Well said, lboros.  While this is awfully depressing to watch "it is what it is."  Pressure peels away the veneer and brings true character to light.  Unfortunately our Cards numerous weaknesses are being exposed for all to see.  I agree with their need to enter the fray - they need something to get them engaged in the fight.  It's ridiculious that they still have a chance - let's see what they do with it.  Whether it's hitting a batter or something else, I see that as TLR's job.  True leadership demands that his troops come to the fight ready to go and determined to win - something we haven't seen much of the past two weeks.  Houston is focused and serious - and we need to be.

Is TLR's future in question if we pull "the biggest collapse ever?"

"they already don't belong in the playoffs.

so if the cardinals do, in fact, miss the playoffs, i won't lose a minute of sleep over it. the guys losing sleep will be the new york mets and all their fans. you think they want to face clemens oswalt and pettitte? they're all rooting like hell for the cardinals -- probably harder than some of us are. they, not we, may be the real losers if st louis completes its collapse. i daresay even some of those american league teams are pulling for our guys; of all the nl teams they might wish to avoid in the world series, houston probably ranks at the top of the list. just what we've always wanted -- the whole baseball world is rooting for the cardinals!"

I couldn't agree more.  I have a friend who's a Mets fan and he's scared shitless that the Astros are going to make it and steamroll everyone else in the NL playoffs.  He's rooting for the Cardinals pretty hard now, especially considering the latest developments with Pedro.  Imagine if the Mets had pulled off that trade deadline deal and acquired Oswalt?  We wouldn't be talking about the Astros right now.  

I hope we miss the playoffs and it wakes management up.  Is it even worth making the playoffs at this point?  The team is a shell of its' former self.  I think it's better to not make it and avoid suffering the humiliation of a first round knockout by San Diego or the Mets or whoever we'd end up playing.  

I still think a Cardinal team, leaping from the bench to collectively punch Oswalt (insert name of your most infamous Cardinal villain here) in the face, would have done more to fire this team up than anything else they've done.

Last night, I was hoping and praying that Duncan would've punched Marquis out there. Knock him on his rear, and show the rest of the club that they deserve better than that "I don't give a rip how I pitch" Jason Marquis. I have stood up for players that just didn't play well; shoot, I even stuck up for Mulder this year, but for crying out loud, the whole team walks into the ballpark knowing they are gonna have to push for double digits at the least, whenever JM was pitching.

I still cannot believe that he has gotten worse and worse (wanton profanity omitted for the sake of other readers).

So, our season comes down to Weaver. Hopefully we can get Blondo a lead, and hopefully he looks far better than that (wanton profanity omitted again) thing we had on the mound last night.

And to think, Redbird fans started the season booing Encarnacion and Izzy!

There are several ways in wich we can evaluate this 2006 team:

The apologists will point to injuries.  Honestly, how can we not give them SOME credence.  Any team that loses their 2nd or 3rd best bat, a gold-glove center-fielder, their leadoff hitter, their #2 starter, and their closer SHOULDN'T win.  

Take Oswalt, Taveras, Burke, and Lidge from the 'Stros, and you basically have no team left.  Notice that their dramatic comeback has coincided with the rebound of the team's health.  The basically got Clemens back from the DL after the All-Star break.  

From this point of view, we should be ecstatic that we even have a chance to make the playoffs.  The Cubbies have seen much the same injury trouble we have seen, and they have fallen to the worst team in the national league.  

With that being said, I still believe that TLR has to take SOME of the blame for the gross mishandling of this team.  LaDuncan had to know that Izzy was hurt earlier in the year.  Maybe if they shut him down for a month earlier, he could have come back.  AT LEAST he could have had his surgery and been ready for opening day next year.  Heck, I don't know, maybe we are all scapegoat hunting, and it is easy to villify the manager.  I'll use the Cubbies again.  Dusty Baker took a thin, aging Giants team to the playoffs time and time again, even with personalities like Jeff Kent and Barry Bonds in his clubhouse.  Now, the Cubs can't keep a healthy pitcher, Lee goes down with injury too, and somehow it is Baker's fault that the Cubs can't win with what amounts to a triple-A ballclub!?  

Look, as I see it, I very much agree with you LBoros, if, in April, we were told that we would hold a 1/2 game lead over the 'Stros, wouldn't we be satisfied with that?  I mean, most of the pundits and even us, the fans, expected us to win the division, but with a razor-thin margin of error.  

Anyhoo,  I still think that TLR is not the man for this team any longer.  We have gotten younger, and he cannot manage young players.  I hope for our sake that we don't trade away all our great young talent just to keep LaDuncan happy next year.  I can handle inconsistency from young guys.  They will learn how to win.  I am really excited about a future team with Pujols, Wainwright, Reyes, Duncan, Hancock, Narveson, and company.  We just have to be willing to endure a bump or two in the road to get there.  

Lboros, sorry for my continued rantings, but it sure does make me feel better.  Thanks for the great site!!!  

steve phillips on espn flat out said noone wants to see us in the playoffs because we are just uninteresting, others root for us because we will be an "easy" first round opponent. get mad boys. hell, at least maybe end the season with 1 stinking win?

on a side note, if by some miracle we make the playoffs marquis will be upset he is not on the playoff roster, marquis is clinically insane. if he had sanity he would not be able to show his face to his teammates EVER again. id like to see him committ sepuku myself. you are garbage marquis. go home.

insert Marquis as a pinch-hitter and make a deal with the Brewers staff to throw at him?  ;)

Seriously, it's well past time to give up on him, and yet I have this horrible feeling that he's going to get re-signed because of a weak FA pitching market.

if we have the biggest collapse in the history of MLB, hopefully the front office learns one thing. what is important is pitching, pitching, pitching, then pitching, some more pitching, pitching, pitching, pitching, more pitching, and lastly, pitching. then you can worry about who is in CF or 2B.

i just dont understand how tony la russa teams can have these collapses. in the WS in 2004, that NLCS with atlanta, he even got swept with an A's team by a vastly inferior reds team.. maybe tony should change the way he goes about approaching and preparing his teams for playoff situations.

Two weeks ago, I visited a Cubs-fan friend for his 40th birthday.  Several jokes were made ("any team can have a bad century", etc.) at the expense of my friend's allegiance to his team.

He asked, almost pathetically, "When do I get to start razzing the Cardinals' fans?  The Cardinals haven't won a World Series since 1982."

This is the primary reason I need the Cardinals to make the playoffs.  Obnoxious Cubs fans (not all, just the obnoxious ones) will be talking about 2006 for years if they think they had any hand in keeping the Cardinals out of the postseason.

Looking at the season as a whole body of work, I completely agree with lboros that the Cardinals don't deserve an appearance in the postseason.  However, if they can pick themselves up and dust themselves off and make it in, they'll "deserve" it in the sense that when they had to (this final weekend), they won.  (Sort of a relative maximum thing.)  If they don't, it's gonna be a long offseason.

Quietude, MdRedbirdFreak:  I'm starting the rumor right now that TLR is planning to teach Marquis to play middle infield so he can keep his bat on the roster for 2007.  :-)

TSF

Hi all. I've been a silent follower of this site all year; I can't remember a day, in fact, in which I haven't awoken and headed to the computer to see what lboros would have to say about the team, along with the other posters here, no matter where i've been on the road. And it's been a long year. I live in Atlanta (hence the tag) and grew up near St. Louis, and this has been one of my most cherished ways to follow the team (along with MLB Extra Innings).

The Astros are in town tonight, of course, and it appears as though they are riding in like a rabid foal. It just dawned on me this morning ... I mean, not that they are coming to town .... but after all the sleep I've been losing in the last week-and-a-half; after all the silent moments on my couch, in front of the TV, in the dark of the room, letting the remote fall uselessly from my lap, without the energy to pick it up; with the rally cap turned in and then back out and then several more rally caps drug out of the back of the closet; with my framed Busch Stadium picture from 1996 collecting dust on the wall (the year they brought the fences in and put the grass in and started playing Baseball Like it Oughta Be played); the Post-Dispatch white playoff towels; the seats I ordered from old Busch; you know, all these things, these reminders, they are just too much to absorb every day and not wind up in this situation and not get my ass up and take it to Turner Field, where I will be tonight, representing everyone here--the anger of everyone here; the frustrations of everyone here; the hopes of everyone here ...

and I'll have a cold beer in my hand, and I'll be sitting somewhere cheap,  but I'll be louder than anyone in a half-empty Turner Field screaming for the Braves to kick the Astros' ass and for the Cardinals to make the playoffs.  

but this Cardinals team doesn't seem as good as the last couple of versions. Idunno.

the worst collapse according to numbers (7 game lead lost), but really, I don't see this as a "collapse" or "choke". Those terms should be reserved for good teams that unexpectedly fall apart at the last minute, ala Cardinals WS '04. Now THAT was a choke. This is just the chickens coming home to roost. It sucks, but to look at it as some mindblowing tragic end to an otherwise decent season is to ignore the fact that they have sucked all season long and only the otherworldly suckiness of the entire division allowed them to remain in first place at all. The only surprise to me is that it took till now for one team (Stros) to remember how to play baseball. "Historic" collapse or no, this will not go down in my memory as the horror it's being advertised as. We've all known since AS break this was gonna happen--either in regular season or playoffs. My only hope is that the owners feel some kind of embarrassment from all the bad press and actually do something about it in the offseason. Unfortunately, I think we're gonna have to deal with at least a couple more seasons like this before anything changes. Welcome back to the 1970's.