Something About the Playoffs

The time is nigh.

The Cubs and Cardinals have faced each other more than two thousand times, but none of those times has been in the postseason. This is all about to change tomorrow. I thought about doing my usual preview that I've done the past few years for each playoff series. Those posts usually take me a couple hours to write, and I'm sure I could come up with some things to say. This year, for at least this series, I think I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the ride.

I looked back at some of my posts from 2011 when October rolled around, and that team baffled me almost as much as this year's team. It's hard to even know what to make of the 2015 Cardinals, to be perfectly honest. As it has come time for me to write something about the playoffs, I have decided to just post my reactions here rather than any previews or predictions.

It feels somewhat amazing that this team made the playoffs at all, and yet it became the first Cardinals team in 10 years to win 100 games. And guess what? Those 100-win teams of the mid-ought years came away with nothing but the ass end of a terrible Jimmy Fallon/Drew Barrymore movie. The recent championship teams were a bewildering bunch that squeaked into the playoffs and had surprises around every corner. This year's bunch, despite having the best record in baseball, is being counted out by most because of injuries and a general lack of impressive numbers at virtually every position.

Matt Carpenter hit more HRs this season than he had in his entire career, combined. Matt Carpenter almost hit more HRs than Matt Holliday, Matt Adams, and Jhonny Peralta combined. He led the team in longballs, but fell short of 30. No one else hit more than 17. No batter on this team with enough qualifying plate appearances hit better than .275. Carpenter led the team with just 84 RBI. The pitching was great for the first half of the season, but multiple starters dropped off sharply in the second half. Adam Wainwright logged just 28 innings, but he's going to try to make a go of it as a reliever.

I could keep going. It's just weird. It was a weird season. Hell, the Cubs are in the playoffs. That's weird enough.