Congratulations to the Cardinals and World Series MVP David Freese for winning the 11th World Championship in franchise history tonight. Now that they're done playing on the field, all of the off-the-field fun starts.
Major League Baseball and the Players' Association announced earlier this evening that the start of the free agency period will be delayed by 24 hours, and will officially begin at 12:01am ET on Sunday, October 30th. All team/player/mutual option decisions are due by 11:59pm ET on Monday, October 31st. Free agents will be able to sign contracts with new teams starting at 12:01am ET on Thursday, November 3rd. The MLBPA will release a full list of free agents on Sunday, but here is our Free Agent Tracker so you don't have to wait.
Here are some other important offseason dates, courtesy of MLB.com…
- Nov. 23rd: Last day for clubs to offer salary arbitration to Type-A or B free agents in order to receive draft pick compensation. Deadline is midnight ET. Here are the reversed-engineered Elias rankings.
- Dec. 7th: Last day for free agents to accept arbitration, if offered. Deadline is midnight ET.
- Dec. 5th-8th: Winter meetings in Dallas.
- Dec. 12th: Deadline to tender contracts to players with less than six years of service time. Our Arbitration Eligibles series will give you an idea of which players are non-tender candidates.
Maybe I say this every year… but why does it seem like it takes so long until things get going?
There should be a mandatory “trade of the day” that commences starting tomorrow. Every day, at least one trade needs to be announced in the league. If no teams come to an agreement, Selig steps in and makes one for them.
That just might be the worst idea I’ve ever heard.
Congrats to the Cards! What a series.
Heck of a series. Did you notice when the announcers called Yadier Bengie? haha
Continuing the trend that I’m afraid my ears will bleed every time I listen to games on FOX.
Could’ve been worse–they could’ve called him Gustavo.
or corrected themselves and said jose
As I already said, one of the best series I’ve ever seen. The Cards were a team that were counted out so many times hat I doubt there was anyone outside of the crazies in St. Louis that thought they had a chance. Serious props, great run by the Cards, great Series.
Cardinals are back on top baby!!!!!!!!! Wooooooo!
What an impressive run. Carpenter came up huge and David Freese was the most valuable player of the entire post season. Definitely not the best team, but the one with the most heart and determination.
Back to the Trade Rumor Dumb Shits……… They beat the Phillies, the Brewers & the Rangers & YESSSSSSS they are the best team.
Nah, they got hot at the right time, just like the Giants in 2010. The Cards weren’t the best team IMO.
Just curious,,, How do you define the best team?
The team that does the best through six months of games holds more water for me than a team that goes 11-7 in one month.
Well I mean I can’t sit here and say a team that won the Wild Card is better than six division winners. Were the 2008 Phillies the best team in baseball that year? (no, the Cubs were… Phillies weren’t even the most talented team IN THE DIVISION) (going back pre wild card, the 1993 Phillies had no business beating the Braves on days Schilling wasn’t pitching). The best team isn’t always the World Champion or even pennant winner, which is why the game isn’t played on paper.
The Braves should have won so many more titles than they actually did during that 14 year run.
I tend to think the regular season, you know where there’s a six month sample size, helps determine the best team. I think a team that wins 102 games versus 90.
glad you cleared that up….. terminate the playoffs. whoever wins the most games in regular season is the BEST!!!! LOL……………….. choking is OK… not being able to play on the big stage is OK too. RIDICULOUS!!!
if being unable to win your own division over 162 games doesn’t disqualify you from being the best team, losing a 5 game series definitely cannot
Maybe we should look at the Cardinals record against your so called “best teams”.
Sure the Cardinals didn’t win the most games, but what’s so impressive about beefing up your win total against bottom feeders. Cardinals fans knew there was a good chance if we just got in because of our record head to head against the “best teams”
So the Cardinals go from barely being good enough to make the playoffs (two Braves wins and the Cardinals are watching the Phillies or Brewers in the World Series) to the best team in the league? They got hot at the right time and they played unbelievable baseball. I’ll tip my hat to them, it was impressive what they did.
The head to head matchups are small sample sizes and are circumstantial for the most part. (for instance, the Phillies had a losing Record against the Dodgers in 2008/9 overall and beat them in the post season twice). (The Phillies beat the Yankees 2/3 in New York and lost in the World Series).
I’m just going to compare and contrast the Phillies and the Cardinals, I really don’t feel like doing every play off team. (My Desktop is running slow and it will take forever).
Against the National League:
Phillies
43-29 vs East
27-16 vs Central
23-9 vs West
Overall: 93-54
Cardinals
22-13 vs East
44-35 vs Central
16-17 vs West
Overall: 82-65
Against the American League
Phillies
9-6
(vs Boston, Texas, Seattle, Oakland, and Toronto) *edit.
Cardinals
8-7
(vs Kansas City twice, Tampa Bay Toronto, and Baltimore) *edit
Much easier interleague schedule, and theirs usually is since the Phillies get matched up with Boston and most of the AL East every year.
Also hardly a situation where the Phillies just dominated bad teams… they didn’t get swept in a 3 or 4 game series until the Nationals swept them in September during an 8 game losing streak. They lost 2/3 to the likes of Seattle, Houston, Washington, Pittsburgh, New York, etc.
They were the second best team in their division after 162 games and all of a sudden because they got hot at the right time they’re the best team in the entire sport? Hardly. Impressive run and they showed a lot of heart down the stretch but that doesn’t make you the best.
Winning in the post season is something that is very difficult to do and they beat the three best teams they could have faced. (New York’s better than Texas but whatever).
I’m not taking anything away from them, I’m just simply saying they weren’t the best team. That doesn’t discount anything they did, and in fact, should make it even more impressive.
you must love the BCS. You can cry everytime someone you don’t think deserves it wins. #11 in 11 baby! Still partying in the streets.
I love when people compare their interleague schedule to the Cardinals because the Cardinals had it easy with playing the O’s and Jays. By the way, we were 0-6 in those games that somehow helped us get into the playoffs because they were easier.
9-5 vs the Phils, 13-11 vs the Brew, and most importantly 4-3 vs the Rangers.
You can say what you want, the Cardinals were better head to head vs all of those teams over the course of the FULL SEASON.
So they’re the better overall team and the best team in baseball?
The fact that they went 0-6 against Toronto and Baltimore when the Phillies went 4-2 against Toronto and Boston seems to help my point a little bit when comparing the interleague matchups. Kansas City twice is a little easier than Texas and Seattle.
… oh and you swept Baltimore, Got Swept by Toronto, lost 2/3 to Tampa Bay and won 4/6 against the Royals. (forgot interleague carried into July when checking the schedule… my bad).
… for comparisons, Phillies beat Boston 2/3, Beat Toronto 2/3, Lost 2/3 to Seattle, and Won 2/3 against Oakland… and beat Texas 2/3.
I’m crying? Not once did I say the Cardinals didn’t deserve to win, in fact, in that post, multiple times, I said they played the best baseball and they had the heart and desire to win the World Series. In previous posts, I said the Phillies should have and could have beaten the Cardinals, they didn’t, whatever.
I said two Braves win would have ended their season. It didn’t. A team that has to claw their way into the Wild Card isn’t better than two teams that clinched their divisions. If the Cardinals were better than the Brewers, they would have won the division.
I just simply said that after 162 games, the best team finishes with the best record. But because my team lost and I said the best team doesn’t always win, it means I’m crying. The fact of the matter is, every team that makes the post season, has a shot, whether that team won 116 games or 82. It’s just that, a crap shoot, 162 games means nothing at that point, whatever team is hot and playing the best baseball wins. The only way to truly judge the best team is after 162 games, after you face EVERY team in your league. You go into slumps, you get injuries, etc. Not a two 1/2 month sample size when they finally clicked as a team.
Boston was the best team in baseball for three months, how’d that work out for them?
But anyway, if you want to use head to head match ups as a way to determine the best team…
The Cardinals went 2-6 against the Giants… so the Giants must be the best team in baseball?
I’m not the only person saying this but because my team lost it’s because I’m a homer and I just want to cry because I lost. I mean, Billy Beane said it in an interview with Bob Costas “the best team isn’t always the one that wins the title. The best team is the one with the overall record.” Is he crying because his teams didn’t win? Or is he using the facts, the facts which say the best team (the one with the overall record) has, since the Wild Card Era, rarely won the World Series. It’s fact. It’s not me being a homer, it’s fact. Just because the Cardinals beat those two teams, doesn’t mean anything because for the Cardinals to have a worse record than the two, they would have had to have been worse against teams the Phillies and Brewers were better than.
Did you think the 2008 Phillies were the best team in baseball? Was that Red Sox team in 2004 really better than the Yankees?
I’m just saying why the Cardinals weren’t the best team. You can use the head to head match ups but they’re a flawed way to judge “the best.” That’s like me saying Cole Hamels is the best pitcher in the game because he owns the best hitter: Pujols.
I think the best team is the one that was the best the entire season. That includes the first week, and that includes the last week. The best team wins their division. The best team doesn’t have to claw their way in.
Were they better than the Phillies? In their match ups, yes they were. They out played, out coached, and beat the Phillies.
The Giants out played the Cardinals in their match ups, they’re the better team. But wait, they didn’t qualify for the post season this year. So wait, a team that didn’t qualify for the post season is better than the team that won the World Series? I mean, using your logic, that seems to be the case.
Blah, blah, blan, …. bla blu bla… sound like eminem. No one cares about your meaningless garbage. The Cardinals will be even better next year!!!!! BTW, parade starts today at 4:00pm.
Cool?
I didn’t take anything away and the fact that they weren’t the best team should make what they accomplished even more special. They beat the two best teams in the National League to win their 11th title.
I’m guessing you don’t have anything worth adding if you consider that a good rebuttal. Thanks for playing, enjoy your parade.
And that completes the epic collapse by the Rangers. Is that the worst collapse is MLB history?
In the post season maybe. I think it’s a better comeback than a collapse though. I mean, Feliz was brutal last night but Freese could have fouled off that cookie and struck out on the next pitch.
This should be a really interesting offseason. The three powerhouses didn’t make it past the first round (or missed the playoffs entirely).
(Texas is a powerhouse too now, IMO)
Definitely an amazing postseason particularly for the fact that we saw the 3 powerhouses all being hacked down before they reached their goals.
1. Red Sox end finish the season in humiliating fashion
2. Yankees are ousted by the Tigers
3. Phillies “Dream Rotation” not enough to net Philadelphia a title
I think it made for a different postseason feel and one truly welcomed.
On your point of the Rangers being a “powerhouse”, I would tend to disagree with you. Yes, I know they have an astounding offensive unit with a more than capable Bullpen however, you look at their rotation and you see plenty of holes. I think Wilson is gone and if they can’t pick up Darvish they are in a world of pain.
I just can’t deny their success in the post season, they had to have done something right to win the American League.
I just think with their farm system and their monetary situation figured out they’re going to be here to stay. I don’t think they’re on the level the other three are.
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I thought it was a good post season, especially after I got over that first round disappointment (for my team). Definitely the 2nd best World Series I was alive to see. (I consider 2001 to be the best. So much emotion in that series).
Now wheres JohnS to comment and say “Lolololol without Rasmus here the cards won the world series lolololol”. Any who, phenomenal series, and Reese will always remember this.
Powerhouse just won the World Series for the 11th time. I know they are scrubs… terrible, suck,,, blah blah blah. Blue Jays are the BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go Blue Jay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL LOL LOL LOL
Jays need to reload their bullpen so we can get David Freese next trade deadline!
Cardinals don’t need a bullpen anymore…. From Cardinal Nation,,,, Thanks AA. “You are the Best”
December 5th…. Early Christmas for me!! Can’t wait.
alright this is good news, the CBA doesnt seem like its gonna be a problem? Typical offseason awaits
Congrats Cards! Anything to deprive Texans of any moment of happiness, no matter how small, is tops in my book.
I wanted to Cards to win, and I’m happy they did. When they were down in game 6, I just went to bed, woke up and was shocked they continued to keep coming back. Congrats to the Cards. Now let’s get this offseason started!
you went to bed during game 6???
I knew it was gonna be tough getting up at 5 on Friday, but I’d be damned if I wasn’t going to watch the end of that game
Just thought I’d chime in with my thoughts:
Congrats to the Cards. I don’t like them but what they did was amazing. One hell of a run.
I just think the results might have turned around differently if Texas had the home field advantage like they should. It’s ridiculous that a WC team had the home field advantage in a world series because of a pointless all-star game win.
That rule seriously needs to change.