A eulogy for the mostly competitive 2007-2011 Cardinals

Aaron Dorman's blog

Moderator: WhiteSox

Post Reply
User avatar
Astros
Posts: 2977
Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2002 1:00 am
Location: PHX
Name: Ty Bradley

A eulogy for the mostly competitive 2007-2011 Cardinals

Post by Astros »

Looking at the shell of my team, I feel like I'm at a funeral, so the only thing to do is give it a proper burial and that'll require a eulogy. Can you tell I'm an unemployed college graduate with too much time on my hands?

While the 2004 and 2005 Cards won the NL Wild Card, those teams overall weren't very good, good enough to push Nils to 5 games in the NLDS each year, but not threats to win it all so I'm not including them in this era. The real golden era of the IBC Cardinals was 2007-2009.

Going into 2007 I thought I was the team to beat. I had good pitching and such a deep lineup that Pat Burrell was on the bench most of the year. A couple of in season trades for Jeremy Sowers (remember when he was supposed to be good?) and John Lackey (remember when he was good?), tag teamed with Roy Oswalt and Jon Garland still living off his great 2005 season, propelled me to 110 wins despite having a rash of injuries. I lucked out in that every guy I grabbed off the free agent list, be it Matt Kata, Julio Franco, Brian Horwitz, all hit well for me. All those guys started in the playoffs. I swept the NLDS and won the NLCS and WS in 5 and had my first title. Boy was I happy.

The 2008 season was, IMO, my finest job. I had to mix and match platoons in multiple positions all year, threw guys in the rotation out of necessity that wound up anchoring it. Yusmeiro Petit led my staff with 12 wins. Oswalt was 2nd on the team in wins and he was traded in June. I had no bullpen, but still managed 47 saves by the skin of my teeth. Won Game 163 with Brandon that is the last time I ever erupted with pure joy over the outcome of a sporting event, managed to upset Dan and somehow beat Nate, then went 7 with Pat after being down 3-0 but couldn't pull it off. I still think if that series were h2h I'd have won it, but then again I might've been swept.

In 2009 I missed the Wild Card by 3 games cause Ken lost something like, 3 games the entire month of July. In 2010 I had a rash of pitching injuries and never contended. I retooled my roster and built it for the specific purpose of gunning for the wild card in 2011. Then Adam Wainwright went down for the year the first week of spring training. I should've seen the writing on the wall, but couldn't overcome the loss of my best player. I held my own for a couple of months, then sunk lower and lower and knew I had to do something, so I blew it up and rebuilt.

I'd like to thank all the players that helped me win these years, guys like Frankie Francisco that were around before 2007. The guys that are going to hold this team together with bubble gum and paper clips the next couple of years while the kids mature like Seth Smith, Adam Wainwright and the now untradeable Jon Garland who's been here since 2003 I believe.

Godspeed Cardinals teams of the past. JP and Ken, we'll see your guys teams in hell
User avatar
Braves
Posts: 1067
Joined: Sat May 13, 2006 1:00 am
Location: Raynham, MA
Name: Brett Degen

Re: A eulogy for the mostly competitive 2007-2011 Cardinals

Post by Braves »

Cardinals wrote:. Won Game 163 with Brandon that is the last time I ever erupted with pure joy over the outcome of a sporting event,

Just have to continue to rub it in my face you s.o.b.!
User avatar
Astros
Posts: 2977
Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2002 1:00 am
Location: PHX
Name: Ty Bradley

Post by Astros »

I take great pride in the fact I broke your spirit Brandon lol. Now you get to beat up on me for a few years while you're back in the neighborhood of contention, you can rub that in all you like
User avatar
Astros
Posts: 2977
Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2002 1:00 am
Location: PHX
Name: Ty Bradley

Post by Astros »

With the dealing of Wainwright and Garland to JP it truly is the end of an era, as they were the last 2 guys on my team from my back to back World Series teams in 2007 and 2008.

Wainwright came over from Jason in 2008 with Chris Perez for a Roy Oswalt and pitched a phenomenal Game 6 in the 2008 NLCS against Nate to propel me to my 2nd World Series.

Garland has been on the team since 2004. I remember dealing Woody Williams to get him, and the key to the deal for me was Tigers SS prospect Tony Giarratano, who I to this day maintain would've been a good big league regular if he weren't so injury prone. Garland leaves St. Louis as the franchise leader in wins, starts, strikeouts, shutouts and second in complete games. Garland was my 3rd best pitcher in 2007 and still won won 18 games
User avatar
Brewers
Posts: 1609
Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2002 1:00 am
Location: St. Johnsbury, VT
Name: Jared Cloutier

Post by Brewers »

I was ridiculously high on Tony Giarratano. I was pushing him all over to people because of his extra year of development since he was a year younger than the rest of his college draft class. I am sitting on a pile of autographed stuff of his at home including a nice bat. I am glad I was not the only one. It is always fun to think back to the guys that you would have traded anything to get.
Post Reply

Return to “You can put it on the board, YES!”