The State of Professional Baseball in the "Show Me" State Part I

Missouri is a baseball rich state that has had it's share of World Series glory. This can be seen as recently as 2006 with the St. Louis Cardinals' victory over the Detroit Tigers and though they lost to the Boston Red Sox in 2007, they defended their titles to the last out. The Cardinals will have a difficult season ahead of them.

The Cardinals have as one rough off-season. The distraction of the Albert Pujols contract negotiation was enough to frustrate any member of the Cardinal faithful. Add to that the loss of team ace Adam Wainwright and the Cardinals season is in jeopardy.

We have yet to see if there is any acrimony between Pujols, the team and his teammates due to the lack of signing an extension before the start of the Spring Training. I highly doubt that we should see anything less than a Pujolsian type season from "El Hombre". The only chink in his proverbial armor will be an injury ad he really doesn't show any signs of slowing down. In the end, I believe Pujols and the Cardinals find a way for him to stay in St. Louis where he belongs. The Cardinals should also expect another product season from outfielder Matt Holliday. The one-two punch of Pujols and Holliday should be able to put runs on the board provided those in front of them get on base.

It remains to be seen if the soap opera between manager Tony LaRussa and outfielder Colby Rasmus will carry over from last season. To be perfectly honest, I don't know what the issue between LaRussa and Rasmus stems from but it seems to me that the team is better with Rasmus than without it.

The outfield trio will be without Jim Edmonds who chose to retire. What I find puzzling, is that Cardinals' GM John Mozeliak chose the plodding Lance Berkman to replace Edmonds. Berkman showed nothing while with the Yankees down the stretch last season. He played first for the Houston Astros since he didn't have the range to play in the outfield and he's going to play one of the corners for the Cardinals. Unbelievable. Colby Rasmus is going to have to take his vitamins daily to have the energy to cover the range that Berkman can't cover. Not to mention that Berkman is no longer the hitter he was during his heyday with the Astros. Maybe returning to the NL will be good for him. It better for the saie of the Redbirds.

The anchor in the infield is obviously Pujols. Joining him will be Skip Schmacher at second, free agent signing Ryan Theriot at short and Ryan Freese, who is recovering from surgeries to both of his feet at 3rd. The biggest hope for the team is at catcher, where veteran Yadier Molina is located with young prospect Bryan Anderson starting the season in AAA. Though Gerald Laird is listed as being the back-up catcher to start the season, I believe Anderson will get some significant playing time behind the plate this season. The rest of the bench is made up of infielders Daniel Descalso and Tyler Greene and outfielders Allen Craig and Jon Jay.

The team will definitely miss its ace Adam Wainright. Luckily for the Cardinals, veteran pitcher Chris Carpenter is more than a suitable replacement. Carpenter posted a 16-9 record with a 3.22 ERA with 235 innings pitched in 35 starts. After Carpenter, the optimism wanes somewhat. Following Carpenter is second year player Jaime Garcia who is looking to follow up his positive 2010 season. Garcia posted a 13-8 record with a 2.70 ERA and ended up third in the 2010 NL Rookie of the Year vote. Rounding up the rotation will be mid-season acquisition Jake Westbrook, Kyle Loshe and former reliever Kyle McClellan. Luckily the Cardinals' bullpen is strong enough to balance out the pitching staff.

The strength of the Cardinals lies with the bullpen. Anchoring the bullpen is closer Ryan Franklin who is joined by right-handers Bryan Augenstein, Miguel Batista, Mitchell Boggs and Jason Motte. On the left-hand sound of the bullpen, free-agent acquisition Brian Tallet (formerly of the Toronto Blue Jays) and Trever Miller.

The St. Louis Cardinals are faced with a tough road ahead of them. The loss of Wainright, with the inevitable drama of Pujols' future compounded with the 2010 Division winner Cincinnati Reds and improved Milwaukee Brewers will test the abilities of the Cardinals. I don't think this season will be played into October as the Cardinals faithful will be left disappointed.

FH

- Click Here for Matthew Leach's article Cards set 25-man roster as Opening Day nears from MLB.com dated March 28, 2011

2011 MLB Division Predictions

We are just 4 days away from the beginning of the 2011 Major League Season. Good times are up ahead with the return of Baseball. So without further delay, here are my divisional  predictions for this season.

AL East
New York
Boston
Tampa Bay
Toronto
Baltimore

AL Central
Chicago
Minnesota
Detroit
Cleveland
Kansas City

AL West
Oakland
Texas
Anaheim
Seattle

NL East
Philadelphia 
Atlanta
Florida
New York
Washington

NL Central
Milwaukee
Cincinnati 
St. Louis
Chicago
Houston
Pittsburgh

NL West
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Colorado
San Diego
Arizona

AL Wild Card: Boston
NL Wild Card: Atlanta

Though I have been a but tardy in finishing my assessment of all the Major League teams, this is how I think the divisions and Wild cards will end up. Agree? Disagree?

FH

"Black" Latino Pioneers

I recently read an article by Kevin Hunter on the Throughthefencebaseball.com website called Who Was The Last Team To Integrate? and after doing so, I starting thinking about the members of the list. As history states, Jackie Robinson was the first black man to break the color barrier when he debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947 and the last black man to integrate was Elijah Jerry “Pumpsie” Green debuting for the Boston Red Sox on July 21, 1959. You might be asking yourselves: Why Does This Apply to a Latinoball blog? Let me post the list and I'll point out the Latino perspective in the list:

Brooklyn Dodgers – Jackie Robinson (1947)
Cleveland Indians – Larry Doby (1947)
St. Louis Browns – Hank Thompson (1947)
New York Giants – Hank Thompson (1949)
Boston Braves – Sam Jethroe (1950)
Chicago White Sox – Minnie Minoso (1951)
Philadelphia Athletics – Bob Trice (1953)
Chicago Cubs – Ernie Banks (1953)
Pittsburgh Pirates – Curt Roberts (1954)
St. Louis Cardinals – Tom Alston (1954)
Cincinnati Reds – Nino Escalera (1954)
Washington Senators – Carlos Paula (1954)
New York Yankees – Elston Howard (1955)
Philadelphia Phillies – John Kennedy (1957)
Detroit Tigers – Ozzie Virgil (1958)
Boston Red Sox – Pumpsie Green (1959)

Here goes the Latino point of view. On the list are four players who are Latino: Saturnino Orestes Armas "Minnie" Miñoso Arrieta , Saturnino Cuadrado " Nino" Escalera, Carlos Paula Conill, and Osvaldo Jose Virgil Sr. (Pichardo). The reason why they are considered pioneers in being the first "black" players on their respective teams though based on our modern day view of color, Miñoso and possibly Paula could be considered black due to the color of their skin. But prior to 1947, if a player was dark skinned or of African descent then they were not allowed to play in the Major Leagues, often playing in the Negro Leagues and in the Caribbean leagues where a person of faced less resistance due to his race and heritage.

The irony is that Latinos were playing in organized Baseball since 1869 with Esteban Bellan and in the Major League since 1902 with Luis Castro of the Cincinnati Reds (For more information on who the first Latinos in Baseball were, refer to my blogpost 1st Latino Pioneers). As per Matt Welch in his article The Cuban Senators by 1950, a total of 43 Cubans and 11 other Latinos had appeared in the Major Leagues. The reason that there were so many Cubans was that the major leagues teams were tapping into the Cuban talent similar to how many major league teams have academies in the Dominican Republic and other Latino countries today. Once Fidel Castro turned Cuba into a full fledged Communist state, the pipeline of professional players coming from Cuba closed. No longer were professional sports a part of the fabric of Cuba's athletics. Amateur sports became the dominant form of athletics with the Cubans dominating Amateur baseball for decades. With that talent stream closed, new ones opened up in The Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Panama and Mexico. But I'm geting ahead of myself.

I wanted to give a brief descriptions of the four "black" Latino pioneers that crossed the color barriers within the Major Leagues. Of the four, Cuban Minnie Miñoso can be considered having the most successful career. Miñoso started his professional career in the Negro Leagues and after debuting in the Majors with the Cleveland Indians in 1947 he would become the Chicago White Sox's player to integrate in 1951 and he would go and play in the Majors in five different decades, finally retiring in 1980 at the age of 57. His best season was in 1954 when Miñoso batted .320 with 19 HR and 116 RBI. In 568 AB, Miñoso had 182 hits (29 2B/18 3B/19 HR) with 46 strikeouts, 77 walks, 18 stolen bases. and an OPS of .946 (.411 OBP/.535 SLG). In total Miñoso was a 7-time American League All-Star (1951-1954, 1957, 1959-1960) and a 3-time Gold Glove Winner (1957, 1959, 1960).

In contrast to Miñoso, Nino Escalera's career was limited to only one Major League season. A native of Puerto Rico, Escalera debuted with the Cincinnati Reds in 1954 and appeared in only 73 games. Escalera appeared in 1,556 minor league games batting a career .293. He would later work as a major league scout for the San Francisco Giants and the New York Mets. In a bit of baseball trivia, according the blogger J.G. Preston in his post The forgotten left-handed throwing shortstop, Escalera (as the title of the post states) is the last left-handed throwing shortstop in the major leagues.

Though his career was not as brief as Escalera's, Cuban Carlos Paula also had a relatively short Major League career. Debuting with the Washington Senators in 1954, Paula played for a total of three seasons with his best season being 1955. In that season, Paula batted .299 with 6 HRs and 45 RBI in 351 AB. Paula retired from the Major Leagues at the end of the 1956 season.

Ozzie Virgil bears the distinction of not only being the first black player to play for the the Detroit Tigers in 1961, more importantly, Virgil is the first player from the Dominican Republic to play in the major leagues. Virgil debuted with the New York Giants in 1956 and played a total of 9 season with 5 teams from 1956-1967. Virgil's best season was 1957 when he batted .237 with 4 HR and 24 RBI in 226 AB. Virgil is also the father of former major league player Ozzie Virgil Jr.

So there you have it. As I come across more interesting blogs and articles that relate to Latino ballplayers, I'll do my best to add to their stories.

FH