LaRussa's Cardinals

My Cardinal posts have all had similar themes this season - blah blah blah, the overachieving Cardinals continue to win even though no one expects them to. Players you have never heard of are overachieving and together they are doing something special.

Well here is another post that falls right in line with the same message. Only thing is that lots of people - everyone really - is beginning to notice what Tony Larussa and the Cardinals are doing this season. Articles are pouring in all over the place, from ESPN to Sporting News to even the New York Times. Here are a few good ones:

• ESPN talks LaRussa and St Louis Cardinals Success - Very interesting article on the front page of ESPN.com this evening. Talks about how the Cards have not had an easy season - 2nd most appearances this season on the DL by any team, most blown saves of any team this season in all of baseball, and 74 different lineups through 82 games. Did you know LaRussa has been the Cardinals manager for 13 seasons? Pretty Cool.
• Sporting News piece focuses on LaRussa and Dave Duncan, long time pitching coach. What Duncan has done with a rotation of has-beens fully solidifies his place among the great pitching coaches of all time. As a former catcher, he has a great perspective on pitching that pushes pitchers to use their heads as much as their arms. Countless hours of studying hitters is a Duncan trademark.
  
• New York Times piece on Ryan Ludwick, journeyman outfielder having a breakout year for the Cardinals. Its good to see a 30 year old that has had 2800 at bats in the minor leagues "sticking" in the big leagues.
  

LaRussa is the real story here. With over 2400 wins as a Manager for the White Sox, A's, and Cardinals (1100 wins), he is 3rd place all time on the Managing win list. Third . . . of all time . . . trailing only Connie Mack and John McGraw. Ahead of Bobby Cox, Sparky Anderson, Joe Torre, and anyone other great managers you can think of. A lock for the Hall of Fame, and one of only two managers to win a World Series in both the AL and the NL (A's in 1989, Cardinals in 2006).

Coaching stability is too often taken for granted, especially by fans. LaRussa is the foundation that has allowed our team to be relevant and competitive for a long time, including a fantastic World Series Championship in 2006. He has gotten plenty of credit through the years, but with his best managing job possibility occurring this season, its time he gets his full due. Kudos Tony. Ok love fest is over . . . Cubs are coming to town in t-minus 45 hours . . .

Who said trouble?

In my most recent post last Friday, I was pulling a Randy Quaid on the Cardinals road trip to Fenway this past weekend. After getting swept by the Royals at home, and having 4 key players on the DL, I figured a trip to Fenway would send us reeling. Instead, we won 2 out of 3 in dominating fashion, and took the third game into extra innings, before losing in the bottom of the 13th. This team will just not give up and has yet to stop surprising everyone.

The Cardinals currently sit at 3.5 games back in the Central, with the 2nd best record in the National League, 5th best in all of baseball. The Cubs are still winning to of course, as they swept the cross town Chicago White Sox this past weekend. As I have mentioned before, the Cards and Cubs have lots of big series in late August that will determine the division crown. The Cardinals just need to hang in there and stay within striking distance, and then see what happens. Certainly the Cubs cannot continue all summer at this pace. Zambrano and Soriano are hurt, so maybe they are coming back down to earth.

Interesting Tribune article about the Cubs having success with former Cardinals. I praised the day we got rid of Jim Edmonds, because he is just too old to be effective and stay healthy. Sticking with the theme of the Cardinals season, Jimmy is proving me wrong, at least so far in Chicago. Getting younger and developing minor league talent has been a huge organizational goal since the Cardinals won the World Series in 2006. An overview of a few of the Cardinals top prospects is here, including a few Memphis Redbirds players.

Developing talent through the farm system is not only the best way to get young players, but also the best way to get cheap players. In baseball, players have no ability to be a free agent until they have given 6 years of service. If you draft well, then develop well, you can have 3 years or so of super cheap production. Ryan Ludwick, for instance, makes $411,000 this season . . . yet he is batting .300, with 16 home runs and 57 RBI, putting him easily as one of the top 5 outfielders in the national league, production wise, so far this year. He cannot sign with another team I believe for one more year. There certainly won't be many players with that much value, but at least 2 or 3 on your team at all times is definitely needed to win a championship.

The Cards won last night in Detroit, again in dominating fashion, 8-4. Next weekend, the Cards host the Cubs in a big July 4th series. With Pujols coming back, it would be nice to take advantage, since the Cubs may still have Zambrano and Soriano out. Lets go Cards

The Cardinals of the Vatican

Despite the pre-season prediction by the Pope that the Cardinals would be under .500, his Cardinals have risen above expectation as the season nears the 1/3 mark. Sitting at 28-21, 1 game out of 1st place in the NL Central behind the Chicago Cubs, the Cardinals have overachieved in the eyes of many.

Heading into the season, the Cardinals gave the prognosticators very little reason for hope:

• Ace Chris Carpenter would be out until at least the All Star break.



• Former World Series MVP shortstop David Eckstein, as well as multi-year gold glove center fielder Jim Edmonds were not resigned.



• The starting outfield on paper consisted of Chris Duncan, a former pitcher (Ankiel), and two minor league players from 2007 (Schumaker and Ludwick).



• The starting middle infield was not set, with 3 guys who are 5 foot 9, 5 foot 8, and 6 foot 1, none of which ever doing much in the big leagues (Cesar Izturis, Aaron Miles, Adam Kennedy)



• The pitching staff was a completely scattered picture, top two projected pitchers being Adam Wainwright and Braden Looper, both unproven and in their 2nd years of being starting pitchers in the big leagues. The rest of the rotation was completely up in the air.

How could anyone predict that this team - combined with a resurgent Cubs, and a young but talented Brewers squad ready to break out - could challenge in the NL Central? Quite simply, no one could. Anything other than predicting 2008 to be a season of transition and rebuilding would have been ludicrous.

How have they done it? First the easy, objective stats (all as of May 22nd):

BATTING

• 1st in Batting Average in the NL with a .284 clip



• Two batters in top 6th in NL in batting average (Pujols 4th with .351 and Ludwick 6th with .336)



• 1st in NL in On Base Percentage with .371



• 3rd in the NL in OPS (on base plus slugging) with a .792; Cubs have .814, tops in league

Most all of the players are overachieving, and the smaller guys are getting on base. Former pitcher Rick Ankiel has had an uber-strong performance in his first full year batting (.289, 8, 29), as has Ryan Ludwick, all of the sudden the team's top power hitter (.336, 12, 35). Pujols has been doing his thing as well (.351, 11, 31). Hitting at those team clips will be difficult with so many young and inexperienced players. But hey, they've proved the Vatican wrong so far.

PITCHING

• 4th fewest Walks in the NL



• Only 14th out of 16 teams in NL in strikeouts (not good - but the 4th best fielding % in the NL has made up for this shortcoming)



• Given up the 5th fewest runs in the NL



• 3 Starting Pitchers in top 30 ERAs in NL (Wellemeyer, Wainwright, Looper)

All in all, the starting pitching has been solid, with no great performances, but more important minimal bad ones. Joel Pineiro has been the 5th starter this year, and his ERA has been 4.50, which is not awful considering he is the teams 5th pitcher. I dont have stats right in front of me, but the bullpen has done well, despite some missed saves from Jason Isringhausen. All in all, Dave Duncan has gotten all his starters to be competitive, and keep the game close.

(You can find all the ESPN.com team stats by clicking here. You can find all the player stats here. You can modify and sort easily by anything - very interesting for us stat nerds out there)

Looking through all the statistics, this team has succeeded largely due to two men: Head coach Tony Larussa and pitching coach Dave Duncan. Larussa has created a team chemistry that produces a very professional, hard working team that comes to play every day, every at bat. That sounds cliche doesn't it? Other sports don't have 162 games like baseball does. The clubhouse atmosphere and values of the coach are his single biggest contribution to the team, unlike football, where strategy might be as important. Kudos to Larussa.

Dave Duncan's has created a top third staff in the NL out of a group of inexperienced kids and journeymen. Just think how this team would be if Mulder was ever healthy, and when Carpenter comes back? I don't know this man does it, but Chris's dad simply produces a staff that keeps the team competitive in nearly every game. Being a former big league catcher must have something to do with it.

The Pope looks forward to a meaningful summer of baseball, filled with significant match-ups with Central leader and chief rival, the Chicago Cubs. The Pope doesn't predict after the season's one third point, but hopefully my initial prediction of .500 will be wrong.