Yep. I’m surprised it took this long.
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Matt Carpenter is fifth in baseball in wRC and sixth in WAR.

Trust the exit velocity.
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if they are that desperate why didn’t they give up something for Norris?
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B/c they already have Herrera and were expecting Doolittle to come back when he had a setback. Now, they figure that they'll roll the dice on Holland. If they start him out in AA/AAA and it doesn't work out, they can always cut his bitch ass when he inevitably fails. Then he can go back to floating his liver and remembering what a piece of shit he is.
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heard on several podcasts how horrible Holland was in the locker room. Viewed by most as a selfish asshole, not interested in the team.
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Holland can fist himself.

Fat fucker got paid and that was all he cared about. Didn't keep himself in shape, didn't make sure he was ready before coming to the big club and refused to go back down when it was apparent he wasn't.

Dude needed to be in AAA through all of April and hell maybe May. Even that may not have been enough but at least then you'd know he was willing to put in the work to get right.

Natch - dude got paid and was content losing ballgames for the rest of the year. I hope he signs one somewhere next year and blows out his elbow on his first pitch. What a fuckstain.
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You're too nice. I hope he gets Poncedeleon'd and has an incompetent neurosurgeon.
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Mayers throws some serious heat
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Why was Flaherty pulled? And, I thought Shildt knew better than Meathead to pay attention to stats. Lefty on Lefty is not the solution with every player. The Pitt batter was hitting .323 against left handed pitchers.
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He doesn't ride the starters hard. I imagine that's an edit from up top. He certainly could have gone an extra inning, though.
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Because he's 22 and his stuff was clearly backing up a bit. He was still getting outs and maybe still the best guy to have throw that last inning - but why? He's not pitched that deep in a long time and can go to the showers knowing he's done his job.

You have the lead and a new-look bullpen that you're trying to build confidence in. Set the kid down and ask the 8 guys in your bullpen to get a whopping 9 outs. It wasn't because of the lefty/lefty thing. That's why Shreve came in but it's not why Flaherty went out.

I completely agree with how he handled that. I also like starting with Shreve and getting straight to Mayers after the HR. I would've gone Webb rather than Hicks to Dickerson because Dickerson's made some swing changes that could make him especially tough on Hicks, but Hicks made a fantastic pitch to get out of that inning.

I have no problem at all with how Shildt handled that inning.
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Congratulations guys. You outlasted us.
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Cards flat outplayed the Pirates in this series.

It should've been a sweep. 37 LOB; that's unbelievable. Yeah, some of that is making nice pitches at the right time but mostly its fortunate string luck for the Pirates.

The Cardinals outplayed the Pirates significantly in this series. Which makes sense - the Cardinals are a more talented team than the Pirates and now that their manager isn't holding them back anymore they can show that.

They're not as talented as some of the serious players in the NL (or the Nats, for that matter), but they're better than the Bucs.
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I looked at your recent record before the series, looked like you guys were playing good baseball. :-)

We are just finding out what these players can do with a Manager that’s not an idiot. Even though we have been in the same division forever, never really considered Pitt to be a “rival”. We have not both been great teams at the same time. Late 70’s with your WS, we sucked during that time etc.

You Pitt fans have stuck with your team through some horrendous years. You guys deserve to see your team win a World Championship.
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I’m liking what we have seem so far from Shildt. Maybe I’m still traumatized from being forced to watch Meathead do stupid things on a daily basis. :-)

Taking 2/3 from the Cubs, Rockies and Pitt would never have happened under Meathead. :-) progress.
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