St. Louis Cardinals 1901 Preview
Manager: Jeff Blevins (0-0, 0 World Championships)
Cardinals Top Five Players
LF #13 Jesse Burkett: The Cardinals left fielder might be the finest hitter in all of baseball. He owns the record for most hits in a season, and at age 32 he shows no signs of slowing down. He'll be hitting 3rd in the Cardinals lineup and is looking for his 6th 200 hit season in the past 7 years. He starts his 3rd season in St. Louis and said he loves playing in left-handed friendly Robison Field.
CF #24 Emmet Heidrick: The Cardinals cleanup hitter is starting his 3rd season with the team and 4th in the league. He has hit over .300 in all 3 of his years in the league, and in 1899 he broke out with 82 RBI's and 55 SB's. His numbers dropped off as he missed half the season last year, but the 24 year old from Pennsylvania is looking to drive in a ton of runs this year in this very talented Cardinals offense.
SP #24 Jack Powell: Jack "Red" Powell is the ace of the Cardinals staff. The 26 year old righty from Minnesota is starting his 5th year in the league, and in his previous 4 he won over 15 games each season. He seems to have really matured into someone who can handle the team's number one spot, but he has to work on bringing his ERA down from last year when it was 4.44. Baseball is being dominated by pitchers more and more each season, so it's important that Powell bring his A game this season for the Cardinals.
SS #8 Bobby Wallace: Wallace is a firecracker in the Cardinals offense. The 27 year old is known as one of the best defensive players in the game, but he has gone over 100 RBI's twice in his career, and got 99 in another. His average is usually under .300, but in his 5th spot in the order he is expected to drive in runs more than to have a good average. He looks to stop his RBI total from slipping more as it went from 108 to 70 last season.
SP #9 Jack Harper: Harper is a 23 year old starting his 1st season as a full time starter. In his first 2 years in the league he made just 6 starts with an ERA over 4. He is known as a great sinkerball pitcher, which causes his opponents to drive the ball into the ground, where hopefully the Cardinals great defensive infield will take care of the rest. Harper doesn't have a big sample size to work from, but people with the Cardinals say he could have a breakout season.
Starting Rotation
(1900 Stats, with Age and Career Stats in Parenthesis)
1. Jack Powell (26): 17-16, 4.44 ERA, 77 K (78-60, 3.53 ERA, 318 K)
2. Jack Harper (23): 0-1, 12.00 ERA, 0 K (1-5, 4.50 ERA, 14 K)
3. Ed Murphy (24): Did Not Play in 1900 (1-2, 5.10 ERA, 8 K)
4. Mike O'Neill (23): No Career Stats
Closer: Bob Wicker (22): No Career Stats
Lineup
1. RF Patsy Donovan (36): .316, 0 HR, 61 RBI, 45 SB (.303, 15 HR, 570 RBI)
2. 1B Dan McGann (29): .297, 4 HR, 58 RBI, 26 SB (.302, 18 HR, 284 RBI)
3. LF Jesse Burkett (32): .363, 7 HR, 68 RBI, 32 SB (.357, 51 HR, 711 RBI)
4. CF Emmet Heidrick (24): .301, 2 HR, 45 RBI, 22 SB (.317, 4 HR, 135 RBI)
5. SS Bobby Wallace (27): .268, 4 HR, 70 RBI (.284, 24 HR, 417 RBI)
6. 3B Otto Krueger (24): .400, 1 HR, 3 RBI (.304, 1 HR, 5 RBI)
7. 2B Dick Padden (30): Did Not Play in 1900 (.268, 8 HR, 186 RBI)
8. C Pop Schriver (35): .393, 1 HR, 12 RBI (.264, 15 HR, 352 RBI)
Cardinals Breakdown By Overall Rating (Out of 5 Stars)
5 Stars: LF Jesse Burkett
4 Stars: CF Emmet Heidrick, SP Jack Powell, SS Bobby Wallace
3 Stars: SP Jack Harper, SP Ed Murphy, 1B Dan McGann, RF Patsy Donovan, 3B Otto Krueger
Baseball America Top 100 Prospects
1. SP Doc White, 22, Philadelphia Phillies
2. CL Bob Wicker, 22, St. Louis Cardinals
3. SP George Winter, 22, Boston Americans
4. SP Eddie Plank, 25, Philadelphia Athletics
5. SP Mike O'Neill, 23, St. Louis Cardinals
6. SP Earl Moore, 21, Cleveland Blues
7. SP Doc Newton, 23, Cincinnati Reds
8. SP Roy Patterson, 24, Chicago White Sox
9. SP Joe Yeager, 25, Detroit Tigers
10. SP Ed Murphy, 24, St. Louis Cardinals