All posts by Brian Walton

Brian Walton runs The Cardinal Nation, covering the St. Louis Cardinals and minor league system.

An Atkins-Holliday comp

The 2007 National League champion Colorado Rockies featured a pair of hard-hitters in the number three and number five spots in their batting order, Matt Holliday and Garrett Atkins. Holliday had become a regular in 2004, with Atkins joining the next season, but now both 29-year-olds are former Rockies.

Garrett Atkins and Matt Holliday with Colorado, 2007 (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)Each struggled during the first half of the 2009 season, but a second change of scenery helped Holliday substantially while Atkins’ surprising funk continued from April until October. As a result, the latter became one of the most prominent names non-tendered on Saturday. The reason was clear – the third baseman’s 2009 on-field performance was out of line with his compensation.

After having averaged 22 home runs and 105 RBI over the previous four seasons, Atkins hit rock bottom in 2009. Atkins could do nothing with the bat and eventually lost his job to the younger and cheaper Ian Stewart.

With Atkins being arbitration eligible and coming off a $7.05 million salary in 2009, the Rockies apparently didn’t want to take a chance on having to pay for a longer-term view in arbitration so they cut the right-handed hitter loose.

With Atkins now on the open market and the Cardinals apparently at least somewhat interested in a third baseman, I thought it might be enlightening to look at the two, accused by some as having been products of the mile-high atmosphere in Denver.

There is no doubt which of the two is the better player, by any comparison. Yet depending on the environment, the gap narrows.

AB BA OBP SLG OPS Away/home GA % MH
Holliday Career 3237 0.318 0.387 0.545 0.933
Coors 1360 0.357 0.422 0.643 1.066
Away 1587 0.284 0.353 0.454 0.808 75.8%
w/StL 235 0.353 0.419 0.604 1.023
AB BA OBP SLG OPS Away/home GA % MH
Atkins Career 2788 0.289 0.354 0.457 0.811 86.9%
Coors 1356 0.327 0.385 0.507 0.892 83.7%
Away 1432 0.252 0.324 0.411 0.735 82.4% 91.0%

Observation: Holliday seems more of a Coors product than Atkins when comparing individual home and road performance. The former’s career road OPS was just over 75 percent of his Coors OPS, while the third baseman’s away OPS was over 82 percent of his Coors mark.

Note: For the Holliday data above, some explanation is appropriate. The “Away” data includes his results in all road ballparks over his career.  The “w/StL” numbers include his entire stats while with the Cardinals, both home and away, and are included for reference only.

Observation: The gap between Atkins and Holliday was smaller away from Denver. Atkins’ career road OPS compared to Holliday is substantially closer (91 percent of Holliday’s) than it was at Coors (83.7 percent).

To temper the enthusiasm a bit…

AB BA OBP SLG OPS GA % MH
Holliday 2009 Oak 346 0.286 0.378 0.454 0.831
Atkins 2009 354 0.226 0.308 0.342 0.650 78.2%

Observation: As much as Holliday struggled in Oakland prior to his July 24 trade to St. Louis, Atkins’ season-long problems in Colorado were comparatively more severe. Atkins’ 2009 OPS was 78.2 percent of Holliday’s Oakland outcome.

The bottom line question regarding Atkins’ future value is whether 2009 was an anomaly or his first four seasons as a Major Leaguer were instead the outlier. Some club will pay to find out. Will it be St. Louis?

Happy Birthday to TheCardinalNationblog.com!

It was one year ago today, December 12, 2008, when I published my first post on this then-brand new blog. In fact, I made five of them that day*, both to get the new site populated and because I had a lot to say beyond what the inherent space limitations on the main site allows. In addition, a blog is really a more personal vehicle than a news-first site like TheCardinalNation.com, something that greatly appeals to me.

I am certainly proud of both of my endeavors.

When I took over full-time operation of the main site this past summer, I wondered if there would still be time to blog daily as well. So far, the answer is “yes”, though the time commitment to do it right has been considerable. It is obviously a major part of my day, and I hope yours, too.

One year into returning to blogging (I began doing it years ago before it was popular), here is what this little blog alone has experienced in terms of my content and your comments:

  • 511 posts (1.4 per day)
  • 7,038 comments (19 per day)
  • Well over a quarter of a million views

The roster matrix, which I am continuing to maintain in the off-season, has been the most frequently accessed resource. It is a graphical representation of the entire Cardinals system by level.

I exceeded my one-per-day target for new postings and didn’t do it by having to resort to empty, one-line placeholders. In every one of my posts, I try to offer something of substance about which to think – and of course, discuss.

All of you have made this blog work by joining in some solid baseball discussion, whether specifically about the subject of my post or perhaps regarding whatever Cardinals-related subjects were on your mind that day.

I thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to come here and especially to those who participate. For the majority who read, but don’t post, please consider joining in the discussions.

Here is hoping year two of TheCardinalNationblog.com is even more successful for all of us.

Brian Walton

* For the record, these were my first five posts here:

“Tony La Russa still loves Colby Rasmus”
“Will Friday be Flores’ last day with St. Louis?”
“Message from Classy Cody Haerther”
“Cards to reuse uniforms in minors”
“WBC: See Pujols an extra time this spring”

Bay keeps Cardinals Holliday cooking cold while Mo stirs pot

The St. Louis Cardinals are experiencing some extra spice in their Holliday cooking due to an unwanted touch of Bay while the GM puts the heat on the super agent.

Jason Bay (AP/Charles Krupa)In multiple reports, St. Louis Cardinals officials have expressed no interest whatsoever in signing free agent outfielder Jason Bay, late of the Boston Red Sox. Yet the 31-year-old may hold the key to the route taken in building, and perhaps the ultimate success of, the 2010 Cardinals roster. It isn’t a stretch to consider its impact to the future of Albert Pujols in the organization.

How can that be?

I see Bay as the trigger for the slow-moving outfield market. The big-spending Red Sox seem to want their free agent back, having made him an early off-season offer of four years, $60 million. The Canadian native turned it down.

Apparently Boston hasn’t made another strike since and seems in no hurry to do so. Bay’s home-area club, the Seattle Mariners, are rumored to be interested as are the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The New York Mets reportedly made a four-year, $65 million offer during the just-completed winter meetings.

That is all noise on the line. If the Red Sox ultimately want to be the high bidder for Bay, they can and will. Yet their slow pace in ramping up and wrapping up negotiations leaves the most important free agent outfielder in play, Matt Holliday. Though Holliday is considered the superior player by most, he appears to be the Sox’ fallback plan if they can’t get a Bay deal done.

Until/unless that occurs, agent Scott Boras seems unable to unearth any public bidders to leverage up the Cardinals’ price for Holliday. The agent continues to expect Mark Teixeira-money for Holliday, eight years, $180 million. To date, there seems no market interest in making that kind of commitment.

The Sox are really in the driver’s seat. They can outwait Bay and even if they lose him, they can just dig a bit deeper in their pockets and snare Holliday. Unless Boras can flush additional potential buyers for his client out of the bushes, he may have to wait for Boston, as well.

The Cardinals are the ones who will probably have to blink first in this four-way stare down. If they wait too long, they will miss other opportunities to retool their club for 2010. The Cards are clearly aware of this, but the optimal time to apply a hard and fast deadline to Boras was unclear – until Friday morning, at least.

The way I see it, it isn’t Boras and Holliday who will determine whether the latter remains a Cardinal as much as it is Bay and even more so, the Red Sox. It is not a good place to be for the St. Louis brain trust. Yet there has been some movement in the one aspect of this situation they can control.

On the Bernie Miklasz radio show Friday morning, Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak confirmed he has made a formal offer to Boras for Holliday’s services and expects a response within 48 hours (that would appear to be Sunday). Details were not disclosed.

Here is hoping Mozeliak draws a firm line in the sand very soon with Boras and either lands Holliday or moves on. Mo suggested to Miklasz that mid-week next week as a probable timeframe when he may do just that.

Unless the offer is Teixeira-type money, which we know it isn’t, Boras will likely reject the Cardinals’ proposal, gambling that Boston or one of the other Bay suitors will eventually ante up more for Holliday.

Though it may be painful at first to say goodbye, the Cardinals can live without Holliday. Let the new killer B’s – Bay, Boston and Boras – play their games for the rest of the winter if need be.

Walton joins Hadley and Claiborne on KTRS Friday evening

KTRS 550 logo On Friday evening at 8:05 p.m. Central, I will be joining hosts John Hadley and Mike Claiborne on “Sportsnight” on KTRS 550 in St. Louis. The show is also available via live streaming online.

The primary focus will be the St. Louis Cardinals minor league system with recent topics such as the Rule 5 Draft, prospects added to the 40-man roster, winter league play, the Arizona Fall League, the top 40 prospect countdown at TheCardinalNation.com, the system’s relative ranking and much more.

Cardinals spring training ticket prices this decade

Roger Dean Stadium, Jupiter, FL (Brian Walton photo)In previous posts, I reviewed the St. Louis Cardinals spring training attendance this decade and summarized their ownership/lease situation in their Jupiter, Florida home, Roger Dean Stadium. A request followed to look at spring training ticket prices, which I accepted.

The following tables denote the yearly prices this decade for Cardinals spring tickets. There are five levels of seating, listed from lowest to highest prices, left to right. Further right is the yearly percentage change for the most-expensive level, Field Box seats. On the far right is the aggregate increase from 2000 to 2009.

Cardinals spring training ticket prices – weekdays – 2000 through 2009

Weekdays Standing Lawn/Berm Bleacher Loge Box Field Box FB% incr 10yr incr
2009 $8 $15 $15 $25 $27 13% 59%
2008 $5 $10 $10 $22 $24 0%
2007 $5 $10 $10 $22 $24 9%
2006 $5 $8 $8 $20 $22 5%
2005 $5 $7 $7 $19 $21 0%
2004 $5 $7 $7 $19 $21 5%
2003 $5 $7 $7 $18 $20 11%
2002 $5 $7 $6 $16 $18 0%
2001 $5 $7 $6 $16 $18 6%
2000 $5 $6 $6 $15 $17

As you can see, the largest yearly increase was enacted from 2008 to 2009. Over the ten years, Field Box ticket prices escalated 59 percent – from $17 to $27.

That is not the entire story, however. In 2004, a surcharge was added to weekend and premium games. These prices follow, with a five-year bump of 29 percent from $22 in 2004 to $31 in 2009.

Cardinals spring training ticket prices – weekends/premium dates – 2004 through 2009

Weekend/premium Standing Lawn/Berm Bleacher Loge Box Field Box FB% incr 5yr incr
2009 $10 $18 $18 $29 $31 24% 29%
2008 $5 $11 $11 $23 $25 0%
2007 $5 $11 $11 $23 $25 9%
2006 $5 $8 $8 $21 $23 5%
2005 $5 $7 $7 $20 $22 0%
2004 $5 $7 $7 $20 $22

Trying to anticipate the next question, I then took a shot at comparing to regular season ticket prices. This is an inexact effort with surprisingly less data available to me than for spring training. For example, there are a multitude of different ticket prices. For comparison to the spring numbers above, I selected first base/third base field boxes.

There are also complications. Starting in 2000, the Cardinals began to charge more for the same seat depending on the time of year. Generally, there was an increased charge during the summer months. That is denoted below as “higher dates”.

Cardinals regular season 1B/3B Field Box ticket prices – regular dates – 2000 through 2009 (partial data)

Regular dates 1B/3B Field Box Higher dates FB% incr 10yr incr ST/RS
2009 $60 100% 45%
2008
2007
2006
2005 $60/$63 5/23-9/11 22% 35%
2004 $49/$52 5/1-9/5 14% 43%
2003 $43/$45 5/16-8/28 16% 47%
2002 $37/$38 5/31-9/7 0% 49%
2001 $37/$38 5/28-9/6 23% 49%
2000 $30/$31 5/26-9/4 57%

Note: The years 2006-2008 are blank, as Field Box tickets were apparently not sold on an individual basis during those seasons.

While there was a 100 percent increase in Field Box ticket prices from 2000 to today, it all occurred in the old Busch Stadium with 2009’s $60 identical to the 2005 level.

Wait! There’s more!

Beginning with the 2005 season, the Cardinals added an $8 per ticket charge to certain “premium games” such as when the Cubs came to town. That meant the same seat carried four different list price tags depending on the time of year and opponent.

Here are the other two prices.

Cardinals regular season 1B/3B Field Box ticket prices – premium dates – 2005 through 2009 (partial data)

Premium dates 1B/3B Field Box Higher dates FB% incr 4yr incr ST/RS
2009 $70 3% 44%
2008
2007
2006
2005 $68/$71 5/23-9/11 32%

To keep this discussion on topic, I call your attention to the far right of the two preceding tables. The “ST/RS” columns denote the relationship between the prices of spring training Field Box seats (ST) and regular season Field Box tickets (RS) in a given year.

Whether we are considering regular or premium dates, the relationship seems to be about 45 percent. In other words, a spring field box ticket costs about 45 percent of a regular season one.

Final note: For the 2010 regular season, it appears that all Friday-Sunday games are premium games with the additional surcharge for Opening Day and all Cubs games.

Breadon outshines Busch and DeWitt as Cardinals owner

Dizzy Dean, Frankie Frisch and Sam Breadon in spring training, 1935 (Getty Images)Lost in all the excitement over the Monday announcement of the election of Whitey Herzog to Baseball’s Hall of Fame and the outrage of former union chief Marvin Miller missing out again was a defeat for the history of the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Veterans Committee for Executives and Pioneers was unable to agree on a single name from their candidate list of ten. In the process, they left behind another most deserving man along with Miller, the late owner of the Cardinals, Sam Breadon.

Being named on nine of 12 (75 percent) of the ballots was necessary. Voters were instructed to vote for up to four names.

Here are the results:

  • John Fetzer, Detroit (eight votes, 66.7%)
  • Marvin Miller, players union (seven votes, 58.3%)
  • Jacob Ruppert, Yankees (seven votes, 58.3%)
  • Ewing Kauffman, Royals (six votes, 50%)
  • Fewer than three votes, less than 25%: Gene Autry, Breadon, Bob Howsam, John McHale, Gabe Paul and Bill White.

Breadon’s showing was especially disappointing since the 12 voters included two with deep Cardinals knowledge – Rick Hummel of the Post-Dispatch and club chairman Bill DeWitt.

The other committee members included Hall of Fame players Robin Roberts and Tom Seaver; former executive John Harrington (Red Sox); current executives Jerry Bell (Twins), Bill Giles (Phillies), David Glass (Royals), Andy MacPhail (Orioles) and John Schuerholz (Braves); and media veterans Hal McCoy (Dayton Daily News) and Phil Pepe (New York Daily News).

Breadon and others may receive another chance in two years. The two Veterans Committees that vote on managers and umpires as well as executives and pioneers will consider candidates again in 2011 for 2012 induction. The bar is high, with fewer than a dozen owners currently enshrined.

Perhaps it is because I just wrote about retired numbers and still disagree over the related decision to honor Gussie Busch in that manner, but I decided to make a quick comparison of the owners, Breadon and Busch, along with the current group under DeWitt. They make up the longest-tenured and most dominant of the seven different Cardinals owners in the club’s recognized history starting in 1892.

I recognize that the Hall of Fame is different from retired number recognition, but that backdrop seems an interesting introduction to their respective legacies.

Owner Years Won Loss Win rate NL pennants NL pennant % WS champs WS %
Breadon 31 2657 2061 0.563 9 29.0% 6 19.4%
Busch 43 3477 3280 0.515 6 14.0% 3 7.0%
DeWitt 14 1232 1034 0.544 2 14.3% 1 7.1%

(Three losing years are included under Breadon during which he was a minority investor and there was no majority owner. Busch’s years include the six following Augie’s death when the brewery ran the team.)

As the above table indicates, Breadon’s Cardinals teams not only had the highest regular season winning percentage, they also collected the most National League pennants and World Championships. Not only that, but when Breadon’s club made the Series, they won 2/3 of the time as opposed to half the time for the others.

I added percentage columns as an equalizer. Breadon’s clubs took the NL crown twice as frequently as during the other two ownership tenures and the ultimate prize almost three times as often. Granted, the NL had just eight teams in Breadon’s era, but the process of beating all comers remains the same. (For more information about Breadon, check out this article, “Breadon among deserving Hall of Fame candidates”.)

As an aside, note the striking post-season similarities between the Busch and DeWitt regimes, though the current owners have a better regular season mark.

Bottom line, Sam Breadon appears to have solid Hall of Fame credentials, and based on results is more deserving of special recognition from the game of baseball than Busch.

Don’t retire Herzog’s number – a different approach

Grade inflation. It is a major problem for educators as everyone strives to be above-average and too many are achieving it.

Whitey Herzog (AP photo)The St. Louis Cardinals have a similar problem, retired number inflation. It seems when anyone from the current generation enters Baseball’s Hall of Fame and sometimes even when they have no chance of election (Willie McGee), the retired number drums beat long and hard across Cardinal Nation.

The most recent example:

In his congratulatory post for the much-deserved selection of Whitey Herzog into the Hall on Monday, the Post-Dispatch’s influential columnist Bernie Miklasz took the lead in pushing for the St. Louis Cardinals to retire Herzog’s number 24.

In the linked post, the primary reasons offered in support of Whitey are as follows:

  • “he’s officially a Hall of Famer”
  • “He pulled the Cardinals out of the baseball depression of the 1970s” and “completelu (sic) revitalized the franchise”
  • “put together a roster that won three NL pennants and a World Series in the ’80s”
  • “did so with a unique style” that was “grand entertainment”

Let’s take them one at time with my personal commentary.

  • Whitey is a Hall of Famer. That cannot be debated. Thankfully, there are substantially more Cardinals in the Hall than there are retired jerseys, however. In fact, I am not alone in believing there are other more deserving Cardinals Hall of Famers whose numbers are not retired. Examples include Jim Bottomley, Frankie Frisch and Ducky Medwick. Common thread – current Cardinals fans and writers never saw them play.
  • Herzog revitalized the franchise. Very true but so have others at different times. Branch Rickey’s “number” isn’t retired, for example, and he is the greatest Cardinals executive ever, bar none. Before Rickey arrived, the Cardinals had spent two consecutive decades in the second division.
  • Whitey put together the championship roster. Also valid. He should get extra points for having been the general manager. So should Rickey, who is also number six on the club’s all-time list for managerial wins.
  • Herzog had unique and entertaining clubs. Agreed, but so were manager Frisch’s Gas House Gang teams of the 1930’s. I would not give extra style points consideration here.

Though I am not seeing enough uniqueness in his above arguments, Miklasz went as far as to make the assumptive statement that he is “confident that the Cardinals will get it done” for Herzog this coming season.

Rick Ankiel (Getty Images/Stephen Dunn)24’s recent history

In a possible indication of how the organization might feel about the matter, let’s consider how number 24 has been handled since Herzog’s departure.

It has been worn by at least nine Cardinals since 1992, from the famous (Don Baylor, Dmitri Young, Eric Davis and Bobby Bonilla) to the obscure (Bryan Eversgerd, Tom Urbani and Rick Croushore). Most recently, bench coach Joe Pettini and free agent outfielder Rick Ankiel sported number 24 jerseys.

Conversely, other prominent numbers, such as Mark McGwire’s 25 and McGee’s 51 (with one very brief exception) have remained out of circulation since the respective days each player retired. (For the record, I am not in favor of retiring either of these numbers. Just pointing out the differences.)

Avoiding temptation

Especially after seeing recent decisions by the franchise, I would be strongly in favor of a five- or perhaps even ten-year moratorium on retiring numbers after Hall induction. When a new Hall of Famer from the current generation is inducted, the strong temptation is to bow to sentiment and immediately retire that individual’s number. That expectation should not be created.

This would have to be a self-imposed ban, however, as ownership makes the call on what numbers to retire and when based on whatever criteria they happen to favor at that particular moment in time.

The need for greater restraint became painfully evident when the number 42 of Bruce Sutter, who spent all of four seasons with the Cardinals, was retired to celebrate his 2006 induction.

Just imagine how many retired numbers there would be if the club did that for every Hall of Famer who was a part of one World Series champion, played four years with the Cardinals or was employed by the club that length of time? Every season, the team would have players in the triple digits on the field and the entire outfield wall would be covered with “honorees”.

Old timers are old news

When 1940’s manager Billy Southworth was enshrined in Cooperstown in the summer of 2008, there was no groundswell of demand that his number be retired. There wasn’t even a ceremony at Busch Stadium to mark the occasion. For the record, Southworth enjoyed greater success at the helm of the Cardinals than Herzog (two World Championships and a .642 winning percentage vs. Whitey’s one and .530).

Any one who knows anything about Cardinals history would place the accomplishments of any of the three Hall of Famers of Bottomley, Medwick and Frisch ahead of McGee, yet it is the latter who today’s fans want recognized.

This is why I think there should be a substantial waiting period – to ensure the honorees’ feats truly stand the test of time. For this franchise more than most any other, the bar should remain extremely high.

The Cardinals aren’t being “cheap” here as they already have 12 retired “numbers”, counting Rogers Hornsby and Jack Buck. That is the second-most in Major League Baseball behind the Yankees (15 numbers for 16 individuals). The Dodgers have ten.

A potential solution

Rather than just complain about the problem, I offer a potential solution.

While the mistakes of the past cannot be corrected, I believe one solution is to establish a Cardinals Hall of Fame, Level of Excellence, Ring of Honor or choose your term. It would be a way to celebrate the top individuals in the history of the franchise without having to make irrational and convoluted number-retirement decisions.

In my humble opinion, this would have been a better way to acknowledge special non-uniform personnel like Gussie Busch and Buck. It could also offer a way to recognize favorites that just don’t measure up to Hall of Fame and/or retired number status, such as McGee. By definition, it could encompass all the Cardinals Hall of Famers, including Herzog and those former greats seemingly forgotten over time.

In the future, if it is deemed some of the Ring of Honor individuals warrant retired number status, they could always be given an upgrade.

For now, instead of bowing to inflation, why not institute a two-tiered structure that keeps the retired number honor for the very best of the best?

Herzog follows top Cardinals managers to Cooperstown

With Whitey Herzog’s well-deserved selection to Baseball’s Hall of Fame announced Monday, six of the seven Cardinals managers with the most career wins with the club are or are committed to be in Cooperstown.

Herzog at Busch Stadium on Monday (AP/Tom Gannam)The others previously enshrined are Red Schoendienst (as a player), Billy Southworth, Charlie Comiskey (as an executive), Branch Rickey (executive) and Frankie Frisch (player).

The other missing name of course, is the incumbent manager, Tony La Russa, tops on the list with 1,232 franchise victories and counting.

When Joe Torre (ninth in Cardinals managerial victories) and La Russa eventually go in, and both will, nine of the top ten St. Louis managers in terms of wins will be enshrined.

Of the nine present and future Hall of Famers, only La Russa, Herzog and Southworth will have been enshrined primarily due to their results managing the Cardinals.

No matter how you count it, it is an impressive total for an impressive franchise.

Managerial record by wins and Hall of Fame status, St. Louis Cardinals, career

Rk Manager HOF Inducted How As StL yrs From To Gms Wins Losses Pct
1 Tony La Russa lock Manager 14 1996 2009 2266 1232 1034 0.544
2 Red Schoendienst yes 1989 Veterans Player 14 1965 1990 1999 1041 955 0.522
3 Whitey Herzog yes 2010 Veterans Manager 11 1980 1990 1553 822 728 0.530
4 Billy Southworth yes 2008 Veterans Manager 7 1929 1945 981 620 346 0.642
5 Charlie Comiskey yes 1939 Veterans Executive 8 1883 1891 852 563 273 0.673
6 Branch Rickey yes 1967 Veterans Executive 7 1919 1925 947 458 485 0.486
7 Frankie Frisch yes 1947 Regular Player 6 1933 1938 822 458 354 0.564
8 Eddie Dyer 5 1946 1950 777 446 325 0.578
9 Joe Torre lock Manager 6 1990 1995 706 351 354 0.498
10 Miller Huggins yes 1964 Veterans Manager 5 1913 1917 774 346 415 0.455

Ballpark Village holding Cardinals Museum hostage

The old Busch Stadium, known as Busch Stadium II, had a lifespan of just 40 years. One-fourth of that time has already elapsed since the redevelopment of the site, called Ballpark Village, first emerged back in 1999.

Others can do a more thorough and passionate job of outlining the long history of the project. Comments made by St. Louis Cardinals president Bill DeWitt III on Thursday at Webster University as reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reopened a wound in terms of one important aspect of the oft-delayed plans – the continued closure of the Cardinals Museum.

Being responsible for breathing life into the retail/entertainment/residential/office development has proven to be a major problem for III, with the economy the primary stumbling block. Currently, there is little hope the bonds to finance the project would be snapped up by investors. So, Ballpark Village and everything associated with it remain in suspended animation.

DeWitt declined to provide any new schedule – even as to when construction might begin – other than to suggest it will not be in 2010. He apparently learned his lesson in the past in stating, “I’m done predicting.”

Frankly, like many I have become somewhat immune to the delays, promises and broken promises. I could theorize that keeping the project in “Weekend at Bernie’s” status might have something to do with the Cardinals wanting to stave off the ticket tax waived by the city as part of the incentives to build the stadium and village. But, that would just be “predicting”.

Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum logoMy primary issue here is with one of the many innocent victims of this long-running saga. The still-closed Cardinals Museum was slated to be a part of the initial phase of Ballpark Village.

Last Thursday, I asked the Cardinals to verify with DeWitt III if his non-prediction also applies to the museum, or whether the facility might be re-opened in an interim location, a move I have pushed from the very beginning. I did not receive a reply from the organization. I suspect we can all “predict” the answer why.

Officially known as the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum, it had been housed together with the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame across the street from both the old and new Busch Stadiums. The bowlers opened the building in 1984 with the Cardinals museum moving over from its previous ballpark site in 1997, leasing 5,000 square feet of space. The baseball museum had first opened in 1968.

In November, 2008, both facilities closed as the International Bowling Museum turned down a Ballpark Village offer to remain and instead initiated a move to Arlington, Texas.

The former Bowling Hall of Fame buildingThe former museum site at 7th and Walnut Streets, a triangular-shaped, seven-tenths of an acre parcel, was the final piece of real estate needed for… you guessed it… Ballpark Village.

As I have said before, closing the Cardinals Museum for any period of time seemed a short-sighted decision, but was simply inexcusable with all the eyes of the baseball world on St. Louis for the All-Star Game just eight months later.

Now, as the Museum moves deeper into its second year of what is officially being called a “transitional period”, there continues to be no schedule for its return.

But hey, there’s nothing to worry about. After all, fans visiting Busch Stadium can look forward to banners, a series of round medallions remembering retired-number players plus some nifty graphics on the left field wall. Oh, and don’t forget the memory brick paver program anchored to “Great Moments in Cardinals History” funded by fans.

What more could history buffs possibly want?

At this rate, there will be discussion of building the next-generation Busch Stadium IV before Ballpark Village becomes reality and the Cardinals Museum is re-opened.

‘Tis the early Holliday season for Cardinals second-guessers

“Unreasonable expectations”, “exit strategies”, “blowing it”, “disappointing the fans”, scream the headlines.

It’s that season once again – the rhetoric season – the annual pre-second-guessing of St. Louis Cardinals ownership and management. It occurs every year at this time, no matter how the previous campaign ended on the field, what the outlook for the next might be or what has transpired during the off-season to date.

Granted, this is an uneasy time for writers on deadlines, needing something spicy about which to opine during a traditional period of low activity across Major League Baseball. (For a great graphical representation of recent years’ trades and free agent signings by winter day, see this post on the Fungoes blog.)

People starving for news seem to hang on every word spoken by club officials and agents alike, as if it is the accurate and only word. They don’t seem to understand or accept that these figures are professionals that know how to leverage the media to further their own interests and negotiating stance.

The hungry public gobble up the spin as translated by the writers as if it is a gourmet meal instead of the table scraps they usually are.

Other times rumors magically leak out, unattributed to any reputable source, yet the breathless rumor-chasing world can turn on its ear as a result.

Matt Holliday (Getty Images)Let’s take an example.

Some are currently worked up because the Cardinals have supposedly misled their fans regarding their chances of re-signing Matt Holliday, setting expectations unrealistically high. The storyline continues that the club is now trying to let the public down easily that they may be unable to keep the free agent outfielder. That is being passed off as news.

Apparently, the Cardinals should never have said they would do their best to re-sign the outfielder because some fans cannot sort through the clutter to logically think this through for themselves.

Others more romantically inclined, previously became convinced that Holliday would fall in love with St. Louis and sign for a below-top dollar amount just for the privilege to remain with the Cardinals. Their starry-eyed logic was based on several other players having done that in the past under entirely different circumstances.

How naïve is all that?

Anyone with any knowledge of the free agent market and the consistent tactics of agent Scott Boras over the years could easily forecast how the Holliday situation would evolve from the very day in July the Cardinals traded for him. In fact, many of us did just that.

After acquiring Holliday and seeing him in action, the Cardinals expressed interest in bringing him back, but openly acknowledged some time ago that they do not want to allocate the resources to be the highest bidder if it gets to that point. That seems pretty clear.

The Cardinals have not yet made Holliday an offer likely in part because they knew no matter how good it would be, Boras would turn around and use it to try to secure even more cash from another deeper-pocketed organization. This is not surprising.

If Boras can locate another suitor with more money, he will surely take Holliday there for 2010 and beyond. No matter what Bill DeWitt, John Mozeliak, Boras or any writer says, that is most likely what will happen. Again, this is not a news flash.

Other rabble-rousers suggest the Cardinals brass only recently realized it will cost them a substantial percentage of their player payroll to re-sign Albert Pujols as well as Holliday – perhaps more than the club believes they can afford. It seems a change of tune from these inciteful (not insightful) pundits who previously applauded the organization’s efforts in acquiring Holliday in the first place.

Despite the charges to the contrary, those running the team are not stupid nor are a majority of readers for that matter. Yet the extremists – the torches and pitchforks crowd – seem to enjoy getting worked into a frenzy – even before anything actually happens.

If the Cardinals play their hand well, serious competition does not surface and a significant amount of luck is on their side, there is still a chance Holliday could return. Timing is crucial though the club is certainly not in control of all variables.

Having the best of intentions could still lead the Cardinals to undesirable results. That is a very realistic possibility that has been known for months.

Maybe it won’t be anyone’s fault, but that won’t stop those on the sidelines from identifying a black-hatted target to take the blame. It could be the stereotypical cheap owner, the overly-optimistic GM, the money-grubbing agent or the passive player. Not knowing the true facts to be able to properly assign the blame won’t stop it from occurring, including a healthy dose of the usual name-calling.

In the meantime, all the inflammatory headlines and “he said, she said” stuff being written between now and when Holliday’s decision is disclosed is just noise on the line. Some eagerly soak that up. I guess it is good to fill in the time with the talk radio crowd when the obligatory Tiger Woods jokes are exhausted, but to me it is maddening.

Taking it one step further, can you imagine what it will be like with potentially two more years, over 700 days, of Pujols speculation ahead of us to deal with each and every morning, afternoon and evening?

Bottom line, if you feel misled or confused by any part of the Holliday situation, then you just aren’t paying enough attention.

Segundo is “second” in line of Cardinals suspensions

St. Louis Cardinals minor league pitcher Jefferson Segundo has been suspended 50 games for a violation of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, Major League Baseball announced on Friday. The 20-year-old tested positive for metabolites of Stanozolol.

Segundo is a native of the Dominican Republic who was signed during the second quarter of 2009 by the organization and assigned to the Dominican Summer League Cardinals.

In his first professional season, the 6-foot-3, 165-pound right-hander appeared in 12 games including one start, posting a 8.04 ERA. Primarily deployed as a late-innings reliever, Segundo struck out 17 in 15 2/3 innings, but walked an amazing 25 opposing batters.

Segundo, which literally means “second” in Spanish, is in fact the second Cardinals farmhand to have failed a test for banned substances since the conclusion of the 2009 regular season.

60 days ago, it was announced that Batavia infielder Alan Ahmady is suspended for the first 50 games of the 2010 season due to a positive test for an amphetamine. The 2009 draftee had also been suspended twice for unannounced violations at Fresno State this past spring.

In 2009 alone, Segundo is the fifth Cardinal minor leaguer to have been busted, following Deryk Hooker, Kenny Maiques, Dail Villanueva and Ahmady and 11th in the last two years. Maiques was our 15th-ranked Cardinals prospect at Scout.com/The Cardinal Nation just two years ago coming off a record-setting save season with Quad Cities only to be released this July.

Including the Cardinals five, 79 minor leaguers across the 30 MLB systems have been suspended under the program during 2009. An organization’s “fair share” of the total would be between two and three.

Since 2005, the Cardinals have seen a total of 16 of their Major or Minor Leaguers face suspension for substance violations, ranking among the highest number of suspensions of any MLB organization. Here is a link to details about the first 13.

Is the international draft inching closer to reality?

The idea of Major League Baseball somehow finally gaining a measure of control over an international signing process that St. Louis Cardinals VP Jeff Luhnow calls “the wild, wild west” may be inching closer to reality.

ESPN’s Jorge Arangure tweeted Thursday evening that Major League Baseball’s owners are in favor of an international draft and the new director of the players union has already gone on record saying they would not oppose it.

If true, the sides need to get together today to begin tackling what will surely be some very complex issues. The current collective bargaining agreement has two more years to run, so there is still ample time if the parties are truly serious.

Michael Weiner (AP Photo/Richard Drew)The union, formally known as the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), has a brand new head man in Michael Weiner. Well, not entirely new. OK, not new at all. The executive director had been the group’s general counsel and has been employed by the MLBPA for over 20 years.  As such, Weiner is expected to continue the policies of his predecessor, Donald Fehr, who had led the union for the last 26 years.

In a Thursday LA Times story, Weiner affirmed the MLBPA would support an international draft. In reality, the union’s position has not changed. Back in 2006, while the current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) was being negotiated, the MLBPA was reportedly willing to discuss an international draft, but the owners declined.

Like any new idea, in instituting an international draft, the devil will be in the details.

Past management objections to the concept included increased staffing and related expense, the difficulty of aligning processes with varying country laws including testing and dealing with increased temptation to falsify player ages and names – all meaty issues. Yet those same challenges exist today without the structure of a draft.

The countries themselves may provide the greatest opposition. In fact, as recently as 2007, Puerto Rican government officials formally requested the island’s players be removed from the First-Year Player Draft pool because the related restrictions put their prospects on uneven ground compared to their neighbors. Of course, that went nowhere.

Those developing the new international draft guidelines would need to devise some strong penalties for nations that either directly try to opt out or indirectly scuttle the process by building unreasonably high fences. In other words, the draft must be administered equally across all nations or it will fail as circumvention methods would surely be identified and exploited.

One obvious reason the owners may be changing their tune from their indifference in 2006 and prior and come down in favor of subjecting international players to the draft is, you guessed it, money. They are likely interested in gaining control over the rapid and unchecked escalation in bonuses for top amateur players we have seen in recent years.

Yet gaining control in one area could lead to loss of control in another. A management objection to the draft in the past was driven by a fear that bonuses for mid-tier players might actually increase, as the draft formally establishes a player’s position in the rigidly-defined financial pecking order.

The primary way ownership might try to head this off is by attempting to institute a slotting system like is in place today for the players drafted from the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

Weiner and the MLBPA may agree with the idea of a draft, but are dead set against slotting, which seems to be collusion by its very definition. The new director labeled it “a salary cap for entry-level players”. Of course, the words “salary cap” are a lightning rod if there ever was one.

While relations between the Lords of Baseball and the union have generally been amicable in recent years, the current undertow of potential collusion charges due to the depressed free agent market could scuttle progress on this and many other issues between now and the end-of-year 2011 conclusion of the current CBA.

An international draft won’t happen without some uncharacteristic proactivity and leadership from an MLB administration that is more known for its inability to resolve far less complex problems within the game.

Yet there is still room for optimism.

Here’s hoping the final years of the Bud Selig regime can be remembered for accomplishing something extremely important for the future of the game – the institution of an international draft.

Don’t hold your breath, though.

2010 Cardinals major and minor league schedules

Roger Dean Stadium, Jupiter, FL (Brian Walton photo)

The title pretty much says it all – links to 2010 schedules for the St. Louis Cardinals and their top minor league affiliates.

Spent some time today working on a preliminary view of my spring travel plans, which include Florida and the first part of the 2010 major and minor league seasons.

In case some of you are equally industrious, I thought I would share the most important schedule links, which include the two top short-season clubs.

St. Louis Cardinals spring schedule

St. Louis Cardinals regular season schedule

Memphis Redbirds

Springfield Cardinals

Palm Beach Cardinals

Quad Cities River Bandits

Batavia Muckdogs

Johnson City Cardinals

Exactly what compensatory picks will the Cardinals receive?

In a surprisingly bold move by the St. Louis Cardinals, they offered arbitration to their top three free agents, Matt Holliday, Joel Pineiro and Mark DeRosa before Tuesday’s deadline.

Despite the risk of the latter two players accepting and returning to St. Louis on a one-year, arbitration-driven contract, the club rolled the dice. The potential gain is considerable – a total of four extra draft picks. Three will be between the first and second rounds of the 2010 draft and the other will be in either the first or second round.

The Cardinals can either take all four and help rebuild their farm system, decimated by trading five top picks for Holliday and DeRosa or perhaps use them to offset the loss of one or two of their own top picks if they decide to sign any Type A free agents themselves.

Matt Holliday (AP photo/Tom Mihalek)Because Holliday is the top-scored free agent available in the Elias Rankings, he is guaranteed to fetch either the first- or second-round pick from the club that signs him. (Assuming he does not return to St. Louis.) The exact pick depends on the 2009 finish of the signing team. The worst 15 teams last season would only forfeit their second-round selection, while the best 15 teams would lose their first-rounder.

The Cardinals will also receive three “sandwich” picks between the first and second rounds of the 2010 draft, one each for Holliday, DeRosa and Pineiro, if the players do not accept the Cards’ arbitration offer.

But exactly where in the 2010 draft would these compensatory picks be?

We currently have no way of telling.

All we know is that 23 of 70 eligible players were offered arbitration, 10 Type A and 13 Type B. That means as many as ten first or second-round picks could be changing hands and up to 23 extra picks will be added between rounds one and two of the 2010 draft.

To determine the precise order of the compensation-round picks, we need to know the comparative detailed Elias score of each free agent. This information has not yet been released by the MLB Players Association (MLBPA), though the Type A free agent scores only have apparently been leaked.

In past years, not only have the Type designations of each free agent been released, they were made available for all players, free agent or not. Here is the full list from one year ago: link

This year, all that has been formally published is the simple A/B designation of the free agents only with no 1) relative scores, 2) position detail, or 3) information on the non-free agents. The first is most important to answer the questions posed above.

I wonder if the MLBPA is being more tight-lipped since the Elias Ranking system has been under increasing fire due to several factors, including an overly-high value placed on relievers and some very odd placements of players.

Some have tried to crack the Elias scoring algorithms, which include stats such as batting average, home runs and RBI for hitters, and innings, ERA, saves and strikeouts for pitchers, but have been only partially successful.

I have some inquiries out and hope to be able to shed more light soon on where in the comp round the Cardinals three picks will be. Certainly Holliday’s will be up front. That much we know.

Note: In related recent posts, I highlighted both the Cardinals recent compensatory picks and those they may have passed up.

Major update: I did some additional research today and have learned my assumption above is incorrect. Here is how the supplemental round is actually ordered:

(All picks are in reverse order of 2009 standings just like the regular rounds)

  • All teams losing Type A’s get one pick
  • All teams losing a second Type A get their second pick, etc.
  • All teams losing Type Bs get one pick
  • All teams losing a second Type B get their second pick, etc.

So what this means for the Cardinals is that the comp pick for Holliday will not be first. His top Elias Ranking is immaterial. My application of the process above would put the Cardinals’ supplemental picks like the following. This assumes all players decline arbitration and do not re-sign with their current team, so this order may not be final.

  • Holliday pick: #4 in the comp round, 36th overall
  • DeRosa/Pineiro pick: #19 (first Type B pass), 51st overall
  • Pineiro/DeRosa pick: #24 (last comp player – second Type B pass), 56th overall

Between DeRosa and Pineiro, I am still not sure which pick is labeled for which player and how the “tie” is broken, as both are Type B. For this exercise, it doesn’t matter. (Update: If I understand the system correctly, the first B comp pick will be for DeRosa (70.33) and the second for Pineiro (67.302) due to their relative Elias scores.)

The above spots had to be adjusted for three unsigned players from the 2009 draft, two in the first round and one in the comp round. The latter falls after Holliday’s comp pick and prior to the first DeRosa/Pineiro selection.

Bottom line, the Cardinals currently have (subject to change due to caveats noted above) at least four picks in the first 56 selections in the 2010 draft and potentially five, if another top 15 club (based on 2009 wins) signs Holliday. Current course and speed, they will have six in the first 83, including their own second-rounder. (Note there are two other clubs with second-round comp picks ahead of the Cardinals.)

The location of the other Holliday pick remains the major open question. Because Holliday is a Type A free agent, the signing team actually forfeits their first -or second-round pick and St. Louis receives it. This is in addition to the comp selection discussed above. It can be anywhere from the last half of the first round to the end of the first half of the second round.

For the 2010 draft, it should be between #17 and #31 overall or between #57 and #71 overall. The former is more likely since that is tied to a winning 2009 team signing Holliday such as the Red Sox (pick #29) or the Yankees (pick #31). Obviously, if Holliday instead re-signs with the Cardinals, they would not receive any compensatory selections since in that case, they would not have lost him.

December 7 update: Because three MLB players accepted arbitration, the DeRosa and Pineiro comp picks each move up three places from the places listed above.

Walton and Sickels on Cardinals prospects on Tuesday Fantasy Focus show

I will be back again as one of Jeff Erickson’s guests on Tuesday’s Fantasy Focus show on Blog Talk Radio. This segment is part of a continuing series of “slow reviews” of each organization’s farm system that also feature John Sickels of minorleagueball.com. Tuesday’s show, focusing on St. Louis Cardinals prospects, can be heard live starting at 1:00 p.m. Eastern on December 1 and on demand afterward.

Devotees of XM Satellite Radio are likely already aware of the long-running Fantasy Focus show. In 2009, it moved from XM to Blog Talk Radio. Listen live, Monday through Friday, or on demand.

https://www.blogtalkradio.com/RotoWire

Jeff Erickson is the Senior Editor of RotoWire.com and host of Fantasy Focus. His show covers fantasy baseball from a wide variety of angles, talking with the major forces within the industry, and also offers listener interaction. Among the expert leagues in which we both compete is Tout Wars. Jeff is the 2007 American League champion while I won the 2009 National League title.

Spying on Cardinals reader’s queries: November 29

Sometimes when news is a bit quiet, I take a look at the site stats and see how new readers are arriving at the blog and what they have on their minds. Not knowing if they found their answers, I am listing 20 of the search arguments that have led visitors to TheCardinalNationblog.com in the last few days along with a short reply to each.

Tony La Russa and Ozzie Smith - 1996 (AP photo)“did ozzie smith play with the cardinals”

Uh, yes he did. For 15 seasons, from 1982 through 1996, the Wizard of Oz was St. Louis’ shortstop. Ozzie was an all-star in 14 of those years and was a member of two world championship teams. He recently reaffirmed his desire to get into coaching/managing but due to a long-standing feud with Tony La Russa, is staying away from the Cardinals.

“2009 rule 5 draft”

The event is coming up on December 7 at Baseball’s Winter Meetings in Indianapolis. On Saturday, I listed the Cardinals players I believe are eligible to be selected.

“2009 nl cy young award voting”

The controversial results put San Francisco’s Tim Lincecum in first place, ahead of Cardinals Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright, despite the latter having the most first-place votes. It was the only time since 1998 that the pitcher with the most first-place ballots did not win. You can see each voter’s ballot here.

“mike matheny’s brother”

This one beats me, as I don’t recall ever writing about the subject. In fact, I have no idea whether the former Cardinals catcher even has any siblings. My guess is that this was a wayward search “related” to jazz musician Pat Metheny, whose brother is named Mike.

“will holliday sign with the cardinals”

That is the $100 million question this winter, isn’t it?

“cardinals offer holiday 6 years”

Not yet, at least as far as we know. But if you put the last two items together, you get in the right ballpark, I suspect…

“holliday arbitration”

This Tuesday, December 1 is the deadline for MLB clubs to offer arbitration to eligible players. The players have until the 7th to decide whether or not to accept. Among my predictions was the easiest one of all – that the Cardinals will offer Matt Holliday and he will not accept. That would give the organization two picks should Holliday sign elsewhere. TheCardinalNation.com subscribers can read all my predictions here.

“lance lynn in 2010 offseason mlb trade”

This is an interesting one. I wonder if someone has some inside information! Coming off a strong 2009, Lynn seems destined to land among my top five Cardinals prospects this winter.

“braulio hiraldo”

The 21-year-old was placed on the reserve list of the Dominican Summer League Cardinals for the 2009 season and did not play.  The right-handed hitter has a career line of .232/.324/.320.  The Cardinals’ 2006 signing played in the DSL (2006) and Gulf Coast League (2007-08) in his three prior professional seasons.

“jamie pogue st louis cardinals”

The Canadian catcher signed with the Cardinals in 2000 and reached as high as Double-A New Haven three years later. He then returned to independent ball, playing through 2008.

“cardinals minor league managers”

I have written periodically about the top managers in the Cardinals minor league system over the years and still have three or four additional articles to run this winter when news is slow.

“cardinals lease with jupiter”

The Cardinals’ Florida home since 1998 is Jupiter’s Roger Dean Stadium, owned by Palm Beach County. The facility is operated by Jupiter Stadium Ltd., a partnership between the Cardinals and the Florida Marlins, the other tenant. The Cardinals will be there for a long time as their current lease runs through 2027. That is both good and bad, as I recently wrote about their difficulty in finding someone to play.

“rcwarrior1 colby”

Yep, he’s probably around here somewhere…

“mike marshall pitcher arms”

The former Cy Young Award winner is a controversial pitching coach, working outside of organized ball using a unique training regimen. The Cardinals signed a Marshall disciple, left-hander Joe Williams, and gave him a brief Double-A trial this past summer. I published an open letter from Marshall earlier this year.

Chris Perez in 2008 (AP photo)“cardinals number 63”

In 2007, Brendan Ryan and Andy Cavazos wore the number briefly as did Chris Perez when he first came up in 2008. Over time, many players were assigned number 63 in spring training only to either be sent down or given a lower number if they made the team. Now-free agent lefty Ian Ostlund wore 63 during 2009 spring camp.

“jim riggleman”

The former Cardinals minor league field coordinator recently had the “interim” tag removed and will remain as the manager of the Washington Nationals in 2010.

“attendance for spring training 2009 cardinals”

The Cardinals averaged 5,652 fans per game and totaled 101,740 in home attendance during spring 2009. Details on their spring attendance history here.

“st. louis cardinals basic fan demographics”

The above article on spring training also offers a general, non-team specific cross-section of information about those who attend spring training.

“vsl matrix”

I am keeping the Cardinals roster matrix updated with all signed players across the entire system listed. You can always find it via the search box at the upper right or via the dropdowns at the top (“Players/Staff” > “Depth Charts/Roster Matrix”).

“’back slippage’ jesus”

I honestly have no idea 1) why someone entered this search and 2) why that brought them here…

Cardinals Rule 5 available players

Mike Parisi at the AFL (Brian Walton photo)Back in February, I identified the 59 players then under contract with the St. Louis Cardinals that would be eligible for the 2009 Rule 5 Draft, to be held December 10 at Baseball’s Winter Meetings. The purpose of this article is to fill in the gaps from then until now.

In the intervening nine months, an entire season of transactions occurred, to the point that original list of 59 was whittled down to just 20. As part of the normal business of baseball, most of the other 39 were released or added to the 40-man roster. Several others were traded, retired, placed on the restricted list or became free agents.

One joined the list when he was removed from the 40-man and another newly-signed player is eligible, making the current total 22.

Feb. total Off 40-man New sign Subtotal Remain Released Add 40-man Free agent Traded Restricted Retired
59 1 1 61 22 18 13 4 1 1 2
Shearer P Rodriguez Buckman Anderson Castellanos Gregerson Landin Gorsett
C Gonzalez Craig Ostlund Sillman
Degerman Freese Thurston
Haltiwanger Hamilton Yarbrough
E Hernandez Jay
Herron Jones
I Garcia Norrick
Ja Martinez Ottavino
Javier Pagnozzi
Knoedler Rasmus
Leach Robinson
Mateo Samuel
Maiques Walters
Mikrut
Noguera
Peralta
Rogers
Rowlett

These are the remaining 22 players eligible for Rule 5 selection and have been confirmed. They are listed by year originally signed.

Player Position DOB Draft yr/rd Signed
Pedro Rodriguez RHP 10/31/1987 2004
Andres Rosales RHS 06/13/1988 2004
Jose Martinez 2B 01/24/1986 2004
Mike Parisi RHS 04/18/1983 2004 9 2004
Matt Scherer RHR 01/20/1983 2004 16 2004
Domnit Bolivar SS 05/12/1989 2005
Jose Rada RHS 04/13/1988 2005
Edwin Gomez OF 03/10/1988 2005
Donovan Solano SS 12/17/1987 2005
Ivan Castro C 11/17/1987 2005
Shaun Garceau RHS 08/28/1987 2005 20 2005
Mark McCormick RHS 10/15/1983 2005 1a 2005
Trey Hearne RHS 08/19/1983 2005 28 2005
Gary Daley Jr. RHR 11/01/1985 2006 3 2006
David Carpenter RHR 07/15/1985 2006 12 2006
Jim Rapoport OF 06/25/1985 2006 35 2006
Kyle Mura RHS 11/24/1984 2006 42 2006
Brandon Dickson RHS 11/03/1984 2006
Mark Shorey OF 08/13/1984 2006 31 2006
Marco Gonzalez RHR 05/28/1984 2006
Amaury Cazana OF 09/02/1978 2006 18 2006
Brad Furnish LHS 01/19/1985 2006 2 2006

At this point, most articles on this subject would conclude. Yet there is another factor which dramatically affects which of these players might be most advantageously selected by another organization.

Only the players put on the Triple-A Memphis reserve list for protection would be eligible for the major league phase of the Rule 5 Draft. Those players would have to remain on the new club’s 25-man active major league roster the entire 2010 season or be offered back to the Cardinals after clearing waivers.

There is not room for every player on the Memphis roster, so the Cardinals probably had to make some tradeoffs as to which players they wanted to make most painful for another club to take.

Some of these 22 eligible players have likely been stationed on the Double-A Springfield roster or lower. These players cost less to select and most importantly, do not have to be added to the major league roster if taken in the Rule 5. Effectively, they do not have to the returned even if they are later demoted.

A recent example is outfielder Cody Haerther. One year ago, the Cardinals placed him on the Springfield reserve roster. He was then taken by Toronto in the Triple-A phase of the 2008 Rule 5 Draft and as a result, was essentially gone forever from the Cardinals organization.

Once I receive confirmation on which reserve rosters these eligible players reside, I will share that information with TheCardinalNation.com / Scout.com subscribers. Update: “Available Cardinals Rule 5 Players by Level” now posted.

Post-publishing updates: Kenny Maiques and Jon Mikrut had been previously released by the Cardinals and have been moved accordingly. Newly-signed pitcher Pedro Rodriguez has been added to the eligibles.

Not reflected above: The November 30 signing of infielder Ruben Gotay to a minor league contract adds another to the Memphis roster, increasing the total number of Rule 5 eligibles to 23.

A scouting market correction taking hold?

The old Moneyball arguments of scouts versus stats reached the headlines again this past week as the Cardinal Nation lamented the National League Cy Young Award results. A pair of voters used sabermetric evidence in their reasoning for leaving Chris Carpenter off their ballots.

That led to a backlash of comments from watchers all over the internet about voting for the top awards.

Sharp Twitter retorts ranged from the sarcastic to the direct.

  • Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz: “I wouldn’t know how to vote for something as intellectually challenging as MVP. I would just let FanGraphs decide.”
  • Tony La Russa: “Great for Albert. Respect Tim, but Adam & Chris earned CY. Computer data best when aid to personal observation & analysis.”

Another line of considerable media attention in recent weeks has surrounded the game plan of Alex Anthopoulos, the new general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays. The 32-year-old was hired after the dismissal of J.P. Ricciardi in October.

Scouts (Brian Walton photo)Ricciardi, hired in 2001, then part of the “new wave” of numbers-driven GMs, began firing scouts in 2002. According to the Toronto Sun, he cut the ranks from 61 in 2002 to the 27 on board when Anthopoulos took over.

“The Jays used to be the gold standard for scouting,” Anthopoulos recalled to the Toronto Star.

The former scout has a plan to zig when others are zagging in an attempt to return Toronto to its past glory. Anthopoulos will more than double the number of professional and amateur scouts to a total of 68 full- and part-timers by 2010 while increasing pay and bettering working conditions, building loyalty.

This seems a smart plan to try to find an edge, especially crucial when competing in a division that includes the deepest-pocketed clubs in MLB, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox.

The Jays will be increasing the number of area scouts from 14 to 25, adding five regional cross-checkers where there were none plus three national cross-checkers. Their pro scouting department will expand from 10 to 21.

Sporting News notes, “By comparison, the Dodgers—considered a scouting powerhouse—list 16 area scouts, five cross-checkers and eight pro scouts in their media guide.”

The Cardinals show 13 area scouts, three crosscheckers and an assistant director of scouting on the amateur side along with eight local scouts, presumably part-timers. On the professional side, they list ten individuals with another dozen in the international department. The rough total appears to be about four dozen.

Of course quality is at least as important as quantity. In addition to offering more competitive wages, Anthopoulos is restructuring scouting assignments to minimize travel and increase number of games seen as well as devising new ways to provide his valuable scouts more time off.

“There’s a reason scouts have been with eight, nine, 10 teams. I don’t think there’s a lot of loyalty,” he told Sporting News. “If we can have less turnover by treating them well, paying them well and giving them better quality of life, people will be dying to come work here.”

The increase in investment doesn’t mean the Jays plan to scout differently. They want to do more of it more productively.

“We’re not going to change the way we evaluate,” Anthopoulos said. “But the way we go about covering teams and tackling the amateur market, we can make more efficient.”

The Jays clearly plan to spend more money on the men who find players, not necessarily on the players themselves.

“I don’t think it comes down to signing bonuses,” the GM told the Star. “It comes down to evaluation.”

Toronto’s decidedly old-school initiatives will certainly be worth watching to see if they bear fruit.

Cardinals prospect leftovers: November 25

A quick look at several St. Louis Cardinals prospect-related items.

At TheCardinalNation.com

Over at Scout.com, I still have a few more interviews and recap articles on the St. Louis Cardinals prospects that competed in the 2009 Arizona Fall League yet to run.

Wednesday’s piece is I think my tenth interview from there. This one is with Scott Gorgen (for subscribers only). Most recently prior to that, I ran a free summary of the four position players. Don’t read it if you are squeamish.

Adam Reifer (Brian Walton photo)AFL velocities

Just this morning, I came across several other items of interest. With the Pitch F/X capability installed at several of the AFL venues, some very detailed information was gathered. Baseball America has summarized both the maximum fastball velocity and average fastball velocity of 120 pitchers that competed in the league this fall.

Not surprisingly, number one draft pick Stephen Strasburg of the Nationals was the top in throwing at least one 100.5 mph pitch. He was also first in average at 96.78.

Of course there is more to pitching than velocity, but it is one important indicator. Here is how the four Cardinals pitchers fared.

Max mph # of 120 Avg mph # of 120
Adam Reifer 96.1 19 94.05 12
Gary Daley 94.5 41 93.08 22
Mike Parisi 93.3 61 90.24 76
Scott Gorgen 92.1 78 90.32 74

Not surprisingly, Adam Reifer and Gary Daley, Jr. were among the harder throwers while Mike Parisi and Gorgen were less so. Note the difference of less than 1.5 mph between Daley’s maximum and average.

Prospect videos

I ran across a great site with prospect videos called ProspectTube.com. Here is one of Daryl Jones being retired on a comebacker to Strasburg in the AFL. There is much more than AFL content there, though you might have to do a bit of searching. Definitely worth checking out.

Cardinals top prospect lists

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I will be sprucing up my input to the annual top 40 Cardinals prospect list to be unveiled at Scout.com starting on December 5. We will again run a countdown from number 40 to number one at the rate of one prospect per day. The final list will be weighted one-third each by my picks, Dustin Mattison’s and our message board community, represented by CariocaCardinal and Gagliano, two of our most knowledgeable members.

The Baseball America Cardinals top ten prospect list has been released. Those who subscribe can read Derrick Goold’s writeups of the ten, ranked jointly by Derrick and the BA staff.

Happy Thanksgiving

I will probably post on Thursday because that is what I do, but it doesn’t hurt to get an early start. Thank you all for reading and especially to the subset who have the interest and take the time to comment. Here is hoping everyone has a great holiday weekend.

MVP Mauer vs. Cy also-ran Carpenter smacks of inconsistency

I have absolutely nothing against the voters who selected Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer as the 2009 American League Most Valuable Player. Yes, there was that weird rogue first-place vote coming out of Seattle for Miguel Cabrera, but overall, all appearances are that they got the right man.

It doesn’t mean the selection doesn’t raise serious questions when viewed in the context of the still-controversial National League Cy Young Award vote, however.

Mauer logged 28 home runs and 96 RBI for Minnesota while posting the highest-ever batting average for a catcher at .365. He helped power the Twins’ late-season surge to the AL Central crown while playing a very physically-demanding position.

So, what’s not to like?

Well, Mauer didn’t play the entire season, the very same explanation used in part by the infamous pair of voters who not only didn’t select Chris Carpenter first in the NL Cy vote, they left the St. Louis Cardinals’ ace off their top-three ballots completely.

There is also no telling how many of the 21 other voters who placed Carpenter second or third did so for the same reason. His time out was a commonly-offered explanation by some of those who went with Tim Lincecum or Adam Wainwright instead.

Why the double-standard?

  • Just as Carpenter excelled in rate stats measurements and still accrued enough innings to qualify as the NL earned run average leader, so did Mauer gain enough at-bats to win the AL batting title.
  • Just as Carpenter fell short of the other Cy candidates in the counting stats of strikeouts and wins viewed by many voters to be so important, so did Mauer in home runs and RBI.

The Twins catcher finished tied for 17th in the AL in home runs and deadlocked for 16th in RBI. The Cardinals starter was second in the NL in wins and 27th in strikeouts.

  • Just as Carp missed about five weeks of the season due to injury, Mauer was sidelined during the entire month of April.

The Cardinals’ ace sat out exactly 30 games of his team’s season after pitching in game nine of the Cardinals’ season and returning to the mound in game 40.  Mauer made his first appearance in game 23 on May 1.

Carpenter’s time out appeared to be a fatal blow to his NL Cy Young Award chances while Mauer’s seemed insignificant to the writers that named him the AL MVP in a virtual landslide, giving him 27 of 28 first-place votes.

How could that one additional week out of action matter so much to so many?

Collusion or just getting younger?

I was thinking about some of the dynamics this winter relating to the St. Louis Cardinals 40-man roster, prospects and the market for free agents and how that may represent a cross-section of changes across the game.

Though it is still early in the off-season in terms of player movement, there have been a number of verbal jousts reported in the media between management and agents over the current economic state of the game and its potential impact on signings.

Welle-07-AP-200The Cardinals are among those clubs that may experience the most change as they have nine free agents: pitchers Joel Pineiro, Todd Wellemeyer, John Smoltz, infielders Mark DeRosa, Khalil Greene and Troy Glaus, catcher Jason LaRue and outfielders Matt Holliday and Rick Ankiel.

Most of these veterans are not expected back for 2010. That is probably good, since there is no longer enough roster room for them all.

The youngsters from the farm system continue to push their way up, to the extent that the organization was forced to add eight of them to the 40-man roster or risk losing them in the upcoming Rule 5 Draft.

Here is where the roster stands today. Short of dropping other players off the 40-man, the Cardinals could at most add six more players before reaching their limit. They could be any combination of players taken from other organizations via Rule 5 and veteran free agents, whether their own or from other clubs. (Note: I am still keeping the Cardinals system roster matrix up to date.)

Let’s make a reasonable, yet high-side assumption that the Cards make no Rule 5 additions and fill five of their open roster spots with vets. That would put the Cardinals’ 40-man at 39 players, same as when the 2009 season ended.

What that would mean at a macro level is that nine veteran free agents from 2009 would be replaced by just five veterans in 2010. The net is four veteran jobs lost. If you believe five signings is too aggressive, then the number of vets displaced may even be greater.

If one takes the leap of applying this across MLB, one might only assume a couple of jobs per team would be lost since the 30 MLB clubs currently average about seven free agents each. Ignoring some of the players’ chances of regaining a roster spot via coming into camp as a non-roster invitee, an average of two jobs lost times 30 teams mean up to 60 major leaguers could find themselves out of work come spring.

I don’t know the typical number to which to compare from past off-seasons, but there are always some vets who find they have nowhere to sit when the music stops. 60 feels high but the 2010 count may surely be non-trivial.

Of course it may be inappropriate to apply the Cardinals’ situation to the rest of MLB as it may not be representative, but it still makes me wonder about what might be the cause.

Are the younger players better than the vets they replace or do they just represent the combination of future promise and a lower paycheck today?

Does this indicate a change in the wind or is it just baseball business-as-usual?

Changing Cy Young scoring doesn’t change winner


In my earlier post looking at a five-player ballot instead of the three-player ballot that exists today for the Cy Young Award vote, my intent was to adapt the pitching process to mimic the ten-player Most Valuable Player Award scoring.

In doing so, I erred in assigning five points to first place. To most accurately apply the MVP scoring system of 14-9-8-7-etc., which provides a greater differentiation to first place, to the Cy Young process, the proper corresponding scoring breakdown should have been 7-4-3-2-1.

I re-ran the numbers that way. Again the base assumption is that Carpenter would have received two fourth-place votes, the most optimistic case for him short of actual vote changes. The first three columns are the actual votes with the fourth- and fifth-place votes made up by me.

Hypothetical 7-4-3-2-1 vote 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Points
Lincecum 11 12 9 0 0 152
Wainwright 12 5 15 0 0 149
Carpenter 9 14 7 2 0 144
Vazquez 0 1 0 30 1 65
Haren 0 0 1 0 31 34

Because Adam Wainwright received the most first-place votes, he leapt over Chris Carpenter into second place. However, because he had only one more first-place vote and many fewer second-place mentions than Tim Lincecum, the latter would remain the winner.

In this scoring system, even if Carpenter had magically picked up the controversial second and third-place votes from Keith Law and Will Carroll, the additional net of three points (plus seven points minus four) would have still left him in third place, five points behind Lincecum, 152-147.

Hypothetical 7-4-3-2-1 vote 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Points
Lincecum 11 12 9 0 0 152
Wainwright 12 5 15 0 0 149
Carpenter 9 15 8 0 0 147
Vazquez 0 0 0 32 0 64
Haren 0 0 0 0 32 32

In other words, short of other voters changing their actual votes, there doesn’t seem to be a fair system that would have altered the winner.

I am more than ready to move on and I hope Cardinals fans are, too.

Cardinals lose important instructor Radison


One of the downsides of ex-St. Louis Cardinals organization members taking on more responsibility elsewhere is the good people they invariably pull away with them.

Such is the case currently in Washington. When the Nationals removed the “interim” tag and anointed Jim Riggleman their manager for 2010, the next step for the former Cardinals minor league field coordinator was to hand-pick his coaching staff.

As had been rumored, Cardinals minor league hitting coordinator Dan Radison received Riggleman’s call and will be taking over the Nats’ first base coaching box.

In all fairness, Radison, a highly-respected teacher, had worked with Riggleman during the latter’s previous managerial stints in San Diego and with the Cubs, including 1995-1999 in Chicago. The 59-year-old had also been employed by the Dodgers and both New York organizations in a coaching and scouting career that began in 1984.

Radison returned to the Cardinals in 2006 as Johnson City manager after having been away from the organization for 15 years. He moved into roving instructor duties in 2007 and was named coordinator the next season.

With the Cardinals, Radison was the 2007 winner of the George Kissell Award, given annually to the person across the organization who exhibits the highest level of excellence in player development. He was rewarded for his efforts by taking a September tour with the major league club in at least each of the last two seasons.

In his first tour of duty with the Cards, the St. Louis native managed at Johnson City, Hamilton and then-Double-A Springfield, Illinois from 1986 through 1989. Both his JC clubs finished in first place. Overall, Radison has a dozen years of experience as a minor league skipper with a career record of 622-552 (.530). In his playing days, Radison spent three years in the Cardinals system as a catcher after having been drafted in the 10th round in 1972 out of SIU-Carbondale.

With Radison’s departure, only one member of the Cardinals’ top seven in-uniform minor league coordinators and instructors that were in place in 2007 remains today. Decades of experience have been lost as the dean Kissell passed away, Riggleman, former minor league hitting coordinator Gene Tenace and minor league pitching coordinator Mark Riggins moved on and then-baserunning/outfield instructor Tom Spencer‘s contract was not renewed after he managed Palm Beach last season. Of the seven, only new Batavia manager Dann Bilardello, then the minor league catching coordinator, is still in the organization.

Riggleman and the Nats also retained hitting coach Rick Eckstein, the brother of the former Cardinals shortstop and the 2007 hitting coach in Triple-A Memphis.

Would an expanded NL Cy Young Award vote bring a different result?


Would a hypothetical expansion of the 2009 National League Cy Young Award vote to five places have changed the winner?


National League Cy Young Award voters Keith Law of ESPN.com and Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus are catching a lot of heat from major segments of the Cardinal Nation for leaving Chris Carpenter off their respective ballots.

The logic goes that these two internet rascals stole the award from Carpenter.

As a refresher, here are the vote totals. In a side point of interest, both San Francisco-area voters agreed with the winner Tim Lincecum that Carpenter was most deserving.

Actual vote 1st 2nd 3rd Points
Tim Lincecum San Francisco Giants 11 12 9 100
Chris Carpenter St. Louis Cardinals 9 14 7 94
Adam Wainwright St. Louis Cardinals 12 5 15 90
Javier Vazquez Atlanta Braves 1 3
Dan Haren Arizona Diamondbacks 1 1

Law placed Atlanta’s Javier Vazquez in second and Carroll voted Arizona’s Dan Haren third. In the 5-3-1 scoring system in place, had Carpenter received those two votes instead, the four additional points would have enabled him to only close part of the gap to Lincecum to 100-98 (corrected from first post).

That isn’t where I am going, however. Both voters have offered the detailed logic behind their votes and they are what they are: Link to Law’s explantion, link to Carroll’s explanation.

There are others who believe the real rub is the restrictive nature of the voting process. Those who select the Most Valuable Players are allowed to name ten candidates, in a 10-9-etc scoring system, yet the Cy Young process allows just three votes.

Why? Because that is the way it has always been, I guess.

Let’s make a couple of assumptions about how a better process might have worked.

  • Voters could name five players, in a 5-4-3-2-1 scoring system.
  • We will not change Law’s and Carroll’s votes, instead assuming they would have named Carpenter fourth and the last remaining player fifth.
  • All other votes remain the same, with Vazquez arbitrarily getting the other fourth-place votes and Haren at fifth.

Here is how the hypothetical voting would have come out.

Hypothetical vote 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Points
Lincecum 11 12 9 0 0 130
Carpenter 9 14 7 2 0 126
Wainwright 12 5 15 0 0 125
Vazquez 0 1 0 30 1 65
Haren 0 0 1 0 31 34

The result would have been much closer, but Lincecum would still have been the winner and the order of finish would have remained the same.

Time to accept it and move on.

For background, the detailed votes follow. The first, second and third places are the actuals with my hypothetical fourth- and fifth-place votes added on the right.

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
Guy Curtright At Large Atlanta Wainwright Carpenter Lincecum Vazquez Haren
Keith Law ESPN.com: Lincecum Vazquez Wainwright Carpenter Haren
Manny Navarro Miami Herald: Carpenter Lincecum Wainwright Vazquez Haren
Enrique Rojas ESPNdeportes.com: Wainwright Carpenter Lincecum Vazquez Haren
Ken Davidoff Newsday: Lincecum Wainwright Carpenter Vazquez Haren
Steve Popper Bergen Record: Lincecum Carpenter Wainwright Vazquez Haren
Jerry Crasnick ESPN.com: Lincecum Carpenter Wainwright Vazquez Haren
Jim Salisbury Philadelphia Inquirer: Wainwright Lincecum Carpenter Vazquez Haren
Ken Rosenthal FOX Sports.com: Wainwright Lincecum Carpenter Vazquez Haren
Mark Zuckerman Washington Times: Wainwright Carpenter Lincecum Vazquez Haren
Paul Sullivan Chicago Tribune: Lincecum Wainwright Carpenter Vazquez Haren
Toni Ginnetti Chicago Sun Times: Wainwright Lincecum Carpenter Vazquez Haren
Will Carroll Baseball Prospectus: Wainwright Lincecum Haren Carpenter Vazquez
Tom Groeschen Cincinnati Enquirer: Lincecum Carpenter Wainwright Vazquez Haren
Bill Madden New York Daily News: Wainwright Lincecum Carpenter Vazquez Haren
Zachary Levine Houston Chronicle: Carpenter Lincecum Wainwright Vazquez Haren
Susan Shemanske Racine Journal Times: Carpenter Wainwright Lincecum Vazquez Haren
Dennis Semrau Madison Capital Times: Lincecum Carpenter Wainwright Vazquez Haren
John Perrotto Ogden Newspapers: Lincecum Carpenter Wainwright Vazquez Haren
Chuck Finder Pittsburgh Post Gazette: Carpenter Lincecum Wainwright Vazquez Haren
Derrick Goold St. Louis Post Dispatch: Wainwright Carpenter Lincecum Vazquez Haren
Bernie Miklasz St. Louis Post Dispatch: Carpenter Wainwright Lincecum Vazquez Haren
Nick Piecoro Arizona Republic: Lincecum Wainwright Carpenter Vazquez Haren
Sarah Trotto Arizona Daily Star: Lincecum Carpenter Wainwright Vazquez Haren
Jack Etkin At Large Denver Carpenter Lincecum Wainwright Vazquez Haren
Patrick Saunders Denver Post: Wainwright Carpenter Lincecum Vazquez Haren
Doug Padilla L.A. Newspaper Group: Carpenter Lincecum Wainwright Vazquez Haren
Randy Youngman Orange County Register: Wainwright Carpenter Lincecum Vazquez Haren
Scott Miller CBS Sports.com: Lincecum Carpenter Wainwright Vazquez Haren
Chris Jenkins San Diego Union Tribune: Wainwright Carpenter Lincecum Vazquez Haren
Paul Gutierrez Sacramento Bee: Carpenter Lincecum Wainwright Vazquez Haren
Henry Schulman San Francisco Chronicle: Carpenter Lincecum Wainwright Vazquez Haren

St. Louis Cardinals lose one owner


Chicagoan Nick Kladis, a member of the St. Louis Cardinals ownership group, passed away on Monday.


With MLB owners meeting in Chicago, Bud Selig and his exclusive club had a special dinner Wednesday evening to welcome the new buyers of the Cubs, the Ricketts family. Not every wealthy person from Omaha, Nebraska is apparently riding Warren Buffett’s coattails as this clan made their money from TD Ameritrade.

As one ownership group came into MLB, the Cardinals lost one of their 14-member group. Chicagoan Nick Kladis had a dinner appointment with Cardinals Chairman and CEO Bill DeWitt Jr. on Tuesday night but did not show. The 81-year-old had passed away on Monday, according to a report from the Chicago Tribune.

Kladis was a former basketball star at Loyola who later made his fortune in the retail food industry. He was a former shareholder and board member of the Chicago White Sox in the Bill Veeck era and is a member of the Loyola and Chicagoland Sports Halls of Fame.

At this point, there is no word as to what will happen to Kladis’ ownership stake in the Cardinals. The list of investors in the club had already dropped from 15 with the recent sale of Lee Enterprises’ 2.7 percent share.

Late last year, the cash-strapped parent company of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Lee Enterprises of Davenport, Iowa, sold their ownership stake in Cardinals, apparently to the majority ownership group led by DeWitt Jr. The media company had assumed their share of the club via their 2005 purchase of Pulitzer Inc, then-owner of the newspaper.

Following are the investors in the Cardinals. Snippets about their backgrounds come from a 2005 article from the St. Louis Business Journal and other sources:

DeWitt Jr. – Co-chairman of the investment firm Reynolds, DeWitt & Co. Broad investments include oil, fast food, banking, insurance, broadcasting, cable and bottling companies. Appointed to Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB). Former member of the ownership groups of the Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles.

Donna DeWitt Lambert – DeWitt’s sister. Former director of Mississippi Valley Bancshares, holding company of Southwest Bank.

Stephen F. Brauer – U.S. Ambassador to Belgium, 2001-2003 and Chairman and chief executive of Hunter Engineering Co. of St. Louis.

Michael E. Pulitzer – Former chairman of Pulitzer Inc., owner of media properties including the Post-Dispatch, which were acquired by Lee Enterprises in 2005.

Mrs. Richard H. Sutphin – Widow of an executive with the Reynolds, DeWitt Securities Co. subsidiary.

Frederick O. Hanser (Vice Chairman) – Attorney with Armstrong Teasdale LLP. Childhood friend of DeWitt Jr.

G. Watts Humphrey, Jr. – Board member and investor in Churchill Downs Inc. Pittsburgh resident owns investment firm G.W.H. Holdings Inc.

Michael McDonnell – Heads privately held Rock Island Corp., a holding company for hardware and building products distributors and is from Memphis.

Dudley S. Taft – From Cincinnati. Former head of Taft Broadcasting Co., sold in 1987 for $1.5 billion.

Andrew N. Baur (Secretary/Treasurer) – Chairman of Southwest Bank of St. Louis. Childhood friend of DeWitt Jr.

Nick D. Kladis – see above

David C. Pratt – Founder of United Industries Inc. of St. Louis. Sold 90 percent of the firm in 1999 to Boston-based Thomas H. Lee Co. for $620 million.

Mercer Reynolds – DeWitt’s longtime friend and investment partner. U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein (2001-2003) with past ties to Bush-Cheney campaign finance committees.

John K. Wallace, Jr. – Owned charcoal manufacturer Imperial Products Corp., which he sold in 1991. Owned a diversified holding company called The Regency Group in Clayton.


Other founding owners Robert Castellini and brothers W. Joseph Williams Jr. and Thomas Williams sold their stake in the Cardinals back to the other investors when the three purchased controlling interest in the Cincinnati Reds prior to the 2006 season. Castellini’s share in the Cardinals was reportedly around ten percent.

Fixing the USAToday Salary Database


For years, many, many baseball watchers have relied on the USAToday MLB Salary Database to make comparisons across organizations and in year-to-year analysis, possible due to contract details posted all the way back to 1988.

As with any powerful tool, a thorough understanding of what you have and what you don’t is very important. As some Cardinals watchers know, the database assigns the salaries of all players on opening day rosters to their current team, no matter which club is actually paying the freight.

In the past, this created an odd year-to-year skew when players like Larry Walker and Roger Cedeno were acquired. Though the Cardinals were not responsible for most of the two’s salaries, the database assigned their entire commitment to St. Louis.

In 2010, this will likely again arise due to Julio Lugo’s $9 million salary being paid by Boston. We will need to check later, but I expect the Cardinals’ reported 2010 payroll to appear to be inflated by $9 million as a result.

When the database was first presented for 2009 this past spring, there was a discrepancy in the reporting of Troy Glaus’ individual salary (pictured). It was understated by about $11 million, which artificially dropped the Cardinals total payroll to $77 million.

While Glaus’ individual line item was quickly corrected, the folks from USAToday apparently forgot to update the Cardinals’ team total. As a result, St. Louis’ supposed $77,605,109 payroll placed them 17th of the 32 MLB teams.

I knew about this problem, but had incorrectly assumed it had been fixed months ago. Not so.

I was reading a Baseball Prospectus article just this week about player injuries and there was that $77 million payroll figure for St. Louis! I knew right away without even looking from where the author had picked up that total. No telling how many others have been using this incorrect data to draw potentially faulty conclusions.

I decided I would take it upon myself to right this wrong.

Fortunately, in Arizona just ten days ago, I had met Steve Gardner, a fine writer from USAToday, an all-around good guy and a Cardinals fan from way back. I contacted Steve on Monday, explaining the problem, and by Tuesday, the database had been updated with the correct total.

The Cardinals are now properly ranked 13th with a 2009 opening day payroll of $88,528,409. Of course, this was a consistent point in time that preceded the big trades of the summer for Mark DeRosa and Matt Holliday.

Thanks to Steve and USAToday!

Rasmus ties for eighth in NL Rookie of the Year vote


For a period early in the season, St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Colby Rasmus was called the frontrunner for the National League Rookie of the Year award by some watchers. An uneven campaign followed, during which he suffered through 20-30 pounds of weight loss due to a hiatal hernia and dealt with an ongoing foot problem.

As a result, Rasmus, 22, fell out of contention to the point he received just a single third-place vote in the balloting announced Monday. Eleven players received votes as Rasmus tied three other rookies for eighth place. The winner was Florida’s Chris Coghlan.

Baseball writers representing each of the 32 MLB clubs received three votes: one first place (worth five points), one second place (worth three points) and one third place (worth one point).

Rookie Club 1st 2nd 3rd Points
Chris Coghlan Florida Marlins 17 6 2 105
J.A. Happ Philadelphia Phillies 10 11 11 94
Tommy Hanson Atlanta Braves 2 6 9 37
Andrew McCutchen Pittsburgh Pirates 2 5 25
Casey McGehee Milwaukee Brewers 1 3 4 18
Randy Wells Chicago Cubs 1 3
Garrett Jones Pittsburgh Pirates 2 2
Everth Cabrera San Diego Padres 1 1
Dexter Fowler Colorado Rockies 1 1
Gerardo Parra Arizona Diamondbacks 1 1
Colby Rasmus St. Louis Cardinals 1 1

Here is a quick look at the offensive stats of the eight position players receiving votes. Leaders are in bold. Rasmus played in the most games of the eight, 147, and was among the youngest at 22 years of age. The Cardinals outfielder posted the lowest batting average (.251) and on-base percentage (.307) among the eight vote-getters.

Rasmus was one of ten rookies to appear with the 2009 Cardinals.

Age G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+
Coghlan 24 128 565 504 84 162 31 6 9 47 8 5 53 77 0.321 0.390 0.460 0.850 122
McCutchen 22 108 493 433 74 124 26 9 12 54 22 5 54 83 0.286 0.365 0.471 0.836 122
McGehee 26 116 394 355 58 107 20 1 16 66 0 2 34 67 0.301 0.360 0.499 0.859 127
Jones 28 82 358 314 45 92 21 1 21 44 10 2 40 76 0.293 0.372 0.567 0.938 147
Cabrera 22 103 438 377 59 96 18 8 2 31 25 8 46 88 0.255 0.342 0.361 0.703 98
Fowler 23 135 518 433 73 115 29 10 4 34 27 10 67 116 0.266 0.363 0.406 0.770 96
Parra 22 120 491 455 59 132 21 8 5 60 5 7 25 89 0.290 0.324 0.404 0.729 85
Rasmus 22 147 520 474 72 119 22 2 16 52 3 1 36 95 0.251 0.307 0.407 0.714 88