While one of my non-baseball interests is classic rock-‘n-roll, I am not announcing a new greatest hits package by the 1950’s doo-wop hit-makers and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers.
Instead, I hereby re-apply the moniker to the 2009 St. Louis Cardinals bullpen, headlined by veteran Ryan Franklin, aka Frankie. The nine-year veteran is the leader of the band with over 1000 career innings in the majors.
The group behind Franklin when the club breaks camp from Jupiter, Florida at the end of March could include six far less-experienced relievers. While veteran left-hander Trever Miller and righty Brad Thompson have accrued over 700 big-league innings of work between them, the other four are greener than the infield grass that surrounds Busch Stadium’s mound.
While not true teenagers anymore, the quartet is certainly made up of baseball teenagers, with a total of just under 130 career MLB innings among them. They are lefty Charlie Manning and right-handers Josh Kinney, Jason Motte and Chris Perez. The fresh-faced Thompson could also fit right in with the Cards’ budding kiddie corps.
| 2009 | Career IP | subtotal |
| Ryan Franklin | 1047.7 | |
| Trever Miller | 422.3 | |
| Brad Thompson | 305.7 | |
| subtotal | 1775.7 | |
| Charlie Manning | 42 | |
| Chris Perez | 41.7 | |
| Josh Kinney | 32 | |
| Jason Motte | 11 | |
| subtotal | 126.7 | |
| total | 1902.3 |
Noticeably absent from this initial group is Kyle McClellan. The club’s Rookie of the Year last season when working out of the bullpen is fully preparing for spring as a starter. Yet the right-hander has just 75 2/3 career MLB innings himself. So the 2009 picture wouldn’t change if he was inserted instead of one of the others.
Lefty Royce Ring could also be considered instead of Manning. He has managed to stay up only long enough to have pitched 65 2/3 big-league innings over his four-year career. That is not much difference from Manning’s 42.
Since 1900 total pen innings are tough to put into perspective standing alone, I looked the Cardinals’ top seven relievers last season in terms of innings pitched and their total MLB experience coming into 2008.
| 2008 | Then-career IP |
| Ron Villone | 1069.3 |
| Ryan Franklin | 968.7 |
| Jason Isringhausen | 864.7 |
| Russ Springer | 747.3 |
| Brad Thompson | 241 |
| Randy Flores | 182.3 |
| Kyle McClellan | 0 |
| 4073.3 |
As you can see, last year’s group in aggregate came into the season with over double the number of MLB mound innings than the projected 2009 gang. Of the four pitchers with over 700 career innings, three are gone for this coming season.
Not only are the experience levels dramatically different from season to season, Franklin and Thompson are the only carryovers from the top seven 2008 pen workload leaders.
To make sure that 2008-2009 wasn’t a fluke, I extended my analysis back each season in the La Russa years, again looking at the aggregate experience coming into that year by the seven that would become the busiest relievers.
“Leaders of the band” denote the team’s most experienced reliever while “Roadie” designate the one of the seven with the fewest career innings pitched coming into that season.
| Bullpen | Career IP | YTY | Leader of the band | IP | Roadie | IP |
| 2009 | 1902.3 | -2171 | Ryan Franklin | 1047.7 | Jason Motte | 11 |
| 2008 | 4073.3 | 1427 | Ron Villone | 1069.3 | Kyle McClellan | 0 |
| 2007 | 2646.3 | 1139.3 | Ryan Franklin | 888.7 | Kelvin Jimenez | 0 |
| 2006 | 1507 | -2127.7 | Jason Isringhausen | 741 | Adam Wainwright | 2 |
| 2005 | 3634.7 | 9.7 | Cal Eldred | 1331 | Brad Thompson | 0 |
| 2004 | 3625 | -855 | Cal Eldred | 1264 | Kiko Calero | 38.3 |
| 2003 | 4480 | 2209.3 | Jeff Fassero | 1738 | Kiko Calero | 0 |
| 2002 | 2270.7 | 527 | Mike Timlin | 698.7 | Mike Crudale | 0 |
| 2001 | 1743.7 | -732.7 | Mike Timlin | 626 | Mike Matthews | 9.3 |
| 2000 | 2476.3 | 678 | Heathcliff Slocumb | 562.3 | Gene Stechschulte | 0 |
| 1999 | 1798.3 | -108 | Heathcliff Slocumb | 500.3 | Rich Croushore | 54.3 |
| 1998 | 1906.3 | -2044 | Jeff Brantley | 723.7 | Rich Croushore | 0 |
| 1997 | 3950.3 | -2475.3 | Dennis Eckersley | 3193 | Rigo Beltran | 0 |
| Brady Raggio | 0 | |||||
| 1996 | 6425.7 | Dennis Eckersley | 3133 | Cory Bailey | 23.7 |
There’s a lot to consume here, but what jumps out at me first is the experience drain of 2171 innings from last year to this. That represents the pen’s biggest year-to-year decrease since 1997, Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan’s second season in St. Louis.
Surprisingly, “Frankie and the Teenagers”, aka the projected 2009 pen, isn’t the least experienced combo in recent Cardinals seasons, though.
That mark belongs to the group of 2006 relievers, ironically during what became the World Championship regular season. That year, beyond Jason Isringhausen and Braden Looper, the other five relievers each had fewer than 100 career innings on the big mound. The man who would become the post-season star, interim closer Adam Wainwright, had collected just six major league outs coming into the year.
That reminds us there is much more to the end game than just innings pitched.
It remains to be seen whether this summer Cardinals fans will be crying, “Why Do Fools Fall in Love?” about this 2009 version of “Frankie and the Teenagers” or whether they’ll be filling the aisles while touting them for a different Hall of Fame.
(As always, special thanks to Lee Sinins’ “Complete Baseball Encyclopedia”, a fast and efficient way to look at players’ partial careers and to answer a million other “what if?” questions, too!)
Don’t forget about lefty Ian Ostlund. He is a true dark horse. He was fantastic at Toledo last year but just never got a shot. With Miller’s shoulder to go along with Manning’s and Ring’s inconsistencies, he is a guy that could slide into a bullpen spot with a good spring.
I also think that Fernando Salas could be this season’s Kyle McClellan. You have to love his K-to-BB numbers.
Of the three recently-signed NRI’s, Ostlund may have the best chance of making the team, but I think Manning has to be considered the favorite for the second lefty job at this point.
Even if Salas is lights out in the spring, there is no roster spot in St. Louis for him. He would need a boatload of injuries to the guys ahead of him. McClellan also had the advantage of already being on the 40-man. Still Salas should get a shot at closing in Memphis unless Motte is pushed down there due to all the congestion in St. Louis. That would position Salas well to at least grow into the Kelvin Jimenez role next season, aka the eighth pen guy.
You’re right in that if either one or both made the club, the pen would be even younger. For example, if Miller was hurt and Ostlund took his spot, that would move the 2009 pen up to #1 in the least-experienced list of the La Russa era.
But I guess what we’re talking about here is losing (is that the term?) the experience of Ron Villone, Jason Isringhausen and Russ Springer. What good did Villone and Izzy do for the club last year, really? The flipside is that a very mediocre pitcher, Brad Thompson, has over 300 innings pitched. Undoubtedly, this experience will help him perform better, but it doesn’t really make him an asset.
I wish someone besides Ryan Franklin could be the mentor this year, but unless they bring back Izzy (and if they do, where would they put him?) that’s not going to happen. (Incidentally, the Glaus situation makes it even less likely they would carry an extra reliever; I think Izzy’s career as a Cardinal is over.)
I am not sold that Motte starts the year in STL. Yes, his fastball is fantastic but if he has not developed his secondary stuff, I don’t think LaRussa or Dunc or hesitate to start him at Memphis to refine those pitches.
Whitey, I agree with you about Motte. I guess due to 11 very good innings in September, he is being considered by some as a serious closer candidate in StL whereas like you, I think the discussion should be whether he is even yet ready to make the team and stick.
In fact, just a couple of weeks ago over on Scout, I said exactly that, while some guy named Dustin Mattison said that with a good spring Motte could win the closer’s job!
Yet with the recent news that McClellan will be starting (at least to begin camp), Motte’s chances to come north with the club improved, which is why he is penciled in above.
As an aside, I’d like to see a similar plan with McClellan. Since they want him to be a starter, keep him there and let others fight it out for the pen. If he earns it, make Kyle the #6 starter and get him working every fifth day in Memphis until an injury hits in StL.
(Edit: I wonder what percentage of relievers get called up and are never sent down again, even once? I would guess the number is low, yet to date, McClellan and Motte both qualify.)
Motte does have a cutter/slider that he throws maybe 15 percent of the time. I’m curious, has anyone asked the Memphis players who will see time in the majors this year (Rasmus, Freese, for example) what they think of him? Does he ever throw them batting practice? The two challenges for a hitter with Motte are (1) guessing where he’s going to throw the pitch; and (2) catching up to it after you’ve made your guess. I have no doubt that Major League power hitters (and even not-so-powerful hitters like David Eckstein) will be able to make contact. But I’m not sure Motte can’t be effective as a set-up man, or even as a closer. Though for lefties in the ninth, a strong change-up or slider is going to be much more important.
Good article, besides being informative, the chart kinda tells a little story about the flux of new players through the bullpen over the years. Some things I noticed:
In ’97, Eck had over 80% of the total IP
No player made it from the rodie collumn to the leader of the band, or probably ever even came close
Shane, here’s the 1997 list:
1997 Then-career IP
Dennis Eckersley 3193
Tony Fossas 340.3
Mark Petkovsek 267.7
T.J. Mathews 113.3
John Frascatore 36
Rigo Beltran 0
Brady Raggio 0
Total 3950.3
Brad Thompson is one of the few that stayed around long enough to move from the bottom to at least third from the top, where he is now.
You are on a great point. We were discussing on another thread the organization’s spotty track record in developing impact starters. Looking at my spreadsheet shows an even worse job was done in developing home-grown relievers with staying power. Generally they come up and are gone, long before ever getting to arbitration, for example.
Another observation. For all the experience that Izzy brought to the table, he was the most veteran reliever in the pen only one of his seven years on the team, in 2006. In five of the other years, he was only the third most-senior pitcher in terms of career innings pitched.
RedC, on your comment about the Glaus injury decreasing the likelihood of the Cards opening the season with an extra reliever, I really doubt it would have happened anyway.
Since at least 2001 and perhaps longer, La Russa and Duncan have been very consistent. They opened the season with 12 pitchers every single year except one. They began 2005 with only 11 pitchers as Matt Morris started the season on the DL before slipping into the #5 spot in the rotation a week or two later. They have not opened with 13 pitchers any time in recent years. Could they? Sure, but it would certainly be very unusual.
That’s the thing with Motte. He could come to spring training and be the most dominant reliever in camp or his lack of pitching experience could show. Either way, I wouldn’t be too surprised.