Wainwright's long recovery from an Achilles tear still ahead of him.
Tim McCarver recently called Wong the best second baseman in the league [edit: National League] during one of the local team broadcasts. Wong's bat has certainly been impressive, but is that the truth or is McCarver succumbing to home team bias in his post-FOX national team years?
Finally, here's a classy Jon Jay framed jersey swatch from a couple of Gypsy Queens ago. This is further proof to me that all relics should be framed and miniature.
I'd say Kipnis is better but Wong is up there now. Are Wacha or Martinez's innings going to be put on a limit? I thought I had read that, crazy how well y'all are playing sans Holliday, Waino and Rosenthal was out there for a little bit too.
ReplyDeleteI should amend that to say that he said National League, not the entire league. I'm still not sure about that, though.
ReplyDeleteThey keep saying vague things about being cautious with Wacha and Martinez's innings, but as far as I know there's been no established limit set. I think they're hoping to "bank" innings "not pitched", which is both a weird thing to quantify and also doesn't jive with the fact that they threw Martinez back out to the mound tonight after a nearly two hour rain delay.
yeah maybe dee gordon but they are both good, Jace Peterson is having a hell of a year too.
ReplyDeleteIt is seasons like this, and 2004 that worry me. 2006 and 2011 WS wins and most of the season they were not half as good as the 2004 team. We shall see.
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