My Ballot: Cardinal Blogger Awards

So I recently joined up with the United Cardinal Bloggers (as you probably can tell from the huge logo on the right-hand column) and my first bit of participation in the group is to cast my ballot for the 2008 Cardinal Blogger Awards. For those of you who haven't seen this before, last year's entry can be found here, and the official ballot and explanation for this year can be found at C70 At The Bat. So, without further adieu, I give you my picks for the 2008 awards.

1) Player of the Year

Ok, so honestly, is there really any suspense for this one? This is like someone coming up to you when you are wolfing down some pizza and asking you if you like pizza. The answer is that obvious. Drum roll please.....

Albert Pujols.

Duh. This guy lead planet Earth in everything (I don't like to count Chipper because he was hurt so much and had 100 less at-bats, but, whatever, I suppose he had a good season and all). He was first in baseball in SLG and OPS, 2nd in Avg. and OBP, 3rd in walks, 4th in HR, 9th in RBI, 10th in doubles...this guy is just ridiculous. And in the categories where he wasn't first, he had many fewer at bats than those who finished ahead of him.

This guy is the best player in the game. So how could he not be the best player on his own team?

2) Pitcher of the Year

Now this one is a bit tougher. I've narrowed it down to my three candidates: Todd Wellemeyer, Kyle Loshe, and Adam Wainwright. Of those eligible for the Cy Young, Todd Wellemeyer led the team in ERA at 3.71. However, his, FIP was 4.51 (for those who don't know, FIP stands for "Fielding Independent Pitching." It is a way to measure all those things for which a pitcher is specifically responsible, without taking into account the defense). Kyle Lohse wasn't too far off with an ERA of 3.7, with a much lower FIP than Wellemeyer at 3.92. But can I really punish Wainwright for not being eligible for the Cy Young? Because, after all, his injury was a complete freak accident. He led the starters in ERA at 3.20, and his FIP was lower than Lohse at 3.82.

Two other stats to look at are ERA+ (which is the stat that normalizes ERA across all of baseball in order to take park factors out of the equation - so if you pitch in PetCo you don't have an advantage of someone who pitched in Great American Ballpark - a value of 100 is average, above that is above average and below that is below average) and WHIP (walks plus hits divided by innings pitched). Of those three mentioned, Wainwright did quite well with an ERA+ of 133, Wellemeyer came in second at 115, and Lohse just behind him at 113.

As far as WHIP goes, Wainwright again led the group at 1.18, with Wellemeyer at 1.25, and Lohse finishing third at 1.30.

Ok, so really it doesn't seem that tough. Even though he didn't pitch enough innings this year to qualify for the Cy Young, he was dominant as far as our team is concerned. My vote for pitcher of the year goes to:

Adam Wainwright.

3) Game of the Year

This is actually relatively easy for me. Why? Because I was at this game (yes, I know, I'm spoiled and live in downtown St. Louis). I'm going to vote for:

August 22nd, Braves at Cardinals.

This was quite possibly the most fun I've ever had at a game. If you don't remember, this was the game where the Cardinals recorded 18 runs on 26 hits, nearing numerous records in the process. Here's a quote from the postgame recap at ESPN.com:

"Their 26 hits was the franchise's most since another 26-hit game on Sept. 23, 1930, at Philadelphia, and their 21 singles was their most in a nine-inning game since July 6, 1929, in the second game of a doubleheader at Philadelphia, and two off the major league record by the Houston Astros in 1976."

4) Surprise Player of the Year

This one is fairly obvious to me as well. Though we all expected him to perform well, we all expected him to be more of a useful platoon type player than anything else (and if you say otherwise you're lying). The injury to Chris Duncan was a blessing in disguise because it solidified his spot in the lineup. My surprise player of the year vote goes to:

Ryan Ludwick.

5) Disappointing Player of the Year

Here's a fun one to vote for. What Cardinal player pissed you off the most this year? Who did you get so irked at that you were ready for him to be kicked off the team every time he struck out/got taken out of the yard? I think there are (unfortunately) valid cases that can be made for at least one Cardinal who isn't getting my vote (*cough* Chris Duncan *cough*). However, though Duncan had a disappointing season, his pails in comparison to my vote.

Jason Isringhausen.

Is this choice not simple? The guy was a flat out stud in 2007. He blew only 2 saves (he was 32 for 34), had a 2.48 ERA, a 177 ERA+, and a 1.07 WHIP. Then, in 2008, he forgot what his occupation was. He assumed he was just going out there to get paid. He absolutely blew up. Let's not even just look at his 2008 stats, let's look at the change in his stats from 2007 to 2008:

Saves: - 20
Blown Saves: + 5
ERA: + 3.22
ERA+: - 102
WHIP: + 0.57

Those numbers are just awful. Also, we can't forget his save percentage. His save percentage (saves / save opportunities) went from 94% in 2007 to a terrible, awful, disgusting 63% in 2008. Can you imagine anyone else in the working world dropping their production by 31% from one year to the next and not being fired? His loss of effectiveness in the bullpen is the main reason we lost all effectiveness in the bullpen. Thus, it makes perfect sense to label him as the most disappointing Cardinal in 2008.

6) Cardinal Rookie of the Year

In my opinion, you've got to give this to the guy who performed the whole year. He went through his growing pains and made some mistakes, but I'll admit there were situations where TLR strolled out to the mound to replace the pitcher and I was praying he would choose this guy and not one of our other bullpen choices. My vote goes to:

Kyle McClellan.

He has shown that he has positive things he can build on (he was durable, has a wicked hook, a good fastball, and is willing to take the ball whenever) and things he needs to work on (giving up the long ball, walking people, hitting batters). I think he shows a lot of promise and it's feasible that he'll get a shot at the rotation in 2009 or 2010 (a la Adam Wainwright in terms of starting his major league career in the bullpen then moving to the rotation).

7) New Cardinal of the Year

This seems to me to be a matter of opinion. There are really two options you can consider for this award (in my mind): Kyle Lohse and Troy Glaus. Sorry for the "snub" of Izturis, his fielding was nice and all, but he's just didn't have the impact that these two had. Now, I know the sentiment that floats around baseball - pitching is greater than fielding. And who's to argue? It's tried and true (see: the Yankees every year since their last World Series). However, as Cardinals fasn, we are the spoiled few who have gotten to see someone that could have been the best third baseman of all time if he hadn't gotten hurt: Scott Rolen. Thus, third base has become a premium position here in St. Louis recently.

There are solid arguments for both of these players. Lohse was fantastic in the first half. He carried our rotation while Wainwright was hurt, stepped up numerous times, and looked like a legitimate Cy Young candidate at the All-Star break. His first half stats were:

119.1 IP, 11-2, 3.39 ERA, 1.25 WHIP

Solid. However, in the second half he trailed off quite a bit.

80.2 IP, 4-4, 4.35 ERA, 1.38 WHIP

Now Glaus, as has been his career MO (that's "modus operandi," not John Mozeliak), was up and down and up and down seemingly throughout the year. He could carry the team and points in time, and there were points where you wished he wouldn't come up to the plate. But when his swing is on, it's one of the prettier things in all of baseball. He finished the year with the following line:

.270/.372/.483/.855, 27 HR, 99 RBI, 124 OPS+ (which was his highest in 3 years).

Not to mention the fact that he played Gold Glove caliber defense. According to the Fielding Bible, he was +8 for a third baseman, finishing 2nd in the National League. He was first in fielding percentage, 4th in range factor, and 5th in zone rating. He was more than an adequate replacement for Rolen, and easily outperformed Scott in all facets of the game this year.

So, who to pick? Which is more valuable, pitching or 3rd base? This choice is tough and took me a long time to figure, but I'm going to have to cast my vote for:

Troy Glaus.

8) Most anticipated Cardinal

People that know me know that the thing that has excited me the most about our minor leagues lately has been our increase in pitching prospects. Not that we necessarily have that one dominant person waiting in the wings, but we have some very solid prospects. I'm a big homer for Jess Todd. I really hope he proves everyone wrong when they say he'll be nothing more than a good reliever. But, when it comes down to it, there's only one person we all really want to see in St. Louis as soon as possible.

Colby Rasmus.

Is there any other choice? He has the potential to be the next Grady Sizemore, if not better. He plays Gold Glove type defense, has tons of power, and showed last Spring Training that when he wants to, he can draw walk after walk after walk. His ceiling is ridiculously high. I hope, and I know this may be blasphemy in Cardinal Nation, but I hope that we trade Rick Ankiel for some middle infield help and bring Ramus up ASAP.

9) Best Individual Blog

This is hard for me since I haven't really read many of the Cardinals blogs outside of the "major" ones until recently. I've spent the last week scanning and searching through them, and my vote goes to:

C70 At The Bat.

Great job man. Be sure to keep up the good work and props on creating the United Cardinals Bloggers. It should be fun to participate from here on out.

10) Best Team Blog

I don't even need to elaborate on this one. Everyone who reads Cardinals blogs knows that one of them trumps all of us, and it's really not even close. Congrats guys and keep up the awesome work. My vote goes to

Viva El Birdos.

11) Best Professional Blog.

There is a particular blog that whenever I'm doing my daily surfing for Cardinals news I always am excited to see has a new post (or in some days many new posts). He comes at things from so many different angles and puts a lot of research into his work, and it is very much appreciated from my end. Thus, my vote goes to:

Bird Land.

12) Best UCB Project

Again, being new to this my vote probably shouldn't carry as much weight as others, but I'll cast it anyway. I've had a fun time reading through all that you guys have done, and my favorite has to be:

Roundtables.

It's a fantastic way to get a lot of input on a ton of different subjects, and it's very cool to see what types of questions will be posed. I am excited for the first time I get to participate in one.

13) Most Optimistic Blog

As I've been reading through and through this is very hard (mostly because most of us seem to agree on a lot of topics), so it's been hard to label anyone as overly negative or overly positive for me. However, the one blog I think I'm going to have to go with here is:

C70 At The Bat.

None of us are overly optimistic, but his posts continue to be great to read (and being a fellow Star Wars geek on occasion, makes it more enjoyable for me when he throws that in there).

14) Funniest Blog

Really hard to go with on this one for me because everyone has their moments, and I don't think any of us try to be overly humorous. However, one that consistently makes me chuckle:

Viva El Birdos.

15) Best Blog Post / Series of the Year

This one wasn't so hard when I started looking. There are a lot of deserving posts out there, but the one that struck me as the most interesting (probably because I'm trying to understand sabermetrics more) was the series:

Biggest Plays of 2008

By Fungoes. Great series of posts, and for the sabermetricians in all of us, worth the read.

16) Rookie Blog of the Year

Now here's one I'm torn on. Can I vote for myself? In these ever important, life changing, career lifting award ballots, would it be wrong for one to vote for oneself? My conclusion: No. But, that doesn't mean I think mine is best. My vote goes to:

Pitchers hit Eighth

Good flow, good analysis, fun site to read.


So there's my ballot for the 2008 Cardinal Blogger Awards. Even though I didn't vote for myself, I'm eagerly awaiting my award for ROY. I've got a sweet speech prepared.



Just you wait.



-kotheb