To the 2008 St. Louis Cardinals for finishing what may have been the most entertaining rebuilding year evar in fine style with a season-best 6-game winning streak and a respectable 86-76 record (three wins better than the World Series champion 2006 season).
We saw a lot of players establish themselves as exciting major league players: Ryan Ludwick, Rick Ankiel, Chris Perez, Jason Motte, Joe Mather, Skip Schumaker.
Aaron Miles had a career year and won some hard-to-win fans.
Chris Carpenter and Josh Kinney showed that they still have it after TJ, although Carp’s going to need his nerve issues sorted out (I’m optimistic about that).
Need to finish up my chapter by the end of the month, but I’ll get back to writing about baseball in a few days. I don’t like the Lohse extension, of course. And I’ll grade myself on pre-season predictions and such (Maj had a strong season; I was dead wrong on Hampton).
And a big congratulations to my friends Jeff and Karyn on their wedding this past Saturday.