Who'da thunk it? Epilogue
So, I think I'm over the Tigers losing to the Cards in 5 now.
It's kinda funny. Before the season started, I honestly thought there was absolutely, positively no way they were making the playoffs this year. I would've actually been happy if they'd broken 0.500. Needless to say, they quite shattered those expectations, even if they kinda, sorta stumbled going into the playoffs.
I mean, they made it all the friggin' way to the World Series. How da hell did that happen? And, no. Even if Kenny Rogers was cheating - does it really matter at this point? - that can't be the whole story. A single pitcher does not have that much control over the outcome of a playoff series. Well, maybe if they're a closer. But then, closers will most often impact playoff series in negative ways. (By blowing leads. Repeatedly. See Byung-Hyun Kim. Those lucky Diamondbacks won in spite of his best efforts.) So, while I should be happy at how the season ended up relative to my expectations, I still have a pit in my stomach from the loss. Maybe I'm not over it quite yet, after all?
As for how they ended up losing, I like to think it was two things: 1) the Cardinals weren't as bad as they were made out to be, and 2) the week lay-off hurt the Tigers more than anticipated.
I think injuries to Rolen, Edmonds, Isringhausen, etc. had a significant impact on the team's win-loss record through the '06 season. And it certainly had a great deal to do with the collapse of their lead over the Astros at the end of the season. So, while the pundits may be all over the fact that this Cardinals team was one of the most losingest WS winners, in this case, I don't think numbers tell the whole story.
As for the week off that the Tigers had, I couldn't help but feel that it was not going to be a positive thing for the team. I mean, yeah. It was great that it gave Zumaya and Casey more time to heal. (Especially, Casey. Man.) But I was sure it was going to be a huge negative. However, what I thought was that it was going to throw a big, wet blanket on the pitching. (Which was not the case. Ignoring all the errors made, I thought the pitchers did a decent job in the series.) I didn't expect the hitting to go stone cold until after the pitching went kablooie.
Oh, well. There's always '08. (I think '07 is going to be another throw-away year.)
It's kinda funny. Before the season started, I honestly thought there was absolutely, positively no way they were making the playoffs this year. I would've actually been happy if they'd broken 0.500. Needless to say, they quite shattered those expectations, even if they kinda, sorta stumbled going into the playoffs.
I mean, they made it all the friggin' way to the World Series. How da hell did that happen? And, no. Even if Kenny Rogers was cheating - does it really matter at this point? - that can't be the whole story. A single pitcher does not have that much control over the outcome of a playoff series. Well, maybe if they're a closer. But then, closers will most often impact playoff series in negative ways. (By blowing leads. Repeatedly. See Byung-Hyun Kim. Those lucky Diamondbacks won in spite of his best efforts.) So, while I should be happy at how the season ended up relative to my expectations, I still have a pit in my stomach from the loss. Maybe I'm not over it quite yet, after all?
As for how they ended up losing, I like to think it was two things: 1) the Cardinals weren't as bad as they were made out to be, and 2) the week lay-off hurt the Tigers more than anticipated.
I think injuries to Rolen, Edmonds, Isringhausen, etc. had a significant impact on the team's win-loss record through the '06 season. And it certainly had a great deal to do with the collapse of their lead over the Astros at the end of the season. So, while the pundits may be all over the fact that this Cardinals team was one of the most losingest WS winners, in this case, I don't think numbers tell the whole story.
As for the week off that the Tigers had, I couldn't help but feel that it was not going to be a positive thing for the team. I mean, yeah. It was great that it gave Zumaya and Casey more time to heal. (Especially, Casey. Man.) But I was sure it was going to be a huge negative. However, what I thought was that it was going to throw a big, wet blanket on the pitching. (Which was not the case. Ignoring all the errors made, I thought the pitchers did a decent job in the series.) I didn't expect the hitting to go stone cold until after the pitching went kablooie.
Oh, well. There's always '08. (I think '07 is going to be another throw-away year.)