Imagining an all-time St. Louis Cardinals alliteration team

How many great St. Louis Cardinals players have a first and last name that begins with the same letter? You’d be surprised to see how good this team is.

One of the ways to keep myself engaged during this strange time is by learning more about the history of the St. Louis Cardinals. I’ve discovered a great way to do this is simply scrolling through various lists on Baseball Reference, and then entertaining myself by finding patterns.

While doing this, I also thought about the different challenges and lists that ballplayers like Jack Flaherty have been producing on social media. The result was the creation of the all-time alliteration St. Louis Cardinals.

There are many great baseball players with alliterative names– from Mickey Mantle to Don Drysdale to Troy Tulowitzki, there have been thousands of players whose first and last names start with the same letter. The question I faced was which ones of these alliterative All-Stars were the greatest to wear the Birds on the Bat.

Made up of nine batters and five pitchers, the final roster boasts 36 All-Star appearances, 17 World Series wins, and three MVPs. Despite a few questionable defensive assignments, they are a surprisingly talented group. With apologies to Woody Williams, Mark Mulder, Greg Garcia, Miles Mikolas, and Giovanny Gallegos, I now present the official all-time alliteration St. Louis Cardinals.

Mark McGwire and Frankie Frisch

Mark McGwire slots in quite nicely as our first baseman. The Cardinals have had many great first basemen over the years, and our alliterative squad is more than willing to claim Big Mac as one of them.

McGwire spent five years with the Cardinals, including, of course, the 1998 season where he broke the single-season home run record.

While injuries marred the end of his career, and the steroid connection kept him out of the Hall of Fame, McGwire’s tenure on the Redbirds was still one of the most impressive stretches in recent history. He made three All-Star games and finished in the top-five MVP voting twice. McGwire’s power stands out among the middle-infield dominated world of alliterative Cardinals.

The star of the St. Louis Cardinals alliterative team is none other than Hall of Famer Frankie Frisch. While he was primarily a second baseman during his outstanding career, we need a third baseman. Luckily, Frisch played 459 games at third base, so I think he’ll be perfectly fine.

Where to begin with Frankie Frisch? The 1931 NL MVP, Frisch won two World Series during his eleven years with the Cardinals. Defensively, Frisch holds the record for most assists in a single season (643). Offensively, he was a career .316 hitter who stole 419 bases while only being caught 74 times.

His highest strikeout total during a season as a member of the Cardinals was 17. Frisch is one of only five Cardinals to have a season with a WAR over nine. One of the greatest Cardinals ever, there really was no way to make this team without Frankie Frisch.

Julian Javier and Marty Marion

Our second baseman holds the record for most games as a Cardinal at the position: Julian Javier. Javier won two World Series rings as the starting second baseman for the Cardinals through the 1960s and is a welcome addition to the team.

Over his twelve-year career with the team, Javier made the All-Star game two times. He was a crucial part for the 1967 World Series team in particular, finishing 9th in the MVP voting. During Game 7 in the World Series against the Red Sox, Javier hit a three-run home run to seal the victory. Javier’s consistent production and winning ways are a crucial inclusion for this team.

At shortstop is another Cardinal legend: Marty Marion. Marion played eleven seasons for the Cardinals, winning the NL MVP in 1944 and three of the club’s World Series titles in ‘42, ‘44, and ‘46. One of the greatest St. Louis shortstops, Marion is a huge part of the alliterative bunch.

Marty Marion’s 31.3 career WAR as a Cardinal is 19th on the all-time list. Known for his glove, Marion led NL shortstops in fielding percentage four times. “I’ve looked at a lot of shortstops,” said Hall of Fame manager Connie Mack in 1944, “but this fellow is the best I’ve ever seen.”

Marion was also a seven-time All-Star, and despite never hitting above .280, his leadership and defense established him was what established him as an all-time great. Just as he was for Stan Musial’s Cardinals, Marion is the anchor up the middle of the alliterative squad.

Placido Polanco, Jon Jay, and Skip Schumaker

While he only played four and a half seasons as Cardinal, and only five games in the outfield (all as a Phillie in 2005), the starting left fielder for our alliterative bunch is Placido Polanco. Polanco is known among many Cardinal fans for being part of the Scott Rolen trade, but he was also quite a productive player.

In 2001 (the year before the trade), Polanco hit .307 and finished with a very respectable 4.5 WAR. After signing with the Detroit Tigers in 2005, Polanco would end up making two All-Star games, win three gold gloves, and win a silver slugger. Polanco had a solid 16-year career. Although he isn’t the strongest member of this team, Polanco is an above-average major leaguer who can contribute with both his bat and his glove.

In centerfield, the alliteration squad finally gets a natural outfielder: Jon Jay. As an often underrated member of many successful St. Louis Cardinal teams, Jay brings another left-handed bat to our lineup and provides some much-needed experience for the outfield.

Since he made his debut in 2010, Jon Jay spent six seasons earning the Cardinals’ centerfield position. While never the star of the team, Jay posted a consistent .287 average with an OPS of .738 in a Cardinal uniform.

Defensively, he was extremely reliable, both with his glove and his arm. Jay also knew how to perform in big moments, as he scored the tying run after a single in the 10th inning of Game 6 in the 2011 World Series. Every team needs role players to complement its stars, and Jon Jay is exactly the type of consistent performer that fills out this team nicely.

It’s only fitting that our last batter is another middle infielder. This time, however, we have someone with real experience in the outfield. That’s right, our starting right fielder is none other than Skip Schumaker.

Skip Schumaker spent eight years with the St. Louis Cardinals and won two World Series rings. He wasn’t a star player– he never had a season with over 600 plate appearances, and only appeared in 150 games twice– but Schumaker was someone you could count on to make the hustle plays and do whatever was best for the team. There was something about the way that Skip Schumaker played the game that made you want to cheer for him, and we welcome that to this squad.

Dizzy Dean, Chris Carpenter, Slim Sallee, Matt Morris, and Lance Lynn

The ace of our squad is, of course, Dizzy Dean. A Hall of Famer and one of the greatest Cardinals of all-time, Dizzy Dean pitched seven years for the Cardinals in the early 1930s. He was a four-time All-Star and won the NL MVP in 1934, leading the Gashouse Gang to a World Series victory.

He led the league in strikeouts four times during his career and had a career ERA of 3.02. Dizzy Dean would make any all-time Cardinals team, so it’s a great benefit to us that he went by Dizzy and qualified for the alliteration group.

No slouch himself, Chris Carpenter is a weapon as our number two starter. The 2005 NL Cy Young winner, Carpenter was the ace of the Cardinals staff for almost ten years. Despite some late-career injuries, Carpenter ranks among the best Cardinal pitchers in history, ranking 12th all-time in WAR among pitchers.

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The dominant and sometimes ruthless attitude he took to the mound was inspiring– personally, I can’t think of Chris Carpenter without imagining him diving over first base in the first inning of Game 1 of the 2011 World Series. A fearless competitor and dominant postseason performer, Carp is a wonderful addition to our team.

The third spot in the rotation goes to an older player that many people might not have heard of. A major leaguer for fourteen seasons, Slim Sallee played for the Cardinals from 1908-1915. His 2.67 ERA ranks an incredible third all-time among Cardinal pitchers.

That number becomes even more impressive when you realize he also ranks eighth in innings pitched with over 1900 innings, and ninth in games started with 213 starts. While his only World Series title came after he left St. Louis, Sallee pitched his way into the Cardinal record books simply by dominating early MLB competition. He’s just too good to leave off our team. The only lefty in our alliterative rotation, Slim Sallee is a little-known but welcome part of the squad.

The man who passed the baton to Carp is our number four starter: Matt Morris. Finishing second in Rookie of the Year voting in 1999, Morris quickly established himself as a premier starter for the Cardinals.

He finished third in Cy Young voting in 2001 and made two All-Star games while in St. Louis. Morris struggled with injuries, but while he was on the mound he was one of the best pitchers of the early 2000s. He is 24th all-time in WAR among Cardinals pitchers, despite only pitching six full seasons. Matt Morris is a great player to have as our number four starter.

Closing out our roster is our number five starter, Lance Lynn. The model of consistency, Lance Lynn is somehow the worst starter on this team. An All-Star in 2012, Lynn spent six years on the Cardinals.

In those six seasons, he never had an ERA over 4.0, he always won at least eleven games, and after joining the rotation, he only started less than 30 games one time (29 starts in 2012). With almost 1000 innings pitched as a Cardinal, Lance Lynn was a key component of each Cardinal team in the 2010s. As reliable as a starting pitcher gets, I’m thrilled that we get to close out our roster with Lance Lynn.

In the end, our roster looks well-balanced. With a few St. Louis Cardinal legends and the right amount of role players, the Alliterative All-Stars are ready for action.

To recap, here’s a look at the lineup:

1- Placido Polanco (LF)

2-Jon Jay (CF)

3- Frankie Frisch (3B)

4- Mark McGwire (1B)

5- Julian Javier (2B)

6-  Skip Schumaker (LF)

7- Marty Marion (SS)

8- Daniel Descalso (C)

And here’s how the rotation shakes out:

1- Dizzy Dean

2- Chris Carpenter

3- Slim Sallee

4- Matt Morris

5- Lance Lynn

In the lineup, there ends up being a nice lefty-righty split, and while McGwire is the only true power hitter, Frisch is an MVP winner and everyone else does well getting on base. The real strength of this group is the pitching. With a starting rotation that looks like that, the lineup won’t have to score too many runs to win games.

Did I leave anyone out? My only wish is for a natural catcher– maybe the Cardinals will trade for Martin Maldonado. Either way, the roster turned out to be pretty great. I’d put this group up against the alliterative squads of any other MLB franchise and feel pretty good about our chances.