Grading the Cardinals I: Management and Infield

The end of the season, especially one where St. Louis didn’t make the playoffs, is the ideal time to look back at what happened in 2008, both good and bad.  In an homage to those pieces of paper some of us didn’t want to see at the end of a term, many columnists and writers will give out “report cards” with grades for players and staff.   Never one to shy away from stealing other people’s material, I’ve done my first-ever grading of Cardinal personnel.  With so many to look at, I’ve broken it down into four days of posting.  Today, we’ll look at the management and the infielders, tomorrow outfielders, Wednesday starting pitchers and Thursday relievers.  (Granted, such arbitrary divisions are almost meaningless on a Tony LaRussa “play everyone everywhere” team, but I try.  If you don’t find a player in one section, look in another.)

So, let’s get started.  Grades are based on the typical A-F grading system.  I’m typically a lenient grader so many of you may have different ideas for their final grade.  That’s what the comments are for, folks!  I’m very interested to hear what other opinions are.  Also, there will be a thread for each of these over at CardsClubhouse.



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Management

John Mozeliak: B.  Mozeliak has had an interesting first year at the helm.  His swap of disgruntled third baseman panned out beautifully, as Troy Glaus stayed mainly healthy and provided a strong, if streaky, power source in the lineup.  His late signing of Kyle Lohse, which granted was a product of desperate need and basically the only available option, has turned out better than anyone expected.  Even his resigning of Aaron Miles, a move that was widely derided in Cardinal Nation  (so much so that Mozeliak noted in a preseason chat that “he does have value!”), has worked out to the Cardinals advantage.

Of course, it wasn’t a perfect season for the GM.  There was no deadline deal to boost a sagging team.  While he may have been smart not to overpay for a talent that may not have put them over the top, the psychological impact on a team that seemed waiting for a deal may have been devastating.  And, given the way St. Louis ended the season, acquiring some depth may have been prudent.  All in all, though, Mozeliak did a fine job at the helm.  His true test will be this offseason, however.

Tony LaRussa: B-.  LaRussa had a difficult task in 2008, as he had a team that was supposed to be rebuilding.  LaRussa has trouble with rebuilding, however, and was able to finagle the team into postseason contention.  His constant lineup juggling seemed to pay off during the first half of the season, as the Cards were tied for the best record in baseball into May.

Even so, there were numerous questionable decisions that came out of the manager’s office.  The largest issue was his overreliance on veterans in the closing role, even when said veterans were not only ineffective but downright flammable.  Jason Isringhausen and Ryan Franklin are a large part of why this team was not playing in October, but the final decision to bring them into games rested on LaRussa, who seemed paradoxically willing to overuse rookie Kyle McClellan but distrusting of bringing up Chris Perez or Jason Motte.

This probably wasn’t his best managing job—2002 and 2007 get special consideration due to the fatalities in those seasons—but he did manage to get much more out of this team than was expected at the start of the season.

First Base

Albert Pujols: A.  What else can you say about him?  The nicknames say it all—The Machine, El Hombre.  (Please no Bermanesque “Winnie the Pujols”.  Does this man look like a cuddly teddy bear?)  Before the season started, we worried about his elbow, afraid that it would give out at any time and that the Cardinals would be without their thumper for the rest of the year.  Yet, save the strained calf that put him on the shelf for a couple of weeks, things have just continued on as regularly as ever.

Pujols reached all his normal milestones this year--.300, 30 HR, 100 RBI.  He walked 100 times for the first time in his career.  He was in the MVP discussion yet again and is the smart pick (as in, most of the smart people are picking him) to get his second such award.  In other words, he was Albert Pujols.  And that always deserves a top score.  The elbow is still a concern and will be until it is fixed, but if he says he can play through it and can do so at this level, I’m all for taking his word for it.

Second Base

Adam Kennedy: C.  When Kennedy signed with the Cardinals after the 2006 season, most people thought the Cards were getting a bargain, a solid-hitting, good glove second sacker for just $10 million over three years.   Caveat emptor, it appears.  Kennedy’s ’07 season was marked by knee surgery and he was limited to just 87 games, games that didn’t have people enthused, but the expectation was that he would rebound some this summer and a .276 average this spring helped encourage that speculation.

And when he’s gotten into the ballgame, he’s been a tolerable, if streaky, average hitter.  There’s no pop in the bat—his first home run didn’t come until June, his second in September—which is what many thought the Cardinals were getting when he signed.  LaRussa went so far as to try him in the outfield late in the season to work on his versatility.   All the benching and moving around did, though, was ask for him to be traded.  He could still be a serviceable part on a team that didn’t need pop at 2B, but it’s probably time for him and the Cardinals to part ways.

Aaron Miles: B.  Most of the “intellectual” Cardinal fans, those that know OBP and VORP and all the other stats, rejoiced when the Cardinals non-tendered Miles after last season, only to moan again when Miles was resigned later in the winter.  (And some not-so-intellectual ones as well.)  One of Mozeliak’s first moves, it smacked of bowing to Tony, something many hoped the new GM wouldn’t be doing.  As noted above, though, Mozeliak thought he had value and 2008 proved him correct.

Seriously, though, a .300 average from Miles?  Who would have thought that?  Four home runs, 30 RBI?  When you look at his career numbers, though, they really aren’t that far out of line with these tabulations.  You don’t want Miles to be a starter, but he’s looking like a valuable utility infielder that can help win some games.  Whether that is worth the $1.4 million he got this year, that’s a different story.

Felipe Lopez: B.  He was DFAd by the worst team in the National League, so of course the Cardinals swooped him up.  Thankfully, though, it was a move closer to the Jeff Weaver end of the spectrum than the Mike Maroth.  Lopez had an offensive resurgence in St. Louis while being moved around the field, playing two outfield slots as well as three infield ones.  His defense at those spots isn’t anything great—some places worse than others, but he’ll never be confused with a Gold Glover—but he definitely earned a look at a return for 2009.

Shortstop

Cesar Izturis: C.  I was down on Izturis in spring training, as readers here know.  I figured if a guy couldn’t hit, he needed to at least field, and Izturis was making almost an error a day at the position back in Jupiter.  This didn’t look promising.

However, LaRussa said to be patient, that things would come around, that Izturis was just pressing.  No matter what you might think of him, TLR does tend to know baseball.  Izturis’s errors and fielding percentage was right in line with his career numbers, while his range factor was one of the highest in his career.  He made some spectacular plays and really did shore up the defense.

Of course, his bat lacked a little something.  A .263 average isn’t terrible, but there almost no pop in his bat, as his OBP was higher than his slugging.  14 total extra base hits doesn’t help the offense out much, though he did use his wheels to steal a team-high 24 bases.  He was streaky at the plate, with a .308 May followed by a .176 June.

If the Cardinals had some pop at 2B, Izturis would have the potential to be a serviceable player.  He definitely was more valuable than I expected back in the spring.

Brendan Ryan: C-.  At the beginning of the year, there was some thought that Ryan could become a full-time starter after a pretty good end to 2007.  Instead, he didn’t hit, got relegated to the bench, and finally found playing time in Memphis.  He returned when the rosters expanded in September, but wound up trying his hand in the outfield so as to fulfill LaRussa’s desire that his team be made up of about 10 utility players.

After 2008, Ryan looks more like Bo Hart than Edgar Renteria.  His stock (such as it was) has dipped to where he’s not a trade candidate.  He’ll probably go into spring training hoping to get a bench job, depending on what happens with the middle infield in the offseason.  I have trouble believing, though, that he’ll ever be a major league regular.

Third Base

Troy Glaus: B.  When Mozeliak swapped Scott Rolen for Troy Glaus, I was very disappointed.  I was a big Rolen fan and I felt that if anyone was going to go out of the LaRussa/Rolen conflagration, it should have been LaRussa.  That said, I knew that the Cardinals had gotten more out of Rolen that they probably had any right to.  Glaus proved that in spades this year.

He filled the “supremely streaky hitter” role vacated by Jim Edmonds when he (briefly) took off for San Diego.  Glaus would go on amazing runs, as noted by how often he racked up multiple Hero considerations in a week.  But then he would go just as cold, grabbing a number of Goat mentions.  Still, getting 25+ HR and around 100 RBI out of another slot in the lineup was an amazing plus.

What we didn’t expect was his defense.  Cardinal fans had been spoiled by the vacuum cleaner that was Scott Rolen.  If the ball was hit toward third, we expected him to catch it and throw out the runner, whether it was from his feet or his backside.  There was no way Glaus could compare with that, was there?  And yet Glaus then goes out and sets a Cardinal fielding record for third baseman and, depending on how the voters look at it, succeed Rolen as a Gold Glove Cardinal 3B.  He moved well in the field and made solid plays routinely.  He may not have been highlight material but he got the job done and only rarely made people wish for Rolen’s return.

Catcher

Yadier Molina: A-.  Who would have thought that, at the end of the year, we’d have been complaining more about Yadi’s defense than his offense?  Molina was not nearly as efficient at throwing out baserunners this season, whether it was because only the best ran on him or the baserunners were getting better jumps on the pitcher.  He still played very solid defense, of course, and if he wins the Gold Glove it’d be a nice makeup call for last year’s robbery.

The surprising thing was his offense, however.  He’s come a long way from the .216 hitter he was in 2006.  Some don’t remember that his 2005 season wasn’t bad at the plate and, personally, in 2007 he was the player (not named Pujols) that I most wanted up at the plate with a runner at second and two outs.  He continued that clutch hitting in 2008, but he elevated the rest of his game as well.  The power still isn’t there—that home run in the 2006 NLCS will likely be a large percentage of his career total—but he was a very good middle-to-lower end of the order hitter.  He’ll likely drop some next year, but a .280 hitter with some doubles power might mike Bryan Anderson part of an offseason trade package.

Jason LaRue: B-.  As with a number of offseason moves, there was some griping (though, honestly, not a lot—what kind of overly obsessive fan gets worked up about the backup catcher?) when LaRue was signed.  Having a terrible year with the Royals will cause that reaction.  LaRue did a very good job, however, of filling in when Molina hit the DL or was out at the end of the season after the Ted Lilly collision.  He showed an adequate bat and could sting people every once in a while.  He was tolerable defensively as well and I, for one, wouldn’t be disappointed if he returned to fill the backup shoes yet again.

Infield incompletes: Brian Barton, Mark Johnson, Rico Washington

Wow, this turned out to be long.  Good thing I was already planning on breaking this up somewhat.  Tomorrow, we take a look at the Cardinal outfield, a strength of the 2008 squad.

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