2008 Baseball Season

Another baseball season went by, even faster than usual this time. It seems like not so long ago that I was so happy that spring training had begun, and to see who would win out positions on the competitive St. Louis Cardinals spring training camp. The team had a lot of question marks at the beginning of the season, so spring training was almost as exciting as the rest of the season; actually, it was more interesting than the end of the Cardinals' season. The team had worked itself up into a foaming rabid beast flying out of the gates, but unfortunately, the first game of the season was rained out despite a great opening performance from the pitching and an Albert Pujols home run, and a lethargic looking Rockies still suffering from World Series hangover.

That rainout sort of predicted the way the season would go, close but no cigar. The Cardinals pretty much outperformed most people's predictions, both sportswriter and hyper-informed fan, but not mine. I picked the team to win about 90 games, which they came very near to doing. The team finished half a game out of third place, due to a bizarre late season surge by the Houston Astros (should we be surprised by this any longer? It seems to be their MO in recent history). The half game lead from the Astros was caused by the Big Hurricane of '08, which threatened Houston and flooded the area with surging waters and fearsome winds. They would have had to play the Cubs if necessary, so I think we can agree the Cardinals tied for 3rd place. Not to mention the ridiculousness of playing Adam Kennedy in the outfield more than a couple of games... avoiding that alone would have remedied the problem.

One of the real problems with the Cardinals remained, alongside previous years, the injury problem. Who knows why this is, but maybe it has something to do with stubborness. Cardinals fans watched as key players such as Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter sat by on the sidelines, subdued by injury problems that may have been avoided, if they weren't the team's main go to guys for winning games. Both of these guys could be the ace of some team's pitching staffs. Surely we couldn't have expected much from Chris Carpenter, coming back from a long term surgery recovery... but maybe, just maybe, he should have waited a little longer for that return. I'm just glad that he didn't push it any more than he did. And the freak injury of Adam Wainwright tearing his tendon in his middle finger is hard to explain. But maybe it has something to do with a situation like the one surrounding Rick Ankiel.

As I mentioned before, I had high expectations for the 2008 season, since the Cardinals had some decent starting pitching anchored by the last minute addition of one Kyle Lohse. And of course someone named Pujols. But I was banking on a dark horse: a breakout season by Rick Ankiel. The ex-pitcher converted to power hitting rocket-armed outfielder emerged as a legitimate offensive threat in late 2007, but was sidelined by an irresponsible news story thrown out there by ESPN for some ratings I suppose (the non-scandal was blown far out of proportion by the media and some baseball fans; during the time Ankiel used small amounts of human growth hormone, it was not banned from major league baseball, and it has not yet been proven that it actually helps with hitting). Instead, we were pleasantly surprised by a scorching season from out of nowhere by Ryan Ludwick, but back to those injuries....

Ankiel basically played with a sports hernia for a few weeks, maybe around a month. He was given a few more off-days to rest, and didn't play for a while, but was never designated for the disabled list. A very bad move really, since the Cardinals suffer from the strange problem of having too many good outfielders. Actually, it's a nice problem to have; but alas, the Cardinals didn't use it to their advantage. And if it was Rick Ankiel saying he could play when he was badly injured, the team needs to learn something about the tough-guy attitude. It's happened too much to this team. This was one of the many things I am at a loss to explain about the '08 Cardinals season, but nothing was as bad as the fall of Jason Isringhausen.

I really don't know what happened to the guy, except that he's had so many injuries and is getting too old and worn out to compete at the major league level anymore. The problem being is that he is such a competitor he doesn't know when to stop, and the team were too stubborn to take him out of his traditional role (which he is handsomely paid for). Had the organization acted faster in realizing that Isringhausen, or Izzy for short, was costing them wins the team would have been the story of the year... but cost them he did; I think it's safe to say that his performance cost them playoff berth. And he had the tantrums and damaged finger to show it, after punching a tv screen I believe. There's just no excuse for this, other than avoidable drama that can somehow happen to anyone, human error I guess...

But onto the more positive aspects of the 2008 season: Albert Pujols' absolute domination of The Art of Hitting. Pujols is by far the most complete hitter in the major leagues, and 2008 was possibly his greatest season, pretty much guaranteeing him a spot in the Hall of Fame, arguably even before he has hit his peak. Pujols, like much of the team, was injured during the season (he pulled his calf muscle) and played through pain in his elbow (at least in part due to ligaments with small tears in them) as he has done since 2003. No hitter can match the combination of plate discipline (the guy hardly ever strikes out), power (he's hit well over 30 home runs every year in his short career), and constistency that Pujols exemplifies. And let it not be an afterthought that Albert Pujols is one of the best defenders in the major leagues, playing arguably better defense at first base than anyone in the game. Very few players have deserved the MVP Award as much as Pujols deserved his in '08. I wonder how much better a season he would have had if he wasn't hurt for a few weeks? Unbelievable. And oh yeah, he even played a little second base.

Ryan Ludwick's breakthrough season was a close second in good stories from the Cardinal's 2008. Ludwick's Slugging Percentage was second to only MVP Albert Pujols', both leading the majors. He hit just as many home runs, and while he didn't hit for quite the batting average as Albert, he absolutely tore the cover off the ball, blasting line drive after line drive after homerun all season long. He also played a decent outfield and even filled in in CF. To wrap things up, Troy Glaus impressed over at third base, aptly replacing Scott Rolen at the hot corner while outhitting the guy by quite a fair margin. Had Ankiel stayed healthy (as well as Glaus towards the end of the season), the Cardinals would have had a fearsome foursome for their opponents to contend with all season long. But the (sort of) late decision to start playing Ludwick every day multiplied by Ankiel and to a lesser extent, Pujols, being injured, really made it difficult for the Cardinals to reach their goals. The team could easily have won over 90 games if it weren't for all the setbacks and slowly-adapting managerial decisions regarding all the aforementioned reasons...

But oh well, it was a helluva season and I loved it. One of the most entertaining season's in memory, I was happy to follow along with the team, as well as converse with my fellow bloggers over at Viva El Birdos, the best baseball blog on the internet.