Musings from an Optimistic Redbird Fan

Voting for Post-Season Awards – The Baseball Writers Association have recently voted the post season award winners. And I’ve come to the conclusion that the awards are, for a large part, a popularity contest in some instances. While I didn’t expect the Cardinals to win the Rookie of the Year or Cy Young award, I expected Yadier Molina to win the MVP. He did not and the final rankings of the St. Louis Cardinals’ who had nominees are pathetic.

The Cardinals’ nominees were :

Kyle Lohse – Cy Young, 7th

Matt Carpenter – Rookie of the Year, 6^th

Yadier Molina – Most Valuable Player, 4^th

Kyle Lohse  finished 7^th in voting….7^th!! Lohse had the best winning percentage with a 16 -3 record. He had 23 quality starts, 7^th in innings pitched, 4^th lowest rate of runners on base per 9inn and the league’s 5^th best ERA with a .286. And yet, he only pitched well enough for a 7^th place finish. He received 4 votes; two by St. Louis writers and two from writers in other cities.

I’m a little more forgiving for the Rookie of the Year as there were several worthy candidates and the reason why the voting was the closest in years. But, overall, Carpenter deserved more than one measly third place vote.

And the MVP award; apologies to Buster Posey but, Molina was robbed. Not only due the fact he didn’t win the darn thing; he finished fourth in voting. I’ll debate any day of the week why Molina is not only the best catcher in baseball but, also the most valuable player on the Cardinals. I’m not sure what criteria the BBWA voters use, but, whatever it is, needs to be changed.

New Uniforms – If you haven’t heard, the Cardinals have a new uniform. They will be wearing a jersey with “St. Louis” across the chest for Saturday home games. They have two other variations of their uniform with a more detailed “Birds on the Bat” logo. They will also wear red caps on the road instead of blue. You can see more details on the Cardinals MLB website.

This and that – Brian Fuentes has decided to retire….Raphael Furcal is progressing nicely in his rehab and is expected to be ready for Spring Training….Jaime Garcia has begun a rehab program but, will be shut down in December. He will then resume normal throwing in January if he’s healthy….John Mabry was named the Hitting Coach with Big Mac assuming similar duties with the Los Angeles Dodgers. An assistant hitting coach as not been named yet.

Thanks for reading.