Wrapping up the World Series and Some Gridiron Banter

We here at Views from the Couch like to point out the obvious. The Cardinals finished at 90-72 and won the World Series, you know who else finished at 90-72? The Boston Red Sox. Maybe this speaks to the level of competition between leagues, but it just shows that if you just "get into the tournament" you have a chance. Here are a few of my World Series/2011 Baseball wrap-up thoughts:

• If St. Louis re-signs Albert Pujols as far as I am concerned they are the odds on favorite to come out of the NL next year no matter where this class of free agents go next year. Getting Adam Wainwright back next year gives them the biggest impact arm of the offseason.
  
• Two words: Chris Carpenter.
  
• Ron Washington should be fired. Two years in a row he has lost in the World Series and his mismanagement of the wealth of talent on his roster has cost him. Josh Hamilton prior to Games 6 and 7 of the World Series was hitting .230 (15-65). Nelson Cruz during the same time period was .309 (13-42) and Mike Napoli was at .314 (16-51). Josh Hamilton was admirably playing through a sports hernia, but was leaving guys on base at a painstakingly high rate. Nelson Cruz and Mike Napoli were arguably the most consistent hitters on the Rangers throughout the post season and they were hitting 7^th and 8^th throughout the duration of the postseason. Washington didn't make the moves that were necessary to win the game. Along with some questionable bullpen moves (Darren Oliver? CJ Wilson?), he did not put his players in the best position to help the team win. Isn't that what a good manager is supposed to do?
  
• Speaking of mismanaging, how lucky is Tony LaRussa that his major gaffe with the bullpen in Game 5 didn't cost him this Fall Classic? I'm not positive who he was covering for, whether it was his own mistake, his bullpen coach or a player but not having the reliever he wanted warming up in the bullpen seemed very strange. Would love to know what actually happened during that inning.
  
• Speaking of Terry Francona, with the news that Tony LaRussa has retired from professional baseball, would he not be the perfect manager for St. Louis?
  
• I'm not sure if we just watched David Freese turn into a pre-eminent 3^rd baseman in baseball or just rode an insane hot streak in the Postseason his playoff performance was right up there with Beltran '04.
  
• Game 6 of the World Series was one of the top 3 World Series games of all-time. With Freese coming through not once but twice with the game-tying and game-winning RBI's. The Texas Rangers bullpen collapse. Nelson Cruz's non-catch. The Cardinals being the only team to come back in the 9^th and 10^th inning of a must-win game. Lance Berkman's clutch hit in the 10^th. The first 7 innings of the game were sloppy but the last 5 were so epic beyond measure that it catapulted the game into the Game 6 1975, Game 6 1986 and Game 7 1991 stratosphere.
  
• With regards to Nelson Cruz's non-catch, this needs to get more play. While this play was not easy by any stretch, it was a catchable ball and should be on par with Bill Buckner's blunder in 1986. As a fielder in that situation you should not be coasting back to catch the ball on the run. You should be sprinting to a spot and then adjusting to the wall when you get there. A small fundamental flaw was the ultimate demise for Texas. He had the game potentially won if he comes up with a catch and didn't.
  
• CJ Wilson's postseason performance probably cost him a shot at getting that 100 million dollar contract.
  

Innings Pitched	Walks	Hits	Earned Runs
28	19	29	18

Quick math says that allowing 48 baserunners in 28 innings in the playoffs gives a WHIP of 1.71. John Lackey's 2011 WHIP? Glad you asked, 1.62, just sayin'.

 

It's time to switch up what is usually diamond-talk from this blogger and focus on the gridiron. Habitually I fall under the In Belichick We Trust mantra, but along with the rest of the team, he was god-awful on Sunday and deserves to be criticized.

1. Leigh Bodden Release/Dowling to IR- The initial release of Bodden was strange, but he was certainly underperforming his contract and was getting beat week in and week out so it was palatable. It was palatable because the thought was that Ras-I Dowling was going to be coming back to the lineup to fill his void. Dowling was then promptly put on IR and the Patriots already weak secondary was at least weaker from a depth standpoint. What is more puzzling is that Dowling is only 4 weeks away from coming back but the Patriots wanted the roster spot. But for who? Where is this magic safety/cornerback that's supposed to fill this roster spot? Is Belichick going to tell me that an underperforming Leigh Bodden is worse than Antwaun Molden/Ross Ventrone/Phillip Adams? Not after what was on showcase Sunday.
   
2. Gronkowski non-Touchdown Touchdown- Why was it not challenged? There is someone in the Patriots box that gets to look at the replay, the issue with this is that the Patriots hurried to the line. CBS, not wanting to miss a potential touchdown play, stuck with Brady and the offense instead of showing the usual replay after a close play. Because there was no replay on the broadcast the Patriots booth had to go on the naked eye and that was too tough to call from above. This shouldn't matter. There was 4 minutes and 11 seconds; you have all 3 timeouts, and the 2 minute warning upcoming. Worst case scenario, you lose a timeout but the clock still stops because of the replay. Instead Brady burned 1:30 off the clock before the touchdown was completed, and then Belichick was forced to make another strange coaching decision.
   
3. Onside kick- Just another case of Belichick being Belichick. When conventional wisdom says kick it deep you knew Belichick was going to onside kick it. I understand that by and large the Steelers threw all over the Patriots but in the end the defense only gave up 23 points and when your offense usually scores 30+ that isn't a completely unacceptable number of points allowed (yards allowed is another story entirely). But if you think they are going to throw all over you anyway why would you give Roethlisberger (a QB prone to mistakes vs. NE) a short field. The success rate of onside kicks in the league is less than 20% and it's also 0% when you don't kick the ball the required 10 damn yards. You preach, "do your job" and yet you don't trust your team to man up and make 1 stop during crunch time. If you want to see what that defense that was horrible for stretches of the game really is, put them in a pressure situation and see what kind of testicular fortitude they are made of.
   

Not related to yesterday's game directly but it certainly impacted it, maybe it's time for Belichick to step aside as either the GM or defensive coordinator and focus on one thing, because the defense isn't getting better. It has been getting steadily worse since 2007. Bill Belichick has as unique a mind as we've ever seen on the football field, but the amount of 'misses' he's had personnel related the last half decade is mounting. Maybe he either needs to defer some of the responsibility he has accumulated and focus on one thing. Maybe he needs to find someone else to evaluate talent. Maybe the defensive genius is more a byproduct of Bill Parcells than a byproduct of his unique mind. Maybe Lawrence Taylor was the brilliant one behind the Giants defense in the 80s, not Belichick. Maybe, like the Red Sox, the Patriots need a 'new voice' commanding their ship.

Stay Tuned

Norton