At the end of the season, I planned on putting together a top-10 list of my favorite moments from the year. I never got around to it, but since spring training is nearly upon us, here's a hastily thrown-together compilation of some of the moments I most enjoyed from last regular-season. These are not all about the Cardinals winning, nor are they all important to how the season turned out. They're just some plays that I particularly enjoyed, but am likely to forget if I don't put them here for safe-keeping. I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but, well, consider this unofficial. In chronological order and with too much commentary about some, and not enough about others, here they are. Please let me know if you spot any errors.

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Since we still have some time to kill before the official start of Spring Training let's take a look at what our various strays from the last couple of seasons have done while we were not paying that much attention, shall we?

Ryan Ludwick

7/31/10 traded to the San Diego Padres 7/21/11 traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates 2010 - 59 games (239 PA) for SD: .211/.301/.330 with 6 HRs, .285 wOBA, -1.1 bWAR, -0.2 fWAR 2011 - SD and PIT: .237/.310/.363 with 13 HRs, .297 wOBA, 0.1 bWAR Interesting: His stats took a hit in 2011 due to lack of production at the Padres home field, Petco Park. At the end of his tenure as a Padre, Ludwick was hitting .238, but with 11 home runs and 64 runs batted in and 42 runs scored. He accounted for 25.3 percent of the Padres' runs. (src Wiki) Extra: 10 game streak May 11-21, 2011 - 17 hits, 4 HRs, 14 RBIs Highlights: Currently: 1 year $2.5M with Cincinnati Reds (1/17/12)

Felipe Lopez

9/21/10 DFA'd 9/25/10 acquired by the Boston Red Sox 2/2/11 signed minor league deal with the Tampa Bay Rays with Spring Training invite 6/12/11 DFA'd by the Tampa Bay Rays 7/28/11 traded to the Milwaukee Brewers 8/21/11 DFA'd by the Brewers 2010 - 4 games (16 PA) with BOS - 1 HR, 1 RBI 2011 - 32 games (102 PA) TB - .216/.248/.320, 2 HRs, 8 RBIs, -0.2 bWAR 2011 - 16 games (51 PA) MIL - .182/.245/.182, 3 RBIs, -0.4 bWAR Highlights: Currently: FA (as of 2/10/12)

Joe Mather

claimed by the Atlanta Braves 11/3/10 failed to make Opening Day roster, placed on outright waivers, cleared waivers and sent to Triple-A Gwinnett Braves 4/28/11 contract purchased by the Braves 6/19/11 outrighted to minors but opted for free agency 7/4/11 signed with Colorado Rockies 7/5/11 assigned to Triple-A Colorado Springs 2011 - 36 games (83 PA) with ATL - .213/.272/.307 - 1 HR, 9 RBIs Interesting: career high 4 hit, 4 RBI night against the LA Angels 5/21/11 Highlights: Currently: signed as a minor league contract with the Chicago Cubs 1/4/12

Matt Pagnozzi

11/29/10 signed minor league contract with the Colorado Rockies contract purchased on 6/17/11 claimed off wavers 9/14/11 by the Pittsburgh Pirates 2011 - 7 games (25 PA) with COL - 6 hits, 2 RBIs 2011 - 5 games (9 PA) with PIT - 2 hits, 1 RBI Highlights: Currently: Pre-Arb eligible, 12/2/11 signed minor-league contract with Cleveland Indians including an invitation to spring training.

Blake Hawksworth

11/30/10 traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers 2011 - LAD 2-5, 49 G, 53 IP, 4.08 ERA, 3.84 FIP, 92 ERA+, -0.3 bWAR, 0.1 fWAR Currently: Pre-Arb Eligible

Brendan Ryan

traded to the Seattle Mariners 12/10/10 2011 - .248/.313./.326 with 3 HRs, .291 wOBA, 2.8 bWAR (oWAR 1.9, dWAR 0.9), .974 Fld%, 15 E Interesting: 4/1/11 went 0-for-4 in his Mariners debut, a 6-2 win at Oakland, but scored a run, but drove in a run, scored a run, walked and helped turn two double plays. (src Wiki) Interesting: 6/5/11 SQUEEEEEEZE! Interesting: 7/26/11 broke up C.C. Sabathia's bid for a perfect game with a base hit with one out in the seventh Interesting: 8/2/11 "infield triple" (officially scored as a single and fielder's choice) - Boog's baserunning adventure Extra: 11 game streak May 20-31, 2011 - 20 hits (3 doubles, 1 triple), 8 RBIs + fielding Extra: 11 game streak Jul 15-27, 2011 - 17 hits (4 doubles), 2 HRs, 7 RBIs Highlights of a real shortstop (significantly shortened): Currently: 2nd-Year Arb Eligible, 2 yrs/$2.75M (11-12) SEA

Brad Penny

1/18/11 signed one-year $3 million deal with Detroit Tigers started in number 2 spot, slid down to number 4 entered postseason in bullpen. 2011r - DET 11-11 in 31 starts 181.2 IP ERA 5.30, FIP 5.02, 77 ERA+, -0.4 bWAR, 0.8 fWAR 2011p - DET ALCS 1.2 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 2 HR, 2 BB Interesting: Brad Penny used his Cardinals money to buy Karina Smirnoff a $100,000 engagement ring in October 2010 before they broke it off in December 2011 Highlights: Currently: 2/5/12 signed 1/$3M with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks

Evan MacLane

1/21/11 signed with the Orix Buffaloes in Japan.

Jeff Suppan

1/25/11 signed Suppan minor league deal with San Francisco Giants released 3/29/11 4/4/11 signed to minor league deal by Kansas City Royals 2011 - Finished 11-8 in 28 games, 165.2 IP, 4.78 ERA, 4.88 FIP Currently: 2/8/12 signed minor league deal with the San Diego Padres

Robert Maiklejohn "Mike" MacDougal

1/28/11 signed a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but made the Major League club to start the season. 2011 - LAD 69 G, 3-1, 1 SV, 57.0 IP, ERA 2.05 (team leading), FIP 3.96, 1.4 bWAR, 0.0 fWAR Currently: 1/5/12 resigned by the Los Angeles Dodgers for 1/$1M plus 2013 club option

Randy Winn

2/3/11 signed minor league contract with the Baltimore Orioles 3/28/11 granted request for unconditional release 4/1/11 announced retirement

Pedro Feliz

Feb 2011 signed to minor league deal with the Kansas City Royals, with invitation to Spring Training released 3/28/11 5/13/11 signed with the Camden Riversharks in the independent leagues 8/10/11 signed to minor league contract with the San Diego Padres 2011 - 72 games with Camden Riversharks - leading the team in BA .298 and OBP.366; hit 11 HRs, tied for second in RBI - 45; 16-game hitting streak 2011 - 25 games (92 AB) with Triple-A Tucson Padres - .217/.217/.304, 3 HR, 12 RBIs Currently: FA (as of 2/10/12)

Aaron Miles

Feb 2011 signed minor league deal with the LA Dodgers with Spring Training invite made Opening Day roster 2011 - LAD .275/.314/.346 - 17 doubles, 3 HRs, 45 RBIs, 25 BB, .291 wOBA, 0.1 bWAR, 0.8 fWAR Interesting: 6/28/11 hit first HR in over two years (530+ AB) Extra: 7 game streak Jun 4-12 - 14 hits (2 doubles), 7 RBIs Extra: 11 game streak Aug 16-28 - 13 hits (2 doubles, 1 triple), 2 HRs, 8 RBIs, 6 BB Highlights: Currently: FA (as of 2/10/12)

Nick Stavinoha

off 40-man roster in 2011 11/10/11 signed to minor league deal by the Houston Astros as FA 12/9/11 released to sign with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in Japan 2011 Memphis Redbirds - .270/.329/.488 - 28 HR, 109 RBIs

Dennys Reyes

March 2011 signed minor league deal with the Boston Red Sox and attended spring training as non-roster invitee made team's opening day roster as the only lefty in the bullpen DFA'd 4/8/11, assigned to Triple A Pawtucket Red Sox. 2011 BOS - 4 G, 1.2 IP, 10 BF, 2 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 HBP Currently: FA (as of 2/10/12)

Miguel Batista

6/22/11 released 7/4/11 signed a minor league contract with the New York Mets 8/28/11 the Mets selected his contract from Buffalo 2011 NYM - 9 G, 4 GS, 2-0, 30.2 IP , 22 H, 9 ER, 14 BB, 2.64 ERA Interesting: made his first start with the Mets 9/1/11 and won his 100th career game. Interesting: 9/28/11, the New York Mets' final game of the season, Batista pitched a two-hit, complete-game shutout against Cincinnati. Highlights: Currently: 1/10/12 signed minor league deal with the New York Mets with a Spring Training invite

Colby Rasmus

7/27/11 traded to the Toronto Blue Jays 2011 - 35 games (140 PAs) TOR - .173/.201/.316, 3 HRs, 13 RBIs, .225 wOBA, -0.9 bWAR Extra: 7 game streak Aug 3-10, 2011 - 10 hits (3 doubles), 1 HR, 3RBIs Highlights: Currently: 1st-Year Arb Eligible, 1 yr/$2.7M (12)

Brian Tallet

7/27/11 traded back to the Toronto Blue Jays rehab in Class-A Dunedin Blue Jays 8/28/11 called up to the Blue Jays 8/31/11 DFA'd 2011 - TOR 1 G, 0.1 IP, 5 BF, 2 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, blown save Interesting: facial hair Currently: 2/3/12 signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates (not announced but probably a minor league deal)

PJ Walters

7/27/11 traded to the Toronto Blue Jays demoted to minor leagues where he went 1-3 with an 8.38 ERA in Triple-A 12/14/11 signed a minor league contract with the Minnesota Twins 2011 - TOR 1 G, 1 IP, 3 BF, 1 BB Currently: Pre-Arb Eligible

Trever Miller

7/27/11 traded to the Toronto Blue Jays DFA'd 8/16/11 unconditionally released 8/21/11 8/30/11 signed by the Boston Red Sox and later designated to Triple-A Pawtucket 2011 - TOR 6 G, 3.2 IP, 18 BF, 6 H, 2 ER, 1 HR, 2 BB 2011 - BOS 3 G, 2.0 IP, 6 BF, 0 H, 0 ER Currently: 1/30/12 signed a minor league deal with the Chicago Cubs with Spring Training invite

Raúl Valdés

8/12/11 DFA'd claimed off waivers 8/16/11 by the New York Yankees 8/18/11 assigned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees filed for FA in October 11/10/11 signed minor league contract with an invite to spring training with the Philadelphia Phillies 2011 - NYY 6G, 6.2 IP, 28 BF, 8 H, 2 ER, 1 HR, 2 BB Currently: Pre-Arb Eligible

Next year - stray class 2011-2012:

Albert Pujols - 12/10/11 signed with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 10/$240M

Ryan Theriot - 12/12/11 non-tendered FA, 1/27/12 signed with the San Francisco Giants 1/$1.25M

Nick Punto - 12/14/11 signed with the Boston Red Sox 2/$3M. We'll miss you, Shredder

Gerald Laird - 11/18/11 signed as a backup catcher with the Detroit Tigers 1/$1M

Edwin Jackson - 2/2/12 signed 1/$11M deal with the Washington Nationals

Octavio Dotel - 10/31/11 Cardinals denied team option for 2012, making Dotel a type A free agent. 12/7/11 signed with the Detroit Tigers 1/$3.5M with 2013 option

Arthur Rhodes - (2011's Bengie Molina - was going get a ring either way, as the Rangers were paying most of his salary for him to pitch against them). As of 2/10/12 he's still a free agent

Corey Patterson - 1/31/12 signed a minor league deal with the Milwaukee Brewers, no spring training invite, likely to play all of 2012 in Triple A Nashville. Fun Fact - Corey Patterson's first name is Donald. (For more fun, Salas' first name is Noel, Berk's first name is William, and Lynn's first name is Michael)

When the tornado struck Joplin in May last year, the St. Louis Cardinals were active in supporting the community and helping rebuild Joplin. Now, fans have a chance to continue that work alongside their favorite players.

The Cardinals, along with with other sports teams in Missouri, are taking the Governor's Joplin Challenge with the Joplin Area Habitat for Humanity. Each team will have its own neighborhood to build homes for tornado victims to purchase, and in total the project should result in 35 new homes for families in Joplin.

Now, here's where the fans can help:

1. Register to volunteer to build homes in Joplin. When you sign up, pick your favorite team and you'll get to work alongside your favorite athletes. You can sign up multiple times if you'd like to work with multiple teams as well. Specific work dates haven't been announced yet, but they will be available soon. Volunteer here.
2. Donate money or in-kind goods to the Joplin Area Habitat for Humanity. You can donate through your favorite team(s) or by making a general donation that isn't tied to a specific team. Donations are made by secure connection through PayPal. Donate here.
3. Spread the word. Like the Facebook page for the Challenge and spread the work on Twitter using #JoplinChallenge.

This is a great opportunity to help the people in Joplin, and thanks to everyone for pitching in!

There have been 32 men lucky enough to have thrown 150 or more innings in relief for the St. Louis Cardinals organization - and not throw more innings as a starting pitcher. Of course, since this is the relief pitcher edition, I had to throw out any players who threw more innings as a starter than they did as a reliever - taking 8-10 very good players out of the equation.

Side note: After going through the research for this exercise, seeing Jason Motte, Fernando Salas, Lance Lynn, Eduardo Sanchez, and more anchoring this current bullpen, we could be entering a Golden Era of relief pitchers here in St. Lousi!

From there, I used a very complicated formula involving:

• Saves
• Wins
• Losses
• IP
• Games Finished
• ERA
• ERA+
• FIP
• WHIP
• K
• BB
• HR
• H
• H/9
• K/9
• BB/9
• K/BB
• HR/9
• BAA
• K%
• BB%
• LOB% (left on base percentage)

I then took this data and ranked the players at each position against each other, accounting for small or large differences in each statistic in able to see who was the best of the best.

In the spirit of MLB Network's "Prime 9" show, we'll do the top 9 St. Louis Cardinals relief pitchers of All-Time today:

9) Al Hrabosky is known to many St. Louis Cardinals' fans today as "The Mad Hungarian" or "Hungo" (and sometimes as that crazy announcer that we don't know why is still announcing games.) Hrabosky was a first round pick in the 1969 January draft and quickly made it to the majors in 1970 - with a September call up. He was not great in his call up and spent the next two seasons in the minors earning late season call ups again. In 1973, Hrabosky made it to the big league club to stay - and he did not reliquish his position until the Cardinals traded him to the Kansas City Royals for Mark Littell (21st best reliever all time) and Buck Martinez (who then was sent to Milwaukee for George Frazie - another relief prosepct) after the 1977 baseball campaign. In his 5 full seasons with the club, he threw 400+ innings of 128 ERA+ ball from the left side. He struck out over two for every one he walked, rarely gave up the long ball, and finished the 6th most games in franchise history. He struck out over 20% of the men he faced, held opponents to a .223 batting average against, won twice as many games as he lost (40-20), and saved 59 games. That lands him at #9 of our top 9 Cardinals relievers of all time.

8) TJ Mathews was quite a bit of an unsung youngster when he was with the Redbirds. He is probably best known for being a part of what brought Mark McGwire to St. Louis - in a 1997 trade, during his third season in the majors. When the Oakland Athletics released him partway through the 2001 season, St. Louis was quick to jump on it and sign him to a contract to finish out that season with them - and Mathews came through quite well for those 10 appearances, before signing with Houston to play his last season just a couple of months later. In 174 innings over 140 appearances, the right-handed Mathews had a 167 ERA+, the best of the 32 men on our list. He struck out 22.8% of the men he faced, while walking 8.6% and stranding 78.8% of the men that were on base in his time in St. Louis. His 8.5 K/9 IP is tied for second to only Jason Motte (see later on the list) on our list of 32. A bit surprisingly, Tony La Russa (and Jorgensen/Torre his rookie year) did not often give Mathews the ball in the crucial situations. Mathews only finished 50 of the 140 games in which he pitched and earned 8 saves, when he could - but he pitched well enough (when given the opportunity) to earn 8th on this list.

7) Bruce Sutter might be the most well known closer to Cardinals fans of the 1980s. His vicious split finger is one of the most recognizable pitches of all time. His strikeout to end the 1982 World Series against the Milwaukee Brewers (then of the AL) is an image forever etched into the minds of St. Louisans - much like Waino's 2006 stirkeout of newly acquired Carlos Beltran to win the NLCS. After spending his best five years with the Chicago Cubs, Sutter traded in the losing ways of Chicago's north side for 2 great seasons, followed by 1 crappy season, followed by an incredible season in St. Louis. Sutter threw nearly 400 innings in the Birds on the Bat uniform of the Cardinals, finishing 203 of his 249 games played - and saving 127 of the 203 games he finished. He led the entire league in saves 3 out of the 4 years he was in St. Louis, and averaged 32 saves in those four seasons. In 4 years, he twice finished 3rd and once finished 5th in the CY voting - as a closer. He also finished 5th, 6th, and 8th in those three seasons in the MVP voting - again, as a closer! He did not have overwhelming other numbers. His K rate was a bit low on the list at 16.1%. His walk rate was fairly low at 6.9%, but not overwhelmingly so. His 78.6% LOB% was average on this list. Bruce Sutter simply got it done - and won a World Series in the process.

6) Jason "Applesauce" Motte closed out the St. Louis Cardinals' 11th World Series Championship this season with 5 saves in 12 post-season appearances. He struck out 8 and only walked 1 in 12 1/3 innings pitched in the post-season. He only gave up 5 hits in those 12 1/3 innings, although 1 of those was a home run in the World Series. Strangely enough, his best attribute is his fastball and his strikeout numbers were way down in the playoffs. Jason Motte leads our list of 32 with a 9.0 K/9 IP and K% of 24.6% (over 2 % better than the next best) in the regular season. He gives a new meaning to the word "Fireman" out of the bullpen, as he just throws 96 mph beebee after 96mph beebee after 96mph beebee. He does what "Wild Thing" in Major League wanted to do, except in real life. Over the last two seasons (120 1/3 innings), Motte has struck out 117 men and walked only 34. He has allowed only 90 hits in those 120 1/3 innings. His 2011 WHIP was under 1, at 0.956. This season he allowed only 49 hits and struck out 3.94 for every 1 that he walked. Another season like this - plus a full season of saves, as the de facto closer of the Cardinals, a label never given to him in 2011 - could catapult him higher on this list.

5) Todd Worrell could have been higher on this list. Much like Matty Mo (in the starters' category), Worrell's injuries and leaving St. Louis early hurt his chances to be higher. Worrell burst on to the scene in the World Series losing season of 1985 with 21 2/3 great innings in the regular season and 11 more very good innings in the playoffs. 1986 was his first full season in the majors and he won the Rookie of the Year Award in the NL, leading the league with 36 saves and 60 games finished - throwing over 100 innings in the closer role. He then threw 230+ innings over the next three years before getting injured and missing from September 5, 1989 until April 6, 1992. That's two full seasons (1990 and 1991 and the one month of 1989) missed with injury - and those two years were when he was age 30 and 31, pretty much the prime for a closer. Worrell became one of 3 setup men to Lee Smith (look further on this list) upon his return and pitched well enough to earn $17.25M over 5 years with the Dodgers to end his career. His 129 saves are still 3rd on the St. Louis Cardinals franchise leaderboard, just 2 ahead of Bruce Sutter and just one season (31) behind Lee Smith for second. The most amazing part about Worrell was that he stranded 81.7% of all runners - a Cardinal reliever best.

4) Bobby Shantz would be very hard for me to list at #4 if he weren't so darn good - the reasoning, he only spent one full season in the St. Louis Cardinals' uniform - 1963. He arrived early enough in the 1962 season to throw in 28 games (57 1/3 innings) and departed after 16 games (17 1/3 innings) of the 1964 season (which turned out to be his last.) First of all, in 2 of the 3 seasons he was in St. Louis he won the Gold Glove - as a reliever. He did that 6 other times as well. As expected, with such a short time in St. Louis, he led the list of 32 players in least walks allowed and hits allowed. However, Shantz held opposing hitters to Mendoza line numebrs - a .199 batting average against over 154 1/3 IP in St. Louis! That's 6.6 hits per 9 innings pitched! He did that while striking out over 20% of the hitters that came up to face the tough southpaw and walking just 7% of the batters. He also stranded 75% (3 of every 4) of the baserunners. He did it in very tough circumstances, too; he did it finishing 61 of the 99 games in which he pitched as a Cardinal. Welcome to #4 on this list, Bobby Shantz - and with the way you threw, I resent your short time here MUCH more than I do your being in my top 4.

3) Jason "Izzy" Isringhausen's success in St. Louis has been slightly overshadowed by his late career failures in 2006 and 2008 with the Cardinals. We'll start with the bad. At the age of 33 in 2006, Adam Wainwright burst onto the scene late in the year. We all know how incredible he has become - one of the top 3-10 starters in the majors when healthy - and he was that good early on. Waino came out of the bullpen in that year, however, and Izzy lost his job to Waino during the championship run. In 2008, Izzy was 35 and his body finally broke down. Jason Isringhausen also had 5 of the best seasons at closer that St. Louis has ever seen. In his 7 total seasons in St. Louis, Izzy garnered 217 saves, which leads the franchise. From 2002 to 2004, when the Cardinals won 302 games, Izzy saved 101 of them. In those 3 years, Izzy had a 159 ERA+ and gave up 7 total home runs in 182 2/3 innings pitched. To put that in perspective, Salas gave up that many in 75 innings this year. Ryan Franklin gave up 9 in 27 2/3 innings this year. He gave up 0 HR in 2002 and 2 HR in 2005! His three year total was 0.3 HR/9 - a dead ball era stat - in the middle of the steroid era. In 2004, when the Cards won 105 games, he led the league with 47 saves. His 300 career saves are still in the top 25 all time for MLB, while his games finished are only in the top 40. That's a great rate of conversion and why he is at #3 on this list.

2) Lee Smith was a man who was larger than life as a Cardinal. Like others on this list, he left his best years in other cities, coming to St. Louis well after his prime. That doesn't mean that he did not have good - or great, or incredible - seasons here in the Lou. It does not sit well with me, looking back, that Smith only threw most of 4 seasons with the Cardinals - joining them near the beginning of the 1990 season and leaving near the end of the 1993 season. Lee Smith pitched in a time when closers were almost omnipresent (not to blaspheme here). He finished 209 of his 245 games in a Cardinal uniform and got a save in 160 of those 209 finishes. His 160 saves with the Cardinals are second to only Jason Isringhausen (#3 on the list). Not only was Lee Smith known for his blazing fastball, with the Cardinals he walked only 2.3 batters per nine innings. That was tops amongst our 32 contestants for "best reliever" and also gave him the lead in the K/BB category at 3.62. Wow. Smith left over 78% of the runners he either inherited or allowed to reach base on said bases. He also struck out 22.5% of the batters he faced - 2nd on the list to Jason Motte (#6). Great career - and great 4 seasons in St. Louis.

1) Joe Hoerner came to the St. Louis Cardinals for his 3rd through 6th seasons in the big leagues at the age of 29. He threw with the Cards from 1966 to 1969. This was an era in baseball where 20 saves was phenomenal. In the 4 seasons Hoerner pitched in St. Louis, he threw 61 innings per season. He finished 34 games a year, earning saves in 15 games per season. He struck out 3 men for every one that he walked. His ERA+ was 161 over those four seasons - or about what Jason Motte did in 2011 (his best season), but for four straight years. His WHIP was a miniscule 1.019. Out of the 32 men on this list, he had the best ERA, FIP, ERA+...oh, and he stranded over 80% of baserunners - one of only 4 men to do that. He was absolutely incredible with the Cards and tops our list of best Cardinals relievers of all time!

Congratulations to those great Cardinal firemen coming out of the bullpen!

The entire list of 32:

1. Joe Hoerner - 26.88
2. Lee Smith - 26.77
3. Jason Isringhausen - 25.59 (large drop off)
4. Bobby Shantz - 25.46
5. Todd Worrell - 24.73 (medium drop off)
6. Jason Motte - 24.50
7. Bruce Sutter - 24.27
8. TJ Mathews - 24.25
9. Al Hrabosky - 23.94
10. Diego Segui - 23.18 (medium drop off)
11. Lindy McDaniel - 23.02
12. Ken Dayley - 22.91
13. Ryan Franklin - 22.26 (medium drop off)
14. Steve Kline - 22.17
15. Buddy Schultz - 22.14 (no relation to Barney, according to b-r)
16. Barney Schultz - 22.02 (no relation to Buddy, according to b-r)
17. Dave Veres - 22.00
18. Mike Garman - 21.80
19. Mike Timlin - 21.75
20. Frank DiPino - 21.70 (okay, the continous "rounded numbers" ending in 0 and 5 are getting a bit ridiculous here)
21. Mark Littell - 21.46 (that's better)
22. Mike Perez - 21.34
23. Hal Woodeshick - 21.30
24. Cal Eldred - 20.94
25. Randy Flores - 20.56
26. Jeff Lahti - 20.46
27. Cris Carpenter - 20.35 (no, not THAT Chris Carpenter)
28. Kyle McClellan - 20.14
29. Ron Willis - 19.76
30. John Frascatore - 18.73 (large drop off)
31. Jim Kaat - 18.65
32. Brad Thompson - 18.61

There have been 32 men lucky enough to have started 150 or more games for the St. Louis Cardinals organization. Danny Cox is the only one of them to have thrown less than 1,000 innings as a Cardinal - ending his career at 985 2/3 IP with the Birds on the Bat. Of course, Bob Gibson has the most innings pitched at 3,884 2/3.

From there, I used a very complicated formula involving:

• Win %
• Wins
• Losses
• IP
• ERA
• ERA+
• FIP
• WHIP
• K
• BB
• HR
• H
• H/9
• K/9
• BB/9
• K/BB
• HR/9
• BAA
• K%
• BB%
• CG
• SHO
• CG/SHO

I then took this data and ranked the players at each position against each other, accounting for small or large differences in each statistic in able to see who was the best of the best.

10) Steve Carlton is best known for his 15 years spent in Philadelphia as a Phillie, but he started as a St. Louis Cardinal before being traded for Rick Wise (in what might be the opposite of the Brock for Broglio classic I mentioned in another post). Before being traded, Carlton (only 26) had won 74 games in the previous 5 seasons. He was a 3 time All-Star in those five years, averaging 15 wins, 238 innings, 13 complete games, a 3.11 ERA (113 ERA+), and a 2.14 K/BB. Unfortunately, he had lost 19 games two years before being traded - however, he rebounded to win 20 the year before being traded. I am glad that I was not around then, because I might still be upset with this trade. (He went on to put up a 12.2 WAR season winning the Cy Young the next year - to go along with 3 more before he retired.) Despite only being in St. Louis, playing second fiddle to Gibson (more on him later), for 7 seasons; Carlton won one WS title with the Cardinals and lost another. If he would have stayed in St. Louis and had the same career, he would have made his way past at least 8 others on this list...but he didn't.

9) Harry (Harry the Cat) Brecheen is a mainly WII player (mostly 1940s player) - the one and only on this list. That is quite surprising to me considering went to four WS in the 40s and won 3 of them. Of course, I just have to think back to the other lists with Musial, Kurowski, Mize, Slaughter and others leading the way offensively for these clubs. Brecheen played all of his 12 seasons in MLB in the lovely city of St. Louis, MO. He played 11 of them with the Cardinals and the last season of his career across downtown with the St. Louis Browns (now Baltimore Orioles) franchise. From 1943-1949, Brecheen was at his best - garnering MVP votes and AS appearances in multiple seasons. It was the middle four years 1945-1948 that really served Brecheen well, being tops in WL% once, ERA once, Ks once, ERA+ once, WHIP once, HR/9 once, K/9 once, and SO/BB once. Harry the Cat earned victories in over 60% of his decisions as a Cardinal;winning about 13 a year, while losing about 8 a year. He threw complete games in 54% of his St. Louis starts, showing just what he meant to those 40s teams, known for their hitting. Great job Harry the Cat!

8) Matt Morris (Matty Mo) was one of my favorites growing up. He played his best baseball as a St. Louis Cardinal before being shipped off (via being granted free agency and not being brought back - mainly due to injury history and younger pitchers stepping into the rotation than anything). Matt Morris only led the league in wins in 2001 and shutouts in 2003 in his career. He made two All-Star teams, finished 3rd in the Cy Young once, and second in the Rookie of the Year voting in 1997. He lost most of two years due to tommy john surgery in 1998 - coming back in the middle of the 2000 season. Morris is on this list because he put together a near RoY season in 1997, followed it up with a great start to 1998 before getting hurt. He finished off 2000 well before getting the Comeback player of the Year Award in 2001, his first full season after his 1997 rookie campaign. He then went to the All-Star game the following year and earned 17 wins (39 in two seasons). He had a better year, but not a better WL% the following year and was snubbed for the AS game. 2004 was his worst healthy year as a Cardinal, but he still provided 15 wins to a 105 win team. He rebounded (on a one-year contract0 the following year to get 14 more wins on a 100 win team. That set him up for a great contract offer from the Giants and he took it with the team getting more youthful in St. Louis for 2006. Unfortunately for Matty Mo, he left just in time to watch his friends get World Series rings. That could have bumped him up higher on this list.

7) Dave (Scissors) Foutz was a darn good hitter (with a darn good nickname) - .901 OPS over 448 plate appearances in his last season with St. Louis in 1887. In fact, he had a .728 OPS (112 OPS+) in nearly 1,250 PAs in his 4 St. Louis seasons. He may have been a better pitcher than hitter over that stretch. His 114-48 record (.704 WL%) is the best in St. Louis starting pitcher history. His 41 wins in are second in any St. Louis single season next to Silver King's (more on him coming up) and third in baseball history! He led the league (obviously) in both wins and WL% that season, along with ERA, saves (1), and ERA+. He had a 12.3 pitching WAR (according to b-r) that season. That's good for 7th on our list.

6) Charles Frederick "Silver" King was a St. Louis boy who threw his first 5 games for the Kansas City Cowboys of the National League in 1886. He then spent the 1887-1889 seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals. After those three seasons, he bounced around 5 different teams over the next 8 seasons. His three seasons with the Cardinals were very good. His 1888 season was completely dominant. He led the league with 45 wins that year, throwing 584 2/3 innings at 1.63 ERA ball. He threw in 64 games, starting 64 of them. He threw a complete ame in every start - shutout out his opponents 6 times. He also had a league leading WHIP of 0.874 and a 3.39 K/BB. He twice lost the World Series - which were much different back then. King went 1-3 in the 1887 WS lost to the Detroit Wolverines 10 games to 5. He also went 1-3 in the 1888 WS loss to the New York Giants 6 games to 4. King died in St. Louis at the age of 70 and is buried in St. Louis - home of his beloved St. Louis squad.

5) Jay Hanna Dean (Dizzy) was born in Lucas, Arkansas. The St. Louis Cardinals were the closest team to his home town and Dizzy got to come be a part of the Gas House Gang in St. Lou. He pitched the first 6 fuill seasons of his career in St. Louis leading them to one WS title in two tries. In his first game as a Cardinal - 2 calendar years before he was brought up for good - Dizzy threw a complete game three-hitter. Dizzy went to four All-Star games as a Cardinal, finished second in the MVP voting twice, and won the MVP in 1934.

Dizzy led the league in countless categories: Wins twice, WL% once, games pitched twice, starts once, complete games three times, shutouts twice, saves once (in the same year he led the league in complete games), innings pitched three times, strikeouts four straight seasons, batters faced twice, walks per 9 once, strikeouts per 9 twice ,and stirkeouts per walk twice. This led Dizzy into the Hall of Fame in 1953.

4) Bob Caruthers (Parisian Bob) started his career in St. Louis with the 1884 Browns at the age of 20. He stayed for 4 seasons before leaving town. He came back to end his career in 1892 with the St. Louis Browns at the age of 28. Caruthers played in an era where pitchers threw nearly twice as many innings as the best of the best in today's game. Caruthers threw 482 1/3 innings in 1885 as one of only 3 pitchers on the squad. He led the league with 40 wins, a .755 WL%, a 2.07 ERA, a 158 ERA+, and a 0.1 HR/9 rate that season. He again led the league in WL% in 1887 at .763 - he also led in WHIP that year. Caruthers is the WHIP leader of Cardinals' pitchers at 1.095 over his near-1,400 innings.

When not pitching, Caruthers played outfield for the Cardinals, and he played it well. In 1886 and 1887, he had OPSes of .974 (in 382 plate appearances) and 1.010 (in 436 plate appearances), respectively. He led the league in OBP, OPS, and OPS+ in 1886 - the same year he threw 387 1/3 innings and won 30 of 44 games pitched (starting 43 of them.)

3) Chris Carpenter came to the St. Louis Cardinals in 2004 at the age of 29. He threw three glorious seasons before getting hurt in the first game of the 2007 campaign. The 2007-2008 campaigns were spent on the DL throwing a total of 21 1/3 innings. The Cardinals teams greatly suffered while he was on the shelf. From 2009-2011, Carpenter was back and completely glorious again. Without those two seasons on the shelf, Carpenter could (and in my estimation would) very well be #2 on this list. Carpenter has won 15 games in 5 of his 6 full seasons with the team. He has gone 95-40 in the six seasons he was completely healthy and 0-2 in the other two series. He has once led the league in WL%, ERA, CG, SHO, IP, batters faced, ERA+, WHIP, and HR/9. He also twice led the league in games started - the last two years at age 35 and 36. Carpenter was the Cy Young winner in 2005, finished third in 2006, and second in 2009 - when he came back from his two-season injury. He is also a three-time all-star. He has struck out 3.66 for every person he has walked - leading all 32 other Cardinals' starters on this list. He also leads them in K% - striking ou 19.9% of the batters he has faced as a Cardinal starter! He has the least losses of anyone on the list, as well. Lastly, Carp throws a shutout in nearly 1/2 of the games in which he goes the complete game - and that does not include the 2011 NLCS game 5, in which he beat Roy Halladay in an epic 1-0 tilt for the ages. Carpenter led the Cardinals to their 10th and 11th World Championships in 2006 and 2011. He was injured for the World Series in the 2004 season, thus he has won every World Series in which he has taken part.

2) George Washington McGinnis, nicknamed Jumbo, pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals' franchise back when they were the St. Louis Brown Stockings in 1882 and the St. Louis Browns in 1883-1886. He was a hometown kid who led his team to one second place finish (by just a game) and one first place finish in his four full seasons as a part of the St. Louis nine. In his only three healthy seasons with St. Louis, he had 25, 28, and 24 wins with over 350 innings pitched each year. Unfortunately, the only thing he ever led the league in was shutouts in 1883, with 6. His best attribute, as far as I can tell, was that he simply refused to walk people and he did not give up home runs. Granted, the rules were quite different back then. Anyway, he had a 1.4 BB/9, walking only 203 in 1,325 innings, at a 3.7% rate. He also gave up only 12 home runs in that time. Jumbo won 59% of his decisions as a Cardinal. These statistics led him to be the second best St. Louis starter on this list.

1) Bob Gibson, "Gibby", is my Dad's favorite player of All-Time (in any sport, in any time). Gibson seemed to throw a million miles an hour and might have thrown harder than that, according to the stories. Growing up on the "wrong side" of Omaha, NE made Gibson a fierce competitor. He was said to have never "fraternized with the enemy" before the game - never talking (kindly) to his opponent until the game is over. He once said, "When I was playing I never wished I was doing anything else. I think being a professional athlete is the finest thing a man can do." That shows his mindset. He was also athletic enough to have been a Harlem Globetrotter for a year.

Quite possibly first and foremost, Gibby led the St. Louis Cardinals to the 1964 and 1967 World Series Championships. He also led them to the 1968 World Series - in a season for the ages, in which he set the modern record for ERA at 1.12 for an entire season of over 300 innings pitched. He also led these 32 Cardinals in Wins at 251, innings pitched, strikeouts at 3,117, hits per 9 innins at 7.6 (6.1 all-time in the post season), batting average against at .224, complete games at 255, and shutouts at 56. Gibby had 5 seasons of 20 or more wins - leading the league once. He also led the league in ERA once (previously mentioned), complete games once, shutouts 4 times, strikeouts once, ERA+ twice, WHIP once, H/9 once, and HR/9 once. He was an 8 time All Star, won 2 Cy Youngs, won the MVP in 1968 as a pitcher, won two World Series MVPs (1964 and 1967), and won 9 straight Gold Gloves.

Nearly 30 years after his retirement, he still ranks 14th in strikeouts for a major leaguer in his career, 15th in pitching WAR, 13th in shutouts, and had two seasons with 5 home runs at the plate - in fact, he was good enough at the plate to have 1.0 offensive WAR in three seperate seasons. Lastly, Gibby is a Cardinal Hall of Famer and a Cooperstown Hall of Famer.

Congratulations to those great Cardinal starting pitchers!

The entire list of 32:

1. Bob Gibson - 31.12 points (then a huge drop)
2. Jumbo McGinnis - 28.28
3. Chris Carpenter - 28.23 (then a big drop)
4. Bob Caruthers - 26.51
5. Dizzy Dean - 26.34
6. Silver King - 25.96
7. Dave Foutz - 25.68 (then a medium drop)
8. Matt Morris - 24.63 (Whoa, Matty! Nice!)
9. Harry Brecheen - 24.51
10. Steve Carlton - 24.20
11. Max Lanier - 24.02
12. Mort Cooper - 23.90
13. Bill Doak - 23.58
14. Ray Washburn - 23.44
15. Joaquin Andujar - 23.433
16. Ernie Broglio - 23.430
17. Curt Simmons - 23.29
18. Slim Sallee - 22.87
19. Howie Pollet - 22.64
20. Jesse Haines - 22.60
21. Larry Jackson - 22.32
22. Bob Forsch - 22.29 (then a medium drop)
23. Danny Cox - 21.20
24. Lon Warneke - 21.16
25. Bill Sherdel - 21.10
26. Vinegar Bend Mizell - 20.96 (great name!)
27. Bill Hallahan - 20.68 (then a small drop)
28. Ray Sedecki - 19.81
29. Garry Staley - 19.73 (then a small drop)
30. Flint Rhem - 18.86 (another great name)
31. Bob Harmon - 18.66
32. Ted Breitenstein - 18.56

The Cardinals don't make bad trades often, but they made two in the beginning of 1972 that ruined their chances for the rest of the decade. The worst trade they've made of recent vintage is the Dan Haren, Kiko Calero, and Daric Barton for Mark Mulder deal, in which Haren has won 101 games since the trade. Mulder only won 22 after the trade.

Well, in April 1972 the Cardinals traded young lefty and St. Louis native Jerry Reuss to the Astros for Lance Clemons and Scipio Spinks. Neither Clemons or Spinks panned out and Reuss was one of the better pitchers in the league for the next decade plus. Apparently Reuss was traded because Gussie Busch did not like his moustache and Reuss refused to shave it. Reuss won 198 games(220 total) after the trade, had his last good season in 1988 and hung on until 1990.

The Reuss trade came after an even worse deal in February 1972. Steve Carlton had upset Gussie Busch during contract negotiations a couple years prior and they were about $15,000 apart in 1972. Player salaries back then were not like they are today. Busch had tried to get GM Bing Devine to trade Carlton, but he hadn't yet. Finally on February 25, Devine traded Carlton to the Phillies for Rick Wise.

After the Carlton/Wise deal Tim McCarver(who had caught both in St. Louis and Philly) replied "It was a real good one for a real good one". Carlton was considered to have more ability and stuff and possessed a great breaking ball and was a hard thrower. At the time Wise was considered to be more poised on the mound. At the time of the trade Carlton had 77 wins, three All Star appearances, and was coming off a 20 win season were he had a 3.56 ERA. Wise had won 75 games, made one All Star team, and was coming off a season were he won 17 games and had a 2.88 ERA. Wise was also 9 months younger than Carlton.

Wise actually was a damn good pitcher and won 113 games after the trade and 188 for his career. He started the 1973 All Star Game as a Cardinal and won 32 games and posted a 3.24 ERA in 528 innings in St. Louis. He was then traded after the 1973 season for outfielder Reggie Smith, who was a pretty good player himself. But, Carlton won 252 games after the trade and played for NL East rival Philadelphia until 1986. Carlton also had one the greatest pitching seasons ever in 1972. He was 27-10 with a 1.97 ERA, 0.99 WHIP and struck out 310 batters in 346.1 innings on a last place Phillies team. Carlton ended up with 329 wins and won over 20 games 6 times(5 with Philly). Carlton's last good season was in 1984 and he last pitched in 1988.

In a span of less than two months the Cardinals dealt away 451 wins by trading Carlton and Reuss. Carlton was a dominant Hall of Fame pitcher and ended up winning 4 Cy Young Awards, all with the Phillies. Reuss was more a crafty lefthander type similar to a Jamie Moyer/Kenny Rogers/David Wells type pitcher. However, Reuss was a pretty good 2-3 starter for the Pirates and Dodgers in his prime and helped both teams reach the postseason. Its possible the Cardinals could of won a 2-3 more pennants if they would of kept the lefty pair.

In 1973, the Cardinals finished a game and a half back from the first place Mets. Wise actually outpitched Carlton in 73, but Reuss won 16 games on the Astros and he could of been the difference. The Mets ended up upsetting the Reds and took the A's to 7 games in the World Series that year. They had a strong rotation of Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, and Jon Matlack. The Cards would of run out Bob Gibson, Carlton, and Reuss. Who knows what could of happened if they made the postseason?

They also finished a game and a half back from the Pirates in 1974. Rick Wise was traded for Reggie Smith before the season and Wise ended up missing most of 74. However, Smith was one of the Cards best hitters in 74 along with Joe Torre, Ted Simmons, Bake McBride, and Lou Brock. They did have a young Jose Cruz they could of played, but he would of been a dropoff from Smith. The Cards pitching wasn't that strong in 74, Gibson was towards the end of his career and was 11-13 and had a 3.83 ERA and 1.42 WHIP. Lynn McGlothen was their best pitcher and Bob Forsch made his debut in midseason. Their 4-5 spots were weak spots all year. However, Carlton and Reuss both won 16 games in 1974 and having them probably would of won them the division.

There is also the 1981 strike season, in which the owner's decided to have a split season format. The Cardinals finished 1.5 games back from the Phillies in the first half, and 0.5 games back from the Expos in the second half. Overall, the Cardinals were 59-43 which was the best overall record in the division but were screwed out of the playoffs because of this goofy one-time format. This was 9 years after the Carlton and Reuss trades, so its hard to say if they would of stayed around since it was now the free agent era. Carlton and Reuss finished 1-2 in Cy Young Award voting in 1980 and they both had excellent seasons in 1981. The Cardinals bottom 3 spots were a mess in 1981 and the biggest reason why they fell short of the playoffs. In a scenario were both Carlton and Reuss still wear the birds on the bat, they probably win at least one of the half seasons in 1981 and make the playoffs.

From 1975 until 1980 the Cardinals were too far out of it for either pitcher to make up the difference. But, I think its safe to say the Cardinals missed out on at least 2 postseasons because of the these two trades. Gussie Busch did alot of good things as owner of the Cardinals, but these were two bad moments where he allowed a personality conflict to cloud his judgement.

Continuing our comparison of the 2012 Reds to the 2012 Cardinals, let's see how each offense projects...

One important caveat...

The following comparisons don't account for playing time. Players like Allen Craig figure to be a major part of the Cardinals offense, despite not being represented here. Likewise, for the Reds, Ryan Hanigan, Ryan Ludwick, and other "role players" will likely see significant playing time. However, in the interests of simplicity, I used only the players I expect to get the majority of the playing time at their respective positions.

Continue reading this post »

Howdy folks!

I posted this yesterday over at Red Reporter. I thought I'd share it with the kind souls at Viva El Birdos as well...

While we all know that projections are typically flawed, especially when it comes to pitchers, I found the following projections from Bill James to be quite surprising. According to James' projections, the Reds' rotation is just about as good as the Cards'....

The following projections can be found at FanGraphs. I’m using Bill James’ 2012 projections for this exercise. First, the projections, then some notes:

“ACE”

Johnny Cueto

• K/9 – 7.09; BB/9 – 2.82; ERA – 3.77; FIP – 4.02

Adam Wainwright

• K/9 – 7.49; BB/9 – 2.28; ERA – 3.27; FIP – 3.24

Differential (ERA): 0.5, Cardinals advantage

#2 Starter

Mat Latos

• K/9 – 8.79; BB/9 – 2.73; ERA – 2.99; FIP – 3.11

Chris Carpenter

• K/9 – 7.04; BB/9 – 2.17; ERA – 3.25; FIP – 3.25

Differential (ERA): 0.26, Reds advantage

(the rest... after the jump)

Continue reading this post »

This is the next piece in a series of posts in which I will look at the BEST St. Louis Cardinals of all time. I will do so by position. As always, I will be following a set of criteria. The criteria that affects this the most is that I only took a look at players with 3,000 or more plate appearances AS A CARDINAL. (So, Mark McGwire, Scott Rolen, Darryl Porter, Mike Matheny, and others - sorry, you're out!) From there, I used a very complicated formula involving:

• WAR (a mix of fangraphs" and baseball-reference's WAR statistics)
• WAR/PA*600 (600 plate appearances is a very near approximation to a complete season, so it's basically WAR/season
• batting average
• on base percentage
• slugging percentage
• on base plus slugging
• OPS+ (takes OPS and converts it to a comparison to league average for that season or career and adjusts for ballpark)
• % of hits that are extra base hits
• BB:K (I could not compare 3rd basemen, shortstops, or corner outfielders on this statistic due to lack of data)
• XBH:K (I could not compare 3rd basemen, shortstops, or corner outfielders on this statistic due to lack of data)
• SB/PA*600 - basically SB/season
• for catchers I looked at how many players were caught stealing or picked off compared to how many people stole bases off of them
• for outfielders I looked at how many outfield assists that they got per 600 plate appearances (or per season) as well

I then took this data and ranked the players at each position against each other, accounting for small or large differences in each statistic in able to see who the best of the best was.

Without further ado, your top 3 St. Louis Cardinals' center fielders of ALL TIME!

Honorable Mention goes to: Willie McGee, Terry Moore, Taylor Douthit

Special note: I do have to say that this list of centerfielders was especially great for me because the top two came out in the order that I would have liked and Willie McGee (my 3rd choice off the top of my head before beginning) came in a very close 4th place, nearly on the list of 3. Yay!

3) There is a quite large discrepancy between #2 and #3 on this list, in terms of on the field achievements; but it is great to write about Curt Flood at #3 on this list as well, because his off the field achievements are more legacy-lasting than anything either of the two men ahead of him on the list could ever accomplish on the field. His monumental off-field achievement first: Basically, Curt Flood was the man who pioneered free agency. He was traded from the St. Louis Cardinals to the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1969 offseason and spent the entire year in 1970 fighting the trade and MLB's reserve clause. (Eventually the Cardinals gave up other players and sent him to the Washington Senator instead the following season.) The reserve clause meant that players who finished a contract with a team were bound to that team when the contract was over, as well, unless they asked and received a trade or an outright release. Major League Baseball would eventually adopt free agency in 1975; 4 years after Flood's playing days were over. Another interesting note is that, in Flood's only year as a Senator in 1971, he became the first MLB player to get a regular season hit in Canada, off of former teammate Larry Jaster, then pitching for the Expos in Montreal. Now, onto Flood's on the field achievements. Flood played 12 years as a Cardinal and led the league in plate appearances once, at bats twice, and hits once. He was a 3 time All-Star and won 7 straight Gold Gloves - always known as a great defender - while earning MVP votes in all seven of those Gold Glove seasons.

2) Ray Lankford was one of those players that you loved to love, but loved to hate at the same time. I remember one play (my father and sister were at the game, but I was not - it was not "my turn" to go with Dad that night, I guess) where he bowled over a catcher and knocked the ball loose to win a game in extra innings at home. My dad and sister say that when they showed the replay, nobody had yet left their seats to go home, and the noise from the stadium was just as loud as when it had actually happened 5 minutes earlier. However, Ray Ray (as we called him) was part of the 1990's crop of players who struck out at a high rate, while still putting up fantastic numbers. That frustrated many fans, which saw his talent level as much more capable. Lankford spent parts of 13 seasons in Cardinal red, including a comeback as a 37 year old on the 2004 team that won 105 games and went to the World Series. He hit 20 or more homers 6 times as a Cardinal, with a high of 31 (twice). He had 20 or more steals 6 times as a Cardinal (with highs of 44 and 42). In fact, 5 of those 6 times, he was a 20-20 man (with 20 or more steals AND homers in the same season). He also doubled more than 30 times on six different occasions. He drove in 100 runs once and scored 100 runs once. He had an OBP over .400 once and a slugging over .550 once (over .500 four times). His OPS+ as a Cardinal was 123. Despite all of these gaudy stats, he was only an All-Star once, in 1997, when his season ended with an OPS of .996 and an OPS+ of 159! Ray Lankford simply played baseball at the wrong time - the beginning of the Steroid Era - to put up stats that were league leadable, I believe. I also believe that he was nowhere within shouting distance of being a user of steroids. He finished 3rd in rookie of the year voting (leading the league in triples that year) and twice got MVP votes. His 40.0 WAR over 13 years as a Cardinal ranks him second in CF behind our #1 man.

1) Jim Edmonds might be one of the most amazing athletes on any of these lists. Edmonds gets dogged about his style of play in centerfield, seen as someone who dove for everything, whether he needed to or not. However, Edmonds accomplished 44.8 WAR as a Cardinal in just 8 seasons in the uniform. He has the highest percentage of hits going for XBH (47.0%) of anyone ever to don the Birds on the Bat 3,000+ times at the plate; his total was even higher than "The Big Cat," "The Machine," and even "The Man." Edmonds' nickname came to be "Jimmy Ballgame," (or simply "Jimmy," by many) a hearkening back to "Teddy Ballgame" (Ted Williams) of the Red Sox around WWII times. While Edmonds will never be confused with Ted Williams - who some argue was the best hitter of all time, better than Musial, Gehrig, Mantle, even Ruth - Edmonds became an amazing hitter over time. Edmonds was seen as a defense first guy when coming up as a California (then Anaheim) Angel in the mid-1990's, but quickly found his stroke and averaged a 119 OPS+ over his 7 years in Cali. He then brought his frosted tips and surfer style to the expansive turf in centerfield in St. Louis in 2000, at the age of 30. Edmonds had been an All-Star once and won the Gold Glove twice, but really thrived in St. Louis, playing alongside Ozzie and McGwire, then Pujols, then Rolen and Renteria, then others. Again a victim of playing during the steroids era - although I'm not sure whether or not Edmonds was squeaky clean on this one? - He never once led the league in any offensive category, frequenting the top 10. Along with Pujols and Rolen, Edmonds became part of the MV3 in St. Louis' mid 2000's batting orders. He twice bested the 1.000+ OPS plateau and averaged a .989 OPS and 153 OPS+ his first six seasons in St. Louis, while playing Gold Glove centerfield defense all six seasons. He averaged 34 doubles and 35 homers in those 6 seasons, with 100 runs and 98 RBI per season as well. He bested the 40 home run and 110 RBI marks twice in that span, becoming a pure run producer in the middle of the order. He finished in the top 5 in MVP voting twice and garnered votes for MVP in 3 more seasons.

Congratulations to those 3 great Cardinal center fielders!

The next post in the series will be Cardinal corner outfielders.

1) Jim Edmonds - 12.965

2) Ray Lankford - 11.422

3) Curt Flood - 9.576

4) Willie McGee - 9.182

5) Terry Moore - 8.857

6) Taylor Douthit - 8.610

This series was originally researched in early August, so statistics of current players may be slightly off now.

This post is a continuation from Hall of War: Part 1. If you haven't read that yet, I suggest you do so so as to better understand what I'm talking about. I'm just going to jump right in starting where I left off at leftfield. If need be, at the bottom of this post is a primer of what WAR/PA and Peak are in the case I'm describing.

Left Field

No Doubt

Ted Williams (.0142 WAR/PA; 11.58 Peak) confirms his status as one of the best players of all time. He was actually a below average fielder in his lifetime, but his hitting was godly. He had a .493 career wOBA - yes you read that right. He had a 20.6% BB rate for his career. He walked once every five plate appearances. His slash line of .344/.482/.634 puts Albert to shame. He had 524 homers in his career for good measure. He had 11 seasons above .500 wOBA and one season over .600 wOBA.

I'll jump to the bottom of the pile with Goose Goslin (.00732; 6.98) of the Washington Senators. He managed a .403 wOBA with above average defense for his career. Ed Delahanty (.00855; 7.64), who retired in 1903, batted .346 for his career to the tune of a .428 wOBA. Then there's Carl Yastrzemski (.0077; 9.3), who had a long career with nearly 14,000 career plate appearances. Despite having a BABIP lower than .285 for his last nine seasons, he still managed to be wildly productive thanks to his 13.2% BB rate. Yaz was an extremely good fielder, worth +185 over his career, including above average defense at the tail end of his career.

Willie Stargell (.00786; 6.96) qualifies even though he was considerably worse than I thought. Obviously, that's not anything scientific but his .360 OBP and 475 homers belong there. Al Simmons (.00825; 7.54), who played for seven different teams between 1924 and 1944, had a .404 wOBA thanks largely to a career .334 average. He was also an above average fielder for the entirety of his career. Ralph Kiner (.00854; 7.36) had a short, but great career. He started in the league at the age of 24 and received 579 plate appearances with a .367 wOBA. He ended his career with 390 plate appearances in 1955 at the age of 33 with a .370 wOBA. Kiner had a 16.2% BB rate to help sustain his very low career BABIP of .264.

Then there's leadoff man Rickey Henderson (.00855; 8.78) who stole 1406 bases at a 80.8% success rate. He also had a .386 wOBA with +62.9 fielding over his career. He became an apparently awful fielder for the last years of his career, but the beginning he was one of the best fielders in the league.

Last but not least is The Man. Stan Musial (.0111; 10.2) was the greatest Cardinals player of all time. He had an amazing 5.5% K rate which helped him to a .331 average with a .320 BABIP. He walked 12.6% of the time helping himself to a .417 OBP. He hit 475 homers as well in nearly 13,000 plate appearances. He finished his career with a .436 wOBA and above average fielding.

I don't know if my Hall would let him in or not but Shoeless Joe Jackson (.0118; 8.8) was an amazing player. It's unfortunate he made such a bad decision. Sherry Magee (.00879; 7.22) is the only non-Hall "No Doubt" player this time. He had six seasons above 6 WAR in his career and a .385 wOBA in the early 1900s was good for a +138 wRC+. Despite this, he never received more than 1% of the vote.

Borderline - Yes

Jesse Burkett (.00758 WAR/PA; 6.56 Peak), who retired in 1905, is an easy yes with a career .409 wOBA. He had five seasons of 6.2 or greater for his career as well. Fred Clarke (.00831; 6.28), who played for the Pirates most of his career in the Deadball era, had above average fielding (+91 in career) with above average hitting (135 wRC+). Joe Kelley (.00708; 6.3), another player who played in the Deadball era, hit for a career .406 wOBA largely thanks to a .317 average and a 11.2% BB rate.

Zack Wheat (.007; 6.02), who played for the Brooklyn Robins in the early 1900s, is extremely borderline and barely made it. He had above average hitting (129 wRC+) and above average fielding (+54). He didn't hit many homers or doubles, but was a triples machine with 172 triples. He stole 205 bases, but it's unknown how many times he got caught. Billy Williams (.00663; 6.92) is in the same position and while his .376 wOBA and below average fielding didn't blow me away, his eight seasons above 5 WAR did the trick.

I'm going to have to barely let in Joe Medwick (.00691; 6). The problem is that his fifth best season was 4.7 so he doesn't have the ideal peak. However, it's hard to ignore a .394 wOBA (131 wRC+) and above average fielding (+45). Plus, he's a Cardinal. (Disclaimer: I was fully prepared to keep him out, but the combo of fielding and bat proved too much. I did not let him in because he was a Cardinal)

There are two players not currently in the Hall who I'd let in as a borderline candidate. One of them, Tim Raines(.00713; 6.7) is inexplicably out while Jim Rice is in, and the other is less known. Bob Johnson (.00825; 6.24) has a career .409 wOBA (134 wRC+) with average defense. He had basically no consideration for the Hall despite this. I think this was due to his low homer total at corner outfield (288) and his biggest value was in his walk rate at 13.2%. Raines, meanwhile had a 134 wRC+ while stealing 808 bases at an 84.7% rate.

Borderline - No

Cardinals and Reds player Chick Hafey (.00692 WAR/PA; 5.1 Peak) doesn't make it despite a .405 career wOBA. He had a really short career as well to boot with only 5,113 plate appearances. He accumulated a total of 35.4 WAR over his career. He's a borderline player without a peak or longevity basically.

Heine Manush (.00587; 5.78) is all peak, no productivity. His peak is pretty weak as well. While he did have five seasons over 5 WAR, his overall career line was less impressive. Jim Rice (.00619; 6.4) gets a bad rap I suppose since his HOF case is kind of solid on traditional grounds. He's not really that close to my ideal Hall however. Lastly, Jimmy Sheckard (.00713; 6.13), with 65 career WAR, barely misses. Fun fact: He has 58 career homers and a .378 slugging percentage as a left fielder.

What the fuck

Sigh... Lou Brock (.00475 WAR/PA; 5.3). This wasn't so much Cardinals bias as a misunderstanding of how stolen bases affect a player's value. He's not even close to the level of Hall of Fame players. I'd say he's fortunate given the time period he played in to make the HOF. Like Joe Posnanski says, making the HOF can sometimes be all about timing. Jim O'Rourke (.0057; 3.92) is a puzzling selection. He had a .311 batting average, but his .359 wOBA with below average defense is a pretty big travesty. Plus, O'Rourke literally has no peak.

Luis Gonzalez (.00564; 6.44), who was worth 59.4 WAR over his career and is a super nice guy for what it's worth, wasn't close to the Hall. However, he is better than I would have thought.

Future Eligibles

Barry Bonds (.01334 WAR/PA; 11.68), obviously, would go in "No Doubt." He was a wonderfully amazing defender early in his career before he took steroids and his shoulders became bigger than most people's faces. He also had a .439 wOBA for his entire career with 762 homers. Are we really going to leave him out of the Hall and let in Jim fucking Rice?

Manny Ramirez also appears destined for the Hall unless the voting committee is still on their moral high ground. He had a .417 career wOBA although he's a borderline Hall of Fame player because he was so bad at defense, whether that was due to bad range or laziness we'll never know. (Though probably combination of the two)

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