I now give you my 2010 Cardinal predictions.  Better than ANY baseball preview rag.

 

Here we go:

 

1.  Big Al will become a .350, 50, 150 man enroute to his fourth NL MVP Award – third in a row.

2.  “The Stillwater Stinger will become a .300, 30, 100 man this year.

3.  Felipe Lopez will sign with the Cardinals.

4.  Mitchell Boggs, Allen Craig, Jaimie Garcia, and Joe Mather will make their first Opening Day rosters.

5.  Twitch will win his first Gold Glove and hit over .290 again.

6.  Carp and A-Dub will BOTH win 20 games, causing another split in the Cy Young vote and enabling a possible Tim Lincecum THREE-peat.  A-Dub will K more than 200 again.

7.  2010 will be Tony’s last as Cardinal manager.  Jose Oquendo will take over in 2011.

8.  The Cardinal starting rotation will log around 1000 Innings Pitched.

9.  Big Al, Yadi, “The Stinger”, Carp, and A-Dub will make the NL All-Star Team.  Big Al, Yadi, “The Stinger”, and A-Dub will start.

10.  Skip Schumaker will hit .300 again.

11. Carp will repeat as ERA Champ.

12.  Big Al and “The Stillwater Stinger” will win Silver Slugger awards.

13.  The Cards will host a “Stillwater Stinger” Bobblehead Day.

14.  John Mozeliak will be named National League Executive of the Year.

15.  The Cardinals will win between 90-95 games and win the NL Central by 7 games.

16.  BOTH the Reds AND the Brewers will finish ahead of the Cubs.

17.  Due to excess media pressure, Mark McGwire may step down as Cardinal hitting coach.

18.  Big Al and the Cardinals will get an extension done – 7 years/$161 mil.

19.  Kyle Lohse will rebound and win between 13-15 games.

20.  Brad Penny will win 13 games and sign an extension for 2011.

21.  Lefty will start a blog. 

and finally…..

This one’s for you, Rex…..

22.  The Cubs will continue to be dead. 

I now present my 2010 St. Louis Cardinal roster:

 

PITCHERS:

Mitchell Boggs

Chris Carpenter

Ryan Franklin

Jaimie Garcia

Blake Hawksworth

Kyle Lohse

Kyle McClellan

Trever Miller

Jason Motte

Brad Penny

Dennys Reyes

Adam Wainwright

 

CATCHERS:

Jason LaRue

Yadier Molina

 

INFIELDERS:

Allen Craig

David Freese

Felipe Lopez

Julio Lugo

Albert Pujols

Skip Schumaker

Brendan Ryan

 

OUTFIELDERS:

Matt Holliday

Ryan Ludwick

Joe Mather

Colby Rasmus

 

     Lately, one of the not new statistics used to evaluate pitchers is the WHIP – which stands for Walks+Hits per Innings Pitched.  It is a good indicator of how good a pitcher’s command and control are and whether he is able to keep a ballgame from getting away from him.  It was actually one of the stats used in deciding the 2009 Cy Young Award Race between Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, and Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants.  The rankings of the Cardinal pitching staff in 2009 by order of their WHIP’s was as follows:

 

1.  Trevor Miller – 0.97

2.  Chris Carpenter – 1.01

3.  Blake Hawksworth – 1.10

4.  Joel Pineiro – 1.14

5.  Ryan Franklin – 1.20

6.  Adam Wainwright – 1.21

7.  Kyle McClellan – 1.35

8.  Dennys Reyes – 1.36

9.  Kyle Lohse – 1.37

10.  Jason Motte – 1.42

11.  Todd Wellemeyer – 1.77

12.  Mitchell Boggs – 1.79

 

For comparison purposes:

Brad Penny (BOS/SF) – 1.41

Brad Penny (SF Only) – 0.97

John Smoltz (BOS/Cards) – 1.45

John Smoltz (Cards Only) – 1.18

 

For Compariosn purposes in the 2009 Cy Young Award voting:

Tim Lincecum (SF Giants) – 1.04

 

    Judging by his WHIP with SF Only in 2009, Brad Penny is a low risk, potentially high reward signing for the Cards.  WHIP-wise, we are getting a more than adequate replacement for Joel Pineiro. 

The Stillwater Stinger was a great addition last season down the stretch.  He helped us to our first posteason berth since 2006.  He should be an even better addition for us over the next 7 years because, over the course of his relatively short, but brilliant career, Matt Holliday has made a habit of feasting on NL Central Pitching.

 

First, let’s break it down team-by-team:

 

Against our hated arch rivals, the Cubs:

109 AB, 33 H, 4 HR, 13 RBI, .303 AVG.

 

Against the Up-and-Coming Reds:

129 AB, 41 H, 3 HR, 15 RBI, .318 AVG.

 

Against the possibly cellar bound Astros:

114 AB, 42 H, 5 HR, 18 RBI, .368 AVG.

 

Against “Bug Eyes” Braun, Prince “The Revolting Blob” Fielder and the rest of The Brew Crew:

117 AB, 47 H, 8 HR, 26 RBI, .402 AVG.

 

And, finally, the Pirates:

168 AB, 52 H, 11 HR, 29 RBI, .310 AVG.

 

Overall against NL Central Pitching, he is:

637 AB, 215 H, 31 HR, 101 RBI, .338 AVG.

 

A couple of teams to consider come Postseason time:

 

The Dodgers:

312 AB, 107 H, 18 HR, 63 RBI, .343 AVG.

 

The Phillies:

126 AB, 37 H, 11 HR, 34 RBI, .294 AVG.

 

Numbers to keep in mind when the first Holliday vs. Bay showdown rolls around, against the Mets, he is:

135 AB, 40 H, 5 HR, 27 RBI, .296 AVG.

 

Hopefully, he can add to these numbers against the cross-state rival, Royals in June:

30 AB, 11 H, 2 HR, 8 RBI, .367 AVG.

 

And last, but certainly not least, should we make it to the Fall Classic, he has posted the following numbers against the Yankees:

33 AB, 11 H, 1 HR, 7 RBI, .333 AVG.

 

All-in-all, I would say that “The Stillwater Stinger” is a very valuable weapon in the Cardinals’ offensive arsenal.

 

     I went to Winter Warm Up today and today only to get one player’s autograph.  That player?  Matt Holliday.  I thought that Matt needed a nickname.  An official Give Matt a Nickname thread was started on the message board.  A bunch of different names were floated about and one of the ones that people liked was “The Stillwater Stinger”

     I thought that it was apporpriate because Matt Holliday hails from Stillwater, OK.  I went a little further in my reasoning and tried to draw parallels between Matt Holliday and Mickey Mantle

 

1.  Both hail from Oklahoma

2.  Both actually grew up Cardinal fans.

3.  Matt is wearing number 7 like Mickey did.

4.  Since Mickey was nicknamed, “The Commerce Comet”, I thought “The Stillwater Stinger” sounded catchy.

 

     When I got to the WWU, I got my Holliday tickets at the Will Call Window.  I was pleased to see that I got numbers 34 & 35.  I decided that I was going to try and get Matt to put “Stillwater Stinger” under his signature on my baseballs.  At first, I wasn’t sure he would go along with it, but I decided to give it a try anyway.  What’s the worst he could say?  No?  After about 15 minutes, it came to be my turn.  I got up to his autograph station and told him my plan.  After explaining why I chose that nickname, he laughed and said, “I love it.”  He then signed my two baseballs “Matt Holliday – Stillwater Stinger”.

     After that, I told the nickname to Pat Parris (who signed my WWU pass) and he liked it too.  He also said he was he was going to consider using the nickname on Cardinals Live broadcasts this season.

     My son and I now have baseballs signed “Matt Holliday – Stillwater Stinger” and Matt has a new nickname – approval for which came from none other than Matt himself.  Later, I was reading the online edition of the Post Dispatch and the “Sillwater Stinger” nickname was posted in the accompanying article about his Winter Warm Up debut.

     Matt Holliday is now “The Stillwater Stinger”.