my head hurts.

in other news, some lady just parked a buick reatta outside my office ... there's a blast from the past.

As usual, TLR is right.

On the Giants Comcast station they often show (at least part of) Bochy's postgame press conferences, and against my better judgment sometimes I leave the TV on and watch them. My god. Questions can't get much stupider. I'm amazed at how patient Bochy is responding to the most inane silliness. I'm sure I'd respond a lot more like TLR does here.

And you guys say all the postgame quotes are nothing but cliched pablum.

Tony just wanted to make sure he hit the bars before happy hour was over.

"Tony, compared to last year would you say that you are more or less frustrated by these types of questions?"

You going to tell me the second baseman and shortstop havent hit?

Haven't and never really have.

Is this even legal?

I can guarantee you that Albert is not going to hit under .200. If anybody wants to lay a bet on that I'll take it right now."

[3] He's not right about that middle infield hitting.

The Cardinals haven't been the same since Tony Phillips attacked Molina with a baseball bat last year.

And you guys say all the postgame quotes are nothing but cliched pablum

The questions still are.

He's not right about that middle infield hitting

he's right about it being the first week of the season and to make any conclusions on the quality of the team after one week of play is bad form.

as far as middle infield, Schumaker has been hitting acceptable(of course that is after only one week of play) and Theriot has been even worse than I thought he would be (both in the field and at the plate--of course again, just one week of play)

Thing is, the Cardinals "offense", if that is what you want to call it, is continuing where it left off. The biggest mistake the Cardinals made, IMHJO, is resigning the Mensa bright genius.

La Russa hates it when he actually has to answer questions that don't compliment him, tell him how brilliant he is or actually force him to think.

Thank you for calling US Prime Credit.

Thing is, the Cardinals "offense", if that is what you want to call it, is continuing where it left off. The biggest mistake the Cardinals made, IMHJO, is resigning the Mensa bright genius.

where did the offense leave off last year, 6th in the National League in scoring, not sure how that could be considered "parenthese" offense. It's been 6 games so far this season.

La Russa hates it when he actually has to answer questions that don't compliment him, tell him how brilliant he is or actually force him to think.

really? I thought he hated to answer stupid questions like people talking about the offense being a problem after 6 games, or the really stupid people complaining about one blown save, or trying to attach signifiance to early season random events. I'm not too sure how many questions actually compliment people. He usually does a good job of answering questions provided they don't insult a player, never seen him actually have a problem about answering questions that criticize him, and unlike the 2 previous managers(not counting interim) the Cardinals had, he actually says "blame me".

Is this even legal?

I can guarantee you that Albert is not going to hit under .200. If anybody wants to lay a bet on that I'll take it right now."

He was misquoted. He really said "if anyone wants to bet a lay."

#15 CFB: The offense sputtered much too often last season and was very inconsistent.

As or criticism, La Russa has plenty of times blasted back at reporters who dared criticized his in-game moves. I'm not talking about dumb questions but questions like why remove Holliday for the pitcher, essentially taking the bat out of Pujols hands. This he did twice last season, if memory serves me correctly. He will reply that he knows how to manage, implying that you better not question his judgement or capability.

He will have lineups that make no sense, handle the pitching staff, particularly the bullpen, less than adequately and try to insert himslef into the game. He feels he has to leave his mark on things.

When it came to losses, I blame 23 on the Primarily on the bats and 10 primarily on the defense/pitching. When it came to wins, I credit the defense/piching primarily with 17 wins and the bats primarily with 4 wins

A loss that I blame on the bats is when a team gives up 4 or less runs (below NL average) and loses. That means the bats scored 3 or less, an inadequate performance. A loss that I blame on the defense is when the bats score at least 4 runs because to lose the defense/pitching has to give up 5 or more runs (above the NL average), an inadequate performance.

A win that I give credit to the defense/pitching is when it gives up 3 runs or less and the bats score 4 runs or less. A win I credit the bats with is when the defense/piching gives up 5 or more runs, thus meaning the bats came through with 6+ runs.

The Cardinals averaged 4.54 runs per game but only scored 5 or more runs in 76 games. They were held to 1 run 17 times and shutout 13 times.

Yes, the season is only a week old but I'm not seeing anything that is inspiring confidence that things are going to turn around.

This is all IMHJO.

I can guarantee you that Albert is not going to hit under .200. If anybody wants to lay a bet on that I'll take it right now."

Given the organization we're talking about here, Tony's making a smart play by taking the over on Albert's BAC.

I can guarantee you that Albert is not going to hit under .200.

You forgot about one thing: Albert's on my fantasy team this year. His wife will leave him. He'll either get busted for PEDs or decide to go off them, whichever is worse for his stats. He'll get an intestinal parasite. He'll hide an injury the entire year that only becomes public knowledge next November. Joe Torre will call him out publicly for his defense once he starts to heat up. He'll spend too much time partying with Rihanna. He'll be accused of collaborating with the Nazis in 1943...

As my most expensive player, I can guarantee one of these will happen. On my way to my draft, my dad told me to buy up as many Cards, Brewers, and Reds as possible, because as long as I'm going down, I may as well take all of the non-Cubs NL Central with me.

The Cards are whiffing almost as much as the St. Louis sports media these days.

This is all IMHJO.

"J"?

He will have lineups that make no sense, handle the pitching staff, particularly the bullpen, less than adequately and try to insert himslef into the game. He feels he has to leave his mark on things

TLR had one of his worse years as a manager last year, I don't deny that. Just like players, managers can have off years. Not sure I agree with the lineups that make no sense part, he has unusual lineups of course, but he is also one of the best managers in the game at keeping his bench guys valuable, and the no sense part of his lineups usually only applies if you are looking at the team on a game to game basis, not on how it works for a season or even a full week.

The Cardinals averaged 4.54 runs per game but only scored 5 or more runs in 76 games. They were held to 1 run 17 times and shutout 13 times.

Reds averaged 4.88 runs a game last year and scored 5 or more in 81 games while being shutout 13 times, scored 1 run 10 times.
Phils averaged 4.77 runs a game last year and scored 5 or more in 80 games while being shutout 11 times, scored 1 run 23 times.
Rockies average 4.75 runs a game last year and scored 5 or more runs in 72 games while being shutout 10 times, scored 1 run 17 times
Brewers average 4.63 runs a game last year and scored 5 or more runs in 66 games while being shutout 14 times, scored 1 run 12 times.
Braves average 4.56 runs a game last year and scored 5 or more runs in 62 games while being shutout 13 times and scored 1 run 11 times.
Florida average 4.44 runs a game last year and scored 5 or more runs in 70 games while being shutout 9 times, and scored 1 run 12 times.
Arizona average 4.40 runs a game last year and scored 5 or more runs in 69 games while being shutout 11 times and scored 1 run or more 18 times.

this is the list of all the teams in the NL with above league average in scoring... I don't see anything indicating the Cardinals are more inconsistent than anyone else, and the most inconsistent team is probably the Phillies, you know the team with the best record in the NL last year. The most consistent team among this group is probably the Marlins and they have the third worse winning percentage in this group.

I love the line "only scored 5 or more runs in 76 games" the team with the 6th best average run scored, but the third most often scoring 5 or more gets an only. The better argument, especially if you are going for inconsistent run scoring is to point that out as an outlier by it being a high number, not a rare occurance. Implying that it's rare and being so completely wrong undermines the whole point you are trying to make. Of course it's also not really an outlier by any noticeable amount.

You forgot about one thing: Albert's on my fantasy team this year. His wife will leave him. He'll either get busted for PEDs or decide to go off them, whichever is worse for his stats. He'll get an intestinal parasite. He'll hide an injury the entire year that only becomes public knowledge next November. Joe Torre will call him out publicly for his defense once he starts to heat up. He'll spend too much time partying with Rihanna. He'll be accused of collaborating with the Nazis in 1943...

Amen. First time in 12 years I got first pick, so you know he will tear his elbow joint, contact the clap, be arrested along with Miggy after an interleague game for driving a fire truck while under the influence, and have his real birth certificate revealed showing he is 78 years old.

EDIT: that's contract the clap, although I guess he could contact it as well.

When it came to losses, I blame 23 on the Primarily on the bats and 10 primarily on the defense/pitching. When it came to wins, I credit the defense/piching primarily with 17 wins and the bats primarily with 4 wins

A loss that I blame on the bats is when a team gives up 4 or less runs (below NL average) and loses. That means the bats scored 3 or less, an inadequate performance. A loss that I blame on the defense is when the bats score at least 4 runs because to lose the defense/pitching has to give up 5 or more runs (above the NL average), an inadequate performance.

A win that I give credit to the defense/pitching is when it gives up 3 runs or less and the bats score 4 runs or less. A win I credit the bats with is when the defense/piching gives up 5 or more runs, thus meaning the bats came through with 6+ runs.

I was going to reply to this, but the numbers are so wrong that it's impossible to know what you were going for. My guess is your definitions are off by one run(or two in the case of losses primary due to defense). Example your definition of wins attributed to Primary offense works if you change it to 6 runs or more not five. (your listed definition the Cardinals get 7 wins primarily due to the bats)

and of course there is no 'rate' component, example the Cardinals allowed 6 runs or more only 37 times vs Phillies doing it 47 times, Phillies offense does still post a significant primary offense win percentage over the Cardinals(14-4).

by your definitions, just to fix the math so that it's right.
Wins primarily due to offense(games in which the Cardinals pitching allowed 5 or more runs and still won) 7 wins
Wins primarily due to pitching(games in which the Cardinals pitching allowed 4 runs or less and still won-not sure why you waste time talking about the pitching runs allowed, basically it's how many wins they get when scoring 4 runs or less, the part about pitching runs allowed is redundant) 25 wins
Losses primary to offense(losses when allowing 4 runs or less) 33
Losses primary to defense(losses when team scores at least 4 runs) 20.

You need to reexamine your definitions, especially the losses primary to defense, you have to up the runs scored to 5 or more, not four or more. Basically you are applying a primary loss to an average game potential(4-5)