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Scrap-heap Heroes

Present Cards success is based on Pujols, a lucky draft pick at 13, and several other drafted players with rather uneventful paths to the bigs.  There are also several scrap--heap players (cast offs, unsigned FAs, waiver wire wonders, injury reclamation projects, etc.) playing major roles.  Certainly I'd list Wellemeyer, Lohse, Ludwick, and Iz2 as qualifying heroes on the current team, maybe Ankiel, with Carp probably qualified as an all-time scrap-heap all-star.  Question is who would be on the Cards all-time scrap-heap all-star team?

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Jeff Weaver

Jeff Weaver almost certainly must be included.

Life's a river, kid, you gotta go where it takes you.

by KerouacCardinal on Jun 15, 2008 1:32 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Weaver did nothing

to earn a place on that team. He wasn’t that good in the regular season. He had 2 good starts in the playoffs and everyone thinks he can come back here and thrive under Dunc. News flash, when he was here he didn’t. He got lucky twice. End of story he’s a nut job with a crack head agent. Hell he couldn’t cut it in AAA he proved that and got released.

by DJ4508 on Jun 16, 2008 8:57 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

how do you really feel?

Weaver was our only pitcher pitching well in September and we wouldn’t have made the playoffs without him.

by Evilfrog on Jun 16, 2008 10:05 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Reasons why Jeff Weaver DOES in fact need to be included:

First, look at Weaver in that September vs. the rest of 2006 for him.

Weaver’s overall numbers in 2006: 8-14, 5.76 ERA, 1.512 WHIP
Weaver’s September numbers: 3-1, 4.15 ERA, 1.298 WHIP
Weaver’s Postseason numbers: 3-2, 2.43 ERA, 1.146 WHIP

Now, compare that last line, the postseason numbers, to those of other Cardinal pitchers:

Carpenter: 3-1, 2.78 ERA, 1.113 WHIP
Suppan: 1-1, 2.49 ERA, 1.184 WHIP
Reyes: 1-0, 3.00 ERA, 1.000 WHIP
Weaver: 3-2, 2.43 ERA, 1.146 WHIP

Weaver upped his game for a brief little time period when the Cardinals needed a reliable 3rd starter behind Carpenter and Suppan. With a low 4’s ERA in Sept, he was solid, and he was in line with our other pitchers in the post-season, posting the most post-season wins (tied with Carp) and the best post-season ERA of the staff.

Weaver sucked before and after those two months, that, I don’t think anyone will argue with. You probably won’t hear too much argument on the fact that over the long-term, Duncan probably can’t fix him and make him the guy he was in Sept-Oct of ‘06. But the dude stepped up big for those two months and without him, St. Louis most likely would not have won the World Series in ‘06.

You can’t discount him as a “scrap heap hero” that year.

by mtalken on Jun 16, 2008 3:42 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

he was declared a hero, and he did come from the scrap heap. i’m not sure how much the results had to do with his pitching, though – his postseason FIP was 4.19, and if my math is right he was 4.66 in september. for comparison he’s got a career 4.41, and the current NL average is 4.21.

by astrostl on Jun 17, 2008 2:41 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Interesting point

Molina—Okay, so obviously I had to start with the guy with no interesting backstory. Whatever.

LaRue—Only a scrap-heap hero in that he still belongs on the scrap heap…but I’m gonna count that.

Pujols—13th rounder who spent less than a year in the minors before taking the major leagues by storm.

Miles—Hot prospect in Chicago (Sox) who never quite panned out…they swung him off to Colorado where he floundered for a few years before finding a niche role here in the Lou.

Kennedy—Seems to have put last year’s epic fall from grace behind him, chronologically speaking. In terms of hitting, maybe not so much. Scrap-heap dud.

Izturis—Another fall from grace story. Former gold glover turned pariah on the 2007 Cubs. Has turned himself into a somewhat useful player (at least with the glove) for our Cards this year.

Ryan—Not even really considered a good prospect, has come up to the majors and posted an 88 OPS+, a good glove, and a lot of shoulder licking.

Glaus—Struggles with injuries and happiness made his stay in Toronto taste a little bitter. Now thriving (especially defensively) on the soft grass infield of Busch.

Schumaker—After years of alternating between the majors and minors, finally established himself with a rock-solid spring.

Duncan—Classic Cardinal case of being better in the majors than he was in the minors. Another surprise when he came up a few years ago with lightning in his bat.

Ankiel—Well, I mean, seriously…

Ludwick—Once a pretty decent prospect with the Indians, struggled with injuries through his prime development years. Finally healthy in the Lou and displaying the power that the Indians gave up on getting long ago.

Barton—Rule 5 pick? Basically the definition of scrap heap.

Too lazy to do the pitchers, but yeah, this really is a team with a lot of interesting backgrounds.

by mojowo11 on Jun 16, 2008 10:11 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Um, the ultimate scrap heap find.....Scott Spezio

Of course, he’s back on the scrap heap,.....but Seattle released him after he had one of the worst 1/2 seasons by a player ever…we got 1 1/2 decent years out of him before the demons got the best of him….

She isn't crazy, she's just not impressed.

by jillsinmo on Jun 16, 2008 1:15 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Other nominees:

Cal Eldred: Above average reliever for us for 3 seasons(03-05) after missing the entire 2002 season due to injury.

Darryl Kile: Maybe not a true scrap-heaper, as it was just Colorado that happened to his career. He was a beast in Houston, signed a huge deal with the Rockies, and then was traded to us, where he regained stud status before his untimely death.

Andy Benes: Dude was DONE in 2002, when he came back mid-season and posted a 5-4 record with a 2.78 ERA to help that team win the division.

To agree/disagree with others, Spiezio is a definite on this list. For the current team, Ludwick would be the only one I’d constitute as a scrapheap guy. Carp obviously also needs to make the list.

I wouldn’t list someone like Pujols as scrap-heap, just because he was a later-round draft pick. I don’t think of the late rounds of the draft as scrap-heap. That seems more like where chronically injured or seemingly done players get relegated to.

by mtalken on Jun 16, 2008 4:00 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Andy Benes coming out of retirement

That was one of the truly great things about that season.

by liam on Jun 16, 2008 5:29 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

absolutely

if you get a chance, pick up Matthew Leach’s book “game of my life”. It has a section in it with Benes being interviewed and talking about that season. Great stuff.

"the hardest decision to make is to do nothing; there is a terrible temptation to interfere." -gen patton

by SleepyCA on Jun 16, 2008 7:42 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Even more....

While watching the craziness of the U.S. Open playoffs, I went through pretty much all the TLR-managed teams to look for “scrap-heap” type of players.

Here’s what I came up with for nominees per positions:

Corner Infielders:

John Mabry – After leaving via Free Agency, he seemed pretty much done as far as being an important piece of a major league team, when he came back in 2004 and had a very good year as a super-sub. (Really played more in the outfield, but I’m putting him here due to lack of good 1st base options).

Will Clark – Not really on the scrap-heap, so this is a weak nomination. He was at the end of his career though, and came up as a big-time bat in 2000 for the Cardinals.

Craig Paquette – In 1999 and 2001, had his two best seasons as a pro. He was never much of a big-time player. He has one good year with KC in ‘96 and otherwise his only good seasons were the ones with St. Louis several years later. After St. Louis, he went to Detroit, and went back to being a pretty bad baseball player, batting under .200 in Detroit over two seasons.

Middle Infield:

Bo Hart – 26 year old 2nd base prospect that wasn’t really very good in the minors, but caught fire in 2003 and was a big part of that team remaining competitive as long as it was. Fizzled out in 2004 though, and has never really been heard from again (However, on a fun note, his jerseys still sat on the bargain rack at the local Hibbett sports for like $25 until around 2006—looking back, I really wish I had picked one up on the cheap).

Aaron Miles – Underachieved early on in his career. Has put up his career best numbers in St. Louis.

Abraham Nunez – His career best OPS+ was his one season with St. Louis. Most of his time was spent at 3rd base, so I’ll mention him there as well, even though he’s really a MIF by trade.

Cesar Izturis – Not sure if I buy him as a hero off the scrap-heap. He’s an excellent glove, but that was always known about him. His OPS+ so far this year is pretty much in-line with his career, so I think we’ll have to see how he does this year before we dub him a “scrap-heap hero”

Outfield:

Rick Ankiel – The only part that’s hard about this is whether he’s actually scrap-heap. But seeing as he successfully made it through waivers when the Cardinals needed him to, I would say he constitutes. He might be the ultimate scrap-heap positional player, with this in mind.

Ryan Ludwick – Had about 300-350 career at-bats before coming to St. Louis at age 28. Now, he’s a potential All-Star, and the 2nd biggest offensive threat behind Pujols on the team.

John Rodriguez – SImilar to Ludwick. He had 0 career at-bats before coming to St. Louis and posted OPS+’s of over 100 in two partial seasons at ages 27-28.

Catchers:

I got nothing. Most of the backups have sucked and all the starters weren’t really scrap-heap guys.

Pitchers: A big list, so I’m just listing them off, since the cases have been made for most of them prior to here

Chris Carpenter
Andy Benes
Darryl Kile
Kent Bottenfield
Woody Williams
Jason Simontacchi
Jeff Weaver
Todd Wellemeyer
Cal Eldred (Reliever)

That’s the best I can do.

by mtalken on Jun 16, 2008 4:45 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Old Pete

Claimed off waivers from the Cubs in late June of 1926, 39 year-old Grover Cleveland Alexander went on to go 9-7 the rest of the way with a 2.91 ERA. In the World Series against the Yankees, he pitched complete game victories in games 2 and 6, allowing only two runs each game. Then he pitched the last 2.1 innings in game 7 to preserve the 3-2 lead and give the Cards their first WS Championship.

Not THAT is a waiver wire pickup!

Oh, and the next year at age 40 he went 21-10 with 22 complete games and had an ERA of 2.52 (ERA+ of 157).

"I always thought he was very handsome. I liked his eyes" - My late Grandmother referring to Rogers Hornsby

by Hoosier Cards on Jun 17, 2008 11:01 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

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