Just Keep Winning, Birds!

If there is one thing I get tired of really quick, it’s premature playoff roster fan construction. Before you throw fireballs at my house, hear me out. As a truck driver with the voice of Darth Vader once urged, “Listen to Me!”

The mantra right now should first and foremost, Just Keep Winning. Forget everything else. Forget Adam Wainwright’s 20th win. Forget the talk and chatter about playoff rosters. Forget Oscar Taveras’ future in St. Louis. We aren’t there yet so why talk about it?

The Cards clinched a playoff berth but that only means we at least get a shot at the Wild Card game. That’s all. Nothing is for certain yet. The magic number will hang around until the team wins enough games. That is all I am focused on right now. Winning, winning and after that, more winning. I don’t mean to be cruel but I have no interest in crafting playoff rosters. Prediction games are old and tired with little payoff. Everybody wants to play manager and GM and name their roster. I’d rather see the roster when they get there and react to it. That is more fulfilling. Let the people in charge figure it out and I can tell them if they were wrong or not. Making a playoff roster on September 22nd is futile.

Onto other notes on the team-

The Cards lost Sunday night and that was underwhelming. Alfredo Simon outpitched Lance Lynn and our bats went cold against a struggling team. The flu struck the Cards clubhouse so in a 3-2 game the relief corps came down to Jason Motte, Kevin Siegrist and Sam Tuivailala. The latter was a young kid making his 2nd appearance in the big leagues after 60 minor league innings who gave up two absolute bombs to Devin Mesoraco and Jay Bruce. The loss didn’t strike me as hard if it weren’t for our cold bats making the stadium extra cold.

This team is so hard to call at the moment. They win series’ and have been great in September but something tells me their bats can be extra chilly so there isn’t a guarantee that the runs will be there. Lynn didn’t pitch horribly(two bad pitches, two long HR) and got 2 runs of support. The Cards went 17 innings without an extra base hit last week. I am trying real hard to not be pessimistic but with this 2014 bunch, it’s too easy. I am uneasy about the whole idea of a playoff series. Which offense will show up and will the pitching be there.

The Pirates aren’t going away and the Cards enter play at Wrigley. A place where Wainwright has been scolded a couple of times. This worries me. From there, the season ends in Arizona, a place where Midwest teams go to die. The 2001 playoffs still stick out sorely when it comes to Arizona and facing Kurt Gibson’s scrappy crew looking to throw off the Birds’ plans.

I guess my general idea here is stop looking so far ahead. I have heard this past weekend about Oscar Taveras being traded in the offseason, Waino’s 20th win, and a potential playoff roster too much. If Waino gets the 20th win, that’s great. If it comes via the bullpen, that’s fine as well. At this point, there’s no need to get cute with individual stats. Just win baseball games. All the little things matter little when it comes to the overall play of this team right now.

With 6 games to go, the Cards have a 2.5 game lead on the Pirates. Forget about the Wild Card game because I don’t want any part of it. Just win. Right around the end of October, the Cards can afford to not win. I don’t mean to state the obvious here, but sometimes, when minds get too stretched out, the simplicity of a goal needs to be revealed. Just keep winning, Birds. The rest will sort itself out.

Also, here’s all you need to know about Taveras. He will be a Cardinal through October. That’s all that matters right now.

Thanks and Go Cards!

-DLB (@buffa82)