Thursday, December 13, 2007

What are the Cardinals doing????

So when the Cardinals released one of the best GMs in all of baseball, I was not very happy, but I thought maybe this will be for the best as they will spend more money to make sure the public doesn't think a decline in performance was from the owners' doing.

When they decided to go with John Mozeliak and hire in-house, instead of finding someone who had a farm system development (the area the Cardinals are the weakest), I thought maybe it's for the best to have a GM who learned under Walt.

When they decided to not offer a contract to David Eckstein, our shortstop and leadoff man, I thought maybe he's too expensive and they are trying to be able to offer a lot for a big name pitcher, minus the fact that there are not any top pitchers really in the free agent pool.

When they hired Cesar Izturis, a career .259 hitter, to be the replacement at shortstop while Eckstein was still on the market and his list of future employers were getting slimmer, and signing him was getting cheaper, I thought maybe they feel Brendan Ryan is their man of the future and needed a veteran to mentor him for a year with diminished play as they split time and felt Eckstein deserved a chance to play every day.

When they released So Taguchi, a veteran utility man who has been through thick and thin for the Cardinals, I figured, hey we have a really deep outfield, maybe the Cardinals are making room for this top pitcher they keep talking about.

When they drafted Brian Barton in the Rule 5 draft, a minor league outfielder who has never played a game in the big leagues, when we have a plethora of outfielders including good minor league outfielders that would probably make other teams but are in the minors due to a deep Cardinal outfield, I thought maybe they see something in him that we don't (at least I hoped).

When they decided they would shop Scott Rolen, one of the best third basemen of all time, I thought, he's getting old and the riff between him and LaRussa could be a cancer in the clubhouse. Maybe we could use his star power to get a stud pitcher, since we don't exactly have a whole lot in the farm system for trading.

When they didn't do anything in the Winter Meetings, even though there were top pitchers being shopped and a top starter was Mo's top priority, I thought maybe the asking price was too ridiculous. But couldn't they at least make some offers? Couldn't they at least let the Redbird Nation know they were trying?

Yesterday, they got rid of Aaron Miles, the solution to our second base problem as we can't rely on Adam Kennedy to get it done right now.

Now there have been some pretty bad moves by the Cardinals organization this offseason, but this one takes the cake. When our middle infield batted .258 and .219 last year, and we have no leadoff man, how do you expect to contend. And that is ignoring the fact that we still have a rotation consisting of Adam Wainwright, Joel Piniero, Braden Looper, Anthony Reyes and Brad Thompson. I like the top three there and we will return Mark Mulder (who the hell knows what we can expect from him), but we need a solid top-three pitcher. And a leadoff man. Oh yeah, and maybe a pair of balls to go out and get someone good and maybe spend a little money.

Monday, December 03, 2007

BCS Chaos...What is the answer?

Well one thing we can all agree on is this: What is currently being used for the BCS is not the best. But what do we do about it?

Only in the BCS Division Football can a team go undefeated and not National Champion. So what if Hawaii plays in a weak conference? What if they really were the best team in the nation? We have no idea until someone beats them. Now they don't have the money of the major conference schools, so you can't blame them for having a weak schedule or being in a weak conference, like I can with Ohio State (come on OSU AD, step up and give some legitimacy to your team's wins!). Hell, I doubt they even thought they would do as well as they have when they came up with this year's schedule.

But should Ohio State and Hawaii being playing for the national title? Should we go to a complete playoff system and bankrupt the bowl system within five years? Is there some even ground here?


  • Stewart Mandel writes that Plus-One is the answer. He feels that having a championship game after all of the bowl games would better serve the purpose without taking away from the bowl games. He feels that using the major bowls to provide matchups to decide the final two could give us a better national championship without taking from the bowls.

  • Luke Winn writes, "There is only one logical way to decide the national championship in the Season of Endless Upsets, when there were these options available:

    * One undefeated team

    * Two one-loss teams

    * Ten two loss teams

    The solution is to grab one of the two-loss teams (LSU) and one of the one-loss teams (Ohio State, which gained status simply by having the final weekend off), and pit them together in a winner-take-all finale. The less-fortunate leftovers can fight for the scraps in consolation bowls, and the country will be content that we've conclusively answered the "Who's No. 1" question. Especially the undefeated team (Hawaii) that didn't even get a chance to play for the title, even though just one year ago, its conference's BCS rep (Boise State) beat one of college football's juggernauts (Oklahoma) in perhaps the greatest BCS game ever. This is all so incredibly satisfying for everyone involved.

    The slate of BCS games this January will do nothing but guarantee dissatisfaction among fans. So what if LSU pummels Ohio State in what will be a pseudo-home game for the Tigers? What will that tell us? If Hawaii beats Georgia, an SEC team that didn't win its own division much less its own conference, to go 12-0, how does that further the Warriors' bid for a share of the title? The BCS has worked in the past -- in the years where a clear Nos. 1 and 2 existed -- but we desperately need something that works every year. That's a playoff beyond the plus-one model. Put the 12 BCS-eligible teams into a field with first-round byes for Nos. 1-4, and let them duke it out. I'd much rather be worrying about the trivial controversy over who was excluded at No. 13 than who was left out at No. 3"

  • Bill Trocchi writes that there is already a playoff system in place, but we need to expand the field from 2 to 16, and kill off the rest of the bowls.

  • Cory McCartney wants to know why we can't all just get along and why if a playoff system has worked for little brother Div I-AA, it won't work for the BCS. He writes that a playoff would be bigger than the basketball equivalent madness.
So my idea is to have a playoff with 12 teams, top four getting byes. The stipulations for choosing teams is this:
  • Any conference winner that finishes in the top 25 in the BCS Standings receives an automatic bid. Top four with byes must come from this group. This rule would also keep conference winners who are not any good out. There's always the minor bowls (the football version of the NIT)

  • The rest of the field is formed by the next highest in the BCS Standings with only two teams from each conference being selected.
If this were implemented the seedings would be as follows:
  1. Ohio State (Big Ten Auto)
  2. LSU (SEC Auto)
  3. Virginia Tech (ACC Auto)
  4. Oklahoma (Big 12 Auto)
  5. Georgia (SEC At-Large)
  6. Missouri(Big 12 At-Large)
  7. USC (Pac-10 Auto)
  8. W. Virginia (Big East Auto)
  9. Hawaii (WAC Auto)
  10. Arizona State(Pac-10 At-Large)
  11. Illinois (Big Ten At Large)
  12. Boston College (ACC At-Large)
This would keep No. 8 Kansas and No. 12 Florida out of the playoffs due to 2 SEC and Big 12 teams ranked higher. The first round would have the following games:
  1. #12 BC at #5 UGA
  2. #9 Hawaii at #8 WVU
  3. #11 Illinois at #6 Missouri
  4. #10 Arizona St. at #7 USC
A second round:
  1. Winner of 1-1 at #4 Oklahoma
  2. Winner of 1-2 at #1 OSU
  3. Winner of 1-3 at #3 VT
  4. Winner of 1-4 at #2 LSU
These first two rounds would be held a week after the regular season is over in two consecutive weeks. The bowls would still work as normal. The semifinals would be held a week after bowls in an actual neutral ground (Quit pretending the National Championship is a neutral field). Fields in between the two teams can put in bids for the game.

What do you think, send me your ideas on what could have been done better. I'm not perfect, but anything has to be better than this. Be sure to take into account keeping big revenue from bowls in mind and the such.