The Grass Is Always Greener

Over at Only Baseball Matters you'll find a comparison between the paths the Cards and Giants have taken since meeting in the 2002 NLCS. Of course the Cardinals path has been rocky at times, as anyone who remembers the Tomko-Stephenson-Simontacchi and Fassero-Yan-Springer-Borbon legions of doom can attest. Speaking of which, Tomko evidently has been kicked out of the Giants' rotation while Fassero has a start coming up against Woody Williams.

Well, that makes me feel a little better about Mulder.

OBM points to this post from David Pinto. I said it when the Red Sox faced the Cubs, and I'll say it again: I sorta wanted the Cubs to win over the weekend, this time so the Cardinals can catch the White Sox for the best record in baseball. Prior and Wood are back though, the Cubs still have a lot of talent, and the two teams have 16 or so head-to-heads left.

Aaron Gleeman has his National League All Star lineup up, and he seems to have overlooked the Greatness That Is Jim Edmonds. Aside from that, Gleeman's inventory of National League catchers got me wondering how far Yadier's behind the bunch, and it isn't by much. Molina's only got a VORP of 5 against the 16-17 for LoDuca and Piazza, but of course VORP doesn't consider defense. Molina has an extra 10 or so caught-stealings over the average catcher and 5 (I'm guessing 2 is around average) pickoffs. Figure each one's worth a half-run or so and the rest of his game is average, and Molina's only a couple of runs behind the cream of a weak crop.

Recent Transactions

With Jeff Suppan and So Taguchi rescuing the Cardinals from their recent cold streak, I don't need to resort to diversionary tactics to maintain my sanity. Nonetheless the Cards shuffled the roster enough over the last few days to merit some discussion. I'll note up front that none of these moves are as significant as Jim Edmonds regaining his stroke in a snap or Scott Rolen struggling to find his form over the last week.

First off, the Cardinals traded future considerations for 26 year old minor league infielder Tim Hummel. Consistent with his AAA career, Hummel was hitting 250/341/393 at Pawtucket this season, so presumably the Cardinals don't have any bold plans for him. Minor leaguers are swapped all the time without much fanfare, but this one ties into a couple of major league transactions over the last week. In fact in an article at the Post-Dispatch (that I can't find any more) there was speculation that Hummel had been acquired to replace Seabol at 3B at Memphis.

Consistent with that theory, Roger Cedeño was designated for assignment. You have to twist the data to say good things about what he did on the field for the Cardinals and he looked even worse than the stats indicate. Cedeño had some nice numbers in 1999 and 2000, and perhaps that history will lead some other team to take a flyer like the Cardinals did. However this could be the end of Cedeño's career.

Just when Scott Seabol is starting to feel a bit more comfortable, the Cardinals optioned him back to Memphis. The Cardinals recalled Hector Luna, who's hitting 229/295/341 at Memphis. That's right, a 636 OPS in the Pacific Coast League. The official reason is that it's really hot in St. Louis, so they need somebody who can give David Eckstein days off against left-handers. Truth is, Tony LaRussa can never have enough shortstops. Either that or Eckstein's days off are so written in stone that he can't shift his rest a day forward or backwards to permit Nuñez to hit from his strong side. Take the good with the bad with LaRussa, but Hummel's a better player than Luna and it seems strange to be worrying about shortstop depth when one of your thirtysomething outfielders has a cracked rib and another is getting cortisone shots for his neck.

Finally Randy Flores went to the disabled list with a foot problem that sounds more icky than serious. If you have the choice, then you're better off if you don't learn the exact details. The Cards called up Carmen Cali to replace him. Cali is a litmus test for lapsed Catholics, since some mysterious force compels us to do signs of the crosses whenever he enters the game.

06/23/2005

Old ballgame has newfangled twist- Soon, we won't even have to go to games, we can just play them at home.
Posted by josh.schulz

06/22/2005

U.S.S. Mariner » All-Stars: National League
Posted by josh.schulz

The Shift Is On

Many years ago the family was touring around Colorado in a cheap rental car, a Chevy Citation. The car had issues when we were climbing into the mountains and every time it stalled I'd blurt out "This car's a dud!" After a half-dozen times my dad pointed out that my opinion of the car was known, so it was neither necessary nor helpful to repeat this. I really don't want to repeat "This pitcher's a dud", but there are three quotes rattling around my head with regard to Mulder.

First, this bit from Tony LaRussa from the Post-Dispatch, after Carpenter's strong start against the Reds on Monday (how much better does that game look after the beatdowns that Marquis and Mulder took?):

Saying the search that eventually landed Mark Mulder was "mischaracterized," he insists the club only sought another solid arm to counter equally deep rotations come the postseason.

I'm skeptical that the Cardinals traded a talented young pitcher, their only impact position prospect and a solid middle reliever for what they perceived as an innings eater. I'll hold that thought though and march onto the next quote, which comes from Mulder himself in today's Post-Dispatch:

"But there hasn't been a single game this season that I've left and thought I'd thrown the way I did two or three years ago."

Wow. The season's almost halfway over too. Here's a last quote, this one from the Plato of Cardinal bloggers, written in a comment to a December blog entry:

This is the single worst trade of Jocketty's tenure.

Brian Gunn later was more sympathetic to the deal, but it sets one side of the discussion around Mulder, a discussion that has narrowed as the bulls have shifted to a much less optimistic view. La Russa's statement in particular is an attempt to reel in expectations as Mulder simply hasn't been the pitcher he was a couple of years ago. The discussion may shift further, as Mulder's pitched poorly in June (9.00 ERA in 20 IP), which is when I'd hope Dave Duncan's work would pay dividends. Chopping up data is always dangerous, but Mulder's got to get it going soon or the Cardinals will face some tough decisions.

06/21/2005

Baseball Musings: Lee vs. Pujols
Posted by josh.schulz

Radio Days

There are always things to fret over, but the news on the field can't be any better than it has been. The Cards are 43-24 with an 8.5 game lead on the Cubs. Their second-best position player returned yesterday and their second-best starter is looking like a Cy Young candidate again. While pitching injuries are always a concern, the Cardinals have three solid Plan B's waiting at AAA, although the most talented one is on the DL for ten days. The Cardinals are almost certainly the best team in the National League and probably the best team in baseball.

However my mood has turned melancholy as the Cardinals seem intent on moving from KMOX to KTRS.

I've been listening to the Cardinals on KMOX for twenty years now, and even with the advent of Extra Innings and even with all the static and the battles with Fidel Castro over the airwaves, it's still my preferred method of following the Cardinals. I fondly remember Steve Lake's homer at close to 3 AM and Jason Simontacchi, Jeff Fassero and Rick White matching Roy Oswalt, Octavio Dotel and Billy Wagner for nine innings and LaTroy Walk-ins versus Mike Matheny. Then after the game there was Shirley calling into Jim White's show.

KTRS can't reach Indiana though, so that'll be history soon enough. While I could get used to more coverage of the current team and maybe some Cardinal-ographies and Redbird Classics, I'm losing the ability to follow them on the road or in my backyard. This nostalgia for baseball on AM radio makes me something of a dinosaur, I suppose. Maybe it's not the radio itself, but rather the connection to my late grandfathers, who combined to get me started on this habit, that I'm lamenting. Whatever the cause, even if I get some new-fangled satellite radio working, it won't be the same without KMOX.

Getting cocky

It's only mid-June, yes. And a lot can happen in the long summer months ahead. But, right now, is there any team in the National League who can challenge the Cardinals? Let's take a look.

Obviously, the Cardinals have the best record in the NL through yesterday evening (6/17). They also have far and away the best run differential in not only the NL, but all of MLB. That's thanks to their leading the NL in both runs scored and runs allowed.

Here's the records matched with Pythagorean records and run differentials (indicators of future performance) for the National League:

Team            W-L   Pct  RS  RA  +/-   Pyth  
St. Louis      42-24 .636 339 266 (+73) 41-25
Washington     39-28 .582 269 277 ( -8) 33-34
Philadelphia   38-30 .559 329 317 (+12) 35-33
San Diego      36-31 .537 302 296 ( +6) 34-33
Atlanta        35-32 .522 306 270 (+36) 38-29
Chicago        34-31 .523 309 284 (+25) 35-30
Arizona        35-33 .515 321 373 (-52) 29-39
Florida        33-31 .516 290 267 (+23) 35-29
Los Angeles    33-33 .500 308 322 (-14) 32-34
New York       33-34 .493 289 282 ( +7) 34-33
Pittsburgh     30-35 .462 277 284 ( -7) 32-33
Milwaukee      29-37 .439 278 275 ( +3) 33-33
San Francisco  28-37 .431 291 346 (-55) 27-38
Houston        27-38 .415 239 278 (-39) 28-37
Cincinnati     26-41 .388 330 391 (-61) 28-39
Colorado       22-43 .338 297 379 (-82) 25-40

Clearly, the cream has risen to the top. But the biggest thing that this table proves is that the Cards' massive lead over the next-best run differential teams in the league. They're 7½ games ahead of the Cubs and Braves, and 8 ahead of the Marlins -- none of whom have a Pythagorean record within 3½ games of the Cards anyway!

Much has been made of the Cards' lineup, but the pitchering staff has carried the team thus far. The staff leads the NL with a 3.61 ERA by a healthy margin over the Marlins, and has the league lead in WHIP, as well. Both are despite being far behind the gaudy strikeout numbers posted by the Cubs -- they rank 9th in the league in K/9. The bullpen has been stingy, converting 27 of 31 save opportunities, and allowing an ERA of 3.37, which is a full run less than the NL median. The reason for all this success? Once again, as in 2004, the Cards have by far the best ground/fly ratio in the league. I repeat: by far. And if that keeps up...

Even if the hitters continue to struggle, there's no reason to believe that their success won't continue through the rest of the season into October. And with nobody else in the NL appearing to mount a serious challenge, let's hope the Cards can cruise to the pennant this year, allowing them to focus more on winning those final four games.

Rolen on the Dock by the Bay

There are reports floating around that Scott Rolen's DL stint will end this weekend, so let's look at how things have gone since Rolen ran into Hee Seop Choi:

Cardinals Record on May 10th: 20-12
Cardinals Record Since: 22-12

How about this:

Dodgers Record on May 10th: 20-12
Dodgers Record Since: 13-21

The baseball gods work in mysterious ways. The Cardinals expanded a 4.0 game lead over the then-second place Brewers, who also have gone 13-21 since May 10th, to a 7.5 game lead over the Cubs. Thanks go to Scott Seabol and Abraham Nuñez for some serviceable work at 3B (does everyone else want La Russa to do his infielder-in-the-outfield thing with Seabol rather than see Cedeño?) and thanks to an improved bullpen for picking up some slack.

Friday's game was a minor milestone in its own right, as the Cardinals played their first game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The Rays had been the only team the Cardinals had never faced during the regular season. I always assumed the jokes about a lone heckler at Tropicana Field were exaggerations poking fun at the lack of attendance, but there really is a single individual who can be heard over everyone else. This being the 21st century, the guy's identity is known.

As for the game itself, the stats tell the story, or more precisely, the two stories. Mulder got 17 groundouts and that's the Good Mulder. On the other hand, Mulder had more homers, more walks and more hit batsmen than strikeouts (OK, 2 to 1) and a wild pitch for good measure. It seemed to me he was throwing a lot of slop below the knees and the Devil Rays were chasing and unfortunately for them making contact. While I can't dock Mulder points for attacking an opponent's weakness, that's not something I'd expect to work in the post-season.

06/15/2005

Hardball Times: Yadi's Burden
Posted by lboros

Dominant Pitching, The Sequel

Only this time the good guys won, and amazingly the sequel was more impressive than the original. Considering the competition and the DH, Carpenter's one-hit shutout was the best Cardinals start of the season. The leading alternative would be Mulder's 10-inning gem, but that came against the Astros and game scores (94 versus 87) favor Carp anyway. Actually that game score may have been the best all season in the majors. As Napoleon might put it, Ecce Numerum Unum.

After Halladay made him look like he should be pulled for Kerry Robinson, Larry Walker homered twice against Chad Gaudin, the first bomb an eloquent response to the plunking of Pujols. Up 7-0 in the 9th, Walker also beat out an infield single on a roller to the 2B. With lefty Ted Lilly starting tonight, that could be Walker's last game in his home country. I guess he's the best baseball player in the history of Canada, so shouldn't he've gotten a standing ovation or a gold watch or something?

06/14/2005

U.S.S. Mariner » The Attrition War, Diamondbacks- Not Cardinal related but check out this injury note: "Wounded in a June 2002 drive-by shooting"
Posted by josh.schulz

Book Review: 3 Nights in August tries to look beyond the numbers
Posted by josh.schulz

06/13/2005

Baseball Analysts: Gibson's 68 Season
Posted by lboros

Beyond the Boxscore: Mulder vs Haren
Posted by lboros

Dominant Pitching

If you need a reason for over-spending on an ace starter, then two of the Cardinals' last three contess might be worth reviewing. Roy Halladay made it look less like a game than a guy mowing his grass with one of those industrial-strength mowers that zoom around the lawn. The final out was squeezed a little before 8:30 Central time, leaving plenty of time for touring Yonge Street. With their only run coming off a broken-bat opposite-field homer, the Cardinals put up a meek effort against Halladay and we were served with yet another reminder of their dependence on Jim Edmonds (out at least a few days with bruised ribs) and Scott Rolen.

Jeff Suppan always seems to me to be living on the edge. He got roughed up in the first, giving up his 12th homer to saber whipping boy Shea Hillenbrand, and just as I was wondering about Anthony Reyes (who pitched five shutout innings at Round Rock tonight) Suppan decided to remind me he's pleasantly mediocre rather than simply bad. In spite of frequent opportunities, the Blue Jays should've been limited to two runs over seven innings. The run given up in the second was a classic example of home field advantage (and American League defense) as Mabry had plenty of time and space to settle under a flyball to the wall, but suffered a dizzy spell on the warning track. Well, at least we won't have to hear about Suppan's home/road splits in 2005.

If you're feeling any kind of nostalgia for green plastic, then this week is for you. The Expos' move to Washington marked the extinction of artificial turf parks in the NL, so the only phoney grass games we'll get in 2005 will be at Toronto and at Tampa Bay. It's strange to wonder if the Cardinals might have problems from lack of familiarity with turf.

Bench option?

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays designated Josh Phelps for assignment about a week ago. Phelps, the all-time MLB hits leader from Alaska (ahead of Curt Schilling, of all people) at age 27, has a career .269/.336/.473 line, and has managed at least 15 HRs each of the past three seasons in less than 400 ABs.

Personally, I think he'd look great sitting on the bench as a Cardinal - after all, he's basically a right-handed John Mabry, and gives the Cards more flexibility backing up Pujols. And with So Taguchi struggling and Abraham Nunez rather weak from the right side, it'd be great to have an effective right-handed bat looming in the late innings. If the price is right, the Cards should make a deal.

How'd we get here?

The Cardinals have the second best record in the Majors right now, they've scored more runs than any other NL team but when I looked at the box score today Larry Walker was hitting .247 and Jim Edmonds was hitting .279, and Scott Rolen hasn't played in a long time.

How are they doing it?

The first answer is obvious: Albert Pujols.

But that's the easy answer. More interesting is the fact that a variety of little pieces are fitting together for the Cardinals.

Going through the order David Eckstein is hitting exactly .300 and getting on base at a .376 clip from the leadoff spot, and right behind him in the order Mark Grudzielanek is hitting .321 and getting on base at a .369 clip. Of course Pujols does everything getting on base more than 40% of the time and slugging over .500. But behind him Edmonds average is deceiving: He's hitting under .280 but the rest of his line reads .391/.532 (he leads the team in walks). Larry Walker is only hitting about .250 but he's still walking and hitting for power (.354/.416).

Even better: Reggie Sanders bizzarre alternating good year pattern continues: He's slugging .531, stacked behind 5 hitters with OPB's of over .350 that means he's knocked in 30 runs (He's also stolen 10 bases and gotten caught only once).

Of the last two hitters John Mabry is getting on base 34 percent of the time and hitting for a little power (.418). For the guy whose your second string third baseman that's a good deal.

The only real hole in the lineup is Molina. And he's lifted his average from .181 to start may to todays .244.

The Cardinals are doing it with solid performances from players who aren't stars. Eckstein, Grudzielanek, Sanders, and Mabry are all having good to great seasons. It's a credit to Walt Jocketty. All four of those players are relativly cheap, but all four are performing very well. It's an excellent example of building cheaply around superstars.

I hate mlb.com

I wanted to put a link to Marlon Andersons inside the park home run on saturday here, but mlb.com is so useless and broken I gave up in frustration.

Dear mlb.com for the following reasons, you suck:

1. Is it impossible to provide a sinle link to display a video? Maybe you don't want people linking directly to the video, that's cool I understand. But is it absolutly necessary to force all your video watching through popups? I wanted to link to your page, send you traffic and do some of your marketing for you. But I can't. I'm not going to tell people Click this link, then select video highlights, then Marlon Andersons (it's the third one down on the tiny window next to the video, above the scroll).

2. Never ever put audio on your main page. Ever. A few seconds after the page loaded (more on that in 3) the audio for the days highlights kicked in. As much as I like crummy highlight music, if I have the speakers turned on low to listen to something I actually enjoy I really don't want to hear the damned announcers screaming at me all of a sudden without warning. I especially don't want to hear it at top volume. If you're going to insist on making me listen to that crap could you at least not f*****g blast it at me? Appreciate that!

3. So what is the record for most irritating flash items on a single screen? You guys have it right? Because the front page is a scrolling, blinking, flashing monstrosity.

I usually avoid MLB except to listen to games, because it seems specifically designed to be impossible to use. Apparently espn.com and mlb.com are each trying to outdo each other in seeing what users will put up with for their content. You guys win! I'll use yahoo, I'm sorry.

Thoughts on the Weekend

The games over the weekend and the series against the Red Sox have engendered a great many impressions within my head. Unfortunately they don't have any universal theme to tie them together except that they were prompted by the games over the last week. So here's a list:

Huzzahs all around for Scott Seabol. Salvo stole my thunder. Minor league veterans don't make a lot of money and they don't show up on SportsCenter. Dreams of a day like Scott Seabol had today is why they tolerate the bus rides and Myron Noodleman.

There's a game on Monday though.

The Yankees and Red Sox look like mediocre ball clubs. In his 2005 Handbook, Bill James discussed the phenomenon that the Red Sox always seem to underperform compared to their more granular stats. That was even the case during last year's dream season, as they "should" have won 106 instead of 98 games during the regular season. Maybe that wouldn't be the case if they didn't field a softball team. Same goes for the Yankees in 2005. I'm sure both teams looked great when they did more sophisticated versions of this, but they're prime examples of how little things like defense, baserunning and general decision-making can drag a team down.

The Yankees' and Red Sox' problems can be captured in two similar little plays over the weekend: (1) With two outs and runners on first and second, David Ortiz struck out against our favorite nutcase, but the ball rolled to the backstop. Ortiz never even left the batter's box, so the inning ended with an uncontested 2-3 rather than Manny Ramirez coming up with the bases loaded. (2) Tony Womack struck out today, and when the ball trickled away just a bit from Yadier, Womack strolled back to the dugout without even the slightest move towards first. Yes, it's hot and humid, it's June in Busch and Womack has maybe a 1% chance of reaching base. However that's not the Tony Womack I came to know and tolerate in 2004, the man who seemingly ran out every little ground ball like he was on a mission from God. Both the Yankees and Red Sox looked too cool out there and they can't get away with it without overwhelming talent, which they don't have. I'll go so far as to claim Jeter isn't immune, since that silly jump throw is more about style points than effectiveness. This leads to...

I almost liked seeing the Cubs win their series against the Sox. Much as I'd enjoy the Cardinals burying the rest of the division, it wasn't that long ago they called it the Comedy Central. In the unlikely even they're paying attention back east, a strong message has been sent that the important rivalry is in the NL Central this year.

Jeff Luhnow's last name rhymes with Bruno. That's what I learned during the umpire-replacement delay today. Luhnow was so relentlessly positive that I suspect he came from "Up With People" rather than McKinsey & Co.

The Mulder trade looks bad, but the strategy behind it looks good. First some comparisons:

Pitcher    IP    ERA    R  K/9  BB/9  HR/9 OPS-A
Mulder    83.2  4.30   43  5.4  2.7   0.75  739
Haren     80.0  4.28   47  6.6  3.3   0.90  701
WW 2004   83.2  4.18   41  6.2  2.8   0.95  742

That last row is Woody Williams's 2004 line pro-rated over Mulder's 2005 innings pitched. Mulder's replicating Woody's 2004 performance and really so is Danny Haren. Mulder evidently is healthy as we aren't seeing the September 2004 version of Mulder. That silver lining doesn't justify the loss of Daric Barton obviously.

Today's game however had me thinking of the differences between the old prudent man rule and the new prudent man rule. In the olden days fund managers weren't allowed to invest in certain assets even if they enhanced the portfolio. For example derivatives were sometimes prohibited because they were deemed too risky, even though in combination with the assets in the existing portfolio some derivatives may have reduced overall risk. We like to think we're more enlightened today.

Here's the bridge: The objectives of the "fund" Walt Jocketty manages changed from a year ago. Last year he needed innings eaters to avoid a 2003-style meltdown, while this year he needed a topflight starter, somebody who can matchup against Pedro or Santana in the post-season. So WJ re-signed Morris, who was a great starter not that long ago, and he exercised the option on, and talked extension with, Chris Carpenter, who was fabulous last year. Jocketty also held onto Anthony Reyes, the one pitcher on the farm who could go Josh Beckett on the Yankees or Nationals, even though Reyes comes with a big injury risk and the Cardinals could've use him in a trade to fill middle infield holes. There was a chance that none of these guys would be quite that good however, so he added a 4th pitcher in Mulder with upside (and risk).

Although the Mulder trade itself is not a happy story, the rotation as a whole is very promising. One of these guys is looking like an ace or maybe an ace-lite, another is looking very solid assuming he can get catch up to his sabermetric stats, one is down on the farm pitching well when he does pitch, and the last is a groundball analogue to Woody Williams in 2004. If you want to feel good about the trade, then flip Mulder and Morris or Mulder and Carpenter. The order of the names doesn't change the evaluation of the overall strategy. All that said...

La Russa may be getting protective of Mulder. Mulder's recent problems started about the time Rolen went to the DL and while you can't blame the two Emil Brown walks and the Robinson Cano walk (after getting ahead 0-2) on the 3B, for a groundball pitcher it's something to think about. I assume that's why Abraham Nunez started on Saturday rather than Scott Seabol, even though for his career Nunez has hit 218/301/268 as a right-handed batter. While I'm keenly aware of the value of defense, against Randy Johnson that's punting on second down. That lineup looked awkward and Nunez's error just made the decision look even stranger.

The Cardinals have a roster imbalance. While Cal Eldred didn't pitch, he was back on the roster today. I don't want to preach about perspective, so let's just say that's great news.

That meant someone had to go, and the Cardinals think highly enough of Brad Thompson that they're ending the Gabe White Era after only 8+ innings; compare that to the bouncing around Mike Crudale took while Luther Hackman remained on the roster in 2002. White's lack of work was the result of reliable starting pitching as the Cardinals currently are 27th in baseball in bullpen innings with a 400 inning pace for the season. The Cardinals are struggling to find uses for seven relievers, while John Mabry's start yesterday against the Unit drove home the value of an extra bat. It would be beyond classless to drop Eldred and I'd hate to see Thompson or Flores shipped back to Memphis, but I'm not looking forward to So Taguchi starting against Ted Lilly either.

Jason Giambi is a bloated David Eckstein at the plate. How can anyone hit 234/383/340? I'll bet the scouting report catches up with him in a month.

Seabol, hit ball, win game.

They say revenge is a dish best served cold, but it was stiflingly hot in St. Louis today and I imagine revenge was not the foremost thing on Scott Seabol’s mind when he was called upon to pinch-hit in the bottom of 7th inning with a man on and the Birds on the short end of a 2-1 score.

Still, the first-pitch homer off Tanyon Sturtze that Seabol deposited deep into the left-field seats for his first major league round-tripper had to provide at least some small measure of vindication after Joe Torre’s having him languish for three weeks on the Yankees bench after he made the opening day roster in 2001. Seabol did play: he was used exactly once in his stay with the Yankees, popping out as a pinch-hitter in a blowout win over the Blue Jays.

It’s been quite an odyssey for Seabol in getting to the point where he could deliver the go-ahead pinch home run against the Yankees in front of 50,000-plus screaming fans in a sold-out Busch Stadium. Seabol was the 1,716th player selected in the 1996 draft, and if that sounds like a late pick, well, it was: no player selected that low (88th round) had ever played a day in the major leagues. His lone Yankee at bat came after five years in the minors, including three straight at A-level Greensboro. Following his demotion two weeks after his at bat, Seabol spent the rest of 2001, then three more full seasons in the minors, and had been released by Milwaukee before the Cardinals signed him, at age 28, to a Triple-A contract in May 2003.

Seabol hit well at Memphis in '03 (.300/.376/.534) and again last year (.304/.356/.539), and, this year, after Scott Rolen ran into the Great Wall of South Korea a month into the season, Seabol, more than four years after his debut, finally got another chance in The Show.

Today, the timing of Seabol’s hit was impeccable, as the suddenly offensively challenged Cardinals (shut out twice in three games) had scored just two runs in their previous twenty innings and just couldn’t seem to get that big hit with runners on.

I half expected (probably more like three-quarters expected) to see Seabol bunting in the one-out, man-on-first, down-by-a-run-late situation. I imagine that Seabol doesn’t have much of a history as a bunter, but hey, Tony has Edmonds lay down the occasional sac so why not?

I hope that Seabol’s at bat provides an example to TLR on the advantages of swinging away with a runner at first in a game with more than three outs remaining: the resulting multi-run inning—including two runs that scored after the homer—would have had far less of a chance of occurring had Seabol bunted, and given that Posada homered for New York in the 8th, the Cardinals needed multiple runs to win.

So congrats, Scott—your hit gave the Birds series wins in each of their three interleague encounters to date, and prevented the red-hot Cubs from gaining any ground over the weekend.

St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum

I was lucky enough to be given tickets to the June 6 Cards/Red Sox game. Since the friend who got me the tickets is associated with the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame, I spent a pleasant afternoon killing time before the game at the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum, located in the IBM&HoF at 111 Stadium Plaza. In addition to the Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum, the IBM&HoF handles stadium tours as well.

Below the fold, a few pictures to give you a taste of what to see there. I'll be posting more of the pictures over at my own blog in a bit...

The entryway to the Hall of Fame Museum.

The Last World Championship Trophy won by the Cardinals.

The exhibit on the 2004 National League Champions. The the right of the case is the Warren Giles Trophy, awarded to the National League Champions.

The 2005 St. Louis Cardinals

An Albert Pujols exhibit. Including one of Albert's bats.

Bob Gibson exhibit.

A print of a famous painting of Stan Musial (original in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown).

06/10/2005

Red Sox players are nicer than Cardinals players
Posted by josh.schulz

U.S.S. Mariner » The Attrition War, Cardinals
Posted by josh.schulz

Viva El Birdos :: for the love of mcgee
Posted by josh.schulz

60 Games In -- Who's Hot and Who's Not

On Pace For: 105-57
Magic Number: 97

During the last 20 games the Cubs, powered by a 7-game winning streak went 14-6... and didn't gain a darn thing against the Cardinals. Meanwhile the Brewers have faded to fourth place behind the Pirates. While more sophisticated accounting has the Cubs and the Cardinals in a virtual heat, making up seven games is a lot to ask of a club starting Mitre and Koronka.

On a different note, the Yankees -- whose record is a half-game behind the Pirates' record -- and the Red Sox don't look so good right now. The Braves are having their own troubles as well. The post-season in 2005 could look very different from 2004 and in my humble opinion that's a good thing. Now on with the show.

WHO'S HOT

Albert Pujols just keeps hitting, you don't need to know the numbers. The big development during the last three weeks is that the Cardinals drafted Albert's cousin. I can state with 99.9% certainty that Wil doesn't have the talent of Albert (although he was a higher draft pick), but the Cardinals probably have a better idea of the value of working with Albert than anyone else. This should be fun to watch.

Al Reyes has pitched 10.0 innings, allowing 0 R, 2 H and 2 BB against 9 K, moving his 2005 ERA down to 1.85. Alright, he also hit a couple of batters. If he gets fined and/or suspended, then he should employ the Danny Graves defense on appeal. As in "I'm a decent reliever who's had to bounce around the bus leagues to get a chance at a whopping $450 thousand salary in 2005. Danny Graves sucks and the Mets just signed him to a deal that guarantees him at least $500 thousand in 2006, and if pitches half as well as I'm pitching, he'll get freaking $5 million. You'd throw at batters too." Or maybe he should just use the Chewbacca Defense.

Yadier Molina hit 303/343/424 the previous twenty games. I guess that's hot.

WHO'S NOT

Sure, he hit over .300, but Einar Diaz has 9 at-bats the last twenty games. While the Cardinals have had a few off-days here and there, that's pushing young Yadier hard.

Mark Grudzielanek has slowed down, hitting 263/300/303 over the last twenty games. That's hardly earth-shattering and the defense is still sound, so I'm not complaining yet. If he plays a couple of good games this weekend, Grudzielanek could start in left field for the Yankees next year.

Mark Mulder has given up 15 ER in his last 22.2 IP. The 11/9/4 K/BB/HR over that span won't impress Voros McCracken. It's been a strange stretch for Mulder, as he gave up 4 runs in 5.2 innings against a terrible Royals offense -- your ace starter really isn't supposed to give up walks to Angel Berroa, Tony Graffanino and Emil Brown (twice) -- but he held the Rockies to two runs in 8 innings at Coors. For better and for worse the difference between Mulder and Dan Haren to this point has been negligible.

DOWN ON THE FARM

After lasting only one inning on June 3rd, the Cardinals apparently had top prospect Anthony Reyes skip a start. Uh-oh. On the brighter side, unless I'm missing somebody, Chris Gissell took over the lead in strikeouts for the Pacific Coast League tonight. Cal Eldred has pitched six scoreless innings at Springfield, which is darn good news. I really hope he's not rushing though.

Whole Lot of Championships

It's finally here, the first regular season meeting of the Yankees and the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. The two franchises hold 35 World Series titles between them in a combined 55 appearances. 5 times the two teams have faced each other head-to-head in the Fall Classic.

The Cardinals took the 1926 series 4 games to 3. Grover Cleveland Alexander was the Redbirds hero, winning games 2 and 6 and saving game 7 (even though the save was not an official stat in 1926).

The Yankees applied payback with a 4 games to none sweep in 1928, Babe Ruth batting .625 and Lou Gehrig batting .545 to lead the onslaught.

In 1942, pitching led the way again for the Cardinals as Johnny Beazley grabbed complete game victories in Games 2 and 5, for the Cardinals to take the series 4 games to 1.

In 1943, the rematch went to the junior circuit team from the Big Apple. Because of World War II travel restrictions, games 1, 2, and 3 were played in Yankee Stadium, with the Yanks taking 2 out of 3, and completing their 4-1 series victory with two wins in St. Louis. Spud Chandler won 2 games for the Yankees, and the Cardinals managed only 9 runs in the 5-game series.

And finally, a series that is a little fresher in some of our memories, the 1964 Cardinals took the series from the Yankees in 7 games. Bob Gibson was the series MVP, winning complete games in game 5 and 7.

My thanks to MLB.com for all of this World Series history.

Through the innovation (gimmick?) of interleague play, the Cardinals visited Yankee Stadium during the summer of 2003, and were swept away by the Rocket's 300th victory in the first game, and outscored 21-8 during the three-game series, losing all 3.

So overall, in World Series and regular season play, the Cardinals have a 13-18 record against the Evil Empire (but a 3-2 edge in head-to-head World Series). Let's hope the Birds are as hospitable this weekend as the Yankees were in 2003.

TSF

TSF Morning Observations 06-08-05

Hi all. TSF (TedSimmonsFan) here. My first article for the Birdwatch has been a long time in coming, but I had two observations this morning that couldn't wait, regarding the Cardinals' home and away records and a couple of the interleague matchups taking place this week.

(1) As of last night's 9-2 victory over Boston, our guys are sporting identical 19-10 records at home and on the road. This prompted me to look at 2004, where the Birds were 53-28 at home, 52-29 on the road. I thought they had been more dominant at home and less so on the road last season, but the numbers don't lie, and they demonstrate a consistency that has been established on this team, even through injuries (Carpenter in '04, Izzy and Rolen in '04 and '05, etc.).

The businesslike approach of this team has been hashed out in many venues, but I see this as just another effect of that approach. As a side note, I'm glad TLR came back this year -- since taking the team to the World Series, there's been very little TLR griping here and in parts like this, which has pleased me. I credit TLR for the team's businesslike approach, and the subsequent results. I think the only thing that TLR could be hassled for thus far in 2005 is that he has allowed Roger Cedeno to take up a roster spot for as long as he did, and the (cough, cough) hamstring injury took care of that.

(2) Which do you think Dusty Baker thinks is more unfair?

(A) The imbalance of the early interleague matchups that pitted his poor Cubs against the mighty White Sox while the Cardinals drew the relative walk in the park in Kansas City against the Royals

-OR-

(B) The Cardinals' ability to take the first two from the defending World Series champion Red Sox while the Cubs were subsequently wilting under the oppressive might of the Toronto Blue Jays

Discuss amongst yourselves. :-)

Later,
TSF

Your 1991 Cardinals Part 3

More on the 1991 Cardinals. See also Parts 1 and 2.

Ozzie Smith

There's not a lot you have to say about Ozzie Smith. In 1991 Ozzie was a titan of Cardinals baseball who had been an all star and gold glove winner every year for the last decade. He was 36 years old and had one of the best years of his career at the plate(.285/.380/.367/.747). Using win shares he was the best player the Cardinals had (tied for win shares with Felix Jose but played a much more valuable defensive position).

Ozzie is such a transcendant figure in Cardinal history that I really don't have to say much about him, everybody who was even dimly aware of the Cardinals at this time knew who Ozzie was and has their own memories of him. At this point his hall of fame induction was pretty much sewn up and he was literally a living legend.

Looking back at that time know it's incredible to think that Ozzie's memory has been tarnished so much. Everybody knows the gist of the story: La Russa replaced Ozzie with Royce Clayton and the two fueded bitterly. Smith has been distant from the Cardinals organization ever since. At the time it seemed clear that La Russa was the interloper pushing a Cardinal great aside. I fully expected Tony to get the boot in a few years and find Ozzie ascendent again.

Instead Tony is in his 10th year as Cardinal Manager, he's taken the team to the World Series and to the playoffs 5 chances out of 9. He was instrumental in bringing beloved Cardinal Mark McGwire to St. Louis and guided the team through the death of Daryl Kile. When La Russa goes to the hall of fame (and he will, make no mistake) it's very possible that he will wear Cardinal red.

Now Ozzies legacy is cloudy, he's still a beloved Cardinal, but his self imposed exile has removed him from a generation of fans consciousness. The more Cardinals fans embrace Tony La Russa and the further into the distance the 82 series victory fades the hazier and hazier our memories of Ozzie become. If Tony wins a world series with the Cardinals much will be forgiven, and the other parties to his various petty disputes will suffer in the court of public opinion.

It's amazing to think that Ozzie Smith might not be revered and worshipped as a Cardinal, but he's really not. Sure his numbers up, and he's got the statue, but he's absent from the pomp and pagentry that would keep his name in the forefront of fand minds. Call it a cautionary tale of office politics: Even those you think would be above reproach can find themselves marginalized. Ozzie is one of my favorite players of all time, and I hope he can reinsert himself into Cardinality, but it seems less and less likely every year.

Sad.

Cardinals Link Blog Take 2

I used to run a Cardinals Linkblog, it's long since decayed away but I still run accross things on the internet that people would be interested in seeing, but that don't really require an entire post here so I was thinking of dragging the linkblog out of retirement.

Until I had an even better idea (thanks to TOLAXOR), I'm going to start a new link blog using del.icio.us. Here's how it works:

I'll tag anything interesting with cardinalslinkblog. So you can go to that page, or subsribe to the RSS feed and see the links as they come accross. If you run accross something interesting just post it to del.icio.us with the same tag and everybody sees it.

For information about del.icio.us go here.

Chatter: Red Sox at Birds

What the hell, I'll see if I can get a chatter going for this compelling interleague tussle.

Can the scrappy, blue-collar dirt-dog Cinderella Bosox continue their incredible run against the big, bad NL powerhouse Cardinals?

Morris (6-0) vs. the Knuckleballer (too lazy to look up his junior circuit record).

Here we go!!

Roger DL'ed

Hey Birdwatchers, no matter what happens tonight, we know going in we have this: Roger Cedeno is no longer on the active roster.

He was placed on the 15-day with a hammy, and the Cardinals called up outfielder and Memphis Redbird leadoff hitter Skip Schumaker:

 G   AB   R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB   K SB CS   AVG   OBP   SLG  E
58  219  34  62  13  0  4  14  15  22  8  2  .283  .331  .397  0

Ankiel in the Outfield

The Cardinals A-ball affiliate from Quad Cities swung through Ft. Wayne this week and with them came Rick Ankiel. I believe this was Ankiel's first pro trip to my home state and since he's technically on a rehab assignment from AA, it may well be his last. Thus, I was required by law to see him play (I want to type "see him pitch") in Ft. Wayne and there was nothing FOX could do to stop me. I attended games on Wednesday and Friday and here's what I saw.

This is Ankiel's age-25 season, so he's pretty old by Midwest League standards and he did look more mature physically than many of the other guys on the field. He hit four homers in five games prior to my visits and in 2001 he was among the league leaders in home runs, so obviously he's strong enough to hammer a mistake. In my two games he also demonstrated some understanding of the strike zone. That's the good news. The bad news is he seems very pull-happy, hitting lots of groundballs to the right side while in Ft. Wayne. I suppose that could mean he's got bat speed and needs more experience gauging pitches. It also could mean he's the Tino of the Midwest League.

Ankiel showed decent range in the field and didn't have any Marlon Anderson moments. That said, while I don't know the scouting report for Ft. Wayne, the Quad Cities CF Simon Williams generally was shaded to right field, as if favoring Ankiel. Ankiel did make a nice play down the line to hold a batter to a single. And when a runner on second bluffed towards third on a flyout, Ankiel made a Dave Parker-nails-Brian Downing-type throw, a frozen rope that the Quad Cities 3B could've caught blindfolded. Then again, the Friday night game ended in the 10th when Ankiel couldn't reach a two-out line drive and threw the ball five or ten feet up the line when challenged by a slow runner. Ankiel couldn't get his feet set-up since he had a shot at the catch, but it's not like he's Zeus throwing lightning bolts out there.

Ankiel only reached base once when I saw him, a line drive down the right field line. He showed decent speed, reaching third, but he won't be confused for Felix Pie. He also seemed a little shaken up after his slide, as he needed a minute or two ostensibly to get the dirt out of his pants. He did a couple of toe-touches to loosen up his back.

One weird thing I noticed is that Ankiel stood in RF by himself during pitching changes, rather than engaging in the customary chatter with the other outfielders. Ankiel also made the final out in three different innings on Friday and nobody brought his glove and cap to him; Simon Williams just went out to CF and stood there, awkwardly waiting for Ankiel to get to his position so they could throw warmup tosses to each other. That may have been because after his at-bats Ankiel got a lot of immediate feedback from the Quad Cities coaches or maybe Ankiel told Williams he doesn't sign gloves for white people. Ankiel also had to share right field with Jake the Diamond Dog. I'd guess Ankiel has the talent to make it back to the majors as an outfielder, but the bigger question is probably whether he's willing to tolerate 6-hour bus rides and minor league baseball's vaudeville acts for a couple of years.

As for the rest of the team, Mike Ferris didn't look like a .200 hitter. He had 9 well-struck balls in the 9 at-bats I saw. He's got thick legs, a thick chest, and so on, which is to say, he's a 1B. Jake Mullinax had a few well-placed bouncers to boost his hitting streak up to 17 games. Unfortunately he also committed his 16th and 17th error of the season Friday night, including a slow roller between the legs that got the 10th inning rally started. Donnie Smith, the Cardinals' #14 prospect according to Baseball America, started Friday. He had some trouble with the strike zone in the first inning, before settling down to get 11 in a row. He ended up with six shutout innings, but Smith was more solid than dominant. The Quad Cities closer (shudder) is Mike Sillman, a right-handed side-armer who hides the ball by throwing from a crouch. He had trouble putting the ball over the plate, which fits with his high walk rate in 2005.

MLB.tv

I'd like to thank Major League Baseball for blacking out today's Cardinals-Astros game so that I'm "forced" to watch the Red Sox-Angels of Anaheim game on FOX. You see, I watch the Cardinals too much, and it's hard to keep track of the latest developments with East Coast teams like the Red Sox and Yankees. Who wants to watch Reggie Sanders hit a grand slam or Jason Marquis hit a two-run blast when I can watch Theo's bullpen extend a game to four hours?

A Number by Any Other Name

Turning 30 is an odd event in any person's life, sort of like tasting a Coke-slushy for the first time. Having just hit that milestone myself last weekend, I was struck with inspiration. It's unclear to me whether the inspiration came from my actual birthday or the gallons of beer I consumed with friends while cabbing around Chicago's finest dives, but I remarked "I'm in my baseball prime right now." Someone laughed at me, I think it was the cabbie. So, I thought it might be interesting to throw together two all-star teams for a 7-game series: those 30 and above, and those tender souls below the line.

Which team would you bet on?

I have no scientific method to my selection process. If a player was born in 1975 or earlier, I counted them as the 30 or over group (I mean, it's got to be on their minds anyway). I just picked a couple of the best players at each position keeping in mind this isn't who I'd rather have for the next 6 years but who I'd pick to represent the demographic in a 7-game series tomorrow. Here's who I chose (please offer your own suggestions and your VOTE):

I know who I'd vote for, but it's got nothing to do with talent...

A little La Russa Love

White Sox Interactive interview with Jimmy Piersall has this choice bit about La Russa:

JP: “I had said during a show that whoever was coaching the outfielders wasn’t doing a very good job. They were out of position, they were throwing to the wrong base. It was a bad situation. So one night about eleven or 11:30 at night, LaRussa, Charlie Lau and Jimmy Leyland drive down to the studios. They told the guard they had an appointment to see me and he let them in. I’m in the studio and they march in. LaRussa’s yells, ‘are you trying to get Leyland fired?’ I didn’t know who was coaching the outfielders so I said ‘no, but whoever he is he’s doing a lousy job.’ They started to act tough when one of our producers walked in, he was a real big guy, about 6-4 and when they saw him they left. I tore Tony’s ass from then on. LaRussa acts real tough but he isn’t and Leyland is nothing but a little phony.”

“All I can say is that Tony’s real lucky he’s had great players in Oakland and in St. Louis because he is a terrible manager.”

Day Game

If you're reading this and listening to or watching the game and you want to share with the world Viva El Birdos has an open thread

Roger, Over and Out—Please!

At 9:50pm EDT, my wife says, quote: "Roger Cedeno sucks!"

Salvo's Random Redbird Bubblegum Card

1958 Ken Boyer, Topps No. 350

Ken Boyer is the all-time great Cardinal third baseman, a seven-time all-star, five-time Gold Glover and 1964 NL Most Valuable Player, as well as the skipper who, along with Vern Rapp, bridged the managerial gap between the Red Schoendiest Era (1965-1976) and the Whitey Herzog Era (1980-1990).

This card shows a young Boyer, after his age-26 season---his third in the big leagues---after he had already made one all-star team, in 1956, at third base. So why does the card front have him listed as “outfield”?

To understand how Ken Boyer came to be the Cardinals starting center fielder in 1957 you must understand who the Cardinals general manager was in 1957: “Trader Frank” Lane, an inveterate tinkerer who made hundreds of deals—including some colossal boners—as GM of the White Sox, Cardinals and Indians. (According to Wikipedia, Frank Lane made 241 trades in eight years as White Sox GM.) Bill Veeck, in his autobiography Veeck as in Wreck, described working with Lane: “…if you come to Frank with a proposition, he can't say no. When I was in St. Louis, I'd call Frank up and say, "Things are dull around here. Let's do something." That's all it took.”

(See the Bing Devine item at Viva El Birdos for Bing’s description of Lane.)

Lane’s first year as GM of the Cardinals was 1956, and in mid-May, in a move that showed off his quick trigger finger—and backfired spectacularly—he traded 24-year-old centerfielder and reigning rookie of the year Bill Virdon, after a .211/.269/.324 start one month into the season, and acquired from the Pirates the 23-year-old Bobby Del Greco, who, in his only previous action in the majors, had hit .217/.301/.279 as a 19-year-old more-or-less-regular centerfielder on one of the worst teams of all time, the 1952 Pirates. Del Greco had been hitting .200 in limited action with the Pirates, and was not much better for the Cardinals, going .215/.308/.344 as the regular centerfielder for a fourth-place team that may be best noted for having on its roster nine players who would go on to become major league managers (Boyer, Alvin Dark, Joe Frazier, Alex Grammas, Grady Hatton, Solly Hemus, Whitey Lockman, Red Schoendienst, and Virdon).

And the man who Del Greco replaced, Bill Virdon? He went on to bat .334/.374/.462 the rest of the way in ‘56---finishing second overall in the NL in hitting at .319---for a young Pirates team with a core of players 25 and younger—Roberto Clemente, Bob Friend, Dick Groat, Bill Mazeroski, Bob Skinner, and Virdon—who would go on to anchor the 1960 team that upset the Yankees in the World Series.

But Lane seemed to dismiss such long-term nurturing of talent, going instead for the quick-fix idea of the moment, and in 1957 that meant moving their hard-hitting all-star third sacker to center field to fill the talent vacuum. (Ironically, after trading Virdon in May of 1956, Lane still had on his roster a 22-year-old outfielder, Jackie Brandt, who’d hit well (.286/.362/.429) in 48 plate appearances, but who he traded in June to the Giants. Brandt was immediately plugged into the Giants’ starting lineup, hitting .299/.330/.484 the rest of the way, and later won a Gold Glove and was an All Star center fielder with the Orioles).

Boyer was never one of Frank Lane’s favorites, and in Lane’s two-year stint as GM in St. Louis, he criticized Boyer as an “unaggressive player”; moved him from third base to center field; and then, in his last act as GM, in November 1957, traded Boyer to the Phillies for Richie Ashburn—a trade that was immediately vetoed by Lane’s replacement, Bing Devine. (As assistant GM a year earlier, Devine had lobbied against Lane’s proposed trade of Stan Musial to the Pirates, a trade that was ultimately quashed by owner Gussie Busch.)

I don’t know how often an up-and-coming young position player was relocated in a situation in which he wasn’t moving for an established player, but I can’t think of any off the top of my head.

I mean, this wasn’t like Albert Pujols moving from third to left field in his second season after the acquisition of Scott Rolen—Boyer was replaced at third by rookie Eddie Kasko (later a Red Sox manager), who was no Scott Rolen.

Let’s look at Boyer’s first two seasons at third (stats from www.baseballreference.com):

Year Ag Tm  Lg  G   AB    R    H   2B 3B  HR  RBI SB  BB  SO   BA   OBP   SLG
1955 24 STL NL 147  530   78  140  27  2  18   62  22 37  67  .264  .311  .425
1956 25 STL NL 150  595   91  182  30  2  26   98   8 38  65  .306  .347  .494

In 1956 Boyer posted an .841 OPS---behind only the Braves’ great Eddie Mathews and the career year of Ray “Grandpa” Boone among all major league third basemen---and seemed to be poised to settle in as a premier player at his position. But in 1957 Lane switched to Kasko at third, and suddenly Boyer was a center fielder.

Perhaps Lane felt that with more great center fielders than third basemen in the NL at that time—Willie Mays, Duke Snider, Richie Ashburn, Gus “Grandpa” Bell—he needed Boyer’s bat more there than at third, where Kasko’s production, or lack thereof, might not hurt as much. And perhaps Lane was right, as Kasko (.273/.319/.334, in 526 plate appearances) did in fact still manage to outproduce three of the other seven NL teams’ third basemen.

But Boyer, while head and shoulders above Bobby Del Greco’s 1956 production, regressed sharply at the plate in ’57 after his excellent sophomore season, for whatever reason---not the least of which may have been the position change and the “soft” accusation of Lane. And although the Cardinals actually improved from 68-86 in Boyer’s rookie year, before Lane, to 76-78 in Lane’s first year and again to an 87-67 second-place finish in 1957, Lane resigned in November and was replaced by assistant GM Bing Devine. I didn’t dig deeply enough to find any context for Lane’s quick exit, but perhaps he and Busch didn’t see eye to eye, especially after the attempted trade of Musial. And while almost-Cardinal Richie Ashburn had a terrific 1958 for Philly (it was his last great season), Devine’s first move, a month after his veto, ultimately worked out better: he kept Boyer and moved him back to third, and then acquired a 19-year-old ballhawk named Curt Flood for three journeymen pitchers who would combine to win just 20 more games in the big leagues.

Being back at third in 1958 may have helped Boyer regain his comfort zone at the plate as he bounced back with a .307/.360/.496 season while winning his first Gold Glove. The Cardinals fell back to just 72-82 and fifth place, but with Boyer back at third and Flood in center, and then the acquisition of Bill White in 1959, Devine was putting the pieces in place that would eventually culminate in the championship team of 1964, as well as the great teams later in the decade.

By 1964 Boyer was the key veteran presence on a team that blended youth with experience and that, after a June trade for Lou Brock, streaked past a collapsing Phillie team as well as the Reds to grab the pennant by one game.

Boyer, in his only World Series, helped beat the Yankees with a grand slam off Al Downing to win Game Four, 4-3, and a two-run shot in the 7th inning of Game Seven that provided the margin in the clinching 7-5 victory.

He was voted the 1964 National League Most Valuable Player, and, after a huge dropoff in 1965, the 34-year-old Boyer was traded to the Mets for third baseman Charley Smith and lefty starter Al Jackson. Boyer bounced around for a few years with the Mets, White Sox and Dodgers, retiring in early 1969.

When Boyer retired, he had hit the second most home runs of any third baseman in history, behind only Eddie Mathews, and with his Gold Gloves (5), All Star selections (7) and MVP votes in eight straight years as the Cardinals third baseman, he seemed at least a decent candidate for Hall of Fame enshrinement, given that there were only three third basemen in the Hall at that time: Pie Traynor, Frank “Home Run” Baker, and Jimmy Collins. I’m sure it came as a shock, then, to see the great Eddie Mathews---who retired a year before Boyer with 512 home runs (sixth all-time at that point) receive just 32% of the vote in his first year of eligibility, far shy of the 75% needed for election. The next year, Boyer’s first of Hall eligibility, he received nine votes—just 2-1/2% of the ballots. Mathews’ total edged up each year: 41%; 49%; 62%; then finally, in his fifth year, 79%.

Boyer, though, never received as much as 5% of the vote, and was dropped from the ballot after the 1979 vote, his fifth, in which he garnered just three votes (0.7%). He is currently on the ballot of the Veterans Committee, which until recently didn't consider players who failed to receive 5% of the ballot in any voting. Those rules have been loosened and now allow any 10-year veteran to be considered.

Still, his chances for induction seem pretty slim, given the voter’s response to his candidacy back when he was a relatively recent ex-player, as well as a (then) current manager. Now that he’s been dead for more than 20 years, and a half-dozen third baseman a year routinely hit 35 homers, Boyer’s accomplishments don’t seem so grand.

Yet again, when he retired, one 3rd baseman ever had hit more homers, no NL third baseman had more Gold Gloves, and he’d played the third-most games ever at his position. But Boyer had the misfortune to have as contemporaries the best slugging third baseman ever to that point (Eddie Mathews, who couldn’t compare to Boyer as a fielder) and the best-fielding third baseman ever (Brooks Robinson, who couldn’t compare to Boyer as a hitter). By 1975, when Hall voters were first able to consider Boyer, a spectacular generation of young third baseman were already starring (Mike Schmidt led the NL in homers and slugging, and George Brett had the first of his 11 .300 seasons).

(I'd be remiss to not mention Ron Santo, who, unlike Boyer, can't be considered even a borderline candidate; Santo is absolutely deserving of enshrinement.)

On April 29, 1978, Boyer returned to the Cardinals as manager following Vern Rapp’s dismissal after he and his drill sergeant routine (Ted Simmons: meet the scissors) wore out their welcome a little more than year after Rapp had taken over the managerial reins from Red Schoendienst. (I still have, somewhere, a Sunday Post magazine featuring Rapp on the cover, screaming at a Cardinal, as things were getting ugly.)

The ’78 team had some talented young players (Simmons, Keith Hernandez, Garry Templeton, George Hendrick, John Denny, Bob Forsch, and Mark Littell were all 28 or younger) but continued downhill after a poor start, and no Cardinal team since 1924 has had a record worse than their 69-93.

In Boyer's first full season at the helm, in 1979, the Cardinals put together a much more respectable 86-76 campaign, but finished a distant third, 12 games behind the “We Are Family” Pirates.

The Whitey Herzog era began the following year as Boyer was canned between games of a doubleheader, his team languishing with a fetid 18-33 record and on pace for their worst season since 1908. The Cardinals responded under Whitey, playing above .500 the rest of the way, and the following year (’81) had the best record in the N.L. East as a prelude to their World Championship in ’82.

Boyer wasn’t around to enjoy the ’82 title, as he succumbed to lung cancer on September 7, at just 51 years of age.

He’ll always be remembered as a great Cardinal, his retired No. 14 still standing proudly in Busch Stadium’s right field upper deck.

I'm a sucker for these sorts of things

Fungoes asks: With which Cardinal would you most like to play catch in your backyard?

It's a tough question:

Albert Pujols? I don't think I'd play catch with enough intensity for Mr. Pujols and the experience would probably be more unnerving than fun.

Mark Grudzielanek? He's barely a cardinal so I couldn't go with him.

David Eckstein? It would be kind of cool to be able to play catch with a Major league player and have a better arm than him (zing!) but same as Grudzielanek he's just barely a Cardinal.

Scott Rolen? Scotts high on the list, except I'd be afraid the phone would ring and we'd both run to get it, colide, and he'd miss the entire year.

Reggie Sanders? Reggie would be a good choice, but in a general non offensive kind of way.

Jim Edmonds? High on the list, Edmonds seems pretty cool, maybe it's the hair.

Larry Walker? When I was a kid I worked for a national hotel reservation line and we answered the US and the Canadian lines. You were supposed to check the caller ID to see if it was for Canada or the US. I never checked the line and occasionally ended up unwittingly talking to a Canadian. Now a small percentage of those callers would get really irate if you asked which state a certain city was in (God help you if it was some sort of regional capital) or what their zip code was (say 'postal code' as frostily as only someone with intimate frost experience can manage). After a few of these calls I started to activly bait especially brittle Canadians and to wrap up a meandering story I have a deep irrational annoyance with Canadian people that would make any social endeavor with Larry awkward. So skip him.

Yadier Molina? It might be awkward if batting ever came up.

Mark Mulder? I can imagine this being fun.

Chris Carpenter? I don't know what we'd talk about, plus with every pitch I'd wonder if his shoulder would make it.

Matt Morris? Yes please. Something tells me Matty would be well prepared for a barbeque.

Jaso Marquis? Meh. Does Jason Marquis evoke any fan-atical stirrings in anyone?

Jeff Suppan? By all accounts Jeff Suppan is a very nice man. So much so that during the world series last year my wife was able within seconds of seeing his face to ID him as the 'the really great guy they keep blathering about'. I suppose I would like to see whtat that was all about.

Julian Tavarez? Hardly, I have children.

Ray King? Ray seems like a cheerful guy, plus it would be fun to put down a plate of hamburgers wimpy style in front of him. Maybe he'd wolf them down maybe he'd get pissed. But it would be fun to see.

But the real answer is simple: The Man. I've never met Mr. Musial, but various people I know have and they all, without reservation, describe him as an great guy. There are lots of Cardinal players past and present who might be interesting, but playing catch with stan would be like playing with Cardinality incarnate.