Two Birds, One Bat - your 2014 St. Louis Cardinals

that's a lot of homers

Willie! (No, not that one.)

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/mlb/willie-mcgee-jim-edmonds-mike-shannon-marty-marion-join-cardinals-hall-of-fame?ymd=20140816&content_id=89970158&vkey=news_mlb

That seemed strange at first--I thought his Cardinals time was relatively brief--but no, I'd forgotten he came back for a second turn. (Had even forgotten he played all through the '90s.) Here's the thing that really surprised me, though; how favorably WAR sees his '85 MVP. Put aside Gooden for a second, and the pitcher-bias in MVP voting. (Tudor, too.) McGee indeed had the highest WAR for position players that year. I'm pretty sure James ridiculed the award in that year's Abstract, arguing that it should have gone to Dale Murphy or Pedro Guerrero.

@BNightengale 6m
Actor Jon Hamm provides night of respite for hurting #STLCards community with National Guard summoned to Ferguson. http://usat.ly/VAUgOP

I...what? How?

Mathenaging!

http://www.vivaelbirdos.com/st-louis-cardinals-sabermetrics-analysis/2014/8/18/6030219/mathenaging-mike-matheny-doubles-down-on-double-standards

Yeah, I almost posted that last night. I'm gonna guess he's done after 2015, unless there's another World Series miracle. He's just too much of a dipshit

or jon heyman: http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/writer/jon-heyman/24602538/best-mlb-winter-signings-white-sox-rookie-stud-abreu-orioles-cruz

The Disappointing Five
...
5. Jhonny Peralta, SS, Cardinals (four years, $53M): The almost always prudent Cardinals probably knew they were paying a lot for Peralta, but they also surely expected more than a .241 batting average his first year in the deal, a 62-point falloff from 2013.

new franchise record-holder for homers by a shortstop in one season, nbd

he's also leading the team in fWAR (4.4), and except for Matt Carpenter it's not particularly close

Second in OPS and WAR among MLB SS -- just what were the Cardinals thinking?

xpost

oh hi, 1st place ;) spoiled cards fan checking in!

goddamn witchcraft

wainwright not pitching well. wacha not back. molina misses 6 weeks. no one can hit. taveras disappointing. rosenthal walking every single 9th inning lead off hitter. justin masterson throwing batting practice every 5 games. MATHENY #MATHENAGING

= 1st place obv

Cards collapse joining NYY & BOS on their October couches wd be priceless

apparently all the cardinals needed was for me to leave phone reception for 4 days so they could play in peace. i return to civilization and suddenly they're in 1st place.

wainwright not pitching well. wacha not back. molina misses 6 weeks. no one can hit. taveras disappointing. rosenthal walking every single 9th inning lead off hitter. justin masterson throwing batting practice every 5 games. MATHENY #MATHENAGING

daniel descalso is the backup 1B, apparently?

i was assuming that molina could play 1B on occasion to give adams a rest, but i guess i was wrong

fuck waino and his three rbis

I couldn't help but think of Stan Musial, the standard bearer of the Cardinals and a man of impeccable character. He had to be looking down from heaven with tears in his eyes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJZ_k1rQN90

PORNOGRAPHY

14 games over .500, four-game lead, -2 run diff

karmic payback maybe for the last few years where they significantly underperformed their pythag (at least if iirc)

6 games under their expected record in both 2013 and 2012. last year they were expected to win 103!

i think you rc? a few years tho, and last year they had the RISP thing (rip allen craig)

Yeah, that's definitely true. The hitting with RISP was out of control last year

anyway it's fine, i'm just lashing out in bitterness

Got curious to see how long Stan Musial played with the 60s Cards like Bob Gibson, Curt Flood & Tim McCarver and found this box score. This is Stan Musial's last game. It's a definite changing of the guard as you have rookie Pete Rose in the lineup for the Reds along with Hall of Famer Frank Robinson. It was a matchup of a couple of the best starting pitchers in the NL at that time with Jim Maloney going for the Reds against Gibson. Looking it up, Maloney beat Gibson in the first game the Reds played against the Cards back in April. Musial got a couple hits and was lifted, probably leaving with a hit and maybe that RBI earlier in the game. This is definitely a changing of the guard moment when you look at the players in the scoreboard, considering how many of those players dominated the rest of the 60s and early 70s.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN196309290.shtml

see also october 1964

The closest awards-vote after tonight might be runner-up in the NL Cy Young. Wainwright and Cueto are extremely close, and would both take the award most any other year.

I'm sad Zimmerman will get ignored, once again because of wins and era.

Ditto Hamels, because of wins.

good

runnersup only counts in Miss America

I brought it up because this would be Wainwright's third time finishing second, with a third-place finish on top of that. He's becoming this generation's Juan Marichal to Kershaw's Koufax. (Koufax's Cys were all unanimous, but I imagine Marichal would have finished second at least twice with an expanded ballot; he was 72-27, with an ERA around 2.25, the three years Koufax won.)

Arrieta triple plates two!

lol the old IBB isn't working out to well for Matheny this week

*too

earlier tim mccarver got really amazed at the phrase 'come into his own'. he said something like

'this guy is...well, it's an odd thing to say, i guess, but he's really coming into his own this year. that's such a weird thing to say...must be 100 years old, or older. it doesn't make any sense!! but nevertheless he has really come into his own this year...'

deshaies and the other dude are pretty good, you should switch imo

yeah len and jim are my second fave broadcasters now, stat friendly, goofy without being too corny, nice guys, think unwritten rules are dumb, etc

yikes. wacha does not have his stuff. get the bullpen going right NOW matheny

clearly alan trammell, who has already been fired, is mustering these d-bags to greater things

truuumbo

starters should be interesting

1. wainwright
2. lynn
3. miller?
4. wacha/lackey/wainwright?

i thought we'd all agreed that shelby miller doesn't pitch in october

yeah, the rotation is a mess. wainwright and lynn, pray for rain...in'

i thought miller was doing much better in the second half, but really he just had a good September . still, i think he has to be part of the mix.

between lackey and wacha at #4, i'd rather see wacha combined with a very short leash, larussa 2011 style.

lackey will probably get the nod for #4 though, or even #3 because of his veteran grittiness.

matt carpenter is the cardinals' finalist for the hank aaron award, recognizing the most outstanding offensive performer

which doesn't seem quite right

Must be a positional thing, or Holliday needs a new agent

time to get fired up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9bfBJG_OCE

lackey 3, miller 4, wacha in pen

Lackey for the first home game (most likely a must win after Kershaw and greinke, although I guess every game is a must win in a 5-game series) seems like a mistake.

Yeah that part is odd/wrong. If you need to fire Waino again in 4, rather have him replace Lackey. Wacha in pen is right call. Bullpen needs it. Neshek looks burnt lately.

intersting: http://www.hardballtimes.com/staggered-rotations-and-postseason-win-probabilities