Bleacher Report - St Louis Cardinals

The Fall Of The Republic: NL Cy Young Voting Shows BBWAA's Incompetence

Lewie Pollis — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:24:48 -0500

From Plato to Voltaire, the Republic has been the government of choice for intellectuals for millennia.

Dismissive of people’s ability to rule themselves, yet similarly wary of totalitarianism, they champion a government run exclusively by the most enlightened members of society.

As in any democratic system, the health of the Republic hinges on the electorate’s ability to keep itself informed and think logically. If the voters—however many or few—become incapable of comprehensively analyzing issues or are blinded by irrationality, the whole system goes down the toilet.

Of course, I speak not of Congress (though the shoe certainly fits), but of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. When the results for the NL Cy Young Award were released yesterday, the tallies revealed that the BBWAA voters are criminally incapable of performing their duties.

My problem is not so much with the winner (though the best man did not win), but with third-place finisher Adam Wainwright.

While he ended up with only the bronze, Wainwright actually got more first-place votes (12) than winner Tim Lincecum (11) or runner-up Chris Carpenter (nine). Seventeen out of 32 voters picked Wainwright ahead of at least one of his main competitors.

Why is that such a big deal? Wainwright had a breakout season in 2009, and undeniably emerged as one of the best pitchers in the game.

It’s a problem because those 17 voters implicitly declared that wins are the most important statistic in the game.

It doesn’t take a sabermetrician to see that wins is an incredibly stupid way to measure pitching. And yet, the pitchers’ records played an enormous factor in how the Cy Young voting turned out.

While Wainwright’s 19 victories paced the rest of the National League, he ranked behind Lincecum and Carpenter in just about every other category.

ERA. WHIP. K/BB ratio. Complete Games. Shutouts. Quality Start percentage. Home runs allowed. Opponents’ batting average, OBP, SLG, and OPS. Defense-Independent ERA. Win Percentage Added. Wins Above Replacement.

All are categories in which Wainwright finished behind Lincecum and Carpenter—not to mention other pitchers throughout the league. And all, according to a majority of voters in the BBWAA, are less important than wins.

This isn’t the All-Star Game, not just anyone can vote. These are (supposedly) 32 of the brightest baseball analysts and writers in the country. Any one of them could sneeze into a piece of paper and more people would read their snot than will see this article.

But are these people really credible judges of players’ skill? Given the voters’ apparent inability to determine which statistics are actually useful, how can anyone say that these results—or any other BBWAA decisions—are accurate assessments of the best players in the game?

The Republic has clearly failed us. With the media just as enamored with arbitrary numbers as the voters, who can right the ship?

The first answer to pop into your head will probably be Major League Baseball itself. Unfortunately, they won’t be of much help.

As it happens, MLB is even more infatuated with wins than the BBWAA. A preview article published hours before the results were announced offered a comically foolish assessment of who deserved to win.

While Carpenter (the rightful winner) was named as one of the front-runners, his primary opponent was supposedly Wainwright. Lincecum was pushed to the second tier.

In the third tier (“Darkhorses”), things got even more interesting. While Javier Vazquez (2.87 ERA, 238 strikeouts) was an understandable choice, the other name made my jaw drop. The last potential candidate listed was not Dan Haren, or Josh Johnson, or Matt Cain.

It was Jorge De La Rosa.

Yes, De La Rosa. With a 1.38 WHIP and 4.0 BB/9 rate to go along with his 4.38 ERA (“solid,” MLB.com said), his numbers don’t exactly scream “Cy Young.”

But none of that mattered, because he had 16 wins.

Doesn’t anyone else see a problem with this? As Will Ferrell’s Jacobim Mugatu from Zoolander once exclaimed, “I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!”

Is this the baseball traditionalists’ extreme counterattack to the sabermetric revolution? Or is it possible that these people, who spend their lives working with, discussing, and thinking about baseball, genuinely have no concept of statistical accuracy?

I’m not saying that Wainwright should have been cut out of the discussion. If I were a voter, I would probably have listed him on my ballot.

But I simply cannot comprehend why anyone—let alone people who eat, sleep, and breathe baseball—would put him higher than third place.

May the Republic rest in peace.

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Albert Pujols Wins NL Cy Young Award (Satire)

Lewie Pollis — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:06:04 -0500

The Baseball Writers Association of America has selected St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols as the 2009 National League Cy Young Award winner, according to a press release from Major League Baseball.

“This is an incredible honor,” said Pujols, who has not pitched a single inning in his illustrious 10-year professional career. “I am truly humbled.”

Pujols hit .327 with 47 home runs, 135 RBI, and a 1.101 OPS in 2009. His 366 career home runs are more than any other player has accumulated in his first nine seasons in the history of baseball.

“It was a fantastic choice,” said Cardinals manager, Tony La Russa. “Pujols is the most talented player I have ever worked with. Congratulations to him and his family.”

“Come to think of it, I’ve never seen him pitch,” La Russa added, “but I have to imagine he’s good at it. I mean, come on. He’s Albert Pujols.”

“I’m a big believer in WPA, so I had been planning to vote for Chris Carpenter,” said BBWAA voter, Andrew Nuschler. “But then I heard somewhere that Pujols was as good of a pitcher as Walter Johnson.”

“Walter Johnson,” Nuschler continued, “Can you believe that? How do you not vote for Walter Johnson?”

“Nine years in the majors and he’s never given up a hit,” said PJ Ross, also a member of the BBWAA. “He’s got a nine-year perfect game going.”

“The only question is, why didn’t he won the Cy Young before?”

While Pujols received 32 first-place votes, the decision was not unanimous. An escaped mental patient impersonated a BBWAA voter and cast his ballot for Adam Wainwright.

“Wainwright led the National League in wins,” he said, “That’s all that matters. Wins are the best, most objective way to measure pitching, so Waino was the obvious choice.”

Pujols has had a terrific offseason so far. In addition to the Cy Young and his forthcoming selection as NL Most Valuable Player, he has won four Silver Slugger awards, earned three Gold Gloves, and was named American League Manager of the Year.

“We also tried to give him [NL] Rookie of the Year,” Nuschler said, “but for some reason they wouldn’t let us. They said he couldn’t win that twice.”

“Stupid killjoys,” he added.

Over the past few weeks, Pujols has been recognized outside of baseball as well. His name has surfaced in discussions about the Heisman Trophy, and the United States military recently awarded him a Purple Heart.

In addition, Pujols was elected Governor of both New Jersey and Virginia on Nov. 3. He has not yet publicly discussed his plans for balancing the executive duties of two separate governorships with his baseball career.

In other MLB award news, AL Rookie of the Year Andrew Bailey has told teammates that his plaque has “Matt Wieters” engraved in it. They say Wieters’ name has been sloppily crossed out, with Bailey’s name scrawled above in black Sharpie.

(In case it was not apparent, this article is a joke and all quotes are fictitious.)

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Colby Rasmus: A Sleeper in 2010?

Jimmy Hascup — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:06:26 -0500

Also featured on Rotoprofessor.com !

Amidst all the excitement swirling around a possible Cy Young winner, the MVP-type season for Albert Pujols and the re-signing of Matt Holliday, the Cardinals’ individual success stories this season aren’t just related to their big-name players. There are some, like Colby Rasmus, who are trying to establish their own name in the major leagues.

While he wasn’t be a frontrunner for the Rookie of the Year award, Rasmus was one of the better first-year players this season. The plethora of exceptional young talent this year in the National League has certainly overshadowed a positive (though not jaw-dropping) inaugural season for the young Cardinals center fielder. Let’s take a look at how he fared:

478 At Bats
.251 Batting Average (119 Hits)
16 Home Runs
52 RBI
72 Runs
3 Stolen Bases
.307 On Base Percentage
.407 Slugging Percentage
.284 Batting Average on Balls in Play

You look at those numbers and even though you can’t say they are particularly noteworthy, Rasmus held his own in his first season at the big leagues. Heck, some young players look overwhelmed and don’t last the whole season with their parent club right off the bat. Rasmus, at least initially, had to fight for playing time in a crowded outfield with players like Ryan Ludwick, Rick Ankiel, Chris Duncan, and Skip Schumaker. Granted, most of these players became non-factors by the end of the year and Duncan was dealt to the Red Sox.

Early on, Rasmus had to move around between all three outfield positions to get at-bats, before settling down to play 127 games in center. Despite the crowded outfield situation and some bumps and bruises, Rasmus proved rather durable, which is nice to see after groin and knee injuries cut his season short in 2008.

MLB’s third best prospect and the Cards’ best coming into this season, Rasmus didn’t show the steady production we’d like to see, but he did show glimpses of his possible future impact. Looking at his statistics this season, there are a few glaring numbers: the batting average, OBP and SLG to an extent.

Fantasy owners can deal with the OBP for now, as long as he shows some improvement next season. What many can’t deal with is that .251 AVG, which is held down for a variety of reasons. Striking out 20 percent of the time plays a role, but it’s not a terrible rate, especially for someone who’s 22-years old. What hurts Rasmus the most is his tendency to hit the fly-ball, 45.7 percent of the time, yet only convert on 9.4 percent of those fly-balls for home runs.

Out of 35 players with fly-ball rates of at least 43 percent, Rasmus ranks in the middle, which wouldn’t be a problem if he could plant a few more of those balls in the bleachers of the outfield. Further, the only players out of that sample with HR/FB rates lower than Rasmus’ are Bengie Molina (.265 AVG, 20 HR) and Marco Scutaro (.282 AVG, 12 HR). If you’re going to have a rate as low as Rasmus’ you’re going to have to get pretty lucky on the rest of the balls you hit in order to maintain a respectable batting average.

Though if you look at Rasmus’ .284 BABIP, you can tell he was a bit unlucky on the balls he hit into play. It’s important to note, unless fly-ball hitters have off-the-chart HR/FB rates, they are more prone to lower BABIP because it’s much easier for a fielder to make an out on a fly-ball then it is if the hitter was more of a line-drive/groundball hitter. Still, Rasmus was a bit unlucky on that side of things this year, even compared to his minor league rate of .321 he totaled in 1,569 (including short spring training stints) at-bats.

While he maintained a rather high 48.3 percent fly-ball rate in the minors, an increase in batting average next year isn’t a sure thing. For one, his BABIP returning closer to his minor league number will increase his average. Yet it’s doubtful it increases all that much because of his reliance on the longball to pad his average. Besides the 2007 season when Rasmus hit 29 homeruns in Double-A, his career-high was 16, though in 90 at-bats last year in Triple-A he hit 11. His power has fluctuated, but fantasy owners have to hope the power progression is for real. Call me a believer.

Lately, Rasmus’ trademark for his career has been slow starts. He had a chance for a big-league job last season, but got off to a dreadful start. Then this year saw him bat .254, but have no home runs and just four RBI in the first month. Rasmus also struggled, batting .216, with just five home runs after the break.

The productivity of next season will be dependent on Rasmus hitting lefties better as well. He posted a .160 AVG against southpaws this year, though a career minor league rate of .275 against lefties should lead to a better fortune next year.

Next season should see Rasmus not only become more comfortable at the plate, but also on the basepaths. He swiped only three bags this year, but he averaged 13 to 28 steals per year in the minors.

Ultimately, I’d expect slight improvements for Rasmus next season. Don’t expect a batting title; he’s only batted over .300 once in the minors. Still, he’s got a year of experience under his belt and should be acclimated to life at the big league level now. Plus, you’re not dubbed an elite level prospect for no reason.

My projections: .260 AVG, 19 HR, 76 RBI, 14 SB, 80 R.

What does everyone think? Will Rasmus improve next season? Or will he face the dreaded sophomore slump?

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St. Louis Cardinal Team Awards for 2009

Aaron Hooks — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:52:43 -0500

It is most definitely not summer anymore.

In fact, this weather is much like a lazy fly ball to St. Louis’ collective applebag, if our applebags were saturated with 14 inches of rain.

The two most pertinent issues to the Cardinals offseason have been publicly tabled by the team: Matt Holliday will not be negotiated with until he speaks with other teams first, and Mark McGwire will get his day of media faux-indignation and soapbox bloviating sometime before the Winter Warm-Up (supposedly.)

So how’s a mediocre column writer supposed to fill inches amongst such lethargy?

Awards.

Lots of awards.

Saddest Moment of 2009

Yadier Molina’s All-Star parade ride. I waxed my eyebrows for this? Young Molina was joyously celebrated as the NL’s best backstop for half of 2009 with an election to the All-Star game held in his adopted hometown of St. Louis.

To fete him and the other men also chosen to represent their leagues, MLB and STL had a parade of trucks. Thousands lined the streets of downtown, and hundreds of yards of red carpet were laid for the event.

Most players had at least five other people in the bed of their Chevys when the parade started. Some had as many as 20. But Yadi? He was flying solo. No one to ride with.

What should have been a moment of moments for our loveable lug was, instead, a stark reminder to ponder how sad the life of a ballplayer can be—and also our fleeting existence on Earth. Sigh.

Best On-Field Addition

The Arch ! Busch Stadium has long been a destination of sorts for very bland men that had an unusually strong attraction to grass. Yes, the turf was always playable at Busch. But creative? Not so much.

Then the ASG brought an epiphany—we don’t have to be the most boring field in MLB...we can have ART! The more intricate capitol building cut was eventually scrapped—but the giant Arch stayed, and will through at least 2010. Hallelujah.

The “Who Ate Jack Clark” Award

Jack Clark! The best description of Jack Clark I heard all year was thus: Jack Clark looks like Jack Clark...if Jack Clark ate Jack Clark . Let’s be honest here and agree that the WORST job in sports today is being the top button on Jack Clark’s Van Heusen.

When they place the mic just so on FSN, you can hear its tiny little scream for help, and it makes me sad. But it’s all worth it when you win an award. Good luck when April comes around, little buddy—you might get shot to the moon if he ever gets excited.

The Cum Again Award

Mark DeRosa’s wife . Ho-ly shit. Take a seat, Visanthe Shiancoe : No. 7 must be sporting baby’s arm down below. Or something. Ninety-nine percent of professional athletes can’t get tail like this, yet De-Ro has somehow managed to be a pretty solid utility player with one huge notch on his bedpost.

Come to think of it, DeRosa wasn’t even that good for the Cardinals. Or any of the teams he’s played on. Yet media guys, teammates, front offices love him...HMMM...you don’t think everyone’s giving him a free pass because they want to bang his wife, do you?!?! Nooooo, this can’t be true.

Worst Acceptance of a Charity Spot

Adam Wainwright. Well, did you stop smoking? If you didn’t “strike out” your habit, it wasn’t from a lack of nudging from Rootbeer. Any Cardinal game in 2009 sported roughly 45 spots of the Cy Young caliber pitcher teaming up with a stiff in a suit and 30 ugly kids to team up to stop smoking .

The worst part? He filmed this just as they were doing that whole moustache thing...but it hadn’t quite grown in yet. Ugly.

That’s enough awards for one week...but just to prevent another light news week to pass us by without anything of substance, we will call this Part I.

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Springfield Cardinals Add a Vice President and a “Perfect” Coach

Devon Teeple — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:07:54 -0500

The Springfield Cardinals have promoted from within their community, a feature that not only builds a bond with their organization, but also reinforces relations with the fans.

Kim Inman, who has been a member of the Springfield community for the past 14 years, has joined the team as Vice President of Sales.

“The Cardinals are a strong part of this community and baseball has such great tradition,” Inman said. “I can’t wait to share my excitement and passion with all of our great fans and supporters.”

Inman has been involved in numerous charitable foundations throughout the Ozarks, such as the American Cancer Society, the National GALA Task Force and the American Diabetes Association. She is also a heavy contributor to the Missourian Awards and is the Founding Executive Chairman of the Cattle Baron’s Ball, which raises funds for the American Cancer Society.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Kim to our staff,” said Vice President/General Manager Matt Gifford. “Many people in our community already know Kim and all the great things she’s done for Springfield. We’re excited to have her be a part of our team now.”

Springfield has also been very active in the offseason with a great addition to the coaching staff.

Dennis Martinez, who is best known for being the ace of the Montreal Expos in the late '80s and early '90s, has been named the newest pitching coaching coach of the Springfield Cardinals, replacing Bryan Eversgerd.

Eversgerd will join the Cardinals Palm Beach squad as their pitching coach.

“Dennis has three years of pitching coach experience to go along with a long and successful career as a player,” said Vice President of Scouting and Player Development Jeff Luhnow. “He has proven to be an effective teacher and motivator for all our players and has been an especially positive influence on our younger Latin players who see him as a role model.

"As more of these players reach the upper levels of the minor leagues, Dennis can maximize his impact and prepare them for the big leagues. His big league experience helps all our players and staff and we look forward to watching him continue to develop as a pitching coach in Springfield.”

Martinez brings to a club 22 years of major league experience, 245 victories, and in 1993 against the Los Angeles Dodgers, pitched the 13th perfect game in MLB history.

For the past two seasons, Martinez has been serving as the pitching coach of the Palm Beach Cardinals in the Florida State League (FSL).

This article can also be found on The GM's Perspective.

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