These guys can hit up and down that order and from the bench too. For that matter - The Rangers may be even a better hitting club than ST Louis.

The Cards lost one of their best pitchers (Wainright) for the year. Carpenter was hurt during the year and not the same pitcher he once was. They swing a trade (trading Rasmus) to get some depth which has really worked out - but throughout - they keep hitting.

The Pirates? They are dumping their entire existence into pitching. In an era where it seems every team has good pitching....why are they doing this? Nobody can hit except for about a handful of teams yet we keep stockpiling young pitchers.

I have tabled this before - I normally like stockpiling pitching but I think the strategy should be reversed for this day and age - hitting wins championships now.

Thoughts?

Suwanee, there a ton of crap you can slam the Pirates of and certainly anemic hitting is one of those things, but to go after them for concentrating on pitching is ludicrous. As we Pirates fans discovered at the beginning of the season, pitching (coupled with good defense) wins more ballgames than all the hitters in the world. This has always been the way going back to the days of Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson. It is still the case today. Take the mid-70's Pirates who, for my money, had one of the greatest hitting lineups in the history of baseball. They really had no great pitchers on those teams. If they did, I think the Pirates would have eclipsed the Cincinnati Reds and Oakland A's as the team of the 70's.

I'm okay with the Pirates going pitching heavy. I think they've got the right coaches in place, especially with Searage. No Correia and Maholm are not the answer, but I think there's definitely something to build on with Morton, JMac and Karstens. Taillon, Heredia and Allie are on the way. Gerrit Cole is just starting out. Here's just hoping those pitching prospects don't end up like Kris Benson, Brian Bullington or John Van Benschoten.

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Good discussion guys. Glad to see the hope is still alive.

Not sure who will win this series, but I agree that pitching will overcome hitting any day of the week. Not only your example, Jack, but also the 79 team which was better with pitching, but still not the equal of the Orioles. That team should have fucking hit the fuck out of them and buried them, but it took 7 games and some gutsy pitching performances by The Rook, Candy Man, the late great Jim Bibby, and Teke, to get it done, along with Pops, when all was said and done.

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Playing football was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. If I could go out today and suit up, I would do it.--Jack Butler

To steal a line from Chris Farley about Albert Pujols' homer tonight....................."THAT WAS AWESOME!" 423 feet estimated - incredible. That guy is so damn good - if he leaves - hope he goes to the AL.

In a short series pitching is always going to give you a chance.

The Giants have a ring based mainly on their pitching, and the Cards wouldn't be in the playoffs without the outstanding work of Chris Carpenter.

Look at the Sox this year. Went out and bought the best hitters on the market (Crawford and Gonzalez) but couldn't keep enough guys alive in the rotation to get into the playoffs. The Yankees had to roll out Ivan Nova in their critical game 5.

You could say the D-Backs won the 2001 series with basically two starting pitchers.