The Cards Over The Last 32 Seasons - Second Base

Moving on to second base. This position has a peculiar sort of stability during the later Herzog years, through the Torre era, and into the first year of LaRussa's run. From 1988 through 1996, the Cards had 3 different starting second basemen, but only one held the job for more than 3 consecutive seasons (Jose Oquendo). Luis Alicea was the starter for all three managers at least once, and there's a year of Geronimo Pena in there as well. Actually, he and Alicea practically split the innings from '92-'94, but I couldn't tell if it was a planned platoon, or injury issues. Since that time, things were highly erratic under TLR. So that'll be fun.

Herzog Era: 4

Best: Tom Herr. He has the years (7, no other candidate has more than 2), and his performance is solid enough to back that up. His 3.3 WAR/162 games is almost certainly buoyed by the 6.1 he posted in 1985, but Jose Oquendo's 3.7 is almost all about the 5.4 WAR he was worth in 1989. Oberkfell was excellent in 1980, but like with Ted Simmons, you're only talking about half a season.

Worst: Luis Alicea became a pretty good ballplayer later on. Didn't even have to go to another team for it to happen, which is sometimes the case. But in 1988, he wasn't ready, which is why he'd lost the starting job by season's end to Oquendo. But Alicea was still the second baseman of record, which means his -2.8 WAR/162 gets the nod. Yes, almost 3 wins worse than a replacement player. Posting a .559 OPS, even in a down year for offense will do that to you, especially if your defense isn't otherworldly.

Torre Era: 3

Best: Speaking strictly in terms of WAR/162, it's Geronimo Pena. His average is 3.1, which is over a win better than Luis Alicea, and almost a win and a half ahead of Oquendo. But, that's taking essentially half a season of games and extrapolating it to a full season. Even the year Pena was the starter, he split time with Alicea. Of course, you could say the same thing about Alicea the years he was the starter. In Pena has the WAR edge in all three seasons, though it's one-tenth of a win in two of them (in the other it's 1.3 wins). Oquendo has the longevity edge, but it's hampered when you consider we're counting the third of '90 and the third of '95 Torre managed as "seasons". Really, Jose was Torre's starter for 1.7 seasons, so probably about even with Alicea and Pena when you consider how much those two were each starting across 92-94. Edit: Taking that into account, I compared Alicea and Pena from those three seasons, to see who was better. Pena won handily. They're basically even in batting average and OBP, but Pena has almost 50 points of slugging, better defense, more steals, and at a much better success rate. Geronimo Pena it is, then.

Worst: Just leaves Jose Oquendo. I'm impressed, though, that he could be worth 1.7 WAR with a .302 SLG. That .340 OBP (with a .230 batting average) really helps, and I imagine his defense carries the rest of the water. It certainly wouldn't have been his speed making up the difference (1 SB, versus 11 for Alicea and 18 for Pena).

LaRussa Era: 10!

Best: This is kind of a mess. There are six guys with only one season as starter. One of the six (Mark Grudzielanek, 3.6 WAR in 2005, at 4.2/162) has the second best season by any second baseman for LaRussa. I'm not giving it to him, even this position's choices aren't so anemic I'll award it to a guy with one season as starter, I just wanted to give Grudz some love as the last good starting second baseman the Cards have had. Yes, it's been six years of crap since then. Swell.

Moving on, there are 4 guys with multiple seasons. Adam Kennedy was terrible, so he's out. That leaves Delino DeShields (3.0 WAR/162), Fernando Vina (2.3), and Skip Schumaker (0.9). I'll mention here Tony Womack was the starter in '04, and for that single glorious year, he was also better than any of these guys (3.6/162). Anyway, DeShields has the highest WAR rate, the best single season (3.7 in 1997), and he had lots of speed (averaged 13 triples and 49 stolen bases per 162 games). Defensively kind of iffy, but at least he was productive speedy middle infielder for TLR to bat leadoff. Vina has the longevity (3 years), had a good first season (3.1 WAR in 2000), was also fast (7 triples, 17 SBs per 162), and compensated for a lack of walks by getting hit by pitches a lot. Skip also has the longevity argument (3 years), and. . . in my more cynical moments, he's the philosophically perfect LaRussa second baseman.

LaRussa clearly didn't believe second base was an important position to get locked down with a good player. He believes this so strongly he'll play anyone, from backup catchers (Tony Cruz, Danny Sheaffer), to corner outfielders (Allen Craig), to his Hall of Fame first baseman with leg problems (Albert Pujols) there at different times. And he'll hand the starting job to a slap-hitting corner outfielder who hasn't played the position since college and let him continue to start for 3 years. The man doesn't give a shit about the position, and Skip being in this conversation exemplifies that.

All that aside, the other two represent certain aspects of LaRussa's style as well, and are actually good at their jobs, so let's give it to Delino DeShields, who was better than Vina by enough to make up for one less year as starter. Vina might have managed to win if he hadn't fallen off so badly by '03 that he lost his starting job to Bo Hart. A good season there, and we'd have a different result, that's for sure.

Worst: I'd love to give this to Skip, as a "reward" for watching him butcher the position for 3 seasons. Unfortunately, the Cards have used a worse guy than him under LaRussa. Take a bow, Adam Kennedy! If not for Luis Alicea's terrible 1988, your 2007 would be the worst season by a Cardinals' second baseman in the last 3 decades! You're so terrible, I'm hardly even going to mention that Aaron Miles was the starter in 2006. Seriously, Aaron Miles (platooning with first Hector Luna, then Ronnie Belliard)!

To Kennedy's credit, he was at least solid defensively in 2008, even if he couldn't hit a lick. But that '07, geez, what a disaster. Shutting down for the season with knee surgery was a blessing for the fans.

Next time, third base. There's not much mystery here, except for the best of the Herzog Era. Will steady production over 3 years win out over a production rollercoaster of 7 years?