Holding grudges works in sports. Gives you an edge, and nobody worked harder or enjoyed getting an edge more than La Russa.

The factual errors (wrong year and inaccuarate voting results) are unacceptable and totally take away from his argument about the Cy Young.

If you have read a recently-relased book of any kind, it’s obvious publishers no longer pay for top editing/fact checking talent due to the economy.

Lincecum had 49 more strike outs, gave up 7 fewer home runs and gave up 48 fewer hits (he did give up two more walks in 8 fewer innings). In other words, Tim Lincecum by every account other than wins was better than Adam Wainwright. The wins is mostly explained by the fact he had the leagues 13th best offense behind him!

If anything Wainwright was actually much closer to Halladay in 2010!

Halladay: 21-10, 2.44 ERA, 250 IP, 231 Hits, 30 BB, 219 K, 1.041 WHIP
Wainwright: 20-11, 2,42 ERA, 230 IP, 186 H, 56 BB, 213 K, 1.051 WHIP

…and he didn’t get a single first place vote that year. Where’s everyone’s outrage on that one!*

*this is not to imply that Wainwright deserved it over Halladay…he didn’t.

I guess Harper Collins cut back on the fact checkers before going to print, Tony’s a sharp guy but his recollection isn’t right – it should’ve been caught.

As for TLR, why is this surprising to anyone?

He’s got a long memory and holds grudges, always has and always will.

Expect more stories like this to surface as the release of the book nears, I’ve seen some already and they’re gold.

The Ian Desmond “hit” in spring training, the lighting stuff at Miller Park, phonegate is the World Series – it’s awesome reading.

I could take him or leave him as a manager, he just never bugged me the way he does some. One thing for sure, everyone knew he was in charge and the franchise reflected his personality and that’s something they sorely miss this year.

As for Law, I’m a Cardinal fan who happens to enjoy him.

Hell, I think he’s actually overrated a few Cards prospects over the years in the name of HPGF (hyperventilating prospect geek fraternity).

I think “team” UZR is a pretty crappy stat. If you want to see how well a team turned batted balls into outs, just look at their team BABIP for the pitching staff.

During that span, the Cardinals had a team UZR of negative 15.8, good for 10th in the National League.

All of those above average to great defensive players must have had negative synergy, or maybe your eyeballs fail you.

To me, he just managed a lot. He finished 3rd in wins, 2nd in losses, and 22nd in winning % for managers with over 2000 games. Considering the talent he had on his teams in Chicago, Oakland, and St. Louis, that’s fine…but nothing spectacular.

I guess there are some that say Eckstein is good just because he is small and tries hard, but he was always a liability defensively. And since Rolen left, the same can mostly be said of their 3rd sackers.

I really don’t understand the idea that the Cardinals were so great defensively. Maybe I am misremembering, though.

Smart fans realize that saying a pitcher isn’t as good as his ERA because his defense is good is actually a compliment to the defenders. Run prevention isn’t solely the job of the pitcher, there are 7 guys behind him that need to do their job too.

Do those alleged fans you know still dislike Law, because no he can’t help but lavish praise on the solid and deep farm system, and he does so over and over and over?

I’d love to see a list of players Law “bashed” that turned out to be better than he thought they were. The only one I can think of is Jon Jay…and even Law has made the point that if Jay really is a .350 BABIP hitter (which no one saw coming based on his MiLB numbers), then he’s a solid everyday CFer.

DUI. Tony’s fault he was portrayed as smarter than everyone else by the media. Bizarre hatred of a person you don’t know. Good?