Cardinals Approval Ratings: Introduction

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Jon Doble

If you’ve been around the United Cardinal Bloggers long enough, I’m sure everyone is aware of the Preseason Approval Ratings that Daniel at C70 at the Bat does during Spring Training. You can find them at the end of several posts or the summary in the sidebar of his page. However, I came up with a way to take it a notch further.

After consulting with Daniel about the idea (because I am basically borrowing the core idea from him), the Cardinals Approval Ratings will appear next week. Basically, I will poll the feelings of whatever Cardinals fans I can get the survey in front of and they will rank their satisfaction with the performance of the player from 0-10. The first will be the calibration to make sure this idea will work and to get a good starting number for each manager or player listed.

This will be something that I repeat in the final week of each month as the season progresses. The end goal will be to track the change in fan perception as the season goes on. Does it remain constant? Does is fluctuate with on field performance? Do recent games impact it more than others?

To me, there are several very interesting things that could be tracked and stated about these. Then each month I will do a wrap-up post where I list the summary of some of the more interesting numbers to emerge from the survey.

The inaugural list, which will probably run from Wednesday of next week until the following Tuesday, will feature Cardinals’ management and most of the players who were in Spring Training. At the bottom it will also have some survey questions that might be part of a future post at Redbird Dugout in the future. I thought it would be an interesting addition to a post to not only be able to mention my feelings, but the general feelings of Cardinals fans.

Look for the survey at the middle of next week. You can follow Redbird Dugout on Twitter or Like us on Facebook and you can get the notification there. Or you can catch the retweet from me on Twitter @jondoble.

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We Are Cardinal Nation

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Jon Doble

So by now, I’m sure everyone is aware that the 2011 Cardinals television commercials have been released online. Remember the old days when you had to watch TV to see commercials?

The new tagline this year is “We Are Cardinal Nation.” Personally, I preferred the “Play like a Cardinal” tagline of the previous couple years.

The ads feature Lance Berkman trying to pick a number, Red Schoendienst showing he’s still got it, Schumaker giving Fredbird advice, Fredbird climbing out of his tree to report to Spring Training, Matt Holliday hitting home runs with a variety of things, Fredbird cranking up the hot dog gun, and the bullpen eating donuts.

Some quick thoughts on a couple of them. On the commercial where Schumaker is giving Fredbird advice on his ‘beaking,’ it made me wonder if he got similar advice from Fredbird last season on how to play second base. Then, in the commercial with Fredbird and the hot dog gun, I’m sure the mascot gained a few fans as he tried to take Tony LaRussa out.

My personal favorite was Berkman’s attempts to pick a number. Adam Wainwright asks Berkman what number he’s going to wear and every one that he chooses has been retired by the team and Wainwright informs him of it. At one point, Berkman seems to grab a number out of thin air, “What about 85?” only to find out that it’s retired too.

A close second would have been the bullpen sharing a box of donuts. Jason Motte comes in and complains that there aren’t any more powdered donuts and Ryan Franklin sprinkles the rosin bag over the donut. Motte takes a bite and says “that’s good.” The commercial would have surpassed the Berkman commercial for me if Motte had said something to the effect of “good save” after taking a bite.

However, I’m sure the commercial with Red Schoendienst will take home the honor of favorite commercial in the voting because Cardinals fans have a sense of the history of the game. It’s one of the reasons I love the Cardinals. They have a storied past and fans that understand and respect it. And as I check the results, it currently has a 10% lead over the Hot Dog Gun commercial.

The noticeable thing to me was that Pujols was not featured in any of the commercials. He puts his arm around Fredbird at the end of the one where Fredbird is climbing out of the tree to report to Spring Training. Makes me think the team is trying to sell the other players rather than Pujols. That, in itself, could have a variety of meanings if we wanted to look into that. However, I’m a little tired of writing about Pujols lately, and I’m sure the majority of the UCB would agree.

All things considered, I love the ads. They are one of the things I look forward to every year that helps signal that the season is right around the corner. I also have a great idea for a commercial for next year. 15 days until the season begins.

What were your favorites?

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Monday Quick Hits

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Jon Doble

Happy Pi Day, everyone. These are the quick hits for Monday, March 14th, 2011.

Lohse dealing, McClellan lays claim, Garcia struggling.

Kyle Lohse may not be the question mark many expected him to be this season. Lohse has performed much better than I expected so far in Spring Training. Through his first 13 innings thrown, he has allowed just 2 runs and 8 hits over his 3 starts. Seeing as he missed most of last season with injury and hasn’t been effective since 2008, this is really good news for Cardinals fans. Hopefully he will be able to carry on this success into the regular season.

While Tony LaRussa claims that Kyle McClellan has yet to lock up the fifth starter’s role, the general expectation is that he does. McClellan is the best performer out of the realistic contenders for the role, allowing just a single earned run over his 7 innings on the mound. Is LaRussa simply trying to continue to motivate McClellan with the statement? Probably. But count me still among the folk that would prefer McClellan to return to his role in the bullpen as quickly as possible. Hopefully he can prove me wrong.

The question mark was supposed to be Lohse, however it’s more and more looking like it could be Jaime Garcia. In his 9 innings this season, he’s allowed 18 hits and 10 earned runs and is the only Cardinals pitcher to allow multiple home runs. Is it regression, the league catching up to him, or just that he’s not honed in yet? Only Garcia knows and only time will tell. If he regresses to fifth starter status, it hurts the Cardinals who were expecting him to be a solid #2 or #3 pitcher for them this season.

Matt Carpenter, trade bait?

Third base prospect Matt Carpenter has made the most of his chances in Spring Training. With expected opening day third baseman David Freese being eased into games by the organization, Carpenter has gotten a chance to get regular at bats. Then, the other day, Tony LaRussa was downright glowing in his statements about Carpenter and his ability, saying that “He’s going to play in the big leagues. When, I don’t know.”

Many Cardinals fans, including myself, give LaRussa a tough time about his lack of belief in the younger players on the roster and making it extremely difficult on them to get a chance and make the most of it. However, LaRussa’s changing sentiment has me wondering why.

With Freese in St. Louis and Zack Cox on the way, the organization seems to have a small back log at the hot corner. That could mean a potential trade for Carpenter who turned himself into a prospect of note last season when he hit .316 with 12 HR and 53 RBI for Springfield. Considering that the team will most likely consider their top prospect Shelby Miller off limits in trade discussions, that would make Carpenter their best trade piece.

It is almost for certain that he will begin the season in Memphis unless something happens to David Freese considering that Carpenter is not as versatile as the other players he is competing for a bench spot with. But he has certainly made himself a name among Cardinal fans as a potential option at third base with his 13-for-30 with 2 HR spring.

Salas looking strong for bullpen spot.

Fernando Salas spent a lot of last season bouncing between Memphis and St. Louis. Through that he became known to Cardinals fans as he made 27 appearances and posted a 3.52 ERA. So far in March, Salas has thrown 7 scoreless innings and allowed just a single hit. For Cardinals pitchers in Spring Training this year, that is the top performance.

The 25 year old right hander is my personal choice to succeed Ryan Franklin as closer of the St. Louis Cardinals in 2012. In 2008 he was Springfield’s closer and saved 25 games, and in 2010 he spent most of it as Memphis’ closer and saved another 19. So he has experience and success in the closer’s role.

His closest competition would seem to be Bryan Augenstein who has allowed only a single run in his 6 innings this spring and just 2 hits. Augenstein, 24, was a waiver pickup from the Diamondbacks that many people mocked after he debuted last season with a 7.94 ERA in 2 starts and 5 appearances for the Dbacks. He had yet to find success at AA either with a 6.32 ERA over the last two seasons with Reno, the Dbacks AAA affiliate. Seems like it was a solid choice for the Cardinals after all and he could definitely fill the role that Salas played in 2010 as he bounced between Memphis and St. Louis as the team needed another bullpen arm.

Can we trust Lance Berkman in right field?

Call me wary that we signed him originally to play outfield when he hadn’t played regularly since 2004. Then he complained about tenderness in his right elbow after his first spring training game and has been handled with kid gloves as he’s played pretty much only designated hitter.

Having not played the outfield, of course returning there regularly is going to result in some discomfort. The questions are: Would he be playing if it were a regular season game? And how does he handle the potential discomfort during the season?

I believe if it were the regular season he would be playing in the outfield regularly. However, the question of how does he handle that pain or discomfort when he has to play everyday when it comes to batting and throwing out a runner who is trying to advance from first to third on a ball to right field.

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March 14th Quick Hits

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Jon Doble

Happy Pi Day, everyone

Lohse dealing, McClellan lays claim, Garcia struggling.

Kyle Lohse may not be the question mark many expected him to be this season. Lohse has performed much better than I expected so far in Spring Training. Through his first 13 innings thrown, he has allowed just 2 runs and 8 hits over his 3 starts. Seeing as he missed most of last season with injury and hasn’t been effective since 2008, this is really good news for Cardinals fans. Hopefully he will be able to carry on this success into the regular season.

While Tony LaRussa claims that Kyle McClellan has yet to lock up the fifth starter’s role, the general expectation is that he does. McClellan is the best performer out of the realistic contenders for the role, allowing just a single earned run over his 7 innings on the mound. Is LaRussa simply trying to continue to motivate McClellan with the statement? Probably. But count me still among the folk that would prefer McClellan to return to his role in the bullpen as quickly as possible. Hopefully he can prove me wrong.

The question mark was supposed to be Lohse, however it’s more and more looking like it could be Jaime Garcia. In his 9 innings this season, he’s allowed 18 hits and 10 earned runs and is the only Cardinals pitcher to allow multiple home runs. Is it regression, the league catching up to him, or just that he’s not honed in yet? Only Garcia knows and only time will tell. If he regresses to fifth starter status, it hurts the Cardinals who were expecting him to be a solid #2 or #3 pitcher for them this season.

Continue reading →

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Is Chris Carpenter a #1 pitcher?

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Jon Doble

The title is the question we’ve all been asking ourselves for a little over two weeks now as we consider the ramifications of the loss of Adam Wainwright.

Adam Wainwright, 29, was a first round draft pick of the Atlanta Braves. He made four Baseball America top-100 prospect lists, the last one in his first season in the St. Louis Cardinals’ system. He was considered the Braves’ top pitching prospect at the time and the trade ended up being a major steal for the Cardinals’ organization.

His first full season in the big leagues was 2006 and he was tested by fire as he was named the Cardinals’ closer late in the season and then through the playoffs on the team’s playoff run. He was destined to be something special as he moved into the rotation the following year.

But last year, Wainwright’s 20 win season signified something greater than just a great season, to me and a lot of other Cardinals fans, it signified the passing of the torch as the Cardinals’ #1 pitcher from Chris Carpenter to the younger Wainwright.

Carpenter, 35, was a first round pick of the Toronto Blue Jays in 1993. Along with Roy Halladay, who you may have heard of, they were supposed to be the top of the Jays rotation for years to come. He made three Baseball America top-100 prospect lists with the Jays. However, injury derailed Carpenter’s career and ultimately he was released by Toronto.

The Cardinals took a chance on Carpenter, who was 27 at the time, by signing him to a two-year deal. They basically paid him to rehab from his latest injury, which Carpenter has said was a deciding factor in his decision to accept St. Louis’ offer. He would make his Cardinals debut in 2004, notching 15 wins. However it was his 2005 season that assumed the mantle of #1 starter as he won 21 games on his way to the Cy Young Award.

Over the offseason, the organization was relaxed about the prospects of it’s starting rotation. It had Adam Wainwright, who had finished in the top-3 in Cy Young voting the previous two seasons, as it’s #1 pitcher. It had Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter right behind him. Young Jamie Garcia was coming off an impressive rookie year that placed him third in rookie voting. Veteran Jake Westbrook had finally been acquired by the Cardinals and had pitched phenomenally over his starts with the Cardinals. The back end would be Kyle Lohse who was coming back from injury but had yet to live up to his big contract signed after 2008 when he won 15 games for the big birds.

That optimism didn’t last very long. On February 23rd, news came down that Adam Wainwright was being sent back to St. Louis for tests on his throwing elbow. The dreaded words “Tommy John” were used by Cardinals’ GM John Mozeliak. The following Monday, Wainwright was under the knife and officially out for the rest of the season.

Cardinals’ fans began looking at Chris Carpenter with increased criticism. Could the former ace regain his form?

The most recent memory in Cardinals’ fans’ heads for Chris Carpenter is the month of September of 2010. Or more specifically, September 10th in Atlanta (5 IP, 6 ER), the 15th against Chicago (6.1 IP, 5 ER), and the 20th in Florida (6 IP, 4 ER). The talk over the winter was how fans didn’t trust Carpenter to be the go-to guy anymore and how the Cardinals’ rotation was no longer headed by a pair of aces.

I’ll admit, I was in this group as well. Despite the solid ERA, his win totals were dropping. According to ERA+ he had been the best pitcher in the league in 2009, but fell far from that number in 2010. Was he aging and had he begun his decline?

Then I decided to look at the numbers. Over the first five months of the season, Chris Carpenter had a 2.92 ERA and was 14-5. He’d thrown 197.1 innings. Having thrown just 192 innings the year before, his first full season back after injury, Carpenter had already exceeded both his innings total and his starts total from the year before.

In his six starts in September, Carpenter struggled in those three starts, and put up a combined 4.78 ERA and a 2-4 record. But his final start of the season was a complete game only allowing one run. So he still showed that he has that ability.

While I doubt his 2011 season will be as impressive as Wainwright’s 2010 season, with some improved offensive help he could easily be a 20 game winner.

The Cardinals were 22-13 in games that he started, while they were only 20-13 in games that Wainwright started.

What does this tell me?

Chris Carpenter still appears to be capable of commanding the top of the rotation. Is he the pitcher that he once was? No. But he threw a ton of innings last year and should be solid to go just above 200 innings again this year with a very good ERA.

A solid season by Carpenter combined with improvement from Garcia, a full season of Westbrook, and a decent season by Lohse that isn’t hindered by injury and the Cardinals will be capable of contending in the division.

As with last season, I think the Cardinals’ success will be defined by the offense, not the pitching staff.

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