OK, Braves fans: Maybe we SHOULD be watching this Series
David Freese gets his freeze-frame moment. He had a couple, actually. (AP photo)
Yeah, it was unbelievable. A team down to its last strike — twice! — will play one game to become the World Series champ. For sheer thrills, this Game 6 was a match for the Game 6 of 1975. (It wasn’t as well played, but hey, you can’t have everything.) But enough gushing. There’s a lesson to be had.
The Cardinals trailed the Braves by 8 1/2 games in September and were tied with the local nine after Game No. 161. (And, had the Braves not blown Game No. 162 in the ninth, they’d have been bound for a play-in game in Busch Stadium.) But we saw in Game 6 the chief difference between the 2011 Braves and these Redbirds.
The Braves had better starting pitching and a better bullpen, but the Braves’ lineup didn’t put pressure on an opponent the way the Cardinals’ does. Sometimes pressure isn’t always rewarded. Last night it was. St. Louis rallied to tie or take the lead five different times, most notably when facing two-run deficits in the ninth and the 10th.
The Braves could hit home runs. Indeed, they hit 11 more than the Cardinals over 162 games. But the Braves’ swing-hard-in-case-you-hit-it approach didn’t apply pressure in the way the Redbirds’ more clinical method does. For me, the biggest at-bats of Game 6 wasn’t David Freese’s tying triple or winning homer. They belonged to Lance Berkman, who was patient enough to take a walk with one out in the ninth and skilled enough to serve a Scott Feldman pitch into center field to tie it with two out in the 10th.
Those were examples of what we like to call professional hitting. The Braves had a lot of guys who could hit bad pitches hard, not so many who’d accept a single or a walk. The Cardinals’ on-base percentage was the third-best in the majors; the Braves’ was the fifth-worst.
After 162 games, there wasn’t much that separated these teams, but that was the part that did. It’s the reason one of the two will be playing a Game 7 tonight, and also the reason the other just hired a new hitting coach.
By Mark Bradley
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177 comments Add your comment
BulldogBen
October 28th, 2011
11:06 pm
Watch another franchise with a rich history of championships win another??
No thanks. I’ve had enough misery this year already.
Striker
October 28th, 2011
11:09 pm
I just found this on home plate umpire, Jerry Layne: In the last five years, including the Series opener, St. Louis is 8-1 with a 2.00 ERA when Layne works the plate. In the same span, the Rangers are 1-6 with a 5.40 ERA. Coincidence?
Klaus
October 28th, 2011
11:32 pm
Actually Reggie one of the criticisms of Walker is OBP focus or lack thereof. Apart from a few years of decent OBP the Sox are nothing to write home about.
But you are missing the major point. Walker is a rounding error in all this.
The bigger problem is Wren and the Braves in general lack a systematic approach to building a club apart from pitching & the 3R HR. They run an old school model which a middle market team cannot afford to do.
Without a design center (pitching is not enough) which starts in the minors and comes to a crescendo of sorts in the majors you have teams with chronic holes.
When you have 85mm to spend (with 30mm of existing bad contracts) against teams spending twice you cannot whipsaw YoY with flavor of the year moves.
While many attribute success to equal parts luck and being healthy the reality is teams that invest in some quant work perform more consistently.
One word that does not describe the current generation Braves is consistent unless you view September collapses as being consist.
So I will give Walker & the new guys in the minors a shot but until this team accepts the fact they need some science to go with old school programs every year will be a crap shoot with the typical injury, guys struggling at the wrong time excuse.
If the Braves were smart (and better funded) they should have gotten Theo Epstein. They are more like a shinier version of the Cubs then many want to believe and could use his approach to building a club.
Wren is a scout type of guy who relies on personal opinion and gut than objective analysis.
Linebrink's Security
October 28th, 2011
11:39 pm
at least the Braves will be mentioned with the 2011 World Series dvd comes out … and multiple times when the eventual book “2011 Cardinals: The Improbable Victory” comes out
Hy Ronatt
October 28th, 2011
11:41 pm
Thanks for nothing, Braves.
Reggie
October 28th, 2011
11:51 pm
Klaus, I see your point. I just hope things change. Thanks for your opinion.
Reggie
October 28th, 2011
11:54 pm
Cards win..World Champions…Will Cards vote Fredi a full share?
Rod Johnson
October 29th, 2011
12:23 am
WOOHOO! World Champs! Thanks for The Collapse, Braves!!!
GO CARDS! #1!!!!
Waffle House or Bust
October 29th, 2011
2:21 am
I love my Braves but I also love watching great baseball. With that said, thank you Braves for not winning the wild card so I could watch some of the best world series games I can remember since back in the 90’s good ol’ days. No way Atlanta does what Cards did. Why? They have no heart and once again not the better team won the series but team that wanted it more. Congrats St. Louis.
Rob
October 29th, 2011
2:46 am
I’m sure someone already said it, but yay Braves! Once again the team that ends up in the spot you should have been wins the WS. This has happened too many times in recent years.
Greg
October 29th, 2011
6:14 am
Mark – it all goes back to the Bobby Cox philosphy “just let the boys play”. That is why we only have 1 World Series Championship with some of the best players in the game. Freddie is no different than Bobby. LaRussia manages every inning of every game and his players play the game the same way.
Dude
October 29th, 2011
7:37 am
There never should have been a game 7. Any major league outfielder should have caught the ball Cruz missplayed. That was a 3 base error rather than a triple. Looks like there’s a new Bill Buckner.
Dude
October 29th, 2011
7:39 am
The Cards are luckier than a herd of 2 peckkerd goats.
MrDan
October 29th, 2011
8:08 am
Too bad that 90% of those of us who work for a living M-F missed a classic thanks to television and MLB obsession for “prime time” ratings henceforth advertising revenue. Got news for you. NO ONE WITH A REAL JOB AND DISPOSABLE INCOME WAS WATCHING DURING THE WEEK. Bring back the afternoon World Series games during the week. That way, old codgers like me can meet our likewise old friends at the bars, enjoy a few beers, eat an early dinner, and enjoy WATCHING THE GAME. That way we can go home if we’re not already there, have our family time, go to bed, get up early and go to work to support the rest of this country that’s not.
smoltz29
October 29th, 2011
8:18 am
Situational hitting: CARDS- YES BRAVES- NEVER
Rocker
October 29th, 2011
8:46 am
The Cards played like the ‘91 Braves.
The Braves played like they had October reservations at Club Med.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
October 29th, 2011
9:12 am
As I said all season…major league hitters, that’s what the Braves lack.
Packer Ed
October 29th, 2011
9:14 am
October seems to always be not the Braves Month and this year September also was not the Braves month
In order to win in the Post Season a Team has to be able to make moves in the off season and in the middle of the season.
In order to make moves a team has to have money. The Braves were purchased by Liberty Meida (division of Time Warner) for tax reasons, that says it all.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
October 29th, 2011
9:18 am
St. Louis Cardinals payroll: $105M
Texas Rangers payroll: $92M
Atlanta Braves payroll: $87M
Braves are “in the ballpark” but there are a couple of big chunks of their $87M that didn’t do their jobs this year.
Patrick
October 29th, 2011
9:34 am
I grew up in ATL and was a Braves season ticket holder before moving to STL back in the eighties…the difference between the fan base in the two cities is reflected in the records of their baseball clubs.STL has the most baseball savvy fans you will find anywhere. If you don’t believe this then read the comments left above by many–not all- of the so called “fans”. My wife and I are both Cardinals fans for life–even though we are back in Georgia and root for the Braves–but not against the guys with the birds on the bats. Congrats to the Cardinals for a memorable world series.
Greg
October 29th, 2011
10:27 am
Lowe gets traded to the Cardinals and wins 20 games next year.
Patrick
October 29th, 2011
10:29 am
Mark,
Can we get your thoughts on the World Series and the cards?
Reggie
October 29th, 2011
11:43 am
“Its a long season. If you watch the history on baseball, teams comeback. And sometimes they could have comeback but they gave up.”………La Russa
“Play ever game like its the last”……La Russia
Something the Braves don’t do…play ever game like its the last. Also they gave up the last weeks of season are quit. Maybe they just thought Cards would lose.
Cards proved when game was on the line they wanted it and fought to get it. Great manager also !
Klaus
October 29th, 2011
12:16 pm
Thanks Reggie. I will try not to position opinions as fact. You are right on that account. When people are bummed about a team tone and point of view become skewed.
I also hope they change their approach and modernized it. Wren may be doing that with his moves at the ML level and in the minors. The proof will be in the types of players they bring in. Will they look purposeful (as in a design center) or just some guy who was affordable and addressed last years problem.
The Braves need a more strategic approach IMHO than what they have displayed.
rico43
October 29th, 2011
2:51 pm
Almost feel I saw more clutch hits from the Cardinals in the postseason that I saw from the Braves all year.
Klaus
October 29th, 2011
3:19 pm
Rico you could be right.
Lobosolo
October 30th, 2011
10:22 pm
LOL! alexis telling someone they are clueless about baseball, when all she knows is how to put the hard suck on her binkie… You don’t know your behind from third base when it comes to baseball, Girlie… Have some semblance of dignity and just cry on out gracefully…