In my analysis of sausage making, I am intrigued by this line:

"I was in the bullpen for three weeks when I was used pretty hard," said McClellan, who had asked for a temporary break during the season's final week. "I got into a position where I wasn't confident going into a situation with a one-run lead. That's why I thought I needed a break.  To me, the worst thing possible was going out there not at 100 percent and costing the team when it was trying to get into the playoffs."

Two hypotheses:

1. La Russa is a genius and now is not the time to make decisions based on anything but the gut feeling of what will help this team win.

2. La Russa is a merciless manager, and if you come to him with an honest opinion of your weaknesses, he will hear you saying: "if I blow a one run lead, it will be your fault for putting me in, not my fault."  All La Russa bucks are to be deposited in the circular file on your way out of the office.  If you ever have a manager like that, be aware that he wants 100% ass protection, and honest opinions of weaknesses will not be appreciated, as they only limit his ability to shift blame onto you in the event that shit happens.

I agree with TLR's assertation that McClellan should be mad about not being on the roster. I'd be a little baffled by any major leaguer that was copesetic with not getting on a playoff roster....

I was a bit suprised that Mitchell Boggs beat out Sanchez.

Do they reset the rosters each series, or is this the 25 we're going to the world series with (should we get there)?

I was almost sure the Cardinals would have to trot Westbrook out in extra innings last night.

LOL

APRTW wrote:

I see that Chambers is on the roster.

A good move, and the kind of out-of-the-box thinking one wouldn't normally expect from Tone given the notion the Phillies were going to start two lefties in the series.
He gives the Cardinals some speed (OK, a lot of speed) and a late-inning defensive upgrade at either one of the corner outfield spots (and probably center, too).
He might get left off any future 7-game series roster in lieu of another reliever, unless of course Holliday's injury doesn't improve.
That's down the road, though. Let's hope the burden of making a roster for a 7-game series is put upon TLR.

Last edited by artie_fufkin (10/03/2011 2:55 pm)

APRTW wrote:

I see that Chambers is on the roster.

did he beat out patterson?  what happened to him?

Max wrote:

APRTW wrote:

I see that Chambers is on the roster.

did he beat out patterson?  what happened to him?

Rendered irrelevant?

artie_fufkin wrote:

"do any of you remember the title bout from about 20-25 years ago when the favorite withdrew after about 7 rounds because he was literally about to crap his pants?  My recollection is that he was from Central America, maybe Panama, and there were hoots of "coward" and "fix", but in his explanation he said he had had a very large steak dinner before the fight and got very bad indigestion."

Roberto Duran? "No mas" became part of the lexicon because of him.
I heard the indigestion angle, but I figured that was kind of invented later on. He pretty much became a disgrace in Panama for awhile. About the worst offense you can commit in a Spanish culture is quitting.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1108676/index.htm

YES!  Thank you.  Even in the story you linked to, it is still available to be read, albeit between the lines (who wants to write a sports story that says point blank that one of the fiercest boxers in history quit a fight because of a horrible bout with diarrhea that threatened to spill out all over the ring unless his ass was firmly seated on a toilet in the next five minutes?) 

"He had just seven weeks of training, some of it in a rubber corset, the last days living on diuretics. He still says it was cramps, not that embarrassing left jab Leonard delivered in the seventh round after pretending to wind up for a bolo punch, that dictated the result. "Frustrated? No, that's how Leonard fights," he says, dismissing the armchair psychologists who claim he quit in protest over Leonard's insistence of style over substance. "My stomach was paralyzed." He even pulls up his shirt to show the location of his pain. Although he seems to be describing appendicitis, he believes it was the hot coffee he drank right before the fight, coming after he had purged (and then, following the weigh-in, gorged), that produced his distress."

Last edited by Max (10/03/2011 6:31 pm)