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Archive for October, 2011

Cardinals, Rangers deals: Jim Bibby to Fernando Tatis

Posted in Games, Opponents, Trades on October 18, 2011| Leave a Comment »

(Updated May 25, 2019)

The history between the Cardinals and Rangers is highlighted by the seven-game World Series they played in 2011. Before then, their interactions were more quirky than rich.

Since the Washington Senators relocated to Texas and became the Rangers after the 1971 season, they have made some noteworthy trades with the Cardinals.

The Rangers also launched the managerial career of one of the Cardinals’ legends, Whitey Herzog, who was 47-91 with Texas in 1973.

Here’s a look at some of the deals between the Rangers and Cardinals:

_ Cardinals send pitcher Jim Bibby to the Rangers for pitcher Mike Nagy and catcher John Wockenfuss, June 6, 1973: The trade was a bust for St. Louis. Bibby, seldom used by the Cardinals, became a 19-game winner for Texas in 1974. The right-hander recorded 111 wins in a 12-year big-league career.

Herzog had pushed for the Rangers to acquire Bibby. When Herzog was farm director of the Mets, Bibby was a prospect in New York’s minor league system.

At the time of the trade, Cardinals general manager Bing Devine told The Sporting News, “Whitey said Bibby has a better arm than half his pitchers.”

Nagy never won a game for the Cardinals and Wockenfuss (who became a reliable utility player for the Tigers) never played a regular-season game for St. Louis.

_ Cardinals send outfielder Tommy Cruz and cash to the Rangers for pitcher Sonny Siebert, Oct. 26, 1973: Cruz, the middle of the trio of outfielder brothers for St. Louis (Jose and Hector were the others), never played a regular-season game for Texas.

Siebert, a St. Mary, Mo., native who had success with the Indians and Red Sox, realized a lifelong dream by joining the Cardinals. He had been a high school basketball standout in suburban St. Louis and had been a baseball and basketball player at the University of Missouri.

Siebert, 37, opened the 1974 season in the Cardinals’ rotation. He was 6-3 with a 1.98 ERA on June 10. He finished the season 8-8 with a 3.84 ERA.

The right-hander’s most memorable win for St. Louis came on Sept. 11, 1974, at Shea Stadium in the Cardinals’ 4-3 25-inning victory over the Mets. Siebert pitched 2.1 innings of scoreless relief to earn the win, his last as a Cardinal. Boxscore

_ Cardinals send shortstop Eddie Brinkman and pitcher Tommy Moore to the Rangers for outfielder Willie Davis, June 4, 1975: St. Louis acquired the mercurial Davis with the hope his offense would spark them to a championship in 1975. Though the Cardinals fell short, Davis mostly delivered, filling in for injured outfielders Bake McBride and Reggie Smith.

Davis batted .291 with 50 RBI in 98 games. Brinkman, the Cardinals’ Opening Day shortstop, played one game for cash-strapped Texas before he was peddled to the Yankees. Moore never won a game for the Rangers.

Davis, 35, had clashed with Rangers manager Billy Martin. He staged a sitdown protest in center field when teammate Steve Hargan failed to hit a batter in retaliation after Davis was brushed back by an opponent’s pitch. Davis also irked Texas general manager Dan O’Brien by repeatedly asking for advances in his salary. “At some point, you’ve got to draw the line,” O’Brien told United Press International.

The trade was popular with Cardinals players. St. Louis second baseman Ted Sizemore, who had been Davis’ teammate with the Dodgers, told the Associated Press, “The man can play. He comes to play. He likes to play.”

Said Davis to The Sporting News: “With the Cardinals, I know I can play baseball again without being suppressed. I can be loose again.”

By September, though, Davis’ personal and financial problems caught up with him. He refused to play some games while his wife pursued an alimony case that threatened to restrict his wages. After the season, when he demanded a five-year contract for $1 million, the Cardinals traded him to the Padres.

_ Cardinals send shortstop Royce Clayton and pitcher Todd Stottlemyre to the Rangers for pitcher Darren Oliver, third baseman Fernando Tatis and outfielder Mark Little, July 31, 1998: Clayton and Stottlemyre were eligible to become free agents after the season and the Cardinals were uncertain they could re-sign them.

On the day of the trade, Texas was a game behind the first-place Angels in the American League West. The Cardinals were six games under .500 and 13.5 games behind the first-place Astros in the National League Central.

Clayton hit .285 for Texas in 1998 and Stottlemyre won five of 10 starts, helping the Rangers win the division title. St. Louis general manager Walt Jocketty, meanwhile, was positioning for the future.

“The guy we liked is Tatis,” Jocketty told The Sporting News when the trade was made. “We needed to find a third baseman and he was the best guy available.”

Tatis slugged 34 home runs for the Cardinals in 1999 and contributed to their division championship season in 2000.

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2011 Cardinals came long way in makeup of bullpen

Posted in Pitchers on October 16, 2011| 1 Comment »

(Updated Dec. 15, 2016)

A dominant bullpen contributed to the success of the Cardinals’ 2011 postseason, resulting in a World Series championship. To fully appreciate how far the Cardinals’ bullpen progressed, it’s important to look back to where it was on Opening Day in 2011.

Consider:

_ Of the seven relievers on the Cardinals’ 2011 Opening Day roster, only two, Mitchell Boggs and Jason Motte, remained with the team in the postseason.

_ Five of the Cardinals’ relievers on Opening Day were Bryan Augenstein, Miguel Batista, Ryan Franklin, Trever Miller and Brian Tallet. None remained with the team in the postseason.

_ Opponents batted .367 in 27.2 innings against Franklin, who opened the season as St. Louis’ closer. Since 1996, the Cardinals’ first season with manager Tony La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan, only one St. Louis pitcher had a higher batting average against in 27 or more innings: Mike Maroth, whom opponents batted .394 against in 38 innings in 2007.

_ The quartet of Augenstein (.407 batting average against in 5.2 innings), Franklin (.367 in 27.2 innings), Miller (.306 in 15.2 innings) and Tallet (.339 in 13 innings) all allowed opponents to bat better than .300 against them in 2011.

_ The 26 blown saves by the 2011 Cardinals during the regular season were the most by any of the nine St. Louis teams to make the postseason since the arrival of La Russa and Duncan.

_ Only three Cardinals teams under La Russa and Duncan qualified for the postseason while failing to successfully convert at least 65 percent of their save opportunities. Those teams: 1996 Cardinals (64 percent, with 43 saves in 67 chances), 2000 Cardinals (63 percent, with 37 saves in 59 chances) and 2011 Cardinals (64 percent, with 47 saves in 73 chances).

_ The trio of Batista, Franklin and Miller had seven blown saves in nine opportunities in 2011, setting a terrible early-season pattern for the Cardinals.

_ Once help arrived for the bullpen, the Cardinals found an effective mix. Six Cardinals relievers held opponents to batting averages of .207 or less during the 2011 regular season: right-handers Eduardo Sanchez (.144 batting average against), Octavio Dotel (.182), Fernando Salas (.186), Motte (.202), Lance Lynn (.203) and left-hander Arthur Rhodes (.207).

_ The trio of Dotel, Salas and Sanchez in 2011 were the first Cardinals to each pitch at least 24 innings and hold opponents to a regular-season batting average of less than .200 since Troy Percival (.171), Jason Isringhausen (.179) and Russ Springer (.181) in 2007.

_ Three Cardinals relievers each pitched at least 22 innings and held opponents to one home run apiece during the regular season: Dotel, left-hander Marc Rzepczynski and Sanchez. To put into perspective how important that was to the bullpen’s turnaround, consider that Franklin yielded nine homers in 27.2 innings and Tallet gave up four homers in 13 innings.

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Roger Craig, Ron Taylor: Great relief for Cardinals

Posted in Games, Pitchers on October 14, 2011| 8 Comments »

One of the Cardinals’ best single-game postseason relief efforts was performed by Roger Craig and Ron Taylor in the crucial Game 4 of the 1964 World Series at Yankee Stadium.

Craig and Taylor pitched 8.2 innings of scoreless relief, limiting the Yankees to two hits, in the Cardinals’ 4-3 victory on Oct. 11, 1964. Boxscore The win evened the series at 2-2 and repositioned the Cardinals to clinch the championship in seven games.

Few could have predicted Craig and Taylor would shut down the Yankees. Though the Cardinals sizzled in September to overtake the Phillies and win the pennant on the final day of the regular season, Craig and Taylor stumbled to the finish.

Craig started in eight of his last nine regular-season appearances and was 1-4 in his last six starts. Taylor surrendered eight runs over 7.1 innings in his last five regular-season relief appearances.

Until Game 4, Craig and Taylor made their marks in the World Series off the field.

Before Game 2 at St. Louis, Craig and his road roommate, catcher Bob Uecker, walked out to left field, where a band was entertaining the crowd. “Uecker borrowed a tuba and blew vigorously without too much success as Craig popped baseballs into the tuba Uecker was blowing,” The Sporting News reported.

Meanwhile, Taylor was collaborating with journalist Neil MacCarl on World Series articles for his hometown Toronto Star.

Ray Sadecki, a 20-game winner in 1964, started Game 4 for St. Louis but was ineffective. The Yankees scored twice against the left-hander in the first inning and had Roger Maris at third base with one out when Cardinals manager Johnny Keane lifted Sadecki for Craig.

The first batter Craig faced was Elston Howard. The catcher singled, scoring Maris from third and giving New York a 3-0 lead. Craig then struck out Tom Tresh and retired Joe Pepitone on a flyout to right.

From then on, Craig was in control. He struck out the side in the second and in the fourth. He picked off Mickey Mantle at second base. In 4.2 innings, Craig struck out eight and yielded two hits.

“I was throwing mostly breaking stuff, ” Craig said. “My curve was breaking so big it had the batters ducking away.”

When Craig was lifted after the fifth inning, the Yankees maintained their 3-0 lead, but in the sixth Cardinals third baseman Ken Boyer hit one of the biggest home runs in franchise history _ a grand slam against Al Downing. Video

Taylor entered to pitch the bottom of the sixth with a 4-3 lead.

“After I got that homer off a high changeup, I told Taylor to keep ’em fast and low. He did,” Boyer told the Associated Press.

Relying mostly on fastballs, Taylor pitched four scoreless, hitless innings to earn the save for Craig.

Said Taylor: “Kenny told me as I came out that I ought to keep the ball low and fast. I did, and I threw a few curves and sliders. But I kept it low and no changeups. It was the biggest thrill of my life to help win the game.”

Only one batter, Johnny Blanchard, who flew out to center, hit a ball out of the infield against Taylor. Eight of the 12 outs he recorded were groundouts, including all three in the ninth inning.

“We didn’t do much toward the end of the season,” Craig said, referring to he and Taylor. “We wondered if we’d get a chance in the Series. Our pride was hurt. And we talked about it in the bullpen.”

Said Keane: “I’ve never seen them better. They were absolutely great.”

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