The first black pitcher in St. Louis Cardinals history had a prominent place in the baseball spotlight in Birmingham, Alabama Thursday evening.
Major League Baseball got it right on Thursday night in its honoring of Willie Mays and the Negro Leagues. As some of baseball’s greatest met at Rickwood Field, the memory of Mays, who passed away just days ago, was as vibrant and alive as if he was there.
From one of the best renditions of the national anthem to the final out, this was a night that reached beyond the diamond. The game itself was almost anticlimactic. For me, this was a night about history, both past and present.
Former Birmingham Barons and former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bill Greason was honored with throwing out the first pitch. The Negro Leagues oldest living player at 99 (and oldest living former Cardinal) had his well-earned and well-deserved moment in the spotlight.
Greason was so much more than just the first black pitcher in Cardinals history. He was the first black Marine to land at Iwo Jima during World War II. He was a civil rights activist who grew up in Atlanta across the street from a younger Martin Luther King, Jr. He has spent more than 50 years leading the congregation at Bethel Baptist Church, located two miles from Rickwood Field.
Greason was not only Mays’ teammate in Birmingham but his roommate. He also played with the Santurce Crabbers in the Puerto Rican Winter League where he found himself on a roster with future Hall of Famers including Mays and Roberto Clemente. He was a baseball racial barrier breaker when he joined the Oklahoma City Indians in 1952 and became the first black pitcher in Cardinals franchise history, making his debut on May 31, 1954. In 1958, the Cardinals assigned him to the Rochester Red Wings, where he became a mentor to future great Bob Gibson.
Greason retired from professional baseball in 1959, yet 65 years later, his impact lives on. It is a legacy that will not soon be forgotten.
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Lou Roesch feels much better about the 2024 St. Louis Cardinals than he did this spring. But will it continue?
The St. Louis Cardinals have started the 2024 baseball campaign better then I expected. Between the opening series against the Los Angeles Dodgers and the home opener win over Miami, the Redbirds went 4-4. St. Louis’ exploits on the diamond have given me, if no else, a boost of optimism about this team.
In the offseason, the Cardinals chased starting pitching. They signed a tantalizing array of veteran pitchers beginning with Sonny Gray, then Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn. When Gray went down with a hamstring issue and Gibson and Lynn pitched poorly during the spring, I saw very little hope for this team. Now with Gray about a week away from possibly taking the hill in a real major league game, Gibson and Lynn have steadied the staff. With ERAs north of five and even further coming out of spring training, the duo flipped the proverbial light switch. Together they have combined for three starts. Those starts have registered a combined ERA of 3.44 and a strikeout to walk ratio of 4:1. Maybe the big three won’t be so bad after all. Throw in a decent outing by Steven Matz and the starting rotation is pitching close to where you want to see them.
The bullpen has been pretty good as well. The relievers answered the bell. They’ve converted three of five save opportunities in the first week of the season when many thought the Cardinals would be lucky to have two wins over the first week of the season.
Hitting is where I have been the most surprised. Where did Masyn Winn and his .350 batting average come from? I realize it’s only a handful of games, but this was a rookie shortstop that swung at everything in the spring enroute to striking out 17 times in 44 plate appearances. Over the first eight games, his plate discipline is much improved.
Who would have guessed that Paul Goldschmidt and Brendan Donovan would have six RBI in the first week? Or that four other players including Ivan Herrera would have four apiece? Herrera’s have come in just 12 plate appearances. Can the Cardinals keep it up? Let’s hope so.
To hear the Cardinals talk, this is a great mix of veterans and youngsters. St. Louis President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak is looking like a genius at the moment. The early diagnosis is that of a resilient club. One only has to look at the Cardinals home opener to see that. The team was never out of it, even when down 4-1 after Lynn gave up three long balls. They appear to have reverted to the days of yesteryear when Whitey Herzog had them playing small ball. That’s a good sign.
After one week, it ‘s not time to declare the Cardinals World Series bound but I sure like the early results. Let’s hope next week’s review is just as bright.
As 2024 Opening Day arrives, the spring performance of the St. Louis Cardinals hasn’t completely washed away Lou Roesch’s memories of 2023.
Opening Day has arrived. It’s been a long 179 days for St. Louis Cardinals fans since the disappointing, last-place 71-91 2023 season ended with a 4-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds. The quest for a World Series title begins today.
Oliver Marmol (Steve Mitchell/Imagn)
For every team, hope springs eternal. For some, the hope is brighter than for others. In a recent interview, Cardinals manager Oli Marmol expressed the optimistic line, “We like where we’re at.” Understandably, the club wants to put its best foot forward. I do not share that same optimism, but I certainly hope the Redbirds prove me wrong.
Coming out of spring training, one could see some bright spots, however the overall performance was not close to what one might have hoped. The offense was nearly non-existent, and the rotation has more questions than answers as the club prepares to play in Los Angeles. The Cardinals could be 2-5 when coming home to Busch for the home opener on April 4th.
Over the winter, St. Louis picked up three key starters in Sonny Gray, Kyle Gibson, and Lance Lynn and were banking on a Steven Matz rebound. As they enter the season, Gray is on the injured list. Looking at their spring numbers, Gibson, Lynn, and Matz have shown very little. Only Miles Mikolas and fill-in starter Zack Thompson look ready for the season.
Before their final spring tune-ups, Lynn and Gibson combined for 19 1/3 innings pitched, surrendering 24 hits and giving up 18 earned runs. On Sunday, Lynn was charged with seven more runs in 4 1/3 innings, finishing the spring with a 7.90 ERA. Gibson’s ERA is 7.80 and Matz’ spring ERA is 8.16. In his final spring training tune-up against the Cubs, Matz’ pitching line was not encouraging. No matter how you spin it, these numbers are not good.
Opponents’ hit .274 against St. Louis pitching overall this spring. That is the third worst in baseball. As a staff, they barely averaged a 2:1 strikeout to walk ratio. The bullpen converted just eight of 14 save opportunities. This is not what the team was envisioning coming into spring training.
Injuries to Gray and Kenyan Middleton leave Cardinals pitching with question marks. Hopefully, the Dodgers and Padres won’t make the front office wish they had signed Jordan Montgomery, Blake Snell or Michael Wacha instead.
Offensively, the Cardinals were tied for dead last overall in MLB with just 17 spring home runs. I have no problem giving Paul Goldschmidt a pass because he is a consummate professional, and he always delivers. I feel the same way about Nolan Arenado. Nolan Gorman, Dylan Carlson, and Victor Scott II were the only real bright hitting spots of the spring. As a result, it is a difficult sell that the Cardinals offense is going to be any better than it was a year ago.
Fortunately for St. Louis, they play in the National League Central. None of the teams made big moves in the offseason and none are expected to be serious contenders for a World Series title. The Central is full of question marks.
If the Cardinals can survive the first two weeks of the season at .500 and get healthy, they may have a shot at a winning season. There cannot be a repeat of last year’s start, when they ended April at 10-19, 10 games out of first place.
Here’s hoping that Oli’s vision is better than mine.
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Pitchers and catchers report in less than a month. With the arrival of training camp, hope springs eternal for each of Major League baseball’s 30 teams. The St. Louis Cardinals are no exception. Their focus was rebuilding their starting pitching staff. If it performs as expected, then the team will have a successful rebound season as the memory of the dismal 2023 campaign fades away. Let’s look at how it could shape up.
Starting pitching has always been a hallmark of Redbird teams. Back in the day, it was Dizzy and Paul Dean, then came Bob Gibson and Steve Carlton followed by the likes of Bob Forsch, Joaquin Andujar, John Tudor, Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright. Now the mantle is being passed to Sonny Gray and company. History suggests that the additions of Gray, former Redbird Lance Lynn, and local product Kyle Gibson were smart moves to bolster a staff that needed effective and efficient inning eaters.
Lynn referred to this history during Winter Warm-Up. “When I first came up here with Carpenter and Wainwright and [Jake] Westbrook and [Kyle] Lohse, I was the young guy,” said Lynn, who was 18-7 in 2012 with the Cards after cracking the starting rotation for the first time. “They would make fun of me if I didn’t throw at least six innings or didn’t throw 100 pitches. You learned quickly that your No. 1 goal as the starting pitcher was to finish the game you started.”
All three from Gray to Lynn to Gibson have proven they have both the ability and the mindset to finish what they start.
The other two rotation members are returnees Steven Matz and Miles Mikolas. Should they falter, look for Sem Robberse, Drew Rom and Adam Kloffenstein to take advantage of an opportunity, with Zack Thompson and Matthew Liberatore also looking for spots. Rom made eight starts for St. Louis late in 2023 so the former Oriole has the most experience. Robberse and Kloffenstein arrived via the Jordan Hicks trade. Both were promoted to Triple-A upon arrival and delivered enough that they could make some noise in spring training and beyond. Robberse was 2-1 in seven starts striking out 44 in 35 and a third innings of work. Kloffenstein went 2-1 in eight starts for Memphis striking out 35 in 39 innings while fashioning a WHIP just over one. Top prospects Tekoah Roby and Tink Hence won’t be more than a year behind.
President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak turned his attention to the bullpen once he secured his starting arms. The club avoided another contentious arbitration with closer Ryan Helsley. The 29-year-old was one of St. Louis steadiest arms out of the pen in 2023 but missed nearly three months with a right forearm strain. When healthy, “Hellz Bellz” delivered 14 saves with a 2.45 ERA while striking out 52 in 36 2/3 innings. At 6’2, 230 pounds, Helsley has been most consistent from the bullpen the past two seasons building a resume that includes 87 appearances, a 12-5 W-L record and 33 saves in 42 opportunities and seven holds.
Though Jordan Hicks and Genesis Cabrera are gone, recently acquired Andrew Kittredge and John King join Helsley to give St. Louis a pretty good trio in the bullpen. The 33-year-old Kittredge comes to St. Louis three years removed from an All-Star season and two years into his journey back from Tommy John surgery. Before his surgery, the veteran reliever was ranked in the 100th percentile of chase rate (40.7 percent), 91st percentile in walk rate (5.3 percent), 81st percentile in whiff rate (31 percent) and 75th percentile in strikeout rate (27.3 percent), per Baseball Savant.
King is another who will be attending his first St. Louis spring camp, but is proven commodity for the 2024 bullpen. Acquired in the Jordan Montgomery trade at last year’s trade deadline, the lefty showed he can deal. In the same number of innings with St. Louis compared to Texas (18 2/3), the big, tall Texan allowed fewer hits and walks, surrendered fewer runs, both earned and unearned, and substantially raised his ground ball to fly ball out ratio. Continuing to get the ground ball outs will bode well both for King and the Cardinals in 2024.
And the Cardinals may not be done, as club officials confirm they are continuing to monitor the relief market.
The additions to date do not cure all the pitching woes, but they make hope for a bounce back 2024 feel more realistic.
The St. Louis Cardinals have provided their fanbase with countless memories over the decades. Each generation has its own memories to point to as favorites. As fans, we can recall them in an instant whether we were in the stadium or not. Here are three that I remember most.
When Lou Brock was acquired by St. Louis in 1964, no one except maybe then Cardinals’ manager Johnny Keane had any idea of the greatness that was inside his new left fielder. Brock’s beginning in St. Louis was inauspicious at best. He stole 33 bases in his first 103 games, and it wasn’t until 1966 that he really got going.
For the better part of decade, Brock was the catalyst of the St. Louis offense, not only becoming a .297 career hitter but stealing 50 or more bases 11 consecutive seasons. Not only was Brock fast, but he was also durable, missing just 51 games from 1965 to 1974.
On September 10, 1974, Brock did what many thought would never happen. Even though the opposition knew what was coming, they couldn’t stop him. Brock entered the nightcap of a doubleheader just a stolen base off the single season record set by former Dodgers great Maury Wills. Wills had stolen 104 in 1962, also Brock’s first full season in the majors.
The Cardinals speedster swiped base number 104 after singling in the first inning. He set the stage for his record setting performance in front of the hometown faithful. With the Cards tied 2-2 in the home seventh with the Philadelphia Phillies, Brock singled again and then beat Bob Boone’s throw to second to become baseball’s all-time single season base thief at the age of 35. He finished the 1974 season with 118 steals against 33 caught stealing.
More than 27,000 were in the stadium that Sunday afternoon but many more of us remember the event. Brock eventually claimed Major League Baseball’s all-time base stealing crown in 1976.
The 2011 World Series was filled with many impressive moments for the Cardinals, but none were more impressive than Albert Pujols’ three home runs in Game 3. The feat put him into the rarified company of “Mr. October” Reggie Jackson and the “Sultan of Swat” Babe Ruth the only players to achieve such a performance. Although, neither of them also had five hits, six RBI, and 14 total bases in a single World Series game.
Pujols came to the plate with one out and two on in the sixth and with two hits to his credit already. Turning on a letter-high 96 mph fastball, the Cardinals first baseman slugged it over the left field wall, extending an 8-6 game into an 11-6 lead. In the seventh, he returned to the plate with one on and promptly homered to left field again. That gave him another first in World Series history, a hit in four consecutive innings. “The Machine” had a final at bat in the ninth with the bases empty and finished off his night of firsts with another home run to left. It was indeed a night that would be remembered not just by St. Louis fans but by baseball fans everywhere.
(Editor’s trivia note: Working in relief, Lance Lynn was the winning pitcher that evening.)
Before baseball became all about the money, it was a game that was played between the best of the National League and the best of the American League. There would never be a doubt that the best teams in baseball were playing for the title of the best in baseball, but I digress, as that is a story for another time.
In 1968, Gibson posted a 1.12 ERA still talked about to this day, with 268 strikeouts and 13 shutouts. In the opener of the Fall Classic, the Cardinals’ high heat right-hander faced off against baseball’s first 30-game winner, Detroit right-hander Denny McLain. For number 45, it made no difference who the opponent was.
Game 1 was in St. Louis with a 3:15 start so rather than get to watch the game at school (which was normal back then in St. Louis), I raced the three blocks home to glue my eyes on the television screen. With Gibson striking out seven of the first nine, Cardinals fans were excited to say the least. Gibson concluded his complete game, 17-strikeout shutout performance by punching out the final three batters, Norm Cash, Al Kaline, and Willie Horton. The Omaha, Nebraska native struck every batter he faced at least once.
Although, I chose Gibson as my top memory, there are countless others that could have been exchanged with any of these three. The process of choosing the best creates such good conversation about baseball. It brings back so many happy memories for so many.
Which three would you choose? Is it the 1964 Cardinals chasing down the Phillies to win the pennant and eventually the World Series? Is it Mark McGwire sending that low, line drive over the left field wall for number 62 back in 1998? Maybe it’s the play of Willie McGee in the 1982 World Series?
Whatever the choice, I’m sure it brings a smile to your face and that’s what baseball is all about.
Merry Christmas!
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The St. Louis Cardinals have not yet made the big splash many are expecting from them. Coming home from the Winter Meetings with a major deal was not necessary, though. It is better to be more like the tortoise than the hare in this situation. In search of bullpen help and perhaps even a lights-out starter, St. Louis needs to be judicious and meticulous. The Cardinals should consider three free agent relievers from the Houston Astros before it gets too late.
Phil Maton would come with a lower price tag than most and some pretty good swing and miss stuff. The 20th round pick from the 2015 draft has a durable arm, having been on the injured list just once since 2018. Maton was former Astros manager Dusty Baker’s go to guy against left-handed hitting, making him an invaluable commodity. With a lively 30-year-old arm, Maton has struck out 232 hitters over the last three seasons in 180 plus innings of work. At an estimated $4 million dollar annual asking price, the Cardinals would secure a proven arm that can get people out. Rumors have St. Louis interested in Maton.
Another consideration for St. Louis might be Ryan Stanek. At 6-4, 226 pounds, Stanek is an imposing mound presence with extremely good stuff when he is on. When on his game, the native St. Louisan’s fastball (92-98 mph) and hard slider (84-87 mph) are almost unhittable. The knock against Stanek is the longball. He surrendered 18 home runs in 170 plus innings over the last three seasons including eight in just over 50 innings in 2023. Despite that he is another durable arm like Maton. Covid-19 notwithstanding, Stanek has spent just 32 days on the injured list since 2019.
The final Houston Astros free agent reliever St. Louis could pursue is Hector Neris. Although possibly the priciest commodity of the three, Neris’ numbers in 2023 are worth paying out the big bucks for if you want to stabilize the bullpen. In 2023, the righty struck out 77 hitters in 68 1/3 innings with a 1.71 ERA and rWAR above 2. At 34 years old, Neris has the stuff to be the Cardinals closer should Ryan Helsey falter and the $7 million plus to sign him would be money well spent.
All three of these arms were instrumental to Astros in 2023 and would no doubt improve the St. Louis pen in 2024. All three would bolster the pen without breaking the bank and are worth a chance.
The St. Louis Cardinals are signing Sonny Gray to a three-year, $75 million contract. The deal is awful for a team looking to show its fanbase they mean business in the off season. Here is why the Cardinals will regret this signing.
Sonny Gray is not the answer to the Cardinals pitching woes. He wanted to be closer to home in Tennessee. The Atlanta Braves were interested in him and Truist Park is nearly an hour closer than Busch Stadium. Maybe the Braves weren’t willing to overpay, and the Cardinals are desperate.
The new Cardinals ace is 34 years old, and the club is willing to shell out $25 million a year to a guy who finished 8-8 last season for a division winning Minnesota Twins team. Why did they let him walk? Gray has never won more than 14 games in a season and that was back in 2015. Over the last four seasons, his record sits at 28-25. Hardly what I would call an ace.
People will point to innings pitched, ERA, strikeout rate, walks allowed and home runs surrendered. Brandon Kiley @BKSportsTalk tweeted that the Cardinals were 34-19 when their starters went 6+ innings and allowed fewer than four runs. So, let’s see, Sonny Gray was 22nd in innings pitched in 2023 with 184. With his innings pitched amid his 32 starts, that gets him two outs deep into the sixth. That’s not six plus innings, in fact it’s not even six innings of work on average. Explain how that helps St. Louis. Miles Mikolas threw 201 1/3 innings for St. Louis in 35 starts. One year deal signee Kyle Gibson threw 192 innings with 33 starts and won 15 games. Also newly inked Lance Lynn threw 183 2/3 innings in 32 starts. So, all four worked similarly deep into a game yet Sonny Gray is worth $25 million per? Hmmm.
Gray had a 2.79 earned run average, third in the major leagues last season. His career ERA though is 3.47. He has recorded a sub 3.00 ERA just four times over his 11 seasons and two of those were in his first four years in the bigs. It’s more likely that he will be closer to his career average if not more then to the sub three or even low 3.00 St. Louis may be hoping for from him.
Will strikeouts and walks provide some separation between Gray and the other Cardinals signees? His strikeout totals leave him on the outside of the top 25 in major league baseball. Even Lynn, who threw basically the same number of innings (183 2/3) had more strikeouts (191). Walks allowed is one spot where Gray does shine, having given up just 55 but Gibson, who threw more innings than Gray, had the same number of walks and Lynn is right there with both at 67 walks. Each of their strikeout to walk ratios are very similar so Gray doesn’t really separate himself here as the ace, either.
Maybe the best argument for signing Sonny Gray is that he kept the ball in the park in 2023, allowing just eight dingers. It didn’t hurt that the walls at Target Field are further back and that there is a 23-foot wall in right field. The outfield walls at Great American Ballpark are very similar to Busch Stadium, and there in 2021, Gray gave up 13 of his career-high 19 home runs allowed in a season. Like GABP, there is not a 23-foot wall in right at Busch Stadium to protect Gray and the Cardinals. In seven of his 11 seasons, he allowed 15 or more home runs. There is no reason not to expect his home run totals to rise.
Finally let’s look at how Gray’s 2023 season came to an end. In his final five regular season games, he was 2-3. In three of those five starts he didn’t last beyond the fifth inning. In the postseason, the numbers were not much different. He went 1-1 throwing just nine innings. Pitching in the ALDS with the series tied a game apiece, the veteran right-hander had a stat line that looked like this; 4IP, 8H, 5R, 4ER, 2HR 1BB and 6K. Hardly what one would expect from a pitcher worth $75 million over three years as a free agent.
Sonny Gray is not the answer to the St. Louis pitching problem. If they had rented him for a year like they are renting Gibson and Lynn, that could be acceptable, even at $25 big ones. There are better and younger ace options available, though. Personally, I would rather see the $75 million spent on Michael Wacha, for example, who at least showed in 2023 that he might be back to his former self. They may be wasting it on Sonny Gray.
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photo: Adam Kloffenstein (Jonathan Chan/Centennial College)
In the final hours leading up to the trade deadline, the St. Louis Cardinals fortified the upper levels of their minor league system by adding six minor league pitchers in return for impending free agents.
The MLB trade deadline has come and gone, and St. Louis Cardinals president John Mozeliak and his staff accomplished nearly everything they set out to do as sellers. They utilized their pending free agents to strengthen the minors with an eye toward free agency and trades in the off season. The retooling for 2023 has already brought some potentially exciting returns.
St. Louis should get high marks for what they managed to accomplish and the way they executed their plan. Once Mozeliak and company decided they were sellers, they set the plan into motion. The deadline deals may have been one of the best examples of trading players without burning bridges. From what I have read, Jordan Montgomery, Jack Flaherty, and Jordan Hicks could be amenable to returning to the Birds on the Bat if the numbers work out after the season is over. The Cardinals tried to get the math to work prior to the trade deadline but the parties could not pull it off. In the end, they might still get one, two or all three of their pitching free agents back in the offseason and still have the acquired boatload of prospects, focused on pitching.
The success of the Cardinals retooling to improve depends primarily on their ability to determine if the quality pitching they seek will come from this group of prospects or if they will be more valuable as trade bait in the offseason.
Tekoah Roby, Adam Kloffenstein, and Sem Robberse appear to be arms that excite most people and with good reason. These three pitchers have been well-written about with regards to their fastballs and potential. Roby, with a fastball in the mid 90’s and what has been described as a north, south knee buckling curveball in the low 80’s, appears to be the cream of the crop here. The big question is his injured shoulder. If it is not too serious, he could be in the St. Louis rotation as soon as late next season.
Kloffenstein is a pitcher you must like. First, he is a 21-year-old, 6’5” 240-pound right-hander. His arsenal features a fastball in the low 90’s that allows him to consistently retire hitters via both the strikeout and the groundball. At Double-A for Toronto, he accrued a respectable 3.24 ERA through 17 starts with 105 strikeouts in 89 innings of work.
Robberse, at 21 years old, is an intriguing prospect. A native of the Netherlands, he pitched in the 2023 Futures Game facing three hitters allowing two hits and striking out one on a 3-2 breaking ball. One has to like the confidence to throw a 3-2 breaking ball for a strike and not your 90-plus mph fastball. In July alone, the right-hander went 3-0 in his four starts with 21 1/3 innings. He posted 20 strikeouts against seven walks and had a 2.53 ERA.
Rounding out the pitching prospects, the Cardinals also added left-handers Drew Rom and John King plus righty Matt Svanson who at Double A has amassed 39 strikeouts in 32 1/3 innings.
King has major league experience and has been assigned to St. Louis. In 87 career outings, King has struck out 89 in 127 1/3 innings. The 10th round pick of the Texas Rangers in 2017, the 28-year-old has a career 4.25 ERA.
Rom, like his right-handed counterpart Zack Showalter, is young and presents lots of potential. Both came to St. Louis from the Orioles organization. Rom had a 7-6 record with a 5.34 ERA in 18 starts at Triple-AAA Norfolk since April. At 23, he has built a career record of 32-15 with a 3.79 ERA through his five years of minor league ball.
Showalter may have the most upside of the former Baltimore trio. At 19 years old, he is just into his first full year in the minors, splitting time between the rookie league and A-Ball. Sporting a 2.37 ERA in nine appearances with eight starts, Showalter has struck out 41 in 30 1/3 innings. He has given up just one long ball.
St. Louis appears to be in much better shape heading into 2023 offseason thanks to some shrewd wheeling and dealing. Whether they keep pitchers like Roby and Kloffenstein or dangle them as trade bait for a more established starter is the question but for now hats off to John Mozeliak and his team for designing a plan and executing it for the betterment of the organization.
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As the trade deadline draws near, there has been some speculation as to whether the St. Louis Cardinals might consider trading catcher Willson Contreras. Although it would seem that this might be one of the flags that politicians send up to test the waters on an idea, the Houston Astros might be a suitable partner for the former All-Star catcher.
Here is how I would format this deal If I were the Cardinals front office trying to get younger and more elite going forward.
The St. Louis Cardinals trade right-hander Jordan Montgomery and catcher Willson Contreras to the Houston Astros for pitchers Hunter Brown and Forrest Whitley, and catcher Yainer Diaz.
We know that the Houston Astros have title aspirations but need pitching help and a pitcher like Montgomery fits the bill. He is established. He was one of the keys to the Cardinals run last year after being acquired at the trade deadline. He is pitching well and the former Yankees hurler knows the American League. Montgomery is definitively a better option than former Astro Justin Verlander, who has been linked to Houston trade speculations.
Montgomery is 6-8 with a very respectable 3.37 ERA on a mediocre St. Louis team. In his last five starts, he has gone six innings or more four times. He has given up more than two runs a game just once over that same span. He is pitching better than most of the Astros staff, and although an upcoming free agent, his dollar requirements won’t be super extravagant.
Willson Contreras was reportedly a desire of the Astros as a free agent last winter, but St. Louis scooped him away. He is not a bargain price guy on the payroll so St. Louis will probably have to eat some of the check to make it work. That aside, Contreras is better than the options Houston has. It’s why they wanted him in the first place.
Insert Contreras into the number six spot between Yordan Alvarez and Chas McCormick or in the nine hole before the top of the order and he may thrive. Contreras is the elite catcher Houston has been looking for since they converted Hall of Famer Craig Biggio to a center fielder and later a second baseman.
The Cardinals would get the electric arm of Hunter Brown. Brown at just 24 years old in only his first full season in the majors would give St. Louis a lot of room to work with contract wise. With 122 strikeouts in 105 1/3 innings this year, he is worth the look. Brown throws strikes 58 percent of the time. In 2022 with limited work (20 IP), he had an 0.89 ERA. Brown’s fastball tops out at triple digits while his slider locks in at 90 and his curveball is slow, resembling a younger version of Verlander. Brown has a lot of upside for a team looking to the future and at $725K the salary is right. He is not arbitration eligible until 2026.
Listed as a starter in the minors, Forrest Whitley has been dealing with a rash of injuries including Tommy John surgery in 2021. His fastball hits in the upper 90’s and will occasionally top the century mark when he is healthy. Whitley has been out since May 25th with a right lateral strain and is expected back on the hill in August. Prior to his setback in May, Whitley had posted a 5.70 ERA in 30 innings for Houston’s Triple-A franchise.
Whitley’s best season in the minors came in 2017 when he struck out 143 in 92 1/3 innings for three different teams working his way up to Corpus Christi Double-A ball in the Houston organization. Whitley is one person St. Louis could take a flyer on and have it pay off big as he is still just 25 years old. Maybe a change of scenery for the right-hander is just what the doctor ordered.
Catcher Yainer Diaz was thought to be ready to take over the everyday backstop duties in Houston but has not been given the opportunity. That they have consistently restrained his appearances and yet he still continues to perform is a testament to his preparation. He strikes out less than 20 percent of the time and also hits for power. He is batting a respectable .263 with 12 home runs, 28 RBI, and a .773 OPS.
It only stands to reason that with regular playing time, which he could get in St. Louis that his numbers could continue to grow upward. Diaz has a pretty good handle on the pitching staff as well with starters carrying a sub four ERA with him behind the dish. His arm is pretty good as evidenced by throwing out 9 of 24 would be base stealers. His contract is doable as well he is not arbitration eligible until 2026.
Whether St. Louis is entertaining or approaching the Astros about trade possibilities is anyone’s guess, but it might be worth considering.
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St. Louis Cardinals President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak has said the team will be sellers at the trade deadline while looking to add pitching that can contribute in 2024. As they decide who will stay and who will go, St. Louis might find a suitable trade partner in the Cleveland Guardians.
At 51-51, two games out in the AL Central and 5 ½ games back of a Wild Card, the Guardians are said to be on the fence as to being a buyer or seller. One thing is certain, however. They have immediate needs, including pitching, another bat in the lineup and maybe a catcher. St. Louis could meet those requirements in exchange for future pitching.
Although it’s hard to say exactly how a trade might form, here are some pitching pieces the Cardinals could ask for in return.
Aaron Civale
Civale is a 28-year-old right-hander who has pitched well for Cleveland since being pushed into a rotation beset by injuries. He is 4-2 on the season with a stellar 2.54 ERA. His last outing came against the Kansas City Royals in which he threw a solid eight innings of five hit, one run baseball that included five strikeouts against two walks.
In each of his five July starts, Civale has gone at least five innings and has not surrendered more than five hits in any of those outings. He also keeps the ball in the park allowing just one long ball over his last 31 1/3 innings of work. Possibly the most integral point is that he does not become a free agent until 2026.
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) July 8, 2023
Daniel Espino
The Panamanian native is at Double-A Akron trying to get healthy. The 22-year-old right-hander underwent shoulder surgery in early May and is not expected to pitch again till mid-2024. Having said this, before the injuries stacked up, he was good enough to be MLB Pipeline’s number 1 Guardians prospect and 14th on their overall Top 100 in 2023. In 2021, between Low-A and High-A, the righty struck out 152 in 92 1/3 innings. In 2022 before being shut down with patellar tendinitis, Espino had 35 strikeouts in 18 1/3 innings.
Doug Nikhazy
Another Double-A pitcher, Nikhazy is a power pitching left-hander. In his short minor league career, the 23-year-old has struck out 217 batters in 173 2/3 innings of work. Starting 12 of 13 outings since May 5th, the Burlington, NC native has given up three hits or less in 10 of those appearances. His strikeout to walk ratio is almost 3:1.
Joey Cantillo
Cantillo opened the season at Double-A Akron but pitched well enough to be promoted to Triple-A Columbus. At 23 years old, the lefty has endured some growing pains with the Clippers. His overall numbers, although not overpowering, are respectable for a young hurler. In 2023 to date, he has tossed 68 2/3 innings with 88 strikeouts against 43 walks. Opponents are hitting .224 against the Hawaiian native.
Over the course of his minor league career since being a 16th round pick in 2017, Cantillo has been impressive. He has a 2.78 ERA with opponents hitting just .195 against him. Striking out 415 in 311 innings, Cantillo would be an enticing piece to add to the upper levels of the Cardinals organization.
Whether Cleveland is inclined to deal any or all of these is a question, as well as if St. Louis would be interested, but that’s what makes trade deadline speculation so much fun.
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photo: Adam Wainwright and Jack Flaherty (Jeff Curry/Imagn)
Not everyone thinks it is too late for 2023 and that the Cardinals should sell. Lou Roesch outlines his three-step plan for the team to get back into the National League Central Division race.
After Wednesday’s win over the Miami Marlins, the St. Louis Cardinals have escaped last place in the National League Central and are 10 games off the pace of the Milwaukee Brewers. Most baseball fans are shocked by the 2023 Cardinals’ first half as much as they are by the Cincinnati Reds vying for the top spot in the division. If you were a betting man on the first half of the season, I’m guessing you would have lost a boatload of money on St. Louis.
All is not lost though. Most teams at 10 games under .500 would be considered done for the season but this is St. Louis. This is a franchise that has only finished last in the history of the organization a handful of times. Much like they did in 1964 and more recently in 2021, the Cardinals are in a spot to prove the naysayers wrong once again. Here are three things the Cardinals must do over the next month of the season to set themselves up for the playoffs.
The most basic task is to win more baseball games. There are 11 weeks left in the season, meaning they only need to make up a game per week, not out of the realm of possibility. Over the next 30 days minus the series with the Tampa Bay Rays at the beginning of August, St. Louis will oppose a group of teams with losing records. Making the news even better is that they face the Cubs, Twins, and Rockies at home between now and the middle of August. Another 17-game winning streak would be nice. The opportunity is there.
Second, the St. Louis front office needs to reverse their plans and be a buyer and not a seller as the trade deadline approaches. With Jack Flaherty hurling his third consecutive quality start to close out the Nationals series, it’s time to see what arms St. Louis could add to the back of the rotation. Can Adam Wainwright rebound from his shoulder issues? Only time will tell especially since manager Oliver Marmol wants him back in the rotation. Which Steven Matz does St. Louis get in the second half? His prior outing on five days rest was nothing short of horrible. In fact, his entire time in St. Louis has not been close to anything you might have expected following his big signing splash after the 2021 season. Winless against seven losses in 2023 with 41 earned runs in 76 innings of work, it’s time to consider other options.
Lastly, it is time to replace shortstop Paul DeJong. His time has come and gone with St. Louis. Yes, it’s true that he has feasted on weaker pitching the last couple of series but when the Cardinals need his bat in a big series against real pitching, the Illinois State University alum goes silent.
Shortstop Masyn Winn is the future, and he is ready. Since Game 2 of a doubleheader with Memphis back on June 14th, the third-year pro has been tearing the hide off the ball. His bat is sizzling consistently against all pitching, as he has 31 hits in his last 98 at bats. The .316 clip includes hitting safely in 18 of his last 22 games with 12 extra base hits, eight multi-hit games, 19 RBI, and 14 walks. His defense continues excel and he brings speed to the basepaths.
The Cardinals are poised to make a big run. The next few series will tell the tale of the tape however this is a franchise that is not used to losing and can be counted on to make the right moves when it matters most.
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The St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs are playing this weekend across the pond (Atlantic Ocean for those not geographically inclined, marking another historic moment in this legendary rivalry.
The two teams have met more than 2,400 times on the baseball diamond, yet on Saturday June 24th, they will face off for one of the first times in a place other than St. Louis or the friendly confines of Wrigley Field. London Stadium, a multi-purpose outdoor facility at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in the Stratford district of London, England is the site for this historic moment.
Coming into this series, the Cardinals and Cubs are currently trending in opposite directions. The Cubs are 8-2 in their last 10 and just 3.5 games back of the division leading Cincinnati Reds. With St. Louis 13 games below .500 and uncharacteristically last in the National League Central Division, this might be the historic moment the Cardinals need to jumpstart their season.
Over the past few seasons, Cardinals’ fans have become used to their favorites getting off to a slow start but 2023 has been egregiously languid. Over time, the Cardinals have spent time at the bottom of the standings but have never finished the season in last place since 1918. In fact, it has been 24 years since a St. Louis squad finished under .500 for the season.
Maybe the change in time zone will do them some good or maybe they just need bangers and mash to get them moving up the standings. This series has all the makings of a monumental moment for both teams because as the old cliché goes throw the records out the window when this rivalry gets between the lines.
Pitching is where the Cardinals have fallen off the proverbial cliff. They rank 22nd overall in the majors in large part because of just 20 quality starts (six innings or more with no more than three runs allowed) all season. Only six teams are teams are worse than St. Louis in that category. The Cubs come in hitting .247 as a team. St. Louis starters Adam Wainwright and Jack Flaherty are going to have to attack them. They are going to have to pitch better than their 5.56 and 4.95 ERA say they are. They can ill afford to let Chicago impose its will at the plate.
Offensively may be where the Cardinals find the silver lining in this series and a season adjusting turnaround. The St. Louis side has more doubles and more home runs 74 games into the season then their Chicago counterparts. Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman are going to have to come out swinging the sticks against a Cubs staff that boasts 34 quality starts, fifth best in the major leagues. Chicago starters Justin Steele and Marcus Stroman, both with sub-3 ERAs, are expected to start in the series. Steele is 3-2 in his last seven starts with a 3.93 ERA. He could be the key to how well the Cardinals do because Stroman has been almost unhittable with a perfect 7-0 in his last seven starts and a minuscule 1.29 ERA.
Finally, if there is a moment for former Cubs catcher Wilson Contreras to win over fans both in St. Louis and abroad, this would be the time. Over his last five games, the Cardinals backstop is hitting an even .300 with three extra base hits and four RBI.
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On the week that Curt Flood was born in 1938 and died in 1997, we remember the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famer center fielder’s career-ending decision to challenge Baseball’s Reserve Clause.
The 26th anniversary of Curt Flood’s passing was this past Saturday, January 20. It has been 53 years since he penned his letter to then-Major League Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn in a move that changed history. Flood left us too soon, at the age of 59, but not before his one-man stand revolutionized player rights. The former star St. Louis Cardinals outfielder and team Hall of Famer (2015) would also have been 85 years old this past Thursday, as we look back at his monumental decision.
Curt Flood
Obtained in a trade with the Cincinnati Reds on December 5, 1957, Flood became one of the best players of his era, though at the time, no one expected the deal to amount to much of anything. The first trade of Bing Devine’s tenure as general manager of the Cardinals was based on potential. Flood, a natural center fielder, had been converted to play third base by the Reds and was learning to ply the leather at second base at the time of the deal. In St. Louis, they already had a third baseman in Ken Boyer and a second baseman in the wings in Julian Javier, but they needed a center fielder. Flood was the answer.
“Flood isn’t a big boy, but he’s strong, fast, a good outfielder and, as some other clubs’ reports show, has a better arm than the average we’ve credited him with,” Devine said. “We figure him probably still a year away, but two other clubs already have contacted us in an effort to make a deal for Flood with the thought they’d play him right now. It would, however, take a real good deal to get him.”
Flood played 12 seasons in St. Louis, from 1958 through 1969. He patrolled center field for three pennant winning teams and helped earn two World Series titles. He played in all 162 games in 1964, when he not only helped lead the Cardinals to the World Series title, but led the National League in plate appearances, at bats, and hits. A three-time All-Star and seven-time Gold Glove winner, Flood was traded on October 7, 1969, a move that changed the course of baseball history.
Flood’s refusal to report to Philadelphia began the challenge and elimination of baseball’s Reserve Clause. It had kept players indebted to a team even when out of contract. The players’ union supported Flood’s challenge. In a letter to Kuhn, Flood stated unequivocally “After 12 years in the Major Leagues, I do not feel I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes. I believe that any system which produces that result violates my basic rights as a citizen, and is inconsistent with the laws of the United States and of the several States.”
Eventually, the lawsuit ended up at the U.S. Supreme Court, where the justices ruled in 1972 in favor of baseball, but the change process had been set in motion. Former Oakland A’s pitcher and World Series hero Jim “Catfish” Hunter was ruled baseball’s first free agent by arbitrator Peter Seitz in 1974.
Curt Flood (AP photo)
With Hunter’s free agent signing with the New York Yankees, Flood’s fight was complete. Player movement had become more commensurate with ideals of capitalism. On May 4, 1976, New York Times writer Murray Chass unknowingly foretold the future of baseball with his opening paragraph.
“In these days of free agents and rising salaries, baseball’s club owners have contended that players forever more will see nothing but dollar signs at the ends of their bats, whereas in the good old days. when the game was played purely for fun, they saw only hits and strikeouts. From now on, the owners have suggested, the players will not let any sense of loyalty and integrity interfere with their avaricious ambitions.”
It should also have been added that neither would the owners allow any sense of loyalty and integrity interfere with their avaricious ambitions.
Flood’s stance made baseball a better place for players today. His decision to challenge the status quo demonstrated a love for the game that few players really exhibit outside the diamond. He may have lost his career but he forever changed baseball. As the iconic radio legend Paul Harvey would say, “And now you know the rest of the story.”
With the signing of Willson Contreras, the St. Louis Cardinals continue a storied tradition of employing elite backstops. St. Louis has been able to find, secure, and keep some of the best to play catcher in the history of the game. Contreras is no exception.
The excellence of Cardinals catching lineage stretches back to at least 1959. Over the past 63 seasons, the Cardinals have had basically had six primary men protecting the dish – from McCarver to Molina. You would be hard pressed to find an organization that could compare with that kind of excellence behind the plate.
Going back to the days when baseball was in its infancy, the organization also came up with premium players at the number two spot on the diamond. Let’s take a look at the best of the best who have served behind the plate for the Cardinals, beginning with Roger Bresnahan.
Roger Bresnahan
Bresnahan was only in St. Louis for a handful of years beginning in 1909 when he was obtained to be their player-manager. The team immediately moved forward in the standings under Bresnahan improving by five wins in 1909, nine more in 1910 and another 12 in 1911 before the wheels began to fall off. Over his time with St. Louis, the pitcher turned outfielder turned catcher hit a solid .275 with a .960 fielding percentage behind the plate. Bresnahan is also credited with introducing shin guards, devising the schematics for the batting helmet and being the first to wear a padded facemask.
Bob O’Farrell was the next catcher to excel behind the plate with the Birds on the Bat. Considered one of the greatest defensive catchers of his time, the Waukegan, Illinois native arrived in St. Louis in 1925 in a deal with the Chicago Cubs. The very next season (1926) was his finest in baseball. He set career highs in batting (.293), 30 doubles, seven home runs and 68 RBI while helping the Cardinals to the National League pennant. He hit .301 in the 1926 World Series but is best remembered for throwing out Babe Ruth trying to steal second for the final out of the Game 7 clincher. It was the first of the Cardinals 11 World Series titles to date. A month later he became the first catcher to ever win the Most Valuable Player Award. Like Bresnahan, O’Farrell became player-manager for the Cardinals. He remained for just one season, 1927, despite winning more games than the 1926 Redbirds. During his six years in St. Louis, he hit .271 with a stellar fielding percentage of .981. His 21-year career caught stealing average of 48% was better than the league average over that same span.
Walker Cooper
The Cardinals would be hard pressed to find another catcher like O’Farrell until the Gas House Gang’s William Walker Cooper broke on to the scene in 1941. Cooper earned three All-Star nods with St. Louis and finish in the top 11 of the MVP in three consecutive seasons (1942-1944). He played in just four games in 1945 before being traded to the New York Giants. Cooper returned for a second stint with the Cardinals in 1956. Over his eight years in St. Louis, he helped lead them to three consecutive World Series, and winning both the 1942 and 1944 titles. He hit .296 and had a fielding percentage of .974. From 1942-1945, he threw out 63 of 66 would be base stealers. He was Yadi before Yadi was Yadi.
Two years after Cooper retired in 1957, Tim McCarver, a 17-year-old high schooler from Memphis, Tennessee, burst onto the scene. By 1963, McCarver was the Cardinals’ everyday catcher. In 1964, his 10th inning home run won Game 5 of the World Series. In 1966, he earned his first All-Star Game nod and scored the winning run, also in the 10th inning. He did the unthinkable that same season becoming the first catcher to lead the league in triples (13). He finished second to teammate Orlando Cepeda in the MVP race and won his second World Series ring as the Cardinals beat the Red Sox in a dramatic seven-game series. McCarver also helped the Cardinals reach the 1968 World Series when they lost to the Detroit Tigers and baseball’s last 31-game winner Denny McLain. He was traded at the end of the 1969 season effectively handing the reins to future Hall of Famer Ted Simmons. Over his 12 years with St. Louis, McCarver gathered 1,029 hits in 1,181 games while also putting together a .982 fielding percentage.
Ted Simmons
By the age of 21, Simmons was the Cardinals full-time backstop and well on his way to becoming one of the best hitting power catchers of his day. Often overshadowed by Big Red Machine catcher Johnny Bench, Simmons put together a career worthy of a call from the Hall, which came in 2021, albeit a little bit late. Simmons played 12 seasons in St. Louis just like his predecessor, McCarver. Simmons is first in the Cardinals defensive record books in stolen base attempts against and throwing out base runners. He is second in games played, innings caught, putouts, double plays and wild pitches allowed. He is third in assists, errors, and passed balls allowed. On the offensive side, he still sits atop the record books for most intentional walks (151) by a catcher and is second in sacrifice flies (67).
Simmons was traded to Milwaukee in 1981, which brought Whitey Herzog-favorite Darrell Porter to St. Louis. He was behind the plate for the Cardinals until 1985. Porter was a right-handed throwing, left-handed hitter considered to be one of the best behind the dish and with some pop in his bat. Although things did not start off well, Porter carried St. Louis to the 1982 World Series title. The bespectacled Joplin, Missouri native was the NLCS and World Series MVP. He hit just .237 from 1981-1985 with St. Louis but his defense was solid with a .986 fielding percentage.
Two years after Porter departed, Tom Pagnozzi began his 12-year Cardinals’ career. Pags’ hitting was not the greatest at .253 but there was no question about his defensive prowess, as his .992 fielding percentage can attest. He averaged just four errors a season. Pagnozzi won three Gold Gloves including his last in 1994 when he threw out 25 base runners to lead the majors and committed just one error.
Mike Matheny (USA TODAY Sports Images)
Mike Matheny became the next St. Louis standout behind the plate after joining the club as a free agent in December 1999. The Reynoldsburg, Ohio native was not a prolific hitter but as the Redbirds backstop from 2000-2004, he won three Gold Gloves for his defense. The future Cardinals manager set the Major League record for most consecutive games without an error at 252. He also set the mark for most consecutive chances without an error at 1,565. Matheny committed just 14 errors while in St. Louis and his .997 fielding percentage is the best all-time among St. Louis catchers with at least 2,000 innings caught.
Matheny turned over the catching duties to Yadier Molina in 2004. The future first ballot Hall of Famer had an inauspicious start, catching just 51 games in 2004 but then came 2005 and the rest as they say is history. Eighteen seasons later, Molina etched his name into baseball lore as one of the greatest of all-time. He owns a career .277 batting average and holds nearly every St. Louis offensive and defensive record for a catcher. He leads all catchers in the history of the franchise in singles and doubles, not to mention hits, plate appearances, games played, hit by pitch, and sacrifice flies. Defensively, his .995 career fielding percentage is second only to Matheny (.997). The nine-time Gold Glover holds the team record for games played by a catcher, innings caught, putouts, assists, and double plays created. He ranks second to Ted Simmons in throwing out 40% of would-be base stealers. Molina is one of the few ballplayers known simply by one name. Say Yadi and every baseball fan knows about whom you are speaking. The 10-time All-Star ended his career as the no. 1 catcher in MLB history in putouts and second in Defensive Runs Saved. These are the shoes Willson Contreras has to follow.
Contreras comes to St. Louis as one of the best hitting catchers – not just in Chicago Cubs history, but among all active catchers in the game today. He was the mainstay behind the plate for the Cubs’ only World Series champion team since 1908. He is just the 17th Cubs player to have four 20-plus home run seasons. In five of his seven years in the big leagues, Contreras has clubbed 18 or more home runs. Since his rookie season in 2016, only J.T. Realmuto has done better from an offensive standpoint. Among Cubs catchers with a minimum of 2,500 plate appearances, Contreras is second in on-base percentage, and third in home runs, extra base hits and RBI. The 30-year-old brings pop in his bat, a strong arm and an even quicker release for throwing out would be base stealers or picking them off when straying too far off first. He will only get better as a field general. A three time All-Star, Contreras is the perfect fit for a storied franchise with legendary catchers.
The Cardinal Nation 2022 Prospect Guide is back for a fifth year. It includes 276 pages of in-depth commentary about the very best St. Louis Cardinals minor leaguers, including dozens of color photos, scouting reports and much more. The spiral-bound version is now 20% off.
Per oddsmakers, the National League Central Division Champion St. Louis Cardinals are favored to advance beyond the Wild Card Series. You never want to overlook an opponent, especially in the playoffs, but there are multiple reasons to support the idea that Cardinals should be able to get past the number six seed Philadelphia Phillies.
Since their July series with the Phillies, the Cardinals have once again been one of the best second half clubs in Major League baseball. They have gone 46-27 since July 11, winning or splitting 17 of 21 overall series. The Cardinals dropped just two series since September 2nd. Since the trade deadline, they are 39-21. The Cardinals went 53-28 at home, including 11-6 in September.
The Phillies have been respectable at 41-35 since the series that ended on July 11th. Following the trade deadline, they did just enough at 32-28 to make the playoffs. On the road, they are just a game over .500 in 2022 now face a team that is 25 games over .500 in their home park. The Phillies went 11-14 in September including 6-13 away from Philadelphia.
Pitching has once again become the core of the Cardinals surge. Let’s start with the acquisition of Jordan Montgomery, a move that no one saw coming except Cardinals President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak. The lefty has been stabilizing. He went 6-3 in 11 starts with an ERA a full half run less then his 21 starts in the Yankees pinstripes. Pitching back-to-back since Montgomery arrived, Adam Wainwright and Montgomery have gone a combined 10-5 including one no decision the Cardinals eventually won.
Wild Card Game 1 starter Jose Quintana was the other trade deadline acquisition and although his record doesn’t show it at 3-2, the Cardinals have done well when he takes the hill. In six starts spanning September and October, the lefty gave up three runs. He has pitched five or more innings in nine of his 12 starts. Overall, St. Louis is 9-3 in his starts.
Cardinals bats have also been booming since the trade deadline, led by Albert Pujols. The future first ballot Hall of Famer slugged 17 home runs since the beginning of August. No one except Aaron Judge hit more. Over that same span, when number 5 homers, the Cardinals are 12-2.
Don’t forget about Paul Goldschmidt, who had 35 home runs, 115 RBI, 106 runs scored and batted .317. And there’s third baseman Nolan Arenado. He simply went 10-for-22 (.455) against Phillies pitching with six RBI in 2022 en route to 30 home runs and 102 RBI.
In the 60 games since the trade deadline, the Cardinals have scored four or more runs in a game 38 times while allowing four plus just 28 times.
The Wild Card round begins with a Friday day game which also bodes well for the Redbirds. St. Louis is 10-8 while the Phillies are 5-14 in day games since July 31st.
Considering the above, one can understand why the Cardinals are favored to advance to the National League Division Series.
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Money, greed and ego have turned baseball loyalty into a dying breed. Few if any baseball players of great magnitude spend their entire career with one club. Often, they are chasing the next best thing. Loyalty to The Birds on the Bat is one attribute that has spoiled some St. Louis fans. It’s why the celebration of Adam Wainwright is so special.
Loyalty is not a one-way street in St. Louis. It’s a head on collision when an organization keeps a player not just because they are good but also because they are of good character. Adam Wainwright and the Cardinals check all the boxes.
Adam Wainwright
Selected in the first round of the 2000 draft by the Atlanta Braves, high school baseball star Wainwright could envision one day pitching close to home at then-Turner Field. After all, it was just a short four-and-a-half-hour drive from his hometown of Brunswick, Georgia. Fatewould have other ideas.
In 2003, the Braves organization were in search of an outfielder/hitter and the Cardinals were looking to trade outfielder J.D. Drew. Walt Jocketty, the St. Louis GM at the time, reminisced in 2019 with legendary Cardinal Mike Shannon and Mike Claiborne of the Cardinals broadcast team about how the deal came together. Jocketty recalled the two teams’ front office representatives met in a hotel room at the 2003 Winter Meetings. The goal was to finalize the deal of Drew for Wainwright. Jocketty and the Cardinals got the deal done and Wainwright was a Redbird. Jocketty shared three words with his team as they left the room; “We got ‘em.” Now 18 and a half years later the Cardinals still got ‘em.
The tall, lanky right-hander nicknamed “Uncle Charlie” for his signature curve ball has spent his entire big-league career with the Cardinals. In doing so, Wainwright is part of an exclusive list of players. According to Major League Baseball records, only 185 players had a career or 10 or more years with the same team. That’s 185 out of the 20,000 plus players in the history of baseball. Fewer than 10% of those who reach the bigs play for at least a decade.
If Wainwright puts away the glove after the 2022 season, only 18 players in baseball history will have had a longer career with one team. Only three of the 18 are pitchers. All are in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The last pitcher to reach Wainwright’s rarified air is Ted Lyons of the Chicago White Sox and he retired in 1946.
In 2013, Wainwright talked about why he was signing a five-year extension to stay with the Cardinals.
“I feel like my heart is in St. Louis,” Wainwright said. “I love it there. I love driving to the field, seeing the Arch, driving up and seeing Busch Stadium. It’s a treat to work there every day and is something that continues to catch me off-guard. It makes me feel like I am way too blessed, more than I deserve.”
When Wainwright signed that extension after a 19-9 season, few thought that he would be pitching meaningful baseball when it ran out. Not only did the Cardinals get their money’s worth but they still have the ace, albeit no longer a 15-20 win ace. Over that eight-year span, heading into the 2022 season, the ageless one is 95-48. The last three seasons his ERA has consistently moved south.
Wainwright signed a new one-year deal following last year’s impressive 3.05 ERA and 22 quality starts. His 68.75% quality start rate was third best in MLB. His reasoning was even more succinct for staying than it was in 2013.
“I don’t want to be anywhere else,” said Waiwright. “Who am I kidding.”
In 2022, he has been just as consistent. At the 2021 All-Star break, Waino was 7-6 with 10 quality starts. Over his 22 starts this season, his 8-8 record is deceiving. Not only does he have 12 quality starts but 16 of his 22 starts have gone six or more innings. Nine of his starts have gone seven or more innings. His run support in his eight losses equals just two runs per game. Games in which the run support is three or more, the right-hander is 8-3.
The marriage between St. Louis and Wainwright has lasted in large part for the same reason that general manager John Mozeliak has spent his career with the organization. They reward hard work and success. Mozeliak has worked his way from scouting department assistant to the decision maker on St. Louis’ baseball operations.
In St. Louis, it’s more about the Birds on the Bat then the name on the back. Wainwright epitomizes that philosophy, and he produces. It’s a match made in heaven – Baseball Heaven.
Now available, The Cardinal Nation 2022 Prospect Guide is back for a fifth year. It includes 276 pages of in-depth commentary about the very best St. Louis Cardinals minor leaguers, including dozens of color photos, scouting reports and much more.
At 42 years of age and in his final season as an active player, Albert Pujols returned home to St. Louis and is contributing to the 2022 Cardinals in many ways, on the field and off.
Prince Albert was St. Louis Cardinals royalty in late 2011 when he walked away to the Los Angeles Angels on a 10-year deal. From this fan’s perspective, Albert Pujols left for the almighty dollar and cost himself the opportunity to possibly surpass Stan Musial as the greatest ever to wear The Birds on The Bat. Selected with the 402nd pick of the 1999 draft, Pujols was not expected by anyone to become a baseball icon – a sure-fire Hall of Famer. No one expected him to be one of the best all-time hitters, yet he has done all this and more. In his final hurrah, he is delivering the intangibles that the 2022 St. Louis Cardinals need.
Leadership and experience can never be overlooked. It did not work out with Matt Carpenter last season, but Carpenter is not Albert Pujols. “The Machine” may no longer strike the same fear into the hearts of pitchers that he once did but he knows about winning, especially in St. Louis. Number 5 has delivered time and again both on and off the diamond. Now in perhaps his greatest role, he has a chance along with Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright (the last remaining active members of the 2006 and 2011 World Series champions) to bring one more title to the city and help develop another generation of Cardinals’ winners.
Adam Wainwright, Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina (St. Louis Cardinals)
Many wondered if Pujols could be content with a lesser playing role in his final season. Through over six dozen games, Albert clearly understands and accepts his role. He did not come to St. Louis expecting to contribute on an everyday basis – though if he could, it would be exciting. His time with the Los Angeles Dodgers told him though that he still wanted baseball. In fact, he wanted it so much that he played in the Dominican Winter League for the first time in 2021. In an interview with La Vida, he explained what still drives him day in and day out.
“At the professional level, I have achieved everything: a World Series ring, MVP, all that. But one thing is your passion, the passion you’ve had for baseball ever since you were a kid. You start to think about your childhood, what you sacrificed, what you’ve fought for, and that’s what still attracts me – the passion that I have.”
Add Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto’s analysis of Pujols and you see why Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak wanted Pujols back. You understand why the signing in St. Louis is paying off.
“He’s so greedy,” Votto said. “He always wants more. I love that about him. He was just always on the attack, never satisfied and always looking for the next big moment. He just has greed. I love it. It’s a trait that is very underrated. Very, very underrated in our sport. To have the fortitude to be able to have a good game but want a great game and then have a great game but want a perfect game,” Votto added. “I just don’t think it’s a habit that a lot of guys have.”
When Pujols re-signed after 11 years away, it wasn’t for nostalgia or feel-good accolades. It was because the Cardinals needed a right-handed bat off the bench and one of the best ever to step in a batter’s box was available. Last season in Los Angeles, Pujols proved that in the right moment he can still be clutch. That’s why St. Louis signed him. This season he is delivering exactly what they thought he would. Against lefties, he is hitting .317 (13-for-41) including five extra base hits and nine RBI. No, he hasn’t produced against righties, but he comes to the plate when asked and gives his all..
On April 17th, Pujols crushed a three-run home run against the Brewers to erase a three-run lead. On Sunday, June 12th, he delivered an RBI double that tied the game at four. Coincidentally, both games ended in 7-6 losses but Albert proved that he can still be Albert.
With a 2022 team of young and potentially great batters, Pujols is the perfect voice in the clubhouse, in the dugout and on the field. Who better then a three-time MVP, a nine-time All-Star and a winner of six Silver Slugger Awards to be a voice in the ear of young stars in the making. Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout had this to say about Pujols presence.
“He mentored me throughout my career so far,” Trout said. ”Everything you can accomplish on a baseball field, he’s done. I can go up to him and talk about anything. If I was struggling at the plate, he knows the perfect time to come up and throw something out. He has that feel. I can’t thank him enough. He was an unbelievable person and unbelievable friend to me.”
Don’t just take Trout’s word for it. How about Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner?
“Since Day 1, he’s had a huge impact on all of us in there,” said Turner. “Just his leadership, his experience, work ethic. And the way he goes about his business, he sets an example for everyone. I’ve said it probably 100 times, when you see him at the end of the dugout after a guy hits a homer, it’s almost like he’s more happy than the guy that hit the homer, just waiting to give you a big hug. He’s been great for everyone, and he just brings so much to this team.”
That is Albert Pujols and that is why St. Louis wanted him back. His signing for $2.5 million could easily be the steal of the season.
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This last installment of the article series, the best lineup of hitters from the USA, features a good mix of players from the heyday of yesteryear and current/more recent St. Louis Cardinals players. Although I did not name a manager, Tony La Russa would receive the nod with the “Old Redhead” and Whitey tied for a close second.
This 24-man roster was very simple to create and although there is room for a differing opinion here and there, it stands on its own merits. The lineup does not feature a designated hitter; however, if I were to have one it would be Albert Pujols and he would bat in the five hole. (Though he was born in the Dominican Republic, Pujols was drafted as a US resident.)
The order of players is how I would write out my lineup card.
Lou Brock
Left field – Lou Brock
The trade commonly known as the worst in Chicago Cubs history brought Lou Brock to the Cardinals in 1964 and changed the course of baseball. At the time, it didn’t seem such a bad deal for Chicago since Ernie Broglio was an established 20-game winner and Brock was just another ballplayer. Cardinals manager Johnny Keane had always coveted Brock. On a plane ride from Los Angeles to Houston, general manager Bing Devine told Keane they had a chance to get the left fielder. Keane simply replied, “What are we waiting for?” Brock became the catalyst for three Cardinals World Series teams, winning in 1964 and 1967 before losing the 1968 Series to the Tigers. The Hall of Famer was one of the best when it came to the postseason. In 21 games, he had a slash line of .291/.424/.655 and stole 14 bases in 16 attempts.
Ozzie Smith (Getty Images)
Shortstop – Ozzie Smith
“The Wizard of Oz” and his traditional backflip will forever be remembered by St. Louis Cardinals fans. He’ll also be remembered for getting Cardinals’ broadcaster Jack Buck into a frenzy with his “Go crazy folks, go crazy!” call on Smith’s 1985 Game 5 NLCS walk-off home run. Cardinals’ fans can tell you exactly where they were at that moment and what they were doing when his ball went over the wall at Busch Stadium. The iconic Hall of Fame shortstop earned 13 consecutive Gold Gloves during his career, the most by any shortstop in baseball history.
Ken Boyer
Third base – Ken Boyer
Boyer, initially drafted as a pitcher, played 11 seasons for the Cardinals. Boyer became team captain in 1961. Three years later, he won the National League MVP Award and led the Cardinals to the 1964 World Series title. Boyer and his brother Clete, third baseman for the Yankees, became the first brothers to to play against each other in the World Series, play third base and hit a home run. The Alba, Missouri native and his seven brothers were all professional ballplayers and third basemen to boot. Ken, Clete and Cloyd all played at the major league level. Boyer managed the Cardinals from April 1978 to June 9, 1980 before being replaced by his former Mets coach and roommate Whitey Herzog. Following his passing from cancer in 1982, the Cardinals wore a black armband in remembrance of “The Captain” and fittingly enough won the 1982 World Series. Boyer’s number 14 was retired in 1984, so in 2014, he was honored as one of the inaugural inductees into the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
Stan Musial
First base – Stan Musial
Stan “The Man” is the epitome of St. Louis baseball. He set the standard by which all others are measured over the years. His backup at first base, Albert Pujols, would be in the argument had he not left for 10 seasons. It is unexpected that any Cardinal will ever play more games, have more hits, slug more doubles or hit more home runs than “The Man.” Next year will be 60 years since his retirement and no one has come close to touching his records. Need more be said?
Yadier Molina (USA TODAY Sports Images)
Catcher – Yadier Molina
The Cardinals have had some of the greatest catchers in baseball history but none are more well-rounded than Number 4, Yadier Molina. The current Cardinals backstop has been a consistent offensive machine. Of all the catchers in St. Louis baseball history, Yadi is first in nine of 15 offensive categories and second in the other six. As good as he is offensively, he is even better defensively. It’s his knowledge of both hitters and pitchers that sets him apart from nearly every catcher in baseball history. With Molina behind the dish, St. Louis wins 56% of the time. Only Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk has won more games as a catcher. Molina has received nine Gold Glove Awards and thrown out 40 percent of would-be base stealers. In all-time defensive WAR, he ranks 21st among catchers. Thirteen of the 20 ahead of him are in the Hall of Fame and it could be argued that Thurman Munson, Joe Mauer and Buster Posey should be there as well.
Frankie Frisch
Second base – Frankie Frisch
Like catcher and first base, this was a relatively easy selection. The “Fordham Flash” holds the top spot in nearly every offensive category for St. Louis second basemen over the years. He is one of the few players in baseball history to never play a day of minor league ball. Not only was Frisch a great ballplayer, he was a crafty manager as well. Frisch came to the Cardinals in exchange for player-manager Rogers Hornsby, who had just led St. Louis to its first World Series title in 1926. For a decade, Frisch manned the second base bag, and from 1933-1937, he was also the player-manager. At his retirement, he held the Cardinals record for most World Series at bats and games played.
Roger Maris
Right Field – Roger Maris
Roger Maris is possibly the only member of this lineup who deserves to be in the Hall of Fame but is not. Maris came to Cardinals following a solid six year stretch during which he was one of the best in the game despite playing next to Mickey Mantle. The right fielder was a seven-time All-Star, a two-time MVP and broke the single-season home run mark set by Babe Ruth. A relatively short 12-year career still produced Hall-worthy numbers. Let’s begin with back-to-back MVP awards in 1960 and 1961. Only 11 players in baseball history have won three or more and only 32 have ever won two or more. Of those 32, 24 are in the Hall of Fame and four are still actively playing. Of the remaining four, only A-Rod kept himself out while the rest all have credential worthy resumes. Maris played in seven World Series including 1967 and 1968 with the Cardinals. In just two seasons with the Redbirds, 54 percent of his hits produced a run batted in.
Willie McGee, 1983
Center field – Willie McGee
McGee burst on to the scene in 1982, bringing reminders of the Gas House Gang with his effervescent energy. McGee’s speed, bat and defense won the hearts of St. Louis fans and many a baseball game as well. McGee is the only player to win the National League batting title while playing in the American League after the Cardinals dealt him to Oakland at the trade deadline in 1990. Over his 13 years in St. Louis, he not only hit .294, legged out 255 doubles and stole 301 bases in 398 attempts but led the Cardinals to four World Series berths in six playoff appearances. A four-time All-Star, McGee earned three Gold Glove Awards, an MVP trophy and a batting title.
Bench – Red Schoendienst, Jose Oquendo, Jim Edmonds, Jack Rothrock, Whitey Kurowski, Albert Pujols, Ted Simmons
Starting Pitchers – Bob Gibson, Dizzy Dean, Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Jesse Haines
Bullpen – Bruce Sutter, Dennis Eckersley, Al Hrabosky
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photo: Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols (USA TODAY Sports)
Creating an all-time St. Louis Cardinals lineup from players born outside the 50 States was more challenging than one might imagine. Plenty of players have passed through the organization from various nations, yet most played similar positions.
Because of the challenges, this was also one the most enjoyable to research. It is also the first lineup featuring at least one currently active Cardinal.
The hardest decision in creating this lineup was who should be the catcher in the starting nine. Yadier Molina from Puerto Rico or Mike Gonzalez, who is considered one of the architects of modern Cuban baseball. Gonzalez won four World Series rings as a Cardinals catcher and coach. He also happened to be the third base coach when Enos Slaughter made his “Mad Dash” from first to score the game winning run in the 1946 World Series. So, who received the nod? Read on, find out and enjoy.
So Taguchi (Getty Images)
Left Field So Taguchi – Japan 2002-2009
Not a prolific hitter. Not a swift base runner. Not even an above average fielder yet Taguchi managed to make his way to the big leagues because of determination and heart. Already a 10-year veteran of Japanese baseball, Taguchi was the Cardinals first foray into players outside of the Americas.
Taguchi had been expected to step right into being a major leaguer in the United States but the challenge was bigger than expected. He began at Double AA New Haven and worked his way through the minors from the spring of 2002 to the middle of 2004. Then nearing the age of 35, he finally stuck with St. Louis in mid-2004.
His impact play was especially felt in the postseason. Taguchi helped St. Louis win two World Series titles. Less than a third of his hits went for extra bases yet this is where St. Louis fans remember him the most. Leading off the ninth in Game 2 of the 2006 League Championship Series, So’s home run gave St. Louis a lead it did not relinquish. In Game 5 of the ensuing World Series, Taguchi’s sacrifice set up the Cardinals first run, then a single in the fourth set up the tying run before he scored the game winner on a groundout by David Eckstein.
David Green (Getty Images)
Center Field David Green – Nicaragua 1981-1984, 1987
David Green had a short time with St. Louis and in the majors but what he had was productive. The center fielder joined the Cardinals from the Milwaukee Brewers in a trade that sent future Hall of Famers Ted Simmons and Rollie Fingers along with the 1982 Cy Young winner Pete Vuckovich going the other way. Cardinals’ manager Whitey Herzog had insisted on Green being a part of the deal.
At the time, Green was considered Roberto Clemente-esque but never really panned out. The fleet-footed outfielder did play against the Brewers in the 1982 World Series, recording two extra base-hits in 10 plate appearances. His best season with Cardinals came in 1983 when he hit .284 with eight home runs, 10 triples, 39 RBI and 34 stolen bases. Spending five seasons in St. Louis, the center fielder hit a solid .273.
Green passed away this January 25th in St. Louis at the age of 61.
Right Field Patsy Donovan – Ireland 1900-1903
Donovan spent four years in St. Louis on the back end of his 17-year playing career. Not once in his four years in St. Louis did he fail to hit less than .300. Never known for his power, only 17 of his more than 600 hits for the Cardinals went for extra bases. An adept base stealer, he averaged 38 swipes a year for St. Louis including a league high 45 in 1900. Donovan still ranks in the top 35 all-time base stealers in baseball history.
In 1903, his final season as player-manager in St. Louis, Donovan was the National League’s highest paid player at $8,800 yet his team finished 46.5 games out of first place. Despite managing some of the worst team finishes ever, the Ireland native was considered a brilliant judge of talent. After leaving St. Louis, he eventually landed in Boston where he is credited with convincing Red Sox owner Joseph Lannin to purchase Babe Ruth from the then minor league Baltimore Orioles.
Albert Pujols (USA TODAY Sports Images)
First Base Albert Pujols – Dominican Republic 2001-2011, 2022
The future Hall of Famer could have been named to three different positions on this list including left field and third base. That Pujols is only active player on any of the lineups posted thus far speaks to his incredible career. Drafted in the 13th round out of a Kansas City area junior college, the native of the Dominican Republic has become one of the greatest ballplayers in baseball history.
Pujols did everything asked of him in 2001 spring training camp, forcing the Cardinals to take him north for the season. The 21-year-old slugger set the baseball world on fire, hitting .329 on 194 hits including 37 home runs and 130 RBI.
His prodigious prowess continued over the next 11 seasons, putting him on track with Stan Musial as the greatest Cardinal of them all. During this span, he placed himself in the conversation of baseball legends. With the exception of triples, Pujols ranks in the Cardinals top five all-time producers in 10 major offensive categories. Five of the Cardinals all-time top 11 individual season performances in franchise history are owned by Albert Pujols. “The Machine” currently sits fifth on the all-time home run and doubles list, third in RBI and 15th in hits.
Depending how Pujols’ final season goes in 2022, he could very well end up even higher but nevertheless Cardinals fans will be booking their trip to Cooperstown for his induction ceremony in 2027.
Second base Julian Javier – Dominican Republic 1960-1971
Known for his soft hands in the field and his bunting prowess at the plate, Javier had initially signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates for $500. Fortunately for the Cardinals, the Pirates had Bill Mazeroski as their second baseman. Because of that, the Pirates traded Javier to St. Louis on May 28, 1960.
The slick fielding second baseman had two hits in his major league debut on that same day. Although he hit only .237 in his first year, he was still named to the TOPPS 1960 All-Rookie team and firmly established himself as the starting second sacker for 12 seasons in a Redbirds uniform. Two solid seasons and a strong beginning to the 1963 season earned Javier his first All-Star Game berth, replacing the injured Mazeroski. His replacement nod gave the All-Star Game an All-Cardinals starting infield.
In three of his first four seasons, St. Louis’ second baseman finished first or second in sacrifice hits. Javier played in three World Series for the Cardinals, hitting .360 in the 1967 win over Boston and .333 in the seven-game loss to the Detroit Tigers.
Edgar Renteria (Getty Images)
Shortstop Edgar Renteria – Columbia 1999-2004
Renteria arrived in St. Louis from the Marlins following the 1998 season. Already a proven All-Star and World Series hero, Renteria became a fixture at shortstop for the Redbirds for the next six seasons. In 2000, with the addition of second baseman Fernando Vina, they were one of the slickest keystone combinations in Redbirds history.
Renteria won Gold Gloves and Silver Slugger Awards in in back-to-back seasons not to mention that he was a three-time All-Star. The Cardinals shortstop enjoyed his best major league season in 2003 when hitting .330 while slapping 194 hits and driving home 100. His RBI century mark was the first by a Cardinals shortstop in more than 100 years. Following the team’s 2004 World Series loss, Renteria signed with the 2004 baseball champion Boston Red Sox replacing fellow Columbian Orlando Cabrera.
Third Base Placido Polanco – Dominican Republic 1998-2002
Polanco was one of the cornerstones of the St. Louis clubs in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. Never a consistent starter, he was adept at all the infield positions making him invaluable before his trade to Philadelphia in 2002.
As a Cardinal, Polanco played 151 games at second, 248 games at third, another 121 games at shortstop and three innings at first base. Throughout his nearly five years with the Redbirds, he hit .295. In over 1,500 at bats, he struck out just 111 times. As dependable as he was to get a hit for Tony La Russa’s teams, he was just as flawless in the field, making just 28 miscues out of 1500-plus chances.
Not known for his power and thinking he had hit a double, Polanco slid in to second only to find out he had hit the first of his 104 career home runs. Speaking of home runs, he was the only player to pinch-hit for home run slugger Mark McGwire during his chase for immortality in 1998.
Yadier Molina (USA TODAY Sports Images)
Catcher Yadier Molina – Puerto Rico 2004-2022
One can count the number of players in the history of major league baseball who are known by one name. “Yadi” is arguably the greatest catcher in the history of St. Louis baseballl. He is the only backstop in baseball history to catch 2,000 plus games with one club. Molina ranks in the top 70 catchers of all-time in assists, fielding percentage and double plays turned. It is little wonder that he ranks first among active catchers in assists, runners caught stealing and pickoffs.
The nine-time All-Star garnered nine Gold Gloves, including eight consecutive from 2008-2015. Only Hall of Fame catchers Johnny Bench (10) and Ivan Rodriguez (13) have more Gold Gloves. He has been the catalyst to 12 St. Louis playoff appearances in 17 seasons and two World Series titles in four tries. Add to the resume two silver medals in the World Baseball Classic with his home country and there is little reason to doubt that he has had a career worthy of first ballot Hall of Fame recognition.
The “One Tough Dominican” established himself as one of the best Cardinals pitchers of all-time in 1982. After arriving in June 1981 via a trade with the Houston Astros, Andujar went 6-1 with a 3.47 ERA. It was a prelude of things to come. The right-hander quickly became the ace of the staff with not just his fiery disposition but by pitching winning baseball.
In 1982, Andujar finished 15-10 with a 2.47 ERA but it was his heroics in the World Series against the vaunted Milwaukee Brewers that solidified his place in Cardinals’ history. In Game 3, on the road in Milwaukee, he outdueled Brewers ace Pete Vuckovich by throwing 6 1/3 innings of three-hit scoreless baseball. The win sent his team back to St. Louis up 2-1 in the series. In the deciding Game 7, he once again bested the Brewers ace scattering seven hits over seven innings and allowing two earned.
For the series, Andujar threw 13 1/3 innings, surrendering just 10 hits and a walk while allowing just two earned runs. He was the last St. Louis Cardinals pitcher to have back-to-back 20-win seasons. Andujar passed away in 2015 at the age of 62.
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No St. Louis Cardinals lineup series would be complete without the inclusion of the team’s greatest player of all-time – and that led to the All-Cardinals Pennsylvania lineup. With 35 players hailing from The Keystone Stats to have played with St. Louis at one time or another, it made for some interesting decisions as to which players would be included.
Here are the final results.
First Base Stan Musial – Donora, PA.
Simply known as Stan “The Man,” Musial was in a league of his own both on and off the field. His prowess on the diamond and character off made him one of the most beloved players in baseball history.
Signed as a left-handed pitcher in 1938 by the Cardinals, Musial injured his left shoulder diving for a batted ball thus changing the course of history. It was described that his batting stance and swing were all wrong, but he did everything right. Only twice in his first 12 seasons, beginning in 1942, did he hit below .320. He led the Cardinals to three World Series appearances and two titles from 1942-1944 before leaving to serve his nation in World War II.
In 1946, he returned to the Cardinals and helped them win their third World Series title in five years and he took home his second of three Most Valuable Player trophies. His final one camg in 1948, the year he missed the Triple Crown by one home run.
When Musial retired following the 1963 season, his 24 All-Star Game appearances were second only to Hank Aaron. He retired as the National League All-Time Hit King with 3,630 – exactly half at home and half on the road. At the time of his retirement, Stan “The Man” Musial held seven major league records and tied for 12 others including hits, total bases, and extra base-hits.
To this day nearly 60 years after he retired, Musial remains the Cardinals career leader in 10 offensive categories including hits, doubles, triples, home runs, RBI and a career batting average of .331.
Ton Herr
Second Base Tommy Herr – Lancaster, PA
Herr made his mark on Cardinals baseball in the 1980’s. Undrafted out of high school in 1974 and no longer wanted by Duke University basketball, he accepted the Cardinals offer to play professional baseball.
Developing over the years from a natural right-handed hitter to a switch hitter proved valuable to both Herr and the Cardinals. By 1979, the second baseman had made his major league debut and just waited for an opportunity. The Cardinals opened the door in the 1980 offseason when they sent third baseman Ken Reitz to the Cubs and moved Ken Oberkfell from second to third. Herr played all 103 games of the strike shortened 1981 season batting .268 with 23 stolen bases.
In 10 seasons with St. Louis, the second baseman hit a solid .274 and helped lead the Cardinals to three World Series berths and a title in 1982. Herr was elected into the Cardinals Hall of Fame in 2020 and was inducted in 2021.
Whitey Kurowski
Third Base Whitey Kurowski – Sinking Spring, PA
Born George John Kurowski, Whitey receievd his nickname from his premature white hair. Along with the white hair, he suffered and injury as a youth that required removing three inches of bone from his right arm. The injury kept most teams from taking a chance on the Sinking Spring native and worked to the Cardinals advantage.
Whitey arrived in St. Louis late in 1941 and by 1942 he and his minor league teammate Stan Musial would help turn the Cardinals into a World Series machine. The Cardinals won titles in 1942, 1944 and 1946. Kurowski put together his best season in 1947, hitting .310 with 27 home runs and driving home 104. He also drew 87 walks and scored 108 runs.
A lifetime .268 hitter, Kurowski finished in the top ten in the league in home runs every season from 1943-1947. From 1945 -1947, he remained one of the most consistent hitters in the National League finishing in the top ten each season in batting average, OBP, slugging percentage, total bases and RBI. The four-time All-Star twice led National League third basemen in fielding. Kurowski held the Cardinals record for most home runs (12) in a month for 50 years and a month before Mark McGwire broke it in September 1997.
Dick Groat
Shortstop Dick Groat – Wilkinsburg, PA.
Groat spent just three seasons in St. Louis but what a stay it was. The MVP of the 1960 season arrived via a trade in 1962. Although Pittsburgh may have thought Groat was on the backside of his career, the rest of the National League found out he wasn’t.
In his first year in a Redbirds uniform, he finished fourth in hitting with a .319 average, smacked a league leading 43 doubles and was third in triples with 11. In 1964, Groat made his fourth All-Star appearance and led National League shortstops in assists and turning double plays all the while hitting .292 and helping the Cardinals to another World Series title.
During his three years in St. Louis, nearly a fourth of his 500-plus hits went for extra bases including 104 doubles. Groat is the only player to be inducted in both the college baseball and basketball hall of fames. His three seasons in St. Louis were so good that he was eventually elected to the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.
Left Field Chick Fullis – Girardsville, PA.
Fullis arrived in St. Louis on June 16, 1934 via a trade for Kiddo Davis. It was the second time that the two had been traded for each other in barely 18 months. Fullis’ arrival took him from the last place Philadelphia Phillies to a Cardinals team in the thick of pennant race. The arrival also meant that Fullis would now be coming off the bench, as St. Louis already had Joe Medwick in left field.
The Cardinals eventually won the 1934 pennant and faced off against the Detroit Tigers. Fullis was a defensive replacement in Game 1 and recorded a hit. He got the start in Game 5 for Ernie Orsati and the usually surehanded outfielder committed two errors leading to a 3-1 loss.
With the Tigers one game away from a World Series title, St. Louis won Game 6 and set up redemption for Fullis. In the top of the sixth Medwick laced a triple off the centerfield wall. As he slid into third. an altercation ensued between Medwick and Tigers third baseman Marv Owen. Although peace was initially restored, Medwick was met by a barrage of food and trash thrown by fans when he went to left field for the top of the seventh. The trash barrage happened not once, not twice but three times forcing baseball commissioner Mountain Kennesaw Landis to remove him from the game. Enter Fullis who got a chance to redeem himself and not only played flawlessly but got another hit, ending the series with a .400 average.
Center Field Red Murray – Arnot, PA.
Murray could play all three outfield positions as good as anyone. He patrolled left field for 128 games, center field for 99 and right field for another 95 games before being traded to the then New York Giants following the 1908 season. Recognized as one of the best of his era, Murray led all National League outfielders four times in a seven-season span in home runs, RBI, stolen bases and assists.
His best season in St. Louis was 1908 when he finished second in stolen bases and third in hits and home runs all the while hitting .282. The five-tool outfielder is one of only three players in baseball history to twice finish in the top five in home runs and stolen bases.
During his three seasons in St. Louis, Murray averaged nearly a hit per game with 331 base knocks in 332 games. He is credited with hitting the longest home run in Cardinals’ history at the time, a mammoth 471 foot shot in 1908 during the Deadball Era.
Ripper Collins
Right Field Rip Collins – Altoona, PA.
Is there a better nickname for a hitter than the Ripper? Collins played both corner outfield positions early in his career until the Cardinals made way for him to take over the first base bag in 1933.
Collins was proof that one can achieve their dream if they are willing to work for it. He spent nine years bouncing around between professional baseball and coal mining in his hometown before making his major league debut in 1931. Collins’ career .307 average with St. Louis still has him 10th on the team’s all-time list. He is also in the Cardinals all-time top 10 in slugging and OPS. In 1934, he became the first switch hitter to hit 30 home runs in a season and tied Mel Ott for the home run title with 35. In addition to his 35 home runs, he smacked 40 doubles, 12 triples, knocked home 128 runners, and recorded the only 200-hit season of his career.
Catcher Doc Marshall – Butler, PA.
Doc Marshall is another Cardinal who played in the Deadball Era. Marshall arrived in St. Louis on July 13, 1906. Although never a regular, Marshall did enjoy one of his finer seasons in St. Louis when he hit .276 in 39 games following the trade. His playing time increased to 84 games in 1907 but his average took a hit and by mid-season 1908 he was dealt to the Chicago Cubs.
As the Cardinals catcher in 1907, Marshall had the dubious distinction of leading the league in both assists and errors. During his playing time, he studied medicine and after his big-league career ended in 1909, he practiced medicine for 45 years in Clinton, Illinois, thus the nickname Doc.
Bill Sherdel
Pitcher Bill Sherdel – McSherrytown, PA.
Before there was Dizzy Dean and Bob Gibson, there was Bill Sherdel. The left-hander toiled for the Cardinals in 14 of his 17 seasons in the big leagues.
He still ranks in the top 10 Cardinals all-time pitching categories for wins (153), games (465), games started (243), complete games (144), and innings pitched (2450.2) among others. He started four games in the 1926 and 1928 World Series combined but lost all four.
Bruce Sutter
Closer Bruce Sutter – Lancaster, PA.
His bio on baseballhall.org begins with these words; “Bruce Sutter was on the fringes of professional baseball, a struggling minor league pitcher with an injured arm, until he received a gift that changed his life forever. He learned a new pitch, a split-fingered fastball.” The six-time All-Star mastered the pitch and became one of the most dominant closers in baseball history.
As a member of the Cardinals from 1981-1984, Sutter was perfect in 127 save opportunities. “Engine #42” recorded a career high 45 saves in 1984. In the 1982 World Series, he had a win and two saves in four appearances. Sutter’s number 42 is retired by the team (as part of MLB’s honoring Jackie Robinson).
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photo: Keith Hernandez via Zoom (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)
Next up in the St. Louis Cardinals All-Time Lineup Series is the West Coast. Interestingly, the Cardinals have employed a plethora of players from California, so this is the Cardinals California lineup. With numerous players from just one state and some of the best during their time at a position made this one of the most difficult lineups to build.
For example, do you pick Mark McGwire or Keith Hernandez at first base or maybe Nippy Jones who batted fourth between Stan Musial and Enos Slaughter back in the mid 40’s? How do you choose the outfield when three of the best center fielders in team history came from California? Those and a multitude of other decisions based on research made this the most difficult lineup to create.
Here is what I have selected to be the best Cardinals lineup from the West Coast.
Bill Sarni
Catcher Bill Sarni Los Angeles, CA
Bill Sarni began his professional career at the age of 15 playing for his hometown Los Angeles Angels, then a farm team of the Chicago Cubs. In his first professional at bat, he hit a home run. Plucked off the Texas League Shreveport Sports in 1949, Sarni made his big-league debut with the in 1951. He became the Cardinals starting backstop in 1954, hitting an even .300 with nine long balls and 70 RBI. Defensively, he led the league in double plays started by a catcher. Throwing out 56 percent of would be base stealers that season, he finished third in the league. After an average season in 1955, Sarni started off the 1956 season strong hitting .291 through 43 games before being traded to the New York Giants in a nine-player deal. Over his five seasons in St. Louis, the backstop hit a solid .271.
Keith Hernandez (Getty Images)
First Base Keith Hernandez San Francisco, CA
Keith Hernandez continued a tradition of Cardinals first basemen that were great in the field and at the plate. Selected in the 42nd round of the 1972 draft, Hernandez was another late find by the Cardinals who turned into something great. With less than two full minor league seasons under his belt, Hernandez became a major leaguer to stay in late 1975. Although everyone knew he had a good bat, his glove earned him the title of baseball’s best defensive first basemen. From 1978 – 1988, he won 11 consecutive Gold Gloves with the first six while with St. Louis. Despite earning the MVP award in 1978 and leading St. Louis to the 1982 World Series title, off field issues led to his trade to the New York Mets in 1983.
Over his decade with the Cardinals, Hernandez had a career .299 average. He still ranks in the top 10 on the team all-time list in intentional walks and on base percentage. The left-handed hitter ranks third among St. Louis first basemen with a 34.4 WAR. Hernandez was inducted into the Cardinals Hall of Fame in 2021.
Fernando Vina (Getty Images)
Second Base Fernando Vina Sacramento, CA
It took a year to solidify the trade that brought Fernando Vina to St. Louis, but it was worth the wait. On December 15, 1999, he came to St. Louis and the rest as they say is history. During his five years manning the second base bag, Vina was a lead off hitter with speed and an ability to get on base. Arriving in St. Louis, Vina is reported to have said, “My plan is to get on base any way I can. This lineup is incredible … If I get on base, good things are going to happen.” And they did.
His Cardinals debut included two singles, a triple, a run scored and an RBI. For the 2000 season, he batted .300 with an on-base percentage of .380 and 81 runs scored. His play in the field was just as good as he led all National League second basemen in fielding percentage. The 2001 season was even better when he batted .303 with 191 hits and 95 runs scored. During his four seasons in St. Louis, Vina led the Cardinals to three post season appearances, won two Gold Gloves and had 570 hits in 488 games.
Terry Pendleton
Third Base Terry Pendleton Los Angeles, CA
Terry Pendleton, whom one scout said was projected to be an average to below average Major League player, spent 13 years in the majors, lifting teams to the World Series five separate times. Raised initially in South Central Los Angeles, Pendleton spent his first seven years in the majors with St. Louis. The 179th pick of 1982 draft brought speed, power and defense to the lineup. A switch hitter, Pendleton became so good that after his playing days ended, he worked as a major league hitting coach and eventually the bench coach for the Atlanta Braves in their run to the World Series title in 2021. Not bad for a guy projected to be an average to below average major leaguer.
Royce Clayton
Shortstop Royce Clayton Burbank, CA
Royce Clayton was destined to become the successor to Ozzie Smith and on December 14, 1995, he became just that when he was acquired from the San Francisco Giants. In 1982, when Clayton was 12, his father took him to see Smith play for the Cardinals at Dodger Stadium.
“When we left the game that night, I told my dad I wanted to play shortstop like Ozzie,” Clayton said. “God blessed me. Now playing in the same uniform with him is like a dream.”
In 1996, Clayton supplanted Smith at shortstop, starting 111 games hitting .277 and stealing 33 bases. A year later, he led all National League shortstops in assists while hitting .266 with 39 doubles, 61 RBI and 31 stolen bases. Clayton helped lead St. Louis two postseason berths in his three seasons as a Redbird. Although they did not make to a World Series in either appearance, Clayton did his part, hitting .346 with four walks.
Ray Lankford (Getty Images)
Outfield Ray Lankford Los Angeles, CA
Lankford started and ended his career in St. Louis with a bang. In 1991, he became the Cardinals starting center fielder taking over for Willie McGee. In his first full season, he led the National League in triples (15), stolen bases (44) and runs scored (83). Lankford also was the first Cardinals rookie to hit for the cycle, completing the feat on September 15, 1991. He closed out his career at home October 3, 2004, with a pinch-hit home run in his final career plate appearance. No one in Cardinals history hit more home runs (123) at Busch Stadium than Ray Lankford nor has anyone posted more seasons of 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases. In addition to power, speed and plate discipline, the Los Angeles native was an above average fielder. In 1996, he committed just one error yet failed to win the Gold Glove. Eighteen years after the completion of his career, Lankford ranks in the all-time Cardinals top 10 in eight different categories including home runs, extra base hits, and walks. He also ranks 11th in two other categories. Lankford entered the Cardinals Hall of Fame in 2018.
Chick Hafey
Outfield Chick Hafey Berkeley, CA
Chick Hafey played more than 600 games in left field for the Cardinals during his eight-year stay. Becoming one of the best almost did not happen for the Berkeley native. When sinus issues began causing eye problems, Hafey had to decide between facing his fear of doctors and hospitals or not being able to play the game he loved. Hafey had the operation and went on to complete a Hall of Fame career. The bespectacled outfielder’s .326 batting average still ranks eighth among Cardinals all time. Of his 963 hits, 415 went for extra bases, placing him fourth on the Cardinals all-time slugging percentage list. Only pure home run hitters Mark McGwire, Albert Pujols and Johnny Mize rank ahead of him in that category 85 years after his retirement.
Willie McGee, 1983
Outfield Willie McGee San Francisco, CA
Decades after retiring, Willie McGee remains a fan favorite. The lanky outfielder was one of the game’s best hitters and fielders during his 13 years in St. Louis. As a rookie, he led the Cardinals to the 1982 World Series championship. McGee’s St. Louis playing story included three Gold Gloves, four All-Star Games, an MVP and two batting titles. It was his second batting title that was the stuff of legends. After he played 125 games for the basement dwelling Cardinals in 1987, St. Louis traded the National League’s leading hitter to the Oakland A’s. At season’s end, no one had caught his .335 NL average, making him the first player in history to win a batting title while playing in another league. That same season, he led the major leagues with a total of 199 hits. After his return to St. Louis in 1996, McGee completed 13 years in a Cardinals uniform with a .294 batting average. McGee remains in the top 10 on the team’s all-time list in singles, triples, and stolen bases. He was elected into the team’s Hall of Fame in 2014 and is a coach on the Cardinals staff today.
Ernie Broglio
Pitcher Ernie Broglio Berkeley, CA
Ernie Broglio might never have been remembered had it not been for his trade from St. Louis to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for Lou Brock. After graduating from El Cerrito High School in 1953, he began his professional career at age 17 with the Oakland A’s, then of the Pacific Coast League. Five years later the Giants traded Broglio to St. Louis. Becoming a starter in 1959, he went 70-55 over six seasons with the Cardinals, including a career best 21-9 and a 2.74 ERA in 1960. Three years later, in 1963, he was 18-8 with a 2.99 ERA. Arm trouble led to the trade to the Cubs and the eventual end of his career. Broglio, unlike many players, found joy in the trade. He told the San Jose Mercury just weeks before the Cubs won the 2016 World Series; “You live with it,” he said. “You go along with it. I mean, here you are 50-some years later after the trade and we’re talking. And I’m thinking, ‘What trade is going to be remembered for 50-something years?”
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The St. Louis Cardinals All-Time Midwest Lineup was built a little bit differently from the other lineups in this series. This time the attempt was made to find a former or current Cardinal at each of the nine positions covering the 15 states that make up the Midwest.
This was much harder than anticipated due to the fact that so many Midwestern players – and good ones at that – played the same position. Two of the most notable to be excluded are second baseman Miller Huggins and pitcher Burleigh Grimes.
Here is the final lineup for the Midwest.
Leon Durham
Left field
Leon Durham – Cincinnati, OH
The 15th overall pick in the 1976 draft bookended his time in St. Louis around a strong career with the Chicago Cubs. Durham came out of Woodward High School in Cincinnati, OH and his major league debut came on May 27, 1980. His first big league hit was a single into center field also driving in the first run of his career. Over the course of 96 rookie games with the Cardinals at a variety of positions, Durham hit a solid .271 with 15 doubles and 42 RBI.
Whitey Herzog (Cardinals manager and GM) and Durham’s Triple-A manager Hal Lanier thought Durham could be another Dave Parker or Willie Stargell. Herzog wanted to trade St. Louis first baseman Keith Hernandez to the Chicago Cubs in the 1980-81 offseason but the Northsiders insisted it be Durham not Hernandez for future Hall of Fame reliever Bruce Sutter.
Bill Virdon
Center field
Bill Virdon – Hazel Park, MI
Originally drafted by the New York Yankees, the Hazel Park, Michigan native arrived in St. Louis via the trade route. The steady hitting, fleet footed, strong armed center fielder became one of the best for the next decade. In his first full season with the Cardinals, he was named the 1955 Rookie of the Year.
Technically, Virdon replaced Cardinals great Stan Musial in right field. Musial was to move to first base but instead manager Eddie Stanky shifted 1954 Rookie of the Year Wally Moon to right and Virdon took over in center. A slow start in 1956 got Virdon shipped off to Pittsburgh. The one-plus season Virdon played with “The Birds,” he hit .271 with 165 in 168 games.
Roger Maris
Right field
Roger Maris – Hibbing, MN
The man known most for hitting 61 in “’61” was an excellent if not great ballplayer. The right fielder played in seven World Series, won two American League MVP awards and a Gold Glove. A seven-time All-Star, Maris remains the all-time American League single season home run king.
As a member of the Cardinals, the right-fielder helped lead the St. Louis to the 1967 World Series title. It was perhaps the finest Series of his career. His performance in 1967 was overshadowed, yet it is the stuff upon which legends are built. Maris drove home both runs in the 2-1 Game 1 win against the Red Sox. In Game 3, his one-out hit in the sixth gave starter Nelson Briles all the cushion he needed to go the distance. In Game 4, the number three hitter in the lineup drove home Brock and Flood giving St. Louis and Gibson a lead they would never relinquish. In a Game 5 loss, he went 2-for-4 with a home run. Finally in Game 7 with the series tied three games apiece, Maris went 2-for-3 with a sacrifice fly. Overall, he hit .385 (10-26) with seven RBI in the 1967 World Series.
First base
Jim Bottomley – Oglesby, IL
“Sunny Jim” as he was known would probably still be smiling now knowing that after all this time he is still one of the greatest first basemen in St. Louis Cardinals history. Playing in the early heydays of the team, Bottomley might not have gotten his opportunity were it not for the keen baseball eye of a police officer who knew Branch Rickey. Rickey, then the general manager of the Cardinals, sent a scout to check out the 18-year-old prospect. After a brief tryout, Bottomley was signed, and by 1923, he became the Cardinals fixture at first base.
He played in four World Series and was on the first St. Louis Cardinals title championship team in 1926. In 1928, he became just the second member of the 20 (doubles) – 20 (triples) – 20 (home run) club. In the history of baseball, no one had more doubles than Bottomley in a 20-20-20 season (42) and only Willie Mays hit more home runs than his 31. Speaking of history, the 1928 NL MVP’s record of 12 RBI in a single game still stands almost 100 years later.
Second base
Red Schoendienst – Germantown, IL
Growing up in Illinois, all “Red” knew was baseball and amazingly, a staple to the eye only made him better. Beginning his career as a war-time replacement for future St. Louis icon Stan Musial, Schoendienst went on to wear a Cardinals uniform almost until to the day he passed away at the age of 95 in 2018.
Red was as surehanded fielder as they came (.983 fielding average) and a .283 hitter who was clutch over 19 big league seasons. After his playing days, he took to managing and until Tony La Russa came along, he was the organization’s winningest manager. The 10-time All-Star spent 67 years serving the Cardinals.
Scott Rolen (Getty Images)
Third base
Scott Rolen – Evansville, IN
Seven All-Star appearances, eight Gold Glove Awards, a Rookie of the Year Award, five postseason appearances, a World Series ring, (with a 1.213 OPS in that Series) and yet Rolen is still on the outside looking to enter the Baseball Hall of Fame. Though all of this did not occur whole he was as a member of the Cardinals, let’s talk about 2006 alone. Rolen hit .292, slugged 22 home runs and drove home 95 while leading the Cardinals to the World Series title.
The overall picture shows that Rolen was one of the best for St. Louis from 2002 through 2007 averaging 18 home runs, 75 RBI and a consistent .286 average. He was a five-time All-Star and won three Gold Gloves and a Silver Slugger Award with St. Louis and entered the team Hall of Fame in 2019.
Shortstop
Daryl Spencer – Wichita, KS
Spencer began his 10-year MLB career in 1952 with the New York Giants and six years later, he hit the first home run in San Francisco Giants history. Spencer arrived in St. Louis in December 1959 after having been on the team’s radar ever since he played for the independent Pauls Valley Raiders in Oklahoma. At 6-foot-2, 190 pounds, Spencer was considered a power hitting shortstop and power was something the Cardinals desperately needed. The Wichita, Kansas native played the same position as his boyhood idol Marty Marion.
Spencer delivered for the Cardinals in 1960, hitting 16 home runs, finishing 10th in the league in on base percentage (.365), gathered 131 base knocks and produced a team-high 84 walks. Including the partial 1961 season, through 185 games with St. Louis, Spencer batted .257 with 20 home runs and 79 RBI. He had 164 hits, 104 walks and a .365 on-base percentage.
Catcher
Bob Uecker – Milwaukee, WI
The backstop was a Cardinal for just two seasons and known more for his defensive prowess than his bat. Behind the dish for more than 700 innings as a Cardinal, he committed just seven errors. Even though Uecker was a one-dimensional player, he managed to carve out a solid six-year career before moving to the broadcast booth where he has covered games for more than a half century as the voice of his hometown Brewers.
Pitcher
Bob Gibson – Omaha, NE
Just saying his name struck fear into the opposition. To say the right-hander was intimidating is an understatement. In part because of his domination, baseball lowered the mound. And even after that, Gibson won 19 or more games in three of the next four seasons. In 482 starts, he completed 255 games including 28 of 35 in 1968. Over a 13-year span from 1961-1974, he threw 200 plus innings 11 times. Between 1962 and 1972, he struck 200 plus batters a season nine times. Depending on the source, Gibson’s career WAR (Wins Above Replacement) ranks between 15th and 25th of the 1,000 hurlers listed. There’s not much else you can say about the Cardinals’ greatest pitcher of all time.
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Who are the best St. Louis Cardinals players to come from the Empire State and its coastal neighbors? Ducky, Frankie, Slick, Country, Lefty and more!
When one thinks of the East Coast, highly populous New York is one of the first states that comes to mind. One might guess that New York has produced more ballplayers then almost any other state and arguably, they could be right.
New York has produced over 1,200 players who made it to the big leagues. Try as I might I could not find enough former/current Cardinals players who qualify as being great enough to make an all-time lineup so I expanded the search to states that border the Atlantic Ocean. Here is a lineup derived from that research.
Left Field Joe Medwick
Ducky Medwick
“Ducky” was not the nickname he preferred but it was the one that really stuck with this indelible member of the Gashouse Gang. Those Cardinals were a fiery bunch of hardnosed ball players and Medwick fit right in. As prolific a hitter as he was an antagonist, the Cateret, New Jersey native hit over .300 14 times in his career and won both the Most Valuable Player and Triple Crown titles in 1937.
His prowess at the plate, especially in 1937 when he crushed a National League high 37 home runs, caused him to earn another nickname, “Muscles,” which he much preferred. There is no doubt that the player known as much for his brawls (even with his teammates) was one of the all-time greats.
Medwick remains third all-time in Cardinals career average, one percentage point behind Johnny Mize. His 11-year accomplishments with the team include placing fifth in doubles, seventh in triples and OPS and ninth in RBI. Ducky was inducted into Cooperstown in 1968 and was part of the inaugural class of the Cardinals team Hall of Fame.
Center Field
Andy Van Slyke
Andy Van Slyke
The former Cardinals center fielder once told St. Louis sports reporter Frank Cusumano that if he had been thinking on the field rather than playing on instinct, he would have been out of the game much earlier. That instinctive play helped him forge a 13-year MLB career.
The sixth pick in the 1983 draft recalled in a story for the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame how he got the news of his call-up to St. Louis.
“I remember (Louisville manager) Jim Fregosi called me into his office and sat me down, and he was shaking his head,” Van Slyke said, laughing. “He said, ‘I can’t believe it. For some reason, they want a .370 hitter in the big leagues.’”
A solid hitter in St. Louis, the man known as “Slick” became even more known for his accurate arm. In 1985 and 1986, he became a defensive force, throwing out 13 and 12 baserunners, respectively, trying to advance.
A native of Utica, New York, Van Slyke hit his first two career home runs at Shea Stadium in New York against his boyhood idol Tom Seaver. Van Slyke remains a fan favorite both in St. Louis and Pittsburgh, where he helped the Pirates to three straight National League East titles.
Right Field
Enos “Country” Slaughter
Slaughter’s mad dash from first that captured the 1946 World Series title immortalized him in baseball lore and embedded him in the hearts of Cardinals fans. His brash style of play helped him become an All-Star 10 times in 13 seasons with St. Louis.
Enos Slaughter’s Mad Dash
After three years of military service (1942-1945), he returned to lead the National League in games played (156) and RBI (130). Two years later, he hit a career high .321 and still finished 55 points behind Stan Musial, who won the title with a .376 average. A year later, Slaughter led the National League in triples.
For his career as a Redbird, the Roxville, North Carolina native hit .305 and grounded into just 115 double plays in more than 7,000 plate appearances. Number 9 was buried in his replica St. Louis uniform 11 years after the Cardinals retired his number forever. Slaughter was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1985.
First Base
Bill White
Bill White
A pioneer who never planned to make baseball a career spent 51 seasons around the game including eight with the Cardinals. Arriving in 1959 to a city that was last in integrating seating at Busch Stadium and already with three first basemen, White appeared to be in a winless proposition. Instead, he moved to left field and was selected to his first All-Star Game.
By 1961, White was the Cardinals’ everyday first baseman, a position from which he would win six Gold Glove Awards. The Lakeland, Florida native was part of the all-Cardinal 1963 All-Star Game starting infield. Off the field following a 16-year career, White became the first African-American to broadcast Major League Baseball working for the New Yor Yankees. He also became the first president of the National League who also happened to be black. White was named to the Cardinals Hall of Fame in 2020.
Third Base
Joe Torre
Joe Torre
Has there been a better hot corner player for the Cardinals than Joe Torre? Defensively, probably but offensively not many could match him swing for swing. The Brooklyn born Torre offensively ranks in the top 10 best all-time players according to stats kept by MLB.com. His career WAR (Wins Above Replacement) of 216 is tied with Willie Stargell. Before you question that placement, remember as of the end of the 2021 season, 19,969 players have appeared in at least one major league game. This makes Torre (who later had a Hall of Fame managerial career) better than 99 percent of anyone who has been a major leaguer.
Torre finished his career with nearly half of his 2,342 hits coming in six seasons with the Redbirds. His 1971 season was one of the finest in baseball history. Not only did he win the MVP award, the Cardinals’ cleanup hitter led the National League in nearly every offensive category including batting average, hits, RBI and total bases. As prolific as he was with the bat, the nine-time All-Star was just as durable in the field missing just five games from 1969 through the 1971 season.
Torre later managed the Cardinals during some difficult times (1990-1993) for the club and joined the team Hall of Fame in 2016, two years after he entered Cooperstown.
Second Base
Frankie Frisch
Frankie Frisch
The “Fordham Flash,” also known as Frank Francis Frisch, was just the second position player to make the jump from college to the majors when he signed with the New York Giants in 1919. According to a 1980 article written by Sabr.org author Ted Ditullio, Frisch remained just one of eight position players who enjoyed at least a 10-year career without a day in the minors between 1900 and 1980. The slick fielding infielder from the Bronx went hitless in his first 10 plate appearances before stroking the first of his 2,880 hits against the Cincinnati Reds on August 14, 1919.
The Giants traded Frisch to St. Louis seven years later for Rogers Hornsby and Jimmy Ring, ironically the pitcher who gave up Frisch’s first big league hit. Frisch fit right in. Becoming player-manager in 1933, Frisch continued his sensational career in the field and then on the bench. His Cardinals won 458 games along with the 1934 World Series title. As a Cardinal, the 1947 Hall of Fame inductee amassed nearly 1600 hits, more than 280 doubles and his .312 batting average is eighth on the all-time Cardinals list.
Catcher
Ivey Wingo
Ivey Wingo
This may be the one person in the lineups that has you scratching your head and saying, “Who?” Wingo was at the beginning of a long line of great Cardinals backstops. Ironically enough, he was known as much for his bat as he was for his prowess behind the plate.
The Norcross, Georgia native joined the Cardinals in 1910 for the salary of $50 a month. Wingo became the Cardinals regular behind the dish in 1912, hitting a solid .265 but it was his strong arm that made people sit up and take notice. In 1913, the left-handed throwing backstop gunned down 92 baserunners in 98 games. For the 1914 Redbirds, he hit an even .300 for the only time in the majors.
By the end of his 17-year career with the Cardinals and the Cincinnati Reds, Wingo had played more games behind home plate than anyone in baseball history and had thrown out 46% of would be base stealers.
Left-handed Pitcher
Steve Carlton
Steve Carlton
At 6-foot-4 and 201 pounds, future Hall of Fame pitcher Steve Carlton was perhaps as intimidating from the left side as his teammate Bob Gibson was from the right side. Together they formed a duo that helped the Cardinals to back-to-back World Series appearances in 1967 and 1968. “Lefty” was a three-time All-Star pitcher in his seven seasons with the Redbirds. Over that time, the Lakeland, Florida native won 10-plus games a year and struck out nearly 1,000 in the 1265 1/3 innings he logged for St. Louis.
Although his best years came with the Phillies after he left St. Louis due to a salary dispute, Carlton struck out a record setting 19 Mets on September 15, 1969 in a losing effort. That record stood for 17 years. Hall of Fame pitcher Randy Johnson is the only other left-hander in baseball history to strike out 19 or more in a nine-inning game.
Right-handed Pitcher
Matt Morris
Matt Morris (Getty Images)
From 1997 to 2005, Matt Morris was the ace of the Cardinals pitching staff. Over that eight-year span, the Middletown, New York native won 101 of 206 starts with 62 losses and 44 no decisions. In 2001, Morris had a career high 22 wins, tying Arizona’s Curt Schilling for the most in MLB that year. For his efforts, the right-hander finished third in the Cy Young Award voting behind Schilling and his teammate Randy Johnson.
In postseason play, Morris wasn’t quite as effective, going just 2-6 with two no decisions in 10 starts. Morris pitched in the 2004 World Series coming up short in Game 2 against the Red Sox, who avenged their loss 37 years earlier to St. Louis and erased the “Curse of the Bambino“ from 1918.
Morris retired to Montana after 12 big league seasons and ranks 11th on the Cardinals all-time win list and sixth in strikeouts. In 2021 he coached the Belgrade Bandits All-Star team to the 12U Montana state Championship.
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This is the first of a series highlighting the best St. Louis Cardinals lineups of all-time hailing from different parts of the country, starting with the State of Texas.
To date, Texas has produced 1,092 major league baseball players, 15 of whom are enshrined in Cooperstown, according to Baseball-Reference.com. Although the Cardinals made many draft picks of Texans, a relative few have made it to the majors with the club. This lineup, however, is focused on players who were born in Texas and eventually played with the Cardinals regardless of how they arrived into the organization.
Here are the Cardinals’ Texas best by position.
Lance Berkman (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)
Left Field Lance Berkman
In the winter of 2010, the Cardinals made a surprise move with the addition of Lance Berkman. Some thought the signing of the 34-year-old Waco, TX native to fill a starting outfield spot was downright crazy. One reason why it was questioned was that Berkman had not played an inning in the outfield since 2004 and he came with two bad knees.
Many also thought the switch hitter was on the decline after he hit just .171 from the right side with one home run the previous year while moving from his long-time home in Houston to the Yankees. In 480-plus plate appearances, he batted a combined .248 with one home run and 14 RBI.
So what were the Cardinals thinking? Simply speaking, they had a guy who when healthy could hit for average and with good pop in his bat, not to mention another veteran to add to a contending roster. And they were right.
In 2011, Berkman hit .301, crushed 31 home runs, drove home 94 runs and was huge in the postseason, helping the Cardinals to the World Series title. Though his second campaign with St. Louis in 2012 was injury-plagued, Berkman’s contributions were crucial to the 2011 championship.
Jerry Mumphrey
Right Field Jerry Mumphrey
Mumphrey was the fourth-round pick of the Cardinals in 1971. It took the Tyler, Texas native just three short years to make it to the big leagues. The fleet-footed outfielder made his major league debut the same night that Lou Brock broke the single season stolen base record, on September 10, 1974.
Originally a left fielder, Mumphrey was not going to replace the future Hall of Famer Brock, but he found another route to regular time. In 1976, due Bake McBride’s injuries, he became a fixture in center sandwiched between Brock and Willie Crawford. In his six seasons at Busch Stadium, Mumphrey hit a respectable .276 before being traded to Cleveland along with John Denny for Bobby Bonds.
Curt Flood
Center Field Curt Flood
One of the most unheralded players to ever patrol center field, Flood is more remembered for his off-field stance that led to modern day free agency. Originally signed out of high school by the then Cincinnati Redlegs, he made his big-league debut on September 9, 1956 against the same club to which he would be traded in December 1958, St. Louis.
The Houston, Texas native spent 12 seasons with the Cardinals, helping lead them to three World Series, including wins in 1964 and 1967. Flood received seven Gold Gloves, earned three All-Star nods and batted over .300 six times. He is 13th on the all-time Cardinals batting average list at .293 for players with a 1,000 plus games in a St. Louis uniform.
Paul Goldschmidt
First Base Paul Goldschmidt
Another December acquisition, this time in 2018, Goldschmidt arrived in St. Louis via a trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Although it was well-known that Arizona was interested in dealing Goldschmidt, most thought he would end up in the Bronx as a New York Yankee or in Houston with his home-state Astros.
Dubbed “America’s First Baseman” because of both his character and his prowess on the baseball field, The Woodlands, Texas native has lived up to the billing in St. Louis. His arrival gave the Cardinals a truly consistent power hitting corner infield regular for the first time since Albert Pujols left.
Not counting the shortened the 2020 season, Goldschmidt has crushed 30 plus home runs and averaged 98 RBI since his arrival. He was the offensive catalyst if the franchise setting win streak in September. During the 17-game streak, he logged a .391 batting average, seven homers, eight doubles, 16 RBI, nine multi-hit games and an OPS of 1.317. The more Goldschmidt produces, the more he etches himself into Cardinals lore.
David Freese (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)
Third Base David Freese
This may be the one guy that some would question as a true Texas native because he spent most of his life growing up in Wildwood, Missouri, just outside St. Louis. Freese, though, was born in Corpus Christi, Texas and thus for the intents of this article qualifies as a Texas native.
There is no doubt that Freese grew up a Cardinals fan and broke the hearts of Lone Star State fans in the 2011 World Series. Freese stole the spotlight when he hit his legendary two strike, two out triple in the bottom of the ninth to tie Game 6 and the walk-off with two strikes for the win.
His walk-off put him the Cardinals record book as one of just two Cardinals to hit a postseason walk-off in extra innings. Jim Edmonds was the other and coincidentally Freese was traded from San Diego to St. Louis for Edmonds. He became only the fifth player in Major League baseball to hit a walk-off in extra innings with his team facing post season elimination. He also set the MLB RBI postseason RBI record (21) in the bottom of the first in Game 7. During his five plus years with St. Louis, Freese hit a solid .286 with a .960 fielding percentage.
Rogers Hornsby
Second Base Rogers Hornsby
One day, the number “4” will hang among the retired numbers at Busch Stadium, but the name under it won’t be arguably the greatest right-handed hitter in baseball history. Tempestuous and fiery infielder Rogers Hornsby won seven batting titles (six consecutive) and batted over .400 three times. Born in Winters, Texas, “The Rajah” was one of the youngest players in baseball history when he broke in with the Cardinals at the age of 19. Despite going hitless in his first six at bats, Hornsby went on to post a lifetime average of .358, second only all-time to Ty Cobb.
Hornsby’s first Triple Crown in 1922 showcased his hitting prowess. His .401 batting average was almost 50 percentage points higher than the second-place finisher; his 42 home runs were 16 more than anyone else; his 152 RBI led the league by 20; his 250 hits topped the league by 35; his 450 total bases were 136 more than any other; and his .722 slugging percentage led the league by 150 points. As a player-manager, Hornsby led the Cardinals to their first and his only World Series title in 1926.
In fairness, Hornsby has already received retired number recognition by the Cardinals, but because players in his era did not regularly wear uniform numbers, no specific digit is associated with his recognition.
Garry Templeton
Shortstop Garry Templeton
Templeton, selected by the Cardinals in the first round of the 1974 draft, seemed destined for greatness. After turning down a football scholarship offer from UCLA, the Lockney, Texas native followed his dream based upon advice from his father who had played in the Negro Leagues.
The Cardinals decided the natural right-handed hitter with exceptional speed should become a switch hitter. It was a move that would put Templeton into the major league records book in 1979 when he became the first player to collect 100 hits from both sides of the dish.
His irascible behavior led to him being traded after the 1981 season for future Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith. Templeton left St. Louis with a .305 batting average through six seasons, stealing 138 bases and scoring 443 runs. Ironically, these two of the best shortstops to wear a Cardinals uniform both wore number 1.
Gus Mancuso
Catcher Gus Mancuso
A traveling back-up catcher for many years, Mancuso caught five Hall of Fame pitchers throughout his career including St. Louis pitchers Dizzy Dean and Grover Cleveland Alexander. The Galveston native began his professional career by signing with a St. Louis farm team, the Houston Buffaloes in 1924.
Perhaps Mancuso’s best season came in 1930 when he hit .366 with an OPS of .965 filling in for the Cardinals starting catcher Jimmie Wilson helping them reach the 1929 World Series. It was the first of five World Series in which he would play. Mancuso garnered the Cardinals first hit of the series and scored their first run as he caught the opening two games before Wilson returned. Philadelphia won the 1930 title but Mancuso and the Cardinals returned and won the 1931 series over the A’s. Mancuso left St. Louis after the 1932 season. Nine seasons later, he returned to the Cardinals as a backup, capping six years in a Redbirds uniform out of a 17-year big league career. Mancuso spent 36 years in baseball as player, coach and minor league manager.
In 1951, he joined legendary Hall of Fame broadcaster Harry Caray in the Cardinals broadcast booth. After the Budweiser bought the Cardinals in 1954, Mancuso was replaced by future Hall of Famer broadcasters Jack Buck and Milo Hamilton. Mancuso returned to his native Texas and scouted for the Cardinals and the Colt .45’s.
Matt Carpenter (Jasen Vinlove/Imagn)
Bench Matt Carpenter
Carpenter, the 13th round pick by the Cardinals in 2009, wore number 13 for 11 big league campaigns. It took just two minor league seasons for Carpenter to find his way to the big leagues. A natural third baseman, Carpenter learned to play second base and first with the same adeptness.
In 2013 as the Cardinals starting second baseman, Carpenter put together his finest season in St. Louis, hitting .318 and slugging 55 doubles, a franchise record for left-handed hitters. His total surpassed Cardinal great Stan Musial, who hit 53 in 1953. The Galveston, Texas native also led the majors with 63 multi-hit games, recorded a league high 126 runs scored and tied for the league lead in hits (199). His effort earned him a Silver Slugger Award, the first ever by a Cardinals second baseman.
Woody Williams (Getty Images)
Starting Pitcher Woody Williams
Some may have done a double take when they read that best pitcher from Texas to ever throw for the Cardinals was Houston native Woody Williams. The right-hander was acquired in a surprise waiver wire deal in 2001 for fan favorite Ray Lankford. His arrival at Busch Stadium was circumspect at best considering he was 8-8 with a 4.97 ERA.
Pitching coach Dave Duncan though was able to work wonders with the 34-year-old as Williams went 7-1 with a 2.28 ERA, leading St. Louis to a second half record of 38-16 and a berth in the 2001 postseason. Williams four- year run in St. Louis was the best period of his career. The Cardinals hurler finished 45-22, 23 games over .500 with a respectable 3.53 ERA. In 2003, he posted a career best 18-9 earning the only All-Star appearance of his 15-year career.
Jordan Hicks (Steve Mitchell/Imagn)
Bullpen Jordan Hicks
Although many pitchers have come from Texas and pitched for the Cardinals, none have been more electric than Jordan Hicks. Able to consistently hit 100 mph-plus on the radar gun, the Houston native was sidelined by Tommy John surgery in 2019 and opted out of the 2020 season.
Hicks’ comeback in 2021 was limited to just 10 innings. The right-hander’s pick to be on this list is based more on potential than performance. Primarily a starter until he arrived at the big-league level, Hicks has averaged nearly a strikeout per inning in his relatively brief career.
In 2021, the Cardinal Nation Prospect Guide is back for a fourth year. It includes over 250 pages of in-depth commentary about the very best St. Louis Cardinals minor leaguers, including dozens of color photos.
20% off Blowout Sale now underway on the spiral-bound, printed version.
photo: Carlos Correa (Troy Taormina/USA TODAY Sports)
A month into the CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) stalemate, Major League Baseball teams like the St. Louis Cardinals may be wondering when the 2022 baseball season will begin – but more importantly when teams will be able to resume their offseason roster moves.
For each club, the winter regenerates new hope in a successful upcoming campaign. For the Cardinals, the questions abound more with the pitching staff/rotation than anything else and even there the problems are not of a desperation mode. For perennially successful clubs like St. Louis, the wish list for each season is relatively short.
Here is one I have put together for the team as we close in on the end of 2021.
First and foremost, the team needs a healthy starting rotation. Can they count on Dakota Hudson, Miles Mikolas and Jack Flaherty becoming and staying healthy enough to put together a solid season in 2022? Can Adam Wainwright defy Father Time once again, and newly acquired Steven Matz pitch to his level in consecutive seasons? If the answer is yes, then there is no reason the Cardinals will not be at the top of the Central Division.
Since impressing in 2019, Flaherty, Hudson and Mikolas have combined for 42 starts and 211 innings pitched over the last two seasons. Before all three were bit by the injury bug, they had combined for 97 starts in 2019 alone, 555 innings worked, and almost a 3:1 ratio of strikeouts to walks.
Matz needs to continue his magic. The 30-year-old lefty has pitched 150 plus innings in three of the last four seasons bolstered by an average of 30 starts each year and a consistent strikeout to walk ratio of 3:1. He also just happens to be one the best groundball pitchers in the major leagues and with five Gold Glove winners on the Cardinal defense, he should only get better.
Then there is Adam Wainwright, the ageless wonder who led St. Louis through their historic 17 game winning streak last September. He doesn’t throw the hardest or the fastest but like the legendary Greg Maddux he knows how to throw strikes. Can he do it one more time at age 40?
If these questions are answered in 2022 with a resounding yes, opponents will find the St. Louis rotation tough to deal with day in and day out.
If a healthy rotation is in place, the bullpen becomes Oliver Marmol’s next big worry. The new Cardinals skipper will have to determine how to teach Genesis Cabrera, Alex Reyes, Ryan Helsley and Jordan Hicks to pitch and not just throw. The first three have wickedly blazing arms that deal consistently in the 96 plus mile per hour range while Hicks can top 102. It’s a nice problem to have if they learn to consistently throw first pitch strikes and get a nice chase rate but to date they have not been unable to do that. In 2021, they were all outside the MLB average in both categories. This makes the second item on the wish list very obvious; a bullpen that can pitch with both speed and control.
Finally, the Cardinals need to address the number six position on the infield. After putting together a phenomenal 2018 season, shortstop Paul DeJong has not been able to get it together again. His downward slide has been almost as precipitous as former St. Louis star Matt Carpenter.
Trevor Story (USA TODAY Sports Images)
After DeJong hit less than .200 and was replaced by Edmundo Sosa in the latter stages of 2021, it stands to reason that Cardinals have seen enough to take the lineup in a different direction. Sosa’s versatility makes him the next Jose Oquendo to wear a Cardinals uniform but not the next starting shortstop, with free agents Trevor Story and Carlos Correa still out there. With the Cardinals having money to spend, both are worth every penny and would allow the Cardinals to be set at least for the next five seasons – not just at shortstop but as World Series contenders. In addition, the opportunity would still be there financially to lock up a young player like Tyler O’Neill without breaking the bank.
The St. Louis Cardinals are unlike many of the top tier teams in baseball. They don’t make a lot of big splashes but when they do, it turns out pretty well. A great example is the deal that brought first baseman Paul Goldschmidt to Busch Stadium. With him rumored to be going to the Houston Astros or the New York Yankees, the baseball world was surprised when the Cardinals pulled off the deal. Shortly thereafter, the perennial all-star signed a contract extension.
This example exemplifies how methodical the Cardinals are and why their wish list is never very long. The same holds true in preparation for the 2022 season. The list may be short and the run of excellence should continue.
In 2021, the Cardinal Nation Prospect Guide is back for a fourth year. It includes over 250 pages of in-depth commentary about the very best St. Louis Cardinals minor leaguers, including dozens of color photos.
20% off Blowout Sale now underway on the spiral-bound, printed version.
photo: Bill DeWitt Jr. via Zoom (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)
With the December 1 deadline nearing and a work stoppage looming on the horizon for Major League Baseball, there are plenty of reasons to be thankful for the baseball season that was. For St. Louis Cardinals baseball fans, that thankfulness should start with the organization’s ownership.
The Cardinals are arguably the most stable franchise in baseball because of its ownership. Throughout the last 68 years, the team has had just two ownership groups. Overlooked by many, strong, consistent and smart ownership is the foundation of success. Nowhere in baseball is there owners who have lived and breathed baseball from childhood. Nowhere in baseball is there an ownership group that remembers what is to be a fan and how they savor the thrill of victory like in St. Louis. Nowhere is there an ownership group in baseball that lauds character more over winning and because of it the organization is a winner.
The William DeWitt Jr. family, as principal owners. have continued a winning tradition in St. Louis. Preceded by Gussie Busch, the Cardinals have had just two primary owners since 1953. Under that leadership, the Cardinals have enjoyed not just stability but some of the winningest baseball in the history of America’s pastime. Under their guidance, the Cardinals have won 5,762 games, second only to the New York Yankees.
The ownership under DeWitt Jr. has employed just four managers since 1996. Those managers’ teams have produced 12 division titles in 25 years and another six second place finishes with a total of 16 playoff appearances. Twelve times they have made it to the National League Championship Series and ultimately played in four World Series, winning two. Add in the years under Busch and in 68 seasons the Cardinals have finished first or second 31 times. It is a record few can match.
Steady guidance and a sound plan have resulted in the Cardinals ability to obtain and maintain players of not just Hall of Fame caliber but of dedication and commitment to the organization and the city.
Matt Carpenter (Jasen Vinlove/Imagn)
Matt Carpenter, who announced his retirement just days ago, is the latest in a long line of players who have loved wearing the Cardinals uniform. Although I have been critical of the team extending his contract, as a human being Carpenter has been a standout. His farewell to Cardinals fans was just an inkling of not only what baseball means to St. Louis but maybe more importantly what it means to be a player wearing the Birds on the Bat.
Carpenter is all over the record books offensively and even though his last couple of years were nothing to write home about, this is a person you would want to bring home to your parents. St. Louis seems to consistently find these kinds of men and gets rid of the ones who are not of the character and mold of what it means to be a Cardinal.
Finally, without this ownership, there would not have been the streak of 2021. Just as much as McGwire and Sosa caught baseball’s attention in 1998 so did the Cardinals 17-game winning streak. Not only did the run of winning baseball turn a left-for-dead team in early August into a playoff club but it reminded St. Louis fans of the history and legacy that is Cardinals baseball. The longest streak in franchise history and nearly baseball history brought back memories of the 1964 season when St. Louis tracked down the Philadelphia Phillies to win the pennant and eventually the World Series. Dreams of that danced once more in St. Louis fans heads and turned the baseball world upside down.
The streak also reminds us of the 2011 World Series win over the Texas Rangers by a team that should have never been there but took advantage of a door opened by postseason expansion. Coincidentally, the 2011 Cardinals won as many games as this 2021 team and also finished second to Milwaukee.
2021 brought a complete organizational effort that created history. Without the in-season additions of unheralded pitchers Luis Garcia, T.J. McFarland, Wade LeBlanc, J.A. Happ, Jon Lester, where would the Cardinals have finished? Without the age defying play of Adam Wainwright and his catcher Yadier Molina, where would the Cardinals have ended?
Outfielder Tyler O’Neill crushed 11 home runs during the streak, second only to McGwire’s three September streaks of 1997 (15), 1998 (15) and 1999 (12). Another outfielder getting it done during the streak was Harrison Bader with 13 runs, 24 hits, 13 extra-base hits and 12 RBI. Those 17 consecutive wins gave the fans one more reason to love the 2021 Redbirds.
When you’re watching and waiting for the Cardinals to do something profound this offseason, just be thankful that strong, steady and smart ownership is at the helm. It is the key to a continued winning legacy.
In 2021, the Cardinal Nation Prospect Guide is back for a fourth year. It includes over 250 pages of in-depth commentary about the very best St. Louis Cardinals minor leaguers, including dozens of color photos.
20% off Blowout Sale now underway on the spiral-bound, printed version.
photo: Carlos Correa (Troy Taormina/USA TODAY Sports)
Financial considerations aside, which free agent shortstop may be the best fit for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2022 and beyond?
The 2021-2022 Major League Baseball offseason with its plethora of free agent shortstops will provide baseball fans with a scintillating winter. A possible work stoppage notwithstanding, four of the most dynamic players to stand in the number six spot on the diamond should each garner a massive payday. Colorado’s Trevor Story, New York’s Javier Baez, Houston’s Carlos Correa and the Dodgers’ Corey Seager are waiting for the suitors to come calling.
Which one should the St. Louis Cardinals chase – if money was no consideration?
The Cardinals have employed their fair share of competent shortstops but have not had a great one since “The Wizard” (Ozzie Smith) called Busch Stadium home. Before that, one must go back to the heyday of the 1940’s with Marty “Mr. Shortstop” Marion to find the organization’s last true franchise shortstop.
The Cardinals thought they had developed the next big thing when they signed current shortstop Paul DeJong to a big contract extension in 2019. However, the incumbent has not lived up to his billing so the team must consider those on the market.
In a perfect world, the next shortstop in St. Louis would be a slick fielding, power hitting, high average, solid base stealing threat. Each of the available four have some but not all of the aforementioned traits. Here is the argument for each including my choice for the Cardinals infield.
Trevor Story
Trevor Story (USA TODAY Sports Images)
Since breaking into the majors in stunning fashion, Story has been one the bedrocks of the Colorado lineup (along with current Cardinal Nolan Arenado). And therein lies one of the arguments against Story. He plays in Colorado where the air is thin and the ball travels faster than a speeding bullet.
How would he perform away from Coors Field? Well, if Matt Holliday and Larry Walker are any indication, Story would hit quite well. The soon to be 29-year-old (Nov. 15) leads in nearly every offensive category of the four shortstops over the span of 2016-2021.
Following Fernando Tatis Jr., Story is the next best thing on the left side of the infield, leading the National League in double plays. His 14 errors could be a bit troubling to potential suitors. As for Cardinals fans, they have been intrigued with the possibility of reuniting third baseman Arenado with his former Colorado colleague. Although never confirmed, it was rumored at the trade deadline that Story was a deal pursued but did not work out for Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak.
Javier Baez
Javier Baez (USA TODAY Sports Images)
Mention Javy Baez and the words “inconsistently spectacular” come to mind. For a while, it was thought “El Mago” (The Magician) would be the cornerstone of the Chicago Cubs infield for years to come but that all changed with a slump followed by a midsummer trade in 2021.
Now Baez is a free agent of the New York Mets and the question is whether the Cardinals should be entertaining the thought of signing him as their long term answer in the middle infield.
One thing in his favor – okay two things – are his versatility and the pop in his bat. Baez can play second and third in addition to shortstop and is adept at all three. A strong .271 batting average coupled with nearly 30 home runs and 61 extra base hits almost makes you forget his downside. Troubling are his rate of errors and strikeout percentage. He was at the top of the list in miscues in 2021 with 24 errors offsetting his incredible range and powerful arm. His career WAR (Wins Above Replacement) is the second worst of the four free agents. Only Seager was worse and he played almost 30 fewer games then Baez. His proclivity to strike out at a 28 percent rate is the highest of the four.
If the Cardinals were to sign Baez, he would look good at the top of the lineup, but one has to wonder if the cost offsets the liabilities.
Corey Seager
Corey Seager (USA TODAY Sports Images)
The Dodgers shortstop might be better off staying right where he is – in Los Angeles. Having recently changed agents to join the Scott Boras Group, Seager’s numbers are strong in comparison to the other three top shortstop free agents. The best attributes of Seager are his fielding and his bat. Although his game appearances were limited to 95 in 2021, he still posted the second-best error to chances ratio of the four, ahead of both Baez and Story.
His batting average over the last five seasons is 19 points higher than Carlos Correa’s .276. Seager offers his next club an average of 20 home runs, 69 RBI and 53 extra base hits a season. His durability is the sticking point, as he played in less than 100 games in three of the last four seasons. Seager may be the cheapest of the four.
Carlos Correa
Carlos Correa (USA TODAY Sports Images)
This brings us to Carlos Correa. Arguably the most complete ballplayer of the four free agents, the Houston Astros would be foolish to let Correa walk. Correa led all shortstops with a defensive WAR of 7.2 in 2021 and third of all major leaguers including pitchers. In the history of baseball, his career defensive WAR of 11.1 ranks him 194th and climbing. Only Andrelton Simmons ranks higher on the list of active shortstops.
Correa’s 11 errors were the fewest of any of the four free agents though he handed the most chances. Over the past five seasons among the four, he ranks first in WAR and walks. With almost 400 fewer plate appearances, he still ranks second of the four in batting average, lowest strikeout percentage, and Runs Created.
The one knock against the 27-year-old is his durability. Prior to 2021, when Correa missed just 14 games, he had not played in more than 110 regular season games in each of the previous three campaigns. His range, arm strength, plate discipline and power should remind Cardinals fans of another great shortstop known simply as “The Wizard.” Oh, and by the way, Ozzie Smith is all-time leader in defensive WAR at 44.4.
The day Correa arrived on the major league scene in 2015 and having watched him ever since, I believe there is really nothing he cannot do. He has all the tools and the “It” factor when it comes to big moments. New manager Oliver Marmol’s job would be so much easier penciling the name “Correa” on a St. Louis lineup card every day.
Conclusion
It’s unfortunate that dollar signs have become so ridiculously extravagant, but that is the world in which baseball dwells in the 21st Century. If I am the Cardinals brass, I start my chase for a new shortstop with Carlos Correa. Technically speaking, he would be worth every penny a team offers and could become the franchise face much like Albert Pujols years ago.
In the right situation, the Cardinals are not averse to giving out big contracts and this is one contract (unlike Albert) in which most of the payoff would be in the player’s prime years. Offer Correa Francisco Lindor-type money – and the city, the fans and the team will reap the benefits for years to come.
Now available, The Cardinal Nation 2021 Prospect Guide is back for a fourth year. It includes over 250 pages of in-depth commentary about the very best St. Louis Cardinals minor leaguers, including dozens of color photos.
20% off Blowout Sale now underway on the spiral-bound, printed version.
Former Birmingham Barons and former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bill Greason was honored with throwing out the first pitch. The Negro Leagues oldest living player at 99 (and oldest living former Cardinal) had his well-earned and well-deserved moment in the spotlight.
Now Available – 2024 Cardinals Prospect Guide 
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Before baseball became all about the money, it was a game that was played between the best of the National League and the best of the American League. There would never be a doubt that the best teams in baseball were playing for the title of the best in baseball, but I digress, as that is a story for another time.
Now Available – 2023 Cardinals Prospect Guide 
Coming into this series, the Cardinals and Cubs are currently trending in opposite directions. The Cubs are 8-2 in their last 10 and just 3.5 games back of the division leading Cincinnati Reds. With St. Louis 13 games below .500 and uncharacteristically last in the National League Central Division, this might be the historic moment the Cardinals need to jumpstart their season.
Offensively may be where the Cardinals find the silver lining in this series and a season adjusting turnaround. The St. Louis side has more doubles and more home runs 74 games into the season then their Chicago counterparts. Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman are going to have to come out swinging the sticks against a Cubs staff that boasts 34 quality starts, fifth best in the major leagues. Chicago starters Justin Steele and Marcus Stroman, both with sub-3 ERAs, are expected to start in the series. Steele is 3-2 in his last seven starts with a 3.93 ERA. He could be the key to how well the Cardinals do because Stroman has been almost unhittable with a perfect 7-0 in his last seven starts and a minuscule 1.29 ERA.
On Closeout – 2022 Prospect Guide 
