NLCS Series Preview: San Francisco Giants (94-68) vs St. Louis Cardinals (ugh)

In Playoffs, Series Previews by berselius78 Comments

I guess I really should title this SF (3-2) vs StL (4-2), since all regular season stats somehow don't matter anymore. It drives me nuts that all the graphics in the postseason are basically just what a player has done in his last 5 games. It's even more laughable with pitchers.

The Giants got a dose of good luck in the NLDS when Reds ace Johnny Cueto exited game one with an oblique strain after throwing only six pitches. The Reds ended up having to turn to Mike Leake in game four when Cueto still wasn't ready, and the results weren't pretty for the Reds. Leake gave up five runs in four innings and change, and the Reds lost a game that was started by Barry Zito. I repeat, Barry Zito. It was a strange series in that the road team won every game. Maybe I should stop complaining so much about home field advantage (laughing).

The Cardinals played the role of Karma in the NLDS, biting the Nats in the ass for their terrible mismanagement of Strasburg. Though to be fair Strasburg's presence wouldn't have prevented the Nats from leaving approximately 101512 runners on base this series. Gonzalez had two decent starts,and Strasburg replacement Ross Detweiler also pitched well, but Jordan Zimmermann and Edwin Jackson shat the bed. Not to mention Drew Storen and the rest of the Nats pen, who blew a six run lead in the final innings. I can't wait until the Nats go 79-83 next year.

To the Cardinals credit, they lit up the aformentioned starters and their own pitchers did a great job shutting down one of the top offenses in the NL (even if they did get a little help from sequencing…). Chris Carpenter has seemingly been out since forever, but he showed that he didn't have any rust to knock off. They must have stolen whatever mojo was fueling the Orioles this year in their 9th inning comeback against Washington. You were knocked out of the playoffs by the bats of Pete Kozma and Daniel Descalso, Nats /facepalm.

Lineups

Cards Giants
CF Jon Jay CF Angel Pagan
RF Carlos Beltran 2B Marco Scutaro
LF Matt Holliday 3B Pablo Sandoval
1B Allen Craig C Buster Posey
C Yadier Molina RF Hunter Pence
3B David Freese 1B Brandon Belt
2B Daniel Descalso LF Xavier Nady/Gregor Blanco
SS Pete Kozma SS Brandon Crawford

Projected Rotations

Cards: Lance Lynn, Chris Carpenter, Kyle Lohse, Adam Wainwright

Giants: Madison Bumgarner, Ryan Vogelsong, Matt Cain, Barry Zito/Tim Lincecum

I'm guessing that it will probably be another Zito/Big Time Timmy Tim combo start for game 4.

Storylines you may or may not care about

Giants 1B coach took a line drive to the head during BP yesterday on a Buster Posey liner that just cleared the pitcher's mound screen. I'm guessing those are going to be higher next year. He was able to walk of the field with assistance, and was released by the hospital later that day. After what happened to Brandon McCarthy earlier this year, you can't be too careful.

NLDS Game 2 starter Jaime Garcia was diagonsed with a rotator cuff strain after the game, and is probably headed to the surgeon's table.

Predictions

OV Playoff prognonsticator: Cardinals in 5

Share this Post

Comments

  4. mb21

    Rice Cube wrote:

    He tried to blow out all the candles on his cake, but Marmol being Marmol, he set the house on fire and then tried to put it out by pouring gasoline on it at which point the entire neighborhood burned down..

      Quote  Reply

    0

    0
  5. mb21

    @ Rice Cube:
    I think the Giants win, but if it’s even close I’m just going with the Cardinals. Any game that the Cardinals are within a dozen runs I assume they’ll find a way to win. 12-0 in the 9th? Cardinals win. You take the 2012 Cubs and put them on the Cardinals they’d have won 118 games. Lucky fucking bastards.

      Quote  Reply

    0

    0
  13. Rizzo the Rat

    I also like Colin’s post, which agreed with MGL’s points but said the tone kinda got in the way.

    Cameron’s final claim is one that MGL hasn’t addressed at all, that O’Day’s platoon splits are better than the average side-armers because he “pitches backwards.” Frankly the conclusions are getting far ahead of the evidence there—it’s a find-a-conclusion-and-then-find-evidence-to-support-it post hoc rationalization, at this point. So you have two underexplored claims that cancel each other out, basically. And then there’s an overly sensational headline/rhetoric about those claims.

      Quote  Reply

    0

    0
  15. akabari

    Do you know how hard it is to live with a Cardinals fan that doesnt know shit about baseball right now? Its fucking impossible.

      Quote  Reply

    0

    0
  33. Suburban kid

    Rick Sutcliffe and Gary Cohen ranting about instant replay. Apparently the umps have been saying all year they want more of it.

      Quote  Reply

    0

    0
  36. Rice Cube

    @ Suburban kid:
    I read something a while back that some umpires actually used replay on a non-homer call to confirm a call (this is outside of what was bargained and allowed by the current set of rules) so it seems like the umps could do it at any time they want. They just don’t.

    I don’t recall which game or umpire it was though.

      Quote  Reply

    0

    0
  39. mb21

    @ Rice Cube:
    As far as I’m concerned, you’d have to be very disruptive. If you want to leave a stupid comment once every month that shows how much you actually read the site then fine. I can deal with that. I’ve never even considered banning Dick Cheese. Besides, I know what name he uses when he isn’t Dick Cheese though he’s not a frequent commenter.

      Quote  Reply

    0

    0
  50. Mish

    I semi-started looking for what this MGL shit was about but 5 seconds in I realizedi don’t give a shit. Tangos the one I enjoy reading.

      Quote  Reply

    0

    0
  54. mb21

    @ Mish:
    Dave Cameron wrote a silly article (what, Fangraphs wrote another silly article?)
    MGL called him out
    Dave defended himself
    MGL called him names
    Dave showed he’s more classy than MGL could ever be
    People call MGL out
    MGL says same shit
    People call MGL out
    MGL apologizes
    MGL basically takes back apology later on
    Someone calls him out
    MGL bans that person
    MGL writes something else
    A couple people have questions
    MGL upset they didn’t read every word 32 times
    MGL begrudgingly answers questions
    More questions
    MGL’s pussy hurts
    MGL quits

    You’re call caught up.

      Quote  Reply

    0

    0
  60. Rizzo the Rat

    @ mb21:
    There are huge differences. Rapada’s a side-armer with a huge observed platoon split, so his true split is likely to be large, as well (i.e., you have to regress toward a large mean, since side-armers have large splits). Dave’s article was arguing that O’Day was atypical for a side-armer (which is not what regression would tell you).

      Quote  Reply

    0

    0
  63. EnricoPallazzo

    mb21 wrote:

    Besides, I know what name he uses when he isn’t Dick Cheese though he’s not a frequent commenter.

    i’ve wondered about this (in a general sense). out of curiousity, how do you know? as a site admin, do you get an IP of everyone that posts to the message board or something?

    Perkins wrote:

    Human element!

    What a bullshit call. And I’m even rooting for the Tigers.

    is this about that awful play at second that got girardi ejected? if so, and also if not, that play further reinforces my belief that not having instant replay available for umps should cause selig to rot in hell for eternity. WHY WOULD YOU NOT WANT UMPS TO BE ABLE TO…ahhh fuck it..

      Quote  Reply

    0

    0
  68. GBTS

    Did I read somewhere that Selig “hopes” for expanded replay next year?

    Gosh, I wish he had baseball connections or knew somebody or something.

      Quote  Reply

    0

    0

Leave a Comment