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Focusing On Pitching

Posted on November 17, 2010 at 10:15 AM
Filed Under: St. Louis Cardinals
A couple of pitching-related Cardinal stories from yesterday, neither a big surprise, though one was more expected than the other.

First off, Adam Wainwright finished runner-up to Roy Halladay in the National League Cy Young voting.  You'll remember, of course, that is exactly how it panned out in the Baseball Bloggers Alliance voting as well.  Wainwright looked to have it wrapped up with 17 wins and a 1.99 ERA in August, but the last few outings hurt him, plus Halladay was a beast almost all year long.  No complaints here, just tip your hat and hope that one of these years Waino can break through.

Of course, the bigger news on that front is that the second-place finish vests his options for 2012 and 2013.  Not that it's a big deal--odds are that they'd have been exercised anyway, the way he's been going--but it is nice to have that certainty when you are planning.

The other story was that the Cards and Jake Westbrook came to an agreement, keeping the pitcher around for another two years.  The price seems to be pretty good, but I'm a little conflicted.

We know that Westbrook had a successful few months in St. Louis and seems to work well with Dave Duncan.  I'm not going to fault the Cards for going after him on performance-related points.  I'm sure that he'll be a solid #4 starter next year behind Chris Carpenter, Wainwright, and Jaime Garcia.  It bolsters the rotation and, in that way, it's a good thing.

The problem comes in two ways.  First, the rotation is now full and only Garcia is making under $8 million a year.  That's a lot of money tied up into five people.  Financially, it might have been better to promote someone like Lance Lynn and slide him into the fifth slot.  You have to hope that Kyle Lohse is good enough for the #4 hole, but 1) he definitely has the ability to be that, if he can just gain consistency and 2) that's what you get for giving him a no-trade clause.

The second is that everyone in that rotation, save Wainwright, has had injury problems.  You don't expect any of them to go down necessarily, but you start upping your odds for a catastrophe when you pile in that many risk factors.  What happens if Westbrook and Garcia go down, like Brad Penny and Lohse did this year?  Is there enough to fill those holes?

Both of these issues are sidelines and I don't expect that the club really focused much on that when negotiating with Westbrook.  All in all, I think it's a good deal, though.  Having quality pitching is always a plus.

A pretty interesting day to kick off the general manager's meetings in Florida.  The word before those meetings was that these were "ground-laying" discussions for moves that might be done at the winter meetings in December.  Yet Westbrook signs and then, in a move that was of interest to St. Louis as well, Dan Uggla gets shipped to the Braves.

Lot of Cardinal fans were very interested in getting Uggla to take over for Skip Schumaker at second base and I can't blame them.  I've never been completely high on Uggla, due to the fielding issues and his propensity for the strikeout, but it definitely would have been an upgrade offensively.

Of course, it seems like the front office is looking more at the shortstop position as a place to make changes anyw---

Sorry about that.  The loud screaming fit from over at Cardinal Diamond Diaries distracted me for a moment.  Anyway, that seems to be where they want to upgrade.  I'm not completely sold that replacing Brendan Ryan is better than making Schumaker a utility guy, but that seems to be most likely.  It's going to have to be a pretty special bat to replace that glove, though.  With all the ground ball pitchers this team has, trading defense for offense is a tricky proposition.

A couple of other stories from earlier in the week.  One, the Secret Weapon was supposed to interview with the Mets Monday.  Last I heard, Terry Collins was the frontrunner and I don't expect that anything will be known for a while, as new Mets GM Sandy Alderson lost his father this past weekend.  Always rooting for Jose Oquendo, of course, but I bet he's back at third next year.

Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday received Silver Slugger Awards.  As someone on Twitter (Matthew Leach, maybe?) mentioned, Pujols will probably win both the Silver Slugger and the Gold Glove and lose out on MVP to someone at the same position.  What are the odds of that happening?  Gotta be slim.

Matt Carpenter and Shelby Miller were selected as top hitter and pitcher out of the Cardinal farm system for 2010.  We know that Miller is still a couple of years away, but it will be interesting to keep an eye on Carpenter in the spring.  I don't think he could get the call, as it's very unlikely that he'd be the backup to David Freese, but if some reason Freese can't go or winds up getting hurt again during the season, Carpenter could be the first option.  Then again, Zack Cox is hitting well out in Arizona.....

Finally, there look to be some changes in the FSMW booth, and I can't say that they are completely positive ones.  After meeting with Dan and Al, I have a better appreciation for them.  To go along with that, even though occasionally they say things that make me roll my eyes, they aren't hard to listen to.  Ricky Horton, though, adds a little too-cheery dynamic to the broadcast, plus his voice is just enough higher that it throws off the experience.  Mainly, though, while Dan and Al are homers to a degree, they are more likely to be fair and to not gloss over things as much as Ricky seems to.

Now, after slinging at the professionals, it's time to let you do the same to me.  I'm hosting the UCB Radio Hour tonight and flying solo, so phone calls are always welcome to keep me from rambling on for an hour.  Well, less than an hour tonight because there are guests for tonight's show!  Doug Gladstone has written a book, A Bitter Cup of Coffee, about the plight of some MLB veterans who are not covered by the players' pension agreement.  He will be joining us to talk about the book and the issue, as well as former player Tom Bruno.  Bruno played for four seasons and three different teams, including the Cardinals, and now is the owner of Major League Adventures up in South Dakota.

Should be interesting to talk to them for a while, then we'll talk the current Cardinal team.  Hope to talk to you then!


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Heroes
Matt Holliday (5)
Matt Carpenter (4)
Rafael Furcal (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
Jon Jay (3)
Kyle Lohse (3)
Lance Lynn (3)
Yadier Molina (3)
David Freese (2)
Jaime Garcia (2)
Adam Wainwright (2)
Lance Berkman (1)
Allen Craig (1)
Shane Robinson (1)
Fernando Salas (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Hero: Lance Berkman (24)
2010 Top Heroes: Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols (24)
2009 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (28)
2008 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (25)

Goats
Matt Holliday (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
David Freese (3)
Jaime Garcia (3)
Marc Rzepczynski (3)
Adam Wainwright (3)
Rafael Furcal (2)
Tyler Greene (2)
Jason Motte (2)
J.C. Romero (2)
Fernando Salas (2)
Mitchell Boggs (1)
Matt Carpenter (1)
Tony Cruz (1)
Daniel Descalso (1)
Jon Jay (1)
Erik Komatsu (1)
Kyle Lohse (1)
Victor Marte (1)
Eduardo Sanchez (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Goat: Ryan Theriot (12)
2010 Top Goat: Brendan Ryan (14)
2009 Top Goats: Rick Ankiel and Todd Wellemeyer (13)
2008 Top Goat: Troy Glaus (13)

2012 Happy Flights
Happy Flights: 7
Happy Flight Opportunities: 12
Happy Flight %: 58%

Through 5/20

    Cardinal Nation Approval Ratings (March 2012)
    Adam Wainwright 91.9% (down 2.8%)
    Chris Carpenter 90.1% (up 3.2%)
    Lance Berkman 88.6%
    Tony La Russa 88.2% (up 17.4%)
    Yadier Molina 87.4% (up 3.7%)
    Matt Holliday 87.3% (down 3.8%)
    David Freese 85.5%
    John Mozeliak 85.4% (up 13.3%)
    Mike Shannon 85.3% (up 0.4%)
    Jose Oquendo 84.7%
    Derrick Goold 82.8% (down 5.0%)
    Mark McGwire 82.6% (up 20.1%)
    John Rooney 81.5% (down 2.8%)
    Mike Matheny 81.1%
    Bill DeWitt 79.8% (up 8.8%)
    United Cardinal Bloggers 78.9%
    Skip Schumaker 73.3% (up 9.2%)
    Jim Hayes 71.9% (down 4.2%)
    Jon Jay 71.1%
    B.J. Rains 69.5% (down 0.9%)
    Kyle Lohse 68.9% (up 13.8%)
    Dan McLaughlin 68.0%
    Joe Strauss 67.7% (up 10.2%)
    Ricky Horton 67.5% (down 1.6%)
    Al Hrabosky 66.4% (up 3.2%)
    Albert Pujols 54.9% (down 45.5%)
    Colby Rasmus 46.5% (down 35.3%)

    2011
    Dave Duncan 87.9% (up 0.9%)
    Matthew Leach 85.5%
    Pop Warner 76.7%
    Ryan Franklin 72.8% (up 3.1%)
    John Vuch 68.9%
    Jeff Luhnow 66.4%
    Dan Lozano 58.7%

    2009
    Rick Ankiel 83.9%
    Chris Duncan 69.1%


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