SAVING FACE: Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina and closer Edward Mujica celebrate last night’s 6-3 win over the Mets. St. Louis has the NL’s best record, says Joel Sherman, because of the way the team is run. (AP)
The Cardinals, in many ways, are the Yankees. They have a ton of history, but they are not resting on it.
Like the Yankees, the Cardinals have had many reasons to cave this year (and last), but own the best record in the NL after beating the Mets 6-3 last night, because of an infrastructure that has made them a model franchise.
St. Louis won a championship in 2011 and promptly lost its Hall-of-Fame-bound manager (Tony La Russa), arguably the best pitching coach ever (Dave Duncan) and perhaps — apologies to Stan Musial — its best player ever (Albert Pujols), yet still went to Game 7 of the NLCS.
This year, the Cardinals’ devastation might not be as thorough as the Yankees’ has been, but they have not — and may not — get an inning from their ace (Chris Carpenter), closer (Jason Motte) and shortstop (Rafael Furcal). Their bullpen has been a mess and ’11 postseason hero David Freese has been unproductive.
But the Cardinals are one of those organizations — think Yankees, Rangers — that shuns excuses, finds solutions and keeps winning. Why?
One explanation is continuity — in leadership, personnel and message. Like the Yankees with Joe Torre/Joe Girardi and Bob Watson/Brian Cashman, St. Louis has only had two managers and two general managers since 1996, and the handoffs in both cases were from a mentor to a protégé — La Russa to Mike Matheny in the dugout and Walt Jocketty to John Mozeliak in the front office.
This brings stability. In philosophy. In understanding what kind of players fit the city, style and manager — and don’t. In expectations. In proven methods in handling and extinguishing controversies and navigating through tough issues such as injuries.
“Their continuity is tremendous,” one admiring rival GM said. “Nothing rocky ever happens there.”
La Russa, speaking by phone, credited a good deal of that to the kind of baton-pass guidance that gets transferred from veterans to youngsters in the clubhouse. There is a lore of the Cardinals Way that players such as Pujols, Carpenter and Yadier Molina learned from others and then passed to a next group that sustains a no-alibis, play-the-right-way ethos.
As La Russa said, “youg guys are acquired and if they don’t buy into the philosophy they are really leaned on and persuaded this is the right way or get out.”
This resembles how Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte serve as sheriffs for the way the Yankees will play and behave.
Also, as with the Yankees, the Cardinals have created an atmosphere in which serious-minded veterans want to not just play, but stay. Thus, Jocketty/Mozeliak have done a great job, for example, of obtaining players such as Mark McGwire, Jim Edmonds, Matt Holliday, Carpenter and Adam Wainwright, and then those players become so intoxicated by playing in arguably the best baseball town in America they re-sign for very good, but not payroll-crushing extensions.
“Think about that place — if you are a player, it is nirvana,” the executive said. “You get three million fans a year. Every player wants a packed house every night, but without any of the negativity that comes with that in places like Boston and New York. St. Louis is the only place that exists like that.”
The Cardinals also do a strong job of drafting and developing, and it is here you will get some scouting vs. stats argument. Jeff Luhnow, the Astros’ GM since December, is a polarizing figure because he is so data-driven. In his tenure drafting for St. Louis, he found first-round gems such as Lance Lynn and Shelby Miller, but also hit in much later rounds on Matt Adams, Matt Carpenter, Allan Craig and Trevor Rosenthal.
Luhnow has many admirers in the game, but also detractors who give greater credit to a development system — the Cardinals Way — that was fostered by men such as George Kissell for seven decades. And there is little doubt St. Louis is one of the systems in which players such as Jon Jay or Craig or David Freese might not get a ton of notice as top prospects, but grow and grow en route to becoming very good major leaguers.
“The Cardinals are winning because they have done things right for years to be in position to be successful,” La Russa said. “Don’t get me wrong, the Cardinals’ talent level is really good, but their team chemistry is off the charts.”
Sounds like it could be repeated in The Bronx.
$pending money to save money
Anthony Rizzo has barely more than a year of service time and yet the Cubs made it official yesterday they were giving their young first baseman a seven-year, $41 million contract — to save money.
Chicago envisions Rizzo — among the league leaders already with nine homers — becoming an elite power force. The Cubs project Rizzo will qualify for Super Two status after next season, which means he would have gotten four bites at arbitration rather than three. Consider that Hunter Pence — a very good, but not great player — was a Super Two and has earned $34.6 million in his four arbitration seasons.
More and more teams — as the Cubs did here — are coming to believe it is better to gamble earlier and earlier with long-term contracts for their best players because: 1) If right, teams avoid ever paying mega-contracts for these players. 2) It buys out most of the prime years. In Rizzo’s case, the Cubs also have two option years that would take the contract through 2021, when he will turn age 32 and three potential free-agent years. 3) With the number of these contracts increasing, it casts a further pall on future free agent markets, so you had better sign your own or face a limited supply elsewhere.
That is why the Yankees might have to re-think their policy of going year-to-year with even their best players, figuring they always have the most money to just pay a player in free agency if they want. But with so much money in the game, the Yankees can no longer expect to be the only major free agent bidders for stars. Also, the Yankees are trying to lower their payroll and one way to do so is to gain cost certainty with early career, long-term deals. Also, since these kinds of contracts are becoming more prominent, it means there will be less supply, placing a greater burden on a team like the Yankees to develop and retain their own.
Kuroda kudos
Remember the wonder and worry about whether Hiroki Kuroda could handle the AL? That turned out to be a waste of time. Since joining the Yankees last year, Kuroda has been among the most effective pitchers in the majors and stood with the best in his league.
For example, among AL pitchers with at least 200 innings since the beginning of last season, Kuroda’s 3.13 ERA ranks fifth behind only Justin Verlander (2.52), Felix Hernandez (2.76), David Price (3.00) and Chris Sale (3.01).
He has authored 19 games of at least seven innings and two or fewer runs. In the AL, that is tied with Price, behind only Hernandez (25) and Verlander (23). Price, Verlander and Hernandez have won the last three AL Cy Youngs.