Apparently, We’re The Bad Guys…

First off, an irony report: The day after I wrote an article on hit low-hit/no-hit games aren’t quite as special as they used to be, Mike Fiers, who the Astros acquired in the Carlos Gomez trade, tossed a no-hitter. Since I live in the Houston region, I was lucky enough to catch the last inning of the game. (I hadn’t been watching but a visit to ESPN while the game was going on told me to tune in. Thank you live scores.) It was very special, but I still maintain that it would’ve been more special 30 or 40 years ago when such things were rarer.

Anyways…

The Cardinals won lost night,  thanks to a solid start by Lance Lynn, and key contributions by Yadier Molina and Matt Carpenter.

Basically the Cards keep finding ways to win, and apparently that upsets every non-Cardinals baseball fan. It seems to me, reputation wise, the Cards have become the National League version of the Yankees. No, we don’t outspend everybody, but the other part, where everybody seems to hate us, like everyone hates the Yankees? That part seems true.

I think that’s in part to the two great stories we potentially have in the Pirates and Cubs, the teams who are second and third in our division. Plus, the Mets and I think even the Dodgers would be better stories in many people’s minds.

Why?

Well, we have won the series more recently than those teams, so they think it’s their turn now. Plus many people think those teams would make better stories.

i think this is particularly true for the Pirates. They’re a mid to low budget team, so they can’t afford too many expensive stars. They have two players making over 10 million, including Andrew McCutchen (who is actually signed to a very team friendly deal until 2018).  Yet they are winning and have been for a couple of years, making them a good story. The worry here is that there may be a short window for them, so the Cards need to get out of the way before the window closes.

As for the Cubs, well, they’ve been waiting for over 100 years, so obviously everybody wants them to win as it would be an awesome story as well. Nevermind that with all their talent and some smart executives, I do begrudgingly admit that I think they’ll get there soon.

The Mets have that amazing young staff, plus a ‘go for it’ acquisition in Yoenis Cespedes who is performing well. Nobody expected them to be this good this year, so many people view them as an underdog and are rallying behind them.

As for the Dodgers I think in that case people are just annoyed at teams like the Cards and not the Cards themselves. Teams that can, you know, win without a 300 million dollar budget. They don’t think the Dodgers are a better story per se, but rather they want to validate the budget. Curse those mid market teams for winning efficiently!

Add all of that up, plus the fact that the two largest markets are represented here in NYC and LA, and you have a whole lot of people who want us to tank and get out of the way.

Here’s what I have to say those teams:

Sorry guys, ain’t happening. 😉

 

As always, thanks for reading.

  • Chris Greene August 25, 2015, 9:42 am

    I realized how awful the Cardinals must be to everyone else last week when I got mad at the Pirates for winning so much. Then I realized that St. Louis has won more games and it must feel even tougher for the second place team.

    By my count, there are three teams with winning percentages of .600 or better, and two are in the NL Central. The Cubs are at .585 which would lead four of the other five divisions. The Pirates would lead four of the other divisions as well. I think the Cardinals are getting so much hate this season not just because of the other great stories, but because (by all rights) those great stories SHOULD be winning. It’s one thing when you’re at .590 keeping a .550 team out, but when you’re at .637 keeping teams that win nearly six of every ten games out of the division lead, it is a little bit ridiculous. So I feel their pain. Not the Cardinals are going to stop anytime soon.

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