Happy Birthday Joe Brackets

Ladies and gentlemen, yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of the first-ever Joe Brackets post.  Of course, I marked the occasion by completely forgetting and not putting up anything new until today.  (The fact that I couldn't really think of anything to talk about contributed to it, as well.)  But here we are with Year 2 of Joe Brackets officially upon us.

With all that out of the way, it's time to start talking some sports.  If you've followed this blog at all over the past year, you know that baseball is my favorite sport.  I've seen every pitch of this year's World Series so far, and it certainly wasn't what I was expecting until last night's Cardinals rout in Arlington.  Some thoughts on the first three games:

• What was Ron Washington doing sending Esteban German up to pinch hit in Game 1?  The Cardinals had a 3-2 lead and Texas obviously had to pinch hit for Ogando, but wasn't that the whole purpose of adding Matt Treanor to the World Series roster?  Rzepczynski was in there so he didn't want to send a lefty up.  I get that.  But Washington added the third catcher so that he could use Yorvit Torrealba in pinch-hitting situations or at DH and still have another catcher available.  In other words, Treanor was added to the team so that he could have Torrealba available as a pinch hitter.  Yet he left Torrealba on the bench and instead sent up a weak-hitting middle infielder who hadn't had an at-bat since mid-September.  And German promptly struck out to end the inning.  Texas didn't have another base runner the rest of the game.
• Tony La Russa completely outmanaged Washington in Game 1, but he outmanaged himself in Game 2.  Regardless of whether or not it was an error by Pujols that moved Andrus to second, taking Motte out of the game was the wrong move.  The tying run was already on second and first base was open, so he easily could've walked Hamilton to set up both the double play and the force at home.  Instead he lifted Motte and brought in Arthur Rhodes to throw one pitch, which ended up being the game-tying sac fly.  Another pitcher, another sac fly by Michael Young, and Texas wins.  I'm not saying the inning plays out the same way if Motte stays in there, but if it does, Beltre's grounder is an inning-ending double play and the Cardinals go into the bottom of the ninth tied instead of behind.  Motte's also much more of a strikeout pitcher than either Rhodes or Lance Lynn, so maybe he gets a strikeout and a double play, and St. Louis wins 1-0 instead of losing 2-1.
• Tim McCarver further proved that he's a complete moron after Yadier Molina's walk in the bottom of the ninth in Game 2.  He suggested that the Cardinals have Ryan Theriot pinch run for Molina, then have Gerald Laird come in and catch if the game went into extra innings, conveniently forgetting that they were the last two guys left on the bench and Theriot had to be available to pinch hit for the pitcher in the 10th inning.
• Don't let it be forgotten that a blown call at first base led to all hell breaking loose in Game 3.  It's only 1-0 Cardinals in the top of the fourth when Matt Holliday hits a grounder to short.  Albert's out at second, but Ian Kinsler's throw to first is wide.  It doesn't matter, though, because Mike Napoli clearly makes the tag before Holliday touches the base (that's why he tripped when he touched first).  However, Holliday, who never touched home when he "scored" the game-winning run in the 2007 NL wild card game, was called safe and later scored the first of four Cardinal runs that inning.
• Everybody's talking about Albert's three bombs in Game 3, and rightfully so, but no one seems to care that he also tied a World Series record with five hits (in five consecutive at-bats).  He's only the second player ever to record five hits in a World Series game, joining Paul Molitor, who did it against the Cardinals in Game 1 of the 1982 Series.
• If Ron Washington wants to win the series, he can't keep relying on Alexi Ogando.  He threw Allen Craig the exact same pitch twice in St. Louis, and Craig hit a go-ahead RBI pinch-single each time.  Then last night, Craig was the only guy he was able to get out.  Ogando's stuff is electric, but he's leaving everything right over the plate to good hitters.  Ogando needs to figure out a way to fool these Cardinals hitters, because what he's doin' ain't workin'.  If I'm Washington, I can't risk using him in a big spot tonight.
• Last night's game was more what I was expecting than the two in St. Louis.  I expect it to be more of the same tonight.  Edwin Jackson's not going to get out of the fourth.  The Rangers need Derek Holland to be able to shut the Cardinals down for at least a little while, though, because Ogando and Feldman are completely worthless right now.
• A.J. Pierzynski called out Albert before Game 3, and he really got going.  There's obviously no direct correlation, but maybe he needs to call out Josh Hamilton, too.  Hamilton is a combined 3-for-32 in the Rangers' two World Series appearances.  If Texas is going to win this series, their best player needs to actually start hitting.
• ESPN.com made it a point to mention that they moved the start of Game 3 back to a normal time after starting it at 6:30 last year.  Last year they made that move to appease the people who complain that the games were ending too late.  The second-lowest World Series game later, they moved the start back to 7:30 with an 8:00 first pitch, proving the point that I made last year about the time change: there's nothing wrong with an earlier start, but 6:30 is too early.  People do things on Saturday afternoons, and they're probably not going to be done with them by 6:30.