St. Louis Cardinals All-Time Team

It's Saturday night and we're in St. Louis. Let's crack open a Budweiser (or are they "cancelled"?) and discuss the Cardinals All-Time Team.

Cardinals owner Gussie Busch wanted to rename Sportsman's Park "Budweiser Stadium", but the league wouldn't allow the name of an alcoholic beverage on a ballpark. So Busch named the stadium after himself... and then slapped his surname on a beer. Joke's on you, MLB.

Cards skipper Tony LaRussa knows a thing or two about .... culture wars. He also knows a thing or two about winning, with three World Series rings, including two as the bench boss in St. Louis. Here's his All-Time lineup:

Seven Hall of Famers and two of the top 25 Non-Hall of Famers of all-time, according to yours truly. No changes needed here.


There's already a ton of talent on the Cardinal bench, but let's take a look at LaRussa's options.

Red Schoendienst is a Hall of Famer and managed the 1967 World Champion Cards. Unfortunately he's the third best second baseman in the storied history of the franchise.

	Cardinals stats	WAR	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
	*Frankie Frisch	33.8	0.312	0.370	0.423	0.792	105
	Red Schoendienst	35.6	0.289	0.338	0.388	0.727	93
	Cardinals stats	WAR	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
	*Enos Slaughter	52.8	0.305	0.384	0.463	0.847	126
	Ray Lankford	37.6	0.273	0.365	0.481	0.846	124

Ray Lankford made a run as well, but Enos Slaughter stays.

Let's take a look at the Cardinals' starting rotation. St. Louis could try to shore up the back end of this staff.

It's time to play everyone's favorite game.. Who's In The Hall? Take a look at this list and tell me, which of these players has been enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame:

	Cardinals stats	WAR	ERA	ERA+	K/BB	WHIP
	*Chris Carpenter	27.6	3.07	133	3.67	1.125
	*Mort Cooper	28.5	2.77	133	1.59	1.206
	Bob Caruthers	25.9	2.75	133	2.07	1.095
	Harry Brecheen	38.5	2.91	133	1.70	1.181
	Jesse Haines	35.5	3.64	109	1.13	1.350
	Matt Morris	18.7	3.61	117	2.61	1.268

If you guessed the guy with the highest career ERA and the lowest strikeout-to-walk ratio and the lowest ERA+ you are correct!

As I mentioned in the original post, it's a toss-up between Mort Cooper and Harry Brecheen. Maybe Bob Caruthers should break the tie. He was a heck of a hitter, too. 

	Cardinals stats	oWAR	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
	Bob Caruthers	11.3	0.300	0.401	0.431	0.832	144

The Cardinals bullpen lost two of their top four closers to the Cubs All-Time Team, but their relief corps is still solid.

There are no upgrade options available to Tony LaRussa at present (unless you want to make the case for Jason Motte?) Giovanny Gallegos could be in the mix if he sticks around a little longer. 

Looking ahead, the Cardinals have had a long history of developing unheralded prospects into superstars - or valuable starters at minimum. Their pipeline may have hit a snag at the moment, but MLB's #2 overall prospect Jordan Walker could be the best Redbird prospect in a decade if the Cardinals are prudent with his development.

TL; DR: One change from the original roster. Cooper out, Caruthers in.

The All-Time Teams series will take a brief break before we head out west for the Astros and Angels. Which one should go first alphabetically? According to Topps (and geography) it should be the Angels. According to Arte Moreno and Major League Baseball, it should be Houston over Los Angeles.

Regardless of the order, we're two-thirds through the league with eleven teams to go.



Thanks for reading!

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