As every St. Louis Cardinals fan knows by now, pitcher Adam Wainwright will miss the entire 2011 season due to injury. The 29-year-old right-hander will undergo Tommy John elbow ligament replacement surgery on Monday in St. Louis.
While losing the staff’s ace before the first official pitch of spring training has been thrown is a major blow to the team’s 2011 title aspirations, the Cardinals have overcome serious injuries in past seasons. Jerry Modene’s article running today on the main TheCardinalNation.com site looks at the top 10 injuries suffered by Cardinals players over the years.
Rarely has a 20-game winner been lost for the entire subsequent season, but it has happened twice in Cardinals history, as I was reminded by researcher Tom Orf. However, neither past occurrence was due to injury. Both were as a result of trades, including what I believe is the worst swap in franchise annals.
Unlike some of Modene’s examples, the Cardinals as a team suffered in both of these cases.
39 years ago yesterday, on February 25, 1972, the Cardinals traded future Hall of Fame pitcher Steve Carlton to the Philadelphia Phillies for pitcher Rick Wise. I recall being incredibly angry the moment the deal was announced and remain so to this day.
Carlton had won 20 games for the 1971 Cards but had the audacity to ask for a raise. We’ll show him who’s boss, eh Gussie? Lefty was so crushed by the trade that he won 27 games in 1972. He went on to win a total of 241 games, four Cy Young Awards and a World Championship with the Phils. Once Carlton was gone, the Cardinals would not appear in the playoffs for another decade.
Ironically, Busch gave Wise the same salary that Carlton had requested, but the new Cardinal was no Lefty. Wise was good enough to log a pair of 16 win seasons in 1972-73, but the Cardinals dropped from 90 wins in 1971 to just 75 the next year. He was dispatched to Boston in trade that included Reggie Smith as soon as the .500 1973 season ended.
The other 20-win-to-nothing case occurred in 1985-86. Joaquin Andujar was coming off consecutive 20-victory seasons for the National League Champions.
While Andujar’s antics had him on thin ice already, his Game Seven meltdown in the 1985 World Series may have been the last straw. The volatile pitcher felt he was getting squeezed on ball and strike calls and was ejected after bumping home plate umpire Don Denkinger during the dispute. Of course, Denkinger’s blown call at first base the previous evening was viewed to be the pivotal moment of the Series.
Andujar’s reported links to a convicted Pittsburgh drug dealer probably didn’t help his standing, either. Ownership reportedly ordered general manager Dal Maxvill to get rid of Andujar and that he did. On December 10, 1985, six weeks after the bitter loss to the Kansas City Royals, the Cardinals sent their reigning two-time 20-game winner to Oakland in return for catcher Mike Heath and pitcher Tim Conroy.
Neither new player contributed much of anything to a Cardinals team that dropped from 101 wins in 1985 to just 79 the next. Andujar would win just 17 more major league games after leaving St. Louis. Ironically, Tony La Russa became his manager with 79 games remaining in the A’s 1986 schedule.
Cardinals fans can only hope that 2011 will turn out better than either the 1972 or 1986 seasons.
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I don’t think it’s realistic to expect Wainwright’s replacement to fill in for him (his production). You would look for Carpenter, Garcia and Westbrook to shoulder (no pun) the load. Each will need to account for 2-3 more wins and that’s in a perfect world. If the 5th starter to be named can muster a .500 record that would better (I believe) than the 5th spot last year. Lohse at 12-10? would be better as well, I think. So between those top 3, 6-9 wins extra will be needed.
Doable? Maybe. It all depends on the BP and if they can shoulder a greater than normal work load. They did last year, so that makes me a tad optimistic that the top 3 can win more than they did last year to help cover Wainwrights absence.
Can’t wait, even with these injuries and conflict, I love this time of year……SPRING and the start of 6 months of Baseball!!!!!!!
Geez it makes me feel old to realize it’s been 39 years since that trade. I also didn’t remember what a paltry return they got for Andujar. If I remember correctly Heath was actually a negative factor as he was a bit of a wild man who made the pitchers nervous.
I suspect we’ll remember the Wainwright situation more positively. I’m expecting him to be himself again by next season and eventually get his Cy Young.
I recall Heath pulled a Templeton and flipped off the fans in his first month with the team. He should have focused on his hitting as he batted just .205 and was gone the following August.
Wasn’t part of the reason with Carlton that he was dating Gussie’s daughter or granddaughter at the time? Seems like there was something going on like that and Carlton may also have been the team player rep and further angered Gussie with his pro player stance.
Probably the worst long term trade the Cards ever made, think of all the possible World Championships if Lefty had remained a Cardinal during the bleak 1970′s .
There were a lot of salary skirmishes in that era. In fact, Wise was having problems with the Phillies at the same time, making the trade easier. I don’t know about the dating thing, but I recall reading that Gussie supposedly didn’t like Carlton’s interest in martial arts and Eastern religions.
The Cards have better starting pitcher depth (McClellan, Walters, Lynn, Dickson) to backfill Wainwright than when we have had to turn to the likes of Rich Folkers, Tim Conroy, Mike Maroth, Travis Smith.
Nonetheless Wainwright is a fantastic pitcher, so his loss is very hard to make up.
I have come out of mourning to post this.
http://e-fellowship-dailybread.blogspot.com/
As Brian surmised, I am taking this hard. I reached a point with a certain member of this blog where I knew it was time to back away for a few days or really blow a gasket. I am feeling better now. I am looking forward to the season starting, though with a heavy heart. I will be back in my usual form soon so don’t fret HB.
Thanks for sharing, crdswmn. As others have noted here as well, Adam is truly a special person.
Good to see you post crdswmn… Tough week, but things will get better!
Dang, Brian! As if this week hasn’t been bad enough… you have to go bringing up Carlton and game 6 of the 1985 series in the same article? Your cruelty knows no bounds!