Buster Olney may be the new Phil Rogers.

Olney was a good beat writer from what I understand and seems to be a nice guy, but I also can't remember a time when I've agreed with anything he's written. That's fine - he's obviously got his fans and a nice gig at ESPN.

In this article he simply misses the point, trusting his "lying eyes" over facts. Call it an attack on reality-based baseball. Olney says that the Cardinals inability to miss bats is what's doing them in. In fact, it's part of what got them there.

Using a "studs and scrubs" strategy, the Cards were able to build a powerful lineup with some obvious holes. The starting pitching was adequate because they had five decent pitchers, all of relatively equal talent and results, who were relatively cheap. (Matt Morris underperformed, to be sure.) Pitchers like Jeff Suppan and a rejuvenated Chris Carpenter succeeded in large part because they were efficient, throwing TO bats and allowing an excellent defense to carry them. By being efficient, a weak front of the bullpen was rendered mostly irrelevant, hiding another problem.

Arguing that the Cards can't succeed because they can't miss bats is intuitive, but incorrect. Simply put, they probably wouldn't be there if they hadn't done this all season. They lost Game One because they got outslugged and they lost Game Two because they didn't slug; these two things didn't happen much on the way to 105 wins.

The Cards can win by doing what they've done 112 other times this season. Inferring that their $30 million shortfall is the cause is as weak as Mike Matheny with a bat in his hand.