Ok.  So I'm a little late.  Sue me!  Let's finish this one off, guys.

reyes	looper
3-9, 5.18	11-10, 3.94

I have to say that I'm very impressed w/ Looper's season so far this year. LB did a superb job the other day detailing his improvement and there's not much really that I can add. Sure, there might be a little luck involved w/ his high strand rate but I think it's fair to say that, at worst, Looper has become an average major league pitcher or so. Seems to me to be a good candidate for an arbitration offer and a bad candidate (at age 34 in October) for a long-term contract offer.

Jo Jo Reyes just isn't good...period. He walks nearly 4.5 per 9 innings, gives up too many homers and doesn't strike enough batters out. A lefty, he has been pretty tough on lefties in his brief career so I'd expect to see Skip on the pine today. He's been bad on the road and worse at home over parts of 2 seasons. He has started twice against the Cards in his career and given up just 3 ER in 11.1 IP. We're due. It's time for some "regression to the mean."

This, simply, is a game the Cards have to win. The Brewers lead us by 3.5 games -- 4 in the loss column -- and are trying to finish off their sweep of the Pirates today. They've got that Sabathia guy pitching today also. We need this one before we have our 3rd off day in 8 days tomorrow. Brilliant scheduling, Bud.

Overflow to go up around 2:45.

Bad loss yesterday afternoon. It’s difficult to underscore losses like that one. We’ve got Lohse on the mound against a floundering offense. We’re playing at home and frantically chasing the Brewers…It’s a game we needed to win. Now we’re trying to win just to have a winning series and a winning week. Can you believe that a loss today will put us at 2-3 for the week, at home, against the Pirates and Braves? Not what we needed.

Kyle Lohse has been a disappointment of late -- you don’t need me to tell you that – and it’s not helping the team in this playoff push. It may be, however, making it easier for the organization to make a decision about its to offer Lohse a long-term contract. Still, it’d be nice if he pitched well down the stretch and made that decision a little tougher. In his last 5 starts, Lohse has a 6.53 ERA. He’s given up 36 hits, 8 walks and 6 homers in 27.2 IP. While his walk rate has jumped during this stretch, the big jump of course is in his HR rate. 40% of the homers he’s given up this year have been yielded during this 5 start stretch.

So what’s the deal? Well, he really hasn’t changed his pitch selection that much. Over the last 30 days, he has been throwing a few more curveballs and changeups and slightly fewer fastballs and sliders, but it doesn’t seem like a material difference. Curveballs are up .8% and changeups are up 1.1% while fastballs are down 1.3% and sliders are down .6%. It’s a very small difference. Still, he’s been a lot more hittable over this stretch. The table below shows how his batted ball data over the last 30 days compares to the full season. Data is all courtesy of fangraphs. What a great site!

	GB/FB	LD%	GB%	FB%	IFFB%	HR/FB	BABIP
full season	1.43	22.2	45.8	32.0	6.4	8.7	.297
last 30 days	.86	27.2	33.7	39.1	13.9	16.7	.341

Big difference, no? Over the last month there’s been a big increase in the percentage of balls hit for line drives and hit in the air. His ground ball percentage has (pardon the pun) bottomed out. There may be a bit of bad luck involved, as his BABIP has jumped by more than 40 points and the percentage of fly balls that have left the park has nearly doubled. Still, it’s pretty clear that batters are hitting him harder – more line drives, more homers. To me it’s a pretty good indication that he’s having a hard time locating his pitches. More pitches left over the middle of the plate means more balls hit hard and more fly balls leaving the park. It also means he’s not getting the ball down (thus, the low GB rate) like he was earlier in the year. When you try to survive w/ a K rate as low as Lohse’s (5.0/9 IP for the year; 5.59 for his career), if you’re missing your location and not getting the ball down, you’re going to get hit hard.

*******************************************

The other thing I wanted to discuss is the peculiar lineup pattern that has emerged ever since Felipe Lopez was acquired. His first game as a Cardinal was on August 6. Since he was acquired, he has played in 14 games, starting 11 of them. He’s started 4 times in LF, 4 times at 2B, 2 times at SS, and once at 3B. Now, I originally saw no harm in adding Lopez. It wasn’t as if Ryan was playing great baseball or that anyone really in our middle infield was. So why not? Then Tony started him 3 times in a row in LF. With our middle infield situation being so bad this year, to me it made no sense to sign Lopez if he wasn’t going to start at SS or 2B. Izturis was the starter at SS – he had played very good defense and been terrible offensively – and Miles had basically emerged as the everyday (or most everyday) 2B. He was having his best offensive season and was adequate defensively. Adam Kennedy, as we all know and have discussed ad nauseum, was positively craptastic.

So I was on board w/ signing Lopez and playing him at SS. What did the team have to lose? Izturis has been one of baseball’s worst offensive players this year (3.83 RC/27 outs; 2.2 VORP – 192nd in baseball!) and, though he’s been solid defensively, it was worth giving Lopez a shot at seeing if his offense could outweigh his poor defense at short.

Below is a table showing our middle infielders’ performances this year w/ the Cards. It shows each player’s batting runs above replacement and average, and fielding runs above replacement and average and only includes Lopez’s numbers as a Cardinal.

	BRAR	BRAA	FRAR	FRAA
Miles	10	0	16	1
Kennedy	3	-7	16	1
Izturis	2	-9	23	6
Lopez	4	3	2	0

As you can see, Miles has been almost exactly average at 2B this year – adding 1 run to the team above what an average 2B would have provided. Compare this to Kennedy who is 6 runs worse than an average 2B would have been and it’s easy to see that Miles should be playing over Kennedy. This should surprise no one.

Izturis has been the best defensive middle infielder and the worst offensive middle infielder. He has cost the team 3 runs compared to an average SS. Now, some will say that defense is more important from a middle infield position, or from a shortstop, than offense is. My response to that is that more runs in the Cardinals’ favor is better than more runs in their opponents’ favor and the bottom line is that Izturis’ offense has been so bad that it has actually worked to negate his contributions defensively. Playing him is costing the team runs over playing an average SS.

Now, it’s not at all clear that either Lopez or Miles would be an average SS so I’m not going to use this forum today to argue that Izturis should be sitting. Though Lopez has been an average defensive player since joining the Cardinals, we’re talking about 14 whole games. It’s really difficult to make an informed judgment about a player based on 14 games. For the season, Lopez is 6 runs below average defensively – and that’s playing most of the season at 2B. In 2007, he was 4 runs below average defensively and for 2006 and 2005 he was 14 runs below average and 20 runs below average defensively, respectively. All indications are that Lopez is a bad defensive shortstop. Still, he’s hit enough in his 14 games w/ the Cards to provide 3 runs more offense than the average middle infielder. If he can hit enough, he’ll be better than Izturis simply b/c his offense will provide more runs than his defense will cost the team. Izturis, despite his solid defense, has cost the team runs this season b/c his offense is just that bad.

What I find most peculiar, however, is how the playing time has been distributed since Lopez’s arrival. There’s one thing that’s clear from the table above and that’s that Aaron Miles has been, w/o question (and it’s not easy for me to say this), the Cards’ best middle infielder this year. Whether Izturis or Lopez should be playing shortstop is moot. Aaron Miles should be playing 2B. He’s the only 1 of the 4 who’s been even an average player this season. Surely Tony, long an Aaron Miles advocate agrees, right? It doesn’t seem so.

Since Lopez became a Cardinal on August 6, here is how the PA’s and starts have been distributed among the 4 middle infielders.

	PA’s	starts
Miles	30	6
Kennedy	31	7
Izturis	49	11
Lopez	51	11

Last, Tony? Last? Miles is last in the number of PA’s and last in the number of starts since Lopez arrived. Even fewer PA’s and starts than Adam friggin Kennedy! I can’t believe I’m here asking why Miles isn’t playing MORE but I am. I’ll admit it. I don’t get it.

Now, in Tony’s defense, Miles hasn’t hit at all over this period -- .267 OBP and .600 OPS. But Kennedy, who has hit a little, still hasn’t been much better. Kennedy has a .321 BA and a .644 OPS. Don’t tell me, "but Kennedy’s hot right now!" Really? He does have a .321 batting average but he has 1 walk over those 15 games. ONE! Still – that’s better than the number of extra base hits he has over that period – ZERO! In 31 PA’s, Adam Kennedy – who’s hot, remember – has 9 singles, 1 walk and 0 extra base hits. Now, Aaron Miles isn’t exactly a slugging machine but it’s telling that Kennedy’s hot, Miles is slumping, and Kennedy’s OPS over this short time period is still just 44 points higher than Miles’. Izturis and Lopez have been hitting. Izturis has 16 singles and 2 doubles – WOW! Be still my heart! Lopez has begun his Cardinal career w/ an .827 OPS. That’s why we took the chance, right? To see if the 28 year old Lopez would hit like he did a couple of years ago.

But I just don’t get it. Shouldn’t the 299 PA’s Miles had prior to Lopez’s arrival count more than the 30 he’s had since Lopez arrived? More importantly, shouldn’t Kennedy’s 305 PA’s count for something? Can we not, by now, figure out that, even when Kennedy is "hot" he still stinks? Now, is this the reason the Cards lost yesterday or to the Pirates the other day? Of course not. Playing Kennedy over Miles isn’t going to keep the Cards from making the playoffs, in all likelihood but w/ just over a month left in the season, it’s time to let the Cards best players play. The time for getting bench players PA’s so that they can be ready to pinch-hit has past. Miles is better at 2B than Izturis is at SS. Miles is certainly better than Kennedy at 2B. Sheesh, I can’t believe I’m saying this but it doesn’t make a lot of difference whether Izturis or Lopez plays SS right now but Aaron Miles should be at the keystone every day. He’s better, or has been this year, than each of the other 3.

Game thread around 1:00. It’s a game we need to win.

Let's finish it off, guys.  These are the teams we're supposed to beat.

lohse	volquez
13-5, 3.92	14-5, 2.86

When last I did one of these, a Sunday night game thread, it became a prelude to an injury to Chris Carpenter and a Cubs' series win. Hopefully, we can at least keep our starting pitcher healthy tonight.

Volquez has to be the favorite for the Rookie of the Year. He's been positively outstanding this year -- Wayne Krivsky's last hurrah before being replaced by Walt. He's struck out 146 in 144.2 IP and, amazingly, has only given up 10 homers while pitching 12 times at Great America Ballpark.

He has struggled a bit of late, however, w/ a 5.33 ERA in his 27 innings since the All-Star break. It's a terribly small sample size but may be an indicator that he's starting to tire, that major league hitters are beginning to adjust to him, or both. He has tied his season-high in innings w/ the 144.2 he's thrown this year so the Reds are now entering uncharted waters. Hopefully, the Cards can take advantage.

Lohse, too, has struggled of late. He has a 5.65 ERA in the 36.2 innings he's thrown since the All-Star break and, for the season, has a 5.40 ERA in 11 road starts. The pens could see a lot of action today.

The Cards begin a big homestand following this game and have just 1 more road trip as long as the one they're finishing today. Overflow will go up around 1:45.

Today’s thread may be a pretty short one. I’ve been moving all week and am pretty beat as I type this so we’ll see how it goes. I did just finish watching the replay of the men’s 100M finals – the race for the fastest in the world. Jamaica’s Usain (Lightning) Bolt ran an insane-in-the-membrane 9.69 to destroy the rest of the world. One interesting thing I noticed as I watched him (and the other 7 finalists) cross the finish line is that he failed to slide headfirst across the finish line. Were you watching Skip?

It’s been a pretty good week for Michael Phelps but it’s been a pretty good week for the Cardinals also. Just when it looked like the Brewers might run away and hide from the rest of the Wild Card field, the Cards decided to win 5 of 6, and the last 4 in a row – all on the road – to get within striking distance once again. Still, as I documented last week, the Brewers have a distinctly easier schedule coming down the stretch and the Cards are going to have to finish superbly in order to surpass them. So how to make it happen?

Well, first off – the Cards got some great news yesterday as Adam Wainwright pitched a superb game at Springfield. He was facing AA competition, but he threw 64 pitches – 43 of them for strikes – and struck out 7 while yielding only 3 hits in 4.2 IP. I wasn’t able to find anything about his use of the curveball but this start was distinctly better than his previous starts. It also seems that, based on the number of pitches thrown, the organization has come around to using our best pitcher as a starter – thus facing more hitters and pitching more innings – rather than as a reliever. Good news all around!

Pineiro’s thrown 2 good starts in a row and Looper’s pitching well. They’re going to have to keep it up now that Carp’s on the DL but it appears as though Wainwright will join the rotation Friday in Houston. Let’s pray that Chris Perez doesn’t blow a save in the next 6 days!

If the Cardinals are to make the playoffs, they’re going to have to pull out all the stops in the final month. Part of that, of course, means putting Wainwright in the rotation and taking advantage of our off-days as much as possible to utilize a 4-man rotation. A final suggestion I’d like to make, assuming he’s healed from his injury, is to call up Colby Rasmus and put him in the starting lineup. He should play every day, or at least against righthanders, where he could platoon w/ Mather. Ankiel and Ludwick would, of course, comprise the other 2 OF positions.

The team simply isn’t going to be able to upgrade in any meaningful way at 2b, SS, or in the pen, over the last month or so. Sure, we can call up Motte and hope that he provides a little relief but there are no shortstops for us to add, from Memphis or another major-league team, that could materially improve the team over the final five weeks. The biggest addition the team could possibly make would be adding Rasmus to the roster and putting him in the lineup most every day.

The advantages to this maneuver are the following: First, Rasmus has the potential to be a very good ballplayer. Skip, though he’s had a very good year, is limited in what he offers the team. He had a great 3-run homer yesterday but has little power and doesn’t steal bases. He’s been getting on base at a pretty good rate, but even w/ his .362 OBP his OPS is just .779. He’s had a good year, to be sure, w/ an OPS+ of 106 but Ankiel and Ludwick simply offer more offense and a defense that is at least equal to Skip’s. Rasmus’ potential is certainly higher than Schumaker’s as well and reports are that his defense is solid. According to BP, his peak translation EQA is .288 compared w/ Skip’s .279 EQA. The bottom line is that Rasmus simply offers the potential to be better than Skip.

I should add once again, that this is predicated on the notion that Rasmus returns from his injury healthy and able to play over the final month. According to reports, Rasmus is close to returning and is expected to play a few games for Memphis before their season ends on September 1.

Will he be better over the final month? Who knows? He might struggle over that month. He has shown signs of streakiness in the minors and it’s possible that he won’t be very good. If that’s the case, of course, Tony could bench him in favor of Skip. But it’s time to take some chances. We’re behind the Brewers and they have the scheduling advantage so we’re going to have to get every bit of help we can get. If Rasmus plays poorly, it likely will play little role in the team’s playoff hunt. He’ll get benched and it’s doubtful that his poor play would cost us more than a win or so. Considering we’re starting from behind anyway, it’s a risk worth taking.

Another advantage to playing Rasmus is that it will help him become accustomed to major league pitching. He got some experience this spring and played very well. He batted .302, w/ a .464 OBP, and a .605 SLG in 56 PA’s. He stole 3 bases w/o being caught and hit 2 2B’s, 1 3B, and 3 HR’s. He walked 13 times and struck out only 8. Granted, the fact that he often played later in games meant that he wasn’t facing the best competition, and we are only talking about 56 PA’s, but there’s every reason to believe that he can succeed at the major league level. I doubt he’ll be lacking confidence as he steps to the plate. Getting 60 or 70 PA’s over the last month will help prepare Rasmus for his inevitable (hopefully) entrance into the Cards’ starting lineup next year.

Another advantage to this approach will be that it won’t speed up Rasmus’ arbitration clock. He’ll get major league experience, and some service time, but it won’t put him a year closer to arbitration-eligibility or free agency. The Cards will be able to control him for the final month of this season + 6 more seasons. In other words, even if he struggles, the experience he gains will help him over the next 6 seasons and he’ll have that experience when he takes the field next spring. There’ll be little on-the-job training.

So how good might Rasmus be? That, of course, is hard to say. Pujols was almost an 11-win over replacement player in his rookie season and had an outstanding first month – better than his season as a whole. Even allowing that, Pujols would’ve only added about 2 wins during the month of April. Now, I would never expect Rasmus to be as good as Pujols, let alone Pujols in one of his better months. Nevertheless, if Pujols was worth 2 wins over replacement in his first month, is it not possible for Rasmus to be worth 1.25 – 1.5 wins over replacement? Now, Skip so far has been about 4 wins over replacement. That would translate to about .8 wins over replacement per month so the difference between Rasmus and Skip, even best-case scenario, is probably .5 to .75 wins.

Again, I didn’t say probable, I said possible. It’s possible, as I said, that he won’t be as good as most anticipate he’ll be, and it’s possible that he’ll struggle in his first month in the bigs, but that .5 to .75 wins he MIGHT ADD could be the difference between the Cardinals making the playoffs and not. And I’ll go out on a limb and say that, if he plays poorly and costs us a win vs. going w/ Skip the last month, it will hurt us less than the .75 wins he might add will help us. Since we’re behind, we have little lose by trying this.

There is danger in creating the idea, though it wouldn’t be true, that Rasmus is the savior – here to propel us to the playoffs. That wouldn’t be his role. His role would be to support Pujols, Ludwick, Glaus, and Ankiel and not to carry the team. That point would need to be made abundantly clear to him, to the media, and to the fans. But there is a danger if his being called up creates that mindset.

It’s entirely possible that the only way that Rasmus gets called up, or gets serious playing time, is if the Cards are eliminated but the truth of the matter is that Rasmus is the only addition the team can realistically make that MIGHT improve the team to any meaningful degree over the final month. It’s hardly a sure thing; I’ll be the first to acknowledge that but, at this point, assuming he’s healthy, it’s a risk worth taking.

I’ll be up w/ a game thread in a few hours. I’ve gotta get to bed. Cards’ll be going for the sweep against the Reds’ best pitcher this year – Edinson Volquez.

I hope that there's a little less venom in this one than in the regular game thread.  Maybe a Cards comeback will do it.  Let's go Cards.

carpenter	dempster
0-0, 1.00	12-5, 2.93

I'm not sure what needs to be said.  Carp's making his third start since returning from the DL and, if Wainwright's going to be relegated to the pen and replaced w/ Braden Looper, Carp's going to have to pitch like a #1.  He was pretty salty the last time out and he figures to get better as the season goes along.<p>

Dempster's been tremendous this year -- worthy of his selection to the All-Star game.  He's a free agent this year and is earning big money w/ his performance this year.  He's also been sensational at home this year -- 10-2, 2.77 w/ 66 H and 4 HR in 91 IP.  He has been somewhat vulnerable to the base on balls -- 40 in those 91 IP -- so if we can get some runners on base, maybe we can put a couple crooked numbers on the board.  BTW, he's 2-1 w/ 29 K's and 0 HR in 26 IP since the All-Star break.  There's a good argument to be made that he's passed Zambrano for the top spot in the Cubs rotation.<p>

I'll get a couple overflow threads up so there's plenty of space to discuss the game.  Hopefully, Cards' hitters can unclog the bases the way I'm planning to unclog the site and we can claim a series victory.

Great win yesterday. Wellemeyer was solid, if unspectacular, and the offense came out w/ both barrels against Zambrano. Now we get Carp on the mound w/ a chance to win the series – really couldn’t have asked for anything more. It’s amazing how our nerves can get on edge w/ our bullpen even w/ a 6 run lead though. Up 9-3, Villone still had me nervous b/c I think we could all envision that landslide. Even Tony could see the possibility and he got Springer, not Franklin or Izzy as one might expect (now) w/ a 6 run lead. Can’t take any chances these days.

The Cards definitely have a tough row to hoe from here on out if we want to advance. Of course, we’re still 6 back in a division race that’s looking, if not impossible, certainly less and less likely. These Cubs aren’t going to fall apart, folks. I could see them playing .500 the rest of the way, but even going 22-23 would force the Cards to go 27-16 (.628) just to tie. It’s not out of the question but we’re certainly not the favorite. Indeed, BP has our playoff odds right now at about 19% -- w/ just a 2.9% chance of winning the division.

While winning a division title is nice and it makes a great banner, we all know too well that it’s not imperative if you want to have success in the postseason. If the goal is to win the World Series which, at this point, it should be, winning the Wild Card gives you almost as good a chance as winning the division. Sure, you’d like to have home field advantage but we won it all in 2006 w/o having 1 series w/ home field advantage. It’s not at all determinative.

So the Wild Card presents us w/ a real opportunity. Right now we sit in 2nd, 2 games behind the Brewers, a half game ahead of the Phillies and a game and half ahead of the Mets. Of course, one of the Phillies and Mets are likely to win the East so we’re definitely in the hunt. Unfortunately, of the 6 non-NL West playoff contenders, as even the D-backs would be in 5th place in the Wild Card hunt, the Cards have probably the toughest schedule from here on out. Here are the schedules of the 6 NL Central and East teams still in contention (sorry, Ed Wade!).

Cards	Cubs	Brewers	Phils	Mets	Marlins
at Cubs -- 1	Cards -- 1	Nats -- 2	Pitt -- 1	Marlins -- 1	at Mets -- 1
at Marlins -- 4	at Braves -- 3	at Padres -- 3	at Dodgers -- 4	Pirates -- 1	Cards -- 4
at Reds -- 2	at Marlins -- 3	at Dodgers -- 3	at Padres -- 3	at Nats -- 3	Cubs -- 3
Pitt -- 2	Reds -- 3	Astros -- 3	Nats -- 3	at Pirates -- 4	at Giants -- 3
Braves -- 3	Nats -- 3	Pirates -- 3	Dodgers -- 4	Braves -- 3	at Dbacks -- 3
Brewers -- 2	at Pirates -- 3	at Cards -- 2	Mets -- 2	Astros -- 3	at Braves -- 3
at Astros -- 3	Phils -- 4	at Pirates -- 3	at Cubs -- 4	at Phils -- 2	Mets -- 3
at Dbacks -- 3	Astros -- 3	Mets -- 3	at Nats -- 3	at Marlins -- 3	Braves -- 3
Marlins -- 3	at Reds -- 3	Padres -- 4	at Mets -- 3	at Brewers -- 3	at Cards -- 3
Cubs -- 3	at Cards -- 3	Reds -- 3	Marlins -- 3	Phils -- 3	at Phils -- 3
at Pirates -- 3	at Astros -- 3	at Phils -- 4	Brewers -- 4	Nats -- 2	Nats -- 3
at Reds -- 3	Brewers -- 3	at Cubs -- 3	at Braves -- 3	Braves -- 3	Astros -- 3
at Cubs -- 3	Cards -- 3	at Reds -- 3	at Marlins -- 3	at Nats -- 4	Phils -- 3
Dbacks -- 4	at Mets -- 4	Pirates -- 3	Braves -- 3	at Braves -- 3	at Reds -- 1
Reds -- 3	at Brewers -- 3	Cubs -- 3	Nats -- 3	Cubs -- 4	at Nats -- 3
				Marlins -- 3	at Mets -- 3
.503	.502	.481	.484	.474	.486
20/23	20/25	24/21	23/23	24/22	22/23

The 2nd row from the bottom is the opponent’s combined win percentage. You see the Cards’ opponents have a slightly better win percentage than the Cubs and the other 4 teams play considerably easier schedules than the Cards and Cubs. They get the advantage of being able to play multiple games, and often multiple series, against the feckless Nationals. A couple of them also get to play the Padres as well. Between now and the end of the year, the Brewers play only 5 series’ against teams w/ winning records and, unfortunately, only 1 of them is against the Cards. That series, only 2 games, becomes a huge one. Getting swept in that short, mid-week series coming up at the end of the month would put us behind the eight ball.

The bottom row is the number of home games/road games each team has to play through the end of the year – the only advantage we have over the Cubs. The Cubs, who have been very mediocre on the road (26-30) have 25 road games left to play vs. the Cards 23. The Brewers and Mets, the Cards’ closest competitors in the Wild Cards chase, both play more home games than road games down the stretch.

Is there a critical stretch for the Cards over the last month and half? They’re all critical, aren’t they? I would say that the 2 homestands offer the Cards distinct opportunities. The first includes the Pirates, the Braves, and the 2 game series w/ the Brewers. That 7 game homestand allows the Cards the opportunity to play 2 bad teams and defeat the team ahead of the Cards in the Wild Card hunt. Winning 5 of 7, or even 6, should be the expectation. We’ll need to take advantage of every opportunity.

We’ve got a 6 game homestand w/ the Marlins and Cubs – 2 good teams that, if the Cards aren’t careful, could really set the Cards back.. Winning 3 or 4 out of those 6 games has to be considered imperative. Finally, there’s a 9 game road trip to Pittsburgh, Cincy, and Chicago in mid-September where the Cards have to take advantage of their ability to win on the road and the fact that they’re playing 6 games against relatively weak teams and win 5 or 6. If we don’t play well in any of these stretches, the final 7 game homestand against the Dbacks and Reds may be irrelevant. If we’re close in the last week, you’d have to like our chances w/ the Brewers playing the Cubs and the Mets playing the Marlins. The tough part will be staying within a game or so by the time that Dback series begins.

We’ll get to listen to Joe Morgan tonight on ESPN. Prime time, Cards/Cubs, Carp/Dempster at Wrigley. It’ll make for great theater and a series win would be really nice. I’ll get a game thread up later and will probably set up 2 or 3 overflow threads. There’s gonna be a lot to discuss.

we need some luck since Franklin's gone insane