I just thought I’d make a few predictions on how some of our favorite Cardinal players are going to do individually in the 2009 Season.

 

Home Runs:

 

Pujols – 40

Ludwick – 32

Ankiel – 30

Glaus/Freese – 26

Greene – 20

Mather – 15

Rasmus – 10

Molina – 8

Schu – 8

Duncan – 7

Others (including one from A-Dub) – 7

Total – 202

 

 

Won-Lost Records:

 

A-Dub:  20-8

Carpy:  16-6

Lohse:  15-8

Wellemeyer:  13-10

Pineiro:  10-9

 

 

Saves:

 

Perez – 30

Motte – 15

Franklin – 10

McClellan – 2

Kinney – 1

Miller – 1

 

 

Team Batting Average – .285

 

 

Team Won-Lost Record:  90-72

 

 

Team Finish:  Second (Three Games Back).  Wild Card.

 

 

 

The following is a humorous look at being a Cardinals fan.

 

You know you’re really a Cardinals’ fan when…..

 

1. You go skiing in Colorado and you wear a Cardinals’ baseball cap instead of a regular ski cap. 

2. You bleed and you say, “I bleed Cardinal Red.”

3. You have to wash your Cardinals’ gear separately from the rest of your laundry because most of it is red.

4. Someone says they can get you tickets to the Braves and your first words are, “It’s gotta be against the Cards.”

5. You wait with baited breath for your next issue of Gameday magazine.

6. No matter where you are, you’ve just gotta have that Cardinals’ score.

7. New Year’s Eve rolls around and you can’t decide which Cardinals’ cap to wear.

8. You have Cardinals wallpaper on all your computers and your cell phone, you can asemble an all-Cardinals reccomended reading list on Amazon.com, and you type all your E-Mails in red.

9. You are firm in your resolve that the Cardinals got cheated out of the 1985 World Championship.

10. Anytime you see a fellow Cardinals fan wearing Cardinals gear, you compliment him/her on their fine sense of fashion.

11. You see a person wearing a Cubs cap and say, “Yuck! What’s that horrible blue fungus on your head?” If you see that person at a Cardinal game, Winter Warm Up, or any other Cardinal-related event, you call security.

12. you are proud to be a card carrying member of Cardinal Nation.

13. You’re asked what your second, third, etc. favorite team is and your response is, “I have only one favorite and that is…the Cardinals.”

 

There it is. What do you guys think? Please, let me know.

Dizzy Dean was full of promise when he made his debut for the Cardinals on September 28, 1930.  He beat the Pirates 3-1 on a three-hitter.  It would turn out to be the only appearence he would make for the Redbirds that year and he would not make his next appearence until 1932.  Dean  had a tendency towards immature behavior and he was so full of braggadocio that General Manager Branch Rickey and manager Gabby Street decided that another year in the minors would be good for him.  Dizzy would return  in 1932 and have an immediate impact, winning 18 games and 20 the next year.

In 1934, Dizzy would have his finest season.  He would win 30 games and lose only 7.  He would also post a 2.65 ERA, 24 Complete Games, and 195 K’s in 312 IP.  Not only  would he make 33 starts that season, but he would also appear in 17 games in relief with 7 Saves.

1934 would also be the year that Dizzy would be joined by another member of the family.  His younger brother, Paul immediately burst onto the scene.  The press, as a gimmick to go with his brother’s nickname, nicknamed him, “Daffy” – a nickname that, for the record, he did not like.  Before the season started, Dizzy boasted that “between us me and Paul will win 45-50 games.”  Guess what?   They did.  Dizzy won 30 (to date, the last National League pitcher to do so) and Paul won 19 for a total of 49.

On September 21, 1934 both Dizzy and Paul would pitch both ends of a doubleheader against the Dodgers in Brooklyn.  Dizzy would pitch a three hit 13-0 shutout in the first game.  However, in the second game Paul would turn in an even better performance by throwing a 3-0 no-hitter, which prompted Dizzy to say, “Shoot, if I’da known Paul was gonna pitch a no-hitter, I’da pitched one too.”

The Cardinals would cap off the 1934 Season by winning the World Series over the Detroit Tigers 4 games to 3.  The Deans would would be nothing short of brilliant in the series, winning two games each.  Dizzy even made a pinch running appearence in Game Four.  He forgot to slide as he was running into Second and he caught Shortstop Billy Rogell’s throw right in the head.  After the game, he was taken to the hospital and he later quipped, “They X-Rayed my head and found nuthin’.” 

While Dizzy was known for being very outgoing, Paul was known for being very quiet.  Dizzy also liked to coin colorful quotes.  Among them were:

 

“Son, what kind of pitch would you like to miss?”

“It ain’t braggin’ if you can do it.”

“I’m gald the Good Lord gave me a strong arm and a weak mind.”

“Let the teachers teach English.  I’ll teach baseball.  There’s a lot of people in the United States sayin’, ‘isn’t', and they ain’t eatin’.”

“Shoot, if we’da had them boys (Satchel Paige, Josn Gibson, and Buck Leonard), we coulda clinched the pennant by the Fourth of July and then taken the rest of the season off and gone ahead on and gone fishin’.”

“Heck, if anybody told me I was settin’ a record, I’da got me some more strikeouts.”

“I ain’t what I used to be, but who the heck is.”

 

 

On August 9, 1934, The Cardinals would sign a third Dean, Dizzy and Paul’s older brother Elmer (nicknamed “Goober”) as a…..peanut vendor!

All Winter long, I have been hearing from fans how crazy John Mozeliak has been for not aggressively pursuing Free Agents.  With the depth of talent in our Farm System, I have to wonder:  Is John Mozeliak Crazy Like A Fox?

1.  The Cardinals have David Freese who came over for Jim Edmunds.  He had previously never been above High A and hit .306 for AAA Memphis.  This Spring Training might be key for him with regard to whether or not he can hit Major League pitching.  He might have to step up to The Show due to the injury to Troy Glaus.  If Glaus walks after the 2009 Season, could Freese be the Cardinals’ Thrid Baseman of the Future?

2.  There is also Brett Wallace.  The Cards top pick of the 2008 Draft has been rising through the system very rapidly.  He will probably start this year at AA Springfield, but should move up to AAA Memphis very soon afterwords.  Could a September call-up to The Show be in the (if you’ll pardon the expression) CARDS?

3.  Joe Thurston.  Once labled “can’t miss” by the Dodgers, he encountered a logjam at Third in the Dodger chain, but moved over to the Red Sox organization and hit .316 at AAA Pawtucket this past year.  The acquisition of Thurston could prove to be very valuable indeed for the Cardinals as far as providing them with additional depth in the infield.

4.  Mitchell Boggs.  Started off 3-0 in his first tour of duty in the Show.  As the season wore on, his inexperience started to show as he tailed off to a 3-2 record with an ERA of 7.41!  However, the organization sees enough potential to consider him as part of their future plans.

5.  P.J. Walters and Jess Todd.  Could these two be the future anchors of the Cardinals’ Starting rotation?  Todd went 4-5 for AA Springfield, but had a 2.97 ERA and 81 K’s in 103 IP.  He then went 1-1 with a 3.97 ERA in a brief stint for AAA Memphis, but he had 20 K’s in 22 IP.  Todd was also on the short list for selection to the 2008 U.S. Olympic Baseball team.  Begining this past season at Springfield, P.J Walters went 1-2 with a 3.25 ERA, but he had 34 K’s in 36 IP.  He then moved up to Memphis where he went 9-4 with an ERA of 4.87, but he had 122 K’s in 122 IP.

 

6.  John Jay (no, not the First Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court), Shane Robinson, and Daryl Jones.  As crowded as the Cardinals’ outfield situation is at the Major League level, it is just as if not more so at the Minor League level.  This trio starred at Springfield, where they hit .306, .352, and .290 respectively.  Jay even earned a brief promotion to Memphis where he hit .345!  Could they make the Cardinals’ Major League outfield situation even more crowded in 2010 or 2011?

 

7.  Colby Rasmus.  His first full season at AAA Memphis was hampered by a knee injury and caused him to miss some time, including a chance to play for his country at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.  However, he is still labled by the Cardinals’ organization as “can’t miss”.  A lot of roster scenarios have him making the Major League squad and one baseball preview magazine – Lindy’s – has him winning the 2009 National League Rookie of the Year award.  However, he might need some more time at AAA to prove that he is fully recovered from his injuries.  The Cards have so much faith in him, that they have assigned him a “baseball number” – 28 – for this year’s Spring Training.

 

8.  Jarrett Hoffpauir.  A .300 hitter in 2007 at AAA Memphis, he tailed off just a bit, but still hit a respectable .273.  Is he ready to hit Major League pitching yet?  Over the long haul, could he make the Cardinals’ decision to seemingly pass on Orlando Hudson look like a smart one?  Or, perhaps, could he be ready to handle the Cardinals’ Second Base duties right now?

 

9.  Tyler Greene.  The Cardinals have shown enough faith in this kid to send him to their Rookie Development Camp.  He might need a full season at AAA before he is deemed ready for The Show.  One thing is certain.  For the the forseeable future, be he Khalil or Tyler, the Cardinals’ starting shortstop could very well have the last name of Greene.

 

Judging by what I have seen of the Cardinals’ Farm System depth, it looks like the Cardinals could be a force to be reckoned with for many years to come.  Should these prospects live to their massive potential, could this change a lot of fans’ impressions of John Mozeliak and end up making him look like a genius?  I think it is entirely possible, but only time will tell.

     Now we know that Baseball Season is upon us!  The Baseball Preview Magazines have started rolling off the presses.  The Sporting News, Lindy’s, and Athlon Sports versions hit the newsstands this week.  Street and Smith and Sports Illustrated are still to come.  In the three versions that have come out so far, the outlook isn’t all that dismal for the Cardinals.

 

 

     Unlike most of the people that post on the Cardinals’ Message Board, the writers in the baseball preview magazines are painting a far rosier picture for our beloved Redbirds.  Though none of the magazines are predicting that The Cards will return to the postseason, all three of them are predicting that the Cards WILL finish Second in the NL Central.  I think that if all pieces fit together, the cards WILL return to the postseason, but I also think that a lot is going to depend on what happens in the NL East – a division that, due to the fact that it is home to four very competitive teams, could very easily be called the “NL Beast”.

 

     The least optimistic outlook for the team comes from the pages of The Sporting News 2009 Yearbook.  It says the following:  “The Cards did very little shuffling of their deck in the offseason, and may have lost added ground to the rival Cubs.”  However, they do predict (as does Harold Reynolds of MLB Network) that Albert Pujols will repeat as NL MVP

 

     Lindy’s has Colby Rasmus winning the NL Rookie of the Year award and has hinted that Tony la Russa may finally be ready to leave the cardinals’ dugout. As for the team, Lindy’s says, “…..this just has too many question marks at too many positions to realistically expect to challenge again for 90 wins this season.”  They do project that Jason Motte and Mitchell Boggs could also be breakthrough rookies this season.

 

     Athlon’s probably provides the most potimistic outlook with regard to the team – “The Cardinals don’t have the look of a division winner, but this team is god enough to remain relevant well into September.”  As it said earlier in the article, “With baseball’s wild card berth, anything seems possible.”  The article also says, “…..a team with Pujols, Ludwick, and Glaus in the middle is not without hope.”  However, this magazine probably went to press before Glaus’ surgery.  It is widely hoped (and in some circles, believed) that David Freese can pick up a great deal of the slack caused by the Glaus injury.  Athlon’s also has the Cardinals’ roster  looking something like this:

 

Pitchers:  Chris Carpenter, Ryan Franklin, Josh Kinney, Kyle Lohse, Charlie Manning, Kyle McClellan, Trevor Miller, Jason Motte, Chris Perez, Joel Pineiro, Adam Wainwright, Todd Wellemeyer

Catchers:  Jason LaRue, Yadier Molina

Infielders:  Brian Barden, Troy Glaus, Khalil Greene, Adam Kennedy, Albert Pujols, Brendan Ryan

Outfielders:  Rick Ankiel, Chris Duncan, Ryan Ludwick, Joe Mather, Skip Schumaker

 

I agree with the magazines when I say that 2009 is not going to be as bad a year as people think.  What do you guys think? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     Over the years, be it at Winter Warm Up, Cardinal games, or at autograph shows, I have seen a lot of people walking around wearing articles of clothing that say, “St. Louis Cardinals, established 1892″.  I think it’s wonderful how people take pride in their ball team by displaying their colors.  However…..the date is, in fact, incorrect.

     To find the true origins of the St. Louis Cardinals, one would have to go back even further than that – to 1876, the same year that the Anheuser-Busch brewery was founded and our country would turn one hundred years old.  It was in that year, that another organization was founded that STILL survives to this day – the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs (the founding organization of Major League Baseball).  One of the founding teams was the St. Louis Brown Stockings.  They finished the inaugural NL season with a record of 46-19.  One of their star players was a pitcher named George Washington Bradley, a perpetually happy fellow who went by the nickname of “Grins”.        

     “Grins” would finish the year with a record of…..46-19.  He would also achieve baseball immortality when he hooked up with the Hartford Blues’ great righthander, Tommy Bond on July 15, 1876, beating him by a score of 2-0.  That game would result in the Major Leagues’ first ever no-hitter.  

     Things would not always be so good for the St. Louis franchise.  Financial problems forced the team to disband before the 1878 season.  However, the team would continue to operate as a semi-pro team for the next four years and several players from the National League team, not wanting to leave St. Louis, stayed on the roster.  It was during this time that they attracted the attention of a German-born beer baron named Chris Von der Ahe.

     Von der Ahe bought the team before the start of the 1882 campaign and set about re-establishing its status as a Major League franchise.  In 1882, he became one of the founding fathers of what would become the first on-field challenge to the National League – the American Association.  The American Association offered ball played on Sundays, 25 cent tickets, and their ball yards served liquor.  Because of this, it became commonly known as “The Beer and Whiskey League.”

 

     Von der Ahe was considered by many to be baseball’s first showman and he expected the best from his players – a sort of 19th Century combination of George Steinbrenner and Charley Finley.  He also built a brand new ballpark for his team to play in.  In 1885, the National League and the American Association decided to pit its champions against one another in a postseason championship series.  This would become known as the WORLD’S Series.  The first World’s Series featured Von der Ahe’s Brown Stockings against the National League Champion Chicago White Stockings (today known as the Cubs).  The inaugural edition of the postseason classic ended in a tie.  However, in 1886, The Brown Stockings would win the series 4 games to 2.  They would win two more consecutive American Association pennants in 1887 and 1888, thus carving themselves a niche in baseball history as the first dynasty.

 

     One of the Brown Stockings’ first stars was a man from Woodstock, Ontario, Canada who was considered to be baseball’s first Canadian-born superstar – James Edward “Tip” O’Neill.  In 1887, O’Neill shocked the baseball world when he led the American Association in batting with a staggering average of…..492!  However…..he was the beneficiary of a rather quirky rule.  In 1887, it was decided that Walks would count as Base Hits.  This gave him an unbelievable total of…..275 hits.  Not so fast.  Because there was an overabundance of .400 hitters in baseball, it was decided that the rule enacted in 1887 would be stricken from the books in time for the 1888 Campaign.  So…..O’Neill’s average would be adjusted to .435 – 11 points higher than the .424 Rogers Hornsby would hit 37 years later!  The deflated figure is the one that is still accepted in baseball record books to this day.

 

     The American Association would meet its untimely demise following the 1891 Season and four of its clubs – the Brown Stockings, the Baltimore Orioles (no, not the version that began life as the St. Louis Browns), the Cincinnati Reds, and the Brooklyn Bridegrooms (so named because in one calender year, six of their players got married) – would be absorbed by the National League.  Three of them – the Brown Stockings, the Reds, and the Bridegrooms (now the Los Angeles Dodgers) – still survive.  The Orioles, who would pretty much dominate the NL in the 1890′s, went belly up after the 1899 Season.

 

     The decade that would become known as “The Gay Nineties” would be any but for both Von der Ahe and his team.  The team’s years were mostly lean and Von der Ahe would bankrupt himself building a new ballpark after the oriiginal had been destroyed by a fire in 1898.  He would be forced to sell his beloved team at a public auction.  The buyers, Frank and Stanley Robison, also owned the Cleveland Spiders of the National League.  However, they decided that more money could be made in St. Louis.  As a result, since ownership of more than one franchise was legal at the time, they decided to transfer their best players (including Hall-of-Famers, Cy Young and Bobby Wallace) to St. Louis.  The Cleveland franchise was decimated and finished the 1899 Season with a record of 20-134…..the worst record EVER!  The 1899 St. Louis team was known as the Perfectos.

 

     The following year, they would get a new monicker.  Frank Robison’s daughter, Helene Robison Britton remarked that the teams new uniforms were “a lovely shade of Cardinal” and the rest, as they say, was history.  So, the team that a flamboyant brew meister built from the remnants of one of the National League’s charter franchises continues to thrive to this day.

A lot of people have questioned Brendan Ryan’s abilities as a Major League ball player.  I have no doubt as to the extent of Ryan’s will and desire to make it The Show.  To me, Brendan Ryan has more heart than anybody on the entire Cardinals ball club.

He did make quite a splash when he debuted in the 2007 Season, hitting .289 with 4 home runs.  I know that his stats were a little off in 2008.  In my oppinion, the main reason was that he never 100% recovered from an abdominal injury he suffered on St. Patrick’s Day when he legged out a Triple in a Spring Training game.  In a SPRING TRAINING game no less.  He suffered the injury doing what he does best…..hustling.

Let it be known here that I NEVER actually said that Brendan Ryan should be the Cardinals’ starting Shortstop.  If he does become an everyday player in The Show – all the better.  If he doesn’t – no harm, no foul.  There is nothing wrong with being a Utilityman in the Major Leagues.  A lot of guys have done it and have gone on to long and productive careers.  I can think of three right off the bat – all of them Cardinal fan favorites:

1.  John Mabry – In three tours of duty with the Cardinals (1994-98, 2001, 2004-05), John Mabry played pretty much everywhere and because of that became a fan favorite.  he was a key bench player during the Cardinals’ postseason runs in 2004 and 2005.

2.  Jose Oqunendo – With the Cardinals from 1986 to 1995, he became known as “The Secret Weapon” – an appropriate nickname considering that over the course of his career in The Show, he managed to play all nine positions.  He continues to serve the organization today as Third Base Coach.and, for the second time, will be managing the Puerto Rican entry in the World Baseball Classic.  He is also considered by many to be the leading contender to replace Tony LaRussa when he finally decides to hand over the reigns as Cardinal manager.

3.  Jim Dwyer – Started out with the Cardinals in 1973 and stayed until 1975.  He included a second tour of duty with the redbirds from 1977 to 1978 among his many stops during his 17 year career in the bigs, spent mostly as a pinch hitter/utilityman.  He was also a key member of the Orioles during their run to the 1983 World Championship.

Whether as a starter or as a utilityman, in my oppinion, Brendan Ryan has more than earned a spot on the cardinal roster.

As big a deal as is being made about the Cardinals’ weaknesses, we actually are heading to the 2009 Season with some strengths.  Among them are:

 

 

 

1.  We have a manager, Tony LaRussa, that can take a team made up mostly of spare parts and bring them in for a strong finish.

 

2.  We have three starters – Adam Wainwright, Kyle Lohse, and Todd Wellemeyer – that have proven to be very capable.  Last season, they all posted double digit wins and emerged as “inning eaters”.

 

3.  We made an upgrade at Shortstop by acquiring Khalil Greene from San Diego.

 

4.  Rick Ankiel, Ryan Ludwick, and Skip Schumaker are three of the best young outfield arms in the league.

 

5.  We have one of the best defensive catchers in baseball in Yadier Molina.

 

6.  Despite being erratic at times, Chris Perez and Jason Motte have shown a lot of promise and could end up being the closers of the future.

 

7.  Pitching Coach Dave Duncan has been known to take seemingly washed up pitchers and turn their careers around.  Case in Point – Kyle Lohse.

 

8.  After requesting a trade towards the end of last season, Adam Kennedy is entering 2009 with a renewed sense of commitment to the Cardinals.

 

9.  We have a very deep Farm System (recently rated the sixth best organization by Baseball America magazine) with a bevy of prospects – among them:  Colby Rasmus, David Freese, Bret Wallace, PJ Walters, Jarrett Hoffpauir, Blake Hawksworth, and Jess Todd – that could provide the Cardinals’ franchise with a solid core for many years to come.

 

10.  And finally…..there’s…..Big Al.

 

 

 

 

 Call me silly.  Call me crazy.  I don’t care.  I think there is a lot of potential in this ball club.  I know that on the surface, John Mozeliak looks like a complete and total moron for not being aggressive in the Free Agent marketplace this winter.  However…..with Troy Glaus out for at least 12 weeks with a shoulder injury, David Freese may have to step in to handle the Third Base duties.  So…..if all the young Farm Hands live up to their potential, John Mozeliak could end up looking like a genius.

 

Again, call me silly.  Call me crazy.  Call me what you will.  I think if all the pieces fit together, this team could be in the thick of things for the Wild Card Race.