How the Cardinals can win it all

Posted by Bobo Hilario | 9:00 am | Cardinals

Clearly, the Cardinals are not as good as the Cardinals of 2004 or 2005, teams which failed to win it all.  So how are they going to win it this year?  Here are my keys:

1. Make the playoffs.  Duh.  The truth is that any team that makes the palyoffs has a descent chance of winning.  The chance of any playoff caliber team beating any other playoff cailber team in a five or seven game series is good.  If wildcard teams, which are not the best teams in the regular season can win the championship three years in a row, anyone can do it.  The Cardinals should make the playoffs, but with 64 games left there are still three NL central teams within 10 games.  The magic number against the Reds is 60.
2. Mark Mulder.  The Cards have one rock solid starter in Chris Carpenter.  After that, there is no one they can count on to go out and shut down the other team.  Suppan so far this year has alternated two good starts with two bad starts.  Marquis has had several mediocre starts (all have earned him wins) along with two great starts and three horrible starts.  Anthony Reyes threw his one hit gem to secure a spot in the rotation, but has been hittable since.  The Cardinals need to go into the playoffs with a pitcher that has throw four or five quality starts in a row.  Mulder is the best chance they have.  If he can show that his problems were because of an injury, and come back strong and well rested, he can be a dominant number two starter in thr playoffs.
3. Chris Duncan and Hector Luna.  Barring a move by Walt Jocketty, the Cards two biggest question marks are still left field and second base.  Duncan and Luna, who both started last night are the best bats the Cards have in those spots and should see lots of time down the stretch and into the playoffs.  Neither is great with the glove, but Taguchi and Miles can come into games late when the Cards are up.
4. Jason Isringhausen.  Izzy does not have the dominant pitches he once had, those days are long gone.  Too frequantly he gets the ball up and starts to walk people and give up homers.  However when he is locating well, he can still be a great closer.  He will need to locate well in the playoffs for the Cards to have any chance, or he will have to be replaced.
5. Play in the National League.  We got his one wrapped up.  The Cards are the second best team in the NL by all accounts.  That makes them about eighth best in all of baseball.  The path is easier out of the NL, even without home field.

 As I said above, anything can happen, but just for fun I will lay out the Cards path.  The Cards will win the Central but lose home field to the Mets.  The Padres will hold on in the West, and the Brewers will edge out the tight Wildcard race.  Just like last year, the Cards will punish the Padres, especially if Peavy is struggling.  Carpenter and Mulder will dominate the first two games in St. Louis and the Card will finish off the sweep in San Diego (Whale’s Vagina) in the twelfth inning when Scott Rolen hits a 11th inning homer off of Trevor Hoffman.  The Brewers will make the Mets work for the series.  Ben Sheets will come back from injury and through a shutout in the first game.  The Braves will take advantage of the off days to use Pedro and Glavine to pitch three of the five games and will win in five when David Wright hits two homers including a walk off.  Unfortunately, while jumping into the pile at home plate Wright lands on Carlos Beltran’s foot.  Wright severely sprains his ankle and Beltran’s foot is badly bruised by Wright’s cleat. 

That leads to the Cards taking on the pond scum from Queens.  The Cards go into New York and split the first two games.  They come back to St. Louis and everyone is wearing red pond scum t shirts.  The Mets are so distraught they lose games three and four by a combined 21-4.  Pedro pitches game five and the Mets win 4-1.  In game six, Carpenter pitches seven scoreless innings and the Pujols hits a two runshot.  Wainwright gives up a solo homer to Carlos Delgado in the eighth.  In the ninth, the Cards are up 2-1 and Jose Reyes gets a bunt single with one out.  Izzy and Molina get a strike ‘em out throw ‘em out to end the game and series.  In the ALDS, let’s say the Red Sox beat the wild card White Sox and the Tigers beat the A’s (yes the A’s lose a playoff series.)  In the ALCS, the Tigers beat the Red Sox in seven games with no team ever scoring more than three runs.

The World Series is Cardinals/Tigers.  ESPN tells us that they played in 1968 (The year of the Bob Gibson) and Gibson’s 27 innings were not enough.  Also, we find out that La Russa and Leland are friends and Placido Polanco came up as a Cardinal.  In game one, Mulder pitches a gem and DH Chris Duncan comes up a triple shy of the cycle.  The Cardinals win 5-2.  In game two, Carpenter matches Mulder’s effort and Pujols does his thing going four for four with a homer two doubles and 5 RBIs for a 7-3 win.  Jeremy Bonderman shuts down the Cards in St. Louis and Pudge hits a three run double in the fifth off of an Anthony Reyes’s changeup, Tigers win 4-2.  Game four is delayed 1 hour by rain, both starting pitchers are messed up.  It becomes a battle of the bullpens and Braden Looper outpitches Todd Jones (Pujols helps) down the stretch and the Cards win 12-10 to go up 3-1.  Justin Verlander throws eight scoreless innings in game five and the Tigers win against Mulder.  Carpenter and Nate Robertson face each other in game six in Mo Town (Did you know Jerome Bettis is from Detroit?).  The Cards get an early run on an Jim Edmonds solo shot in the 2nd.  The Tigers get two runs in the sixth when Polanco is hit by a pitch, Eckstein over throws first base on a tough and puts runners on second and third and Magglio Ordonez bloops a single down the line.  In the eighth inning, Pujols leads off and flys out to the track.  When Rolen gets out and Edmonds walks but is stranded, the Tigers start thinking about game seven.  In the ninth John Rodriguez, pinch hitting for Taguchi, is struch out by Todd Jones before Molina lines a single the other way.  Luna pinch hits for Miles and walks.  Eckstein moves both runners over on a ground ball to 2nd.  Chris Duncan (DH again) is getting all fastballs in front of Pujols and he takes two big cuts but fouls them off.  Ahead 0-2, Jones throws a breaking ball in the dirt, that hits Duncan in the foot…  Pujols… Homer…5-2 Cardinals.  Bottom of the ninth, Izzy loads the bases but strikes out the side and the Cardinals win the Championship.