Flowchart helps you choose your favored MLB playoff team

[Denny]

And I feel that as a member of the fan base often described as baseball's best, I must link to this.

At this point, I'm rooting for the Cardinals to win it all. I can't attest to their fan base, but no way am I rooting for the Dodgers, who are succeeding thanks to a massive influx of regional sports network cash. Just can't respect that. I'm hoping for Detroit vs. St. Louis, with the Cards coming out on top.

Right there with you John! Even if the Cardinals weren't my favorite NL club, I would be pulling for them just on the payroll size differential alone. (Granted, St. Louis is no slouch, with the 11th-largest payroll in MLB, but the other three remaining teams are second, fourth, and fifth in spending.) I also admire their front office's use of advanced analytics, which has seemed to allow them to punch above their weight when it comes to finding players.

[Coqui]

Y'know, this Cardinals organization, which I follow nearly religiously, is one for which most OOTP-heads should be huge fanboys, on a couple of different levels:

1) The transition from the Tony LaRussa Era to the John Mozeilak Era has been startlingly successful in three ways:

A. The team went from an offensive focus on what can charitably be described as 'take and rake' (think Pujols, Edmonds, Rolen, etc.) to a team that is almost a throwback to the 70s or 80s with an emphasis on guys who make a lot of hard contact (Craig, Matt Carpenter, Holliday). From an OOTP level, using all 5 offensive attributes it's like switching from most players being:

8/4/8/10/4

to being

10/8/4/4/8

That's a bit of an exaggeration, perhaps, but it seems right to someone who watches them a lot.

B. The team went from a 'pitch to contact' and 'worm killing' approach to a more traditional high strikeout / power pitcher approach. Again from an OOTP perspective:

5/9/7

to

9/4/8

This is most evident in the back of the rotation and the bullpen, where guys like Joel Piniero and Woody Williams and Jason Marquis and the like have been replaced by young gas-throwers like Shelby Miller and Michael Wacha and Joe Kelly, and closers like Ryan "89mph fastball" Franklin have given ways to guys who can hit triple digits like Trevor Rosenthal and Carlos Martinez and Kevin Siegrist.

C. Finally, and this is the most striking attribute, the Walt Jocketty GM'd Cardinals traded prospects for established players, which was a good plan since the minor league system missed more often than it hit. Aside from Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina, the minor league system didn't really produce a whole lot of talent. The only two guys who were traded away that amounted to anything were Coco Crisp (nice player, granted) and Adam Kennedy (meh). This team produces a ton of homegrown talent. Heck, three of the four starting pitchers in the playoffs are homegrown: Lance Lynn (a third year MLBer), Michael Wacha (rookie), and Joe Kelly ('redshirt' rookie). And that's not even including 15 game winner and rookie Shelby Miller, who has been banished to the bullpen. Homegrown position players include CF Jon Jay (who had a rough defensive night last night), SS Pete Kozma, 2B Matt Carpeneter, injured 1B Allen Craig, 1B Matt Adams, with Baseball America top prospect Oscar Taveras on the way in the next year or two. (And to give credit where credit is due, C Yadier Molina is homegrown and is a credit to the prior regime.)

2) The Cards are no doubt a stathead organization, but they have to have coupled it with some sort of special sauce in the scouting/player development system that can't be attributed to statistical analysis, particularly when it comes to pitchers. With one exception, the 4 key members of the bullpen right now weren't exactly top prospects: Trevor Rosenthal (21st round), Kevin Siegrist (41st), and Seth Maness (11th round). That's two junior college players and a high schooler, all of whom have been complete studs. Rosenthal and Siegrist both cook with gas, sitting in the high 90s and touching 100 mph relatively frequently. The one exception, Carlos 'Baby Pedro' Martinez, was an international find. Lance Lynn, a relatively high draft pick (39th overall), was drafted from Ole Miss as the prototypical low risk/high floor/low ceiling starting pitcher - already a well-developed repertoire, with a fastball that sat in the high eighties and only occasionally touched 90. Somewhere between AA and AAA, he found 7-8 mph on his fastball, and now sits at 94-95 and touches 96-97 frequently. That's coaching (unless it's chemistry. . . . shhhhhhhh), and that's pretty impressive.

[John]

I'm reading this way past my bedtime and I promised myself I wouldn't do any posting tonight, but I just have to say... James, that was a hell of a post. If I wasn't already rooting for the Cardinals before reading it, I would be now.