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daniel_pendry15 · 10-09-2006, 01:02 PM

Man, did the NL West suck again this season. They may have gotten two teams, the Dodgers and Padres, to the playoffs this year, but both of those teams looked horrible in the NLDS. I can understand the Dodgers being swept out of the playoffs by the Mets because of that bullpen and that lineup and the fact that the Dodgers are too inconsistent, but, to me, to see the Padres get knocked out by the Cardinals in the first round was unacceptable. I mean, think about the records and how well the two teams were playing going into the playoffs. The Padres had the NL's second-best record at 88-74 and ended the season on an absolute roll, while the Cardinals were 83-78 and were struggling so badly that they nearly lost the NL Central crown to the Astros. Now, the Cards still captured that division title, but only because the Astros were beaten on the last day of the season. To me and to everybody else, the Cards struggles automatically made the Padres the favorites against them in the NLDS because SD had the long winning streak, more confidence and the home-field advantage. Boy, did all of that go by the wayside after the first two games. Now, granted, the pitching staff could not control Albert Pujols in those two games no matter how hard they tried, but the games were still in San Diego, so the Padres should have won at least one of the first two. Then, they go to St. Louis and they eek out a 3-1 win in Game 3 to stay alive behind a dominating pitching performance, but in Game 4, they crumbled after scoring 2 runs in the 1st inning off of Cy Young candidate Chris Carpenter and then make a bad error in the 6th inning that essentially led to their demise. Now they are out of the postseason in 4 games and, when they look back at this series, they can look back at two things: their offense, specifically their timely hitting, and their decision to pitch to Pujols in the first two games. The Padres as a team were 2-for-32 with runners in scoring position in the series (!). If you ask me, a team isn't going to go anywhere when they hit that terribly during the opportunities that they get to score runs. That essentially led to them scoring 6 runs for the entire series, which really overshadowed their great pitching performances in Games 2, 3, and 4. I give all the credit in the world to the Cardinals and I am real pleased to see that Tony La Russa has them back in the NLCs for a third straight year, but I really think they had too easy of a time getting through the Division Series because of the way the Padres played, and that is going to lead to them getting dominated by the Mets. If the Padres were in the second round, I don't believe it would have been as easy for the Mets to put away San Diego as it will be for them to put away St. Louis.

10-09-2006, 01:02 PM	#94 (permalink)
daniel_pendry15 EV FAN TO THE VERY END Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Southeast AZ Age: 18 Posts: 334 Points: 7,793.77 Bank: 0.00 Total Points: 7,793.77 Donate	Man, did the NL West suck again this season. They may have gotten two teams, the Dodgers and Padres, to the playoffs this year, but both of those teams looked horrible in the NLDS. I can understand the Dodgers being swept out of the playoffs by the Mets because of that bullpen and that lineup and the fact that the Dodgers are too inconsistent, but, to me, to see the Padres get knocked out by the Cardinals in the first round was unacceptable. I mean, think about the records and how well the two teams were playing going into the playoffs. The Padres had the NL's second-best record at 88-74 and ended the season on an absolute roll, while the Cardinals were 83-78 and were struggling so badly that they nearly lost the NL Central crown to the Astros. Now, the Cards still captured that division title, but only because the Astros were beaten on the last day of the season. To me and to everybody else, the Cards struggles automatically made the Padres the favorites against them in the NLDS because SD had the long winning streak, more confidence and the home-field advantage. Boy, did all of that go by the wayside after the first two games. Now, granted, the pitching staff could not control Albert Pujols in those two games no matter how hard they tried, but the games were still in San Diego, so the Padres should have won at least one of the first two. Then, they go to St. Louis and they eek out a 3-1 win in Game 3 to stay alive behind a dominating pitching performance, but in Game 4, they crumbled after scoring 2 runs in the 1st inning off of Cy Young candidate Chris Carpenter and then make a bad error in the 6th inning that essentially led to their demise. Now they are out of the postseason in 4 games and, when they look back at this series, they can look back at two things: their offense, specifically their timely hitting, and their decision to pitch to Pujols in the first two games. The Padres as a team were 2-for-32 with runners in scoring position in the series (!). If you ask me, a team isn't going to go anywhere when they hit that terribly during the opportunities that they get to score runs. That essentially led to them scoring 6 runs for the entire series, which really overshadowed their great pitching performances in Games 2, 3, and 4. I give all the credit in the world to the Cardinals and I am real pleased to see that Tony La Russa has them back in the NLCs for a third straight year, but I really think they had too easy of a time getting through the Division Series because of the way the Padres played, and that is going to lead to them getting dominated by the Mets. If the Padres were in the second round, I don't believe it would have been as easy for the Mets to put away San Diego as it will be for them to put away St. Louis. __________________ THANKS FOR THE THREE AUTOGRAPHS AND TWO HUGS IN PHOENIX, AMY! JOHN & ROCKY: BEST OF LUCK WITH MACHINA. EV FANS WILL NEVER FORGET YOU GUYS.