The St. Louis Cardinals’ 50 greatest players

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#24 Steve Carlton SP

Steve Carlton, or “Lefty” started his famed career with the St Louis Cardinals in 1965 and has to be the biggest losses the club ever felt. He posted excellent numbers in the 1967 World Series with six scoreless innings pitched.

As a member of the starting rotation from 1967 through 1971 he posted a 3.10 ERA (3.11 FIP) and a 1.279 walks-and-hits per innings pitched, winning 77 games and totaling a fWAR of 21.2 in roughly five and a half seasons as a starter with the club.

He was a 20 game winner for the Cardinals in 1971, after struggling through a league leading 19 losses in 1970 as salary strife seemingly trumped performance.

The salary battles and eventual loss of Carlton started the reputation of the Cardinals being thrify (or cheap for some observers) that continued for decades. He wanted $50k in 1970 and the Cardinals offered $31k, the result of which was skipping out on Spring training that year.

Gussie Busch wanted him gone, so he was traded to the Phillies for Rick Wise who won 16 games for the club in 1972 and 1973. Carlton played in two of his ten all star games wearing the birds on the bat with the St Louis Cardinals.

He won four Cy Young awards total with the Phillies. This is including the first season after he left the Cardinals in 1972, when Carlton went 27-10 with a 1.97 ERA (2.01 FIP) and was worth 11.1 fWAR, eventually finishing his career worth 96.5 fWAR, proving that he was one that got away.

Paul Layton

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