New St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Jake Westbrook has been striking out NL opponents at a record pace.
Jake Westbrook joined the St. Louis Cardinals with the reputation as a ground ball specialist. Apparently he didn’t get the memo, as the 32-year-old stuck out seven in his six-inning Cardinals debut and followed that up with a nine-K performance in seven frames in Miami Saturday night.
Westbrook’s 16 strikeouts over his first two games wearing the Birds on the Bat ties him with “Toothpick” Sam Jones for the whiffingest pair of debuts in team history since at least 1920. John Smoltz joined the list with 15 one year ago.
Strikeouts, St. Louis Cardinals pitchers, first two games with team, 1920-2010
| Pitcher | Year | 2G total | StL debut | Game 2 |
| Jake Westbrook | 2010 | 16 | 7 | 9 |
| Sam Jones | 1957 | 16 | 11 | 5 |
| John Smoltz | 2009 | 15 | 9 | 6 |
| Chuck Finley | 2002 | 15 | 8 | 7 |
| Kip Wells | 2007 | 14 | 7 | 7 |
| Joe Magrane | 1987 | 13 | 7 | 6 |
| Sonny Siebert | 1974 | 13 | 6 | 7 |
| Howie Pollet | 1941 | 13 | 7 | 6 |
| Scipio Spinks | 1972 | 12 | 5 | 7 |
Thanks to researcher Tom Orf for the above table.
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There is nothing in Jake’s career record to suggest that he would suddenly erupt into such a power pitcher and nothing in his career record to otherwise place him in such distinguished company as Jones, Smoltz and Finley. What an odd and refreshing surprise he has been!
So far I like this guy. Kyle Lohse can stay in the minors.
I am a night owl, so I am going to have to get used to everyone checking out as soon as the game is over.
Brian, what is your take on the BoSox signing of Carlos Delgado and how it might affect the availability of Mike Lowell?
Westbrook has been around the majors for years. He is well known and a good pitcher, even if some lightly informed fans pooh-poohed him. The Cards would have carefully scouted how Westbrook was throwing, before a major trade.
Kip Wells may have begun well, but things fell apart for him.
I am hopeful Tyrell Jenkins can charm us fans of Scipio Spinks.
crdswmn, great question about Delgado and Lowell. I will now be watching Delgado’s minor league resullts with extra interest. If he starts out hot, he could be up quickly and ease their need for Lowell. On the other hand, Delgado has not played this year, so three weeks of spring training like work would not be crazy. He is not required to be up until 9/1, when rosters expand, so BOS could decide to keep both. After all, two common threads with Lowell and Delgado: advanced baseball age and injury-prone.
Jumbo, I am curious. Did someone actually compare Jenkins to Spinks or did you come up with that one yourself?
Scipio was a flamethrower, had some high K seasons in the minors. The Cards have not had many like Spinks during intervening years.
Scipio is a cool first name, not unlike Archimedes. Spinks was unusual in the sense of passed over by MLB in the draft, like Bernard Gilkey, signing as an UDFA out of a south Chicago high school. Spinks had terrific seasons in the minors, with huge K rates.
In all the years since Spinks, there have been few African American pitchers signed by the Cards. Changing demographics in society. One was Blake Williams, selected ahead of Adam Wainwright, in 2000.
The Cardinals didn’t sign Spinks. They traded for him.
Brian, you are correct. I did not state the Cards signed Scipio from amateur ranks. He was signed by the Astros, who also signed the hard throwing J R Richard. I want to say we swapped Jerry Reuss for Spinks, but have not looked it up.
Jumbo is correct; we got Spinks for Reuss. It wound up a terrible trade, because Reuss lasted many years in the major leagues, but for a little while, at least, it was working out, because Spinks – who gets a mention in “Ball Four” as a 1969 Astros rookie – started off pitching really well; a 2.67 ERA, 93 strikeouts in 118 IP, and 6 complete games among his 16 starts.
(He only had a 5-5 W-L record because the 1972 Cards had one of the worst offenses in the NL.)
It all came to an end on July 4, when he tried to score a run by running over Johnny Bench and wrecking his knee.
He had just turned 25 years old and his career was all but over – he did pitch some in 1973 but was a shadow of his former self. Too bad. He really looked like he was going to be the real deal.
Spinks’ claim to fame wound up being his stuffed gorilla, Mighty Joe Young, who he gave to Bernie Carbo, who took it along with him to Boston when we dealt him after the 1973 season to the Red Sox in the Reggie Smith deal.
I enjoyed the talk about Spinks. Brings back fond baseball memories. Gibby won 19 that year.
Niether Tony nor Mo seems all that woried about 3B defense. And truthfully, it hasn’t cost us any more games than anything else.
Westbrook has looked good but the results are the same as if Jumbo had been pitching, two in the L column.
The Cards signed Bob Gibson during 1957. An icon of the franchise.
It seems as if the team tried to find some Gibson successors during the early 1970s by trading for Scipio Spinks, Jim Bibby, and Lynn McGlothlen.
Spinks had three seasons at AAA for the Astros, striking out more than 9 per game. Perhaps this is one sign of change, since its a little hard to imagine a team today keeping a kid at AAA for three years with such a power arm. The Cards must have coveted Spinks, surrendering Jerry Reuss, a high draft pick from a St Louis high school who went on to have an immense career. Reuss and Spinks were talent for talent.
Bibby too had been stymied at AAA, supposedly too wild. He did not do much for the Cards, but enjoyed subsequent years of success.
Given the enormity of Gibson for the Cards, its kind of surprising the team probably did not invest a high amateur draft pick in another African American pitcher for a long time. I can think of Blake Williams in 2000. Williams must have suffered an injury circa 2002, so his pro career was short. This year we selected Tyrell Jenkins 50th in the nation, 53 years after signing Gibson.
Actually, Gussie Busch ordered Reuss be traded over the pitcher’s refusal to shave off his beard. Sadly, Spinks was the best Bing Devine could come up with. One of the many stupid trades demanded by retired number 85. Ugh!
I had forgotten all about the Reuss/Gussie beard issue. In my mind it was overwritten by the Vern Rapp/Al Hrobosky flap.
Yadi is catching Suppan.
Lopez 3b
Jay cf
Pujols 1b
Holliday lf
Craig rf
Molina c
Miles 2b
Suppan p
Ryan ss
Freese is now when and if, not just when. So the third base issue is morphing into looking for a long term rather than short term fix. Today’s Strauss article hits on this.
I guess that doesn’t mean Mo won’t do something short term for now but I doubt it. From outside the organization I mean.
I wonder if Lohse is sticking pins in a Suppan doll this morning?
Insert Mo for Cashman in the following sentence, then imagine.
“It is not at all a stretch for Cashman to be facing a situation, as early as two years from now, of having two aging bookends, earning a combined $50 million-$55 million”
“The combination of age (35) and injury, minus any performance-enhancing drugs, would appear to be working against Alex Rodriguez – and, if so, that is ominous news for the Yankees, who will be paying him an average of $27.5 million per season through 2017 hoping to cash in themselves on his becoming baseball’s all-time home run king”
“it is Cashman who must live with it and manipulate his roster around what figures to be a gradually fading superstar whose primary value to the team three to four years from now will be his asterisked pursuit of the home run record.”
“And then, at the same time, there is the matter of Derek Jeter, himself showing tell-tale signs of fading with age but who will nevertheless be commanding a four-year extension of over $100 million at the end of the year.”
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2010/08/07/2010-08-07_aging_arod_a_concern_for_yankees.html?page=1#ixzz0w23nxqS5
Yadi catching Suppan is a surprise. Tony wouldn’t play LaRue during the Reds series would he?
Thank you for the Cashman/Mo analogy, blingboy. What an expensive ball-and-chain that a superstar can eventually be! But can there be any heed paid to the unmistakable lesson?
blingboy, concerning the short-term solution to our 3rd Base problem. Either we will…
- Continue with Lopez
- Bring-up Gotay
- Plug-in Craig
…I think you are correct with the fact that the long-term solution must come from outside the organization.
THE ACID TEST
You’ve really got to like the pitching comparisons:
Chris (2.91) versus Leake (3.86)
Jaime (2.53) versus Cueto (3.24)
Adam (2.09) versus Arroyo (3.83)
If the three games were each decided only upon the records of the Starters, we would easily sweep the series. But, alas… The Reds have the superior Bullpen (more Holds than us – 50 to 43, more Saves than us – 32 to 23). Whereas we have only 2 relievers with at least 9 holds, they have 3. However, their closer is not much better than ours: Cordero’s best days as a bona fide Closer have come and gone and he is now just about as leaky as our Franklin, although he strikes out far more batters (44 to 26).
Their batting is superior to ours (more hits – 1030 to 989, better average – .272 to .266, more home runs – 126 to 110 and more RBI – 521 to 468).
The “Bottom Line”: The deeper that our starters can get us, the better chance we have at beating the Reds. When we go into later innings, assuming that our offense remains inconsistent, we are likely to be beaten by the combination of the Reds’ superior offense and relievers.
Going deep is an issue for Jaime. I can’t see him going more than 6-7 innings.
I distinctly remember the Gussie Busch/Vern Rapp “no facial hair” days. Can someone give me a brief account and assessment (opinion) concerning Ken Boyer’s ability as manager?
If Reuss had shave his beard, but had a knee injury from a collision with Johnny Bench, his long ML career might have been precluded.
Boyer managed less than 3 years. The Cardinals had a losing record during that time. My opinion is that he was an outstanding player but much less than an outstanding manager. Tragically he died young of cancer.
I hate rain delays.
Reuss probably would have been smart enough not to run through his 3B coach’s stop sign as Spinks did when he was injured.
Skip gets consideration for worst everyday player in baseball:
http://joeposnanski.si.com/2010/08/07/worst-everyday-player-in-baseball/?eref=sihp
Tell that to Albert, Brian…
Sooner or later Oquendo will learn to avoid the embarrassment by just waving Albert by no matter the situation.
OUR NEED OF A POWERFUL, INTIMIDATING CLOSER…
From the Comments section of Rick Hummel’s “Florida Marlins make most of Ryan Franklin’s ‘mistakes’ ”
“GatewayCity_Black” said on: August 8, 2010, 8:31 am
when you have a “pitch to contact” closer instead of a strikeout one, this is the risk you take…sometimes that contact will leave the ballpark. At least the team is showing more fight in coming back than it has in the past they just need not to fall too far behind the Reds because the Cardinals are not a good road team and God knows what is going to happen in Cincy this week…you know the Reds are going to be pumped up.
“azbruce” said on: August 8, 2010, 1:21 am
It’s nice that Ryan Franklin is 19 of 21 in save opportunities. The problem with Franklin being a closer, though, is that he isn’t a strikeout pitcher. Franklin pitches to contact. And when he’s off, it looks like he’s throwing batting practice. The Cardinals need a closer who can throw a pitch by the hitter when the pitch misses location.
“pegpaw” said on: August 8, 2010, 12:04 am
Good grief. This team boggles. We find one weakness (lack of offense), and address it well enough to stay in the game. Enter our closer in the 9th who’s paid (nicely with his contract) to wrap it up. This is the 2nd time in as many outings when Franklin’s allowed nearly as many runs as the starter. Congrats to Westbrook for doing an awesome job and glad he’s on board. Franklin, on the other hand, is quickly earning the nickname “Izzy Jr.” for as much confidence as he instills.
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/article_5e8b36bc-a569-569f-a9f2-70899338bbc3.html?mode=comments
Perhaps Jose could run ahead of Albert scattering rose petals.
C’mon Flip! You had a great opportunity to run-up the count!
The Cards have been trying to develop a power closer for a couple years now. Easier said than done. There won’t be big money available to buy one.
Jon doesn’t mind running-up the count, takin’ a walk and settin’ the table…
As long as they refuse to make McClellan a starter, he’s a very good prospect for a bona fide closer (in my humble opinion)
All right, Matt: Albert did it yesterday and now it is YOUR turn!
Why did they start the game in the rain? Duh.
With a count of 3-and-1, ’twas a safe bet that Matt would been either walked or thrown a big, fat beachball and then, in the midst of such drama…
…was the intensifying downpour THAT much of a surprise? Are the Marlins too cheap to employ a meteorological service with reliable storm detection radar?
———————————————————————————-
As of 3:00 PM CST – After 5 innings, Reds are slaughtering the Cubs 7-0 and Travis Woods is pitching a no-hitter…
Like a big bully beating-up a little kid with one hand tied behind his back, Cincinnati is taking the sweep from the Flubs today, without Rolen and Phillips (Votto did, however, smack his 28th). As of 4:00 PM CST, after 8 innings, the Reds continue the slaughter 10-4…
“Are the Marlins too cheap to employ a meteorological service with reliable storm detection radar?” One would think they would build a stadium such as Minute Maid Park then they wouldn’t have these inconveniences.
They are building a stadium with a retractable roof.