ESPN and My Last Nerve

To be completely honest, I love the concept of ESPN.  I am a 25 year old male who loves watching and talking about sports more than just about anything else in the world so the idea of a channel that does this all day and night long is something that I cannot claim to have feelings of anything but absolute adoration towards.  I am also not naive enough to watch this channel and not expect to see a certain amount of east coast bias.  I also know that although baseball is my favorite sport, I completely realize that I am among the minority.  Too many people have moved on to care only about Football and whatever other sport is going on at the time to care about the marathon of a season that baseball has held onto in a culture where no one wants to commit more than about 3 hours a week to anything.  All this being said, I had to turn off the ESPY’s the other night after cursing loudly enough to get very strange looks by my fiance.

My anger began with the lack of support for Game 6 of the World Series as the game of the year.  The game that won, the NFL playoff game between the New Orleans Saints and the San Francisco 49ers was an exciting game, but Game 6 of the World Series was quite possibly the best and most exciting game of baseball to be played on the biggest stage the sport has to offer.  While this ESPY did not go to the team or even the sport that I wanted, at least the Cardinals were nominated, and the winners were selected by fans, most of which do not even realize that baseball exists when there is another more popular sport such as football or occasionally basketball are being played.

The category that caused me to scream out obscenities as I turned off the television was the nominations for the best moment.  I can understand that Tebow mania took hold and the combination of the average sports fan’s desire to share their hate or love for the man as often as possible, and as I said earlier, the NFL is so much more celebrated than baseball that it is sickening for those of us, or maybe just me, to think about.  Then again, I knew the second I saw that highlight that this would be voted as the best moment of the year.  The part of this that really ticked me off was the fact that while baseball did get a nomination for this moment, it was the Tampa Bay Rays clinching a playoff berth with a walk off homerun by Evan Longoria combined with the loss of the Red Sox in their enormous collapse… If anyone can explain this to me, I would love to hear it.

First of all, let’s talk logistics.  This is not one moment, it is two moments in two different games.  I understand that Game 6 of the World Series was a series of moments, but at least it was in the same game.  Second of all, the fall of the Red Sox, as I am sure this moment was billed more as than any sort of rise of the Rays, (let’s be honest, much more was made of the team that lost the lead than the team that won the Wild Card against all odds as seems to be a common theme of the Tampa Bay Rays.  Got to love how ESPN seems to cover places outside of the New England/New York area only whenever it is convenient and/or necessary) occurred to get into the playoffs.  Game 6 of the WORLD SERIES seems to be a little more pressure, right?  Where twice the Cardinals were down to their last strike, and twice they came back, only to end the game with a walk off homerun that still sends chills down my spine along with anyone else who was either there in body or there in spirit. 

I know that just as ESPN has the east coast bias, I have my own biases so I understand that I may be a little too harsh on the channel that so commonly graces my television screen.  I was not hoping for too much from this awards show, but I was looking forward to watching as many different angles and highlights of the Cardinal’s historic run last year as possible.  I guess I figured that a World Series that more than just me are calling the best that people have ever seen would get a little more love in the award ceremony that claims to cover greatness in sports.  Maybe I am just from a different era than my 25 years of age seem to suggest.  I still somehow want to live in a world where baseball is king and the other sports are enjoyed but not necessarily held in such high regard that everyone forgets to pay attention to the game that once held this country’s undying interest.  I guess as a baseball fan in the Midwest, I am doomed to never truly have my team and sport covered by any sort of national publication like ESPN.  Maybe I should just stop looking for it.

Midseason Awards

At the end of this week, the first half of the baseball season will officially be over.  With last night’s series ending victory over the Colorado Rockies, the Cardinals officially began their second half, and hopefully the second half can start off but not end similarly to the first.  This first half was all over the place for this team.  They saw moments when they looked like the defending World Champions ready to represent the National League once again in the World Series, and then there were other times when they seemed like a tragically flawed team with little to no hopes of making it into the playoffs.  Regardless, looking back at the first 81 games, we can get a good idea of what to expect in the next 81.  Here are the reasons that the Cardinals are where they currently are as well as what they will need to go where they want to go.

Best Pitcher:  Although Lance Lynn is the All Star, and obviously has as much ability as anyone on the Cardinal’s pitching staff, including starting pitcher Adam Wainwright, Kyle Lohse has been the steady ace of the staff that the team has desperately needed with the loss of Chris Carpenter.  He has been exactly what the Cardinals have needed this season when their bullpen has given up lead after lead: an innings eater who gives the team a chance to win every time he takes the mound.  He will need to continue this success if the Cardinals are going to be anywhere near where they want to be at the end of the season.

Most Valuable Player:  With a team that produced 5 All-Star selections due to various circumstances such as final voting by the fans and a Yadier Molina bereavement leave, the most valuable player has been surprisingly easy to select.  Carlos Beltran has been amazing and has surprised many be being able to play as much as he has in the first half and Freese and Holiday have ridden a few hot streaks to solid numbers, but none of these players is the most valuable player on the Cardinal’s team this season.  That man would be Yadier Molina.  He has been nothing short of amazing this season, and I find myself gushing to anyone within earshot about how amazing it is to watch this guy on a daily basis as a Cardinal fan.  It feels like how we used to talk about Albert Pujols to people before he was nicknamed by ESPN and given multiple MVP awards.  We used to talk about how amazing this guy was and how much fans of other teams would not be able to understand the amazing consistency after watching him play over the course of a season.  I find myself saying similar things about Molina, and most of the time this is just speaking about his defensive abilities.

As a catcher, Molina is not making diving catches like an acrobatic center fielder, but the guy has a rocket for an arm that just looks different when he unleashes a bullet-like throw.  Seriously, just watch him and compare his throws to the other team’s catcher, it does not take a very trained eye to see that he makes stronger, more accurate throws with complete confidence regardless of the situation of the game or what base he is throwing to.  There will be no comparison.  Molina is just flat out better, and this is just one aspect that we can see.  He is also the guy who every pitcher has utmost confidence in every time he takes the mound.  And then this season, as if Molina did not mean enough to the Cardinals before, he has been hitting as well as he has played defense.  He has newly developed power in addition to his uncanny ability to get a big hit when the game is on the line.  I could write all night about how amazing Molina has been, and I would still feel like walking down the street to talk to someone who did not realize how amazing this guy is.  I’ll try to limit myself to a couple hundred words here, although assume that I will be annoying the hell out of my fiancé for the next couple hours while she is trying to sleep as I spread the word about the best catcher I have ever seen.

Best Rookie:  While Matt Carpenter has been surprisingly productive during the time he has been healthy and in the line-up, there is no real contest for who the Cardinal’s top rookie is for the first half of the 2012 season.  Lance Lynn has been everything the team could have ever wished he would be, and he rode his success all the way to an All-Star selection.  His easy velocity and sharp curveball have been at times dominant in the National League.  He had a few hiccups over the last month or so, but his first month and a half more than solidified his position as the Cardinals’ top rookie.

Most Pleasant Surprise:  This was the easiest award to give out for the first half of the season.  We all knew that Carlos Beltran was a talented baseball player, but let’s be honest, no one expected the type of start that he had.  He was completely worthy of the starting outfield nod that he was given.  He is on pace for a career high in homeruns at the age of 35.  After signing, I remember hoping for him to play around 120-130 games this season, but he has been a legitimate everyday player for the Cardinals so far this season and a productive one.  I still worry that the heavy load at the beginning of the season may lead to difficulty during the second half of the season, but he has been the most consistent run producer on the Cardinals.  I do not want to see what the lineup could have looked like when everyone else was getting injured and Beltran was leaned on to hold everything together offensively.

Biggest Disappointment:  The biggest disappointment was equally easy to come up with.  While the bullpen in general is a solid place to start, the left-handed relief on this team has been a glaring weakness.  Against the Tigers this season, I remember listening to the radio and screaming loud enough for people around me in the library to glare at me as we were all studying for big final examinations when Matheny went to the bullpen for Marc Rzepczynski.  Prince Fielder was coming up and the score was way too close.  I can honestly remember exhaling when Fielder only hit a single off of Rzepczynski.  How pathetic is it that this was the best case scenario?  And in addition to Scrabble’s struggles, it is not like Sam Freeman has been anywhere near consistent enough to pitch in a game that is closer than 5 runs.  We can only hope that a combination of Barret Browning and whoever else the Cardinals dust off the scrap heap can get enough outs to give the team a chance in the second half.

Hey Dusty… Who is the Bigger All-Star Snub? Brandon Phillips or Matt Holliday?

As a Cardinals fan, Dusty Baker has been the most hated manager for most of my life.  He was the manager of the San Francisco Giants who used the most notorious steroid user and all around asshole in San Francisco with teams that consistently competed in the National League and even knocked the Cardinals out of the playoffs in 2002.  He then made rounds with the Cubs and Reds where he managed good teams to playoffs and had more than his fair share of dustups with the Cardinals and their manager Tony LaRussa.  It is with this disclaimer that I say that Dusty Baker is full of crap.  I understand that he is unhappy that his guys did not get picked to the All-Star Game, but he is just flat wrong. 

Johnny Cueto, although he may be the biggest wimp when it comes to fighting in a brawl, looking about as tough as a cat stuck in a tree during the brawl between the Cards and Reds in 2010, is a great pitcher.  That being said, he would not even be eligible to pitch in the game.  Is LaRussa supposed to give out honorary All Star selections?  It is a ridiculous.  And then there is Brandon Phillips, who is having a very good season, and in many seasons, he would make the All Star game with these types of statistics, but they are in no way so eye popping that he should get some sort of automatic All Star nomination either.  Dusty Baker is also overlooking the most obvious snub from the National League’s team, and it involves another of his players.

Jay Bruce is having his typical season.  He is on pace to hit more than 30 homeruns for the second straight year, and he may even reach the 100 RBI plateau for the first time in his career as well.  He is only hitting .254, however, and he is on pace to strike out his typical 150 times for the season.  These are the types of numbers that get you selected to an All Star team.  He is a young and powerful outfielder with a lot of upside, but other than a three homerun differential in which Jay Bruce leads Holliday, Matt has been having far and away the better season.  Holliday is hitting .318 with more RBI’s than Jay Bruce.  With everything all the other statistics being so similar, what is more important, 3 homeruns or 66 points on a batting average?

Let’s look at this from another angle though.  While I cannot help but scoff at the idea of the All Star game format, I am confident that Tony LaRussa takes this game as seriously as Bud Selig ever intended it to be taken.  Ever since he realized he was managing this game, I imagine that LaRussa began watching the players of the National League as if it were his own personal fantasy team.  The sad truth of the matter is that politics and regulations for who is chosen does come into play in the selection of the Major League All Star teams.  Otherwise how would Matt Holliday not be on this team?  In fact, the reason that Jay Bruce is on the team and Matt Holliday is not has to be largely because of the Reds record and the fact that Tony LaRussa believed they  deserved more than the two All Stars that they were guaranteed by the fans and player voting.

In a one game series like the All-Star game, you want as many hot hitters in the lineup as possible, and as of right now, there is no one hotter than Matt Holliday.  He has hit .385 in June and July combined, and is hitting an even .500 in the month of July.  Forget as a Cardinal fan wanting to see my favorite players in the game, fans of any National League team with the hopes of making the playoffs and find themselves dreaming of the World Series (including the Cincinnati Reds) should be ticked off that the hottest hitter in the National League will not be available to at least pinch hit at the end of this game.  Unfortunately Dusty Baker can’t see that.  He is too excited about another opportunity to call out Tony LaRussa for perceived slights against him and by extension of that his players.  Someone should tell him to wake up, and start looking at the big picture.  The goal of the Reds should be to make it to the World Series with home field advantage, not to send another player to an exhibition game in the middle of the season.

Chris Carpenter’s Lost Seasons

Chris Carpenter is once again, out for the season.  This year will be the second time in Carpenter’s career that he failed to make a single appearance for an entire season.  He also has two other years in which he did not pitch more than 15.1 innings, and then not including his first season in 1997, he had another season in which he did not reach 75 innings.  All of these hiccups along his career have been due to injuries.  Carpenter has had multiple surgeries on his elbow, shoulder, and now he will have an operation to relieve the tension put on the nerves that supply his right arm with sensation and strength to his muscles.  As a fan, the loss of Carpenter is frustrating for the chances for this season, but for Carpenter, this is an all too familiar routine of watching his teammates play as he works with the training staff in hopes that he will be able to pitch once again for however long his health will last.

It is impossible to look back at Carpenter’s career and not think about what could have been.  He has a career winning percentage over .600 which ranks in the top 100 pitchers of all time and to give a comparison is right around Greg Maddux territory.  That winning percentage has gone up significantly due to his time in St. Louis, where he has a winning percentage that is approaching .700.  It is simply amazing what this guy has done when he has been able to stay healthy enough to pitch.  Yet still, even though the percentages seem to suggest that the sky-rocketing win totals, in 14 major league seasons, carpenter has “only” 144 wins. 

In Carpenters average season over 162 games of health, he would be 14 and 9 with 169 strikeouts in 222 innings.  If he had his average season every year and did not have to sit out a whole or part of a season, Carpenter would already have 210 wins and 2535 strikeouts.  Numbers like this would have us already talking about Chris Carpenter as a future Hall-of-Famer with more years to add to that resume.  These projections are using his averages, though.  What if he had simply been able to stay healthy as a St. Louis Cardinal at the pace that he has set for himself during his time in St. Louis.  In this, what was supposed to be his 9^th season as a Cardinal, Carpenter already has 95 wins wearing the birds on the bat.  In seasons in which Carpenter has been able to make at least 28 starts, he has averaged nearly 16 wins.  If you projected Carpenters career statistics with this in mind he would have 226 wins going into this season.  The bottom line is that with a resume including these win totals, peripheral statistics, postseason highlights, and Cy Young Award voting, Carpenter is looking at a Hall of Fame type career.

And then there is last season, or more appropriately, last postseason where Carpenter worked his patched-together arm so hard that we now see some of the effects.  Carpenter dominated the Houston Astros on the last game of the regular season to ensure at least a tie, and then he pitched on 3 days rest on two separate occasions, including game 7 of the World Series.  Whenever the Cardinals needed someone to step up, there was Carpenter, taking the ball and pitching his butt off.  He very well may have sacrificed another season of his career to will the Cardinals to a World Series title, and he did it without any complaints.  I am sure if you asked him, he would do it all over again.  Carpenter has been nothing but solid in the postseason in his career, with a record of 9 and 2 in the postseason including a 3-0 record with a 2.00 ERA in the World Series.  These games when big time pitchers are called on to carry a team, Carpenter has always shouldered the load.  Unfortunately, this shoulder has all too regularly failed him.  I can only wish him the best and hope to see him back next season to pitch brilliantly once again.

Do The Cardinals Have a Chance Without Chris Carpenter?

The Cardinals are short on pitching.  They have not been at full strength all season thanks to the mysterious nerve issues that have plagued Carpenter’s Shoulder since spring training.  This shortage only got worse when Jaime Garcia went down.  It could be a very rough stretch run for this Cardinals team that is in desperate need for innings.  When you factor in the market for starting pitching will be considerably thinner this season than past seasons, the Cardinals could be stuck with the likes of Joe Kelly and Brandon Dickson to fill out their starting rotation.

The Cardinals hopes were tied heavily to the return of these two starters from the disabled list.  In addition to Joe Kelly as the rotation’s weakest link, the Cardinals will need even more out of two pitchers who will be throwing more innings than they probably should be.  Adam Wainwright and Lance Lynn will be well ahead of any innings limits that had been projected for them if they remain in the rotation for the entire year, and that is if they do not make it into the playoffs.  Considering that the Cardinals have a bullpen with only about 2 consistently reliable arms, these innings that are not covered by starting pitchers have to go somewhere.  The unfortunate reality of the situation is that whatever innings that Chris Carpenter does not cover because he can’t pitch fall to someone with half his ability.

The obvious answer to this issue if both Carpenter and Garcia are truly gone for good is to make a trade.  The Cardinals have the top organization from top to bottom in baseball according to Baseball America as of this last offseason, and many of these players are prospects who are either blocked by current major leaguers or are seen only as placeholders until more promising prospects come in the next few years.  The perfect example of this is Zack Cox, the Cardinal’s 1^st round draft pick in 2010, and up until this year where he has hit a snag, he has done nothing but hit in the minor leagues.  Could another team look past his recent struggles and have interest in the Cardinal’s 5^th best prospect according to fangraphs.com enough to give the Cardinals the type of innings eating starter that they need?  Another talented young player that the Cardinals could look to move in a deal for a starting pitcher could be on their current roster.  We have heard for years now about the toolsy potential of Tyler Greene, and while we have seen flashes, maybe it is time to give someone else a chance to see if they can get more out of the now 28 year old utility infielder who can be a decent major league shortstop.

As far as who should the Cardinals target, that is where this trade scenario gets muddy.  The teams with the most obvious targets are national league central teams.  The Astros could be looking to deal some combination of Wandy Rodriguez and Brett Myers who are both veteran players who could solidify the Cardinals bullpen and rotation at one time, but what would it cost to get these two pitchers?  It also makes me a little uneasy to attempt to make a trade with a general manager Jeff Luhnow who was integral in the drafting of many of the players in the Cardinal’s system.  This is not the guy who you are going to get away with anything in a deal.  Another team who the Cardinals could find as trade partners, the Cubs for Dempster maybe although he is due off the disabled list soon or maybe Matt Garza.  What about the Brewers?  Could they look past last year’s duels between the Cardinals and volatile outfielder Nyjer Morgan, or be willing to make a trade so that it can watch the Cardinals once again climb over the National League Central Division deep into the playoffs with another late season run that has to be demoralizing for the other teams in the division.  Zack Greinke or Shaun Marcum could be the perfect pitcher for the Cardinals who could not only eat innings, but be a force if the team made it into the postseason.

The options are out there for the Cardinals, and John Mozeliak has not been shy about trading highly touted prospects (see Brett Wallace for Matt Holliday), established and pretty integral parts of the major league roster (Ryan Ludwick for Jake Westbrook), or even current major leaguers who are also looked at as the future of the franchise (last season’s blockbuster deal of Colby Rasmus).  It should be interesting to see what the Cardinals come up with.  They have multiple surpluses, especially in the midlevel prospect ranks and should be dealing from a position of strength.  Now that Chris Carpenter will not be expected back until next year, it is time to gauge the market, and make a push for the postseason.  Maybe this team has some more magic left in it.