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.