Saint Louis Cardinals (2-5) AT San Francisco Giants (3-4)
April 9, 2011 at 9:05 PM EST
Opening Runline: STL +1.5 -155; SFG -1.5 +135
Current Runline: STL +1.5 -175; SFG -1.5 +155
Opening Moneyline: SFG -165, STL +145
Current Moneyline: SFG -143 / STL +133
Opening Total: 7
Current Total: 6.5
SP: SFG- M. Cain / STL- J. Garcia
Saint Louis State of Affairs:
There really isn’t a case of a team that has done so much with so little (payroll & market size) than the St. Louis Cardinals. Since 2001, they have won 904 games, more than all teams other than the Yankees & Red Sox and they have made 7 playoff appearances, two World Series, and a championship in 2006.
Their payroll is roughly one half as big as the Red Sox’ and but a fraction of the colossal spending employed by baseball’s most hated team in the Yankees. The only teams to pay less in payroll have been the Minnesota Twins (who are now spending more money) and the Oakland Athletics (who are desperate for a new stadium and aren’t bringing in the necessary revenue to pay big salaries). The result of this success has been very obvious. The Cardinals drew 32 million fans in the last decade, the third highest total in baseball.
Despite the continued success, there is reason for pessimism among Cardinal fans. The team faded horribly toward the end of last season, propelled by a 2-8 road trip against the Pirates, Nats, and Astros, and allowed the Reds to squeak by with a 5 game lead at the end of the season, leading up to the ultimate disappointment of being swept by the Reds in the NLDS.
San Francisco State of Affairs:
July 4th: The Nation celebrates its Independence day — and the Giants look up at the standings, finding themselves 7.5 games behind the Padres and with a record just one game over .500 at 41-40. Certainly at this point no one was thinking “World Series bound,” much less “World Series Champs.” However, a serious reversal in fortunes was to come from unlikely sources that would propel the Giants into relevance, before they eventually took the NL West by a mere two games, the second smallest margin of division win in the league (the Tampa Bay Rays finished just one game ahead of the Yankees).
What brought about the change? Minor league vet Andres Torres’ uncanny improvement proved to be a serious boon. The 33 year old non-prospect came into the majors not expected to do much, but low and behold, he posted the second highest VORP of the Giants’ batters and also proved to be a defensive demon in the field. Pat Burrell was waived by Tampa and the Giants immediately tendered him a contract, causing him to switch from the AL to the NL, and the result was remarkable. Burrell went on to hit .266, his highest since 2006, the year he hit his career high 33 homers. Also, his slugging percentage was .509, nearly a full .7 higher than his career average. Buster Posey also was called up the same day as Burrell’s signing and he went on to replace the disappointing Bengie Molina, who was dealt to the Rangers. Their top prospect Madison Bumgarner rediscovered his fast ball at just the right point and was called back up to the majors. Juan Uribe stepped up to fill the hole left by the perpetually injured Edgar Renteria and did a solid job. Cody Ross got very hot, another waiver wire claim.
This perfect storm of events would culminate in the Giants’ win percentage over the period of July 5th until the end of the season being .630, 0.66 higher than their win percentage for the season. Truly, the Giants could not have experienced a better stroke of good old fashioned luck than they did. They had replaced 5 of their 8 starters with minor leaguers and stop-gap former scrubs and managed to CLIMB in the standings, to the surprise of themselves and everyone else in the MLB.
It’s hard not to favor the Giants in this matchup. The defending champs are off to a good start hitting and once their pitching catches up, it could mean another crown.
